Thursday Thirteen

1. Autumn is the time of year for change!

2. Most noticeably are the leaves. Brilliant oranges and bright yellows. I wonder if the reds this year will be muted or spectacular?

3. The grass starts dying out, too. Thank goodness we don't have to mow the yard so much!

4. The deer are starting to rut. The bucks are moving from spending time with each other to seeking out the does. The does are busy ignoring them for the moment, as it is still too early in the date...

5. The drop in temperature is also quite noticeable. Nothing like those chilly nights.

6. Those chilly nights mean fires in the fireplace. A glass of wine and time with my baby!

7. The advent of Autumn also means football. Rah! Rah! Go Big Red!

8. It also means the return of school. Classes have been in session since August, of course, but for some reason this time of year I miss being in a classroom. The camaraderie, the smell of pencils and paper, the joy of learning - Fall brings all of that to me in a rush.

9. Autumn also means the return of winter gourds. I like to buy acorn squash and other kinds of squash and see how best to prepare them. Sometimes I cook them up like a sweet potato and put some brown sugar and butter on them. Yum.

10. Autumn also means locally grown apples. Ikenberry Orchards has an apple called Ginger Gold that I think is wonderful. It's like a cross between a Golden Delicious and a Granny Smith. It's a very sweet apple. I bet it would make a really good caramel apple, although it might be too sweet.

11. And then there are pumpkins. My goodness what would we do without the jack-o-lantern to brighten door stoops and to give us pie?

12. This is also the time of ghosties and goblins and flights of fancy and imagination. As the dying leaves blow across the road, aren't you sure you saw horses pulling a stage coach as you shuffled along that dark and foggy road where someone was murdered?

13. And then of course there is HALLOWEEN! Boo!



Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; you can learn more about it here. My other Thursday Thirteens are here.

When You Are Allergic

My allergies rule my life.

I am allergic or sensitive to a great many things. I do not react always in an expected manner.

I don't just sneeze and get watery eyes. I wheeze and sometimes end up sick for an entire month.

When I was last tested for allergies, which was two years ago, I tested positive for everything in my environment. Dust. Mold. Mildew. Animal dander. Trees of all kinds (oak, pine, etc.). Every grass except for some kind of Asian stuff.

You know, all the things around us.

Animals bother me a lot. Dogs are bad, cats are even worse. While they may make my eyes water and make me sneeze, the ultimate result can be much worse than that. They also make me wheeze, and then I start getting hoarse. My lymph nodes in my neck swell.

If I'm very unlucky I will get laryngitis for a month and not feel well that entire time. This used to happen to me about three times a year until I figured out I need to stay away from places that have animals.

Milk also makes me wheeze if I have too much of it. I can tolerate it in small doses, like in an occasional piece of cheese, but too much and there it goes. Wheeze. Wheeze.

This time of year it's goldenrod and ragweed that sends me into spasms. We have a lot of goldenrod near the house and if I walk through a stand of it when it blooms, well, there's another round of wheezing and the potential for laryngitis.



Because of my allergies, I had to stop researching a book I was working on back in 1994. I needed to spend a great deal of time in the archives at the university in Charlottesville. Unfortunately every time I went to do my work, my asthma kicked in so badly that I had to leave.

I eventually gave up and abandoned the project.

Old homes often bother me (they may be clean but there is often mold which no one seems to smell but me). I love to do these stories, so I try to do them in the summer, when I can spend more time outside than in (and I must hope they haven't just mowed the yard). This does hamper my work sometimes.

Perfumes are a killer. When I go into a major department store, I literally hold my breath and hurry through the perfume area so I don't have to reach for my inhaler. All of my friends know not to cover themselves in smelly-goods if they're going to ride in my car or spend time in my home. Otherwise they get to watch me cough and wheeze.

And cigarettes? I do my best to avoid smoking restaurants and areas where smokers stand. I have a few friends who smoke but none who do it around me, thankfully.

When I am out and visit someplace where there are smokers or perfumes or animals, I rush home and take a shower, regardless of time of day. That helps, I think, because it opens up my sinuses immediately and gets the cigarette smoke or the animal dander off my body.

My allergies apparently started at birth. My mother did not breast feed and I turned out to be allergic to my formula. And then of course I was allergic to cow's milk.

I ended up being raised on goat's milk. My mother used to tell me I smelled like little nanny goat for the first year of my life.

Baahh. Baahh.

Organizing

Since I write and publish a lot of articles for newspapers(38 last month, 16 already this month and it's only the 7th!), I collect a lot of paper.

I have been doing this off and on since 1985, so as you can imagine this adds up to more than a bit of paper. It is A LOT of paper.

For a long time I collected the papers and plopped them in boxes, the entire edition. Recently I went through about 10 years worth and cut out only the articles I wrote and tossed the rest of the pages.

This cut three storage boxes down to one. But the articles are just tossed into a large plastic storage box and aren't in any order. And of course having cut them out, they are oddly shaped and won't fit into a notebook or anything.

I have plans for some of the items. My columns, for instance, I hope to type back up and eventually create a book to give to family. Once that's done I can throw away the originals, I suppose, although I would like to keep them someway.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to manage such a volume of papers?

Psalm 73

Yesterday morning I went to visit the great aunt. She lives 45 minutes a way, so this tends to be an all-morning jaunt for me. I visit several times a month.

Poor Aunt Susie now resides in an assisted living facility. She is quite unwell and my aunt and uncle, who are caring for her and her affairs, have called in hospice.

She does not always remember who has been to see her or who is in front of her. Some of the relatives she no longer knows if they drop in for a visit, particularly those who do not visit often.

Me, she always knows, though sometimes she'll say, "Oh, it's Anita, ... isn't it?" when I drop by. (Actually she calls me by a childhood nickname which will never be revealed on this blog.)

When I entered her room yesterday she was all wrapped up in a blanket and sweater. It was sweltering in her room, but she stays cold. I can last about a half hour before the heat starts making me wheeze.

Since she cannot hear well and does not always remember, it is difficult to converse. Much of the time is passed in silence. During those times I often wonder what she is thinking or remembering. The days of her youth? Is she missing someone? Is she in pain?

Of all the members of our family, Aunt Susie was the most dedicated church-goer. Members of her congregation drop in to see her often, for which I am grateful.

Yesterday she asked me to read to her from the Bible. The book was old and musty, making my eyes water. I thumbed through it. "Do you have a favorite passage?" I asked.

She said no. "Just open it and read," she advised.

I opened the book to Psalm 73. As I read, I could not help but think of the world today and the perils and issues we face. So I have put the psalm below to see if anyone else sees similarities. Are we indeed a species doomed to continually repeat the same mistakes over and over and over again?


Psalm 73
BOOK III : Psalms 73-89
A psalm of Asaph.
1Surely God is good to Israel,
to those who are pure in heart.
2 But as for me, my feet had almost slipped;
I had nearly lost my foothold.

3 For I envied the arrogant
when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

4 They have no struggles;
their bodies are healthy and strong.

5 They are free from the burdens common to man;
they are not plagued by human ills.

6 Therefore pride is their necklace;
they clothe themselves with violence.

7 From their callous hearts comes iniquity;
the evil conceits of their minds know no limits.

8 They scoff, and speak with malice;
in their arrogance they threaten oppression.

9 Their mouths lay claim to heaven,
and their tongues take possession of the earth.

10 Therefore their people turn to them
and drink up waters in abundance.

11 They say, "How can God know?
Does the Most High have knowledge?"

12 This is what the wicked are like—
always carefree, they increase in wealth.

13 Surely in vain have I kept my heart pure;
in vain have I washed my hands in innocence.

14 All day long I have been plagued;
I have been punished every morning.

15 If I had said, "I will speak thus,"
I would have betrayed your children.

16 When I tried to understand all this,
it was oppressive to me

17 till I entered the sanctuary of God;
then I understood their final destiny.

18 Surely you place them on slippery ground;
you cast them down to ruin.

19 How suddenly are they destroyed,
completely swept away by terrors!

20 As a dream when one awakes,
so when you arise, O Lord,
you will despise them as fantasies.

21 When my heart was grieved
and my spirit embittered,

22 I was senseless and ignorant;
I was a brute beast before you.

23 Yet I am always with you;
you hold me by my right hand.

24 You guide me with your counsel,
and afterward you will take me into glory.

25 Whom have I in heaven but you?
And earth has nothing I desire besides you.

26 My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart
and my portion forever.

27 Those who are far from you will perish;
you destroy all who are unfaithful to you.

28 But as for me, it is good to be near God.
I have made the Sovereign LORD my refuge;
I will tell of all your deeds.

INTP

Under the Myers-Briggs Personality Indicator, I am what is known as an INTP.

That's an introverted intuitive thinking perceiving person. It's not the most popular type of personality, with I think about 3 to 5 percent of the population testing as an INTP.

This means that I am of the absented-minded professor variety of people. I'm shy. I like facts. I think things can be made better somehow, if we just think about it hard enough.

I like to work alone.

I prefer details, which is why I am good government writer. I don't miss the small stuff though sometimes I think the entire forest might evade me.

I worry a great deal about being wrong and I worry the same amount about failing. That makes it difficult to move forward sometimes. It's a little like being mired in a mud pit with pythons all around. You know you need to jump but good golly what will you be jumping into?

Some famous INTPs are Socrates, Rene Descartes, Blaise Pascal, Sir Isaac Newton,James Madison, John Quincy Adams, John Tyler, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Gerald Ford, William Harvey (pioneer in human physiology),C. G. Jung, (Freudian defector, author of Psychological Types, etc.), William James, Albert Einstein, Tom Foley (Speaker of the House--U.S. House of Representatives), Henri Mancini, Bob Newhart, Jeff Bingaman, U.S. Senator (D.--NM), Rick Moranis (Honey, I Shrunk The Kids), Midori Ito (ice skater, Olympic silver medalist), Tiger Woods.

I'm not sure how they figured out some of those, seeing as how a few of those people have been dead a very long time.

Here is information on INTPs:

http://www.personalitypage.com/INTP.html
http://typelogic.com/intp.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/INTP
http://www.intp.org/intprofile.html

And here is a personality quiz if you want to find out what you are:

http://www.personalitytype.com/prequiz.aspx

This one is longer and probably a better indicator, although it puts me on the cusp of an INTJ (j=judging) instead of an INTP:

http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes2.asp

Ghost Moon & Kiss Me While I Sleep

Ghost Moon
by Karen Robards
Read by Dean Robertson
Audio
Abridged

This was a long book abridged so I can only imagine how long it was without that.

Olivia and her daughter return to Louisiana for a visit, the first in 11 years after the prodigal daughter left in a huff to hurry into a failed marriage.

Her arrival sets off a tizzy as her grandfather sees her, calls her by her dead mother's name, and collapses. Things go downhill from there.

Olivia tries to remember important details about her mother's death but fails. She also finds herself attracted to Seth, her step-cousin, who is engaged to be married.

Meanwhile, the author takes us into the past as a psycho kills little girls. Turns out he's still around and eventually he will come after Olivia's daughter.

This is a very moody romance mystery book. I had long figured out who the psycho was but even so it was good to have it verified at the end.

Kiss Me While I Sleep
Linda Howard
Read by Joyce Bean & Dick Hill
Audiobook
Abridged

Dick Hill is one of my favorite audiobook readers and I picked this one up simply because he was reading on it.

Lily is a rogue CIA contract agent who is killing for vengeance after the death of two of her friends and their adopted daughter. The daughter was a young girl she rescued and loved until she realized the child needed two parents.

Lily's vengeance extends to killing a mafia-type fellow, and then his family comes after her. She decides she still has complete the job by finding out what caused her friends to be killed in the first place.

The CIA, meanwhile, sends out Swain to take care of Lily. He rescues her during a shoot-out but never reveals that he is CIA. As things turn deadly, he decides to help her and worry about fixing the problem she created later.

They also fall in love with one another.

This is an interesting story of double-crosses and intrigue, some of which is probably very far-fetched. The readers made this a great and enjoyable experience and I applaud Hill and Bean for their efforts on this.

Thursday Thirteen

If I had $700 billion dollars to spend on the U.S. economy and I were in charge, here is what I would do with it:

1. Create a work program focusing on infrastructure. This would rebuild failing roads and bridges, shore up and extend water and sewer lines, etc.. This would put some people back to work and help the US stay strong.

2. Add rail lines where necessary under the same program to take vehicles off the road. Same result, some jobs created. Also would help with transportation needs, energy, and pollution reduction once completed.

3. Create a rebate program for homeowners and businesses who added alternative energy items to their buildings. For example, if a homeowner added solar panels to the roof, they could apply for a rebate or reimbursement. It would pertain to things like window replacement, adding insulation, etc. This would also put idle contractors back to work, creating jobs.

4. Put some money into alternative energy to support the above initiative. This would create a new job sector because of demand for solar panels, windmills, etc. This would reduce the dependence on oil and again, create jobs. And clean air.

5. Regulate the banks and a few other pertinent industries. Sorry dudes, but you have proven you're just greedy and unscrupulous - that is to say, human - and you can't be trusted to police yourself.

6. Do whatever is needed to shore up the electric grid, including cleaning up the plants, extending and repairing lines, etc. The utilities would have to become publicly owned and would operate as non-profit. They should do that anyway, you know?

7. Implement a health care system that would include not only coverage but construction. Building more hospitals and then staffing them would be a priority.

8. Rework the welfare system. For one thing, create a network of childcare facilities that operated on a sliding fee scale. This would give jobs to some of the mothers who can't work because they have children to work in these daycares, and the availability of daycare would allow some of the single moms the opportunity to find work.

9. Rework the way we care for our old people. Create a similar kind of care network as number 8 for the elderly so we can take better care of our vulnerable old folks. As part of this as well as number 8 and number 7, there would be lots of assistance for folks who want to go into personal care, nursing or medicine so the hospitals when built would be adequately staffed.

10. Lower the fees to higher educational facilities or offer more grants, whichever would work best. People need to learn stuff.

11. Restaff government programs like the National Park system, which since privatized has become only a shadow of itself. It can't keep up with the Blue Ridge Parkway, which badly needs some trimming, or anything else. This would also put some people back to work.

12. Take the tax exempt status away from churches, then offer financial assistance to the charitable programs that help those in need.

13. Stand back and see how this all worked and then adjust as needed.

I'm sorry that this doesn't sound like our present system. This would be my version of the New Deal, I suppose, which got us out of trouble the last time. It worked before.

Don't we need change? What we've been doing has worked so well, hasn't it? All this angst and agony and constant fear and tribulations. All of these people out of work and who are cold and hungry. Don't you think it's time to try something new? If we have to hand over this kind of money, why shouldn't everyone benefit, and not just a few?


Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; you can learn more about it here. My other Thursday Thirteens are here.

Project Censored

I ran across this article today:
Project Censored
The top 10 stories the US news media missed in the past year.

Some scary stuff in here. I will post a few bits and pieces but I strongly urge everyone to take a look at the entire article.

These are the top unreported stories in the past year. Things that we should know but don't, in other words. The stories generally have to do with war, presidential grab of power, and loss of civil liberties.

The stories are:

1. HOW MANY IRAQIS HAVE DIED?
...even more astounding is that so few journalists have mentioned the issue or cited the top estimate: 1.2 million. ...

2. NAFTA ON STEROIDS

.. the Security and Prosperity Partnership... was formed in secret, without public input...It's a coalition of private companies that are, according to the SPP Web site, "adding high-level business input [that] will assist governments in enhancing North America's competitive position and engage the private sector as partners in finding solutions."

The NACC includes the Chevron Corporation, Ford Motor Company, General Electric, Lockheed Martin Corporation, Merck & Co. Inc., New York Life Insurance Co., Procter & Gamble Co., and Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. ...

3. INFRAGARD GUARDS ITSELF

The FBI and Department of Homeland Security have effectively deputized 23,000 members of the business community, asking them to tip off the feds in exchange for preferential treatment in the event of a crisis....

4. ILEA: TRAINING GROUND FOR ILLEGAL WARS?

5. SEIZING PROTEST

Protesting war could get you into big trouble, according to a critical read of two executive orders recently signed by President Bush....

6. RADICALS = TERRORISTS

On Oct. 23, 2007, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed — by a vote of 404-6 — the "Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act," designed to root out the causes of radicalization in Americans.... This redefines civil disobedience as terrorism...

7. SLAVERY'S RUNNER-UP

Every year, about 121,000 people legally enter the United States to work with H-2 visas, a program legislators are touting as part of future immigration reform. But Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) called this guest worker program "the closest thing I've ever seen to slavery."...

8. BUSH CHANGES THE RULES

...
According to the three memos:

"There is no constitutional requirement for a President to issue a new executive order whenever he wishes to depart from the terms of a previous executive order. Rather than violate an executive order, the President has instead modified or waived it";

"The President, exercising his constitutional authority under Article II, can determine whether an action is a lawful exercise of the President's authority under Article II," and

"The Department of Justice is bound by the President's legal determinations."...


9. SOLDIERS SPEAK OUT

... in March, when more than 300 veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan convened for four days of public testimony on the war, they were largely ignored by the media....

10. APA HELPS CIA TORTURE

Psychologists have been assisting the CIA and US military with interrogation and torture of Guantánamo detainees — which the American Psychological Association has said is fine,...


***
Like I said, read the entire thing for yourself.

The Pumpkin Patch

The Guardian in Roanoke

A reporter from The Guardian, a major British paper, is visiting Roanoke to see what the real people of America think about the election.

Check it out:

The Guardian in Roanoke

The Big Game Show

Saturday we woke in Harrisonburg to rain. Many of our plans or potential plans had involved outdoor things, such as perhaps going to Natural Chimneys.

We ditched those plans since the weather was not cooperating. Instead we took a long drive around the countryside.



The Shenandoah Valley has large farms on it. Some of the fields were black with cattle. Other farms specialize in poultry, especially chickens and turkey. Others are dairies.

We were actually looking for a specific event, a Harvest Festival that was supposed to be at a Mennonite and Brethren Heritage facility. However we never found it.

Later we went shopping to see what Harrisonburg had to offer, and then we went back to the motel room.

I watched The Bee Movie, which I found to my consternation had quite a message to share, i.e., the rich need to stay rich and the poor need to stay poor because its better to leave things alone.

Nothing like being beaten over the head with capitalistic ideals in a cartoon movie. Whatever happened to a story for the story's sake?

The next day we rose early and then headed for what was truly the entire reason for this weekend:


The Virginia Big Game Show, Western Region. This is a collection of deer heads, a competition for the hunters.

My husband had no entry this year but he likes to see the racks. I think this puts him in the mood for the upcoming hunting season or something.

I don't really see the point in it but I suppose I do many things that he doesn't understand, either.

We spent time wandering around there and then went to a gun show in Fishersville. It was not the best gun show we've ever been to so we soon headed home.

And boy was I glad to get back in my own little bed in my own little house on my own little hill! Going away is always fun and interesting, but truly there is No Place Like Home.

Field of Lost Shoes

Friday we left home and headed north. Aside from a four-day weekend in Asheville, we've had no other vacation and this was a trip to help clear our heads.

We had reservations in Harrisonburg, VA even thought that's only a two-hour drive away from home.

Our original plans were to go to Luray and tour the Luray caverns. However, my issues with my heel spur were such that we didn't think caving was a good idea, even if it was a commercial cave. I was afraid I would find it difficult.

Unfortunately for us but fortunately for the soil, it rained, which played a role in our trip.

Friday we traveled up Interstate 81 in downpours. We arrived in Harrisonburg a little after lunch. It was too early to check into the hotel so we decided to go to New Market.

Our destination was the New Market Battlefield Historic State Park. This is an historic civil war battlesite and there are quite a number of these in northern Virginia.



The Hall of Valor museum offered up an hour-long movie about the Battle of New Market with a focus on the cadets from Virginia Military Institute who fought there. VMI is a small piece down the road from New Market, though it would be several days of walking or marching.



As I watched the film I began to recognize names. Earlier this year I had written a book review of The Liberty Hall Volunteers, a reprint of a 1964 book about VMI's efforts in the Civil War.



The book had confirmed for me the horrors of war as it offered a view of the travesty based on letters from soldiers who once were VMI students.

In a chapter titled “Dirty, Ragged and Barefoot” the author uses the letters of Ted Barclay, one of the Liberty Hall soldiers, to great effect. Barclay is hungry, practically naked for want of clothes, and starving for the comforts of home. Barclay is an expressive writer and his situation dire:

“I have had on my clothes for nearly a month, my pants are nearly worn out… I feel lonesome sometimes with the few of us who are left …The rest I suppose are captured. I wish that when you send the clothes that you would send me a small Bible if you can get one. My Testament got wet and is torn all to pieces.”

Later letters complain because he has not received new clothes from his family. “If it is in the range of human exertion I wish you would send me the clothing, you cannot imagine my condition. I have no seat in my pants, the legs are worn out, have had but one pair of socks which are worn out completely, my shirt is literally rotted off me, but I was so fortunate as to get a white shirt and a pair of drawers, which both are now so lousy that I can scarcely bear them.”

The movie emphasized some of this but the New Market battle was rather early in the war so the poverty of battle had not yet crept in.

Instead, there was blood shed as the Confederates swirled around the Bushong farm outside of New Market in order to confront the Union Soldiers.

The date was May 15, 1864 and it was raining. One of the newly-plowed fields became a mire of muck for the Confederate soldiers.

Many lost of their shoes in the mud and went on to fight their battles barefoot. The field became known as the "Field of Lost Shoes" and it is visible today.

The Confederates won this battle.

Because it was pouring, we did not tour the fields or the farmhouse, but even so we spent an interesting couple of hours learning about this small part of our state's history.

Weekend Getaway

We took off to the upper Shenandoah Valley on Friday, taking a few days to get away from work.

Had it not rained most of the time we might have seen some very interesting sights, but as it was we spent much of our time dodging mudpuddles.

Since we were there to "rest" it didn't really matter.

Hopefully after I've gone through a couple hundred emails and downloaded my photos, etc., I'll have something interesting to post!

Greed is Greed

“Rules are rules and greed is greed. What a sad world we live in!”

That’s not my quote. I read it in one of what must be thousands of citizens’ letters to the State Corporation Commission. The writer was opposed to three rate hikes that Appalachian Power Company presently has pending before the SCC.

Only one of the requests presently remains open for public comment.

This particular request asks for a 23.9 percent increase in rates. That means if your light bill is $100 a month now it will go to $123.90 if the rate increase is approved.

I was on the SCC website for an unrelated matter when the sheer numbers of APCO opposition letters caught my eye.

I glanced through several hundred of them. Of those, I saw only one letter in favor of the rate increase, and that was from a physician who worried that he would be in the middle of an important procedure only to have the power go out. I can see where that might be a concern.

Many of the letters are form letters, stating only “I oppose this rate increase.” There are also several petitions, each with hundreds of signatures.

A lot of the opposition comes from far southwestern Virginia. Folks down there appear to have organized against higher electric rates. At least one Board of Supervisors for one of Virginia’s poorer counties has put in a request for no rate increase, too.

Heartfelt letters, some written by hands so shaky the writing is barely legible, caught my eye as I flipped through the documents online.

I’ll let some of these folks speak for themselves:

“If Appalachian Power gets an increase many of us will either stop taking our medication or freeze this winter.”

“I live on a fixed income of $530.60 as do a lot of widows and widowers.”

“I am 81 years old and my wife is 76. We both have been very ill here lately. My wife has really had a tough time of it. With several cancer operations. We are both retired and social security only pays us small checks. We cannot pay any more money for electric power.”

“I am married with 2 children and my husband is disabled... currently we live on 652.00 a month. I can barely afford my normal light bill of $70 a month, let alone have to pay for an increase. My light bill this past month was $102 and I had to forgo my car payment just to be able to cover my light bill... barely surviving now.”

“We are a one income family with two children. With the economic problems everyone is facing we simply cannot afford to pay more for basics such as electricity.”

“My wife and I are both disabled and we are living on a low fixed income. We would like to ask (no beg) you not to approve the increased rate that Appalachian power co. is asking for. Because of the high prices for gas, food and medicine, etc. it is hard for people like us to make ends meet.”

“Me and my husband are 72 and 73 years of age. He has terminal asbestos related cancer. Our income has not let us fill our oil tank for three years. We do not get any assistance. We relied on electric oil filled radiators to get us through the last two winters. We cannot afford the large increases. He will have to have more heat this winter if he survives. I do not know what will happen if you pass this increase on to people like us.”

I wouldn’t want to be an SCC examiner, responsible for reading all of these letters and making a determination that somebody isn’t going to like.

Hard economic times don’t just hit folks who have lost their homes due to nefarious banking methods or who have lost money in the stock market. When the bad hits, it hits everyone, and the folks who have the least often end up on the worst end of hard situations.

They’re also the ones we don’t hear much about, which is why I wanted to share some of these comments with you. The current economic climate is having a terrible effect on the poor, which in this country includes an awful lot of elderly people. I wanted to get that out in the open.

If you are interested in commenting on Appalachian’s proposed 23.9 percent increase, pro or con, any easy way is to visit http://www.scc.virginia.gov/case/PublicComments.aspx and look for case number PUE-2008-00046. The SCC provides a form for easy commentary on cases where it solicits public opinion.

Be aware that the form asks for your name, address and telephone number. This information will be made available to the power company and will also be available on the same part of the SCC website where I found the above comments.

You can also submit written comments to Joel H. Peck, Clerk, State Corporation Commission, Document Control Center, P.O. Box 2118, Richmond, VA 23218-2118. Be sure to reference the case number PUE-2008-00046 in your comments.


This column originally appeared in the September 24, 2008 edition of The Fincastle Herald.

Thursday Thirteen

1. spending time with husband

2. blue.

3. reading a book

4. writing an article

5. playing computer games

6. looking out the window

7. taking photographs

8. making up a blog entry

9. eating chocolate

10. spending time with my friends

11. studying history

12. daydreaming

13. relaxing

Do you know me well enough to know what these things are? (This is pretty easy!)

Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; you can learn more about it here. My other Thursday Thirteens are here.

Some Calm

I need me some calm, ma'am
to take away the pain and the pounding
and the thumpa thumping in my head.

I need me some calm, mister
to ease the whine and the winding
and the twisting turning of my soul.

I need me some calm, daughter
to send me on back and then falling
and onward tumbling into my past.

I need me some calm, son
to give me a desire and a yearning
and the time and the trembling

to move on.

Autumn 2008

So here it is again, the time of year for colorful mountains, changing weather, pumpkins, pie, breezes and chills.

Time for the smokey smell of fireplaces, football, sweaters, hot chocolate and popcorn.

What will it bring this year, I wonder?

Snows at Thanksgiving?

More hurricanes and turmoil? Maybe a little rain to ease the drought?

What will the wind blow in, I wonder? Or what will it take away?

The seasons turn, babies are born, people die... cycle through, cycle on. It doesn't stop, this ol' world, this earth, this love.

Poof

And just like that, another weekend is gone.

So what did I do that was so engrossing that I couldn't blog?

Nothing. I didn't blog because my head these days is so full of stuff that sometimes when I go to write my fingers stop working. Too many words.

What I did do was stay home on Saturday, and I spent my time cleaning the house. My house is not a dirty place but it does get cluttered, particularly with catalogues and books and similiar things. So I sorted and tossed and dusted and in general things look much better and I was gratified.

Saturday night, with poor choices for TV, we played the Wii. We played the DECA sports game and in particular enjoyed the snowboarding and the motorcross racing.

Then we pulled out the Wii Play disc, where we laughed a lot as we raced one another on the backs of cows.

As we were putting things away, something slid from the pile where I'd put all the Wii things until I could find a storage box.

It was a disc. Odd. A disc I'd not seen before, still unopened in its package.

It was the Wii Sports disc that I thought was supposed to come with the Wii (the one with bowling and golf and tennis) but hadn't found. Apparently we'd overlooked it and the angels decided we should find it.

Sunday we went to Roanoke. First we went to the nursing home and visited my great aunt. She was feeling better than the last time we saw her and I was grateful for that.

Then we went to Walmart in Salem and then to Macadoo's for a sandwich.

After we ate, we went to Home Depot, Sportsman's Warehouse, Sam's Club and Gander Mountain. Then we visited my sister-in-law and her husband and my nephews.

Then we went by the grocery store.

Whew.

I was worn out by the time we made it home. After dinner we played with the Wii Sports disc a while. Then my husband read some things he is reading for work and I read a book and then we fell into bed.

I, of course, had vivid dreams all night long last night.

I dreamed that I had taken allergy medication as prescribed and then for some reason I drank an entire glass of whiskey - straight. Then I worried that if I fell asleep I would die from the chemical reaction, so I was going around telling everyone not to let me go to sleep.

Is it any wonder I woke up a little tired this morning?

Quote

"We will have achieved equality the day mediocre women take their place beside mediocre men. Check that one off the to-do list." - Ellen Goodman, September 19, 2008, The Roanoke Times

Study: Mushroom

Except for the first one, which is merely cropped, these photos were modified with MS Picture It!

Thursday Thirteen

I love where I live.

1. I love the small county seat.



2. I love the people in the small county seat, too. I have relatives who live there and I have many friends and acquaintances. Most of the county employees know me by name and will stop me for a chat in the street or in the hallways of the courthouse.


3. I love the landscape.



4. The thing about the Blue Ridge Mountains is that they are majestic. They aren't craggy (or crabby), either. They don't blow up with volcanic activity, they don't often have rock slides and the the theory is they help keep down tornadic activity. They are even high enough for skiing.

5. The change of the seasons is on display out the window. Spring flowers, summer green, autumn fire, winter snow blanket. What more could you want from your mountains?


6. I love that we live on a farm.



7. Living on a farm gives you a great appreciation for nature. You live the seasons - haying in late spring, summer, early autumn. Planting at the right time. Watching the animal and plant signs for the weather because that's about as accurate as the weatherman. Learning the value of a dollar because they're hard to come by.

8. I love the deer. They remind me to be curious and cautious.



9. The deer also remind me of the value of life, particularly during hunting season. While I really hate that the animals are killed I know there is justification for it. We eat the meat if my husband takes a deer. Everyone we know does. I know there are a few bad hunters but I don't believe they are the majority.

10. I love the turkeys. They remind me to always keep moving. Or else I might end up as Thanksgiving dinner!



11. I love that I have strong roots here that go back to before 1804 and that I can trace one line of my family tree back to the American Revolution.

12. I love that I have found work here that I enjoy and do well. How many people can really say that, I wonder?

13. I love that while this is a relatively rural area, it's suburban enough to give me access to great things like the Internet. Isn't technology great?



Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; you can learn more about it here. My other Thursday Thirteens are here.

The Afternoons

I really hadn't intended to bore anyone with the minute details of my day, but I suppose I may as well finish what I started.

My afternoons vary. I try to schedule interviews in the afternoon. Sometimes I do research in the library or courthouse. Occasionally I research at my desk on the Internet.

Otherwise, I do laundry, return phone calls, catch up on email. Sometimes I work on articles, particularly on Mondays when I have deadlines.

Other times I work on a book project I have been making some progress with.

Many evenings I have a night meeting. I attend a lot of council meetings and such, so I try to keep my afternoons open on those days.

Today, for instance, was a little topsy turvey because I will be in a council meeting tonight. I don't particularly want to work 15 hour days, after all.

So this morning I saw a client and then visited my acupuncturist. After that I stopped by the grocery store. After I unloaded my haul and ate a salad, I ventured into the county seat for a look at courthouse records, a conversation or two with officials, and a stop by the newspaper office to see if my editor had any comments to share.

By that time it was 4 p.m. and I have been home an hour. Soon I will fix dinner and then I'll head to a nearby small town for the council meeting tonight.

If I didn't have a council meeting, I would be fixing dinner and then doing housework, maybe playing a little video game to relax, and then reading a book or magazine until bedtime while my husband flips through the TV channels.

I try to be in bed by 10 p.m. but it doesn't always work out that way. Some nights I don't get there until 11 p.m.

At 6 a.m. tomorrow morning, I'll start it all over again. Except I won't have acupuncture, of course.

Another Morning

My days all generally begin the same way.

I get up at 6 a.m., give or take 15 minutes, almost every morning, even on weekends.

I put on my robe and trundle into the kitchen to fix myself a cup of tea, and while the water boils in the microwave I do stretches for my plantar fasciitis.

My husband, who rises at 5 a.m. regardless of day, has already fixed his own breakfast and brought up the newspaper. He'll kiss me and be gone long before I am fully awake.(I tried the good wife thing when we first married but I broke so many dozens of eggs that he told me to just stay in bed.)

Tea in hand, I come into my office where I check my email, read a few news articles, answer a couple of friends who have written overnight. Sometimes I write a blog entry if I've something on my mind or I'm not too busy.

At 7 a.m. I try to exercise. I was doing very well at this but it has waned over the summer. This is mostly because of the problems with my left foot and the heel spur, which makes walking on the treadmill practically unbearable. I've been trying to lift weights and ride a recumbent bike instead but I am not as good about that as I was walking.

So some mornings I spend longer at the computer. By 8 a.m. I am in the shower. Then I fix my breakfast (some morning eggs, some morning rice cereal, occasionally a gluten free waffle) and read the newspaper. I can't start my day without reading the comics and seeing if there are stories that happened overnight that I might need to follow up on myself.

After I eat, I quickly empty the dishwasher and load my husband's dishes as well as my own. Then I toss a load of clothes in the washer.

Then back to the computer. I check my tasks and then it's off to write. Mostly I write articles for the paper these days; I am quite busy.

At some point I take a break to put the clothes in the dryer or hang them on the clothes rack to dry.

I try to work until at least noon. That's three hours of writing every day.

And that's pretty much how it is in my life until lunch time.

Stephanie Plum Meets the X-Men

Plum Lovin'
By Janet Evanovich
Copyright 2007
164 pages

Stephanie Plum's friend Diesel, who is some kind of freaky not-exactly-superhero, asks for her assistance. She has to become a relationship expert and help five people find true love by Valentine's Day.

The men in her life, Morelli and Ranger, do not make much of an appearance. Lulu does, though, along with Stephanie's family.

I won't go into plot but this was a quick read - I think I finished it in an hour and a half. It is like all of Evanovich's books: swift, to the point, and able to raise a smile.

This is a "between the numbers books" which means I suppose that Evanovich didn't find it full enough for her regular series but didn't want to dump the writing, either.

The Wii

About three weeks ago, my husband and I stood for an hour outside of Best Buy in order to buy ourselves a Wii.

We have an XBox (the first version, not the 360) but it's hard to find games for that anymore. We hadn't used it in ages.

I wanted the Wii Fit game but so far have yet to make that purchase too. It apparently is as hard to come by as the Wii console itself.

I have noticed all the peripherals for Wii are very expensive, including the things you need for the Wii Fit. I did not do my homework very well before we bought the Wii, having succumbed to my need and desire to exercise and being bored by present routine and seeing the commercial of people happily doing yoga with their Wii.

So this was for all intents and purposes an emotional purchase and not a rational one.

By the time we bought the Wii ($250) and a crossbow thing ($25) and a Wii Play game which had an extra controller ($50) and a Cabella's Trophy Bucks video game ($50), we spent $400 on this wee bit of entertainment.

I have since bought a sports game that has ten different sports on it and Laura Croft's Tomb Raider's Anniversary for another $50 "investment".

The Wii Fit, whenever I finally get it, will add at least another $100 to the price of this thing.

And it's amazing what I don't know about it. I don't know how big a hard drive it has on it. I don't know, therefore, how many game saves the thing will take before it starts telling me it's out of memory.

Because I didn't really research it well, I don't know exactly what games are available for it, although a look at list on Wikipedia indicates that while there are a good number many are not the kinds of games I really like to play.

I like RPGs like Morrowind or Fable. I don't care much for shoot-'ems like Halo or weird games like Sonic Hedgehog or even the Mario and Donkey Kong games, which seem to be staples for anything put out by Nintendo. They haven't gotten past that for 20+ years.

I also like puzzle games and brain games that make you think. My husband likes racing games and deer hunting games.

I haven't put the first game save on the Wii for the Laura Croft game, which means I haven't played it much. My husband and I both have played the Trophy Deer game all the way through its 96 different hunts and then some, however. He is greatly enjoying that game, which certainly counts high in my estimate of the purchase.

We put this system in the living room which makes it much more accessible. However, it is not on our 42 inch TV but rather on a 26" TV because we couldn't hook the thing up to the 42" TV screen without making radical changes to our DVD/DirecTV setup and then having to hook and unhook wires every time we wanted to play or watch TV. Anything that was that much trouble would have been swiftly set aside.

The XBox, by the way, was on this small TV but it was located in the bedroom I use for my office. This change has made the gaming system more accessible, anyway.

So we now have two TVs in the living room, one on each side of the fireplace.

I do not think buying a Wii was a bad purchase, and I think we'll get enjoyment and kill a few hours with it, particularly since we've taken to trying to stay home more because of the price of gasoline. But I can't say that it is the best, most rational and appropriate purchase I have made in a while.

Oh, and this is also, I guess, our 25th wedding anniversary present to one another, even though our anniversary isn't until November.

Bull Stuff

Yesterday morning as I began work a noise caught my attention.

It was a low rumble, so low in the bass that I felt it in my belly as much as heard it.

Ummmm. Ummm.

Whatever was that? I wondered. I listened a moment.

It was the bull.

I hurried outside to stand on the front porch because for the first time our bull and the neighbor's bull were in sight of each other. Our neighbor fenced off what used to be a hay field and moved her cattle over there.

In the fog and close early morning hours, the sound of the bulls bellowing at one another was echoing off the house.

Umm. Umm. They both made a very low guttural noise.

Our cows had all stopped eating and were looking at the two bulls. I was reminded of a schoolyard with two bullies going at each other while everyone else stood around and watched them fight.

Suddenly, one of the bulls could stand it no longer!

Miii...nee! Mii... neee! Miii...neee! If you've never heard an angry bull bellow, well. I can hardly describe it. Very loud, very angry and very constant for at least a full minute.

I don't know of course what the bull is "saying" if anything, but it certainly sounds like a very low "Mii...neee!" to me. As in, Mine, Mine Mine! My herd, my women, you get the #@$ away from here!

I was very worried that the electric fence, hot on both sides of the wires, would not be working properly and the animals would get at one another. But thankfully after a while the two males tired of their game and went on about their business.

I didn't get any pictures because it was damp and drizzling and they were not close enough to the house for me to take a shot without getting my digital camera wet, which I did not wish to do.

Remember 9/11

September 11 Thursday Thirteen

1. On this day in 2001, I, along with most Americans, watched a plane crash into the second tower. Shortly thereafter, I watched the towers collapse in a swirl of dust, debris and screams.

2. My main thought was of the firemen who I knew were climbing the steps and making valiant efforts to rescue the folks trapped inside. The towers' collapse killed 343 firefighters.

3. In all, 2,974 people died in the attacks that occurred in New York City and at the Pentagon in Washington D.C. That number also includes the passengers of United 93, which did not hit its target but instead crashed in a field in Pennsylvania.

4. Our office closed at lunch time, as did many others. No one could work anyway.

5. I came home and watched footage of the event over and over again. My husband was not at the firehouse but he was working at his second job installing septic tanks and I couldn't reach him to tell him what had happened.

6. After a while I came into my office and I played a puzzle game while the images settled in my mind and I tried to come to grips with what had happened.

7. A feeling of helplessness settled over me and I think it settled over much of the nation. For many it hasn't yet gone away. It left many feeling emasculated and I don't believe that has yet been assuaged.

8. Most of the world stood by the USA while she grieved the loss of her citizens.

9. Air travel was suspended and the following afternoon I stood with a friend and looked up. Neither of us had ever seen the sky so pure and unmarred by jet trails.

10. The government used the attacks as a reason to implement the USA PATRIOT ACT, which abolished many civil liberties, including the right to check out what you wanted from a library without being turned into the police if somebody thought it was suspect.

11. The government also began spying on emails and telephone conversations and doing other Big Brother things.

12. The US led a coalition into Afghanistan. That war continues though not well reported.

13. The attacks are a sober reminder for me of how badly the US government sometimes behaves in world relations, how poorly some citizens of this world think of this country, and how hard our people work and pray and play.

September 11 also reminds me that all in the world are a part of the circle of life. Everyone, regardless of race, color or creed, deserves a chance to live. That includes bankers in the World Trade Center and Iraqis huddled in their homes during bombings in Baghdad. I pray for peace every day and for wisdom in the leaders who hold the decisions for such things in the palms of their hands.

My hope is that one day issues will be resolved without bloodshed and tears, and that the world will lose its hatred for one another and embrace love.

I wish that love, not vengence and revenge, had been the lesson learned from September 11, 2001.


Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; you can learn more about it here. My other Thursday Thirteens are here.

A Dangerous Game

One of my nephews, Emory, is the quarterback for LBHS this year. It is his senior year; I suppose this makes him big man on campus.

His brother, Chris, is a freshman at LB and he is playing JV football. He is number 45 (above) and is some kind of linebacker or blocker.

During the Hidden Valley game last Friday, the oldest nephew took a hit to the head and received a concussion. He was hauled from the game via ambulance. His doctor has told him he can't play for two weeks. This boy also took a blow last year in the shoulder that ultimately ended up causing him to have surgery to have part of rib removed in January because of a blood clot.

Earlier this week, the younger nephew received a brain-rattling blow and now he also has a concussion.

Neither boy will be playing ball this week, I have been told.

Football seems like a very dangerous sport. I don't know if these boys aren't being taught how to perform properly which is why they're having these injuries or if something else is going on. Maybe they need different helmets?

In any event, I do wish they'd have taken up golf or swimming or track instead.

Jewelry Box Treasures

On my dresser next to the bed sits a very small jewelry box.


My grandmother, who passed away in June of last year, gave it to me when I was 12 years old. If you wind it and open the lid, it plays Somewhere, My Love.

I do not have jewelry in this box. Instead I have more precious treasures.


One of these treasures is a Silver Certificate dollar bill dated 1935. The story goes that when my mother was born in 1944, her first visitor gave my grandmother this dollar and told her to save it for my mother. She did, and after my mother passed away in 2000 my grandmother handed the dollar down to me.


These items are guitar picks and smashed pennies. The guitar picks were given to me by my paternal grandfather when he visited once from California.

The smashed pennies have a picture of San Francisco, which I visited in 1977,a picture of the Statue of Liberty, which I visited when I was 13, and the Lord's Prayer on the third.



These coins have various meanings. My maternal grandfather gave me the Kennedy half dollars. He handed them out on birthdays and other special occasions. Some of the coins are foreign, left over from my high school trip to Spain and France. Other coins simply have old dates.



This is a picture of a picture my paternal grandfather sent me that he painted in 1978. It is a Polaroid and it is beginning to fade.

These are my treasures, worth very little to anyone else but very meaningful to me.

Julie and Romeo Get Lucky

Julie and Romeo Get Lucky
By Jeanne Ray
Read by Jeanne Ray
7 hours
Copyright 2005 or thereabouts


This was a fun book to listen to. Julie and Romeo are an older couple whose family for the longest time had a feud. They owned competing flower shops.

But Julie and Romeo become a couple and Julie's daughter and Romeo's son are wed, so that feud is no more.

The book begins with Julie and Romeo feeling feisty. Romeo decides to carry his beloved up a flight of steps to the bedroom.

His back is not quite as willing as the rest of him. Down he goes and he's told to stay in bed and not move until he heals.

Meanwhile, granddaughter Sarah has developed a weird fixation on the lottery and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Hilarity ensues over the course of a string of events, all of which actually seem believable given the characters and situation.

I liked this enough that I might just have to seek out the first Julie and Romeo book.

3.5 stars

Weird Dreams

Lately I have been having eye-brow raising nights. A few nights ago I began thrashing in the bed and yelling. I woke up with my husband shaking me, going "Baby, wake up, wake up, you're dreaming." The whole following day was colored by that event even though I couldn't remember what I was dreaming.

Last night I dreamed I was in this huge house. Like the Biltmore but not.

A lot of it was in sad disrepair. An unknown man guided me through the house to show me the repairs. I think I was writing an article about it.

He was using snakes to repair the house. The snakes would slither across the walls and in so doing it would remove the mold and mildew or whatever and leave the tiles in pristine condition. It was innovative if not a little unnerving.

There were snakes everywhere, all supposedly trained not to bite and to move along in proper patterns for the required work.

Meanwhile, down in the basement there was a huge toy museum, with toys of all kinds. It was a noisy place but very eery because it wasn't open to the public yet and there was no one there. Just a lot of toys making toy noises. I remember a lot of monkeys playing the cymbals.

And then it grew dark, and I was trying to use the elevator but I couldn't because it was full of snakes.

I tried to find a light switch but something short-circuited and a fire started. The house was a huge dark maze full of snakes on the walls. I knew there were other people in the huge mansion but I didn't know where they were.

So I started yelling "Fire" as I raced through the halls trying to avoid the smoke and the snakes....

Whew.

One of my dream books says this about elements of my dream:

Snakes: This denotes sly enemies who will conspire against you and by whom you will suffer in your character and estate. (That isn't a good sign!)

House: To dream you are building a house foretells prosperity and success in trade. (I wasn't building it, though, so I guess someone else is going to proper).

Fire: A dream of fire denotes health, great happiness, kind relations and warm friends. But to dream you are burned with fire portends calamity. (Yikes! I wasn't burned but it was surely getting close!)

Darkness: Dreaming you are lost in darkness and stumble denotes a change for the worst - by imprudence you will dreadfully commit yourself. If you emerge and see the sun, you will ultimately be happy.

Sheesh. It looks like I am in for some bad days ahead, doesn't it, if dreams really do tell something... fortunately I have never found my dreams to be anything more than the sum of my worries. If I had to interpret this dream, I would say I am worried about having something I've written blow up in my face.

Thursday Thirteen: Great Things

1. Air. I am most reminded of it when I am having an asthma fit. The lack of it in my lungs makes me realize what a precious commodity it is.

2. Water. Some people claim not to like water. I love it. I like the taste of it and the feel of it on my tongue, particularly on a hot day. I greatly appreciate my showers, too, even if I am still timing them because I worry about the well.

3. Earth. Can anything replace the feel and smell of moist soil? Is there anything more solid and stable than the dirt beneath our feet? Who could ask for any firmer foundation?

4. Love. I can't see it but I feel it all the time, everyday, as constant as the beating of my heart. I know it's there but I don't know how I know. It is and it is wonderful.

5. Sustenance. I shouldn't list food but... one of the great joys of life is eating. A good dinner can be a great highlight of the day if not the week. Who can resist good yeast rolls or a fine drink or the best dark chocolate?

6. Laughter. Every time I hear someone laugh, I smile. Even if I am crying, if I can manage a smile I know it will be okay. Remember how during the funeral in Steel Magnolias, the women eventually burst out laughing in spite of their pain? It's the beginning of the healing when you laugh after a wound.

7. Touch. This is something none of us get enough of. A good massage - that'll cure your muscle aches and many other things. A great massage will leave tears in your eyes. A hug from a spouse or friend can take years of worry away from your mind.

8. Colors. The vividness of the sky in August. The palate of color in Autumn. Grass greening almost instantly after a good rain. A rainbow passing overhead. How dull would it be if we didn't have colors? How boring and unromantic and constant if the world was just all in one shade?

9. Books. Many people won't count this as one of life's great pleasures, but for me a day without reading ... seldom happens. I have to be very sick indeed not to at least read the news paper. Words are as important to me as water. They quench the thirst of my mind.

10. Friends. Friends kind of go up there with love but this special kind of love is different enough to deserve its own slot. What would we do without friends, without those joyous connections that say "see, there's another soul in the world and you two get along." What else comforts like a phone call from a friend on a bad day?

11. Music. The sound of a voice raised in song is blissful and heart-lifting. Even a sad song, bringing tears, offers a wondrous release. It's like a balm for the soul.

12. Crying. Maybe it's not the nicest thing in the world to experience, but who hasn't cried and then felt at least a tiny bit better for it? It's cleansing and releasing and everyone needs that sometimes.

13. Communication. The only way to connect with someone else, to step out of our aloneness, is through talking, writing, touching... any of the many ways we communicate and move one another. Connections are great gifts. I thank my blog readers for allowing me to connect to each of you.



Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; you can learn more about it here. My other Thursday Thirteens are here.

Let's Have a Dialogue

One of my readers left a long answer about issues with health care and then deleted the comment. I received it anyway as an email.

I will respect the author's anonymity because I enjoy his/her blog and I am not out to make enemies. That's easy enough to do when you're not trying.

But I would like to make note of two of the writer's points.

One - Medicare (along with the insurance industry) is the real root of the problem. Medicare only pays a fraction of the actual cost of service, so charges must be made elsewhere to compensate.

Two - many people have no insurance and cannot pay. They fall under charity care because they haven't the funds to properly pay their medical bills.

These are critical issues but I think they go much deeper than just health care. This is a very wealthy country but there an amazing amount of people can barely scrap by. An amazing number of folks sleep on sidewalks or roam the streets of the city because they have nowhere else to go.

There are oodles of people living in substandard housing, living with a leaking roof and shivering in the cold because they can't pay their bills. I know because I have been in some of those homes.

The real issue, to me, isn't health care but this dual standard of living. We have the very rich and the middle class. Then there's this ghost poor who no one talks about and addresses accept to acknowledge that they are a drain on the system.

I think it's time we try to do something to help these people. What would this entail? Would we ask the churches to stop building larger buildings and instead tend to the needy? Would that become a mandate?

Would we increase the funds from Social Security and other government entitlement monies to increase the standard of living from barely there to maybe having a little something? If we do that, how do we pay for it? Do we stop fighting wars and train those funds on the poor? Do we stop paying for public education? Do we raise taxes on those who can pay? And then how do we define who can pay? Just folks making over XXX dollars? Folks who manage to live within their means?

This country needs a major conversation on very important issues just like what I've described above. We don't need to talk about who's daughter is pregnant, which church someone does or does not attend and what Britney Spears has had to drink today. None of that matters to the nation. It shouldn't matter to anyone but the parties involved.

How we handle our less fortunate has a big impact on the country. FDR managed to bring an entire class out of a state of drowning by creating jobs - upgrades to infrastructure that are now today badly in need of repair. In Virginia alone we need millions and millions of dollars of road work that the state is unwilling to pay for.

There are sewer lines to be laid and water lines to be put down. Bridges need repairing. If we put people back to work - real work - imagine how different it might be. Folks could pay their E.R. bill, maybe.

Instead of tossing out $600 stimulus checks that do little, why not set up another Civilian Conservation Corps? Why not let people have a little pride and go about helping their country while they are also economically sustaining it?

It's time for talking about this sort of thing, folks. We need a plan. And then we need action. We need to find our footing again so we can all stand up proud, healthy and strong - each and every one.

I Love Nurses

I fear my last entry about Carilion and its bloody nose might have left the impression that I blame everyone associated therein and not the higher-ups.

I do not blame the non-administrative staff at all. I think nurses in particular have a very rough time of it. They perform a service I cannot. I envy nurses and the way they can compassionately soothe a fevered brow and make the world feel a bit better with a cool cloth.

It's not a touch I possess and I think it is a remarkable quality. I wish it was a quality in me but alas it is not.

The same goes for aids and radiology specialists and the vampires who draw blood and all of those other unsung health care workers who have to deal with body fluids and irate and irritable sick people. They are truly saints.

As for doctors, well, I don't always know about the doctors. Don't they have choices that others do not? Can't they, theoretically, put up a shingle and go into private practice anywhere? Instead it seems to me they have chosen to follow the money trail wherever it may lead them.

Even so, I understand there are pressures on doctors these days, what with malpractice insurance and the threat of lawsuits if you don't do this or that.

The problem maybe is in part the locale. Let's face it. How many Grade A Great Doctors are going to set up practice in little ol' rural southwestern Virginia? Not too many. I suspect we get the B listers and C listers around here. Not the sharpest tacks in the jar. Those folks are at the Mayo Clinic or someplace like that.

My aunt, by the way, is a nurse and I have the utmost respect for her. I think she has a very difficult job. And she is a very caring person.

I remember when I was in the hospital for surgery over 15 years ago how wonderful I thought my nurses were. They were attentive and thoughtful and they made me feel better.

That is what health care is supposed to do. The nurses do it. Some doctors do it. They make you feel better. But the system overall is broken and it doesn't do that. It does something else. It breaks my heart.

I See You

A Bloody Nose

Carilion, our health care behemoth, received a bloody nose from a Wall Street Journal article last week.

I have watched over the years as what used to be health care in the Roanoke Valley has degenerated to the point where it's more like a massive "make you sick" effort. While I know that the minions of nurses and even the lower-level doctors are doing their best to make the citizens of the valley healthy and happy, it is obvious to anyone with half a brain that their efforts are completely and totally undermined from the top down.

From the minute you pick up the phone to make an appointment until the time you finally write the last check for the bill, dealing with Carilion is, frankly, hell.

Trying to get an appointment at the local clinic is like navigating 36 feet ocean swells in the middle of Hurricane Gustav. You just can't do it well unless you're quite the expert captain, and not many of us reach that level when it comes to health system navigation.

Once you have an appointment, then you have to deal first with the support staff, some of whom I have had - honestly and truly - simply fall apart at the face of yet one more patient whom they couldn't deal with that day. Then you have a harried nurse who can't take your blood pressure without subjecting you to this horrid machine that pinches the crap out of your arm and leaves bruises.

Then in comes a doctor who's lack of attention is second only to the aloofness of the neighbor's cat. And for your three hours of time and your $40 copay you might get a prescription unless you need an antibiotic, in which case they will make you wait another five days and come back in because they fear they are over prescribing Z-packs these days. So that will cost you another $40 copay plus the copay on tests if you can convince them to actually check your white cell count. Not to mention another visit to hell.

I thought the scariest part of that article was the zeal with which Carilion goes after people who owe them money. They place judgements against 4,000 people ANNUALLY. And that's just in Roanoke City. That doesn't count Roanoke County, Salem, Botetourt, Bedford, Franklin - all of the surrounding communities. I daresay Carilion has a judgment against 10 percent of the area population at any given time.

I know from experience that they'll turn you over to a collection agency without blinking twice. My husband went to the ER two years ago with severe hives. He got them while he was at work and his superior insisted he go.

Seven months later, I received a nasty call from a bill collector saying we owed Carilion money. I had paid bill after bill for that particular visit - first the doctor, then some blood work, some other tests, the hospital itself, etc. etc., I think I made out a check to everyone except the laundry for the cleaning of the sheet on the bed my husband probably sat upon.

To make a long story short, somehow Carilion in its magnificence had managed to get our address right on everything but this one $40 charge, which somehow still had a rural route as the address. Of course we haven't had a rural route for about 20 years, so go figure where this came from.

For this, their error, they deemed it necessary to damage my credit and have me accosted by a bill collector when a phone call (or maybe a records check by someone with a brain in the office) could have cleared this up without the surliness.

I know Carilion saves lives. Many people would not be walking the streets, saddled with debt to the facility, were it not for their heroics. But to that I say, that is what they are supposed to be doing. That is their job.

And with the CEO making $2.7 million annually, I'd say they get paid for it fairly well, at least at the top.

So I say good for WSJ for giving Carilion a bloody nose. And to Dr. Murphy, who whines that Carilion can't take the blame for the country's broken health care system, I say to you, Sir, You are indeed the very reason it is broken.

Books: No Place Like Home

No Place Like Home
By Barbara Samuel
Read by Kristine Thatcher
Copyright 2001 or thereabouts

This is a nice little romance novel with well-developed characters. Jewel ran away from home to be with a guitar player and now 20 years later she returns with her son and a gay friend who is dying from AIDS in tow.

The book has some nice things to say about family ties and friendship as well as romantic love.

For a better synopsis, check out Amazon.

The 50th

August 22 was the 50th anniversary of my in-laws wedding.


We took them to dinner on Saturday, August 24.

That's my brother-in-law Gary standing with my mother-in-law Eunice. The young man sitting is my nephew Chris.




I knew I wanted to take a picture to put in the newspaper so I asked the guests of honor for a pose. That's Jimmy and Eunice.

That's my husband standing, my sister-in-law Jennifer in the back, and my nephew Emory sitting. We were waiting on our table in the main dining room.



I imagine by the menu you can tell where we went. I had shrimp if you need a hint.

We had originally planned a big party. The invitations were set to go out on July 15. They were in the envelopes and the stamps were next. And then on July 13 my mother-in-law broke her hip.

My husband and his sister canceled the party because they didn't know how well Eunice was going to get along. It probably would have been a stressful weekend for her.

Anyway, Happy Anniversary to Jimmy and Eunice.

Thursday Thirteen

In case you've wondered why my posting suddenly declined...

1. When you start shivering in the middle of the day and its 85 degrees outside and 72 inside, you start thinking something isn't right.

2. When the shivers get so bad you can't do anything but go to bed, you KNOW something isn't right.

3. When you spend the rest of thee day bowing to the porcelain throne, something definitely isn't right.

4. An inordinate amount of time sitting on the porcelain throne also indicates something isn't right.

5. When the cool tile in the bathroom floor feels so good you don't want to get up, but instead you just lay there, you know something isn't right.

6. Know that we know something wasn't right, what else did I learn?

7. Dreams made by fevered minds seem wildly colorful and profound. Unfortunately you can't remember them when coherence finally returns.

8. There is absolutely nothing better than the first gulp of ginger ale when you've been sick for hours.

9. The attention of a worried and fearful husband can make you rally if only because you don't want him to feel so bad that he can't make you better.

10. A shower can make you feel a whole lot better but a hot shower can zap your energy pretty quickly.

11. Trying to get back to work immediately after a day of sickness pretty much guarantees a second day of sickness.

12. A fever of 103 is nothing to laugh at.

13. My Chinese medicine doctor called every day to see how I was. We're still waiting on a return call from our clinic (which pays its CEO $2.7 million). Fortunately I don't need to talk to them anymore.



Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; you can learn more about it here. My other Thursday Thirteens are here.

Corn and Butterfly

Just Some Deer

Nature's majesty.

A late fawn streaks across the front yard (taken this week!)

Growing up (taken last week)