Thursday Thirteen

It's another one of those days when I have no clue what to write for Thursday Thirteen. So let's see what pops out, shall we?

1. The sun shines through storm clouds. I love that light when it looks like the end of a rainbow is in my front yard, only I cannot see it. It's a light of foreboding, for you know the storm is coming.

2. I'm at that age where I buy sympathy cards in bulk. I bought a box of "made in USA" sympathy cards recently because so many folks I know are going on to their next journey.

3. The pollen in Virginia has been heavy again this year. The trees are oozing it as their leaves come out. But isn't Spring simply delightful? I watch a slow-release of green coming forth every morning as I look out the window. Green looks so much better than brown.

4. Speaking of Virginia, we're the state with the most presidents, having offered up eight. There's a fellow named Jim Webb, who served as a Virginia senator (D), who plans to seek the office this year. He is so unknown I don't think he stands much of a chance, but I have learned never to be sure of anything when it comes to politics. He has the "right" credentials - he's white and male - so you just never know.

5. My physical therapist's daughter is graduating from college this weekend. Last night I dreamed about my own graduation, only it didn't go so well. My mother was in my dream, and she was ill, and the college staff manhandled her for some reason. I and several other students went to the office of the college president to complain. It was around midnight and the college president (a man, I do not know who), was having something akin to a KKK rally. Then I had to get my hair cut and I went to a midnight barber who charged me $500 for his work. My father said he would pay for it, but then did not; he actually wrote out a check and then tore it out of my hands, laughing. The next morning I went to my graduation but I had to get in the back of the line. It was a strange dream. I think a lot of the political stuff going on in the US found its way in there.

6. The streak of sunshine is gone now, and the sky looks threatening and gloomy. I grew up never worrying about tornadoes, but in recent years we've had a few in the area. But shhh. There is no such thing as climate change, you know. Despite the scientific evidence for it.

7. One of my dear friends is traveling around the U.S. even as I write this. She's sent me photos almost every day of the places she's visiting. Yesterday I received a bunch from Yosemite.

8. I do not watch much TV, but occasionally I latch on to a series. Right now I am enjoying Game of Thrones. However, it is terribly violent, bloody, and misogynistic. It is not the kind of thing I normally watch, but like millions of others, I want to know who ends up alive in the end.

9. My reading of late has declined. I need new glasses - again - and despite my efforts to fall in love with reading on a Kindle, I have not been successful. I like some things about it, such as the ability to enlarge the type, but I don't like looking at a screen after 8 p.m., and that is generally when I do most of my reading. It is a conundrum.

10. I was in a tornado once in Bristol, TN when I was there for a band competition. It would have been in 1977 or 1978, when I was in high school. We were at a diner eating, and we all moved away from the glass windows. We didn't know there was a tornado. After the storm cleared, we could see the evidence - a clear path of destruction that tore a path down a hillside and ripped an outdoor movie theater screen in half.

11. My office looks like a giant came in with a pile of papers, cried out "wheeee" and gave everything in his arms a big toss. I have stacks of stuff everywhere. Magazines and old interview notes, books, note cards, calendars - what a mess.

12. The photos in my office: my husband in uniform, my nephew making a play as a quarterback, Gandalf the White, a log cabin, a mysterious woodland realm, a scenic spring shot on my wall calendar, and a signed pictures of Bonnie Raitt and Charle Sheen (long before he went nuts and when he was good looking).

13. I'd like to teach the world to sing, but I don't think most of the world is interested in singing any more. All they want is money.



Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here if you want to read other Thursday Thirteens and/or play along. I've been playing for a while and this is my 393rd time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday.