Thursday Thirteen

I am having trouble coming up with a topic, so we'll have to go for an eclectic Thirteen.

1. The wind is whispering to me like a swan's trumpeting today. I hear my name on the breeze as I watch the needles on the blue spruce prance and dance. Blue skies, cotton-candy clouds and green leaves on the oaks in the far fields seem to say, "Anita, come to me."

2. A bear ran across the farm about a week ago. He was being chased by the cows, who are not friendly with bears in the least. It was a pretty big bear. Unfortunately I had no camera with me.

This bear was in the alfalfa last year.

3. Bluebirds have set up housekeeping in a post with a hole in it along the back fence. I discovered it the other day when I was tossing out some old bread for the birds. I will be trying to take pictures of the bluebirds now, but so far have been unsuccessful.

4. This is my favorite Bible verse: Psalm 121. I will lift up mine eyes. It is also the motto of Hollins University, where I went to college.

This is the Cocke building at Hollins.

5. Bugs have been particularly hard on my roses this year, and the "safe spray" I have been using as a pesticide is not working.

One of my roses.

6. My allergies have been particularly fierce this year. Last night I was visiting someone and began itching all over. I never did figure out what I was allergic to.

7. The best books I have read this year so far are The Girl Who Fell From the Sky by Heidi Durrow and The Help by Kathryn Stockett.


8. I have a huge backlog of books to read and I read at least 50 a year. Sometimes I think I read far too much and should stop reading entirely, but it seems I can't do that. I love my stories.

9. My birthday was Tuesday and I have been celebrating for several days. My husband took me out on a spur-of-the-moment weekend and my friend took me to lunch on Tuesday. Next week another friend and I will go to lunch to celebrate both our birthdays.

10. Because I am now another year older, I have been pondering the concept of time a lot. My friend gave me a wonderful clock which has words instead of numbers.  It lists 12 things to make besides money and includes magic, friends, love, time, and dinner. I actually have three clocks on the wall in my office. Two of them are working but one needs a battery.

11. The things on my desk include Writing Magic by Gail Carson Levine, a tube of Arnicare, a wrap for my wrist, several sticks of sugar free gum, and Guide to Fiction Writing by Phyllis Whitney.

12.  Other things in my home office include a Xena: Warrior Princess action figure (complete with raised sword), an autographed picture of Charlie Sheen, and a four-pack of Christmas Coca-Cola, which is about 15 years old.

13. Final thought: if it ain't pretty or nice, you probably don't need it or want to hear it. Rid yourself of the negatives and then see what is left. It has to be something good.



Thursday Thirteen is played by many people; you can see the list here. Check out Alice Audry's blog for her list of Thursday Thirteens that she likes (I am on it - thanks Audry) for recommendations.

Quick Jump to Short Pump Part 2

As I noted in yesterday's post, over the weekend we slipped away to Short Pump for a birthday get-away.

Someone asked me about the different stores. Short Pump Town Center is a big open-air mall, but there are numerous strip malls in the area.

I am not a big shopper and the heat was incredible, but I did notice Whole Foods, Kohl's, Plow & Hearth, Dillard's, an Apple Store, Good Feet, Nordstrom's, Macy's (we went in Macy's and it was a much nicer Macy's than the one at Valley View), Dick's Sporting Goods, the Cheesecake Factory, Cold Stone Creamery, and Teavana, not to mention lots of other smaller stores.

If you like to shop then this is worth the drive, for sure.

One of our stops was a Williams-Sonoma. This was, truthfully, the reason for the trip. My husband had been asking me for a month what I wanted for my birthday.

"A salad spinner. They're about $5 at Walmart," I had told him time and again.

This bothered him for some reason, so he decided he was going to get me a really nice salad spinner. Which he did. He purchased for me a Good Grips Salad Spinner, made by OXO. He seemed very happy about this. It is a nice salad spinner; I've already used it.

After we checked out the mall we checked into our hotel. Our room was on the second floor.

The first warning of impending problems came when we stepped off the elevator.

"It smells like wet dog," my husband said. And it certainly did. My eyes stung a little as we wandered down the hall to find our room.

The room was very nice, with a king-sized bed, dark furniture, and spacious bathroom. The furnishings were very masculine; I told my husband that they must have had a male decorator. The room was also quite warm, about 76 degrees, and we switched the thermostat down while we settled in. I showered and dressed.

The staff downstairs sent up complimentary tickets for breakfast the next morning at their in-house restaurant, because I had told them we were there for my birthday. That was a nice surprise.

The temperature in the room did not drop, and finally we called downstairs to ask for help with the thermostat. I thought we had set it wrong.

Maintenance came up and said there had been problems with that room before with the thermostat. He set it and suggested we see how the room was after we returned from dinner.

We had planned to eat at the Cheesecake Factory, but the wait was 60 minutes and no restaurant is worth that.

We wandered around and came before Copper Grill Lobster & Steak House. We went in. The place was completely empty and it was 6 p.m. The hostess asked if we had reservations, which we did not, but she said that was fine and seated us.

It was rather odd that no one was there. Restaurants in Roanoke are crowded at 6 p.m. Once we took a look at the menu we figured out why.  This was the most expensive restaurant we had ever been in. It is similar in style to the Pomegranate in Troutville, which prior to this was the most expensive restaurant I'd ever eaten at. We are Red Lobster folks for high-end dining, if that tells you anything.

James said he wanted to treat me to a nice meal, so we went ahead and ordered. I had shrimp and he had surf and turf. The meal was indeed very good and the shrimp was some of the best I've ever had.

During the time we were there, perhaps five other small groups came in. The place definitely was not jumping. I can only imagine it was the pricing, for the food and service was excellent.

After we ate, we returned to our room to check out the air conditioning. It was still warm. We called the front desk and they decided to move us.

We packed up and went across the hall. It was a little warm, too, but we turned down the thermostat.

Then we went back out for more shopping.

We returned to the room to find it still warm. It was not as warm as the first room but obviously the temperature was not dropping. The room should have been pleasant by the time we returned but it was not.

It also smelled much more strongly of dog than the other room. Regular readers know I have very severe allergies and I wondered if I would last the night without needing my inhaler - or worse, a call to 911.

I never said anything to my husband about the doggy smell, but he could smell it as well and said something about it. The longer we sat there, the angrier he grew. I had not yet unpacked our things again and as he grew more agitated I decided not to.

"I've had it with this," he said. He went out the door, headed for the front desk.

He later told me he told them we were not happy with the accommodations and were thinking about going home. The front desk said they would move us yet again.

This time we went to the 8th floor, which according to the front desk was supposed to never have animals on it. However, by this time I suppose the smell was in our noses because frankly the entire place smelled like a wet dog to both of us.

This third room was a little cooler at 71 degrees. That should have been fine but the room was close and warm despite that. The maintenance man set the thermostat to 67 degrees and by morning we should have been freezing, but the temperature was still 71 when we woke up at 6 a.m.

This is a new motel that opened in January. Obviously their air conditioning system is not strong enough to keep the rooms cool during severe heat. Anyone who tries to open a hotel in the south without proper air conditioning obviously hasn't been thinking clearly.

We dressed and went down for our complimentary birthday breakfast bar. It was good but very pricey and I was glad we were eating on the house.

Then we packed up and checked out. The hotel gave us a discount because of the problems with the rooms. We did not know before that this hotel chain allowed pets. We will not be staying there again for this reason, not because of the heating, which was simply unfortunate, or the customer service. The service was excellent.

The ride back was uneventful and we were home by 11 a.m.

And that was our quick jump to Short Pump!

Quick Jump to Short Pump

On Saturday my husband said he wanted to go somewhere. His birthday was June 2 and mine is today (June 8) and a quick get-away seemed in order.

We decided to go to Short Pump, which is a shopping mecca just outside of Richmond.

We packed some things, made reservations at a hotel, and hopped in the car.

The trip down was uneventful. However, it is a three-hour drive, and that is with only one rest stop.




My husband. Isn't he handsome?

Our destination.

We were very impressed with the development in Short Pump. Here are people who, unlike the officials in Botetourt, understand that you can have attractive and well-designed structures and businesses will still come. In the Roanoke area, they seldom say no to any business regardless of what it looks like, which is why we have the shoddy McDonalds, the warehouse buildings for Walmart, and things like that. There was none of that in Short Pump.

Note that there are trees and the structures are off the highway. This is a Barnes and Noble. I don't think people in the Roanoke area allow trees to grow tall enough to hide signs.

Check out the lights. The properties were accessed from side roads off the main thoroughfare. We liked that design.

We arrived in Short Pump around 1 p.m. We ate lunch at McDonalds - a brick McDonalds that didn't have the clown and the colors, by the way. Then we went to Best Buy, where I looked at scanners. I had looked at scanners in Roanoke but was unimpressed with the selection. The selection in Short Pump was better but the customer service was very poor. The fellow who was waiting on us would only speak directly to my husband and not to me. He reminded me of Raj on The Big Bang Theory only it wasn't funny because I was the one who needed the information. I did not buy a scanner there but found one I liked that I could order later.

However, we slipped into Walmart to pick up more water bottles and found the same scanner there for $50 less. So we bought it and put it in the trunk.

We finally made it to Short Pump Town Center, where we discovered that this was not an enclosed mall but an open-air mall.

This would not have been a bad thing except that the thermometer in the car read 103 degrees and it felt like it. I wilt in 75 degree heat. Despite the heat, we walked the mall, making frequent stops for air-conditioning and venturing into the food court for drinks.

An Apple store attracted my attention and I had my first view of an iPad. It was smaller than I expected, about the size of a nice mouse pad or thereabouts. I can see the appeal of the device but not the expense of it.

Finally it was time to check in at our hotel.

We had never stayed at this motel chain before. Generally we stay elsewhere, having found that certain chains are usually clean. Some are now smoke-free, like this hotel, and that was a plus.


The lobby was quite impressive. The staff was very friendly and exceedingly helpful. We would come to learn that first hand, as you will learn later in Quick Jump to Short Pump, part 2!

Books on Yoga

Yoga as Medicine
By Timothy McCall, M.D.
Copyright 2007

Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain and Illness
By Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.d.
Copyright 1990

Dr. Yoga
By Nirmala Heriza
Copyright 2004

My massage therapist, Karen Wright with Soothing Solutions, loaned me these three books. She is also a yoga instructor and has promised to show me how to "breathe" in such a way that it could help lower my blood pressure. The books each offer a few pages on breathing and she wanted me to read them before she gives me a one-on-one session. When that happens I'll let you know how it goes (and she gives a great massage, by the way, if you're local and need some therapeutic touch on your back or something).

I like the first two books the best. The Yoga as Medicine in particular is very information and touches on how body work can assist a person in her efforts to regain or maintain health.

I picked up the Dr. Yoga book at the Green Valley Book Fair when I went with a friend in May, so I have added this to my reference collection. I will pick up the Yoga as Medicine at some point, I hope. Maybe I will ask for it for Christmas.

I do not do yoga as a regular practice but probably should. I do a little Tai Chi several times a month but am not as regular with that as I should be, too.

I'd be a dynamo if I'd just do the stuff I oughta, wouldn't I?

Thursday Thirteen

Today I thought I'd talk about food, strange foods I've eaten and favorite foods (mostly because I can't think of 13 strange foods).  You might notice that I crave sweets a lot.

1. Dough. I love raw cookie dough and cake batter mix, brownie mix, etc. But not when it is dry ingredients, but when it is done and ready for the pan. Licking the bowl and the beaters, as it were. I know one is not supposed to do this because the batter contains raw eggs, but this is one thing I still do. It makes me feel like a kid again.

2. Uncooked spaghetti. We don't eat a lot of spaghetti and since there are only two of us, we generally have raw spaghetti left over from a box because I don't cook it all at once. Before I discovered it was bad for my teeth, I loved to crunch the leftover raw spaghetti.

I read that some folks think you can get something called "pasta worms" from uncooked spaghetti. Anyone know if this is true, or is it a grandma myth?

3. Bologna and catsup sandwiches. When I was a teenager, I had this combination for breakfast every morning for a long time.

4. Strawberry cream cheese and celery. I have found this to be a great snack combination while dieting. My husband likes it, too.


5. Eggs and catsup. This is something I  usually do not have at home but will have when I have breakfast in a restaurant. I have always liked eggs and catsup. Maybe I just like catsup?

6. Root beer. A lot of people do not like root beer, but I do. I especially like that it is only 1 percent sodium, so if I want a sweet treat it doesn't affect my blood pressure. I prefer A & W brand will try others.

7. Zero bars. These are not chocolate candy bars but are white chocolate with a nougat in them. I don't know of anyone else who eats these but obviously someone does or the company would not make them.

 

8. Raw veggies from the garden. Raw peas, raw green beans, and raw squash are among my favorite raw vegetables. My husband thinks I'm nuts for eating things raw but they are really good without anything at all. I only eat them this way straight from my garden, though. Store bought things I cook because I don't know where they came from.

9. Strawberries. Or any kind of berry, really. Eating a good berry is like eating candy.

10. Teas. I suppose these aren't really foods, but I enjoy tea. I like herb teas, black teas, green teas, etc. Ginger teas when my tummy is hurting (from eating all this stuff, probably) always makes me feel better.

11. Bubblegum. This is not a food, either, but it is something I like. I am not supposed to chew gum because of TMJ but I sometimes do it anyway.

12. Icing. It has been a long time since I have done this, but there was a time when I bought cake icing and simply ate it straight from the container without cake. Fortunately I no longer do this. I think some people call this cake frosting.

13. Watermelon. It's almost summer and soon these will be affordable and will become a staple for a little while. Yummy!


Thursday Thirteen is played by a lot of bloggers. Check out the list here and join in the fun.

Books: The Help

The Help
By Kathryn Stockett
444 pages
Copyright 2009

The Help will likely be one of the best, if not the best, book I read this year.

Skeeter is just out of college and in need of something to do. She wants to be a writer, but how does one go about that when she lives in Mississippi in 1962?

She takes on a job writing a column for the local paper. She must frequently ask the advice of Aibileen, a black maid who works for one of her friends, because the column is about household tips, like how to starch a collar. Skeeter, being a child of privilege, has little knowledge about such common things.

As the Civil Rights movement unfolds, Skeeter realizes the discrepancies and biases of herself and her social circle. She decides to write the story of the maids who serve her friends. Aibileen agrees to help her, at great risk to her work position as well as her life in these terrible times of discrimination and strife.

They are joined in their work by Minnie, who has made herself an enemy of one of the town's main socialites. As the work progresses, other maids join in and soon Skeeter has a book that is accepted and published by a New York publisher.

This is a book that every southern woman, particularly those in the upper classes, should read. Maybe every woman should read it in order to better understand class relations, the inner turmoil of their neighbors, and the tragedies that come from closing the eyes to the inequities that are right in front of them.

I will be passing this book on to friends.

Adventures in Reporting #3

During the 10 years I spent writing for one area newspaper in the 1990s and up until 2004, I was painfully aware of one fact about that particular community, which was not where I live, that troubled me, perplexed me, and appalled me.

The K K K (K u   K l u x   K l a n) had a strong presence there.

The county seat was what is called a "sundown town." That means it was all-white, and all-white on purpose. During my time in the county I once saw a picture of a sign that used to be within the town environs.

It said something like, "N------, don't let the sun set on you in this town."

While that was a long time ago, some things still have not changed. The town was then, and still is, a very white community.

It's a place where Confederate Flags fly proudly from many poles. The Stars and Bars line the roads. They're a people hardened by life in the mountains who distrust government and anything or anyone different from them. The only reason some people would speak to me was because I knew my history and could eventually point to some 7th-generation relative who might or might not be a common ancestor with them or a friend.

Its the kind of place where a grand dragon, an organization leader, flies his flag up in the hollows.

While I was over there, in 1998, an out-of-state group gathered at Fenwick Mines in the Jefferson Forest in Craig. The event made headlines but there was no mischief.

At least not that year.

That changed in 1999. That year a black man ventured into town to work on the new grocery store project. He took room and board with a 74-year-old local man.

Threats followed, in person and by phone. A sign in a neighboring yard told the black man to go home, except in worse language.

And then someone set a cross afire in the yard.

A group of women from my alma mater, Hollins University, went to New Castle and organized a peace rally.

Because I was a freelance reporter and could turn stories down, I did not write about these events but instead turned them over to someone on staff. Someone who didn't venture into the area weekly and who would be covered by the employer's insurance should the tires on their car be slashed or, heaven forbid, they turned up dead.

Yeah, I wimped out.

To say these events frightened me would be an understatement. Did they influence my work? I am sure they did. For a long time I could not conduct an interview without wondering, are you someone who would hide behind a white hood?

These memories came back to me on Sunday. My husband, as he always does, was reading the farm machinery and auction listings.

He called me over to look at one of the advertisements (which you can also see on the link).

"Look, they're advertising K K K memorabilia," he said.

Listed under collectibles it advertised  an "original 1925 ... charter" and a full suit with a patch and other memorabilia.

I felt the distaste and surprise rise in my stomach. My mind flashed to those days in 1999 when I did not feel safe.

And up for auction one finds pieces of Americana, actual proof that such horrid things really did occur in this country, and still occur.

All I can do is shake my head. What a society we are.

Memorial Day

In honor and memory.

Look at them windows!

The window installers from Southwest Sunroom and Windows showed up at 8:45 a.m. Wednesday to replace 13 windows in my house.

The framing around the windows had darkened considerably on the exterior. The things leaked like sieves and definitely needed to be redone.

The shot above is the rear of the house exterior.



A closer view of the old window.



A little closer still!



By lunch time, the old windows had been ripped out and new windows put in place. It took three men about four hours to do everything but the exterior trim, which they finished that afternoon.



The windows on the exterior now have a creamy white colored trim.



I like the looks of it a lot. I think it gave the house more personality.



The house is an L-shaped ranch.




This is a picture of the rear with the new windows, like the first shot.

The windows are vinyl and are made by Gorell. We investigated the window brand and the installer as thoroughly as we could and, in the end, we were satisfied that this was the best deal for the money.

There are more expensive windows - we had quotes that were three times what we paid for this brand - but these have a good warranty and numerous thumbs up for being Energy Saver windows.

We'll see what happens to the electricity bill now.

Thursday Thirteen

Today, for my TT, I am going to talk about monsters. Specifically, kinds of monsters.

1. Politicians. One of my least favorite monsters. These monsters run around ruining lives by spouting out anything on their pea-brains and then expecting accolades and laws based on their verbosity. They can be members of any political party and any race or gender. They all have very large mouths and blood-sucking tendencies.

2. Giants. Giants in mythology went to war with Zeus and friends for control of the world. The Giants sprang from Gaia via the blood shed from Uranus's manhood (or godhood) when Cronus castrated his father. The Giants were essentially spawn of gods, but they were not friendly with the Olympians. Gaia urged them to turn on Zeus (her grandson) and so they did. The Giants hurled boulders and flaming trees at the sky. Zeus and the other Olympian gods fought back, though in the end they required Heracles to win the day. The days the Giants are sports teams and they are not very scary.

3. Ogres. These are humanoid monsters that eat villagers. Shrek and his ogress are lovable monsters in that they don't seem to really eat anyone. One might also apply this term to Wall Street CEOs and find it accurate.

4. Children. A few of these actually grow up to be politicians; they are the scariest kind. Monster children run around with crayons, scream in the stores, have jelly on their faces, and create havoc in their wake with each step.

That's me! Wasn't I scary?

5. Vampires. These blood-suckers have a new mystic in this world in that they are immortal, sexy, romantic and heroic. Vampires of old were rather nasty villains who wanted the creamy-white throated maiden and their immortality. Some vampires want to destroy the world and others want to save it. The most famous vampire is Dracula, but he has been lost to the charms of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Twilight, True Blood and various and sundry other stories about the living dead.


6. Bigfoot. Also known as Sasquatch, these humanoid creatures are ape-like beings that haunt the forests of the United States and Canada. They could also be your hairy uncle on a bad hair day.

7. Dragons. These reptilian creatures are generally huge, scaly and fire-breathing. Puff the Magic Dragon lived by the sea but was eventually forgotten.

There is also a dragon in Shrek and numerous other movies.

8. Banking officials. Bank officials rate up there with politicians in that they talk a good game but are sinisterly working to make you grovel and writhe in pain in order to take away your assets. They like to make you sign on the dotted line, too. Banking officials come in all shapes and sizes, but are almost always found lounging in bank offices.

9. Changeling. This is a creature left in place of a human child who has been kidnapped by another fairy creature. The changeling is usually sickly. Parents often continued to raise the changeling but treated it poorly if they could not swap it back for their real youngster. This could lead to ill-raised children en masse. See #4 for consideration on how often this might actually be occurring in present day.

10. Radio talk show personalities. These are among the most fierce of monsters, threatening lives and endangering entire civilizations with their hatred and vile-spewing venom. They can be known by their large size, beady little eyes and red faces. Truly hideous to look upon.

11. Not your mommy, mummies! Read closer. Mummies are another kind of living dead (except for the living part for real mummies) in that they are dead bodies wrapped in white strips of cloth that somehow come to life. Bram Stroker, who also created Dracula, gave us mummies as well in the novel The Jewel of the Seven Stars.

12. Ghosts. More dead things. Humanity has a real fascination with life after death, eh? Ghosts are spirits that continue on after the body has passed away. The belief in ghosts has been around forever and is as old as religions. Some famous ghosts include Casper (I used to read those comics when I was young), the three spirits in Dickens' Christmas Carol, and Patrick Swayze's ghost in Ghost.

13. Lastly, there are aliens!



Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people. See a list of other participants here. This is number 141 for me.

Big Doin's

It's a big day at our house!

Today we are having our windows replaced.

I will have a before and after photo later, probably Friday.

The windows we are replacing were installed in 1987, when we built the house. Our house is a Timber Truss house, which is kind of like a kit. The windows came with it. I have no idea what name brand these old windows might be, but they have needed replacing for a good 10 years.

Last year, with so much snow, wind and cold, the drafts, along with sky-high heating bills, became nearly unbearable.

We decided it was time to spend some money and take care of this problem. Our bones are older and we're not quite as young as we used to be. Drafts make knees and backs and elbows and pretty much everything else ache these days.

That said, I must mention how much I love windows. I love being able to look out at the farm and see the trees and grass. I love watching the deer, squirrel and birds. I enjoy looking at the sky and watching the clouds roll past.

I never worked well in a cubicle, those times when I worked in cubicles. Cubicles and work spaces sans windows should be against the law, if you ask me.

Let's hope the work goes smoothly.

Positive Thinking

So I went looking for my "positive thinking" in recent days, because I was missing it and it seemed lost.

I peeked under the sofa.

I peered inside several books.

I hunted for it on Google and all over the Internet.

I ventured outside but it was raining.

I sought it in the car but all I found were old candy wrappers, which reminded me of days before diets.

There was no "positive thinking" in my filing cabinets.

Nor in the dust in the laundry room. Or amongst the clean clothes, for that matter.

I looked into my husband's eyes and I saw a glimmer of it there.

He reminded me to look in places I had not yet thought to check.

"Where did you see it last?" he asked.

I confessed it had been some time since I saw the real "positive thinking," though a fake version of it had been in place for a while.

So I looked again. In my desk I found bits of poetry and straggling words, leftovers from days gone by.

In my rocking chair I found two quarters and a dime and a little solace.

The kitchen brought an apple, a dish of strawberries and some celery.

Finally, I wondered if I would find it back on a college campus. And that reminded me of the Hollins University motto:

Levavi Oculos

How could I forget?

Psalm 121

I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.
My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth.
He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber.
Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.
The LORD is thy keeper: the LORD is thy shade upon thy right hand.
The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.
The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.
The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.

The Poop Scoop?

I received an email from someone purporting to belong to a "fashion" community. The email said "I saw your septic tank advisor blog and was impressed by it. Please join our community to talk about fashion."

Um. My septic tank advisor blog, which is really my husband's on my account, is just an aggregate blog with links to news articles about septic tanks. It has no original content. It definitely doesn't talk about clothes. It links to articles about septic tank regulations, new productions, and problems people have with solid waste disposal.

So what does that have to do with fashion? Am I supposed to give fashion tips on porta-potties? The best apparel for bathroom visits? Don't wear heels so your knees won't be too high when you sit down? Wear skirts with no hose or panties for fastest relief? Watch your zipper, skipper, or you'll lose your you-know-what in the zip-up?

Sheesh.

My Lucky Day

Saturday the weatherman called for rain and so my husband and I decided we'd head to Roanoke after lunch.

In Daleville, we stopped off at Lord Botetourt High School for the 50th anniversary open house. I didn't know we were going by so I did not have my camera, unfortunately.

The school had been cleaned and spruced up for the big event. It's a much larger building than it was when my husband and I attended. He graduated in 1977 and I graduated in 1981. They built on sometime after I finished.

The attendance was not spectacular at the event, perhaps because it was pouring rain, but I had a nice time touring the halls and looking at five decades of photos.

I also saw two of my favorite teachers, Dee Sheffer and Sue Obenshain whose last name is now Goodpasture. Ms. Sheffer taught me English and Ms. Obenshain taught math. I am quite fond of them both and so I was very glad to see them. My husband visited with a few of his former teachers, too.

He then spent time looking at FFA (Future Farmers of America) displays. He was very active in that when he was young.

From there we headed to Roanoke. While we were in a store, I won't say which one, I turned down an empty aisle. In the middle of the aisle lay a sealed bank envelope. There was absolutely no one in sight, so I swiftly knelt and picked up the item.

I could tell from the feel of it as I put it in my pocket that there was a good deal of money in this envelope. I rushed over to my husband and told him I needed to go to customer service right away. "I found a lot of money," I whispered.

We headed for customer service. As we hurried, we passed several store employees and I stopped to ask for a manager. One of them spoke up and said he was a manager. I told him what I had found and he ushered me over to customer service.

Together we watched the clerk count out the money and then take it to a safe place. I won't say exactly how much it was or in what denominations, but it was in the hundreds.

The manager thanked me for being honest and turning in the money. "I am sure someone will be looking for this," he said. I did not leave my name or anything and I wonder in retrospect if I should have. Oh well.

I have never in my life found such a large amount of cash. In fact, I think the most I have ever found was a $5 bill in a parking lot once. Maybe it wasn't so much my lucky day as someone else's. At least I hope so. I do hope they get their money back.

This event discombobulated me a little bit. I was very nervous handling this cash that did not belong to me, even though I was doing nothing wrong. After we left customer service we went back to the area where I found the money, thinking we might see someone frantically searching, but we did not.

After that, we spent several hours shopping, ending up at Sam's Club where we had a very long wait in line. Sam's is never a good idea on a Saturday but sometimes you just can't help it.

As we headed to dinner, I decided to call the answering machine at home and check messages.

"Hi, this message is for Anita. This is Vicki at the Vitamin Shoppe. We had a raffle drawing today and you won a prize! Please come by and get it. We will hold it until Wednesday."

Well! I don't win things very often - about as often as I find envelopes full of money. This was turning into quite an eventful day. We weren't far from the Vitamin Shoppe (which recently opened near the IHOP at Valley View) so after we ate dinner we headed over there.



The clerk handed me a bag full of goodies. Inside I found a cup, several mixes of a milk shake for women, a personal lubricant (hmm...hmm) acidophilus pills, DVDs about health, and natural sleeping pills.

While this was not quite as exciting as the greenbacks, it seemed like a nice way to end the day.

But since I was having a lucky day, we decided to go three for three. I stopped at Food Lion and purchased a lottery ticket.

What did I win?

Well, so far only $1 on a scratch ticket. But one of the tickets is for a drawing that has yet to be held.

Maybe my luck will hold!

Like a Rose

under the May rains . . .



smells as sweet . . .



full of thorns but still a thing of beauty . . .

Thursday Thirteen #140

Today I offer you quotes about writing. If you're a writer, you might see yourself here. Or not.

1. Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia. - E.L. Doctorow

2. And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt. - Sylvia Plath

3. Substitute "damn" every time you're inclined to write "very;" your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be. - Mark Twain

4. The wastebasket is a writer's best friend. - Isaac Bashevis Singer

5. Easy reading is damn hard writing. - Nathaniel Hawthorne

6. The story I am writing exists, written in absolutely perfect fashion, some place, in the air. All I must do is find it, and copy it. - Jules Renard

7. If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn't brood. I'd type a little faster. - Isaac Asimov (note: I always thought this quote said six months, not minutes.)

8. Storytelling reveals meaning without committing the error of defining it. - Hannah Arendt

9. Writing is easy: All you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead. - Gene Fowler

10. Being an author is like being in charge of your own personal insane asylum. - Graycie Harmon

11. Every writer I know has trouble writing. - Joseph Heller

12. Writing is a struggle against silence. - Carlos Fuentes

13. I think it's bad to talk about one's present work, for it spoils something at the root of the creative act. It discharges the tension. -Norman Mailer




Lots of people play Thursday Thirteen. Read more about it here and check out the works of others who participate in this meme. Enjoy!

Creeping Close to the Crane

Saturday I spied a new bird over at the pond. We have always called this bird a crane.



In all my years of taking pictures, I had never been able to get close enough to a bird like this to take a decent photo.



I crept as close I dared and was rewarded.



I was not able to find a picture of this exact bird in my Audubon field guide. I still think it is a crane of some kind but I suppose it could also be a heron. Anyone have a positive ID?

Young Farmer's Expo

Saturday, a beautiful day if there ever was one, we hauled ourselves over to New Castle to see what was going on at the Craig County Young Farmer's Expo.

New Castle is the seat of Craig County, which lies west of Botetourt. It's a very rural and somewhat remote community.



The event took place at the old fairgrounds, which is a lovely site. Craig County used to have a rollicking fair, complete with "hootchie cootchie girls," I've been told. All the men would stand around and chew tobacco and watch the women. I went once or twice as a child but don't remember much about it, to be sure. The idea of it has always caused me to raise an eyebrow.



This is a piece of fire apparatus. The brigades are all volunteer in Craig County.



Ann Harrell of Creekside Creations takes pictures and does a little writing for The New Castle Record, which is a newspaper for which I used to write. She had nice nature photos and has a line of cards she prints off on card stock.



These are old engines. My husband said they used to run washing machines, ice cream makers, and the like.



This is an old farm tractor that someone did a nice job of restoring.



The event had a lot of crafters with wares ranging from photos to doodads to clothing. I saw one woman who self-publishes books. I think I inadvertently offended her by asking if she had much trouble with Publish America, which was the self-publisher she was using. Publish America bills itself as a traditional publisher but from everything I have read it is really a form of vanity press. I have read a lot of bad things about PA and I was most unimpressed by the one book I had seen previously. However, this lady's books did not look bad at all. Perhaps it is all in the editing?

Wherefore Art Thou, Short Stories?

When I was growing up, short stories were everywhere.

You might remember them, too. Fictional short stories of a point in time and space where some hero or heroine had an epiphany. Women's magazines printed them in each edition, from Family Circle to Redbook to Ladies Home Journal.

Some of these magazines had contests to find the best short story writers.

My mother brought home magazines full of short romance stories. True Story and True Confessions. I read them just I read everything else that came before me. Intently, with concentration, inhaling the words.

Some writers, like Sherwood Anderson, Virginia Woolf and Kurt Vonnegut, are well known for their short stories.

Who are the short story writers of today? Who are the contemporary short story writers?

Locally I only know of one famous short story writer, and that is Kurt Rheinheimer, editor of The Roanoker magazine. His short stories, which I understand are often about young men and baseball, have been printed in numerous anthologies.

But most people . . . particularly those who purchase their reading material at Krogers . . . don't pick up anthologies. So the best short story writers are going unread.

I have never been a story snob. I can get as much pleasure from a short story in a romance magazine as I can from a well-written piece in an anthology. I can get as much pleasure from a genre book as something pronounced "literature," for that matter. Which is not to say some things are not better than the other - they are. I am probably remiss for lumping them all together, anthologies with romance stories.

But where has the short story gone, regardless of content? True Story is still available - I just looked it up - but I haven't seen that magazine on the stands around here in 20 years. Occasionally a short story appears magically in Red Book or some other women's magazine, but not often.

Some time ago I delved into the world of "fan fiction" and discovered many short story writers there. These authors take a character from TV or movies and then go on to write stories about them. You've seen this happen with books, too - those lines of Star Trek novels, or Buffy the Vampire Slayer, or whatever. Characters whose existence continues in the minds of others.

I wonder if the Internet has eaten the short story? The form seems suited for online reading - not too long, able to read it all in one sitting before your bottom goes number. But are people reading them online?

A short story that I remember from my past that I especially liked was Faulkner's A Rose for Emily. You don't read things like that anymore. We read many short stories in school when I was a teenager. Do they still teach short stories? I don't know.

If you have short story author recommendations, I'd love to have them.

The Black Swan - Still Here!

The black swan appears to have taken up permanent residence on the farm.



I have been told by neighbors that occasionally s/he is joined by a white swan, but I have yet to see it.



Watching him/her at the pond makes me feel calm, but sad. I believe this bird is missing a mate, and that makes me want to cry.

Roses 2010

My roses are in bloom for the spring.



I've had trouble with aphids and beetles already. That usually doesn't happen quite so soon.



This little orange rose below has only bloomed once or twice in nine years. My friend gave it to me for my birthday a year after my mother passed away. It bloomed then but otherwise never did well. It was in the front yard. This year I dug it up and moved it to the back yard with my other roses. It seems to be doing much better.



This rose bloom was so heavy the stem could not hold it up.

Thursday Thirteen

Today I give you: Life Lessons from The Sims!

The Sim (2) is a video game where you control the lives of your little Sim people. I try very hard to keep mine happy and satisfied so that they don't cry or kill themselves, but sometimes stuff happens that is beyond your control, like a job loss.

Anyway, here goes:

1. Fulfilling needs is one thing, fulfilling wants and desires is something else again.

2. Happiness is a full belly, a nice environment, not having to pee, well-spent leisure time, not being too dirty, and spending time with friends and family.

3. A house that is too big takes too long to walk through. A good size house is about 1,500 square feet.

4. Once one of your needs go unmet, it is difficult to regain your balance. It can take a long time to find your equilibrium.

5. Death by flies should be avoided at all costs.

6. Deceased loved ones can still be your friends.

7. Ghosts can be playful and/or malicious, and if you see one you will pee your pants.

8. Stargazing is an admirable past time.

9. Use of outside space is important.

10. Exercising keeps you thin. It also makes you sweat.

11. Always have a sink and a trash receptacle in the kitchen, along with a smoke detector above the stove.

12. A good bed makes a big difference in how you sleep.

13. Don't scrimp on your education, and don't waste time or skills you don't need.

Regular readers are probably wondering if I am currently involved in avoidance behavior which includes playing video games instead of doing what I am supposed to be doing. You may very well be right.

Thursday Thirteen is played by many people; you can learn more about it here. This is number 139 for me.

My Ficus Tree

This is my ficus tree.

I received it when it was a very small plant in an arrangement in 1989. I was in the hospital for surgery and the law firm where I worked sent it.

I transplanted the 10" little tree and it has grown too big for my house. I have decided it is one of the 50 Things I should let go.

I moved it to the garage several years ago because it no longer fit in the corner where I had it. It is very difficult to kill and it needs very little care and attention. It seems to thrive on neglect, actually.

It would look great in an office or in a larger home with high ceilings. Surely you have a corner where you could use a tree, don't you?

Offering it for sale is my first course of action. If anyone is interested in buying it, please email me.

Post 1200

According to the blogger count, this is my 1200th post in this blog.

If each post were only 250 words, and we all know my posts are not that short, that would be 300,000 words. I expect it is more like 750,000.

If that is the case, then that's a lot of words. That's ten 75,000-word books, which is what 300 pages of double-spaced manuscript amounts to. That's your basic mystery right there.

I began this blog on August 5, 2006. It is not my first blog; I originally started one in 2003 to protest the war in Iraq. That lasted about six months. Then in 2004 I switched over to AOL Journals and wrote there until AOL went nuts and I felt a change was in order.

I began blogging because it was a different outlet than the writing I had been performing for pay. It also helped hone skills I felt were in need of work, in particular reaching out to an audience in a more personal way and in finding my own opinions and voice. It served as a creative release, a different mode of storytelling, and a light journal (I try very hard not to be gloomy online as I don't need those deep dark moments preserved in the wayback machine forever and a day.)

I am surprised that I have been doing this for so long. In a few months it will be four years. That's enough time to have received a diploma at a college.

Occasionally I have thought of stopping but I enjoy the writing. The relationships I have made via this blog have stunned me. I have met a number of my local readers in person and befriended others on Facebook as well as on my blog. Some of the local readers have become real life friends, people I would not otherwise have met. It gives me shivers.

There is no money in this particular exercise, at least not yet. I have ads on here from google but let's face it, if I were depending on that for income we'd be pitching a tent and eating nuts and berries from the National Forest. I most recently added Amazon ads not because I expect people to buy the books I review but because google made it easy to do that and I wanted to be able to add the pictures without having to look things up. For me it was a time saver.

I have seen a number of folks come and go. Most recently Beth over at Blue Ridge Blue Collar Gal announced she would no longer blog because she needs to devote her time to finding a job. I respect that and certainly understand it, having found that the Internet has devalued my work tremendously. No one wants to pay a writer for their time, technique or knowledge anymore. Everyone thinks they can do it themselves, and the Internet and the business world is full of crap writing. It's a dumbing down of the worse kind but it's what happens when people reach for the lowest common denominator instead of striving for the best.

Even so, there is value in something like this that cannot be measured by the George Washingtons. I cannot put numbers on the friendships, the inspiration, the communication, and the ideas that have been bandied about on my blog and others. For someone like me, who values love, beauty and truth above all else, I fear something like this blog is priceless.

This anniversary of sorts has come at a great time. It is absolute proof that I can stick to something long-term. Somewhere along the way I got it in my head that I could not stick with a long project, most especially not novel-writing or weight loss. Those two in particular have escaped me time and again and I have always shrugged them away with that particular label. I don't know exactly where it came from, this idea that I am a will-o-the-wisp who dances and vanishes, but obviously it is not true. One doesn't blog for four years, or take eight years to finish college, stay married for 26 years, or freelance for 15 years and make decent go of it for most of that time without a little something of the swan in the soul.

So this idea that I cannot stick to a long term project must go. It is one of the 50 things I am throwing out of my life. I can do whatever I set my mind to, no matter how long it takes, if I take it just one blog entry at a time.

Thank you, blog friends, those I know and those I don't, for reading, commenting, and hopefully enjoying my work. I appreciate you very much, even those silent ones who come and go without a word. You make the world a little sweeter, and that's a very good thing indeed.

Books: Throw Out 50 Things

Throw Out Fifty Things
by Gail Blanke
270 pages
Copyright 2009

I mentioned this book recently but I had not read it. Now I've read it so here's the book review.

This is a great book. The author goes room by room and suggests certain items that all of us have - shampoo bottles under the sink or in the bathroom, old medicine bottles, magazines, etc. She considers piles of items to be one item, so if you toss out 500 magazines it only counts as one thing. I imagine one could consider that two if it were really that many!

After  clearing the clutter from the home and the office space, she moves on to internal clutter. Her pop psychology is very good and offers up a quick way to clear cobwebs, if nothing else.

I read the book through without doing any of the exercises but I will now go back and do those. Even if I don't, I have been inspired to rid myself of a few items that have been taking up space and which really do not need to be here. I have a small house and it's not like I have the room to spare.

First on my clean-out list, I think, will be the sock drawers. They generally get an annual cleaning anyway and I just this morning went to the store and returned with 20 new pairs of white crew socks for each of us. Yes, we are rednecked to the core.

After that I have a few big items in mind, some of which I will list here and maybe on Craig's List in hopes of selling and/or giving to a worthy home. If nothing else I see a yard sale in my future. We shall see how it goes.

If you have clutter, either external or internal, do yourself a favor and take a peek at the website link for this book, if nothing else.

Key to the book is to write down what you're throwing out and she has a workbook online that can help you with that. So I am off to start my list!

Thursday Thirteen

Today I present to you 13 reasons for using a community bank!



1. Community banks are not "too big to fail."

2. The government didn't give community banks any bail out money.

3. Community banks use real people and not automated phone systems that keep you on hold forever and a day. (Press 1 for English. Press 2 to hear your balance. Press 3 to transfer money. Press FU to tell us where to go.)

4. The real people know your name if you bank with them. Sometimes know who you are before you even introduce yourself, particularly if you're a local mini-celebrity.

5. The community banks are run by the local millionaire and not the big fat cat CEO who makes multi-millions.

6. The loan officer knows how to pronounce things like Botetourt (body-tot), Roanoke (Row-Noke), and Catawba (Cat-awe-ba).

7. Community banks approve a loan with just your tax returns and do not require a DNA, stool and urine sample.

8. The tellers don't ask your mother's maiden name because they already know it.

9. You receive a warm chocolate chip cookie if you bank on Fridays.

10. Community banks have customer appreciation days several times a year featuring hot dogs and soft drinks, and they sponsor local events like Art on the James and the Fincastle 5K run.

11. Loans in small amounts are welcome and the loan officer doesn't tell you to "just put it on your credit card."

12. You can still open up a Christmas Club account at a community bank.

13. You're helping your neighbors keep their jobs!



Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of bloggers. You can read more about it here. This is my 138th time to do this meme!

Eyes on Iris

The iris is one of my favorite flowers.



The yellow iris came from a deserted homestead in 1988. The place was on land my parents had recently purchased next to their farm and my mother gave me permission to dig up the flowers and move them.



The purple flowers came from my mother's collection around her home.



A line of iris separates the yard from the woods. These are generally slow to bloom, perhaps because of the lesser amount of sunlight.



I love to watch them dance in the breeze.



They make me feel calm.

Books: The Dragon of Despair

The Dragon of Despair
by Jane Lindskold
Copyright 2003
754 pages

This is the third book in Lindskold's Wolf series, the first being Through Wolf's Eye and Wolf's Head, Wolf's Heart.

The books center around Firekeeper, aka Lady Blysse, a feral child raised by "royal wolves" in a western and unexplored area of a new world settlement. She is about 16 and in book one she was returned to civilization to be exploited by a noble who tried to pass her off as the granddaughter of the king through a son who had split with his father and settled in the wild country.

Firekeeper has a magical talent in that she can speak to animals. This is fantasy without high magic; very little conjuring. But magical talents lay latent in the people. Some heal, some fight well, at least one controls minds. The people in all but one of four lands dislike magic and shy from it.

In book three, we find Firekeeper at odds with herself. Is she human or wolf? Does she stay to protect her wolf family from another encroaching settlement or do as the king asks and go to the east to stop a sorceress? In the end she goes east because the king agrees to stop the settlement and she trusts his word.

In the east, Firekeeper and her friends (she has a lot of friends; while the books are about Firekeeper, they are really ensemble books with many heroes. I was mostly interested in Firekeeper, however.) must face off against a land that doesn't like foreigners as well as the sorceress, who is from their own land.

The book is quite detailed and being very long there are many plots and descriptions. I would call this political fantasy as opposed to just straight fantasy as there is a lot of intrigue and political maneuvering in these tomes.

There are two other books in this series but I think it will be a while before I read those. Time to move on to something new. I did not dislike this book but I am somewhat ambivalent about it and while I would welcome the other books I am in no hurry to read them.