Day #19 of the 30 Day Book Challenge

This is Day 19 of 30 Day Book Challenge.

The prompt is A book based on a true story

Pretty much all of the non-fiction books out there? No, I think this is a fictionalized account of something that actually happened.

I'm picking a series...

Little House on the Prarie by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Laura Ingalls and her family are heading to Kansas! Leaving behind their home in the Big Woods of Wisconsin, they travel by covered wagon until they find the perfect spot to build a little house on the prairie. Laura and her sister Mary love exploring the rolling hills around their new home, but the family must soon get to work, farming and hunting and gathering food for themselves and for their livestock. Just when the Ingalls family starts to settle into their new home, they find themselves caught in the middle of a conflict. Will they have to move again?

The nine books in the timeless Little House series tell the story of Laura’s real childhood as an American pioneer, and are cherished by readers of all generations. They offer a unique glimpse into life on the American frontier, and tell the heartwarming, unforgettable story of a loving family.

Here's the opening and closing credits of the 1974-1983 television series that I watched as a child as it aired and in reruns. My best friend who could stay up later than I could, used to tell me what happened in it on the way to school. She'd tell me the whole story. Actually her renditions of the television show were better than the show itself.

Watch on YouTube

We had both read all the books - traded them back forth between us. And they were read to us by our parents. The series, along with Nancy Drew mysteries were very popular when I was growing up in the 1970s.

Day #15 of the 60 Days of Gratitude Meme

This is Day #15 of the 60 Days of Gratitude Meme

The prompt is Name a body part or something about your body that you are grateful for

Hmmm.

I always liked my eye color. It's not the same as the rest of my family - my immediate family all has varying shades of brown eyes. I've extended family members who have my color or a version of it, but my immediate family doesn't.

My eyes depending on what I'm wearing and whose looking at them are either hazel, green, or blue. But when I look at them they are green with sparks of yellow streaked through.

I've been complimented the most on my eyes - how pretty they are. So I'm grateful for my color. Even though I'm far sighted and near sighted at the moment, and have worn contacts to see distances since I was a kid, and now use reading glasses to see up close.

Also grateful for my long fingers and toes. And my long limbs.

Day 243 of Lockdown/Corona Virus

Beautiful Day. Since I had the day off, I took a two and half hour hike around the cemetery, checking out the lakes and turtle pond in the fall.




The above is the turtle pond.

About 3.9 miles or 4 miles in total. 10,900 steps according to my phone.
My phone tells me that I'm walking less this year than last, when in reality I'm just walking less in snippets. Previously I was doing a mile to work, and a mile home or .50 mile to one subway and .50 mile to train station, and .30 mile to office. With grocery stores lengthening the mileage at times. While during the pandemic - I walk 2-4 miles around the graveyard three times a week. It's all relative.

Prior to wandering about the Cemetery - which had very few people in it, so I could walk for a long time alone among the trees - I finished Virgin River - it's okay. 10 episodes. I found it comforting at any rate.

After wandering about the Cemetery, called mother, who informed me that my Aunt D was worried about me. She's worried because I am living alone in an apartment in New York City. She thinks I have a lot of friends - based on the people responding to my posts on FB, and figures I must miss seeing them. Mother attempted to explain to her that all my friends live very far away and are basically online. So I don't tend to see them normally.

I honestly think this is harder for folks who do hang out with friends a lot or go out a lot. I don't, and routine doesn't bother me all that much.
I really don't mind that the days blur together. In some respectes its less anxiety inducing.

I worry more when I find out what others are doing or they ask me what I'm up to - then I examine what I am doing and freak out. But when that doesn't happen? I'm actually content in my little apartment, walking around a beautiful cemetery, and working off of a small laptop. Apparently, I don't need a lot to be happy? Or content? I was really happy in the Graveyard.
There was hardly anyone there. Only saw about five or six people, and a bunch of landscapers driving about. It was for the most part quiet and deserted - just me, the birds, and the trees.



I don't really need people to be happy. Just some trees, sky, grass, and fresh air. People can be annoying. I came home, talked to mother - and she actually managed to depress me - I was tearful on the phone. I blame menopause, my emotions seem to swing on a moments notice nowadays. She felt the need to tell me (again) about her sister's best friend Kitty Bridges, and how she loved this girl, who may or may not have loved her as a friend.
And how she decided to reach out to her via FB to attempt to reconnect.

Mother: Kitty Bridges lives in a house smaller than ours with a big family. Where they fit everyone I don't know.
ME: Well a lot of people said that about your house.
Mother: We had a bigger house and less people.
(Geeze that house must have been small) And I remember her father got shot and killed coming home from work one day -
Me: Okay, you've decided to tell me a story about your sister's friend and it's a tragic.
Mother: No, she was close to us growing up and well I was wandering about on FB and got all nostalgic - there was a picture of my sister's girl scout troop and her picture was there - and so..

Long story short - she reached out and hasn't heard anything back yet. I hope she does - but one can never tell on FB.




Anyhow, I took a break from the news (for the most part) and social media (for the most part) today - by taking the walk and binging television.
The news is somewhat better - in that the election crap is finally gone from it. Oh the thing is still contesting along with the lets Murder All Good Americans campaigners, but the media has lost interest - since these idiots can't really do anything. The media is quite fickle. It will move onto something more interesting in the blink of an eye.

COVID has taken center stage again in the media's eye. ( Read more... )

NYC in the shadow of a graveyard, with trees.