The Ball Game

Tuesday night we headed out to Vinton to watch the eldest nephew play the last baseball game of the season for Lord Botetourt.



Meet Emory. He plays shortstop. He is graduating from high school this year. In the fall he heads to University of South Carolina.

I am very proud.



That's his dad and his brother Chris, who turns 15 on Sunday. Happy Birthday, Chris!

I'm very proud of them, too. Chris will grow up to be the farmer of his generation, from the looks of it.



Despite our cheering, Alleghany beat the socks off of LBHS, and the nephew finished his last game at the high school level. Onward and upward to college!

What is it?

The other day I spied a doe laying in the field in the front.

I grabbed the camera, and about that time the phone rang.



As I stood snapping pictures, I saw something in the background. Since it was my husband on the phone, I explained to him I saw an animal I couldn't identify.




When I downloaded the pictures last night, I blew up the distant critter to see if I could tell what it was.



I'm pretty sure that is a BEAR!

The Unexpected

Hay fields are places that have more than grass.

They also harbor animals.

This week, with the sun shining down and the rains out of the forecast, the husband and his dad are cutting hay.

Animals in the field generally run away, but not always.

Young animals sometimes get caught in the machinery. I have heard tales of baby fawns getting mutilated in mowing machines. They hide in the tall grass and farmers simply can't see them.

Rabbits, groundhogs, etc. also have the same problem. They cower in fright and the machine gets them. The farmer can't see them.

This year a large bird of some kind laid eggs in the hay field.

Several of the eggs were crushed during mowing, but these were not. Of course the mother bird is nowhere to be seen and with her habitat gone she will abandon the nest.

My husband thinks these are wild turkey eggs, and if so that is very sad indeed. We love watching the wild turkey on the farm.

He brought them home to show me and then threw them out. No, we had no thoughts of eating them. Who knows how old those things are?

Sometimes stuff happens on a farm whether you want it to or not.

A Whole New World

When I found out 18 days ago that I would no longer be writing for the newspaper, a job I had coveted since I was 8 years old, I really thought my world had ended.

What would I do? What would happen? How would I pull my weight around the house? Contributing to the monetary account had always been important to me, and something I'd always done.

Thankfully the questions have now begun to dim. I still don't have a solid way to make a dollar but that is slowly losing its importance. I am gaining time and I am beginning to appreciate that. Now I have lots of hours to tend to my home, my yard, my garden. And most importantly, tender moments with my husband, not hurried smooches between interviews and government board meetings.

However, that doesn't mean I need to lose my skills and stop writing. A break is one thing. Stopping is quite another.

So I set today as my day to start ... something. As I write this (the night before, really) I still am not sure what that something will be. A writing project of some kind.

Maybe a new website.

Or a nonfiction book.

A poem. Or two.

Maybe that great American novel.

Or a memoir.

Something.

I have set myself a goal of spending two hours a day on a long-term project of some sort. Hopefully I will wake up with an idea of what that will be and by the time you read this I will be at the computer, working away. Then I will spend another two hours trying to find freelance work.

I won't be telling anyone about my long-term project, though, until I am well into it. I don't want to disappoint.

But do ask me how it's going, okay? Because it is good to know that someone cares if I fill my time with something other than soap operas or a video game.

It's kind of exciting, knowing I am on the cusp of a brand new day.

Spam Poem #2

The Charity Prince offered insight to guide
the possibilities in my private life.
No thanks, said I.
Nobody looks here.
Spice up your senses, earn more per week,
life can be better, the Prince urged.
Just one little click.
Relax and take your time.
This is helpful information.

Breathing life into my intimacy,
I bent my mouth close
to the ear of the supercharged desires
so my hot breath
could convey my message.
The thing I never knew existed, I whispered,
my lips caressing passionately the lobe
of my listener, is that I
am not to blame.


*Every line contains all or part of a subject line in one of the over 2,600 pieces of spam in my spam box.*

Pen Women

On Wednesday I attended a meeting of the Roanoke Branch of the National League of American Pen Women, a group I have been a member of for quite some time.

Our speaker was Rex Bowman, and I wrote more about it on the Pen Women blog, which I also maintain. You can read it here.

Becky at Peevish Pen is also a member of this group, along with Elena at Roanoke RNR. I think that is all the bloggers who are in there.

The Pen Women have opened up their 2009 Poetry Competition.

Here are the details:

NINTH ANNUAL POETRY COMPETITION

$100 First prize

Roanoke, VA – Virginia’s Roanoke Valley Branch of the National League of American Pen Women, winner of the 2009 Perry Kendig Award, is pleased to announce its 9th Annual Poetry Competition.

Proceeds from the Poetry Competition fund an annual scholarship, given to adult students who have returned to school.

Postmark deadline for entries is September 25, 2009. Cost per poem is $5.00; make checks payable to Roanoke Valley Branch, NLAPW. Prizes are $100, $75, $50 and Honorable Mention $5.

Rene Parks Lanier, Jr., Professor of English emeritus at Radford University, will judge the poems. Professor Parks served for many years as Poet-in-the-Schools at numerous Virginia counties and has been published in many small press and academic magazines. He also served five years as president of the Appalachian Writers' Association.

Poems are limited to 40 lines but may be on any subject and in any form. Please read the complete rules at roanokepenwomen.blogspot.com to ensure entry.

Generally, the rules are:
1) Only original, unpublished poetry accepted. Websites are considered publishing.
2) Submit two copies of each poem, typed on 8 ½" x 11" paper. Name, address and e-mail address on only one copy. No entry by e-mail. Incorrectly submitted poems will be disqualified. Poems and fees will not be returned.
3) Entry must be postmarked by September 25, 2009.
4) Winners will be notified by November 20, 2009.
Mail entries to:
Peggy Shifflett, Co-Chairman
700 Cherrywood Road
Salem, VA 24153

Good luck if you enter.

Daytrip

Yesterday my friend Leslie and I took a trip to the Green Valley Book Fair.

This is the second year in a row we've gone.

I forgot to take my camera, so that's last year's photo.

Green Valley is at Exit 240 on Interstate 81; it's about 90 miles to the north.

We left home around 8:25 a.m. and arrived at the book fair just before 10 a.m.

I had hoped to find some Tamara Pierce books but did not. I did find the second book in Clare Dunkle's Hollow Hills series, though.

I like to read young adult books as well as adult books. The YA books read quickly and are great for rainy Sunday afternoons. They go quickly, generally. Frankly, a lot of young adult books could be adult books. The only thing I find as a common denominator in young adult books is the youthfulness of the hero or heroine.

Here is what I brought home, along with the steeply discounted prices:

Creativity Notebook & Card Set ($6.50) which I did not purchase myself but Leslie bought and handed to me as a gift for driving because she saw me looking at it longingly but I put it down.

Wildwood Dancing, by Juliet Marillier ($3.50)

Close Kin, by Clare B. Dunkle ($2.50)

The Shakespeare Stealer, by Gary Blackwood ($2.25)

The Writer's Idea Book, by Jack Heffron ($3.50)

Tuck Everlasting, by Natalie Babbitt ($0.49)

Brave Enemies, by Robert Morgan ($3.50)

Finding Water, The Art of Perseverance, by Julia Cameron ($6.50).

I set myself a limit of $25 since I recently lost my main client and need to be thrifty, and I stuck with that. I could have brought home a lot more books, though.

Many of these will be donated to the library when I finish with them. I will probably keep the books related to writing/creativity. The library has long been the beneficiary of my book buying habits.

We wrapped up our tour of the Book Fair by lunch time, and headed to Dayton. This small town is just up the road a bit and has a wonderful Farmer's Market. We had lunch there, a plate of roasted vegetables and green beans with ham that was very good.

We shopped there for an hour and I picked up two quarts of McCutcheon's Apple Butter, which is my husband's favorite, and some chocolate.

Leslie bought a lot of stuff, including many Christmas presents, she said. I don't have any place much to store a significant amount of early Christmas presents at the moment.

Then we moved on the Shenandoah Heritage Market. I made no purchases here but Leslie bought rhubarb jelly and cherry jam.

During our drive up and back, we had lots of discussion about the changes in my life and what I should do now that I am not writing nearly full time for the local paper. I found this very helpful and I am grateful to Leslie for listening.

We arrived back home around 3 p.m., having made a rather quick day of it, really.

And last night in stormed and it rained about 1.5 inches in just about an hour!

Thursday Thirteen

Great things about no longer working all the time:

1. Time to clean... the house, the drawers, the closets, the car...

2. Reading. Those books gathering dust on the shelf are getting a real work out.

3. Window-watching. Just the other day as I looked out the window, I spied three deer, a kitty cat, a turkey and a raccoon!

4. Redoing the resume. Who knew that this kind of writing was the hardest of all? But it's always good to have the thing up to date.

5. Volunteering. I hadn't been without my largest client for 24 hours before the requests for my time and energy to some worthy call came pouring in.

6. Cooking. With a tighter budget, less prepared foods means brushing up on those cooking skills.

7. Gardening. Nothing like the threat of starvation (I'm just kidding, it's not that bad ... yet) to engender a green thumb!

8. Weight loss. I suppose it's the worry, because I didn't think I'd been doing very well at eating, but I've dropped a couple of pounds since April 30.

9. Exercise. More times means more Tai Chi. Or Wii Fit. Or whatever.

10. Video games. Plenty of time now to get it right on Farm Town on Facebook or get the highest score on Scramble or Word Challenge.

11. Caught up laundry. Seems like I used to think I had laundry to do all the time, now I really am doing it all time.

12. Social networking. All of those Facebook thingies I was ignoring now have a little appeal as I try to fill the hours.

13. Reading help wanted ads. I used to read these for story ideas; now I'm looking for a job.


Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; you can learn more about it here. My other Thursday Thirteens are here. This is my 96th one.

Self Publishing

Monday night I ventured into Roanoke, husband in tow, to go to the Roanoke City Main Library for a talk. The event was sponsored by Valley Writers, which is a group of writers I probably should belong to but don't.

The talk was on "The Pros and Cons of Self-Publishing." Becky Mushko, whose blog is the Peevish Pen, sort of emceed the event.

Becky has self-published a number of books, a couple of which I have here on my shelf. She is a good writer.

Anyway, the things discussed included real self-publishing, which involves using a printer and everything, and vanity or digital printing, also known as print-on-demand.

I wanted my husband to hear this talk so he would know what I might be getting into if I end up self publishing something.

Mostly he is concerned with numbers, as in dollars, and how much it would cost and what kind of profit you stand to make on a book.

Essentially it's a deal. If you spend a $1,000 you stand to get that as a return plus an additional $1,000. The trick, of course, is selling the books. That's always the hard part.

The other speakers were Jim Morrison, who has written and self-published a history book, Rodney Franklin, who has self-published a memoir, and Sally Roseveare, who has self-published fiction that is set at Smith Mountain Lake.

Print on demand seems like a logical way to go - less up front costs and decisions to make, for one thing.

The downfall to any of this is no editing, no promotion, and no upfront money. You have to do it all.

It was a very good talk and I will certainly ponder the information in the days and months to come as I try to steer my life in a new and exciting direction.

Farm Machinery

About two weeks ago, my husband decided it was time to wash and wax the farm machinery so he could use for the year.

This is his little tractor.



This is his farm tractor. It's an older model that we purchased in 1996. It was old when we bought it, actually.



This tractor belongs to my father-in-law, not to us, but the mowing machine behind it is ours. My father-in-law purchased the tractor last year (or maybe the year before that, not so long ago, anyway), and we just bought the mowing machine earlier this spring.



Time to cut hay! Onward and out!

Mother's Day

Mother's Day has always been a day of mixed emotion for me.

Since I am childless I will never know the joy of having a little one hand me a wilted dandelion, delight spreading a smile from ear to ear. I do not know the sacrifices mothers make, or the gains they have simply because they are a mom. I can imagine it from a daughter and wife perspective, but I can't really know, and never will.

My mother and I had a stormy relationship and there were many Mother's Days when I longed for a card that REALLY expressed how I felt.

Fortunately I never found one. I always ended up caving in to the sentimentality of it all. It was just as well.

Since my mother passed away, the day has turned into a focus on my mother-in-law, and rightly so. She is a dear, someone who puts up with a lot and asks for little.

This year we had thought to take her to dinner but the rains came and now the sun is shining. On Friday my husband looked at the weather forecast and predicted that he would be spending today from sun up to sundown in the fields cutting hay. "Get her flowers," he said, and since she is his mom, that is what I did. And he is where he thought he would be, on the tractor.

A little later today I will visit my mother-in-law and then I will venture to the cemetery to have a chat with my mother. I wonder what she thinks of me now?

To all my friends who are mothers, I hope that your children honor, love and respect you as good children should. I wish for you much joy in your sacrifice, and many wilted dandelions, brought to you with love.

"Across all these studies, the pattern of the strong crushing the weak kept repeating itself and repeating itself, so that when I was not bitterly angry, I was bored at the repetition of the patterns of persecution. When I was not desiring to be cruel with the cruel, I was a monster - like, perhaps, many others around me - who could look up torture and death without a shudder, and who therefore looked upon life without a belief in its preciousness." - Philip Hallie in Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed, (1979)

The Auction

On April 24, we headed up to Warrenton, VA, which is in the northern part of the state. It is about a four hour drive.

We planned an overnight stay.

We headed up Interstate 81.



Our first stop was The Cheese Shop in Stuarts Draft so I could replenish my supply of cinnamon, dried mustard and other assorted spices.



After we topped Afton Mountain on Interstate 64, we stopped at the lower viewing area so I could regain my equilibrium. Driving over mountains makes me a little sick.



Here there is a memorial to Virginia Department of Transportation workers who have been killed while working. Drive safe, people!



We stopped for dinner at Red Lobster in Charlottesville and then headed on our way. I forgot to take a picture.

We arrived in Warrenton to stay at this Holiday Inn Express. It was full of farmers.



Early the next morning we woke and went to the local IHOP for breakfast before heading out to our distination:



We were attending a farm tractor auction. There was a LOT of farm tractors and assorted machinery there.



These little toy tractors were the first items up for bid, and they sold for about $200 each. It was my first indication that bidding would be on the high end at this sale.



This is what we hoped to buy: a cattle trailer. My husband was not impressed with the looks of this one, though, because it was kind of beat up.




He really liked this tractor.



He liked this one too I guess because of its age or something.



I liked this tractor because it looked like a big workhorse muscle tractor.



We watched the bidding for quite a while. It was very warm - in the high 90s. I finally found a shade tree and sat under it with a book while my husband watched the auctioneer move among the machinery.

In the end, we didn't buy anything at all because the prices were very high. There were at least 1,000 people there and we saw vehicles from as far away as Montana and Alaska! I had never seen so many people at an auction before.

The Bloggers Meet Up

And so it was that yesterday at 1 p.m., on a partly cloudy Thursday, that the first ever Bloggers Meet Up in Botetourt County took place.

First on the scene? Myself and Diane, The Blue Ridge Gal.



We waited but a moment and who did we spy? Ginger, from landuvmilknhoney. And her five kids who all ran from the camera and went inside to eat pizza.



We ordered - side salad for me - and waited to see who else would show up.

Cathy from The Botetourt View appeared. Unlike the rest of us, she's a paid blogger. She used to work for The Fincastle Herald, the same paper I wrote for up until last week. We have been friends a while.

Soon, Becky from Peevish Pen popped in. Becky came from Franklin County and won the award for furthest traveled. Except we didn't really have any awards. If we had she would have won that one, though.



She also handed out information about an upcoming talk called "The Pros and Cons of Self-Publishing, which will be on Monday, May 11 at 6:30 p.m. at the Roanoke City Main Library.

Becky and I are in the Roanoke Valley Pen Women together. So we've known one other for a while, too.

Soon Tanya from Around Roanoke came to visit. She didn't eat, though. I wonder if she just doesn't like pizza and grinders?



Here we all are (except me, of course, I'm taking the picture) after we've sat and talked and laughed. Our discussions ranged from why we blogged to who had the best ghost in their house. It was invigorating conversation, to say the least.


(From upper left clockwise: Becky, Cathy, Ginger, Diane and Tanya)


After more than an hour of delightful conversation, we ventured outside for a group picture.



(From left: Tanya, Diana, Ginger, Becky, Cathy and that's Rose, Ginger's girl, in the front! I'm behind the camera, of course.)

We stood outside and chatted for a while like long lost relatives at a family reunion. We knew we should go home but we weren't quite ready to let the good times go.

Apparently Diane and I were the shutterbugs of the group:



And here's the roving reporter writing it all down to make sure she got the scoop on the FIRST EVER Bloggers Meet Up in Botetourt County! (Click the link for her story at The Botetourt View!)



Stay tuned, we'll likely have another!

Thursday Thirteen: The Big Day!

For Thursday Thirteen, here are 13 things I might say or hear (or overhear) at the first ever Bloggers Meet Up in Botetourt County.

That is today at 1 p.m. at Bellacino's!

1. It's a long drive out here! (from folks who live in another county)

2. I can't believe I'm meeting you in person!

3. Wow! You look just like your picture!

4. Why did you start to blog, anyway?

5. Snap! Snap! as cameras click.

6. This is really good pizza!

7. How long have you been blogging?

8. What is your favorite kind of blog to read?

9. Do you remember that blog you wrote about ....

10. How do you find blog topics?

11. Those are great pictures on your blog!

12. Gosh, you talk in person just like you write!

13. Great to see you! Thanks for coming!


Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; you can learn more about it here. My other Thursday Thirteens are here. This is my 95thd one.

Meet Up Reminder

It's happening soon! The First Ever Bloggers Meet Up in Botetourt County!

Join us on May 7 at 1 p.m. at Bellacino's in Daleville!

Ever wanted to meet the person behind this blog? Or maybe some other local blog?

I will be there and so will The Blue Ridge Gal. I hope that many of you who write the blogs I read regularly will be able to come, also.

We thought it would be fun to get together and meet.Please come, buy yourself a sub or a pizza, and sit down and get to know other bloggers in real life!Bellacino's is located not far from Exit 150 on Interstate 81. Take the north US 220 exit from the interstate and head toward Fincastle.

After you get through the mess at the intersection, go through one more light - there's a Kroger on the left. Bellacino's is on a hill on the right just a little bit beyond that traffic light.If you get to Lord Botetourt High School, you've gone too far.

Hope to see you there.

My monthly tasks

I thought I would post a listing of what I wrote in April for the newspaper. This is about what I wrote every month. I am not including 16 other stories I wrote in April that are supposed to run in May in a special edition. So those could be added to this total.

I took this directly from my invoice to the publisher. The dates are the edition the story was printed in; most are front page stories and these are the headlines. I have blanked out a few names to protect privacy.

As you can see, this took a lot of time. I am still grappling with the idea of losing it, but I am sure that things will look up soon. Maybe even tomorrow - Mondays can be good days!

Anyway, here you go:

04/01/09 Crew starts moving dirt for ER Library
04/01/09 Photo: Eagle Rock Library construction
04/01/09 3 dozen laid off at Metalsa
04/01/09 Women’s legacies important component
04/01/09 Photo: F--- W---- with Attic Productions
04/01/09 Photo: R--- A---- at Historic Fincastle lunch
04/01/09 Photo: Board honors H---
04/01/09 Southern States delays rezoning request
04/01/09 It’s wait and see after water territory hearing
04/01/09 Septic system issues could be getting stinky
04/01/09 Overhead wiring gets reluctant approval
04/01/09 County signs lease for Boxley Fields
04/01/09 Court says garbage haulers can join suit
04/08/09 Master thesis looks at Upper James and Bay
04/08/09 Photo: I---- C-----
04/08/09 Photo: They’re off! Easter Egg hunt
04/08/09 Photo: Clean Valley cleanup – Town of Troutville
04/08/09 County budget down 1.7 percent this year
04/08/09 While unemployment rises, rate still lowest in the area/state
04/08/09 March building permits
04/15/09 B---- elected to head state’s CA association
04/15/09 Photo: J--- B-----
04/15/09 County seizes first house/asset forfeiture
04/15/09 Botetourt farmers market begins second season
04/15/09 Photos (2): Trash now goes to convenience center
04/22/09 Austin, Clinton, Wallace, Sullivan running again
04/22/09 County voters will have varying choices in June
04/22/09 Photos (2): Farmers market opens
04/22/09 Photos (2): Yard sale benefits Troutville Park
04/22/09 Former county attorney asks council to fight
04/22/09 County voters will have choices in June
04/22/09 Pen Women earn Kendig Award
04/22/09 Troutville Town Hall faces $200,000 repairs
04/22/09 $88.8 million county budget expected
04/22/09 Photos (2): British classics cruise BR Parkway
04/29/09 Stimulus means I-81 guardrails, paving
04/29/09 SCC plans September hearing on water territory
04/29/09 Motel says it wasn’t negligent in bedbug suit

+ 16 stories for special edition

Doors Closing, Others Opening

Sometimes things end with a huge bang, bursts of smoke and lots of noise.

Other times things end with a whimper, a whisper or an uncanny sigh.

Sometimes stuff just ends.

So it is that after working as a "perma-lancer" for the last 15 years for a single newspaper entity, my work is done.

Yesterday I received word that there is no more money for the stories I wrote and poured my heart into.

Just like that, the door closed. It was a pretty powerful slam.

Essentially I lost a major client, since I am self-employed. I have a few other folks I write for on occasion but this was my bread and butter. This was consistent and constant and I lived and breathed it.

It was also my joy. I cannot tell you what it meant to me to be the person who interviewed interesting folks and reported on them, the person who spent time at meetings and then worked hard to explain what happened so that everyone could understand it.

I loved writing my little stories, my vignettes of someone's life and the stuff that makes up the day to day news.

I did the job well, as a number of Virginia Press Association Awards will attest. I worked hard and I took the job seriously. If I said I would be at a meeting, only an ambulance ride would have kept me away.

I am told it is difficult to find freelancers who are true to their word and who will continue to produce near-perfect copy and who require little editing and oversight. But that is me. It's how I have always done things. I always tried to determine my editor's needs and I met them in the best way I knew how.

Now I will take a long hard look at myself. Maybe with a little repackaging I can find a new route. New clients and new stories of a different kind are perhaps in my future.

Maybe this time I will find a career path that will lend me down even more exciting venues. Perhaps they will be more lucrative, but I honestly have never been in it for the money.

I have been a newspaper writer for the love of the word, the ability to share and teach the public, and the pure unadulterated joy of being part of my community in a way that made sense and worked for me.

I write because it is the way I share parts of myself and the world. It is how I express what I am thinking and feeling.

It is who I am, and now who I am must be revisited.

While I am sad at this change, and a little worried about my financial future, a part of me is excited at this opportunity. My calendar, filled with reoccurring appointments in the form of town council and other meetings, is suddenly a vibrant mostly white blank, another page for me to fill.

Filing cabinets full of newspaper material will be empty, and I will have to find something else to fill them.

And maybe, who knows - this is the time to write that book.

Grey Gardens

I watched an HBO production of Grey Gardens just over a week ago.

I am still haunted by this picture.

The true story of Jackie O's aunt and first cousin had eluded me. I never heard of the 1970s documentary and knew absolutely nothing about these people. I watched the film because I have always enjoyed Drew Barrymore's work, though I have on occasion wondered about her choice of film.

She was absolutely fantastic in this role. Scarily so, actually. This was acting at its finest. She played opposite Jessica Lange and they were an incredible team.

In the 1930s, these two ladies were used to wealth and servants and the good life.

Somewhere along the line, things went terribly wrong.

The movie did not really give an indication to me as to what happened. They feel upon misfortune and lost their money because Dad left the house and didn't give Mom any allimony. Perhaps the documentary makes it clearer, I don't know.

The filth the women lived in, complete with cats and racoons, troubled me greatly. Obviously they were both mentally ill, but that for me needed to be clearer in the movie. The movie almost made it seem as if they thought that picking up their own trash was beneath them. So they'd rather live in squalor. There wasn't enough focus on the reasons to suit me, I suppose.

Which is the scary part, isn't it? That it can just happen... one minute you're living the good life and the next you're eating cat food. Sometimes there aren't any reasons and that makes it all the more terrifying.

The mother, played by Jessica Lange, was overbearing and dominating. She had her daughter under her fist, and the younger Edie never stood a chance. Mother Dearest was a rather scary woman as Lange portrayed her. Her daughter Edie had lots of sympathy from me but after a while I wanted to shake her into action. Obviously she could not take action, though.

In some discussions of young Edie I have read online, there is talk of schizophrenia, etc., and I can accept that. For both of the women.

That's because there was something deficit in the souls of these characters. Something strangely amiss.

By the 1970s the two were living alone in a falling-down ramshackled mansion. The city wanted to condemn the place. Jackie O and her sister stepped in and fixed the home back up.

And then some fellows came along and made a documentary, which from what I've read was an eye-opener that brought some modest fame to the younger Edie, at any rate.

I am always disturbed when I learn of people living in poor conditions, for whatever reason. It happens with greater frequency than most folks realize. I would hazard a guess that in every neighborhood in the US there is at least one home that has someone in similar circumstances. It might not be visible from the outside, but inside ... what a disaster.

But I believe these people are doing the best they can. It just doesn't live up to societal standards.

There are lists of homes with city health officials where people like firefighters are told they should not enter the home. I have seen them.

I think I live in fear of becoming a person like this. Someone beyond eccentric.

Anyway, I haven't been able to shake Grey Gardens from my brain. I am hoping this post will knock it loose from my skull.

Bloggers Meet Up

Ever wanted to meet the person behind this blog? Or maybe some other local blog?

There will be a local bloggers meet up on May 7 at 1 p.m. at Bellacino's in Daleville in Botetourt County.

I will be there and so will The Blue Ridge Gal. I hope that many of you who write the blogs I read regularly will be able to come, also.

We thought it would be fun to get together and meet.

Please come, buy yourself a sub or a pizza, and sit down and get to know other bloggers in real life!

Bellacino's is located not far from Exit 150 on Interstate 81. Take the north US 220 exit from the interstate and head toward Fincastle. After you get through the mess at the intersection, go through one more light - there's a Kroger on the left. Bellacino's is on a hill on the right just a little bit beyond that traffic light.

If you get to Lord Botetourt High School, you've gone too far.

Hope to see you there.

Books: Orchid Blues

Orchid Blues
By Stuart Woods
Copyright 2002
Audiobook
Read by Dick Hill & Susie Breck
7 hours


I picked this up simply because it was read by Dick Hill. Good story.

Holly is chief of police at Orchid Beach. On her wedding day her fiancee is shot and killed in a bank robbery.

Ham, Holly's father, volunteers to help her out when things start getting weird with the robbery investigation.

Holly follows a hunch and finds out an extremist group (think that Tim McVey guy who blew up the Oklahoma federal building in the early 1990s) is responsible. The FBI is already involved but Ham ends up infiltrating the group because as an ex-super-army dude he has sharp shooter skills.

The characters involved with the group are a very scary lot. They want to take over the country.

My only quibble with the book was Holly's superficial reaction to her boyfriend getting blown away. She also has been in the Army and that was supposed to explain it but I felt like that wasn't handled as well as it could have been. But once we got away from that and into Ham's infiltration of this group the book moved along.

My husband would have liked this book, I think.

Thursday Thirteen

On this day:

1. April 23, 1985. Coca-Cola released New Coke, a product that lasted only three months. At the time I was a big Coke drinker and I tried it only to reject it. New Coke was so much like a Pepsi that any true Coke lover could do nothing but reject it. I remember my relief when they brought back the old formula as Coke Classic. Is that the last time a corporation used common sense, I wonder?

2. According to Isaac Newton, April 23 is really the day Jesus died. I think it's kind of nice to have that pinned down, since Easter moves around so much.

3. This is also the day William Shakespeare died. I used to know most of Macbeth by heart but these days I do good to remember "toil and trouble" and "out out damned spot." I haven't read Shakespeare since high school and probably should rectify that at some point.

4. In 1983, I started my first day of work at a law firm in Fincastle. I had previously worked as the "parts manager" at a machinery and tools shop in Roanoke (since I had refused to go on to college, which was stupid on my part), but I lost the job because I developed mono and had to be off work for six weeks. The boss laid me off instead of firing me but also informed me that someone who was so sickly wasn't wanted back. I hated the job so it was no loss.

5. Lee Majors was born in 1939. I had no idea he was that old. He was the Six Million Dollar Man in the 1970s and I adored that show, though not as much as the spin-off, The Bionic Woman.

6. Michael Moore was also born on this day in 1954. Moore is not the person I would have chosen as spokesperson for the poor way America has been managed of late but I have to admit he's brought out some very interesting facts and pointed out problems more so than most of us.

7. In 1635 the first public school in the United States was founded, somewhere up north (Boston). So THAT's where it all started.

8. In 1988 Pink Floyd's album Dark Side of the Moon leaves the Billboard charts for the first time in more than 14 years. I don't own this album and have no idea what is on it.

9. This is the 113th day of the year. Got your Christmas shopping started yet?

10. This is Canada Book Day. I think every day should be a book day, myself. Go Books!

11. Oh wait, this is also World Book and Copyright Day according to the U.N. I can go for that.

12. On this day I will be working. How about you?

13. It's also the night Survivor comes on in the USA. This is the only reality show I watch. This season I seem to be rooting for an Alabama cattle farmer and a former pop music star.


Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; you can learn more about it here. My other Thursday Thirteens are here. This is my 94nd one.

Those Missing Days

I have missed a day here and there in posting because I've been too busy to blog.

Having said that you'd think I'd have something exciting to be blogging about, being busy and all, but no.

I have been bogged down with work. Last week I put in several 13-hour days, thanks to evening meetings (including one town council meeting that I thought would never end).

Thankfully the extra work is interesting but nothing I can actually write about for several weeks still. The nature of the work, I guess, means I feel I must keep quiet about what I've been doing until the newspaper hits the streets.

What I can tell you is that the new "convenience center" is open at the county landfill, the supervisors have a light agenda for April (they meet April 28 at 2 p.m., at the Greenfield Education Center if anyone is interested and I personally think everyone who lives here should be), people are still filing lawsuits for various and sundry things, criminals have been caught, crimes have been committed, the library construction in Eagle Rock is on-going, the kids are in school, the grass is greening, the cattle are pretty happy, the Easter bunny came and went and apparently decided to take up residence in my yard in hopes of eating my kale, and I have a dental appointment today.

By the end of next week I will be finished with my extra work and I will be able to look around and see where to go from there.

In the meantime, thanks for sticking with me and I'll try to do better with the blogging. You're great readers, even the really quiet ones!

Love Birds

Stay Out of my Garden

Jane and Fred

When I was small, I had a Disney jukebox toy.

It played popular Disney songs, including
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious and Do Re Mi.

I tried to find a picture of the jukebox online but failed.

At any rate, I sang these songs at the top of my lungs, and with great gusto. I am sure I drove my parents crazy.

In the Do Re Mi song, I sang one line incorrectly.

Instead of:

Te, a drink with jam and bread

I sang it

Te, a drink with Jane and Fred.

Jane and Fred made perfect sense to me. Of course you would want to have tea with your friends, Jane and Fred. Why drink alone?

Even after someone told me I was singing it wrong, I didn't believe them. I was an adult before I realized I really was singing the line wrong.

I have no idea what that means but my last entry, the Do Re Mi dance thing on youtube, made me think about it.

Easter Surprise

When I went into the Herald office last week, a basket sat on my editor's desk.

He nodded at it. "That's for you," he said.

It was not from him.

The Friends of the Park, which would be a civic group that works at the Troutville Town Park, offered up this basket of goodies as a thanks for the publicity and good press I have given the group in the past.

I was pleased and grateful because truly writing for a newspaper is generally a thankless job.

I am overcome when someone notices and appreciates the hard work that what I do often entails.

Many thanks.



*I generally don't accept gifts from people I write about as I don't think it's ethical (though verbal or written thanks and praise is always welcome). But since my editor accepted this first and passed it on, I figured it must be okay.*



*Added a little later.

Daybreak, Easter Monday

Happy Easter

25 Random Things

1. After I was born, I pushed my mother away with my little feet when I was stretching and made her cry.

2. I am the eldest of two children.

3. I try to keep my religion a private matter but sometimes my spirituality pours out anyway.

4. When I was young, I wanted to be an astronomer, an archaeologist, and a geologist. I am none of these.

5. I had an invisible friend named James and I was first kissed in the fifth grade by a boy named James. I married a James but it isn't the same person.

6. I enjoy playing the guitar but I don't do it as often as I would like anymore.

7. I like scary things so long as they aren't too gory.

8. I like 68-72 degree weather. I don't like it too cold or too hot and I do not like being in the wind at all.

9. I haven't been in an airplane since 1993, when we flew to Florida to go to Disney for four days.

10. As a small child I liked to go camping when my parents took me but now that I am adult I prefer room service.

11. I am content to be at home by myself but I am happy when my husband is home.

12. My heroes are my husband, my grandmothers, and women who overcome adversity.

13. Chocolate is my favorite food.

14. I used to be a big fan of Xena: Warrior Princess and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I would probably still be watching if the shows were on.

15. I am loyal to my friends.

16. I take things personally, even when I shouldn't, so I say "I'm sorry" too much.

17. I am a romantic realist. I see things through colored spectacles but I realize that I don't always see the truth of the matter.

18. My biggest regret has been my inability to have children.

19. Just because I love someone, it doesn't necessarily mean I like them, although in most instances I do.

20. When I was 16 years old, I hit a deer with my car. Sometimes I still have nightmares about it.

21. Gardening makes me smile. I like the feel of the soil in my hands.

22. I had surgery to remove a huge mole from my chest when I was 5 years old.

23. I miss friends I haven't seen in years sometimes.

24. I cry over happy movie endings.

25. Retirement is not on my near horizons. I think I will be working until I am 70 or older.

Books: Sue Grafton

"A" is for Alibi
"B" is for Burglar
"C" is for Corpse
"D" is for Deadbeat
By Sue Grafton
Audio books
Copyrights 1983-1987

I just finished listening to these four audio books. I somehow had missed Sue Grafton's work in my reading/listening.

Private investigator Kinsie Millhone lives in Santa Theresa in California, where she has adventures.

These audios are ably read by Judy Kaye, who does a nice job.

I enjoy the reporterish style, the play by play of what Kinsey is doing (the books are in first person, as most of these things are).

These early books could do with a re-write and a re-release if they haven't already had that happen just to update them so that the detective is using cellphones and laptops, but aside from noticing that I really liked these stories. I have checked out four more of these from the library so I guess I will be catching up on them.

The author calls this the alphabet series so I suppose there will 26 of them; she is still writing them and just released another.

Thursday Thirteen

Reasons I have a headache:

1. The tulips, the redbuds, the daffodils, the grass, the mustard in the hayfield, the hayfield...

2. The changing weather as a storm front begins to move in.

3. The hip hop that suddenly came on the radio when I was expecting to hear Adult Contemporary earlier today (my husband had changed the station on me).

4. Missing lunch because I was working.

5. Not sleeping well because my husband was a work last night.

6. Dry sinuses because the whole-house steam humidifier is not working properly.

7. Stress from deadlines.

8. An increase in my blood pressure.

9. Stress from work caused by deadlines and issues that demand my immediate attention.

10. Mold, mildew, dust mites and other invisible creepy crawlies that set off my allergies.

11. Less hair from a cut today that left my tresses seriously shorter than they once were.

12. A $989 bill from the hospital for an overnight stay in the emergency room in February.

13. Glare from the computer screen.


Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; you can learn more about it here. My other Thursday Thirteens are here. This is my 93nd one.

The Eagle Rock Library

This is the site of the new library in Eagle Rock. It will open in 2010.

Botetourt County is paying just over $1 million for the building. The cost is about $500,000 less than they had budgeted for because contractors were hungry for work and so bid low.

The facility will be about 9,000 square feet, making it the largest library in the county.

Someday there will be a basketball court and community center to the rear of the lot.

The library will sit in front of Eagle Rock Elementary School. Library officials expect a lot of school children will visit when the bell rings in the afternoon.

It will be the fourth library in the county.

Botetourt County covers 548 square miles of territory and it takes an hour to drive from Glen Wilton to the north to Blue Ridge to the south.

That's why there will be four libraries, so folks in the northern end will have some county service.

The other libraries are in Blue Ridge, Fincastle, and Buchanan.

I am vice-chairman of the Botetourt County Library Board of Trustees. I was appointed by the supervisor for the Amsterdam District to serve on this board. My term ends in 2010, at which point I cannot serve again under the Library by-laws. I'll have to sit out a term or two.

Adventures in Reporting #2

Regular readers might think I dislike hot air balloons, but truly that is not so. I only have problems with one particular balloonist, which is a different matter entirely.

Hot air balloons are quite lovely as they float in the sky. They are quite breathtaking and I love to watch them when they aren't scaring my cows.

In November 1986, I went up in one.

Several weeks earlier I had witnessed what, from the ground, looked liked an aircraft harrassing a hot air balloonist. I don't recall if I was at home watching this or somewhere else; at any event, it worried me enough that I wrote a column about it for The Herald. (Yes, I have been writing for them that long.) At that time I had a lifestyle column similiar to the one I have now, only it was under a different name.

Anyway, after I wrote the column expressing my concern for the balloonist, I received a note in the mail (regular mail back then, no email) from Natalie Haley. She was the balloonist I had seen. She offered me a free ride.

I couldn't turn that down, so with camera in hand and husband in tow, I met up with her one Sunday morning at what used to be Howard Johnsons (now it's a Mexican restaurant and a Super 8).

After determining wind direction with a helium balloon, Mrs. Haley decided we would set off from behind Lee's Market (now Bellacino's) in Dr. Fralin's field. She said the wind would take us along US 220 toward Fincastle.

Her balloon was called Skylark, and it was a spectacle of color whether it was on the ground or in the sky.

My husband refused to fly with me. He watched from the ground as I rose up into the clouds.

I wrote about that adventure in a first person article published on December 3, 1986, and for which I won one of the first of my several Virginia Press Association awards.

Here are some excerpts:

"The ground crew released its grip on the massive bulge of air, and suddenly we were going up! I watched my husband grow smaller and smaller as the balloon sailed high into the sky."

"Daleville and Amsterdam look like tiny towns in an HO scale train set from 800 feet in the air. The dogs and cattle sound as if they are right in the air with you. The curve of the earth looks sharp enough to cut you, and suddenly you are one with the clouds."

"The orchards looked small and naked from our vantage point. If the highway hadn't been below us, I would have been lost. The familiar was unrecognizable from our position within the clouds."

"You can't feel the wind, because you are the wind," Natalie Haley said. That aspect is part of the romanticism of the big balloons. There is nothing between the earth and you except a basket, and it was insignificant enough not to matter. Floating is not descriptive enough to describe the feeling you get when you're up there alone."

"It's so quiet and peaceful, it's easy to forget the world exists below."

We landed in a field near Trinity. After putting the balloon away, Mrs. Haley poured champaigne over my head for my maiden voyage, and presented me with a certificate as she recited what she said was the balloonist's prayer:

May the winds welcome you with softness.
May the sun bless you with his warm hands.
May you fly so high and so well that God joins you in laughter.
And may he set you back again into the loving arms of mother earth.

My House

This is my house as seen from the other side of the farm.

The house is difficult to see from the road; you have to be looking for it to find it.

The vinyl siding is brown. Originally the house had cedar siding on it, but that proved difficult to maintain. So we covered it with vinyl.

My husband built this house in 1987. When I say "he built it" I mean just that. He measured and hammered. He spent an entire summer putting our home together, him and his friends.

It is a packaged home or "kit house" made by Timber Truss. I think it is this plan, only we reversed the blueprints and turned the garage doors to the rear. Because we do not have a basement we turned the garage into a single car garage so we would have some place to put the furnace.

We don't have a basement because we built on a rock pile and didn't have the money then to blast it out. Sometimes I am sorry we don't have a basement because it would be a good place to dump stuff.

The house is not very big but for the two of us it is fine. We had plans to add on had we had children, but since that never happened we have never made changes.

We moved in in November, in time for the holidays. We've been here ever since and have no plans to go anywhere else.

This is home.

Help! My boxwoods are dying

About five years ago, I noticed a dead branch on one of my boxwoods as we came out of winter.



I cut the dead branch, thinking perhaps the snow had weighed it down and broken it.



The dying continued. And so it continues to this day, a branch at a time.

These are current photos, taken Monday. The first boxwood has long since died and been removed.



I had five boxwoods and now I have four. The one on the end is half dead.

Grandma Firebaugh gave us these boxwoods 20 years ago. I planted them and they thrived. Then the branches began dying one by one.

She has passed away. She was the one person who might have known what was wrong with my plants. She was a great gardener.

The only thing I could come up with was mites. I have sprayed and sprayed and put down all sorts of pesticides for mites.

It hasn't helped.



I found some information that indicates it could something called English Boxwood Decline that affects boxwoods after they are 20 years old. It says there is no cure, though.

It also says it can be caused by drought, which actually is when this started appearing, after the drought earlier this century.

The death has spread to yet another boxwood and I am loathe to give up on my lovely shrubs. Does anyone have any ideas?

Thursday Thirteen: When the Internet is Down

Things to do when the Internet is down:

1. Call the service provider several times to find out when it will be fixed.

2. Work without researching things on the Internet.

3. Listen to the radio instead of Pandora.com.

4. Watch TV instead of hulu.com.

5. Read a book. Or two.

6. Go shopping.

7. Wonder how many emails you're missing, and if any of them are important.

8. Ponder the speed at which your garden grows at Farm Town on Facebook and wonder if your virtual potato field will rot before you get back to check on it.

9. Clean the house, including drawers and closets.

10. Call the friends you usually email and have a real conversation over the telephone.

11. Have a little unexpected interlude with the husband in the middle of the day.

12. Exercise more than normal.

13. Go to the library to use the free wi-fi with the laptop!


Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; you can learn more about it here. My other Thursday Thirteens are here. This is my 92nd one.

The Redbud

Sunrise Sunday Morning

The Home Builders Show (Or: Friday Night)

Friday evening my husband surprised me by suggesting we grab dinner out and then go to Salem to the Home Builders Show.

I always enjoy the home builders show but he has never cared for it. I don't know why; maybe be he is in the business as one of his three jobs?

So off we went. The place was full of displays. I was amazed.

We looked at replacement window places because we are considering making that investment. Our 22-year-old windows leak badly and in the winter I know all the heat goes out the cracks. We have attempted to put up things to stop the draft but to no avail.

Another thing I would like to do is put in a walk-in shower. One with a seat. This is forward-thinking for when we are too old to get over the side of the tub. I figure we should go on and make the house relatively handicapped accessible before we need it, you know? An accessible bathroom is the missing piece.

The third thing I would like to do is add on a sun room. I don't think that will ever happen because my husband doesn't like sun rooms, mostly because he claims they always leak.

Barring that, I would like to get an outdoor shed because if I can't bring myself to throw junk out of the house, I would like to store it if nothing else. That isn't going to happen either, though.

Anyway, we looked at those kinds of things. We still haven't made up our minds on the windows but we did see a few things we liked and will investigate. That is the purpose of the Home Builder's Show. To bring in business at a later date.

After we left, we found ourselves in a police blockade on US 419 as we headed for the interstate. This was a sobriety check. It was pouring rain and the policemen were in yellow slickers checking licenses. Their little police hats were in plastic and water raced off their brims.

I have been driving for 30 years and this was the first time I'd ever been in a sobriety check. I guess we aren't out late enough or in the city at the right times. We miss all of the excitement.

I have a problem with sobriety checks and similar things because I think they are fundamentally un-American.

Of course we breezed through that without incident - neither of us drink. It rained very hard all the way.

And that was the end of our Friday night.

Socks

I don't know how to darn a sock.

This thought came to me in the middle of the afternoon on this day, a Friday, when I was supposed to be working on the backlog of articles that await my attention.

Instead, I was cleaning out my husband's sock drawer.

We both have a lot of socks. We collect them. My husband in particular never wants me to throw out his hosiery.

So I was surprised yesterday when I sent him out on errands and he actually followed my suggestion to buy himself new socks. If he did, I told him, I would throw out every one of his old socks and replace them with new.

I actually had already purchased 12 pairs of new socks for my drawer with the intention of doing the same. I made that purchase three weeks ago and had left them in the bag because I hadn't found the time to dump my sock drawer.

I always feel guilty when I throw out old socks. Shouldn't I darn them, fix the holes, shore them up for reuse? Doesn't this make me one of the consumers, part of the disposable society?

Well, yes. But I don't know how to darn a sock. Nor do I have the time to learn. And when you think about how long you wear a sock, they're pretty cheap.

Old socks can be used for dust clothes or for stuffing a stuffed animal, or for an oil rag out in the garage. But generally I just throw them out because if I don't they end up back in the drawer.

If I were really keen to preserve and reuse, I would make a sock quilt out of them. "See, honey, that's the sock from that time you stepped into the pond when you were saving the cow and your boot came back all covered with black gunk that wouldn't come out. Remember?" I can see us now, in our 80s, recalling those fond times.

My husband's socks are filthy even after they've been washed three times. The man is a farmer and a fireman and he digs ditches (he does have those three jobs) and they are all dirty jobs. He grinds the dirt into his socks and no amount of bleach will get it all out.

His work boots also bleed color into his socks, so they often turn brown.

His socks get very thin quite quickly, too, and I have been remiss in not replacing them sooner.

Perhaps it was for this reason that he brought home 24 pairs of brand new socks yesterday.

And a few hours ago I dumped them in the wash (we wash everything before we wear it around here), and then I ignored the writing that beckoned me and headed for the sock drawers.

Because my husband is a hard-working man, and he deserves comfy socks on his well-worn feet.