Thursday Thirteen

1. The Bob McDonnell trial is an absolute embarrassment to me as a native Virginia. I don't care what party you claim, the guy has thrown his wife under the bus, maybe deservedly so because she sounds like a difficult person, but still, he is no gentleman. Why is his marriage even on trial? Either he took money and gave favors or he didn't. Why do we need six weeks of Kardashian-like BS to sort this out? What has happened to human decency? Good grief.

2. Young people, especially 9 year olds, should not be handling uzis on firing ranges. They shouldn't be on firing ranges at all. Gun culture nuts are creating their own demise either by killing one another or they will, ultimately, force even their own supporters to ask for better gun laws as their own personal brand of insanity seeps into mainstream life.

3. Businesses in general no longer care about customer service or providing quality items to consumers. All they care about is money. We need regulation and oversight of practically everything, because expecting any industry to police itself is by definition insane. Do you honestly think any business is going to set limits on itself on the basis of morality in this day and age? We don't even know what morality is.

4. Governments that deal in secrecy, whether at the local level (I'm talking to you, BOTETOURT), state, or national, are governments that are failing their citizenry. Fail, fail, fail. I'm so disappointed in our local representatives. About 20 years ago, we had no party politics here in my county and things ran much more smoothly, and common sense was present. Now things are rotten and smelly. At the state level, it's much worse. I used to live in a beautiful land, now it's a cesspool (see also #1).

5.  While the Affordable Care Act has helped some with insurance needs, it fell short (as I anticipated) and hasn't stopped the rampant costs in medicine and health care. That is only going to happen with dramatic change - as long as insurance companies cough up $100 for a $1 pill, things will stay as bad as they are for most people. The whole system reeks of corruption and complicity. The majority of Americans are only one car wreck or major illness away from bankruptcy. Why, as a society, do we allow that to be the case?

6. I do not pretend to know what is going on in the Middle East, anywhere. I am a pacifist by nature so I oppose killing. I do not believe there is ever, ever a good reason for nations to go to war (that includes the U.S.). Dropping bombs for the sake of dropping bombs is just asinine. That said, I am glad there has been a cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas. I just hope it isn't over before you can read these words.

7. The unfortunate evolution of the police state in the US has been a natural progression as fascism has come to the fore and the lunatics have taken over the asylum. We are a scared, uneducated, and naïve citizenry, and we think we need arsenals to protect us from our neighbors, most of whom we don't know and don't care to know because our nose is buried in our cellphone. Call me naïve myself, but I think sharing lemonade and cookies would solve more problems than a militarized police force ever could.

8. Long ago, children ran and played unsupervised. Today, parents who do not hover can be arrested for imagined child endangerment. I see these stories popping up all the time now - a girl playing without supervision in her neighborhood playground is grounds for a mom to be jailed. I played unsupervised the majority of the time, as, I think, did most of my peers. I'm afraid most people under the age of 40 have no idea how to do anything on their own, because their parents always did things for them. How did that come about?

9. I rewatched the Dead Poets Society the other night. The movie is ambiguous in its political message. On the one hand, it says that we need free thinkers, not group think, and we need to rebel and rage against those would force conformity upon all of society. However, in the end, the conformists won in the movie. That flick shown in 1989, and the message is solid now. Conform or die.

10. Climate change deniers puzzle me. Why wouldn't you want cleaner air? Why wouldn't you want to minimize environmental damage for the next generation? What difference does it make, really, whether climate change is manmade or natural? The climate is changing - I'm 51 years old, I've seen it with my own eyes. Our summers are weird. Our winters are longer. The trees have funguses that previously were unknown here. We have bugs that used to not like this area but have become infesting pests. We have droughts and floods. Even the thunder sounds different. But regardless of the cause, I still don't understand why people oppose regulations that make industries take care of the environment. Isn't it rather insane to poison the grounds from which the foods grow? Do we think we are conquerors and must salt the earth?

11. Music is one way to soothe the soul and the savage beast. Some Alzheimer's patients have been helped with music and studies are underway to see how this can be used to assist people to have better lives. I can get behind this kind of research. This is the kind of thing our government dollars should be used for. We don't need another fighter plane.

12. We are, each one of us, an individual responsible for our actions and thoughts, but there are also circumstances all around us over which we have no control. We can't force businesses to be honorable, nations to be truthful, or group-think to be moral. All we can do is take care of ourselves as best we can, but we have created a society with multiple layers and systems, and circumventing can take a toll on the best of us. It is easy to slip and make a mistake. We need to understand that while we are individuals, we are also units of society and should work toward a greater good. That used to be a manifest concept that people understood, that your actions also impact your neighbor - that no man is an island - but somewhere in the last 30 years we've lost that lesson. Maybe people need to read more John Donne.

13. So current events have taken up my Thursday Thirteen. I've had a lot of this stuff on my mind for a while. I wanted to get it out and in the open. I'm a liberal and a feminist and I am proud of both titles. Thank you for reading. Feel free to disagree, but please do it nicely or I will delete your comment. It's my blog and I can do that.


Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here. I've been playing for a while and this is my 358th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday.

The Art of Saying Thank You

A few weeks after my husband's accident with the hay baler, I left him alone one morning while I ran errands. He was bored, and I suggested he write the thank-you notes I'd been meaning to do.

I'd kept a list of folks who had gone out of their way to help me and/or him out when he was hurt. Folks called and expressed concern, which we appreciated, but it was the people who actually brought food, or drove me to the hospital, or otherwise went out of their way to help, that I felt deserved a personal note. All of the extended hands were wonderful, but a couple of people really did step up and go out of their way for us.

One of the people on the list was the doctor who saved my husband's hand and arm. At first my husband questioned that - aren't we, after all, going to pay him? - but I insisted that he should send him a personal thank you note. I also had on the list the staff of 9 West at the hospital and the ER staff.

My husband, still recovering and not able to argue as well as he might otherwise, dutifully wrote up the thank-you notes while I was gone. I glanced at them - they were very simple, one or two lines that said something nice, such as, "Thank you for the cookies and for helping out my wife" or whatever. I dropped them in the mail.

My husband has since seen his doctor three times, and every time the doctor has thanked him for the thank-you note. My husband has decided that the physician must seldom receive a heart-felt thanks for the work he has done, since this little thank-you note has made such an impression on the good doctor.

It is such a small thing, a thank-you note. It took my husband very little time to write the notes - I think there were about a dozen in all - and the cost of the stationary and the stamp not worthy of discussion.

But we don't say "thank you" with sincerity in our society much any more. People do things and perhaps we thank them at the time - I know I thanked the doctor that night, at 1:30 a.m., when he came to tell me how the surgery went. Of course I meant that, and I was grateful. It's the little thank-you note that came weeks later, though, that the doctor remembers.

If we think back on our life journey, especially those of us who have a little age on our souls, I know there are many folks who could use a thank-you note. Special teachers, neighbors, grandparents, aunts, uncles, mentors, co-workers. We do not live secluded on islands where we see no one; we are social creatures and our lives intertwine with exchanges meaningful and meaningless perhaps thousands of times a day.  

Writing a thank-you note is not hard. Many people put it off because they think it is difficult or time consuming, but it is not. They can be as long or as short as you like.

What, I wonder, would a teacher say if she received a simple note like this:

Dear Mrs. ________,

The other day I was writing a report and I thought of you. I wanted to thank you for your encouragement when I was at student at _____ in _____; because of your efforts to teach me grammar, I am now a __________.

Thank you for all that you did for me.

And sign your name. It's not that hard, really. She may not remember you - teachers have hundreds of students, after all - but you will make her day.

And your heart will feel lighter.

I would like to see the art of saying Thank You return with a vengeance. I think it would make us a kinder, more gentle society, and heaven knows we could use more of that.

So for my own contribution, let me say THANK YOU, dear reader, for the time you've given me, the many comments you've left, and for your prayers and heartfelt concern. You have given me a greater community and enlightened my world.

THANK YOU!

THANK YOU!

THANK YOU!

Early Morning Visitor

Too dark for the camera and I was too shaky to get good shots, darn it, but we had a bear in the back yard this morning!

Yee hah!

Cute little thing, too!

Animal Farm

Sunday Stealing: Favorite Fictionals

From Sunday Stealing

Favorite Fictional ?


1. Favorite fictional couple?

A. Frodo and Sam. Technically, not a couple, though.
 
2. Favorite fictional character?

A. Xena the Warrior Princess
 
3. Favorite fictional TV show?

A. Xena: Warrior Princess
 
4. Favorite fictional movie?

A. The Lord of the Rings (all three of them, plus The Hobbit, all three of them, even though the last one hasn't come out yet.)
 
5. Favorite fictional villain?

A. Voldemort.
 
6. Favorite fictional hero?

A. Aragorn or Legolas. It's kind of a tie.
 
7. Favorite fictional pet?

A. Dino the Dinosaur. Or that dinosaur that was in the original Land of the Lost kids series in the 1970s.

8. Favorite fictional setting/universe?

A. Middle Earth.
 
9. Least favorite fictional couple?

A. Heathcliff and Catherine. Or maybe Harry and Ginny. Or Ron and Hermione. I still haven't figured out how that last one happened. I mean, really!
 
10. Least favorite fictional character?

A. That strange girl who dated Raj on Big Bang Theory early last season.
 
11. Least favorite fictional TV show?

A. I don't really have one. If I don't like something, I simply don't watch it. Who has the time to waste on something that isn't a favorite?
 
12. Least favorite fictional movie?

A. Anything with Adam Sandler in it.
 
13. Least favorite fictional villain?

A. The Borg in Star Trek
 
14. Least favorite fictional hero?

A. I am not fond of those vampire people in True Blood.

15. Least favorite fictional pet?

A. I don't know, some kind of cat, probably.

16. Least favorite fictional setting/universe?

A. The world of those Mad Max movies was pretty bleak.

Saturday 9: I Got You, Babe

Saturday 9: I Got You, Babe(recommended by Thank You Great Spirit)

If you're not familiar with today's song, you can hear it here.

1) Popular music has produced almost countless groups, but not that many duos. Besides Sonny & Cher, can you name another?

A. The Captain and Tennille. Also, The Carpenters.

2)  Hearing this recording from his clock radio is how Bill Murray woke up every morning in Groundhog Day. What woke you up this morning?

A. The alarm went off but I don't recall the song playing.

3) When she was growing up, Cher practiced her autograph for when she became a star. Is your signature legible? Or is it more of a scrawl?

A. My signature is barely legible.

4) In addition to show biz, Sonny & Cher had many careers: Sonny was a restauranteur and politician, Cher is an interior designer. Would you like to try your hand at any of those professions?

A. Can't say that I would, no. Although I once considered running for my local Board of Supervisors. I got over it.

5) In 1965, when this song topped the charts, Sonny and Cher were as famous for their wardrobe as for their music. Sonny was fond of tall, heavy-heeled boots while Cher often paired granny dresses with bare feet. What's on your feet right now?

A. A pair of mocassins.

6) By 1968, their career crashed. Cher's early attempts as a movie actress failed, their records stopped selling and the IRS came after them for back taxes. Have you ever been audited?

A. Nope. I am a good little girl when it comes to paying and doing my taxes.

7) In 1971 they were on top again with their TV show. But their marriage was coming apart. Sonny said, "For the last 5 years I worried about our career, not about us." Have you ever been guilty of putting career before relationship?

A. I think most of us do that at some point or another in any relationship - you can't always be focused on a relationship. You must, at some point, trust that it is strong and that it can withstand not being the focus of your attention for a while. But I confess that in my world, when someone wants me or needs me, the reality is that whatever else I am doing, however important it may be to me, generally my need comes second. 

8) By 1972 they were living separate lives -- in the same house. For the sake of The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour, they pretended to be happily married another year and a half. Tell us about a time when you pretended to be happy, but weren't.

A. I'm sure there are times but I can't think of any. I tend to wear my emotions on my face and if I manage to keep that under control, my eyes give me away every time.

9) While their separation and divorce were bitter, they resumed their friendship when Cher showed up at the opening of his restaurant in 1976. Have you ever made the first move in repairing a relationship?

A. Yes.

Thursday Thirteen

Books everyone should read at least once:

1. To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee

2. 1984, by George Orwell

3. The Diary of a Young Girl, by Anne Frank

4. The Lord of the Rings & The Hobbit, by J. R. R. Tolkien

5. Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott

6. Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte

7. Hamlet, by William Shakespeare

8. Anne of Green Gables, by L. M. Montgomery

9. The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood

10. A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeline L'Engle

11. The Shadow of the Wind, by Carlos Ruis Zafon

12. The War of the Worlds, by H. G. Wells

13. Leaves of Grass, by Walt Whitman

What are some books you think everyone should read?


Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here. I've been playing for a while and this is my 357th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday.

Fawn Photos

Unwritten

I began reading when I was three years old. By the time I was five, I read the newspaper every day. By the second grade, my teachers were telling me I would grow up to be a writer.

My journey into the world of words took me toward journalism. I remember when I was 10 years old telling my mother that I wanted to write for The Fincastle Herald, only I would do it better and right. At the time it was more like a gossip sheet than an actual newspaper. That was in the 1970s.

My mother was not thrilled with my choice of careers, and did not support the idea of writing as a profession. Her lack of faith in my abilities, I think, led me to make decisions I might not have made had I had more support. But I did go on to write for the newspaper, and I also put myself through Hollins College (now Hollins University) in hopes of learning more about the written word.

I also wanted to write books, of course. Most writers do. I have never aspired to be the Great American Novelist, though. Mostly I wanted to be a hack and write Nancy Drew Books, or something like that, like Carolyn Keene. As I got older I thought I would like to be another Victoria Holt or Phyllis Whitney. I merely wanted to make a nice living with words and use my talent. I did not want to write romances, but I liked genre writing. But I did not know how to go about that and such writing wasn't taught at Hollins, which took a more high-brow approach to the art. And at Hollins in the late 1980s, writing was art, not craft. And while I had the talent, I wasn't able to pull it together to become another Lee Smith.

So I drifted into journalism and I wrote for newspapers and magazines. Even then, I could not move beyond the small publications and into the larger world of better pay and prominence. Mostly I was afraid to submit, scared of failing, afraid to collect the rejection slips. So I stuck with the safe sells.

However, like most writers, I have things stuffed in drawers. Below is my very first completed novel. I wrote it pre-Hollins, around 1984. I typed it on an IBM Selectric II at my place of employment, which was a law office. In those days, employers had receptionists and I was one of those. I had a lot of down time and my immediate supervisor didn't care what I did so long as I looked busy. So I wrote a book.

Over the years, I have occasionally pulled this out and looked at it. It was a gothic romance, which are genre books that I read and enjoyed growing up. Those stories are no longer in vogue, though. They have morphed into vampire stories, I think.

Each time I looked at it, I changed names. Made notes about completely removing characters. Attempted to jostle it into something worthy of retyping.

In the fall of 2011, I pulled it out again and spent a good six weeks going over it. It was, I decided, crap. All of it. Nothing salvageable except the plot line, maybe. Maybe not even that.

I put it back into its box.
 

Things are different for me now. My work with the newspaper and writing for other magazines has declined considerably. Much of that was because of the recession, which cost me my steady gig at the newspaper and then brought me a slew of competitors, unemployed folks who turned to freelancing in hopes of keeping their bills paid.

In 2010, I went back to college and earned my masters in 2012. It was a liberal studies degree, not writing, though it was heavy on writing and English courses. I didn't pursue much writing at the time. I thought I might go into teaching.

And then I developed a health issue.

Rethinking my life and what I want to do with myself now at the age of 51 was not in my plans even a few years go. But nothing is as it was.

The Internet has changed publishing considerably. My first novel, though I thought it terrible, in reality was no worse than many of the things I've seen self-published, both in print and on the Internet. These days anyone who can string a sentence together can put up a story on Amazon and call themselves an author. The lure of the title has been diminished. While I do not believe every one can write, everyone else believes they can. Good works are drowning now in seas of mediocrity.

During a cleaning spell this weekend, I came across my novel, those pages typed on a typewriter. Only this hardcopy existed.

And then I turned that hard copy into this:



It's gone now, that first novel. That crap, that junk, that awful bit of work. All told it was 210 pages of drivel. I tore my name off each and every page, and shredded that, and put the rest in the recycling bin.

Over the next few months I expect more of my past writings to find their way into the scrap pile. I have long kept my chicken scratches and ideas, bits of poems, pieces of stories, unfinished articles. Whatever I find that I think has merit I will keep, but I plan to toss the rest of it where it belongs - in the trash.

Will this free me? Will this renew me and have me start anew, begin again my collection of words, lines, and stanzas? Will new paragraphs flow? Or will I give up and go do something else? And if I do something else, what will it be?

I don't know. I am in the midst of a change, a life crisis, of sorts. Tossing these pieces of paper are a beginning, as well as an end. However, I have no idea what the beginning is to. My life, like a book, is unwritten.

Tree Lines, Sky Lines, and Power Lines

Took a trip on the utility vehicle across the top of the hill on the farm the other day to check on things. I snapped these shots whilst riding along, so they aren't of anything particular. Just some different views.

 

What's left of the forest behind the house.

 

 

Before the logging in 2007, this was a much thicker stand of trees.

 

 

Blue skies!

 

 

Lots of thistle up top. There were butterflies everywhere but I did not stop for photos.

 

 

 

On a clear day, I can see forever. Or at least to the first mountain.

 

 

 

I love the rolling hills.

 

 

Power line and fence.

 

 

Note the two butterflies in the middle of the photo.

 

 

This large power line traverses the farm.

 

 

The tree line of the forest behind my house as seen from the west.

Sunday Stealing

From Sunday Stealing



Q. Would you ever cheat on someone if they cheated on you?

A. No.

Q. Would you ever consider becoming a teacher?

A. I was working on that before I became ill. I managed it for a while.

Q. Would you ever give a hitch-hiker a ride somewhere?

A. Generally no, because I would be alone. Being female, that is not safe. But if I were with my husband in his pick up, we might let someone ride in the back.

Q. Would you ever try fasting for a whole week?

A. I didn't intentionally try it, but when I first got sick I went a whole week without eating anything other than chicken broth because I couldn't stand anything else. It was a great weight loss plan.

Q. Would you ever try to quit one of your addictions?

A. Yes. But so far chocolate and I are still best friends.

Q. Would you ever dye your hair purple?

A. If it were for a good cause. It'll grow out and you can always recolor.

Q. Would you ever spend $100 for the best tasting hamburger in the world?

A. No.

Q. Would you rather chew gum off the ground or kill a squirrel?

A. What kind of question is that? I would not do either.

Q. Would you rather play Monopoly or Operation?

A. Monopoly.

Q. Would you rather eat chocolate or fruity candies?

A. Seeing as how I am a chocoholic, I guess we know the answer to that one.

Q. Would you rather listen to one CD forever or become deaf?

A. These are terrible choices and I refuse to make them.

Q. Would you rather be deaf or blind?

A. Once again, I refuse to answer.

Q. Would you rather text or talk on the phone?

A. Talk on the phone.

Q. Would you rather spend a day with Lady Gaga or Miley Cyrus?

A. Um. Are those really my only choices?

Q. Would you rather learn to play piano or guitar?

A. I already know how to do both!

Q. Would you rather have a stomach-ache or headache?

A. I have had a perpetual, disabling stomach-ache for over a year now. I'd just as soon do away with pain, if that's okay.

Q. Would you rather be overly interesting or overly dull?

A. Interesting.

Q. Would you rather be too loud or too quiet?

A. Quiet. Although I'm not sure you can be overly interesting and too quiet at the same time.

The View From Mill Mountain

Mostly what you can see from the overlooks at Mill Mountain is The City of Roanoke.

 

Roanoke, formerly known as Big Lick, became the Town of Roanoke in 1882 and then a city two years later. The railroad brought the area its fortune in the 20th century and for many years it was known as a "railroad town."

 

The Roanoke River bisects the city, as does the train tracks. The city has a population of over 97,000 people, making it the largest metropolitan area west of Richmond and the commercial hub of Southwestern Virginia.

 

I am not a city girl and I do not venture into Roanoke very often. I remember the downtown of my youth as a vibrant and alive place, with various shops and movie theaters. The city now has a market area which offers shops and restaurants.

 

 

The city to the south of its center.

 

 

Roanoke is surrounded by mountains, and this billboard at The Roanoke Star names them.

 

 

 

This is the heart of Roanoke. The tallest structure is the Wells Fargo building (the one with the copper roof). It was originally called the Dominion Tower. It was built by a bank and has changed hands as the banks have rolled over.

 

 

This is a shot of Tinker Mountain, which is about 12 miles from Roanoke. We live on the other side of Tinker Mountain.

 

 

Another shot of downtown. The road snaking through is an interstate.

 

 

More of the city to the south of downtown.

 

 

The upper right shows the Catholic Church. It is currently undergoing renovation.

 

 

It's rather sobering to see all of those house tucked among the trees down there, isn't it.

 

 

It takes a lot of space to house nearly 100,000 people.

 

 

This was my favorite shot that I took last week when I was on Mill Mountain.

 

 

 

 

Haze frequently hides the mountains.

 

 

A closer look at the Wells Fargo building. To the right and a little to the rear, before you get to the Catholic Church, is Hotel Roanoke.

 

 

 

Hullabaloo was rampant when Dominion Bank built this structure. Nothing in Roanoke is accomplished without lots of complaining and doomsday talking.

 

 

 

This is the Taubman Museum. It was also controversial, and I tend to come down on the side of the folks who don't like it. I think it looks like a spaceship landed in the middle of the city. It is a lovely structure but it was put in the wrong place.