Sunday Stealing

1. If you like art, who is your favorite artist and why?

A. I like art, but I don't know that I have a favorite. I have a Van Gogh print on my wall in my office, so I must like him ok. Most of the art in my house comes from local artists. P. Buckley Moss might be the most famous local artist. I have three of her paintings, one of my college and one of two children; one named after my husband and another named after me.

2. If you were able to learn any three skills or talents instantly and with success, what would they be? 

A. How to draw/paint, how to code on the computer, and how to deal with people.

3. If you were to live in Ancient Times, where - in what country - would you want to live in?

A. I would want to go all the way back to prehistoric times, since "Ancient Times" is not defined. I want to see pterodactyls and brontosauruses.

4. What is something you’re embarrassed to admit to liking? Whether it be a guilty pleasure show, or unusual hobby, etc.

A. I like animated movies, but I'm not embarrassed about that.

5. What is the worst job you’ve ever had?

A. I worked at bank for about two months and hated every minute of it.

6. What is something that you wanted to do as a child that you would still like to do now?

A. I wanted to be an archeologist or a geologist. If I were in better physical shape, I think it would be fun to go on an archeological dig.

7. What do you hate being judged for more than anything else?

A. How I look.

8. What is your life’s mission?

A. Apparently to mess around with my husband's head. Otherwise, I don't really know.

9. If everyone walked around wearing warning labels, what would yours say?

A. Approach with caution.

10. At what age did you first feel like you were an adult?

A. I think when I was 29 and received my bachelors. I'd already had a hysterectomy and knew my life was going in a direction I hadn't planned.

11. When did you not speak up, but wish you had?

A. Some things are always better left unsaid.

12. What is something that makes your skin crawl?

A. Snakes. I am not a fan of snakes. Or spiders. Creepy crawly things.

13. What was the last thing to give you butterflies in your stomach?

A. I get butterflies when someone tells me they love me.

14. What's your favorite type of media to work with? (Paint, clay, pens etc.)

A. I like colored pencils.

15. What question do you hate answering?

A. A whole lot of these, to be perfectly honest, but they make me think and sometimes I need that. Mostly I dislike the questions that ask how I relate to someone else. I don't know who reads my blog, so I seldom answer those types of questions directly.

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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.

Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday to my one and only fellow. 

He gets to celebrate his special day today.

Saturday 9

Saturday 9: 5-10-15-20 (1970)

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

1) In this week's song, The Presidents sing about a long married, very happy couple. Who is the longest married couple you know? Who is the happiest? Are they the same couple?

A. I'm sure there are people I know who have been married longer than I, but I have hit 40 years of marriage and that is a long time. We are content with the life we have created together.

2) The lyrics ask repeatedly: "Aren't we happy?" Are you feeling happy today? Why or why not?

A. I'm feeling content today. I have some health issues nagging at me, and lots on my mind, but that's fairly usual for me.

3) This happy couple enjoys watching children at play. Is there a park, playground or schoolyard near you?

A. There are two elementary schools; one is six miles away and the other is 5 miles away in the other direction. The elementary school that is six miles away is near a sports complex that has lots of ballfields.

4) This song reminds Crazy Sam of when she used to recite the multiplication tables. Think back to your school days. Was math one of your favorite subjects?

A. I loved my math teachers but not so much the subject. It pains me that I couldn't do an algebra problem if my life depended on it now, when I took years of it and made straight As. I skipped math for the most part in college and took "literary math" which was more about the famous personalities in math than the actual doing of math. It's like my Spanish - if you stop using the skill, you lose it.

5) The Presidents seems like a good name for a band formed in Washington DC. What would be an appropriate name for a band from your hometown?

A. The Botetourt (pronounced "body-tot") Beaters.

6) DC trivia: The street names are letters, but J was skipped. That's because in the 1700s, the way many wrote their alphabet, "J" looked like "I" and so "J" was passed over to avoid confusion. Tell us something we may not know about your hometown (or state).

A. Botetourt was part of the raids during the Civil War, and the area we call Buchanan was burned during Hunter's Civil War Raid, and the bridge over the James River was destroyed, too. Also, this is where the James River begins. It's like a creek of sorts here, or a small river, but when you see the James at Williamsburg, it is massive.

7) In 1970, when this song was on the Billboard chart, The Mary Tyler Moore Show premiered on CBS. The theme song said Mary could "turn the world on with her smile," yet in real life, MTM was self-conscious about her "wide mouth." Are you comfortable looking at photos of yourself?

A. Not really. I don't take pictures of myself often, nor do others.

8) Also in 1970, Dinah Shore became one of the first women to host her own national daytime talk show. Today, Kelly Clarkson, Drew Barrymore, Tamron Hall, Jennifer Hudson and Kelly Ripa all have their own shows, and The Talk and The View are both hosted by women. Who is your favorite talk show host?

A. I don't have one. Sorry.

9) Random question -- Would you rather have a job that has you on your feet all day, or one that has you parked in a chair?

A. I tend to stay parked in a chair, so that one.

_______________

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

Songs that young folks today may not understand:

1. Operator, by Jim Croce. The song captures a heartfelt conversation with a telephone operator, where the speaker attempts to reconnect with a former lover who has moved away with his best friend. The narrative conveys a mix of sorrow and resignation, as the speaker ultimately decides not to complete the call, telling the operator to “keep the dime” — a reference to the cost of the call at the time.

2. Kodachrome, by Paul Simon. The song’s title refers to the Kodak film known for its rich color saturation, symbolizing the vivid memories of youth. With catchy lyrics Simon reflects on how life seems more radiant and full of possibility when seen through the ‘Kodachrome’ lens.

3. Wichita Lineman, by Glenn Campbell. The song tells the story of a solitary lineman working on the telephone lines in the vastness of the American Midwest, capturing the essence of loneliness and longing.

4. White Rabbit, by Jefferson Airplane. The song is renowned for its allusions to Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” and “Through the Looking-Glass,” using the fantastical tales as metaphors for the psychedelic experience. With its famous lines “One pill makes you larger, and one pill makes you small,” the song became an anthem of the 1960s counterculture, inviting listeners to explore altered states of consciousness and to “feed your head” with knowledge and new experiences.

5. American Pie, by Don McLean: This iconic song is a tribute to the late Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. Richardson, who died in a plane crash (often referred to as “The Day the Music Died”). The lyrics are rich with cultural references from the 1950s and 1960s.

6. Vincent (Starry Starry Night), by Don McLean: Another gem by Don McLean, this song is a heartfelt tribute to the artist Vincent van Gogh. It beautifully captures the essence of van Gogh’s life and struggles.

7. Piano Man, by Billy Joel: This classic tells the story of patrons at a piano bar and their interactions with the pianist. The lyrics mention various characters, including the “real estate novelist” and the “waitress practicing politics.”

8. Sixteen Tons, by Tennessee Ernie Ford: This folk song describes the hardships faced by coal miners. The line “I owe my soul to the company store” refers to the practice of miners being paid in company scrip, which could only be used at the company-owned store.

9. Big Yellow Taxi, by Joni Mitchell: While not necessarily historical, this song laments environmental issues and the loss of natural beauty. The line “They paved paradise and put up a parking lot” has become a well-known phrase.

10. The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, by Gordon Lightfoot: A haunting ballad about the sinking of the freighter Edmund Fitzgerald in Lake Superior. The song pays tribute to the crew members who lost their lives.

11. Space Oddity, by David Bowie: Released in 1969, this song tells the story of an astronaut named Major Tom during a space mission. It captures the fascination with space exploration during that era.

12. In the Year 2525, by Zager and Evans: A futuristic song that imagines the world’s evolution over centuries. It’s a thought-provoking reflection on humanity’s trajectory.

13. The Night They Drove Ol' Dixie Down, by Joan Baez. The song is a narrative set during the American Civil War, told from the perspective of a Southern farmer named Virgil Caine. It captures the pain and loss experienced by those on the losing side of the war, with vivid imagery of the fall of the Confederacy.

______________

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 862nd time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday. Or so sayth the Blogger counter, anyway.

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.

_______________

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.