Li'l Bambis

We have three fawns that are staying around our house this year. I know there are three because I have seen them all together, but I have not been able to shoot a picture of them in the same shot.

The other day one of them walked right up to my office window. I held my breath until it turned around and I could grab a camera without scaring it.

We have fenced out my flower beds with plastic netting fence. We left a single unfenced entrance by the deck.

About three weeks ago I went outside to look at a couple of does that were in the backyard. A fawn had gotten inside the fence and was resting in my flower bed! I startled it and it jumped up into the netting. I yelled for my husband, who ushered me inside to give the little thing time to calm down. When we ventured back out it had vanished. I did not have a camera to get a picture, alas.

They will be grown and big deer by this time next year.

Zucchini Bread

"Hey good lookin' whatcha cookin'?" said my husband as he came in from work the other day.

I stood holding the egg beater at the ready, a big bowl of something on the counter and flour on my hands.

"Zucchini bread," I told him. "I harvested our first batch of zukes today."

"Yum, I love me some zucchini bread!" he exclaimed.

And it was very good. He ate an entire loaf almost immediately; in fact, he didn't even let me allow it to cool off!

It's fairly easy to make, too. I like the way it turns brown inside and have often considered making it without the zucchini just to see what it does.

I do not consider myself a great cook but I will share this recipe. I am not sure where it came from as it is handwritten.

Zucchini Bread

Ingredients
2/3 cup Crisco butter-flavored shortening
2 2/3 cup sugar
4 eggs
3 cups fresh zucchini, chopped very fine
2/3 cup water
3 1/3 cups of White Lily self-rising flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 cup raisins

(You can put nuts in it too if you want but I never do.)

Heat oven to 350. Grease two large loaf pans or three smaller ones.
Mix shortening and sugar in large bowl. Add eggs, zucchini and water.
Blend in flour, cinnamon and cloves. Stir in raisins. Pour into pans.
Bake 60 - 65 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool slightly; remove from pans. Cool completely before slicing.
Store no longer than 10 days.

Cousins

My extended family is rather large; I can trace my family tree back to the late 1700s in Botetourt County and so I have lots of 4th cousins once removed and folks I barely know who I can call "cousin" if I so desire and be accurate. In fact, my husband and I are fifth cousins, meaning we share a set of grandparents about six generations back. Which makes me related to my father-in-law and all of his family as well; they are fourth cousins I think. They could be fourth cousins once removed. I get that mixed up once you get that far back on the family tree.

Anyway, my mother had four brothers and one sister, and they all had children, so my first cousins are bountiful as well. And they have now had children (my first cousins once removed; second cousins means you share great-grandparents, not grandparents, it gets confusing).

Recently a bunch of these  immediate cousins gathered to celebrate the graduation of one of the children.

My first cousin by marriage, Gina who is married to my cousin Matthew, and her daughter Madison, who is my first cousin once-removed. Madison is my aunt's granddaughter; Matthew is her son.

Kayleigh, on the left, is my first cousin LeighAnn's daughter, so Kayleigh is my first cousin once removed.  She is with Madison. LeighAnn is my uncle's daughter.

Ashleigh, who was graduating from home school to college, was the reason for the celebration. Ashleigh is my cousin Michelle's daughter, so Ashleigh is also my first cousin once removed.


Kelsey, on the left, is Michelle's daughter, so she is my first cousin once removed. Michelle, on the right, is my uncle's daughter, so she is my first cousin.

Supposedly I and all of these cousins are related to two separate presidents but I have never proved that so I don't make that claim and wouldn't make the claim for one of the supposed presidents anyway even if it were true. I am eligible for Daughters of the American Revolution and Daughters of the Confederacy inclusion but have never bothered to fill out the paperwork. I have set that aside as something to do when I am old(er).

I am lucky to have such an extended family. I know not many people know their first cousins, much less their fourth, fifth and sixth ones.

Thursday Thirteen

I am one of those people who often ask the odd questions; my mother called me a "why" child, because once I learned the word I never stopped wondering. Here are few odd things that have crossed my mind lately:

1. If a mouse is on a train, does he experience any sensation of traveling while he's roaming around down at my feet? Could he get motion sickness?

2. Do animals favor a paw? As in, are they left-hooved or left-pawed? Does mother deer tell Bambi, "Now, son, step out with your right hoof, not your left."?

 (Mother deer with suckling fawn!)

3. If I only read a book half way, or maybe just don't read the last page, does that mean that for me the story never ends?

4. If a tree falls in the forest does it make a sound - I say yes, even if a human isn't around. Because the noise exists whether I hear it or not. But I cannot prove this.

5. How does Teflon stick to my new loaf bread pans?

6. Why do they call it a #2 pencil?

7. How come I can never see the light turn into darkness when I am sitting outside watching the sunset?

8. Why do fireflies remind me of fairies every time I see them?

9. Why does well water keep my vegetable plants alive, but rain makes them thrive?

10. Why must I always question everything? Why? Why? Why?

11. If I have already fulfilled my purpose in life, how would I know it?

12. If I am wasting time, who's definition matters? If I enjoy reading a book, or playing a video game, or surfing the Internet, why is that wasting time? Shouldn't I get to define it?

13. Where is the soul, what is it, how does one see it, feel it, know it is there?

There you go. I have a busy, zany mind; welcome to a small piece of my world.

Thursday Thirteen is played by many people and you can meet more TT players here. This is my 146th time to play and if you don't believe me you can look here and read them all.

New Fire Station

On Monday, Roanoke City dedicated its new fire station, Roanoke Fire-EMS Station #5.

This will be my husband's new location because the battalion chiefs will be working from this station now.

The station consolidates two structures, old station #5 and station #9. Station #9 is officially retired, and both old buildings will be sold. My husband was captain at Station 9 for almost 10 years before he received his promotion.

The closing essentially eliminated 12 jobs, although the local media has not reported that recently. It was publicized when the decision to close the stations was made several years ago but apparently that has been forgotten.

You can see media coverage of this here: WSLS, WSLS (stations closing), Roanoke Times. Station 9's old blog is here and you can see in the header what the old station looked like. I don't know if new Station 5 will have a blog. Apparently that depends on the firefighters and who has an interest in keeping it up.

Anyway, on with the tour:




The new structure cost about $4.5 million.



They also introduced a new ladder truck to the public. It is a Quint, which means it carries water and has a ladder. It cost $843,000.



Firefighters J. D. and Dennis, both of whom have worked with my husband for many years. Dennis is going to be a daddy in the next month or so. He was very kind to me while my husband performed his duties and saw to it that I had water and found the rooms with air conditioning. He also gave me a tour of the building.



The new battalion chief's office.



The turnout gear locker. If you have never been in a fire station when the bells ring and the fellows all run for their gear, it is an amazing sight. It's like a ballet on speed.



Dennis and my husband, who was all decked out in his dress uniform.



The pole for a fast exit from the second floor. I understand this pole came from old station #3 and is about 100 years old.



The crowd was large for such an event: about 250 people. Many were dignitaries but others were retired fireman and local citizens who wanted to take pride in this new structure.



Captain Kevin and Fire Investigator Ronnie.



Captain Kevin and his crew created this very large table - it's about 18 feet long - to serve as the eating place for the firemen. The table has inlays of pictures of the closed fire stations as well as a tribute to tomorrow's firefighters in the middle.




Dignitaries made long speeches. Mayor David Bowers had a hard time keeping a straight face at one point. Tears fell during a presentation to Battalion Chief Bobby Slayton, who has been with the Fire Department for over 44 years. He retires this month. Unfortunately the heat was miserable; the event was mid-day and the bays of the fire station, where everyone gathered, are not air conditioned.



And there's me and my sweetie.

Too Hot to Handle

Our weather has been very un-June-like and instead has been more August-like.

The temperatures have been in the high 90s for a week now.

How hot is it?

It is so hot that when I go outside after taking a shower, my hair dries instantly.

It is so hot that ducks are flying upside down so their friends will get a breeze from their flapping wings.

It is so hot that eggs cook on the sidewalk.

It is so hot that the trees have started walking toward the pond.

Well, you get the idea.

It is hot. Can't do nothing about it and I am thankful we have air conditioning.

That picture, by the way, was taken yesterday afternoon. The thermometer was in the shade. The gauge on the other side of the house, which was in the sun, looked like this:

Books: Split Second

Split Second
By David Baldacci
Read by Ron McLarty
Abridged 6 hours
Copyright 2003

These fast-paced spy/mystery books are what David Baldacci is known for, but as I hadn't read or listened to one I thought I'd pick one up.

This went very quickly. The plot was very exciting but the character development was minimal. I don't know, though, if that is because of the abridgment so I will withhold judgment on that.

Much of the book was set in Virginia, and I always like to read things set in the state. It makes them feel close to home, sort of.

Michelle Maxwell is a Secret Service agent charged with protecting a presidential candidate. During a stop at a funeral from a friend, the candidate is kidnapped. Michelle's career is effectively ended.

Eight years earlier, Sean King had been watching a presidential candidate when his charge was gunned down. King lost his career, too.

The two join forces when the two seemingly unconnected events start to look connected. They sift through old evidence, lies, and cover-ups to discover the truth.

The book ends with the two joining forces to create a private investigator's agency, so even though I haven't looked I am sure there are other books out there featuring these two characters.

Not bad entertainment while driving in the car, that's for sure.

Summer Solstice Musing

Mid-Summer's Eve. The evening is warm with scarcely a breeze, so warm that a naked dance with the fireflies is not out of reach.

As the sun settles behind the mountains, a cardinal gives the all clear cheer while a dove in the brush by the fence coos goodnight.

It is twilight. Evening tide. Time for gentle souls to fall under the spell of the pixies and fairies who will rise and dance beneath the half-moon. Magic and softness and a promise of newness lies on the air, in the thin, nearly imperceptible twist of the oak leaves as the breathing of nature stirs the air.

Softly now, move softly among the roses and hear the echoes of those who went before. They call to you, those elders, their voices audible only to those who have will to listen. Do you hear them?

It is a time to dream, is it not, on this longest evening of the year? For soon the winter's howl will be close and the fires of man will smell in the air. It is never long away, those times. They come around as surely as the sunrises and sets each day.

Listen now as the owl calls and watch the night fall upon you. The stars twinkle, each light a small beacon crying out to sorrowful souls. The fireflies dance. Go dance, and be free.

**Written on the Summer Solstice**

Heavy Burdens

My phone rang and rang tonight, up until 10 p.m.

And always it was bad news.

First the bad news was about my husband's family. Two of his aunts are in the hospital. One I have written about before. Aunt Jenny had surgery for pancreatic cancer in early November. She is not doing so well. I love Aunt Jenny; she was a substitute teacher when I was in elementary school and I remember her coming in and teaching. When I married her nephew, she welcomed me with open arms.

Aunt Frannie lives in Salem and I do not know her as well, having not spent much time with her. She is in the hospital with a problem with her leg. I do not know the particulars on that but it does not sound very good.

The sisters are not in the same hospital. Their other sister, Aunt Nancy, is in North Carolina recovering from knee surgery. And their brother, my father-in-law, is on oxygen, though he continues to work far too hard for a man of his age. They all worry me.

And then my brother called tonight to tell me, among other things, that my grandmother who lives in California is in the hospital. They are unsure what is wrong. It is hard to know when you are this far away.

My grandmother turned 90 in March.  I wrote about that in this post. I called her last on June 11, which was my grandfather's birthday, and we had a long chat. My grandfather passed away in 1989.

I have never spent much time with my grandmother, for California is a very long way away. For a long time I did not have the money to fly out, and have never had the time to drive out. Living on a farm generally means you don't take long trips like that, because someone must feed the cows. Then as we've aged, someone has had to be here to help out the older folks. Now I have a problem with my ear that keeps me grounded. I cannot fly unless I am sedated. I don't think I will ever get to California.

On top of that, my heart has been sagging for months now, with personal sorrows and troubles that I won't share but which have plagued me for some time. I try very hard to be happy in my writing in this blog but sometimes it is impossible not to feel totally overwhelmed by life, even though I know I really have nothing to complain about.

But tonight I feel as heavy as a dew that has stained delicate silks strewn about the grass. When the sun rises I know I will feel a little lighter, but right now, with darkness knocking at my windows it is very hard to recall.

Thursday Thirteen #145

Today I shall give you a few of my favorite little peeves. We all have them, the little things that just drive you nuts even though they shouldn't.

1. Food labels. I read labels a lot these days because my doctor told me to watch my sodium. But on food labels, servings aren't the entire bottle of soda. No, the labels are for half a bottle. Or half a candy bar or 1/8 cup of cereal. They are very misleading unless you read the entire thing, measure and do the math.

2. My phone rings and it is my bank trying to sell me insurance. Excuse me? You are my bank. I don't want to buy insurance from my bank. I buy insurance from my insurance company.

3. Telemarketers. Thanks to the government "do not call" list I get fewer of these than I once did, but still, the little loopholes about being partners and doing business with someone gives them the right to call you all the time make the list less than perfect. I do believe some countries don't allow telemarketing at all, and good for them.

4. Warranties that aren't. A warranty should cover all costs. I hate replacement warranties that are not. As in, something breaks and you can get it fixed but you have to pay a small fortune in "shipping and handling" that is nearly as much as what you paid for the item. I bought the product in good faith and then I have to pay for you to fix your mistake?

5. The weather. Okay, I can't do a darned thing about this but it is not supposed to be nearly 100 degrees in Virginia in June. That is August weather. In June it is supposed to be 75 degrees and breezy and clear, not hot and humid as hell. But there is no climate change because it snowed last winter, remember?

6. Artificial sweeteners. Aspartame and sucrulose are rat poisoning in disguise, dumped in our foods, and I am finding it more and more on those labels that are so difficult to read. This is probably all to the good because it means I have to resort to real foods which I should be eating anyway, but I worry about what this stuff is doing to other people. And to me when I slip up and eat it.

7. People who pull out in front of you and then slow down. I don't know what these people are thinking. Maybe something along the lines of, "I need a new car, if I slow down this yoyo will rear end me and their insurance will buy me a new one."

8. Toilet paper holders. I hate having to put new rolls on the holders. So there.

9. I'm like, you know what I'm saying? and other stupid phrases that permeate people's speech sometimes. I know a few people who are so busy saying those phrases that I never have a clue what they are actually trying to talk about.

10. PEOPLE WHO SEND EMAIL OR INSTANT MESSAGES IN ALL CAPS. This is terrible Internet etiquette and I find it quite irritating because it is quiet shouting. It makes me want to hit the delete key immediately.

11. Along the same lines, people who forward stupid political things to me. Most of it is wrong or just opinion and when you do forward such things you're just adding my email to some spam list. Or at least to a list of your friends whom I don't know. So stop it already.

12. Dogs in stores. Unless it is a service dog helping a disabled person, dogs do not belong in Lowe's or Kroger or Walmart or any other place where pooches seem to be turning up lately. I don't care if it is your little snookums. Leave the dog at home where it isn't likely to get close enough to me make my allergies flare up. Not everyone likes dogs, particularly big dogs that look like they could swallow your leg in one single gulp. Please be a little more considerate.

13. Lastly, the hard plastic from hell that covers batteries, computer and camera accessories, and other things. It requires dynamite to get that stuff open and it seems like a terrible waste of resources. Can't they come up with better packaging?

Many people play Thursday 13. Go check out the list of folks playing this week here. Ya'll come back and see me, ya hear?

My Brother, The Peacock

Recently I visited my brother at his house, which is about six miles away and is beside the farm where we grew up.

He has a thing for birds. He raises chickens, guineas, and peacocks.

This is the bird I believe he calls Othello. He has two males but I forget what he calls the younger one.

This is Othello pre-strut. It was growing dark and I had only my small (and old) Nikon Coolpix with me so the photos did not turn out as well as I would have liked.

I had never watched a peacock be, well, a peacock, before. Apparently it is not the brightly colored feathers that are the attraction for the female. No, it must be the plump little bottom, which shimmies and shakes as if in dire need of some great attention. I had never seen such a show.



And she, being female, paid him absolutely no attention!

The Four Seasons of Fincastle

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I bid in the silent auction to win an item.

The item was a set of framed prints by Connie Marsh, who once lived in the town but does not now. They are pictures of various historical sites in Fincastle, one in each of the four seasons. It is titled The Four Seasons of Fincastle. In the late 1990s, when I was very involed in the organization, sales of this print were a big fundraiser for Historic Fincastle, Inc.

A silent auction, for those who may not know, involves writing down bids on a paper by the item. The last bid on the paper when time is called is the winner.

I did not start bidding until 7:15 p.m., and the auction was to end at 7:30 p.m.

It was an anxious 15 minutes for me for I was bidding against someone with a reputation that, if true, meant he could have written down any price and not blinked, whereas I was bidding in $5 increments.

However, I have always wanted this particular set of prints. I think it is quite beautiful and it reminds me of simpler times and a period in my life when I was working avidly to keep the historic nature of the Town of Fincastle foremost in people's minds. While it was not a particularly happy time in my life because of my mother's illness, it was a very busy and productive one.

This is a photo of the picture that I brought home. Yesterday we hung it in the hallway.

Raising the Roof

Saturday evening saw big doin's in Fincastle as one of the town's two historic preservation groups put on a shindig to raise funds.

The money was to be spent on new cedar shingles for the James Early Cabin, which houses a small museum dedicated to early settler life and historic information about the town.

The event was held on Main Street in the Rienhart-Luster House, which is currently undergoing renovation. The renovations were part of the attraction.

Note the molding around the door frame. You don't see woodwork like that anymore on most homes.

Two rooms in the old manse had been turned into very large bathrooms. This tub looks out over Main Street - soak and watch the traffic!

Another attraction was the area artists, who sold their wares.

My friend, Dreama Kattenbraker, was one of the local artists. That's her and a picture of her work above. I love her whimsy and style.

Fincastle artist Nancy Dahlstrom was also there. Professor Dahlstrom is a Hollins teacher who taught me in several classes when I was an undergraduate. One of the classes, Imaginative Thinking, still sticks with me as one of the best courses I ever took. She has a great eye for detail.

Other activities included music and wine tasting in the backyard.

I knew many of the people attending the event. Some were old friends and acquaintances.

This is Peggy Davis on the right and her daughter, Kathy. I did not know this daughter but do know two others. Peggy and I are distant cousins.

Many visitors were current or former members of Historic Fincastle, Inc., the organization which put on the event.

A very long time ago in another life, I was president of this organization. At that time the group put on the Fincastle Festival every year. While a Festival Chairman actually did most of the work for the festival, I did work hard to help and make sure things went smoothly. I took it all very seriously.

I dropped out of the organization in 2000, when my mother was ill with cancer.

There was also a silent auction, and I brought home a prize. I will tell you about that tomorrow!

Books: Dune Road

Dune Road
By Jane Green
Copyright 2009
Unabridged Audio (11 hours)
Read by Cassandra Campbell

Occasionally when I listen to a book, I start to wonder if I would have been better off to read it instead. This was one of them, but based on comments I read on Amazon.com, I don't think seeing the words on the page would have made much difference.

Kit Hargrave, Connecticut mom, has divorced her husband, Adam, because he worked all the time and she didn't want to be only a trophy wife. She's settled into a small house with a lovely older next door neighbor, Eddy, who takes her in as a surrogate granddaughter. Her friend Charlie is a consumer extraordinaire who buys diamonds and lives the high life until her husband Keith informs her that the recession has cost him his Wall Street job.

Tracy owns the yoga studio and is Kit and Charlie's friend - to a point. She has a mysterious past and mysterious involvements with men, including Kit's boss, a reclusive writer.

Meanwhile, Kit still loves Adam and he loves her, they just haven't figured that out yet, and then Kit discovers something odd about her immediate family that sends things spiraling in a weird direction. Toss in a boyfriend, lots of hints of something horrible, mother-daughter drama involving the wearing of clothes, and awkward writing and I'm afraid this was a book that I kept hoping would end sooner rather than later.

Many times I wished for an editor who would have erased many sentences as I listened, particularly as the writer seemed to go around and around in the thoughts in characters' heads and then back and forth in time.

Not a bad book, but not a favorite. Okay for the beach or if there is nothing else around.

Thursday Thirteen

For some reason I was thinking about conspiracy theories this week (maybe it was murmurs of BP not capping the well to get at the oil or something like that; I've heard a lot of theories about that incident of late). Certainly I could not find thirteen . . .

1. The Shadow Government. Some people think that there is a second government that really runs things. This group of elite people control everything - the banks, the governments, corporations, and the media. These people want to create a new world order, one which, I suppose, would make them richer and wealthier. Seems to me like they are winning or have already won, if that is the case. Certainly they are not out to make things better for the likes of us.

2. JFK. This is a famous one. Who killed this president and why? Many conspiracy theories believe the shooter could not have acted alone. According to Wikipedia, (and we all know how accurate that is), more than half of the population do not believe the gunman acted alone. Assassinations of popular figures tend to lend themselves to conspiracy theories.

3. Presidential Hit List. Apparently a lot of people believe that presidents kill off people they consider enemies. Clinton supposedly has a body count in the 50s or 60s, as does the Bush family (who have also been implicated by some in the JFK assassination), according to Wikipedia.

4. No electric cars. One conspiracy theory states that oil and gasoline companies have suppressed the technology for electric cars in order to sell more oil and gasoline. Sound plausible?

5. Nuclear weather. Many conspiracies surrounding cataclysmic events claim that earthquakes, tsunamis, and other large weather phenomena are really the results of secret government nuclear tests. The 2004 tsunami allegedly was a result of secret tests, as was the Haiti quake, the conspiracy theorists claim.

6. Herbs, not drugs. Some conspiracy theorists claim that big drug companies work hard to keep herbal supplements out of the hands of people because they know they work. If the FDA approved herbs and things and allowed them to make claims of cure, then people would not buy the expensive pharmaceuticals. I first heard of this theory with tryptophan, which I was taking to help me sleep. It worked very well for that, and then it vanished from the shelves, ostensibly after a over 1,000 people were sickened by the pills. Apparently the pills were all made in one facility that did something wrong but according to the conspiracy theorists it was only a contaminated batch and the whole drug was banned because it was so effective. Tryptophan remained unavailable until the mid-2000s, when it returned to the marketplace.

7. Epidemic by Government. Has the government made us ill by dropping germs on us via airplanes? Some conspiracy theorists believe that to be the case. I first heard this several years ago from a chiropractor, who insisted that the reason so many people in the Roanoke area are on thyroid pills is because of something the government dumped on our heads. Appalachian regions are prime areas for that kind of testing, that conspiracy theorist said.

8. Kill, not cure. Some conspiracy theorists believe that drug companies will not come up with cures for illnesses because they would not make money once the diseases are cured. Chiefly, some conspiracy theorists believe the FDA is in league with drug companies and that its food guidelines are in place solely to keep people obese and unhealthy. I confess I do not believe that companies will ever cure cancer; there is too much money to be made in the treatment of it.

9. Peak Oil and Climate Change. Many people believe these two things do not exist. Conspiracy theorists believe there is plenty of oil - somewhere - and that climate change is something made up (I guess created by people who like to breath clean air and drink clean water).  The benefit of making up these two things has to do with money, but then, doesn't everything?

10. Aliens among us. Some people believe that extraterrestrials are here and walking among us. On Wikipedia, one theorist claims that the Bush family are a bunch of reptiles and that Princess Diana knew about it - that is why she died. Apparently some people will believe anything. And then of course there is Area 51 and alien abductions. Vaseline, anyone?

11.  Elvis is in the building. Many people could not accept the fact that Elvis died in 1976. For years he was sighted at various fast food places all over the United States. The conspiracy theorists said that he was tired of being in the spotlight and faked his own death in order to live in peace. Sightings have not been in the news for a very long time, I guess since people realized he would be very, very old had he lied. I imagine there are many people who think the same thing about Michael Jackson, that he is really out moon walking through Walmart somewhere.

12. Man never left earth. Some people believe that the moon landings were faked and that Armstrong actually was in a TV studio pretending to be weightless. Conspiracy theorists site a number of reasons why they think this never happened, including the flag flapping in the breeze (are there breezes on the moon) and the creation of flame when the space ship took off from the moon's surface. On the flip side, some people believe that Germany landed on the moon in the early 1940s.

13.  Big Brother's Watching. Some conspiracy theorists believe that bar codes and ID chips, those little tags on all the things you buy at the store and bring in the house, are methods of controlling people. At the very least, someone with a machine could drive by and tell how many pairs of undies you have in your drawer, the theorists say.  Additionally, digital TV was put in place so that people would have to buy the converter boxes, which in turn spy on you, as do new TVs and, one would assume, computers and maybe cell phones.

And what, pray tell, do I believe? I think there is an elitist class and I do believe that many of those folks will do whatever it takes to ensure that they remain wealthy and you and I do not. Do they run the government, the corporations, the banks, etc? Well, those are the wealthiest people. But I do not believe that they are reptilian aliens who are going to eat us in our sleep. Mostly they will just work hard to ensure that they and their loved ones are rich while the rest of us live off bread and circuses.

I have no idea who killed JFK other than the man charged with the crime, nor do I know if presidents have hit lists. However, I wouldn't be surprised to learn that there were others involved in any assassination or that presidents have people killed. Mostly I don't think about it.

Corporations may not be evil but they aren't nice, either, and I daresay that in the matter of money things are shuffled to the side, whether that be technology for electric cars, herbs that cure, or using hay to absorb oil from the ocean in a natural way. Remember when there were many different types of computers and browsers and there were anti-trust lawsuits over that? And look who is left. Isn't it kind of the same thing? It's about the corporation, not what happens to humanity.

I do think we are probably running out of oil. It cannot be an infinite resource; nothing on this earth, including the earth, is infinite. As for climate change, it certainly is changing and I for one want to breathe clean air and drink clean water, so I am all for making sure that happens regardless of the reason. Pollution stinks. I don't want to see humanity growing gills. Hence, regulate and make sure industries don't pollute anymore than they must. It is a no-brainer to me but apparently not so much for others.

Are there aliens out there? On some planet somewhere, flowers grow, or bacteria, or something. I do not believe we're the only planet with what we call life. Maybe there are alien spaceships and things but I strongly think they are not what we think. And they certainly are not our presidents. And I do believe that we landed on the moon; look at the technology that came from that endeavor. Tang, if nothing else. What would the 1970s have been without that yummy orange drink?

Big Brother is watching but not through my computer or my TV - most people are decent and honest and there is nothing to see. It would be a vast waste of resources to try to watch us all when many of us don't do anything worse than have a glass of wine! Besides, they have the IRS and the Internet for that, right?

As for Elvis ... He's left the building.


Thursday Thirteen is played by many people; you can find a listing of them here. This is my 144th week of playing. Which is a very long time.

Phew Kitty!

The other day I was reading an entry over at Sweet Virginia Breeze wherein she described seeing a skunk or two.

I was reminded of my own encounter with a pole cat many years ago.

It was 1988; our house was but a year old. We had a little dog named Ginger, a mixed mutt who stayed outside.

She was a small dog, part terrier and part something else, very hyper and moody. She could be very affectionate when she wanted to be but if she was pissed off at you she didn't hesitate to glare and let you know you'd messed up.

I loved her dearly but kept her outside in all but the coldest weather because of my allergies. She shed constantly. She lived to be 17 years old so I must not have been too hard on her though I always felt guilty when it rained even though she had a nice dog house with carpeting in it.

Anyway, when we first moved into our newly-built home, we had to keep her on a chain because she kept wandering back down to the house we lived in before (it was just on the other side of the farm but she would take the road).

After a while, though, she decided she liked her new digs and so the chain was nothing more than afterthought. Gingere would lay in the sun outside the kitchen door and when I was home I loved to peck on the glass and get her attention. She'd come up and I'd pet her and send her back to her nap.

One hot summer night as I slept alone in our bed - my husband was at work at the firehouse in Roanoke - I heard Ginger barking as if the world was ending. I bounded from bed and switched on all the outside lights.

She was in the front yard and I couldn't see anything but she had something cornered on the front porch. I put on clothes and as soon as I went outside I knew what she'd cornered.

Skunk. And it was spraying. It was spraying the dog and it was spraying my house.

Ginger would not come when I called. That was her skunk and she wasn't going anywhere. She stood a few feet from it, barking as if all of hell was in front of her. The smell was so odious that I could not get close. It burned the eyes and made the breathe in the chest feel as if it were solid fire. I felt it on my skin and it burned that, too.

The smell began to infiltrate the house as the poor frightened, cornered skunk kept using its only defense.

I can't remember if we had a game warden in those days and I am not sure what one would have done at 2 a.m. anyway. Dismayed and upset, I called the fire station and woke my husband.

"The dog won't come away from the skunk and its spraying and spraying and it's all over the house and I can't make it go away!" I wailed into the phone.

"What do you want me to do about it?" my husband mumbled.

"Come home!" I cried. "Come home and get this skunk or we're not going to be able to live in this house for a year!"

I wasn't sure he could actually come home for such a thing. Was there something in the fire department regulations about skunk emergencies at home?

Finally I bundled myself up in old clothes, tied a kerchief around my head to cover my nose and mouth, and went back outside. I hooked up the water hose and went around to the front yard, where I sprayed the dog in hopes of getting her away from the skunk.

About that time my husband, who must have driven well above the speed limit to get home, pulled in the driveway. Once he opened his truck door he realized what I was talking about as far as skunk smell. If you have never smelled skunk smell when it has immediately been sprayed, consider yourself blessed.

He found me there with the water hose, crying, covered in water and smelling a little like skunk myself. Finally, we got the dog on the chain. The skunk regained its senses and ran off into the meadow.

The skunk had indeed sprayed the house. At that time we had cedar siding on it and the wood soaked up the odor.

We washed the dog in tomato juice many times over, and then washed her many times in various shampoos. Our shoes stunk from walking in the grass around where the skunk sprayed and had to be thrown out. As for the cedar siding, we washed it down with Mr. Clean, vinegar, and everything else we could think of.

It stunk for a long time, and years later when it rained it smelled like skunk on the front porch.

The moral of this story: stay away from skunks.

Hollins Reading

Last night I slipped out to Hollins University to hear two men read their work. Apparently it was meat night in the storytelling realm; maybe big guys eating lots of protein? I don't know.

The first reader was Thorpe Moeckel, an assistant English professor at Hollins who apparently lives near Purgatory Mountain, which is in my county.

According to the college faculty listing, this gentleman's "first full-length collection of poems, Odd Botany, won the 2000 Gerald Cable Award and was published in 2002 by Silverfish Review Press. Chapbooks include Meltlines, The Guessing Land, and Making a Map of the River. He earned his M.F.A. in 2002 at the University of Virginia, where he was a Jacob K. Javits and Henry Hoyns Fellow."

He read from his just-published book entitled Venison. I was sorry my husband wasn't there to hear this as he would never have believed someone could write poetry about killing and skinning deer. The poem - it is a single poem -  is 72 pages long and is written in couplets.

The authors did not have books for sale at this event. I would have brought home a signed copy of this for my husband if there had been.

The poem flowed well and read well but I think it was something I would like  see and perhaps read aloud myself in order to get a better feel for the work.

The second reader was Pinckney Benedict. Benedict formerly taught at Hollins but is now elsewhere. (Note: I never took classes from either of these professors as I was there long before they were.) His fourth book, Miracle Boy and Other Stories, also was just published. Apparently this book has been nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. I should put that in big letters: NOMINATED FOR PULITZER PRIZE.

Benedict read for perhaps 20 minutes. I could not decide if the story was set in older times and was plausible or if it was a bit of realistic science fiction, something along the lines of the twilight zone.

The story, told in first person, was of a young boy who was helping his father exterminate cows that had some kind of epidemic that required them to be killed.

I enjoyed listening to this story and now will spend some time wondering how it ended, for he did not read all the way to the end. What a tease, eh?

When I was an undergraduate at Hollins, I attended readings all the time. When I finished school, I went back frequently at first, but eventually my return to hear these authors dwindled to the point where I can scarcely remember the last one. I have been lucky if I made it once a year but I would like to do better in the upcoming school year.

But I must point out how lucky I and other area writers are to have an institution that brings in writers who are potential Pulitizer Prize winners. I have been to some great talks and readings at Hollins and I urge every writer to take a look at the college's events calendar and take note of what is coming up. These things are open to the public and free. There is a wealth of opportunity there.

While it is much more fun to attend these things when you know someone (I did not know a single person at this event, which really was unusual, I usually see somebody I know), I find them to be a little inspirational (and a little frustrating sometimes, too) but generally good for me. They make me think, they get me out of the house, and they put me out amongst people again. Those are all pluses.

So hooray for Hollins. Hooray for readings. Hooray for summer nights that let me venture out before it is dark!

Books: The Christmas Train

The Christmas Train
by David Baldacci
Read by Tim Matheson
Unabridged 7 hours
Copyright 2002

While it was the wrong time of year to listen to a Christmas book, I enjoyed this tale even though it had a rather unbelieveable ending.

I had heard of Baldacci but had not read any of his work. This was the only book available in the library when I went in search of something new to listen to in the car.

Tom Langdon is an aging war reporter who is trying to find himself. He has no family and wishes he had married Eleanor when he had the chance, but he let her slip through his fingers. He decides to take a cross-country train trip at Christmas time, ostensibly because he is related to Mark Twain and Twain did the same thing.

In any event, Langdon meets quite a number of characters, including a fiesty fat lady, a priest, a couple who want to get married aboard the train but haven't made any arrangements so that this will happen, a film director, and a boy's choir. He also meets up with his old flame, who is none to happy to see him.

Halfway through the trip Tom's current girlfriend boards the train as a surprise to Tom, which leads to even more interesting engagements between the characters. Will they get there on time or will a blizzard cause them all lots of problems?

If you enjoy seasonal stories, then this is a good one (but listen to it then, not now).

Window Dressing

As you may recall, in May we had new windows installed in the house.

New windows called for new window treatments.

These are the curtains that I had in the living room. Well, really they were just panels.

I never really liked them, because they had no color. They had been up for five years; they did the job.

When we went to Short Pump last weekend, I found curtains that I liked. Here they are:

A whole new look. Ta da.

Flowers

These are some of the flowers in the yard this week:

Red Rose

Pink Rose

Yellow Daisy

Marigolds

Summer Mum