Thursday Thirteen

Things to do by yourself to make the holiday time a little less crazy.

1. Make a terrarium, create a garden, or care for a plant.

2. Cook something spectacular.

3. Spend time at a museum or library.


4. Meditate.

5. Make lists of things you want to do or feel, or create a vision board for your life.

6. Read.

 


7. Go for a walk in the woods or visit somewhere new in your city.

8. Watch a movie.

9. Go for a long drive.

10. Listen to music. Dance like no one is watching.

11. Clear out some clutter.

12. Paint, draw, sketch, color.

13. Write in your journal, send a handwritten note to a friend, blog, or work on a writing project.






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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 476th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday. 

My Grandmother's Living Room

Last night I dreamed of my grandmother's house in Salem.

Small for a family of six, the three-bedroom, full-basement structure probably encompassed about 1200 feet, if that. My grandfather had it built when a small subdivision sprang up along The Roanoke River.

The basement flooded at least three times.

The living room housed a couch, my grandfather's recliner chair, a rocking chair, a television, a dry sink, and an upright piano. The room never seemed crowded to me, but looking back on it, it must have been. I don't think the room was bigger than 12 x 14, if that.

The foyer held a bookcase and another smaller moveable shelve set that held the telephone. The bookcase held a cherished set of World Book Encyclopedias.

My grandmother rocked the piano sometimes, when she thought no one was listening. When we were outside playing on our bikes, maybe, or on the swings. But I would come to the door and hear her. She had no formal lessons that I am aware of; she played by ear and with passion. She sang, too, though the songs she sang when she was at the piano were not the lullabies she whispered in her grandchildrens' ears when she tried to calm them or help them sleep.

They were songs from the 1940s, from her childhood. And I don't remember any of them, I'm afraid.

A few months before my grandmother died, she was in the hospital. She kept hearing music. She would ask if we heard it when we visited and wanted to know when the City of Salem began piping music all over the land. I always told her I heard the music, and sometimes asked her if she could sing along with it.

Once or twice she did, singing old songs I didn't know, floundering with the words and then stopping. It was better to listen than sing then, she said.

My grandmother's house had a divider between the kitchen and living room. It served as a place for us grandchildren to run around on rainy days. We chased each other in circles until she couldn't stand it anymore and sent us to the basement. Down there we played with balls or read comic books in a half-light, while she, at least, had a little quiet upstairs.

I don't know why I dreamed of my grandmother's living room last night. I haven't seen it since about 1987. She moved into another home with my aunt after that, and the old house was sold. It still stands, though I think it is one of the few left along that part of The Roanoke River Greenway.

I wish I had a picture.

Is That You, Raj?

Down is up
sideways is reverse
changing lines crisscross,
run parallel, arrange themselves
perpendicular, move to form
irregular quadrilaterals.

Maybe I am in Sheldon's 2D universe,
a holographic theory,
I see only the sides of obtuse triangles
and I don't even like math.

Sunday Stealing: Silver Thanksgiving

From Sunday Stealing

The Silver Thanksgiving Questions



This is a turkey butt.

1. How many Thanksgivings do you attend?

A. Generally just one, although there have been years where my husband and I have had a mini-Thanksgiving and then attended a big feast at my in-laws, due to work schedules (my husband is a firefighter and my brother-in-law is a police investigator).

2. Where do you attend Thanksgiving(s)?

A. This year it was at my house. In the past, I have attended Thanksgiving at my mother-in-law's house, my parents' house, and my grandmother's house.

3. What is your favorite dish?

A. I like good stuffing with gravy on it.

4. What is your least favorite dish at Thanksgiving?

A. Anything with coconut in it.

5. What, if any, are your Thanksgiving traditions?

A. They are changing as we age. I think the main tradition is we eat at 6 p.m.

6. Name your FAV thing about Thanksgiving.

A. I don't really have one. To be honest, I'd just as soon skip the holiday.

Run turkeys, run!

7. Do you make anything for Thanksgiving? If yes, share what and why.

A. This year I cooked the turkey, made candied yams, stuffing, cooked kale, rolls, and baked a pie. In past years I have mostly been responsible for the turkey, but this year I did everything.

8. Out of everything you eat at Thanksgiving, what can YOU cook the best?

A. All of it.

9. What do you drink with your Thanksgiving feast?

A. Water. I only drink water. Although I confess around 5 p.m. on Thanksgiving day, I would not have turned down a big drink of liquor.

10. Has there ever been a feud during your Thanksgiving?

A. When I was young, my parents fought every holiday.

11. Do you have appetizers before your Thanksgiving meal?

A. No.

12. How many people attend your Thanksgiving(s)? If yes, who?

A. This year there was only three of us: me, my husband, and my mother-in-law. In years past, we have had large gatherings with me, my husband, my MIL and FIL, my SIL and her husband, her two boys. At my parents house, prior to 2000 when my mother died, we had my husband and me, my parents, my brother, my SIL and their three kids.

13. Have you ever missed a Thanksgiving?

A. No.

14. What kind of pie/cake/dessert do you eat for dessert?

A. This year we had apple pie.

15. Do you ever play games at Thanksgiving?

A. No.

16. Name 3 things you are thankful for.

A. Blue Skies, music, and tomorrows.

17. Is there anyone who has normally attended Thanksgiving, that will not be there this year? Who?

A. My nephews were absent this year.

18. Name the funniest person at your Thanksgiving this year and tell us more.

A. Usually that was one of the boys.

19. Which person eats the MOST?

A. I don't keep track.

20. Which person eats the LEAST?

A. I don't keep track, sorry.

21. Do any animals attend Thanksgiving dinner?

A. Just the dead turkey on the platter.

22. If so, do they get Thanksgiving scraps?

A. No.

23. Who carves the turkey?

A. I do.

24. Have you ever had to make Thanksgiving all on YOUR OWN?

A. I did this year, yes.

25. Do you get along with the people you have thanksgiving with?

A. I try.

26. Is your Thanksgiving formal, or do you just do whatever?

A. We are winging it, so to speak, as circumstances change. It is what happens as children and parents age.

__________

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: Baby's in Black

Saturday 9: Baby's in Black (1964)

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

1) Black is this week's signature color because Friday, November 25, was "Black Friday," when retailers cut their prices and consumers flock to the stores. Did you score any "Black Friday" bargains?

A. Nothing worth talking about. I didn't go out, but I did a little online shopping.

2) Feasting and football are also popular Thanksgiving weekend pastimes. Do your Thursday-Sunday plans include pigging out or watching a game?

A. Just the pigging out part.

3) At Thanksgiving dinners, Crazy Sam's homemade gravy is always a hit. (Probably because she's so generous with the cognac, which gives the gravy a nutty taste.) What was particularly delicious at your Thanksgiving table?

A. I made candied yams, which I had never made before. They turned out ok.

4) Among the biggest the Black Friday advertisers are Target, Kohl's, Macy's and Best Buy. If you could have a $100 gift card to any one of those stores, which would you choose?

A. Target, right now, because they are being boycotted by the conservatives.

5) This week's song, "Baby's in Black," is about a girl who wears black because she's in mourning. Do you find that the color you're wearing reflects your mood?

A. Sometimes, yes.

6) The woman who inspired this song, Astrid Kirchherr, has been friends with Paul McCartney since he and his bandmates (John Lennon, George Harrison, Stu Sutcliffe and Pete Best) met her in Hamburg back in 1960. Tell us what you believe are the components of a strong, lasting friendship.

A. Trust and loyalty. Intelligence, common interests, and proximity. Plus pheromones. Or something like that. I am not sure what you call it when you look into another person's eyes and know the moment you meet that you're going to be close friends some day, even if the friendship doesn't blossom until years after the first time you met. That has to be something like pheromones. Or maybe just old souls connecting.

7) In the early days of the Beatles, Paul McCartney and John Lennon began writing a play but abandoned it. Do you have a novel, painting, play, song or poem that you're going to finish "someday?"

A. Only about 100 of them.

8) When he was 16, George Harrison dreamed of moving to Canada, Australia or Malta. In just a few years, he would visit all those places with Beatles and eventually decided there was no place like home and stayed in England. Have you ever thought about moving to another country? If so, where?

A. I wouldn't mind living in Southern France, except I don't speak French.

9)  Random question: Finish this sentence -- If you want me to give you "yes" for an answer, the best time to approach me is _____________________.
A. Around 11 a.m., depending on the question.

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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.

Thursday Thirteen #475

Things you may or may not want to know, or things that can't be known, or whatever.

1. The date/time/cause of your death before you die.

2. Number of times you've narrowly avoided death (i.e., the person who missed dying in a car wreck because of a stop light, or a slow driver).

3. How a stranger perceives you at first glance.

Did I drop it or not?

4. Number of times you've eaten food that has been spat in, dropped on the floor, etc., (intentionally or unintentionally).

5. Number of times you've swallowed a bug in your sleep, or how many times a bug has crawled on you while sleeping.

6. The things you can't know about because you can't sense them, called a noumenon. This is a posited object or event that exists without sense-perception. Immanuel Kant said that the noumenal world may exist, but it is completely unknowable through human sensation. In Kantian philosophy, the unknowable noumenon is often linked to the unknowable "thing-in-itself," although how to characterize the nature of the relationship is a question yet open to controversy.

7. Whether or not someone is wearing boxers or briefs (or thongs or old lady panties or no underwear).

8. If a computer program would ever stop running, given that the computer itself never broke down or never stopped running.

9. There are still numbers that can’t be computed. For example, there is above and beyond one “boundlessness.” For example, what number of positive, entire numbers are there? They are endless. (Think pi.)

10. In arithmetic, there are accurate things that can’t be confirmed accurately – and we don’t (yet) understand what they are.

11. Truth is not knowable. One can describe truth as one sees it, but can also continue to change the framework of the truth so that is a stronger or weaker truth. However, if one can describe truth in one way that is a "stronger truth" than the first description, then there still must be yet another "stronger truth" out there, so there are infinite unreachable truths.

12. There are true things about the universe that we can never know, since we cannot know truth.

13. Are there people who are uninteresting? Think about this: if one makes a list of the most uninteresting people, the oldest, by default, becomes interesting because that fact in itself is interesting. So then the next oldest person because the most interesting, and so and so forth. So everybody is interesting. If you find someone uninteresting, you've only yourself to blame.


Happy Thanksgiving!



Run turkeys, run!

____________

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 475th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday. 

Moonset in Daylight

The super moon last week tended to set later each day, and by the 16th it was setting around 7:30 a.m. By then there was so much daylight that the moon herself was difficult to see.

I took pictures anyway. In the last few pictures, you have to look closely to see the moon settling below the horizon. I promise she is there, right in the middle of the photo. But she blends in with the sky so well that her outline is barely visible.

Hubby Shoots the Moon

Sunday Stealing: Getting to Know You

From Sunday Stealing

Getting to Know You

1. Would you prefer to be smart or happy, and why?

A. That is a hard question. I would prefer to be both. I will go with smart, because I really don't have much of a feel for how "happy" without "smart" actually works. One hopes, too, that a smart person would eventually figure out how to do "happy," although my own experience might prove that theorem wrong.

2. If you could choose one superpower, what would it be and why?

A. I would like to be able to travel through time.

3. What is your biggest regret in life so far?

A. Not being able to have children.

4. If you could marry a fictional character, who would it be and why?

A. I would marry Legolas in the Lord of the Rings books, because he is loyal, brave, trustworthy, and very capable of using his bow and arrow to shoot down mistletoe for holiday decorations.

5. If money and career were no object, where in the world would you choose to live?

A. On 10,000 acres in the south of France, with my house in the middle of it.

6. What’s the last book you read that you simply could not put down until you finished?

A. The Nightingale, by Kristin Hannah.

7. What television show do you plan your day around in order to see it live?

A. None. Well, when Game of Thrones is on I try to make sure I stay awake to watch it, but honestly HBO shows it so many times during the week that it is easy to catch it without too much effort.

8. What extracurricular activities or sports did you participate in when you were in high school?

A. I played in a rock and roll band as well as the high school marching band. I was on the debate team for a brief period of time.

9. Of all your pet-peeves, which is the strangest?

A. That one where I can't stand to be in crowds in Walmart.

10. Is it better to beg forgiveness or ask permission?

A. I think it is easier to do something and beg forgiveness later, but more moral to ask permission.

11. If you inherited or won a million dollars, what would you do with it?

A. I would pay off our bills, pay off some things for a few family members, give a nice donation to my alma mater, and invest the rest to pay for my health insurance.

12. What is the most embarrassing thing that has happened to you?

A. Maybe that time I came up out of the water after being knocked over by a big wave and I was totally naked because it knocked my bikini completely off? Fortunately my husband came running over with a towel. That was about 32 years ago, on our first vacation to the beach. After that I only wore one-piece bathing suits.

13. Which fictional character do you believe is the most like yourself?

A. I am a combination of Nancy Drew, Frances Mayes in Under the Tuscan Sun, and Evelyn Couch in Fried Green Tomatoes.

14. Are you superstitious? If so, what are you most superstitious about?

A. I am not superstitious, although I have been known to "knock wood" on occasion.

15. Do you believe it is vital to everyday life to know what is happening in the world around you?

A. I think it is vital to democracy to have an intelligent, moral, and educated public. In practice, it appears the less informed you are the happier you are.

16. What is the nicest thing anybody has said, or you believe they would say, about you?

A. That I care about my community.

17. What are your life and career goals in 5, 10 and 15 years?

A. In 5 years - maybe have a book written. In 10 years - travel. In 15 years - still be healthy enough to get around.

18. Would you rather live in a large house in the suburbs, or a tiny apartment in the city with an excellent view?

A. The suburbs, I guess, although I'd rather just have a small home in the suburbs. Large houses are too much trouble to keep clean.

19. What are your three weaknesses?

A. I think too much, I love too hard, and I believe people are inherently good, and they always prove me wrong and break my heart.

20. How would you describe yourself in three words?

A. I'm a picker, a grinner, and a midnight sinner.

21. Which is more logical to follow—your heart or your head?

A. Your head.

22. Are you spiritual or religious in any way? If so, how?

A. I am spiritual in that I find solace in nature, the moon, and stars. I have great empathy for others, even the ones who let me down. I try to encompass the whole of the world. Religion seems to create great divides and sets up "us versus them" types of situations that I find difficult to navigate, since I seldom see things in that black or white light.

23. If you could have any career possible, what would it be?

A. I would be a hack writer tossing out books like Janet Evanovich.

24. Have you ever been arrested or contracted any diseases?

A. What an odd juxtaposition of questions. I was picked up by the police as a juvenile when I ran away from home once. In the mid-1990s, I had e-coli from drinking bad water. I was very sick.

25. Which is better—a novel or a movie?

A. They are equal. They both have their good and bad points.

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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: Cabaret

Saturday 9: Cabaret (1972)

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

1) In this song, Liza Minnelli encourages you to put down "the knitting, the book and the broom." Which of those three were you most recently doing: knitting, reading or housework?

A. I was recently doing all three. I have recently taken up knitting (not finding it very meditative or helpful), I am always reading, and I just cleared off my desk. Well, sort of. At least I can see the top of it now.

2) She sings that we shouldn't allow "some prophet of doom to wipe every smile away?" Do you know anyone who reliably looks at the downside of life?

A. :::Raises hand.:::

3) In 1972, when this recording was popular, so was The Brady Bunch. In the two-part season premiere, The Bradys went to Hawaii. Do you have any warm weather vacation plans this fall/winter?

A. If I die and the Christians are right, I guess I will end up in Hell. Otherwise, no.

4) Though not her uncle, just a friend to both of her parents, Liza always called  Frank Sinatra as "Uncle Frank." Is there an older person in your life who isn't a blood relative, but who refer to as "aunt" or "uncle?"

A. Not that I can think of.

5) Liza collapsed onstage during a Christmas concert in 2007. She says she'd been nauseous before she went on and simply fainted. Sam has never fainted. Have you?

A. When I was in my teens I did. I have also fainted a few times after surgeries.

6) People are often surprised when they learn Liza is good friends with Gene Simmons -- the KISS member with the long tongue. Tell us about one of your good friends.

A. None of them have long tongues.

7) Liza told US Magazine that she loves to eat at Olive Garden. Do you?

A. Not particularly.

8) She keeps apple juice and yogurt in her refrigerator at all times. Would we find either in your refrigerator right now?

A. Concord grape juice, unsweetened tea, yogurt, lettuce, carrots, radishes, Boost, salad dressing, mayo, chocolate pudding, deli ham, cheese.

9)  Random question: Which would be a more frustrating dinner companion -- someone who won't shut up, or someone who won't say a word?

A. The person who won't shut up.

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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.