Thursday Thirteen

The bills are starting to roll in on my husband's ankle fusion surgery. I thought a little breakdown might be interesting.

1. Basic metabolic panel  - $247.00 (labwork)

2. Cutting open his ankle - $2,147.00

3. Cutting his tibia - $1,629.00

4. Each of his pills he had to have (blood pressure meds), cost $3 each.

5. A countersink (?) - $1,559.50

6. A drill bit - $937.50

7. Another drill bit - $912.50

8. A blade (for cutting bone, I suppose) - $314.00

9. Another drill bit - $1,181.50

10. A bone graft augment (?) - $10,793.50

11. An implant screw (x 2)  - $3,629.50 each

12. An implant plate - $7,446.00

13. More implant screws (x 2) - $2,813.00 each

So far the total bill is over $75,000 and more bills come each day for things like the anesthesiologist, the doctor to read his EKG, the person to draw his blood - they bill separately for everything, now, and if that person doesn't partake in your insurance, you're liable for their entire bill.

Fortunately, so far as we can, our insurance is covering most everyone. Even so, we will be out five figures before this is over and done with.

A person should not go bankrupt because they have the misfortune of being sick or having something happen to them. Nor should they have to resort to "GoFundMe" or dances or cake bakes to pay off their hospital bills. Yet this is what happens around here - people really do have dances and things because of their medical expenses, hoping to pick up a couple thousand to keep the wolves of Isengard at bay - I mean, the medical professionals from garnishing your paycheck or taking out a lien on your house.

I don't understand why this is considered acceptable. We're supposedly the wealthiest nation in the world and people have to have cake bakes to pay their medical bills. There is something wrong with that scenario.

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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 637th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday. Or so sayth the Blogger counter, anyway.

The January 7 snow

What was supposed to be, according to Alexa, anyway, 1.68 inches of snow (yes, she was that exacting in her forecast), turned out to be over 3 inches of fluffy slick stuff yesterday.

I missed a chiropractor appointment. I headed out for it and turned around as quickly as I could. I had expected my driveway to be snowy but not the road. It was a sheet of ice with snow on top and my Camry was spinning all over the place. I barely made it back home.

Snow is a pain but it does make the landscape lovely.

Sunday Stealing

Sunday Stealing

1. January usually has ample amounts of snowfall in parts of the world. Did you ever make snow cream as a kid?

A. Yes, I think so. But not often.

2. January is one of the months with 31 days. What are you going to do with that extra day?

A. It's not an "extra" day. February 29 is an extra day this year. I will do on January 31 the same thing I do the day before: get up, do laundry, fix meals, do dishes, write something, play guitar, text my friends.

3.  What is your favorite magazine?

A. Reader's Digest. It's currently the only one I read. I used to get piles of them but I read them less and less, so I stopped the subscriptions.

4.  If you live to be 99 years old, what would you like your life to be like in that last decade?

A. I don't expect to live that long, but it would be nice to be healthy in body and mind.

5. The great world of Wikipediatells me that scientists claim 99% of all documented species are extinct. Which remaining species in the 1% category would you really like to see extinct?  And which species in the 99% category would you like to bring back?

A. I don't want to see any species extinct. They are all here for a reason. As for what to bring back - the plant that cures cancer that we have eradicated, whatever that is, would be nice.

6. On January 14, 1986 motorists were required for the first time to wear seat belts. Do you always buckle up? Why or why not?

A. I almost always buckle up. I don't buckle up if I'm driving down to the mailbox or over to my mother-in-law's. (My driveway is 1/4 mile long, and while I can see my mother-in-law's house from mine, it's about a 3/4 mile drive.)

7. Why did the cow jump over the moon?

A. Because it could.

9. Have you said anything in the last 24 hours that you regret?

A. Yes.

10. Have you ever written anything on your blog that you wish you could take back?

A. Probably. This thing has been going on for nearly 14 years, so it would be foolhardy to think I've not written something that I later wished I hadn't.

11. Are you the blabber or the blabbee? Tell us your most embarrassing blabbermouth moment.

A. I'm going to plead the 5th on this one.

12. How important is a cell phone in your life?

A. I make calls on it sometimes. Apple says I use it less than 30 minutes a day, and that's mostly texting. If I'm in a doctor's office or something, I might read on it. I don't consider it anything more than a tool.

13. A "cuisine" is typically influenced by and named after geographical regions and cultures. Pretend your blog is a country. What is the name of your cuisine?

A. Blue Country Magic Spaghetti.

14. You are the Blog Paparazzi! Which blogger's real photograph are you most interested in getting?

A. None. If people want to maintain their anonymity, that is their prerogative.

15. Are you always on time or just a tad late?

A. I'm usually a little early.

16. Can you think of a time when you were late for something and it was REALLY a big deal?

A. Yes, but I was in high school and while it was a big deal at the time, it in no way matters at this moment.

17. If you were on your way to work and had five minutes to get there, would you stop in the road to rescue a crossing turtle?

A. Yes.

18. When you are having a really good day, what usually makes it good?

A. I don't feel bad physically, the sun is shining, I have good music playing, and the writing is going well.

19. What is the most annoying Christmas song?

A. None of them are annoying unless it is played a lot.

20. You are Snow White. Which dwarf is your favorite and why?

A. I shall say Grumpy, because I suspect Grumpy and I would understand one another and respect each other's personal space.

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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: Keep Me Warm

Saturday 9: Keep Me Warm (2014)

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

Here's our first Saturday 9 of 2020!

1) Are you feeling warm and cozy as you answer these questions?

A. Not particularly. It's damp outside from rain and we tend to keep the house cool. The electric bill is high enough as it is.

2) This time of year is important to college football fans. Are you watching/have you watched any of the Bowl games this year?

A. I watched part of the game with the University of Virginia in it. I went to bed at half-time; it was obvious Virginia was not going to win.

3) Crazy Sam's been cold/flu free so far this winter and credits the Echinacea she takes every morning. Her brother insists she's wasting her money. Do you take any herbal supplements?

A. I take a lot of vitamins, especially B vitamins, but not herbal supplements at the moment. At one time I was drinking tea given to me by an acupuncturist that was an herbal concoction; it tasted like dirt but it seemed to help.

4) In the video for this song, Erin Bowman is singing in front of lights and ornaments. Are you sorry to see the decorations slowly disappear? Or do you think they should all come down right away?

A. We always get ours down as quickly as possible, but usually wait until after New Year's Day. They are down now.

5) She sings about socks, a scarf and a sweater. Tell us about your favorite sweater.

A. I don't have a favorite sweater. I have a favorite wrap thingy, but it's a jacket, not a sweater. I call it my "blue thing" although I now own it in about 5 different colors. It looks like this.

6) Erin credits her 8th grade choir teacher for believing in her and giving her a solo. That helped give her the confidence to go into performing professionally. When you were in 8th grade, did you know what you wanted to be when you grew up?

A. I have always wanted to be a writer, for as long as I can remember. Of course, I also wanted to be an archeologist or a geologist or a college professor, but even that involved writing. I'd still like to just be a hack, writing ghost books for a series.

7) This song has been used in commercials for McDonald's and Turner Classic Movies. What commercial have you seen recently? Was it on TV or online?

A. The only one that comes to mine is the one with the couple about Verizon. The guy comes in and sings to his wife, "I just got a phone for free, fa la la la la la la la. With no activation fees, fa la la la la la la." They're like a Hallmark Christmas movie couple trapped in a commercial.

8) In 2014, when this song was first released, we lost both Joan Rivers and Robin Williams. What comedian always makes you laugh?

A. George Carlin.

9) Random question -- There are two performers in the trapeze act: the one who flies through the air and the one who catches the flier. Which would you rather be?

A. Oh, let's be brave and fly through the air with the greatest of ease. And while we're at it, let's shoot me out of a cannon, too. May as well go for broke.

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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 Niece Reaches Legal Age

Today is my niece's 18th birthday.

She is a senior in high school, active in cheerleading. She dances with a dance troop (clogging is her thing), and she won a lot of beauty pageants when she was younger. Something like 100 of them, I don't know. I lost count.

These are photos of her I swiped from Facebook at some point or another.

I don't see much of her and I've never spent the time with her I wanted to spend. She always had a full schedule of things to do and I generally had no clue about what she was doing until about an hour beforehand, which wasn't much notice, especially if it takes a half-hour to drive to anyplace.

I have managed to attend most of her year-end dance recitals and one or two beauty pageants. But I have missed most of her growing up. I'm the aunt who gives her something at Christmas, and that's about it.

It wasn't the relationship I wanted, but it is the one I ended up with. It saddens me that I don't know much about this child - young woman, now - but it is what it is.

I hope she has a wonderful life. I think she's off to college to become a nurse, though I'm not sure what school she is going to. I hope she is very happy in her choice of profession.

I hope adulthood doesn't weigh her down.

Thursday Thirteen

Things I'd like to achieve/do/accomplish/whatever in 2020:

1. Vote.

2. Play the guitar every day.

3. Finish the 2019 bookkeeping work, and do a better job with keeping up with it for 2020.

4. Write more.

5. Make a new friend.

6. Take a trip.

7. Make better eating choices.

8. Move more.

9. Spend more time outside.

10. Declutter a few drawers.

11. Read more.

12. Rewrite my will.

13. Purchase more local artwork.


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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 637th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday. Or so sayth the Blogger counter, anyway.

Welcome 2020!

Happy New Year!
Boy, was 2019 something or what? Glad that one is in the books. Time to move on. I wonder what 2020 will bring?

Where's my crystal ball?

:::cue glossy eyes and foggy setting as we drift around to see the future :::

Time for some prognosticating!

In the next year, we'll see some kind of something from North Korea smash into the United States, possibly hitting a big city. Or maybe some non-existent place in Alaska. At any rate, it will certainly put the kibosh on the love-letters between Kim Jong-Un and #45. Will it bring war? Stay tuned.

The economy will begin to erode, but the crash won't occur until after the 2020 elections. You've been warned. Take a look at your portfolio in the next six months and make adjustments.

Medical science will increase its research into pancreatic cancer, not because it's such a deadly cancer, but because it is striking so many public figures. Nobody cares much if it kills your mom or your husband's aunt, but they sure care if it messes with Jeopardy!

We still won't have a viable national health care plan. Things will continue to meander along as they are.

Deregulation by the EPA will increase the smog index. Cases of asthma, COPD, and other breathing-related health concerns will skyrocket.

Mass shootings will occur in 15 different states. Or maybe all of them, except for Rhode Island.

A communications satellite will fall from the sky and hit a major city. It will hit with the force of a small asteroid and level a city block.

Scotland will become independent of the United Kingdom, and join the European Union. Ireland will also attempt this, but fail, leading to bombings and terrorism plots.

A long-dormant volcano in a major metropolitan area will blow its top unexpectedly, killing and wounding thousands.

The discovery that a certain tree in the Amazon provides a cure for Parkinson's disease will cause a pause in deforestation, but only until scientists figure out how to grow the trees in a manmade groves.

Drones will make deliveries in all areas of the country, and be particularly useful in rural areas.

The year will be the hottest on record. Wildfires will reach record numbers in all areas of the world. Glaciers will continue to melt. The ocean level will rise by an inch.

And close to home:

The county will bring in another pollution-maker to its favorite industrial park.

Taxes will remain the same.

We will have three murders in my county; 12 in the nearby city.

Someone will sue the county officials over Freedom of Information Act violations.

The county will make a major land purchase to create another industrial park.

When renovations to the county's courthouse prove too expensive, a new courthouse will be planned. Historic-minded citizens will revolt.

Someone will apply to build a windmill farm on Tinker Mountain.

One of the county's remaining diary farms will shut down.

There will be a major weather event - flood? high winds?

I personally will see lots of deer and turkey, and take a great picture of a bear.

:::the fog is lifted, I can see the future no longer :::


What do you think? Is my crystal ball broken?

(I shouldn't have to say this, but this was all in fun and I have no idea what is going to happen. But everything needs a disclaimer these days. This blog post is not meant to be taken literally.)

Cotton Candy Clouds for New Year's Eve

The sky this morning had the most interesting splotches of light on the clouds. Some of them looked like puffs of cotton candy at a fair.

We have come to it now, the last day of this year, and of this decade, depending on how one counts decades. At any rate, the "teens" of the second millennium are over and the "twenties" are about to begin.

I doubt they will be Roaring '20s like in the 1900s. But we'll see. By 2025, things might be grooving along as well as one could hope. Or we could all be dust on a barren, dead planet.

Moving on.

My major accomplishment of this year, by far, was writing a 100-page magazine at the behest of the county's 250th anniversary committee. I was asked in March and I finished it in mid-October, for the most part, although I was still proofing copies into December.

My next other accomplishment was being published in Artemis and then attending and reading my poetry at a poetry reading at the Blue Ridge Library in September.

I also managed to hit my 36th wedding anniversary, a feat in this day and age, and I've kept my husband clean, fed, and happy while he recovers from an ankle fusion surgery. I do think we need to build him a man space, though. I miss my alone time and having here 24/7 for six weeks has been nerve-wracking. I'm not used to having him around all the time.

What else happened that was noteworthy this year?

Ah, home improvements. We installed new flooring. Well, actually some of the flooring we installed in 2018 had to be removed and reinstalled, and we went ahead and put in hardwood flooring while we were at it. It has worked well and I think the house has less dust.

Also, we lost a lot of trees. The first blue spruce fell over in a windstorm in February, and the others we removed because they were dying. In 2012, I think it was, we had a drought, and we didn't water the trees because these were established trees - they were nearly 30 years old then - and it simply didn't occur to us to do so. As a result, they each caught a fungus that eventually kills the trees. We tried spraying them annually with fungicide but they were too far gone. Then the ash borers came through and took out the ash trees. So we had the blue spruces removed, and a very large ash, and from the looks of it we will have to have the tree people back to remove at least one more ash in the backyard that is too large to simply cut down. I miss my trees although I do enjoy the new views. We plan to plant something back this spring. I want evergreens, so I need to find a hardy type that will weather our changing climate.

One other thing I did was contact my local officials with concerns about Freedom of Information Act notices and their many closed meetings. This led to a flurry of meetings with county staff that were both perplexing and amusing. Some changes were made because I was right but the county still spends far too much time in closed sessions and it is very secretive about things they really have no reason to be so closed-mouth about. That happened in March.

My nephew married and had a baby. We threw him a combination marriage reception/baby shower in late May. The baby's name is Ellie and she's just starting to figure out she can move around. I think she'll be crawling in the next few weeks.

In late June, I developed a blood clot in my leg. I still have a knot there, although the clot is apparently gone and this is now a big varicose vein. It hurts sometimes, still.

We went to Myrtle Beach in September. I bought a cheap electric guitar, which I am enjoying very much. I'd forgotten how much I like to play an electric guitar. This one is very light for an electric guitar.

That brings us fairly current. It was a busy year. What will 2020 have in store, I wonder?

Books: The Overstory

The Overstory: A Novel
By Richard Powers
2018
Kindle Edition
Print length: 502 pages
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize


Since this book won the Pulitzer and many other prizes, I think I'm supposed to have liked it.

I did not.

Maybe it's because I read it on the Kindle - but I think the Kindle helped me to see the failures in the book.

It's a nice book. Lots of pretty writing, and a strong environmental message. Thoreau would be pleased to read it, I think.

I found it tedious. I felt like it needed editing, and it could have lost about five of the nine characters in it. I had a difficult time keeping up with who was whom and why they were doing what they were doing; a circuitous route around the American Chestnut ended poorly and rather stupidly, if you ask me.

Some reviews say the book ended on a positive note, but I didn't see anything positive about it. Mostly the message is this: trees good, people bad. People are going to kill all trees and end life on earth as we know it.

The only way to save it is to make it a big virtual project, like taking the "catch a Pokémon" game and turn it into cleaning up a stream or something.

Ok, then.

Other reviewers thought the characters were well drawn; for the most part, I found them to be caricatures and not characters. They all represented the fringes of society, the people who don't fit into the cogs and run the mainframe of consumerism and capitalism that now drives the mechanisms governments have put in place to create a new species of human doings instead of human beings.

These can be interesting people, those who don't fit into the well-oiled machine, but Powers managed to make them rather uninteresting if not eye-rolling. The only character I liked was Patricia Westerford, a scientist who put forth the initial journal article that trees communicate and their roots intertwine and they protect and feed off of one another. She was belittled for her work and only later recognized as the pioneer in what is now a commonly held scientific theory - that trees and plants have their own ways of communicating.

One thing I've not seen mentioned in other reviews about this book is the treatment of women. Women are given the patriarchal treatment here; they are not heroines or heroes. In fact, of the four main female characters, two die, one is maimed and scarred, and the other is unable to have a child and forced to spend 20 years caring for her husband who has a stroke (and she's a faithless wife, too). The men all trundle off to live other lives until one guy stupidly writes down their escapades as activists and a young nameless woman finds his notes and turns him in. And then only two of them end up jailed.

One young man, a computer whiz, is portrayed as a brilliant mind trapped in a crippled body, and he is unable to understand the beauty of nature except through the lenses of his made-up virtual worlds. He ends up a multi-millionaire, though the author does not treat him especially kindly.

I had a difficult time getting into this book; it was a slog to read. If my book club hadn't been reading it, I would have put it down around a third of the way through and never finished it.

Personally, I would not have missed out on much. I already knew that trees talk to one another, that the forest and the natural world communicate in ways we simply do not yet understand. I have always known this, just as I know that whatever it is we are destroying will be returned in some form that we have yet to imagine. New and different trees, or different, more hardy vegetation, will eventually spring up and overtake our cities. I've seen it. I've been to the remains of local towns that were abandoned, and I've seen their structures overrun by nature's steady progress to retake the ground.

Maybe city dwellers, people who don't think outside of themselves, and folks who've never spent a lot of time in the woods will find this message endearing and take it to heart.

It is a good message.

I just wasn't entranced with the story or the method of storytelling.

Sunday Stealing

Sunday Stealing

1. First things first, did you have a good year?

A. It wasn't a bad year, but it wasn't the best year. I enjoyed the work I did.

2. If you traveled, where did you go?

A. We went to Myrtle Beach for a week.

3. Which fashion trends did you love?

A. I don't pay attention to fashion trends. Were there any?

4. Which fashion trends did you hate?

A. See answer above.

5. What was your favorite article of clothing this year?

A. Blue jeans. They're always a favorite.

6. What song sums up this year for you?

A. 100 years by Five for Fighting

7. What was your favorite movie of the year?

A. I don't think I had one.

8. Did an actor/actress catch your attention for the first time this year?

A. The young woman who plays Lyra in the HBO series His Dark Materials has promise.

9. Favorite new TV show?

A. Batwoman.

10. Did you make any big permanent changes this year?

A. I don't know that any of the changes I made will be permanent.

11. What was one nice thing you did for yourself?

A. I bought a cheap electric guitar.

12. Did you develop a new obsession?

A. No.

13. Did you vote?

A. Yes.

14. Did you move?

A. No.

15. Did you get a job?

A. I went back to freelancing for six months. We'll see what the new year brings on that front.

16. Did you get a pet?

A. No.

17. Do you regret not doing anything?

A. There are always regrets about not doing things.

18. Do you regret doing something?

A. No.

19. Have you done anything that scared you?

A. Not that I can recall.

20. Did anyone/thing make you so mad it stayed with you for days?

A. Yes.

21. Did you lose anyone close to you?

A. No one close, but I went to many funerals.

22. Who was important to you this year but wasn’t important last year?

A. No one.

23. Who wasn’t as important to you this year as they were last year?

A. No one.

24. If you could have a do over on one thing you did, would you take it?

A. It would depend on the one thing.

25. What was the best moment of the year for you?

A. When my husband came out of surgery on his ankle and was awake and ok and not dead from the anesthesia.

26. What was the worst?

A. When my husband had surgery on his ankle.

27. What are you most proud of accomplishing?

A. The writing of an entire magazine.

28. What have you learned about yourself this year that you didn’t know in the years prior?

A. That I can accomplish what I set out to do, even if the end goal is months away.

29. What do you wish for others for the coming year?

A. I wish for peace, understanding, and empathy.

30. What do you wish for yourself?

A. Peace, understanding, and empathy. And several million dollars.

__________
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: Cold as Ice

Saturday 9: Cold as Ice (1977)

Unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it here. (Great Foreigner song!)

Our last Saturday 9 of 2019. Thank you for another great year, everyone!

1) Look back on 2019 and share a happy moment.

A. Getting the first proof of the 100-page magazine I wrote for my county's 250th anniversary celebration last year was a very happy moment. I spent six months writing that thing up, editing submissions, filling in holes, begging for photos, and proofreading. It looks pretty good.

2) As 2019 ends, are you making any New Year's resolutions for 2020?

A. Not so far. I need to lose weight, but doesn't everybody?

3) Tell us about an obstacle or challenge you faced in 2019.

A. I'm still in that obstacle phase - my husband's ankle. First the obstacle was him and getting him to go see a doctor, which took months and months of pleading. I even made a video of him walking so he could see how bad he was dragging his foot! Finally he saw the doctor, and then he had his surgery. He's doing very well but we won't know the outcome - will he be able to walk without a lot of pain - for a few more weeks yet. And on the plus side, this is the most time we've spent together in our 36 years of marriage, and I haven't hit him in the head with a frozen leg of lamb yet.

4) Is it "cold as ice" outside where you are today?

A. It is downright balmy here in Virginia, where it should be just barely above freezing this time of year. The poor trees won't know what is going on.

5) Foreigner is this week's featured artist. The band formed in New York City. If you were to travel to New York City, what would you be sure to see?

A. I'd like to see the 9/11 monument, a Broadway play, the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building, and I want to go back to Chinatown and eat real honest-to-goodness Chinese food, not the stuff they try to pass off around here as Chinese food. I have been to New York once and I ate real Chinese food there - no comparison to what is served around here!

 6) The band went by the name Trigger. They changed it because their prospective record label was already auditioning a different group named Trigger. They settled on Foreigner because half the members were foreign -- from England. If you received a free, round-trip airline ticket to any foreign country, where would you go?

A. I'd have to go to New Zealand to see where the Lord of the Rings was filmed. However, I'd also like to go to Scotland and Ireland. I wonder if I could have a trip with stop-overs.

7) In 1977, when this song was popular, Star Wars was breaking all box office records. The Spy Who Loved Me, a James Bond movie, was also a 1977 hit. Which film series do you prefer: Star Wars or James Bond?

A. Star Wars. I am not a James Bond fan.

8) In 1977, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak incorporated Apple. Are you answering these 9 questions on an Apple product (PC, laptop, pad or phone)?

A. No. I'm using a Microsoft PC.

9) Random question: What was the last thing you thought of as you dozed off last night?

A. I was thinking about how much trash I needed to have hauled to the landfill (we don't have trash pickup) and how I would handle this in the future should I outlive my husband. My father very helpfully loaded my trash on his truck and hauled it to the dump for me Friday morning, but since I have no children to rely upon, I would probably have to pay someone to go to the landfill for me twice a month. Trying to live in this house without my husband would be very expensive. I'm sure I would have to move.

______________
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.

A Very Rare Sight

 

 

This is my husband reading a fiction book. In the 36+ years we've been married, I have never seen him read anything other than tractor manuals, farm magazines, or firefighting books and materials related to his work.

 

And here he is reading a Stuart Woods book.

 

Be still my heart.



Thursday Thirteen

1. I found this intriguing page about air quality index that shows current air qualities. The nearest place of measurement near me is in Lynchburg. It shows a moderately bad air quality index rated at 69 (not sure what all that means, but I feel vindicated in noticing more pollution around here, since it isn't in the green and great range).

2. This website shows a list of polluters by area. It also shows other types of neighborhood information, like crime, schools, sex offenders, etc. The information appears to be a bit out of date as the list it has of polluters in my county is not correct. Some of the companies they list aren't located here; others have shut down and are no longer in business.

3. These are major causes of pollution in my county: Webster Brick Co Inc., Shaw Connex Inc., Roanoke Cement Co., Gala Industries Inc., Altec Industries Inc.

4. I live right in between Roanoke Cement Co. and Altec Industries. I didn't know Altec was a major polluter. I'm also not that far from the county landfill.

5. Information on pollution is rather scarce on the internet at the moment. For a while you could find more current information on pollution, but some of it dates back to 2012 and the most recent dates I could find doing a quick search stopped at 2017.

6. Don't we have a right to know who's tossing crap into the air and water?

7. I don't much trust the information on any .gov sight right now, but the EPA.gov sight says we have at least three superfund clean-up sites in my county (that was as of 2013). They aren't scheduled for any action, however.

8. I run two air purifiers in my house 24/7. The exterior carbon filter turns gray with stuff within a month of use.

9. Opening the windows is supposed to be the best way to help get clean air in your house. But if the air outside smells worse than the air inside, can that really be the case?

10. I am going to plant more trees this spring. I doubt it helps much, but it sure won't hurt anything.

11. I wonder if one day the Blue Ridge Mountains will be called the Hazy Mountains?

12. Air pollution can come from places other than nearby. We've had smoke from fires in California drift this way before.

13. When the astronauts first went into space, the earth looked like a big blue marble. In 200 years, will it look gray instead?


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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 636th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday. Or so sayth the Blogger counter, anyway.

Merry Christmas 2019

Merry Christmas from Blue Country Magic!

 

May all of your days be magical.

 

Happy Christmas Eve

One thing about it, the days come along whether you're ready for them or not, don't they?

Christmas Eve has always been a bigger celebration day in my immediate family than Christmas Day. My parents used to throw huge Christmas Eve parties when I was a child. (Maybe they weren't so huge, they simply seemed that way to a young'un.)

To keep us calm and quieter, my parents used to let my brother and I exchange presents on Christmas Eve.

We still do that.

In the past, my husband and I have held open houses with people coming and going all day long, an 8-hour party that began at lunch and lasted past dinner. Friends, family, neighbors - anybody could drop by for a cookie and a visit.

I'd spend days preparing a table that included an assortment of cookies, fudge, meatballs, ham biscuits, and drink.

This tradition has changed as we've aged. The young nephews and niece are grown up. Many of my relatives on my mother's side have moved out of state. I don't see them anymore. Other folks have moved on to the other plane of existence, the one we only guess at.

My back hurts when I stand a long time, which cooking requires.

Part of me misses the excitement of people coming and going.

Part of me enjoys the new quiet.

Peace on earth, goodwill toward all.

Blessed be.

The Stench of Deregulation

For the last several days, there has been a ring about the valley in which I live. It is hovering below the mountains, a line of pollution that I can see in every direction I look.

I can smell it, too, when I go outside. It reminds me of my childhood. When I was about 10 years old, I would frequently go outside in the mornings and smell this awful smell.

"I smell Covington," was the line we used. It was the line everyone used, because the paper mill was in Covington and it sent wafts of pollution into the air on an hourly basis. When the wind was right, we all smelled Covington, even though it's about a 45 minute drive away.

And now I smell Covington again, only I don't think it's Covington. I think it's the cement plant. We also have new industries that have sprang up in the last 20 years and who knows what they're throwing up in the air.

(Also, folks are burning wood in their fireplaces now because it's winter, it's cold, and despite all this winning we have in the economy, lots of folks must burn wood to keep warm.)

Many of these local industries in 2017 fell under deregulations put in place by the current administration. Regulations that were meant to stop pollution so that people like me, people with asthma and other breathing problems, might live our lives without choking when we walk out the door. Twenty-one different regulations that stopped air pollution were "rolled back" so that the company owners might make a higher profit.

In 2018, the Environmental Protection Agency decided to reread the rules to suit themselves, and in so doing, they allowed even more pollution to enter our air.

This is supposed to save every household $3,100 over a 5 to 10 year period. The White House has a lovely .pdf that I've linked to that proclaims this deregulation stuff to be the best thing since Nixon said, "I am not a crook." This is a bunch of made-up guess-work (some would call it Fake News). Does anyone really think the corporations are going to take their savings and make the cost of their products less? Do you see the cost of products lessening? I don't. Those savings are going to the pockets of CEOS and shareholders.

All this is doing for me is increasing my doctor bills.

An inhaler costs me $40 under my insurance plan. I'm supposed to use it every 4 hours, two puffs at a time. It only has 200 inhalations. At that rate it won't last a month.

So I skimp on my inhaler and don't use it as prescribed. That means I'm not taking in enough air and I'm tired all the time. The last time I was checked by my asthma doctor, I was only able to use about 70 percent of my lung capacity without an inhaler.

My father asked me a while back how my life has been affected under this presidency when I complained about this administration.

Well, this is one way.

I can't breathe.

Pollution rising from the cement plant, which is just over the ridge. Photo taken on 11-13-2019.

Sunday Stealing

Sunday Stealing

1. Do you ever give things away to your friends?

A. Yes. I think I did that more in the past than now; I am old, and so are my friends, and we mostly have what we need or want.
 
2. Does it make you uncomfortable when your parents talk about finding people attractive? If your parents don’t make comments like that, what sort of things can your family members say that do make you feel uncomfortable?

A. This is another one of those questions I'm not answering this close to Christmas.

3. Have you ever heard of an “alternative spring break”? Have you ever participated in one or known someone who has?

A. I have no clue what this is.

4. Is there anyone’s friendship or relationship, in particular, that makes you jealous?

A. I suppose I could be a little jealous of all the women my age who are now grandmothers because they were able to have children, sometimes. But I try not to think about it.

5. Is there a book series where you loved the first book, but for some reason the other books in the series just didn’t measure up?

A. Some of the books by Janet Evanovich in the Stephanie Plum series fall into that category. A few of the books have been clunkers.

6. Are you a registered voter?

A. Yes. And you should be, too, if you live in a country that has elections.

7. Are there any stores/restaurants that you would like to shop/eat at, but there aren’t any located near enough to you?

A. I live in a rural area. There are tons of stores that I've never even heard of, or have seen advertised and have no clue what they are. Trader Joe's, for example. Costco.

8. How many people would you say you are close with? Who are they?

A. I am close with all the people I want to be close with. As for who they are, that is my business.

9. Do you ever have smell hallucinations?

A. I have a very strong sense of smell. I can't say I've ever imagined a smell, but I can smell things others do not. Black snakes, for example, smell like cucumber. Rattlesnakes and copperheads smell like freshly turned-over dirt. I can smell molds, too, that other people cannot.

10. Is there something that you did not used to take seriously, that you either now take seriously or wish that you had in the past (e.g., a relationship that you miss, your education, etc.)?

A. Yes, but it is a secret.

11. Are there any subjects that you are interested in so much that you would read whole books or academic journals about them?

A. Yes. I've an entire library about writing, at least 100 books or more. I have read most of them.

12. Are you physically affectionate with your friends?

A. Yes.

13. When you were in school, did you witness a lot of bullying? How did the teachers react to name-calling or violence?

A. I was in school back in the dark ages. We respected our teachers, for the most part. I saw teachers slam students up against lockers when I was in high school and they were breaking up a fight or something.

14. If there is a specific celebrity (or two, or three!) that you dislike, is it because of petty reasons or is it because they’ve done something absolutely damning in your mind?

A. I think Adam Sandler is a horrible actor and misogynistic, so I don't watch anything he is in. I also don't watch Clint Eastwood movies, for the most part, because I don't like his acting. I think he's very wooden and has only one expression.
 
15. Are any of your friends/relatives actually impressive artists or writers?

A. I have many friends who are impressive artists and writers. Some of my artist friends are nationally known, and so are some of my writer friends. I went to a college that specialized in cranking out Pulitzer Prize winning authors.

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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.