Big ole Mother's Day is coming.

May is an exciting month. My birthday falls on Mother's Day. I would like to say I noticed this first; but, it was my mother. I remember when I was 6 or so, my birthday was on Mother's Day and I was so happy. I reveled in knowing I was born on Mother's Day.

As a teenager, I humored the old gal.

As an adult, I appreciated how much my mother loved me.

At 62 and 87, we are going to have a "whoopdedoo" party with no one but the people and dogs living in the house with us.

We are celebrating mother's day in the grocery store with one brother. We all stress him out. This way we don't have to sit down to eat in a public place, have him complain about the prices, and have him insist on paying. We will call him Mr. Particular.

The other brother can come on the official day. However, we are probably going to meet up with him a week before and drive to have a dinner with him. He is convalescing from losing part of a foot. He has a vascular problem which could be the result of the use of Agent Orange from the Vietnam War. We will call him Brother Buck after the character Uncle Buck in the movie of the same name.

It is humbling to get older. And a terrific thing too! This spring, arthritis has begun rumbling which is more depressing than painful. This wasn't supposed to happen to me. I can't say Time is a thief. I've made hay while the sun shined. And I'm still here with a sound mind. Mom has a good mind too.

One of the most satisfying things in life for me is I've learned to embarrass my brothers. I know their buttons. You're never too old to think like a child I must say.

One is embarrassed by my politics. Although I am a moderate, he thinks I am a LIBERAL. (I looked on the Facebook profile of me. It said I was a moderate which was a relief.) The other is a moderate too. He thinks I am snooty. All I got to do is drop my drawers and pee in his front yard. Good news, I'm still young enough to know that stuff belongs in a movie!

But Mother's Day is mine this year. Everyone else will have to defer to me. However, if they will agree to spend the night and take care of mom and everyone a couple of days. I could change my mind.

How is your Mother's Day going to be?

And my condolences to those of you who have lost your mom's. I remember a child in the 8th grade who lost her mom that year. I did not feel the full impact of how bad that was until my father passed. You do lose your best friend.

Mom's dogs Daisy and Jobelle will be guests of honors at the big whoopdedoo.

We all have a Story

There must be magic in good editing.

Listening to one writer suggesting changes to another person's work, The fine line between improving a story and changing the voice is difficult.

Writers who produce the mass produced tomes are good. Too good in that so many of them lack a certain texture to what they have written. Some are too good in that the writer's work is brilliant. I had a friend in college who did not like a particular trained singer; he liked the texture of imperfection,  I'm afraid I have that preference. Perhaps a little rambling about why someone thinks the way they do or not having a story arc at all.

My recent reading has certainly ran the gamut. I'm currently reading J. M. McTeer's account of being a white witch doctor. The white refers to the magic he practiced. He would never take money for removing a hex or curse on someone. His being a sheriff and white man, your initial impression is he did this out of compassion and not out of belief. He did do it out of compassion but he had a lot of respect for the African traditions and people brought to North America from Africa.

It is a fluke I started reading about root doctors. I know the advice from childhood was to keep my distance, and something could only hurt you if you believed. My first book was Blue Roots by Roger Pinckney.

What I like about McTeer is his obvious respect and admiration. I know that I am a white woman with my culture coloring my view of the world. McTeer crossed that line. Root doctors welcomed him into their ranks and discussions.

That seeing how others think is what I love about reading. I pick up a book now and think of all the work that went into it. Looking at the cover of a paperback written by Cornelia Walker Bailey titled God, Dr Buzzard and the Bolito Man: A Saltwater Geechee talks about life on Sapelo Island, Georgia. What an attractive cover. In writing the title, I recommend a short one if you want it shared. I had to flip back a few times to get the title right.

I've been visiting some blogs. Blogging from A to Z is coming up and I will be reading. I just will not be blogging this time around. There is just not enough time in the day. If I can get a once a week post up, I will be happy.

Anyway, I am still around. I'll be around. I hope to see a lot of my blogging friends on the A to Z. Then May, I'll be the only one around with a post. lol

Anger Management is Easy!

Not a whole lot going on in the book writing department. But, I have had a few ideas.

I'm writing a play called Canadian Occupied Florida. One of the principal characters has acquired a new attribute. I was reading Janet Reid's blog about agents and the writing biz. She spent today's post discussing people misbehaving on social media in response to opinions. I decided one of the play's characters will tell people if they are right or wrong on opinions. It may mimics today's politics. But, none of this countries or any other countries' politics will be explored. It is a comedy not a tragedy.

This past week, I have been exploring anger issues. My dad loved to quote the Greek proverb that when the Gods decide to destroy you, they make you angry. The universe had a message for me these past two weeks.

It started in a doctor's office. In two days, I had accomplished 7 appointments for family members and number 8 was me at the dermatologist. I called the sheltered workshop that my brother attends to tell them I was picking my brother up and for him to not get on the bus and that he would not be coming the next day. My other brother was in a hospital in Carrollton, GA.

I hang up and begin to listen to messages and this man yells for me to take it outside. He did not want to hear my personal business and I was yelling on the phone. He repeated this three times. I start to say I was not yelling. My back was to him so I sat quietly and took a picture of him over my shoulder.

I remembered I needed to pay a bill for my mom and went to the front desk which saved me. My mom called to tell me she had found her checkbooks. I thank her and tell her I need to get off which is hard. She is hard of hearing. But I was across the room from the man.

So I walked over and sat across from him to look him over good. He never looked up,he stayed glued to his computer screen typing. Next to a blaring television I might add. He was there when I left. I bet he was a drug salesman.

I spent the evening and a little of the next day laughing about how I could have retaliated. But you know, I would have liked to rough him up. He was so clean and neat, I might have been able to do this without being arrested. I mean a loud, long fart or a stinky, quiet one. Then act like it was him. I mean some of the social skills from elementary school come to mind at times like these.  I absolutely do not know anyone who would pay my bail.

This bothered me that I would give a dog gone. So I deliberately told myself not to think about him. I was nuts to be stewing over it.

Three days later, someone calls animal control about my dogs being locked in my car. The animal control officer says there is no problem. The car is idling with the air conditioner on. We had gone to the nail salon. My bull dog and my sister's Pomeranian were barking up a storm from the proximity of the handicap space. I think my sister being in a wheelchair helped. I take my bulldog to a lot of places and she is normally quiet and unobserved. She just had her rowdy friend with her.

This is a huge problem with dog hauling. People don't check to see if the car is running. They don't observe a dog who is not in discomfort. An over heated dog is very quiet and in the coolest part of the car which is a floorboard. They aren't in front of the air conditioner vent with 50's-60's country music playing or dancing in the window to bark at you.

Some who make a big issue with you are sincere. But I do think there are plenty who just love that rush from indignation. The only thing new about "holier than thou" attitudes is that we understand the endorphin rush people get from the attitude. Somehow all that results in the topic of anger. I think it is my anger in this case.

A few days later, I was rounding a double lane drive through. This woman steps on the gas and rushes by my car. It was the sort of maneuver that will lead to an accident one day.  As luck would have it, my order went through first and I went in front of her when the lanes merged. I took the time to look at her face through my rear view mirror. She had resting angry face. My initial hehehe, I'm in front of you moved to sometimes people just have rotten days or they really hate to wait.

It is my opinion that rushing about is more a bad habit than anything. I had a co-worker who passed me every morning going to work. She was in the school at her desk before I parked. So some rushing can get you where you need. But I still don't rush through yellow lights etc.

I finished reading The Anatomy of Motive by John Douglas and Mark Olshanker. Anger is the root of so many antisocial crimes. So I googled the nature of anger and got a lot of books to help with anger management. Then I googled anger in general and got some information surprisingly from WebMD and the like.

Another day, I returned to check on my brother and help out at his house. He is still in the hospital. I stayed late and got back about midnight. I got up at 5:30 am and did what I do in the morning before we all toured hell that morning.

After leaving the grocery store, we stop at a fast food place that we get carryout for a light lunch. All four cashiers were busy. One opened and a woman behind rushed ahead of me. The same cashier opened so I walked over and she walked off to get a drink of water.

So I am back in line. She then calls me over. I say, I will stay in the line I'm in. That cashier finishes and gets her paper work out to do and ignores me. A third cashier opens so I try to get to him. He calls for the man behind me. The woman doing the paper work realizes I have been waiting. I'm so aggravated. So I say, don't worry about it and leave.

Getting in the car I know I was too demanding in that I had no patience. Long story short, I recognize I am worn out.  What I hate about being inpatient is that is how those people will remember me. They were being the keystone cops of cashiers. But they weren't trying to drive me crazy. I came in that way.

We go to another place we like and I just go through the drive through. You have to give your name at the drive through and the young woman there gets to calling me Miss Annie over and over.

I'm still in a mental rut. I tell her my name is Ann. She is trampling on one of my classroom rules. You do not make personal comments about someone's physical features nor do you alter their name. Nobody likes to hear that their teeth look like mouse teeth even if they do look like mouse teeth.

So I have gone full circle. Why can't I just read the Cliff notes sometimes. I would like to wallow in shallowness, sort of like doing water aerobics in a hot tub.

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.