Thursday Thoughts ~ August 21, 2025

August 21, 2025August 28, 2025 ~ GrayMareWrites ~ 1 Comment

Welcome to When Is Summer Finally Over Eve?!

I dream of living near San Diego, maybe Oceanside or Carlsbad, where the temperature rarely goes above 80 degrees. Right now, where I am in SoCal, it’s 95 degrees Fahrenheit. Is there a patron saint of moving?? LOL! I have to say, though, painting the house light blue has made these hot days a little more bearable than the dark green 😊

I’d been concerned about our diabetic kitty, Patchwork. A month ago, her numbers were very high, and the doctor suggested adding another ¼ unit of Vetsulin, the feline equivalent of insulin, to her current dosage. Last week, we had her tested again. Monday night, we got a call letting us know her numbers were way down and within acceptable range. Whew! I had told the doctor that sometimes Patchwork gets what we call Growly (scratchy, grouchy, growls) and refuses the shot, which she had done the night before that first test. Not sure how much that affected the numbers, but I’m just happy to know she’s doing okay.

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Thursday Thoughts ~ July 17, 2025

July 17, 2025July 24, 2025 ~ GrayMareWrites ~ 2 Comments

Happy Friday Eve!

The VW bus saga ended on a high note last Thursday (In case you missed it, here’s the beginning of the saga). The tow truck driver, Miguel, called to ask if he could come an hour early ~ a definite YES! He turned out to be a really nice guy, who gave us the reaction we hoped for when he realized the bus had an automatic transmission ~ he was excited to see it and understood exactly how special it was. He handled the entire operation himself, backing the bus down our driveway, and using a winch to get it onto the flatbed. We watched it drive down our street to its new adventure at the auction and hopefully, a buyer who will appreciate it as much as we did.

We dream of it being fixed up and cruisin’ around town! It was hard to see it go but it was time. If you missed The Husband’s guest post last week ~ his ode to his VW ~ here it is.

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Thursday Thoughts ~ July 10, 2025

July 10, 2025July 13, 2025 ~ GrayMareWrites ~ 5 Comments

Thursdays come fast and furious!

It’s been a busy, yet frustrating week. We had an appointment to have The Husband’s VW bus picked up for donation on Sunday. Understand, this is a very emotional situation ~ he’s had this vehicle for 31 years and it’s hard for him to see it go. So, we’d been gearing up for Sunday, nervous and stressed. We sat for hours, waiting for the towing company, who we couldn’t contact on a Sunday… Actually, couldn’t contact at all… they never showed. Since then, we’ve been calling the auction house that claimed the bus and they’ve been as frustrated as us. Now we have an appointment for pick up (hopefully not the same towing company as the first appointment…) for later today. I’ll tell you how that turns out next week. Think good thoughts for us!!

Lots of pictures this week!

First, on Fourth of July morning, we visited the Fullerton Train Museum. It’s been one of those things, when you hear about something interesting in your local area but just never get around to visiting. I happened to see on Facebook that the museum would be open special hours on the Fourth, and since we had no plans, why not? It was about time, really!

This is right next to the train station in Fullerton.

First Class lounge

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Thursday Thoughts ~ July 3, 2025

July 3, 2025July 10, 2025 ~ GrayMareWrites ~ 1 Comment

Happy Second Half of 2025! Can you believe it’s already July!!??

My doctor had been threatening to put me on a statin for my bad cholesterol. She gave me a few months to bring it down and it did come down a little, but in the greater scheme of things, it’s still high. So, now I’m on a statin, like all those people you see on the Old Folks TV ads… When she first mentioned statins, I balked. Usually, I’m happy that I live in an age where there are so many little medical miracles helping us to age well. The Husband has been on one for years. I guess I was so impressed with myself only being on one prescription medication at this age (thyroid issues ~ 30 years), that I was a little disappointed to break my record. My BFF pointed out that it’s really no big deal and I believe her. Thanks, Zan!! I haven’t had any side effects, so that’s good. Retest in two months to see how it’s working. Fingers crossed!

During errands yesterday, we happened on a little car show in Placentia.

You may not be able to see the grill on this car well, but The Husband is pointing to a cartoon of the character Rat Fink, which was created at Knott’s Berry Farm as sort of a sarcastic version of The Mouse, down the street at Disneyland. LOL!

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Thursday Thoughts ~ June 12, 2025

June 12, 2025June 15, 2025 ~ GrayMareWrites ~ Leave a comment

It’s Thursday again! Time flies, whether you’re having fun or not.

On Saturday, The Husband and I went to our monthly California Writers Club meeting at the picturesque Anaheim Packing House. It reminds me of my years with The Bead Society of Orange County – meeting in a beautiful place, with socializing, a few minutes of club business, then a speaker of interest. This month’s guest was Daniel Weizmann, author of the Pacific Coast Highway Mystery series, talking about his W.H.O.C.A.R.E.S writing method. I took a lot of good notes and also got his excellent PDF to work from.

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Writing Recommencement

June 9, 2021 ~ GrayMareWrites ~ Leave a comment

After a long writing hiatus, which included 15 years composing jewelry, I’m back to writing. I created a little newspaper in second grade that won me a Kennedy half dollar. I wrote poetry and music in my teens. As a young adult I wrote some short stories, one that placed 33^rd in a Writer’s Digest contest and one that won a Midwestern writer’s contest — go figure, I’m a New Englander living in California. I made inroads on several novels that never came to fruition. Then I took a jewelry class and went down that rabbit hole of adornment and art fairs. I used my writing for my limited marketing and I even edited the newsletter of the bead society I joined. Writing always lingered. Then I lost my basic creativity and didn’t do anything for a while. Sometimes in life, you stop and ask yourself what you loved and misplaced. My Muse, Lucy, tapped me on the shoulder and cleared her throat.