Saturday 9: Hello

Saturday 9: Hello (2015)

Unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it here. (I bet I am one of the few people who is not enamored of Adele.)


1) This video begins with Adele and her flip phone. Is your cell phone a simple or a smart phone?

A. It's a stupid phone. It's a flip phone I talk on. It doesn't text or anything.

2) As soon as her cell is fully charged, Sam disconnects the adapter from the outlet to save electricity. Are you careful about conserving energy?

A. I try to be, but according to our light bill, I am unsuccessful at this endeavor.

3) Adele sings that she must have a called a thousand times but her former lover never picked up. Think about the last call you made. Did you get through? Did you leave a voice mail? Or did you just hang up?

A. The last call I made was to my electric company because my lights keep blinking. The customer service representative was not exactly rude, but she kept insisting she couldn't help me without my account number. I have called my electric company many times (including just two days prior for the same problem) and never needed my account number. She argued with me for quite a while, and after much pain I finally found my account number (I was in a different room and having a very bad and difficult day), and in the process of looking for said number, I tripped over a table and all of my colored pencils went flying when I caught myself (plus I hurt my arm). I asked to speak with her supervisor but she did not put me through but instead said she would "have her call you back." She also would not give me her name. So far I haven't had any supervisor call me back. So that was the last call I made prior to answering these questions and it really pissed me off. I would like to rip someone a new one. Do you think the supervisor will call me back? I rather doubt it.

4) Adele brews a cup of tea in the video. How often do you drink tea? Year round? Only in winter? Never?

A. I drink tea every day.

5) Adele told Glamour magazine she likes two sugars in her tea. Do you watch your sugar intake?

A. Looking at my waistline, I would say not.

6) This song is about reaching out to someone and extending an apology. When is the last time you said, "I'm sorry?"

A. I said it to my physical therapist on Thursday when I was not able to reach a certain level on a task we were trying to do. An unnecessary apology, to be sure. I don't recall the last time I did something to someone and they deserved an apology for it, but I say "I'm sorry" a lot. It's a bad habit. On the whole, I try to be a good person and not hurt other people. Electric company customer service representatives may be my new exception.

7) Adele was a heavy smoker who enjoyed the habit and didn't quit until 2015, after  doctors convinced her it contributed to her chronic throat problems. What's something you know you should do for your health?

A. Diet.

8) Even though she is one of the world's highest-earning entertainers, she recently had her credit card rejected while shopping at H&M. She admits she was "mortified." Have you ever experienced that moment at the counter when your card was rejected?

A. I can't say that I have.

9) Random question: When you were a kid, did you keep a neat or messy bedroom?

A. I thought I kept a neat bedroom, though there were always lots of books. My parents might have thought otherwise, I don't know.

 

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I encourage you to visit other participants in Saturday 9 posts and leave a comment. Because there are no rules, it is your choice. Saturday 9 players hate rules. We love memes, however.

The Broken Man

About this time 32 years ago, I gave my husband a little plaster fireman that a friend painted for me. It sat on our shelf  by the fireplace for 29 years.

This morning my husband came in and lay beside me on the bed. "I have a confession to make," he said.

"What's that," I asked, still half asleep.

"You know that little fireman you got me that Dee made a long time ago? I broke him."

I was quiet for a moment. "When did you break him?"

"Sometime ago when I was cleaning the shelves for you, when you were really sick."

He had hidden him on a high shelf behind the TV speaker, turning him sort of butt out so I wouldn't notice the little guy was broken. And were it not for the fact that I plan to clean those shelves thoroughly today, dear husband might have gotten away with it for quite some time.




My little guy, still whole (a 2013 photo).

Now he has a concussion.

Not to mention, a broken helmet.

Here he is with a few tiny pieces (that were stuck inside
of him and I didn't see them until I took the above photo).

After I rose from bed, I looked to see the damage. It's a pretty big hole, and I know nothing about plaster. I will ask an artist friend if he is fixable. I won't throw him away until I know, but he will be relegated to a closet shelf, poor guy.

Thursday 13

Yesterday was the anniversary of my mother's death. She died on August 24, 2000 of pancreatic cancer. She was 56 years old.

So here are 13 things about my mother.



My mother at my wedding.

1. She was a good cook, though I tend to remember her flops more so than her masterpiece creations mostly because they were humorous and stand out in my mind. There was the year of pumpkin pudding instead of pumpkin pie, for example, and duck that tasted like mud.

2. She could sew and frequently made my clothing until I hit high school and insisted on store-bought goods.

3. Her collections of items were many - bells, plates, figurines. She kept most of it behind glass in curios.

4. She worked for 30 years for the same company in Salem, VA, which was just a block away from her mother's house.

5. She was born in an apartment above a grocery store on Lowe Street in Salem. She was my grandparent's first born, and both of them were quite young (under 18, I think? Not unusual for that time period.).

6. We lived on a farm but I never thought she cared much for farm life. She grew up in Salem and while there was a rural quality about her childhood - her grandparents and parents had chickens and a big garden - I don't think she cared much for cows and putting up hay and the hard work that went along with it, especially since she also had a full time job while we were growing up.

7. She canned and put up produce from the garden. The pressure cooker she used always scared me because it was so noisy and it seemed like it was going to blow the roof off the house.

8. Her son (my brother) was her pride and joy.

9. She had a temper, but then, we all do. She liked flowers and the iris was her favorite. She liked her flower garden.

10. She served meals on blue china, which were the every day plates. They were quite lovely. I wish I had a picture of them.

11. Her decorator's eye was keen and she made a nice home for my father, simple yet elegant in style.

12. She loved to go to Myrtle Beach and enjoyed the beach more than the mountains when she was in her 40s. She said she felt better at the beach.

13. She had a good voice and could sing. And my grandfather called her "Liz" because he thought she looked like Elizabeth Taylor.

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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 462nd time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday. 

Alpha Turkey

Can you tell which one is the alpha turkey?

Hand on the Page

Coloring has made a resurgence among adults, and this does not surprise me. We're so keyed into to our tech devices that the simplicity of a crayon and a page holds vast appeal.

Writing is now in the news, too, as in, hand writing. Today in my local paper there is an article about calligraphy. It's titled "An invitation to more beautiful writing" and indicates that calligraphy is one of those lost arts that's again becoming fashionable. "It is part of society's fascination with handmade things in a high-tech world," the story says.

Yet the New York times published this essay that claims that "Handwriting Just Doesn't Matter," a response to calls for educational institutions to reinstitute the teaching of cursive handwriting (as well as print).

I do not have beautiful handwriting. In recent years, my handwriting devolved so badly that I had to purchase a little netbook to take notes on at meetings because otherwise I couldn't read my own words. I print. I use cursive for my signature, but that is all. For everything else, I use block lettering.

My handwriting is small and cramped. No one could ever call it beautiful. However, the connection of brain to hand to pen to paper is one that is completely different from that of brain to fingers to keyboard. There's a slower flow, a different feel, and a desire to stop and think about what one says when the thoughts come with pen in hand instead of fingers on keyboard.

Fingers on keyboard is rather like mouth running without monitoring - you just type away and the words flow and autocorrect fixes your errors and you don't realize you've used the same word three times within a single paragraph because you're just typing away. Then you go back and edit (I hope) and discover that what flows out of your brain to your keyboard and onto your screen is not Shakespeare. Not even close.

That's not to say that what flows from the brain to the pen to the paper is master work. Far from it. I think, though, it is more thoughtful work, and therefore a bit more accurate, perhaps, particularly with regard to emotion. Because with pen on paper, one can see anger when the pen is forced down a bit harder, in the change of the looping of the letters, and in the way the words are written with more slant (or less).

On the screen, though, it all looks the same unless one takes the time to go back and add in bold or use ALL CAPS, neither of which is very satisfying. In fact, when I edit books, I remove those types of "invisible modifiers" from manuscripts and make suggestions that authors rewrite the sentence. If you have to bold something to indicate your character is angry, then the sentence or paragraph isn't conveying the emotion. The words have to carry the emotion, the sound, and the fury - and relying on geek inventions in a manuscript is weak. Certainly such illustrations have their place, but better writing should always be the goal.

Which brings me back to the use of pen and paper. I do not write poems on the computer. I write them on a yellow note pad, frequently with a pencil. There are slips of paper with half-finished bits of poetry scattered all about my office, shoved in files and stuffed in folders. None of them are worth anything, but all I need do is read a line and I know instantly from the words and my hand writing what I was trying to convey. If my handwriting was stiff or tight, I was writing about something that was rigid and controlling and having trouble conveying it. If my handwriting moved quickly on the page, my thoughts were flowing and I was probably one with the muse at that small point in time.

I could not make those assumptions about my own work from something written on the computer. My handwritten notes eventually are placed into a computer, but the result is different after that process.

Sometimes when I was writing articles, and couldn't figure out where to start, I did what I called a "notebook dump" and simply started typing up my handwritten notes. Eventually I'd hit the thing I needed to start the story, or the meat of the matter, and I could move on from there, ordering, rearranging, and creating an article that hopefully made sense to the masses.

For 30 years I generally used pen and paper to start with, even for news articles. The last time I went out on an assignment, I used pen and paper and left the netbook at home. It was the first assignment I'd been on in a year, and it did not take long to get back in the groove. However, my hand shook more, and my writing has worsened.

Lack of use? Maybe. I'm not sure one whose handwriting was insufferable to begin with could ever make beautiful penmanship.

However, regardless of the calligraphy, I can write beautiful words.

Sunday Stealing: Moments Meme, I

Sunday Stealing: Shannon's Moments Meme, Part One

1. Do you like blue cheese?

A. I will eat it, but I do not generally ask for it on my salads (or anything else, for that matter).

2. Have you ever smoked cigarettes? If yes, how did you quit?

A. I tried them in high school and nearly choked to death, so I never started and quitting was not an issue.

3. Do you own a gun? What are your feelings about gun control/2nd amendment rights?

A. Yes, I own a gun. I am a good shot with a .22, which is as high a caliber gun I will shoot and generally all anyone needs unless you're hunting big game. You can knock out a burglar with a .22 by shooting him in the knee or stomach or head or wherever (or you can turn the rifle around and hit him with the gun butt if you so desire). I think that gun regulations are required and a responsibility of the government. I do not believe "a well-armed militia" means you and me at this point in time. We are not Minute Men awaiting the invasion of the British. I think guns should be at least as well-regulated as automobiles, requiring tests, licensing, and insurance. Guns are already regulated to some degree, anyway - it's just a step further. You can't own a tank, or a true automatic weapon. Everyone agrees that a gun should not be in the hands of someone adjudicated mentally ill. So regulations are already in place, and unless you are one of the few unthinking nutcases who believe you and every mentally ill person in the land should be able to own a bazooka or a rocket launcher, then you believe in gun control, too. Some people just can't admit that they do, or maybe they haven't thought it through.

4. What is your favorite flavor of water or liquor flavors?

A. I don't flavor my water nor do I drink liquor.

5. Do you get nervous before a doctor visit? Why?

A. I do not get nervous with my primary care doctor, but I do with strange doctors. This is mostly because they have damaged me beyond repair and I have no trust of the medical system. Male doctors, in particular, are very demeaning and want to treat me like I have no idea what is going on in my own body.

6. How do you like your hot dogs?

A. I don't eat them much anymore because of ulcers, but I like them with catsup and relish, and no chili. Occasionally I will eat a little mustard on them.

7. Although it’s been asked a lot, tell us about a favorite movie that you haven’t shared before.

A. I think the movie Chocolat (2000) was very well done. The acting in it was perfect, and the storyline right on the mark. I have only seen it twice, but I still remember scenes from it - the one with the mayor indulging himself in chocolate in the window sticks with me in particular - and the way the woman wandered, looking to find herself and a place for her child. But mostly I remember how the introduction of one variable changed an entire town.

8. What do you prefer to drink in the morning?

A. I drink decaffeinated tea. On Sunday I drink decaffeinated Irish breakfast tea, which is my favorite. I do not care for coffee.

9. In a dating situation, have you ever misrepresented yourself to seem cooler or hipper? (Yes we know for most of you it was long ago…)

A. I am sure I did lo those many years ago, but after 33 years of marriage, what does it matter now?

10. What’s your favorite piece of jewelry? Why?

A. My wedding anniversary band that my husband gave me for our 15th wedding anniversary. I wear it instead of my engagement ring and wedding band now because my wedding band has grown quite thin and I'm afraid it will break and I will lose it.

11. Favorite hobby? Tell us about it so we understand it.

A. I like to play the guitar. I mean, really play the thing. Jam the bejeesus out of it until it rattles, shakes and roars, and I'm lost in a song, with my heart stuck there and my brains thinking of nothing but the music, my fingers dancing on the fret board like tomorrow will never come again, and my vocal cords throbbing and my voice sounding as husky as Melissa Etheridge's because I'm reaching for those tones that I can barely sing anyhow because of my asthma. Lost in the song, not just the listening to it but the making of it, the strings digging into the ends of my left-hand fingers because I don't play often enough any more, and my mind going back, way back, to remember the notes and chords from some song I'd forgotten I even knew, my right hand finger-stylin' and strummin' and doing whatever the song needs to make it mine, ripping out the chords like I've grabbed Dracula by the throat and drained his blood.

Does that make you understand?

12. Do you have A.D.D., or have you suspected it?

A. I have a bit of OCD and wouldn't be surprised if there isn't a little underlying ADD in there, too.

13. What’s a thing you dislike or would change about yourself?

A. I'm fat. Not "I should be in a TV show fat," but definitely overweight. I don't like it and I'm not even sure how it happened, but there it is. The weight came in the early 1990s, when the doctors had me trying various fertility drugs which messed with my hormones as well as my mind, and after my hysterectomy, when my hormones were askew and the migraines laid me low for days at a time, the weight just continued to creep on. I remember one day I looked at my doctor and asked her how we'd let this happen - why hadn't she said anything (not a doctor I see now) - and she had no answer. Being fat makes you invisible and turns you into a clown all at the same time. It's okay (according to societal mores) to weight-shame, and I'm very conscious when I'm buying groceries or eating in a restaurant that I am being judged by whatever I've put in the cart or into my mouth. I have not quite come to grips with the notion that this is genetic (many members of my family have weight issues) and that in all likelihood my medications and hormonal imbalances have played a big role, because society still sees obesity as a weakness of will. I don't think it is that - I think it is, instead, genetic and natural, as well as a reaction to what goes on around us. It is also the result of the crap we eat that isn't really food, along with health issues however they relate to various individuals. But even so, it's there, and I haven't figured out yet how to fix it.

14. Middle name? Like it or not?

A. My middle name is French and I like it just fine. It's also one of those things I don't give out on the Internet.

15. Name three random thoughts you might have on this week:

A. Why is my nephew out riding around on the tractor in the hay field when we aren't cutting hay? Why can't I stop biting my nails? Is the guy who wrote the letter to the editor this morning advocating a monarchy for the United States "like the one in England" really so stupid that he doesn't realize they elect a prime minister there and Queen Elizabeth is simply a figurehead, and not a policy maker?

16. Name 3 drinks you regularly drink. Tell us a bit about them.

A. I drink water, which is wet but ours has a nice taste because it comes from a well and we don't use a water softener (there's a tiny touch of iron in it); I drink A&W root beer, because it has no caffeine and because it is fizzy and I like the taste of it; and I drink tea, which is generally not sweetened though occasionally I will have a spoon of sugar in it.

17. Current worry:

A. Ridding the house of clutter and finding the energy and strength to do it when I'm not well.

18. Current annoyance:

A. You know, the thing that is annoying me most at the moment is a place on my 2014 Toyota Camry that needs a touch of paint. I hit a deer last winter and we didn't think it did any damage to the car, but after several months passed, this small dent in the bottom part of car door showed up, and there is a crack in the paint there now. I bought a paint pen in the vehicle color and my husband took it from me and promised to fix it, and then he lost the damned pen and the cracked unpainted place is still there. It's in the driver's side door and I see it every time I open the car door to get in. I think I shall have to go buy another paint pen and fix it myself this time.

19. Favorite place to be in the summer? Give us a wee bit more than “the beach”.

A. Honestly, I just like to be home. I'm not a fan of heat, and I love my mountains, and I have what I need and want here. Give me a book and a good chair and some light to read by, and I'm perfectly content.

20. How do you usually ring in the new year? If forced (how we’d do that without Judd coming to your house, if you even know who he was) to do something new, what would it be?

A. Usually we go to bed, but on occasion have gone to hear the bells ring. In my nearby town there is a tradition that goes back almost 200 years of ringing the bells of the churches and the courthouse at midnight. Revelers gather throughout the town for the celebration. The bells begin to toll at 11:45 p.m. At midnight, the Courthouse bell rings, and afterwards, at twelve second intervals, the church bells ring in a clockwise order about the town: Presbyterian, Baptist, Methodist and Episcopal. This continues until the bell at the Courthouse strikes twelve. Somebody plays Taps to say goodbye to the old year, and then the bell-ringers in the Courthouse strike the digits of the New Year, for example two-one-six (2016). Then three shotgun blasts indicate that it is time for the bells to ring all together to welcome the New Year.

If I were to be forced to do something new by somebody named Judd (I don't know who that is), I suppose I would go sit on a mountaintop somewhere and watch the new year unfold. I prefer not to be in a crowd.

21. What have you done this summer that’s special? Pictures please.

A. I haven't done anything special this summer. But here's a picture I colored in my Lord of the Rings coloring book:

And here's a link to a recent visit to a local museum to see canning labels, if you're interested in that sort of thing. The labels are all local - in the early 1900s, this area was the tomato capital of the nation, with hundreds of little canneries, each bearing their own label. There are pictures.

22. Have you ever walked into a room with just shoes on?

A. Every morning. I cannot stand to go barefoot, so as soon as my feet are dry from my shower, I slip them into a pair of moccasins and walk around in them until I am finally dressed.
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I encourage you to visit other participants in Sunday Stealing posts and leave a comment. Cheers to all us thieves who love memes, however we come by them.

Saturday 9: Trolley Song

Saturday 9: The Trolley Song (1944)

Because Stacey suggested Judy Garland. Unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it here.

1) In this movie clip, just about everyone (except Judy) is wearing a hat. Do you wear hats for fashion, for warmth or for both?

A. I don't wear hats anymore, unless I need a stocking cap because it is freezing outside. I used to love hats but after I wore one with my wedding dress, I have never worn another (aside from said need to keep from freezing).

2) This song is from Meet Me in St. Louis, which was a huge hit and the second highest grossing movie of 1944. When is the last time you watched a movie in the theater?

A. I saw Star Wars: The Force Awakens whenever it was on, back in the spring.

3) The movie follows the Smith family as their hometown, St. Louis, to prepares to host the 1904 World's Fair. What's the biggest thing happening in your hometown?

A. Um. Nothing much. There will be festivals and things in the fall, but right now it is kind of dead.

4) This week's featured artist, Judy Garland, is best known as Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz. That movie is shown so often that Sam thinks she may have seen it a dozen times. Is there a movie or holiday special you've seen over and over?

A. I have, of course, watched The Lord of the Rings (all 3 movies, over 10 hours of video), multiple times. At least a dozen if not more. I've also seen The Wizard of Oz, The Sound of Music, Dirty Dancing, Under the Tuscan Sun, and Steel Magnolias multiple times. 

5) Judy admitted to being perpetually tardy. Are you usually prompt? Or are you always running late?

A. I am usually 5 minutes early. I am seldom late.

6) Judy's first professional performance was a rendition of "Jingle Bells" when she was just two. How old were you when you entered your chosen profession?

A. I first published an article when I was 21, but I had been writing long before that. I had been told I would be writer from the first day I started school, I think.

7) Thinking of "Jingle Bells," here's a wintery question for a hot summer day: What's your favorite carol?

A. Do You Hear What I Hear?

8) Judy was a very demonstrative person. She enjoyed hugs and admitted that, when she nervous, she took emotional support from physically reaching out. Are you demonstrative?

A. I can be with the right people. Friends and husband. But not so much with people I don't know well.

9) She told Barbara Walters that people would be surprised to learn that she was a good cook and specialized in desserts. Do you have a sweet tooth?

A. I am a chocoholic. I guess I do.

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I encourage you to visit other participants in Saturday 9 posts and leave a comment. Because there are no rules, it is your choice. Saturday 9 players hate rules. We love memes, however.

Books: The Nightingale

The Nightingale
By Kirstin Hannah
Copyright 2015
440 pages
Kindle Edition

The Nightingale is a best seller, deservedly so. I have read some of Hannah's other books (Magic Hour and Summer Island) and not necessarily been overly impressed, but she did a great job with this one.

In a rather timely piece, Hannah takes us to Vichy France, giving us a quick glimpse of the nation prior to Germany's invasion and then taking us on a heady journey following two sisters as they struggle to endure the hell that war brings. They have suffered rough childhoods - the early death of their mother and the abandonment of a father crippled by World War I.

Sister Isabelle, the younger, is in and out of boarding schools, and always searching for her father's love. Vianne, married and mother of one, lives in the family's older home in a more rural area. When war comes, each is impacted in different ways. Isabelle initially is sent from Paris to live with Vianne, and along the way sees the atrocities to come as a German plane guns down a legion of women and children before her eyes.

Vianne, more sheltered, thinks that things will only get so bad even though her husband leaves for war. After her sister disappears and heads back to Paris, though, things slowly become worse for Vianne as a soldier billets with her and she finds food and resources difficult. Then she must watch as her Jewish friend is herded into a cattle car on a train, and she knows her time has come to find her moral ground.

Isabelle, meanwhile, is keen to fight, and becomes part of the French underground. She leads downed Allied soldiers across the great mountain range that separates France from Spain, saving 127 flyers.
 
The book reads with historical accuracy - hopefully as well-researched as it seems to be - and the author manages an interesting trick of having the story told in "present day" (1995) by one of the sisters - only we don't know which one until the end.

It's a fast read even at 440 pages, and the intrigue and detail gives one much to ponder, especially if compared to the political climate of America today. Are we too doomed to determine our morality by the blood of our neighbors?

Certainly something to think about.

Thursday Thirteen

Here is information from  the 2015‒2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans,” as provided by the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion:

1. A lifetime of healthy eating helps prevent chronic diseases.
2. Healthy eating is one of the most powerful tools we have to reduce the onset of disease.
3. Following a healthy eating pattern that’s right for you is important to improving health through nutrition.
4. A healthy eating pattern includes a variety of fruits, vegetables, grains, protein foods, fat-free or low-fat dairy, and oils (including natural oils and those from plants).
5. Healthy eating patterns limit added sugars.
6. Healthy eating patterns limit saturated and trans fats.
7. Healthy eating patterns limit sodium.
8. Most Americans can benefit from making small shifts in their daily eating habits to improve their health over the long run. Small shifts in food choices can make a difference in working toward a healthy eating pattern that works for you.
9. Regular physical activity is one of the most important things individuals can do to improve their health. 
10. Everyone has a role — at home, school, workplaces, and food retail outlets — in supporting healthy food choices.
11. A healthy eating pattern includes a variety of vegetables from all of the subgroups—dark green, red and orange, legumes (beans and peas), starchy, and other; fruits, especially whole fruits; grains, at least half of which are whole grains; fat-free or low-fat dairy, including milk, yogurt, cheese, and/or fortified soy beverages; a variety of protein foods, including seafood, lean meats and poultry, eggs, legumes (beans and peas), and nuts, seeds, and soy products; and oils
12. You can download a very large .pdf of the "dietary guidelines" here.
13. I am not sure what happens if you didn't grow up eating well and exercising, and you're over 50 now. Too late to change?

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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 461st time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday. 

The Right Planner

Day Timer.

Day Planner.

Day Minder.

Day Runner.

Desktop calendars.

Page-a-day calendars.

Daily, weekly, monthly. At-a-glance. Organize. Task notes. Calendar. Contact list. Phone numbers.

Sketch books that pretend to be planners. Planners on your computer. Calendars in Google. Microsoft Outlook.

So many ways to plan and take care of our day. Be on time. Be here. Be there. Do this. Do that.

Write it in Evernote. Or OneNote. Or an Excel chart.

File it.

Pile it.

Toss it.

Scan it.

Use the software in your phone/tablet/computer. Hope you don't lose it.

Write it on a scrap of paper, and hope you don't lose it.

Amazon offers you 2,700 ways to go about organizing your life. You can do it in all colors and by the school year, if you want.

You can do it for a single year, five years or whatever else strikes your fancy (use blank pages and you can chart out your whole life).

A friend of mine told me last week she had a life plan that took her up to age 99. I didn't say anything, but boy, that is some planning.

What do you do when something unexpected happens if you plan like that?

Google gives you 59,600,000 results for "day organizers." That's millions. Millions of ways to organize your seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years.

I have gone through a number of various planners in my lifetime. I've used all of the main brand names - some I find too strict, some not strict enough. Some don't give me enough lines. Some are too big, some too small. Some don't have enough extras, some have too many.

Some come with refills, others don't.

They come in large sizes and small sizes. Some are big notebooks. Some are half-notebook sized. Some fit in your pocketbook or pants pocket. Some are like briefcases.

What I use now for appointments is a combination of a pocket calendar that I carry with me and a 2003 version of the Microsoft Outlook with calendar. I put them together once a week to sync them up, and print out a monthly calendar. The monthly calendar stays at my desk and I write appointments on there as I make them from home. Then I transfer them into the computer

It is tedious and multi-stepped, and probably more effort than I need to put out. But I don't have a smart phone to worry about losing, and this is what has evolved to meet my needs over time.

But other planning - life goals planning, that sort of thing? It's just in my head. No solid dreams written down - nothing that says "See the Grand Canyon again" or "Visit Scotland" or "Visit the museum home of every writer you can find" or whatever it might be that I sometimes think of doing. Things that I know I will never do, anyway.

That would be a goal planner, wouldn't it. There are 46 million goal planners listed on Google. That's a lot of different ways to work out your life goals.

I didn't ask my friend who has her life planned out to age 99 how she worked that out. Maybe I should give her a call, and see what she used for that. Maybe there is a 100-year-plan life journal goal-setting date planner out there somewhere.

I need a new planner. But I want one I can do lots of things in, not just set dates. So I guess I need to go look at these millions of planners and see if there is one that might suit me.

But then again, maybe I need to stop worrying about planning, and just let life unfold. Because some things you just can't plan for.

What about you? How do you plan? Or do you plan at all?

Sunday's Sunset

Sunday Stealing: Gal's Meme, Part Deux

Sunday Stealing: Gal's Meme, Part Deux

1. What did your last text message say?

A. I don't text. I own a flip phone and we're too cheap to upgrade.

2. Are you someone’s best friend? Tell us about your friendship.

A. That would be my husband. We have known each other since 1982, when we met at a football game. However, he rode the same bus as I when we were children, only he has no memory of that. I remember him, though. He was four years older so of course he paid no attention to the younger kids. Anyway, he's my guy, I go to him in good and bad, and he's always there.

3. What are you doing tomorrow?

A. I'm answering this on Saturday, and Sunday my husband plans to "work the cows" which means, get them out of the field and give them their shots (required by law) so we can haul some weaned calves to market. I won't be helping but I will be keeping an eye on him to make sure he doesn't get hurt.

4. What do you think of when you think of Australia?

A. Kangaroos.

5. Last person you talked to on the phone? What about?

A. My husband. We discussed the odor coming from the fireplace area in the living room that is driving me crazy.

6. Any plans today? Do tell.

A. Today I have been doing laundry. Exciting stuff, that.

7. What makes you happy?

A. Being able to do the things I want without worrying what someone else thinks.

8. What’s your favorite room where you live?

A. At the moment, my office, but if we get the odor in the fireplace area fixed then it will be the living room (which is actually part of a "great room," which means the kitchen, dining, and living room area are all one big space).

9. Biggest annoyance in your life right now?

A. Pain.

10. Last movie you saw? Review, please.

A. Um. I don't remember the last movie I watched.

11. If you are jealous of anyone, tell us about it.

A. I'm not jealous of anyone.

12. What is the most serious relationship you’ve had?

A. The one I'm in now, wherein I have managed 32 years and 9 months of marital bliss.

13. Should anyone be jealous of you?

A. I know that there have been people who have been. I used to receive "anonymous" notes occasionally when I was writing at the newspaper from people who thought they could do my job better than I.

14. What do you usually do during the work day?

A. My days are erratic and generally revolve around physical therapy and doctor appointments.
 
15. Tell us about someone that you really don’t care for.

A. Did you ever watch a show called Orange County Choppers? The dad on that show was the biggest jerk ever. My husband liked the show but I would leave the room whenever it was on. 

16. Do you use the phrase “Have a good one” daily?

A. No. And in the south, it's "havea gud 'ern."

17. How old do you wish you’d be turning on your next birthday? Why?

A. I can't turn back time so it seems silly to waste precious energy on this question.

18. Do you still like amusement parks? Tell us about your last trip to one.

A. No, and the last one I went to was in the early 2000s; we went to Busch Gardens in Williamsburg. Neither my husband nor I like the rides.

19. How did you get one of your scars?

A. I have one on my left thumb from when I was helping my grandfather saw up a tree. I sawed my thumb instead.

20. Will you still love me tomorrow?

A. Of course.

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I encourage you to visit other participants in Sunday Stealing posts and leave a comment. Cheers to all us thieves who love memes, however we come by them.