SOL 2019 -- Day 26 -- Blazer The Fire Engine Who Was Afraid

SOL story challenge, March 2019
Day 26 -- "Blazer, The Fire Engine Who Was Afraid"
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Earlier today, I was thinking of some of the records I used to listen to when I was a small child. One of them had a story and song about a fire engine named Blazer. Blazer was a happy little engine until one day he was called out to a fire, and it turned out that he was afraid of fires. What a problem for a fire engine to have! Of course, the story had a happy ending, because Blazer was able to overcome his fear when it mattered the most. The story was corny, and the music was even more corny, but it contained a good lesson for children to learn. I remember listening to that record over and over and over again, so I obviously must have liked the story, the song, or both!

Here is a picture from the internet which shows what the record looked like.

I haven't listened much to music for small children recently, but I'm wondering if the music these days teaches lessons to children, as they did when I was very young. I'm guessing that they do...or at least some of them. I know there is a recent children's song about a baby shark; I've heard part of it, and the tune is quite catchy...but I have no idea if it teaches a lesson. Maybe I'll ask my grandkids, and see what they think.  ;-)

When I was looking online for information about Blazer, I was able to find a recording of the story/song. I listened to it -- because of course I HAD to refresh my memory! In case you'd like to hear it, here is a link to it:

~~

Watch "Blazer, The Fire Engine Who Was Afraid (Cricket Records 1954)" on YouTube

https://youtu.be/h6eSYMGHDNM

~~

Now that I've listened to Blazer again....Well, let's just say that I can go a while (a LONG while), before I listen to it again. I think I'd rather take the baby shark. ;-)


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JudyK :-)  March 26, 2019

SOL 2019 -- Day 25 -- An Inspiration and Some Helicopters

SOL story challenge, March 2019
Day 25 -- "An Inspiration and Some Helicopters" 
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The quote below was the inspiration posted on the Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life Story Challenge today. I am posting it here on my blog because this quote spoke to me with such a loud voice that I couldn't ignore it, even if I had wanted to. After I experienced somewhat of a writing crisis over the weekend, when I read this quote this morning... well, it was as if this person were talking directly to me. I could absolutely be the writer being referred to in this quote! So...I am posting it here in my blog, so that I can refer back to it the next time I doubt myself. Because I know myself, and I know that there most likely will be a next time.  :-)
             

And now, with that said, here is the writing which I had intended to post when I got onto my laptop this morning...before I was distracted by that quote. ;-)  It's a poem which I wrote yesterday, after movement in the skies outside my living room window caught my attention. 

The Helicopters

Six helicopters

Flying by...

Two by

Two by

Two.

Military helicopters

In training exercises...

Two by

Two by

Two.

Heading back

To the Air Force base...

Two by

Two by

Two.

Weekend training over,

Flying done...

Home.

Home.

Home.

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JudyK  :-)  March 25, 2019

SOL 2019 -- Day 24 -- Grateful Follow-up Letter to the SOL Writing Community

Slice of Life story challenge, March 2019
Day 24 -- Grateful Follow-up Letter to the SOL Writing Community
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Dear Slice of Life Writers,

Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU to those of you who gave me feedback yesterday! I was confused and didn't really know where I stood in this writing community; you helped immensely to clarify things for me and show me the mistakes I was making. Your thoughtful questions, suggestions, guidance, and recommendations were truly helpful and will assist me in becoming a better writer and blogger. 

Special thanks to Kathryn,  Leigh Anne Eck,  Tracy,  Elisa,  Jen at TeachWrite,  Tracy Vogelgesang,  On a Thought,  Angela Faulhaber,  ChristieWyman,   JenniferFloyd,  Heidi,  Ramona,  aggiekesler, and  Elisabeth Ellington.... I so appreciate your help!

With much gratitude,
JudyK  :-)



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JudyK  :-)  March 24, 2019

SOL 2019 -- Day 23 -- Letter to the SOL Writing Community

Slice of Life story challenge, March 2019
Day 23 -- Letter to the SOL Writing Community
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Dear Slice of Life Writers,

I’ve been participating this month in the Two Writing Teachers’ annual writing challenge -- the Slice of Life Story Challenge -- for my third year in a row. Each time, the challenge has been an interesting experience, and I learned a lot about writing each time. The first year, my experience was encouraging and exhilarating, and I had a blast! :-) The second year, I had much less encouragement, but I still had fun and learned a lot. This third year, with more than a week still to go, my experience has been far different from the previous years. Why? I am missing the fun. To be more exact, I am missing the fun which comes from the sense of community.

I don’t really feel like I’m part of the SOL writing community this year. I am certainly trying to be! I’m writing and posting daily, I’m reading (and thoroughly enjoying!!) other slicers’ posts, and I’m commenting on other slicers’ posts -- usually more than the minimum requirement of three comments. I’m attempting to encourage others in their writing. I’m trying to make my own writing interesting, and I’m trying to leave an interesting hook when I post my permalink on the Two Writing Teachers website each day, to maybe catch the interest of potential readers. I also put some info about myself, with a link to my blog, on the Padlet that Kathleen Sokolowski created to help slicers connect with each other. I’m doing everything I’m supposed to be doing. 

So, what is the problem, you ask? Why am I not feeling as if I’m part of the community?

The problem is that I am getting very few readers from the Slice of Life writing community, and even fewer commenters. If it weren’t for one person -- Ramona from Pleasures From the Page (https://pleasuresfromthepage.blogspot.com/) -- I would have had zero comments on my blog for the past 8 days. ZERO.  Z-E-R-O.  For eight days.  Considering that there are 200+ people participating in this writing challenge, those are some pretty bleak statistics. Do you know how deflating those statistics are to my fragile writer ego? ;-)

I’ve never considered myself to be a good writer, but I’m trying to improve. That’s the reason why I started this blog in the first place -- to improve my writing and challenge myself. And I have decided that I will continue to challenge myself, in spite of the lack of comments from others this March. I intend to complete the Slice of Life story challenge again this year, and I intend to continue writing beyond that. It’s not as much fun for me when I know that I’m practically the only one reading my writing, but I have put on my Big Girl Pants ;-) and decided to forge on anyway. I still want to improve myself. :-)

So, SOL writing community, this is where YOU come in. This is where I am asking for your help!

If you are reading this, PLEASE leave a comment and let me know what I am doing wrong. How can I improve my writing? How can I make my writing, and this blog, more interesting? I am hoping to leave this blog -- with all my random thoughts and stories, experimental poems and lists, and all types of writing -- for my children and grandchildren to read some day, so that they can know me a bit better, so that my thoughts can become part of their history. How can I improve my writing and my blog so that people actually want to read it? I need your feedback. I need your constructive criticism. Really.

If you have read all the way to the end of this letter, I commend you and thank you for that. If I can ask for just a bit more of your time, please leave a comment. Pretty please with words (better than sugar) on it.  ;-)  ;-) Thank you!

With appreciation,
JudyK :-)


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JudyK :-) March 23, 2019

SOL 2019 -- Day 22 -- The Visit (A Haiku)

Slice of Life story challenge, March 2019
Day 22 -- "The Visit (A Haiku)"
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Today, I went back to visit the elementary school where I had been teaching until just before Christmas. I thoroughly enjoyed talking with my former coworkers, and spending time (I visited the school for 5 hours!) with my former students. It was a great day! I wrote a Haiku to celebrate -- 

The Visit (A Haiku):

Catching up with friends

and getting countless hugs from

little people: Joy!

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JudyK :-)  March 22, 2019

SOL 2019 -- Day 21 -- 21 Observations

Slice of Life story challenge, March 2019
Day 21 -- "21 Observations"
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In honor of March 21... 
Here are 21 observations of things I see out my living room window at 10AM today: 



1. Gray skies. I see gray skies, not at all unusual for this part of Ohio for March...as well as February, January, December, and November. March is when we normally start getting fewer cloudy days, and see more sunshine. But not today.

2. Wet pavement on all the streets. It has rained during the night. How much it has rained, I don't know.

3. A trash truck, its employees picking up a nearby neighbor's trash.

4. The trash truck driver, outside the truck, waving his hands wildly while talking to his work partner.

5. The same trash truck, employees inside, driving backwards down the street which runs next to my house. The truck disappears from my sight. Did the trash company employees forget to pick up a customer's trash?

6. The same trash truck again, a minute later, driving the correct way on the street again, leaving my neighborhood. Apparently they corrected their error.

7. A tarp-clad chair on my neighbor's porch, covered up to protect it from the winter weather. Perhaps it will be released from its imprisonment soon?

8. Cars driving past the street corner where I live. Inside them are people going about their business, running errands or going to work. I wonder briefly about their destinations.

9. My wooden mailbox post. Gee, it's looking worn...and not at all dark brown, which it used to be. The post can really stand to be painted.

10. A neighbor's huge pine tree, its branches brushing against their garage roof. That tree has been there for many years. A few years ago, the bottom branches were removed so that the tree wasn't crowding up against the house. Maybe a few more branches need to go.

11. Grass. Lots of grass in my yard and in the neighbors' lawns. It is mostly brown, with a little bit of green here and there. Spring is trying to come.

12. The big rock under the pine tree across the street on the corner. The rock is large enough for a person or two to sit on. It has been there for many, many years, and has stories of its own to tell. I know a few of the stories; maybe I'll write about those stories some day.

13. Leafless trees in neighbors' yards. Wait just a minute. Looking more carefully, I can see buds of leaves sprouting on the trees. The branches aren't really bare anymore. Spring IS trying to come.

14. The round patch of a tiny flower garden in the yard across the street. It has the remnants of ground cover growth from last year. Once there was a tree that grew in that spot. When the tree died, my neighbors turned the small circle of dirt into a tiny garden, covered with a ground cover plant. The plant will sport minuscule flowers when it blooms later in the spring. Or maybe that plant blooms in the summer? I don't remember exactly.

15. My car, parked backwards in my driveway. It is an old car, and it's parked in that manner so that it's pointing down the slope of the driveway. That position will hopefully help prevent my leaky sunroof from dripping onto the front seat of the car. It's not fun to sit on a wet car seat. Trust me, I know about such things.

16. Another neighbor's yard.... There are 4 tires, 2 trash barrels and a small woodpile sitting alongside his garage. They don't look horribly terrible, yet they aren't very pretty to look at. It makes me wonder about the appearance of the side of my house, as seen by my neighbors. Hmmmm....

17. A tanker truck driving past my corner, heading deeper into my neighborhood. I saw this same truck driving by a little while ago, before I started taking notes. It has EPA something-or-other written on the side of it. I wonder if it's vacuuming the leaves and collections of winter gunk out the sewers on streets in the neighborhood. I've seen my township perform that service in previous years.

18. A torn bag of mulch in the flowerbed of the yard across the street. My neighbors never used the mulch last year, so it's been lying there for a while. I wonder if they will use it this year. They are an older couple who have had some health problems in the past year, so maybe not. Maybe I'll offer to spread the mulch for them this year.

19. A different truck, this one with a long conveyor belt and some packages of roofing shingles on it, driving slowly past my corner. It drives onward on the street which runs next to my house, and I can't see it anymore. Then I hear its backup warning signal beeping, so I think it's parking on the street right by the side of my house. One of my neighbors must be getting some roof repairs.

20. A car turning onto my cul-de-sac. Driving it is an elderly man who lives next door to my across-the-street neighbors. The car pulls into the garage which is attached to the house. The garage door does not go down. 

21. The elderly man appearing, a minute later. He walks out of his garage, down his driveway toward his mailbox at the curb. I see him pick up two empty trash cans and carry them into the garage. The garage door closes. The man is back home with his wife, in the warmth and comfort of their home.



When I first starting looking out my window and taking notes, I wondered if I could find 21 things to notice. It seemed to be a formidable challenge. Could there be 21 things happening in this quiet little neighborhood on this rainy weekday morning, when most of the neighborhoods' residents are at work or school? I shouldn't have wondered; it took me only 10 or 15 minutes to spot these 21 things. I could have written whole stories about a few of them.

My advice to everyone: Take time to stop and observe what's going on around you, wherever you are. You'll be amazed at what you see and hear...and wonder!


:-)

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JudyK  :-)  March 21, 2019

SOL 2019 -- Day 20 -- My Evening

Slice of Life story challenge, March 2019
Day 20 -- "My Decadent Evening"
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My Decadent Evening

(A Six-Word Story)

"Survivor"

and

Rocky

Road

ice

cream

📺 🍨

😋

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JudyK  :-)  March 20, 2019

SOL 2019 -- Day 19 -- Thank Goodness for Spring Breaks!

Slice of Life story challenge, March 2019
Day 19 -- "Thank Goodness for Spring Breaks!"
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Earlier this morning, this photo collage, made from photos I took a year ago today, popped up on my phone. It immediately brought a smile to my face, and warmed my heart.

I remember that day one year ago -- Monday March 19, 2018.  I was on Spring Break, and I took a hike at a nearby metro park on that morning, knowing that it would be one of the few chances I would have for semi-decent weather that week. The upper left photo in the collage is a picture I took along the walking path. There were no leaves on trees yet, and the grass hadn't greened up yet, so the park was still mostly wearing its winter brown color. But the sky was a beautiful blue that day, and the sun was shining, and I embraced the sunshine and enjoyed that hike for all it was worth. That morning was peaceful and refreshing; it renewed my spirit and soothed my soul.

After the hike, I came home and took some pictures of my crocus flowers which were in full bloom in the flower bed by my front porch; those are the other pictures in the collage. Those beautiful little purple flowers cheer me up and lift my spirits every time I see them. My mood is lifted now, just looking at this picture collage!

A year has come and gone since then, and I am once again on Spring Break. It's a respite from a different job this year, but it's still a welcomed break from my normal routine. I'm looking out the window right now, and once again am seeing sunshine and some blue skies. As I remember last year's spirit-lifting hike, and knowing that spring now is right around the corner, I am again full of joy and ready to take on whatever the future sends me.

Ahhhh, thank goodness for Spring Breaks. Onward I go!

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JudyK  :-)   March 19, 2019

SOL 2019 -- Day 18 -- Three Good Things About Yesterday

Slice of Life story challenge, March 2019
Day 18 -- "Three Good Things about Yesterday"
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1. Family
A get-together with extended family -- mostly cousins and their kids & grandkids -- at the Irish Family Reunion at the Columbus Convention Center was so much fun! I had never attended the event, held annually on St. Patrick's Day, but thousands of people do every year. The celebration was full of energy and music and dancing and love and Irish pride. I'm glad to have experienced it.
      

            

2. Morning Sunshine
The sun was shining in downtown Columbus during the morning and the early part of the afternoon, allowing the St. Patrick's Day Parade to take place before rain/snow moved in later in the afternoon. The parade had high school bands, bagpipers, police and firefighters, politicians, organizations, Irish dancers, horses wearing green, families, floats, and more. It was pretty spectacular! And the sunshine was SO nice to have, for both the parade participants as well as the spectators. Thank you, sunshine!

     

     












3. Earmuffs
When it's sunny outside, but fairly cold and rather windy, and you're watching a parade in March, what's a nice thing to have? The answer is earmuffs...fuzzy, fluffy ones that keep your ears toasty warm. I was SO glad to have them!

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JudyK  :-)  March 18, 2019

SOL 2019 -- Day 17 -- St.Pat's Six Word Memoir

Slice of Life story challenge, March 2019
Day 17 -- "St. Patrick's Day Six Word Memoir"
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Parade and Irish family celebrations commence!

~~ Happy St. Patrick's day to all! ~~

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JudyK  March 17, 2019

SOL March 2019 -- Day 16 -- Little Cloud

Slice of Life story challenge, March 2019
Day 16 -- "Little Cloud"
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I was gazing out my cousin's living room window this afternoon, noticing the sky with its blue patches among the clouds. It inspired me to write this poem --- 



Little Cloud

Puffy white cloud
high in the sky,
blowing along an unseen path....
Where are you going
in such a hurry?
Are you heading somewhere in particular?
Or just following the other clouds?
Will you catch up with others,
and join them
to become an angry mob, 
turning thick and gray and ugly,
unleashing your fury
upon those below?
Or will you meander slowly
along your path,
carefree
and playful,
no destination in mind,
enjoying the view below?
I wish you could tell me.

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JudyK :-)  March 16, 2019

SOL 2019 -- Day 15 -- Let Spring Break Begin!

Slice Of Life story challenge, March 2019
Day 15 -- "Let Spring Break Begin!"
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The day has come that I've been looking forward to for a while now.... As of the end of my work day today, I am now on Spring Break! 

S-P-R-I-N-G  B-R-E-A-K!  

For two whole weeks! 

T-W-O  W-H-O-L-E  W-E-E-K-S ! 

I am so very HAPPY about that! :-)

I am SO happy and relieved to have some extended time off now. For the past few months, I've been working so hard and waiting so patiently to have extra time off! I've had weekends off, a couple of single-day holidays off, and a couple of 3-day weekends. But I haven't had any longer breaks than that since Thanksgiving. That's because I switched jobs in December, and ended up forgoing my winter break. And, oh, how I missed that!

I look forward to relaxing a little during Spring Break. (A teacher absolutely needs some down time to rejuvenate the mind and the body before going back to teaching again.) But I also have a "To-Do" list which is a mile long, and some appointments to go to. And of course, I want to get together with some friends from where I used to work. And I absolutely want to spend time playing with my grandchildren. And I want to read! And write! And get ahead on schoolwork for the spring quarter, which starts April 1. And....And....And!

How will I get it all accomplished? I probably won't. But I'm sure going to give it a good try! I'm starting the break with high hopes for the promising two weeks ahead. 

Ahhh, the possibilities.... :-)


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JudyK :-) March 15, 2019

SOL 2019 -- Day 14 -- PD on Pi Day

Slice of Life story challenge, March 2019
Day 14 -- "PD on Pi Day"
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To celebrate Pi Day, here's one more Pi-ku poem! Happy Pi Day!




PD on Pi Day

3.  Day number
1  four
4  of PD's done.
1  This
5  week's Professional  
9  Development has been pretty good.
2  Today,
6   however, I just kept
5  thinking "PD on
3  Pi Day! That's 
5  so fun to say! Ha!
8  PD on Pi Day!"  So silly.
;-)


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JudyK :-)  March 14, 2019

SOL 2019 -- Day 1 -- Clickety Clackety

Slice of Life story challenge, March 2019
Day 13 -- "Clickety Clackety"
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When I was a little girl, my mother would sometimes type on her manual typewriter in the evening, practicing her keystrokes and trying to improve her speed. I remember being in awe as I watched her fingers flying over the keys. Clickety clackety clickety clack, DING, swoosh. Clickety clackety clickety clack, DING, swoosh. Clickety clackety clickety clack, DING, swoosh. Again and again and again, I heard those same sounds until "Zzzzip!" Mom snatched the piece of paper out of the typewriter and quickly rolled another one in.

I looked at the paper she had discarded: "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." That same sentence was repeated over and over and over again, all down the length of the page.

I was puzzled. Our dog could be lazy at times, but I didn't know anything about a brown fox being anywhere near where we lived. Why was mom typing about a brown fox and a lazy dog? And why was she typing it over and over? What was the point of it all?

That was the night I learned about that one special sentence and how it was used by many people to practice their typing. As Mom explained it to me, I found it fascinating that one silly sentence could be so important to so many people because it contained every letter of the alphabet. How funny. How intriguing.

Words still intrigue me to this day.

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JudyK :-)  March 13, 2019