Blogging for Peace

On December 24, Christmas Eve, there will be another round of bloggers holding up Peace Globes in an effort to bring about peace. You can find out more about it at Mimi Writes. I plan to participate. Hope you will too.

All is Bright

I've been cleaning all day. Well, since 10 a.m. I stopped to have lunch with a friend, who came to visit, eat, and bring me a present. Then I raced off to Kroger for toothpicks for the little cheese squares and wiener's I plan to have for a get-together Sunday. And as soon as I write this, it'll be back to cleaning. I want my house spic-n-span for the holiday.

We have lots of rain today and that makes it dreary. I am tired of the holiday music on Q99 so I found a satellite station with lots of good 1970s music on it. Hurrah for my growing up years. We knew how to rock and roll. And disco, too.

I ran into several people I knew at Kroger and I was glad to see them all. I walked around the store singing a Christmas song. The place was packed; we were like little sardines bouncing off the edges of the cans. I just smiled and went on. There is never any point in being in a hurry in the grocery store.

Better get back to that vacuum.

All is calm

Finally. Time to rest. Or play. Or clean the house.

The freelancing is over with for a week. I have some time to chill, or work on other projects (like my long forgotten novel) or do whatever. I have obligations - a dinner tonight, a luncheon tomorrow. Christmas Eve doings with my family, Christmas Day with husband's.

But the presents are wrapped. Whatever food I intend to take has at least been planned. Trimmings are up. The house needs a cleaning but that will take care of itself eventually, with some help from me, of course.

So I am calm. Prepared. Not letting things get to me. Not worrying about what others think of what I've done. Doing my best, and I'm sorry if that's not good enough. No doubt everyone fails someone every minute of the day.

Last night's meeting of a town council was frustrating, but they always are. I think these people try hard but they are attempting to do work with generalized knowledge when the thing requires someone with some know-how. They're going to get themselves in much trouble. I watch with trepidation, 20 years of news reporting behind me. But I can't save the world.

The day has turned dreary; we are expecting rain. I've heard rumors of snow in the mountains Christmas Day. That would be lovely, unless you live in the mountains. Which we don't exactly but we're close enough to maybe get a skiff or a dusting or something.

Husband is not getting anything spectacular for Christmas. It's a lean year, but we've lots of other projects going on. Besides, we have everything we need. Shelter, food, one another. Who cares if we don't have an ipod or a zune or the newest playstation?

It's a mellow afternoon. Hurray.

The Botetourt County Courthouse

Tuesday

On Sunday, as I headed out for breakfast with a friend, I spied a hot air balloon crossing a corner of the farm.

The cows were all huddled in the barn. Hot air balloons scare them. Sometimes it makes them stampede.

I did not call the law - it doesn't do much good, anyway - but it is a frustration. After all, if the cows run, scared, and break a leg, I'm the one with the loss. I did call my father-in-law, because it is his land, after all, because I thought the balloon might land in the field. The balloonist has no permission to do that.

But he landed elsewhere.

Unbenownst to me, Santa Claus was in the balloon, along with a TV crew.

****

My brother called me today. He is out of the hospital and his tests did not reveal any problems with his heart. Stress or reflux or both seems to be the diagnosis. He said he has a bad headache because they gave him nitro.

****

I spent part of the morning in jail. Well, not really. I toured the new jail under construction in Fincastle. It is a huge structure.

I went in one of the cell spaces. The cells are about 12 feet by 7 feet and very dark. There are no windows in this place, aside from some skylights. Each cell will hold two people and a toilet when it is done.

I would not want to spend much time in such a place. To never see the daylight, the grass, the fields, the trees. My gosh. I don't think I could stand it. It was bad enough when I had an inside office with no windows when I worked in a lawfirm in Roanoke so very long ago.

The United States puts more people behind bars than any other nation. You can read about this here. This is big business and I suppose an economy-builder. After all, our county is spending $20 million to build this jail; I saw what looked like 100 men on the construction site.

But I am not sure what it says about us as a country, that we put so many people in prison. Something like one person out of every 32 people has a criminal record of some kind. Which averages out to about one child per every classroom, more or less. It's rather mind-boggling.

I think it's sad that people can't behave themselves and thus end up in the court system, but I also think this kind of thing is a telling sign that we as a society are not doing something quite right. I don't know what it is we're not doing, though.

Tired now. I must be thinking too much.

Prayers For

I don't know what is in the air, but:

My dear friend L's dog died; she is heart broken.

My brother is in the hospital with heart problems (I just found out).

My grandmother fell yesterday in the nursing home and injured her leg (I just found this out, too).

My dear friend B. has so many problems with her shoulder she can hardly move.

My aunt has an abscessed tooth and the infection has gone into her sinuses and eye (I just found this out, also).

My grandmother in California apparently has Alzheimer's (I found this out today, too).

My Uncle K. wrenched his back today and can hardly move.

There is probably more but for the moment, that is enough.

The Other Side

Today, I had occasion to drive down Williamson Road.

This day was a shopping day. Hopefully my last shopping day for the upcoming holiday. I am not much of a shopper and having to get out amongst the crowds wears on me.

But I was off about 10:30 a.m. this morning. Out of Botetourt, where I try to do my shopping, and into Roanoke.

The major event of my day, I had hoped, was to meet a fellow blogger and purchase a book he'd written after getting it signed for my husband. But that wasn't to happen until after lunch.

First stop, the bank. Next, the gas station. Then on to Dollar General on Williamson Road (Hollins end), where I bought gift boxes for the clothing I've purchased to give away. I don't like to buy wrapping items, because I try to recycle and be conservative in that way, but after not buying new things for several years, it seemed a necessity. Particularly since the items left over from previous years have developed a musty smell that makes me sneeze. I discovered this last night while trying to wrap my husband's presents. I wrapped with my eyes watering, and this morning when I walked by the Christmas tree I could smell the "mustiness". I immediately unwrapped everything and threw the wrapping in the trash. My allergies are atrocious, aren't they?

So gift boxes were a must-have on the buying list today. The store was most obliging and hopefully I have everything I need for hours and hours of wrapping fun.

From the Dollar General, I headed to Sam's. Chewing tobacco for husband was the major purchase here. Then off to Books-A-Million for a large print calendar for my grandmother in the nursing home.

And then it was off to Roanoke Antique Mall for the book signing. I left the mall area and went down Williamson Road all the way to Orange Avenue.

Driving down this old road, stopping at the numerous (and long) stop lights, I realized what an antiseptic life I lead now.

I don't visit places like Williamson Road. Many businesses reside there, but none that I frequent. Oh, sure, I've been in Schewel's Furniture a couple of times, but since Sears left from down there, which was 20 years ago, I don't venture down Williamson Road.

A lot of folks are like me, I think. We go to the grocer and hop on the interstate. Head to the mall, return home.

You don't see what's going on that way. You don't see the unshaven old man doddering along Williamson Road with a shopping cart. The decaying old buildings. The spruced-up buildings where someone is trying to make a go of it. The light slanting off the rooftops.

The Williamson Road Pawn Shop. I haven't been in a pawn shop in 15 years. The bowling alley. The car dealership (I don't shop there, I don't buy Chevrolet). Fire Station 2. The history of a community, growing, falling, coming back up again.

If I lived in that end of town, maybe I would visit more. But I think I would visit more regardless if I wasn't so worried about moving out of my safety zone. I also don't do bars, bowling alleys, tattoo parlors, or other places where I might find cigarette smoke and things that give me the willies.

However, I grew up in that environment, though I don't remember much of it. My father used to take me with him to the bars. He'd sit me on the pinball machines and he and his friends would plunk in quarters while I watched the balls. Supposedly this went on for hours (and today I blame my video game addictions on this).

As a news writer I sometimes visit places that are not my normal element. But I go then as a watcher, not as a participant. It is one thing to write about a game a pool, it is quite another to hold the stick, run it over your finger, and pocket the eight ball.

I drove through Williamson Road, I did not experience it. I could never do that without getting out of the car.

Whew!

Good news!

Had my return visit for a second mammogram to check out those "changes" they found in November on my regular yearly screening.

It's a cyst. Nothing to worry about.

My husband is relieved, I'm relieved, we're all relieved. After the year we've had, we needed a break and I am very glad we got one with this kind of good news.

Thanks everyone for your good wishes.

Now, let's go party and have a good holiday!

O Christmas Tree

We lost our Christmas tree.

Nevermind that it was a seven-foot artificial tree and much too heavy for me to move. It isn't where it's supposed to be, and hasn't been for two years.

Last year we made do with a three-foot tree when we discovered the big one was missing.

A year later, we still can't find the Christmas tree. So we bought another. But we don't know what happened to the old one.

You see, we kept it in the bathtub. It was encased in a rather expensive plastic container, with a lid that closed tightly. I have terrible allergies and there's nothing like the dust from stored Christmas decorations to get the nasals dripping. The plastic crate helped a lot.

We kept the entire thing in the bathtub because we had no other place to store it. The tub is in the second bathroom and it goes unused. I thought I might as well do something with the space.

So last year we went to put up the tree. But the tree was gone. Husband doesn't remember what he did with it. Wife doesn't remember, either.

We checked everywhere we might have put it. The attic. The storage shed. The garage.

No artificial tree. No big plastic container, either.

We must have given it away, but we don't remember to whom. Or maybe we decided it was getting thin and needed to be thrown out. But surely we'd have kept the plastic crate.

It's a head scratcher all right.

Our saga with artificial trees began in 1984. This was our second Christmas together, the first happening not long after we married. We were in a new little house and Husband brought in a pretty little real tree.

Ah, the smell of pine!

Ah, the sneezes. The watery eyes. The wheezing.

Yes, it was time to acknowledge that Anita is allergic to pine trees, and has been all her life. My mother told me a few years before she died that she took ill during the Christmas she was pregnant with me. She broke out in hives after an adventure in the woods to find and bring in a tree. An act, she was sure, that cursed me with a propensity toward allergies whenever I was in the presence of pine. Or so she thought, anyway.

I grew up with live Christmas trees, and while I was generally sick during the holiday, I never made the connection between the tree and my sneezes. Neither, apparently, did anyone else.

Following the tree-trimming, my allergies were woefully and painfully obvious in 1984. So we undecorated the tree and we tossed it out.

We got another live pine from somewhere and we scarcely got it in the house before my wheezing made it readily apparent that this wasn't going to work. It wasn't just that particular pine tree, it was any pine tree.

So that tree left the premises, too. We went to Sears and bought our first artificial tree. Not so nice, but less detrimental. That was the year of three trees.

Over the years we've had nice artificial trees. In 1993 Husband gave me a lovely florist tree for an anniversary present. It eventually lost its needles and we replaced it with another.

And that's the one we've lost, and it was well before it was time for it to go. So if you should see an artificial tree looking lonely and undorned by the side of the road, maybe thumbing a ride, give us a call.

It might be the one that, all on its own, disappeared from our bathtub.

Fincastle lights

These are lights in Fincastle.



As you can see, I could not stand still long enough in the chill.



I was waiting on a meeting to begin.

The first picture, the last on this page, taken when my hands were still warm from the car heater, turned out the best.

If I wrote a Christmas Letter . . .

(Snow 2005)

I don't send out a Christmas letter. I do handwrite in most of my cards, offering up some memory or tidbit that I think is relevant to the recipient. When my husband helps, he generally just signs our names and moves on, which is okay too

The thought is what counts, I suppose.

We have had a stressful year. And I thought, if I were to do a Christmas letter, what would it say? And then of course I decided to share this pretend Christmas letter here on my blog:

Howdy Good Friends and Neighbors!

This year, 2006, is fast coming to an end and boy are we ever glad! We can't wave bye-bye to this one quick enough.

The husband has had a tumultuous year that began and ended with truck wrecks. First in January a bail of hay rolled off a trailer and crashed in the side of his truck, and just this month (Sunday, actually), he hit a deer and smashed in the front end.

Won't we be pleased when we get those premium increases from the insurance company! We're certainly looking forward to that.

Career-wise, husband has held steady though he did have a mishap with a bush. This turned out to be a snafu of major proportions that should have been absolutely nothing. Fortunately husband held fast and we have our fingers crossed that the long-term damage was minimal. The bush ultimately lost whatever battle this was.

Husband also put in a lot of shitters, buried two calves, and spent a lot of time looking at the sky praying for rain. The hay crop was a real bummer this year. Oh, and the bull went lame, too. We bought another one; he likes donuts.

As for me, I developed vertigo in February and still struggle with that, though it's much better and at least I can stand up and drive again. In September I thought I was having a heart attack but I I guess I wasn't, and now we're all standing by waiting for me to get a second mammogram because the doctors didn't like the one I did in November! Boy howdy, it just doesn't get more funner than this, does it?

I also lost two of my freelance clients, not through anything I did but just because it was time for those projects to end. This left a big hole in my pocket that I've yet to fill, in part because my health has been so wishy washy. Better luck next year and all that.

Also, the folks who rented from us decided to vacate six months earlier than we'd anticipated, nevermind the contract. Nothing like an unexpected renovation to liven things up! Did you know that green crayon won't come off the shower walls? Neither did we until now!

As for next year, we're looking forward to working every single day of the week (unless we're sick) just like this past one. Maybe it'll rain and the hay crop will be better, whatcha think?

That's all for now, I gotta go catch a possum and boil 'em for dinner. Ya'll come!

********
Of course, none of that, absolutely none of it, made it into a single Christmas card. . . .

Christmas: Getting to Know You

Welcome to the 2006 Holiday Edition of Getting to Know Your Friends! You know the drill. Read it if you want, do it yourself if you like. Happy Ho Ho.

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Hot Chocolate (is there anything else?)

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Wraps them.

(Don’t know what happened to Number 3)

4. Do you hang mistletoe? Not in a very long time. I used to shoot it from a tree. For real. With a real gun and everything. I was a good shot.

5. When do you put your decorations up? After Thanksgiving. I don't decorate a lot.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? Fudge. Without nuts. Yes, that's candy but it is my favorite. I can make a meal of fudge.

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child? I don't have one. That's kind of sad, isn't it.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? I figured it out when I was no older than six. I had broken a tooth and the tooth fairy left me a 50 cent piece. I found a bowl of 50 cent pieces on a shelf and somehow made the connection. And from there I knew Santa wasn't real either, if the tooth fairy was just a myth.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? I used to. My brother and I would open our present from one another.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree? Lights, garland, ornaments, tinsel. Only this year we forgot the garland. Which is nothing, since last year we lost the tree completely.

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? Mixed emotions.

12. Can you ice skate? I did as a kid but wouldn't dare now

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? I remember some gifts in particular, like a rocking chair, but I wouldn't call it a favorite.

14.What's the most important thing about the Holidays for you? Spending time with my family and friends (and having a little down time).

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? Fudge! Fudge! Fudge!

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Having my aunt and grandmother down to my house on Christmas Eve.

17. What tops your tree? An angel.

18. Which do you prefer giving or Receiving? Both. I like the giving part but I don't mind the getting, either. (I'm honest about it, what can I say?)

19. What is your favorite Christmas Song? Little Drummer Boy

20. Candy Canes! Yuck or Yum? Yum, but not often.

You have changes

So I just moments ago answered the ringing telephone.

"Yes, Ms. F.? This is so-and-so, and you had your mammogram on the 21st of November, remember?

Well, the doctor's found some changes in your right breast and we'd like you to come back in for some more pictures."

Wow.

That's not exactly what I was expecting to hear when I picked up the telephone.

Changes doesn't mean anything's wrong, said the voice. The doctor just wants another look.

Really, I am not all that surprised. Honest. I stopped drinking caffeine completely in March and I thought that might make some difference. Changes, you know.

A difference, you know.

Nothing's wrong, and all that.

First available appointment's not until Friday afternoon, of course. So you have five days to not worry. But I'll know something before I leave there.

Friday afternoon.

1:30 p.m.

Changes. Different.

Gulp.

Freelancing

I have been freelancing since 1994. You'd think after all that time I would be good at it.

But mostly I have worked for only a few select companies, with odd jobs thrown in for good measure. Those jobs have included editing, acting as a glorified secretary for an old man (in his 80s) who wanted to write a World War II textbook, newspaper writing, magazine writing, substitute teaching, post-closer for a real estate attorney, and tutoring (which only lasted a month, I am so not a tutor).

Freelancing for me has been a one-woman adventure. I am the writer, the purchaser of equipment, the cleaning lady, the accountant, the receptionist - everything. It all rests on my graying head.

Of course it is this way for most sole proprietors, so I am not alone. It would be nice if, at some point, I made such vast amounts of money that I could afford an assistant, especially for the filing, but I don't see that in my future. Most of the time I don't mind doing everything. I have my own little system worked out, I can find my paperwork, and things flow smoothly.

Until, that is, I have to be the Bill Collector.

Occasionally I work for someone who deems it okay to pay me late, or not at all. This becomes a major issue with me, particularly if it is a goodly sum of money. And particularly at this time of year, when I need my cash.

As it is, I am today the Bill Collector and suffice it to say, I don't like it much. This is the part of being a sole proprietor that I truly dislike. I am still working for this particular client and I don't want to lose the business (not yet, anyway), so I tread lightly. But I think treading lightly allows me to be abused.

I don't like confrontation so it is hard for me to say "pay up". And then of course the only "or else" I have is to say I won't work for them anymore. And they don't really care because, although I do wonderful, even award-winning work, for them, I am completely replaceable.

I know this, so I tip-toe around the payment issue.

Tip-toe.

Tip-toe.

Even though I am, technically, a free spirit doing my own thing, I am just as much caged as the worker in the cubicle who answers "yes sir" to the big man. The big man always gets his way, I think.

Tip-toe.

Tip-toe.

(The bird in the picture is not in a cage; it is behind a roll of fence. It is much freer to fly than I will ever be.)

Friday turkeys

These turkeys showed up Wednesday, I guess it was. I grabbed the Kodak Z710 and headed outside to see what I could come up with in daylight.

I think the digital zoom is useless and will have to remember to try not to use it. Look at how it blurs the background in the last shot.

It's enough to make me think I've not been taking pictures for the last 20 years.

The turkeys, at least, seemed very happy. Probably because they escaped being someone's Thanksgiving dinner. Although they may make into someone's Christmas pie, traipsing about like that.

New Version of Blogger

I was very pleased to find I could switch over to the new version of Blogger today. If there are any problems, please let me know!

The Quilt

My Great-Aunt Susie gave me this quilt last week.

It was an early Christmas present, and, she said, a thank-you for my monthly trips to visit and take her apples.

I feel very much like a heel who doesn't deserve a thing for my efforts. She lives about 30 miles away from me, but in this day and age such a distance really isn't an excuse not to visit more often.

I would call frequently but she doesn't hear well and I end up just yelling into the phone. "It's --. It's Melba's granddaughter." Or something. Many times I call and she hangs up without knowing it was me. I, at least, know then that she is okay.

Taking the quilt seemed the polite thing to do, but the truth is I haven't a place for it or a need of it. But, isn't it lovely? So colorful, hardy, yet delicate.

It is handmade. She stitched it in the 1970s and placed it in a trunk. It never saw the light of day again until she decided last month that it should be mine.

I should mention that my great-aunt is 86 years old, I suppose. I can only hope to live that long, but my grandmother is also living and she is 83.

Quilts are things of beauty and they hold pieces of people. I will hold this one as dear as I do the others, even if all it does is sit in the dark in my closet. It was made with care and given with love, and what more could you ask of any object?

Shooting the moon II

Last night I went out about 7 p.m. with the Kodak Z710 and a tripod.

Prior to venturing out, the Kodak tripod, brand new out of the box, and a gift from my husband last Christmas that I'd never opened, fell apart when I took it out of the bag.

Undaunted, I snapped off an e-mail to Kodak complaining about their product, then grabbed the duct tape.

Outside with the camera, it was about 25 degrees and very cold. I steadied the camera on the flimsy tripod, careful to wrap the camera leash around my wrist in case the tripod collapsed. Then I moved from setting to setting, snapping pictures.


I was shooting through the trees, partially in the hopes of getting something in the picture that looked interesting. I love moon shots but I love moon shots with things of the earth in them even more.

This is with the digital zoom, not the optical zoom, and it appears that using the digital zoom is what I need to do. Alas, the Kodak Z710 has no image stabilizer and even with a tripod, things apparently shake.





Playing with the settings gave me this ghostly shot, which I then brightened up a tad in MS Picture It.




Below is a collage of several of the nearly 50 pictures I took. Still learning am I.


I think I will one day shoot the moon, but maybe not this month.

Shooting the moon

Lo! the moon ascending!
Up from the East, the silvery round moon;
Beautiful over the house-tops, ghastly, phantom moon;
Immense and silent moon.

-- Walt Whitman (1819–1892)


I have an affinity for the moon. She has always drawn me and I have always loved looking at her (in some pagan religions, the moon is feminine, no "man in the moon" there).

But I have never been able to take a good picture of the moon. Usually I end up with a big white blotch, like this:

I was hoping with my new digital point and shoot, I would do better. Last night and this morning I tried, I really did. This is better because you can see the moon's oceans, to some degree:



But it is not that great. The picture below has more personality but the camera focused on the tree, not the moon, so the orb is blurred:

I have tried a number of settings on the new camera, trying to make it happen. I have never been that great a photographer, though. I do okay but I would never profess to make a living at it. It is a hobby that I am lucky enough to occasionally get paid for, if I can send in decent enough shots with an article.

This turned out the best, this big ol' moon, but the colors are not that deep and I am not that happy with it.






Somehow, the first day I got the camera, I was playing around and I pointed at the moon and got this shot. You can even see the craters. But I have no idea what setting I was using and I can't just make it happen.

All of these shots were freehand. Tonight, if the sky stays clear, I hope to try again with a tripod. Maybe between now and then, I can figure out how to shoot the moon.

Monday Miscellaneous

1. The deer is my animal totem.

2. I am disillusioned with Google as a search engine these days.

3. I think Jim Webb was rude to the president for no good reason. And I voted for him. Just because you disagree with someone doesn't mean you have to be impolite. Save that stuff for when it really counts, you know?

4. I much prefer the warmer weather.

5. Being busy at my news reporting makes me very happy. I have been chasing a couple of stories for three days and I found myself remarkably content as I went about my work.