Thursday Thirteen: Space Edition

Last night around 6:35 p.m., Artemis II blasted off into space, taking with it four people who will orbit the moon.

It's a feat not attempted in over 50 years.

So here are some space facts to acknowledge this mighty and exciting adventure.

1. Artemis II will be the first crewed mission to leave low‑Earth orbit since 1972. Low‑Earth orbit (LEO) is the zone close to Earth where the International Space Station circles. Humans haven’t gone beyond it since Apollo 17 launched on December 7, 1972, and returned on December 19, 1972.

2. The crew will ride inside the Orion spacecraft. Orion is NASA’s new human‑rated capsule. It’s the part that holds the astronauts, keeps them alive, and brings them home. Artemis I flew it without people; Artemis II is the first time it carries a crew.

3. The rocket that launches Orion is called the Space Launch System (SLS). SLS is NASA’s heavy‑lift rocket. Think of it as the muscle that gets Orion off Earth. Once its job is done, it falls away and Orion continues the journey.

4. Orion’s heat shield is the largest ever built for a human spacecraft. It has to survive re‑entry from lunar speeds, which are about 25,000 mph. That's far faster than anything returning from low‑Earth orbit.

 

5. The Moon is slowly drifting away from Earth. About 1.5 inches per year. Over millions of years, that adds up to real distance. 

6. NASA’s Deep Space Network can hear signals weaker than a refrigerator light bulb from billions of miles away. Three giant antenna complexes, one each in California, Spain, and Australia, keep spacecraft talking to Earth long after they’re tiny specks in the dark.

7. The International Space Station orbits Earth every 90 minutes. Astronauts see 16 sunrises and sunsets a day. Their internal clocks do the best they can.

8. Voyager 1 is so far away that its radio signal takes more than 22 hours to reach Earth. And it’s still sending back data, albeit slowly, faintly, and stubbornly.

9. The Moon has moonquakes. Some come from tidal forces, some from meteor impacts, and some from the lunar surface expanding and contracting as it heats and cools.

10. A spacesuit is basically a one‑person spacecraft. It controls pressure, temperature, oxygen, carbon dioxide, and waste. It’s life support wrapped around a human body.

11. Artemis aims to land the first woman and the first person of color on the Moon. This is a deliberate shift in who gets written into exploration history.

12. Earth’s atmosphere is astonishingly thin. If Earth were the size of an apple, the atmosphere would be about as thick as the skin. Everything we breathe and depend on is in that fragile layer.

13. Every footprint left on the Moon is still there. No wind, no rain, no erosion. There's just dust and time. They’ll remain for centuries, maybe longer.

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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 953rd time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday. Or so sayth the Blogger counter, anyway.

Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen Reasons Physical Therapy Can Be Helpful

1. It teaches you how your body actually works. It's a marvelous miracle, full of mechanics and patterns, and there are habits you didn’t know you had that affect many things.

2. It builds strength in the places that quietly hold everything together, not just the obvious muscles.

3. It helps restore movement you didn’t realize you’d lost. Small changes in range of motion can make a big difference and make daily life easier.

4. It gives you tools to manage discomfort, not just endure it.

5. It helps you relearn trust in the part of your body that’s been hurting, which is its own kind of healing.

6. It breaks big problems into small, doable steps. Being able to do something with a body part that wasn't working properly can be a relief when reaching for the peanut butter feels overwhelming.

7. It encourages consistency over intensity, a rhythm that often fits real life better.

8. It helps correct imbalances that build up over years, the ones you only notice when something finally complains.

9. It supports recovery after injuries or surgeries by guiding movement safely and gradually.

10. It improves stability and balance, which can give you confidence to do everyday tasks.

11. It helps prevent future issues by strengthening weak spots before they become problems.

12. It offers a structured space to pay attention to your body, something most of us rarely do.

13. It reminds you that healing is active, not passive. It is something you participate in, not wait for.

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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 952nd time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday. Or so sayth the Blogger counter, anyway.

Thursday Thirteen

Things that happened on March 19:

1. In 1687, La Salle was killed. René‑Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, was a French explorer who claimed the Mississippi River basin for France and named it Louisiana. On his final expedition, after missing the river’s mouth by hundreds of miles, his exhausted and starving men mutinied and shot him. His death marked the collapse of France’s most ambitious North American colonial dream.

2. In 1815, The Battle of New Orleans officially ended. However, the War of 1812 was already over on paper, as the Treaty of Ghent had been signed months earlier. News traveled slowly. Andrew Jackson’s ragtag force of regulars, militia, free Black soldiers, and Jean Lafitte’s pirates defeated the British anyway. The victory turned Jackson into a national hero and reshaped American identity, even though it changed nothing diplomatically.

3. In 1831, the first U.S. bank heist occurred when thieves broke into City Bank on Wall Street and stole $245,000. It was an astronomical sum at the time. Most of the money was recovered, but the heist exposed how quickly the young nation’s financial system was growing, and how unprepared it was for modern crime.

4. In 1863, The SS Georgiana sank. This state‑of‑the‑art Confederate cruiser, loaded with munitions and medicines, attempted to slip through the Union blockade. She ran aground and was destroyed on her maiden voyage. The wreck, found exactly 102 years later, became a touchstone for Civil War maritime archaeology.

5. In 1865, The Battle of Bentonville began. This was one of the last major battles of the Civil War, fought in North Carolina as Confederate General Joseph Johnston tried - and failed - to halt Sherman’s march. It was a final, desperate attempt to slow the inevitable end of the Confederacy.

6. In 1918, the U.S. standardized time zones and adopted Daylight Saving Time. What began as a wartime energy‑saving measure became a permanent reshaping of American timekeeping. Railroads had pushed for standardization for decades; Congress finally made it law.

7. In 1920, the U.S. Senate rejected the Treaty of Versailles again. President Wilson wanted the U.S. to join the League of Nations. The Senate refused - twice - choosing isolation over internationalism. The decision shaped American foreign policy for the next two decades and arguably helped set the stage for World War II.

8. In 1931, Nevada legalized gambling. In the depths of the Great Depression, Nevada took a gamble of its own. Legalizing casinos was meant to boost the economy; instead, it transformed the state’s identity and eventually created Las Vegas as a global symbol of spectacle and excess.

9. In 1941, The Tuskegee Airmen’s 99th Pursuit Squadron was activated. The first Black military aviators in U.S. history began their service under segregation, scrutiny, and doubt. Their combat record in WWII helped dismantle racist assumptions within the military and paved the way for desegregation in 1948.

10. In 1962, Bob Dylan’s debut album was released. The album was mostly traditional folk songs, recorded quickly and cheaply. It barely sold. But it introduced a voice that would reshape American music, politics, and protest culture within just a few years.

11. In 1979, the U.S. House began formal consideration of the ERA extension. Congress had already passed the Equal Rights Amendment in 1972, but not enough states ratified it by the deadline. In 1979, lawmakers debated extending the deadline to 1982. It still fell short. Where it stands now: Nevada (2017), Illinois (2018), and Virginia (2020) eventually ratified it, reaching the required 38 states. Legal and procedural disputes mean the ERA remains unrecognized at the federal level.

12. In 1991, NFL owners stripped Phoenix of the 1993 Super Bowl. Arizona voters had refused to establish Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a state holiday. The NFL responded by pulling the Super Bowl, a rare moment when a sports league took a public stand on civil rights. Arizona reversed course in 1992.

13. In 2003, The Iraq War began. The U.S. launched airstrikes on Baghdad, beginning a war justified by claims that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction. Those weapons were never found. The conflict reshaped U.S. foreign policy, destabilized the region, and continues to influence global politics and veterans’ lives today.

Sources include the National Archives, the U.S. Senate Historical Office, the National Park Service, Encyclopaedia Britannica, the Nevada State Museum, the Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site, and contemporary reporting from the New York Times and BBC News.

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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 951st time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday. Or so sayth the Blogger counter, anyway.

Thursday Thirteen #950

Things that March teaches you -

1. Patience, because the ground thaws when it’s ready and not a day sooner.

2. Timing, because there a narrow space between too early and too late. Plant too early, you lose your seedlings. Wait too long, and the heat will burn them.

3. When to wait, especially when mud or weather would only punish you for pushing ahead. Take a tractor through a muddy field and you'll pay for it later when you have to mow.

4. When to act, catching the small openings March gives you before they close again. That means grabbing a warm day to clear the weeds from the garden or a wet day to catch up on reading.

5. How to read mud, because its color, its pull, all tell a story about the week that was and the week that will be.

6. How to read sky, noticing which clouds mean “go” and which mean “wrap it up.” Stay too long and you'll find yourself in an early thunderstorm.

7. How to read yourself, the places where winter still lingers in your body. You'll know it by the ache in your bones.

8. The value of a good list when everything feels half-started. It's so easy to forget that you've already bought zucchini seeds.

9. The value of ignoring that list when the day rearranges itself. Take the time to forget the list and watch the sunset. There's enormous value in that soft beauty.

10. What’s predictable: the same gates, the same low spots, the same chores returning on cue. They're rather endless on a farm. Actually, they're endless in life, they just change their shape.

11. What never is predictable are surprises, equipment breakdowns, fast-brewing storms that rewrite the day.

12. What returns, like green grass, birdsong, light in the evening, and the sense of a year beginning again.

13. What doesn’t return, like the birds that nested in the tree that fell over during the ice storm, and how to keep working with what remains, like what to do with those broken limbs.

_________________

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 950th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday. Or so sayth the Blogger counter, anyway.

Thursday Thirteen

I used to play guitar in a cover band in high school from about 1978 to 1981. We went out on weekends and played in bars, Moose lodges, VFW halls, volunteer fire department buildings - wherever. That was how we made our money as teenagers instead of working at fast food places that really weren't in existence in our area then.

We had a great time. Sometimes I hear songs come across Alexa and remember that we did them. 

We had a set list of over 40 songs with a good rotation - usually two disco/dance songs, a slow dance, then two disco/dance songs, etc. Our sets were about 45 minutes long, or about 10 songs a set, with four sets during the evening, usually. 

Here are 13 songs that I remember we played:

1. Lyin’ Eyes, by the Eagles. This was one of those songs that settled the room before the real dancing started. Easy harmonies, steady rhythm, and a warm way to open a night in a Moose lodge or VFW hall.

2. Reunited, by Peaches & Herb. This was a guaranteed slow‑dance moment. Couples drifted out, arms around each other, and the whole hall softened into that late‑70s glow.

3. I Will Survive, by Gloria Gaynor. The women always hit the floor first for this one. The band locked into the groove, and I sang harmony like muscle memory. I still like to play this song.

4. Tragedy, by the Bee Gees. This was a song I sang lead vocals. It was an ambitious song for a high‑school band. Those falsetto peaks were a thrill and a challenge every time.

5. Do Ya Think I’m Sexy, by Rod Stewart. This was another song I sang. I only sang maybe 5 of the 40; the lead singer did most of the work with me singing backup and harmony. This song was playful and a little cheeky. I remember we played in front of the intermediate school and we did this one, and my former English teacher took me aside afterwards and said she couldn't believe I could belt out a song like that.

6. Heart of Glass, by Blondie. This song was a perfect blend of rock and disco. The beat kept the dancers happy, and the guitar‑and‑keys mix made it fun to play. Mostly I had the vibrato up on the guitar and hit the low E string a lot.

7. Bad Girls, by Donna Summer. The bass player’s whistle made this one unforgettable. A tiny prop, but it turned the song into a moment, and it was the kind of thing people remembered and laughed about later. I can still hear him blowing on that whistle and trying for the higher note with it at the end.

8. Babe, by Styx. This was a sentimental slow dance that gave everyone a breather. Our keyboardist sang this song; I think it was the only one she sang. The lead singer and I would have harmonized with her. "You know it's you, babe." We played it soft, steady, and right in the pocket.

9. Play That Funky Music, by Wild Cherry. This one always took a lot out of me because it is a lot of fast guitar movement. But it was a floor‑filler every single time. The groove was simple but satisfying, and the whole band got to lean into it.

10. Hot Stuff, by Donna Summer. This was disco with a rock edge and perfect for a live band. We could push the tempo a little, and the dancers loved it.

11. Another One Bites the Dust, by Queen. This is when the bass player shone. That opening line alone could pull people to the floor, and the whole room felt the pulse of it.

12. My Life, by Billy Joel. This song was bright, upbeat, and a nice change of texture in a mostly disco‑leaning set. A song that kept the energy up without overwhelming the room.

13. China Grove, by The Doobie Brothers. This was my best lead‑guitar song. It was fast, tight, and full of those riffs that feel good under the fingers. A rock anchor in the middle of all that disco heat, and the song I always prayed I didn't mess up because the guitar was prominent in it.

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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 949th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday. Or so sayth the Blogger counter, anyway.

Thursday Thirteen

Some things in the world show us that resilience is everywhere, even in people, and that no matter how hard, mean, dirty, or disgusting the world can be, life and love endure.

1. Moss on stone grows where it shouldn’t, softening the hard edges of the world one green inch at a time.

2. A Tree with a lightning scar has a visible wound, but the trunk and the leaves keep lifting toward the light.

3. River can find new paths when blocked. The water doesn't argue, it simply curves, deepens, or widens until it can move again.

4. A candle flame that stays steady in a draft is a small, stubborn brightness that refuses to be talked out of existing.

5. A worn footpath shows a route that isn't carved in a day but instead shaped by return and consistency, that quiet insistence of coming back.

6. A spiderweb after rain hangs heavy with droplets, maybe it sags a little, but it still holding its pattern, still catches the light.

7. A seedling pushing through asphalt is a reminder that life doesn’t always wait for permission.

8. A mountain ridge shows the long patience of standing still, maintaining your stance, being strong and unyielding in the face of the whims of weather. 

9. Birds that return to the same branch or nest each year show a small act of faithfulness to place, repeated without fanfare.

10. A well‑mended quilt shows that repairs don’t hide the past; they make the whole thing stronger, stitch by stitch.

11. A lighthouse in fog is doing its work whether anyone sees it or not, steady in its purpose.

12. The tide always comes back. It retreats as part of its rhythm, but that's not the end, it's a part of the movement of change.

13. The first green shoot after winter is a quiet declaration that the season has turned, even if the air hasn’t caught up yet.

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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 948th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday. Or so sayth the Blogger counter, anyway.

*An AI tool helped me put this list together.*

Thursday Thirteen

For today's Thursday 13, I offer up a list of misheard lyrics:

1. “Blinded by the Light” – Manfred Mann’s Earth Band
For years, I heard it as “Wrapped up like an edition of the Roller in the night,” which honestly sounds like something out of a surreal 1970s magazine spread. The actual lyric is “revved up like a deuce, another runner in the night,” with “deuce” referring to a ’32 Ford coupe. Once you know that, the line finally makes sense — but the misheard versions are far more fun.

2. “Tiny Dancer” – Elton John
“Hold me closer, Tony Danza” has become a cultural touchstone. The real line is gentler and decidedly not about a sitcom star. The real line is "Hold me closer, tiny dancer."

3. “Bad Moon Rising” – Creedence Clearwater Revival
“There’s a bathroom on the right” is so common that Fogerty has leaned into it onstage. The real lyric warns of trouble, not plumbing. The real line is "There's a bad moon on the rise," although I have misheard it as "There's a bad moon on the right," myself.

4. “I Can See Clearly Now” – Johnny Nash
Many hear “I can see clearly now, Lorraine is gone,” as if poor Lorraine had been the problem all along. It’s the rain that’s gone, not a person. "I can see clearly now, the rain is gone," is the actual line.

5. “We Will Rock You” – Queen
Some listeners swear they hear “Kicking your cat all over the place.” It’s “can,” not “cat,” though the beat makes it easy to mishear. The actual line is "kicking your can all over the place."

6. “Like a Virgin” – Madonna
The misheard “Like a surgeon” became so iconic that Weird Al turned it into a full parody. But it's really, "like a virgin."

7. “Africa” – Toto
The line about blessing the rains often morphs into “I miss the rains” or “I guess it rains,” depending on the listener’s expectations. The line is "I bless the rains down in Africa,"

8. “Every Time You Go Away” – Paul Young
“You take a piece of meat with you” is a surprisingly common mishearing. It’s “me,” not “meat,” though the vowel stretch invites confusion. "You take a piece of me with you," is the real line.

9. “Dancing Queen” – ABBA
Some listeners hear “You can dance, you can die,” which gives the song an oddly ominous twist. The real lyric is “You can dance, you can jive,” but the bright delivery blurs “jive” just enough that the ear sometimes takes a darker detour.

10. “Livin’ on a Prayer” – Bon Jovi
The line about making it “or not” sometimes becomes “if we’re naked or not,” which is . . . a different kind of struggle.

11. “Desperado” – Eagles
A subtle one: some listeners add an extra “to” at the end of the final line, softening the urgency and changing the rhythm. The real lyric is “You better let somebody love you before it’s too late,” which lands more firmly without that extra syllable the ear wants to sneak in.

12. “Rapture” – Blondie
Debbie Harry’s rapid-fire delivery turns “man from Mars” into “men from bars” and “eating cars” into “eating corn” for many listeners.

13. “Bohemian Rhapsody” – Queen
That fleeting moment where it sounds like the mother might be the one who “killed a man” — an easy mishearing in the operatic swirl. The line is, "Momma, just killed a man," except the comma doesn't seem to make it into the song.

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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 947th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday. Or so sayth the Blogger counter, anyway.

*An AI tool helped me put this list together.*

Thursday Thirteen

1. Charles Darwin was born on February 12, 1809, in Shrewsbury, England. A Georgian‑era childhood in a riverside market town shaped his early sense of the natural world. His birthday twin was Abraham Lincoln. These two men would reshape how people understood humanity, each in his own sphere.

2. Darwin came from a wealthy, intellectually curious family. Darwin’s mother, Susannah Wedgwood, grew up in a household where reading, debate, and curiosity were encouraged. His father, Dr. Robert Waring Darwin, was a respected physician in Shrewsbury. He was surrounded by wealth, as the Wedgwood's were famous for their pottery and the elder Darwin had a thriving medical practice. Dinner conversations were the kind where ideas were treated as living things. Ideas were examined, debated, passed around like bread.

3. He was the fifth of six children. Being neither the eldest nor the baby gave him a kind of middle‑child freedom. He roamed, collected beetles, and followed his own fascinations without the pressure of inheriting the family profession.

4. His mother died when he was eight. Her absence left a quiet imprint on him. His older sisters stepped in, creating a household where he was both cared for and gently encouraged to pursue his odd little passions.

5. He studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh. He was supposed to follow his father into medicine, but the reality of 19th‑century surgery, including no anesthesia and no antiseptics, horrified him. He drifted toward natural history instead, spending more time in tide pools than lecture halls.

6. He later attended Christ’s College, Cambridge. Officially he was preparing for the clergy, but unofficially he was falling in love with botany, geology, and long walks with professors who saw his potential. Cambridge is where he learned how to observe with intention.

7. His voyage on the HMS Beagle changed the course of science. Five years at sea gave him a world’s worth of specimens, landscapes, and puzzles. The Galápagos finches, the fossils in South America, and the shifting coastlines fed the slow‑burning idea that species were not fixed.

8. He waited more than 20 years to publish On the Origin of Species. Darwin knew his theory would challenge religious and scientific orthodoxy. He hesitated, revised, and gathered evidence. When Alfred Russel Wallace independently reached the same conclusion, Darwin finally stepped forward.

9. His theory of natural selection transformed biology. He proposed that small variations, accumulated over generations, shape the survival of species. It was a radical idea at the time, a thought that life is not static but constantly adapting, responding, becoming.

10. His scientific curiosity ranged far beyond evolution. Darwin wrote about coral reefs, earthworms, orchids, barnacles, emotions, and human behavior. He was a synthesizer who saw connections across disciplines long before “interdisciplinary” was a word.

11. He married his cousin Emma Wedgwood. Their marriage was affectionate, intellectually rich, and sometimes strained by his health. They had ten children, several of whom became scientists, engineers, or artists. For example, his son George Howard Darwin (1845–1912) was a a distinguished astronomer and mathematician who was knighted for his work on the evolution of the Earth and Moon system.

12. Darwin received some of the highest honors in science, including The Royal Medal, the Wollaston Medal, and the Copley Medal. The recognition from institutions that had once been skeptical of his ideas showed that his peers eventually understood the magnitude of what he’d done.

13. He is buried in Westminster Abbey, near Isaac Newton. This is a quiet, astonishing honor: the naturalist who explained life’s unfolding placed beside the physicist who explained motion and gravity. It’s a symbolic pairing of two thinkers who changed how humans understand their place in the universe.

wallpaperaccess.com

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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 946th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday. Or so sayth the Blogger counter, anyway.

Thursday Thirteen #945

Things That Exist for No Good Reason

1. The tiny pocket inside the bigger pocket on jeans.

2. The plastic “window” on envelopes that never lines up with the address.

3. The perforated edges on frozen‑food boxes that never tear cleanly.

4. The little paper circles hole‑punchers spit everywhere.

5. The twist‑ties that come with every loaf of bread even though no one uses them correctly.

6. The cardboard tube inside wrapping paper that immediately collapses.

7. The stickers on fruit that require surgical precision to remove.

8. The extra button sewn into shirts that never matches anything you own (except maybe that particular shirt).

9. The plastic tabs on milk jugs that serve no purpose except to fall into the sink.

10. The “open here” arrows on packaging that point to the strongest glue known to humankind.

11. The cardboard sleeves on hot takeout cups that never stay put.

12. The fake drawers under kitchen sinks that taunt you with their uselessness.

13. The tags on throw pillows that are longer than the pillow itself.

_________________

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 945th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday. Or so sayth the Blogger counter, anyway.

Thursday Thirteen

Things I Love About Living Where I Live

1. The way the mountains hold the horizon, always steady, familiar, and never showy. They're just there like an old friend.

2.  Mornings shaped by cattle sounds drifting in from the fields, grounding the day before anything else can intrude.

3.  The particular winter quiet that settles over the valley, softening everything to a gentler pace, especially during a snowfall.

4. How the light changes room by room as the day moves, turning the house into a sundial of small comforts.

5. The sense of lineage in the land, because I know generations of my kin have walked, worked, and tended these same ridges.

6. The simple little hand lift from the steering wheel the neighbors do from their cars and trucks, even if you don’t know their names, because that’s just what you do here.

7. The smell of woodsmoke in cold weather, a kind of unofficial county perfume.

8. The rhythm of seasons that actually feel like seasons, each one with its own rituals and chores.

9.  The night sky that still remembers how to be dark, full of stars you can actually see.

10.  The comfort of familiar roads, winding and imperfect, but always leading home.

11. The small-town kindnesses like holding open doors, leaving extra tomatoes and zucchini at the back door, and knowing that we look out for each other.

12. The way history lingers quietly, not as spectacle but as lived memory in buildings, fields, and local stories.

13. The feeling of being rooted, not stuck, because this place knows you, and you know it back.

_________________

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 944th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday. Or so sayth the Blogger counter, anyway.

Thursday Thirteen

A list of small domestic joys -

1. A freshly made bed on Saturday night.

2. Brand new socks fresh from the dryer.

3. A cup of hot chocolate.

4. Solving a problem of multiple appliances with an outlet strip.

5. The moment when the dishwasher hums and we head off to bed, where we fall asleep holding hands.

6. The blanket that I wrap up in every evening while I read a book.

7. Finding the scissors that belonged to my great grandmother and knowing that once again, I haven't lost them.

8. The soft thump of clean laundry landing in the basket.

9. A lamp turned on in a dark room, making its own little pool of safety.

10. The smell of cake baking in the oven.

11. A trash bag that ties neatly on the first try.

12. The quiet click of a door latching just right.

13. Waking up to the sounds of my husband moving around to head out early to feed the cattle, and the brush of his lips as he kisses me goodbye.

_________________

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 943rd time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday. Or so sayth the Blogger counter, anyway.

Thursday Thirteen

Yesterday, January 14, 2026, was the 50th anniversary of the premiere of The Bionic Woman. I can't believe the show has been around for that long. I remember sitting entranced in front of the TV watching Jamie Sommers jump and save the day. I rewatched the show this summer and discovered many things about the show that the young pre-teen girl watching wouldn't have noticed. Here are a few facts about this show as it celebrates its longevity in popular culture:

1. The series was created by Kenneth Johnson, who also worked on The Six Million Dollar Man. His knack for blending character-driven drama with high‑concept sci‑fi shaped the tone of both shows.

2. It was based on the 1972 novel Cyborg by Martin Caidin. While the book was darker and more militaristic, the TV adaptation softened the edges and made room for emotional storytelling.

3. Jaime Sommers was played by Lindsay Wagner, whose grounded, empathetic performance helped define the character. Wagner’s approach emphasized humanity over heroics, which became the show’s signature strength.

4. The show originally aired on ABC from 1976–1977 before moving to NBC for its final season. That network jump was unusual at the time and showed just how popular the character had become.

5. The series ran for three seasons and produced 58 episodes. Despite its relatively short run, it left a cultural footprint far larger than its episode count suggests.

6. Jaime Sommers began as a professional tennis player before her life‑altering skydiving accident. Her athletic background made her transformation into a bionic agent feel both plausible and poignant.

7. Her bionic upgrades gave her super strength, super speed, and enhanced hearing. This made her one of TV’s earliest female superheroes. The show treated these abilities with a mix of wonder and restraint, keeping Jaime relatable even at her most powerful.

8. The character was originally intended to die in her first appearance on The Six Million Dollar Man. Viewer response was so overwhelming that the producers rewrote her fate, essentially willing her back to life.

9. The show blended action‑adventure with emotional storytelling, often exploring Jaime’s struggle to maintain a normal life. Episodes frequently balanced spy missions with the quieter challenges of identity, recovery, and belonging.

10. Richard Anderson and Martin E. Brooks reprised their roles from The Six Million Dollar Man, creating one of TV’s earliest shared universes. Their presence helped knit the two shows together long before crossovers became a franchise staple. Lee Majors, The Six Million Dollar Man himself, also guest starred in a number of episodes.

11. The Bionic Woman was one of the first series to center a female action hero without camp or parody. Jaime wasn’t a sidekick, a joke, or a novelty. She was the story, full stop.

12. The series inspired a generation of girls who saw Jaime as a model of competence, compassion, and independence. Many fans still talk about how she shaped their sense of what women could do and be on screen.

13. Lindsay Wagner won an Emmy Award for her performance, which was and still is a rare honor for a sci‑fi action series. Her win validated the show’s emotional depth and set a precedent for genre performances being taken seriously.

Did you watch The Bionic Woman?

*An AI tool helped me create this list, mostly because you can't get away from the things in a search now.*

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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 942nd time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday. Or so sayth the Blogger counter, anyway.

Thursday Thirteen

These are the number one songs from the first week in January 1976! Fifty years ago.

1. “Saturday Night” by Bay City Rollers. The song that convinced an entire generation that spelling S‑A‑T‑U‑R‑D‑A‑Y was a personality trait.

2. “Let’s Do It Again” by The Staple Singers. A smooth, grown‑up groove that absolutely did not mean “let’s do the laundry again,” though that’s how adulthood interprets it now.

3. “Love Rollercoaster” by Ohio Players. Proof that in 1976, even romance required seatbelts and a height requirement.

4. “I Write the Songs” by Barry Manilow. Barry, sweetheart, you didn’t write this one — but we admire the confidence. (The song was written by Bruce Johnson, a member of the Beach Boys.)

5. “Fly, Robin, Fly” by Silver Convention. Three words. That’s it. That’s the whole lyrical budget. And somehow it still slaps.

6. “Theme from Mahogany (Do You Know Where You’re Going To)” by Diana Ross. A song that asks the same question adulthood does every morning before coffee.

7. “Fox on the Run” by Sweet. For when you want glam rock but also need to be home by 9.

8. “That’s the Way (I Like It)”by KC & The Sunshine Band. Disco’s answer to “don’t overthink it.”

9. “Convoy” — C.W. McCall. A novelty CB‑radio trucker anthem that somehow became a national mood. America was weird, and honestly, charming. What happened to us?

10. “Eighteen With a Bullet” by Pete Wingfield. A song title that sounds like a crime drama but is actually about chart positions. The 70s were nothing if not dramatic.

11. “Nights on Broadway” by Bee Gees. Falsetto so sharp it could slice bread. Also the soundtrack to at least three unwise romantic decisions.

12. “Sky High” by Jigsaw. A breakup song disguised as a motivational poster. You think it’s uplifting until you listen to the lyrics.

13. “Over My Head” by Fleetwood Mac. Christine McVie quietly carrying the entire emotional weight of the decade, as usual. My favorite on this list, although I like "I Write the Songs," "Theme from Mahagony," and "That's the Way," too. Just not as much. It's hard to beat Fleetwood Mac when it comes to songs and bands I enjoy.

*An AI tool helped me create this list, mostly because you can't get away from the things in a search now.*

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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 941st time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday. Or so sayth the Blogger counter, anyway.

Thursday Thirteen

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

1. Some years, January 1 shows up warm enough to open a window, the kind of day that tricks you into thinking winter might be gentler this time.

2. Other years it arrives with frozen pipes and that first “we made it through the night” cup of coffee, the one that feels like a small victory.

3. It’s usually the quietest morning of the year. There is little traffic, no deliveries, just birds reclaiming the soundscape.

4. Out here, the calendar doesn’t impress the animals. January 1 still means feed buckets, hay bales, and the same routines as yesterday.

5. The empty mailbox is its own kind of holiday. No bills, no flyers, no demands. Just a metal box taking the day off.

6. It’s the day when people either take down the Christmas tree or decide they don’t have the emotional bandwidth for that yet.

7. Leftovers become the whole menu, and sometimes they’re better than the original meal — the flavors settling into themselves overnight.

8. A lot of households do a deep clean, not because of resolutions but because clearing a surface feels like clearing a mind.

9. Even laundry feels different on January 1. It can be more like a ritual of renewal than a chore.

10. There’s something about writing the first date in a new calendar that makes the year feel both wide open and slightly intimidating.

11. TV marathons take over the day, the familiar comfort of parades and old shows filling the background like a soft landing.

12. Gyms unleash their loudest ads, but most people stay home, at least for this day.

13. Newspapers run their “Year in Review.” I always enjoyed writing these - it was fun to look back at the stories I had written and see what was important to the community throughout the year.

Thursday Thirteen

Merry Christmas to you and yours! May your day be filled with love, comfort, and joy.

It's Christmas Day! I thought I'd go back to 1973, when I would have been 10 years old, and see what I might have found under the tree. (Confession: I really don't remember what I received that particular year, but it could have been some of these.)

1. Barbie with one new outfit - or maybe just an outfit.

2. A small set of plastic farm animals (because the real ones were outside)

3. Jacks or pick‑up sticks - I had both. I was very good at Jacks back in the day.

4. View‑Master with reels

5. 64‑count Crayola box

6. Paint‑by‑number kit

7. Spirograph set

8. Nancy Drew book

9. Diary with a tiny lock

10. Craft kit (potholder loops, embroidery floss, etc.)

11. Small AM radio

12. Cassette recorder

13. Warm gloves or mittens

How about you? Any idea what you might have received when you were 10 years old?

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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 939th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday. Or so sayth the Blogger counter, anyway.

Thursday 13

Now I'm going into podcasting! My podcast will be called Freezing and Wining. I will need to find a wine lover as a partner, though. Here are some of the proposed episodes. What do you think? 

Freezing and Wining

A podcast pairing weather complaints with wine language, frozen desserts, and mild absurdity.

1. Crisis Coco - Emergency weather whining, paired with Chardonnay and a frozen hot chocolate situation that defeats the point. Includes existential angst stirred in with a whisk.

2. Storm Cellar Stories - Exaggerated storm memories, paired with Syrah and rocky road ice cream. Optional side note: includes dramatic reenactments using a hair dryer.

3. Almanac Apocalypse - The end of traditional weather forecasting after the collapse of the Farmer’s Almanac, paired with Cabernet Sauvignon and Neapolitan ice cream. Listener discretion: may include unsolicited conspiracy theories.

4. This Wind Has Notes of Hostility - Burgundy with dark chocolate gelato. With undertones of passive-aggressive sidewalk commentary.

5. Sunny but Structurally Cold - Sauvignon Blanc and lemon sorbet. Served with brief but intense eye-rolling at neighbors’ optimism.

6. The Forecast Overpromised - Rosé with strawberry sherbet. Includes a small panic about whether it will actually snow next week.

7. This Is a Full-Body Chill - Cabernet Sauvignon and espresso ice cream. Garnished with minor resentment toward your own coat.

8. The Sun Is Decorative Only - Riesling with mango sorbet. Pairs well with sighing at the audacity of a sunny day that offers no warmth.

9. Cold Enough to Make You Rethink Your Life Choices - Bordeaux and salted caramel ice cream. Also includes one regrettable decision made while shivering.

10. Snow That Refuses to Melt - Barolo with hazelnut gelato. Perfect for muttering poetic curses at the recalcitrant white stuff.

11. Wind Chill as a Personality - Syrah and dark chocolate ice cream. With subtle undertones of judging the entire street for leaving their trash bins out.

12. Why Is February So Long? - Zinfandel with cookies-and-cream ice cream. Served with a side of deep sighs and vague muttering about time dilation.

13. Spring Is Theoretical - Late Harvest Riesling and frozen chocolate cream pie. Pairs excellently with whispering sweet nothings to a calendar.

*An AI tool helped me with this list because, well, I know absolutely nothing about wine because I don't drink.*

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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 938th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday. Or so sayth the Blogger counter, anyway.