How the Cookie Crumbles

Life and scribbles on the far side of SIXTY-FIVE

Share Your World Week 16

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Share Your World is a fun way to meet new bloggers. The founder, Cee’s blog LINK follows with the rules on how to participate. Check it out!

http://ceeslifephotographyblog.wordpress.com/2012/03/24/share-your-world-week-16/

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If you had a choice, which would be your preference: salt water beaches, fresh water lakes, hot tub, or desert?

I’m a Northern Ontario girl: cold weather, tons of snow, short summers, a mixture of weather patterns in one day. We lived by the lake. It was clean and fresh, so fresh that it was the only natural lake in North America not poisoned with fluoride until a few years ago.

When I was a kid, the haunting call of the loon was the last sound I heard in the evening and first one in the morning. I loved that sound. Nothing beats living by the water. I wish I did still.

 

What book do you think everyone should read and why?

I have a hard time stopping at one. In no particular order, these three are provocative in so many ways; you stop and think about them afterwards. The stories linger.

Cry The Beloved Country by Alan Paton: This is a classic work of love and hope, courage and endurance, born of the dignity of man (This description is straight from the book’s jacket).

The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway: About courage in the face of defeat.

Night by Ellie Wiesel: About the death of innocence and more.

 

What’s your favorite way to wake up and what’s the first thing you do?

I love spring and summer and fall. The chirping of birds and the sun streaming through the window onto my face is the perfect way to wake up. It’s a gentle, soothing way to start out my day.

I’m not twenty anymore, so I head to the loo. (Well you did ask). Then I jump into the shower. There’s nothing as invigorating as pulsating water prodding my body awake. An inch at a time. What’s the rush anyway? I’m RETIRED, aren’t I?

The sound of an alarm clock is hell and should be banned. If I need to be somewhere early in the morning and can’t take a chance on sleeping in, then I’ll use one. But only if I must.

What do you do to relax?

I love to read, read, and read some more. In the past six months, though, I just haven’t had enough time for this guilty pleasure. This doesn’t feel normal to me. The jumping knee thing starts to creep up on me. . .

On the other hand, I enjoy tinkering with words, watching a story grow; stretching it this way and that, getting into characters’ heads. I never lose my cool or rip my hair out screaming at the page, ‘Why isn’t this working? Damn. Damn. Damn!” No, I NEVER lose my cool. (Liar). I’m always relaxed (really?).

Author: Let's CUT the Crap!

I'm getting a little LONG in the tooth and have things to say about---ouch---AGEing. I believe it's certainly a state of mind but sometimes it's nice to hear that you're NORMAL. I enjoy reading by the truckload. I'm a grandma but I don't feel OLD although I'm not so young anymore. My plan is to stick it out as long as I can on this lovely planet and only will leave it kicking and screaming!

34 thoughts on “Share Your World Week 16

    • Isn’t it a fun idea? It sure has let new readers to my blog. Now I’m overwhelmed but what the heck. Might as well enjoy new friends. Maybe you’ll give it a try too. Thanks for popping by. Love to hear from you. Tess

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  1. love the book worm animation, and I to wake up with the sun (although in winter the the late rising has me scrambling to get to work on time).

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    • That bookworm is sure cute, isn’t he? I have used him before but what the heck, he could use the exposure. Scrambling to get to work? Because the sun has moved position, I suppose? Thanks for sharing. Tess

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  2. I completely agree that everyone should read Night. I used to teach Night and it is so powerful. I will have to read Cry Beloved Country. 🙂

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    • Nice to get comments from fellow readers, Jean(?). I read a LOT, or whenever I can. Sure lots of the titles are new HOT but that’s because I just HAVE to know EVERYthing. Not everything stays with you; lingers on after the book is finished. The human condition lingers. Thanks for sharing. If you agree about Night, Cry the Beloved Country is more about humanity. Found myself emotional again. Tess

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    • Nice to get comments from fellow readers, Jean(?). I read a LOT, or whenever I can. Sure lots of the titles are new HOT but that’s because I just HAVE to know EVERYthing. Not everything stays with you; lingers on after the book is finished. The human condition lingers. Thanks for sharing. If you agree about Night, Cry the Beloved Country is more about humanity. Found myself emotional again. Tess

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  3. Love your answers. Your books sound great. I’ve read Hemingway’s, but not the other two. I wish I lived by a lake too. I love the sound of the water, and the way the water is always changing with the light or weather. I love to read too. But time is getting away from me, also. The stack by my bed attests to that! Awesome post!

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    • I’m retired and thought I’d have time for EVERYthing: reading, writing and blogging. Once I started blogging, well . . . my world changed. Then I decided to take some nightschool courses. My world changed again and my 24-hour clock shrank. Know what I mean? Love hearing from you. Thanks for liking ‘Share Your World”. Might you think about joining?

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  4. I had such fun reading your answers. Thanks so much for participating!

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  5. Tess, I’m with you on the alarm! They should be banned. I love to be by any kind of water, and although I’ve only lived by rivers and canals, and not lakes or the ocean, I’m with you on this one too! 😀

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  6. Great post, and I love the idea from Cee; I just may have to take part, too!

    I agree with everything you said in your post. I’m retired, too, but still don’t seem to be able to complete everything I want to in the run of a day or week. My reading list is piling higher, my dishes are sitting on the counter, my laundry isn’t washing and drying itself, and I have SO much that I want to write about that I can never finish everything. I have no idea how I used to work full-time and attempt to have a personal life, too.
    As for water–I live in Atlantic Canada so am very close to the ocean. I love my summers at my cottage and when I travel I love to be on or near water. Maybe it’s because I’m a ‘cancer’, a water sign…not sure, but I don’t know if I’d be content if I couldn’t drive to the ocean once in a while, just to sit on a rock at the water’s edge, and BE.
    Once again, great post.
    Also–I left you a reply in the comment section of my blog–pop in and read it and let me know your answer. Thanks a bunch!

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    • So, you’re a Cancer and I’m a Scorpio. Both water signs. Interesting. I never knew that; I had to look it up just now ’cause I didn’t know Scorpio also water. I checked back and saw your response. We’re A-OK. Thanks, Sylvia. Tess

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  7. I tried to email you for your address but it bounced back twice…can you send it to me at: sylvia.morice@gmail.com? Thanks.

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  8. Although Aquarius is an air sign, I too love the water (well, Aquarius is the water bearer) and thankfully live near the Pacific Ocean.it’s very calming. In fact I might just head there and throw my alarm clock away 🙂

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  9. I so relate to your love of our wonderful lakes. The call of the loon is, hands down, the best sound in the world. Although I live a walk away, I can’t hear the water. 😦

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    • Hiya Tahitiangoddess: I was back ‘home’ last summer to my OLD house (long story – friends of mine bought it and didn’t know it had been my family home) and I felt like the little kid I was when we moved away (I was 11). The call of the loon did it. Thanks for relating to and sharing your thoughts of water. I’m off to http://www.gritlit.ca tonight. Tess

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  10. I read “Night” for the first time, last year. I loved it. All three choices are great books.

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    • Thank you for sharing and reading my post. Yes, all three books give you something to think about. I try gobbling my way through hot new titles but also lots of others. So much is going on that we need to weigh and understand. Tess

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  11. I love the way you get to wake up, it just sounds like heaven to someone who has to set the alarm but wakes before it goes off and even wakes at that early at weekends when it isn’t set!
    What’s a loon??? over here it’s short for a lunatic so I had an image of a crazy person howling and waking you up!

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  12. Such great answers. I could relate on so many levels. Being retired, not making it through the night, and the love of water sounds when you’re blessed enough to live near by.

    Yes, I can relate….

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    • I’m happy to hear it. Some people might have said that people weren’t as well off as they are today but they were RICH in another way that many of us cannot be today, even though money isn’t necessarily the problem. Thank you for relating. It was a different timeback when. We came from simpler roots. Today, we deal with lack of a few of those comforting supporters but our memories just have to do. Sleepless nights? Is there anything you can do to help that? Do you wonder if the comfort of water nearby might be calming enough? Need to converse some more? For example, I CAN sleep unless I have coffee to late in the day. Tess

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      • Aww Tess I enjoy reading your comments as much as your posts. I think living in a simplier time held great calm for us. I can look back to times represented in Film Noir and be quickly calmed and removed to a safe time. The costumes, the decor, even just the simple dialects are things that remind me how good it all seemed.

        Being closer to water full time is on my bucket list, just as one day being in a place where the sky’s night is not polluted by artificial lights. I’m not in denial that these both have a great deal to do with night time struggles. If the rest of my world would just reverse it’s days and nights, all would be right in my time zone.

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  13. I remember that I had to read Cry the Beloved Country for a college course but I couldn’t tell you what happened in it. That happened to almost any book that I read for school. Well, to be honest, I forget what happens in a lot of books but I do remember if I liked them or not. This is why I’m a re-reader.

    For example, Hubs is one book behind me in the Dexter series and he keeps talking about what just happened and I don’t remember a thing. Like one bit of the plot. I know Dexter is in there killing bad guys, but that’s about it.

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    • Hope you got a copy of my quick post about the loon. Have you seen On Golden Pond? Someone mentioned that the call of the loon was in the movie. Hope you enjoy the links. Hope you’re getting your rest. Tess

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    • I bet I’m the same way after reading books. Sometimes, I think it’s because I’ve been reading while tired, reading during commercials on TV, reading too FAST. Sometimes, books aren’t that memorable. When I finish reading a book, I scribble the title on my calendar and then transfer information to a list I keep to compare books read this year compared to last etc. Lots of re-reads there too. I’ve been know to look at a title and author and wonder HOW the heck that got there. I don’t remember any such title. Duh. Don’t know why that is unless it the ‘not memorable theory’. Nice talking with you. Get some rest. Tess

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  14. Nice to get to know you better. Love your little bookworm,, i think I must have one like that living in my head. 😉

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    • Nice getting to know you too. I do LOVE that little bookworm. Should get up and move around a bit. My butt is falling asleep.Great, it’s almost lunchtime. Maybe I’ll finally get some work done after lunch! Have a LOVELY day. Tess

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