Sunday Stealing: Bud's Last Stand

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

 

 

Sunday Stealing: Bud's Last Stand of 2016

Ok, Bud the Sunday Stealing King is playing a New Year's Day Trick, because these aren't the questions that were there yesterday morning. But I shall answer them now (Sunday morning, of all times!). The others are below.

1. What did you do in 2016 that you’d never done before?

A. I took up knitting and coloring. They are hobbies that are supposed to help my mind calm. My mind wanders and thinks constantly, sort of like a breeze that never stops, not even to knock over a tree.

2. Best thing that happened to you was . . . watching my husband ride a race car around the track at Pocono Motor Speedway in PA. I loved watching him fulfill an item on his bucket list and be so happy.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? No.

4. Did anyone close to you die?

A. Yes. I lost my friend and mentor, Monty, who was killed when she was hit by a truck in the sleepy town of Floyd. I first met her around 1985 or so, when she was teaching an adult ed course in writing at Roanoke College. We hit it off and remained in touch via mail (pre-internet) and occasional visits. We later discovered we were distant cousins. She died in mid-December.

5. What countries did you visit?

A. Just the one I live in.

6. What would you like to have in 2017 that you lacked in 2016?

A. Better health, more get-up-and-go since mine has got-up-and-went, and more friends.

7. What dates from 2016 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

A. November 9, because of the election. December 14, because of my friend's death.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

A. Continuing physical therapy, I guess. It is very painful and it takes a lot of mental stamina to put yourself through that twice a week. I am on hiatus from PT for a few months, now. Insurance makes you stop every so often.

9. What was your biggest failure?

A. Not writing anything other than my blog and in my personal journal.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

A. I developed a new hernia just before Christmas that scared me because it is a palatable mass above my naval and my doctor ordered an ultrasound to check it out. She seldom orders tests so it scared me, and it may ultimately need to be surgically repaired, but only as a last result. I have no desire to go under the knife again.

11. What was the best thing you bought?

A. My Lord of the Rings coloring book. Actually someone gave it to me, but that's semantics.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?

A. I don't know. Everyone acted pretty much like they always do.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?

A. I am afraid the actions of our president-elect continue to appall and depress me. But that is all I will say about that.

14. Where did most of your money go?

A. To doctor's visits and regular bills.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?

A. My brother returned to me a cherished Christmas ornament over the holidays.

16. What song will always remind you of 2016?

A. Hallelujah, because after Leonard Cohen died and I heard Kate McKinnon sing it on Saturday Night Live after Hillary Clinton lost the presidential election, I began to learn the song on the guitar. It is easy to play but I have trouble remembering the words. I also play it too fast.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you: (a) happier or sadder? (b) thinner or fatter? (c) richer or poorer?

A. (a) about the same (b) about the same and (c) about the same.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?

A. Writing and reading.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?

A. Playing video games.

20. How did you spend New Year's Eve?

A. I spent it like I do most nights - I watched a little TV and went to bed.

21. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.

A. "I did my best, it wasn't much. I couldn't feel so I learned to touch. I told the truth. I didn't come to fool you." - Hallelujah.

22. What was your favorite new TV program?

A. I don't have a favorite new one. I kept watching the same old ones - Supergirl (2nd season), Game of Thrones, Masters of Sex, Big Bang Theory.

23. What was the rudest thing someone did to you in 2016?

A. Nothing stands out in my mind.

24. What was the best book you read?

A. The Nightingale, by Kristin Hannah

25. What was your greatest musical discovery?

A. I pulled out my electric guitar, even though I can barely lift it, and plugged 'er in.

26. What did you want and get?

A. I wanted some "shelves that slide" for my lower kitchen cabinet pots-and-pans place and received those.

27. What did you want and not get?

A. I wanted more improvement in my health but it is a chronic issue and improvement is incredibly slow.

28. What was your favorite film of this year?

A. I don't really have one.

29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

A. I don't recall doing anything special, and my age is nobody's business but mine and the government's.

30. What one thing made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

A. My friends and family always help make the year better.

31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2016?

A. Jeans and t-shirts.

32. What kept you sane?

A. Coloring.

33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

A. I enjoy reading Lynda Carter's Facebook posts. She's feisty.

34. What political issue stirred you the most?

A. Oh must we? Really? I'll go local. Locally, the county supervisors moved historic structures out of the way to make room for an industrial shell building, which was a great loss to the historic community, and the state/feds started working on Exit 150 on Interstate 81, which is the biggest boondoggle one has ever seen.

35. Who did you miss?

A. I miss the things that never were and never will be.

36. Who was the best new person you met?

A. I can't think of anyone.

And here are the questions that were up there yesterday (December 31) but which have now disappeared:

1. Your main fandom of the year: Supergirl. She's on Season 2 but I like the show a lot.

2. Your favorite film this year: Star Wars: The Force Awakens. (It is the only one I saw at the theater.)

3. Your favorite book read this year: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams

4. Your favorite album or song this year: Hallelujah, by Leonard Cohen.

5. Your favorite meme sites of the year: Sunday Stealing, Saturday 9, and Thursday 13, of course.

6. Your fandom that you haven't tried yet, but want to: I don't know of any.

7. Your best new fandom discovery of the year: I started coloring along with everyone else. Is that a fandom?

8. Your biggest fandom disappointment of the year: I don't know of any.

9. Your TV boyfriend of the year:  I don't know. I like Leonard on The Big Bang Theory. But not well enough to have pictures of him on my PC or anything.

10. Your TV girlfriend of the year: Supergirl, I guess.

11. Your most missed old fandom: Xena: Warrior Princess (and that's really old!)

12. Your biggest anticipations of the new year: Completing the paperwork for the 2016 taxes and determining whether or not I go back into physical therapy in the spring. Really exciting stuff, eh?

13. Your favorite post (of yours) of the year: Breaking Up is Hard to Do. It also has the second highest viewing of any of my posts this year, exempting posts that have to do with local political issues.

14.Your favorite new blog (to you) of the year: whoever was new on Sunday Stealing or Saturday 9.

15.Your favorite new website of the year: I started following Tommy Emanuel on YouTube. Listen to this guy play Classical Gas on the guitar.

16. Your favorite news story of the year: Hillary Clinton won the nomination to run as the presidential nominee for the Democrat Party.

17. Your favorite actor of the year: Miam Bialik (Amy on The Big Bang Theory).

18. Your favorite drama TV show of the year: Game of Thrones

19. Your favorite comedy TV Show this year: The Big Bang Theory

20. Your favorite cartoon of the year: It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.
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I encourage you to visit other participants in Sunday Stealing posts and leave a comment. Cheers to all us thieves who love memes, however we come by them.