A #sol17 places along the way anniversary reflection

…Two years ago this week, I arrived here in Yuma CO from Mountainair NM. Time to reflect on the past two years, where I am now -- and what's next.

Happy 4th of July #sol7

Yuma fireworks were last night, city and a multitude of private, unofficial ones. This image is not one of them, but from Cheyenne WY. I was at a private one ~ my daughter's in-laws. We also watched the city from the front porch. No local photos are online yet. At least Wyoming is an adjacent state and Cheyenne closer than Denver.

Today I took the day off, staying in out of the heat.  I sent out digital holiday greetings, many with links, and changed my Facebook cover pages, my front porch tumbleweed gracing my Life at the Manor (and points west ~ which would include Cheyenne) page. Somehow that seemed a holiday thing to do, even if not the usual new leaf holiday.

#SoL17 at home, inside & out

~ coping with a cranky keyboard and erratic compose screen, I was off to an even later start blogging than usual due a longer than expected phone call.

I walked just once around the perimeter ~ a short one, minus iPhone in case of rain. So I used the time to think about today's blog post. What did I defer from last one? Guerrilla educationist and digital citizenship. Too bad the computer did not cooperate.

What pictures would fit? Above, my "home office" ~ laptop on a small tray table, small sofa next to a window (the chair is for Chaircat Mao), oil painting by Megan Lemcke. Below, the marble Manor marker + decorative foliage on the corner of Elm and 3rd Avenue.

On staying cool #sol17

…I missed blogging last week but commented on half a dozen posts. This morning, beginning at the end, I set up and revised my footer. Taking my morning walk late for a day turning hot, I walked close to a mile, caught a few pictures and made it back before overheating.

Cedar Ave, Yuma CO: backyard as folk art
installation complete w/pick-up tree house

a #sol17 walk around the #Manor

…out my front door, past Doña Catrina and tumbleweeds, down to the Manor office on 3rd Ave, around the corner, past front porch flowers to 2nd Ave and back home again to cat waiting in window near the back door.

#DigCiz 2017 & another #sol17 Tuesday

…and now to — at the very least — think about blogging in general and today's blog post in particular. For now, I'll read and comment on other Tuesday blog posts. As (or if) post ideas come to me, I'll throw them at the compose screen until one sticks. Templates are always an option. I've been saving ones I like but tend to forget about them come blogging time. I've been thinking about these today:

Develop "places along the way" post about Slatter's Court (above) where I lived 1993-99 when in grad school at UC Davis.

Reflect on #DigCiz 2017 and invite #TWTblog/gers to join the conversation. It started today with sharing #4wordstories on twitter to initiate "conversation about what good citizenship means in participatory spaces for #DigCiz" with elements of/questions about spectacle, participatory spaces, citizenship, authentic but respectful communication

That led me to alternatives for citizenship/being a good citizen: Mensch, mentsh, Mentshlekhkeyt (Yiddish), Humanitas (Latin for the ultimate colonialist, imperial version), φιλανθρωπία (Greek philanthrôpía, loving what makes us human), humanist. Why not just plain human? What are the comparable words in other language families? Indigenous and other non-European languages?

Parts of this rambling reflection/thinking in text ended up in a 150 word comment (awaiting approval) on Bonnie Stewart's blog post, "The Crosshairs of the Split Hairs: #digciz"

So notes on what to blog turned into the post itself -- another ramble, disjointed and mostly about this iteration of the recurring #DigCiz conversation. Another time I can write another, separate post just about Slatter's Court, Davis and graduate school at UC Davis. Now to add another image and get this puppy posted.

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Until March 2018 and the next month long challenge, Two Writing Teachers community bloggers share and comment on weekly slice of life posts every Tuesday by the same EST witching hour deadline. Writing habits and reasons vary but not the commitment or at least intent to blog and link a slice every Tuesday. If we miss the mark, there will be another next week. Read this week's Tuesday slices here.

thinking about #sol17, the week, hanging in there & blogging

…not just here but on my other blogs. The March challenge lifted them up some but not as much as hoped. Reading and commenting on blog posts and social media is still up and holding. That matters just as much and may be even more important. Just now, reading Melanie Meehan's sol17 post reminded me of the importance of just getting going when you're overloaded and bogged down. That I am.  Speaking of overload, I could have blogged about 'guerrilla educationist' projects -- should have and will. Today though, a head transplant sounds more appealing.

The past week has been a combination of unseasonable weather and healthcare, starting with the second (left eye) cataract surgery last Friday. Sinusitis hit Sunday. It's hard to think about anything but my sinuses. Yesterday too. Today is better. Marginally.

Since I've been without for years (actually, more like several decades), I'm playing catch-up. General wellness, eyes, breathing (down to 38%, just started that), and teeth.

So hey there sinuses draining into my root canal, wait your turn.

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Post-March slicing moved from daily to weekly with Tuesday slices. Same submission schedule. Late Night Slicer, Pantser and perennial procrastinator by habit and inclination, I quit worrying and embraced my inner owl and free for all blogging by the seat of my pants. Sometimes it turns out better than others. Whatever your writing clock and blogging tendency,  slice  and share any or every Tuesday. 

Read today's Tuesday slices here.

around & about #YumaCO & back to the #Manor Tuesday #sol17

…started with going out my back door past the rosebush (last year's photo) to walk to monthly #LYC meeting this morning at the Rural Communities Resource Center (RCRC or just "Resource Center). LYC or Linking Yuma County is an informal group of county organizations, agencies and volunteers sharing information and coordinating efforts. 

Afterwards, I stopped by Hardware Hank's across the street to add a small cultivator to my minimalist gardening hand tool collection and pick up something for the geriatric rosebush outside my back door. I'm not a gardener, but the rosebush and a companion with cream roses have been here longer than any current resident and survived two years with me. Time to step up my game. 

aging is as aging does #sol17

While most teachers in the SoL blogging community are dealing with the end of the school year and planning summer, I have no student work to process, and summer is just another season for the retired. So I enrolled in a Future Learning online course, Strategies for Successful Ageing, from Trinity College, Dublin. That last should explain the spelling anomaly. 

Find out how staying happy, healthy, socially-connected and active can help you age successfully, with this free online course....This course is relevant for adults who wish to acquire strategies for successful ageing. No previous experience or qualifications are required.

(mis)adventures with an iPhone Tuesday #sol17

I'd tell you more about them if, a) I had started sooner, and b) I weren't still having them.

The short version: my son gave me an iPhone 5s. Although I have been online since the early 90s, blogging since 2006 and social media soon after, this is absolutely my first mobile device. Not even an old style un-smart cell phone. Everyone I knew online had one and many may have assumed that every else did. I didn't because I couldn't afford but one device. Wrong side of the digital divide. I managed OK, most of the time on dial-up at that.

Anyway as I am about to cross the divide...misadventures, of course. Monty Python gets connected.

the serendipity of yellow umbrellas and paying attention, #sol17 Tuesday

…I was going to write about paying attention on a walk, but a thunderstorm struck. So I returned to this Tuesday's prompt page, re-reading and connecting rain, yellow umbrellas, paying attention, and random acts of kindness (RAK). 

Serendipity. 

My own umbrella is Tiffany blue, but the color doesn't matter, not as much as the rest. Kindness emerges from paying attention and vice versa.

Who hasn't seen the bumper stickers, tees, tattoos, memes, lists and articles, a foundation and a national day The complete quote is actually, "Practice random acts of kindness and senseless acts of beauty." I first saw it in Davis, CA, 1993 as a bumper sticker on a VW bus.

Vanessa Helder, #artist, my mother's mentor

…and today's #sol17 post topic. Until this lighthouse painting showed up on New Deal of the Day, WPA art and history blog, I was torn between an ongoing Manor drama (better later with camera and more leisure) and new Manor pictures, here and here.

"Alki Point Lighthouse," a watercolor painting by Z. Vanessa Helder (1904-1968), created while she was in a New Deal art programs, ca. 1935-1938. See Wikipedia biography. Image courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

A drifting day, Tuesday #sol17

I will finally be getting a cell phone and taking pics around the Manor and on Yuma walkabouts -- connected but not so tethered to the internet that I miss surroundings. In the meantime, 4-H season is upon us and youth across Yuma are starting their projects. Here's a picture of my grandsons' 2017 4-H pigs arriving.

Last year I started a Pig Brothers Brown pigboard (a digital pigzibit) for them (and me too). Although my taste in pig pics runs more to the quirky, as shown by the picture below, I promise a pigboard as comprehensive as it is eclectic.

OMG Tuesday #sol17 already, other blogging, poetry #NPM17

Damn I posted something else to another blog just after midnight, one I'm not on deadline for. If not for my inner owl, that would feel like two posts in one day, which I'm trying to avoid. Yesterday I posted to precarious faculty blog for the first time, not counting drafts, since October 2016. Ignoring the over-sized baggy monster I abandoned in drafts the day before, I blogged a Dear Reader ramble about changes, not really addressing adjuncts, academic labor, organizing, academia or any of the formerly usual suspects.

last slice #sol17 31/31

…just a selfie with a six word memoir...

Save the last slice for me

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2017 is the tenth year of the Slice of Life Story Challenge (SOLSC) hosted by Two Writing Teachers (TWT). Challenge participants, aka "slicers," write and post a "slice of life" every day during March. 

Now go read more last slices...

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...and finally, I come to the end of a

may it lead to many more...

penultimate slice, #sol17 30/31

…not time yet for last slice wordplay (save the last slice for me, etc) and "penultimate slice" doesn't have quite the same ring. I'm moving into what next mode. Re-animating too many blogs + companion social media is a dead cert to crash before the home stretch. If I secretly want to shoot myself in the foot, that would be the way to go...

precarious faculty's Adjunct News page. Artwork by © Jennelle Brenner, Boise Weekly

endgame conversations…#sol17 Day 29/31

…but first another confession. At the start of the month, I confessed to being a dilatory slicer and not having completed a March challenge. With completion just around the corner, I confess that I'm not a K12 educator, although I have decades of teaching (swimming, riding, GED, ESL, college composition, literature and Spanish) under my belt. Now retired, I read, research and blog about education (among other topics), and, recently have taken to describing myself as a "guerrilla educator." The edu-equivalent of guerrilla gardening...

#sol17 Day 28/31

…@MelanieMeehan1's #twtblog welcome note 

"Welcome to Day 28. I’m actually starting to have the withdrawal pangs that have set in for the last several Aprils. Anyone else?"

Yup, that explains a lot. I have a surfeit of what to write about but am not. Instead I wonder if a month of daily posts will bring me back to the precarious faculty blog, miscellaneous arts (formerly Mountainair Arts) or this one ready (able, willing) to blog on without the scaffolding of a challenge.

What do I take with me? That the conversations are as important as the content. Reading, commenting and responding are part of the process. I already knew that but needed reminding. Besides getting back with Tuesdays, I'm going to comment on more blogs, have more conversations in my different (so very different) areas of interest.

More about those areas tomorrow...maybe

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2017 is the tenth year aka #sol17 of the Slice of Life Story Challenge (SOLSC) hosted by Two Writing Teachers (TWT). Slicers write and post a "slice of life" before the 11:59 ET deadline every day during the long month of March. The rest of the year, "slicers" write and post Tuesday slices. In between (and during) challenges, TWT features regular articles on writing and teaching.

During the month of March, a TWT slice icon tops my blog sidebar and usually another, but sometimes unofficial ones here -- 

Now read more Monday day 28 slices from the 10th Annual Slice of Life Story Challenge

blogging after #sol17 Day 27/31

…another late night slice. As usual, I had some notion earlier on what to write about but no longer remember what that was. Also as all too usual, I'm not quite sure where the day went. Maybe my lost topic is in there somewhere...I'll take a look. If an idea for suitable image comes to me along the way, I'll look for that too.

Two in particular come to mind: whither blogging after #sol17 and navigating chaos

#SilentSunday: storm over the Colorado High Plains #sol17

…just so you understand, this is #SilentSunday my way…found pictures not ones I have taken. The only camera I have is the webcam on my laptop. But this sky I have seen.

LP supercell over the high plains of northeast Colorado. Stormdude Photo © Dave Chapman

Applauding New Slicers #sol17 Day 25/26

A lemon slices jigsaw puzzle for New Slicers, other slicers and anyone who drops by. My bad for not embedding -- that's late night slicing for you. There is no special occasion unless March 25 has special significance other than home stretch for slicers -- pantsers and planners, early morning and late night slicers alike. New Slicers aren't new anymore and belong to one or more of those categories.

Lemon Slices Puzzle | JigZone

Call this a thank-you to my own group of New Slicers for making the #sol17 Challenge special -- or just an un-birthday present for all. Virtual champagne was an option (maybe on the last day) but a slices puzzles seems more appropriate.

on my porch at the #Manor with La Catrina #sol17 Day 24/31

Most Manor apartments share front porch space. This past Christmas, my next door neighbor Ken and I decorated our respective areas. My green Halloween lights were still up. Ken went with red lights and wrapped the posts. I added Christmas decorations and lights to a tumbleweed. The barely visible garden gnome is a zombie.

#YumaCO meeings…#sol17 Day 23/31

@ColoradoTrust Community Partnership meeting 6-9 pm tonight means the second early slice in a row because I can't be sure of being back in time to write and post. The formula is: evening meeting ➤ earlier than usual daily post rather than none..  

PS (aside to readers new to the SoL series) "slicing" = writing slice of life blog post for SOLSC, a blogging challenge...more below.

A trip to Sterling Colorado #sol17 Day 22/31

For an appointment about drawing up a medical power of attorney and living will. No special reason other than catching up with standard stuff rather expected when you hit mid-70s.

The lawyer's office is near the Downtown Sterling Historic District. Founded in 1881, Sterling's legacy is as a major agricultural center and key railroad junction

the day that was #sol17 21/31

Maybe a title will come to me as I go along. For today's topic, I'm going with "what I did today" more or less in list mode. Here goes, more or less straight from 750Words rambling because,

a #blogging inventory of sorts #sol17 20/31

…blogging since 2006 on multiple blogs, I'd been worrying about a long blogging dry spell. That is one of the reasons why I'm slicing this month -- not the only reason but one that matters to me. A recent #sol17 slice that commemorated reaching the 500 post mark moved me to inventory my own blogging history. Most blogs have a three year life span: there are more inactive blogs out there in the blogosphere than active ones.

SOLSC bloggers do St Patrick's Day: #sol17 Day 19

This collection of St Patrick's Day blog posts started with Katie's post on The Logonauts, a name James Joyce could have come up with and most certainly would have approved of. My comment went over the top on digression, barely mentioning St Patrick.

Back online for #sol17 Day 18

except I haven't turned my hand/s to writing here. Between eye breaks and eye drops (four scrip, three times a day for each), I've been catching up elsewhere ~ Twitter. Life in the Manor and a few other Facebook pages, some emails, neverending curation. A digital media mess. A digital inventory is in order at some point.

#sol17 Day 17: Internet Forbidden

Back from surgery but banned from reading and the internet for the day. This is a compromise. Back to compliance. More tomorrow, until then:

#eyes again #sol17 Day 16

Tomorrow is the day. Cataract be gone. Another eye exam and dilation this afternoon. More eye drops. 

For the occasion, I offer “Eyes Like Stars” radiology art inspired, of course, by Van Gogh’s Starry Night. Rochester radiology resident Katia Kaplan-List transforms MR and CT images of eye globes into stars and the moon, slices of brain MR images into the hills in the foreground. More about radiology art and Re-imagined medical jmages here.

Good eye on the clock, I write, two finger typing, while having a phone conversation about books, coffee, andouille, vision, adaptive technology, pattern recognition and processing, and more.

Yet another day for this Late Night Slicer embracing her inner owl to be more Pantser than Planner 

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Welcome to the SoL writing Community and Day 16 of the March 2017 Slice of Life blogging challenge hosted by Two Writing Teachers. Slicers write all through March, a post a day, every day of the month. As important as writing blog posts, we read and comment on each others' posts -- share them too. The rest of the year, Tuesdays are for slicing. Follow the #sol17 tag on Twitter

Beware the Ides of March: take the day off #sol17 Day 15

As promised, I took the day off of from walking -- and most everything else, including my daily to-do priorities because keeping them on a day off would be such an oxymoron. Yes, a day off on Wednesday. Aging does have a few perks.

I tossed most of the usual suspects but kept a few: this blog post, my daily 750Words, minimal social media, maybe some email, SOLSC comments (somewhat behind with new slicers) and replies (woefully behind on those) -- no time yet for the last two until I post this. ICYMI I am also embracing my inner owl.

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Beware the Ides of March but keep slicing your way through March with the Two Writing Teachers and SOLSC slicers

more walking #sol17 Day 14

Walking has dominated my recent slices. That's natural since Some walk for health and fitness, others for causes. I walk to get places. Walking as transportation is increasingly less common. Walking -- without the distraction of a smart phone -- is also good for thinking and taking in your surroundings. 

Confessions of a late night slicer #sol17 Day 13

Mostly because I like the post title and the badge.














Next week should be easier slicing. Vision in flawed eyes that tire easy does not improve as the night wears on. Moving to Newfoundland for the time zone advantage is not an option.

Another almost #SilentSunday, down the rabbit hole #sol17 Day12

…today was not just Sunday, silent or commenting, but a down the rabbit hole day, totally. 

On blog commenting, another #sol17 challenge Day 11

The SOLSC commenting challenge is a mid challenge event to encourage and reward commenting.

Another Yuma walk #sol17 Day 10

I walk for exercise, to improve breathing, hold the line on bone density and stay healthier while exploring Yuma, but also because that's how I get around town. With minimal gradient and 2,000+ feet lower altitude, walking conditions are far more favorable here than in Mountainair. This morning, the ophthalmology tech called to schedule my pre-op optical scan for this afternoon instead of Friday. So I walked over. It was chillier than yesterday but somewhat less windy. I carried my folding camp stool (remember those from Scouts and camp?) so I could sit down to catch my breath as necessary.

Today's walk-with-a-purpose took me to Main St and what passes for "downtown business district," the opposite direction from yesterday's to the hospital on 8th Avenue. Out my front door, through a breezeway to the right and turning right again on 2nd avenue

Oops: #sol17 Day 9

How fast can I throw a post together, add links and a few images, and publish before either crashing or overshooting the deadline?

I just returned from a evening community meeting/training session by The Colorado Trust for the Yuma Community Partnership Team that I thought was tomorrow. 

This afternoon I walked a mile in a high wind to the Yuma District Hospital for an afternoon doctor's appointment (pre-op exam for next week's cataract surgery)... and back. Tuckered out, I figured to write a brief remembrance about mentors and make it an early night. Brainstormed, did some research, made notes. Then my son-in-law come to the door. He was going to the meeting too and had come to pick me up. Oops. 

The eyes have it: #IWD2017 on #sol17 Day 8

…#daywithoutawoman was my first slice choice. With no job to walk off and no local marches, I would adapt, make my own version. Doing the digital (social media signal boosting and blogging), wearing red, not buying anything, with exceptions for small, women- and minority-owned businesses. So far, so good, but there's a notable caveat. 

#sol17 Day 7: murals and sites of memory

8:30 pm and I'm still not sure what to slice about. Not that I don't have ideas, too many maybe, and picking up more with every post I read.

Margaret's SOL #7 Slice of a Mural at Reflections on the Teche not only took me back to New Iberia, Louisiana, where I lived for about five years in the 70s but gave me the idea of using murals to connect places along the way , in this case the three places before Yuma.

Wray Simmon's Mountainair NM train mural (2006), photo by David McLane

I moved here from Mountainair NM and there from Davis CA, both sites of abundant public art and murals: respectively, MMAC Community Art Program (preceded by Art Alley 1999) and Davis' Transmedia Artwalk.

#sol17 Day 6: Monday, what am I doing today?

I made my absent minded old lady, anti-procrastination list and have been working through it but still have no sense of Monday-ness or what I'm doing today. Or maybe I have a case of "mondayness", which the Urban Dictionary defines as "when everything seems to be going wrong, like on a Monday!"