You write it

From this coloring book, back in April and May of 2021, I colored this page (using a photo of a particular surfer for my color choices):

Blue Sky Boy recently suggested “seaside/surfing” as a theme, so here’s another page I just colored from that book.

I didn’t write any flash fiction about it. I did find a prompt in the Write The Poem book, if you’d like to write poetry or prose using the coloring page as your subject. You can share it in comments or keep it only for yourself. In addition to the words the book provided, I’m adding: sailboats, camera, rocky coast, beach plums, and inlets. Enjoy a burst of creativity!

Today’s offering

Off and on since early this morning, I’ve been putting together a post that was intended to be fun with photos and commentary. Then I read an article in which hate, once again, will be affirmed and rejoiced over by those who hate.

Everybody who tells me that NO, THAT WILL NEVER HAPPEN, please stop. It’s been happening, is still happening, and will get worse. You can close your eyes and ears and mind, but you can never gaslight me into believing I don’t see and hear and recognize the cold, hard evidence presented every day.

So I don’t feel like being funny. I will take a moment to recognize that my forever Muse would be eighty were he still alive today. In his honor, I’ll go back to the world sprung from my imagination, where hate will never win.

Mindful Monday

Oxytocin is a natural hormone made in the brain. It’s stored and released into the blood stream by the pituitary gland.

Other suggestions to boost oxytocin include yoga, massage, listening to music, physical intimacy, meditation, and doing something nice for someone.

Tom, Debby, Tim, and I celebrated Thanksgiving yesterday, with photographic proof below. Our oxytocin levels were excellent.

A couple of table views, where the menu was hen, cornbread dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy, black-eyed peas and macaroni and cheese (both from Debby), green beans, asparagus, corn, cranberry sauce, and rolls.

Dessert table, with my cranberry orange bread and Debby’s sweet potato pie.

People!

Lots of leftovers will be eaten. I’m just about to have a slice of cranberry orange bread with my coffee while I start a reread of Book 6 before getting back to the writing of Book 7. One of the issues with a character whose secrets force her to tell lies is a common problem: I, knowing the truth, can’t keep up with her lies.

Sunday Sundries: World AIDS Day 2024

On December 1, the World Health Organization (WHO) joins partners and communities to commemorate World AIDS Day 2024. Under the theme Take the rights path: My health, my right, WHO is calling on global leaders and citizens to champion the right to health by addressing the inequalities that hinder progress in ending AIDS.

December 1 is not only a call to activism and awareness on behalf of those living with HIV and AIDS, it’s a time to remember and honor lives lost to this pandemic.

Tom began setting up our tree a few days ago, while I unpacked ornaments. I took a photo of these.

The Santa was a gift to Tom and me from Amy after the three of us went to Washington, D.C., in 1996 to volunteer for the last full display of the NAMES Quilt. Steven’s House was a residential facility for people with HIV/AIDS where Tom volunteered his time for several years. The Support AIDS Research red ribbon fundraising ornament I bought from a national retailer (who now gets boycotted if they show compassion or support for the marginalized in their merchandise). Tom painted the little wooden ornament with the red ribbon for me one Christmas. The quilt ornament was a gift from my mother after she joined Tom, me, and several others–including Amy, Lynne, Nora, Vicki, Debby, and Lisa K–who assisted in making quilt panels that Tom and I gave to the NAMES Project (Tom donated his time to the Houston chapter for years).

Our panels:

The “Twelve Names” panel honors our friends Steve and Jeff, along with friends of friends: Fred, Dennis, Bill, Andy, Steven, and Jim were friends of Steve’s; Michael was Steve’s first boyfriend and Don was his partner who predeceased him; Jody, a high school friend of my co-worker Shawn; Ato was a friend of Tom and his family.

In addition, Tom, our friend James, and I hosted a gathering at The Compound to contribute our signed reflections about John, James’s partner and our beloved friend, to a panel created by the NAMES Foundation’s Pete Martinez.


Pete was tireless in the time and energy he gave on behalf of so many people who died because of AIDS and the partners, friends, and families they left behind. He was a good friend to Tom and me. Pete died in 2001, a loss to the community and to all those whose lives he impacted.

How to make…

This year I’ve been mostly on my own to start decorating our large tree, and let me tell you… I MISS MY THREE TO SIX ELVES. I used to call myself the Christmas hooker, because all I did was put hooks on ornaments and hand them over to volunteers who’d work for fun, food, and good tunes to hang them on the tree.

There are so many bins of ornaments that I was overwhelmed, so this year, I made the decision to leave a whole lot of them in the bins, and that included most of the beautiful ornaments that have been made for us by children and gifted stitchers and other arts and crafts friends through the decades. THEY ARE STILL HERE AND STILL LOVED. They’ll be hanging and beautiful again on future trees.

On the other hand, I’ll offer a Saturday morning pictorial of How To Create An Ornament That Nobody Will Want*.


Back in July of last year, I had a bunch of 2-inch by 2-inch canvases and painted all of them on the same day, for future use as wanted, with acrylics. I picked one of those for An Ornament That Nobody Will Want. Enjoy!

Step 1. Do an online search for free downloadable mini mandalas, and find a 2015 set from Tiffany Hastie. Be very grateful, download it, and print it on regular paper so you can check the size.

Step 2. Adjust the size (down, in this case) to print on cardstock. Do that and pick your pens.

Step 3. Get to coloring and realize you don’t need those sticking-out circles for what you’re doing. Oh, well.

Step 4. Cut out the mini mandala and pick a canvas.

Step 5. Pick your glue. Be grateful for your friends who have taught you from their experience to organize and label all your craft supplies.

Step 6. When the glue is dry, take your wee canvas outside with your preferred spray finish (in this case, matte), spray it, and leave it outside to dry.

Step 7. Time to call in the muscle, in my case, Tom, to find the right hook and insert it into the wood frame of the canvas.

Step 8. Find and cut the right piece of ribbon from this mess.

Step 8. When the ribbon is on the hook, hang it on the Christmas tree. Festive fun!

*An Ornament That Nobody Will Want is not a bitter name. It is a truth universally acknowledged that crafting is in the pleasure, art is subjective, and experience is a teacher. Also, Becky is not a perfectionist unless she is ruthlessly editing someone’s (including her own) writing. Which she’s about to get back to doing.

Photo Friday, No. 937

Current Photo Friday theme: Ancient


Anubis, ancient god of funerary rites, protector of graves, and guide to the underworld, was portrayed in Egypt’s Early Dynastic period (circa 3100 to 2686 BC) in full animal form, with a jackal head and body.

Trivia: “Jackal” is one of my favorite words in the English language.

More trivia: If you were a “West Wing” viewer, you’ve probably never forgotten Allison Janney’s portrayal of C.J. Cregg lip-synching “The Jackal.” Allison Janney, who was really good at this, had to do it with C.J. not quite as good–all part of the fun. Seeing it again makes me want to rewatch the entire series.

ETA: It was on this date last year when Marika died. She’d have loved watching that video. “West Wing” is the show we simultaneously watched together late at night in different parts of the country, maintaining a running commentary via messaging.

Marika is missed, and I think of her often, especially when I hear INXS, Tom Petty, Elvis, Tom T Hall, Billy Idol, and Lenka. (Also–and she would bitch about this–Steve Perry/Journey.)

Happy Thanksgiving!

However you celebrate and wherever you are or with whom, I wish you a wonderful, tranquil day. I’m grateful for so many people and things, and whatever troubles me, I know my life is filled with abundance in what matters most–people (including friends and family) and dogs and a comfortable home. Because our holiday celebration is set for Sunday, we have a few days to do things around the Hall–like put up the Christmas tree! Photos to come. Lindsey and Rhonda gave me this coloring book for my birthday this spring, and I flipped through it with some of Blue Sky Boy’s suggestions in mind–including bikes and fall colors.

This is the page I chose. I always forget when I use this book to take a picture of how a page looks BEFORE I begin adding to it. But I found this unaltered photo on someone else’s site and used it (thanks, anonymous person who I don’t remember). Her photo cuts off part of the bottom, but it gives an idea of the background provided by the artist and coloring book creator, Kendra Norton.

Below is my version–I used a page of old bikes in the Antique Treasures coloring book for my model. Clearly, this rider has had a few tumbles and damaged the spokes because they’re not in any way aligned (unlike Amanda in yesterday’s post, I have little patience and zero skills as a draftsman). The dirt path at the bottom is colored pencil. The bike is black fine-lined pen and Sharpie, and the leaves are acrylic paint. Celebrate fall!

Thanksgiving Eve

Happy birthday today to Lynne! Always love sharing this photo I took at Cheaha State Park on a visit to our favorite lookout point during one of the decades we’ve been friends (who’s counting?!?).

We aren’t doing our Thanksgiving tomorrow as planned. Timothy had a couple of other clients in need of him, and his first real break when he can relax and hang out for a few consecutive hours will happen on Sunday. We’ll do our Thanksgiving meal then. In the meantime, I’ll be coloring and writing. I’d done another coloring page (shown below) from the Village Charm coloring book even before the bookstore drawing I recently shared. Below it is more flash fiction I hope you’ll enjoy (I went a bit over the thousand-word count, even after editing. This should surprise no one who reads me.).

I.J. drove his beat-up Civic to Amanda’s place with the windows down and his most recent tape playing. His car was so old it still had its original cassette player. One of his Sunday tasks while he did laundry was to create a weekly mix tape. He drew from half a lifetime’s accumulation of songs on computer, album, and CD collections to make a mix he could enjoy during a week’s worth of drives to and from work.

He was running late because Amanda had asked him to stop at the bakery to pick up three dozen mini chocolate cupcakes. She said they’d be perfect for an abundance of vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce she wanted to use up. Amanda believed most people had a superpower they didn’t recognize. I.J. thought Amanda’s was her ability to throw things together quickly and create the perfect meal, outfit, party, excursion, or event. Her life was like Mary Poppins’ carpetbag: whatever was needed was in it. I.J. wondered if her creativity and spontaneity were a reaction to the precise mathematical and technical demands of her work as a draftsman.

The six who’d be at Amanda’s tonight evolved into a group over several years, when their original connections moved on because of graduations, breakups, jobs, and family crises. As they aged into their thirties, their lives stabilized. Though they had other friends and sometimes romances, changed jobs, and pursued diverse interests, their group stayed solid. Maybe the secret to their longevity was not gathering as a group too often. None of them had ever dated any of the others, so there were no messy memories or grudges among them.

The six consisted of two straight women, one bisexual woman, two straight men, and one asexual man. I.J. had spent much of his young adulthood trying to figure out why he was never sexually attracted to anyone. Counseling had finally given him an identity he could understand. He valued friendships and even deep emotional and spiritual connections; asexuality simply meant he wasn’t interested in physical relationships. That truth felt like a huge weight being lifted, especially when he learned there were plenty of people who were like him.

He thought of his other friends and their superpowers. Craig could fix anything. A weird noise coming from under the hood, anything broken or malfunctioning in a house or apartment, Craig was your guy. And he never wanted anything in return except maybe a pizza and a six-pack. He did all right financially as a landscaper but could probably be a millionaire as a fix-it guy. He liked keeping it a hobby, though, and refused payment.

Nora’s superpower was photography. She still used cameras that shot with actual film and spent weekends, holidays, and vacations capturing stunning images of nature and wildlife. She provided her own chemicals and paper to process them in the photo lab at the college where she taught history. Her colleagues knew her as Elnora; she thought it made her sound more professorial. I.J. thought it was strange that she didn’t teach photography or any other visual art.

Jess was their storyteller. He shared anecdotes about unnamed colleagues and customers, often making them all laugh to the point of tears. I.J. was never sure what parts of Jess’s stories were true or outright fiction. He had no idea how many retailers Jess had worked for over the years, most of them at the big mall thirty miles away. They were surprised when his most recent position managing the local bookstore had lasted two years, and held their breath when a new owner took over. The owner had no retail experience herself, but when Nora found out she’d been a teacher, she said they could stop worrying. A former high school teacher could whip any business into shape. A bookstore, even one that employed quirky Jess, would barely make her blink.

Liz countered that she wished the new owner would take over the hospital, too. Liz worked as a lab tech in every department–except the morgue, as she liked to say. They all worried about the emotional toll of her job. I.J. thought it was Liz’s superpower that saved her. She was a harpist, so gifted that the videos she posted of herself on social media garnered hundreds of thousands of views and likes. Liz never monetized her performances. She wouldn’t do endorsements; she gave no options for donations to her; and she left her comments turned off. The only statement in her bio was that anyone who enjoyed her music, Be good humans and donate your time or money to organizations that assist others.

There was no parking on Amanda’s street, so I.J. pulled into an open space on the nearest block. He ejected the tape, put it in its case, jammed it inside his pocket, grabbed the cupcakes, and left his car unlocked. There was nothing to steal except the car itself, and he doubted anyone would want it.

He spied Amanda’s dog Honey lying near the doorway of No. 9 (he always heard that repeated in the unnamed engineer’s voice from the Beatles’ song “Revolution 9”). Honey liked napping on the sidewalk since there was no parking or through traffic on the street. The front door was left open when the superpowers gathered there.

I.J. stopped walking, struck by a sudden thought. If the others had superpowers, why didn’t he? Without great wealth or the magical skills of a ninja or shapeshifter, with no talent to speak of–he didn’t think asexuality counted–if he was just an ordinary mortal, how did he fit into their group? He resumed walking slowly toward No. 9, and sat on the curb, cupcakes next to him, so he could pet Honey. He could clearly hear his friends’ voices through the open window.

Nora: He’s not answering his cell.

(I.J. suddenly realized he’d left his phone at home.)

Jess: He’s never late.

Liz: I hope he didn’t have an accident.

Craig: More likely that car of his crapped out. I need to give that thing a checkup.

Amanda: He has to come! Otherwise, we’ll have no music!

Liz: We need to find him. Those tapes he puts together are my coping mechanism.

Jess: They’re my emotional support music.

Liz: Do you know how many of his choices inspire what I perform and share on my social media?

Amanda: His tapes remind me of decades of music I’ve loved and can put on my office playlists.

Nora: You do that, too? I listen to mine in the darkroom. My students want them playing in class while they take exams.

I.J. realized he was smiling like an idiot, cleared his throat, and said loudly, “Sorry, Honey, the cupcakes are chocolate. Pretty sure I can talk Amanda out of a safer treat for you.”

He and Honey both stood and walked toward the open door of No. 9.

©Becky Cochrane