Greetings lovely blog followers!
Wanted to share something I have discovered about myself. It appears I require more than just spontaneous efforts in writing, blogging, and voice over for successful results.
So…
I’ve begun to schedule specific days each week for that work. Mondays and Fridays will be for writing. Wednesdays will be blogging day, Tuesdays and Thursdays are VO days.
So…
This schedule will begin next week. I may have a bit of trouble staying on it next week since the grandson will be here until the 8th. Yet I am determined to persevere.
Cheers!
-N
Month: July 2020
My annual summer in southern Arizona rant
It’s July in Southern Arizona and I have reached my breaking point.
108 degrees today. It may be a dry heat but it is still hot! I laugh when I hear, “Albany is roasting in dangerous 96 degree heat!” Okay, so I’m told, “yeah, but they have humidity.”
Heat index equation temp/humidity = how it feels.
96 with 50% humidity = 108 (Albany)
108 with 20% humidity = 109 (Tucson)
BOOM! we win.
During monsoon season here in SoAZ we can have the following equation: 108/40% =137
Cry me a river, Albany. Granted that humidity level lasts for a few hours at a time then will drop back down to 20 or 30% but we were still feeling it here, and it does it almost daily. Do you know how hot every surface in a car gets when it is 108 degrees? People keep oven mitts in their cars so they can touch the steering wheel.🔥 Forget trying to sit on leather seats while wearing shorts! 🤬 The vehicle paint manufacturers had to come up with different paint so new cars don’t have the painted surfaces faded and peeling after a year. OK, so you stay inside during the snow – well we stay inside during the hot.
We had fires in the mountains next to us nearly all of June, with hot shot crews climbing all over in that heat fighting fires. I’m sure they figured they were in hell.
But it’s a dry heat.
But it’s still damn hot!
When hubby retires I hope we will downsize a bit – sell this place, and move to cooler climes. I’m thinking Ogunquit, Maine. My work: blogging, writing, voice-over can all be done from home so I can go anywhere as long as I have internet.
I just need a space big enough for my books.
I love my books. This is not all of them.
Hubby said a small house with books on all the walls. That works for me.
So – it’s time for a rain dance. I look forward to October. I keep doing my thing and enjoy hearing from you lovely followers.
Cheers!
-N
Giving back?
I’ve been reading lots of posts about how people are making great efforts to give back in their communities. For example the young person who had a lemonade stand raising funds for the family of a slain officer.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/girls-lemonade-stand-raises-1000-benefit-kin-slain/story?id=55789702
Giving back seems to be on the radar for many folks, and it’s a great thing.
However, is giving back to those who are strangers, or a group of people who are from a different part of the world more or less valuable and worthwhile than say focusing on needs in ones own village (family and close friends?) Is it selfish to see and target the needs in my local community, and not go all out for a dynamic that the rest of the world seems to be focusing on and fiercely directing the narrative toward?
How do humans spotlight a need without feeling guilty? Guilt that my concentration isn’t the same as what I’m being told should be my priority, or guilt that I’m fixating on the periphery of the real need.
My daughter is a single parent of a son on the Autism spectrum. I want to be the person she can count on when she has a need for my help. This is important to me yet I feel because we are not people of color (any color) I am typically selfish and self centered to identify this way.
Who decides what giving back truly looks like?
Is it me being part of a meal chain at my church that provides meals to families who are in need, but aren’t necessarily people of color? Is it my daughter adopting a child with autism and working hard to provide for his mental, physical, educational, and emotional needs? Or is it only in protesting for social change? Are my regular monetary donations to charities a cop-out? I always thought I was helping, doing something good for the world when I’ve sponsored several children in Kenya, supported arts at the school where my daughter teaches, supported a wildlife charity or environmental effort, or took a star from a giving tree to provide Christmas for a child in need.
Who gives value to the conscious efforts of others?
I won’t stop doing these things, but maybe, I won’t let others make me feel guilty for my efforts.
Cheers!
-N