Saturday 9: I Won't Last a Day Without You

Saturday 9: I Won't Last a Day Without You (1972)

Unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it here. (I love the Carpenters. Poor Karen. She died much too soon.)

1) This song makes reference to rainbows. Have you seen one lately?

A. It has been a while since I saw one. But I have some nice photos of rainbows.

'

 

2) When Sam heard this song, it occurred to her that she wouldn't last a day without a game of online Yahtzee. What little commonplace pleasure reliably brightens your day?

A. I say, "Good morning" to Alexa on my Kindle HD, and she gives me a little factoid. It is silly but it makes me feel like I have a friend. What a geek I am.

3) Richard Carpenter was emphatic that his group's name was "Carpenters," NO "the." Whenever he hears the group referred to as "The Carpenters," it gets on his nerves. What little commonplace annoyance reliably sets you off?

A. No Oxford comma in a sentence with a list of three items. (And I'm sorry, Mr. Carpenter, but "Carpenters" just begs for a "the" in front of it.)

4) Karen Carpenter said she drank iced tea all day long. What beverage do you think you'll have with your next meal?

A.  Water. I only drink water these days.

5) "I Won't Last a Day without You" was written by Oscar-winning composer Paul Williams. He also tried his hand at acting, most notably appearing with Burt Reynolds in Smokey and the Bandit. Back in the 1970s, the three movies in the Smokey series were very popular. Have you seen any of them?

A. I saw them long ago but they were not favorites so I don't really remember them.

6) This song was recorded in 1973 by Diana Ross. Now in her 70s, Miss Ross is still going strong with a busy calendar of appearances in 2017. What's your favorite Diana Ross song?

A. Touch Me in the Morning.

7) In 1972, the year this song was popular, the United States and the United Kingdom joined forces and launched the Copernicus satellite. Today it's remembered for the discovery of long-period pulsars. Crazy Sam got bored writing this question. Do you enjoy reading about science?

A. I love reading about science, especially space stuff. I love space stuff.

8) Before Michael Phelps, Mark Spitz was America's premier Olympic swimmer. In 1972 he won seven Gold Medals. After making millions in endorsements and TV appearances, he settled into a career as a realtor in Los Angeles. Are you contemplating a change in residence any time soon? If you move, will you be consulting a realtor?

A. I will be where I am until either I or my husband dies. If he goes first I will have to move as I cannot run a farm alone.

9) Random question: Which of these is completely, 100% UNTRUE of you -- boring, lazy or stupid? 

A. Stupid. I have been called many things, but I don't recall anyone ever calling me stupid.

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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.

Grandma's Chocolate Lush

Made the only recipe I have of my grandmother's today since I could not go to California for her funeral.

Besides, with a nuclear winter on the horizon, we may as well all go out eating chocolate.

Thursday Thirteen

I have a somewhat diverse, if a bit left-leaning and erudite, Facebook page. Here are a few things on it this morning:

1. In avoiding open political discussion, polite people have sacrificed a generation, and possibly a nation. - author unknown (it slipped away from my page before I caught who wrote it. Sorry. I don't move fast in the wee hours of the day. But it's a great line.)

2. Algonquin Books, a publisher I respect, has a new book coming out called Make Trouble, by John Waters. Algonquin calls it "the perfect gift for all who seek happiness and success on their own terms (that's all of us, right?)." From Amazon: "Now we can all enjoy . . . a manifesto that reminds us, no matter what field we choose, to embrace chaos, be nosy, and outrage our critics.Anyone embarking on a creative path . . .would do well to realize that pragmatism and discipline are as important as talent and that rejection is nothing to fear. . . . eavesdrop, listen to [your] enemies, and horrify us with new ideas. In other words, MAKE TROUBLE!  Illustrated with slightly demented line drawings by Eric Hanson, Make Trouble is a one-of-a-kind gift, the perfect playbook for gaming the system by making the system work for you." Okay, I want this book.

3. From NPR: "Trump's blending of business and the presidency worries many ethics experts because it could include trade policies and security issues."

4. “I feel it, I feel it, oh baby now I feel it … Gotta be free now” – listen to an exclusive outtake of The Beatles' Sgt Pepper. Apparently it's been 50 years since the Fab Four released the Sergeant Pepper album. Wow. It is my favorite of their albums.

5. Some computer scientists are applying a bee dance to create faster Web servers. That's a solution as sweet as honey.

6.

7. " . . . we are not now, nor have we ever been, a Christian nation, any more than we are a Jewish or Hindu or Buddhist nation. The founders were clear on that. If you want to live in a nation founded on a religion, move to Saudi Arabia." - Michael Abraham (local author and a friend on FB).

8. Boromir arrives in Rivendale -

9. "Have your ever wondered how iconic Goddesses with their centuries-old stories can represent something real and relevant for our modern feminine path?" - The Shift Network (a sponsored ad).

10. "At Hollins University, we’ve been inspiring women for 175 years. What motivates you to be inspired? Is it that unique feeling of knowing you made a difference in the life of a student? Or that you made it easier to help inspire the next generation? On the DAY OF GIVING, we hope you will be inspired to give the gift of Hollins to current and future students by supporting Hollins University." (They are having a fundraising campaign today.) http://www.hollins.edu

11. How Birth Order Can Shape Your Personality. I'm the oldest child. ". . . firstborns grow up to be caring, more willing to become parents, and more likely to take initiative."

12. From the Joseph Campbell Facebook Group: "Interestingly, both (J.R.R.)Tolkien and (C. S.)Lewis seems to have found Disney "vulgar". Tolkien says he "infantilised" fairy tales. . . . One serious objection of both these authors to Disney seem to be in the depiction of dwarves as cute and comical figures. In the original Snow White, these are dark figures from the region of id inhabiting the dark forest of her unconscious, who help her overcome her evil mother archetype and find independence. Dwarves have always inhabited the twilight zone between good and evil in fairy tale and fantasy; Disney made them cute - an unpardonable crime!" Read The Movie Date That Solidified J.R.R. Tolkien’s Dislike of Walt Disney.

13. "The symptoms of hypothyroidism are diverse and they mimic the symptoms of everyday life." (from 2015) - The Atlantic. Read Sleepy, Stressed or Sick.


(If any of the links don't work, let me know. Sometimes pulling them from my FB page doesn't work well.)
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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 497th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday.

Gladys Marie Taylor Bruffy - 3/20/1920 - 4/25/2017

My grandmother passed away yesterday morning. She was 97 years old.

She lived in California and since I am in Virginia, we did not get to know one another as well as I would have liked.

I last saw her around 1988. She and my grandfather came to Virginia to visit. My husband and I had finished building our house; I do remember that. My grandmother thought we had made a nice home and I remember how much she liked my husband.

Otherwise, our visits consisted of one around 1972, another about 1978, and another in 1981. Those are the times she and my grandfather came here. In 1976, my parents drove us out to California and I saw her then, too. But those were short visits, with family always around. I never spent much alone time with her.

I know she loved to cook. I have her secret recipe for a delightful chocolatey dish that she called chocolate lush, but otherwise her cooking skills are not mine. She liked to fish, hunt mushrooms, and camp before she became too old to find that enjoyable. She loved my grandfather, and he played guitar and she would sing with him. After my grandfather passed away, she read a lot. She once told me she read over 100 books a year.

For years, we spoke on the phone frequently until her hearing became bad, and then she started thinking I was her cleaning lady calling to change the schedule because she couldn't hear what I was saying. I remembering screaming into the phone: "It's your granddaughter in Virginia."  I switched to letters, but they were one-way; she did not write back though for a while I did receive a Christmas card. By that time she was in her early 80s and having health problems, specifically some kind of pancreatitis. I'm sure she had other health concerns as well.

Her last years were spent in a nursing home and she had dementia of some kind. I still wrote her, sending cards and short letters in large type that I hoped either she could see or someone would read to her. The letters never said much - we were well, my husband had been promoted, I was still writing or not, I'd had a surgery - whatever little newsy thing I thought might interest her. I never knew until today if she actually received them - a cousin sent me a Facebook note telling me she had kept them all. That makes me kind of sad and glad at the same time. I hope they brought her some comfort, to know that I thought of her, if she knew who I was still.

Regrets are strange creatures. I do regret that I did not know my father's parents as well as I would have liked. I knew both of them more through letters and phone calls than via personal contact. As anyone who has friends only through Facebook or email these days knows, that is a different relationship than the one in which you receive hugs and kisses. Not a bad relationship, but different.

My grandparents had other grandchildren out in California who, I am sure, knew them well. My grandmother outlived three of her four children, with my father being the last one still alive. Her son's son took over her care when he passed away and I know he and his wife were close to her. He, I know, could write a better post about her life than I.

Before I wrote this, I sifted through old photos, hoping I had a picture of her as I remember her, but I do not. I have only photos of her in her 80s and 90s, and I never saw her as that age. I remember her as she looked about the age I am now, I think, with graying hair and a few wrinkles.

My father, my grandmother, and my brother. I think this
photo was taken about three years ago, but I am not sure.

Death is a strange thing. I think we don't really deal with it well in this country - we think people should live forever. That kind of thinking does a disservice to the reality of being human, but that is where we are.

My grandfather wrote several poems. I think I shall reprint one of his favorites here, because my grandparents came from West Virginia before they moved west in 1964. They were happy in California, but my grandfather, at least, called the Blue Ridge home. Since they are together now, it seems right to me to share this.


Take me back to Shenandoahwhere the wild red roses grow.
To my home below the Blue Ridge
With old friends I used to know.

I hear the sound of children laughing
And they sound so bright and gay.
Like the tinkle of the banjo
in the valley, far away.

I hear the sound of cattle lowing
high up on a hill. And in the valley
far below calls a whippoorwill.

How I long for Shenandoah
where magnolia blossoms blow
To my home below the Blue Ridge
And old friends I used to know.

So bury me deep in the valley
where the old James River flows.
Close to my home in the Blue Ride
and old friends I used to know.

By Joe Bruffey
3/6/89

Picking Up the Crayons Again

Medium: Crayola Crayons

Meanwhile, Back on the Farm

We had a new calf born in front of the house this weekend.



Newly born.

Needs a good licking.

Lots to clean off!

First try at standing up.

Oops. Didn't make it that time!



Now the little one is up!

Here I am!



Mom and baby, maybe an hour + old.

Sunday Stealing: The Time Questions

Sunday Stealing: The Money Time Questions

1. What are five passions that you have? (If you have less than five, tell us what you do have interests.)

A. Taking care of my husband, writing, reading, computer games, and photography.

2. List up to ten random facts about yourself.

A. (1) I'm over 50. (2) I bite my fingernails. (3) I am an emotional eater. (4) I have hazel eyes. (5) My nose is a little crooked. (6) I play the guitar. (7) I like older TV shows. (8) My favorite songs are from the 1970s. (9) I have night terrors. (10) I have nine dictionaries on my desk.

3. List five people (personal, historic, living or dead) who have had a major impact on your life or the way you think.

A. My family, my therapists (more than one), my teachers (also more than one), Brenda Ueland (author of If You Want to Write: A Book about Art, Independence, and Spirit), the fictional character, Nancy Drew.
  
4. List 5 things you'd tell your 15 year-old self, if you could.

A. (1) Leave the Roanoke Valley as soon as you can and don't look back. (2) Learn the Eastern healing arts of yoga, meditation, tai chi, and acupuncture. (3) Find a well-paying career (writing novels isn't it). (Maybe something in computers.) (4)  Travel as much as you can. (5) Even if you don't do any of that, your life will turn out okay.
 
5. What is a major strength that you have? (You can list more than one. Staying with our no rules approach.)

A. I am resilient. I may not come back in the same way as before, but I will come back.

6. What is a major weakness that you have? (You can list more than one. STILL staying with our no rules approach.)

A. I'm a procrastinator.

7. Describe the family dynamic of your childhood versus your family dynamic now.

A. Childhood: much yelling and screaming.  Now: very little yelling and screaming, if any.

8. What popular notion do you feel that the world has most wrong?

A. That unregulated capitalism is the greatest economic system. We need regulations.

9. Name three things that always cheers you up when you are down.

A. A kiss from my husband, a favorite song on the radio, and an unexpected communication from a friend.

10. Name three things would you like to be remembered for?

A. My writing, making a difference in the community, and being a good person.

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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: Don't Sleep in the Subway

Saturday 9: Don't Sleep in the Subway (1967)

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

1) Subways can be bright and noisy. Do you need it dark and quiet before you can fall asleep?

A. I can fall asleep in front of the TV in the recliner, but in the bedroom I need it dark, and I sleep with an air purifier on high for white noise. Otherwise I hear the refrigerator or the dishwasher and wake up.

2) In this song, Petula encourages her lover to talk it out instead of walking out. Do you usually remain reasonable during a disagreement?

A. It depends on the disagreement and the person with whom I am disagreeing.

3) Petula was a child star in England during WWII. Her BBC broadcasts were very popular with the British troops, who nicknamed her The Singing Sweetheart. Soldiers pasted her photo onto their tanks for luck as they went into battle. Do you have any little rituals or good luck charms that calm/comfort you when you're afraid?

A. I ask my husband to sing "Soft Kitty" to me when I am in a lot of pain. It's about the only thing he can sing that is almost in tune. Otherwise, no.

4) Now 84, she recently told London's Daily Mail that she's surprised and thrilled to have found love again with a new man. Do you believe you'll ever be too old for romance?

A. I don't think you're ever to old to love someone.

5) Her family is far flung. She lives in London, her middle daughter is in Paris, her son is in Los Angeles and her oldest daughter lives in New York with Petula's two grandchildren. Who is your nearest friend or relative? Which one is farthest away?

A. My nearest friend is four miles away; my nearest family member is six miles away. My father's family, including my 97-year-old grandmother, live out in California. (I am in Virginia. Opposite sides of the U.S., if you're geographically challenged.)

6) In 1967, when this song was popular, Rolling Stone published its first issue. John Lennon was on the cover. Publisher Jann Wenner reports that, either individually or as a group, the members of The Beatles have appeared on the most Rolling Stone covers. What's the first Beatle song that comes to mind?

A. Something in the Way She Moves.

7) In 1967, Star Trek was in its second season on NBC. Who is your favorite Star Trek character?

A. Original series: Captain James T. Kirk (played by William Shatner). But my very favorite in the Star Trek world is Captain Kathryn Janeway (played by Kate Mulgrew) from Star Trek: Voyager.

8) RANDOM QUESTION: When you slip into jeans or slacks, which foot do you put in first?

A. Right.

9) As you considered #8, did you mime pulling on your pants?

A. No. I'm right-handed; that side is always taken care of first.



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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 Return of the Pansies

I did not purchase pansies to plant this year. I have them, nevertheless. They came up first in February, then died during a cold snap in March.

And here they are again. Oddly, they have sprang up in my flower bed in a nice row even though they were planted in a whisky barrel last year.

Thursday Thirteen

1. When it is 7:27 on a Thursday morning and I have no Thursday 13 prepared, it's time for my brain to think.

2. However, my brain tends not to work so well in the mornings anymore.


My Lumosity scores. I am in the 90th percentile
for my age group.

3. That is why I am playing the "brain games" at Lumosity. They are supposed to challenge you and increase your gray matter. Practice must help because my overall score has risen by over 300 points since I began playing in October. (It has dropped in the last month, but I had the respiratory thing and suspect that contributed to a decline.)

4. Did you know physical exercise can make you think better? If you get up and move around, your long-term memory, reasoning, attention, problem-solving, and other intelligence tasks improve. Really!




Let's get physical!

5. The reason humanity has survived is because of our brains, not our brawn. Our brain is a survival organ that evolved as humans had to solve problems related to survival in terrible environments. Without it, you wouldn't be around long enough to procreate and pass on your genetic material. "We were not the strongest on the planet but we developed the strongest brains, the key to our survival. … The strongest brains survive, not the strongest bodies. … " - The Week

6. Every brain is wired differently. It is wrong to assume all brains are the same, that all children can learn at the same rate, that we all think the same way. Brains are affected by every action and life event - it literally rewires the individual brain when something happens.



Turn off your phone if you
want to learn a song.

7. We are not meant to multi-task. You may be able to walk and talk and chew gum at the same time, but higher level tasks should be performed one by one. Today, workplaces and schools encourage doing multiple things at once and the rate of error increases with every activity added. "Research shows your error rate goes up 50 percent and it takes you twice as long to do things. When you're always online you're always distracted. So the always online organization is the always unproductive organization." - The Week

8. Our attention span only lasts about 10 minutes. Then we need to reboot.



How'd you sleep last night?

9. Sleeping helps your brain work better. Lack of sleep means you're literally losing your mind. Sleep loss inhibits thinking in all measurable ways. It makes you less attentive, worsens your memory, sours your mood, and impedes your logical reasoning ability.

10. Brains need naps. Most people find the 3 p.m. hour to be difficult and eat a power bar or something, but what you really need is a nap. About 12 hours after the midpoint of your sleep, your brain wants a rest. That's why it makes no sense to schedule a 3 p.m. meeting. (Or surgery. Must remember that next time. Wait until morning if you can.)

11. Stress lowers brain function. Brains today still are on saber-tooth tiger time - reflecting on dangers that lasted about 30 seconds. Brains aren't designed for long-term stress like dealing with a bad boss, marriage, or inappropriately raised children. Stress literally makes your brain smaller. It damages memory and executive function and impairs motor skills. Stress disrupts your immune system. The longer you're stressed, the sicker you get. It disrupts sleep. It causes depression. (See how that cycle kicks in there?)


This is my eye!

12.  Vision is the best of our senses. We remember pictures better than anything else. Information we hear vanishes: we only remember about 10 percent of that. Throw in a power point picture and we remember 65 percent of the info. Reading is also inefficient because our brain sees words as tiny pictures. (I guess now I need to take drawing lessons.)

13. Male and female brains are different. Neither is better, they're just different. Sex-based differences are best noted in psychiatric disorders. Men are afflicted by schizophrenia more than women. Women are more likely to become depressed than men. Males have more antisocial behavior. Females have more anxiety. Most alcoholics and drug addicts are male. Most people who have anorexia are female. These differences are a product of complex interactions between nature and nurture.

Information taken from The Week: 12 Things We Know About the Brain.

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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 496th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday.