Things Going On

A mish-mash of things -

My husband's cousin passed away on Monday after a long bout of Covid. He spent some weeks on a ventilator before succumbing. The funeral is tomorrow. I have an earache and so will not attend. George was well known and a respected member of the community, so there will be a crowd. My husband looked upon his cousin like a brother. He will represent us at the funeral.

Russia invaded Ukraine yesterday, or I guess really Wednesday night. Many people see this as the first step in World War III. I think another world war will not look so much like the last two - this one will be fought with technology. Computer hacks, degradation of lifestyles, loss of the electric grid, downing satellites, plus drone bombings in various cities - those things I expect. This is not how I expected my senior years to play out, watching the world fall apart. But we all can only do what we can with the time given us and play our mostly insignificant roles therein.

Still, there are boots on the ground in the Ukraine, so traditional warfare also continues. I watched a video earlier of a Ukranian woman telling off a Russian soldier. She called him a fascist and gave him sunflower seeds to put in his pocket so they would bring up something beautiful when the soldier died. It was an intriguing notion, to bring something lovely from the destruction that was coming, or rather, has come, and continues to come. She also cursed them, not just with foul language but as in an actual curse or hex. As well she should.

For some reason, the video of all of the talented singers who participated in USA for Africa and sang We Are the World in 1985 popped up in my youtube feed, so I watched that. I remember when the song came out, how it much impact it had. I believe most radio stations agreed to play it at the same time, and the song was everywhere. I doubt we could ever have such a thing again. I will hope, though, because we are indeed the world, all of us, even those who are different in whatever way. We're all one, really, little grapes in the great vineyard of life. Some of us are purple, some are blue, some are withered raisins, some are squishy, some are seedless. I hope I'm a Concord grape. They're my favorite. I haven't had any in a long time. They're hard to find. My husband's grandmother used to grow them, but I don't know of anyone who grows them now.

At my age, I am still learning life's hard lessons. One of these is trust. I trust people to do the right thing. To do what they say they're going to do. To not hurt me. To be kind. To be nice. And guess what? I'm wrong to do that. I should trust no one. This morning's lesson came to me via a video game I play. It's a city building game called Elvenar. Not a war game, or a shot people game. A game where you trade goods to create new buildings and advance through a research tree. It's the first, only, and will be the last multiplayer game I have ever played. In this game, you have fellowships. You can have 25 people in your fellowship. Some of these people I have been playing with for five years. You do get to know people a little over that period of time. I am the archmage of my fellowship, which means I'm the leader. I can promote people to mage. My mages are the people I've come to feel are trustworthy.

This morning, I woke to find one of them had violated that trust. I have a chart on my google drive where I keep track of various things in the game - players have goals to meet, for example - and I'd given the chart to three of my mages. This morning, when I went to the chart to update it, someone had turned the thing into a garish, difficult-to-read document. I copied it over so I would be the only one with the link and then had to spend about 45 minutes trying to get it back to the way it was. It upset me so much that I cried. I also left a message for my three mages, and I let whoever had done this know that I was not happy. I demoted the fellow I think did it, and if he confesses (which is doubtful), I will throw him out of the fellowship. 

At any rate, I think I am done with the game. It takes time, but I enjoyed it. It kept me thinking and was an exercise in patience and creativity, because one really had to give thought to the goods and how to keep things equalized, and suddenly not have more planks than marble or whatever. I shouldn't have to give up something I enjoy because of someone else, but I have found that to be the story of my life.

It is no wonder I have about given up on people in general.

Too bad I can't give myself a hug.

Thursday Thirteen

I stole this idea from The Gal Herself, who used it last week for Thursday Thirteen. 

Like her, I've been blogging for years. I've blogged for more than 13 Februarys! So let's go back in time and see what I was doing around the end of February every year.

1. In 2009, I was concerned about grammar, posting about how to use ellipses in particular. I was also doing Thursday 13 then, as I have been since 2006 or so. That year, I posted about the American Heart Association.

2. In 2010, pictures of a rare black swan that appeared seemingly from nowhere occupied much of my blog space. I wonder what happened to that bird?

3. In 2011, video games preoccupied me. I wondered if I might be addicted to them (probably). I still play them. And I was thinking of writing a book. I am still thinking of writing a book.

4. In 2012, I was mourning the loss of a clothes basket. Yes, a clothes basket. Not just any clothes basket, though. It was one of the first clothes baskets I bought as a newlywed. It was a good sturdy clothes basket, nothing like the flimsy things I have now. But alas, the handle eventually gave way, as most plastic handles do.

5. In 2013, voting was on my mind. Women voting, actually, and I wrote this Thursday Thirteen about Virginia suffragettes. Virginia didn't ratify the 19th amendment until 1952. Yes, 1952! How backwards is this state, anyway?

6. In 2014, I was contemplating the notion that I am part of a lost generation. I am not old enough to be a Baby Boomer, though I am on the tail end of that group. I'm too old to be a Generation X person. There's about six years in there, from 1960 to 1966, where those of us born in those years simply don't belong. I still think that.

7. In 2015, we had snow at the end of the month. This year, the temperatures are in the 60s. Pneumonia weather, we call it.

8. In 2016, I took up coloring. I also was involved in local politics dealing with the removal of historic structures that should not have been moved.

9. In 2017, we were having an early spring, with violets and daffodils both blooming.

10. In 2018, I was visited by tree fairies. Light reflecting on water on the trees. In revisiting the entry, I remember it as a strange day, almost hallowed, because the glimmer was so odd. I could not do the image justice with the camera.

11. In 2019, my blue spruce tree fell over. They had succumbed to drought and fungus, and the wind blew one over in the night. I was home alone when it happened; it sounded like the whole house was being torn asunder when the tree hit the ground. We had them all removed later that year because they were close to the house.

12. In 2020, the weather was again too warm. The daffodils were in full bloom.

13. In 2021, I purchased a new Dell computer (big mistake). I'm still using it, but I dislike it and it doesn't have the power I need to play some of my video games. I was hoping to replace it, but I guess I will have to hold out a while. My husband is looking at another surgery soon and I'm not sure where our finances will be with that. Medical bills can take a chunk out of the savings account.

____________________

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 744th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday. Or so sayth the Blogger counter, anyway.

Where Goeth Community Pride?

Grass doesn't cut itself.

The brush along the sides of the road grows scraggly and into the power lines if the state or the electric company doesn't keep the trees trimmed back.

I am old enough to remember when the state mowed the grass during the growing seasons not just two times, but about every 10 days or so.

I am old enough to remember when the power company actively worked to keep the power lines clear of brush and trees so that if the winds blew hard, we didn't have outages.

I am also old enough to remember when the state planted flowers - yes, flowers! - in the medians so that drivers would have something lovely to look at as they breezed by.

We don't have that anymore. We're lucky now if the grass in the median is trimmed back twice a year. Whatever flowers bloom there are either wildflowers (or weeds imitating wildflowers), or leftovers from a time long past when oodles of daffodils danced merrily in the spring sunshine.

And forget about the power company or the telephone company ensuring that the trees aren't growing up in the power lines. Only brush and scrub trees along the rights of way where the lines run buffer the area between the road and a farm or a lawn these days, though I remember when they used to be kept clear. Neat as a whistle.

At some point, the leaders of the state determined that we needed to not spend tax dollars on ensuring our communities looked nice. Who cares if you can't see to pull out onto the road because the grass has grown so high one must be a giraffe in order to see over it? What's a few deaths compared to a couple of dollars, right? 

This cut jobs, too, which saved more money. Good move, said the leaders. Let's get rid of the fellows who mow, or the teams that clear the rights of way. We won't give the money to the taxpayers, though. We have big friends in the corporations who can use those dollars.

And of course, when other leaders took over, they didn't restore the monetary cuts to what by this time had become a frivolous and useless task, in their minds. 

We went the way of the dollar bill, sniffing along after the ass of the capitalist, watching the tax dollars shift to private companies that were supposed to do things like cut the grass or clear the roads of snow, but didn't do it very well (they failed so badly at the latter that the state has, for the most part, taken that back). Who needs flowers in the median, after all?

I do. You do. We all do. We all need to feel pride in our community, in the area we live in. We need to feel like part of something. Having decent roads and lovely waysides are a part of that. They offer a sense of completeness, a knowledge that someone cares about the area.

Cutting the grass in the median helps make us a caring society, not a bunch of greedy individuals grasping for the biggest grape in the pile of wrath we all are carrying around with us.

Bring back the mowers in the median. (They could be electric tractors so they'll be green and economical, really, they could!) Trim the grass so people can see to pull out of roadways. Have some pride in this state, for heaven's sake.

Virginia should not be bound by overgrowth and tangled weeds.

Let's bring back beauty and civility.

Come on, shake hands. We can do it!

TroubleMaker

I wrote another song. This one is called TroubleMaker.

I'm playing an Epiphone Les Paul Special I and using an RC-3 Loop Station for the drums. I recorded a rhythm track first, then a lead track over that, and then played rhythm again and sang.

This is not a song that really suits my voice, but I honestly think of the things I've written, this is probably the most "commercial." 

Here are the words:

Troublemaker

By Anita Firebaugh

We’ve got similar demons, we sing similar songs

But you did things right while I did them wrong.

Did an angel grab you, send you on your way

While the devil told me there’d be hell to pay?

I’m a troublemaker. I’m a troublemaker.

I’m a troublemaker, risk taker, fool maker, heart breaker, troublemaker.

You smile like the sunshine, your voice is like spring

I laugh at the darkness and my words only sting.

You smell only flowers and you see only good

While I’m the bad girl in the neighborhood.

I’m a troublemaker. I’m a troublemaker.

I’m a troublemaker, risk taker, fool maker, heart breaker, troublemaker.

What kind of spell did you place on me to make me think I could fly with no wings?

What kind of fool do you think I am? Do you really think that I might give a damn?

I’m a troublemaker. I’m a troublemaker.

I’m a troublemaker, risk taker, fool maker, heart breaker, troublemaker.

I can sense your desire, I can see in your eyes

That you thought you had me when you made me cry.

But I know you’ve got secrets, I know if I stay

I’ll make sure they all come out one day.

I’m a troublemaker. I’m a troublemaker.

I’m a troublemaker, risk taker, fool maker, heart breaker, troublemaker.

I'm a troublemaker.

The VooDoo Guy

I have interviewed hundreds of people over the course of my career as a freelance news correspondent for various local and state magazines and newspapers. Most I don't remember. Sometimes I stumble over an article I wrote 20 years ago about somebody, and I read it. I think, "This sounds familiar," and then look at the byline and see that I wrote it.

Good job, I think. Did ok on that one.

Some of the people stuck with me, though. Case in point:

I interviewed a man who was allegedly a chiropractor who'd settled into the small town of New Castle. This was in the late 1990s. We'll call him Pete because I can't remember his name.

Pete seemed like a nice man, but he was also into less conventional healing modalities. He had a bookshelf full of books on things like voodoo, Reiki, holistic healing, acupuncture, aura reading, and of course, chiropractic practices. The room smelled like a marijuana cigarette. He had a degree from somewhere on the wall. He was balding and a bit paunchy, but well dressed.

The chief question was why set up shop in a small town like New Castle, which is about as out of the way as one can get. The entire county had about 5,000 people then. It wasn't exactly a business mecca.

He said small town people deserved help, too, when I asked him the question.

Then he proceeded to tell me he could see by my aura that I'd had a troubling past. I raised my eyebrows but neither confirmed nor denied.

Next, he said he could see that I was not well. I was standing up doing this interview, as I recall, because there were no chairs, only his examining table. The next thing I knew, he was pointing to several places on my body. "You have a virus there, there, and there," he stated. One of the places he pointed to was in my pubic area, and since I was alone with this man, you can bet that made me incredibly uncomfortable.

Time to end this interview, I remember thinking. I thanked him for his time and began gathering my notebook and pocketbook.

The next thing I knew, Pete reached over, grabbed my head, and gave an expert twist to my neck. It happened so fast I had no time to react.

Things popped. Rice Krispies could not have been prouder.

A strange sensation shot up my back and into my head. It nearly knocked me off my feet. It definitely unnerved me, plus how dare this dude do anything to me like without my permission? I told him I didn't appreciate his touching me and I walked out.

I still had to write the article, and I wrote a nice article, I guess. I don't remember. Pete didn't last long in that little conservative town; he was gone within two months or less. I'm probably the only person who remembers he was ever there.

Anyway, to my amazement, my headaches that I'd had constantly eased. I could move my neck. I'd been in a couple of car wrecks and probably needed a chiropractic adjustment, just not, you know, without being asked about it first.

But the really odd thing was that within 10 days, every spot on my body that Pete had pointed to as being sick with a virus developed a mole.

I don't know what causes moles. There is a theory that some are caused by a virus, the human papillomavirus, to be exact. If that's the case, then I guess voodoo Pete was on to something.

Weird, eh?

Sunday Stealing

Sunday Stealing

1) What one event from your lifetime would you change if you could, and why?

A. I would not have quit a job I had in 1985. I worked for a lawyer. It was a decent job, and while the work wasn't what I wanted to do with my life, it was tolerable. I left because the lawyer had promised me a raise at a particular point in time, and when he didn't give it to me for reasons that he could not explain when I left, I looked elsewhere. Elsewhere turned out to be not so great. We would have been better off financially if I had stayed with the little lawyer in the little town. However, if I had stayed, I doubt I would have gone beyond my Associates degree at the community college. So there's that.

2) If you could give one piece of advice to your younger self, what would it be and how old would your younger self be when they got it? Do you think your younger self would listen?

A. I wish somebody had told me I had value as a person.

3) If you could have a conversation with the historical figure of your choosing, whom would you pick and why? What would you talk about?

A. I would like to talk writing with Louisa Alcott.

4) What's a safety rule that's very important to you?

A. Using the turn signal on the car. How hard is that?

5) What would you like to say to people in the future?

A. Kindness never hurts so always be kind.

6) What's your favorite dish to bring to a summer cookout?

A. Potato chips.

7) How much time have you spent outdoors this week?

A. About 15 minutes.

8) Where do you set your thermostat?

A. We keep it on 68 in the winter, moving it every night to 66.

9) How did you learn to swim?

A. I think my father threw me in a pond and told me to swim out. I didn't drown, so I guess I did.

10) How do you avoid overheating?

A. Isn't that what air conditioning is for?

11). What are you going to do this weekend?

A. Laundry. Change the bed. Maybe go for a drive. Stay out of the wind. We are having seriously high winds of late.

12) What’s your favorite way to spend time?

A. Reading, writing, music, or video games. Conversation is good, too, if the other person wants to talk.

13) What’s the most useless thing you own that you would never get rid of?

A. Santa Mouse. He's a Christmas decoration that is older than I am. Totally useless but thoroughly loved.

Santa Mouse was, I think, on an Avon bottle originally.

14) Have you started planning your next vacation?

A. I don't think we will be taking a vacation again this year.

15) Are you very active, or do you prefer to just relax in your free time or is it one and the same to you?

A. I am not very active, and it is not a good thing. I'm far too sedentary.

__________

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: Rapid Roy

Saturday 9: Rapid Roy (The Stock Car Boy) 1972

Unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it here. (A Jim Croce song! Cool.)

1) The lyrics tell us that every Sunday afternoon we can find Roy at the racetrack. What are your plans for Sunday?

A. At the moment, I don't really have any. If the weather warms up, I may get outside a bit. We'll see. Update: My husband has mentioned taking a drive tomorrow afternoon.

 

2) Roy is fearless behind the wheel of his '57 Chevrolet. But it's just natural to feel fear every now and again. What scares you?

A. Covid. Stupidity. The idea of going blind.

  

3) Roy's been photographed grinning with a toothpick in his mouth. Do you often use toothpicks? If so, do you carry them with you?

A. I use The Doctor's Brush Picks, which are not exactly toothpicks. They are plastic with a little brush-like thing on the end. I don't carry them with me.

 

4) Legend has it Roy learned to drive fast when he ran moonshine out of Alabama. Moonshine usually refers to illegally produced whiskey. What was the last alcoholic beverage you drank? 

A. Some wine back in 2012. I don't drink alcohol.

5) This week's featured artist, Jim Croce, attended Villanova University, where he played in a band that performed at fraternity parties. When his band was chosen to tour Africa as part of a cultural exchange program, he was excited to learn his host countries' customs. Have you ever traveled overseas? What did your trip teach you?

A. I went to Spain and France when I was a teenager. The trip taught me that being American isn't the big deal that others think it is. Most people don't care if you're American, they will still whack you upside the head.

6) Jim met his future wife, Ingrid, at a party. They discovered that they both loved Joan Baez and Woody Guthrie. Tell us about one of your friends, and what you two bonded over.

A. My friend B., who is now deceased, and I bonded over our mutual love of our county's history. Botetourt was formed in 1770 and at one time went all the way into Wisconsin. The county seat, Fincastle, formed in 1772, so it's celebrating its 250th birthday this year.

 

7) Early in their marriage, while Jim was working hard to launch his music career, Ingrid helped make ends meet by baking bread and canning fruits and vegetables. Do you have any frugal cooking tips or "cheap eats" recipes to share?

A. Buy a can of Vienna sausages. Eat them.

8) In 1972, Mark Spitz became a sensation, winning seven Gold Medals for swimming. After making money in endorsements and TV appearances, he settled into a career as a realtor in Los Angeles. Are you contemplating a change in residence anytime soon?

A. No.

9) Random question: Which of these "top ten" lists would you prefer to be on -- the sexiest, the smartest or the richest?

A. The richest, I guess. I'm already fairly smart but it didn't make me rich. And I'm too old to care about "sexy."

 

_______________

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.  

Old Newspapers

I love to look at old newspapers. This weekend, newspapers.com has its archives free to the public, and I've spent part of my day looking at old Virginia papers.

Seems the more things change, the more they stay the same. The papers I was looking at were in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

There is political news - back then, the areas that are now Republican were held by Democrats - and many editorials bat around various issues. The appointment of local judges seemed high on the radar. Also, there are stories about the price of things, businesses, agriculture, etc.

One amusing anecdotal story told about a judge in Lynchburg who always wanted order in his court. He looked to the sheriff, named only as "Bob S." in the story, to keep order. One day after a jury trial, the jury had to remain overnight. Sheriff Bob S. was looking after the 12 souls who finally reached a verdict, though they could not pronounce it until the next morning when court returned.

Good ol' Sheriff Bob S. took pity on the jurors who had to remain overnight, and he offered them some peach drink, which apparently was alcoholic, for when the jurors went back to court, they could not contain themselves and devolved into a raucous debauchery, telling jokes and laughing. The judge finally asked Sheriff Bob S. to bring about order, but as the sheriff had also partaken of the peach concoction, order was not restored because the Sheriff, in standing up to restore order, fell over, causing the jurors to laugh even more uproariously. The judge left the courtroom in a rage.

I didn't download a copy of that story, because it didn't pertain to my county, but it made me smile. We don't write stories like that anymore.

Here are some of the stories I have saved. They are all from the late 1800s, from about 1870-1890.

Thursday Thirteen

It appears the United States is on the verge of collapse. Even the Democrats are acknowledging this on the talking head shows. Civil war won't be state against state, it will be more like gangs, as I understand it. These little militias that are popping up all over the south will take control and shoot anyone they please, I suppose.

At any rate, I have questions about what happens if the government fails. I am assuming if it does, we will become an authoritarian state, with a single ruler, like in Russia, China, or North Korea. We could be an oligarchy but we're pretty much already that, so I assume major changes imply authoritarianism. Here are some of my questions.

1. If the United States fails as a government, will its citizens be responsible for its trillions of debt? Other nations will want to be paid what we owe them. Will each citizen be asked to cough up the $56,715 per individual that it would take to pay this off? (That's assuming 300 million people; if many more die from Covid or are killed in the civil war, then the amount per person would be more. Of course, if you're a family with 4 kids, that means you have to pay $340,290 for a family of six.)

2. Would anyone be able to maintain private property, or would the supreme ruler declare that s/he owns everything, and we must pay rent on the things we've already bought and paid for?

3. Would such things like Medicare and Social Security continue? If they don't, how will the people who depend on these public programs receive health care and have enough money to live?

4. Would all of the prisoners who were sentenced under current US laws go free?

5. Who would be in charge of enforcing order? Would we become a police state? (Papers, please.)

6. What would happen to public schools? If we have no public schools, then someone is going to be home to take care of the children, most likely women. Who will fill their jobs? Or will those jobs even exist anymore?

7. Would we be required to take part in a state religion? What if we don't like that religion? What if you're a Baptist and the services are more like Episcopalian, and you don't like that? Would people be lined up and shot because they don't want to go to church?

8. Without regulations over various things, how would we be sure that any work performed, such as building a house, is performed in a safe and good manner, so that the house doesn't fall in during a high wind?

9. Without public-supported fire departments and emergency service providers, will blocks of cities simply burn down during the civil war portion of this? Back in the late 1880s, several blocks of the Town of Fincastle burned down. Will we see entire towns go up in flames?

10. What happens to health care? Do hospitals keep running, or do they shut down? Who pays these people to keep the hospital running? Do people die then of preventable or curable things, like heart attacks? Who takes care of the gunshot wounds from the civil war? Do we go back to having the neighbor next door take an axe to a limb to keep a person alive?

11. Does the US Dollar maintain any value if we lose the government? Or will the dollar be like US Confederate money, totally worthless? Would we all become penniless, with nothing in the bank? Will banks even be operational? How would we keep the lights on? Or pay the cellphone bill? Or buy food? How many people would starve?

12. What happens to media and information? We're already swamped with misinformation campaigns. Would all the media fold? Would we even have TV? If the money is no good, who is going to keep TV running? How will the Internet continue to work? Will anything work, actually? Would we ultimately end up with state-run TV, seeing only what the supreme one deems fit? What if he doesn't like Downton Abbey or Yellowstone or football?

13. How many people could we reasonably expect to die under these circumstances? I estimate at least 10% of the population, and that's probably a conservative figure. That would be 30 million people. Who are you prepared to lose in order to see the government fail?

These are valid questions to ask and think about. I'm under the impression that many people who want to see the government fail - and apparently that's about 30% of the population - haven't given the future much thought. Maybe these people think they will somehow be protected because they support the supreme one, whoever that may be. But, will these people like everything? And what if s/he simply says, "death squad" to anyone who disagrees with him/her about anything? What if he shoots your grandma, or she starves to death because she's lost social security?

Do these people simply not care?

____________________

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 744th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday. Or so sayth the Blogger counter, anyway.

Moonset

 

Poisoned!

In the 1950s, the United States government set up a poison control center. The toll-free number is for anyone to call if they suspect they've been poisoned.

Calling 1-800-222-1222 sends you to one of 55 poison control centers. One may also access a website (Contact Us (poison.org)) that allows one to input information and see if there is an issue.

Parents, teachers, and emergency service workers are probably keenly aware of this service. Since I have no children and am not a teacher, I was vaguely aware of it. My husband the former firefighter told me last night he once had the number memorized, but he'd forgotten it since he retired.

Anyway, I'd never needed the number.

Until last night.

Somehow, I managed to poison myself.

Around 8 p.m., I showered and put on body lotion. I use clotrimazole cream on an old surgical scar sometimes; it occasionally turns quite red and itches as if someone has thrown itching powder on it. This is something that started recently and why a 30-year-old surgical scar would suddenly act as if the surgeon took the knife to me three weeks ago is beyond me.

At any rate, the cream helps with the itch. It was itching a bit yesterday, so I applied the cream after I'd showered. I always wash my hands after I apply lotion and cream. I also rummaged around in the medicine cabinet behind the bathroom mirror, searching for a new case of dental floss.

Then I went into the living room to read and watch the Olympics.

I stopped biting my nails in 2020; it took a pandemic, but I did it. However, I keep them very short. If they are not short, then I tend to worry with them, running them over my teeth, until I find a pair of clippers and remove the offending nail growth. (One of the great things about wearing a mask outside of the house is that I don't put my fingers in my mouth or near my nose.)

Last night, I was worrying with a long nail on my index finger while I read. I didn't notice anything on my hands or fingers. But I did put my finger in my mouth. I mean, I'd just had a shower.

After a while, I noticed that the interior of my mouth was numb. My tongue felt numb, too. By the time we thought about going to bed, I felt the numbness down into my throat.

The only thing I could think I had done was perhaps gotten body lotion or the clotrimazole cream under my fingernail (or possibly anything in the medicine cabinet) and missed it when I washed my hands. I'd had a couple of glasses of water in the meantime, and also had brushed my teeth again to try to remove the sensation (neither helped).

My husband became concerned after I mentioned this to him, and we looked up the cream since it seemed the likely culprit. We filled in the information on the poison control center website and since I did not have the symptoms listed, it said to call.

So, we called.

A nice woman named Lisa talked to my husband. He told her what we thought I had accidentally put in my mouth. She talked to me, and I told her my symptoms. She said that the interior of the mouth is more sensitive than skin and the sensations should ease up over time. I hadn't consumed enough to be of much concern.

This relieved both of us. I was mostly worried about swallowing since the numbness was going down my throat, but I didn't have any trouble in the night.

This is a good government service. Government is not all bad. I imagine this poison prevention line relieves the minds of many a parent whose kid has swallowed a crayon or something.

Longing for a True Leader

Yesterday, my husband and I celebrated Valetine's Day by exchanging cards in the morning. Later, I had a haircut. I stopped at a Chinese carry-out we like and picked up sweet and sour chicken and egg rolls.

I brought them home, and we had the movie Independence Day on while we ate. So we had lunch and a movie for our Valentine's celebration.

The movie, in case there is someone on the planet who hasn't seen it. is about an alien invasion on July 2. Large, massive ships move in over every major city on the planet. Bill Pullman plays the president of the United States. It is soon apparent that these aliens aren't here to exchange daisies or chocolate chip cookie recipes. They annihilate the major cities with a big blast from their spaceships. The president and his young daughter barely escape, and they flee to Area 51. It seems there is a spaceship and a deceased alien there, under study.

A character played by Jeff Goldblum figures out how to upload a virus into the alien mothership. Will Smith's character, a fighter pilot, joins Jeff's and they fly up and insert the virus, which breaks down the alien ships impenetrable shields. The big alien ships are brought down. Earth is saved.

At one point near the end of the movie, Pullman as president makes a speech to bolster the scared young flyers who are going to attack the alien ships.

After we finished eating and the movie ended, my husband wondered when we had last had a president capable of such leadership.

Maybe JFK, I suggested. I was six months old when he died.

Perhaps Eisenhower, long before my time.

No one who has led the country in my lifetime could have stood up to an alien invasion. We can't even stand up to an invasive virus, a pandemic that has taken as many lives as one of these alien ships took when it blasted away a city. We have not had leadership since 1963, and who knows how Kennedy would have turned out if he hadn't been shot. He may have been a political puppet, too, in the end.

Having a bully for a president does not mean he is a good leader. The former guy showed us how he would deal with an alien invasion - he'd either hide in his bunker, or he would tell us not to worry about it and wouldn't care how many died. He'd call the alien leaders and offer them the world if they'd leave him alive.

Having a president who would walk out onto the White House lawn with his wife and dogs and offer the aliens a teddy bear is not the kind of person to lead the country during an alien invasion, either. He would be first among the dead. The current president tried for about 8 months to lead the country out of the pandemic, but he was not able to. He could not bring the country to heel.

The people resisted. Not for the good of society, but because, well, we're assholes. While resisting an actual alien invasion would be a good thing, resisting a viral invasion instead of nodding to science and stepping forward to take a vaccine and do the right things was beyond us. We are no Greatest Generation here, ready to stand up to moral ineptitude, capable of marching off to save the world. We are a bunch of whiny pansy butts who sit around and cry about our second amendment rights and things like CRT, about which we know nothing, and fume and fret because we aren't getting what we believe to be ours, whatever that is.

If we had a real alien invasion like in this movie, I know of no one in government who could step up to lead, to inspire, to literally talk us into saving the world. Even Obama, as well spoken as he is, could not do it because the white people wouldn't listen to him. The racism runs so deep many people don't even know it's there.

This was our Valentine's Day discussion. We talked about the loss of leadership, the demise of democracy, the changes in humanity that are not for the better. Capitalism may have made some people rich, but it also turned everyone into individualistic automatons, incapable of caring for their fellow man. It destroyed the social network that is, ultimately, vital for the survival of the human race.

We are lesser people than our forefathers. We are soft and stupid. We have all the knowledge of the world at our fingertips, and we look at pictures of cats.

What wimps we have become. What a shame. What a disaster. What a deformation of character we have suffered as we moved through the Industrial Age and into the Technological Age.

If the aliens arrived tomorrow, we'd all deserve to die.

Sunday Stealing

Sunday Stealing

1. Given the choice of anyone in the world, whom would you want as a dinner guest?

A. Alive or dead? Alive - Hillary Clinton. Dead - Dorothy Parker

2. Would you like to be famous? In what way?

A. I have no desire to be "famous" in that I am recognizable. My name for a long time was recognizable to many people when I wrote more. Generally, fame seems to be a royal pain.

3. Before making a telephone call, do you ever rehearse what you are going to say? Why?

A. Sometimes, if I am making a call about something specific that requires finesse or care. I don't want to be crude in a delicate moment.

4. What would constitute a “perfect” day for you?

A. Sleeping until I wake up. Having a quiet breakfast and reading the newspaper while I eat (yes, I still read the print edition), then playing a little guitar. Reading for much of the day, and then writing in my journal. Good food in between.

5. When did you last sing to yourself? To someone else?

A. I am always singing to myself. I guess since my husband is home, I am singing to him all the time, too.

6. If you were able to live to the age of 90 and retain either the mind or body of a 30-year-old for the last 60 years of your life, which would you want?

A. The body. My mind is better with age, hopefully. The body, not so much.

7. Do you have a secret hunch about how you will die?

A. Yes.

8. Name three things you and your partner appear to have in common.

A. We both like to laugh, we are both nerds (Battle Bots, anyone?), and we are both not fans of Nazis.

9. For what in your life do you feel most grateful?

A. My husband.

10. If you could change anything about the way you were raised, what would it be?

A. I would not have been born.

11. Describe your life in one paragraph.

A. Maybe I'll get back to this one.

12. If you could wake up tomorrow having gained any one quality or ability, what would it be?

A. Time travel.

13. If a crystal ball could tell you the truth about yourself, your life, the future or anything else, what would you want to know?

A. I would like to know the future. Not when I'm going to die or anything, but how humanity turns out.

14. Is there something that you’ve dreamed of doing for a long time? Why haven’t you done it?

A. Yes, and because I'm a perfectionistic procrastinator.

15. What is the greatest accomplishment of your life?

A. I don't know. I have a good marriage. I have three college degrees. I've written thousands of articles. I'm a decent person, hopefully kind and caring. Those are all good accomplishments.

__________

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: Valentine

Saturday 9: Valentine (1997)

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

 

1) In this song, Martina McBride asks what would happen if the sun refused to shine. How are the skies today where you are?

A. They are a pale blue with an occasional cloud. It's also very warm for our area for this time of year; nearly 60 degrees. Yet, we are expecting snow on Sunday.

2) She sings of a dream she's had 1,000 times before. Have you ever had a recurring dream?

A. Yes. I have had several. I used to dream of a bathtub full of blood. I also had a reoccurring dream about a garden with crows in it. They were more like night terrors than dreams. Fortunately, I do not dream these dreams anymore.

3) Martina has published two cookbooks and appears on The Food Network. Two favorite recipes are for peanut butter desserts: peanut butter/chocolate cookies and peanut butter/butterscotch squares. Is there peanut butter in your kitchen right now?

A. Yes, two kinds. Natural Peter Pan and regular Peter Pan, both creamy.

4) Before she was famous, Martina sold t-shirts at Garth Brooks' concerts. Her husband worked on Garth's sound crew and she pitched in. Do you have any concert t-shirts?

A. I have a Melissa Etheridge concert t-shirt that I bought from her website during the pandemic. I was supposed to see her in March of 2020. The show was postponed several times and she finally came, but I had asked for a refund by then because I knew I would not go into such a crowd. She is coming to FloydFest in July, and that is outside. I haven't decided if I want to go or not. We have so much Covid around me that all I can see is virus, and it makes it hard to think.

5) Martina headlined a gala at Ford's Theater in Washington, DC. As our nation's capitol, Washington has many buildings of historic significance. If we were to visit your hometown, what landmarks would you direct us to?

A. I'd send you to Fincastle, which is the county seat. Established in 1772, the town is a miniature Williamsburg though it has never lived up to its tourism potential. I'd also send you to Roanoke to see the Mill Mountain Star.

Since this is the Saturday 9 before Valentine's Day, we've got some questions inspired by the holiday.

6) Hearts are the symbol of Valentine's Day, so here's a little heart trivia: whales have largest heart of any animal. When we say a person is "big hearted," it means we think of them as generous. Think about the people in your life. Who would you describe as big hearted?

A. My husband, my brother, most of my friends. Probably not myself. I am quite empathetic but that's not the same as generous. One can only be but so generous with a heart that is not whole.

7) It's estimated that 9 million people buy Valentine's Day presents for their dogs and cats. Have you ever purchased a holiday gift for a pet?

A. When we had a dog, I would pick her up a treat for holidays sometimes.

8) Valentines to teachers are also big sellers. Did you ever have a crush on one of your instructors?

A. Not crushes, really, but I generally adored most of my teachers. They were so smart, observant, and put together. I tended to be the teacher's pet, and that helped, I suppose.

9) With the popularity of e-cards, fewer Valentine messages are sent via the USPS. What's the most recent thing you dropped into a mailbox?

A. A Valentine's card to my great niece along with some bills. I pay most of my bills online but there are still a few for which I write checks.

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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

1. Is anyone surprised to learn the former guy flushed documents down the toilet? Not me.

2. A book I read the other day was called As a Man Thinketh, by James Allen. I read it because Richard Marx mentioned it in his autobiography and said the book had a big influence on him. It was basically 90 pages of how many ways a person can say a person is his or her thoughts. If you are strong, you are thinking strong thoughts. If you're weak, you're thinking weak thoughts. There was absolutely not a single example of what a strong thought might be or what a weak thought might be, but there you go. The book was written in 1902. It reminded me of the self-help book, The Secret, which is the only book I have ever thrown in the garbage.

3. These types of books - bootstrap books, I call them - tend to exclude the extraordinary external conditions that people face. It doesn't deal with how an abused child might come up with low or no self-esteem thanks to constantly being told he or she is a piece of shit. It doesn't deal with rape, incest, murder, thievery, or other societal ills. It doesn't deal with the economics of society, the lack of jobs, gender or race issues, or how society itself works systemically to keep certain types of people "in their place," whatever society has allotted that place to be. If everyone could think themselves wealthy, wouldn't they?

4. I've been trying to get my paperwork ready to take to the accountant so she can tell me how much more money I need to pay the government. Like most people, I do not like to pay taxes. Unlike many people, I consider it a privilege that I get to pay taxes. That means we make enough money to need to pay taxes. And somebody has to pay for the upkeep of roads. Just because I honor the commitment doesn't mean I have to like it.

5. I have been crocheting a scarf for several months. Ok, maybe 5 months. It shouldn't take that long, but I am only doing a couple rows a night.

6. I have also been writing a song for about a month now. It isn't finished, so no one has heard it yet.

7. My poetry is allegedly going to be published in Artemis 2022. This will be the fourth year in a row I've had a poem published in this anthology. I need to write more poems as I am running out of them.

8. My next book is a massive tome called the Priory of the Orange Tree. It's about 1,000 pages long. I think this one may take a while to read.

9. I'm considering some life changes, but I don't know where I'm going with them. I need a plan.

10. I don't have a bucket list, either, but some things I wouldn't mind doing include travel. I would like to see Ireland and New Zealand. Too bad they are an entire world apart and not next door to one another. I'd also like to see Scotland. I do not foresee any of these trips taking place. Maybe a good goal would be to read up on them and learn all I can about those three countries. Create my own summer semester, as it were.

11. The ends of the tree branches are suddenly a bit thicker. They are starting to swell with buds. Just a little bit, but spring is on its way. The dreariness of winter is giving way and heading out the door.

12. Milky Way Midnight is my favorite candy bar, and I ate the first one I'd had in over a year yesterday. It tasted good and didn't cause too much problem with my stomach. But I can see that chocolate is something that is going to have to stay out of my diet, for the most part. I will have to make do with an occasional hit.

13. The Winter Olympics have underwhelmed me this year. I used to enjoy watching them and I wish all the athletes well, but the prime time showing seems rather poorly done. We watched the women's half pipe snowboarding thing last night. I have only managed to see figure skating in youtube videos. I don't know how I keep missing what I really want to watch.

_____________________

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 742nd time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday. Or so sayth the Blogger counter, anyway.

Memphis Dance

This is a guitar instrumental song that I wrote. The strumming is performed on an Epiphone Les Paul Special I electric guitar using an RC-3 loop station, which also supplies the drumbeat.

I am playing the lead on a Yamaha APXTZ, which is an electric travel guitar.

I was really just using this for practice but after recording it, I realized it was rather pretty. 

 

(There's a jump in the recording, I think something happened in the upload, but if you're just listening and not watching it's not noticeable. I have very bad Internet service and it took over two hours to upload this little video, so I am always surprised if they upload without issue.)