Creeping Close to the Crane

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



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



I crept as close I dared and was rewarded.



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

Young Farmer's Expo

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



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

Wherefore Art Thou, Short Stories?

When I was growing up, short stories were everywhere.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Black Swan - Still Here!

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



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



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

Roses 2010

My roses are in bloom for the spring.



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



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



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

Thursday Thirteen

Today I give you: Life Lessons from The Sims!

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

Anyway, here goes:

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

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

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

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

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

6. Deceased loved ones can still be your friends.

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

8. Stargazing is an admirable past time.

9. Use of outside space is important.

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

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

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

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

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

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

My Ficus Tree

This is my ficus tree.

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

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

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

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

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

Post 1200

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Books: Throw Out 50 Things

Throw Out Fifty Things
by Gail Blanke
270 pages
Copyright 2009

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thursday Thirteen

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



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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



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

Eyes on Iris

The iris is one of my favorite flowers.



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



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



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



I love to watch them dance in the breeze.



They make me feel calm.

Books: The Dragon of Despair

The Dragon of Despair
by Jane Lindskold
Copyright 2003
754 pages

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Revenge of the Locust

The locust trees are in full bloom here. Every tree has blossoms hanging from each twig. I don't know that I have ever seen the locust bloom so much.

I am, of course, highly allergic.



The tree in the yard in full bloom.


A little closer look!



Even closer!



Another locust tree on the other side of the fence all decked out in white finery.



What I wouldn't give for a good hard rain to knock those blooms away! Achoo!

Thursday Thirteen

Here's a list of 13 words:

1. Endearing

2. Conservative

3. Hearty

4. Creative

5. Serious

6. Sociable

7. Traditional

8. Progressive

9. Achiever

10. Innovative

11. Genuine

12. Straightforward

13. Dynamic

Know what they all have in common?

You'll never guess.

They're the words I was given to rate from 1-10 with regards to how well they describe Hungry Jack Instant Mashed Potatoes during some kind of food use survey on Wednesday!



When I realized the list was going to be a long one I started writing down the words and sure enough, it went well beyond 13. Other words were "popular," "caring," "a brand with style" and my personal favorite, "old and stodgy."

I could not answer these with a straight face. Dynamic mashed potatoes? Conservative or progressive mashed potatoes? Really? Have we fallen so far that we must poll the populace as to the political persuasion of mashed potatoes?

As a word lover, I am loathe to describe instant mashed potatoes as anything other than, say, creamy and white. I don't think they're particularly healthy because they're little dried flakes that you reconstitute with milk. How is that good for you?

To be sure, I have no boxes of instant mashed potatoes in my pantry and it has been quite a long while since I have purchased said mashed potatoes.

But I do know that I only purchase Hungry Jack Instant Mashed Potatoes, I guess because they are just so lovable!

Oh, and by the way, the food survey company said I would be paid $5 for participating in the survey. In case that matters. I am not being paid to promote mashed potatoes by anyone, unless you count that Amazon link I stuck up there for the picture.

Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of bloggers. You can read more about it here.  This is my 137th time to do this meme!

The Wind

The wind in April has blown as much as the winds of March, I fear.

Today the sky is blue with clouds blowing by. Puffy white clouds that hold no promise of rain and no semblance of shadow. It is a bit cool to be outside and the breeze bothers my ear terribly anyway.

The wind is blowing in gray for me and I am puzzled as to why.

I think I should figure this out, and so I sit and ponder. All I find in my head is the word "lost," as in, that is how I feel. Lost.

I have projects aplenty, things I can do. Lord knows I have drawers and cabinets to clean out and organize. Housework is never finished; the dust settles back as soon as the cloth passes over so I could spend all day simply waxing and shining, if I thought wax and shine were the end all unto themselves.

Alas, my inclination is toward "clean enough" and semi-neat, but not sparkling and pristine. We live in our house, my husband likes to say as he trudges through the kitchen with mud on his boots.

There is, of course, that idea, that dream, that urge and penchant, that desire to write a book that seems to be only a desire and not something I can put into motion. I have suffered through several false starts this week and have nothing to show for it but deleted files on the computer.

Well, that is not quite true. I created a 3-ring notebook for my work, one with nice little dividers that say "character" and "plot" and "research" and "situation" and "themes" and things of that nature. It has the name of my main character in it but little else. It sits on my desk, solid and real.

I also have reviewed notes on how to write character, how to find plot, how to write. It feels like starting all over even though I am a seasoned writer with thousands upon thousands of published words behind me, a list of articles so long that it literally would take sheets of paper to list them all, were I so inclined.

Sometimes I wonder if I am in love with being a writer, not writing. This cannot be, I think, for I love to write when it is flowing, when the story is hot, when the things being said are important, real, relevant. I love the puzzle of it, the seeking out of the proper word for the moment, the nuance that brings the detail to the mind. Am I so wounded, so sore and raw, that I simply cannot do it right now?

My dreams of writing were never so grand as the Great American Novel. I wanted to write Nancy Drew books. I think I still want to write Nancy Drew books, or something very like Nancy Drew books, only not for children. Because I have no children, I feel unable to relate to the youth of today. When I watch my nephews or my niece, or the offspring of friends, they move nimbly about, their fingers always working with the text on a phone, their bright little minds moving quickly while they multitask. They look at me as if I am old.

Am I old?

The expectations of me (from whence these come I am not certain, myself, perhaps?) have always been beyond Nancy Drew books. Beyond the Great American Novel, even. Maybe something along the lines of Jane Smiley, perhaps, or Anita Shreve, whose work I have been reading and greatly admire. I enjoy reading those books. But I also enjoy fantasy, science fiction, some mysteries (but not all), Gothic romances (another genre I've always thought to write in, but who publishes that in this day and age?), young adult fantasy books (Tamara Pierce), nonfiction such as self-help, history, and biographies, historical fiction, adventure, etc. etc. The only books I do not like to read are vampire books (Buffy the Vampire Slayer being the only exception), gory books (Patricia Cornwell comes to mind), horror (Steven King, though I have read him on occasion), and overtly sexual books (having read absolutely none of these I cannot name an author).

Today I renounce my perfectionism.

Is it this which holds me back? Is it my fear that whatever I put forth will be less somehow? Or is it that will include more of me than I care to allow.

I grew up in an atmosphere that did not allow mistakes. If I was not perfect, whatever that was, I was punished. But I could not attain that goal no matter how hard I tried. I am only human.

Only human. Am I trying to be something other than what I am? Do I even know who I am anymore? Have I ever?

Is this my revelation, blown in with the gray?

Books: Fortune's Rocks

Fortune's Rocks
By Anita Shreve
Copyright 1999
Audiobook, Abridged
Read by Blair Brown

Anita Shreve writes solid characters and engaging stories about people who might be your next door neighbor, if you are paying attention.

In this book, Olympia Biddeford, only child of a wealthy Boston couple, finds love on the beach in New Hampshire during the summer holiday at the home her parents own for this purpose.

She is but 15 when she seduces John Hasselbeck, a married man three times her age with a wife and three children (and who should have known better) and becomes his lover. Theirs is a passionate and devastating love affair that can only end badly, and indeed it does.

Olympia has a child by her lover, but the boy is whisked away by her disapproving father. For the next several years Olympia suffers under his heavy hand as he tries to undo the disgrace she has brought upon the family.

In a day of clarity, she realizes that she must revisit her past. A stroke of luck allows her to find her son, and she then goes after the boy through the court system.

Olympia is a very real character and the book has themes of class issues, wealth, status, money, and prejudices. There is no villain here, unless living is counted as the  villain, which I suppose it could be.

This is the second of Shreve's books I have listened to of late, the first being Sea Glass. I will not hesitate to read or listen to more of this author's work.

Hills

Sometime between 1970 and 1976, my grandfather would load up his white Ford with a blue interior with his two youngest sons, his two grandchildren, and his wife and head south for a day-long trip.

Our destination was Hills Department Store in Christiansburg and then to Floyd County.

Hills to my young eyes (somewhere between 7 and 12) was a marvel to behold. It held aisles of goodies unseen elsewhere, for in this age there was no Tanglewood Mall and definitely no Valley View. Most certainly there was no Walmart.

No, we had Hills. The store was a shiny wonder, neat, clean and full of stuff. I was intrigued by little statues of ponies and horses, Johnny West dolls, and  action figures (I never was much on Barbies or baby dolls.). Usually we went sometime in the summer, I suppose during my grandfather's vacation. Our small fists clutched a few dollars as we sought out treasures that we could not find at Newberry's in Salem (now a bank, I think) or at Arlan's on Williamson Road (where Happy's Flea Market is now).

They also gave away popcorn!

Once those purchases were made - and what a time my grandparents had rounding us kids back up and getting us in the car and away from the wonderland - we headed to Floyd (I think). I am sure we stopped to eat somewhere but it was our next destination that I awaited.

This was a store called either Sunnyside or Sunnybrook, I cannot be certain, that also held marvels. These marvels were a little on the darker side and appealed to my sense of the macabre; skulls, crossbones, dragons - things not of this world but of the imagination. I recall the store had two levels and the one which the kids gravitated to was not the level my grandparents visited. I do not recall what they purchased there but I know I sometimes regretfully saved my money whilst we were in Christiansburg in hopes of finding some strange and bizarrely enchanted piece to clutch and take home. I usually was rewarded.

I was reminded of these scarce but welcome expeditions when I was in Walmart this morning. Trips to this all-purpose mass department store depress me but are unavoidable. Sometimes it is the only place you can find what you need.

As I roamed the aisles searching for a salad spinner (which I found but did not buy), I couldn't help but think about how despairing I feel whenever I go into the big box store. Looking around, I saw people hurrying about their business, eyeing the yellow smiley "lower price" tags, faces unsmiling, bodies bent and broken.

I wondered what was the point. There was no wonder here, no delight in seeing something for the first time. It all looked tired and stale. Not to mention how bleak my thoughts grew when I thought about all of the poor underpaid foreign workers who have slaved to make $3 a day so that I could buy a salad spinner for $2.47.  Or the poor cashiers who make minimum wage and have no benefits but do have swollen feet and aching backs.

I once edited a book for a wealthy old gentleman. In doing this, I spent many hours in his home. His wife, complaining one day about his array of papers strewn about the living room, asked me what I suggested for organization. A filing cabinet, I replied.

When she asked where she might purchase one, I suggested Walmart.

"I do not shop at Walmart," she huffed. "I would never set foot in that store. I am surprised that you do."

I explained that I otherwise could not afford some of the things I needed if I did not shop at Walmart. Apparently she had been a woman of privilege for so long that she had forgotten that not everyone - actually most people - could not afford to hold to principles. I gently reminded her of that fact.

Department stores have a long history in this country. From five and dimes to Walmart, they have been the places where Americans shop.

Somehow, though, I don't think they are really the places where Americans dream.

50 Things?

Saturday I had lunch with a friend I hadn't seen in several weeks. After chit-chat and discussion of life's many quirks, twists, and changes, she mentioned she is reading a book called Throw Out 50 Things.

This friend has recently moved, and so had had the opportunity to box up and throw out a multitude of things. Many of those boxes ended up in her new basement or garage because she ran out of time to sort through them.

And so she finds herself with boxes of stuff. Stuff she wants to be rid of. Somehow she is not rid of it and finds the chore of getting rid of it daunting.

I do not have boxes of stuff, per se, although I do have things in boxes that would probably be better off in the trash.

Mostly I have piles. And drawers. And cabinets. I have, actually, 46 years of stuff in this house, some of which I brought with me when I married, and some of which I have accumulated in the interim. We've lived in our house for 23 years and I guarantee you that somewhere in the attic are leftover pieces of two-by-fours from the initial build.

So I am pack rat. My husband is also a pack rat. That means we hang on to things that have memories, things that might "someday" be useful, things that "look like something" even though we have no clue what that something might be.

I have warranty papers and manuals for small appliances that have long since died and made their way to appliance heaven shoved in my "warranty file" in the spare room. We have two junk drawers in the kitchen, full of nails, screws, matches, tape, garage ties, batteries, etc. etc. What do we need all this stuff for?

The book apparently also addresses other stuff. Mental stuff, like old thought processes that might have been good when you were five but which now need to be trashed. Habits might fall under the purview of this book, too - driving the same route, chewing your fingernails, twisting your hair, chewing your cheek, whatever it is that people do that they have done for years. Maybe you're stuck in an old relationship or two. Based on the website, all of this stuff needs to go (though I find the relationship one rather a difficult thing to consider myself.)

My friend offered to loan me her book when she finished, but I went ahead this morning and ordered a copy of it from Amazon. I do not need another book - books are part of the stuff of my life - but I thought this might be worth it. Besides, even if I do not NEED another book, there is always the wanting.

Fifty seems like a big number. I don't know how many drawers, files, cabinets, etc., I have in this house but I daresay it is more than 50. So if I just rid myself of one item out of each drawer, that would be that much less clutter.

Off the top of my head, I can think of these things that need doing:

• go through a huge box of floppy disks and toss them (maybe try to sell the old program? is there a market for this?
• box up all my old articles and newspapers
• clean out junk drawer #1 in the kitchen
• clean out junk drawer #2 in the kitchen
• clean out the pots and pans cabinet
• go through the drawer with the plastic containers and toss out anything that doesn't have a lid
• clean out the warranty file
• clean out the desk in the living room
• clean out my dresser
• clean out the cabinet in the bathroom

That's nine things that I can think of without breaking a sweat. Things that I could spend a lot of time doing to rid myself of clutter, but also it is clutter that is doing no harm by sitting where it is.

Which makes me think of inertia, but I suspect that's a blog entry for another day.

Thursday Thirteen: Questions for You!

Today I thought I'd pose 13 questions for you. I hope you will answer one or two of them in the comments section and come back to see what others say.


1. If you read a book that is set in your hometown, do you care if the author takes literary license to add or subtract details? For instance, if the heroine goes to Costco and there isn't a Costco within 500 miles of your town, does that bother you?

2. What is your favorite genre of books, and why?

3. Do you read poetry? If so, do you have a favorite poem or poet? What do you like about him/her?

4. Do you like where you live? If so, why? (Please don't name the place, but do note if it is rural, town, city, etc.)

5. In Genesis 4:1-26, Cain slays Abel and is banished. In 4:17 it reads: "Cain lay with his wife, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Enoch." Who do you think Cain married?

6. Do you think women should have the right the vote in the United States? Should they be able to own property? If yes, would you protest to keep these rights? (I know we already have these rights; I am wondering if anyone wants them enough to fight for them in this new day and age.)

7. How do you define "success"?

8. Do you think there is life elsewhere in the universe? How do you define "life" in this context? Must it be sentient beings or would finding living organisms be proof enough?

9. What is your favorite thing to study or learn about?

10. Is it okay to "say what you think" and insult people at any time, or should there be rules and manners that societies follow?

11. Do you think "going green" is a good thing? Why or why not?

12. Keeping with the green theme, why do you think the grass is always greener on the other side? Is this true? Why or why not?

13. What do you think is the ideal life? What can you do to make your own life more like this ideal?

Thursday Thirteen is played by many people. You can find a list of others who play here. My Thursday Thirteens are here. This is my 136th time to play.

Books: America's Women

America's Women: 400 years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates, and Heroines
By Gail Collins
Abridged Selections read by Jane Alexander
Copyright 2003

Rarely do I listen to an audiobook and then decide I want the print edition, but that is certainly the case for this volume.

America's Women is a wonderful synopsis of the struggles of women as well as an explanation of where we are today. I am left inspired and amazed.

Women died for the rights that females in this new millennium take for granted. They marched in the streets, they were force-fed to halt hunger strikes, they wrote books, and in Eleanor Roosevelt's case, married well and then subtly ran the country.

The narrative of this book danced with energy as I listened, awed, open-mouthed, and horrified, to the stories of the women of this nation. From Harriet Beecher Stowe to Sojourner Truth to bra-burning, this book was a total delight.

The information appears to have stopped at the year 2000 and I couldn't help but wonder who are the female leaders of today. Sadly I see no Betty Friedans, no Eleanor Roosevelts, and certainly no Sojourner Truths. In the age of such dissected information, when people camp out in certain corners with their own realities and truths and have minds as closed as clam shells, would any woman ever move to the forefront as these ancestors did?

The author, Gail Collins, is a woman of note in her own right. She is a New York Times columnist and I am sorry I am not overly familiar with her other work, though I certainly must have read it.

I plan to purchase this book and keep it on my bookshelf for the rest of my life. She has written another volume called When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present and I will definitely be looking for that book as well.