The Letter C

C

Clackers

Your finger curls into a metal ring. You take a deep breath and slowly begin to move your hand up and down while your finger grips the ring even tighter. You’re concentrating on those balls as your hand begins to move up and down faster. You begin to smile as both balls begin to touch and make that wonderful clacking sound. You keep your hand going up and down as fast as possible as your smile turns into cries of triumph as those balls slam together…up and down…up and down…up and down. Then the reality sets in as the balls somehow miss a single beat in the fast rhythm and a searing pain slams against the bone of your wrist. Your finger immediately releases the ring and you hear those hard acrylic balls bang onto the ground or floor. At that moment you are no longer smiling, only wincing and gripping your wrist in excruciating pain. Ah the memories and scars of that delightful toy of the late 60’s and early 70’s. My parents did have to make an unexpected trip to Emergency Room at the Hospital when my older sister ended up with a wrist bone fracture due to a neighbourhood clackers competition. After many recorded injuries of head injuries and bruised and broken wrists this toy was considered a dangerous toy and was pulled from the shelves. They resurfaced in a more modern and less dangerous version a few years later.

 

The Letter B

B

Bookworm

WiseGEEK.com

“The usage of bookworm actually goes back as early as 1599, people were referring to book lovers as bookworms. The term was only applied to insects in the 1800s. Some people prefer to distinguish bookworms from bibliophiles, arguing that bookworms love books for their contents, while bibliophiles love books as objects. Clearly, some overlap probably exists between the two, as plenty of bookworms collect old or beautiful books, and many bibliophiles greatly enjoy reading. Different people have different standards about bookworms, often determined by their own reading habits. The term is often applied to children, especially shy children who spend much of their spare time reading. Adults, however, can certainly be bookworms as well, especially when they have a great deal of spare time on their hands. If you cannot leave the house without a book, you might be a bookworm. This is especially true if you pop the book open at every opportunity, or if you have been known to read while walking down the street, cooking, or performing similar tasks.”

Ok, I’ll confess, I’m a book worm. I’ll read for hours on end if the subject appeals to me. I have a wide range of reading interests, from biographies to romance to suspense, murder mysteries, dramas and even horror/thriller books. I have been known to be standing at the stove, stirring a pot with one hand while my other hand is holding a book as my eyes flicker back and forth from the stove to the words in the book. I have travelled to places like Paris, China and Africa to name just a few. I’ve sailed the mighty seas and even lived on mountains, in the desert and even wandered the great plains of America and Canada. My other half is getting tired of building shelves for my collection and as you read this I still have a box full of books that still need to be displayed. I’m not able to part with them since they have been my means of travel and excitement for years.

I can remember as a child lying out on the lawn of the backyard during summer reading different books. While my siblings were enjoying their summer, I was engrossed in the Laura Ingalls Wilder books and believe it or not the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys series. As I grew older of course my likes evolved and in came the romance. I can thank my mother for that once since I used to read her Harlequin romance novels until I figured out that the stories were all the same just different names and different places. Man meets woman, woman and man think they hate each other, man and woman hide the fact they fell in love “somehow” and then finally admit to loving each other and live happily ever after…..The End. Thankfully that phase didn’t last to terribly long. When I am totally engrossed in a book, it’s like I lose all sense of time. It’s weird but I become the main character. I feel their pain, their joy and even their terror.

“A fondness for reading changes the inevitable dull hours of our life into exquisite hours of delight.”

Charles de Montesquieu

The Letter A

A is for

Arachnophobia …. The fear of spiders.

We all suffer from one or more phobias. I actually have 3 major ones but the one that causes me the most distress is Arachnophobia better known as the fear of spiders. These 8 legged demonic things just sends me over the edge. I have always feared these things and even thinking about them sends shivers down my spine.

  I remember a few years back after the building I worked in had undergone major renovations. It took a long time to complete but once it was finished the building was modernized and looked so much brighter and more welcoming. The office had also been moved and remodelled making it a wonderful place to be during my shift. Until one night…… a night I will never forget and it still makes me shudder with fear when I think about it.

  I had arrived for my shift, hung up my sweater and tucked my purse under the desk. I booted up the computer, got all the books and binders I would need placed them on the desk and then left for the kitchen area to make a cup of tea before the patrons arrived. With a steaming mug of tea in hand I headed back to the office. I put the mug on the desk and turned on some music before sitting down. Well hells bells if I didn’t let out a scream that would wake the dead! There on the desk slowly creeping its way towards MY tea was this huge hairy arsed thing. I swear it was the biggest spider I had ever seen. It certainly didn’t take me long to exit the office with shivers of terror crawling up and down my skin.

  As I tried to calm myself and figure out what the heck I was going to do a patron came into the building. He saw the sheer terror in my eyes and asked what was wrong. I told him what was crawling around on the top of the desk and with a few snickers he came to my rescue. He took the fly swatter off the hook and with a mighty whack he destroyed that damn thing and deposited it outside!!!

Monday musings

Steps onto my soap box…taps the microphone and begins…..

In my opinion and this IS just MY opinion one must get on with their own life and not worry so much about the lives of other people. Cattiness should stay where it belongs (with the feline species), but like most soap operas it never does. I remember the days of my childhood where my mother would spend her mornings cleaning, washing and ironing making sure she had everything done so she could curl up on the couch and spend the afternoon engrossed in the fantasy worlds of All My Children, One Life to Live and General Hospital. That was the norm in my life and when I grew up, got married and had children of my own I did the same thing. Minus the ironing that is, because I really really hate to iron. I wasn’t fanatical about it like mom was, but I did do my fair share of watching those programs. When mom got ill and had to be hospitalized she demanded a T.V in her room so she wouldn’t miss an episode. Now that is a very dedicated fan of T.V Soap Operas! If my mom was still alive she would have been heart broken because 2 of her 3 programs went off the air. My children were very aware of my mother’s dedication to her Soap Operas and when the news of All My Children coming to an end hit the news there just happened to be a thunder storm in our area. My oldest called me up and laughed that Nana must have just heard the news! Anyway, I’m starting to ramble so I’ll get back to my point, and that point being par-taking in drama and baiting for reactions from other people is so old school and should come to a conclusion just as the era of Soap Operas are. So on that note…

Don't be so quick to point out the flaws in other people’s lives when you are not willing to look at the flaws in your own.

Steps off my soap box

A piece of my past :)

Yesterday was yet another beautiful spring day. I hope everyone enjoyed their St. Paddy’s Day celebrations, I know I certainly did….. a little too much I think! There was a point where I was sure I saw a few Leprechauns dancing about. Now that I have my wits about me and the green beer has slowly receded from my blood stream, I’ve come to the conclusion that those sneaky little buggers only appear when the eyes are trying to focus on one object at a time.

        

Anyway.......before the celebrations began I decided to do a little side shopping for just odds and ends. Somehow I ended up in Cambridge and the luck of Irish was certainly with me yesterday. I had visited the V.V Boutique and finding nothing there I went a few doors down to stroll through Winners. I immediately went to the Home Décor area and hells bells there it was as bold as can be almost calling out my name…………………. You have to bear with me as I try to explain to those of you who are not familiar with Mr. Crud.

Back when I was a young teen my father had come across an old girls bike, cleaned it up and said it was mine. Well, it certainly wasn’t anything fancy by any means. It had a bent wire basket (my father tried to straighten) at the front to carry things in,a few spokes were missing, the back wheel rim was bent and did this funky bounce as I peddled it up and down the street, but it was MY bike. I no longer had to borrow my brothers bike and endure the pain of skipping peddles when I stood up to gain a bit of speed. Oh how I grew to love that bike. It took me many places as I rode mile after mile with my best friend. There came a time when Mr. Crud could no longer travel the distance and I had to let him go and move on to something that could take me on the journeys to come. It was sad letting him go but he led a fulfilling life while giving me the pain free and independent times that are now my most cherished memories.

Back to shopping at Winners…as I said it was like something was calling my name and as I turned down the last aisle there on the shelf standing beside a mate was a decorative version of MY Mr Crud. I couldn’t believe it. It was almost identical to the bike I had as a young teen! Well I had to buy it, there was no doubt in my mind, but I also had to buy the mate to it since it was a boy’s bike with the cross-bar and everything. I now have a very special piece to enhance the memories of my youth!

Happy St.Paddy's Day

Irish Blessing

As you slide down
the banister of life,
may the splinters never
point the wrong way.

Vampire verses vampire

Finally…the end is in sight! The Twilight Saga is coming to a conclusion (cue the happy dance song)! The only other show that has gotten to me like this is Harry Potter, but I’m not gonna touch that one. Sorry if I’m offending anyone, but my gosh enough is enough! Maybe I’m old school but growing up I was in tune with the old ways of Vampires. The thrills and chills of Dracula whether it be Bela Lugosi, Jack Palance, or my own personal favourite Christopher Lee scared the bejesus out of me, and to be honest they still do. I watched the first 2 parts of Twilight and that was enough. It was hard to watch as Edward (the star Vampire of this series) twinkles and glitters when light hits him or how he can “run” faster then even Superman could. It was hard watching Bella almost beg to become a Vampire so she can live happily ever after with Edward. Edward keeps telling her no, that’s it’s not a life she wants. Apparently the final one has Bella turning into a Vampire after all. Who would have thunk it? (rolls eyes). I read an article about Bella having Edwards baby in the forth part of this saga. From what I read some people who went to see this one at the theatres actually had medical issues ranging from hyperventilating to literally passing out! I really don’t understand how the iconic story of a Vampire could be changed so drastically, but that just me.

All I can say is I’ll always be a Dracula fan and I’ll shove Edward Cullen to the side

for Christopher Lee any day.