Thursday Thirteen

1. My Facebook page this morning is filled with photos of the big snow in Buffalo, NY, where they received 7 feet of snow. I feel for those folks. I hope they have good roofs on their houses.

2. My Facebook page is also full of political rhetoric, as it is every morning. I am seriously considering ridding myself of the political posts. It's a terrible way to set the tone for the day as there is seldom anything positive about politics. Maybe Facebook needs a timer setting so I could see the political posts later in the day.

3. Like a drum, baby, don't stop beating.

4. There is a subplot in the Extended Editions of The Hobbit movies that isn't being shone on the theatrical releases. I won't relay what it is, but I am intrigued as to how it will be explained in the final extended edition, which probably won't be released until next fall. (The last movie, The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies, is coming to a theater near you on December 17!)

5. The book The Book Thief is much better than the movie.

6. My bank switched hands over the weekend. My new bank's online access is a pain in the you-know-what. That is it say, it isn't working very well for me.

7. I can't believe another year is almost over. Time really does fly when you're an antique.

8. Yesterday a helicopter flew over, and as I have done since I was a small child, I stepped outside to watch it. I remember doing that at my grandmother's. We'd hear the tell-tale flap of the rotors and rush outside to be the first to spot it, and then watch it wing its way across the sky.

9. My grandmother had four young children in her charge when she was babysitting me - two of her own (I have an uncle who is a year younger than I am) and my brother and me. My grandmother had six children in all. My mother, who passed away in 2000, was the oldest. The other children are all still alive. My grandmother died in 2007.

10. My father's mother is still alive. She's 94 and lives in California.

11. When I think back on the Novembers I have lived through the one that stands out the most is the year I married. We celebrated 31 years this week. A long time to be married but it seems like only a week. A very full week, but only a week.

12. I don't *need* a new camera but I confess I have been looking at new ones. Something with a 50x zoom. I could zero in on a deer's nostril with a zoom like that.

13. Winter wouldn't be so bad if the wind wouldn't blow. Did we have this much wind when we were children? I don't recall it being so windy when I was young.

"Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind." - Bruce Lee

Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here. I've been playing for a while and this is my 370th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday.