At least I have had my shots.

This has been a rough year with bad colds at our house. Before Christmas, we all came down with a cold. It started with sister B who rarely leaves the house. I can count on my hand four locations she had been in the prior three weeks.

Usually I have a mild cold and keep the home fires burning. Well I was sick longer and the house looks definitely lived in. I start to get better and busy, my sister A has a stomach problem. You don't want the details. I have cleaned up a lot, changed adult diapers, taught school for over thirty years in which I cleaned up vomit many times and I still don't like the details.

( I know the custodian is supposed to clean up accidents, I just never liked it sitting out with the germs floating in the air. Up, out and sanitized is my theory. Plus, I never liked children to think they were too good to clean. I did not make them clean it up but it was my hope that I taught by example.

There is one exception.

I had one male 6th grader who was being outrageous at lunch everyday by overeating and then puking to the entertainment of his classmates. On the third day, I lined the children up and walked him back to clean it up. The show ended. I was curious if mom was going to complain. You're not to make kids clean as punishment. I heard nothing. Evidently, he knew better than tell his mom about his comedic ways. Most parents hold their child accountable.)

Back to our aches and pains, we all got the stomach bug except for the sister B who started the first round of colds. The only good part is that I have not eaten well and my blood sugars are great with no meds. I didn't eat day before yesterday. I was afraid my stomach would sour and I did not eat. I watched my blood sugar. It is better than usual. I didn't take the meds because I didn't need them.

So I have got pollen season medicine stocked in the house. By March 1st, I am going to be outdoors as much as I can. I want a garden this year. We don't eat much. But if the garden produces a lot, I'm sure to find someone who would appreciate the food. Fresh tomatoes out of the garden taste better than anything.

Since I have been drained from being sick,  I've read several books. My idletime on the computer has been devoted to turning in porn sites on twitter. They usually feature this woman known as Cortana Blue. I google searched her image. She is a legitimate porn producer. But her artistry? is used all over twitter. I doubt she gets paid for these far flung efforts. Talk about throwing your pearls before swine.

What is surreal is her image becomes almost like that of a robot. No humanity can be seen. I think there is a future in sex doll-robots. I would hate for a grandson of mine to have a relationship with a robot. But it is possible. We have a small rundown strip club by the interstate. The parking lot looks empty and the place abandoned by day. One night I drove by around midnight, the place was packed.

Makes you want to never complain about your son in law again. He too could be a robot. Imagine a robot programmed to irritate only you. You wouldn't have to worry about your daughter raising her children wrong. There probably would not be any children. Hopefully hubbybot would clean the house when he's not recharging in the closet.

Obviously I need to get up and get busy with these deep thoughts I am having during my convalescence. I'm sure I could think deeper if twitter let me turn in catfish. A catfish messaged me and said, "Hi, your profile makes me attractive." My profile is a dead fish; it makes anyone attractive you dummy", I could retort. But I block politely.

My favorite were the porn purveyors using a photo of Cortana Blue that liked my tweet about Cortana Blue. Didn't they know I was getting their sites off twitter. I have a ten percent wish I had kept records of the sites I reported. The actual names and twitter handles were different from what I first saw.  For about two days, no porn. I was so smug.

Then, the gift that keeps on giving on twitter, "You want to touch all of my pics big boy". What lesbians can't keep the porn business lively too?

Ok, I know, I know, I need another topic. Spring is sprouting here.

The yellow Jessamine has not started up yet. But the purple grassflowers and dandelions are rocking here. You have to admire dandelions, they bloom all winter and go to seed. A little freeze and they wilt back to bloom again a day or two later. Kind of like porn on twitter, except dandelions are real, actually pretty. They may be as prolific as Cortana Blue but their image is much more pleasant.

Ms. Blue looks like a comic book character at times. There is an endless video of her shaking her booty on Reddit, some abrupt twitching but not much of the athleticism of dance.

As you can tell, I think porn is too damn common and pervasive. I know it's about money. There is a loss in humanity. I think teenage boys and girls were better off looking over the underwear ads in a Sears catalog or a National Geographic.

The huge tragedy of nursing homes, group homes or any place that people are housed because they can't care for themselves is that lack of human interaction. It's important for those who can to visit them.

Anyway, talk amongst yourselves and if you have anything really outrageous but rated PG or G to say, please put it in the comments.


My first pictures are of the yard flowers, then a few from twitter. Which is prettier?

Daffodil in my unruly side bed

It's a shame this weed can't be eaten. It grows like a weed.

Wild Geranium

Dandelion, notice it's toothed leaves. Dens de Lion or Tooth of Lion in French
Dandelion is called "white man's footprint". It spread from the east coast to
west coast of North America soon after the first European invaders.

Twitter trophy

I feel a sadness for this girl. Her image will always be enshrined with porn.
I remember a conversation between Larry King and one the first porn stars,
Marilyn Chambers. He asked her if she would like any of her children
to follow in her footsteps. She said no. It was a difficult image and
reputation to live with. This said knowing she had become wealthy from her work.

Winter Has Come

Ah to have cold days, it mean less bugs next summer, peaches will be blooming and hopefully fruitful as a result. The down side, baby it's cold outside.

The days are getting longer. We have survived the blizzard of 2018. I've discovered the bird that is so panicked during bad weather is a Killdeer which lives surprisingly close to my house. I suspect several locations could be it's shelter. One fortunately will not be disturbed when I commence work outdoors. It is a huge unwieldy rosemary bush.

We had some snow the next day in the shady areas.

Rosemary Bush blooms

I bought my brother a rosemary bush when they were reduced to a dollar after Christmas about ten years ago. He put his on a wagon and brought it in at night. Mine is maybe a 9 feet in circumference nightmare. Nightmare in that I would not reach deep into it. It could have a rattle snake in it's midst. I suspect the Killdeer can sniff him or her out. My brother's carefully potted plant has long met it's maker. You know the cold will kill them. Thank goodness no one has told mine.

During the snow, the Killdeer was quite vocal with me. I take enough orders from the resident animals. I also have a pet spider. It is a wolf spider. I was glad to see it's kin return. Last year, one of the physical therapist who visited my sister stepped on that spider for me. I hate it when someone kills one of my pets.

Killdeer photo found on Wikimedia Commons by Thomas Reidel.

We also have resident bobcats. Some barn cats from next door work my yard. A few cats from across the way have worked the front field. Then, we saw this cat who was still a kitten but was unusually over reactive to the car. It was a bobcat. I had seen a scraggly one years ago. I have seen a large one bounding across the road to leap into a dense overgrowth. Last Sunday, we saw a healthy bobcat about 100 feet from the house.

Bobcat, photo credit to Shenandoah National Park
in Virginia, USA, Wikimedia Commons

I used to see bunnies along the driveway. I thought it was unusual until it dawned on me those were half grown babies waiting on the mother rabbit to come home. There are three fences in close proximity for about 300 feet and they make a great nursery for rabbits and fawns. Bobcats mostly feed on rabbits. So I have not only a great rabbit nursery, I have a great habitat for Bobcats.

Bobcats are better than coyotes. Coyotes and rattlesnakes are not that great close to the house. I keep my grass mowed. I was putting a garden in my front yard; but, thinking of coyotes and snakes. Poor old Killdeer will have to move. Where a Killdeer nests is, rattlesnake will visit. The mower is being cranked. It will be 70 degrees today.

Well 70 degrees the day this post was written.

Like a bad habit, I have returned to the blogosphere.

I'm going to the Southeastern Writers Workshop from June 8-12, 2018. It will be at Epworth by the Sea on Saint Simons Island Georgia. If interested, check out the website  www.southeasternwriters.org.  It is a small conference. My favorite parts are listening to all the writers tell their stories during meals and the open mic nights.  I'm bringing my camera, lights and screen to take candid or posed portraits of participants to use in their promotional materials.

View from Epworth by the Sea on Saint Simons Island, Georgia USA

Fears, Fate and Having that Spark

I'm a scientist when it comes to the brain. The neurological pathways grooved in our brains are habits. I have a fear of public speaking. When I freeze, If I can talk science, the words flow from years of teaching science.

I'm afraid I am guilty of being a "Jack of all trades and Master of none" when it comes to science. I could be a quasi master of a few topics. It depends on how knowledgeable the person I am speaking to is.

But I know the fundamentals so well. This is especially true of chemistry and algebra. I don't know that I remember a lot of Algebra or Trigonometry or Calculus. But I can tell you most children who have trouble with algebra do so because they don't understand the fundamental equation X + 5 = 7    X = 2

Most kids will say I can do it in my head. Well yes, anyone can. But can you remember the process so that you can diagram that process later in a more difficult equation. The process being
X + 5 = 7
X + 5 - 5 = 7 - 5 
X = 2

I'll spare you the lesson in Chemistry.

When you are under stress, your mathematical ability bottoms out. This is why I tried to keep children feeling good in my classroom. One reason I tutored were some kids were shell-shocked from their dad's impatience in helping them with math. There was one mom through the years that I knew about. I'm sure there was a multitude of others. One child's mother had to give her child permission to excel. Mom made the mistake of telling her child how poorly she did in math. Child began to do poorly. She was loyal. 

One thing I learned through the years is that a break or a little play would increase the amount of learning I could get. The mind needs time to process information.

I'm taking a break from the blog until the middle of January. I'm getting my house clean for Thanksgiving and the Holidays. I'll be visiting blogs and writing in general. Cheers.

Lizard on my purse in my car. I got him out and he skedaddled
 into some bushes. We haven't had a hard freeze yet.

Sexual Harassment

Sexual Harassment is an Important issue that I am tired of hearing about. For one thing, a few of these reporters are describing cads or dirty old men who really are not sexual predators. They are just rude and what they have done was borderline accepted behavior at one time which means we have come a long way baby. Now if it affects your employment or social acceptability, it is sexual harassment that is criminal.

What kind of picture goes with sexual harassment?

I matured early. I got the gross old men hot on my trail.  Fortunately, I never met a bona fide predator which is what Harvey Weinstein was. I'm afraid all these cad alerts are going to desensitize the public to actual predators.

Mayim Bialek had good intentions when she wrote about women need to conduct themselves in ways that discourage men. The problem is a predator is not distracted by that. They are keen to read weakness in people. For someone like Harvey Weinstein, he was able to plunder more easily in that most people in show business know you might get one good chance.

But pleeeez, when the elderly President H. W. Bush was accused of sexual harassment, that is a lack of understanding. Yes I understand it was an awkward and embarrassing thing to be touched on the bum and listen to him say his favorite book was "David Cop a Feel".  He is now 93 so he was about 90 at the time.  Barbara Bush was present and laughed.  Even a President gets elderly and their filter weakens. The joke is truly about at an 11 year old's level. It takes me back to teaching seventh grade again.

The latest was an actress lamenting vulgar remarks from Dustin Hoffman. Once again shame on Dustin Hoffman for being a cad. But she did not feel she had to have sex with him or anyone else. Dustin Hoffman's remark that she stated was pretty bad. It is a shame someone didn't say so to him. He was being a true dirty old man.

As an adult woman, I might have chastised him for being so crude to a teenager. But if I were not on his level I could have been fired. Plus a problem of being so famous is everyone wants to be your friend so bad, you lose perspective of when you are wrong. You have too many yes men like Elvis.

There should have been someone on set that she could have confided in. He should have been told to apologize and behave. This happened when she went to get his breakfast order. If someone else would have been sent as a solution, that would be sexual harassment. It sent a clear signal that he was OK to behave the way he did. I'm sure many men would have told him he was crossing the line. At the time he was 49. He is 80 today.

So she does have a point about what Dustin Hoffman said. It does make you feel like less of a person.

As a society we have sent out mixed messages. One big rite of moving from a child star to an adult star is to be raunchy in public to shake the sweet young image. You have someone like Miley Cyrus being crude as all get out. Then other young women are unprepared to be put in the same boat. Don't get me started on hooking up and Tinder.

I hope the consequences discourages another Harvey Weinstein. But it will not. Someone like him never thinks it is his fault. You can see the difference in their responses. Dustin Hoffman has apologized in being called out.

Harvey Weinstein has not apologized. Of course an apology could be used against him in court. The statute of limitations has run out on most of his transgressions.

I have mixed feelings about the "me too". There is a lot of shame involved and no person should have to publicly state their experience.

Kevin Spacey, like is this a pattern or did he think a younger man who was at the age of consent was last for a reason. Being drunk is no excuse.

I'm a Kevin Spacey fan and hate to hear of his fall. Mixing his apology which implies guilt with coming out as gay was not brilliant. Most gay men don't want to be associated with someone being sexually aggressive with a 14 year old.

Why was a 14 year old at an adult party. Where were his parents or responsible adult?  But there is someone else who is responsible. If everyone is leaving a party and you are the last one. Where is your ride? Who is making sure that you get home safely.

Update: House of Cards cancellation was not impulsive. Lots of stories of Kevin Spacey being a regular leach to younger men. What a disappointment.

There is a director named Ratner denying his raunchiness. Besides looking like a dirty old man, with 6 accusers, he is probably guilty. You can explain away one or two if there is no proof. But when you get a line of folks.

Give me your opinion. We all learn from one another.

I am not doing nano officially. But, I will try to get my 50,000 word goal this month. I better get started.

Being as cheap as I wanna be.

I'm thrifty not stingy. That is a huge restaurant size can of beans I'm using to make Chili. I'm predicting leftovers.

I wanted to get back to posting on Wednesdays. However, I have had a busy week playing solitaire on my computer and making sort of Halloween threats on Pat Hatt's rhymetime blog. I say sort of in that the most important part of the message is that it rhymes.

Occasionally, I get up and do some work around the house, a bit of cleaning, pay attention to a dog. In other words, the area around my desk looks like a bomb exploded. If you keep your eyes on the screen, there is no pandemonium going on around you.

I've noticed there is a new blog platform called patreon. I'm not impressed in that I will avoid those bloggers. I feel guilty reading what they have written and not making a donation. I shared a video about a month or two ago and took the time to like the page the video came from. I noticed in my Facebook feed, the videomaker would like me to sign up to donate a dollar a month. I deleted the video.

Some bloggers on other platforms have a donation request on their sidebar. I don't follow them either. There are so many good blogs out there that I don't need to add them to my list. In my opinion, ads are the best way to make money. I do buy the books of fellow bloggers.

I pay for the NY Times, The AJC, and The Washington Post. I've made a donation to The Guardian.

Social media is a mixed bag. I think it is great when people have an emergency; others can help them out with crowdfunding.

I don't like people soliciting for money they should save up for themselves. A ridiculous request to me was a couple with seven children who wanted money to have an enormous second wedding. If that same couple wanted money to take their kids to the State Fair, that is OK in my worldview.

I feel a bit of disappointment with teenagers trying to collect money to go on a mission trip. If they feel that strongly, they can mow grass, wash cars, babysit or save their allowance to pay their way. The saddest ones are the petition to pay final expenses for someone.

I do make donations for several reasons. People don't always have family and friend to help them during hard times. This is the  blog of a man who found himself homeless, On the road with Al and Ivy I found his story compelling.

Medical catastrophe gets a donation from me. My sister's stroke burned through a lot of my life savings. She had good insurance and will eventually get disability from her federal job. But that may not happen until June of next year. A full Year and 8 months after her stroke. Hospitals and other medical firms like labs use bill collectors.

I got a nasty bill collector letter, a bill from an ambulance company and a refund from paying the ambulance bill due to her insurance paying them on the same day. Another ambulance company had some very nasty bill collectors. The man on the phone from the ambulance company did not understand why I was so agitated. He said he was sorry.

Sometimes I donate to an animal. You have to be very, very careful donating to animal rescues. Some of them are quite generous to the organizer. It is one of those facts of life I wish I had not learned. I already have a problem with having absolutely no expectations from my fellow human. It makes it a lot easier to accept disappointment.

My big caveat to giving is to give locally or to an individual. I feel peeved when I make a donation and two weeks later there is an appeal for more money. Almost all large charities do this. During Hurricane Katrina, I gave to the ASPCA and state of Louisiana. I get regular calendars and preprinted labels from the ASPCA which I toss. I did hear from Louisiana a few times for donations. I gave them nothing more.

I give to the arts. Not a whole lot, but tossing in a few bucks to a young filmmaker is good. I also buy books that I may or may never read. One time I went to a book fair with $50. The first table I stopped at had a $45 coffee table book which was great. I didn't buy it. I bought a bunch of books between $3 and $15. Spread the wealth is my mantra.

Friends who create fundraisers probably will get a few bucks from me.

We hear a lot about entitlement. I know when I quit a job to take another one. I discovered the amount of clout I had given up after I made the transition. However before leaving the first job, I had no idea that it existed. We all have a framework of entitlement. I was more prepared for old age in that I grew up lean so I learned to live on less. Fortunately, I eventually made enough to have a cushion. I'm not sure that cushion will be there in ten years. But I might not be here either.

So in all humility, I think all of us depend on one another. I'm lucky in that I can pay my way.

Asking for handouts is not a good system. It is inherently unfair. People who know a lot of people or have a tragic story that gets picked up in the news can do quite well. Meanwhile there are some who really suffer. I believe in a government sponsored safety net for us all.

The second part is that the system is rife for exploitation. I feel a bit used when someone collects money for a need and later I see them living high on the hog. I think this causes some of the cynicism people feel about welfare. I had a student with two children who lived in a better place than I had for most of my life and drove a better car than I did. However, I do believe in the welfare system and believe in the value of social programs. I did witness children struggling with poverty.

From personal experience, some hardship can be endured. My dad had a friend whose father did not lose his money during the 1930's depression. My grandfather lost everything and my dad faced a lot of hardship. He felt a little envious of this man. In the early 1960's during a real estate bust, which happens in the real estate field at least once every ten years, this man lost everything. His solution was suicide. My dad would tell this story in that he recognized his friend was disadvantaged in not learning to cope with the vagaries of life.

How do you feel about crowdfunding? I got more opinion but this thing needs to end! I got to post some nonsense over at Pat's blog.

moth

butterfly

Nothing happens faster than the week between writing blogposts except for updating your dues each year with an organisation. I remember when I had six posts a day ready to go. I remember someone who did that many posts in a day. Like a marathon, you have to pace yourself, unless you're a marathon champion.

This week, I shall cheat a bit. Which means I will share what I have really enjoyed on the net.

Number 1 involves a dog of course.




Number 2 is I took the time to watch Deathly Hallows 1 & 2 of the Harry Potter series. Is it sacrilegious that at a few points I thought could these two have the fight to end all fights, I'm ready to call it a night. That said, I think J K Rowling is brilliant to have written such an engaging series.  Nothing to share with number 2 but my opinion. I have satellite television and one or more of the stations run the Harry Potter movies back to back on a regular basis.

Number 3 is something you all may know about. It is the Write Edit Publish bloghop of Halloween based stories. They are all a quick thrill to read. I haven't submitted. I would describe my tour of hell tomorrow. But hey, most of you are very familiar with grocery stores.

Write, Edit, Publish blog's October Challenge

Cheers and imagine me and my dogs howling at the moon tonight. lol Take care, Ann

Keep bouncey houses at grandmas.

If anybody my age takes the knee, they are showing off. A childhood friend of mine has had both of her knees replaced. She injured the first knee in a bouncy house with her grandchild. And get this, she injured the second one in a bouncey house with the same grandkid.

This lovely bouncey house costs 2 grand.
You can get a cheaper version at Walmart.

I don't think it is hanging around her grandchild that is the problem. They got to start carding people going into bouncy houses. The gatekeeper needs to be a teenager who can say with a straight face and authority, "Grandma, you are too old to enter this bouncey house."

It's not bouncey houses that hurt knees.
People are free to own all the bouncey houses they want. They just have to be educated on who and how a bouncey house should be used.

It's ironic in that the people who will purchase a bouncey house are usually old enough to injure their knees. Once again a teenager at the register is handy. They will give a forty-five year old a senior discount and lavish them with praise. "You are one cool old lady!"

One thing I do is take care of my joints. I have mild arthritis. What has weighed on my mind the past few weeks is my mortality. I know I should just be glad to be alive. So many people do not make it to 61. Plus I got two good knees and no urge to enter a bouncey house.

The last time I went to the nurse practitioner; I got a heck of a lecture about exercising more, eating less of all the good foods which for her information I rarely eat. I argued with her over cornbread. My A1c was 8.5.  I got the message which I didn't appreciate.

My great aunt Faye quit smoking the day before she went to the doctor. She knew he was going to insist she quit smoking. She knew she could tell him she quit. But if he told her; it was going to be the damnedest thing to do.

It is just that malaise of not living my life to the fullest. I don't know where I get the outlook where I feel like I should achieve something, learn something, clean something. Because lately, I get little done. I think this is a mid-life crisis. I tried to have my crisis at the more appropriate age of 51. But I was busy.

At 55, I got a little crisis building going. I worked out several hours a day and ate to lose weight. I started my journey of writing the great American novel. And somehow bang here I am. I can't even have a decent mid-life crisis in a timely fashion.

Plus I don't give a rip about a lot of things. I better start giving a rip about some paperwork I have waiting for me. Well for my brother that I need to complete. I do have the temptation to take him to the social security administration and have him deal with the matter. He turned 65 this year. During 2016, he made a little too much money and they are going to take that whopping 261 dollars they give him a month away. Maybe, I don't know what they are going to do.

However, I better make a beeline to the Social Security Administration with my hat in my hand and "grin and shuffle" to get it straightened out. If I get Madame Sourpuss or her friend Mister Looksdownalongnose, I make an excuse and get out of there to come back another day. Actually I have not done that yet; but, it is an alternative.

Plus, I need to get the car oil changed and the tires rotated.

But tomorrow is Wednesday and I'll be taking my weekly journey through parallel hells. Last week, I had to cut one of the journeys short. I needed to pick up my brother. Although my mom was thoroughly exhausted, she was not happy. It is hard to have to hurry and be on someone else's schedule. My mother has always been a hard worker and an independent woman.

We are leaving at 9am tomorrow. Early in the day, she has more energy. My mother enjoys this one big outing each week. I'm glad we can make it. And it is not really hell. I better stop complaining or I will spend time in purgatory sweeping a grocery. I used to think my purgatory might be lunch room duty. But I know the good Lord knows I have mellowed. My hearing isn't what it used to be, and I will probably start throwing peas with the kids.

My sister who is recuperating from a stroke is a night owl. I am one too. The problem is that I got changed into a lark by all these early birds and the schedule we keep. But her waking hours are waking the owl in me. One night she woke up at 10 pm and was curious what I was going to fix for supper. I made her a peanut butter sandwich al dente with a very fine chilled coke zero.

I hope your week is going well. I've got to get busy on my novel or purgatory may be finishing one of them.