Good day, Sunshine

It has taken me days to get my computer back to where I feel comfortable with it. Still, I find it so different from what I had used for four years that I am not quite certain all that I lost.

My calendar, for one. My contacts list, for another. Thankfully I had enough sense to print those out and to put them in .pdf format before I disconnected the old computer. The  e-files I emailed to myself. The information is not lost, just not as accessible.

The new and improved Windows offers a lot of stuff. A “Live Blog” feature allows me to write and post to my blog without ever connecting to blogger.com. It formats paragraphs funny and is taking some getting used to.

I imagine young people love it.

Also I have been beleaguered by requests from Windows to “join” various components that would follow how I use windows. They want to track me, as it were, following my every key punch and mouse track to see what I am doing and why.  “We won’t collect your information” the little notes all say, and I decline them all. But I bet they’re collecting information anyway.

I do not trust corporations. Not a single one. The makers of Tylenol may be glad their product kills my pain but they are happier still with the bucks my pain puts in their pocket.

I have a Brita pitcher filter. The filter leaves little black spots of charcoal all over the top of the pitcher. Every filter does this. On the packaging it says a little of this is normal at first. It happens all the time. It’s not harmful, the packaging says.

I don’t believe it but I drink the water anyway because it tastes a little better with the filter. It’s like Coast soap – the smallest soap in the house, not because it’s used to much but because the way it’s made makes it go away very quickly in water. And we swallow the commercial and the claims.

Hopefully I am now back in business and Monday will find me  ready to tackle some  writing projects, my and my little tracking computer.

Just another writer

Last night I ventured to Roanoke for a seminar on magazine writing. The event, sponsored by the Arts Council, was free to the public.

Cara Ellen Modisett, editor of Blue Ridge Country magazine, was the speaker.

She spoke about queries, content, where to find ideas, what type of magazine to write for (BRC is a travel magazine), voice, and lead paragraphs, among other things.

Approximately 20-25 people turned out to hear her talk, including Becky at Peevish Pen, who is a member of the Roanoke Valley Branch of the National League of American Pen Women, as am I.

The event energized me and reminded me why I wanted to be a writer, lo those many years ago, in the first place. It is not to make money (thank goodness) but to tell a story in the way that only I can tell it. My voice is my own and my perceptions belong to me, and no one can tell me that they are right or wrong, though Lord knows they will try.

Being a writer has been a goal ever since I knew the word. Teachers pointed me in that direction. “You can write,” they said, one after the other. Some pointed me in wrong directions but still down that general avenue.

"Be a writer,” voices whispered to me.

Over the years I trained myself to write first on a typewriter and then on computer, not an easy task. Today I can scarcely read my own hand writing, so writing at the computer has become a near necessity.

Writing is more than fingers to keyboard. It is thinking, dreaming, spending time walking the fields to gather thoughts that otherwise stray. It is listening, listening and listening again to the heart of the voice of the speaker, hearing emotions in voice, seeing desire and passion in body stance. It is asking questions and not thinking the answer in your head is the correct one. It is knowing that minds are not stagnant but changeable and malleable and that what a person thinks one day may be completely different from the next.

Writing is a kind of madness, an adventure of the psyche that stimulates, fascinates, depresses and confounds. It amuses, confuses, bemuses and makes obtuse the things you thought you knew but really did not. It is blue sky, fast cars, wicked women, evil men, blessed priests, laughing children, dancing dames, Christian zealots and atheists who make love in the park. Writing zips around like a firefly on a hot summer night and it lies smoldering on the sidewalk like the flame beneath winter’s fireplaces.

The dance of the keys beneath my fingers sometimes is a slow waltz that makes the box step look like a quick locomotive. It’s a hip hop that boogies, a jazz band that be-bops and a disco that moves quickly from one end of the floor to the next. It is static, erratic, jagged and smooth, and it changes from one moment to the next.

How could I even think of not writing, of not giving life to the words of my brain, the thoughts whizzing breezily between my ears and beneath my graying hairs? What made me contemplate tossing this desire into the trees, to leave it hanging there unnoticed and unwanted like a deflated balloon?

I am just a writer. But a writer is just what I am.

The Agony of it All

Last week, as I minded my own business and began intensive work on a personal writing project that I aimed to finish, my computer decided it had enough.

Enough of me plugging in devices and using it for my own purpose. It wanted no more. The Gateway 830 GM had served me faithfully for over four years and it was sure its time had come.

The USB ports died. I first realized there was a problem Monday evening but thought little about it.

Tuesday morning, the external hard drive would not come up. So I thought it was the external device.

Then the computer wouldn't read my cameras. Or the printer. Or anything else, except for a very old scanner plugged in the back.

About the time I decided to unhook everything and haul it to Best Buy for a check up, everything worked again. So I backed up the hard drive and continued to work.

The next morning when I booted up, she was dead in the water where the USB ports were concerned. So I unplugged and headed to Roanoke.

The Best Buy guy, a young fellow attempting in vain to grow facial hair, said the problem sounded like a mother board issue. Of course while I had it on the counter his wireless mouse device worked properly in all ports so he could not be sure.

I lugged the thing back home. Of course when I set it back up, nothing worked.

A friend offered up her brother-in-law, who is a business computer technician. He could not come by until Friday, so I bid my time, limping along without the USB ports. It worked properly when he first arrive, but after a reboot everything was dead. After an hour he decided it was indeed some kind of serious problem and not a software or driver issue.

I had planned to replace the computer after Windows 7 was issued, (which happens in late October) not before, but since I really need a good working and reliable computer for my work, I knew my wallet would have to be a lot lighter.

Saturday I zipped around looking at computers. I took a little notebook and diligently wrote down model numbers, prices, RAM size, hard drive size, number of USB ports, card reader, etc etc. I visited two Walmarts, Staples, Best Buy, Sam's Club and Office Max.

Then I came home and looked at dell.com and other places.

After much discussion my husband and I decided I would buy an ASUS computer, because the tech guy and the Best Buy salesmen all swore that ASUS was the best component parts maker in the world and thus their computers must be the best on the market. Apparently they have been making computers for just a little while but parts for a very long time.

I ordered the computer online with pick up at Best Buy in Roanoke. Sunday afternoon we picked it up and returned home.

I began setting it up.

I noticed Sunday evening that the graphics looked fuzzy but I thought I simply needed to adjust settings. At one point I was concerned enough that I called the ASUS 24/7 tech hotline. I figured it wouldn't be too busy that time of day.

I received a recording.

The next morning, I began the set up process in earnest. Windows downloaded updates for a very long time. I used up a Norton Antivirus license, my last on a purchase that would let me put the thing on three PCs, and an MS Office license. Things were humming along.

And then I decided to see if the DVD player worked okay.

I put in a Lord of the Rings DVD. It would not show the picture properly. I had lots of pixel boxes all over the video.

Completely unacceptable, of course.

I then checked the device driver on my graphic card, fiddled with its settings, updated the driver - pretty much did everything I could except stand on my head.

Meanwhile, I started receiving a black screen and then it would come back with a notice that my graphics device had recovered from a serious error.

I called ASUS again, only to receive another recording. I checked their tech website in hopes of an online chat. No one ever appeared to help me out. I finally found a form I could fill out and request assistance. I sent off the request.

When no assistance was forthcoming after a couple of hours, I unplugged the ASUS and boxed it back up.

My husband and I went back to Best Buy and returned it.

Then I went around to several stores looking at brands and numbers again. I decided I wanted either a Dell or another Gateway.

Best Buy had a Dell and Gateway with similar specifications. The Dell was a little cheaper because it had fewer bells and whistles. I decided on the Dell.

Best Buy Roanoke didn't have it.

So we drove to Christiansburg at 8 p.m. to pick it up. We returned home about 9:40 p.m., because Christiansburg is not close.

So this today for a second time I have been setting up a new desktop. Norton was kind enough to allow me to transfer the license to this computer so I didn't have to pay for that again. I still had one license left on my MS Office so I installed that.

So far, so good. The Dell has withstood me for 7 hours now.

I did receive an email from the ASUS people about mid-day. Their response?

Do a full system restore. Hope that helps.

I do not recommend that brand of computer to anyone. I know parts can fail on any of them but their customer service certainly left me cold.

To the moon

I cannot let the 40th anniversary of the first moonwalk go by without recalling where I was.

At Grandma's house in Salem.

I would have been six years old, and I remember sitting cross-legged in her living room, watching as the astronauts walked on the earth's satellite.

What I can't recall is how I came to be there. I have always been fascinated with space and the space program, so I like to think that little six-year-old me, who by that time was reading the newspaper front to back, just like today, knew that this was a momentous occasion and deemed it worthy of a time-out from playing with action figures and GI dolls with my brother and young uncle.

Most likely my grandmother called us in and told us to watch. Oddly, I don't recall any one else in the room with me at the time. My uncles would have been 5 and 9; surely the older one was there, too. My brother would have only been three, so he may not have been present.

In the past I have had people tell me they remember seeing this at school, which always confuses me. Unless there were a lot of folks in summer school, I think most likely they were at home. Maybe they remember seeing it for the first time during a replay of the event while they were at school?

This made me doubt my own memories of seeing the original actual broadcast at my grandmother's, but these days I am fairly sure my memory is accurate, if old.

We have not made a similar accomplishment since, and indeed we seem to be in a decline, moving from greatness to not-so-great. I am not sure from where this comes but that is my perception, anyway. Seems like all we care about as a people are our individual pocketbooks and not anything as a community or society. There is no collective love of the greater good running rampant around here, anyway.

I hope that someday during my lifetime I will see some other wondrous event that parallels this one, a positive step, a hope and triumph that does not lead to war and violence. Maybe a trip to Mars?

Finding Grace #8

Continuing the countdown toward 100 things for which I am grateful....

81. Tea. I love a good cup of tea first thing in the morning. I like mine with honey these days.

82. Paper. Sorry, computers and bits and bytes. I am still in love with notebooks and composition books. This time of year I grow nostalgic for education as the stores put out school supplies. I love the smell of a new notebook.

83. Public restrooms. Gotta have these when you're out at the mall, you know?

84. Taxes. Bet that got your attention! Why would anyone be grateful because they pay taxes? Well, taxes create roads. They pay for sewer and water. They go toward curing cancer. They pay for new technologies. They PUT A MAN ON THE MOON! Do you think I could do any of that by myself? No way. It takes more than one to create things things.

85. The inside of an Oreo cookie. I have never liked the outside stuff much but I really do like the creamy filling.

86. The letter "A". I don't know why, I just do.

87. Love. Isn't this the greatest feeling? To be in love with someone?

88. Passion. Here's another great feeling. It is so great that we can feel passion for people, pets, things, activities. It is what makes us unique, creative and inventive.

89. Shrimp. I love shrimp, they are one of my favorite seafoods.

90. Storytellers. Where would we be without the folks who can spin a yarn? How boring would it be if we didn't have Shakespeare as a common reference point?

91. Oak trees. I am really grateful for these trees, and particularly the ones outside my window. Their majesty and long life has many lessons for us all. They endure nature's stress, man made stress, hatchets, and insects and yet still stand tall. They also give great shade.

92. Cars. I know they are terrible pollutants but I really like my Toyota. I like getting where I am going, I like moving fast. I won't mind if we find a different fuel or type of engine but I sure don't want to be stuck at home all the time.

93. Email. Okay, a silly thing. But I like writing letters and hearing from friends.

94. Good shoes. Really necessary for walking and less-sore feet.

95. Ice. I like to crunch ice in my soft drinks. I also like to put it on sore, aching muscles. It also keeps the ice cream from melting.

96. Donuts. Fattening, yes! But by golly they are good.

97. Showers. I could stand under the shower for a very long time, but I time myself and keep it to four minutes (five if I have been very good).

98. My husband's heart. I am really humbled that this man loves me.

99. Ketchup. I do not like to eat my french fries unadorned.

100. Being able to come up with 100 things to be grateful and thankful for. It really makes life seem a little less intimidating. I have so much. I am truly blessed.

Finding Grace #7

Continuing my count to 100 things for which I am grateful...

66. Eyes. I am thankful for my own eyes, even if they do need corrective lenses, as well as the eyes of others. They truly are a window into the soul.

67. Lunch with a friend. What a great way to break up a day and feel a connection.

68. Potato chips. I know they are fattening and I shouldn't eat them, but I do love to have them on occasion.

69. Thunderstorms. Storms make you unplug, unconnect, and hunker down. I love to see the lightning flash, and then there is the little thrill that runs up my spine during a strong thunder boom...

70. Clouds. Clouds make you exercise your imagination if you're looking for pictures.

71. Poetry. What would the world be with rhyme and meter? If Frost had never written "The Road Not Taken"?

72. Waiters and waitresses. I know it's a pretty thankless job but I am grateful that on occasion, someone else does the cooking and brings me my plate.

73. Secret places in the mind. Everyone should have a sanctuary in their imagination, a place where they can go for solace and hope.

74. Dreams. I love my dreams, because they are often catalysts for interesting ideas. Not so fond of nightmares, though.

75. Kisses. Hey, husband, come on over here!

76. Swiffer dusters. I had never used them before until last week. These things are great. Highly recommended.

77. Birds. I enjoy the sound of birds twittering and tweeting (isn't that what folks do on twitter.com?) and I like watching them fly around.

78. Electricity. Isn't this great stuff, that makes the computer run and the lights come off and on? I hope the cost of it doesn't grow so high that most people can't afford it. That would be bad. But we need to find a cleaner way to make it.

79. Libraries. Don't you love being able to check out a book, use the Internet for free, converse with folks at the counter?

80. History. I enjoy looking back at the past and seeing what happened in the long ago. Hopefully you learn something from it.

Finding Grace #6

54. The "off" button on the telephone when telemarketers call. I notice that politicians did not exempt themselves from the donotcall.gov list.

55. Patience. I am not always patient, particularly when it comes to things like computer issues, problems with the car, that type of thing. I like for stuff to work. Properly. And NOW. So when I exhibit patience, I am extremely grateful.

56. My sense of smell. I have a nose that can sniff out strange things. I can even smell blacksnakes, which actually smell like cucumber. Other snakes smell kind of earthy. This is a weird skill to have and one that thankfully is not often needed. Other things that I can smell include the early stages of mold and mildew

57. My brains. Okay, I'm not the smartest person ever, but I am not stupid, either. I graduated 5th in my class in high school. I was a straight A student at Hollins and obtained my B.A. in English with honor. I'm not bragging, I'm just saying. I'm not ignorant.

58. Curtains and window shades. Have you ever noticed how bright and hot the sun can be, and then you close a curtain and the room temperature lowers about 10 degrees?

59. Eyeglasses. I received my first pair of glasses in the 7th grade, after knowing I needed them for most of my life. I always sat in the front at school not because I was teacher's pet, like everyone thought, but so I could SEE. I will never forget the joy of being able to see a mountain and actually see that it had trees on it, not just know that the greenish bluish blob was supposed to have trees on it.

60. TV. Okay, so I don't watch much TV, but when I am bored and too tired to read, TV is a blessing. I am including movies in here, too, I suppose, because I immediately thought of the Lord of the Rings trilogy of movies. Those are my favorite.

61. Air conditioning. In the summer time, this is the greatest of all inventions.

62. Heat! In the winter time, this is the greatest of all inventions!

63. Nail clippers. I am grateful for nail clippers because they keep me from biting my nails so much.

64. Fireworks. I love watching fireworks, anytime. I especially like them on July 4 and December 31. Times in between are good too, though.

65. Democracy. I am grateful that the concept of democracy exists, even though I don't think the USA is currently practicing this form of government. It's a nice idea in theory.

Thursday Thirteen

Sunday I began looking for 100 things to be thankful for. I am going to continue my list here, with 13 things, starting at Item 41, as I continue counting up.

41. My clock. I am very happy with my alligator clock that hangs on the wall of my home office. My friend Brenda gave me the clock for Christmas one year. The tail wags.

42. The telephone. While sometimes the shrill of the phone can be an annoyance, when my husband or a friend is on the other end, I am always very glad. I spend a great deal of time alone and the phone, like the Internet, is a connection to others not easily dismissed.

43. Music. I love the sounds of pop music and guitar music. some of my favorite artists are Sheryl Crow, Melissa Etheridge and Fleetwood Mac.

44. Drive-throughs. I confess, I prefer to eat my Big Mac in my car.

45. Green grass. Don't you love the feel of it on your toes?





46. Trees. They let you know there's a breeze and herald the change of the seasons. They also give shade, fruit, nuts, etc. Trees are great!




47. Lakes. Our pond is not really a lake but it has fish and algae and frogs. On a calm day they can bring bliss.

48. A sigh. Sighing makes you take in oxygen, and that has to be good for you, right?

49. Cameras. I love taking pictures and I am really thankful for digital technology. While it has gone a long way toward eliminating particular jobs, it has opened up the medium to the masses. And I take a lot more shots with a digital camera than I ever thought of taking with a film camera.

50. Dictionaries. I love new and unusual words!

51. My college diploma. I will spare you the angst and years it took me to aquire that thing. Suffice it to say I am very grateful and very thankful that I have it to hang on my wall, even if I don't seem to be actually using that B.A. in English for anything.

52. Flowers. Another gift from Mother Nature that makes the world a brighter place.




53. My wedding ring. The eternal symbol of love. I don't need it to know I am married but I sure feel naked when I don't have it on my finger.

Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; you can learn more about it here. My other Thursday Thirteens are here. This is number 102!

Finding Grace #4

Things for which I am thankful...counting up to 100

26. My computer. The thing is an aggravation when it doesn't work properly (which it didn't this morning) but it is a lifeline to the outer world for me.

27. My pillow. A silly little thing, to be thankful for something soft yet firm beneath my neck, but I can only imagine the headaches and stiff necks I avoid because of it.

28. My socks. I love the feel of new socks on my feet. Then they are all soft and cuddly and caressing. Old socks just fit great and are comfy. They keep things dry and safe.




29. My shoes. Since I have a lot of problem with my feet, my shoes are always very welcome. Without them I would be in a world of hurt.

30. The deer outside my window. These animals remind me to be calm and curious, and to run away when I am scared. I think that is generally good advice.

31. Tears. I know crying is not considered a good thing and generally is frowned upon, but I think tears can be very good things indeed. They are cleansing. They let the world around you know that your feelings are intense (or else you've hurt your eye!).

32. Water. This goes along with tears, I guess. But where would we be without this basic? In 3-4 days, we'd all take to our beds... in 6-7 days, we'd be no more. Just imagine, no drinking water... yikes. Or what if we have enough for drinking, but not bathing or washing? Very important, this one!

33. My watch. I cannot remember ever not wearing watch. I have an obsession with knowing what time it is. If my watch breaks, I can't go an hour without seeking out a new one.

34. Butterflies. The world would be less beautiful without these little creatures, wouldn't it? Their bright wings and free-flying attitude makes things seem better when you see them.




35. Blogging. How could I not be thankful for blogging, and the way it has brought me new friends and faces? Blogging has opened up a lot of different avenues for me, even if I still don't know exactly what it is I blog about.

36. Evergreens. Without these trees, there would be no greenery in winter, and no Christmas trees! Wouldn't that be a shame?

37. And that brings us to Christmas. Here it is July and I am thankful for Christmas. Christmas as a commercial endeavor gives us all something to look forward to - a day off, something else to think about, time with friends and family. As a religious holiday, it brings about deeper spirituality and affords us a moment to remember the reason we worship.

38. Presents! One thing leads to another doesn't it? I love getting presents and will be unabashed about it. A present means someone thought about me at a time not then - not because I called them or I am in their face or emailing them. But because they were out and about and they saw this something, and they thought, Oh, my friend/cousin/sister/wife/daughter-in-law/whatever would like that. That's what is so great about a present. Being remembered.

39. Books. I can't believe I put this so far down on the list! I love books. I love to be transported to a new world, off and away from my troubles. Books open up new characters, new settings, and new ideas. The world will be a very boring place when we no longer have books.

40. Video games. I confess I am a bit of a video game addict. I love to play and I especially love games that have a story to them. Some of my early favorites were the Kings Quest series - I wonder who remembers those? They were relatively non-violent and had a story line. Many if not all video games have a story line - this is something I think folks who don't play them don't realize. It may be as simple as "invade the castle and free the slaves" and then you spend 20 hours blasting away at various goblins to get to the end, but still, there is a story. I always thought I might one day be a video game story writer but I have not figured out how to do that.

Finding grace #3

Being thankful...

16. My taste buds. I sure do love the taste of food. Especially ...

17. Chocolate. I am a choco-holic. I could live off chocolate, I think.

18. My garden. Thankfully I have healthy food just outside the back door!

19. B.J. and Ed.

20. My mother-in-law, a quiet martyr who is there if I need her.

21. My Aunt Carolyn, who is always there to listen to me whine.

22. My brother, even if he is ... well, I won't go there.

23. My niece and my nephews (Zoe, Chris, Emory, Trey) who remind me that life goes on and the wheel keeps turning.

24. Lightning bugs, because they make a summer night twinkle.

25. Stars, because they twinkle and remind me of the Higher Power and the fact that I am not alone.

Eagle Rock Library

Botetourt County is building a library in Eagle Rock.

I serve as Vice Chair of the Library Board of Trustees.



Above is the front of the building.



This is the rear of the building as seen from the Eagle Rock Elementary School parking lot.

The building will be over 9,000 square feet and will be the largest library of the four in the Botetourt County system. It will have a computer room, meeting room, youth area and a small genealogy section.

By the time it is completed and furnished, books and all, it will cost taxpayers about $1.25 million.

This is the only major capital improvement project the county is doing this year.

Finding grace #2

Being thankful...

6. My hands. I am really grateful I have hands with which to touch, caress, type and write. Speaking of which...

7. Being able to write. I wonder what my life would have been like if I had never learned to write? I can't imagine it.

8. Being able to read. The wonderful world of books, blogs and everything else is accessible to me simply because I can string ABC together in my mind. How absolutely wonderful is that, eh?

9. Being 46. I am very happy I don't have to experience the angst of the teen years again!

10. Living on a farm. I love being in the country, seeing deer, hearing owls, watching the squirrels. This slower pace of life suits me.

11. My friend Brenda.

12. My friend Leslie.

13. My friend Jules.

14. My friend Lisa.

15. My friend Inga.

Finding grace

Last night I decided I have been dwelling on negative things too much.

So I decided to try to list 100 things I am grateful for. I expect this to take several days...if not weeks.

1. My husband. What would I do without this man? He has loved me through all sorts of toil and trouble. He is my steadfast rock.

2. My Higher Power. I am not the most religious of people and my ideas about the divine do not run lock-step with the rest of the world. But I do believe there is something greater, in part because I've experienced it a few times.

3. My friends. I will group them all here as a lot but list them separately, too. I am thankful I have friends, more than I realize, sometimes. It's easy to forget that people love and care about you.

4. My health. I have a few health issues but nothing that a lot of dieting couldn't help...

5. My house. I have a roof over my head. In this day and age, that says a lot. I am so glad my husband has been able to provide this for us.

The smell of death

Sometimes things in the country happen that are very sad.

Yesterday as I headed out, I noticed a small buck deer lying in the field. He seemed to be watching traffic.

I passed my husband in his truck a few thousand yards away and we stopped to chat before parting ways. He noted the deer in the field, too.

Later he called to tell me that he had driven his truck up in the field to check on the deer. When it didn't move, he investigated further.

The poor little deer had been hit by a car. His back legs or back was broken and he could not move.

In another decade, my husband might have come home and loaded his gun and put the poor creature out of his misery, but in the New America, the land of the police state and lack of common sense, where everyone is just waiting to pounce on you and put a picture of you on Youtube, you don't perform acts of compassion. You call Animal Control and let them do it because otherwise you could be charged with a misdemeanor and heavily fined if not jailed.

My husband called me to tell me the poor deer was not just watching traffic after all. He described the scene to me and I felt shivers up my spine.

When I drove home and I passed the spot where the deer had lain, I was sure I could smell death.

It definitely colored the day.

Thursday Thirteen

Here are 13 things you would see in my yard this morning:

1. Another partially eaten bar of Irish Spring bath soap, courtesy of some critter that is supposed to find it repulsive. Instead the creature now has lovely smelling breath. This is the third bar that has been gnawed upon.



This was the second bar, not the third, to have been eaten.


2. Six-inch high sunflowers. I planted these a few weeks ago because my zinnias and marigolds had short lives, courtesy of a rabbit. I put a fence around them. I am hoping for bright sunny flowers before frost.



These are zinnias that were coming up well before the rabbit decided it needed a salad.


3. A rabbit. There he goes, hopping through the front yard. The other day I bought a box of Trix, the first time I'd purchased that cereal in years, and found the rabbit sitting on the front porch by the door. Silly rabbit.




4. Four blue spruce trees. We planted these trees about 20 years ago. My mother took us and showed us some trees we could dig up. After we'd put three in the truck, she said, "Better hurry, this isn't part of the property we just bought." We thought it was, of course, and were surprised to find out otherwise. Our stolen trees have prospered.



Birds like the blue spruce.



5. A single blueberry. Last year we planted a small Concord grape vine and two blueberry bushes. One of the blueberry bushes died. The living one has produced a single blueberry.

6. Doves. I hear them cooing in the mornings. It is a comforting sound.

7. A ripening tomato. Like many local gardeners, I've been fighting blight/fungus on my tomato plants, but I do have some on the vine. One is starting to turn a little yellow. I can hardly wait for it to turn red.

8. Green beans. My beans, which are of varying variety, are doing very well. My husband planted the beans for me and didn't mark which ones were the pole beans; they should have been staked out better than they were. They nearly throttled a tomato plant with their fast-growing tendrils before I rescued it with some wire and retraining of the vines.

9. Queen Ann's Lace. This weed grows in the fields all around the yard. This is actually the tops of a wild carrot, which I did not know until I looked it up a while ago. Folk remedies use this for contraception. Learn something new every day.

10. Clover. Our yard is not exactly the greatest. We have a lot of weeds, clover and wire grass.

11. Bees. I have seen a few honey bees this year, for which I was grateful given that last year all the talk was about honey bees dying out.

12. Forsythia bushes. These are great in the spring, when they burst out in yellow. In summer they are a nice shade of green. Ours are overgrown along the driveway. My husband leaves them like that so that in winter they will serve as a snow break to keep blowing snow from the road. They do that job fairly well.



Forsythia in the spring is one of my favorite sites.

13. Me! You'd see me out there, waving at you as you pull up the drive! Then I'd bring you inside and we'd have a cup of tea.



Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; you can learn more about it here. My other Thursday Thirteens are here. This is number101!

26 States

Put an X by the states you have been to. The average is 8; how do you match up?

Should you choose to play, here's what you do:

Copy this. Delete my Xs and add your own. Change the number at the top, and add your title. Send it on to others if you want. I'm not going to do that but if anyone does this please feel free to let me know in the comments.

Just for fun, put an O beside the states where you have lived.

Airports don't count!

Alabama
Alaska
Arizona x
Arkansas
California x
Colorado x
Connecticut
Delaware x
District of Columbia x
Florida x
Georgia x
Hawaii
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas x
Kentucky x
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland x
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Mississippi
Missouri
Montana
Nebraska x
Nevada x
New Hampshire
New Jersey x
New Mexico x
New York x
North Carolina x
North Dakota
Ohio x
Oklahoma x
Oregon
Pennsylvania x
Rhode Island
South Carolina x
South Dakota
Tennessee x
Texas x
Utah x
Vermont
Virginia O
Washington
West Virginia x
Wisconsin
Wyoming x

Most of my traveling was done when I was much younger; I haven't been out of Virginia in several years, and I haven't been beyond South Carolina since 1993.

I need to get out more.

I am like a deer

Saturday as I headed to my compost pile, I thought I heard a noise in the woods.

After dumping my items in, I ventured down into the woods.

Something slunk before me and vanished into weeds.

A black cat, I thought.

To my left I saw movement, and then the noise like the rusty sound of a door opening. A turkey's head bobbed and weaved. The black animal had disturbed a hen.

She moved back and forth a while as I stood still, watching. Then she too vanished.

I moved forward a few more steps, now to investigate the wine berry bushes.

To my right I heard a rustling noise. I paused. Suddenly there was a snort, followed by a flash of brown and white. A deer dashed away.

Moving on, I discovered a rounded spot in the leaves up against a fallen log. Obviously, a deer had lain there and I had disturbed it.

This morning as I sat picking quarts of green beans, I listened to the songs of birds. They chattered, sang and serenaded me while I contemplated life's turmoils and thought about how best to spend the rest of my day, week and life. Heady thoughts for 8 a.m.

By 11 a.m. I had picked 6 quarts of beans, cleaned the oven, cleaned 8 sets of mini-blinds, washed and put away two loads of laundry, and spent time on the phone with important folks like a mentor, a lawyer and my accountant.

Here is it now, noon as I write this. The sun is burning hot and I'm already pleasantly tired. The day still beckons me toward other activities. My mind still churns and wanders.

I am curious about everything and scared of it all.

I feel great empathy for the deer.

A Writing Group?

I am seeking a few folks interested in writing in good ol' Botetourt County so we can start a little writing group.

Fellow bloggers might have some interest in the topic, so I'm tossing it out there.

The goal would be to work on our writing projects that aren't blogs, of course. Fiction. Nonfiction. Short stories, novels. Poetry. Whatever.

Critiquing would be on the project (not the person) and hopefully would be helpful on multiple levels.

To my knowledge there is no writing group in this county aside from the newly-formed Poet's Corner that is meeting at the Botetourt libraries quarterly. I attended their first meeting and it was fine, and I will go again, but I think quarterly is too far apart for the meetings. They should be monthly.

Personally, I would like to meet every other week or so.

There is a writing group that meets in Roanoke called Valley Writers. It is part of the Virginia Writers Club.

In the 1980s (or thereabouts) I tried to attend their meetings but found it so political and full of bickering that it was an insufferable experience. I understand this is different now. For one thing, I know Becky at Peevish Pen is the Vice President, and she is in the Roanoke Valley Pen Women with me, so it can't be all bad.

Sometimes I think about going. But, I find driving to Roanoke at night to be something I am not eager to do. I have trouble with my night vision sometimes and the older I get the less inclined I am to make the trip.

So I was thinking something a little closer to home might be a good idea.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

Fincastle Fireworks

Every year, Willie Simmons, along with his wife Brenda and an assortment of helpers, give the Town of Fincastle a fireworks display for the Fourth of July.



The Town of Fincastle handles donations for the fireworks. At the event, they pass a hat and every year around May a call goes out for additional donations.



Donations pay the entire cost of the display.






This year's display was exceptional. For a small community, they do a bang-up job celebrating the founding of this great nation. This event definitely deserves applause.

HAPPY JULY 4!

Thursday Thirteen: No. 100

I can't believe this is my 100th Thursday Thirteen! That's a lot of weeks to come up with 13 things about many different topics. Whew!

To celebrate, I'm going to list 13 things about my favorite color.

1. The sky. Honestly, now, can there be anything more lovely than the atmosphere above our good Earth?



2. The Blue Ridge Mountains (they're not REALLY blue but they look like it, or used to, before pollution began distorting that wonderful tint of oxygen from the trees).




3. Jeans. It is really hard to beat denim.

4. My husband's eyes. Definitely one of my favorites.


(My husband at the beach beneath a blue umbrella, with his eyes hidden.)


5. The newest M&M, at least in the M&M dark chocolates that I eat occasionally. It tastes just like the other colors, by the way.

6. Cotton candy. I haven't had any good blue cotton candy in a very long time. I must get to the Buchanan Carnival and rectify that.

7. Blue iris. I love the blue iris, but unfortunately I don't have any in the yard blooming any more. I did but they either died out or were choked out by the yellow iris.



(This iris was at The Fincastle Library.)

8. My desktop. I keep a solid blue background on my desktop (old Windows default, I think it is), and that suits me fine. I find pictures and multiple colors to be a distraction.

9. Labels. Many of my favorite foods have blue labels (which says something about advertising, doesn't it). Miracle Whip and Pillsbury Cinnamon Rolls and other Pillsbury products immediately come to mind, as does the Tony the Tiger Frosted Flakes cereal box.

10. Book covers are often blue. My Oxford American Writer's Thesaurus has a blue cover, as does my Oxford Essential Writer's Reference, my 2004 Writer's Market, my Freelance Writer's Guide, one of the Harry Potter books (The Half Blood Prince, I think it is, without getting up to look), and a book called Elvis in Oz, which is a bunch of short stories put together at least 15 years ago by writers at my alma mater, Hollins University.

11. Glassware. I don't have much blue glassware but my mother used to have some. I loved looking at it. I am not sure what happened to it.

12. The ocean. I almost forgot about this big chunk of blueness on the face of the world! The lull of the water, the feel of it, the smell of the salty sea. Ah, that's a vacation calling, isn't it?




13. Last, but not least, I will mention a blue violet. Not because it is a favorite flower but because it comes with a memory. When I was in the 6th grade, our class took a trip to Williamsburg. On the way home, we stopped at a K-mart and were told to buy presents for our family members. I purchased a small blue violet for my mother, which I carefully and proudly took home to her. She nurtured it well, and it sat in the window sill for years.



Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; you can learn more about it here. My other Thursday Thirteens are here. This is my 100th one!