Thursday Thirteen

1. Today we get a free-for all. Who knows what will appear here? In any event, a quick health update - I still sound croaky but I think I'm getting better. This infection has been hanging on a long time, though.

2. I picked up a little freelance work, but I am not keen to do it. It feels like a step backwards, the pay is not the best, and so far, the people involved are uncooperative. I don't need the stress for something that isn't going to make or break me.

3. I am almost done with the bookkeeping necessary to send my taxes to the accountant. In fact, I hope to wind it up today and have it ready to go tomorrow. I try to get it to the accountant no later than the 15th, but in this instance, with legislation concerning the tax payments in flux in Congress, waiting might be the best option, if it passes.

4. Many people I know are ill. My father is ill, my friend Teresa is ill, I have been ill, and I know some of my fellow bloggers and readers have been ill. Stupid germs.

5. Have you noticed the price of batteries? Wow, they are out of sight. I bought cheap ones but they don't last very long. It's better to spend the extra to get a Duracell, although I've had trouble with batteries corroding more since the pandemic. I think we have people making things who don't know how to make things. 

6. Clorox products are also pricey. Bleach, toilet bowl drop-ins - anything with the Clorox name on it is quite costly. What's with that, Clorox?

7. In spite of all humanity does (and we do a lot), the sun still comes up, the moon waxes and wanes, and the stars twinkle whether they're hidden by light pollution or not. In the larger scheme of things, we're not much, and many folks need to step outside on a dark night and look up at the vastness of the sky and stars to understand that our lives are not relevant in the grand scheme of things.

8. Most of us will die poor, or barely eeking by. Why people think they're somehow going to turn into billionaires at the end is beyond me. And the money doesn't matter, anyway. Death is a journey we all take alone.

9. One of my friends told me she was having laser hair removal under her arms. The thought of that makes me shiver. It has to hurt. She is half my age and said she was tired of shaving. I said I'd been shaving for longer than she'd been alive.

10. On our farm, you will find cows, a pond, tractors, old buildings that one may or may not call barns, tools, pasture fields, and hay fields. You'll also find us, the people, the caretakers of this small little piece of earth. 

11. It's hard for me to feel poetic and write something flowery before 9 a.m. in the morning, so this is why this Thursday 13 is all over the place. I am not totally awake, although I am awake and have been up for three hours.

12. I do more things that are not good for me than I do things that are good for me. I think. I need to move more, sit less. And eat better. Not necessarily less, just better. Ah, the shoulds. They do follow me around, don't they? I should I should I should. What if I just accepted myself as I am and said, ok, you're a lazy butt. It is what it is, as my brother likes to say.

13. This would have been better if I'd given it some thought, but I have had trouble keeping up with what day it is, and suddenly here it is, Thursday. How'd that happen?

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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 846th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday. Or so sayth the Blogger counter, anyway.