Thursday Thirteen

1. Saturday we have big doin's happening in my county. This year, we are 250 years old! The kick-off event is Saturday afternoon and I have been asked to be there.

2. That's because I was responsible for putting out a 100-page magazine that celebrates the county.

3. In other news, my husband continues his recovery from his ankle fusion surgery. He is walking in a boot but not exactly moving fast.

4. In fact, he's reading his third novel. Mind you, this is the third book he's read in the 36 years we've been married!

5. January has been a weird weather month. Too warm, for one thing, for this time of year.

6. I was listening to a history podcast this morning and it was about Auschwitz. The speaker noted that Auschwitz didn't start with gas chambers. It started with "the othering" of people.

7. That's where we are now, in a great divide that has people unable to compromise or reach common ground, not only politically but now personally.

8. You have to sit down and talk in order to understand one another. For example, all of these people protesting proposed gun laws - you do know there are already many, many gun laws in the Virginia Code, don't you? They've all passed the sniff test and nothing being proposed in the current legislative session has been upended in federal courts. You're upset because you're "othering" and not thinking things through. You're not an "other" to me. You're my neighbor. Let's chat.

9. I've been an "other" since the day I was born, I'm afraid. Female = other in the minds of some men. Guess what. We're human beings too, and you wouldn't exist without us.

10. At the supervisors' meeting Tuesday, someone called me the "Dragon Queen of Botetourt." I don't know whether to be honored or offended.

11. Someone else told me to be honored, because no one should fail to take me seriously. I don't misstep often, and I'm usually right when I call someone out.

12. Also the other day, someone told me he didn't trust press people because his father was able to go into a tornado-damaged area by creating a fake press badge. I told him it wasn't my fault his father was a liar and a cheat. That did not go over well. I don't think this person and I will be friends.

13. These days my time is spent looking after my husband and doing our bookkeeping for the 2019 year, which I let slide but now must do so I can get things to the accountant. But soon I will need a project and a change of direction. What will I do, I wonder? My future in my crystal ball looks unclear.



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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 641st time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday. Or so sayth the Blogger counter, anyway.