Friday, December 08, 2017
Thursday, December 07, 2017
Thursday Thirteen
1. Another day, another diatribe. It's become an insufferable day, every day, in a world that has always existed but which was once kept, if not at bay, at least on hold. Now here we are, swimming in White Nationalism, and watching an old man's dentures fall out while he gives away things that make only crazy people happy. I keep hearing the music from The Twilight Zone. Do do do do, do do do do.
2. The robe I bought for myself on Black Friday fell apart in the washing machine. Well, not exactly apart, but it pilled up and pieces of the fleece or whatever it was came out so much that it looked like it snowed on me when I put the robe on. I sent it to Goodwill.
3. My telephone company and I had words this week over robo calls. We have been receiving a call from the same number for weeks. Only it isn't anything but a ring, then a half ring, and then nothing. Twice a day, at least. And then it started at night. And 6 a.m. When I asked the phone company to do something about it, they offered me call blocking - for $3 a month. I agreed to that, but the call came through the call blocking anyway. So I called the phone company back and complained that their call blocking didn't work. They took it off, refunded my $3, and put in a "trouble ticket." Later in the day I received a phone call back and an apology and assurance the issue was fixed. If they could take care of the problem, why didn't they do that in the first place, instead of charging me $3? And now I am going to learn how to use the answering machine built into my cordless phones, and do away with their voicemail. So there.
4. The bank wants to charge me now for a safety deposit box I've had for free for 30 years. Today I close that box. Nothing in it but papers anyway.
5. My physical therapy will soon come to an end - for this year, anyway - and it can't come soon enough. Whew.
6. However, I don't know how our insurance will work in the new year. For the first time in my life, I will not be a Blue Cross/Blue Shield baby. I have been on BC/BS since I was pre-natal, I think, but my husband's company is switching to Aetna. And Aetna just sold itself to CVS, pending regulatory authority approval or whatever.
7. I don't do change well sometimes. Change is inevitable and the only thing that stays the same, but really, this is quite a lot at the end of the year.
8. Sometimes I want to respond to people on FB soooo badly, but I don't want to get into arguments, so I just leave it. I let them spew their garbage and move on. Sometimes if it is horrific garbage, I block the person or the post or whatever. I have been troubled and amazed at some of the stuff people feel free to say on Facebook. I wonder if someday, somewhere, it will come back to haunt them.
9. Last night my husband woke up and reached for a water bottle for a drink. I shouted out to him, "Drop the knife! You're not a sacrifice!" He said, "I'm just getting water." I yelled back, "Put the knife down! Put the knife down."
10. I did not make a Christmas wish list this year. My husband always asks for a list of things I might like, but this year I have left him dangling as to things he can purchase. I really mostly just want to feel better and be happier. I don't think things are going to help with that.
11. Of course, there is always chocolate.
12. My brother called me yesterday to check on me because "he had a feeling." I do that with him, too. Being a little fey runs in the family. Sometimes you're not sure what's up, but you know something is.
13. I still haven't seen the Justice League movie. At this rate, I don't guess I will see it in the theater. I'll have to wait until it hits HBO. I hope I can get into the theater to see the Last Jedi movie, though.
_______
Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here if you want to read other Thursday Thirteens and/or play along. I've been playing for a while and this is my 529th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday.
2. The robe I bought for myself on Black Friday fell apart in the washing machine. Well, not exactly apart, but it pilled up and pieces of the fleece or whatever it was came out so much that it looked like it snowed on me when I put the robe on. I sent it to Goodwill.
3. My telephone company and I had words this week over robo calls. We have been receiving a call from the same number for weeks. Only it isn't anything but a ring, then a half ring, and then nothing. Twice a day, at least. And then it started at night. And 6 a.m. When I asked the phone company to do something about it, they offered me call blocking - for $3 a month. I agreed to that, but the call came through the call blocking anyway. So I called the phone company back and complained that their call blocking didn't work. They took it off, refunded my $3, and put in a "trouble ticket." Later in the day I received a phone call back and an apology and assurance the issue was fixed. If they could take care of the problem, why didn't they do that in the first place, instead of charging me $3? And now I am going to learn how to use the answering machine built into my cordless phones, and do away with their voicemail. So there.
4. The bank wants to charge me now for a safety deposit box I've had for free for 30 years. Today I close that box. Nothing in it but papers anyway.
5. My physical therapy will soon come to an end - for this year, anyway - and it can't come soon enough. Whew.
6. However, I don't know how our insurance will work in the new year. For the first time in my life, I will not be a Blue Cross/Blue Shield baby. I have been on BC/BS since I was pre-natal, I think, but my husband's company is switching to Aetna. And Aetna just sold itself to CVS, pending regulatory authority approval or whatever.
7. I don't do change well sometimes. Change is inevitable and the only thing that stays the same, but really, this is quite a lot at the end of the year.
8. Sometimes I want to respond to people on FB soooo badly, but I don't want to get into arguments, so I just leave it. I let them spew their garbage and move on. Sometimes if it is horrific garbage, I block the person or the post or whatever. I have been troubled and amazed at some of the stuff people feel free to say on Facebook. I wonder if someday, somewhere, it will come back to haunt them.
9. Last night my husband woke up and reached for a water bottle for a drink. I shouted out to him, "Drop the knife! You're not a sacrifice!" He said, "I'm just getting water." I yelled back, "Put the knife down! Put the knife down."
10. I did not make a Christmas wish list this year. My husband always asks for a list of things I might like, but this year I have left him dangling as to things he can purchase. I really mostly just want to feel better and be happier. I don't think things are going to help with that.
11. Of course, there is always chocolate.
12. My brother called me yesterday to check on me because "he had a feeling." I do that with him, too. Being a little fey runs in the family. Sometimes you're not sure what's up, but you know something is.
13. I still haven't seen the Justice League movie. At this rate, I don't guess I will see it in the theater. I'll have to wait until it hits HBO. I hope I can get into the theater to see the Last Jedi movie, though.
_______
Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here if you want to read other Thursday Thirteens and/or play along. I've been playing for a while and this is my 529th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday.
Wednesday, December 06, 2017
#MeToo
Today, Time magazine announced its "Person of the Year." Or more to the point, it named a group of women who stepped forward to denounce predominate abuse of females by males as its top choice for great applause.
I haven't read the article. I don't know who these women are. I am not even sure who they stepped forward against. Maybe they spoke out against our current sexual predator-in-chief. Maybe they spoke out against some senator or congressman or local council person. It doesn't really matter.
What matters is, they spoke out. And they created a movement, one that we all saw move around the world with the Women's March back in the early part of the year, and one which continued when women in Virginia took more seats in the House of Delegates, and more women ran for office, than ever before.
It's a movement that has long been in the works. It goes back before Anita Hill spoke out against Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. It goes back into the annals of time to voices long forgotten and drowned out by the muscle and upper body strength of the patriarchy, whose belief in the power of the penis has overcome, with brute strength and great hypocrisy, the delicate sureness of the power of the womb and the heart.
It is past time to take that power back, ladies.
I was five when a man first showed me his penis and asked me to touch it.
My Jane West dolls became targets for my slightly older uncles, who drew bulls-eyes around the breasts of her blue shirt, and colored on the insides of her thighs.
At 9, as my breasts began to bud out, a boy four years my senior dared me to take off my shirt and let him touch me.
In school, boys snapped my bra, backed me against doors, slid their hands down my pants. My cries of "leave me alone," were laughed off and ignored.
When I was around 12, my father took me to a doctor who slapped me across the face, telling me not to talk back to my dad. I don't remember what I said to cause this, but I do remember my father's reaction. He did not defend me. He just said, "You deserved that." A good parent would have hauled me away from that doctor and out the door, but my father laughed it off. And the doctor was an asshole and I refused to see him again. When I learned years later that he had had a bad motorcycle accident, I confess, I was glad.
When I was 14, one of my father's friends, visiting from out of state, was constantly cornering me and trying to stick his hands down my pants. I tried to stay away from him. Finally, his wife confronted me and accused me of "luring her husband" away from her by wearing shorts. Like I knew anything about luring anybody at that age. Her husband was just a lecherous old bastard and I was glad when they stopped visiting.
At 15, a biology teacher told every one of his classes that breasts were just "mounds of modified tissue." For weeks, girls all around the school endured boys running around tweaking their titties, and when the girl said something the boy "innocently" said, "Hey, they're just mounds of modified tissue, what's the big deal?" I think the teacher was trying to ward off the very thing that came about, but I hope he never told another class that.
At 16, another of my father's friends cornered me against the fence in the parking lot where I was working that summer as a receptionist at my father's place of business. He stuck his tongue down my throat and rammed himself against me so hard I thought he broke my back as he shoved me into a post.
At 18, working at a job I hated, where I was placed in the back part of the building in the "parts department," the men would come in and leer at me. One of them constantly walked up behind me and cupped my breasts, no matter how many times I slapped his hands away. He thought it hilarious. It made me angry, defensive, and scared. I finally told him I had a steady boyfriend who would come and beat the hell out of him if I told him what he was doing. When he didn't believe me, I had my boyfriend come and pick me up at work one day. Nobody bothered me after that. (Thank you, my darling husband, for being a big guy who looks like he could knock the teeth out of anybody he wanted.)
Another of my father's friends called me at a different job one day, after seeing my boyfriend and I making out in the car. He said if I would sleep with him he wouldn't tell my parents I was necking with my boyfriend on the backroads. I told him to go to hell. (And my father recently asked me why I didn't like his friends. Go figure.)
Married now, suffering from mental exhaustion from overwork and trying to go to college, all while having multiple surgeries and fighting depression and tears because I wanted and couldn't have children, a man in a repair store grabbed my arm when I took my computer in to be fixed and forced me behind the counter, where he slid his hand down my pants. I called my friend who worked for the local sheriff and reported him; after a visit from deputies, the man closed up shop and ran away to another state. I hope I saved some other woman that humiliation.
I also took a self defense class.
In the late 1990s, a deputy backed me against a corner in a courthouse, putting his hand on my waist and daring me to say or do something as he moved in closer. I felt for his hand, grabbed his thumb, and pushed it back as hard as I could, making the asshole fall to his knees. I then gave him a kick where it counts, and ran.
This doesn't count the multitude of male doctors who have belittled me, talked over me, not listened to, or otherwise discounted my health issues simply because I was just a hysterical female. Jerks, every damn one of them. It doesn't count the members of the opposite sex who think they have the right to try to give me a hug, or to otherwise pull me up against them, simply because I am female. (Here's a clue: if you'd just give a guy a handshake, then you do the same with a woman.)
These are just a few of the humiliations I have suffered at the hands of so-called men. I am just one woman with a multitude of experiences, and these kinds of atrocities can be multiplied millions of times over, probably at least 10 experiences for every woman, some traumatic, some tolerable, none acceptable. These perpetrators are not men, they are monsters. And monsters do not deserve to be on the cover of Time magazine, and their exploits should be called out for what they are - crimes against another person.
#metoo
I haven't read the article. I don't know who these women are. I am not even sure who they stepped forward against. Maybe they spoke out against our current sexual predator-in-chief. Maybe they spoke out against some senator or congressman or local council person. It doesn't really matter.
What matters is, they spoke out. And they created a movement, one that we all saw move around the world with the Women's March back in the early part of the year, and one which continued when women in Virginia took more seats in the House of Delegates, and more women ran for office, than ever before.
It's a movement that has long been in the works. It goes back before Anita Hill spoke out against Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. It goes back into the annals of time to voices long forgotten and drowned out by the muscle and upper body strength of the patriarchy, whose belief in the power of the penis has overcome, with brute strength and great hypocrisy, the delicate sureness of the power of the womb and the heart.
It is past time to take that power back, ladies.
I was five when a man first showed me his penis and asked me to touch it.
My Jane West dolls became targets for my slightly older uncles, who drew bulls-eyes around the breasts of her blue shirt, and colored on the insides of her thighs.
At 9, as my breasts began to bud out, a boy four years my senior dared me to take off my shirt and let him touch me.
In school, boys snapped my bra, backed me against doors, slid their hands down my pants. My cries of "leave me alone," were laughed off and ignored.
When I was around 12, my father took me to a doctor who slapped me across the face, telling me not to talk back to my dad. I don't remember what I said to cause this, but I do remember my father's reaction. He did not defend me. He just said, "You deserved that." A good parent would have hauled me away from that doctor and out the door, but my father laughed it off. And the doctor was an asshole and I refused to see him again. When I learned years later that he had had a bad motorcycle accident, I confess, I was glad.
When I was 14, one of my father's friends, visiting from out of state, was constantly cornering me and trying to stick his hands down my pants. I tried to stay away from him. Finally, his wife confronted me and accused me of "luring her husband" away from her by wearing shorts. Like I knew anything about luring anybody at that age. Her husband was just a lecherous old bastard and I was glad when they stopped visiting.
At 15, a biology teacher told every one of his classes that breasts were just "mounds of modified tissue." For weeks, girls all around the school endured boys running around tweaking their titties, and when the girl said something the boy "innocently" said, "Hey, they're just mounds of modified tissue, what's the big deal?" I think the teacher was trying to ward off the very thing that came about, but I hope he never told another class that.
At 16, another of my father's friends cornered me against the fence in the parking lot where I was working that summer as a receptionist at my father's place of business. He stuck his tongue down my throat and rammed himself against me so hard I thought he broke my back as he shoved me into a post.
At 18, working at a job I hated, where I was placed in the back part of the building in the "parts department," the men would come in and leer at me. One of them constantly walked up behind me and cupped my breasts, no matter how many times I slapped his hands away. He thought it hilarious. It made me angry, defensive, and scared. I finally told him I had a steady boyfriend who would come and beat the hell out of him if I told him what he was doing. When he didn't believe me, I had my boyfriend come and pick me up at work one day. Nobody bothered me after that. (Thank you, my darling husband, for being a big guy who looks like he could knock the teeth out of anybody he wanted.)
Another of my father's friends called me at a different job one day, after seeing my boyfriend and I making out in the car. He said if I would sleep with him he wouldn't tell my parents I was necking with my boyfriend on the backroads. I told him to go to hell. (And my father recently asked me why I didn't like his friends. Go figure.)
Married now, suffering from mental exhaustion from overwork and trying to go to college, all while having multiple surgeries and fighting depression and tears because I wanted and couldn't have children, a man in a repair store grabbed my arm when I took my computer in to be fixed and forced me behind the counter, where he slid his hand down my pants. I called my friend who worked for the local sheriff and reported him; after a visit from deputies, the man closed up shop and ran away to another state. I hope I saved some other woman that humiliation.
I also took a self defense class.
In the late 1990s, a deputy backed me against a corner in a courthouse, putting his hand on my waist and daring me to say or do something as he moved in closer. I felt for his hand, grabbed his thumb, and pushed it back as hard as I could, making the asshole fall to his knees. I then gave him a kick where it counts, and ran.
This doesn't count the multitude of male doctors who have belittled me, talked over me, not listened to, or otherwise discounted my health issues simply because I was just a hysterical female. Jerks, every damn one of them. It doesn't count the members of the opposite sex who think they have the right to try to give me a hug, or to otherwise pull me up against them, simply because I am female. (Here's a clue: if you'd just give a guy a handshake, then you do the same with a woman.)
These are just a few of the humiliations I have suffered at the hands of so-called men. I am just one woman with a multitude of experiences, and these kinds of atrocities can be multiplied millions of times over, probably at least 10 experiences for every woman, some traumatic, some tolerable, none acceptable. These perpetrators are not men, they are monsters. And monsters do not deserve to be on the cover of Time magazine, and their exploits should be called out for what they are - crimes against another person.
#metoo
Tuesday, December 05, 2017
Book: The Mad Gasser
The Mad Gasser of Botetourt County
Reconsidering the Facts
By William B. Van Huss
Copyright 2017
88 pages
The author of this book contacted me for assistance in setting up a book signing about his modest effort to bring recognition to an interesting piece of local legend. He sent me the .pdf copy so I have read this piece at no cost to myself.
"The Mad Gasser of Botetourt County" is an incident that occurred here in 1933. Multiple households in Botetourt reported an invasion of a noxious gas that sickened people in the house. It began not far from where I currently live and moved around the community, and included a house across the road from the farm where my grandfather and his family grew up. You can read more about it here on my Botetourt History blog if you want a brief synopsis.
The incident is often linked in with a similar occurrence that took place in Illinois about 10 years later. Most frequently, the incidents are considered to be an example of mass hysteria.
Van Huss has pulled out information about the Botetourt County incident, using newspapers as his primary source, in an effort to separate the two incidents. He argues at the end that the two incidents, while bearing some similarities, are not, in fact, related.
He has an intriguing cover, designed by his wife, for his book. Unfortunately, he needed a better proofreader as after about page 50 or so I began to notice typographical errors and missing words. This is common in self-published efforts, and since I edit manuscripts as part of my freelance work I am quick to pick up on such mistakes. Because the work is short - I read it in under an hour - it did not take away from the narrative but I do wish self-published writers would take the time and if necessary spend the money to have their work proofed before they hit "send."
The story he presents is much the way I have heard it and seen it in other publications. His information was more detailed than some I have seen, and if one wants a decent round-up of information available about the incident, then this book offers that.
What was missing for me, as a life-long county resident, journalist, and amateur historian, was a real effort to find other sources. There are no interviews of relatives of those involved in the incidents, (many of them still live here, including, I think, descendants of the officer and doctor involved), no apparent search for journals or diaries that may still exist and offer up a first-person narrative of the incident, and apparently no effort to visit the communities in question and drive around and see the distance involved between the attacks.
The roads have changed some since 1933, of course, but the distance between Haymakertown and Cloverdale is still the same, and it is more than "a few miles" and this would, at the least, indicate a perpetrator had to have a vehicle and couldn't have easily done this on foot or horseback. Pictures of the areas and homes involved would have been a nice touch and addition to the book. Many of the dwellings in question still stand.
Additionally, the newspapers used are The Roanoke Times and a few other sources, and not The Fincastle Herald. I know that editions of The Fincastle Herald from 1933 are missing in the microfilm archives, but I think, if one made an effort, that copies of those papers could be found and would prove interesting reading.
All in all, this will be a nice little keepsake book for those who want an outline of the story of Botetourt's mad gasser. It does not offer up new information, though, or reach conclusions that local residents haven't already reached.
The book is available on Amazon.
Reconsidering the Facts
By William B. Van Huss
Copyright 2017
88 pages
The author of this book contacted me for assistance in setting up a book signing about his modest effort to bring recognition to an interesting piece of local legend. He sent me the .pdf copy so I have read this piece at no cost to myself.
"The Mad Gasser of Botetourt County" is an incident that occurred here in 1933. Multiple households in Botetourt reported an invasion of a noxious gas that sickened people in the house. It began not far from where I currently live and moved around the community, and included a house across the road from the farm where my grandfather and his family grew up. You can read more about it here on my Botetourt History blog if you want a brief synopsis.
The incident is often linked in with a similar occurrence that took place in Illinois about 10 years later. Most frequently, the incidents are considered to be an example of mass hysteria.
Van Huss has pulled out information about the Botetourt County incident, using newspapers as his primary source, in an effort to separate the two incidents. He argues at the end that the two incidents, while bearing some similarities, are not, in fact, related.
He has an intriguing cover, designed by his wife, for his book. Unfortunately, he needed a better proofreader as after about page 50 or so I began to notice typographical errors and missing words. This is common in self-published efforts, and since I edit manuscripts as part of my freelance work I am quick to pick up on such mistakes. Because the work is short - I read it in under an hour - it did not take away from the narrative but I do wish self-published writers would take the time and if necessary spend the money to have their work proofed before they hit "send."
The story he presents is much the way I have heard it and seen it in other publications. His information was more detailed than some I have seen, and if one wants a decent round-up of information available about the incident, then this book offers that.
What was missing for me, as a life-long county resident, journalist, and amateur historian, was a real effort to find other sources. There are no interviews of relatives of those involved in the incidents, (many of them still live here, including, I think, descendants of the officer and doctor involved), no apparent search for journals or diaries that may still exist and offer up a first-person narrative of the incident, and apparently no effort to visit the communities in question and drive around and see the distance involved between the attacks.
The roads have changed some since 1933, of course, but the distance between Haymakertown and Cloverdale is still the same, and it is more than "a few miles" and this would, at the least, indicate a perpetrator had to have a vehicle and couldn't have easily done this on foot or horseback. Pictures of the areas and homes involved would have been a nice touch and addition to the book. Many of the dwellings in question still stand.
Additionally, the newspapers used are The Roanoke Times and a few other sources, and not The Fincastle Herald. I know that editions of The Fincastle Herald from 1933 are missing in the microfilm archives, but I think, if one made an effort, that copies of those papers could be found and would prove interesting reading.
All in all, this will be a nice little keepsake book for those who want an outline of the story of Botetourt's mad gasser. It does not offer up new information, though, or reach conclusions that local residents haven't already reached.
The book is available on Amazon.
Monday, December 04, 2017
The WallPaper Conundrum.
Sometimes ideas don't pan out.
Here's one.
About 10 - 15 years? - a very long time ago - I thought I would like to brighten the living room. We have dark bookcases by the fireplace. As I age, I seem to want things lighter.
So those many, many years ago, I purchased a roll of wallpaper. My thought was I could tack it (not actually plaster it) against the back of the bookshelves and lighten things up a bit.
I also liked the wallpaper. It was whimsical enough to suit me but yet not distressingly so.
However, this was a two-person project and I could never find any help, so the wallpaper sat in the corner of my office.
For a good decade. Maybe longer than that.
When we cleaned my office, there was the wallpaper in the corner. I took it into the living room and slid it up a couple of shelves to demonstrate to my husband what I wanted to do with it.
He did not like it.
I took pictures of the wallpaper (see above) and gingerly sat it beside the trash can, as I could not bring myself to throw it away.
I made him do that.
Good idea? Yes? No?
I guess it doesn't matter anymore.
Here's one.
About 10 - 15 years? - a very long time ago - I thought I would like to brighten the living room. We have dark bookcases by the fireplace. As I age, I seem to want things lighter.
 |
| Dark bookcase. |
So those many, many years ago, I purchased a roll of wallpaper. My thought was I could tack it (not actually plaster it) against the back of the bookshelves and lighten things up a bit.
 |
| This was the wallpaper. |
I also liked the wallpaper. It was whimsical enough to suit me but yet not distressingly so.
 |
| It had this little moon. |
 |
| And this little star |
 |
| And this really cool sun. |
 |
| And this really cool thing, too. |
However, this was a two-person project and I could never find any help, so the wallpaper sat in the corner of my office.
For a good decade. Maybe longer than that.
When we cleaned my office, there was the wallpaper in the corner. I took it into the living room and slid it up a couple of shelves to demonstrate to my husband what I wanted to do with it.
 |
| The shelving with the wallpaper behind it. |
 |
| I left it a few days in hopes that it would grow on my husband. |
I took pictures of the wallpaper (see above) and gingerly sat it beside the trash can, as I could not bring myself to throw it away.
I made him do that.
Good idea? Yes? No?
I guess it doesn't matter anymore.
Sunday, December 03, 2017
Sunday Stealing: Books
Sunday Stealing
1. Do you prefer hardcover, paperback, or Kindle . . . and why?
A. I prefer a paperback, because I generally don't keep fiction books (I donate them to the library). For nonfiction, which I usually keep, I prefer hardback. For junk books or things to have to read at the doctor's office, I use my Kindle. Lately I have been trying to use it for most fiction simply to keep down clutter. My bookcases are full. But I still prefer a paperback to the Kindle.
2. If I were to own a book shop I would call it . . .
A. CountryDew's Corner
3. My favorite quote from a book (mention the title) is . . .
A. Not all those who wander are lost. - J. R. R. Tolkien (The Lord of the Rings)
4. The author (alive or dead) I would love to have lunch with would be . . .
A. William Shakespeare, so I could ask him if he really wrote all of those plays or not, and resolve that little mystery.
5. If I was going to a deserted island and could only bring one book, except for the SAS survival guide, it would be . . .
A. The Lord of the Rings, by J. R. R. Tolkien.
6. I would love someone to invent a bookish gadget that . . .
A. Didn't cost a small fortune.
7. The smell of an old book reminds me of . . .
A. That time I went to the UVA library to do research and had an asthma attack so severe I thought I was going to have go to the ER.
8. If I could be the lead character in a book (mention the title), it would be . . .
A. Can I just be Wonder Woman from the D. C. comics?
9. The most over-rated book of all time is . . .
A. I don't know about book, but I am not a fan of Barbara Kingsolver, even though everyone in my book club thinks the written word spews from her pen like gold.
10. I hate it when a book . . .
A. Changes from third person to first person (or vice versa) at the very end, and you realize you've been reading from a dead person's point of view the entire time.
__________
I encourage you to visit other participants in Sunday Stealing posts and leave a comment. Cheers to all us thieves who love memes, however we come by them.
1. Do you prefer hardcover, paperback, or Kindle . . . and why?
A. I prefer a paperback, because I generally don't keep fiction books (I donate them to the library). For nonfiction, which I usually keep, I prefer hardback. For junk books or things to have to read at the doctor's office, I use my Kindle. Lately I have been trying to use it for most fiction simply to keep down clutter. My bookcases are full. But I still prefer a paperback to the Kindle.
2. If I were to own a book shop I would call it . . .
A. CountryDew's Corner
3. My favorite quote from a book (mention the title) is . . .
A. Not all those who wander are lost. - J. R. R. Tolkien (The Lord of the Rings)
4. The author (alive or dead) I would love to have lunch with would be . . .
A. William Shakespeare, so I could ask him if he really wrote all of those plays or not, and resolve that little mystery.
5. If I was going to a deserted island and could only bring one book, except for the SAS survival guide, it would be . . .
A. The Lord of the Rings, by J. R. R. Tolkien.
6. I would love someone to invent a bookish gadget that . . .
A. Didn't cost a small fortune.
7. The smell of an old book reminds me of . . .
A. That time I went to the UVA library to do research and had an asthma attack so severe I thought I was going to have go to the ER.
8. If I could be the lead character in a book (mention the title), it would be . . .
A. Can I just be Wonder Woman from the D. C. comics?
9. The most over-rated book of all time is . . .
A. I don't know about book, but I am not a fan of Barbara Kingsolver, even though everyone in my book club thinks the written word spews from her pen like gold.
10. I hate it when a book . . .
A. Changes from third person to first person (or vice versa) at the very end, and you realize you've been reading from a dead person's point of view the entire time.
__________
I encourage you to visit other participants in Sunday Stealing posts and leave a comment. Cheers to all us thieves who love memes, however we come by them.
Saturday, December 02, 2017
Saturday 9: Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree
Saturday 9: Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree (1971)
Unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it here.
In memory of David Cassidy, who died on 11/21/17.
1) This song mentions celebrating the holidays in "the new old-fashioned way." What's a holiday tradition that began with you (or your generation)?
A. My brother and I have exchanged presents on Christmas Eve for a very long time. My parents would allow us to open presents from one another before putting us to bed in order to calm us down, I think.
2) The lyrics include dancing, caroling and pumpkin pie. Will you enjoy any of those three between now and year-end?
A. I will listen to the radio and sing in the store. Maybe my arse will jiggle when I hear a merry tune while I push a grocery cart, but I can't say for sure.
3) David Cassidy and The Partridge Family were intensely popular for a short period of time. For example, this song was from the best-selling Christmas album of the 1971 holiday season. Have you added any holiday music to your collection this year?
A. No.
4) In 1971, the official David Cassidy fan club had a membership that exceeded both Elvis' and The Beatles'. Have you ever joined a fan club?
A. I used to be part of the Xena: Warrior Princess fandom which ran amok on the Internet and was, really, the first Internet fandom in many ways (Star Trekkies not included.). But there were no dues or anything.
5) David recalled that his first hero growing up was the Yankees' Mickey Mantle. When you were a little kid, what grown-up did you look up to?
A. Carolyn Keene, who authored the Nancy Drew books. She herself was fiction, but I didn't know it at the time.
6) David was a notoriously bad driver. In 1990, he was sentenced to traffic school for speeding. He was late for the class because he was stopped for speeding en route. Do you have a "lead foot?"
A. My initials are A. J. What do you think?
7) David's parents divorced when he was only four years old. He and his mom lived with her parents until he was 10. Have you ever lived in an extended, multi-generational household?
A. For a short while my father's grandfather or uncle or somebody like that came to stay with us. We called him Uncle George. I barely remember him and the time. But beyond that, no.
8) In 1971, when David and the Partridge Family were at their height, the US Mint introduced the Eisenhower Silver Dollar. Think of the last thing you bought. Did you pay with cash or plastic or your phone?
A. I used plastic.
9) Random holiday question: Let's talk regifting. Tell us about a time you regifted, or you received a present you suspect was regifted.
A. Sigh. I have no problem with regifting but apparently other people do. I mean, if something is in perfect condition and you don't want it, how is that different from going into say, an antique shop and buying something old for somebody and giving it to them? The biggest mistake of my life was regifting something, and it cost me a valued relationship that I still miss to this day. I had no idea it mattered. I received 5 cake plates when I married. Nobody needs that many cake plates. I mentioned it to several folks, that I had all of these lovely cake plates. So when someone I loved married the love of his life about six months later, I gave them the very best of the cake plates. Not the worst one, or the one I didn't like, but the very best one. The most beautiful one and the one I deemed the most expensive. When the next holiday rolled around, that person gave me an obviously opened and put back in the box can opener. (I assume they received two can openers for wedding presents.) That person also stopped speaking to me, for the most part, and has barely had anything to do with me since. I got the message. I still don't think I did anything wrong. I gave them something I, a newlywed myself, could never have afforded to purchase that I thought they would enjoy. (And yes, I used the can opener until it died. I strongly suspect the cake plate went into the trash or something, though.) This has never been discussed and I don't suppose it ever will be, but I am sorry that the person let something so insignificant destroy a relationship. Prior to this, we were like siblings.
_____________
I encourage you to visit other participants in Saturday 9 posts and leave a comment. Because there are no rules, it is your choice. Saturday 9 players hate rules. We love memes, however.
Unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it here.
In memory of David Cassidy, who died on 11/21/17.
1) This song mentions celebrating the holidays in "the new old-fashioned way." What's a holiday tradition that began with you (or your generation)?
A. My brother and I have exchanged presents on Christmas Eve for a very long time. My parents would allow us to open presents from one another before putting us to bed in order to calm us down, I think.
2) The lyrics include dancing, caroling and pumpkin pie. Will you enjoy any of those three between now and year-end?
A. I will listen to the radio and sing in the store. Maybe my arse will jiggle when I hear a merry tune while I push a grocery cart, but I can't say for sure.
3) David Cassidy and The Partridge Family were intensely popular for a short period of time. For example, this song was from the best-selling Christmas album of the 1971 holiday season. Have you added any holiday music to your collection this year?
A. No.
4) In 1971, the official David Cassidy fan club had a membership that exceeded both Elvis' and The Beatles'. Have you ever joined a fan club?
A. I used to be part of the Xena: Warrior Princess fandom which ran amok on the Internet and was, really, the first Internet fandom in many ways (Star Trekkies not included.). But there were no dues or anything.
5) David recalled that his first hero growing up was the Yankees' Mickey Mantle. When you were a little kid, what grown-up did you look up to?
A. Carolyn Keene, who authored the Nancy Drew books. She herself was fiction, but I didn't know it at the time.
6) David was a notoriously bad driver. In 1990, he was sentenced to traffic school for speeding. He was late for the class because he was stopped for speeding en route. Do you have a "lead foot?"
A. My initials are A. J. What do you think?
7) David's parents divorced when he was only four years old. He and his mom lived with her parents until he was 10. Have you ever lived in an extended, multi-generational household?
A. For a short while my father's grandfather or uncle or somebody like that came to stay with us. We called him Uncle George. I barely remember him and the time. But beyond that, no.
8) In 1971, when David and the Partridge Family were at their height, the US Mint introduced the Eisenhower Silver Dollar. Think of the last thing you bought. Did you pay with cash or plastic or your phone?
A. I used plastic.
9) Random holiday question: Let's talk regifting. Tell us about a time you regifted, or you received a present you suspect was regifted.
A. Sigh. I have no problem with regifting but apparently other people do. I mean, if something is in perfect condition and you don't want it, how is that different from going into say, an antique shop and buying something old for somebody and giving it to them? The biggest mistake of my life was regifting something, and it cost me a valued relationship that I still miss to this day. I had no idea it mattered. I received 5 cake plates when I married. Nobody needs that many cake plates. I mentioned it to several folks, that I had all of these lovely cake plates. So when someone I loved married the love of his life about six months later, I gave them the very best of the cake plates. Not the worst one, or the one I didn't like, but the very best one. The most beautiful one and the one I deemed the most expensive. When the next holiday rolled around, that person gave me an obviously opened and put back in the box can opener. (I assume they received two can openers for wedding presents.) That person also stopped speaking to me, for the most part, and has barely had anything to do with me since. I got the message. I still don't think I did anything wrong. I gave them something I, a newlywed myself, could never have afforded to purchase that I thought they would enjoy. (And yes, I used the can opener until it died. I strongly suspect the cake plate went into the trash or something, though.) This has never been discussed and I don't suppose it ever will be, but I am sorry that the person let something so insignificant destroy a relationship. Prior to this, we were like siblings.
_____________
I encourage you to visit other participants in Saturday 9 posts and leave a comment. Because there are no rules, it is your choice. Saturday 9 players hate rules. We love memes, however.
Thursday, November 30, 2017
Thursday Thirteen
Things I did this month . . .
1. I threw out over 500 pounds of stuff that had made its way into my office over the last four years (or more).
2. Ordered Thanksgiving from Kroger instead of cooking a meal. (I will not do this again.)
3. Had my mother-in-law over for said meal.
4. Saw my doctor for a change in prescriptions.
5. Returned to using my light box for mood therapy.
6. Put up the Christmas tree.
7. Discovered that we have, once again, lost an artificial Christmas tree. I am not sure how this happens, especially since we have a small house and a designated place for the Christmas tree when we are done with it, but this is twice we've lost the tree. I am pretty sure my husband throws out the new one with the old one, though he denies it.
8. Hit the 10,000 step mark on my Fitbit a couple of times. Happens infrequently due to my health but yay for me when I make it!
9. For the first time (just yesterday!) I went over 45 minutes of "moderate activity" on my Fitbit.
10. I spent an hour with Amazon's help on chat to try to find out why my Alexa on my Kindle Fire HD 8 wakes me up at 7:03 a.m. when I tell her to set the alarm for 6:30 a.m. (Problem not resolved.) She goes off just fine at 6:25 a.m.
11. Discovered I could listen to classical music prior to going to sleep (from Alexa, who is told to turn off the music in 30 minutes), and not have so many nightmares.
12. Created something I'd been wanting to do for a very long time to give away for Christmas (so I can't say what it is!).
13. Bought myself a new robe on Black Friday.
Sounds like a decent month, eh?
_______
Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here if you want to read other Thursday Thirteens and/or play along. I've been playing for a while and this is my 528th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday.
1. I threw out over 500 pounds of stuff that had made its way into my office over the last four years (or more).
2. Ordered Thanksgiving from Kroger instead of cooking a meal. (I will not do this again.)
3. Had my mother-in-law over for said meal.
4. Saw my doctor for a change in prescriptions.
5. Returned to using my light box for mood therapy.
6. Put up the Christmas tree.
7. Discovered that we have, once again, lost an artificial Christmas tree. I am not sure how this happens, especially since we have a small house and a designated place for the Christmas tree when we are done with it, but this is twice we've lost the tree. I am pretty sure my husband throws out the new one with the old one, though he denies it.
8. Hit the 10,000 step mark on my Fitbit a couple of times. Happens infrequently due to my health but yay for me when I make it!
9. For the first time (just yesterday!) I went over 45 minutes of "moderate activity" on my Fitbit.
10. I spent an hour with Amazon's help on chat to try to find out why my Alexa on my Kindle Fire HD 8 wakes me up at 7:03 a.m. when I tell her to set the alarm for 6:30 a.m. (Problem not resolved.) She goes off just fine at 6:25 a.m.
11. Discovered I could listen to classical music prior to going to sleep (from Alexa, who is told to turn off the music in 30 minutes), and not have so many nightmares.
12. Created something I'd been wanting to do for a very long time to give away for Christmas (so I can't say what it is!).
13. Bought myself a new robe on Black Friday.
Sounds like a decent month, eh?
_______
Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here if you want to read other Thursday Thirteens and/or play along. I've been playing for a while and this is my 528th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday.
Monday, November 27, 2017
Before and After
After I became ill in 2013, my efforts at keeping my office clean, which were already somewhat out of hand, took a turn for the worse.
So much so that the place was really bugging me, and has been for almost two years.
Finally, I asked my husband to help me pitch some things out of here. That was my 34th anniversary present.
We tossed over 450 pounds of crap out of this room. And that doesn't include filing cabinets and drawers, but we will get to those another day.
Here are some before and after shots:
So that was before. Now?
Everything is much neater. It is now a place where I can resettle. Before it was still a news reporter's office - but I am no longer a news reporter. Now it is just an office.
Hopefully I can figure out what I want to be when I grow up, and turn this into a different sort of office. Maybe an author's office. Or maybe an adjunct professor's office. Or maybe it will just stay an office, my place to go to be online and hide out from the world. I don't know.
Time will tell. In the meantime, I need to change a few items on the walls. But I must find the right things to put up.
Becoming someone new takes time.
So much so that the place was really bugging me, and has been for almost two years.
Finally, I asked my husband to help me pitch some things out of here. That was my 34th anniversary present.
We tossed over 450 pounds of crap out of this room. And that doesn't include filing cabinets and drawers, but we will get to those another day.
Here are some before and after shots:
 |
| Before. Note that the curtains do not match. |
 |
| The closet, which could not be closed. |
 |
| A close-up of my desk area. |
 |
| There is a printer under there, somewhere. |
 |
| A corner. |
 |
| Bookshelves. |
So that was before. Now?
 |
| Cleaned up with matching curtains. |
 |
| Corner is clearer. |
 |
| Closet is much straighter and emptier. |
 |
| And it closes! |
 |
| No junk in this corner! |
Everything is much neater. It is now a place where I can resettle. Before it was still a news reporter's office - but I am no longer a news reporter. Now it is just an office.
Hopefully I can figure out what I want to be when I grow up, and turn this into a different sort of office. Maybe an author's office. Or maybe an adjunct professor's office. Or maybe it will just stay an office, my place to go to be online and hide out from the world. I don't know.
Time will tell. In the meantime, I need to change a few items on the walls. But I must find the right things to put up.
Becoming someone new takes time.
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