Friday Click & Run – May 17th

Sometimes when we’re busy it’s nice to simply leave a link to our blog or blog post and run, and so Friday Click and Run is just for that purpose. However, of course you can check out others’ links and share away if you want to. So… every Friday do add some info of what your blog is about and also a link to your blog or blog post in the comments if you’ve got a minute. You don’t have to do anything else such as sharing or commenting unless you really want to. Isn’t that cool? People may decide to check your link out, or they may not. They might decide to leave their own link and run as well, so you may meet each other heading out the door. If I see a post that’s a bit risqué, then I shall be running too – straight to the ‘delete’ button!

Fire away then… let’s see what we end up with.

Thanks to the 10 authors who left their links last week.

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Dear Oh Dear Oh Dear…

Tags

#abortion

Alabama’s State Senate approved a bill by 25 votes to 6 to outlaw abortions in almost all cases except where a mother’s life is at risk.

The senators who approved the bill were all men.  Surprise, surprise ….none of the 4 female senators backed the bill.

I felt quite angry when I read this on my BBC News app.  Why are these men interfering with women’s rights?  In my opinion a woman should be in control of her own body and have the right to terminate a pregnancy if she so wishes.  Men have no idea of the thoughts and feelings a woman might have towards an unwanted foetus growing in her body.  If men could give birth, how would they feel knowing there is an unwanted baby growing inside them, maybe due to rape, that they will have to curtail their career to bring up, and possibly also suffer financial hardship into the bargain?

Pregnancy takes a toll on a woman’s body, which will never be the same after she has carried a baby.  If that baby is wanted, then she will eagerly welcome the new arrival and carry the scars of pregnancy as a trophy.  If the baby is unwanted and she is not allowed a termination, then she will either feel desperate enough to go somewhere else and have an abortion anyway, or feel depressed and resentful towards the baby and possibly its father as well.  The baby might well be given up for adoption or taken into care, and therefore not have the best start in life.

Babies and toddlers can push parents to the limit.  I know because I had to listen to my eldest son’s continual screaming for the best part of 3 years.  I put up with it because he was wanted and loved.  What might happen to that baby if its mother felt only resentment towards it?  It doesn’t bear thinking about.  Have these men spent day after day looking after a screaming baby?  I think not.

Abortion should be seen as a fundamental human right.  A foetus is not capable of independent life.  If an unwanted pregnancy is allowed to progress to its natural end, then the resulting baby might not be loved by either parent at all, especially if it is the result of rape or incest.  These male senators are not thinking straight!  The female senators know what it’s all about and that’s why they’re not backing the ban.  Somebody ought to educate these men…

 

Streets Ahead Street Team Promotion

Hey all,

It’s time for another book promotion from the Streets Ahead street team.  We’re slowly growing in numbers, and as of today there are now 17 of us! https://mewe.com/group/5cc86303c7ff680d05925297

Today I’m featuring Colleen Chesebro’s book ‘Fairies, Myths and Magic‘:

Step into a world where fairies, dragons, and other magical beings converge in a collection of poetry and short stories inspired by the celebration of Litha, the Summer Solstice.

Meet Drac, a dragon cursed by his own poisonous deeds, and two pixies who help an old man remember a lost love. You’ll meet a pair of fairies with a sense of humor, and a young girl who fulfills her destiny after being struck by lightning. Learn what happens when a modern witch’s spell goes terribly wrong. Meet the Sisters of the Fey, a group of Slavic Witches who sign a pact with the Rusalki Fey to preserve their magic for the good of all.

Atmospheric and haunting, the prose and poetry, will rewrite the mythologies of the past bringing them into the future.

Carrot Ranch Flash Fiction Challenge

Tags

#ageing, #Carrot Ranch, humour

Carrying on from my last blog, here’s a little ditty about ageing that I’ve written today for the 99 word Carrot Ranch Flash Fiction Challenge: https://carrotranch.com/2019/05/10/may-9-flash-fiction-challenge/

 

We may all moan
About our painful achy bones,
And our backs go out more than we do,
But our minds feel as new
As when we were twenty two.
The eyes squint at glare,
And more grey speckles our hair.
We can’t do much,
And it just ain’t fair.
We try hard not to fall,
First you see us with one stick,
Then you see us with two sticks,
Then you don’t see us at all.
But we’re free from looking after sons and daughters,
We will spend our money like water.
We’re fearless and bold…
We’re OLD!

Life’s a Bitch?

I love the rambling poem Morituri Salutamus by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, which he wrote in 10 days in October 1874 for the 50th anniversary of the graduation of his college class.  The last 4 lines of the poem have a special meaning for all of us that are of a ‘certain age’:

Age is opportunity no less

Than youth itself, though in another dress.

And as the evening twilight fades away,

The sky is filled with stars, invisible by day.

And here’s another 2 lines from the poem that resonate with me:

How beautiful is youth!  How bright it gleams

With its illusions, aspirations, dreams!

---

Yes, we were all young once, and we wanted to change the world.  We thought our elders were stupid, slow, and out of date.  We walked impatiently behind them as they pootled along with their walking sticks and Zimmer frames.

But hey, we didn’t realise at the time that those tired old bodies still held minds that hadn’t aged a bit. Those of us not afflicted with Alzheimer’s disease but have to our dismay found ourselves of a ‘certain age’, still feel the same inside as we did when our legs and backs were not stiff every morning on rising from bed.

The young have illusions, aspirations and dreams, and have the health and strength to carry them out, but usually not the money.  We of a certain age also have aspirations and dreams.  We have somewhat more disposable income than the young, but sometimes not the health and strength.  However, if we’re fairly mobile and can walk around the block to the cash machine and back home again, we can get out of the house and spend that bloody money on what we like doing.

Yes, life’s a bitch and then you die, but there are definitely some advantages in growing older.  I’m 61 – the eyes are not what they used to be, but I don’t yet need a walking stick.  I’m living for the moment and loving it!

 

Open Book Blog Hop – 13th May

This week’s topic is:

‘If you didn’t have to sleep, what would you do with the extra time?’

I usually sleep for 8 hours, so we’re talking about an extra 8 hours at night-time when most of the country’s population sleeps, except for teenagers checking their phones and anybody who works a night shift.

There are a few things I would do:

At holiday times I would travel to my ‘van’ on the Isle of Wight at night, thereby avoiding heavy traffic on the M11, M25 and A3.  I would arrive there in record time and in a good mood!

I would go to work and type my clinic letters at night, in absolute peace and quiet.  There would be no phones ringing and nobody rushing in and out of my office to bother me.  I could earn more money that way, as I could work for longer and never get tired.  The whole day would then be mine for doing whatever I wanted to.

I could choose the best lit roads and cycle along for exercise without cars trying to run me over.

I could sit and write stories in peace without having to do anything else.

Assuming Sam wouldn’t need to sleep either, we would therefore not need a bed and so could get rid of it and use the space in the bedroom for something else.

This blog goes to show just how unsociable I am, as most of my ideas are about getting away from other people!

What would other blog-hoppers do if they didn’t have to sleep?  Click on the blue button below to find out, or even add your own blog.

Rules:

1. Link your blog to this hop.
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants’ blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person’s blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!
Click here to enter

Sunday Stills Photography Challenge – 12th May

This week the topic is ‘warmth‘.  I’ve added a few photos below, and hopefully you can feel the warmth from them – one particular photo actually makes me wince!

And here it is.  Can you imagine doing this to your foot?  The chap putting his foot in the fire while we visited Cozumel in 2017 obviously didn’t mind…

The next two photos are closer to home – in our house and garden.  We always have a pile of paperwork that the shredder cannot cope with, and so every now and then we make a roaring fire in the grate and burn the lot…

Here’s our poor baked garden last July later in the day after the thermometer had read 40.3 degrees Centigrade.  The groundwork specialists had been in the process of laying a new driveway, but they had to go home as it was just too hot to work.  It got to the point where they attached a hose to the outside tap and drenched each other with water…

 

 

 

New Paranormal Short Story: Finding David

If you like paranormal short stories, I’ve just published ‘Finding David’:

When Karen and Mick Curtis attend a demonstration of clairvoyance for the first time, Karen is singled out by the medium, Rae Cordelle. Rae has a message from Karen’s son David, who passed over to the spirit world many years before. The message shocks Karen and sends her on a journey of discovery, rocking her previously happy relationship with second husband Mick, David’s stepfather.

Just £0.99 /$0.99!

Friday Click & Run – 10th May

Sometimes when we’re busy it’s nice to simply leave a link to our blog or blog post and run, and so Friday Click and Run is just for that purpose. However, of course you can check out others’ links and share away if you want to. So… every Friday do add some info of what your blog is about and also a link to your blog or blog post in the comments if you’ve got a minute. You don’t have to do anything else such as sharing or commenting unless you really want to. Isn’t that cool? People may decide to check your link out, or they may not. They might decide to leave their own link and run as well, so you may meet each other heading out the door. If I see a post that’s a bit risqué, then I shall be running too – straight to the ‘delete’ button!

Fire away then… let’s see what we end up with.

Thanks to the 9 authors/bloggers who left their links last week.

Gobbledegook

While we were on the Island last week, my mobile phone began to lose its charge rather rapidly.  As it was an old iPhone5, we decided to drive into Newport and get the phone updated.

Sam decided to leave it to me in the shop and go off and look at phone covers.  This was not a good idea, as I’m not that technically minded.  Usually all I want to do is make a phone call or send a text.  I don’t care what make the phone is, or what else it can do.

The shop assistant looked about 18, and was chomping at the bit to sell me a phone.  The conversation went a bit like this:

Her:  “Are you an apple-watcher?”

Me:   “Eh”?

Her:  “You know … do you like apple watches?”

Me:  “Sorry, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Her (thinking ‘Oh, I’ve got a right one here‘) :  “What about an android?”

I like to eat apples, not watch them, and aren’t androids robots?  Sighing, I caught Sam’s eye and he came over.  I was absolutely stumped, as no doubt somebody from Victorian times would have been if they’d heard conversations about Googling and Twittering.

I wanted to giggle, because it was all gobbledegook to me.  The urge to burst out laughing couldn’t be kept in, and I just had to explode. The girl looked at me as if I was mad.  Sam is a ‘techie’ and thankfully knew exactly what the shop assistant was talking about.  Thanks to Sam I ended up with a lovely iPhone7 that I’m slowly finding out can do more things than I ever thought possible. I can even make a phone call on it!

I spoke to my second cousin when we returned from the Island, who is about 15 years older than I am.  Part of the conversation went like this:

Her:  “I’ve got a new phone.”

Me:  “Me too.  Is yours an iPhone?”

Her:  “What’s an iPhone?  Is it one that’s got lots of squares on the front, like the one I’ve got?  I don’t know what do to with them!”

It seems I’m not alone…