Thursday Thirteen

1. Today is National Mole Day. Apparently this is not to celebrate either the growths on the body or the little things that plow burrows in the yard, but instead is a celebration of some kind of math equation. Go figure.




Pelicans on the farm pond
 

2. I read frequently about habitat and how the loss of it is greatly upsetting our ecosystem. The migration of monarch butterflies is one example. The collapse of honey bee hives is another. At one point there was a lot of talk about frogs being a barometer of things gone awry. I've noticed it in some migration patterns. For example, late this spring we had a flock of white pelicans on the pond. It was a first in anybody's memory. We have more Canadian geese in the fall. We also have stink bugs now, which up until about five years ago were things I'd never even heard of.

3. Hunting season has returned to Virginia. I was reminded of this earlier this week when I went trucking through the house without a stitch on, seeking out the clothing I wanted in the laundry room, only to emit a quick screech and slink back into the other part of the house for my robe when I realized there were strange vehicles in the driveway, and hunters standing around in camo. Fortunately, they all had their backs to the house as they were watching the woods. They were my husband's friends, but still. You don't want to give people a heart attack.

4. I have 19 items on my to-do list at the moment. If I get the top three done I will consider it a good day. My suspicion is that I won't, though I may knock a few things off the list.

5. CNN says China is going to the moon. I was disheartened when we began defunding NASA and it saddens me to see our space program in the toilet. I watched every space launch that I could, including the one in 1969 when a human being first stepped on the moon. I have cried when shuttles exploded and lives were lost, but the space program offered us hope as a nation and gave us a common ground for national pride, something we seem to be lacking these days. That is, unless you want to be proud of being first in the world in the number of people per capita you incarcerate, or first in the world in military spending, which I do not and am not.

6. Speaking of space stuff, there is a partial eclipse of the sun late this afternoon, visible in the US. Apparently it begins around 5:50 p.m., close to sunset. Don't look directly at the sun as it can damage your eyes. And looking at through a digital camera is not something I recommend, either.

7. I've been seeing a lot of posts about health care insurance costs. Most of these blame the Affordable Care Act (I refuse to call it by its misnomer, though the media does it), but our health insurance has been rising steadily since the 1990s, and even with an employer picking up the tab for one of us, we pay out more than $9,000 a year just to insure the other one on the same policy. The insurance company was constantly bullying us about medications and doctor visits pre-ACA. I don't think the ACA was a good deal - I think it was a gift to private insurance companies - but I also think the insurance companies have looked for and found every loophole they can to increase premiums and deny claims. I'm grateful we have health insurance - we'd be bankrupt if we didn't, given my poor health and my husband's accident this summer - but yes, it is expensive. It is not, however, as expensive as the $100,000+ it would have cost us out-of-pocket to save my husband's arm. So I guess in the long run, you need to ask yourself if you're worth it or not. Maybe you can do without an arm.

8. In the meantime, we need real health care reform, and for me that means a national single payer system. Yes, Medicare for all. Of course it would not be perfect, but then absolutely nothing dreamed up in the human brain is. I would, however, like for everyone to have the opportunity to keep their limbs should they have an unfortunate accident.

9. I am who I am. I don't need anyone's permission to be me. Nor do I need anyone's permission to dream, big or small, or to do much of anything else for that matter. Unless I am invading someone's personal space, they really don't have much of a say over what I do. But when I am invading personal space - whether with words, too close in body contact, with cigarette smoke, perfume or whatever - then yeah, they - and I - have the right to say something. It's called boundaries. Like Baby said in Dirty Dancing, "This is your dance space, this is my dance space. Spaghetti arms!" Or something to that effect.

10. Some days coming up with 13 somethings is tough. Today is one of them. Can you tell?

11. This is my horoscope for today from tarot.com: "It's not too late to improve your daily routine, even if it's an upgrade you should have made much sooner. Today's Scorpio Solar Eclipse plants the seeds in your 6th House of Habits, indicating sudden changes that can set a series of profound consequences into motion. The potential is greater than you realize, so make every action count as much as possible while you have the planetary magic on your side."

12. Psalm 121: I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help. Levavi Oculos in Latin. It's the motto of Hollins University, my alma mater. I've been putting it in my blog header for about two years and not once has anyone asked me about it. But that would be the answer to the question.

13. And speaking of Hollins, I just received a notice in my email that it's Tinker Day. Tinker Day is a day off from classes given each October; only the president of the university knows the date. The students find out about 7 a.m. that classes are cancelled. They dress up, perform skits, and climb to the top of Tinker Mountain, where they are served up fried chicken and Tinker cake trucked up by the college staff. The tradition dates back to the 1880s. Enjoy your day, young ladies. You are our best hope for tomorrow.

Tinker Mountain in the background

Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here. I've been playing for a while and this is my 366th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday.

from whence cometh my help.