Tuesday, July 18, 2023

Be Kind

Bing AI image

One of the trends of today that has upset me is the lack of kindness in the world.

Specifically, I see people at my local county leaders' meetings being jerks. And not just jerks, but mean jerks. They talk to my local supervisors as if they are not people, as if they aren't human, instead of public servants who are doing the best they can in a weird world that doesn't function like it did even 10 years ago.

My supervisors make about $8000 a year - maybe $10,000 if you're nominated chairman. None of these people are in it for the money. Yet, I hear people stand up there and say, "My tax dollars are paying for you to be here!" 

Well, no. My vote is why they are there, or at least, one of them. I can't vote but in one of the five districts in the county, the one I live in. So, you only have one representative, but they vote on everything that goes on in the county. If we had at-large voting, I guarantee you we'd have representatives who all came from the southern end of the county, where most of the growth is. And then people would be really mad.

Anyway, for years now - since about 2017, and I don't need to tell anyone what happened then - I've listened to the "public" turn out at meetings and become more and more rancorous. They demean the supervisors. I wouldn't talk to a dog the way some of these people talk to their supervisor. They have "othered" them to the point where I can see the spittle coming out of their mouths in their anger over some emotional topic.

They seldom get upset about anything important, these people. They go to meetings to complain about removing a Confederate monument. That died down, and they started complaining about books in the library, which is the current issue. In between, there have been other smaller concerns, all of them parroting the lines of the major national pushers of idiocy who send these semi-crazy people out to do their dirty work.

It is beyond appalling for someone to address my elected officials as horribly as I have heard these people do. I despised the former president of the United States, but if I had had the misfortune to be introduced to him, I would have called him, "Sir," and said, "Yes, Sir," and perhaps, "I respectfully disagree." 

This is because I would have been honoring the office of the presidency, not the man. And I expect the same at the local level. I expect people to honor the office of an elected official - or even an appointed one - because it is worthy. And what the office stands for is important. The office stands not for that one person, but for the 6,200 people they represent here locally.

I do not expect people to treat my supervisors with disdain and talk down to them. I do not expect to hear them be condescending, arrogant, and profess superiority when I can tell just by listening to them that they haven't a clue what government is about, nor understand what it is they are trying to talk about.

I know what government is about. I am pretty sure I have been to more meetings than any of these people. I have covered government at every level, even federal (though with a local slant). I also paid attention when I was a kid and learned a lot from School House Rock. I know how a Bill is made in Congress. And I know how the law reads in the Commonwealth of Virginia. I know what the supervisors can and can't do here.

When you write about it for 35 years, you figure it out.

The meetings have been so contentious that I wouldn't be surprised if someone doesn't get hurt at one of them. 

It's a bad look. It's a bad look for the county as a whole, and it's an incredibly bad look for the people who are whining, moaning, yelling, screaming, and shaking uncontrollably because they are so emotionally invested in something that, in the long term, does not matter. 

If people want to get upset about something, be upset about poverty, greed, climate change. Fuss because people don't support local businesses. We have a small shop closing in the county seat because it can't stay afloat. We have local farmers who are struggling because half the county has had too much rain and the other half hasn't had any. Be upset about that, if you must be upset.

Maybe you should wonder why there isn't a fire and rescue structure in the most populated area of the county and go fuss about that. That is something to be concerned about. Or say something when the supervisors are looking to okay apartments. Not because you don't like apartments, but because we don't have a ladder truck here that would reach the top floor and people will die if there's a fire because it will take 20 minutes to get a truck here from the neighboring county. That's something to be upset about, I think.

Or maybe you should worry about the amount of pollution that the cement plant and the truck manufacturer in Greenfield are both dumping into the air. You and your kids are breathing that crap. I'm breathing that crap. But I don't see you jumping up and down over that.

No. I see you yelling about relocating a statue. Or worrying about some imaginary kid possibly picking up a book you disagree with that contains things your god doesn't condone. That's not worth it. That's just using emotional crap to take up time and to keep people from doing anything beneficial for their community.

Whatever you want to say to your elected official, try saying it with kindness. Try to remember they are people, too. They are not from some other planet. They are your neighbors. I don't agree with them a lot of the time, either.

But I am not going to shriek at them while the spit flows from my face because I don't have control of myself. I am going to politely state my point and move on.

Get a grip, people. Pick better battles.

Monday, July 17, 2023

A Catch-Up Post

Healthcare

Thursday, I saw my cardiologist for a follow-up on my echocardiogram. I am fine, except for "old age" issues. I have a right ventricular valve that's doing a little splashing about, which has caused the new heart murmur sound that had my primary care doctor concerned.

But the cardiologist was like a different person. He was nice when I saw him the first time. But this time, he was, frankly, a jerk. As soon as I asked one question about statins - how did they mix with medications I am already on - he immediately said I wasn't interested in taking them so there was no point in discussing it. I told him my PCP had suggested Zetia and he waved that away as if it were nothing. Then he went on to say that if I weren't going to take whatever drug he offered me, there was no point in my returning to see him. I could try diet and exercise and good luck to me. He wouldn't discuss "diet" either, as in, what I should or shouldn't eat. He didn't even offer a handout with diet information on it. 

He was rather combative, actually, and I was appalled.

This is why I dislike dealing with the Carilion Health Care system in Roanoke. I do not get good care there. This surprised me because my husband was with me and usually, I am treated better when he is there, but not this time. Of course, he didn't speak up, either.

There are many medications I cannot tolerate. I haven't tried statins for about 20 years, and I couldn't take them then. I have no idea what may or may not have changed in 20 years, but he certainly wasn't going to discuss it.

So I left without any drugs for my high cholesterol (I don't think it's *that* high myself, although I know the doctors do). I mean, if this were 1983, my cholesterol would be considered low. But it 2023, and so it is considered high.

Even red rice yeast makes me feel bad. I take a little of that, along with flax seed oil, to try to help with my cholesterol but I have to be careful with it. It makes me have brain fog and I like to think properly.

My father and brother both also have cholesterol issues, so I am sure this is hereditary. I am not going to worry about it too much. Maybe I should, but I honestly think the numbers are more about selling drugs than making people healthy.

Sunday

Sunday began ok, with us sleeping in for a change. Then my husband spilled his sugar with a little coffee in it (he drinks it like it's a syrup), and that was a sticky mess. Then he went to check on his mother and discovered the thermostat on her air conditioning unit wasn't working, so he had to call the repair people.

While he was over there with her, I saw a huge coyote come from the direction where the cows are, so I called him and asked him to go check the cattle as soon as he could.

He discovered a dead calf, which he then had to bury.

Aside from the coffee/sugar cleanup, this was stuff that affected him more than it affected me, but I still found it a stressful day. Losing a calf is always hard, and this was another newborn. Not only does that make me sad, but it's also a financial hit. Selling the calves after they've been weaned is how we make money raising cattle. No calf, no sale.

Plus, we have to watch the mom cow now to make sure she doesn't go into mastitis or develop an infection. 

When the cattle roam over a large acreage, we can't keep an eye on them constantly, and with predators like coyotes and vultures roaming around, it's a certainty we're going to lose calves now and then.

And besides, what affects him also affects me. How could it not after almost 40 years of marriage?


*Bing AI produced the images.*

Sunday, July 16, 2023

Sunday Stealing

Sunday Stealing




1. What are the 3 most important things everyone should know about you?

A. I'm loyal, I'm smart, and I'm kind.

2. What is the strangest thing you believed as a child?

A. I don't know if it's strange, really, but at one time my life goal was to fly in airplanes until I was taken in the Bermuda Triangle so I could learn what it really was.

3. Thinking of school classes, which were your favorite and least favorite?

A. My favorites were definitely Algebra I, II, and Trig in high school. My favorites in college were English and Sociology. My least favorite shall always be Physical Education. 

4. What is your favorite fast food?

A. A cheeseburger.

5. What song comes closest to how you feel about your life right now?


6. Have you ever taken martial arts classes?

A. I went to one once to observe to see if I could do it. I decided I could not.

7. Does your life tend to get better or worse or does it just stay the same?

A. It stays at a low-grade blah level, mostly.

8. What arts and crafts have you tried and decided you were bad at?

A. I am bad at drawing, knitting, and making paper.

9. What is the truest thing that you know?

A. We do not know what we think we know.

10. Are you more of a giver or a taker?

A. I hope I'm a mix, but I suspect different people would answer that differently about me.

11. Do you make your decisions with an open heart/mind?

A. I try to. But I am judgmental about a few things. Fascism, for example.

12. What is the most physically painful thing that has ever happened to you?

A. Abdominal surgery.

13. What is the most emotionally painful thing that has ever happened to you?

A. Some things are better left unsaid.

14. What is your favorite line from a movie?

A. What's 'taters, Precious? What's 'taters, eh? Po-ta-toes. Boil 'em, mash 'em, stick 'em in a stew. - from The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers



15. Can you eat with chopsticks?

A. I don't know that I have ever tried. But probably not.

__________

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, July 15, 2023

Saturday 9: Touch Me in the Morning





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

1) In this song, Diana Ross sings that nothing good lasts forever. Do you agree?

A. I guess everything has an end, even a rock. "Good" is so subjective anyway. We assign goodness to many things, but most likely they are neither good nor bad. They just are.

2) She sings about a happy past with her lover, and the strength she'll need to face tomorrow alone. Do you find yourself more often remembering the past or anticipating the future? 

A. I try to stay in the here and now, but I do remember a lot of things from the past. I don't have a lot to look forward to at the moment, something I am trying to rectify.

3) In the 1970s, Diana Ross had young daughters. To spend maximum time with her girls, she would sleep all day when they were in school. That way she could have dinner with them, bathe them and put them to bed before going to the studio and recording all night. Have you ever worked the night shift? 

A. Not exactly. I had very late meetings to report on sometimes - they could go until midnight, and I always stayed until the end, when I was younger. But it wasn't exactly a shift. Just a very long day.

4) Diana has five children altogether. There's a 16-year age difference between her oldest daughter, Rhonda, and her youngest son, Evan. Studies have shown that when there's a big gap between siblings, parents consider the older kids "built-in babysitters." In your family, were the older kids ever in charge of the younger ones?

A. :::raises hand:: Older sister here. Yes, I was in charge of my brother. He was three years younger than I, and I feel like I practically raised him. Bless his heart.

5) She says her favorite sweet treat is Famous Amos Chocolate Chip Cookies. Do you have a favorite cookie?

A. Chocolate chip, but I prefer homemade Nestle's Toll House. I will eat Chips Ahoy if I have to eat a premade cookie, and the Pillsbury Dough cookies aren't bad.

6) Around the time she recorded this song, Diana Ross considered making a movie called The Bodyguard. She was to play a singer who received death threats, and Steve McQueen would portray the man hired to protect her. Scheduling conflicts prevented the movie from being made. It wasn't filmed until 1992, and then with different stars. Without looking it up, can you name stars of The Bodyguard?

A. Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston. "I Will Always Love You."

7) In 1973, when this song was #1, Norman Mailer was atop the best-seller list with his controversial biography of Marilyn Monroe. Do you often read biographies and memoirs?

A. I wouldn't say often, but I do read them. I have read several this year, including Jennifer Grey's book, Out of the Corner. This was an honest memoir, I thought. She's apparently working on some kind of Dirty Dancing sequel.

8) Also in 1973, another Motown singer, Stevie Wonder, was injured in an automobile crash and still has a scar on his nose to show for it. Have you ever been in a car accident?

A. Yes, but I was not seriously hurt. I had a huge contusion on my knee from hitting it against something, and I received whiplash, but I was otherwise fine.

9) Random Question: What's the last thing you borrowed or lent?

A. I borrowed a guitar pick from my father.

_______________

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

Friday, July 14, 2023

A Visitor

This guy showed up yesterday evening after dinner.

He was curious.

Definitely not afraid.

He was covered with ticks.

He just kept coming closer.

And then he was on the patio!

He probably weighs 125 pounds or so.

Probably a male tossed out by his mama this year.





This is how close he got to the patio door. By that time, I was moving away. I was afraid he was going to come on in.


Thursday, July 13, 2023

Thursday Thirteen

I am having a year of reading eclectically. My reading habits so far have ranged from self-help to old literature to banned books. Here are 13 of the 44 I've read so far this year:


1. A Trick of the Light, by Louise Penny. The 7th book in the Inspector Gamache series finds our intrepid hero back in Three Pines to inspect the death that involves the art world. I had missed this one when I was going through the series last year, so went back and picked it up.

2. Unf#ck Your Brain, by Faith G. Harper. This failed as an audiobook, but it had some decent ideas in it. You can find worksheets that might be helpful at Faith G. Harper - Worksheets and Printables (faithgharper.com)

3. The Jasmine Throne, by Tasha Suri. This fantasy is set in a world inspired by ancient India and is thematically about the power of nature.

4. Born With Teeth, by Kate Mulgrew. The audio version was read by Mulgrew, and I enjoyed hearing about her childhood and her work, especially when it came to Star Trek: Voyager. It stops before her time with Orange is the New Black, though.

5. The Great Alone, by Kristin Hannah. This Hannah book is set in Alaska, and is a coming of age novel.

6. River Woman, River Demon, by Jennifer Givhan. This is a psychological thriller with a little folk magic thrown in for good measure. It was a recommended library read.

7. Carnival of Snackery, by David Sedaris. The writer-tragic comedian offered up more morsels of his observations of life.

8. Little Fires Everywhere, by Celeste Ng. I had resisted this book for some reason but found it a fascinating story, with life lessons in friendship, relationships, and community.

9. Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck. Man's inhumanity to man. Or maybe it was humanity? At any rate, a classic, and one that leaves you thinking.

10. Out of the Corner, by Jennifer Grey. Grey's memoir settles the question about her nose, although I was left scratching my head as to why she did what she did. Not for prudes or misogynists - this is a tell-all, and she slept with practically every hot young Hollywood dude before she married.

11. Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret, by Judy Blume. This is one of Blume's first novels for young ladies, and one that is frequently placed on the banned book list. Apparently, young women should not read about breasts and menstruation.

12. Will Grayson, Will Grayson, by John Green et al. This is another banned book. It is about two young men who are both named Will Grayson. One is homosexual, the other is not. 

13. Tarzan of the Apes, by Edgar Rice Burroughs. This story of the well-known Tarzan of the jungle actually surprised me at the end, since I was only familiar with the story through the old Johnny Weissmuller (I hope I have that right) movies that I saw when I was young.

*Bing AI created the image. 


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 816th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday. Or so sayth the Blogger counter, anyway.

Tuesday, July 11, 2023

When the Cloud Messes Up

One of the game stages I use is called GOG. It has older video games on it, the ones I played back in the 1990s and early 2000s, along with other things.

One of my favorite set of games, aside from Bethesda's Elder Scrolls, were by 3DO and were called the Might and Magic series.

GOG allegedly syncs my game play in its cloud with the games saved on my hard drive.

The last few days, I've been getting this message when it goes to sync:



I have no idea how to fix this and can't find a way to contact anyone at GOG to ask about it. So, I just hit ignore and go on.

But isn't it fascinating that my files are now 53 years off? I didn't even know what a computer was 53 years ago. Well, maybe I thought it was the robot on Lost in Space that said, "Danger! Danger!" but that would be about it.

I have also wondered if GOG has been hacked. Or if I have been hacked. Nothing else is amiss on my end, though. At least, not that I've noticed.

Suggestions welcome if anyone knows anything about this.

Monday, July 10, 2023

Dreaming of Dead People

I spent the weekend dreaming of dead people. And then thinking about them since I'd brought them to my brain via my subconscious.

One was my dear friend Brenda, whom I have not written about much on my blog. She was an incredibly private person, and if I did mention her, I used B. and said only that we went to lunch or something. As a result, much of our relationship exists only in my mind now. We did not do things with other people, it mostly just the two of us running around together. I'm the one left to remember.

She isn't here now to ask me to take down a post, so I can write about her all I want. In my dream, she came to me and had written a bill she was going to present to Congress. It was up on a screen, with important points underlined and in blue (like a link), and she wanted my help getting the bill passed. I don't remember what the bill was about, but it was important.

This would have been unusual real life. She did not often ask for help. She occasionally sought my advice, but seldom my help. She was a martyr that way, constantly enduring whatever it was alone. She also talked to me as if I knew what she was talking about, when a lot of the time, I did not. She would mention people and expect me to know who they were, and frequently I was clueless because she'd never mentioned them before. We ran in foreign worlds, and they only crossed because we had formed a mutual bond over trying to protect the historic nature of our county seat. Then our mothers passed away the same year, and somehow that created this symbiotic relationship that lasted until she passed away in December 2021. At the end, we weren't as close as I would have liked. She had a progressive illness and refused to see me after Covid hit. I offered many times to visit, and she always refused. I probably should have "dropped in" anyway but I respected her boundaries.

Saturday, I roamed around the house doing chores and thinking about Brenda. I was trying to remember our relationship in the best of times, and how we lunched often and laughed together. She had a hearty, somewhat squeaky laugh and I could almost always get her to guffaw over something silly. The last time I saw her was at a lunch at Shakers; that was right before the pandemic hit. She looked thin and wan but she was still my pal. I "accidentally" snapped a picture of her on my iPhone that I did not erase. I'm sure if I posted a picture of her, she'd prefer one from before she became ill. But I will continue to respect her privacy and not do that.

Saturday night, I dreamed about Mr. Hopkins. He wanted me to come back to work for him. He was an older gentleman whom I had helped out with a book he was writing. He paid well, and I called him my "sugar daddy" because it was easy work that I enjoyed, as well as a nice bit of extra cash. He has also passed away.

Sunday, I thought about Mr. Hopkins, and how sometimes I enjoyed that work, and sometimes, when he was being rather cantankerous, I did not. He was quite old fashioned in his work habits (he was in his late 80s) and I had to take down his dictation by hand. I tried using a laptop but he didn't like the fact that there was something in between us besides a notebook. So, he would dictate, I would write it out in longhand (I have long forgotten how to do shorthand), and I also taped it so I wouldn't mess up anything. I have a hard time reading my own handwriting sometimes. His book was about the Pacific War during World War II, which was where he was supposed to serve. However, he had malaria and was sent back stateside and never served there. I think it haunted him, that he didn't play a bigger role in that war.

I edited the book as best I could; someone else had started the first half and I finished it up. I had grave concerns about the book because he took whole pages verbatim from the work of others - not primary sources, but secondary sources, books others have written. Because of this, there are multiple instances of names being spelled differently throughout the book. I pointed this out to him (both my concerns about plagiarism, which he waved off, and the different spellings), but he ignored my concerns. He said that his book publisher would fix any issues. He wasn't going to pay me to go back through it and try to change the names one way or the other, so I left it alone. What else could I do?

But his book publisher did not fix any issues that I could tell, and the book went out pretty much like I had edited it. And I had not edited it perfectly, and reviews reflect that, especially the part about the different spellings of names. I learned my lesson and after that when I came across any name in a book I edited (I have edited many), I wrote down every name of person or place, and then checked with the author if a different spelling came up. I let that go once, but never again.

It was strange for me to dream of these two people over the weekend. This was no anniversary weekend for either of them, that I am aware of. They were simply on my mind.

Bing AI created the image.

Sunday, July 09, 2023

Sunday Stealing


1. Do you trust people at restaurants who handle your food that they aren't doing anything gross to it while you can't see them?

A. You kind of have to, don't you? Otherwise, you'd never eat out.

2. How do you wear your hair each day?

A. The same. I blow it dry and hope it looks ok.

3. Have you ever worn:
A gas mask? No.
A blindfold? No.


4. Would you be willing to go hang gliding?

A. Not at my age. I might have when I was younger.

5. What is the difference between a man's button down shirt and a woman's button down shirt?

A. I think the buttons are on different sides. And the woman's always costs more.

6. Have you ever taken a lock of someone else's hair?

A. Eww. No.

7. Have you ever given anyone a lock of your hair?

A. Eww again. No.

8. If you had a locket what would you put inside?

A. A picture of my husband.

9. Have you ever written something on a bathroom wall?

A. Not that I recall.

10. When was the last time you fell down in public?

A. It's been a while.

11. Are you more aggressive or mellow?

A. I'm just a little mellowed out sheep.

12. What have you done with your self to keep your life worth living?

A. Nothing.

13. What is the most incredible thing you can do?

A. Saving someone else's life.

14. Do you bury your pets, flush them, or throw them away?

A. Bury them.

15. What's your favorite thing that is yellow?

A. The little fireman that is on the shelf in the living room.

16. Do you have any tattoos or piercings?

A. My ears are pierced.

Bing AI created the images.
__________

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, July 08, 2023

Saturday 9: Mercy


Unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it here.
 
1) In this song, Shawn Mendes pleads with the girl he loves to be careful with his heart. Clearly, he feels she's more important to him than he is to her. Do you believe that, in every relationship, someone always loves more?

A. I think it varies from time to time. I've been married for almost 40 years, and I am sure that there have been times when I've loved him more and vice versa. So no, not always. I think it comes and goes, as does the give and take. Marriage is work. Love is work. Friendship is work. Any relationship worth having takes a little work. Sometimes one person does more work, or maybe loves more, but not always.

2) He says that he'd willingly drive through the night just to be near her. Do you enjoy your time behind the wheel? Or do you consider driving necessary but not necessarily pleasurable?


A. I like driving in the country, but I am not a fan of driving in heavy traffic. So, I do ok close to home, but not in the city. In the city it is necessary but not pleasurable. Out here, it's both pleasurable and necessary.

3) He acknowledges that she has good intentions, but she hurt him anyway. Can you think of a time when you unintentionally hurt someone's feelings?

A. Yes, I can think of such a time, but I am not going to write about it.
 
4) Shawn Mendes was a serious skateboarder during his high school years. Crazy Sam admits she's never even been on a skateboard. How about you? Are you more like Shawn or Sam, or are you somewhere in between?

A. I tried skateboarding when I was 10 or so. They were the "new" thing back then, and it was a relief to get rid of the street roller skates that barely held on to your shoes with funky little clamps and a strap. But I was not a good skateboarder and gave it up fairly quickly.

5) While in his teens, he taught himself to play guitar while watching YouTube videos. Do you spend a lot of time on YouTube? If yes, what type of videos do you watch most often?

A. I don't spend a lot of time on YouTube. If I am up there killing time, I watch music videos, the videos of people who are hearing music for the first time, bloopers from shows, and guitar playing videos. But except for when I watch Saturday 9 music videos, YouTube is seldom on my visit list.

6) When he's traveling or busy working, Shawn eats cold cereal for every meal -- breakfast, lunch and dinner. He says it's fast, tasty, and better than the fast food he'd grab otherwise. Will you be getting any meals "to go" this weekend?

A. I don't know. Probably not, but sometimes one gets in the mood for something different.
 
7) In 2016, the year this song was popular, Game of Thrones was TV's hottest show. Were you a fan?

A. I watched all of the shows. I did not rewatch them because they were gory and misogynistic, and I didn't need to see them a second time. I was a fan but not an afficionado.
 
8) Also in 2016, a German shorthaired pointer won Best in Show at the Westminster Dog Show. Tell us about a dog who holds a special place in your heart.

Major looked nothing like this.

A. In 1970, we lived in a trailer. We had a poodle named Heidi, and she gave birth to puppies. One of those puppies was white. A day or so after they were born, the white puppy fell into Heidi's water dish, and I heard the plop of the water in the night and went to check. I fished him out of the dish and took him in to my parents, who massaged him back to breathing again. We named him Major and he was with us from then until about 1980, when he was running after my car and just keeled over dead in the road. He had grass in his mouth. I think he may have been eating grass, saw me leave, and ran after me without chewing and choked, which now that I write this seems rather symmetrical since I saved him from drowning/choking on water to begin with. He was a good dog. Very affectionate. We had him about 10 years, which is close to average for a poodle. He was getting old. He was my favorite of my childhood pets.

9) Random question: What's the subject line of the top email in your spam folder?

A. "Give yourself an ultra-luxurious Saatva mattress." (I don't even know what that is.)


*Bing AI drew the cartoons.
_______________

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

Friday, July 07, 2023

Long Week

This has been a long week.

I had an echocardiogram on Wednesday. This was for a new heart murmur my doctor discovered a few months ago. She sent me to a cardiologist. The test wasn't too bad; the waiting on it to happen was, though. The test results have been released to me and I didn't think it looked bad.

Then I saw the chiropractor on Thursday, which always leaves me feeling kind of tired.

Last night, the air conditioning unit stopped working. It was 90 degrees today so we needed to get that fixed ASAP. With my asthma, I need the air quality in the house to be the best we can make it, and the air conditioning helps with that.

Even though we pay a company an annual fee to be available, they had no one who could come last night. But they had someone here by 10:30 a.m., and he was able to fix it. He had to replace the flux capacitor. I had figured it was that as it is a part that continually needs to be replaced.

The heat pump unit is 21 years old, so it is time to purchase a new one. Or it will be soon, anyway.

This morning, I saw my primary care doctor. She is always so kind. She asked if a medical student she was training could see me because she wanted her to see the "cool kids" that are in her practice. How nice to be thought of as one of the "cool kids" at my age! Her nurse managed to get blood out of me this time, too. I am a "hard stick" and sometimes the blood just doesn't want to come.

Also, my husband saw the dentist on Thursday. No cavities this time, thankfully. He is not a dentist person, but since his hip replacement surgery he has been better about going. He's had a lot of cavities filled in the last year.

Neither of us slept well last night because the air conditioning was off and fans don't do a thing for humidity. Hopefully we will both rest better tonight.

I am rather glad this week is coming to an end. It has been busy with doctor visits. And who wants to see that many doctors in just a few days?




Thursday, July 06, 2023

Thursday Thirteen #815

Recently an NPR show was discussing "crushes." I thought at first they were talking about the boy a girl fell in love with in second grade, but the discussion was more about fan crushes than real-life crushes.

I'm not sure I had actual crushes so much as admiration, and even then, it was likely more so for the character the actor was playing than the actual person. Or singing a song I really liked.

I also had what one might call "fangirl" crushes on various female actors - mostly women playing strong roles, the kind of woman who could stick up for herself and others. And of course, there were singers I liked for various reasons.

So, without further ado, here are 13 "crushes" that I can recall over the last 60 years.

1. David Cassidy. Not the actual David Cassidy, but David Cassidy as Keith Partridge in The Patridge Family. I love that long hair, slightly bad boy look. I don't know much about David Cassidy except that Shirley Jones was his stepmother. And he sang well. 

2. Shaun Cassidy. David Cassidy's half-brother caught my attention when he starred in The Hardy Boys. He wasn't as cute as David, but he certainly was easy on the eyes.

3. John Travolta. I saw him in Grease and thought he was hot and cute. But otherwise, I have never been a Travolta fan. I think he overacts. But Olivia Newton John liked him and that was good enough for me. (I suppose I was a fangirl for Olivia, too.)

4. Erik Estrada. Yes, I liked the motorcycle cop from CHIPS. In retrospect, he reminds me of Ranger from the Stephanie Plum books by Janet Evanovich.

5. Viggo Mortenson as Aragon in Lord of the Rings. Mortenson is a wonderful actor, but I honestly only like him as Aragorn. I've seen other things he's been in and was like, "meh." Again, I think it's that long hair shaggy look.

6. Orlando Bloom as Legolas in Lord of the Rings. I don't like the dark-haired Bloom in Pirates of the Carribean and other movies. Maybe it's a Lord of the Rings thing.

7. Kate Jackson, first in The Rookies and then as Jill Duncan in Charlie's Angels. I watched The Scarecrow and Mrs. King but did not like that as well. I always thought Jackson could act, and I admired the strong role of Jill Duncan.

8. Sharon Gless, as Christine Cagney in Cagney & Lacey. Another strong woman role model, although I related to the character for other reasons, too, including her vulnerability. 

9. Lucy Lawless as Xena: Warrior Princess. I haven't seen anything else much that Lawless has been in, so it was really the character I admired. Xena was bad-ass and took no names but took care of herself and her gal pal Gabrielle without any trouble.

10. Stevie Nicks. How could I not love that witchy vibe she put off? And how could I not love her songs?

11. Melissa Etheridge. She's a singer songwriter that I've always admired. We're about the same age.

12. Lynda Carter. She played Wonder Woman in the series of the same name. I wasn't that big a fan, but I'm running out of names.

13. Johnny Gage, played by Randolph Mantooth. Gage was one of the paramedics on Emergency! I couldn't have told you the name of the actor, but I did have a crush on the character.

How about you? Who did you admire or "crush" on? Who do you admire or "crush" on now?


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 815th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday. Or so sayth the Blogger counter, anyway.

Wednesday, July 05, 2023

Strange Fungi

We had a little rain about 10 days ago, and the strange fungi around the oak tree has returned. It's been popping up occasionally since about 2014. It seems very weather dependent as to whether or not it grows.

My brother told me one year that this was edible, but I am not giving it a go.

I don't know the exact name of this fungus. It may be Armillaria root fungus of some kind, or it may be this kind of fungus: http://www.first-nature.com/fungi/trametes-gibbosa.php.

As best I can tell, though, it's not good for the tree.


My size 7 foot for size comparison.





Tuesday, July 04, 2023