Thursday Thirteen: Eclectic

1. A 4.25 oz Hershey's Symphony chocolate bar says that a serving is 5 blocks, with "about" three servings per container. To get five blocks, you have to eat a row of four plus one from the next line. In a Hershey's Symphony giant bar (6.8 oz), It says a serving is three blocks with "about" five servings but there are four across the row, so you have to leave one. The blocks are not the same size in the bars. Why can't they make a serving equal one row of blocks, whatever that is? Is this some kind of marketing ploy, knowing that if you have to leave one, you won't, or if you have to break into a second row to finish out a full serving, you will end up eating the rest of the row?

2. Pop Tarts are smaller than they used to be, but the aluminum-like packaging they come in inside the box is still about the size of Pop Tarts of old, so you have a lot of extra space. Did Kellogg's have too many of the bags to begin with, or has some bean counter not realized they're wasting a little cash with the extra packaging?

3. Speaking of packaging, who invented that plastic from hell that no one can get into? It's especially prevalent in the technology industry, where it surrounds everything from SD cards to cords to software, and everything in between.

4. What used to be 16 oz became 12 ozs, and now it's 11.5 ozs. What used to be 12 ozs in chocolate chips is now 11.5 ozs, for example. Did they think we wouldn't notice? I noticed. Didn't anyone else?

5. A dozen eggs still equals 12 eggs, though I would not be at all surprised to walk up to make a purchase and discover they now come in cartons of 10, but for the same price.

6. One of my banks sold itself to another bank, so I have to switch banks soon. I can stay with the new one that's elbowing its way into town, or I can switch elsewhere. When I called my old bank to ask questions, I told the lady who answered that I was very upset that I would not get to write check #10,000 on my account. I'm up to 9,300 and something in my check numbers. That's how long I've been with my current bank that is no longer going to be my bank. I've never switched buildings. First it was Bank of Troutville, then Sovran Bank, then my current bank. Now it will be some other name. I hate change. Sometimes.

7. Yesterday I gave my father a copy of Beth Macy's new book, Factory Man. I had her inscribe it and sign it. The inscription said, "To Loren, a Roanoke businessman with a story of his own."
 
8. I haven't finished the book. I'm on Chapter 2. I've been slow to start it.

9. Yesterday my backup hard drive had a squeak and then later I couldn't access any of my documents. No lights were on and no information was home. I shut everything down last night, and this morning, all is well. Computers are weird.

10. The other day I had my physical therapist laughing so hard that she literally had to turn her back to me in order to stop giggling and get back to work. And then to keep things a little calmer, we ended up talking about Lord of the Rings and the upcoming Hobbit movie. "Very adult conversation we have in here," she said dryly as I left, and we both cracked up.

11. I reach into a little blue bag and pull out a rune from a little kit I've had for at least a decade. It's called Stones from the Muse and the runes are for the creative journey. This morning I pull out a knapsack. "Some artistic work can only be accomplished through play," says the book interpretation. "Forget the goal for now, and let go of your time schedule. You are right here, right now. Play!" Sounds like good advice to me.

12. Now thoroughly fascinated, even at this dark hour of 7 a.m. in the morning, I reach into my little drawer of "toys" and pull out a deck of Rune Cards. I shuffle, then pick from the top. The card is beautiful, depicting a beach dune covered with greenery, the ocean behind it. It says, "Protection." The accompanying interpretative book says this: "The dunes shift and shift forever, feather grass restless in the wind. Cool your emotions. Follow your path. That is your protection." If you put the two together, it sounds like I need to spend the day at the local playground, sitting on a swing near the sandbox.

13. Last night I dreamed I was dead. No one came to my funeral.

Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here. I've been playing for a while and this is my 364th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday.