Perspectives

The Ragtag Daily Prompt word this morning is HELLACIOUS, a word I’ve never used. Anything with the word HELL in it should be terrible. Horrific. Extremely annoying. Even prompter Martha thinks it’s mean. Spell-Check refuses to recognize it. 🙂

I was amazed when I looked it up on Lexico; this word has a milder definition than I expected:
– remarkable, astonishing
– formidably difficult

Merriam-Webster starts out with the darker sense:
– exceptionally powerful or violent
– remarkably good
– extremely difficult
– extraordinarily large

The Ukrainian couple recently arriving in Canada described fleeing a hellacious situation in their homeland.
Willy faced a hellacious mountain of debt.
George & Mabel Smith just won a hellacious windfall in the lottery.

A Suitable Adjective

Frustrated again this morning with the non-workings of WordPress, I toyed with the idea of deleting my account and starting over. As they say, “Using a shotgun to kill a fly.”

Or perhaps I should get a new e-mail address and switch everything over to that, as the g-mail address seems to be the issue: “This is e-mail is attached to an account you are not currently logged into.” But it’s attached to my WordPress account, so what’s the problem?

For some blogs I must constantly log in to leave a comment – even if I’ve already been there and commented ten minutes ago. And I can’t LIKE anyone’s comment, or response to mine, on any other blog. A prompt to Log In flashes, but disappears before I can do anything. Sometimes I’m asked to log in, but even when I do, if I hit the LIKE button nothing happens. Annoying.

Yesterday I spotted an odd URL on the post I was about to publish. I tried to fix it because it didn’t look right. Got it again on my evening post, but just left it as it was and published anyway. It didn’t show up in the final link. Strange – have I never noticed before? Has my blog been hijacked?

Perspectives

I think of the Ukrainian couple in Moose Jaw who shared their story of invasion. Undisciplined Russian soldiers pouring into their city, the bodies of defenders lying in pieces all over. Soldiers going through homes raping women and children, torturing people. No power half the time. Living in the hallway of their apartment, fearful of bullets and flying glass. Hellacious like being like hell.

Frame of Reference

Most of the adjectives we choose are based on our frame of reference. what we’re used to. How different something is from what we expect, what we hope for. A glorious sunset or a dreary rain on parade day. Instant results or shambling slowness. Sometimes I’ll put up with inconvenience because I’m lazy languorous and hope it will change without my having to do anything major.

This couple lived through their nightmare for three months, hoping to wake up one morning and find the war over. Believing this terrible invasion would end soon and life would get back to normal. Finally they had to leave everything behind and flee for their lives.

I did call once and was assured everything’s working as it should. Now I have to call WordPress again and get this sorted out. Meanwhile, Ill see if I can get this posted without too much trouble.

Perspectives.