Thursday Thirteen

1. Heroes often fail. And stories always end. Those lines are from a song. Any guesses?

2. Conversation on Tuesday.
    Me: I think my qi (pronounced chee) is bad.
    Friend: What do you call bad qi?
    Me: Chong.

3. I opened up my little hometown paper yesterday and saw this article headline: How to Respond to an Active Shooter Seminar. So instead of working on mental health and societal issues that make people think it's okay to gun each other down, we're just going to give in and learn how to duck, cover, and shoot back. Okaydokey.

4. I saw a new acupuncturist yesterday. She told me I have problems with my lung, kidney, spleen, and gallbladder meridians. There are twelve standard meridians. That means I'm 1/3 messed up.

5. A friend told me earlier in the week that when she first met me, she thought I was a normal, boring person. Then I said something (she didn't remember what) and she knew that she was in the in company of someone who did not follow the rules and who marched to a beat of her own making. I took it as a compliment.

6. The tenants in my rental house did at least $1,500 in damage. They knocked holes in the wall, removed the shower heads and inner guts of the toilets (?), and broke a door. Thanks for nothing, jerks.

7. I told my husband I was thinking of getting rid of my books. He said it would leave me heart broken. I think I see it as more like making way for new ones. Besides, the older ones are dusty and I'll never read the book again. However, I say that, but the books are still here. Maybe he's right.

8. Watching Game of Thrones every week is like watching a train wreck in slow motion. You know there will be blood and gore but you can't look away.

9. Have you figured out the song in #1 yet? It's here.

10. This is not the song, but it is a song and version that has been trapped in my head for the last several days. It's from the Newsroom, which was one of my favorite shows when it was on. "That's How I Got to Memphis."

11. I started a gratitude journal at the beginning of the year, but I haven't written in it since March. The entries were all starting to sound the same. "I'm grateful my friend called me today. I'm grateful I was able to do a little housework. I'm glad the pain was a 7 instead of a 9." I will go back to it, though.

12. Does anyone know how one changes her karma? Is there a formula you can follow? Do I need to find the yellow brick road? Walk a mile in bare feet over a rocky road? Burn incense? Stick straws up my nose?

13. I worked in retail a very long time ago. The proprietor scolded me because I did not honor the money. She insisted that I turn each bill so that they all faced the same way, smooth the cash, and treat it with respect. It was the first time I realized how much people worship greenbacks.

If only we worshipped our souls so much.


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 394th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday.

May Moon

Sweet Shrub

These are photos of a sweet shrub (calycanthus floridus) that my mother planted at the home we lived in from about 1973 to 1976 (which would be when I was still a child). I own the property now and rent the old farm house out.

This plant grows near the corner of the porch. I confess we have cut it back multiple times at varying times of the year. My husband keeps hoping it will die but it grows back time after time, bigger than it was before he pruned it. Since my mother planted it, I have a bit of a fondness for it. Apparently, it is an incredibly hardy plant.

What I Love To Do

Last night, it all came back to me.

I was working on a long article for a local publication, one that included much research and the reading of boring legal documents. It was a story that I figured few would read, but the information mattered. Somebody had to write it.

Suddenly, I spied something off. I read. I reread. It made no sense, and it was a major scoop if it were true. That's a reporter's dream right there.

I called my editor and told him what I'd found. Yes, it was Sunday evening. I interrupted his repair of a carburetor, but what I'd come across was important enough that he went to clean the grime off his hands and head for his keyboard.

For a time, we both thought we might have something. It seemed improbable. I think we both knew in our gut that it was incorrect paperwork, but we had to be sure. It was big if it wasn't. Major scandal.

Long story short, what I'd found wasn't wrong-doing, just an embarrassing error that highly paid lawyers, not a low paid freelance reporter, should have found. But had it not been an error, it would have had local folks in an uproar. Heads would have rolled.

But in the figuring it out, in the working on it part - the excitement building as I thought I had a major story, the discussion with my editor, the follow-up Sunday evening phone calls to community leaders, there it was.

What I love to do.

I love to chase a story. I love the feel of it, the idea of it, the smell of it. I love thinking I have something that the public has the right to know, and I'm the one figuring it out and presenting it to them. I love sniffing after a lead like an ol' hound dog on the track of a rabbit. I track down first this person and then the next, putting together the puzzle pieces until I have a complete picture. And then I write it up so a sixth grader can understand it, and send it out into the world. And frankly, I'm damn good at it.

Even when a story fizzles, like it did last night, for a while the adrenaline flows. The body forgets it hurts every time I breathe. My focus becomes acute, I see nothing else. Just the story. The words and the world of it, the happenings around it. The build up to how something happened, the actual climax of it occurring, and the dénouement - all the parts of a novel - there they are, in a newspaper story.

Like writing a best seller, only in 1,000 words.

I used to do it almost every week. Now I seldom do it at all - most of the time what little writing I am doing is straight forward and a bit boring, because I don't feel well enough to do anything else. The pay for the work isn't there, either, not like it was ten years ago. With our brave new world and all of that, our information isn't gathered as it once was. The governments do what they want because they think no one is watching now. Frequently, they are right about that.

I'm still watching. Mostly it's mundane. Sometimes, though, it's not.

I cannot tell you how much I miss those times when it's not.

Sunday Stealing: Friends & Miscellaneous

From Sunday Stealing

Anyday Meme

1. What is your dream career, and what path do you plan to take to get there?

A. When I was a young lass, I told my mother I wanted to write for the local newspaper. I have done that for the last 30 years, sometime as a staff writer, mostly as a freelance writer. It's time to move on to writing a novel, I suppose. As for my path, it is a simple one: butt in chair, fingers on keyboard.
 
2. Who do you aspire most to be like?

A. The best me I can possibly be.
 
3. What do you like in a best friend?

A. A best friend should give good hugs and love me as I love her.
 
4. Do you currently have any squishes (people you really want to be best friends with)?

A. Um. No. I am friends with the people I want to be friends with. There are a few folks I would like to see more of, but everybody has a life. There is at least one person in my life who will probably become a closer friend in time, if that is what you want to know. You don't generally meet someone and suddenly you are best friends, after all. It's a process.

5. What is your ideal platonic relationship?

A. These are odd questions. But a platonic relationship should consist of (a) caring for one another, (b) frequent contact but not overly much, (c) lots of laughing, (d) hugs when needed, (e) listening and pats on the head if required, (f) understanding and compassion when one or the other has gone a little nuts, (g) some kind of shared hobby or experiences, and (h) singing Soft Kitty when sick, even if it is over the phone.

6. Best late night IM/phone conversation story.

A. Well, it's not really a good story, but about 20 years ago, I was in a chatroom with someone who was suicidal and had overdosed, and I and another chatroom visitor teamed up to get an ambulance there. This was back before cell phones were popular and my Internet tied up my landline (dial up), so I kept the person chatting online while the other person left the chat room (he was on dial-up, too) to call the police. Neither of us lived in the same state as the person we helped. I lost contact with the person who called the police, but I am still in touch with the person whom we helped.
 
7. List one person you’d like to wear the sweater of, one person you’d like to bake cookies with, and one person you’d like to drive around and get lost with. (Can be celebrities or fictional characters, has to be three different people and not all the same person.)

A. Sweater: Jesus Christ. Cookies: Eleanor Roosevelt. Driving: Ellen DeGeneres.

8. Describe your current best friend(s).

A. All of my friends are intelligent. Politically, they are moderate left. Two read fantasy, two do not. One reads alternative medicine books and offers advice, one is an empath who attracts strange people (and I include myself in that), one is a bit of a martyr, and another likes to figure out puzzles. Two are artsy.
 
9. What is a strange, little-known fact about you?

A. When I was in my 30s, I soaked up electricity and apparently threw it back out. Light bulbs blew when I entered rooms and alternators on cars went dead. I used to go stand in Best Buy simply to soak up the electricity because it made me feel better. I still do that sometimes. But it has been a long time since I blew a light bulb or a car alternator.
 
10. What is a career you wanted to have when you were younger, and still kind of want to have now?

A. I think it would be cool to be an archeologist. I have this thing about wanting to dig up places on the farm and see what's under the ground, because I'm pretty sure there are Native American artifacts buried under the land.
 
11. If you could have tea and pleasant conversation with one person, who would it be?

A. Melissa Etheridge.
 
12. If you had a time machine, what era would you go to?

A. I would go forward. My biggest regret about dying is that I won't get to see how humanity turns out. So I'd go forward 1,000 years to see if we're still here or if we've killed one another.
 
13. What celebrity or historical figure would you love to have as your best friend and why?

A. Mary Johnston, a writer from my own county who wrote the best selling novel To Have and To Hold in 1900. She was into philosophical things and was part of the women's suffrage movement. I would like to have had her as a best friend because we have similar interests and we could have supported each other in our writing efforts. I would have marched beside her in an effort to bring equality to women. Alas, she died in 1936.
 
14. What fictional character would you love to have as your best friend and why?

A. I would like to be friends with Christine Cagney of Cagney and Lacey because she was tough, but vulnerable. And I always thought she needed another friend besides Mary Beth.
 
15. If you could have one wish, what would it be (cannot be related to romance or sex)?

A. That I was healthy.
 
16. If you were trapped on a deserted island and could only take one item, what would it be?

A. A cell phone so I could call someone and say, "Could you get me off of this island, please?"
 
17. If you could pick one career other than the one you are pursuing/plan to pursue, what would it be?

A. I've mentioned writing and archeology, so let's add a third one and go with historian.
 
18. What is your best memory you have with a friend?

A. That's hard. When I was 17, my then-best friend in high school and I went to the haunted house at Halloween. We were scared out of our minds and a werewolf and a vampire tried to pick us up for a little after-haunting drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway.
 
19. Do you have any peculiar interests that most people don’t know about?

A. Yes, but I am not going to mention it here.
 
20. What were your favorite childhood toys? Do you still have them?

A. I liked to play with the little superhero dolls that were out (not baby dolls, but 6" figures of Captain America or Spiderman), or Johnny West dolls. I might have a few of them in the attic but for the most part I do not have any of my childhood toys.
 
21. Favorite baked good?

A. Chocolate chip cookie.
 
22. If your best friend was here right now, what would you do with her/him (cannot list best friend as your romantic/sexual partner)?

A. Well, depending on the friend, we might play guitar, or talk about books, or discuss health issues, or go out to lunch, or take a hobble around my yard and look at my flowers.
 
23. Who would you love to play video games with?

A. Nobody. I consider that a solitary activity.
 
24. If you could visit any country, which one would it be?

A. I would like to go to Scotland.

25. Are there any friends you miss having around?

A.  One of my dear friends is on a long vacation and I miss her. There are friends from high school that I think about. And I wish I saw my brother a little more. Well, sometimes. (Just kidding, bro.)


Read more answers to these questions at the Sunday Stealing link above. Join in if you want! The more the merrier.

Saturday 9: Careless Whisper

Saturday 9: Careless Whisper (1984)

Unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it here. (I always thought this song was called "Never Gonna Dance Again." Shows what I know.)

1) You can't miss George Michael's gold hoops in the "Careless Whisper" video. Are you wearing any jewelry right now?

A. I have on my watch and wedding ring at the moment. Earlier I had on my college signet ring, a string of pearls, and silver earrings. I took those off and put them away when I came home.

2) Though the label says this hit is performed by "Wham! featuring George Michael," George Michael is the only member of the pop duo who appears in the video. Do you remember the name of the other guy who was in Wham!?

A. Nope. And I do not care enough to search it.

3) Much of the video was filmed on Watson Island, a man-made island near South Beach. Have you ever been to Miami?

 

A. When I was very young, I might have been through Miami when my parents went to visit an older relative. All I remember about that trip is that someone's cat gave birth to her kittens under a porch.

4) Born Georgios Panayiotou, George Michael is of Greek descent, the son of the Greek restauranteur in East London. When you think of Greek cuisine, what comes to mind?

A. Greek Yogurt? Olives? I don't know, heck, I live in the southern U.S. where we eat mashed 'taters and pot roast. I know nothing about Greek cuisine.

5) Today he lives in a tony suburb called Highgate, and his neighbors are Kate Moss and Sting. Tell us about one of your neighbors.

 

A.  Lanetta Ware, former Athletic Director of Hollins College (now Hollins University), taught students for 40 years. She was instrumental in the implementation of Title IX programming - a Title IX trailblazer. You can watch a video about her work with Title IX and Hollins here. In 2001, she was named to the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame. She owns a farm next to ours where she raises beef cattle.

 

Lanetta and her tractor

6) George Michael fans can purchase officially licensed merchandise from his website, including an iPhone cover with his photo and signature. Tell us about your cell phone. Is it Apple or Android? Is it a smartphone?

A. It's a flip phone. It's blue, or has a blue cover on it so that I don't break it if I drop it. I've had it for years. I talk on it and that's it. There's very little that's "smart" about it.

7) George Michael sang Stevie Wonder's "You and I" for Prince William's wedding to Kate Middleton. What's your favorite love song?

A. My brother sang Longer by Dan Folgerberg at our wedding. I am also partial to Anne Murray's version of You Needed Me.

8) In 2014, George had a health scare. He was rushed to the hospital for tests and released the next day. Have you ever ridden in an ambulance?

A. I'm afraid so. I had chest pains one day and my doctor decided I might be having a heart attack. She gave me an aspirin and nitrates, attached electrodes to me, and called for an ambulance. It was not a heart attack, it was a bad asthma attack. Incidentally, ambulances are not comfortable to ride in; they are like rolling buses and you feel every darned bump in the road. My husband rode in an ambulance last summer after he caught his arm in the hay baler. Neither of us care to repeat either episode.

9) Known for hard partying in his youth, George is now in his 50s and says he's quite happy to spend his evenings eating takeout and watching DVDs. Are you doing any socializing this weekend?

 

A. I have no plans at the moment but you never know. I might get wild and crazy and stay up beyond 10 p.m.

 

 

Join in the fun of Saturday 9 at the link at the top. Read other bloggers' answers and play along if you want.

 

 

Thunder & Hail

I set the video camera on the porch when a storm came up.

Thursday Thirteen

It's another one of those days when I have no clue what to write for Thursday Thirteen. So let's see what pops out, shall we?

1. The sun shines through storm clouds. I love that light when it looks like the end of a rainbow is in my front yard, only I cannot see it. It's a light of foreboding, for you know the storm is coming.

2. I'm at that age where I buy sympathy cards in bulk. I bought a box of "made in USA" sympathy cards recently because so many folks I know are going on to their next journey.

3. The pollen in Virginia has been heavy again this year. The trees are oozing it as their leaves come out. But isn't Spring simply delightful? I watch a slow-release of green coming forth every morning as I look out the window. Green looks so much better than brown.

4. Speaking of Virginia, we're the state with the most presidents, having offered up eight. There's a fellow named Jim Webb, who served as a Virginia senator (D), who plans to seek the office this year. He is so unknown I don't think he stands much of a chance, but I have learned never to be sure of anything when it comes to politics. He has the "right" credentials - he's white and male - so you just never know.

5. My physical therapist's daughter is graduating from college this weekend. Last night I dreamed about my own graduation, only it didn't go so well. My mother was in my dream, and she was ill, and the college staff manhandled her for some reason. I and several other students went to the office of the college president to complain. It was around midnight and the college president (a man, I do not know who), was having something akin to a KKK rally. Then I had to get my hair cut and I went to a midnight barber who charged me $500 for his work. My father said he would pay for it, but then did not; he actually wrote out a check and then tore it out of my hands, laughing. The next morning I went to my graduation but I had to get in the back of the line. It was a strange dream. I think a lot of the political stuff going on in the US found its way in there.

6. The streak of sunshine is gone now, and the sky looks threatening and gloomy. I grew up never worrying about tornadoes, but in recent years we've had a few in the area. But shhh. There is no such thing as climate change, you know. Despite the scientific evidence for it.

7. One of my dear friends is traveling around the U.S. even as I write this. She's sent me photos almost every day of the places she's visiting. Yesterday I received a bunch from Yosemite.

8. I do not watch much TV, but occasionally I latch on to a series. Right now I am enjoying Game of Thrones. However, it is terribly violent, bloody, and misogynistic. It is not the kind of thing I normally watch, but like millions of others, I want to know who ends up alive in the end.

9. My reading of late has declined. I need new glasses - again - and despite my efforts to fall in love with reading on a Kindle, I have not been successful. I like some things about it, such as the ability to enlarge the type, but I don't like looking at a screen after 8 p.m., and that is generally when I do most of my reading. It is a conundrum.

10. I was in a tornado once in Bristol, TN when I was there for a band competition. It would have been in 1977 or 1978, when I was in high school. We were at a diner eating, and we all moved away from the glass windows. We didn't know there was a tornado. After the storm cleared, we could see the evidence - a clear path of destruction that tore a path down a hillside and ripped an outdoor movie theater screen in half.

11. My office looks like a giant came in with a pile of papers, cried out "wheeee" and gave everything in his arms a big toss. I have stacks of stuff everywhere. Magazines and old interview notes, books, note cards, calendars - what a mess.

12. The photos in my office: my husband in uniform, my nephew making a play as a quarterback, Gandalf the White, a log cabin, a mysterious woodland realm, a scenic spring shot on my wall calendar, and a signed pictures of Bonnie Raitt and Charle Sheen (long before he went nuts and when he was good looking).

13. I'd like to teach the world to sing, but I don't think most of the world is interested in singing any more. All they want is money.



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 393rd time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday.

Whatever I Have to Say

Lately, I've been pondering the state of the United States and the world, and mostly keeping my mouth shut and the fingers off the keyboard. There's just so much out there - it would take the rest of my life simply to address all that goes on in a single day.

Whatever I have to say isn't going to make a difference anyway. I suspect most of the readers of my blog already feel like I do about things. If you don't and you still read me, thank you for having an open mind. It's a rare quality these days. (And yes, I read the blogs of those who don't think like me. Sometimes not regularly, but I do read them.)

Looking out at the macrocosm, I see a world where Mother Nature is striking back. Call it climate change, call it weather, call it whatever you want, I personally think Gaia is about ready to spit us all out and call it a millennium or two. Earthquakes (be sure that the organization you give to for the devastation in Nepal is a legitimate one, as it is hard to tell on the Internet), volcanoes, hurricanes, tornadoes, drought, floods - you name it, ol' Earth is tossing it out. Even now I have a headache from a front moving in. Can't keep that barometer at an even pressure for nothing anymore.

Drawing that macrocosm in closer, nationally we have riots and looting, old white men trying to turn the calendar back to 1949, and young people of all colors hoping to figure out what the heck is going on - unless they've already given up. I don't pretend to understand any of it, but it seems to me that whatever we've been doing for the last 20 years - maybe the last 200 years - hasn't worked very well. Is it time to take a look at where we are as a society? But we can't even agree on right and wrong, so however would we make such dramatic and important decisions?

Whatever I have to say about the local microcosm, I hope someone listens. I must report that yesterday I watched the people who lead my county do their "work" and then I wanted to put my hands over my eyes and weep. Things are not good in the locality, my friends. Stop watching TV and pay attention. Start worrying about your neighbor - your next door neighbor - and less about yourself. Do the things in the media matter? If not, turn off the TV. Do good, not bad. Worry less about money and more about people. It's people first, money second. It is not the other way around.

Must we really hate our neighbors? Must we be so greedy that the thought of paying taxes makes us angry? Do you not feel like you should have to pay a little something to live here? Talk about entitlement. You live in the United States and you feel entitled to be here and pay absolutely nothing? Who gave you that idea, anyway? Pay your taxes. Give unto Caesar that which he claims is his, and make do with what is left. I do believe that's in the Bible somewhere, though I'm sure someone would argue my interpretation.

I'm not sure why we're so into killing one another. I don't know when the U.S. turned into a police state, but it is. Sure, we have our "freedoms" and "civil liberties" but they're not much good if someone else has the right to shoot you dead and then claim it's okay because his right to "stand his ground" trumps your right to walk down the sidewalk. Nobody has the right to shoot anybody else. Not the police, not the military, not you - nobody. Dead is dead and you can't bring somebody back. It is morally reprehensible under any circumstance.

Stephen Hawking, thought to be the smartest dude alive, said recently that he did not think humanity would be around in another 1,000 years. I'm not sure we'll be around in 100 years, at the rate we're going.

It is very depressing.

Wooo Cow! Wooo!

The Hawk Takes Flight

Occasionally there isn't a camera around when you need one. I spied this hawk out the front door, but my camera was in the other room on the charger. The closest thing to me was my video recorder, which also needed charging. However, I did manage to snap these photos with it before the battery died.

Sunday Stealing: 25

From Sunday Stealing

Funky Twenty-Five Meme


1. Most unflattering hairstyle you ever had? What made it so unflattering?

A. I had big puffy permed hair from about 1988 - 1992 or so. Looking at old photos now (and no, I will not post one), I looked like a brown cotton ball.
 
2. Favorite movie(s) that were made in the 90's?

A. I'll go with Forrest Gump.

3. Do you rent movies? If so, from where?

A. I get HBO and Showtime from a satellite provider. Is that renting?
 
4. Do you like cookies better when they're just out of the oven or after they've cooled?

A. I like them both ways. Why don't you fix me a batch of chocolate chip?
 
5. Do you still talk to the person who gave you your first kiss?

A. No.

6. Did you go to pre-school? If so, what was the name of it?

A. I went to kindergarten.
 
7. How do you take your coffee?

A. I don't drink coffee.

8. Do you like fuzzy things?

A. I don't even know what that means. But I think not.
 
9. Favorite kind of chocolate?

A. Any kind except German. Milk chocolate and dark chocolate are probably my favorites.
 
10. Are you more optimistic or pessimistic?

A. Most people would say I am pessimistic.
 
11. What about peopleofwalmart.com? Do you think the site is mean, funny, or both?

A. I think it is mean.
 
12. Do you like fat sandwiches? If so, what does your favorite one have on it?

A. What is a fat sandwich? Is that one you pile too much stuff on?
 
13. One restaurant you'd never been to but would like to go to?

A. I have no idea. How about a ritzy place in Paris.
 
14. Last time you got a haircut? Do you need one?

A. I had a haircut about 10 days ago, so I'm good.

15. What's your favorite pattern for clothing (stripes, plaid, etc.)?

A. I prefer solid colors.
 
16. What's your age backwards?

A. Oh no, you're not catching me with that one.
 
17. When you see typos in a survey, do you correct them?

A. I correct things in these memes, so I suppose I do.
 
18. When was your last vacation? Did you go someplace special?

A. My last vacation was in 2012 - I'm a little overdue. We went to Myrtle Beach, SC.
 
19. What's your favorite kind of pancakes?

A. I like my pancakes with blueberries cooked inside of them, not piled on top.
 
20. Do you like movies with computer graphics, like Avatar?

A. They're okay.
 
21. Do you know how to sew?

A. I can get a button on and hem a pair of pants, but that's about it.
 
22. Are you good at wrapping gifts?

A. Not really. I actually kind of consider it a waste of time.
 
23. Do you like flavored yogurt?

A. It depends on the brand and the flavor.
 
24. How old will you be in December of 2015?

A. Old enough to know better and too young to die, I hope.
 
25. What's the age difference between you and your siblings?

A. I have a brother who is three years younger than I.
 

Saturday 9: Hawaii Five-O

Saturday 9: Hawaii Five-O (1969)

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

1) This is the theme from the TV show that originally ran from 1968 to 1980 and is on now again with a new cast. Were you/are you a fan?

A. I think it was on a channel we could not get. When I was growing up, out here in the rural Appalachians, we could only get two channels, and that was if we pulled out a cousin's tooth and had him hold the tin foil over his head while he stood with one toe on a piece of metal. (Just kidding. I am being mean and perpetuating a false stereotype.). I think Hawaii Five-O came on one of those channels that we could not receive. As for the new show, I never even bothered to watch it.

2) On both shows, Five-O is an elite police task force led by Det. Lt. Steve McGarrett. Who is your favorite TV cop?

A. Christine Cagney of Cagney & Lacey. She was tough and feminine at the same time. She was incredibly human, too.

3) On both shows, the part of Danny "Danno" Williams was played by a second generation performer. (James MacArthur was the son of Broadway legend Helen Hayes; Scott Caan is the son of movie actor James Caan.) If you followed one of your parents into their chosen profession, what would you be doing?

A. Well, if I'd followed my father, I'd be a business person working in an industry that sells seal gaskets and rubber hoses to major industries. If I'd followed my mother, I'd have been a secretary, which means I would probably have been laid off or the job changed into something else long ago, since many industries don't use secretaries anymore (There are 3.9 million secretarial/administrative assistant jobs listed in US Census in 2012. Yes, I looked it up.). But I am a free spirit and while I did work as a secretary for a time, I ended up as a writer. All hail the written word!
 
4) Both shows are filmed in Hawaii, the boyhood home of President Obama. Have any of our 44 Presidents hailed from your state? 

A. I live in Virginia, the Mother of Presidents. We have had eight U.S. presidents hail from our state, the most of any state in the nation. Those presidents are George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, Zachary Taylor, and Woodrow Wilson.

5) Kona coffee is made from beans cultivated on the Big Island of Hawaii. Are you a big coffee drinker? 

A. I don't drink coffee at all. I think I've had maybe seven cups of coffee in my entire life. The last cup of coffee I had was on June 19, 2013. It gave me a gallbladder attack and sent me to the hospital. I had surgery on June 28, 2013 and haven't been right since. In fact, I'm now in constant pain and I walk with a limp, all from a cup of coffee. So it is not my drink of choice.

6) This week's song was written by the late Morton Stevens. In addition to composing for TV shows, he was the musical director for a group of entertainers known in the 60s as "The Rat Pack." Can you name any "Rat Pack" members?

A. Frank Sinatra?

7) This week's featured band, The Ventures, began when Don Wilson purchased a used car from Bob Bogle. During negotiations, they discovered a shared passion for playing guitar. Did you buy your current ride new or used? Did the negotiations go smoothly?

A. My current ride was purchased new. Negotiations went well, though I was worn out and had to leave most of that to my husband as I was in the middle of a medical crisis at the time. My old car, which we traded in, decided to develop a problem that would have cost more to fix than the vehicle was worth. I had planned to drive her another year or two, but oh well. Best laid plans and all that.

8) The year this song was popular, 1969, is when Donald and Doris Fisher opened a San Francisco clothing store called The Gap. Today there are more than 3,200 Gap locations. Do you shop at The Gap or gap.com?

A. I do not. I doubt The Gap even carries clothes in my size.

9)  Random question: What's on your Saturday to-do list?

A. Reading Saturday 9 entries by other bloggers, writing up Sunday Stealing, fixing dinner, changing the bed linens and washing them, and working on tax records for 2015, having finally finished 2014.

Thursday Thirteen

Today I thought I'd make a list of 13 things that I'll probably never see again in my lifetime. Most of them have become archaic, relics of a time that technology has voided.


1. An 8-track tape (and player). These were the big boys of music back in the day. A fellow with an 8-track tape player and big ol' speakers in his car was the bomb.

2. Cassettes and cassette players. I used to sit around with my cassette player and a radio and record Kasey Kasem's American Top 40 once a month or so.

3. Dictaphones. I worked as a legal secretary for about 12 years, and used these all the time. The boss would talk into a recorder and the secretary would take the tape and transcribe it. Secretaries are also something you don't see much of any more, either. I have been out of the field for over 20 years; I'm not sure how they do things now.

4. A print encyclopedia. My grandparents bought a set of World Book Encyclopedias when I was very small, but I remember the absolute thrill my grandmother had because she owned an entire set of these books of knowledge. When I visited her, I would sit and read through the books.

5. A man on the moon. Unless a corporation pays for a visit to the moon, I doubt I see another "one step for man." And to be honest, I don't want corporations going to the moon, because if they are there, it is to exploit the moon's resources, whatever they may be. Who knows what kind of havoc that could eventually cause on poor ol' Mother Earth.

6. Pay phones and phone booths. There used to be a phone at every convenience store, inside the high school, and outside most stores. Those are gone. I wonder where Superman changes into his cute little tights these days?

7. Party lines. When I was young, we had what was known as a "party line." This meant that if you picked the phone up you could hear other people talking and carrying on conversations. You couldn't make a call until they were finished. It was not polite to listen in, and the only time you were to interrupt was in an emergency. I confess that we had two women, whose names I do not now recall, who talked on the phone a lot. And I did listen in. I was seven. Sometimes they'd realize I was there, most times not. Sometimes they'd even talk to me, too, but I had to be careful that my mother did not find out.

8. Rotary phones. Our phones used to be rotary phones, which means they had a dial that you'd turn and then it would make this satisfying clicking sound as it rounded back to its beginning. We had a rotary phone here in my own home until about 10 years ago, when the thing finally gave up the ghost. It would work when the power was out while the cordless do not. So we always keep some kind of analog phone hooked up, though they have become difficult to find. Hopefully the two we have now will last us.

9. Film cameras. I started out with a film camera, one my parents gave me when I was about 10. When I began writing for the newspaper, I bought a Nikon FG-20 film camera. It took great pictures regardless of light and loved it. Then everything switched to digital, and that was the end of that.

10. Directory assistance. I don't even know what would happen if I dialed "0" on my phone today. Is there still an operator on the other end? Anybody know?

11. VHS recorders. At one time I had a pile of VHS tapes. I taped my favorite shows from the TV, usually forgetting to mark them. Now we use DVDs, which will soon be outdated and useless, I suppose.

12. Records and record players. I used to buy LPs and 45s, and still have most of my LPs here in a box. I still prefer an LP to CD. As a musician, when I tried to learn a song, it was great to be able to pick up the needle and drop it back onto the LP exactly where I wanted it. It's difficult to do that with a CD - it takes a lot more time and effort to find that exact spot where the song changes key.

13. Big fat computer monitors. Most of those things are gone and will never be back. I imagine folks still use them somewhere, but most people use a flat screen these days, if they're using a screen at all. I think at some point even a desktop computer will be one of those things we look back on as a dinosaur.


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 392nd time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday.

Botetourt Scenes

What's the Story?

When I was young, I wondered how people could abandon homes. Now that I am older and have a better understanding of life, I know how it happens.

The old folks die, the young people have moved on. They haven't the money or the inclination to keep the place up. Being a landlord is not a fun job, nor is it financially rewarding. Better to board the place up, or just pay the taxes and be done with it.

But they are sad, abandoned houses. They look like they have a story to tell.

Maybe this one was the home of a big family once. It was filled with laughter and joy, pain and sorrow. It's walls are filled with the ghosts of another time.

Some man and his sons farmed the lands around this home, and his wife canned tomatoes and taught the girls how to sew. She tended the yard and grew flowers, trimmed back those boxwoods, and generally made life tidy and neat. She cooked dinner every evening and breakfast each morning.

And now the place that housed them is nothing more than a symbol that they existed at all.

Interesting, isn't it, that humans can build things which outlast them not just by years but by centuries. I don't know how old this house is - I've never been good at judging architectural styles - but it still stands and the humans are gone. Maybe they simply up and moved, but they are gone, nevertheless.