Potpourri

This week’s post is a bit of a potpourri (which I had to look up to make sure I was spelling it correctly. Not a word I use often!)

My Summer Vacation

When you live in Florida and are self-employed, it is almost as if you are on a permanent vacation. And I am not one to take many vacations – at least not faraway vacations. Not that this one was. It was an hour away. 

My son-in-law’s family had not visited from Canada in a couple of years because of Covid. The five people from Canada joined eight of us down here in Florida and rented a “compound” of four cabins about a block or two from the beach on Siesta Key. Until recently, I didn’t realize there were keys in Florida other than the chain of islands south of Miami, including Key West. But there are indeed some keys off the Gulf Coast of Florida, including the beautiful Siesta Key.  Photos below. We had two small pools among the four cabins, which were pretty nice. No roughing it for us. I did bring my computer (as I always do) and managed to keep up my social media and e-mail to an extent. I was up at 7:30 or so, joining my son-in-law at the kitchen table as he worked remotely as well.

As usual, I brought a bunch of books to read (mostly on my Kindle) and managed to read about 10 pages over five days. I was insistent on finishing a book I had started at home. I didn’t really like it, but I hoped it would get better. I wasted my time getting through more than half the book  before finally giving up at the end of the vacation. I had two library books I was trying to decide between. I didn’t want to bring them both, since I have 35 pages of books on my Kindle. So I looked at the  Goodreads reviews of each of the two books and brought the one with the higher reviews. Wrong choice. When I got home I read the book I decided not to bring, and it was wonderful (The Last Bookshop in London in case you want to read it). The book I brought was appropriately titled Beach Read, but it was b-o-r-i-n-g. 

I must confess the vacation was a challenge for me. I am an introvert and being with so many other people who are basically all related to one another except me was difficult. And once I got used to it and was having a fine time, it was time to go home. I also tend to get restless (type A — or ADHD????) and cannot just sit and chill or even sit and read. My son-in-law’s sister (who is much younger than I)  read about a dozen fantasy books while we were there. I just couldn’t focus, partly because I brought my little dog who required some attention as she wandered around. She had the time of her life, being around so many people, as opposed to her usual life of watching me at the computer. 

Well, here is a Siesta Key sunset and a photo from the Women’s March in nearby Bradenton in Manatee County. For some reason, my other two photos will not insert themselves. 

Facebook

So Facebook happened this week. A few days ago a whistle blower came out (I didn’t watch the hearing) AND there was some press about Instagram (owned by Facebook) and how it is dangerous for young girls who try to compare themselves with the influencers  who just might be thin and beautiful. I get it, but before Instagram, there were plenty of things for women of my generation to feel bad about: Seventeen Magazine, for one! In any case, Facebook, Instagram, and What’s App all went down for hours and hours the following day. Facebook never does that. And there were rumors that they were scrubbing files. Who knows? 

You may or may not know that I am pretty active on Facebook with a slew of “friends.” I have always liked Facebook since I joined in 2008. I joined mostly to keep tabs on my daughter who was going off to tour with Disney on Ice after living with me the first 20 years of her life.  Then I got pretty involved with it. I have a Facebook business page for The Grammar Diva as well as my personal page. I use Twitter and LinkedIn (and a little Instagram) too, but I mainly focus on Facebook because I am used to it.  LinkedIn is probably the best social media avenue for my particular business, so I am trying to use it more .

I have been put in Facebook jail a couple of times on my personal page. And the day after Facebook went down, I saw that I was once again in Facebook jail for one day. No posting for me. But I was gobsmacked at what they put me in jail for (I have never used that word before!). Facebook would never have opposed the meme I posted (actually shared from someone else’s post) a week ago. They called the offense “self harm,” which was completely off the wall.  I have a feeling all the things Facebook is in hot water for are probably still sitting there, and their posters are not in jail.

So, I am finally disgusted with Facebook and have decided to concentrate only on my Facebook business page. I will post my Coffee Mug of the Day and share humorous posts on my personal Facebook page, and that is about it. But I will continue posting on my business page — and on Twitter and LinkedIn. So much for Facebook.

Other Things

I believe I have asked you this before, but this blog has been going since the beginning of 2013 — that makes it — yikes! Almost nine years old! 52 (okay a few fewer than that) posts a year. 468 posts! It is tough to think of new ideas. So if there is anything you would like to see or have any creative ideas, please e-mail me at info@bigwords101.com

Some things to come:

1. We will finish the new words in the Oxford English Dictionary
2. A post about the two schools of thought in grammar
3. Some quizzes
4. A Halloween and other holiday posts
5. A guest post I am waiting for
6. A post about…..you will have to wait for that one. Wouldn’t want you to get a head start…
7. Your suggestions….

What I Am Working On

Besides getting my weekly blog posts written and keeping up with my e-mail (and tracking my book sales of course) — oh, and social media posts….. I am beginning the research into The Best Little Business Writing Book Ever, which I hope to publish in 2022. I am also planning an online grammar course of some type — maybe.