Thursday Thirteen

1.  Recipe discussion on root vegetables:
    Friend: So you could roast those beets or . . .
    Me: I can't do that. I don't have live beets. I have dead beets.
    Friend: . . .


2. Two separate headline stories seen on AOL on May 23: Nine brains found on NY Street. Hot dog man gets fired.

3.

 

 

4.

 

 

 

5. I am currently listening to The Gold Finch, by Donna Tart, and reading The Paying Guest, by Sarah Waters, and while the two books are drastically different, they have the same feel about them - heavy and literary. One has a male protagonist and the other is female, and I find I am confusing the books even though they are nothing alike.

 

6. According to this story, in Virginia a person needs to make $21 an hour to afford a two-bedroom apartment. I don't know too many people who make that much an hour in this state.

 

7. I confess I have to wonder if the statistics above aren't skewed because Virginia is essentially split into northern and southern Virginia. Most of the money lies to the north, near D.C. Virginia has a split personality. I wonder if it is Gemini.

 

8. Have you heard? One of our spacecraft, New Horizons, is scheduled to intersect with Pluto on July 14. The spacecraft is already sending back interesting photos of the planet (non-planet?). You can see them here.

 

9.

10.

This is the article that ran in the newspaper about my high school graduation on Friday, June 5, 1981. I was a student speaker at the event. I graduated 5th in my class of 210. Not bad. Everything and nothing has changed in the ensuing years. Congratulations to all of the graduates this year. Move forward.

11. Music makes your brain dance, according to this. I just know it makes the rest of me dance, and sometimes it makes me smile. Sometimes it makes me cry.

12. “People say that what we’re all seeking is a meaning for life. I don’t think that’s what we’re really seeking. I think what we’re seeking is an experience of being alive, so that the life experiences that we have on the purely physical plane will have resonances within that are those of our own innermost being and reality. And so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive, that’s what it’s all finally about, and that’s what these clues help us to find within ourselves.” - Joseph Campbell

13. Another day to cut the hay. All hail the grass, and the growing season.
  
 
 
 Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here if you want to read other Thursday Thirteens and/or play along. I've been playing for a while and this is my 397th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday.

Pretty, Pretty!

A Happy Man

 

Here is my beloved, doing what he loves to do best.

 

 

Play in the grass and make hay bales.

 

 

This is how we spend Memorial Day weekends around here.

 

 

Making more and more haybales.

 

 

Big suckers, aren't they?

 

Sunday Stealing: Very Much

From Sunday Stealing

Very Much Questions Meme


1. What was the last clothing item that you bought?

A. A pair of shoes.
 
2. If you could stay one age forever, what age would you choose?

A. Sometime in my early 40s. Old enough to be wise but still not falling apart physically.
 
3. When you say “lol”, are you really laughing?

A. Depends on what I am responding to.
 
4. What is the most interesting thing you’ve done in the past year?

A. I don't do interesting things. I am about as boring as a person can be.
 
5. If you started a business, what would it be?

A. I always wanted to run a bookstore.
 
6. Do your friends/family/coworkers know about your blog?

A. Yes. Well, some of them, anyway. I don't keep it a secret.
 
7. How long does it take you to write an average blog post?

A. Sometimes 10 minutes, sometimes an hour. Depends on the day and whether or not I am feeling long-winded.
 
8. How do you keep up with the blogs you follow?

A. With great difficulty.
 
9. What is your bedtime?

A. I'm usually in bed by 10 p.m.
 
10. Introvert or extrovert?

A. Introvert.
 
11. What is your biggest wish?

A. To be healthy.
 
12. What is the best job you ever had?

A. Freelance writer.
 
13. Dog person/cat person/both/neither?

A. I like dogs but I am highly allergic, so I suppose neither.
 
14. If you had $1,000 to spend any way you wanted, what would you do with it?

A. If I had to spend it on myself, I'd buy new clothes. If I could give it away, I would give it to the local food shelter.
 
15. How do you “dress” your toast?

A. Um. I put butter on it and eat it. Sometimes I might put a little apple butter on it. This is a weird question.
 
16. How do you feel about snow?

A. It is fine when it falls and then goes away the next day.
 
17. What was the worst job you ever had?

A. When I was a file clerk as a teenager.
 
18. What song can you not stop listening to?

A. I listen to a lot of songs. My "sticks" change frequently, though.

19. Love your name or hate it?

A. I am fine with my name, thank you.
 
20. How did you choose your blog/twitter handle?

A. CountryDew has been with me for more than 20 years, and I don't remember how I came up with it. The blog title, Blue Country Magic, is because I live in the country in the Blue Ridge Mountains, and I think life is a magical experiment.

Saturday 9: Battle Hymn

Saturday 9: Battle Hymn of the Republic

Memorial Day was introduced to honor the men and women who died while serving the in the United States Armed Forces. We want to make sure that message is not forgotten this weekend.

1) This recording was made live at St. Patrick's Cathedral, during Sen. Robert Kennedy's funeral. (Hear it here.) While both of Bobby's older brothers were decorated war heroes, he served too -- enlisting in the Navy in 1943. Are you a veteran? Are there veterans in your family? (We are grateful and want to hear about it.)

 

A. My father served and so did his brothers and his father. On my mother's side, two of her brothers served.

 
2) Memorial Day also kicks off the summer season. What's your favorite picnic food?

 

A. Watermelon. 

 
3) Name a scent that reminds you of someone special in your life.

 

A. Clean soap.

 
4) When was the last time you had your hair cut or trimmed?

 

A. I had my hair issues taken care of earlier this week.

 
5) Crazy Sam runs on Dunkin'. Are you loyal to a particular brand of coffee?

 

A. I don't drink coffee.

 
6) If money was no object, what home improvement would you like to make this summer?

 

A. I'd like to tear up the deck and install a concrete patio, and while I was at it, I would concrete the entire driveway (which is about 1/4 mile long) so I would not have a dirt road to travel on.

 
7) What was the last thing you bought purely for your own enjoyment?

 

A. That's actually a hard question. Books, I suppose.

 

8) When was the last time you rode a bike?

A. About 20 years ago.

9) Sam worries that many of her song selections reflect her decidedly Baby Boomer sensibilities. Is there a song or a performer that you'd like to see featured in a Saturday 9 this summer?

A. I'm very happy with Sam's picks. But if you want a tune, how about American Pie by Don McLean?

 

 

Blackberry Blooms

Thursday Thirteen

1. Friend: Have you ever had borsht?
   Me: Isn't that the group on Star Trek that forces you to assimilate? (Borsht, apparently, is some kind of Polish or Russian soup. I'd never heard of it. Borgs, on the other hand, turn you into something you weren't before. Resistance is futile.)

2. My new acupuncturist told me yesterday that I am a black hole. I take everything in and hold it, never letting it back out, she said. Black holes in space pull things in but never let them out; it's a gravitational thing. Black holes are so full of stuff that they become invisible. Black holes cannot be observed; they are known because the things that should be where they are, aren't. Or something like that.

3.  She also tells me I think too much. I never know how to respond to that - she's not the first person to say it. How can you think too much? Apparently a lot of people do. Here's a WikiHow that tells you how to stop thinking. Now I have to think about thinking too much.

4. Owning rental property is like that movie The Money Pit. The place is a black hole of its own, constantly creating a sucking sound in my checkbook.

5. My last tenant destroyed a door, left three huge holes in the wall, removed several other doors, shower heads, and the inside of toilet parts, and then made obscure threats to me when I wouldn't refund his deposit (I visited the sheriff about that, in case Mr. Jerk happens to read my blog.) He called his destruction "normal wear and tear." What is wrong with people? I've lived in my house for 28 years and not once put a hole in the wall.

6. Yesterday I saw two coyotes trotting along around 2:15 p.m., too quickly for me to get a photo of them. They went into the woods in front of the house. My husband was cutting hay in the next field, and he saw one of the coyotes stroll in front of him. He said it was a female, heavy with milk. So we probably have baby coyotes around here close by. Cue howling.

7. Officials say that vultures will not harm livestock. Tell that to this mother cow with her newborn:

My cousin came and stood guard over the baby until the vultures grew tired and went elsewhere for their fun. They've been known to kill calves and/or peck their eyes out.

8. I keep a calendar of exercises and pain for my physical therapist. Somehow I got off a week, and didn't realize it until Tuesday. For a moment I panicked, not knowing if it was May 12 or May 19. It was a quick glimpse into how I think a person with dementia must feel. I imagine it is a scary place.

9. I had to learn how to play Soft Kitty on the guitar because no one would sing it to me. Now I want to turn it into a full-fledged guitar song, but will need to sit down and write it out in tab form. I can hear it in my head but can't make my fingers find the sounds.

10. I spied this goose in the marsh. She's nesting. I hope the coyotes don't get her!

11. My beloved came home yesterday with a severe case of gout. I couldn't make him 'fess up as to what he had been eating. Gout is caused by too much uric acid, which gathers in the joint of the big toe. It's a type of arthritis. I know his triggers are red meat, seafood, asparagus, spinach, and mushrooms, among other things. We don't eat those much in my house (kind of ironic since we raise beef cattle, isn't it?). But I have no control over what he eats at the fire station.

12. Bing, the search engine, offers rewards for using it. I've received $10 in Amazon gift cards since I signed up. I use the gift cards for video game play on my Kindle Fire. Other types of rewards are available, like gift cards to Macy's and restaurants. You can even make donations to a couple of worthy causes. I switched to Bing because Google seems to return nothing but paid information anymore. (Nobody paid me to mention Bing, but I thought people might like the idea of free stuff.)

13. I like bacon. That's just a random fact because I couldn't think of anything else to say.



Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here if you want to read other Thursday Thirteens and/or play along. I've been playing for a while and this is my 396th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday.

Bubbles in the Grass

I was trying to bolster a little creativity the other day and decided to blow some bubbles. I discovered I could not blow bubbles and photograph them in the air at the same time. However, they stayed together in the grass long enough for me to take some shots.

The last one is my favorite, because you can see the tree and horizon in the left part of the bubble.

Buchanan Garden, Art & Antique Festival

We headed out to Buchanan Saturday afternoon for a little visit to a local festival.

There were about 30 vendors, food, and music.

The newspaper editor, Ed McCoy, & my husband
(the guy in pink) have a chat.

My husband and Virginia House of Delegates
Representative Terry Austin.

The event featured plants and art.

Yummy food up this way!

Interesting items for sale.

An old friend, Pam Wiegandt, at her booth
for the area community garden.

The Beekeepers Association

My mother's old friend, Lynn Miller.

More things for sale.
 

I don't know what the overall attendance was. We were there during the hottest part of the day and there were not many people. Hopefully when the weather was cooler more folks were out.

It was a nice little event. Buchanan is a great asset to Botetourt County.

Yellow Iris

Sunday Stealing: Random

From Sunday Stealing

RaNdOm Meme


1. If you were to attend a costume party tonight, what or whom would you go as?

A. I'd put my camera around my neck, take a pad and a pen, and go as a reporter.

2. What are your choice of toppings on a hamburger?

A. Cheese, catsup, mayonnaise, lettuce.

3. You are chosen to have lunch with the President. The condition is you only get to ask one question. What do you ask?

A. How do you feel about the two-party system, and what steps would you take to rectify the problems it has created and bring back true democracy to the people?

4. It’s your first day of vacation, what are you doing?

A. Driving somewhere.

5. What is your concession stand must-have at the movies?

A. A bottle of water.

6. Which do you dislike most: pop-up ads or spam email?

A. Pop-up ads.

7. What do you think Captain Hook’s name was before he had a hook for a hand?

A. Captain Two-Hands. Or maybe just George.

8. Rock, paper, or scissors?

A. Rock, paper, scissors, lizard, Spock!

9. Let's say a brick fell on your foot, and your kid is standing right next to you, what is your 'cleaned up’ swear word?

A. I don't clean up my damn swear words when I say them. I don't give a f*ck who the hell is listening. Especially if there is a bitch of a brick on my foot. (However, I very seldom actually *write* swear words.)

10. Which is worse, being in a place that is too loud, or too quiet?

A. Too loud.

11. What is one quality that you really appreciate in a person?

A. Good manners.

12. At the good old general store, what particular kind of candy would you expect to be in the big jar at the counter?

A. Smarties or Fireballs.

13. What is the most distinguishing landmark in your city?

A. My nearest city is the Star City of the South. We have a huge neon star on top of Mill Mountain (a mountain in the city). It glows in the dark. It called the Roanoke Star but the locals call it the Mill Mountain Star.

 

Here's a link to a nice shot of it in the dark, all aglow.

14. Everyone hears discussions that they consider boring. What topic can put you to sleep quicker than any other?

A. Who has what disease.

15. How many times did it take you to pass your drivers test?

A. Once. If it takes you many more than that, maybe you should use the bus system.

16. If you had to have the same topping on your vanilla ice cream for the rest of your life, what topping would you choose?

A. Chocolate.

17. What food item would need to be removed from the market altogether in order for you to live a healthier, longer life?

A. Chocolate.

18. You are offered an envelope that you know contains $50. You are then told that you may either keep it or exchange it for another envelope that may contain $500 or may be empty. Do you keep the first envelope, or do you take your chances with the second?

A. Take my chances with the second. I started out with nothing anyway.

19. If you had to choose, which would you give up: cable TV, or DSL/cable internet?

A. Cable TV.

20. What is your highest level of education?

A. I have a masters degree.

21. How much is a gallon of gas in your city? What was the highest it’s been?

A. Right now it's about $2.35. It's getting close to Memorial Day and the prices always go up then (gouge gouge gouge). I think the highest it hit was about $4 a gallon, around the end of George Bush's presidency. I can't really remember how high it was. Only that it was high.

22. What kind of lunch box did you have as a kid?

A. I had a Partridge Family lunch box. You can see a picture of it at this link.

23. What would you rather have, a nanny, a housekeeper, a cook, or a chauffeur?

A. I'd be really happy with a combination housekeeper and cook. I don't need a nanny or a chauffeur.

24. Would you rather be trapped in an elevator, or stuck in traffic?

A. Stuck in traffic. I have an elevator phobia as it is.

Saturday 9: No Myth

Saturday 9: No Myth (1989)

Unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it here.

1) The girl in this song is "just looking for someone to dance with." Who was your most recent dance partner?

A. My momma don't dance and my daddy don't rock and roll. My husband don't dance and neither does anyone I know. So I guess my most recent dance partner was the broom.

2) Michael Penn wonders if he'd do better with the ladies if he was Romeo or Heathcliff. What fictional character represents your romantic ideal?

A. Aragon, King of Gondor, from Lord of the Rings, as portrayed in the movies. I like that long hair, bad boy look, and brooding eyes.

3) The lyrics refer to "knots I have yet to untie." Do the shoes you're wearing have laces?

A. I'm wearing sneakers with laces.

4) Name a character from mythology.

Cassandra, who received the gift of true prophecy from the gods only no one believed anything she said. (Most married women can probably relate to that, as their husbands seldom listen but the lady is almost always right.)

5) Michael Penn is the brother of Oscar winner Sean Penn. Give us the title of a Sean Penn movie.

A. Um. I would have to research it, which is dishonest. So I must honestly answer that I do not know the title of any Sean Penn movies. I'm not sure I would recognize Sean Penn if I saw him. 

6) Their father, Leo Penn, was a busy TV director from the 1960s through the 1990s. He specialized in detective shows (Magnum PI and Cannon) and medical shows (Trapper John and Marcus Welby, MD). Are you more likely to watch a program with lots of car chases, or one that's set in a hospital?

A. I like fantasies or sit coms. I don't like hospitals at all. I am not more likely to watch either, and generally don't. Sorry. Of the four shows mentioned, I have seen Magnum PI, but only sporadically.

7) 1989, the year "No Myth" was popular, is the year of the first HDTV broadcast. Do you watch many shows in "high def?"

A. I don't watch any shows in "high def."

8) 1989 was also the year The Simpsons premiered. Who is your all-time favorite animated character?

A. Bugs Bunny. He was quick-witted, smart, and cuddly, all at the same time. If he looked like Aragon he'd be the perfect man.

9) Random fill-in the blank: If I never had to ______________ again, it would be too soon.

A. If I never had to clean a toilet again, it would be too soon. (But I am pretty sure I will do it again this weekend.)



Click the link above to play along. Whee!

Locust Trees

The locust trees are hanging full of blossoms this year. It has been some time since I've seen the trees this full of bloom.

Redbird!

Thursday Thirteen #395

1. I am in a filipendulous state of mind.

2. My visceral decisions about my health care make me feel as if I am doing the right thing, even if I'm not.

3. I am generally pensive, though not for reality. I am frequently reminiscing about a quixotic time that never was.

4. Acupuncture sometimes has the unfortunate tendency to make me pugnacious.

5. I'm afraid my Thursday Thirteen today is a bit esoteric.

6. Ominous dreams last night have me looking at my day in a different light. I dreamt of baby birds on the window sill - Rose Eagles, my husband called them. My grandmother's nickname was Rosie and she also featured in my dreams last night. I think she was paying a visit.

7. My efforts to write are nebulous these days. I can't take control of the substance.

8. My last article was not diminutive; it was a laborious project, about 1,700 words, and quite involved. I wrote about water.

9. I drink copious amounts of water during the day, at least six glasses, but still have dry skin.

10. Our austere spending has kept us relatively debt-free, but it also means I still use an ancient flip-phone and do not text.

11. The ostensible purpose of both political parties is to govern, but it really is about capitalism and money. Governing has little to do with it.

12. The duplicitous nature of some of my husband's customers makes me wonder if what he does is worth the effort.

13. This anomalous Thursday Thirteen is brought to you by a few visits to various Words of the Day websites and the words proffered on them.




Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here if you want to read other Thursday Thirteens and/or play along. I've been playing for a while and this is my 395th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday.