Thursday Thirteen

1. It is hard to write a Thursday 13 when your mind is full of news, which is all bad, and all about a virus that could mutilate your lungs.

2. Since we're all at home, I wonder what we are all doing now. I'm not doing anything much different from what I did before - I live in a rural area and after my husband's surgery in November, we have pretty much been self-isolating since then.

3. My daily routine consists of cleaning the house, reading lots of news, reading or listening to a book, writing a blog post, writing emails, fixing lunch and dinner for my husband (we each do our own breakfast), and generally puttering around.

4. I miss the routine of work from when I had full-time freelancing going on. I had a more regular schedule, I saw more people, and felt like I was generally more involved in the world and more active in society.

5. Yesterday I participated in the Roanoke Valley Day of Giving, because I wanted to do something positive. Handing out dollars is not necessarily the best way to give of myself, but it is one way.

6. Before the coronavirus forced us all to self-quarantine, I had been contemplating where I would like to volunteer my time in an effort to force some change into my routine. I've put that on hold for now. Everything is closed, anyway.

7. I have a calligraphy kit and a jewelry-making kit here. I received both for Christmas in 2018, and didn't get to them because I was called to write my county's 250th anniversary magazine. I think I may have time to pick those kits up now and see if I can develop a new skill.

8. Many learning opportunities abound online, too. Open Culture is a free one-stop shop for learning, if you're into that. You can also spend money on things like Masterclass, The Great Courses, or pretty much anything else.

9. YouTube has videos that can teach you yoga, tai chi, guitar, etc. There is no reason to be bored or to stop learning if you're not sick and in bed.

10. I wonder how much of these changes will become a part of our life in the future. Are these temporary societal structure changes, or will some become permanent?

11. I wonder if businesses will discover they don't need office space. Will we have ghost buildings everywhere, and industrial parks sitting empty?

12. Some things require you to be onsite, though. I can't imagine that everything can be done at home. I can't make a car at my house!

13. I hope everyone is trying to destress during these stressful times. Breathe, visualize something lovely, and let it all go away, if only for a moment. Trying times call for different measures.

Here's a meditation video on youtube. Check it out and feel better all over! It only takes 5 minutes.

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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 648th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday. Or so sayth the Blogger counter, anyway.

We Went Searching

In a dream, I looked all around me for something I'd lost. I climbed over a mountain and ran across a meadow (you can do all that in your sleep).

Thing is, I didn't know what I'd lost. But I was frantic for it, whatever it was. Finally, I found my husband, who was in a cornfield chastising a calf for running through the electric fence (they've been doing that for real recently so I know where *that* came from).

"I've lost it!" I cried, throwing myself into his chest. His arms folded around me.

"We'll find it," he said.

So we started looking. He didn't ask me what I'd lost, and I never told him, but we went searching for it.

I looked under couches and in drawers. We were in our house now. He went into the garage.

The scenery changed and I was in a desert, very hot. My mouth was dry. I was still searching, though. Sand fell between my fingers as I pawed at the landscape. 

I wondered why my husband wouldn't come in from the garage and bring me a glass of water.

Dreams are so very odd sometimes.

I woke with the alarm, so I don't know what I was looking for, or if I ever found it.

The sense of loss has stayed with me all day. What did I lose? What have I lost?

What am I missing?

Who have I forgotten?

We live in perilous times, but we have always lived in perilous times. There are things going on now that I find awful - I think it there is something seriously wrong with a country that has so many poor people who can't feed their children that the schools have to turn buses into food trucks and send them to ensure children are eating.

But we have always had poor people, and children who needed to be fed. (That is no excuse, we should be better than this.)

I have read many, many issues of old newspapers, local and national. I like to read those old issues. Because you know what? The discussions are generally the same.

How do we pay for this or that? Is this the role of government or the private sector? How much is too much and when is it not enough?

I don't even need to look up anything to know we've been through epidemics before. Not just the Spanish flu in 1918, but also polio, tuberculosis, whooping cough, measles, etc.

What am I looking for? I think in my dream I was looking for comfort, for solace, for some kind of control over something over which I have no control - as we all are, when we buy toilet paper or comfort foods or whatever we do to feel like we have some grasp on a situation.

We searched for an intangible, my husband and me, as we waded through my nightmare.

I would like to see leadership during a pandemic but all I see is someone parading the leaders of big companies out in press conferences, shaking hands when they should all be standing 6 feet apart. Certainly no leading by example there.

What else am I looking for? Maybe self-direction. Maybe assurances. Maybe nothing. Maybe I have nothing to look for, I just think I do, because we live in such a lackluster world with lackluster lives.

We went searching, my husband and I, in a dream. He went into the garage. I ended up panting in a desert.

At least in my mind, I sent him some place safe.

Drank 'til I was Thirsty Again

My husband often says that I was the happiest when I was in college. I worked and went to college part-time. It took me eight years to finish a bachelor's degree at Hollins, and that doesn't count the four years it took me to finish my A.S. degree at Virginia Western Community College.

But I loved the learning. I loved the smell of it, the atmosphere of it, the taste of it. I loved my philosophy class, where I learned about Sisyphus, and I loved my English classes, where I soaked in John Donne and Virginia Wolfe and countless other poets and authors.

Learning has always been my drink of choice.

As a child I was one of those inquisitive youngsters who asked, "why" all the time. My mother told me once I drove her crazy with questions.

"Why is the sky blue?"

"What are clouds?" etc. and I didn't want cheeky answers, either. I wanted real answers, even if I couldn't understand them. "Because God made it that way," was no answer in my book. If I received that answer, that demanded another, "Why would He do that?" inquiry.

By first grade, I was reading the newspaper. Not just the comics, but the entire thing. I remember my grandparents arguing over it one evening as I sat at the dinner table reading the headline news. My grandfather thought I was too young to be looking at the horrors of the day. I imagine they were horrible, too, as we were in the Vietnam War at that time, and the peace movement was all around, and things were unsettled.

Seems like things are always unsettled here in the U.S.A., don't they?

Fortunately, I was taking in some of it, but not all of it. I was too young to understand death or the horrors of war.

I read all the time. My mother once punished me for reading too much. I couldn't help it. I read the papers, the backs of cereal boxes, the True Story and True Romance magazines my mother brought home, the versions of Readers Digest Condensed Books that my parents bought. When I was six years old, I read Bambi. Not the Disney version, the novel by Felix Salten. I sobbed when Bambi's mother died. I think that was when I learned the power of a good story.

By the age of 10, I'd read Wuthering Heights. I envisioned a sour soul mourning the loss of his beloved as he walked across the moors (whatever they were). I devoured not only the classics but also Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys and whatever I could bring home from the school library.

I wish I'd kept a list. It would be quite long. If I added magazines, it would be lengthy indeed.

Learning still draws me. I like to learn new songs on the guitar. I like to learn new skills on the computer. I like to learn about different things and I read many things online. I read The New Yorker, the Atlantic, The New York Times, loads of articles about literary figures, and pretty much anything else that catches my attention.

I've subscribed to several of The Great Courses to continue my learning efforts.

Ted Talks entertain me while I am fixing dinner, courtesy of Alexa.

To learn is to live, if you ask me. When people stop learning, they stop living. Or they're merely automatons, just breathing and going through the motions. I want to be reading something intriguing when I draw in my last breath.

I want to learn and learn and learn, until the learning is all I am.

Sunday Stealing

Sunday Stealing

1. What is the wallpaper on your computer screen? Why did you choose it?

A. I have a simple solid blue background on my computer screen. I find photos on the screen mess with my head and make it hard to find my desktop items.

2. Who is the person you text the most in your life? What relation are you?

A. I text a friend I've known for a very long time every night. We're not related as far as I know. Just old friends.

3. Is there carpet or hardwood floor in your bedroom?

A. Hardwood flooring.

4. Do you believe in superstitious things such as breaking a mirror?

A. No. Knock wood. ::Throwing salt over my shoulder:: ::walking around a ladder:: ::avoiding the black cat:: Just kidding.

5. Do you like those ‘end of the world,’ ‘Armageddon’ movies?

A. Depends on how violent they are. I liked Waterworld and The Postman, and the second Mad Max movie. I also liked The Hunger Games trilogy.

6. Chocolate or strawberry birthday cake? Choose one.

A. Chocolate.

7. Do you eat more vegetables or fruits? What’s your favorite fruit/veggie?

A. I like peas for vegetables and I like berries for fruit.

8. Does the dentist calm you or does it tend to stress you out?

A. I like my dentist. She is very nice, and I don't mind seeing her at all.

9. If you had to choose, which is the worst movie you’ve ever seen?

A. Anything with Adam Sandler in it.

10. Have you ever found yourself talking to an inanimate object?

A. I do that all the time - in fact, I think most people now talk to Siri or Alexa or Cortana.

11. Do you like movies that are originally based on children’s books?

A. Depends on the movie and the book.

12. Is your hair more thick or thin? Is it more curly or straight?

A. I have very fine hair that is gradually turning from brown to "soft white," like a GE light bulb. It is mostly straight but has some curl in it, but that can change with the hair stylist.

13. Name something on the human body that grosses you out the most.

A. I am not particularly fond of feet.

14. What is your favorite color of apple? Red, green or yellow?

A. I like Granny Smiths, and they are green.

15. Do you hardly ever remember where you put things at?

A. That is a horrible sentence. Who wrote that sentence? Somebody call the Grammar Police! I have a felony here! Hurry! Hurry!  I think you're trying to ask, "Do you forget where you place things?" and the answer to that question would be: sometimes.

16. Do you ever lay in the grass and look up at the sky, just because?

A. I haven't done that in a long time because (a) I'm old and getting up from the ground is hard and (b) I'm allergic to grass.

17. Are you a controversial person? Do your views oppose others?

A. Again, I need the Grammar Police! Someone find this person and teach him or her how to write a sentence. My views are my views. I don't care whether or not anyone agrees with them.

18. Have you ever thrown a surprise party for someone? Who for?

A. You mean, "For whom?" do you not? The answer is yes, I have thrown two surprise parties. Both were for my husband and occurred while he was at work.

19. What would you say your average word per minute time is on the keyboard?

A. At one time I typed over 100 wpm on the keyboard. I just took a free test and it said I typed 69 wpm with 94% accuracy. I guess that's not bad for an aging woman.

20. Do you like fiction or non-fiction books more? What’s your favorite?

A. I prefer fiction books generally, but I read both. My favorite genre is fantasy but I also read contemporary literature, mysteries, an occasional romance, and "women's fiction," whatever that is.

21. Do you know how to play pool? Are you any good at it?

A. I do know how to play pool, and I was once a decent player. However, it has been many years since I played so I doubt I would be proficient at it now.

22. What was the most painful medical procedure you’ve ever had?

A. I have had multiple abdominal surgeries and they have all hurt. However, my gallbladder surgery left me in chronic pain that has lasted for the last seven years, so I will go with that one.

23. Are you someone who tends to take a whole lot of naps?

A. I do not nap. If I am napping, I am ill.

24. Have you ever been pulled over by the cops for speeding?

A. No.

25. Is anyone in your family a firefighter? Who is it anyway?

A. Why yes, someone in my family is a firefighter. He happens to be my husband and he is a battalion chief with a city fire department. During emergencies he has complete control of a fire scene and can have you arrested if you get in his way for impeding emergency services. He can shut down your restaurant if it is violating the fire codes. He has the life of half of the city (50,000 people) in his hands when he is on duty. You and society owe him and every other firefighter and emergency services person more than you could ever repay.

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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: I'll Take You Home Again

Saturday 9: I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen (1975)

(Chosen because St. Patrick's Day is Tuesday.)
 
Unfamiliar with this week's song? Hear it here.

1) This week's song is widely considered a traditional Irish ballad. Are you of Irish descent?

A. I always thought I was on my father's side, but my brother took one of those DNA tests, and it came back 53% Great Britain and only l3% Irish/Scotland/Wales. So I'm a little Irish but apparently more British.

2) It's a song from a groom to his homesick bride. Who did you most recently serenade? (Yes, "Happy Birthday" counts.)

A. My husband listened to me singing while I was practicing my guitar.

3) Kathleen considers "home" her mother's cottage. How about you? Is "home" where you live now, or is it where you grew up?

A. Home is where I live now.

4) St. Patrick is credited with driving snakes out of Ireland, and to this day the Irish report there are no snakes on their land. Ophiophobia is the fear of snakes. Do you suffer from ophiophobia?

A. Yes, and the darned things are already out crawling around. My mother-in-law ran over one with the car the other day. She ran over it 7 times.

5) Irish Americans held the first St. Patrick's Day parade on our shores in New York City in 1766. Does your town host a St. Patrick's Day parade?

A. The parade has been cancelled due to the Corona virus, but yes, the nearest city has a St. Patrick's Day parade.

6) Leprechauns are a symbol of St. Patrick's Day. These small Irish fairies are said to live in the forest, guarding their gold. Do you more often wear silver or gold?

A. I lean toward white gold or silver.

7) The signature color of St. Patrick's Day is green. Will you wear green next Tuesday?

A. If I remember.

8) This week's featured artist, Elvis, was the idol of millions. But not the Songfellows. In the early 1950s, a young Elvis auditioned for this gospel group and they refused him. Just as well, as the King of Rock 'n Roll did rather well for himself as a solo. Like Elvis, did you ever interview for a job that you didn't get?

A. Yes, several times. Once I interviewed for some kind of advertising position, I can't remember exactly what now since it was about 35 years ago. I'd typed my resume on a typewriter because we didn't have word processors then. Near the end of my resume, there was a typographical error I'd missed. The company managers called me in for an interview but then said they couldn't understand how I could be so credentialed but have this typo. I didn't know what to say, so I said something really stupid. I said, "I leave it there to see if prospective employers catch it, because I don't want to work for people who can't see the error." Or something along those lines. I did not get the job. I'm not sure what would have been a better answer. Maybe just admitting I was in a hurry?

9) Random question: Do you believe women are more emotional than men?

A. After the travesties we've seen with the politicians weeping and gnashing their teeth in recent years, crying because they felt they were entitled to be a Supreme Court Justice or sobbing because people are so mean to their beloved president? Hell no. Men are whiny little babies.

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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.

Empty Shelves

Apparently the naysayers decided in the last two days that maybe the global corona virus isn't a Democratic hoax after all. The stores around here, which is a Republican stronghold, emptied out quickly. Somebody's listening to the so-called "fake media," I think.

Not much toilet paper at Walmart on Thursday.

Dried beans are a hot commodity at Food Lion.

Want drinking water? You're out of luck.

No toilet paper at Food Lion, either.

I took these photos early this morning; I understand from a friend that the shelves are sparser now.

My brother, who I think up until yesterday also thought this was a media overkill issue, told my husband last night to tell me to stay home for the next two months because of my asthma and respiratory issues. My sibling had attended a seminar for small business owners and apparently the speakers got through to him that this is serious stuff.

Don't panic, but be prudent. Take precautions.

Wash your hands and sing Old McDonald or Happy Birthday or something.

As for me, I might listen to my brother and keep my butt inside.

Thursday Thirteen

Thoughts to ponder:

1. Perhaps the universe (or your god, whatever you may believe) has a way of reordering and remaking the world, especially when many things are distressed and distorted.

2. Is this moment in which we live one of those times that requires a remaking?

3. Oddly, as we live in a time when climate change (for whatever reason) has caused and continues to cause many natural disasters, China, which is a place (like the U.S.), which pollutes with thought only for monetary gain, must stop its economy to recover from a virus.

4. The pollution drops. Are those behind the masks breathing better now? Is their vision clearer? Can they see the mountains that were hidden in the smog?

5. We've reached a period of history when discrimination is making a comeback, when ideologies and policies are returning to a past I thought we'd outgrown and left behind, when making "other" a concrete symbol that we may use to bash others is quickly becoming normal.

6. Yet here is this virus that shows that in a moment, without warning, anyone - you, me, your wife, your child - regardless of race, color, or patriotism, can suddenly become discriminated against, segregated, stranded at home. Regardless of whiteness, Westernness, and wealth, you must breathe, and our air is contaminated. If Tom Hanks can't escape, who can?

7. Economies collapse. Does this matter? Does productivity and consumption matter when life hangs in limbo? While we are working our 12-hour days and busy on our tablets, reading our calendars and looking at our watches, the virus knows no time, and illness knows no time. We must stop. We must be at home, perhaps for days or weeks. We must learn again the value of time - real time, the time that matters. The immeasurable time of simply living and being.

8. As this virus closes schools, what happens as the institutions no longer parent, and parents must again be parents? With little ones at home, mothers and fathers must be mom and dad again, not the hamsters on the wheels of their jobs. Will this virus force us to focus on family once more? Will we remember what that feels like? Will we talk at dinner again?

9. As we are forced into social isolation at a time when loneliness has been cited as one of this society's greatest issues and concerns, will we begin to realize how vital our social network is - the real one, where you are hugged and kissed, held and touched? Will we realize how much meaning those gestures really have?

10. We've become so individualized, thinking only of ourselves - yet this virus will force us to think about others. The elderly in the nursing homes. Is that the right way to deal with those we once loved? This is bigger than a single individual or a single country - this is the world crying out, is it not? My fate may be your fate, or all our fates. This could happen to you.

11. Who do we depend upon when the sickness hits? The government? Family? Friends? Facebook? This requires an all-out sense of community and a societal response. We must all wash our hands; if only half the country does it, the other half will suffer, and that suffering will grow outward in torrential waves, splashing over nations like typhoons unstopped.

12. Could this virus be a blessing? Can we learn from this as our great-grandparents learned from the Spanish flu in 1918, or as our elders learned from the World Wars? Are we capable of learning, reorganizing, and doing the work to make the world a better place? (I'm not convinced we are.)

13. The Universe will have its way. What we make of it is up to us. Right now a virus is trying to tell us something. Will we stop to hear?

*These are not all my original thoughts, many came from a FB group on mythology that I follow. I wanted to put the ideas into something that made sense to me. (Cit. F. MORELLI)*

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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 647th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday. Or so sayth the Blogger counter, anyway.

It's MY E-mail Account

Way back when Google was still basically a little start up, saying "Don't be evil," (ha), I received an invitation to join its beta program for Gmail.

Yes, the very first version. I have been with Gmail since before it was made public. I was friends with a friend who worked at Google; hence the invitation.

It has become the email I use most often. Overrun as it is with subscriptions, spam, and everything else, I can still find what I need in it. I try to direct things now to other accounts.

This one shows up as being on the dark web, so I change the password a lot.

And then there are two men who have first names with initials the same as my first name, and the same last name. Apparently neither can remember their actual email account addresses, because things come to me that are meant for them.

First I started receiving employment application acceptances for "Anthony." I finally found Anthony on Facebook and asked him if he'd recently applied at thus and such a company. He apologized profusely and said he had confused Gmail with his student account.

Sigh.

He allegedly fixed it, but occasionally I still get something meant for Anthony. I now have his email, so I simply forward it to him and say, "in case you need this."

Then last fall, along came "Adam" who set up his eBay account using my email. I found Adam on Facebook, too, and he said he would take care of it. He'd simply typed in the wrong email address, he said.

I changed my Gmail password and thought no more about it.

Today, Adam tried to purchase something through eBay. The message about it came to me.

I called eBay and attempted to explain the situation to the "concierge" service person, who seemed perplexed about the problem. Zero help there, even after a 10-minute hold listening to really crappy music.

After I hung up with the useless eBay person, I went into eBay, signed in with my email, asked to change the password, and was soon in Adam's account, complete with his credit card numbers and everything. I deleted all of his personal information. I found where he'd attempted his purchase and wrote the seller that the item was bought using an incorrect email. I closed out the account that was using my Gmail account, because even though it was in Adam's name, that's my email.

He is lucky I am an honest person, because I could have ran up quite a bill on his credit card had I been so inclined. Fortunately for Adam, I am not a crook and was not so inclined.

By doing this, I will not be able to use my Gmail account now with eBay, ever again, according to them. This is fine, as I have an eBay account with another email address. I also very seldom ever buy anything on eBay anyway.

Adam, alas, will be out of luck.

And yes, I changed my Gmail account password again, too, just to be safe. It's a real pain in the you-know-what to do that because I have to change it on every device.

Lesson? Make sure you have the right email address when you sign up for things, especially things that have to do with your credit card or financial information.

You never know who might be on the other end of a wrong email address.

The Worm Moon

Playing for Mosquitos

I play guitar. I do not claim to play well. I do decent enough for my personal amusement; I seldom play for other people and I am a nervous wreck when I do.

However, this seclusion has led to lack of playing and enthusiasm for doing so.

Music, apparently, needs an audience. Or at least a little encouragement.

When I first learned to play, I was around 11 years old. I'd had a few years of piano and my piano teacher and I were at an impasse: she was insisting I play only classical music and I wanted to learn what I was hearing on the radio. By that time, I'd discovered pop music and wasn't listening to the country music of my earlier years.

I was into the Adult Top 40 music that Casey Kasem counted down on his show every Sunday. Mrs. Arrington was having none of that. I remember how she banged on the piano one day in total frustration when I brought in a piece of pop music and said I wanted to learn that.

My piano lessons ended that afternoon, I think. Ah well.

I also played flute in the band. My father played the guitar and had several around the house. One was a small parlor Gibson. He did not play it but it was there and I picked it up. I purchased a Hal Leonard book on how to play the guitar and sat about learning how to play chords and pick out a few little tunes.

Once I had the hang of it, the guitar was my instrument. My parents bought me an electric guitar, which I still have although it has a short in it and doesn't work right now, and I played in a disco band throughout high school. While other kids asked, "Do you want fries with that?" I went out on Friday and Saturday nights with four other kids who were into music. We earned about $200 a gig. It kept me in gas money, anyway.

My mother enjoyed hearing me play and was encouraging. She was much more encouraging with my music than with my writing. She would ask me to play for her frequently, and I did because I liked to practice.

I paid for my own lessons for a time after I could drive, and again after I married.

It was marriage that stopped the music, I'm afraid.

My husband seldom if ever asked me to play the guitar. I'm afraid I don't recall a single instance of him saying, "Honey, would you sit and play for me?" He plays no instrument nor can he sing. Maybe I sound really terrible to him, I don't know. He sometimes listens if I am playing, but he also doesn't hesitate to turn on the TV even if I am playing. There is nothing more irritating than being in the middle of Leaving on a Jet Plane and having your husband come in and flip the TV on to Andy Griffith.

So I focused on my job, my school, and my writing, which eventually became my work and something that I'm fairly good at. I am not clever at it, and I daresay I will never be known much beyond the borders of Botetourt, but I'm ok with being on the B shift as far as writers go.

The guitar is still something I love. As I have aged, I've switched out instruments, trading in an Ovation guitar and a 12-string guitar for a Takamini classical. I played that a long time - about 20 years - but I put it down for a while, and when I returned to it, it simply didn't fit me anymore.

So I bought a Taylor GS Mini. It is smaller and closer to the size of the Gibson I learned to play on. I fooled around with that for about two years, and then this September I found a cheap Epiphone electric guitar.

It weighs about as much as a regular-sized dreadnaught Gibson, I suppose. It definitely doesn't weigh as much as a regular electric guitar. So I bought it, and now I am playing it fairly regularly, almost every other day, even though I can tell it's a cheap guitar.

And that doesn't matter, because there's no one to hear. Just the bugs in the walls, or the squirrels that are too close the house.

I make music to the sound of silence, and the sounds I do make bounce around and echo until they find their way out a crack. My guitar could be playing the happiest tune in the world, and there's no one to hear but me.

Or it could be crying as sadly as a whippoorwill that lost its mate.

And not a soul would know it.

Sunday Stealing

Sunday Stealing

01.  What is the worst nickname that anyone has ever called you?

A. White trash. It wasn't so much the name, but who said it, that made the difference.

02.  Have you got a favorite flower?

A. I tend to favor iris.

03.  Do you add a sauce, ketchup or other artificial flavorings to your food?

A. Yes.

04.  Describe yourself using only words that begin with the letter 'T'.

A. Trying, testy, terrific, tubular, tonnage, tuneful, turbulent, topical.

05.  What is/was your lover's pet name for you?

A. My husband calls me sweetie pie.

06.  What is your least favorite color?

A. Orange.

07.  Who did you vote for in the last election, and did they win?

A. I voted for Elizabeth Warren in the recent primary, and she has dropped out of the presidential race.

08.  What is/was your grandfathers’ names?

A. Grandpa and Grandpa.

09.  What is the best present you ever received?

A. Kindness.

10.  What is 17 1/2% of 97 + 42 x (6 / 2) – 137 ?

A. Some kind of numerical answer. I'll go with 49.

11.  What would be the best possible way you could live?

A. Happy.

12.  Given the choice of absolutely anything, what would be your dream job?

A. I would be a rock star.

13.  What position do you sleep in at night?

A. I sleep on my back.

14.  What is the most embarrassing thing that has ever happened to you?

A. I have no idea.

15.  Who is your favorite fictional character?

A. My favorite fictional character is Anne Shirley. Or maybe it's Jo March.

16.  What food do you hate most in the world?

A. Coconut.

17.  When was the last time you were ill?

A. Back in January, I had a respiratory thing. But I have chronic pain and that is with me all the time.

18.  If you were transformed into a wild creature, what would it be?

A. A deer.

19.  What was your favorite toy as a child, and whatever happened to it?

A. One of my most favorite toys was Blue dog, which was a stuffed doggy, and my nephew has it, I guess.

20.  What's the most amazing thing you've ever seen?

A. The Grand Canyon.

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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: Bye, Bye Blackbird

Saturday 9: Bye, Bye Blackbird (1957)

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

1) In this song, Julie London complains about all the "hard luck stories" people are handing her. Did you more recently listen to someone else's problems, or share your own?

A. I think it was a mutual whine session.

2) She promises to arrive "late tonight." What time do you think is too late to drop in on someone?

A. I don't generally drop in on people, but I wouldn't drop in on anyone after 7:30 p.m.

3) Julie's nickname was "The Liberty Girl" because she was Liberty Records' first successful artist. The second was singer-songwriter David Seville, who had a couple novelty hits as "The Chipmunks." There were three singing chipmunks. Without looking it up, can you name them?

A. Alvin . . . and two others.

4) Julie's love of music was shared by her mother.When Julie was a little girl, mother and daughter would listen to Billie Holiday records together. What recordings did you enjoy when you were very young?

A. My parents listened to country music, so I grew up listening to Dolly Parton, Elvis, and Johnny Cash. My brother and I also had children's albums we liked. We had a Disney one that had the song "So Dear to My Heart" on it - maybe that was the name of the album, I don't remember. It had a song "Lavender Blue, Dilly Dilly, Lavender Green, when you are queen, Dilly Dilly, I'll be your king."

5) She began modeling when she 17. Julie was working as an elevator operator when a talent agent saw her and decided she would photograph well. With the advent of push-button elevators, elevator operator is a job that doesn't exist anymore. Can you think of another job that was once common but now is rare (or non-existent)?

A. Telephone operator. Stenographer. Copy editor.

6) Julie recorded more than 30 albums and was named "most popular female vocalist" by Billboard magazine in 1956. If you could see any entertainer -- male or female -- in concert, who would you choose?

A. I have no idea. I'm going to a Melissa Etheridge concert in late April.

7) She appeared in Westerns on both TV and in the movies. Have you ever dreamed of being a cowboy/cowgirl?

A. No, I can't say that appealed to me.

8) For six seasons, Julie played Dixie McCall R.N. on the show Emergency! The series was about Los Angeles paramedics and firefighters. Do you often hear sirens in your neighborhood?

A. No. I live in a rural area. If you hear sirens around here, you look up and watch. I loved that show, by the way, and I remember the nurse Dixie.

9) Random question: You're pulled over for speeding. Do you think you'd have an easier time talking your way out of it if the officer was a man . . . or a woman?

A. I think a man, but I doubt I'd be successful with either of them.

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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.

Thursday Thirteen

1. Reconnected with an old former editor/writer person yesterday. No longer a journalist, but then, it's not a job anymore that people want. Who wants to be "an enemy of the people" simply because you attend a government meeting?

2. I don't mean to offend those who support #45, but couldn't someone take his tweeter away and tell him to shut up while the adults deal with a health crisis?

3. If you're a retail dealer with a loyalty card, can't you tell your clerks not to handle the loyalty card and use the damn scan gun? Sheesh.

4. I recently finished reading a 700-page fantasy book. Fantasy books are always very long. It takes many words to build a world.

5. There is nothing like the smell of books in the library.

6. March came in rather lamb-like. But we will have wind. The wind is always a sure thing.

7. I noticed lots of trees budding while I was out this morning.

8. The days are growing longer but the sunshine seems dim. We have had too many days of cloud clover.

9. Writer's block is not a real thing. That's what I've told myself for years. And years. And years.

10. This is the first year I ever remember turning the air conditioning on in January.

11. I would like to see a shooting star crash in the field near my house. Just a little one. Then I could catch a falling star and put it in my pocket, save it for a rainy day.

12. The times they are a'changin' and people are gonna have to accept it whether they like or not. That goes for me, too.

13. Is it the dawning of the Age of Aquarius, or the Apocalypse, or is it something totally unknown. I go for the latter one. Tomorrows are always unknowns.







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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 646th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday. Or so sayth the Blogger counter, anyway.

Catawba Furnace

These are the remains of the Catawba Furnace. You can see it from the road near the cement plant. The furnace was originally built in 1830. It operated for about 20 years then went out of service until the Civil War, when Tregedor Iron Works put it back into service for a short time. By 1865, it was no longer a working iron furnace again.

I had not visited this furnace for at least 15 years, and it has fallen in significantly in that time span.

This is from the Virginia Department of Historic Resources website:

"This cold-blast charcoal furnace was built on an unusual round plan in 1830. It ran on water power from the Catawba Creek. The original Catawba Furnace consisted of one stack and many wooden buildings situated on 10,000 acres in Botetourt County. In 1863, the property included a corn mill, saw mill, stable, granary, coal shed, blacksmith and wheelwright shop, managers house, one frame boarding house, six cabins for laborers, an office, sheds, and an ore washing machine. Although abundant coal was found on the property of Catawba, the furnace was never converted into using coal or coke. Pig iron was hauled from Catawba Furnace over twenty miles of rough roads to Buchanan and the James River and Kanawha Canal, where it was loaded onto barges to be sent to Richmond. Difficulties in transportation limited production after the Civil War. Pig iron from this furnace was so valued that it sold for as much as $60 per ton, and was transported (in small quantities) to Boston, and all the way to Maine. A large part of Catawba Furnace collapsed in the 1930’s when vandals removed two of the arch lintels."

Catawba Creek

This area of Catawba Creek is near the cement plant and the county landfill. I wouldn't put my hand in it for nothing.

Catawba Creek runs into the James River near Salisbury at Lapsley's Run. The river begins somewhere in Roanoke County, possible up near the Homeplace Restaurant, before winding its way through Botetourt County toward the James River. (I couldn't find a map that shows where it starts.)

It is navigable in some places, mostly from Fincastle to the James. It is fed by multiple tributaries from springs and water run off from all over the northern and far southwestern ends of the county.