Thursday Thirteen

1. Well, finally it is April. I thought it would never get here. The mustard is blooming in the hayfield - it's a weed but it looks gorgeous against the greening grass. The cows are calving, and we've got a truck right this moment going back and forth across the lower fields, spreading fertilizer so all will grow fast and well this season. My husband is trying to get all of his machinery ready for the upcoming year - he's hoping for lots of haying and ditch-digging and things of that nature. The stuff that makes him happy.

2. Smoke rises from what looks like the cement plant. Stuff is always rising into the air from that direction these days. It is hard to tell it if is smoke or dust from something they're doing in the quarry.

3. I saw what looked like a bob cat with a long tail when I was outside the other day. I thought it was a bob cat because it had tufted ears. I took photos - I had the camera - but they didn't turn out well. I guess it's just a regular ol' cat but it was a big 'un if that is the case. What do you think?

 

5. On Monday and again on Wednesday I went outside and watched the International Space Station fly over. I attempted to take photos on Wednesday but they didn't turn out. I will try again with a different camera. You can find out when the Space Station will fly over your area at this link. Looks like my next good viewing time will be Saturday night at 8:40 p.m.

6. Ordering flowers this morning to send to the funeral home, I was struck by the incongruity of it all. Why do we kill flowers to send to the living who are mourning the dead? I sent a live plant instead; it seemed to make a better statement.

7. The lead story in the local paper yesterday was about heroin. I wonder why human beings are drawn to drugs, alcohol, and mind-altering states? I think our lives are so full of despair and loneliness that we can't help ourselves.

8. Another day, another shooting. Do we now have license to simply kill one another because we want to? I think this entire country is suffering from PTSD, and has been since the World Trade Centers collapsed. If we are a nation of crazy - I really do believe we are - then what is to become of us? Why are we allowing this kind of thing to continue?

9. My new favorite game apps: The Sims Freeplay, Candy Crush, and Words with Friends. However, I don't have many folks to play the word game with because I chose not go through Facebook. Look up CountryDew if you want to play a game.

10. Pain, I have decided, can make you feel absolutely crazy. That includes mental pain. See #8.

11. We purchased replacement windows four years ago. It changed the look of the house for the better, but we have had to request warranty replacements on almost half of the windows installed. Something happened to the glass and many of the windows developed brown streaks. We have been told this happened nationwide to many glass manufacturers about the time we bought our windows, but I don't know if this is true. I can't find anything about it online. The local company has been good to work with but the window manufacturer has not. If I had to do it all over again, I would not have replaced the windows; I would have installed storm windows over what was there instead. Live and learn, I guess.

12. This is one of my new mantras: I am a thin and healthy person with manageable issues. That is not my reality but it is what I am trying to convince myself. 

13. I recently learned about something called oil pulling. Basically you take a quality oil like sesame, olive, or coconut, and swish it around in your mouth for 20 minutes. It's supposed to detoxify and help with oral hygiene. I asked my dentist about it and she said she had a patient who had pitted teeth who did it and the pits went away.



Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here. I've been playing for a while and this is my 338th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday.