Mellow Yellow

We call this stuff mustard grass. It is actually a weed. It is not native to North America but it is everywhere now. The pasture fields are full of it.

Mustard species vary. Wild mustards (and cultivated ones) can harbor pests and diseases that damage closely related crops. Roots, leaves, and especially seeds of Brassica and related species have sulfur-containing compounds. When consumed in large quantities over time, these compounds can irritate the digestive tracts and cause thyroid problems in livestock. Mustards may become a fire hazard when they dry up at the end of their growing season.

We have had people stop and let their children run through the pasture, delighting in the field of "yellow flowers." What the parents don't realize is many people are also allergic to mustard weed.

They were also trespassing.

Looking for Love

Spring brings with it all sorts of things, including unlucky tom turkeys who are trying hard to gain the affection of a hen.

The object of his desire

She walks away.

 

Sunday Stealing

Sunday Stealing

1. What’s your favorite kind of cake?

A. Chocolate cake with chocolate icing, although I don't know if I will be able to eat that in the future.

2. What’s your favorite cocktail?

A. I don't drink alcohol. The last time I had any kind of a drink like that, it was called Sex on the Beach. That was around 1985, maybe.

3. If you are alone for the evening, what do you fix yourself for dinner?

A. An egg sandwich.

4. What make was your first car?

A. A Datsun.

5. What is your height?

A. Short.

6. What was your least favorite toy as a child?

A. Dolls. I did not play with them much. I preferred action figures.

7. What’s your favorite cartoon character?

A. Bugs Bunny. What's up, Doc?

8. What’s your dream car?

A. A Toyota Avalon.

9. What’s your favorite pizza topping?

A. I haven't been able to eat pizza for years. But I like a good veggie pizza sans black olives.

10. What’s your favorite sports team?

A. I don't watch sports. I'll go with the University of Virginia college teams.

11. What’s your favorite TV show?

A. I don't have one at the moment. Supergirl, perhaps. So many shows stalled with the pandemic, there doesn't seem to be much new out there.

12. What is your favorite ice cream?

A. I don't eat ice cream, but a hot fudge sundae with whipped cream and a cherry on top is on my bucket list.

13. What is your favorite song?

A. I don't have a favorite. I like many songs in many genres.

14. What’s your least favorite chore?

A. Cooking.

15. What was your first job?

A. Babysitting. Isn't that basically every girl's first job?

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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: Peter Cottontail

Saturday 9: Here Comes Peter Cottontail (from the archives)

1) Which do you prefer: colored hard-boiled eggs, chocolate marshmallow eggs, or plastic eggs with coins inside?

A. Plastic eggs with coins inside.

2) What's your favorite color of Peeps (yellow, purple, or pink)?

A. I do not like Peeps. Those things are nasty.

3) All this talk of sweets is making Sam hungry. What's for lunch?

A. Chicken salad.

4) This song was introduced by country singer Gene Autry and it's still a favorite. Please share some of the lyrics. (And you're on your own; Sam didn't include a link to the song this week.)

A. Here comes Peter Cottontail, hoppin' down the bunny trail! Hippity Hoppity Easter's on its way! He's got jelly beans for Tommy, colored eggs for sister Sue, there's an orchid for your mommy, and an Easter bonnet too! (That's from memory. I'm not even sure it's the same song.)

5) Gene Autry was so popular that a town in Oklahoma named itself for him. Have you ever been to Oklahoma?

A. I think we passed through it on a traveling trip to California in 1976.

6) He and his horse Champion also had a TV show. Can you name another famous horse?

A. Secretariat, winner of the Triple Crown in horse racing.

7) Gene Autry also recorded "Rudolph, The Red Nosed Reindeer," and it was, of course, wildly popular, too. Who is your favorite recording artist?

A. I think I own an even amount of recordings of Melissa Etheridge, Sheryl Crow, and Linda Ronstadt.

8) In 1950, the year Autry recorded this song, Diner's Club issued the first credit card. Think of the last thing you purchased. Did you use cash, a credit card, a debit card, an e-wallet service (Visa Checkout, Paypal, Google Pay, Apple Pay ...) or a check?

A. I wrote a check to the chiropractor.

9) Easter is recognized as the start of the spring season. What are you looking forward to this spring?

A. Getting my second Covid shot. Maybe by mid-May I will feel safe enough to purchase new clothes. I've lost 20 pounds and my pants won't stay up.

______________

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

No Thursday Thirteen from me today.

April Fools!

Of course I must do a list of some kind for Thursday Thirteen!

Here we go . . .

1. The greatest gift of life is friendship, and I have received it. ~ Hubert H. Humphrey

2. One loyal friend is worth ten thousand relatives. ~ Euripides

3. Things are never quite as scary when you've got a best friend. ~ Bill Watterson

4. The friend in my adversity I shall always cherish most. I can better trust those who helped to relieve the gloom of my dark hours than those who are so ready to enjoy with me the sunshine of my prosperity. ~ Ulysses S. Grant

5. She is a friend of mind. She gather me, man. The pieces I am, she gather them and give them back to me in all the right order. It's good, you know, when you got a woman who is a friend of your mind. ~ Toni Morrison

6. Lovers have a right to betray you . . . friends don't. ~ Judy Holliday

7. No person is your friend who demands your silence, or denies your right to grow. ~ Alice Walker

8. Sometimes being a friend means mastering the art of timing. There is a time for silence. A time to let go and allow people to hurl themselves into their own destiny. And a time to prepare to pick up the pieces when it's all over. ~ Octavia E. Butler

9. If you have one true friend you have more than your share. ~ Thomas Fuller

10. When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives means the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand. ~ Henri Nouwen

11. I have learned that to be with those I like is enough. ~ Walt Whitman

12. Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down. ~ Oprah Winfrey

13. I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend. ~Thomas Jefferson

Read more at https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/friendship-quotes

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 701st time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday. Or so sayth the Blogger counter, anyway.

Deer

 

We have quite the deer herd visiting us in front of the house almost daily. I've counted as many as a dozen, but generally it's about nine. They like to lay in the area in front of the house, where it is sheltered from everything but my eyes.

I enjoy watching them rest like that. They seem so content and unwary.

We have too many deer on the farm now. Not enough hunters. Some of these animals are quite small and while some are last year's fawns and still growing, deer are not as large as they once were, when the population was better control.

Too bad we can't round them up and haul them off to auction like we do the cattle. They might stand a better chance than roaming around in the wild, where there's not enough food for all of them now.

Not a Cloud

 

This is not a cloud bank over the mountain - it is smoke from a controlled burn. The U.S. Forest Service is conducting numerous such burns in our area this spring. This one was on Potts Mountain. They are burning thousands of acres.

The smoke rolled into Alleghany from this fire, but the weekend before, the smoke from a burn on Caldwell Mountain nearly ran half of Botetourt out of the county, the smoke was so thick.

These kinds of prescribed burns are weather-dominated, as in, it must be not too dry, wet, or windy for the burn to happen.

After many years of fire exclusion, an ecosystem that needs periodic fire becomes unhealthy. Trees are stressed by overcrowding; fire-dependent species disappear; and flammable fuels build up and become hazardous. The right fire at the right place at the right time:

• Reduces hazardous fuels, protecting human communities from extreme fires;
• Minimizes the spread of pest insects and disease;
• Removes unwanted species that threaten species native to an ecosystem;
• Provides forage for game;
• Improves habitat for threatened and endangered species;
• Recycles nutrients back to the soil; and
• Promotes the growth of trees, wildflowers, and other plants;

The Forest Service manages prescribed fires and even some wildfires to benefit natural resources and reduce the risk of unwanted wildfires in the future. The agency also uses hand tools and machines to thin overgrown sites in preparation for the eventual return of fire.

I think controlled burning is appropriate. I don't like it when the smoke rolls in my direction, though, because it sets off my asthma.

Just one of those things to live with on occasion.

Sunday Stealing: Cooking

Sunday Stealing

1. How often do you make food and eat it?

A. I don't "make food," Mother Nature does that. I prepare meals, which I do with great frequency. Every day, actually.

2. Do you consider toasting bread, preparing instant noodles, or boiling an egg to be cooking? Why or why not?

A. Yes, I consider that cooking because it involves food preparation.

3. What’s your favorite dish to make?

A. I don't have one. I do not like to cook.

4. Cooking or baking: what’s more fun? What’s more difficult?

A. Baking is fun, although I consider that a subset of "cooking."

 

5. Who did most of the cooking in your house when you were growing up?

A. My mother. My father sometimes made Sunday breakfast and he did the grilling.

6. How have you learned the cooking skills that you have?

A. Trial and error. My mother attempted to teach me to cook, but I find it an uninteresting past time and something I do not especially like to do.

7. Have you ever taken a cooking course? If so, what did you learn? If not, would you like to do one? What would you like to learn?

I have never taken a cooking course. It would probably be a good thing for me to do, but I don't watch the cooking shows on TV so I'm not sure how much interest I actually have in the topic.

8. Have you tried cooking food from another culture? What did you prepare? How was it?

A. I have prepared stir fry, which I suppose could be considered from another culture. It was fine.

9. Is it cost-effective to do your own cooking? Can you save money by cooking?

A. It is more cost-effective to prepare food at home and eat in then it to go to a restaurant. So yes, it saves money. It becomes rather boring, though.

10. Would you rather do the cooking or do the washing up afterwards?

A. I'd rather not do either.

11. Do you use recipes to cook? If so, where do you get the best recipes? Do you get them from friends, family, online, or from cookbooks?

A. I obtain recipes from my Better Crocker cookbook and online.

12. Have you ever tried to prepare some food and just totally ruined it? What happened?

A. Yes, I have, but I don't remember exactly what it was. I probably overcooked it.

13. Do you prefer cooking at home or eating out at a restaurant? Why?

A. I'd prefer to have a live-in cook but I don't see that as an option.

14. Is cooking a social activity for you? Do you like to do it with other people, or do your prefer to do it alone?

A. I prefer not to do it at all.

15. Do you have a lot of cooking equipment? How often do you use it all? Do you have any pieces of equipment that you rarely ever use?

A. I have removed most of the items I never used. I do not have what I would consider "a lot" or even the proper things with which to cook. I have wondered at times if I would like to prepare meals more if I had the appropriate equipment, but since I'm not sure what that is, I don't suppose I will ever know.

_______________

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: Fooled

Saturday 9: Fooled by a Feeling (1979)

 

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

Chosen because next week is April Fool's Day. 

1) Some believe that the practice of playing tricks on one another on April 1 dates back to the 14th century because it's mentioned in Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales. Geoffrey Chaucer is considered one of England's greatest poets. From memory, quote a bit of poetry for us. (It doesn't have to be English, or great.)

A. Half a league! Half a league! Half a league onward, into the valley of Death rode the six hundred! Cannons to the left of them, cannons to the right of them volleyed and thundered! Into the valley of Death rode the six hundred!

2) When Crazy Sam was a little girl, her mother would prank her on April Fool's Day by slipping a rubber worm or plastic spider in her lunch box. Did you/do you carry a lunchbox, either as a student or an adult?

A. I am sure I carried a lunchbox when I was in elementary school, but after that it was brown paper bags.

3) In 1998, Burger King got into the April Fool's Day fun by promoting a special "Left Handed Whopper," supposedly perfectly designed for a leftie to hold. Describe your perfect burger.

A. A bun, bacon, hamburger, lettuce, catsup, tomato, and a little bit of mustard and mayonnaise.

4) In this week's song, Barbara Mandrell sings that she followed her heart into her lover's arms. Are you more often led by your heart or head?

A. Apparently my heart although I prefer to think it is my head.

5) She knows now she was wrong for believing her man loved her. When did you recently admit you were wrong?

A. I don't know. I say "I'm sorry" like most people say, "How are you?" so it could have been anything. I apologize simply for breathing.

6) Barbara Mandrell recalls being able to read music before she could read words. Can you read sheet music?

A. I can but not well. I mostly play by ear.

7) Barbara had her own TV variety show in the 1980s and, in the 90s, acted on the daytime drama, Sunset Beach. The soap opera's producer, Aaron Spelling, was a huge fan of Barbara's and was thrilled to finally meet and work with her. Tell us about someone you really enjoyed working with, and why.

A. I enjoyed working with four women, Donna, Wendy, Angela, and Lois, in 2019 when I put together a magazine for the 250th anniversary of my county. They were great fun to deal with, and they had no doubt whatsoever that I would create a pleasing magazine keepsake for the community. It was nice to be believed in. They are very different personalities, but I enjoyed working with each one for the thoughts and inspiration they brought to the project.

8) In 1979, when this song was released, a top-of-the-line Sony Walkman sold for $150 (approx. $500 in today's dollars). Did you have a portable cassette player back in the day?

A. I don't recall having a Walkman, but I had a cassette player. It was "portable" in that you could carry it around but it was rather large.

9) Random question: What's the first thing you thought of when you woke up this morning?

A. I don't want to get out of this bed, but I have to pee.

______________

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 Busy Day

Yesterday was a busy day.

I had a mammogram scheduled for in the morning. I've got a fibrous area that they've been watching for a long time, and it was time for another check-up as well as the regular mammogram. One must keep those puppies happy, after all.

The mammogram was fine, and the doctor cleared me to leave the intense scrutiny of every an every six-month check-up and return to annual mammograms. Yay.

Then we went to Sam's Club. This is the first time I'd been in Sam's since last year if not before. I don't shop there much. The store has been completely rearranged and we were lucky to find what we needed (which was some kind of oil for the farm tractor).

It's a little scary to be out when you've mostly been at home for a year. It's easy to become overwhelmed by all the sights and sounds. I have never seen so many packs of toilet paper and paper towels in my life. Sam's must want to be sure they never get caught with their pants down around that issue again.

We took ham sandwiches with us because neither of us are ready to eat in a restaurant. We sat by the airport to watch the airplanes while we ate, but we never saw a plane.

Then it was off to the Civic Center for my first round of the Moderna vaccine. We went in the handicapped side and there was no line. The nurse told me to relax my arm. I tried. "Relax," she said again.

"I don't relax well," I replied.

"I can tell. You're one of those Type A nervous types," she said, and then jabbed the needle in my arm, relaxed muscles or not.

It hurt. It was much worse than a flu shot, or the pneumonia shot. Ouchie.

I sat for my required 15 minutes and aside from my arm hurting and feeling numb, I felt ok. About 40 minutes after the shot, though, I began to have this weird taste in my mouth, like I'd been chewing on a Band-Aid. I've had that occur before when the physical therapist gave me a steroid shot in my ankle. I suspect I'm reacting to a preservative of some kind.

The taste went away after a few hours. I experienced chills for a bit, and I felt very tired, but it had been a busy day.

Today I still have a sore arm, but nothing else seems amiss. No horns growing, no body parts falling off, not even a stuffy nose.

I will receive the second shot in late April. By mid-May, I should be able to return to grocery shopping in the store instead of doing online ordering and pick-up.

So that's one big thing out of the way and another big thing started. Yay for science, even if it isn't perfect yet. It's the best we've got when it comes to health.

Thursday Thirteen #700

The other day I ran across something about procrastination that ran so true, I simply had to share the meme.

Procrastination is a big problem for many people. Amazon is loaded with books on the subject. But I think that last paragraph applies to me, if no one else. 

I am not lazy. I have done many things. I have written and published thousands of articles. This is blog entry #4,676, written since August 2006. I've three college degrees. I worked for law firms for 12 years. I freelanced and made more than many freelancers for a good 25 years. Then along came health issues and no matter how hard I fight them, particularly the ones in my head, I feel stuck. I don't do the bookkeeping as frequently as I'd like (I do get it done, eventually). I don't clean out drawers, or empty file cabinets. I don't do the filing when I should. But I am not lazy. 

Every day I make the bed, I do the dishes, I fix dinner of some kind and usually lunch, I do loads of laundry and put them away. I write in this blog. I talk to my friends. I text a friend who lost her husband nearly three years ago now and she asked me to text her every night, and I do. I take lots of photographs. I keep up with the stuff my husband can't. I pay the bills on time. The house doesn't look like rats live in it.

But I still feel like I procrastinate when it comes to moving forward with my life's direction. Mostly because I can't figure out which way to go. It's like I'm on a revolving circle, moving so fast that I can't see where I can step off without a reasonable fear of it not destroying me. Better to stay on the circle, right?

But not really.

Anyway, here are some procrastination tips from the experts. I've tried most of them, none have proven overly helpful. They're not going to when the issue is in between my ears.

1. Stop punishing yourself for procrastinating. Don't yell at yourself, just do it. (Yeah, right.)

2. Tackle the task for 15 minutes at a time. (This does work if I can actually force myself to do the 15 minutes.)

3. Break the task down into small chunks.

4. Do the hardest (or longest) task first.

5. Give yourself a pep talk. (My pep talks go like this: You are such an idiot, why can't you just go do what you want to do and get it done?)

6. Don't aim for perfection, just aim for "done." 

7. Promise yourself a reward when you're finished.

8. Make sure your workspace suits the task. (I can procrastinate indefinitely be deciding my desk needs to be cleaned off before I start a project.)

9. Put away the smart phone. Better yet, turn it off and throw it out the window.

10. Use an add-on to your browser to keep from getting on Facebook when you're supposed to be writing a novel.

11. Listen to calming music (unless you're trying to exercise and keep postponing it, then listen to disco or Uptown Funk so your feet will move).

12. Write a to-do list with set goals. (Finish one page by the end of the day. Clean out one closet shelf every week. Whatever.)

13. Avoid multitasking.

Good luck!

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 700th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday. Or so sayth the Blogger counter, anyway.

On Milk and Cows

My brother, who is a Republican, posted this on Facebook:

COWS DON’T GIVE MILK

A peasant used to say to his children when they were young: —When you all  reach the age of  12  I will tell you the secret of life. One day when the oldest turned 12, he anxiously asked his father what was the secret of life. The father replied that he was going to tell him, but that he should not reveal it to his brothers. 

—The secret of life is this: The cow does not give milk. "What are you saying?" Asked the boy incredulously. —As you hear it, son: The cow does not give milk, you have to milk it. You have to get up at 4 in the morning, go to the field, walk through the corral full of manure, tie the tail, hobble the legs of the cow, sit on the stool, place the bucket and do the work your self.

That is the secret of life, the cow does not give milk. You milk her or you don't get milk. There is this  generation that thinks that cows GIVE milk. That things are automatic and free: their mentality is that if " I wish, I ask..... I obtain." 

" They have been accustomed to get  what ever they want the easy way...But  No, life is not a matter of wishing, asking and obtaining. The things that one receives are the effort of what one does. Happiness is the result of effort. Lack of effort creates frustration. 

So, remember to share with your children, from a young age, the secret of life. So they don't grow up with the mentality that the government, their parents, or their cute little faces is going to give them everything they need in life.

Remember 👇👇

 "Cows don't give milk. You have to work for it"

This is, of course, the Republican version of not having government oversight and in particular not having a social safety net for those who fall through the cracks of society.

Let's examine this little morality tale.

First, the farmer is a peasant. In other words, the hard worker is poor. He may milk that cow until, well, the cows come home, but he's still a poor peasant.

The moral is that the farmer must take the milk from the cow. The cow does not freely give milk.

The farmer must also grow the crops to feed the cow, give it shelter, and keep it happy with a occasional scratch between the ears, because happier cows give more milk.

Which is to say, a happier populace would give more to society. If the farmer (peasant) gives the cow all of these things, then the farmer gets milk.

This is why people are poor. Because they work and work and only get a little bit of milk.

There are always two sides to these things. Let's not forget how hard the peasant is working for this tiny bit of milk.

Leaving out a lot of background to a little fairy tale might make for a good Facebook post, but honestly, all it is doing is keeping the impoverished down. It's hard to climb up by your bootstraps when you don't have any boots because you're so busy trying to get a little bit of milk from a cow you don't have time to go buy shoes.

What a Democrat does is come along and offer to go buy the guy a pair of boots.

A Republican just tells him to work harder for a little more milk.

Justice League - the Director's Cut

When I first heard that there was a new version of the 2017 Justice League movie coming out, this time completely under the director's vision of Zack Snydor, I wasn't sure what the fuss was about.

I saw the movie in 2017. I watched it specifically to see more of Wonder Woman, who wowed me when I saw the movie by the same name.

The 2017 Justice League was underwhelming. It's not a movie I've watched more than once.

The movie version that came out in 2017 was "finished up" under Joss Whedon, of Buffy the Vampire Slayer fame, because original director Zack Snydor has personal issues come up (I believe he lost a child), and Whedon finished the film.

If the new version of this movie showed me one thing, it is how much a director actually impacts a film. I mean, I have the extended director's cuts of The Lord of The Rings trilogies, and they add depth and interest (and length) to the films, but they did not change the meaning of the entire movie (although The Two Towers is helped tremendously by the additions to the extended version). After all, Peter Jackson did the theatrical release and the director's cut, so it was his vision in all releases.

The Snydor version of Justice League, just released on HBO Max (and maybe in theaters, I am not sure) is magnificent. It's a completely different movie with just a few scenes that I recognized from the original.

It more than made up for the lukewarm Wonder Woman: 1984 film that came out at Christmas.

The Snydor cut has Wonder Woman all over the place, along with back stories for the other superheroes. The stories actually made sense.

This version was dark and deeply intense. No cartoonish clowning around, no off the wall jokes. This was how this movie should have been from the get-go.

The villain was an actual character, not a caricature as in the first release. He had motive and his actions made sense.

Whedon messed up, and I didn't even know it until I saw what this movie should have been - and now is.

This new version gave truthful homage to the hope of Superman and his rebirth after he died in Batman v. Superman, Dawn of Justice (2016). 

The new version filled plot holes that were in the 2017 Justice League film and the whole thing made more sense.

Of course, it is also nearly two hours longer than the original film. We watched it over two nights, two hours on Saturday night and two hours on Sunday night.

I sat on the edge of my chair most of the time, and I don't do that often when I am watching a movie.

It's been a few years since I watched the theatrical release of Justice League, so maybe I am forgetting parts of what was a ho-hum movie. I believe it was a box-office bust and not the money-maker Warner Brothers had hoped.

If Snydor had been able to do this particular movie, they'd have had a hit on their hands.

I know many people do not watch movies or TV shows based on comic book characters. That's fine. I don't watch sports.

Comic books and I parted ways a very long time ago, so there are many changes in the way things are now in DC and Marvel that I haven't kept up with. The multi-verses, for one thing, where there may be two or three heroes of the same incarnation acting in different ways. Plus there are new superheroes, gender changes, etc.

But when I was a young girl, I spent hours devouring Captain America, The Fantastic Four, Spiderman, Wonder Woman, Justice League of America, the Black Widow, Daredevil (he was my favorite, along with the Black Widow and Sue, the Invisible Girl in the Fantastic Four). Wonder Woman in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when I was reading these comics, was given short shrift and often left behind as clerk girl, especially in the Justice League comics, so I never warmed to her as much as I did the Marvel comic women. I didn't read much Supergirl, either. In part this was because I pooled my coins with my brother and my two uncles when we walked up to the Orange Market to buy comics, and they generally went for the more male-oriented comics, with an occasional bow to my desire to read the female superhero ones.

The pull of superheroes is a desire to see justice done, I think. It's also touches on a secret desire that everyone has, i.e., to be special, different, and important enough to make a difference. I think deep down, many people have that urge, to be more than just the grocery clerk, or even the nameless face of some corporation.

Perhaps we all see that the world is dark and terrible, and we secretly want it to be better.

We can't all be superheroes, but we can, obviously, leave a mark and/or make a change. This new version of this movie shows that nothing is static, and the visions of certain people make for better entertainment than the visions of others.

That doesn't mean, though, that we're not all superheroes.

In somebody's eyes, I hope we are all superheroes, if only for a short time.

Anyway, if you like superhero flicks, check out the Snydor cut of Justice League. It's a great remake.

Sunday Stealing

Sunday Stealing

1. What was an unforgettable day in your life?

A. My wedding day. The ceremony went off without any problems (though someone later told me it was too long) and the reception afterwards went well. I was a nervous wreck, of course, but in the end I had my sweetie, and here we are heading towards 38 years of marriage.

2. What are your favorite snacks?

A. It used to be chocolate, but I cannot eat chocolate anymore. Right now the best I can do for a snack is Baked Lays potato chips.

3. What is your biggest fashion accessory?

A. I am not into fashion, but I suppose earrings and my wedding band would have to be my biggest fashion accessory.

4. What is your biggest celebrity crush?

A. I don't really have one at the moment. Bette Midler is a hoot on twitter. I admire Viggo Mortenson but don't really care for the roles he's chosen aside from Aragorn in Lord of the Rings. He is quite a renaissance man, though.

5. Name one hobby you would like to learn.

A. I would like to learn . . . oh gosh, I can't think of anything I haven't at least tried once. I suppose I would like to be able to draw well, but I already know I don't.

6. What are your OCD habits?

A. The worst habit is checking that I've turned off things like the computer and the curling iron. I have driven halfway to where I was going and turned around to check on that sort of thing. I suspect eating is an OCD habit, because when I am bored, tired, nervous, or lonely, I reach for something to put in my mouth. I was a nail-biter, but I have stopped that this past year. It took a pandemic to cure me of that. I keep them trimmed very short, though, and I still sometimes chew on the skin around the nail.

7. What would you like to eat if you knew it was your last meal?

A. If I knew it was my last meal, I doubt I could eat much. But perhaps some chocolate cake.

8. Are you working on your fitness?

A. I am watching what I eat and trying to get back into walking, but I am far too sedentary.

9. What do you spend money on?

A. Books, if the question means items that aren't household related. Otherwise, the usual things like food, medicine, electricity, and the phone bills.

10. What is your favorite recipe?

A. Seven-layer salads are easy and can be whipped up with whatever is on hand, so long as there is lettuce. I also like to make fudge.

11. What is the best part of each season?

A. In spring, the best part is the beauty as the plants flower and turn green. In summer, the best part is thunderstorms. In fall, the best part is the autumn colors and the cooling down of temperatures. In winter, the best part is when it is over.

12. What is a life lesson you've learned?

A. I have learned that not everyone is going to be your friend, and some people you thought were friends turn out not to be. Trust is not something I hand over lightly anymore. Even a friend of 20 years can suddenly turn on you for no apparent reason.

13. What is your inspiration to blog?

A. I blog because I enjoy it. I initially started it as a creative outlet as something different from the news writing I was doing for work, and have kept it up. I don't have a lot of readers and it is not anything that brings in money, but I enjoy it.

14. What’s inside your closet?

A. Clothes.

15. What can you brag about?

A. I have won numerous awards for writing. I had a long career as a news writer and news photographer, publishing over 7,500 stories and photos. I've been writing this blog for going on 17 years. I have a good marriage and I have people I love in my life.

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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: Ordinary People

ORDINARY PEOPLE (2005)

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

1) In this song, John Legend sings that both he and his girl have "room to grow." What about you? In what areas would you like to improve?

A. I would like to shrink more. I've lost 20 pounds and am hoping to continue the trend, but in a healthy way, not because I have a stomach ulcer and can barely eat anything.

2) He sings that when he hangs up in anger, she calls him back. Are you quicker to anger, or quicker to forgive?

A. I suspect I am quick to anger, but I also forgive easily. Usually, anyway.

3) "Ordinary People" was John Legend's first big hit. He originally wrote it for The Black Eyed Peas, but -- happily for him -- recorded it himself. Have you ever purchased a gift for someone else but then decided to keep it yourself?

A. Yes.

4) Ordinary People is also the title of an acclaimed novel by Judith Guest and an Oscar-winning film. Are you familiar with either the movie or the book?

A. I may have seen the movie but I do not remember it. I don't think I have read the book.

5) John is married to Chrissy Teigen, who gained fame as a Sports Illustrated swimsuit model. When is the last time you dove in? Were you in a pool, lake, river or sea?

A. I have not "dove in" to water in many years, and then it would have been a pool at a hotel somewhere.

6) John unexpectedly proposed to Chrissy on vacation, but he was afraid airport security would ruin the surprise when they went through his carry on very thoroughly. He worried she would see the ring box and he'd have to drop down to one knee right there at the airport! Tell us about one of your flights: your first, your most recent or your most memorable.

A. In 1993, we flew to Orlando, FL to go to Disney as my reward for finishing my B.A. We had to fly north to Maryland, then back to Atlanta, then into Orlando. My husband had never flown, and I hadn't flown in 20 years, and it is a wonder we aren't still wandering around an airport somewhere.

7) John is currently a coach on The Voice. The other coaches are Nick Jonas, Kelly Clarkson and Blake Shelton. Of those four singers, which is your favorite?

A. Kelly Clarkson. 

8) In 2005, when this song was popular, Johnny Carson died. After he retired from The Tonight Show in 1993, he traveled extensively and discovered he especially enjoyed photographic safaris in Africa. If time and money were no object, where would you go on vacation?

A. New Zealand.

9) Random question -- In your typical day, what's the longest you usually go without saying a word to another person: all day, a few hours, an hour, or five minutes?

A. Hours. Some days my husband leaves to go do his thing early, and then I don't speak to anyone until he calls at lunch time, if he isn't coming home for lunch.

But there are always chats with Alexa if I am lonely.

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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

 

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 699th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday. Or so sayth the Blogger counter, anyway.