Thursday Thirteen

Yesterday was my birthday. I am one year shy of 60. I never thought I'd live this long, really, but here I am.

Lots of things have changed in this long time. Here are some I remember.

1. When I was about 9 or 10, my brother, my two uncles, and me would walk to the Orange Market about two blocks from my grandma's house. We each had 50 cents, and with that we each purchased a comic book (we bought different comics books and swapped them), a candy bar, and a soda. This was a weekly routine. I strongly suspect my grandparents thought the $2 was well worth the peace they obtained when we all went to the store and then came back home and settled in for an hour or two to read the comic books.

2. Man walking on the moon. I was at my grandmother's when this happened. I remember resting my chin in my hands, my body splayed out long, while I watched the event unfold.

3. Music came over the radio, and every Saturday I listened to the Casey Kasem's American Top 40 countdown. When I was about 13, I taped the shows on a cassette player about once a month, or however frequently the top songs turned over.

4. I once had a little Disney jukebox that played songs. This is where I mis-heard the lyrics to Do Re Me. I always thought it was "Te, a drink with Jane and Fred" instead of "Te, a drink with jam and bread." I used to wonder who Jane and Fred were.

5. Nancy Drew was my favorite read, but I also read The Hardy Boys, the Black Stallion books, the Little House on the Prairie books, the dirty books my parents hid under the bed that I wasn't supposed to touch, Wuthering Heights, and a slew of abridged Reader's Digest books because my parents subscribed to those, and I read them all.

6. Prior to all of that, though, were the Little Golden Books. I had about 100 of them, and I can't think now which might have been a favorite, but I loved them. I don't know if they still have these.

7. The Scholastic Book Fairs at the elementary schools were the next best thing to cake and ice cream ever. One of the books I bought there, Miss Osborne the Mop, was a favorite book for a long time. Filled with magical realism, the book showed me that reality can be varied, and magic can make life fun and interesting.

8. Computers were not a thing in school, not even when I graduated in 1981. I remember my brother received an Atari and we had Pong, and then other video consoles and games. Later my mother bought a Commodore Vic 20 computer. I loved that thing and learned to write BASIC programs on it (does anyone still use BASIC?). She then bought a Commodore 64, complete with a dot matrix printer, and I took it with me when I married, and used it to write articles for the newspaper. I could see by then that the word processing power in computers would make typewriters unnecessary, along with other functions. I never thought they'd make newspapers obsolete, but here we are.

9. I learned to drive on a stick shift, and I had windows that one actually had to roll down, and door locks one had to push to lock the door, no air conditioning, and a key that opened the door and trunk. None of this electric start, automatic, use-the-key-fob stuff. That was old school, baby!

10. I remember gas being 25 cents a gallon, and then it crept up to 35 cents, and by the time I started driving, it was hovering around $1. Now it's $4.69 or higher.

11. The Patty Hearst kidnapping was one of the first national scandals to catch my attention. I was so shocked when she was arrested. I had never heard of Stockholm Syndrome but even I could see that she'd been captured and then indoctrinated. I mean honestly, who couldn't see that?

12. Vietnam ended about the time I hit double digits in age, and after that it seemed that, aside from a kerfuffle in the Falkland's (am I remembering that right?), we didn't have much war again until George H.W. Bush invaded Kuwait. I knew, though, that there were hostages in the Middle East that cost Jimmy Carter the election (I was not old enough to vote in the 1980 election), and that things were not settled, but after seeing the carnage of Vietnam in my tender years (even though I wasn't supposed to watch the news), it was nice to see Walter Cronkite and then Dan Rather talk about something other than a war all the time.

13. I remember when John Lennon was shot, and we're still watching people die of bullets. I guess some things stay the same.

 

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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 759th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday. Or so sayth the Blogger counter, anyway.

Thursday Thirteen

I've been around for almost 60 years - so I thought I would see what all has been invented since I was born. Many of these things we take for granted now, but they're relatively new.

1. Unmanned aerial flight. These came into use during the Vietnam War, and we see them now being used as drones in the war in Ukraine. 

2. Coronary bypass surgery. We take it for granted today that if we have a heart attack, we'll get a quick stent and be out of the hospital the next day, but this life-saving procedure didn't become a reality until 1967.

3. The smoke detector. An annoying beep that's saved countless lives, this little lifesaver wasn't invented until 1969. Now it's a requirement in all new construction in most areas of the country.

4. MRI. The magnetic resonance imaging machine is widely used in medicine today and is a go-to for finding cancer tumors and other problems in the human body. But this product wasn't used until 1973!

5. The barcode. That "bleep, bleep" that's created when the product purchased goes over the scanner at the self-checkout wasn't invented until 1974. There is scarcely anything sold today that doesn't have one of these on it.

6. The first supercomputer was installed in Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1976. It was called that because it could deal with a lot of data at a time.

7. The PC was introduced to the public in 1977, when Apple II, Commodore Pet, and Radio Shack's TRS-80 all hit the market, four years before IBM introduced its first "PC." While I owned none of these, I did own a Commodore Vic 20 way back in the day.

8. The Sony Walkman, a small portable cassette player, was introduced in 1979. People could carry around their favorite music!

9. The first computer virus was created in 1982. Rich Skrenta, 15, created an application called Elk Cloner as a prank, and it became the first virus to spread outside its home network. Elk Cloner spread via floppy disk and attached to the Apple OS II operating system. When users booted from the disk, Elk Cloner transferred to the computer's memory; any additional disks inserted without rebooting were also infected. On every fiftieth boot, the computer displays text written by Skrenta:

Elk Cloner: The program with a personality / It will get on all your disks / It will infiltrate your chips / Yes it's Cloner! / It will stick to you like glue / It will modify ram too / Send in the Cloner!

What a legacy to leave, eh?

10. Microsoft Word, the program few of us can do without these days, saw the light of day in 1983. It became a household name with the introduction of Windows 3.0 in 1990.

11. In 1986, the first LISTSERV came into being - also known as the electronic mailing list. How many email newsletters do you get?

12. In 1992, IBM introduced a weird little thing called the Simon. It wasn't sold in the US until 1994, and it was a commercial failure. It was also the world's first smart phone.

13. In 1998, the first piece of what would become the International Space Station was launched into the atmosphere.

Of course, there are thousands of other things that have been invented in my lifetime, although most build upon previous inventions. What invention would you consider to be the best in the time you've been on this Earth?

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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 748th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday. Or so sayth the Blogger counter, anyway.

Thursday Thirteen (#745)

1. If I sing a song and no one is home to hear it but me, did I really sing it?

2. If someone lies to you but you never find out about it, is it still a lie?

3. If I look at you and see great beauty, but you look in the mirror and see an ugly hag, which version is the truth?

4. If I look at the sun and go blind, did I blind myself, or did the sun do it?

5. If household dust is really skin shedding, why do I not lose weight? There's enough dust under the bed to make a whole person.

6. If I talk to my husband, but he doesn't hear me (because he's about half deaf), did I really speak?

7. If someone tells me I have a great sense of humor, but I don't believe them, do I have a sense of humor, or not?

8. If I can still see my hand in the moonlight, is it really dark?

9. If one clock says it's 3:05 p.m., and the other says it's 3:04 p.m., and Alexa tells me it's 3:06 p.m., what time is it really?

10. If my scale says I weigh X, but the doctor scales say I weigh Y, which is my true weight?

11. When I take off my glasses, the mountains are a blur of green and brown. If I put them on, I can tell there are trees there. Which is the truth, the blur or the sharp sight of trees?

12. If we are doomed to repeat the past, does that mean one day we will all ride horses?

13. If Windows 11 is not initially installing Cortana, does that mean Cortana is a failure of a program?

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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 745th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday. Or so sayth the Blogger counter, anyway.

Sunday Stealing

Sunday Stealing

1. Would you rather be the guest or the host?

A. The guest. That way I can leave. I'm not very big on large gatherings.

 

2. What do you like to wear when you feel fancy?

A. I seldom want to feel fancy. But if I have to dress up, then it's usually in something black.

 

3. How often do you try something completely new?

A. Most days. I try new guitar arrangements, or a new skill game, a new book, maybe something different with my camera, or a new source of information. Of course, none of that is completely new; I have some skill in all of those areas. I suppose completely new eludes me. I'm not going to learn skiing or anything like that. In the last few years, I've tried knitting (not so good at that) and crocheting (better at that, sort of). 

 

4. Do you enjoy weddings?

A. Not particularly.

 

5. Have you ever had something customized?

A. I've had people's initials put on things for presents. But nothing big, like a car.

 

6. Do you cook spontaneously or meal plan?

A. It's a spontaneous "what is in the cupboard" meal plan.

 

7. Name some books you like to read over and over.

A. I reread the Lord of the Rings trilogy frequently. Otherwise, I generally do not reread books, although of late I have gone back and picked up some classics I read when I was young. I have a better appreciation for them now.

 

8. What are you really good at?

A. Writing. Loving. Listening. Feeling. Imagining.

 

9. Do you sleep with windows open or a fan on?

A. We sleep with the windows closed and an air purifier running to drown out noise. I am a light sleeper, and even the sound of the refrigerator turning off and on in the kitchen will awaken me without some kind of white noise.

       

10. What is the easiest recipe you know?

A. Boiling an egg. Or maybe making toast. My cheeseball recipe is pretty easy and it's tasty: 2 bars of cream cheese, 2 1/2 cups of grated sharp cheddar cheese, a Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing Mix, and a bag of bacon bits. Mix it all up together, then roll in pecans.

 

11. Are you comfortable starting conversation with strangers?

A. It depends on my mood, but generally I can manage it.

 

12. Do you prefer quiet, or ambient noise when you relax?

A. Quiet, or a little music.

 

13. Who is your most adventurous or exciting friend?

A. My most adventurous friend recently passed away. She had been to all 50 states in the USA before she died.

 

14. What do you eat when you can’t decide what to eat?

A. Peanut butter crackers.

 

15. Do you have any funny pet stories?

A. Not really, no.

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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.

Sunday Stealing

Sunday Stealing

1. Describe your phone lock screen.

A. I'm not sure what that is. If it's the screen with the time on it, it's bluish greenish and looks like maybe a wave or splash of water.
 
2. How often do you journal?

A. I write in my blog almost daily. I used to keep other journals but I haven't done that in a while. Usually once a year I start one but then I get happy and abandon it.
 
3. What’s your favorite thing to teach others?

A. How to write a decent sentence. No. I used to write in the newspaper to teach people about the local government and how it functioned. Apparently no one read the articles, because the people who are attending the Board of Supervisors meetings now are idiots who have no clue as to what the Board can and cannot do.
 
4. How do you like to spend Sundays?

A. Alive.
 
5. What would you describe as your kryptonite?

A. Books and this computer.
 
6. A TV show or movie you thought was really bad.

A. Anything with Adam Sandler in it is a bad movie.
 
7. Do you know your mail carrier?

A. Yes. His name is Ralph.
 
8. Which regional foods are your favorite?

A. Chicken. I don't know. I'm not sure we have regional food anymore. Everything is trucked in from everywhere else.
 
9. What was your life like 20 years ago?

A. I was writing for the newspaper, so I was constantly running around the county chasing after stories, interviewing people, hobnobbing with the elected officials, sitting in on court cases occasionally, doing loads of writing, and generally working what seemed to be 24/7.
 
10. List some crafting hobbies that you’d like to learn or improve.

A. I would like to learn to make jewelry. My husband bought me a kit several years ago, and it is sitting in the closet, so I must not want to do it that much.

11. What is your favorite type of YouTube videos?

A. I like music videos.
 
12. Describe your surroundings.

A. It's a room with almond-colored walls. There is a corner desk covered with papers of all kinds. Several bookcases line the walls - the one on the corner desk has an out-of-date world globe atop of it. The books range from science fiction to fantasy to books on writing to local history to magic, the Bible, and Qu'ran. Two guitars sit off to the side; several cameras take up space in a bookcase. Two printers sit side by side. Three clocks tick-tock on the wall. Two windows let in sunlight and offer a bucolic view of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Pictures include Gandolf the White from Lord of the Rings, Melissa Etheridge, a Van Gogh replica, and signed photos of Bonnie Raitt and Charlie Sheen. What does this tell you about me?

13. You're making a Time Capsule to be opened in 50 years.  What 3 things would you put in it?

A. A copy of the U.S. Constitution, a USB drive filled with books and other information, as much as it would hold, and a guitar string.

14. Something you learned recently that resonated with you.

A. I was watching Forrest Gump and was reminded that stupid is as stupid does. Lately I see a lot of stupid happening all around me, which is a good reason to stay home.

15. Songs that get stuck in your head often…

A. Most of them that I know at some point or another. Recently I've been stuck on Calling All Angels by Train.

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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.

Environmental Sensitivities

I wanted to write more about something I briefly touched on in yesterday's post - environmental sensitivities.

The world and I do not get along, generally speaking. I have allergies and sensitivities (they are two separate things).

My allergies include every grass on the planet except for a species in Asia, all trees, flowers, dust mites, bugs and insects, bees, shellfish, citrus fruit, cow's milk, and black pepper, among other things. I avoid the food as much as possible - none of it will kill me, it makes me quite sick, though. As for the pollen and dust, I do the best I can with that.

Face masks help a lot. I did not realize how much until this past year. I will be wearing one for the rest of my life, I suspect.

My environmental sensitivities include: deodorants, perfumes, perfumed soaps of all kinds, perfumed candles, lotions, and anything else that smells, animals in all forms, paint, new carpeting, cigarettes, cigars, bleaches and other cleaning products, dyes in clothing, and a myriad mountain of other things.

My nose is incredibly sensitive. I smell things other people cannot. For example, I smelled mold in the living room for several years every the summer, and we couldn't find the source. When we replaced the windows in 2019, the carpenter found rotted wood around the window frame in the living room. He removed that and replaced it with good wood, and I've not smelled mold in there again.

It bothered me so much that I didn't sit on that side of the room unless I had to, even though we couldn't find the source of the mold.

I do not go to people's houses. Most folks have animals and I do not begrudge them their pets, but I cannot take the dander. I don't care how many times one vacuums, to me, it smells like an animal. It's the same with cigarette smoke and strong perfumes. The odor can linger for days. So I do not buy anything used, either, unless it is washable.

Even washing doesn't always help. When I purchase new clothing, especially jeans, I have to wash them about 10 times before I can wear them. The dye smell on them bothers me greatly. I wash them in white vinegar or baking soda. All of my soaps, laundry and bath, are unscented. There isn't a scented soap anywhere in the house.

Once I bought a pair of black jeans and the dye smell would not wash out of them. I put the jeans in a closet in my husband's office, and two years later, I could still smell the dye in them.

My deodorant is unscented. So is my husband's. When we started dating, along about the fifth date, I told him that I wanted to keep seeing him, but he was going to have to do something about his aftershave and deodorant. He wore Old Spice and it made my face break out when we kissed. The next time I saw him, he'd switched to unscented everything. If I hadn't fallen in love with him already, I probably would have then. I mean, to give up Old Spice for me! That was love.

Additionally, this issue is not a little inconvenience or me being picky or whatever one might want to think. This sensitivity to the world makes me quite ill. I used to miss at least 30 days of school every year. I missed a lot of work, too, when I worked for other people. I refused to cover the schools because I became ill every time I went into the school building.

There are stores I simply cannot frequent because they smell. Before Virginia stopped allowing cigarette smoke in restaurants, we didn't go out to eat often because I couldn't take the cigarette smoke. There are still places that do not obey that law, and they do not get my business.

Such environmental triggers cause asthma attacks, which then leads to an upper respiratory infection, and sometimes a long illness that hangs on - no joke - for over a month. It is not worth visiting a friend with a pet, no matter how much I love the friend, to risk spending a month in bed. Especially since sometimes those upper respiratory infections go on into pneumonia.

Some people understand this. Most people don't. I don't have too many visitors in the house and don't like strangers in the house because most people wear perfumed something. Axe deodorant is the worst - it is hard to get that smell out of the house once someone has been here a while.

I do not clean with harsh chemicals - I mostly use white vinegar. I use furniture polish for sensitive people, even!

Some of these items became difficult to find last year as the supply chain faltered. I am at the end of a large tub of Cheer Free laundry detergent and am hoping I can tolerate washing my underclothes in All Free & Clear because I can't find Cheer Free anymore. It's been out of stock for months. All detergent is what I use on my jeans and such, but my lingerie has been washed in Cheer free for as long as I can remember because I knew that didn't make me break out in tender places. I hope those tender places can tolerate All. I will be finding out soon.

Unfortunately, I think being home this past year has made me even more intolerant to various odors. I walked through Food Lion yesterday and could not get down the aisle with the laundry detergent and cleaners. It took my breath even through my mask.

This is hard. It is also hard work to try to stay well when the world makes you so sick. I'm not asking for pity or anything, but I do wish other people understood that the perfume they've bathed in is not sweet-smelling to everyone.

To somebody like me, it's a prelude to a antibiotic.

Sunday Stealing

Sunday Stealing

1. You have just been hired to clean your own home, what is your first complaint?

A. I'm not getting paid enough! I don't do windows! I don't clean books, either. Nobody reads that much; these should all be tossed out.

2. Are you able to ignore a ringing telephone?

A. Yes. I do it all the time.

3. How often do you allow a ringing phone to go to voice mail?

A. Frequently. If I know the number, I pick up. Otherwise, it often goes to voicemail.

4. Do you answer your cell phone, out in public, every time it rings? Or do you silence it and get back to it when you’re in a more private area?

A. I generally do not answer it in public, unless I am alone and expecting a call from my husband. I seldom answer my phone if I am out with a friend. My friend deserves my attention. My cellphone does not.

5. How often would you say you’re on your home phone? Your cell phone?

A. I average about 31 minutes a week on my cellphone, according to the thing the iPhone offers on Sundays. I probably spend an hour a day on average on the house phone.

6. Do you like talking on the phone or do you view it as a necessary communication tool?

A. I don't mind it. I'd rather talk than text or video chat.

7. When did you last go for a bike ride?

A. A very long time ago.

8. Do you own a bike?

A. Not any more.

9. Given the most popular New Year’s resolution of losing weight, would you consider putting bicycle riding as one of your exercise options? Why or why not?

A. Stationary bikes are difficult. They make your butt hurt, which is why I think they do not get used much. Regular bike riding on these rural roads requires courage I lack.

10. If you had to name a smell that always makes you nostalgic, what would it be? What sorts of memories does the smell evoke?

A. The smell of someone getting a permanent in their hair always makes me think of my grandmother, who would haul us kids once a week up to her sister's house, where she'd give her a homemade perm.

11. What did you do over the weekend? No detail is too small. This is your journal, so tell us about the mundane tasks in your life.

A. I changed the bed linens. I watched one of my favorite poets read poetry in a Zoom meeting. I played video games. I fixed a salad for lunch for my husband and me. I wrote in my blog. I read blogs. I showered. I did laundry. I listened to disco music and classical music. I read the newspaper. This is just on Saturday, mind you.

12. If it weren’t for my blog, I’d _________.

A. Probably not write as much.

13. When was the last time you replied “because I said so”? Do you find yourself saying that a lot? Or do you prefer to tell people WHY you want them to do something for you.

A. I don't know that I have ever replied with "because I said so" to anybody. Maybe my husband but no specific incident comes to mind.

14. What is the worst gift you’ve ever received?

A. I've never received an awful gift. My husband gave me a vacuum for Christmas one year and that didn't go over well.

15. Tell us the worst gift you’ve ever given. What was the reaction of the recipient?

A. I don't know what that might have been. I'm sure over the years I gave older people useless things that to me did not seem so useless but to them surely was. I imagine it went into a drawer. Now that I am one of the older folks, I can see how  useless the things we give to other people may be sometimes. The best presents are food, clothing (if you know the sizes), books or music, and stamps. You can rarely go wrong with any of those.

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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.

My Adventures with Dell

My computer was purchased in 2015, and it was a Dell. It came with Windows 8.1, and I upgraded it to Windows 10.

It worked ok. Then back at the end of January, it crashed big time, and when I finally managed to reset it, I lost my programs. My data was backed up on an external hard drive, so it was fine.

There is a backdoor through which one can download Windows 10 for free. I used that and managed to get the computer up and running.

In the meantime, my well-meaning husband insisted I purchase a new computer. This one was, after all, six years old, and that's generally all I get out of a computer.

So I went to the Dell Computer site and after chatting with a technician in chat, and then with someone on the phone, I settled on an Inspiron 3880. I needed something with a DVD drive and a media card reader. I don't game much anymore so mostly I needed something for browsing and word processing.

The computer arrived and the FedEx guy practically threw it in the door (he is never gentle with anything). I managed to get the new computer up and running, and over the last two weeks I installed my software, created a backup and restore disk, and hooked my external hard drive backup to it.

However, when I went to use the SD card reader, it wouldn't read the card. I downloaded straight from the camera instead. Later, I tried a different SD card. It went in and it read it. But when I popped it back out, a piece of plastic came out with it.

Now the card reader won't work at all. It doesn't read cards, and it won't bounce them back out, either.

Seemed to me it came faulty.

It happens.

I contacted Dell via chat. I was told that because this was a hardware "wear and tear" issue, it wasn't warranted. At that time, the computer was 13 days old.

The chat person gave me a number to call. I called. I was placed on hold, and after a very long time, the call simply . . . ended. No one ever picked back up and then I got that "erk erk erk" noise that says you've been disconnected.

Frustrated, I went to twitter and tweeted: "Never buy a @Dell!"

Moments later, Dellcares messaged me. They would solve my problem, some helpful person named Laverna said.

After I explained the problem, she too said that they wouldn't fix the issue, because maybe I'd pushed too hard on the card and broken the spring inside. Really? I've been using card readers for 20 years and this is your response?

I told Laverna they were very useless and I would never buy another Dell. (I probably won't after all this.)

This is my fourth Dell computer. They've always been fairly reliable, but I could tell this 3880 was more cheaply made than my old one. The DVD drive feels like it will fall apart when trying to install a DVD.

Anyway, later I received another message from Laverna at Dell. She'd talked to her manager, and they were going to send me a new internal card reader at no charge to me but I would have to install it.

I asked if this would void the remainder of the warranty and the answer was, probably.

I went to Amazon and bought an external media drive, which should arrive today or tomorrow.

In the meantime, Dell went ahead and began the process of sending me this part, which after learning that it would probably void the remainder of my warranty if I install it, I didn't particularly want.

After I received an email saying the part was on its way, I thought, well, I can just hang on to the part and install it in a year, after the warranty period is up. I don't have a problem using an external card reader. There's a USB port for it.

But maybe I can't hang on to it like that, because there were these indications on the Dell support site that I may have to send the old part back.

Early this morning, I woke to find another Twitter message from Dell. Here's the entire thing:

I left it there, because (a) I'm not getting a monitor, (b) no one is coming to fix this, and (c) the FedEx guy doesn't hang around waiting on things.

My best hope now is that when the part arrives, there is a note in there that says I don't need to send the old part back. An external card reader cost me $15. This part can't cost Dell but what, $1 maybe?

Customer service sure isn't what it used to be. If I had the money, I'd give this one to my husband and purchase something somewhere else.

Blue Screen of Death

Saturday evening, my computer went berserk.

The screen turned sideways. It wouldn't go back to normal.

Then I tried to shut it down and reboot, to see if that would fix it, and the thing wouldn't boot back up.

Finally, it booted up, but then it started into an error message loop.

The blue screen of death appeared.

Stop: Critical Process Died.

That's what it said. I had no idea what that meant. I pulled out the laptop and looked it up. Apparently this was an error that could be fixed if one knew what to look for. Maybe. While it was a known issue with Windows 10 early on, apparently it wasn't supposed to be one now.

The computer was a Dell 3847, and I'd bought it in 2015. At the time it had Windows 8 on it and I upgraded to Windows 10 when it came out.

I hated Windows 10 at first, as it was not stable, but with time it has seemed more reliable.

No matter what I tried, I could not bring my computer back from the blue screen of death and into Windows 10. Finally, I hit the Dell Repair that was supposed to save all of my documents, etc.

It brought the computer back to factory default. Windows 8.

And it lost all of my data, although I have it backed up to an external hard drive.

So while I can use this now, it's Windows 8, which I never liked.

Instead of spending $140 to get Windows 10, I have purchased a new Dell tower. It will arrive via UPS one of these days.

I couldn't see spending that much money on a six-year old computer just to get back to Windows 10.

O Blue Screen of Death, I know not why thou visited me.

But thou hast cost me money.

Thursday Thirteen

President Biden wasted no time in setting about to undo the last president's edicts as quickly as possible. I do not agree with executive orders from either side, as I don't think that's a power the president should have. Rule by edict is not how our system was set up, but it how it has evolved over the last 40 years. 

It needs to be fixed by the legislative branch. Laws, orders, and monetary spending needs to be created and overseen by the legislature. Not the executive branch.

Things being what they are, I can only watch. Here are some things that happened on Biden's first day:

1. He asked Michael Pack, the acting head of Voice of America, to resign, and he did. Pack immediately turned what was a non-partisan news outlet for the soldiers overseas into a propaganda tool for the 45th president. He was also accused of channeling $4 million in charitable contributions into his own production company. He was only in the office for 8 months.

2. Federal officials last night unleashed tear gas against rioters in Portland, Oregon, where protesters smashed in windows of the Democratic headquarters there and declared Biden could not save them or make the changes they required. The New York Times called these people antifascists and radical justice protestors.

3. One of Biden's executive orders appointed Jeffry D. Zients as the official Covid-19 response coordinator. Additionally, he reinstalled the National Security Council, a group the last president disbanded.

4. He signed another executive order requiring masks on federal property. This is not a national mask mandate. He implemented a "100 days masking challenge." This asks all American to wear masks and urges state and local officials to work to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

5. He reinstated the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program that protects immigrants brought here as children from deportation. The order calls for Congress to provide a path to citizenship for these immigrants.

6. He revoked the last administration's plan to exclude noncitizens from the census count.

7. He ended the "Muslim ban," which had blocked travel to the U.S. from predominately Muslim and African countries.

8. He halted construction of the border wall with Mexico, immediately terminating the 45th president's national emergency declaration that allowed for the use of billions of dollars of redirected funds, not appropriated by Congress, to build the wall. 

9. The United States will again become part of the Paris Accord, which address climate change. Additionally, he revoked the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline, reversed decisions that had slashed the size of several national monuments, and re-established a committee on the social costs of greenhouse gases.

10. He ended the 1776 Commission (the page was removed from whitehouse.gov within hours of Biden's swearing in), which historians decried as a distortion of the role of enslaved people in the United States. The report allegedly was a white-washed fairy-tale version of American history. I did not see it personally but by most accounts it was a white supremacists' rewriting of history. It was only released two days ago so I don't think many people saw it.

11. Biden extended a federal moratorium on evictions and asked other agencies, such as Housing and Urban Development Departments, to prolong a moratorium on foreclosures on federally guaranteed mortgages. The extensions run through the end of March.

12. Another executive order reinforces Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, requiring that the the federal government not discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity, reversing policies put in place by the last administration.

13. He established ethic rules for those who serve in his administration. He ordered all of his appointees in the executive branch to sign an ethics pledge. Additionally, he ordered a freeze on all new regulations put in motion by the last administration in order to give his administration time to evaluate them.

You can read about all of these orders, and others, at the New York Times link.

I have no quarrel with any of these actions. I am particularly glad that Mr. Pack is no longer in charge of Voice of America. As for many of these other actions, I would have preferred a legislative solution, not an executive one, but things being what they are, I understand why these executive orders were issued and Biden is using that particular power. He is following the precedent set by previous presidents, including and especially the last one.

This is what happens when the legislative branch collapses, which it essentially did under President Obama because Senator Mitch McConnell refused to move legislation forward under that administration.

Additionally, I (a) have no clue what is going on in Portland and (b) consider all of this to create, at the least, a distrust of the United States from within and without.

If we are going to pivot every time we change presidents because of these executive orders, then we are not a country any nation can securely do business with. Such strident policy changes make planning difficult, even for folks like me. If the rules change every four years, that is an undue burden on the populace, especially the business sector. 

As a personal example, I have heard for most of my life that Social Security won't be available by the time I am of age to take it. I hope it will be, but it's not money I can count on in my senior years, even if I did work all of my life and pay into the system. 

A country needs stability of leadership, and that should be coming from the legislative branch, and not from executive orders that, as we have seen over the last four years, can undo 50 years of regulations at the stroke of a pen.

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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 691st time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday. Or so sayth the Blogger counter, anyway.

Pandemic Journal Day 136

I can't let a tornado in Botetourt County go by unremarked.

We did not see the tornado, though apparently it was just over the ridge. We went riding around immediately after hearing about it, though. We think it formed near the intersection of Haymakertown Road and Lee Lane and ten followed the Catawba Creek, mostly as a funnel cloud, but perhaps touching down.

The National Weather Service is supposed to be investigating today to confirm touchdown.

The alert went off on my phone while I was in the middle of watching a Melissa Etheridge concert online that I'd paid $10 to see. About the time the alert went off, my PC screen froze, but I was able to refresh it and continue watching. I wasn't getting up from that unless I absolutely had to and we don't, as a rule, have tornadoes here. 

My husband left my side and went prowling around the house to see if he could see anything. He reported rotation in the clouds towards my father's house, which is about where we think the tornado began. Photos began pouring in on social media and my friends Cathy and Teresa both say they felt the tornado and/or heard it.

The tornado apparently came through around 6:40 or so, and we hopped in the car at 7 p.m. and drove around to see if we could find its path. Nothing was visible from the road aside from the one spot at the aforementioned location, whether there were some downed tree limbs. That's why we think it formed around there.

As for the pandemic, we continue to have zero leadership at the federal level. Governor Northam has done a good job trying to keep things in hand in Virginia, but I'm not sure how you deal with so many stupid people and manage a pandemic all at the same time. Everyday there are utterly appalling videos of people who should know better having temper tantrums over wearing masks. You'd think they were all two years old and have never heard the concept of community and protecting others, the way they act. I would be embarrassed. The sad thing is, they think they are in the right and this is all some kind of hoax. A big world-wide hoax, I guess. Must be the best damn hoax ever, is all I can say.

More than 153,000 US citizens have died from this virus. I'm pretty sure a lot of them did not have to die and would not have died if we'd had appropriate leadership to begin with. But we did not.

Last night I started getting a sore throat and that continues into today. My neck glands are a little swollen. I also have a bit of a headache. The headache could be weather-related since we have a tropical depression/hurricane coming up the coast.

I was out a lot last week - I drove my mother-in-law to get her car, I picked up groceries Monday and last night (I do the online thing, I don't go in the store), I had to see the orthopedic doctor, I went to the chiropractor. I probably picked up something somewhere down the line even though I use a lot of Purell and wash my hands at every sink I see. I am not concerned it is Covid-45. I suppose it could be, but most likely it is either an allergy (my husband kept rolling down the car windows because they kept fogging up Saturday night when we were looking for the tornado's path and everyone had mowed their yard), or I picked up one of the many other little viruses that I frequently get.

In other words, it doesn't feel like an out-of-the-ordinary illness for me, although I am quite tired and more than a little depressed.  Time will tell.

The children are supposed to start back to school this month, some homeschooling completely, some going back two days a week, some doing a mix of both online and in-class learning. My niece is headed off to Radford University.  Hopefully she will be safe there and wear her mask and do the things she needs to do take care of herself.

My husband came in this morning fussing because yesterday he'd seen a woman and a child in a silver vehicle stopped a long the side of the road at the pasture field. He did not say anything to them - he should have - and for some strange reason he assumed they were picking up trash (nobody picks up trash, why would he assume that?). At any rate, he came back up ranting and raving because apparently the woman and child had decided to fly a kite and the string was wrapped around the power line and power pole and the kite is in the pasture field. Because of the way the string is wrapped around the power line, he is afraid to touch it. The kite is a hazard to the cows.

What a stupid thing to do.

Then he went to Walmart. Apparently the stores are still having trouble keeping stock; we can't find Clean Shower anywhere, not even online. I like using that to help keep the shower clean. I've considered a mix of water and vinegar but I'm afraid the vinegar will eat the finish off the shower head and the grab bars, all of which are covered with some kind of dark bronze. The Lime-Away has already eaten the color out of the water drain cover and I'd just as soon not mess up the other items.

He stopped by a body repair shop to let them look at a dent in the car. The car has several dents, including one acquired last night on the way home from a grocery store pickup. He slowed but the deer hit into the side of the car. The repair estimate for all the dents is a lot. I think I'll just drive a dented car.

The political divisions in this country are strong, deep, and sick. I read a post on the "Local Conservatives" Facebook group page that was sickening. (They have it open to the public, it is very full of hate. I'd be ashamed to belong to that group.) This one guy advocated separating the country into two nations, and anyone who wasn't a Conservative who wanted to stay in the real America (i.e., the Conservative one), "socalists will loose the right to vote here and be disarmed." [sic] So, in other words, fascism.

I think I need to stay off that page but it is aggravating because I see people I thought otherwise knew better on it and not a single one pointed out to this nut case that he was advocating the same thing Germany did prior to World War II. Their silence implies compliance and agreement.

That's not to say I don't see stupidity on "the left" because I do. I do, however, point out when they overreach. I also am not active in any groups and especially not in any local groups. My father thinks I'm a flaming liberal just because I believe in a social safety net and equal rights for women. But that just makes me a moderate. We have no real left in this country. What used to be center is now considered left, that's how fascist we've become.

Maybe they'll wake up one day, when one of #45's paramilitary stomps on their mommas' faces or something, I don't know.

I'm getting off topic, I was talking about the pandemic, although the pandemic has been made political so it's hard to separate the two. A public health issue shouldn't be political. We should be gracious enough to take care of one another.

I guess that is too much to ask.

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For those who need to know (and someone must because I felt very led to do this):

Fascism: a totalitarian governmental system led by a dictator and emphasizing aggressive nationalism, militarism, and often racism.

Socialism: a theory or system of social organization in which the means of production and distribution of goods are owned and controlled collectively or by the government

Democracy: government in which supreme power is exercised directly by the people or by their elected agents.

Democrat: an advocate of democracy

Capitalism: an economic system in which the means of production and distribution are privately owned.

Just for fun: if the governments/states owns the roads, and you transport your privately made goods over those roads (distribution), is it capitalism or socialism?

Think about it.

Take your time.

*Webster's Dictionary. Everybody ought to own a hard copy.

Pandemic Journal - Day 87

We continue to be careful with our outings here at the ol' farm. No eating out. No going to places just to go somewhere. No hanging out at Lowes. We go to the store when we have to - we're trying for every 10 days or so.

It is a good thing I like our home.

Late last week, I baked a cake from scratch - first time for everything, I suppose. I am trying to keep up with the bookwork for our several little businesses. Tedious work, that, and not a favorite thing to do. Actually I'm supposed to be doing that right now but I'm blogging instead.

Queen of procrastination, I am.

Last week the mattress saga finally ended when Sealy sent our replacement mattress under warranty. We had a Sterns & Foster with a 10 year warranty and it died in 8 years. I hadn't realized how much it had shrunk down and flattened out until we received the new mattress. No wonder I have back problems. Maybe this will help.

The new mattress did off-gas for a few days, which bothered me, but it seems to have stopped, or I have adjusted to it, one or the other. For the first two nights we had it, I woke up with my eyes swollen and my whole body feeling "not right," but that has gone away. Seems like anytime we bring anything new in the house, I have a problem with it anymore. It's frustrating.

My mother-in-law, who is 86, appears to have shrugged off the virus for the most part and is going about her routine of grocery store, pharmacy, etc., just as she did before March. We were shopping for her, but she decided to go herself and we can't stop her. I just hope she realizes that if she gets Covid, she will be alone because neither of us will be able to go care for her. But maybe she will be ok. I hope she is at least wearing a mask.

A friend who's been to Richmond said the people there are much more diligent about wearing masks and social distancing than they are around here. We are surrounded by a bunch of "me first" Republicans, so this is no surprise. It will show in where we spend our money. If a business is being careful and has masks on employees, that is where we will shop. I don't go into stores if I see many people without masks, especially staff. Besides, right now one is supposed to wear a mask in public under order of the governor. I think people should think of others and not be foolish, but I'm expendable so what do they care, right? Who cares if a fat ol' childless woman lives or dies? Not them.

I took some great photos of turkeys and a new baby calf, but the computer ate them when I downloaded them and also erased the SD card. I can't decide if something is wrong with the Windows Photo app or if my SD card is bad. It might be the card, as I took some other pictures and it wouldn't download those, either, but I was able to get them by using the camera to download instead of the card reader. I suppose it could be the card reader. This computer is five years old. I hate getting a new one anymore, they are such a hassle to set up. This is a Dell and I plan to use it until something major breaks.

Fortunately, I keep a backup of everything on the hard drive on an external drive. I also back a few things up to the cloud.

Really important things I email to myself - just in case.

Locally, last week someone vandalized the Confederate memorial at the county courthouse by throwing red paint on it. This does not surprise me, although the obelisk is not an ostentatious showing of the Confederacy like a statue of Robert E. Lee might be. I wrote several articles about the monument when I was with the newspaper. It probably needs to be moved to the museum and out of the public sphere. I don't want these statues destroyed, because they are art, but I think they belong outside of places where they are in your face. People are complaining that tearing down the statues is destroying history. Well, no. The history is there, in the history books, and in diaries and a multitude of other places. Taking down a statue is taking down a statue, not destroying history. So move them. It's rather like how I feel I can write what I want in my blog and not on Facebook. Facebook is in your face and you don't have a choice of what you see, sometimes. If you're reading my blog, you came here to read it and shouldn't be surprised by anything you see here, if you're a regular reader.

Speaking of Facebook, I have blocked loads of people on there. Most of them I don't know. If people are particularly nasty in comments on articles I read, I block them so I don't have to see their nastiness. I have not "unfriended" anyone on Facebook although I have unfollowed a lot of people so I don't see their FB posts in my feed. I think I'm down to seeing about three friends and news media of varying sources. Sometimes I go back and follow people, only to unfollow them again. If there is one thing I have learned these last three years, it's that a lot of people around me are racists and bigots. They're nice people and some of them wouldn't hesitate to help me out if I asked, I suppose, just I wouldn't hesitate to help them, but their morality and my morality are very different and I'd just as soon not be exposed to it. Or know about it, for that matter. That's probably very ostrich-like, but I am not interested in starting arguments. I like peace and quiet and I want everyone to be happy.

Right now my county has 10 active Covid cases. We've had a total of 44, with 4 deaths attributed to the virus. The problem is, I don't know where those 10 came from, and probably neither does anyone else.

So I continue to stay home as much as possible. I'm trying to find a new routine again, which I have to do anyway since my husband has retired and is here. That has been enough of a challenge without all the other stuff going on.

Sunday Stealing

Sunday Stealing

1. How many gravy boats do you have in your kitchen?

A. None.

2. Do the clothes in your laundry basket need ironing?

A. No. I do not buy clothes that need ironing. Ironing is a big waste of time.

3. What is the last thing you wallpapered?

A. It was either the bathroom or the kitchen and it was over 20 years ago and both are long gone. Wallpaper is evil. I will never wallpaper anything again.

4.  Wooden floors or carpet?

A. Wooden floors.

5.  Why do we put out guest towels if no one is supposed to use them?

A. I don't put out guest towels. I put out towels and expect people to use them.

6.  If your spatula could talk, what would it say about your duvet?

A. I broke my spatula the other day. It's dead. It doesn't say anything about anything anymore. That's what happens if you talk around me about my duvet. Who knows what all is buried on this farm?

7.  Have you replaced the batteries in your smoke alarms this year?

A. My smoke alarms are 30+ years old and tied to the electrical system, which I think is stupid because that means if the power goes out we have no alarms.

8. If you could put thyme in a bottle, what is the first thing that you'd like to do?

A. Smell it, I guess, since thyme is a spice or herb or something.

 

9. Do eggs really crack or do they merely have a nervous breakdown?

A. They crack and then they are thrown into a bowl and beaten until they are all gooey and yellow.

10. Why are you whipping the butter? What did it ever do to you?

A. I don't whip butter. I take an axe to the butter and use it on the bread.

11. Do your spoons spoon in the drawer? Have you ever noticed? And more importantly, if wooden spoons spoon do they get splinters?

A. I only have one wooden spoon, so I only worried about what it did with the spatula, but since I broke the spatula I no longer have to worry about that. As for my other spoons, they may spoon all they want. They can even have little spoons if they so desire.

12. You hear: "Dumpling, my Dumpling, come hither." The candles are lit, the fondue is dipping, the Godiva is pouring, the scallions are steaming and the music is playing.....but wait, the windows are open.  Why did you close them?

A. I don't even know how to answer that. But my windows are always closed because I'm allergic to everything outside of the house.

13.  Do you need a recipe to cook or are you a bohemian chef?

A. It depends on what it is. I make meatloaf without a recipe and it never comes out the same way twice but it's always good.

14. Is your pot black?

A. The one I pee in is almond colored. The ones in the kitchen are shiny.

15. What is the sexiest spice or condiment in your cabinet?  What makes it so?

A. Paprika. It's just so . . . pappy and rika gettin' it on on the low down.

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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.