April Sunrise

April 12, 2018

Quotes to Live By

"First, do no harm," which is the oath that medical students take, is also a version of the Wiccan Rede, which says, "An ye harm none, do what ye will," and, with a little stretching, it is Romans 13:10, which says "Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law."

All say the same thing, more or less, though they may have different implications and mean different things to others. I take the three of them to mean to live my life with love for all, and to do as I please so long as I harm no one in the process.

This I try to do. I am human and thus I fail, but I try.

However, a quote that actually describes me, I think, comes from Tolkien: "Not all those who wander are lost." It is my favorite quote and I think it is descriptive because I am such a curious person, a seeker who is always searching for something else over the next ridge. Sort of a Jill-of-all-trades kind of gal, if you will. For I have always been eager to learn and to see what else there is to know.

So while I wander (and wonder), I am not lost. I know where I am (usually). I'm just always peeking into corners and looking around the bend, whether that is in front of me or behind me.

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Linking up with the April challenge from Kwizgiver. April 17 done!

Tom Turkeys

The tom turkeys have been very active around here in the last few days as they strut about chasing hens.

Looks rather magnificent, doesn't he?

Look at me, honey!

The hen and the rear of the tom.



Two toms strutting their stuff. Which one did she choose?

My Entire Day

• Wake up
• Get out of bed
• Pee
• Go into the kitchen and make a pot of tea
• Go into my office and turn on the computer
• Play Elvenar
• Read the news
• Eat breakfast
• Shower
• Dress
• Do laundry
• Do the dishes
• Make the bed
• Put away laundry
• Straighten up
• Work on 2018 tax information
• Write something. Anything.
• Talk to a friend on phone
• Walk 5,000 steps while talking on phone
• Fix dinner
• Clear up dinner mess
• Play Elvenar
• Take another fast "rinse off the pollen" shower
• Watch TV with husband
• Go to bed

Linking up with the April challenge from Kwizgiver. April 16 done!

Sunday Stealing

Sunday Stealing

1. Have you ever had a movie both totally captivate and complete confuse you?

A. The Matrix movies

2. When watching a movie, do you prefer things all laid out or to have to 'hunt for your own clues' along the way?

A. Depends on the movie. Mysteries should not be all laid out, but other things should be.

3. Do you want an ultimate ending to your movie or do you prefer to have it open for conjecture and discussion?

A. Depends on the movie.

4. Do you talk during a movie (preferably one in your home, not in the theater)?

A. Not usually.

5. Have you ever seen a blockbuster movie and not get what was so great about it?

A. Yes.

6. What book frightened you as a young person?

A. Bambi, by Felix Salten. I read it when I was too young for it, like 7 years old. Wuthering Heights was another book I read when I was too young for it, and it was scary, too.

7. If you had to become a ‘living book (i.e. able to recite the contents of a book cover to cover upon request – reference Fahrenheit 451), what book would it be?

A. Lord of the Rings

8. What movie or TV show scared you as a kid?

A. SSSSSSS, the Planet of the Apes movies, and Rosemary's Baby.

9. What movie (scary or otherwise) will you never ever watch?

A. The ones with Hannibal Lector in them.

10. Do you have any phobias?

A. Probably.

11. What's the happiest thing to ever happen to you?

A. I married.

12. What's the saddest thing to ever happen to you?

A.  Too personal.

13. What's the thing that got you the most angry in your life?

A. Too personal.

14. What's the most frightening thing to ever happen to you?

A. Surgeries.

15. What's the most unbelievable thing to happen to you in your life?

A. Too personal.


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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.

Three Pet Peeves

1. That the U.S. is an "opt out" nation with everything while other nations are "opt in." This is why we have so many stupid telemarketing calls. We have to "opt out" to stop them. Other countries don't allow this and citizens don't have to put up with that crap.

2. Books with bad endings.

3. People who think it is their job to remind me I'm overweight, as if somehow I forgot that for even one second of my life.



Linking up with the April challenge from Kwizgiver. April 14 done!

Saturday 9: High Noon

Saturday 9: High Noon (1952)

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

1) What will you be (or were you) doing at high noon on Saturday?

A. Having lunch with my husband.

2) In this song, Tex Ritter sings he doesn't know what fate awaits him. How strong is your sense of intuition? Tell us about a time you knew what would happen before it occurred.

A. I'm not sure my intuition is as strong as I'd like it to be, but I have known a few people were going to die before they did.

3) This song was the theme of a hit movie western by the same name. It starred Gary Cooper as a small-town sheriff. When did you last interact with a member of law enforcement?

A. We had an animal control officer come by the house on Thursday. Someone had called and said a calf was out but neither he nor my husband could find any animals loose. The little baby calves like to roam.

4) Grace Kelly co-starred as the "fair-haired beauty" mentioned in this song. Four years later, she gave up films to become Her Serene Highness, Princess Grace of Monaco. Which job seems like more fun -- movie star or royal?

A. Movie star, just because it is mentioned in The Beverly Hillbillies song.

5) Though he cultivated a "just plain folk" persona, this week's featured artist, Tex Ritter, was really cosmopolitan and highly educated, earning a degree in economics from the University of Texas before going on to study pre-law at Northwestern. Do you think the "real you" is consistent with the image you convey?

A. I hope so, but I am not 100% sure.

6) Tex Ritter was the father of Emmy-winning comedic actor, John Ritter. John is remembered fondly as the voice of Clifford, the Big Red Dog. Clifford appeals to children because he is "gentle, friendly, loyal, lovable and clumsy." Do any of those adjectives apply to you?

A. I hope the first four do. Is this the same John Ritter who did Three's Company?

7) Tex is also the grandfather of Jason Ritter, star of ABC-TV's Kevin (Probably) Saves the World. If you followed one of your grandparents into their line of work, what would you be doing?

A. I'd either be writing insurance for car crashes or working in a grocery store.

8) In 1952, the year "High Noon" was popular, Stopette, the first antiperspirant deodorant spray, was introduced. Do you use a deodorant spray, stick or roll on?

A. I use a gel which is sort of a stick.

9) Random question: What's something you have always wanted to own, but never have?

A. I can't really think of anything pressing, but how about an island somewhere in the warmer parts of the world?

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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.

My Life in Seven Years

In seven years, I'll be 61
Hopefully I'll be having fun.

Still writing words that people read
Maybe making jewelry with beads.

Taking photos will still be fun
My hubby will remain my only one.

Maybe I'll travel, maybe I won't
I can't be defined by "did" or "don't."

Who knows what will happen in seven years,
but I hope it's more laughter and fewer tears.



Linking up with the April challenge from Kwizgiver. April 14 done!

The Wounded Deer

This deer showed up in the front yard the other day, limping badly. She (assuming it's a doe and not an antlerless buck) cannot put any weight on that front right leg and it appears her shoulder is broken or dislocated.

My guess is she was hit by a car. However, she ran when my husband came up the driveway and she heard his vehicle.

Poor deer.

Deer dragging front leg.

I drew a little red mark around the shoulder area. I've been watching deer for 35 years and this one's shoulder
doesn't look right.

April Challenge

The April challenge: your commute to/from work.

I'm semi-retired and when I do work, I work from home. So my commute consists of getting out of bed and going into my office.

Linking up with the April challenge from Kwizgiver. April 13 done!

Thursday Thirteen

Words (or phrases) that are amusing, for whatever reason:

1. Loblolly

2. Catawampus

3. Balderdash

4. Gob smacked

5. Whinged

6. Hornswoggle

7. Cockamamie

8. Flibbertigibbet

9. Whippersnapper

10. cunning linguist

11. Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

12. Serendipity

13. Cantankerous

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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 547th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday. Or so sayth the Blogger counter, anyway.

Also linking up with the April challenge from Kwizgiver. April 12 done!

I'm Still In Love

I have been married for 34 years and 5 months.
 
How nice to be able to say, with total certainty, that my husband and I are still in love.
 
I know this because we are careful with one another. We treat each other with respect. We hold hands while we watch TV. We laugh over the same silly things. We have long discussions about the state of the nation, the farm, the deer in the pasture.
 
He rubs my stomach every night  in the way that the physical therapist showed him, trying to help me stretch out the scar tissues that have knotted my inner muscles and that threaten to cause an immediate emergency by throttling my innards.
 
As for me, I wash his clothes and fix dinner, take care of his home, try to make us a nice nest. I'm pretty sure I'm not the easiest person in the world to live with, for I can be moody and distant sometimes. But then, so can he.

We are, after all, just humans.


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This essay is part of the the April challenge from Kwizgiver. April 11 done! (Discuss your current relationship.)

The Bad Cantaloupe

Most fruits taste good to me. I like apples, grapes, berries of all kinds, bananas, etc. Some fruits I can't eat as well as I did before I had my gallbladder removed, but I have learned which ones I can eat in moderation.

I am not overly fond of pineapple, but I will eat it, and I love oranges, but they make my ears itch, so I don't eat them anymore. Allergies sometimes come out in strange ways and anything that makes your ears itch is probably not something your system likes.

But melons, cantaloupe in particular, are not fruit I eat, with one exception. Watermelon is its own category - I love a good cold watermelon. But cantaloupe? While I can tolerate it and have eaten it in the, past, it is probably the one fruit I overlook and pass over most often.

Cantaloupe has a mealy texture, for one thing, and it's also orange, for another. Orange is not my favorite color.

However, the real reason I pass over cantaloupe, though, is because I will taste for two days if I eat it. It will make me burp, give me indigestion, and set off a digestive issue that not only do I not want, I don't deserve it, either.

So cantaloupe, while I know you're good for weight loss, you're not so good for me.

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This little essay is part of the the April challenge from Kwizgiver. April 10 done! (A fruit you dislike and why.) 

Squirrel in Snow

Ageism

A very long time ago, when I was writing for the newspaper, I received an anonymous letter from someone who objected to my choice of language when talking about older folks.

I believe I used the term "elderly" to describe someone who was, well, elderly. The more acceptable term, it turned out, was "senior citizen," although at the time I couldn't for the life of me understand what was wrong with elderly.

As a result of the letter, though, I became aware of my choice of language in describing people, and eventually I settled, for the most part, on simply giving a name with the age after it, like this: Joe Baboon, 86, said,  . . .

If the person referred to him or herself as elderly or as a senior citizen, then I felt free to use whatever language I needed, and obviously if this was being said in a quotation then I quoted the person verbatim. And if some business called itself a service for senior citizens, well, who was I to argue with that?

Now I am, for better or worse, a senior citizen. I'm not yet 55 (though I will be soon) but I am over the halfway point of life and slip-sliding on the downhill side. I belong to AARP, for Pete's sake. I am not "elderly," though, and I understand better the anonymous letter-writer's objection. Elderly implies frailty, doddering, and drool. I am not elderly - yet.

However, today many young people do not respect their elders, seeing the old as someone who has things they want to have and as someone who is standing where they want to be in the supermarket. Young people can be quite rude, though not all of them.

Then there is the question of work. Older people need jobs (because of 2008 stock market crashes and now current crashes and probable loss of everything as the government fails) and find themselves looking for work.

Honestly, in today's world, I don't know how to find a job. It's certainly not as easy as it was back in the 1980s, when all I had to do was read the classified advertisements in the newspaper. Part of that may be because I've been self-employed for so long, though.

I am keenly aware of the silver in my hair, the fat in my belly, and my, shall we say, lack of grace now when I am out in public. I can't use hair coloring because I'm allergic to it, so there is no way to hide that I am in the graying age bracket. I have on my resume left off some things - I don't make note of when I graduated high school, for example, or list jobs I held 25 years ago. But even saying I've been a freelance writer for the last 25 years is a tell - that implies I have to be at least 45 or older. I'm no spring chicken, and while for the most part I am not ashamed of my white hair or my wrinkles - I have earned every darned one of them - when it comes to looking for work, I'm at a loss.

I've never had someone tell me I was too old to do something, though I have been told I had too much education for specific jobs. I've experienced much more gender bias and discrimination than age discrimination. I harbor no illusions, though, that I won't be hit with this double whammy should I ever decide to return to the work force.

Ageism is wrong on the same level as gender discrimination. If someone can do the job and has the skills, age shouldn't matter. Gender shouldn't matter. All that should matter is the ability to do the work, the skill set, and personality.

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This essay is part of the the April challenge from Kwizgiver. April 9 done!

Sunday Stealing

Sunday Stealing

1) Do you think you’d be a good writer? What kind of writer would you like to be (fiction, children’s books, magazine, etc.)?

A. I wrote for newspapers for over 30 years. I enjoyed it, though I always thought growing up I'd be another Carolyn Keene.

2) I wish I had enough money to ________.

A. Be sure we'll have a decent retirement.

3) If you had to enter a competition for the "Most Uselessly Unique Talent," what would your talent be?

A. Playing video games.

4) When it might hurt their feelings, how do you feel about telling your friends the truth?

A. It depends on what it is.

5) Peanut or plain?

A. Plain. I presume you're talking about M&Ms.

6) Is there someone you would like to take your place in life for one day? Who and why?

A. Not going to answer this question.

7) What do you think is the ugliest thing or event on Earth?

A. I am not fond of the color orange.

8) What is your least favorite of your personality traits or quirks?

A. I can be angered too easily.

9) I wish I could see ________ because _________.

A. New Zealand  . . . hobbits.

10) Tell us your favorite children's story.

A. You know it takes a long time to tell a story, don't you?
                          
11) What do you keep in the trunk of your car?

A. A laundry basket and a cooler. I use them to keep the groceries from sliding all over the trunk of the car.

12) Describe your perfect, rainy afternoon.

A. It rains.

13) Tell us about your favorite way to get lost in a simple activity — running, chopping vegetables, folding laundry, whatever. What’s it like when you’re in "the zone"?

A. I prefer to listen to music when I'm doing that kind of activity.

14) What parts of nature do you like best?

A. All of it, although I'd prefer to stay away from ticks and spiders and such.

15) What's the kindest act you have ever seen done (either to/by you or another)?

A. I've read about things that are very kind - people who give loads of cash to poor waitresses, or whatever, but I've never seen anything that I consider out-of-the-ordinary kind. I will say when my husband was hurt, my friends were very kind and considerate.

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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.

Books

A book that I hate is easier to note than one I love, because I love most books.

However, The Secret by Rhonda Byrne is one of the worst books I have ever read. It was so bad I wanted to burn it. It was so bad that I did not give it to the library or loan it to anyone; I threw it in a dumpster.

This so-called self-help book touts the "law of attraction" and how your own thoughts can change the world. It goes so far as to say that airplanes crash because all of the people on board that day want the airplane to crash. Or that children who are abused by their parents bring it on themselves. Talk about victim blaming. This one tops the list of anything I have ever read, completely disallowing for random acts of violence or random acts of anything, for that matter. If you're poor, it's because you want to be. If you're in a high school and you're shot, it's because you want to be. If you have pain it's because you want pain.

That a lot of people believe this only flies in the face of logic, as this fake science has absolutely nothing to back it up. I grant you that people can think themselves happy. They can, maybe, sit around and come up with some great invention and make themselves rich. But a child doesn't die in a car crash because he or she was thinking, "Gee, how nice it would be to die in a car crash right now." I mean come on. Life is full of circumstantial crap that none of us have any control over. I can only control my own thoughts and reactions, and if the book had stopped there, fine. But this crazy author went on to say that she thought her own eyesight back to health. Really? We're all sick because we want to be?

This book was (and is) nothing but a scam perpetrated on what has become an increasingly stupid and gullible public. You can read my initial review of it here. This is how I started my review: "If I were to memorize parts of this book, then go see a competent doctor or therapist and recite those parts, I am pretty sure I would walk away with a DSM IV diagnosis. Something along the lines of "narcissism with magical thinking." And major ego problems."

A book that I like is a harder pick for me, because I like many books, many different genres, and many different authors.

That said, I think I will list If You Want to Write, by Brenda Ueland, as one of my favorites. I haven't read it in a while but it is one of the few books I reread. It is not a book about how to write, but about how to think and see the world with open eyes and without prejudice and judgment. It's about bringing out the artist in you, and about living a lifestyle that acknowledges the abilities of your brain.

I normally do not write in books, but my old copy of this book has many highlighted passages. Like this line: "the faster you run and accomplish a lot of useless things, the more you are dead."

This book was written in 1938. That it remains relevant today says as much about it as any words I might otherwise express.

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Linking up with the April challenge from Kwizgiver. April 8 done!

Saturday 9: Nights on Broadway

Saturday 9: Nights on Broadway (1975)

Hear the song here.

1) It's estimated that there are more than 200 separate streets called "Broadway" in the United States. Does your town have a Broadway?

A. No. I even went to the GIS and looked. We have a Broad Street but no Broadway. However, my husband works with a firefighter's whose nickname is "Broadway."

2) Think of the last time you celebrated well into the night. What street were you on?

A. Main Street at the intersection of Roanoke Street

3) The Bee Gees blame it all on those songs that go straight to the heart. What love song always makes you go, "aw ...?"

A. The theme from Titanic. Yes, the one sung by Celine Dion. "My heart will go on and on . . . "

4) Even though their sound depended on tight harmonies, all three Bee Gees were heavy smokers, which is not good for the throat. What habit do you have that wish you could break?

A. I chew my fingernails.

5) In addition to the three Gibbs who sang this song, there was a fourth brother, Andy, who also had hit records. But did you know the Gibbs' had a sister, Lesley? Your turn: share some trivia that's rattling around in your head.

A. One of Kate Jackson's first acting roles was as a ghost in Dark Shadows (the TV soap opera/serial, not the movie). That was a while before she became a famous female detective in Charlie's Angels.

6) "Nights on Broadway" was recorded in Miami. When you think of Florida, what comes to mind?

A. Hot weather.

7) In 1975, when this song was popular, Sony introduced the Betamax and JVC gave us the VCR. Sam admits she was glad to see VCRs go because she never could program hers. What about you? Do you adapt easily to new technology?

A. Depends on what it is and how badly I want to learn to use it. I seem to have become pretty well adapted to my smartphone now.

8) The Bee Gees' greatest success came two years later, in 1977, with the soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever. Have you ever seen the John Travolta movie?

A. Yes.

9) Random question -- Your mail carrier is very attractive, and flirts with you each day when dropping off the mail. Would you a) ignore it or b) let the carrier know, firmly but politely, that you're not interested or c) complain to your local post office or d) subscribe to more magazines and order more stuff to guarantee that the mail carrier comes every day?

A. I would (e) hope my husband doesn't see him, first of all, because the mail carrier would end up with a bloody nose. But I hope I would do (b) because that seems to me to be the morally responsible thing to do, since I'm a happily married woman.

And for Kwizgiver's April challenge today: I have no tattoos, sorry.


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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.


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Linking up with the April challenge from Kwizgiver. April 7 done!

Mary, Queen of Scots

I'm not sure why I have always been so fascinated by someone who lost her head a very long time ago, but I like to read about Mary, Queen of Scots.

Mary Stuart (December 8, 1542 – February 8, 1587) ruled over Scotland from December 14, 1542 to July 24, 1567.

Mary was the only surviving legitimate child of King James V, who died when his daughter was only six days old. She immediately took the throne but spent most of her childhood in France while regents ruled Scotland. In 1558, Mary married the Dauphin of France, Francis. He ascended the French throne as King Francis II in 1559, and Mary briefly became queen consort of France.

Unfortunately, her husband died shortly thereafter, in December 1560. The now-widowed Mary returned to Scotland to rule. Four years later, she married her first cousin, Henry Stuart, also known as Lord Darnley, but their union was not a happy one. In February 1567, an explosion demolished Henry Stuart's residence, and Lord Darnley was found murdered in the garden.

James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell, was generally believed to have orchestrated Darnley's death, but he was acquitted of the charge in April 1567, and the following month he married Mary. The people did not like this, and after an uprising against the couple (were there pitchforks, I wonder?), Mary was imprisoned in Loch Leven Castle. On July 24, 1567, she was forced to abdicate in favor of James VI, her one-year-old son who was fathered by Henry Stuart.

After an unsuccessful attempt to regain the throne, she fled southwards hoping to receive protection from her first cousin once removed, Queen Elizabeth I of England. However, Mary had previously claimed Elizabeth's throne as her own and was considered the legitimate sovereign of England by many English Catholics, including participants in a rebellion known as the Rising of the North.

Elizabeth perceived Mary Stuart as a threat, and had her confined in various castles and manor houses in the interior of England. After eighteen and a half years in custody, Mary was found guilty of plotting to assassinate Elizabeth in 1586. She was beheaded the following year.

I think I have always romanticized this woman because of something that happened when I was very young. According to my mother, when I was around two, I began chattering on about a castle in the moors and the beheading of a queen, going on then to describe my own death and my grave. This upset her so that I was forbidden to speak of it again, and I have no recollection of it, only this version as told to me by my mother when I was a teenager.

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Linking up with the April challenge from Kwizgiver. I'll going to give it a go. Because, you know, I don't have enough to do. April 6 done!

Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen places I've never visited but would consider as a new living space (not in any particular order):

1. New Zealand. Because, you know, hobbits.

Hobbit house in New Zealand

2. Italy (particularly Tuscany).



Tuscany

3. Ireland

Ireland

4. Scotland

Scotland

5. Norway

Norway

6. England

Yorkshire, England

7. Finland

Finland

8. Tahiti

Tahiti

9. The Himalayas (in some nice warm hermit cabin with enough money to pay for someone to bring me my food so I wouldn't have to go out in the cold, unless they also have warm days there)

The Himalayas look awfully cold. Might have to rethink that.

10. Gilligan's Island, or something like it

11. Middle Earth. Because, you know, hobbits, elves, wizards and cute handsome rangers who would be king.

Rivendale in Middle Earth

12. Hogwarts

Hogwarts School of Wizardry and Witchcraft

13. Somewhere in the Delta Quadrant (Star Trek universe)

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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 546th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday. Or so sayth the Blogger counter, anyway.

Also linking up with the April challenge from Kwizgiver. I'll going to give it a go. Because, you know, I don't have enough to do. April 5 done!