A Dash is a Dash is a Dash – Or Is It?  Lions and tigers and bears, oh my! More like hyphens and dashes and…more dashes. Oh Lord! The dash, the en dash, and the em dash. The Three Musketeers of the writing world. The Holy Trinity of the literary apocalypse. The…okay, you get it. These simple lines on paper (or a computer screen) are enough to make the staunchest writer quiver if they don’t know when to use which. No, don’t run away. It’s okay. No need to panic. This is easy. Really.

Em Dash (—): Denotes a pause in thought, a parenthetical statement, or — more casually — an afterthought. In a web page, a web developer can include — to represent the character. When typing, you can input a character by holding ALT and typing 0151 on the numpad.
En Dash (–): Denotes a range, especially of numbers, such as $100–150. – in a web page or ALT-0150 on a keyboard.
Hyphen (-): Used for the hyphenation of words (co-ordination; able-minded; pre- and post- touring.) Just use the keyboard key for this one.

Thank you to www.kajhaffenden.com for the above definition and shortcuts.

Trying to connect with a galpal but I know me. Too often I’ve made plans and had to cancel at last minute, so I’m now commitment phobic to the max. i can plan on a 730am walk but if I go overtime on calls the night before, I may not get to bed until 6am and hafta sleep til 9am. I’d rather friends be ticked I don’t make plans rather than be ticked that I cancel em. I see I’ve been doing this for 20 years now

Was at the gym when it opened at 7:00am working arms, shoulders, back and core. Afterward did a lap on the trails at Turkey Creek, then picked up the man and walked it again. My legs are happy!

A friend asked for the quickest way OUT of the drama and chaos she’s having. The secret is to stop talking about it. Now. Don’t repeat the story to anyone else, no matter how juicy the updates. Stop participating in giving any energy to the topic and the persons involved will immediately, like magic, stop having power over you. We’re much more powerful than we think, all it takes is a little change of focus and the perception shift can be a life changing revelation.

At Turkey Creek Sanctuary today, I stayed off the boardwalk and walked the Sand Pine Trail and then the Turkey Oak Trail, it’s one mile or 2220 steps that way. Then you can turn around and do it backwards for another mile, and add the boardwalk for another mile. Even at 10am with the sun rising high, it was under shade for most of the walk. The Turkey Oak Trail is more primitive, so watch your steps carefully, lots of roots and palmetto logs, high enough to stumble and trip on if you’re not paying attention. I really dig walking with one of my trekking poles. It does get caught in the spaces between the boards in the boardwalk though, plus the boards can be slippery when wet first thing in the morning. That’s why I prefer the trails. There were a half dozen people there this morning but everyone quiet so that was cool. I carried 17 lbs of weight in my backpack to start getting used to it.

RELATED:  A Turkey Creek Sanctuary Excursion

A friend didn’t buy her husband’s “oh, you misunderstood” story and told him so. He shouted that she needed to stop bringing up old stuff.  Sound familiar? Old stuff? They’d never resolved ANY of it, he’d just pout until she finally dropped it. She was tired of dropping it. This was her life, too, and she didn’t want to waste another minute trying to make happen what wasn’t meant to happen. She told him he could reframe it all he wanted but he purposely lied and got caught and he was the one who kept bringing it up. If he’d stop trying to prove he wasn’t lying, they would be off the topic already.  When he was calm again, she told him he should work on his issues, like cutting people off when they call him on his stuff, resolving nothing and moving from person to person with the same behavior, ignoring the carnage. He said he didn’t like that and she reminded him it’s not about him liking anything, it’s about him making an effort to resolve his issues so he can be the man he is capable of being.   Continue reading →

I went for a walk this morning between 4:00 and 5:00am under the bright and waning full moon, now in Sagittarius. When the moon is in Sagittarius, I have a need for extra physical activity. Between 4:00-5:00am the only sound are crickets and the occasional frog. I prefer walking just before dawn breaks when the birds are waking up and calling about and I can see the bunnies at the side of the road. I went thome and watched the Netflix movie Mile and a Half – the Muir Project, a documentary in the making by several artist friends who hiked the John Muir Trail which is a 211 mile trail in the Sierra Nevada mountain range of California, running from Yosemite National Park to Mt Whitney.  After the movie my legs still wanted to walk, so the man and I went to Turkey Creek Sanctuary and did 2.5 miles there. We were glad to get off the boardwalk, slick from last week’s rain and the deep shade overhead. I took one of my trekking poles and find it really does help propel me down the path. I like the sandy pine trails of the park and we ventured down the jogging exercise trail in search of the gazebo and the river walk. We saw a few big gopher turtles and a few dozen turtles in the water along with some big gar and other fish. There were a handful of early bird others out walking the park as well. We were back home and had already had an adventure by 10:30 in the morning.  That’s my kind of morning!

RELATED: I counted out the steps at the Turkey Creek Sanctuary trails

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/04/how-to-avoid-procrastination_n_7204032.html?ir=Science asks “Having trouble motivating yourself to work toward a future goal? Whether what you want is two days or 20 years away, new research finds that the key to avoiding procrastination may be to change the way you think about time. Break down the time into smaller units. If you have a paper due in three months, think of it as 90 days. Or if you have a work project to complete in three days, think of your deadline as 72 hours away.” It’s good advice and a helpful article. What helps me most is making a To Do List for the next day before I leave my desk at night. A column on the left are my things to do first thing in the morning (gym, pay bills, do laundry, create ads) and below it are my tasks for the rest of the week (send invoices, update labels, download email ads.) A column on the right lists things I want to do as soon as I get time for it: call plumber to find shower leak, replace front rain gutter, replace all house screens, make dental appt, fix ASG website, move websites to new server, find a tree cutter. When I see it laid out before me, it automatically feels more manageable, plus it sets up my competitive spirit to cross things off as “done.”

I have never seen any life transformation that did not begin with the person in question getting tired of their own bullshit. Elizabeth Gilbert

I’ve been reading hiking trail journals and notice that many hikers begin at age 50-65 with no prior hiking or fitness experience. Most are worried they won’t be strong or fit enough to walk 10+ miles a day for weeks with a 20-40 lb backpack but notice they gain strength and endurance every day on the trip. I’m doing that at the gym, plodding ahead, one foot in front of the other, going thru the paces to get it done and find for me that’s the way to do it. I can tell I’m getting stronger when it’s easy to move furniture and pull my weight up into the tree.   I didn’t begin working out in the gym until I was over 50. I’ve done daily yoga since age 18 but only in 2005 did I start doing weights and getting aerobic. It’s never too late to start.