Thursday Thirteen #460

1. My count is off on Thursday 13. I think this is #461 but the notation on the side says it will be #460, so we shall go with that. Happy 460 weeks of doing this to me. That's almost 9 years of doing this every week. However, Colleen over at Looseleaf Notes has been doing it the longest. I'm just runner-up, I think.

2. The sun is shining this morning. We've had rain almost every day for the last two weeks, so those rays are welcoming. Thunderstorms this afternoon, though. I already feel the changes in the barometric pressure in my little pea brain.

3. Earlier in the week, I cleaned off a single bookcase in my office (I have four). The criteria for putting books in the "take to the library" pile was not whether I read the book, liked it, or who had given it to me. It was if it smelled musty or like book dust. Which basically means that books that were not printed on good paper went out the door, because cheap paper tends to become dusty and smelly more quickly than good paper. One of my book cases has historical research books filling its shelves; those I will have to inspect more carefully.

4. That book case now has one entire shelf free, and a second one that I started on has a shelf free, too. Bare space. What a concept.

5. We have lived in our house for 29 years. When you stay in one place, things pile up in corners and drawers and dark hidey-holes that you don't even remember exist. It is easy to put things somewhere and forget about them. I've reached a place where I want some of the clutter gone. Not the things we treasure, but the things we never use and never will - time for those things to head on out the door.

6. That means I also need to go through my clothes closet and toss clothing. I wonder what my criteria for that will be, aside from whether or not it fits. Maybe that should be the only criteria. No holding things back for when I lose that 10 pounds (ha).

7. I began physical therapy again this week. I think it is a good thing - but it certainly hurts!

8. My calendar for August has a pictures of Samwise Gamgee from Lord of the Rings on it. Many people think Samwise is actually the hero of the trilogy, because without his steadfast courage, Frodo would never have reached Mt. Doom in order to destroy the ring. If the ring had not been destroyed, it wouldn't have mattered what else happened because Middle Earth would have been overrun with evil. I tend to agree with this. It is kind of like a traditional marriage of the 1950s. The husband went out and was the super salesman or whatever, but he could not have been successful if his wife hadn't been taking care of picking up the dry cleaning. The person behind the curtain seldom gets the credit.

9. Our school students returned to the classroom on Tuesday. This is very early. The stores have notebooks for 17 cents. I have to resist the urge to buy a few. I have piles of unused notebooks in a closet because I always purchase some. I need to donate them to the local elementary school, I think. Or else start writing in them.

10. I have been playing with a pen name on Facebook. Another writer quickly sniffed me out publicly. I am fooling around with the notion of writing up something using this pen name. What name? Ida B. Knowing.

11. I changed my Facebook feed so that I am no longer seeing political news on it (at least, not as much). It makes for a much nicer morning to wake up to hippie quotes about peace and love than to the blathering of talking heads who think I can't figure out what presidential candidates say when I hear it.

12. The TV stays off when I am home until 6 p.m. I don't watch the morning news or talk shows. I don't watch game shows or soap operas (not that the ones I used to watch are on - they aren't). I do listen to music but this morning all I am hearing are the sounds of my fingers on the keyboard and the steady rhythm of a clock. For some reason I find that tick-tock comforting.

13. The little twin fawns that were born in the front yard have not been around as much as I'd hoped. I have seen them in the distance a few times, but they aren't coming around so I can take great photos. In fact, they have not been close enough with their mother for me to be sure they are the same twins - she has distinctive markings on her front feet. They have grown considerably, though. And they are starting to lose their spots.

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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 460th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday.