The Mailbox

My mailbox

Like many folks here in Virginia, we've had trouble with mail delivery.

Some days we don't get it. Sometimes it is here by noon. Other times it shows up sometime after 5 p.m.

Lately we've been very hit or miss with the mail, but not enough to concern me. I have switched most of my important stuff to online notices out of necessity, since the mail has become rather unreliable. The mail is like newspapers in that they are doing themselves in with their own efforts at downsizing. Video killed the radio star, indeed.

My two senators, Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, have been vocal about reversing any changes to USPS that have affected the reliability of mail delivery. They've been trying to have improvement since 2020.

They don't seem to be having much of an effect on the quality of the mail service.

Yesterday, our neighbor called the local post office to find out why he wasn't getting mail. The postmaster told him that all of us in this area have mailboxes that are too low. She was going to hold the mail until this was fixed.

His response was to ask why we weren't notified so we could fix the problem prior to her holding the mail. According to him, she grew very irate with him, and they exchanged words. She did, however, tell him he had until the middle of June to fix the problem and if it wasn't fixed, she would stop his mail delivery again.

Then he went out and started measuring mailboxes. My husband found him measuring ours when he came in for his dinner.

Rural mailboxes apparently should be between 41" and 45" high. Ours is 36" high, which is what it has been since we installed it in 1987. Maybe that was the required height back then.

The USPS has these new van things, courtesy of expenditures of Postmaster General DeJoy. They sit up higher than a car. I am assuming this is why the height of mailboxes suddenly matter.

It does seem like my neighbor asked a logical question. This is the post office, after all. How hard would it have been to slip a postcard in the mailbox that said, "Your mailbox must be 41" to 45" high. If it is not fixed by X date, delivery will cease."

My husband was quite upset about this last night. He is in the middle of trying to cut, rake, and bale hay, which is very time consuming and labor intensive. He doesn't need anything else on his mind right now.

After dinner, I looked up various pages on the USPS website, such as missing mail, delayed mail, and rural delivery. There was nothing about mailbox height on those pages. Finally, I typed in "how high should my mailbox be" in Google, and way down on the results page was a USPS page about mailbox height.

But before I found that, because I could not easily find anything about mailbox height on the USPS website, I had dashed off a quick note to my two state senators. One of the things I learned when I was a journalist was not to wait. So, I didn't.

My husband rose early this morning and was at Lowes when they opened so he could buy what he needed to raise our mailbox.

At lunchtime, he called the local post office to find out about this problem for himself and to ask for one of those time extensions. He found the postmaster to be pleasant, helpful, and very willing to give him a month to fix the issue. She said the notices had gone out in March, but when at least seven different families around us say they received no notice, I am inclined to think said notice did not go out.

The postmaster was so nice that almost as soon as my husband hung up, she called right back to say that our mail was being delivered today and nothing would be held.

My husband was amused, and he looked at me. "Do you think those emails you sent out last night had anything to do with that?" he asked. "Somebody's said something to her. She sure has a different attitude from what the neighbor said."

I shrugged. "No way to know."

But it wouldn't be the first time I've dropped a line and made a change.

Never underestimate the power of a well-placed word.

Update: I understand several of the neighbors have gone into the post office and had words with the postmaster. It should be clear to her by now that this area did not receive whatever notification she thinks she sent out.

Today's Lesson

My lesson for today began with a load of laundry.

I washed a load of towels, threw them in the dryer, then tossed a load of my whites into my washing machine.

I use different detergent on my underclothes, Cheer Free & Gentle, because of my many allergies. I use All Free & Clear for other things, but I have always used Cheer Free on my under things.

A friend once asked me why I did this, and I told her because while I am pretty sure I can use All Free, I know for certain I can use Cheer Free.

A big bottle of Cheer Free, which is the only way one can buy it these days, lasts me a long while.

The towels dried and the whites had finished, so I started chucking them into the dryer. I noticed these tiny little white beads of stuff all over the washing machine.

What is this stuff?

It was slick. I thought maybe my husband had left a Chapstick in his pocket and I'd missed it somehow. Or maybe he'd been using some kind of silicone product and I missed that.

I realized whatever it was, it was all over my clothes. I'd already put some of the clothing in the dryer, and now the stuff was also in the dryer.

I hauled everything outside and began shaking off the white stuff. In one instance, I found a glob of the stuff, which I set aside to show my husband when he came in for lunch. The longer I was out in the sun, the slicker the stuff became. My clothes felt slick.

Surely, I thought, I've run some kind of silicone he was using on the ball bearings on the hay baler through the wash.

I left the clothes outside and went in to wash my hands. They were starting to burn a little. I picked up the Dove soap. That didn't help. My hands felt slick, like the clothing, so I washed them with Dawn soap, too.

My husband came home for lunch. No, he'd not been using anything like silicon, he said. Nor had he been using Chapstick. 

I showed him the junk all over my clothes.

He looked at the stuff in the dryer, too. I'd already wiped out the washing machine but had left the stuff in the dryer for him to see.

He wiped that out. He was as puzzled as I.

In the meantime, my hands turned red and started to swell. I washed them again. Then I washed them with alcohol and washed them again with soap. They still felt slick. I washed them with vinegar.

I took a Benadryl because I was obviously having a reaction.

We thought something must be wrong with the washing machine. Maybe a bearing had gone bad and it was leaking white grease. (Is there such a thing as white grease?) I ran a load of warm water with vinegar through the washing machine while we ate. When it finished, we opened the lid. Everything looked normal.

I realized I'd washed the towels and not had a problem. I'd washed those in All. I'd washed my whites in Cheer. That was the only difference. I told my husband to look at the Cheer bottle and see if it looked weird inside.

It looked fine inside, but on the outside, where there was buildup from where I hadn't wiped the bottle, was stuff very similar to what was all over the clothes.

"Alexa," I asked, "Can liquid laundry detergent go bad?"

"Yes," she said. "It can deteriorate after a time and it can be toxic."

Well damn. Who knew? I looked at the bottle and couldn't find an expiration date. I couldn't find a "made" date, either.

We finished up lunch while I let the washer go through an entire cycle of water again. We opened it up and everything looked fine.

My husband left to go back to the hayfield.

I decided to call the phone number on the bottle to find out how to find the date. After a long wait, I connected with a P&G associate for Cheer.

I explained what had happened and asked if it could have been the Cheer. "Does Cheer go bad?" I wanted to know.

"Yes, it's only good for about 18 months," she said.

Well, an expiration date on the bottles would be nice, I thought.

She said the issue I was having was called "scrud." Scrud is a build-up of soap, in this case, old soap. Turns out, the bottle I was using, which I had purchased two years ago from Walmart online, was made in 2012.

That is a long way from 18 months of life. I guess Walmart dragged it from the back of a store somewhere when they sold it.

The way to find the date is to look at the bottle cap. In tiny little letters is the "made" date. But there is nothing about an expiration date on the bottle anywhere. And I'd have never found the "made" date if the Cheer woman hadn't told me where to look. I could barely see it as it was.

And that date is different on a new bottle, or a different size bottle. I know because I pulled out another bottle of Cheer that I had here, one I bought last summer in August at Target, and asked how to find the date on it. The numbers are on the twist cap, not the dispenser cap, on this new bottle. After I found the numbers, the woman told me the bottle I have here was made in 2023, the year I bought it, so I need to use it up soon.

The reason I have Cheer Free here in storage is because it is hard to find. I had been ordering it from Walmart online because I could not find a local store that carried it. Then I ran across that bottle at Target so I picked it up. 

Today, Target's website does not list Cheer Free and Gentle. Just regular Cheer. I need the "free and gentle" part. Walmart says it has a bottle online for $34. I am not paying that for detergent. None of the other stores (Kroger, Food Lion, local Walmart) has it, even online, except Amazon. It has it for $14. In the comments lots of folks note that they can't find the detergent anywhere else. So this detergent is difficult to come by.

Anyway, to compensate me for being on the phone for 40 minutes with the Cheer lady, P&G is sending me a $9 debit card. I'm not sure that covers much, but it's better than nothing.

I told the associate I thought there should be an expiration date visible on the bottles, wished her a good day, and hung up.

I washed my white clothes again, this time in vinegar and water. I checked them and they weren't slick or anything, and there were no white balls of goo on them.

Just to be safe I am running them through a third time in straight hot water. They should be thoroughly rinsed, anyway. I sure don't want my private parts turning red like my hands did.

So, the lessons here are: detergent can get old and become toxic. Goopy stuff on your clothes is not good. Vinegar is a great cure-all, as is Benadryl.

Nothing is as it seems sometimes.

Can You Hear Me Now?

I feel voiceless.

Silenced.

Quieted.

Not just because some football player told a graduating class that the women should have no thoughts and look forward to being mommies and wives. Not just because, all of my life, no one has listened to me, male or female. I have always been silenced, first by my parents, my grandparents, my uncles, my aunts, my brother. Then teachers, friends. Bosses. 

No one wants to hear my side of the story.

They don't care about anything I have to say.

Society cares nothing about what women have to say.

This culture teaches young girls to shrink themselves, to stay quiet, to be small. That translates into someone like me, an old woman who is still small, even if she is fat, and still unheard, even when she talks. 

Culture says to young women, go forth and be whomever you want to be, but don't expect too much, because you cannot have much, or we will judge you for it. You can be successful, but you will never be president. You will never be a CEO or a millionaire on your own terms.

Be a secretary, my mother told me, when I said I wanted to be a writer. Learn to do what the men say, just as she had done. She worked, but she had no ambition because she was not taught to have such. And when times came for promotions at her job, she told us at home she wanted those promotions, was qualified for those promotions, but she never, ever asked for them.

She was still labeled a file clerk after 30 years on the job when she retired. A file clerk from her first day to her last.

When I was 13, my father began planting peach trees. They would grow, he said, and the crop would put my brother through college. What about my college? I asked. You are just going to get married, he said. There will be no college for you.

My brother did not go to college. The peach trees did not grow.

I have three college degrees that I earned while I was also working a job. I also have a husband, but he was not my aspiration at the time. He was someone I fell in love with and wanted in my life. I did not seek him out.

But like other men, he does not listen. Men do not listen to women, not their wives, their daughters, their fiancés, their female friends, their female classmates, or their female coworkers. They simply do not hear.

And women do not listen to other women. Words may be heard, but they are not often understood. Other women come closest to listening to me, but even then, I do not often feel heard.

When I was listening recently to Liz Cheney read her book, Oath and Honor, and heard her warnings about the former president and the danger he presents to our country, I felt helpless yet again. Because I was listening to her, and I heard her.

That orange idiot has stated, multiple times, that he will trash the U.S. Constitution. He will surround himself with sycophants. He will not have elections again - all that talk about serving for 3 or 4 terms, does anyone think he will risk an election? He will undo the civil rights legislations of the 1960s, he will force suffering upon millions, remove Social Security for the old folks, and put women on a list so someone can keep track of their periods and possible pregnancies.

And Cheney warns of all of this, not in those words, but in better words, in good strong intelligent words, in her book. 

And the people who need to read it are not reading it. They are not listening.

I watched the January 6 select committee hearings. I watched what happened on January 6. I reached my own conclusions about that day, and they mirror Liz Cheney's. 

I know there are nearly 200 people in the House of Representatives who supported what happened on that day and are still in office. We've been in the midst of a slow-moving coup for eight years. It is not over.

But a woman wrote that book, that brilliant warning of what will be. And she is being, will be, and will continue to be, ignored.

There is no cure for what ails society when it has made half of its citizens voiceless. What are we to do, we who want to speak out, cry out, and scream into the night about all of the bad, not just political but personal, all of the very bad and evil things we have seen and suffered?

Sunday Stealing

1. Have you ever been stung or bitten by an animal?

A. I have been stung by bees. When I was six years old, I climbed up on the side bar of the swing set at my grandmother's house. My young uncle climbed up on the other side. The bar across the top that held the swings was hollow, so we started shouting through it. Unbeknown to us, there was a bee nest in the bar at my end. The noise disturbed the bees, my ear was against the bar, the bees tried to fly out and found my ear . . . I think I had six stings on my face. Boy, did I scream and cry.

2. Do you have a favorite bird? Do you feed the birds at your house or park?

A. Robins are my favorite birds. I have an extreme dislike for vultures.

3. What is the last thing you said to somebody before replying to this email?

A. "Whatcha doin' there, Flapjack?"

4. How do you get yourself ready to sleep at night?

A. I shower, put some heat on my stomach, watch a little TV or read, take my medicine, go to sleep.

5. When was the last time you wrote a proper letter?

A. About a week or so ago.

6. What is the worst injury you have ever sustained?

A. Not counting surgeries, which are injuries, a broken wrist was probably the worst, followed by a really bad muscle/tendon tear in my ankle.

7. If you could choose your career based strictly on what you think would be fun instead of your qualifications/salary/etc., what would it be?

A. Oh, I'd love to be involved in the creation of video games.

8. You can live on another planet, which one and why?

A. I live on a Class M planet in the Delta Quadrant, one currently unknown to humans. 

9. What is your favorite flavor of ice cream?

A. I don't eat ice cream, but if I did I think I would like Neapolitan.

10. What do you think of tattoos? Do you have any?

A. I do not have tattoos. People can do what they want to with their body. They have to live with it, I don't.

11. Are you very active or do you prefer to just relax in your free time?

A. I'm too sedentary even in my "not free" time.

12. If you could bring back one TV show that was cancelled, which one would you bring back?

A. I don't want to bring any of them back. We need new material, not rehashes of the same old thing over and over again.

13. Do you prefer to watch movies in the theater or in the comfort of your own home?

A. It depends on the movie. Generally, though, I watch them at home.

14. If you opened a restaurant, what kind of food would you serve?

A. I would serve breakfast items. I can make eggs. I do not like cooking and do not like playing with my food before it is cooked. But I can do eggs.

15. If money were no object, what would you do for your next birthday??

A. I would go on a tour of the United States, and see the Grand Canyon, Chicago, New York, California, Maine, Washington DC, the National Parks, etc. It would take at least a month.

__________

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: God Bless America

Saturday 9: God Bless America

Unfamiliar with Deanna Durbin's rendition of week's tune? Hear it here.

Memorial Day is the federal holiday designated to honor American service people who died in battle. 

This week's Saturday 9 is from the archives.

1) Memorial Day was introduced after the Civil War. Originally called Decoration Day, this is when memorials, as well as the graves of veterans, are to be decorated with flags and flowers on this day to show our appreciation. Is there a war memorial in your neighborhood?

A. Yes. There is a confederate statue at the courthouse, along with monuments to those who died in the World Wars.

2) Andrew Johnson, our 17th President, was in office the first time Memorial/Decoration Day was celebrated. Have you ever met one of our Presidents?

A. No. I have met governors of Virginia, but no presidents.

3) According to the AAA, more than 30 million Americans will hit the road this weekend and drive more than 50 miles. Will you be traveling far from home this weekend?

A. No. I may have to go to the grocery store but that would be it.

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

A. Ice cold watermelon.

5) As you answer these questions, is there an air conditioner or fan on?

A. The air conditioner is on. We're already having highs in the upper 80s and humidity.

6) Though she's belting out one of America's best loved patriotic songs, Deanna Durbin was born in Canada. Is there anyone in your family or circle of friends who wasn't born in the USA?

A. I don't think so. I have an aunt on my father's side who is of Japanese descent, but I think she was born here.

7) No longer a household name, Ms. Durbin was once one of the biggest stars in the country. One of her most popular films was 1937's One Hundred Men and a Girl, which was nominated for a Best Picture Oscar. Recommend a movie that you really like, but don't think many Saturday 9ers have seen.

A. This would be easier if I actually watched a lot of movies. The Replacements is a fun movie, even if it is about football. It stars Kenau Reeves. Also, I wonder how many Sat9 players have watched Dune & Dune II. I haven't watched Dune II, it's on the list of things to do.

8) Back in 1938, Deanna Durbin had her handprints cemented in front of the TCL Chinese Theater on Hollywood Blvd. Have you ever visited that Los Angeles tourist attraction?

A. No, I have not.

9) Random question: What food did you hate as a child, but enjoy now?

A. Potatoes. I did not like potatoes as a child but eat them now. It turns out I was/am allergic to the yeast starch in potatoes, which is probably why I didn't eat them, but as I aged, I found I could tolerate them better.

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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. 

Thursday Thirteen

I have always kept what I call, "my writer's idea notebook" somewhere close to me. Over the years I have been through - and thrown away - many of these. They're usually phrases, names, lists - anything that catches my fancy.

Here are 13 things out of my current "writer's notebook."

1. A blaze of green fire

2. Phyresong and Lucky at the Hallowed Hearth

3. The Call of the Void

4. My battery is low and it is getting dark.

5. The moonshadows bloom

6. With joy and a growl

7. Knock the bastards off their gilded thrones

8. The lost chord of David

9. I feel so sorry for Jesus.

10. I left chords on the floor.

11. Cave of the unknowable

12. Failing by design

13. Neurotic dragon queen

This is just from the first few pages. Some of it I remember why I wrote it down; some I don't. #4 in particular is rather poignant; it is what the Mars rover Opportunity sent as one of its final messages before it stopped functioning in June 2018. It had been operational for 15 years (initially scheduled to last 90 days). I do love my space stuff.

______________

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 861st time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday. Or so sayth the Blogger counter, anyway.

The State of Things

One of the changes I've noticed since the onset of Covid is the decline of quality of products.

This is not something one can blame a president for, or Congress, or anyone in politics, really. This is a corporate problem. A business issue. A capitalism thing. A people thing.

Shrinkflation is real; I've watched everything get smaller from my Dove soap to my box of Cheerios. Batteries don't work as well as they once did and I am finding that newer ones corrode much more quickly than the old batteries used to, as well. Nothing purchased now seems to be properly made. It's more like it's tossed together by people who don't know what they are doing.

I have thought about this a lot. Is this because the corporations have fallen into using poor materials? Do the people who are working there now not know what they are doing? Is it a combination of both?

I suspect it is a combination of many things: greed, the need to pay stockholders in big companies, the higher cost of materials thanks to tariffs put in place by the former president and now also by the current one, as well as changes in personnel.

It's important to remember that over 1 million people in this country died during Covid. They weren't all 88 years old languishing away in a nursing home, either.

Also, Covid hit just as baby boomers were retiring, and Covid sent some 2.6 million more people than expected into early retirement, according to PBS. (My husband was one of those early retirees.)

So theoretically, that's over 3.6 million people no longer in the workforce. I know some of the older people who died weren't working, but for numbers sake, there you go. Millions of people no longer working.

Imagine the scenario. I don't know how batteries are made, or if they are even made in the United States but let's assume they are made here. There is a lot of automation in most manufacturing now. So a battery plant might employ something like 400 people. About 150 of those would be salespeople and upper management, because companies these days are a bit top heavy.

That leaves 50 more for support staff to upper management, so now I have 200 people doing the actual work of making batteries.

Then 2020 came, and Covid struck. On the floor with 200 people, the head floor manager dies of Covid. Fourteen of the oldest employees retire. Over the next two years, five more people die from Covid or something else, and three more leave. That's 11.5% of the floor workforce knocked out.

Maybe upper management decides not to replace them. So now there are only 177 people doing what was a 200-person job. Of course, some of those who died or left took expert knowledge with them. Maybe only the head floor manager knew that if you didn't flick this particular machine in just the right way, you would get too much alkaline or too little alkaline in the battery. Maybe nobody has figured this out yet.

Or maybe management hires new people. They have to be trained, but the person who usually trained new employees is one of the retirees. Someone else steps up to do it but leaves out a few crucial steps that the person who had been there for 20 years knew.

So, you end up with a poorer battery. Serviceable, maybe. Acceptable by whatever quality assurances the company has in place (if any), but still not as good a battery as one purchased in 2019. And now it costs more, too.

And people who don't stop to think things through blame the government.

The problems in this country go way deeper than just who is president or who is in Congress, although many of the issues start there. The problems start with us. With who we are and who we want to be. Do we want to be the best darned battery checker in the world, or just draw a paycheck? Do we take pride in our communities anymore? Do we volunteer for civic work, help the town council put out flower arrangements to make the entry way a pretty spot? Do we donate to the library, check on a neighbor, or just sit around and bitch, moan, and whine on Facebook (or a blog) about all the things we see wrong around us?

I am older now. I'm in chronic pain. I don't get out as much as I used to. But in my younger days, I volunteered for the ladies auxiliary in the volunteer fire department. I peeled potatoes to help them raise money at various events. I volunteered for the library. I volunteered for a historic preservation organization.

I did stuff. Some of it was important stuff. Maybe some of it wasn't, I don't know, but I gave it my best shot.

During all of this, I worked a job, kept a house, stayed sick a lot, and put myself through college not only for an undergraduate degree but also my masters. I never once did a job just for a paycheck. Sure, some of the places I worked I worked for the money, but I also did the very best I could at the job. Maybe my best wasn't good enough for some particular work, but it was my best.

Ok, I'm losing my train of thought, but I think the problems in this country can be boiled down to two things: you, and me. 

We need to learn to get along and how to work together to bring about a better world. It can be done.

Let's get off of Facebook and get to the real world.

The solutions begin with us.

Too Many Ads

Back in the fall, my hard drive failed, and I took the computer to a service center. They replaced the hard drive with an SSD card and installed an ad blocker.

The ad blocker says it has blocked 2.3 MILLION ads in the last 7 months.

That is ridiculous and outrageous. It is no wonder Americans are running around acting like a bunch of insane idiots. We are bombarded constantly by brands, pitches, screams, bells and whistles, and just plain crap that no one needs to see, yet there it is. Constantly.

Seven months is 18.4 million seconds. So that's an ad every 8 seconds on the computer, on my browsers, that this ad blocker has blocked. And it says it has only blocked 37 percent of the ads! Just a little more than a third of the ads are actually blocked. So really, I'm seeing an ad almost every second.

Then toss in TV, ads on Alexa and/or the radio, billboards, newspaper advertising, etc. - and you have the makings of an insane asylum. Literally.

Stop the madness, somebody, and let me out of here!

We have a 5th district congressional house seat that is up for a primary and the ads for that are brutal. And stupid. I would never vote for either of these guys. "Incumbent" doesn't support the former president. Opponent is too liberal for Virginia because he voted to pay for schooling for immigrants when he served at the state level. Of course, this guy is no liberal, his ads saying how great his is point a gun straight at the camera, and he's big friends with the wanna-be dic-tator. They both make me ill.

These two are running advertisements ad nauseum on the local stations, so much so that we have started turning the news off as soon as we see the weather simply so we don't have to see the advertisements.

The big elephant in the middle of these ads is the 45th president, of course. It's all about him. Everything is about him. He's all over the TV, getting constant free airtime, just like he did in 2016. The media learned nothing. The people in control of the media obviously are not patriots, do not understand that demolishing the US Constitution means a vast loss of power not only to us little underlings but also to themselves and their standing not just in this country but also in the rest of the world. Because the US will dwindle without its founding document, and whatever rises from the ashes will be demonic. It certainly will be no beautiful phoenix.

There's also this bozo who sells car who screams at the TV set like we're all deaf. Big deals "fooooor the people." Totally awful ads, usually celebrating the flag. As if wearing red, white, and blue makes one a knowledgeable patriot and an ideal car salesman. (Hint: it doesn't. It makes you an idiot because you don't know how to honor the U.S. flag with appropriate respect.)

What was it that old ad used to say? Calgon, take me away?

No, I think I'd rather go Trekkie. Beam me up, Scottie. I'm ready to go back to the ship.

Sunday Stealing

1. What inspires you the most?

A. Having someone else believe in me helps a lot, but it doesn't happen often (or at least not that I aware of). But I am also inspired by books, movies, music, paintings, and other creative activities.

2. How do you think the world will change in 20 years?

A. It's not looking very good, is it? I expect AI will continue to eat jobs, SMART cars will be the thing, some governments will collapse, and there will still be rich people and poor people. In other words, humanity will be the same as it has been. There will be more wars over resources such as water.

3. Cats or dogs and why?

A. I am allergic to both animals, but I grew up around dogs, so I am more familiar with them.

4. What is the funniest memory from your childhood?

A. It wasn't funny at the time, but one time my brother and I got into a big fight on the school bus. I have no idea over what. But it ended when my brother called me a, "Playtex Deodorant Tampon" and the older girls on the bus nearly fainted in horror. It is funny in retrospect. I think those kinds of commercials were just coming out on TV.

5. Where do you not mind waiting?

A. In a nice well-lit space with other people around.

6. What was the best thing before sliced bread?

A. Coca-Cola.

7. What product would you stockpile if you found out they weren’t going to sell it anymore?

A. Sugar.

8. What do you get every time you go grocery shopping?

A. Bread, some kind of meat, and potato chips. 

9. What do people do too much of today?

A. Look at screens instead of each other.

10. Are you a Goodwill, or any secondhand store customer?

A. No. I donate but I do not make purchases there. This is mostly because the stores smell musty from all the things people send in. The odor sets off my asthma.

11. How do you feel about the death penalty?

A. I do not believe it is effective and it should be abolished. Personally, I think it is more of a punishment to spend life in prison than it is to die.

12. Are there brands of certain items that you will ONLY buy that brand? Ie paper towels, ketchup etc.

A. We only buy Peter Pan peanut butter, Heinz ketchup, Duke's Mayonnaise, and Kraft Miracle Whip. 

13. What are some things that you will buy the store brand, and find the quality to be great?

A. Green beans, canned corn, things like that, are generally ok for store brand. Also some medications are good as store brands, such as the Walmart Equate brand that is the equivalent of Claritin.

14. What is a name brand item that really disappointed you recently?

A. Ball Park Hot Dog Buns. They were awful. The wieners are good, but the buns certainly were not.

15. Do you wear glasses or contacts?

A. I wear glasses.

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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: Tunnel of Love

Saturday 9: Tunnel of Love (1958)

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

1) In this week's song, Doris Day tries to convince her lover to share a kiss in the Tunnel of Love. What's your favorite amusement park ride?

A. I haven't been to an amusement park in years. When I was young, I liked the Ferris wheel.

2) In the 1950s, when Doris recorded this song, Tunnel of Love rides were popular in the US. Couples would climb into small boats that only seat two and float through a dark tunnel, accompanied by romantic music. Today less than 100 of these rides still exist. Have you ever taken a ride through the Tunnel of Love?

A. I don't think so.

3) This week's featured artist, Doris Day, made approximately 40 films and a TV series. She said one of her favorite things about being an actress was the clothes. She loved collaborating with the experts who created her wardrobe. Her contemporary, Betty Grable, found all the fittings boring and just let the wardrobe department do their job without offering much input. Imagine you are a performer: Would you be more like Doris or Betty?

A. I'd probably be more like Betty. I generally don't care what I have on, so long as it is neat and clean.

4) There was persistent rumor that, after Doris appeared on Bob Hope's radio show, the two had an affair. She always denied it. Have you ever been the subject of workplace gossip?

A. Probably. But nothing that I specifically recall.

5) Doris never liked to fly, and her fear increased as she got older. After she retired, she refused to fly at all. This caused her to decline lifetime achievement awards and other events in her honor. Have you more recently extended, accepted or declined an invitation?

A. I invited myself over to my father's house so I could take my stepmother a plant on Mother's Day. I'm not quite sure what category that fits in.

6) After show biz, Doris devoted herself animal welfare. She used to say that we should be more sensitive to the loneliness and sadness people feel when they lose a pet. Think of a time when you were grieving. What words or gestures helped you get through the difficult time?

A. Hugs are always comforting.

7) In 1958, when this song was on the Billboard chart, "The Purple People Eater" was also popular. It's a silly song about a creature from another planet. Have you ever seen a UFO (unidentified flying object)?

A. Yes. I saw weird lights in the sky when I was young. But it could have been from air force maneuvers or something. I always considered it to be a UFO though, because I didn't know what the lights were.

8) Also in 1958, Americans were watching 77 Sunset Strip. The show revolved around the LA-based private investigators whose office was at that address. Who is your favorite TV PI?

A. I don't watch too many PI shows. Can I choose Christine Cagney from Cagney & Lacey? She was an investigator/detective with the New York City police force. But not a private investigator.

9) Random question -- In the 1950s, stewardesses used to famously ask passengers, "Coffee, tea, or milk?" If asked that right now, which of these three beverages would you prefer?

A. Tea.

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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. 

Odds & Ends

For more than a decade, I have used blog2print.com to print off a hard copy of my blog. I have it all in bound books that take up about 2 feet of shelf space. But alas, blog2print has sent notices that as of May 15, it is no more. My account is still there but the e-mail said it was going out of business. When I received the first notice, I had the first four months of 2024 bound up and shipped to me. But I don't know what to do now about keeping a hard copy.

I do this because blogger is free, and nothing free lasts forever. I have no idea how many blogs Google hosts for free, but one day, I feel sure, there will be a big notice that says, "Blogger is going away," and then what will I do with 20 years of posts? At least this way I have them. I'm not saying that I write great words here. But there are things written here, and pictures posted here, that aren't anywhere else except in those hard copies I have printed out. One day those hard copies may go into a burn barrel, but I want them for now. So I guess I will have to look for another printer company. Anyone use some other company to keep up with their blogs?

***

I recently listened to a book called The Whole Town is Talking, by Fannie Flagg (2016). It was characteristic of her writing, but it had a bit of a musing that wasn't what I would have thought to have found in one of her books. In this story, people die and go to the cemetery, where they then talk to one another, sometimes for generations. But some people (already dead) disappear from the cemetery, and no one knows where they go. The reader is left to assume they go somewhere - apparently the Christian heaven or hell - but it's not spelled out.

At the risk of spoiling the book, I will note what Flagg suggested: that they become other living things. She doesn't reveal this until the end, when some of the characters are birds, grass, bugs, etc. In other words, every living thing is spirit.

This is called animism, and it is an ancient concept that predates Christianity and other religions of the Book by thousands of years. At its core, animism holds that all things – from rocks and trees to animals and humans – possess a spiritual essence or soul. This spiritual essence is often referred to as a “spirit” or “life force.” 

I have often thought about this myself without actually looking into it (I had to look up what it was called). If one subscribes to more scientific theories of origin, then one must wonder about such things as souls. It is hard to deny that living things have something going on inside of them. A robotic dog isn't going to be as much fun as a real dog, after all. 

All one has to do is gaze into someone's eyes to see that there is such a thing as spirit.

Given that, then, where does spirit come from? If it was here in the beginning, how is that we continue to expand the human population? Where would the new spirits come from as the population grew from hundreds to billions?

If the spirit was a piece of every living thing, then potentially all of the humans were at one time a bug or a fish or a piece of grass, maybe.

I don't know the answer to this question; many people will consider only what they have been taught via their various religions. That's fine. I like to roll the thoughts around in my head, though, to see where they fall. I truly was surprised to find this concept in Flagg's book, but I feel like she introduced the topic in such a way that most people would not find it offensive, but a bit of silly fun.

Thurday Thirteen

Things that scream "1970s" -

1. Pet rocks

2. School House Rock

3. Bean bag chairs

4. Avocado-colored appliances

5. Hi Fi Stereos

6. Tupperware

7. Wood paneling

8. Lava lamps

9. Mood rings

10. Terrariums

11. Shag carpet

12. Psychedelic posters

13. 8 track tapes

Do you still have any of these items or remember them? I can still quote some School House Rock jingles - "Conjunction junction, what's your function? Hookin' up words and phrases and clauses. Conjunction junction, how's that function? I got and, but, and or to get most of my job done."

At one point I had all of these, except the avocado-colored appliances. I don't recall my parents having those, and by the time I was in my own home that was no longer a thing.

We have a small piece of accent wood paneling in my kitchen. It's hidden under the bar part of the kitchen counter.

My bean bag chair developed a hole, and my husband hauled it to the dump at some point.

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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 860th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday. Or so sayth the Blogger counter, anyway.

Sugar and Salt

Sugar and Salt

By Susan Wiggs

Audio Version

Copyright 2022

I haven't been reviewing books for a while, but this one deserves a nod.

This is the fourth Susan Wiggs book I have listened to. If you'd asked me what she wrote before I listened to Sugar & Salt, I'd have said forgettable beach reads. The Apple Orchard was the only one of the four I could recall, and then I only remembered it because it was something about selling the family orchard. That would have stuck with me because I've seen that happen locally. And I live on a farm.

The other books I've read are The Goodbye Quilt, Welcome to Beach Town, and The Summer Hideaway. Honestly, I cannot tell you what they were about unless I go read a synopsis. I had Wiggs on my reading list as one of those authors I listen to or read when I want something light that I don't have to focus on.

But Sugar & Salt is a book to focus on.

This book is a break-out for me as a reader of this author. Wiggs shows she can pack a punch and address important issues with her fiction. Romance? Sure, there's a bit of romance in this book. But this book takes on all kinds of important issues - race, interracial marriage, abortion, rape, guns, and poverty, to name a few.

This book is a gut punch that says, "Hey, look around you. There's a whole world out here and I have a little something to say about it."

I liked what she said and the way she said it. She didn't sugarcoat it, either. In this story, Margo is an up-and-coming restaurant owner in San Francisco. She's reached the peak of her career. Next door to her restaurant is a bakery, owned by a Black family.

As the two family's stories intertwine, we learn lots of back history about Ida B., the Black older retired owner of the bakery, and her son who has taken it over. Then we learn Margo's backstory.

And she has quite the backstory, one of poverty and sadness. I won't go into details because this book needs to be read, but at the end of the book, the author points out that the character of Margo is an amalgamation of many women who have been treated poorly by life, circumstances, and our failing justice system. In other words, while her story may sound like it couldn't happen, it happens all the time.

Wiggs has moved up on my list of authors to look for after listening to this book. I may have found her earlier work to be light, but now I will listen to her with a different ear. She certainly caught my attention with this book.