Thursday Thirteen #965

Tick‑Borne Diseases (With the Creepy Details)

I recently talked to a friend I hadn't spoken with for some time and learned she'd been in the hospital with a tick-borne illness. I had no idea that ticks could make you sick enough to nearly die. I knew about Lyme Disease and Alpha Gal, but a little research indicates that there are a lot of tick-borne diseases out there.

The weird thing is that these diseases didn't seem to be a problem when I was a child. I had ticks on me frequently. My family lived on a farm. It wasn't unusual to have to get my mother to pull a tick out of my head. It was a common childhood thing. You played outside, ticks found you.

By the time I was an adult, though, things had changed. This makes me wonder if some environmental issue has caused ticks to become toxic sources of illnesses.

Here are some of the diseases ticks can give you.

1. Lyme Disease is spread by black‑legged ticks. It starts with fatigue, fever, and sometimes the famous bull’s‑eye rash (though plenty of people never get one). Untreated, it can move into joints, nerves, and the heart. Virginia is a hotspot.

2. Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever (RMSF) is carried by the American dog tick and the brown dog tick. Begins with high fever and a headache that feels like someone is tightening a belt around your skull. The rash often shows up late, which is why early treatment matters.

3. Ehrlichiosis is delivered courtesy of the lone star tick. It causes fever, chills, muscle aches, and sometimes confusion. Blood tests often show low white cells and platelets. Responds well to doxycycline if caught early.

4. Anaplasmosis is similar to ehrlichiosis but transmitted by black‑legged ticks. Symptoms include fever, chills, and a general “I feel like I’ve been hit by a truck” sensation. Can cause organ issues if untreated.

5. Babesiosis is a parasite spread by the black-legged tick that infects red blood cells. It's basically malaria’s American cousin. Causes fever, dark urine, and anemia. More dangerous for people over 50 or those without a spleen.

6. Tularemia is rare but serious. Ticks can transmit it, but so can handling infected rabbits. Symptoms depend on how it enters the body, but fever and swollen lymph nodes are common. It's sometimes called “rabbit fever.”

7. Powassan Virus is a fast‑acting virus spread by black‑legged ticks. Transmission can happen in as little as 15 minutes. Can cause brain swelling, seizures, and long‑term neurological problems. Thankfully rare.

8. Heartland Virus was first identified in Missouri; it is now found in the Midwest and South. It spreads by the lone star tick. The virus causes fever, fatigue, low white blood cells, and low platelets. There is no specific treatment except supportive care.

9. Bourbon Virus is another newly discovered tick‑borne virus, also linked to the lone star tick. Symptoms include fever, rash, and low blood counts. Extremely rare but severe when it occurs.

10. Alpha‑gal Syndrome is not an infection. It’s an allergy triggered by lone star tick bites. Causes delayed allergic reactions to red meat, gelatin, and sometimes dairy. People often discover it after a steak dinner goes sideways at 2 a.m. I know several people who have this. Some have found relief with acupuncture. Some have just waited it out, and some may never eat certain meats again.

11. STARI (Southern Tick–Associated Rash Illness) looks like Lyme, acts like Lyme, but isn’t Lyme. Lone star ticks again are the cause. This disease causes a rash and flu‑like symptoms, but the exact cause remains unknown. Responds to antibiotics even though no bacterium has been identified.

12. Colorado Tick Fever is a viral illness carried by ticks in the Rocky Mountains. Causes fever that comes and goes in waves, plus muscle aches and fatigue. The virus hides inside red blood cells, which makes blood donation unsafe for months afterward.

13. Tick‑borne Relapsing Fever is caused by Borrelia species transmitted by soft ticks. True to its name, symptoms come in cycles: high fever for a few days, then a break, then another fever spike. Can cause nausea, dizziness, and night sweats.

Here in Virginia, we get the full cast of characters: black‑legged ticks, lone star ticks, and American dog ticks, each with its own bad habits. Lyme disease is the most common statewide, especially in the Blue Ridge and northern counties, but ehrlichiosis and alpha‑gal syndrome are rising fast thanks to the ever‑pushy lone star tick. Rocky Mountain spotted fever shows up regularly, too, and Powassan virus has been detected in the region even though cases remain rare. In short, Virginia has more than its share of tick‑borne trouble, and most of it is sitting right in the tall grass waiting for someone to walk by.

Black-legged tick and lone star tick (AI drawing)

_________________

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 965th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday. Or so sayth the Blogger counter, anyway.

The Mattress Goes BAA

 

Having determined that we would replace the mattress, my husband set out again for the mattress store. Once again, I wasn’t sure what was going on, or if we were buying, exchanging, or what.

Neither of us had done any research about mattresses. Me, because I had no clue what was going on. As for my husband, he was just trying to get his back to stop hurting.

He decided we needed a firm mattress with a softer mattress top. So, the helpful sales lady, who I’m sure by now thought we had been bitten by rabid bats, had us rest on first this mattress then another mattress.

He narrowed it down to two. One was a Stearns and Foster, which our old mattress had been, and the other was by a company I’d never heard of.

The Stearns and Foster was obviously not of the same quality as the mattress he’d so cavalierly tossed away a few weeks early, but it was also much better than Count Dracula’s slab.

The other mattress felt very nice and comfy. I liked it.

Until I didn’t.

I asked what was in the mattress. The helpful sales lady told us the mattress was by Spink and Co., out of England, but now made here in the USA, only out of wool from Yorkshire, England, and this was the same brand that the royals in the UK slept upon. The wool inside came from sheep, cashmere, angora, alpaca, etc.

“I’m allergic to wool,” I reminded my husband.

“It’s in a mattress,” he said.

“I’m allergic to wool,” I said again.

“It’s all been cleaned. It’s not that foam stuff that off-gasses. It’ll be fine,” he said.

“I can’t wear a wool coat,” I reminded him.

He bought the mattress with the wool in it. It cost about four times more than the first mattress.

The day the mattress arrived, it came encased in cardboard and plastic. After it was placed in the mattress encasement, and the movers left, I could feel the itch all over my body.

I had the air purifiers on high.

It’s just the wool from the plastic encasement, I told myself.

I also smelled something. I am quite sensitive to odors. At first it smelled faintly like cow, then it turned to a smell like burlap.

Everything seemed to have calmed down after the air purifiers ran a few hours, and it was even better after I showered.

Then my husband caught an upper respiratory thing, and gave it to me, and I had no way of knowing if I was sneezing and had watering eyes because of the virus or the mattress.

I started getting up at 5:30 a.m. just to get off the mattress.

It’s now been three weeks since we purchased this mattress. I still won’t make up the bed; I smooth out the sheets and then fold them all back, letting the thing air out even if it doesn’t need it.

My upper respiratory virus is better, aside from a lingering cough. My husband still has a bit of a cough, too.

And last night when we ran the humidifier, because we both seem to be very dry, I smelled burlap again. When I mentioned it, my husband scoffed.

“You could smell an ant fart 3 miles away,” he said.

This doesn’t have an end yet.

I don’t know that it will. I may be fine sleeping on this mattress. It sleeps very well, I have to say. It’s very cozy and comfortable.

But it also has wool.

And like I said, I’m allergic to wool.

Stay tuned.

Count Dracula’s Slab

 

Not long after I’d fallen in the night, my husband declared we needed a new mattress. He wanted to get a smaller mattress so I didn’t need to climb into the bed. He wanted to lower the bed as much as we could with an adjustable bed frame, removing the bed slats from our beautiful cherry poster bed so the mattress would be lower to the floor.

I argued against this. We did not need a new mattress. The mattress had nothing to do with my fall. I fell because I was half asleep and trying to look upside down under the bed, not because I was trying to climb into the bed.

But he would not be swayed. We were out and he drove us to a mattress store. I thought we were just going to look.

“I want the firmest mattress you have,” he told the sales woman. She led him to an ultra-firm Beauty Rest mattress.

It felt like a rock.

We tried out a few other mattresses, but he determined the first one we tried was the one he wanted. And he wanted it then.

“What are you doing?” I said. “We don’t need a new mattress.”

“I want something for my back, ok? This will help my back.”

Ah. So it had nothing to do with my fall. He was just using that as an excuse.

The mattress came the following week. The nice delivery people set up the new adjustable bed frame, put the mattress in the mattress encasement, and tossed the mattress onto the bed frame.

I added a mattress pad and the bed linens. I told myself it would be fine. I sleep on a bed wedge anyway, one that’s eight inches thick at the top, and oversized, and then I have pillows under my legs, so it shouldn’t matter about the mattress, right?

Wrong.

That mattress was like sleeping on stone. Count Dracula wouldn’t have been able to sleep on that slab of granite. My back went into multiple muscle spasms. I could hardly stand up.

This went on for three days and my husband called the mattress place and said we needed to return the mattress. “My wife doesn’t like it,” he said.

They told us the agreement said we had to try it for 30 days before we could return the mattress.

I suggested I would stay at a hotel for the next 21 days. One with a nice soft mattress.

He went to Walmart and bought a foam mattress topper. I told him just to get a twin for me, but when he came back with a queen, I knew the truth.

The mattress hurt his back, too.

“It doesn’t feel as good as I thought it would,” he mumbled when I confronted him.

Fortunately, the mattress sales woman took pity on us and agreed that I would probably never find a good night’s sleep on Count Dracula’s slab.

So back we went. And things got weirder.

A Smash and Two Falls

 

Sometime back in early November, as I walked on the treadmill, I lost my footing and began to fall. I caught myself on the bars around the home treadmill, hit the kill switch, and righted myself. I shrugged it off as “no harm, no foul” and kept going.

But I had hurt my shoulder, and as time progressed, so did the pain. Since it was my right arm that was bothering me, it became difficult to function. I wasn’t able to do the holiday baking and cooking I normally do because I couldn’t hold the mixer.

I couldn’t stir fudge, either. Talk about disaster! I’m known for my fudge. When I was a news reporter, I’d make at least 15 pounds of fudge and then walk around handing out pretty boxes of candy to my sources and other folks who’d helped me throughout the year.

With the holidays coming up – Thanksgiving, then Christmas – I just tried to keep moving through it. Then my father passed away in January. It was March before I saw a doctor and asked her to send me to physical therapy. That’s helped a little, but not as much as either I or the physical therapist had hoped.

Not long after I started physical therapy, I smashed my middle finger at the end joint. The car console lid fell down on my hand, and my finger took the brunt of the blow. I remember thinking that was going to leave a mark, but it didn’t, and it wasn’t until about 10 days later, when suddenly my whole hand swelled, that I remembered the accident. Turns out I had a fracture in that finger. It still hurts even now, months later.

And then in May, I got up in the night and placed the splint I had on my finger on the bedside table while I tried to open a bottle of water. The splint rolled off the table and under the bed. Our bed is high, and my husband had made me a stoop with two steps to use to climb into the bed.

I sat on the lower step with a flashlight, trying to find the splint, and somehow lost my balance. I fell over backwards, hitting my head on the hardwood floor and waking my husband. The next thing I remembered was him standing over me, the overhead light on blinding me, and all I could see was his boxer shorts while he said he wanted to call an ambulance.

“I can’t lift you,” he sputtered. He has had a hip replacement and isn’t supposed to lift over 50 pounds.

“Just let me sit here a minute, will you?” I said. After a few minutes I was able to get myself up. My head seemed fine. To my knowledge I never lost consciousness, I was just rattled.

But that fall set off an unexpected chain of events, about which I will write in my next post.

Sunday Stealing

 

Shopping Day. What's on your shopping list from . . . 

1. Target or Walmart, or other superstore?

A. Bug killer. Something has bitten me on my finger, and I now have a red, swollen place on it. Whatever it was, I want it out of my house!

2. Dollar Tree or Dollar General, or poundstretcher/99p store?

A. Greeting cards and wrapping paper.

3. Best Buy or any other electronics/appliance store?

A. A Mac notebook.

4. Book/music store?

A. Let's go big. A nice gold trimmed black Les Paul Custom guitar for me from the music store, please. One like Melissa Etheridge plays.

Ain't that just the prettiest guitar?

Bonus question! Where do you want to stop for lunch? 

A. I love a good sweet and sour chicken dish. How about Chinese?

Thank you for playing! Please come back next week.

__________

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: The Men in My Little Girl's Life

Saturday 9: The Men in My Little Girl's Life (1965)

 

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

1) In this song, a father shares the story of his daughter's life through first the boys, then the men, she brought home. The first is Rod, a little kid who wants to play in the backyard. Who were your playmates when you were young? Did you find it more fun to have them over to your home, or to go to theirs?

A. The kids I played with were my uncles, one of whom was four years older than I and the other was a year younger than I, a boy named Bruce who lived up the street when I was very young, and later a boy named Alan and a girl named Trudy. Mostly they came to my house, although I spent a good deal of time at Alan's house during that period. His older sister looked after us.

2) Then his daughter asked if Lee could carry her books on the walk to/from school. During your junior high years, how did you travel to school (bus, bicycle, car pool, shoe leather)?

A. I rode a bus to school until I turned 16 and could drive. My bus ride was about an hour long, both ways.

 

3) Throughout this song, the father recalls that his daughter alternately called him "Daddy," "Dad," "Popsie," "Pop" and "Father." How did/do you address your father?

A. I called him Dad.

 

4) The song ends with the daughter asking her father to babysit. When did you last look after someone else's child?

A. I haven't looked after someone else's child for decades.

 

5) This record was a Top 10 hit in the US and it made the Top 20 in Canada. Much of its success was attributed to Mike Douglas' TV popularity. From 1965 to 1981, he hosted a daytime talk show. Do you watch much daytime TV?

A. I do not watch much daytime TV. I remember the Mike Douglas show, though. When I was sick, I watched TV at my grandmother's house. 

6) Mike Douglas was a father himself. He had three daughters, including twins. Are there twins in your family? 

A. There are no twins in my family.

 

Now about Father's Day ... 

 

7) Retail chains like O'Reilly Auto Parts, Auto Zone and Jiffy Lube are all promoting gift cards and car-related gifts for Father's Day. If you got a gift card from one of those stores, how would you upgrade your ride?

A. I would probably get some new floor mats and one of those sun stopper things you put in the windshield to keep the car from getting too hot in the summer.

 

8) Dick's Sporting Goods also enjoys a spike in gift card sales around Father's Day. Have you more recently given or received a gift card?

A. I recently received one. 

9) In days gone by, ties were the #1 Father's Day gift. But as today's workplace has become more casual, fragrance has taken over the top spot. Dove Men+Care offers gift sets with shampoo/conditioner, body wash and antiperspirant. Think about your shower routine. Are your shampoo, body wash and antiperspirant all the same brand or the same scent?

A. All of my items are unscented, but different brands. I use unscented Dove sensitive skin soap and Vanicreme shampoo and conditioner. My deodorant is unscented Sure.

_______________

I encourage you to visit the posts of other participants in Saturday 9 and leave a comment. Because there are no rules, it is your choice. Saturday 9 players hate rules. We love memes, however. 

Flowing Water

 Just because I seldom get anywhere to take pictures of a creek—

Thursday Thirteen

Wednesday, 06-17-2026, the county held a forum for the data center that is being built in the industrial center. Since the proposed data center project directly affects our area and may ultimately affect our farm, I wanted to see the information for myself.

The forum was a total zoo. There were many people running around with "No Data Center" signs. Folks stood at tables and argued with the experts. 

The experts looked, well, a bit overwhelmed.

There were smells all over the place, perfumes and cologne. All the things to which I am allergic.

The best part for me was this: I saw a lot of people I hadn't seen in a while, including some journalists and the Democrat candidate for the Virginia 6th District House of Representatives seat. I went to college with her.

This thing was held in the lower gymnasium of the high school. The elevators weren't working as promised, and I had to walk down two flights of steps. My friend had to go get her car and come around and pick me up when we left because there was no way I could climb two flights of stairs. I could barely get down them. A lot of older people were clinging to the handrails. So that was a SNAFU that could have been better handled for sure. 

There was some guy in orange there with a big mustache. I think he was supposed to be the Lorax. There was a huge crowd of people around the county administrator. Every time I glanced over at him, I noticed his face kept getting redder and redder. I never got close enough to speak to him although I did talk to two county supervisors.

So here are some photos of this event:

The large crowd at the entrance before they opened the doors should have warned me.

They wanted everyone to sign in. Some people did not like that.

The project.

The Lorax (?)

More about the project.

A rendition of one of the data centers.

I am not sure about the timeline. As far as I know, the US Army Corps of Engineers
hasn't issued a permit.

More stuff about the project.

The "no data center" signs popped up occasionally.

More about the project. Corporate stuff.

More corporate stuff.

More corporate stuff.

Beth Macy, who is running for election in the Virginia 6th District,
House of Representatives

The county communications director

Two friends of mine who I didn't think would care if I put up their picture.

An overview of the crowd

People protesting outside. Bye Bye.

In the end, I came away with more questions than answers. The county and Google certainly succeeded in drawing a crowd, but whether anyone changed their mind about the project is another matter. At least I got to see some old friends and collect a few photographs.

_________________

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 964th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday. Or so sayth the Blogger counter, anyway.

Wild Daisies

These are called oxeye daisies. They are a field daisy that grows in our area from April through July.

Photos taken with iPhone SE.

Books in Review

The Witch Way Librarian (Series)
By Angela M. Sanders

I listened to all seven books of this series, recently finishing the last one. I give the series overall about 3.5 stars.

The main character is interesting, although she often jumps to conclusions based on what she believes rather than what she actually knows. For example, in one of the books, she is trying to solve "poison pen" letters. I knew who had written the letters from the get-go, and she should have known that, too. It was far too obvious. It made her seem to suffer a bit from tunnel vision sometimes.

The first three books were definitely cozy urban fantasy mysteries, and given where I have been with my head, they fit the bill for listening to something but not having to pay much attention to understand what was going on.

The series changed around book 4, and it began to feel like the author had determined where she wanted to end and was in a hurry to get there. The mysteries began to take a back seat to the main character's family and her magical powers.

This made sense as the witch in question, Josie Way, didn't have her powers until the first book. She was learning to be a witch for a period that spanned about two years in the books.

The stories are set in a small Oregon town, although really it could have been Anytown, USA. The town's name began to wear on me as I heard the audiobook reader talk about "Wilfredians" frequently. My local county seat has a weird name, but we don't call people from there "Fincastlians," "Fincastle-ites" or anything similar. We say people from Fincastle. Or I do, anyway. But that's a minor complaint and me just being a grump.

The last book also took on library book banning in an unusual way. This foray into politics seemed mostly natural for the series - it was set in a library, after all - but I also felt the author's voice in this section. It was a secondary plot in the last book but also one that seemed important to the author. I felt like she had to get her point across there.

All in all, this is a solid series. There's a little romance, characters that have their own quirks and personalities, a main character who shows some growth and change, and just enough magic to make this a fantasy series, but not enough to take away from the mysteries or the character building, except for maybe in the last book in the series.

If you're looking for a cozy fantasy mystery series that won't demand a lot of mental energy, this might be worth a try. And perhaps best of all, it actually has an ending. After seven books, the story wraps up in a satisfying way instead of simply stopping.

Sunday Stealing

 

Well, this is fun. These questions came from regular Sunday Stealing players. Very cool.

DIY Meme

1. Would you rather have every traffic light turn green or always get the best parking spot? (Kwizgiver)

A. Oh, a green light all the time would be wonderful!  

2. What's the most difficult thing you have ever done? (Gold in the Clouds)

A. The most difficult thing I have ever done was trying to care for my mother when she had cancer. I did the best I could. I know it wasn't perfect, but it was my best under the circumstances.  

3. What information do you know that you are proud of/happy about, but others say, "Who cares?" (Roger)

A. I am fairly accomplished. I can play several instruments, I have three college degrees, I've been published thousands of times; none of that matters to some people.

4. What mystery do you wish you knew the answer to? (Myra/Mevely)

A. The answer to the Beale Treasure mystery. The Beale Treasure is one of Virginia’s most enduring legends. It's a blend of frontier lore, cryptographic obsession, and Appalachian mystery. According to an 1885 pamphlet, a man named Thomas J. Beale supposedly buried a massive hoard of gold and silver in Bedford County in the 1820s, leaving behind three coded messages said to reveal its location and heirs. Only one cipher has ever been solved, and no historical record proves Beale even existed, which fuels the long-running debate over whether the whole thing is a genuine puzzle or an elaborate 19th‑century hoax. Even so, the unsolved ciphers and the idea of treasure hidden in the Blue Ridge keep the story alive.

5. What small, ordinary thing brings you disproportionate joy? (Country Dew)

A. Baby animals. I love seeing newborn calves, fawns, puppies, little kittens, and human babies. They are so tiny and fun.

6. What time do you go to sleep/wake up? (Annie)

A. I go to bed around 10 p.m. and wake up anytime between 5 a.m. and 7 a.m. these days. When I was a news reporter, my schedule was uneven because sometimes meetings ran late.

7. What is your favorite sleeping position? (Lisa)

A. I sleep on my back.  

8. Describe your personal Utopia. (Pandora)

A. My personal Utopia would be a home that runs on calm, not chaos. Not minimalist, not cluttered. Just ordered enough that nothing nags at me. A place where paperwork behaves itself, bills arrive cleanly, clearly, and without hidden fees, no one tries to make me pay a credit‑card surcharge, appliances don’t break at the worst possible moment, the water is always cold, clear, and Brita‑perfect, I can sit down to write without a single digital tool fighting me. It’s a world where technology behaves, bureaucracy is minimal, I don’t have to apologize for my preferences, I trust my instincts without second‑guessing, I'm not carrying the emotional residue of other people’s decisions. My utopia would include Wordle paths that are rare and satisfying, dragons in fiction, not in my inbox, babies that smell good and don’t cry, sandwiches exactly the way I like them, dusty‑colored clothes that flatter without effort, Monty Python humor landing exactly when I need it. (Run away! Run away more!)

9. Imagine that you have a machine that can create any new invention for you based on your description. What you ask the machine to create, and why? (Plastic Mancunian)

A.   I would invent a small, plain-looking box that grants an unlimited number of wishes. It wouldn't have a genie inside; it would grant wishes all on its own. I would create it so that certain issues could be resolved.

Thank you for playing! Please come back next week.

__________

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: Accidentally in Love

Saturday 9: Accidentally in Love (2004)

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

1) In the video for this song, a young man dances alone in the kitchen while making breakfast for his lady love. When no one's looking, do you often bust a move?

A. Well, I might do a little hop. I don't know that I even know how to "bust a move." I was never much of a dancer.

2) "Accidentally in Love" was featured in the animated movie Shrek 2.  In this video, a plushie from the movie is shown on their bed. Do you have any plush toys in your bedroom?

A. I do not have any plush toys in the bedroom. I think the only plush toys I have are Christmas ones that are stowed in the closet.

3) The lyrics liken falling in love to strawberry ice cream that he just can't resist. What sweet treat would hit the spot right now? 

A. How about a hot fudge sundae, no nuts, please.

4) He sings about lightning. Astraphobia is the fear of thunderstorms. Have you ever suffered from astraphobia?

A. I like thunderstorms. I like to watch them, I like to try to photograph lightning (I have yet to succeed), I like the noise of thunder. I remember sitting on the back stoop with my maternal grandfather and watching a storm roll across, the lightning searing the sky, him sitting there smelling of cigarettes and aftershave, the air full of the scent of earthy rain that hadn't reached us. 

5) This song is about falling in love when he wasn't looking for it. Has this ever happened to you? Or have you usually found romance while actively seeking a partner (dating sites, blind dates, etc.)? 

A. I fell in love watching a high school football game and married the guy. I wasn't looking for it at the time. I was only 19. 

6) This week's artists, The Counting Crows, got their start in San Francisco. A famous quote, often attributed to Mark Twain, says, "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco." How has the summer weather been where you are?

A. We are in a drought. It has been too warm and too dry. The end of this week of June has been very hot and muggy, with a few thunderstorms to help break up the day.

7) In 2004, when this song was popular, Mark Zuckerberg launched Facebook. Have you checked Facebook today?

A. I have checked Facebook today. I read the news today, oh boy. We are bombing in Iran, data centers in the plan. A celebration on the grass, a reflecting pool, a deep morass. I read the news today, oh boy.

8) Also in 2004, we lost President Ronald Reagan. Before entering politics, he had a decades-long career in Hollywood and appeared in 53 films. Have you ever seen a Ronald Reagan movie?

A. I probably have seen a movie with the former president in it, but I don't recall it specifically. Hollywood has a lot to answer for.

9) Random question: Describe your favorite pajamas.

A. I don't have a pair of favorite pajamas. I have nightgowns that I sleep in. I prefer the cotton ones to other material.

_______________

I encourage you to visit the posts of other participants in Saturday 9 and leave a comment. Because there are no rules, it is your choice. Saturday 9 players hate rules. We love memes, however. 

Thursday Thirteen - Grandma Edition

1. Every June 11, I stop and do the math again. She’d be 103 this year, which feels impossible and also exactly right. Some people stay present long after they’re gone. Today is my maternal grandmother's birthday.

2. When I think of childhood, I’m at her kitchen table with Campbell’s chicken noodle soup steaming in front of me and a Little Debbie Oatmeal Crème Pie (known to us grandkids as a Grandaddy Cookie) waiting its turn. That table was my infirmary, my library, my safe harbor.

3. She had already raised five children by the time I arrived, with another one coming a year after me, yet she still had patience left over for every grandchild who wandered through her door.

4. On sick days she wrapped me in one of Aunt Susie’s afghans, pulled me into her lap, and rocked while she sang “Daisy, Daisy.” The chair creaked, her voice hummed, and I drifted off like it was the most natural thing in the world.

5. If I wasn’t too sick, I camped on the couch with tissues while we watched The Price Is Right, Dark Shadows, and The Guiding Light. She could pick up more channels than we could in the country, which felt like magic.

6. At 2 p.m. sharp, the house went still. That was when she talked to “Mama Fore,” and unless you were actively bleeding, you waited.

7. My favorite part of sick days was reading. She let me loose on the World Book Encyclopedias, Nancy Drew, Little House, The Silver Skates, Five Little Peppers - anything I could reach and wanted to read. I read the encyclopedia for fun, and she never once acted like that was strange.

8. She only had a fourth‑grade education, but she valued knowledge like it was oxygen. She read the newspaper front to back, even the grocery ads, and she read it aloud to me until I could read it myself at four. I’ve been reading The Roanoke Times ever since.

9. Her house ran on small rituals: Friday hair appointments at Aunt Neva’s, walking three blocks and crossing a four‑lane road like it was nothing, sometimes with us trailing behind on bikes. Wash clothes on Mondays. Change the bed linens on Saturdays. Have dinner ready for Grandpa's arrival from work by 4 p.m. on the dot. Those rituals brought comfort in an ever-changing world.

10. The rag bag in the hallway closet was its own universe. Old sheets and fabric scraps became doll blankets, superhero capes, and whatever else our imaginations demanded. Whether we put anything back is another story.

11. In the summers, I walked with her into downtown Salem. That mile and a half felt like an expedition. We kids bought balsa airplanes or paddle balls with our saved‑up change, and she always treated us to snow cones at Brooks Byrd Pharmacy. I picked blue every time.

12. She lived through losses she didn’t talk about: her parents, her husband, siblings, and later, my mother. When I was fifteen and showed up in my prom dress, she called my mother afterward and cried because I had thought to come. I was her oldest grandchild.

13. Even now, when I’m lonesome, I talk to her. She doesn’t answer out loud, but I feel like she listens. She always did. I sure wish she was still just a phone call away.

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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 963rd time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday. Or so sayth the Blogger counter, anyway.

Happy Birthday, Grandpa Joe

Today would have been my Grandpa Joe's birthday if he were still alive. He was my father's father.

Joe would have been 109 years old. He died in 1989 from lung problems caused by smoking and from working in the West Virginia coal mines when he was young. He had served in World War II as well, part of the push into France and then Germany in 1945.

My grandfather was in the Army for most of my father's young years. My father told me once that when the soldiers finally came home, he knew his daddy because he was the man his mother was hugging and kissing on.

My father's parents moved to California when I was about six months old, taking with them my father's two older brothers and their young families, and his younger sister. I don't know why my father stayed. Perhaps my mother didn't want to move. 

In any event, this meant that my paternal grandparents were not people I knew very well for most of my childhood. They existed for me as a voice on the phone into which I blew kisses at my mother's urging, strange Christmas presents under the tree that I generally did not play with. In hindsight this is terrible, because I suspect those presents were a bit of a hardship for them to send. 

My grandparents in California were people my father talked about. To me, they were like ghosts.

They first visited when I was about ten. I don't recall much about that visit. My grandmother talked very fast and very loudly. She loved to cook — she would have dinner waiting when my mother came home from work. My Grandpa Joe played guitar and told stories. The visit did not last long.

We drove to California in 1976. I don't recall much about seeing my grandparents that trip. My cousin had run away from home and there was much concern about her. I remember some guitar playing, a trip to a vast flea market where my mother bought a lamp with an orange shade and fringe on it, and that's about it.

My grandparents came to visit again in 1981, around March, and said they would stay until my graduation in June. I was quite excited about this. But my grandmother, after about two weeks, said she missed her dog and they left.

I have a Yamaha guitar that my grandfather gave to me before he left that time. I think it was sort of graduation and consolation prize combined.

After I married, my grandfather and I became pen pals. I felt a kinship with him that I did not feel with my father's other relatives. He sent me stories he wanted preserved because he thought I would keep them. He wrote me poems. He tried to give me life advice, but not much. I guess he thought I'd learn whatever I needed to know. I still have all the originals, safely tucked away. 

Eventually I typed out most of his stories and made a little book, which I shared with my father and other relatives. He told me just before he died that he had more things to send me, but I never received them and I don't know what happened to them.

He always teased me and said I was two days older than he was. Same joke every year. I never tired of it.

They visited one last time around 1988, and my grandfather died the following year. They were pleased to see my house, happy with my husband, glad that I seemed settled. I did not see either of them again, although my grandmother lived to be 97 and died in 2017.

Describing my paternal grandparents is difficult for me because I did not know them well. I cannot paint a word picture of them the way I could my maternal grandmother. All I have are scattered memories and my grandfather's words on paper.

This was my loss. Maybe it was their loss, too.

The Wind Farm

About a decade ago, I sat in on meetings with county officials as they decided whether or not my locality would be the site of Virginia's first "wind farm," meaning a bunch of big windmills to produce power. They would be located on North Mountain in Eagle Rock.

I wrote several articles about them as the project wound its way through the permitting process.

After the project, known as the Rocky Forge Wind Project, was approved, construction was halted via lawsuits filed by various citizens and groups who did not want to see large windmills in the northern part of the county.

After some back and forth and lots of slowdowns, the company came back and asked for a reduction in the number of towers, but the towers would be taller.

This screen shot from the Rocky Forge website indicates what the windmills will look like.

Now the windmills are going up. Google has agreed to purchase the power. I have no idea if the power will go towards the data center that Google is building not far from me.

We drove out to look at the tower pieces. These are blades. As you can tell by the way the trucks look, the blades are quite large.

This would be part of the tower for the blades. Maybe both pieces fit together to make the very tall tower? Anyway, the things were huge.

Another shot of the blades. Below are more shots of the parts. These are massive pieces of equipment.

I have no personal opinion about this project. For me, it's just another indicator of the changes coming to this community, changes that have long been in the making. Time will tell as to whether these changes are good or bad.