Saturday 9: Man's World

Saturday 9: It's a Man's Man's Man's World (1966)

Since Labor Day was introduced to celebrate the American worker, we are highlighting the hardest working man in show business: James Brown. Unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it here.

1) Before he was able to support himself as a musician, James Brown shined shoes, boxed, picked peanuts and delivered groceries. He admitted he didn't enjoy any of those jobs. What was your least favorite job?

A. Chief toilet bowl cleaner of the household.

 2) What job have you enjoyed the most?

A. Working as a news stringer for the local newspaper and writing freelance articles. I was able to meet many people, including folks like the current Democratic candidate for Vice President (once a former governor of Virginia), and regular ol' joes who also had stories to tell. I loved the excitement of it, the glory of finding out a truth, and being the first one to break a story. I did it well, too.

3) James loved performing and in the mid-60s, played 335-350 dates/year. Do you have time off this weekend? Or will you be working?

A. I will be off, since I am no longer working.

4) With that grueling schedule, James spent a lot of time on the road. Do you enjoy traveling and staying in hotels? Or are you a homebody who prefers to sleep in your own bed?

A. I am now a homebody who prefers to sleep in her own bed.

5) While Millennials are the largest generation in the workforce, millions of Baby Boomers are still part of American labor. Do you think it's easy or hard for people of different generations to work together? Or don't you think age matters?

A. I think it is probably hard for older folks to work for younger folks, especially if the age difference is vast. For me, it would depend upon whether or not the young person still respected me for my age and experience, regardless of title.

6) 72% of employers report that they give their employees sick days. Tell us about a time when you called in sick, but weren't.

A. I have worked from my home office since 1993. I don't think this really applies.

7) According to the 2010 Census, 5.9 million Americans regularly work from home. Is working from home something you have/you would enjoy? Or do you benefit from interaction with coworkers?

A. I like working from home but the beauty of writing for the paper was it also made me leave my little nest and forced me to have interaction with other people. Being home alone working is fun but you do have to have contact with others. Plus, if you're self-employed, you have the burden of all of it - bookkeeping, sales, marketing, everything. It's not all it's cracked up to be.

8) 12% of workers report they prefer to report for work early -- before 7:00 AM -- so they can get more done. Are you a morning person?

A. Not any more.

9) The NFL season starts on September 8. How do you think your team will do this year?

A. I don't have a team. My husband roots for the Dallas Cowboys, so go Dallas.

 

 

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I encourage you to visit other participants in Saturday 9 posts and leave a comment. Because there are no rules, it is your choice. Saturday 9 players hate rules. We love memes, however.

The New Fear in Town

Today I did something in my supermarket parking lot that I've never done before.

I locked the car doors as soon as I could get myself into my seat.

My county is, by and large, a small community. The county as a whole has about 33,000 people. I don't know them all, of course, but there is seldom a time when I go to the local market and do not see someone I know.

After a while, especially if you go around the same time and day, you tend to see the same people over and over. You may not be friends, but there is a sense of security in the sameness.

That's why today, when I left the store and noticed people I did not recognize accosting folks in the parking lot, showing them a flyer and pointing, and watching as the people tried vainly to be polite and get away, and then noticed other people who did not seem to be long wandering around trying indiscreetly to check door handles on vehicles, I hurriedly unloaded my groceries in the trunk, praying that I would draw no attention to myself. I was parked in a handicapped spot and had my cane in my hand, but still. I was feeling terrible and not having a good day.

So as soon as I could, I fled to my car (which means I limped to the car), and I locked the doors.

In my little county. Where I know probably 10 percent of the 33,000 people who live here by virtue of my former work as a news reporter. And if I don't know you, I probably know your friend.

City folk are probably thinking, so what? I imagine they always lock their car doors. Maybe they always walk to their vehicle with their pepper spray at the ready. I don't know. I grew up in a rural area and I've never been overly concerned about my safety, even though I was attacked at Winn Dixie a very long time ago. The person who did that was not from these parts.

And neither, I suspect, were the people patrolling the supermarket parking lot today. They did not look they belonged here. Their dress was off. Their movements were wrong. They were prowling, and we don't prowl.

I started to call the sheriff's office, but wondered what I would report. Strange looking folks in the parking lot? We have a lot of strange-looking people wander through the area anyway as we're on the Appalachian Trail. But these people weren't hikers. I know what the hikers look like. These people were scammers or something.

Rumors of folks accosting others at local parking lots have been flying around for a while now. Sometimes someone asks for money for a cab. Sometimes they ask for a ride. Some time ago, I was asked if I wanted to buy "really good steaks, cheap" out of the back of a freezer truck. I politely declined and hurried away.

One asked my mother-in-law to help her, and my mother-in-law told her to go in and talk to the store management. That was smart thinking for a woman over 80.

Scams obviously work - someone sometimes gives these people money or rides or whatever it is they are after, or they wouldn't continue to haunt parking lots and other places where they shouldn't be.

Generally I am not afraid of much. I don't worry about who I see in parking lots. Today, maybe simply because I wasn't feeling well, I noticed more than I normally do. I felt the fear that I know is running rampant around the nation, the fear that is bringing out the worst in my fellow human beings.

All it brought out in me was a desire to lock my doors and go home.

Thursday Thirteen

It's hurricane season here on the east coast. Are you ready for an emergency? Do you have an emergency kit ready? (I call it my apocolypse kit.)

Here are some things to consider:

1. Water, one gallon of water per person per day for at least three days, for drinking and sanitation

2. Food, at least a three-day supply of non-perishable food

3. Battery-powered or hand crank radio and a NOAA Weather Radio with tone alert and extra batteries for both

4. Flashlight and extra batteries

5. First aid kit (bandages, aspirin, Pepto-Bismal, hydrocortisone, Benedryl)

6. Whistle to signal for help

7. Dust mask, to help filter contaminated air and plastic sheeting and duct tape to shelter-in-place

8. Moist towelettes, garbage bags and plastic ties for personal sanitation

9. Wrench or pliers to turn off utilities/ hatchet or axe for getting wood to start a fire if necessary

10. Can opener for food (if kit contains canned food)

11. Local maps

12. Prescription medications

13. Eyeglasses, sunglasses

It never hurts to be prepared. What might you need to get through three days without electricity or assistance from others?

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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 463rd time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday. 

Books: Island of the Blue Dolphins

Island of the Blue Dolphins
By Scott O'Dell
Copyright 1960, 1988
177 pages

Recently I decided to revisit childhood classics - those Newberry Medal winners that made such an impression on me when I was younger.

Island of the Blue Dolphins was my first choice. The title has always stuck with me, and the idea of a young girl, alone on an island, a cast away with no recourse but to survive via her wits, has always appealed to me.

If I were still in college, I would choose this book to write a paper on. I could easily write a treatise on societies for one of my social science courses, or a study of femininity and females for a feminism class, or a study of writing for a writing course, from this small yet noble classic.

The story is based upon a truth - sometime in 1853, white men found a lone woman on a island off of the California coast. She is known to history as the Lost Woman of San Nicolas. Her rescuers, such as they were, named her Juana Maria. Wikipedia at the link has an extensive entry about the real person. She died within 7 weeks of her "saving" from her lonely vigil on her island.

O'Dell's book also was made into a movie, which would add further fodder to a college paper. If I have seen the movie, I do not remember it.

The author named his heroine Karana. She was a young girl of 12 who lived with her tribe on a large island off the coast. The tribe was annoyed by a pack of wild dogs but otherwise lived in harmony with animal inhabitants that included fox, otters, pelicans, and other birds.

Man, it seemed, would be their undoing. The Aleuts, another tribe from the north, led by a white man (O'Dell calls him Russian, I think, which would make sense given the time he wrote the book), visits the island. They come for otter and agree to a trade, but the chief, who is also Karana's father, does not like the trade. Suddenly fighting breaks out and after all is said and done, the men of Karana's tribe are mostly dead, save the old and very young.

The elder tribesman who takes over as leader decides to take a canoe and go for help from the mainland. A year (or two) passes and finally another ship shows up to take the entire remnants of the tribe away from their ancestral home. As the ship leaves, a gale blows up, and Karana realizes her brother has been left behind. She jumps from the ship and swims ashore, thinking the boat will turn around.

But the white men move on, afraid of the dark seas and the strong winds.

Shortly thereafter, Karana's brother is killed by the wild dogs, and the young woman is left alone.

The real Juana Maria apparently was left on the island alone for nearly 20 years. The young woman in O'Dell's book is there a long time - countless summers pass and she is no longer a girl when finally a ship comes for her. But the reader is unsure how long she exists alone.

The scene that makes me shudder in indignation is near the end, when the men sew together trousers to more sufficiently cover the girl, who is brilliant in her skirt of feathers and a special necklace. Of course she must be covered. Of course.

It is difficult to write a book about a single character. Characters must interact with one another. Dialogue? Not happening unless a character talks to herself. O'Dell manages to bypass this burden with animals - a dog here, birds there, and the land itself, which Karana talks to almost like a lover. She makes discoveries and learns how to do things she had seen men do, daring to use tools that only men were supposed to use. She is the epitome of a human, surviving, thinking, and being. Forced to live in the day because she had long given up hope of rescue, her needs were few. In O'Dell's book, anyway, she is not unhappy.

In rereading this book, only one thing struck me as out of place. Why did the young woman tame an older wild dog and not take one of the pups when she had the chance? Surely a pup would have been easier to tame. While I found this part off the mark, the story still holds together as well today as it did when I first read it 45 years ago.

It is an interesting exercise, going back to worlds I once I knew but which are now murky in my memory. I am not sure what my next book will be, but I look forward to the visit.

Twin Calves

We haven't had twin calves born on the farm in a long time - so imagine our surprise when a cow we knew was close to calving had twins last night!

They are so cute!

Sunday Stealing: Shannon's Moment's, Part Deux

Sunday Stealing: Shannon's Moments Meme, Part Two

23. Have you ever gone to the “dark side”?

A. My husband would probably say he has been the recipient of my dark side. But I've never killed anyone or been arrested, or tried to build a Death Star.

24. What shirt are you wearing right now?

A. I'm in my sleeping gown.

25. What’s important about a bed to you? Like type of sheets, size or whatever.

A. That it is comfortable and doesn't make my back hurt. I also like a bedspread instead of a comforter, and I like the room cold enough to need to be covered with a blanket and the bedspread.

26. Can you sing?

A. Yes. Not as well as I once could, but I can sing.

27. What is something about you that would surprise us?

A. I once put my fist through a door.

28. Have you been to a pirate, Renaissance Fair, or other costumed event? If not, would you for the right event or say cause?

A. I would love to go to a Renaissance Fair, but every time they have one within driving distance, I seem to be sick, or it rains.

29. What songs do you sing in the shower?

A. Anything that comes to mind.

30. Favorite girl's name?

A. Susan.

31. Favorite boy's name?

A. James.

32. What’s in your pocket or purse right now?

A. Nothing in my pocket. My purse has the usual: change, ink pens, my asthma inhaler.

33. Last thing that made you laugh?

A. I told my husband that I didn't pour the oil from the oil lamp down the drain into the septic tank because I was afraid if one of us farted, it would blow the house up.

34. Best toy as a child?

A. Books.

35. Worst injury you have ever had?

A. I will have to go for bad recoveries from surgeries, given that it has left me disabled.

36. Where would you love to live?

A. I am happy where I am. I have lovely mountains and it's quiet. Aside from having to cut the frickin grass, what's not to love?

37. What type of TV do you have? Would you’d like an upgrade?

A. We have a flat screen that is about 12 years old and yes, I would like a new one.

38. There is no Number 38.

39. How many dogs do you have?

A. None. I used to have one but she died after 17 years, and I never had the heart to get another.
 
40. Do most folks trust you?

A. I used to be a reporter. Some people told me everything. Some people told me nothing. I have kept - and keep - many secrets. While some reporters never kept things "off the record," I did, if asked and I couldn't see the harm in it. The public doesn't need to know everything about a person.
 
41. What book are you reading?

A. Island of the Blue Dolphins, by Scott O'Dell. I am on a "revisit my childhood favorites" kick at the moment. I want to study the stories and see how they hold up.
 
42. What’s your favorite classic TV show?

A. Cagney & Lacey. Is that a classic now? Or do you mean further back, like Bewitched?
 
43. What’s your favorite sports team?

A. I don't follow sports, but I root for the University of Virginia when someone asks.
 
44. Favorite month and why?

A. June. It's my birthday, and my husband's birthday, and it's not usually too hot.

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I encourage you to visit other participants in Sunday Stealing posts and leave a comment. Cheers to all us thieves who love memes, however we come by them.

Saturday 9: Hello

Saturday 9: Hello (2015)

Unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it here. (I bet I am one of the few people who is not enamored of Adele.)


1) This video begins with Adele and her flip phone. Is your cell phone a simple or a smart phone?

A. It's a stupid phone. It's a flip phone I talk on. It doesn't text or anything.

2) As soon as her cell is fully charged, Sam disconnects the adapter from the outlet to save electricity. Are you careful about conserving energy?

A. I try to be, but according to our light bill, I am unsuccessful at this endeavor.

3) Adele sings that she must have a called a thousand times but her former lover never picked up. Think about the last call you made. Did you get through? Did you leave a voice mail? Or did you just hang up?

A. The last call I made was to my electric company because my lights keep blinking. The customer service representative was not exactly rude, but she kept insisting she couldn't help me without my account number. I have called my electric company many times (including just two days prior for the same problem) and never needed my account number. She argued with me for quite a while, and after much pain I finally found my account number (I was in a different room and having a very bad and difficult day), and in the process of looking for said number, I tripped over a table and all of my colored pencils went flying when I caught myself (plus I hurt my arm). I asked to speak with her supervisor but she did not put me through but instead said she would "have her call you back." She also would not give me her name. So far I haven't had any supervisor call me back. So that was the last call I made prior to answering these questions and it really pissed me off. I would like to rip someone a new one. Do you think the supervisor will call me back? I rather doubt it.

4) Adele brews a cup of tea in the video. How often do you drink tea? Year round? Only in winter? Never?

A. I drink tea every day.

5) Adele told Glamour magazine she likes two sugars in her tea. Do you watch your sugar intake?

A. Looking at my waistline, I would say not.

6) This song is about reaching out to someone and extending an apology. When is the last time you said, "I'm sorry?"

A. I said it to my physical therapist on Thursday when I was not able to reach a certain level on a task we were trying to do. An unnecessary apology, to be sure. I don't recall the last time I did something to someone and they deserved an apology for it, but I say "I'm sorry" a lot. It's a bad habit. On the whole, I try to be a good person and not hurt other people. Electric company customer service representatives may be my new exception.

7) Adele was a heavy smoker who enjoyed the habit and didn't quit until 2015, after  doctors convinced her it contributed to her chronic throat problems. What's something you know you should do for your health?

A. Diet.

8) Even though she is one of the world's highest-earning entertainers, she recently had her credit card rejected while shopping at H&M. She admits she was "mortified." Have you ever experienced that moment at the counter when your card was rejected?

A. I can't say that I have.

9) Random question: When you were a kid, did you keep a neat or messy bedroom?

A. I thought I kept a neat bedroom, though there were always lots of books. My parents might have thought otherwise, I don't know.

 

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I encourage you to visit other participants in Saturday 9 posts and leave a comment. Because there are no rules, it is your choice. Saturday 9 players hate rules. We love memes, however.

The Broken Man

About this time 32 years ago, I gave my husband a little plaster fireman that a friend painted for me. It sat on our shelf  by the fireplace for 29 years.

This morning my husband came in and lay beside me on the bed. "I have a confession to make," he said.

"What's that," I asked, still half asleep.

"You know that little fireman you got me that Dee made a long time ago? I broke him."

I was quiet for a moment. "When did you break him?"

"Sometime ago when I was cleaning the shelves for you, when you were really sick."

He had hidden him on a high shelf behind the TV speaker, turning him sort of butt out so I wouldn't notice the little guy was broken. And were it not for the fact that I plan to clean those shelves thoroughly today, dear husband might have gotten away with it for quite some time.




My little guy, still whole (a 2013 photo).

Now he has a concussion.

Not to mention, a broken helmet.

Here he is with a few tiny pieces (that were stuck inside
of him and I didn't see them until I took the above photo).

After I rose from bed, I looked to see the damage. It's a pretty big hole, and I know nothing about plaster. I will ask an artist friend if he is fixable. I won't throw him away until I know, but he will be relegated to a closet shelf, poor guy.

Thursday 13

Yesterday was the anniversary of my mother's death. She died on August 24, 2000 of pancreatic cancer. She was 56 years old.

So here are 13 things about my mother.



My mother at my wedding.

1. She was a good cook, though I tend to remember her flops more so than her masterpiece creations mostly because they were humorous and stand out in my mind. There was the year of pumpkin pudding instead of pumpkin pie, for example, and duck that tasted like mud.

2. She could sew and frequently made my clothing until I hit high school and insisted on store-bought goods.

3. Her collections of items were many - bells, plates, figurines. She kept most of it behind glass in curios.

4. She worked for 30 years for the same company in Salem, VA, which was just a block away from her mother's house.

5. She was born in an apartment above a grocery store on Lowe Street in Salem. She was my grandparent's first born, and both of them were quite young (under 18, I think? Not unusual for that time period.).

6. We lived on a farm but I never thought she cared much for farm life. She grew up in Salem and while there was a rural quality about her childhood - her grandparents and parents had chickens and a big garden - I don't think she cared much for cows and putting up hay and the hard work that went along with it, especially since she also had a full time job while we were growing up.

7. She canned and put up produce from the garden. The pressure cooker she used always scared me because it was so noisy and it seemed like it was going to blow the roof off the house.

8. Her son (my brother) was her pride and joy.

9. She had a temper, but then, we all do. She liked flowers and the iris was her favorite. She liked her flower garden.

10. She served meals on blue china, which were the every day plates. They were quite lovely. I wish I had a picture of them.

11. Her decorator's eye was keen and she made a nice home for my father, simple yet elegant in style.

12. She loved to go to Myrtle Beach and enjoyed the beach more than the mountains when she was in her 40s. She said she felt better at the beach.

13. She had a good voice and could sing. And my grandfather called her "Liz" because he thought she looked like Elizabeth Taylor.

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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 462nd time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday. 

Alpha Turkey

Can you tell which one is the alpha turkey?