2nd Covid Shot - I'll post a picture of my new seCond heAd IF i cAN geT It EXcHangED for ThE oNE i waNtED.

 Four of us got the second Covid shot today. My sister who had a stroke qualifies as of Monday in that she is 55 and unfortunately has diabetes. Monday morning, I shall call and get her signed up if possible. We got the Moderna shot. Hopefully she can get the Johnson and Johnson since it is only one shot.

And yes, I have sPRoutEd a SecoNd HeAD and no I don't like the color. The head is a brilliant orange with purple spots and I specifically wanted a green one with an orange and purple paisley design. Science can be so frustrating. My great aunt said to take a tylenol and exercise my arm. I forgot to take a tylenol. THat cOUlD bE THe pROBlemo.

The head also has an attitude which I will discuss later when it is gone. I told it to take the earrings off. They look like little handbags. She rolled her eyes and asked me when was the last time I plucked my chin. 

So be careful. Take your tylenol and get the head you really wanted. 

Today I plan to take it easy. I plan to plant a few items and otherwise relax. I hope all is well with you.

Chillin' from Central GA

Everybody is wild about Harry and who doesn't have an opinion about Meghan.

 On many fronts, I have a compromised opinion of how Harry Mountbatten-Windsor and Meghan Markle live their lives. Some are due to the fact that I don't find their lives that interesting. BUT, I do love Harry. And yes as an American, I'm very proud of Meghan Markle.

My mom feels that Meghan knew who Prince Harry was and she should have been a help mate and rose to the occasion. I agree with my mother. I admire Meghan chutzpah to marry into the British royal family. But the two of them just quitting their highfalutin jobs as senior royals is quite bold.

One reason the formerly royal couple fled to California is the British Tabloid press. The British tabloid press from my perspective across the Atlantic is composed of different girls baring their bosoms on say page 4, day after day or week after week. Any news content is composed of what nasty things we can say to bring the mighty down. I'm sure someone who rescues a cat or dog is featured in every issue. Kind of like Twitter all nailed down without the oddball posts like "my cat just died, can I get a few follows".

Ahem, we have tabloids in the States minus the perky bosoms. We are a bit prudish in the States. Our movie stars have a skinny strip of fabric over their nipples when they wear a daring gown at a posh award's show. If you don't hear an F-bomb imploding on a American film, you may need to get your hearing checked. It is only a matter of time we have a cute little ditty for children to sing along with the f-bomb.

An American celebrity who is from Britain is Sharon Osbourne. When Meghan and Harry first came to North America, she predicted they would be interviewed by Oprah. I remember listening to her comment and she clearly had a dog in the fight and felt keenly protective of the royal family and tradition. 

Personally, I feel everyone has the right to quit a job they hate. Despite the luxury that comes with being a member of a royal family, I don't think I would enjoy the limelight nor the job either. So I am sympathetic to the two. I'm very happy for the two. 

Now why are Americans so interested in the British royal family. For me, it's the fact that they still exist. Fairytales can be real. All the romanticism of King Arthur and Knights of the round table lived in my childhood home. 

I got a chair out of a pile of garbage in the neighborhood I grew up in. I recognized what the chair was. An 88 year old woman I knew when I was about 25 had one. It was her grandmother's nursing chair. I took this found chair to the Antique Roadshow when it was in Raleigh, NC. The Keno brothers teased me a bit in they speculated on what had chewed the deer hide seat. I knew it was worthless from the banter which they later confirmed. But they did share the chair was probably from the early 1800's.

I'm a lover of what could be, what could have been. I loved fantasy and science fiction when I was in my twenties. Now, not so much, I've moved onto reality, non-fiction, memoirs or sounds like it could have happened fiction.

I'm not ready to part with my chair. I still think of the woman who used it. In studying my family history, people had 15 kids and those kids had 15 too. I'm sure the chair was well used. I will pass the chair to either a much younger history buff family member or sell it to a collector of  primitive furniture who can appreciate what it is hopefully for someone else in the distant future. 

But the future can be quite good and bad for us all and my precious chair. Only time will tell if Harry and Meghan made a good choice and even then they can't go back and relive an alternate life without a bit of pain mixed with the good. But a friend of mine who cancels out her husband's vote in most elections said that she and her husband agreed about Harry and Meghan. I decided not to ask the conclusion. 

I don't plan to watch the interview but my mother will. So I will hear bits and pieces. The news will carry anything salacious. In regards to accusations of Meghan bullying staff members at Buckingham Palace; Meghan and Harry are here to stay. It is all over but the shouting as they say.

Social Media is partly to blame.

I remember when I was in college Studio 54 was in it's heyday. I honestly thought that if I ever went to New York City, I would go. Now I know there is no way they would have let me in. And if they had let me in, I would have been paralyzed witnessing some of the stories they had about the place. I have spent a life with a degree of naivete. 

East German Discotheque circa 1977

It is interesting that suddenly a lot has been banned on Facebook and Twitter. Ya think it could be a financial decision. The 2.9 billion lawsuit by a voting machine company over lost revenue will be an interesting bit of television. I was busy cleaning my brother's house getting it ready for sale and missed much of the impeachment trial. I was not surprised by the verdict. Trump's defense attorneys did not offer much of a defense. They knew going in there were not enough votes to convict for inciting the insurrection.

But---Social Media has some blame. Not the companies, but the lies people casually shared with one another. I shared a few too. One of my posts came back as partially false on Facebook. I deleted the post. I noticed a grammar issue and a misspelled word which I should have noted as a red flag. 

My beef with social media is more personal. I have a sister who has had a stroke. Predators use social media well and they can be someone local. The other nuisance is the well meaning fount of wisdom who gives advice which they do not know is useless and counterproductive.

In following politics on twitter, I know why the gist of twitter eluded me. There is too much flotsam. I enjoy some of the politics. Some of it is just mean spirited opinion. Some of it is news before it is news.  Having learned twitter by anger over the insurrection, I recognize one big fact.

I will never have a valid platform on any social media site. I'm just not an exciting person. I've noticed we all join a subgroup and become an echo chamber of opinions. I will say I avoided politics on Facebooks and still do. But politics is quite fun on twitter. I hate that some have been banned in that I don't think going to little known sites creates a healthy environment. Part of a healthy viewpoint is that chiding we all get that moderates our opinions.

A local professor has been put in the limelight via twitter by a student for a quite nasty comment they made to a student. As a retired teacher, I think about how a bit of well said sarcasm was enjoyed by students including the target of the sarcasm. But it could get you in hot water. So I sympathize with this teacher. I don't know her from Adam's housecat, and her comment was horrible.. 

I loved my summer school students who were really a classroom of boys who did not turn in a paper. You never got a student in there with low marks due to lack of ability. I had one class that I thought was going to best me. But after two weeks, they calmed down and were really quite nice kids. 

One lad would tell me he could not do the assignments. He sat next to me and was really very bright. He would start that petty banter with me. I was reading and marking papers. I turned to him and told him I couldn't fix stupid and winked at him. He loved it. But man, on twitter, I would have had to leave the country for saying something like that. Although those boys could be rascals, I doubt any of them would have ratted me out on twitter.

Meanwhile none of this is very important for those scrambling in Texas and other regions with the powerful winter storms they are experiencing. I pray they get their power going, pipes repaired and water flowing soon. There is a lot of real suffering happening. There is little any of us can do but pray for them. God bless the emergency workers and repair workers who will be going to these hard hit areas. 

 

Well I'll be.

 Tempus fugit is the story of my life. When I bought my first house, I was pressured to save for the down payment and get moved. It was one of the best things that I did financially but it was not on my time schedule. I've always thought when it comes time for my funeral; it needs to start late. There is never enough time.

This past year I lost my older brother. He was my first teacher of the world around me. I remember the history lesson. We have had two wars. We won the first and lost the second one. We used to play civil war. We had an American flag and a Confederate flag. The person with the flag who ran to the stop sign first won the war. It was about a tenth of a mile and we had not entered school yet. 

I had an easy childhood, adulthood came to me in moments. I remember doing something stupid and I started making excuses to rationalize it and that thought crept over me that why would I make an excuse to myself. 

My brother passed without a will. He had a few typed that I had found. In the end, I was the heir. He and his wife divorced in 2014. He did not have biological children. The state of GA has a hierarchy of heirs and my mother is his heir at 90 years of age. For me this works well in that my three surviving siblings are disabled. My mother does have a will. Although she does not have a King's ransom; she is passing most to me to provide for my disabled siblings. That is what my brother wanted me to do with what he had.

My encounters with the legal system has educated me on what you can or cannot do. My sister with mental illness wants me to create a savings account for her. I would. But I would have to pay a bond and a lawyer to spend that money. Which goes to the conundrums the law creates. It makes it very expensive and a burden to take care of mentally incapacitated people in Georgia. My mother has me on all her bank accounts so I don't have this burden with her funds. It was with a great deal of sadness that I learned I don't have enough money to create a trust for my sister and brother.

I closed out my brother's bank account at a credit union. It took about an hour and a half yesterday. I left my house at 12:30 PM for the appointment at 3:30 PM. The drive should have taken 2 1/2 hours. I walked in at exactly 3:30. 

After my brother passed, I paid a few of his bills. He owed about $530 on a credit card. I wrote a check. The credit union returned the check with a phone number for me to call. I called and the lady told me they would waive the $530 fee and I could close his account when the bank opened up from being closed due to Covid and I had gone through probate. I had filed for probate in April, the court processed my application in September. I had run legal notices in the newspapers in the county my brother lived. 

My mother is 90 and leaving her in the care of my sister is difficult. My sister does a good job. My mother gets panicked about me being gone. But I have decided once a week, I am dealing with my brother's house. Friday was to do the bank account and then stop by his house to get some of his papers. My brother has every bill and bank statement from the 1980s. There is a box with his Vietnam papers which may be every bill from the seventies. I did clean a bit since his house is a 2 1/2 hour drive from mine. It really is a cute house. I looked out the back bedroom window at the slope of the land outside as I took curtains down to wash at my house.

Act I is the legal quagmire of my brother's estate. The credit union had blocked his account for non-payment of the credit card. The gal helping at first wanted me to write a personal check to pay the credit card. (Crazy in that they would not let me pay for it March of 2020.) I agreed but I had to correct her on one point. She said I would be getting the money back from his account. I told her actually I would not be getting the money. The money was written in a check to his estate. 

She scrambled when I made that statement and whoever she was talking to on the phone decided to take it out of his checking and savings account and issued a check which will be good for thirty days. I have got to open a checking account for his estate and get an EIN number from the IRS. So you can guess what I will be doing once I post this blog entry.  

My goal is to write the post on the day before garbage day which is Thursday and have my blog posted Thursday. I put fallen limbs from the Pecan trees in the empty trash cart and haul them up to the house to burn. I'm on a schedule, I hope.

At my brother's funeral, I had this Johnny Paycheck song played.

Confidence and Motivation

 I've been reading an older book by FBI profiler John Douglas. It has helped me with my writing in that he does write about how a crime affects a victim. Sometimes I get lost on writing that villian until I don't consider how the victim who rises up has a difficult time rising. Life only appears to go back to normal.  

This goes to confidence. I'm one of those people who attempts to get everyone to like me. Like my mother, I will climb a tree to avoid an argument. One cool thing when you take care of an elderly parent is that you see yourself so well at times. It is obvious a lot of training occurs before you
realize it. 

In packing up my brother's house; I see so many family traits. One we are packrats, two we save money when we can, three - well organization. There is impeccable organization on one end and the rest of it can go to hell. I am still getting old newspapers up at his house. I can tell he was preparing to move.

My brother was very organized with his paperwork. Next time I go to his house, I am packing up boxes of papers. Most of which will be burned in that they are just old bills he has saved. And yes, I have got ridiculous items like that saved. 

I remember when I first started teaching school, a teacher was talking about throwing away the old gradebooks a teacher who had long retired had left. If I could step back in time, I would have gotten them. You know gradebooks from the 1950's would be an interesting thing to look at now. So you see why my family has so much clutter.

But my brother had a confidence I never had. He would tease people to get a reaction. My dad was on a bus tour with my mom and they were told they did not need the dinner tickets they had been given earlier in the day, just walk into the restaurant. Well my dad teased this woman for her dinner ticket, and she was holding on to hers unaware of what my dad and mom had been told. 

We all have a joking nature which we get from my father. As an adult, I can tell you joking is a way of coping with what you can't control. I was a funny teacher. I used humor to corral students with the lack of power I actually had. I've lived long enough to know there are some things you can't joke your way out. 

What motivates Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene who represents the 14th district of Georgia. She is close to 50. She inherited a profitable home building-remodeling business from her father. She is married with several kids. So why in the heck does she maintain that 9-11 was a hoax, the pentagon did not have a plane crash into it and all the school shootings did not happen. The school shootings were hoaxes financed by Soros. I watched a video of her verbally haranguing a student who was at the capital about the Parkland School shooting. 

This is a video by Marjorie Taylor Greene about the Vegas shooting where the shooter just shot people at a concert. Then killed himself. I've learned from Douglas that that type of individual wants to be totally in control. So when they kill themselves, it is to maintain control.

This is an article that details some of the more extreme ideation of Marjorie Taylor Greene.  https://www.mediamatters.org/facebook/marjorie-taylor-greene-endorsed-deranged-conspiracy-theory-about-democrats-and-satanic

I don't think Marjorie Taylor Greene is crazy. So why would she be trying so hard to get people to run down a rabbit hole as she watches. I do not think she believes all this rubbish. Her response on Facebook to someone read to me more like a con artist grooming a victim. 

And this is what makes me bitter. I know many in that part of Northeast Georgia and Northwest Alabama who buy into all this garbage. The ones that hurt the most are those that are kin to me. So you damn right, I am angry. And it is a hotter anger than what I feel for all these internet cons in that what do they really get out of it.

I don't need a crystal ball. Marjorie Taylor Greene will probably be divorced and will lose her business in about ten years. There were fourteen complaints with customers on the BBB website. Better Business Bureau Complaints  Her mouth has opened her up to a lot of litigation. If she doesn't take to heart the Republican talking to she is going to get, she will get the golden handshake. 

Will she be like the lawyer L Lin Woods who is estranged from his children? L. Lin Wood is the victim of a crime. When he was 16, he came home to his father having murdered his mother. His parents were alcoholics. I remember a man I dated in the early 90s saying he knew Lin Wood. Lin Wood had a good reputation. But his manipulation of fanaticism will make people remember his feet were indeed made of clay.

But what motivates Greene besides power?

 It is the Republican party who has to put a stop to this. I also don't think the Republican party is responsible for this craziness. It is a victim too. Republican Governor Kemp has been a good leader. He has done a good job of trying to create a balance between preventing the spread of Covid and the state functioning in business and everyday life. I have a lot of respect for politicians. They get a lot of blowback from too many people. I have a lot of respect for people who hold office. I could not stand the crap they have to deal with.

But what are your thoughts on why Marjorie Taylor Greene? I don't get it. 

Bouchercon

I went to Bouchercon in Texas in 2019. It was phenomenal. What was amazing was the price. You get free books, free food for the entire four days of panels and speakers. I paid the early bird of $175. I fouled up in that I did not get a Nero Wolfe dinner paid for in advance and we missed that. The hotel was plush. You did have to pay for your hotel room which I think was about $150 a night. I shared a room with my sister.

Bouchercon is nerdy heaven for us bookworms. The people watching was incredible. Hats, what is about hats that writers are so crazy about. And do they wear those hats when they go about their errands. I am lucky to have my hair combed. I keep a comb handy in the car. The hair I worked on so hard in my younger days, I now allow to dry before I comb it out. That way I get the maximum fluff for my straight hair with a wee bit of wave.  

At Bouchercon, my sister and I waited in line for free chili which was what me and my sister thought why everyone was waiting. Then we observed people getting free books signed by the author. I got one or two books from the shortest lines I could see. I have a TBR list that is beyond my lifetime so I did not care which books I got. One of the authors was curious about my Southern accent. She was surprised I would be interested in her book. Oh yeah, I want to read your book is what I said. It's in the TBR bookcase. 

My favorite event was the speed dating breakfast where authors sat at your table and did their spiel for about ten minutes. At the end, you got to choose two books from stacks of books of all the authors. Writers are my rock stars.

That was Dallas in 2019. This year was Sacramento. My sister and I were fancying a car trip to Sacramento. My sister is in a wheelchair and the car ride is much easier than an airplane. We were going to have a great time. Then there was COVID. No Sacramento. No cross country car ride. My dogs and cats are ecstatic to have me home. I suspect I am a direct descendent of Marco Polo. 

I attended the virtual Bouchercon. It was in the spirit but I did not make it through the few virtual panels I tuned into. So I have signed up for the 2021 in New Orleans. Whether it makes it or not? Who knows. Covid has truly created hardships, inconvenience and disappointments. 

For me, it is mostly disappointments. My humble pie in the opinion department is that I find it hard to breathe using N-95 masks. I never voiced my opinion about masks which was "Quit your complaining, wear your masks.". So I get a bit of what some don't like. But as long as I function, I will wear that N-95. Unfortunately, I've known a few who have passed from Covid. I had not heard from a writer friend. Then boom, she is barely back. Covid almost took her and her husband on a free trip to the Pearly Gates.

We all need to let everyone know how we are doing. I do think about the many people I have met blogging. We share such personal moments that you feel a kinship with everyone. My prayer is that all of you are well and have contentment. 

I recently read a friend's first published book on Kindle. It is called Marriage Wars by Leeanne Beasley Berry. It was a fun breezy read of two women from high school with dissolving marriages. I know the topic sounds miserable but it does have a satisfying ending and is funny in places. 

Lately, I have watched a show about the paranormal. There is a television show on the Travel Channel called Dead Files. The Travel channel used to be about traveling to exotic locations. Now it investigates Yeti, Big Foot, Aliens and what goes bump in the night. Most of it is fairly boring and not worth your time. I joke about doing a ghost documentary where we do several scenes running out of a room yelling and scared. lol I'm not much of a believer. But Dead Files does make you wonder. 

The book I am reading now is Ghosts; Investigating the other side by Katherine Ramsland. Ramsland is a good writer who has worked for the FBI. Normally, I would not read a book about ghosts. It surprises me that someone with her background would write this book. But I am only about a fourth through. She starts the story with a supposedly haunted ring given to her by a man only known as Wraith. Then she proceeds to document her exploration of ghost hunting.

If it gets too scary, I'll stop reading. Maybe take more pictures of big rabbits in my front yard. I've got several armadillos. I will post a picture of them if I ever happen to see them and their big ears, and I have a camera with me. Have a good week. 

The rich man dances while the poor man pays the band, eh?

 I made a choice that I would not post about politics. We have gotten a fringe on both sides in the United States that are LOUD. In the beginning, I did post opinions on Facebook. Then I realized what I said on Facebook was like hanging out at a cocktail party and voicing that opinion. When people are chilling, they don't want to be serious. I can see the interior dialogue of people as they scroll on by the post. 

Plus, I would like people to get to know me before they know my politics. I have noticed friend's comments to news articles, etc showing up on my feed. I suspect my comments are highlighted too. 

I am a white woman living in Georgia. I am descended from the original settlers and many Revolutionary War, Confederate, Union soldiers. My grandfather served in the Spanish-American War and World War I. My roots are deep. People assume I am a red state voter. But like my mother, I put the purple in Georgia's vote. I tend to vote Democrat. I will vote for a Republican on occasion. 

The invasion of the capital has angered me to the point that I have finally figured out twitter. I spent a day making replies. Then I thought, I have joined the mob by voicing a loud opinion. I do plan to write my representative and four senators (two out-going and two in-coming). 

My big grief are the people who motivated the mob. One thing that is apparent is that many in the mob were unstable. The man from Florida who posed with Nancy Pelosi's lectern. The story was he posted it on ebay to sale. However, the lectern was found in the capital in good shape. The man who wore a coyote skin with horns and no shirt was the Q-anon Shaman who can go to different dimensions to fight pedophiles. You do the math.

Even Bigo Barnett from Gravette, Arkansas. He was the guy who sat with his feet propped on Nancy Pelosi's desk. Most teachers and many parents recognize him as a child. For some reason he thinks anything that comes out of his mouth will be believed.  He is not crazy. 

Donald Trump has a big problem with surrounding himself with yes men. Instead of leaving office with the bully pulpit of a former President; he has this shame.

I am not really disgusted with Donald Trump. This is who Donald Trump is. 

The senate race in Georgia was hard for me in that I grew up with the Perdues. David Perdue is about three years older than me. His mom was my brother's sixth grade teacher. His dad was the superintendent of schools in Houston County. My family likes the Perdues. I did not vote for David Perdue. But I like him. I don't know Kelly Loeffler but it was a no brainer to vote for her opponent. There was no substance to anything she said. One of her political ads have her sincerely talking. But if you listen, it is a disjointed list of political slogans. There is a difference between someone being a Republican and someone being a Republican stamp. 

The urinating in the halls of Congress, the trashing of files of paper on the floor, the removal of items (government phones and laptop included), men with zip cuffs to possibly take hostages, pipe bombs and weapons, the opportunity of a foreign actor to plant snooping devices. I think some of the mob were swept up in the moment. Some were just plain stupid. There was a woman from Tennessee complaining about being maced. Didn't she know some people get killed in a revolution.

The main reason I have not been vocal about politics. (Yes, I have said a bit.) is that I did not want to alienate people. My late brother was a Trumper. I am a never Trumper. We did talk politics. But we had an agreement to not talk politics so much as speak about an issue or send money to any political entity. I would love to hear my brother's take on this. 

The real villains are the politicians who recognized Trump had a populist appeal that some people would follow blindly. If you can't beat them join them was the mentality. Trump has a huge disadvantage in that no one could have input but him. This self limiting quality truly hampered his Presidency. His allies did him no favor in accepting this.

Contesting the election was a HUGE fundraising opportunity for Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri. There are other non-Georgians who raised money during the Georgia runoff such as Democrat Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and Republican Senator Mitch McConnell. 

I doubt there will be consequences. Josh Hawley wanted to propel himself into the national spotlight to run for President in 2024. Well he made it to the spotlight. He has four more years of his term to redeem himself with his constituency and backers. 

Now the individuals who went into the Capital, broke windows, peed on the floor, threw papers, pilfered items. They are in hot water. The comment from the beginning was how everything was being videoed with the surveillance system they had in the capital. A piece of me blamed the provocateurs. But the blame lies within the mob itself. Each of those individuals knew they were doing wrong. Shame on them.

Feel free to blast your comments. This summer one blogger who I enjoy reading stopped blogging because of the personal attacks. There is something wrong with us when we cannot tolerate opinions. There is also something wrong with us when we knowingly quote lies.

Loretta says, "It was Antifa that tore up the dogbed". 

Button says, "It was those radical liberals".