Saturday 9: One Less Set of Footsteps

Saturday 9: One Less Set of Footsteps (1973)

Unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it here.

1) Jim Croce sings that "tomorrow is a dream away." What are you dreaming about today?

A. I am dreaming of a genie with light brown hair. No, not really. I'm not dreaming of much of anything at the moment. I seem to be pursuing something I'm not sure of across my dreams.

2) He promises that his lover will soon hear one less voice a-talking. Who is the most recent person you spoke to? (Texts, e-mails and IMs don't count.)

A. My husband would be the most recent person I spoke to, of course. Outside of him, my friend Teresa and I had a phone conversation.

3) He admits that he and his lover have run out of things to say to one another anyway. Let's turn that around: Is there someone in your life with whom the conversation always flows freely?

A. My friend Teresa and I can talk about many topics when we are on the phone. We talk about our lives, our families, our hopes, desires, wants, needs.

4) He mentions the jeans hanging upon her door. Do you often wear blue jeans?

A. As long as I can have you hear with me, I'll always be forever in blue jeans, babe! I almost always wear blue jeans, except they're not Wranglers or anything like that. They're the kind with Spanx in them, so large people can wear them without suffocating.

5) As a high school student, Jim Croce was not especially interested in music. During those years he concentrated on foreign languages, especially German. Say something to us in German.

A. Verklempt. Sorry, that's all I have.

6) His focus changed when he got to college. That's when he joined a choral group that was chosen for a foreign exchange tour of Africa and the Middle East. When did you first travel far from home? Where did you go?

A. My parents used to vacation most years in South Carolina at Myrtle Beach. When I was 14, I went with my parents to New York. When I was 16, I went with a high school group to Spain and France.

7) In 1973, when this song was popular, Norman Mailer was atop the best seller lists with his controversial biography of Marilyn Monroe. When you curl up with a book, is it more likely to be fiction or non-fiction?

A. This year, I have been reading mostly fiction that I don't have to think about, but I read a little bit of everything. My current book is a nonfiction book.

8) Home calculators were innovative in 1973. You could choose a large desktop calculator that featured big keys and plugs into the wall, or a hand-held, battery-operated model. Today every cellphone and laptop has a calculator built in, so do you ever still reach for a stand-alone calculator?

A. I have a stand-alone calculator by my desk, so yes. I know I have a calculator in my phone, but I never use it.

9) Random question: Here's $100. What will you spend it on?

A. I will donate it to the local food bank.

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I encourage you to visit the posts of other participants in Saturday 9 and leave a comment. Because there are no rules, it is your choice. Saturday 9 players hate rules. We love memes, however. 

Thursday Thirteen

 

1. We have a little rain this morning, after 24 days of no rain at all.

2. Before that, we had about 4.5 inches over a weekend, the most rain we'd had at one time in about a year.

3. Today is the 51st anniversary of the Flood of 1985, an historic event for the Roanoke Valley. The flooding was caused by Hurricane Juan.

4. The Roanoke River rose 18.57 ft (5.66 m) in ten hours to a peak of 23.35 ft (7.12 m). It was considered a 1 in 200-year event.

5. My husband, then a firefighter for two years, was among the rescuers who pulled people from the rapidly rising waters. He remembers that they used the ladder truck in ways ladder trucks aren't supposed to be used, laying them out as flat as they could so firefighters could use them to reach people.

6. Roanoke sustained $225 million in damage, with 3,100 damaged homes and businesses. Throughout Virginia, damage was estimated at $753 million, making it the state's costliest flood at the time, and there were 22 deaths.

7. All of this is to say that we sorely need rain; we've been in a drought for a very long time now. But we don't need that much rain at once. We need nice showers over a prolonged period.

8. The weather is what one writes about when the words don't want to come, I guess. It is fall, though, and I can look out my window at the changing leaves. The colors have been good in some places, not so much in others. Lots of yellows and browns.

9. I'm not sure what kind of effect drought has on the leaves. I do know that a hackberry tree that has been in the back yard for 40 years dropped berries for the first time ever. From what I read, that was because of the drought and stress on the tree from lack of water.

10. I should probably become a tree identifier because I don't even know what we have in the backyard, apparently. An ash tree that I thought was a locust died some years ago.

11. I never was much for identifying trees and birds and such. Now, though, I think maybe that is something I should work on.

12. Surely, somewhere there is a certificate for Master Tree Identifier. There are such certificates for many things.

13. Or I could do like some politicians and other folks, and just make up my own credentials!

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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 983rd time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday. Or so sayth the Blogger counter, anyway.

Dona Nobis Pacem

 

I am joining in with other bloggers to write about peace today.

The Saga of Repairmen

Oh, the tales one can tell when unknown persons prowl about the premises!

So it was last week that we had the HVAC/furnace man here for the system's twice-yearly cleaning and maintenance.

Alas, the young lad who exited the company vehicle was not the person we were expecting. We'd been expecting a fellow named Chris, or at least Jeff, both of whom had serviced our system multiple times.

But now we had young Owen, who, it turned out, was also the son of the owner of the company.

I greeted him when he arrived, for my husband was in the bedroom still in his skivvies and not yet dressed for much of anything. I showed him where the furnace was, pointed to the heat pump, and expected not to hear from him again until he was done.

My husband, meanwhile, decided to do as he normally does and dress in the kitchen. This requires sitting down at the kitchen table to put his suspenders on his pants.

And so it was that he was sitting in the chair, legs splayed apart and his privates sort of showing. Well, not sort of. They were in full view, actually, only I did not know this. I was at the refrigerator and suddenly the door from the garage burst open and there stood young Owen, some sort of device in hand, and his eyes suddenly opened wide with a tinge of horror.

I swiftly realized what he was looking at and tried to move in front of him to block his view of my husband in his underwear. The young man in question backed out of the room in a hurry. I went out after him, closing the door. "What do you need?" I asked. He said he needed to check the thermostat to make sure it was sending out the appropriate air speed or some such. I asked if he could do something else for a few minutes and not come into the house.

He rapidly agreed.

I went back into the kitchen and told my husband to get himself dressed. This he did, and then he went out and chatted with young Owen as if nothing untoward had happened. The young man eventually made his way to the thermostat and checked whatever he needed to check, finished up his servicing, and was on his way.

And then today, we had someone come to look at the washing machine.

I have a Speed Queen. These are supposed to be commercial-grade washing machines and come highly recommended. When we bought ours, it had a 10-year warranty that's still in effect. 

The pump on it died on January 22, the night my father passed away. We came home from a sad evening to find the washing machine stopped with a full load of soggy clothes.

Fortunately, the man I called the next morning heard the plea in my voice when I told him my father had passed away and I needed my washing machine fixed, and he came straight away. He replaced the pump and all was well.

Except it wasn't. 

The washing machine began to make a racket on the spin cycle, and this grew worse and worse. I mentioned it to my husband several times, but it wasn't until the day he put on his new hearing aids that he said, "What is wrong with that washing machine. Call the man!"

So, I called the same man I'd dealt with in January, and he came on September 1. He said the machine needed new bearings, and he would fix it, and then he never returned. Calls to him went unanswered.

I gave up on him and called the appliance store from which I'd purchased the machine, explained my predicament, and they said they'd send out a repairman from a different company.

This fellow came today, made the same diagnosis, and promised to have it fixed within about a week's time, or as soon as he could get the parts.

While he was here, I asked him about the timer on the dryer. It has for years, literally, been spongy and when I put the knob on certain cycles it simply refused to turn on when I hit the start button. I would have to fiddle with it until it finally decided to work.

The repairman, whose name was Rob, said he couldn't fix the dryer (that would require a separate trip even though he was standing right there), but he pulled the knob off of the machine. "This is broken," he said, showing us where the knob was cracked. "It's not connecting, that's why you can't get it to start properly."

Then he simply removed the knob off of the alarm button, which I seldom use anyway, onto the timer button shaft on the dryer, and all was well.

And I and my husband both felt very stupid for never having considered that the problem with the dryer might not have been the timer after all.

Sunday Stealing

 

Another Sunday, Another Meme

1. Do you have a business card? If yes, what's your job title?

A. I do not have a business card. I used to have one that said I was a freelance writer, but I don't anymore. I think if I had a business card today, it would say my name, then "Hard at Work, Writer by Trade."

2. What day of the week were you born?

A. I was born on a Saturday. Saturday's child works hard for a living.

3. What vegetable do you refuse to eat?

A. I am an adult. I don't "refuse" to eat anything, I just don't eat it. At the moment, I can't think of any vegetables I don't eat, although I have to avoid spicy foods and things with tomatoes in them. But tomatoes are fruits, not a vegetable.

4. How many times have you stayed overnight in the hospital?

A. At least 10. Maybe more, I'm not sure. I also don't know if you'd count the time I was in the ER and they wanted me to hang around until morning to run a stress test and instead I left about 2 a.m. My doctor wasn't very happy with me about that.

5. Do you have more piercings or tattoos?

A. My ears are pierced in the normal places. That's all I have. No nose rings or tongue piercings or anything like that. Just plain old spots for earrings.

6. Do you like to shop?

A. I do not like to shop. I find shopping very boring, usually, and an inefficient use of time. Online shopping works well for me because I can simply search for what I want and move on. When I go to the grocery store, I take a list, and I am in and out in 20 minutes. This thing of wandering the aisles and looking at various items is for other people. Maybe for people who actually like to cook as far as groceries go, and maybe for people who really care about how they look when it comes to clothes, and I guess I just don't GAS.

7. How much cash is in your wallet right now?

A. About $80. I refuse to let a credit card out of my sight, so I always carry enough cash on me to pay for a meal. When we dine out, we pay with cash. If a store doesn't take cash, we don't eat there. I am not handing over my credit card to some waiter so he can wander around all over hell and creation with my numbers and the ability to use my card. If that makes me paranoid, so be it.

8. Let's play MASH: Do you live in a mansion, apartment, shack, or house?

A. I live in a house. It is a very nice house that my husband and I built ourselves, with our own two hands. He took a summer and had his firefighter buddies come and help him. It was a kit house, kind of like the old Craftsman houses, except ours was by a local company. We built the house we could afford and we paid less for this house than most cars cost today.

9. Where are you in the family birth order (oldest, middle child, youngest, or only child)?

A. I am the oldest child. According to Alexa, the oldest child is the Monday's child, fair of face (but I was born on Saturday, you know, the hard work for a living kid.). The oldest child is also supposed to be good looking, she says. They're also bright, lucky, or even a little wise. She says that since I was born on a Saturday as the oldest child, I would be diligent and reliable. In my experience, being the oldest child simply meant I was responsible for everything that ever went wrong in the entire world.

10. When you were 5 years old, what did you call your parents?

A. I called them Mom and Dad. I may have called my mother "Mommy" and my father "Daddy" when I was that young, but I don't really remember.

Thank you for playing! Please come back next week.

__________

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 9: I've Written a Letter to Daddy

Saturday 9: I've Written a Letter to Daddy

Unfamiliar with this week's featured song? Hear it here.

 

1) This song is from Whatever Happened to Baby Jane, which was released on Halloween Day, 1962. Do you like scary movies?

A. I used to like scary movies, but I don't care for them much anymore. Even Game of Thrones was a little gory for me at times. Now we're watching Reacher on Amazon Prime, and I have to tell my husband to "tell me when the gore is gone."

 

2) The "Baby Jane" of the title is Baby Jane Hudson. Jane was a child star, singing and dancing in vaudeville. She was so popular that Baby Jane dolls sold well at her shows. Tell us about one of your favorite childhood toys.

A. I was never a big fan of baby dolls. I preferred to play with action figures. GI Joe was mostly for boys, but I loved the Johnny West figures. My young uncles and I had lots of those - Johnny and Jane West and their children, along with Geronimo, Chief Cherokee, General Custer, and others. We also had horses and a covered wagon. We lost most of those in a flood at my grandmother's house.

 

3) Baby Jane's career hit the skids when she hit her teens and audiences no longer found her cute. Adolescence can be a tough time for many of us. Did you ever go through an awkward phase? 

A. My whole life has been an awkward phase.

 

4) Meanwhile, Jane's older sister Blanche blossomed into a beauty and became a major movie actress. Her career was cut short when, at the height of her popularity, her back is broken in a car accident involving a drunken Jane. Most of the movie takes place in the mansion Blanche bought back when she was a star. Blanche is confined to a wheelchair and completely dependent on Jane, who is bitter, jealous, and well, bonkers. Very bad things happen. Can you think of another movie where scary things happen in a big old house?

A. The Amityville Horror was a movie that involved a big old house. I saw it when I was a teenager. It opened in the summer of 1979, when I was 16. I don't recall who I saw it with, but I do remember that I wasn't alone.

5) As a (crazy) older woman, Jane convinces herself she can relaunch her career and recapture the love of the public. She dresses like she did as a little girl and makes up her face to look like those Baby Jane dolls that were sold long ago at her childhood performances. Then she rehearses this week's song. The result is so memorable that now, more than 60 years later, you can still find "Baby Jane" Halloween costumes online. Tell us about a Halloween costume you really enjoyed wearing.

A. I usually dressed up like a hobo. I remember having some of those awful costumes with the plastic masks that were held on with pieces of something that always broke, but I can't say I enjoyed any of them. The only time I really enjoyed a Halloween costume was one year when I dressed up like a witch and went into town with bags of candy. I stood on the corner and handed it out. We never have trick or treaters at my house. We're too rural and too far off the road. (I went alone because my husband was at work, putting out dumpster fires as is the tradition on Halloween night in the city.)

 

6) Which kind of spooky movie villain do you find scarier: supernatural monsters (Dracula, Wolfman, ghosts, etc.) or human monsters (Baby Jane, Michael Meyers from the Halloween franchise, etc.)? 

A. I prefer the supernatural monsters, as the human kind of monsters actually exist and I find that to be the scariest thing of all.

Questions inspired by Halloween . . . 

7) Orange and black are the traditional Halloween colors, with orange representing the autumn harvest and black symbolizing all things scary and mysterious. Are you wearing either color as you answer these questions?

A. I am wearing purple, which is a lovely color, but it is not associated with Halloween.

8) Jack-o-lanterns originated in Ireland, though instead of pumpkins, they carved gourds. When Irish immigrants arrived in the US, they used pumpkins because they were more readily available. Did you decorate your home with a jack-o-lantern, or anything else, for Halloween?

A. I did not decorate for Halloween. There isn't much point when no one sees it but you.

9) Think back to your trick-or-treating days. Which candy were you happiest to find your bag?

A. I always liked Smarties, M&Ms, and Hershey bars.

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I encourage you to visit the posts of other participants in Saturday 9 and leave a comment. Because there are no rules, it is your choice. Saturday 9 players hate rules. We love memes, however. 

Thursday Thirteen

Small things that make a day better:

1. I enjoy watching the deer outside. They move like shadows, quick yet unhurried. One minute, I'm looking at an empty yard and the next, there are three does standing there munching on acorns. They are like ghosts that come in daylight.

2. I really like to hear a good song from the 1970s. Alexa knows this, and when she plays "songs you like," they frequently start out with something from Fleetwood Mac. But there are many others that I don't hear so much that can stop me in my tracks. Band on the Run by Paul McCartney & Wings, for example. Or American Pie, by Don McLean. Those are great songs.

3. Another thing that brings me pleasure is finding a book that makes me forget to look at the clock. This doesn't happen as often as I'd like anymore, because I seem to always be worried about making sure I get the laundry out of the dryer while it's hot or whatever, but I do enjoy a good read.

4. One of my guilty pleasures is having a little chocolate. I like the taste and texture of chocolate, especially milk chocolate. I know I'm probably one good Hershey bar from a heart attack, but that's a risk I'll have to take.

5. Another way to make my day better is to pick up my guitar. Sometimes I don't even have to get through a whole song. I sit and play scales, or make runs, or just fiddle with chord progressions, and something in my back eases.

6. This is good for a quick pick-me-up: drinking a good glass of ice-cold water. I mostly only drink water these days, but I like it cold and straight out of the fridge.

7. Turning on my little heater in my office often helps me feel better. I tend to be cold and while I know the heater isn't great for the electric bill, it sure does make it easier to type if my fingers are not freezing.

8. I also appreciate the change of seasons. We're near peak time for the leaves, I think, and while this year isn't looking very bright because of the drought, there are some oranges and yellows peeking through. 

9. I also like to find an interesting animal on the game camera, like a bear, fox, or coyote. The other week when there was a bear on the camera, I squealed with delight.

10. That reminds me that taking a great photo of the moon or a spider's web with that certain slant of light one only finds in October is another way to brighten up an otherwise mundane day.

11. I like it when I have nothing on my calendar for the day. That means I can stay home, or go out, do laundry (or not). It's never downtime, I don't have much of that, but it's nice not to be on a schedule.

12. When the phone rings and it's a friend, my whole face lights up. I enjoy talking to the people who know me best, hearing from them, learning what's going on in their world. 

13. Last, but not least, occasionally I level up in a video game. This is almost always unexpected because I don't watch for it, especially in my city-building game, so when it suddenly goes "Ta Da" and gives me a reward, it's always a joyful little moment. I accomplished nothing of importance, but then again, I did move forward. Yay me!

_________________

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 982nd time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday. Or so sayth the Blogger counter, anyway.

The Signatures of Greatness

One thing I've always loved about my community is its history. Botetourt County is not the oldest in Virginia; it was formed in 1769 and there are others towards the east that are older. But it still has a lot of history.

At its founding, Botetourt went all the way to the Mississippi and took in parts of Wisconsin. Many historic documents are in our courthouse.

This is fortunate, because the courthouse burned in the early 1970s. Fortunately, forward-thinking persons had put the old documents in a fireproof vault, and they were saved.

The documents seldom make an appearance in public, but recently the county circuit clerk had them out to show off during the Fincastle Festival.

This document, dated 1782, has the signature of Benjamin Harrison on it. He was a governor of Virginia and a signer of the Declaration of Independence.

This document has the signature of James Monroe on it. He was the fifth president of the United States, and he proclaimed the Monroe Doctrine, which stated that European powers should not interfere in the Americas.

The last photo shows the signature of General William Clark (of the Lewis and Clark expedition) as he married Judith Hancock of Fincastle.

As a citizen of this county, and someone who can trace her heritage here back to before the American Revolution, I find the history of my community to be a rock upon which I can stand even when the antics of today make me wonder if there will be a tomorrow.

Seeing these signatures, I am reminded that great men once existed, and they can once again take the reins of this great nation and send her upwards.

We do not always have to be ruled by lesser men. Greatness exists in every generation.

Sometimes we simply don't find it.

Sunday Stealing

The Grown-Up Meme 

1. Do you have a college degree?

A. I have three college degrees. I have an associate's degree from Virginia Western Community College, a bachelor's degree from Hollins College, and a master's degree from Hollins University.

2. What was the amount of your last electric bill?

A. My last electric bill was about $350.00, give or take a $50. 

3. Do you have life insurance?

A. I have life insurance. All responsible people should have life insurance of some kind, if only enough to pay for a funeral.

4. Do you check your cholesterol on (at least) an annual basis?

A. My doctor checks my cholesterol at least once a year, sometimes twice a year. It is always high and I always politely decline the medication that would bring it down.

5. Have you ever attended a high school reunion?

A. I have attended one high school reunion. I went to my high school reunion in 2011, which incidentally was also the last one we had, as far as I know. My class lacked a bit of cohesiveness and never really got into the reunion thing. Maybe now that we're all in our 60s we'll think about it more, but I doubt it.

6. Do you have a will or estate plan?

A. All responsible adults should have proper wills and estate planning in place, especially if they have children or wish for their assets to be disposed of in a particular way. Otherwise, you risk having the state raise your children if you die before they've reached majority, and you risk having your assets farmed out amongst relatives who hated you anyway.

7. Do you remember when MTV played music videos?

A. I remember when MTV and VH1 both played music videos. I preferred VH1 to MTV. VH1 felt like it was more for folks with a bit of age and savvy about them while MTV played to the younger folks.

8. Is there a bottle of wine in your refrigerator?

A. There is an unopened bottle of wine in my refrigerator. It has been there for approximately 15 years. I imagine it is fairly cold by now.

9. Have you been divorced? 

A. I have not been divorced. I will soon be celebrating 43 years of marriage.

10. When you were 16, did you play music on vinyl, cassette, or CDs?

A. When I was 16, nobody knew what a CD was and we were still using 8-track players. I had vinyl, cassette, and a radio when I was 16. I don't think the Walkman had been invented when I was 16, but maybe it had and I'm too sorry to look it up.

Thank you for playing! Please come back next week.

__________

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 9: Smoke Rings

Saturday 9: Smoke Rings (1933)

   

Unfamiliar with this week's song? Hear it here.

   

1) In this song, Donald Mills of the Mills Brothers encourages us to "puff, puff, puff" our cares away. When did you most recently smoke a cigarette?

A. I tried them in high school but could not stand to smoke, so it wasn't a habit I involved myself with. I'm not sure "trying to smoke" counts as actually "smoking" a cigarette.

 

2) In the 1930s, when this week's song was recorded, an estimated 40% of American adults smoked cigarettes. By the early 1960s, that number reached a high of 42%. According to the CDC, the percentage of adult smokers dropped to 11%. Do many of your friends and relatives smoke or vape?

A. If any of my friends or relatives smoke or vape, they don't do it around me.

 

3) Donald was the youngest of the singing Mills Brothers, and he's the one who most often sang lead. That squares with popular birth order theory, which proposes that the youngest tends to enjoy being the center of attention, the middle child is the diplomat, and the oldest is the high achiever. Think of your own family and the families of your friends. Do you think this theory holds true?

A. The theory probably holds true to some extent. Some of it depends upon definitions. And generations. On second thought, no. That theory is just a theory.

 

4) The Mills Brothers were one of the first famous singing brother acts. The Williams Brothers – which featured future TV star Andy Williams – followed in their footsteps. Can you think of another group of singing brothers?

A. The Jackson 5, obviously. Also, the Bee Gees, The Everly Brothers (I guess they were brothers), and the Osmonds.

 

5) In addition to recording hit records, The Mills Brothers were a staple on radio in the 1930s. They were among the first African American artists to host their own radio show and sang jingles for Standard Oil and Crisco. What commercial do you recall having seen, or heard, recently?

A. It's election season, so most of the commercials I see are election commercials right now. There's this one: 

 

6) In 1933, when this week's song was popular, actor Robert Montgomery and his wife had a daughter they named Elizabeth. That little girl would become famous in the 1960s for her own TV show. Without looking it up, do you know what show Elizabeth Montgomery starred in?

A. Bewitched. I always wished I could twitch my nose and have a clean house. Wouldn't that be something?

 

7) Johnny Cash was also born in 1933. Do you have a favorite Johnny Cash song?

A. I like Ring of Fire and Folsom Prison. There was also one he sang with June Carter Cash, Jackson, that I recall from childhood.

 

8) In 1933, five French airlines merged to form Air France. Think of the last time you were at an airport. Were you taking a flight or meeting a flight?

A. The last time I was at an airport I was meeting a flight.

 

9) Random question: Your best friend just received a certificate for completing a car maintenance course at your community college. Would you let them work on your vehicle?

A. I would let them work on my vehicle, yes. Why not?

 _______________

I encourage you to visit the posts of other participants in Saturday 9 and leave a comment. Because there are no rules, it is your choice. Saturday 9 players hate rules. We love memes, however.