Thursday, March 14, 2024
Thursday Thirteen
Thursday, March 07, 2024
Thursday Thirteen #850
1. I have been doing a Thursday Thirteen for 16 years and 4 months. To my knowledge, I have not missed a week. That's 850 weeks of thinking about the number 13 on Thursdays. I've been late on some days, but I haven't missed.
Thursday, February 29, 2024
Thursday Thirteen
Thursday, February 22, 2024
Thursday Thirteen
Thursday, February 15, 2024
Thursday Thirteen
1. It's another free-for-all Thirteen, and a late one at that. What if I'd gone 846 Thursday Thirteen in a row and then missed one!? My goodness.
2. The chronic laryngitis/sinus issue from hell continues. It's been over a month now since I've been able to sing or carry on a conversation without sounding like Jeramiah the Bullfrog. I do try to be a good friend . . .
3. The other day I thought a cow was calving in front of the house, but when I looked again she was gone so I thought maybe I was wrong. A bit later, though, my husband looked out and the vultures were around the area where I'd seen the cow. He went out to check on things and sure enough, she'd had a calf and quickly moved it under the trees where the evil vultures couldn't get to it. They enjoyed the afterbirth, though.
4. We received our tax assessments for real estate taxes in the mail this week, and my Facebook feed looks like a bunch of people who have no clue how things actually work are posting inane comments and baseless conspiracy theories. Oh, wait, that's exactly who is posting. People who have no clue how things actually work.
5. It isn't hard to understand how government works, but (a) you have to want to understand and (b) you have to be open to how it actually works. If someone has already decided the politicians are crooked, on the take, and out to do bad things, then they're never going to understand what is going on.
6. I'm looking around my office to see if there's something here that catches my eye so I can write about it. I have a book on a shelf called The Writer's I-Ching. I've never opened it and I'm not sure where it came from. But it reminds me that one time, a very long time ago, I wrote an article about a guy who lived in an abandoned church who had created a deck of new age cards, sort of like Tarot but not. He planned to sell them and become famous. I wonder what happened to him and his cards.
7. The I-Ching book is squeezed in between a book that identifies trees and another that is my favorite book on writing, Phyllis Whitney's Guide to Fiction Writing. This book was published in 1982 and is no longer in print. I'd buy another copy if it was. I'd even buy a Kindle copy.
8. The other books on the shelf include a guide to local mammals, several different thesauruses, a couple of dictionaries, an out-of-date AP Stylebook, the Chicago Manual of Style (also out of date), and books about writing memoir.
9. I need to dust.
10. Earlier, I saw a deer eating alongside the cows. They don't usually socialize.
11. Two of my three clocks in my office are not running. They need new batteries. Batteries are expensive now, and I only need one clock. So it's always 10:55 on one clock and 5:25 on another, now.
12. I wonder what time it is in Thailand. I ask Alexa, she says it is 2:25 a.m. there. It's 2:25 p.m. here. A 12-hour time difference. I learned something!
13. The other things on my desk include Chloraseptic sore throat lozenges, Halls cough drops, and nasal spray. Which takes me back to the beginning, I suppose, in a roundabout way.
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Thursday, February 08, 2024
Thursday Thirteen
2. I picked up a little freelance work, but I am not keen to do it. It feels like a step backwards, the pay is not the best, and so far, the people involved are uncooperative. I don't need the stress for something that isn't going to make or break me.
3. I am almost done with the bookkeeping necessary to send my taxes to the accountant. In fact, I hope to wind it up today and have it ready to go tomorrow. I try to get it to the accountant no later than the 15th, but in this instance, with legislation concerning the tax payments in flux in Congress, waiting might be the best option, if it passes.
4. Many people I know are ill. My father is ill, my friend Teresa is ill, I have been ill, and I know some of my fellow bloggers and readers have been ill. Stupid germs.
5. Have you noticed the price of batteries? Wow, they are out of sight. I bought cheap ones but they don't last very long. It's better to spend the extra to get a Duracell, although I've had trouble with batteries corroding more since the pandemic. I think we have people making things who don't know how to make things.
6. Clorox products are also pricey. Bleach, toilet bowl drop-ins - anything with the Clorox name on it is quite costly. What's with that, Clorox?
7. In spite of all humanity does (and we do a lot), the sun still comes up, the moon waxes and wanes, and the stars twinkle whether they're hidden by light pollution or not. In the larger scheme of things, we're not much, and many folks need to step outside on a dark night and look up at the vastness of the sky and stars to understand that our lives are not relevant in the grand scheme of things.
8. Most of us will die poor, or barely eeking by. Why people think they're somehow going to turn into billionaires at the end is beyond me. And the money doesn't matter, anyway. Death is a journey we all take alone.
9. One of my friends told me she was having laser hair removal under her arms. The thought of that makes me shiver. It has to hurt. She is half my age and said she was tired of shaving. I said I'd been shaving for longer than she'd been alive.
10. On our farm, you will find cows, a pond, tractors, old buildings that one may or may not call barns, tools, pasture fields, and hay fields. You'll also find us, the people, the caretakers of this small little piece of earth.
11. It's hard for me to feel poetic and write something flowery before 9 a.m. in the morning, so this is why this Thursday 13 is all over the place. I am not totally awake, although I am awake and have been up for three hours.
12. I do more things that are not good for me than I do things that are good for me. I think. I need to move more, sit less. And eat better. Not necessarily less, just better. Ah, the shoulds. They do follow me around, don't they? I should I should I should. What if I just accepted myself as I am and said, ok, you're a lazy butt. It is what it is, as my brother likes to say.
13. This would have been better if I'd given it some thought, but I have had trouble keeping up with what day it is, and suddenly here it is, Thursday. How'd that happen?
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Thursday, February 01, 2024
Thursday 13 (#845)
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Thursday, January 25, 2024
Thursday Thirteen
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Thursday, January 18, 2024
Thursday Thirteen
Thirteen things I could talk about for a little while, and sound like I am sensible:
1. Writing nonfiction news articles.
2. Playing the guitar or other instruments.
3. How to stay with the same person for 40 years.
4. Virginia government and how it works (or rather, how it is supposed to work).
5. The history of Botetourt County.
6. Raising cattle.
7. The ins and outs of a septic tank.
8. How to thoroughly clean a house. (Not that I do, but I know how it should be done.)
9. Allergies or environmental sensitivities.
10. Endometriosis.
11. Fantasy television, movies, and/or books.
12. Dysfunctional families.
13. Journaling and why it can be helpful.
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Thursday, January 11, 2024
Thursday Thirteen
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Thursday, January 04, 2024
Thursday Thirteen
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Thursday, December 28, 2023
Thursday Thirteen #840
We are winding up another year, so I thought I'd take a look back and see what kind of stuff I was up to in the last 12 months.
1. I read and/or listened to 63 books. They ranged from classics like Catch-22, by Joseph Heller, and Tarzan of the Apes, by Edgar Rice Burroughs (which was actually very good), to books by Janet Evanovich, Debbie Macomber, and Louise Penny, and ranged in genre from fantasy to mystery to self-help to memoir.
2. I washed at least 720 loads of laundry. To only be two people we go through many clothes. This is because we live on a farm and my husband in particular can change clothes three times a day. The cow doody has to be washed off.
3. I cooked at least 365 meals, although I suspect it was a larger number. Usually I don't fix breakfast, but I do fix lunch and supper. However, I only counted one meal a day. Sometimes my hubby makes his own sandwich.
4. I edited one book for someone, and it was published in October.
5. I wrote and published 42 articles. I also wrote 330 blog posts. Not quite one a day, but close.
6. I returned to physical therapy for a couple of weeks to work on a chronic pain issue.
7. I began playing music once a week (give or take) with my father and a friend of his.
8. I made the bed 365 times. I stripped the linens and replaced them 52 times.
9. I swallowed approximately 24,000 pills (not all at once, of course). I take 9 different prescription drugs, some of them multiple times a day, plus a lot of vitamins. (I had no idea it was that many until I started adding them up.)
10. I lost six pounds and kept it off.
11. I walked approximately 1.16 million steps during the year, and that's at an estimate of 3,200 steps a day, which is about what I averaged when I was using a Fitbit before it died. Some of you walked 10 million steps or more.
12. I spent over 1,000 hours playing video games. (One of my new year's goals is to stop that.)
13. I answered approximately 1,400 spam phone calls on the landline. I wouldn't answer them except we have businesses to run, and some calls come in on that number.
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Thursday, December 21, 2023
Thursday Thirteen
1. On the first day of Christmas, I tried not to cry. The Christmas tree was too much for me by myself. I hated asking the husband for help.
2. On the second day of Christmas, I wrote out my list. I have no idea what to buy for gifts.
3. On the third day of Christmas, I set out to shop. Thank goodness for my little laptop.
4. On the fourth day of Christmas, I sat down to write my cards. I found my messages to folks were hard to write.
5. On the fifth day of Christmas, UPS rolled in with gifts. I wondered if anyone would like the things I picked.
6. On the sixth day of Christmas, I started looking for the tape, because a new pack cost $6.88.
7. On the seventh day of Christmas, I couldn't find my special recipes. I printed off a few I found online.
8. On the eighth day of Christmas, I found my recipe. I was relieved and I could go and make penuche.
9. On the ninth day of Christmas, I made a slab of fudge. I put in the freezer and hoped it would be good.
10. On the tenth day of Christmas, I watched Rudolph, the Red Nosed Reindeer. This time I did not fall asleep.
11. On the eleventh day of Christmas, I found a fruit cake for my guy. I also bought him old fashioned custard, which he likes.
12. On the twelfth day of Christmas, I played carols with my dad, and when I came home, I was kind of mad.
13. On the thirteenth day of Christmas, I said, "That's enough," and I sat down to drink a cup of ... something.
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Thursday, December 14, 2023
Thursday Thirteen
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