Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen things on my mind . . .

1. The way my mother used to wrap her hair in toilet paper before she went to bed at night.

2. How Facebook has changed the way I think of people. Some I admire more; most I admire less.

3. What are we doing? WHAT ARE WE DOING? When did the lunatics take over? When did we become a nation of psychotics?

4. I read about puppies and kittens and people getting their nails done, and then I read about attacks on civil rights, bombings, and killings. No wonder we're all insane. Somebody hand me that bottle of Lithium.

5. My uncle used to love me but she died, chicken ain't chicken 'til it's lickin' good fried ... Okay, I have no idea where that came from, but it's a real song by Roger Miller. I remember hearing it when I was a child.

6. All I can determine is that they must believe that, should a dozen federal agents show up at their door, they would blast holes in their walls and try to gun 'em down, wild-west style, before the feds sent a bazooka blast through their window. This leads me to think that life is no longer a precious commodity in this country, not even to oneself. It's pretty sad when you think you're expendable, and that death is preferable to change and/or the unknown.

7. Too many things that used to be done in secret are out in the open now, and too many things are still secret that should never be. I'm not sure which is which anymore.

8. I still like to see my by-line in the newspaper, even though it has been in there literally several thousand times.

9. I wish life were like a musical. I would love to be in the grocery store when someone breaks out into song, with all of us shoppers tap-dancing behind them, providing backup.

10. The closest I've ever come to seeing life be like a musical was on a warm summer evening at Broadway at the Beach in Myrtle Beach, SC. about 10 years ago. My husband and I were shopping and walking across a bridge over a lake when the Macarena song came on. I started doing the arm movements to it; so did every other woman in the place. Shopping bags hit the pavement, and men stood back, mouths agape, while hundreds of women did the Macarena. The song ended, we picked up our bags, and went back to shopping.

11. Because I live on a hill and apparently in a place where sounds echo and collide, sometimes I hear strange things. Car engines. Train whistles. The Star-Spangled Banner. Coyotes howling. Cows mooing. Bulls bellowing. Guitars playing. Firecrackers. Shotguns. Chickens. Voices. Of those, only the cows, the bulls, and coyotes make sense. The rest of those sounds come a long way to reach my ears - the train is at least four miles away!

12. The eyes of time look down on me like a silent sentinel. I feel them, staring and waiting, relentless. These eyes are like the steady tick of a clock, constant and persistent. I am unsure of what they want, these eyes. The eyes of time blink - and I've lost a day.

13. I am like Little Red Riding Hood, looking good, but walking through the world alone. Is that what I fear most, being alone? Wandering around like the cow jumping over the moon, unconnected to my world? Am I am unable to reach back to that big blue globe where the love is?




Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here. I've been playing for a while and this is my 288th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday.