Thursday Thirteen – May 5, 2011

Thirteen fun facts about Piglet from Winnie the Pooh

1.  Piglet is the second shortest animal in the 100-acre wood, second only to Roo.

2.  Piglet’s favorite food is haycorns.

3.  Piglet was first introduced in the book Winnie the Pooh and featured prominently in The House on Pooh Corner.

4.  Piglet was not included in the first Disney Pooh movie, Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree, in 1966.  Piglet has appeared in all subsequent Disney Winnie the Pooh features.

5.  Piglet is the only animal in the woods to have seen a Heffalump.

6.  Piglet used to live in a Beech tree south of Pooh’s house.  Owl has since moved into the Beech tree and Piglet moved in with Pooh.

7.  Piglet was voiced by John Fielder until his death in 2005.  The piglet character was subsequently voiced by Travis Oates.

8.  Piglet wears a long striped shirt.  The shirt was originally green.  Disney changed the color to pink.

9.  When Piglet gets nervous his ears twitch.

10.  Next to this house was a piece of a broken sign which read, “Trespassers W.” This was believed to be Piglet’s grandfather’s name, and it is short for “Trespassers Will”, which is short for “Trespassers William”. Piglet’s grandfather had had two names in case he lost one – Trespassers after his uncle, and William after Trespassers.

11.  Piglet has the ability to read and write and will occasionally write short notes.

12.  The original Piglet was among Christopher Robin Milne’s toys and today resides in the New York Public Library beside CRM’s original teddy bear.

13.  Piglet is best friends with Pooh.

Thursday Thirteen – March 24, 2011

For today’s Thursday Thirteen, I thought I would share with you some of the things that are unpleasant about having a spouse that has the first slot on the surgery schedule.

1.  It is really dark at 5 am.

2.  Even after not eating or drinking for only 8 hours, the spouse is still kinda cranky.

3.  The spouse doesn’t sleep very well the night before surgery.  Couple that with not eating or drinking, additional crankiness.

4.  It’s March in Chicago.  That means it’s still winter.  Guess how warm it is at 5 am?

5.  Since we had somewhere to be this morning, of course it rained and sleeted last night, meaning the roads were icy.

6.  Hospital coffee.

7.  There was a television in the waiting room.  Surgery started at about 9 am.  That TV was controlled by the nurses.  That meant The View as on.

8.  It’s really hard to nap in hospital waiting room chairs.

9.  After surgery, spouse is still cranky, still sleepy, and now high.

10.  Spouse had a nerve block on her arm for the surgery.  This nerve block worked so well the entire arm decided to be numb and nonfunctional.  Imagine trying to help someone get dressed where one limb is the equivalent of a warm licorice whip.

11.  Spouse coming down off of general anesthesia will try to talk to you on the ride home.  It won’t always be in English.  Or language.

12.  Reading 200 pages of the novel I’m reading and not remembering any of them.

13.  Spouse wakes up about the time we get home.  You know, about the time I’m ready for a nap.

Good night, everybody!

Thursday Thirteen – February 24

For this Thursday Thirteen, I thought I would create a list of the thirteen books that I have most enjoyed throughout the long period that I have been reading.  These novels will span the range in genres and subject matter.  Sometimes it will be a single book, other listings will be for a series of books that all work together.

1.  The Dune Series, by Frank Herbert, consisting of Dune, Dune Messiah, Children of Dune, God Emperor of Dune, Heretics of Dune, Chapterhouse: Dune

Simply an epic science fiction series that spans centuries.  Politics, intrigue, mystical powers, war, this series has it all.  The newer books by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson simply do not have the same impact as these original five books.  They are dense, packed with characters and a great story.

2.  Pillars of the Earth, by Ken Follett.  Simply a romping good historical fiction read.  Twists and turns, an epic journey centered around the building of an English cathedral.  Not so sure of the historical accuracy of everything that is in there, but I didn’t read the book for a history lesson.  This is one of the few books I have reread a few times.

3.  The Chronicles of Prydain, consisting of The Book of Three, The Black Cauldron, The Castle of Llyr, Taran Wanderer, The High King.  I originally read these five books in, can you believe it, fifth grade.  I got them as a boxed set from one of those book sales that would occasionally come through about twice a year.  Even after this many years, I still remember them.  Many folks may remember the Disney film for The Black Cauldron, but I would bet most don’t know that that was the second book in a series of five.

4.  Dragonworld, by Byron Preiss and Michael Reaves, illustrated by Joseph Zucker.  Written at a time when apparently is was ok for your fantasy story to consist of a single book (wow, what a thought), Dragonworld is one of those novels I picked up at a used book store when I was a teen.  The story is excellent, avoid a great many of the cliches that modern fantasy seems to consist of, and tells a great story with great characters.  This is one I have been looking to pick up again.

5.  Dracula by Bram Stoker.  The original.  No sparkling vampires here.  Dracula is a evil, blood-sucking monster that must be destroyed.  Told through the use of diary entries and phonograph recordings, this is the original masterpiece of horror fiction.

6.  The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, Unbeliever,  by Stephen Donaldson, consisting of Lord Foul’s Bane, The Illearth War, The Power That Preserves. An excellent series of books.  What makes these unique is that the main protaganist, Thomas Covenant, is an ass and not immediately likable.  These are also fairly polarizing books.  Either you liked them, or you hated them.

7.  The Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, Unbeliever, by Stephen Donaldson, consisting of The Wounded Land, The One Tree, White Gold Wielder. The second trilogy in this series is easily as good as the first, and reads more like a single story broken into three parts.  This series maintains the same characters throughout the three books and the overall storyline has a stronger, more epic quality.  An excellent read.

8.  The Kite Runner, by Khaled Housseini.  A fantastic read and a great look at another culture.  A coming of age story, a story about redemption, love, and understanding.  An amazingly honest story.

9.  The Hunt for Red October, by Tom Clancy.  Before Jack Ryan became a super hero, he was just an analyst for the CIA.  The book that put Clancy on the map is also probably his best.  For anyone that loves techno thrillers.

10.  World War Z, by Max Brooks.  Hands down, the best zombie fiction I have ever read.  Well written, poignant, and an almost believable look at how society would collapse, and rebuild, after the undead began to rise.  Truly excellent.  This one stays on the bookshelf.

11.  The Stand, Unabridged, by Stephen King.  An epic look at the end of the world, the battle between good and evil, and the survivors of the superflu that band together.  Possibly King’s finest work.

12.  Swan Song, by Robert R. Mcammon.  Another excellent end-of-the-world tale, this time by nuclear armageddon.  Another epic tale of good versus evil, something about McCammon’s earlier, horror-focused writing really struck me.  A powerful tale with unexpected characters and a fantastic finish.

13.  A tie for number thirteen on the list.  Both are children’s books and both were read either by me or to me when I was very young.  The first is the classic and wonderfully illustrated Where the Wild Things Are, by Maurice Sendak.  There is a still a copy of this on my shelf.  Second, The Tailypo, a Ghost Story, by Joanna C. Galdone and Paul Galdone.  This retelling of an Appalachian ghost story (at least that is one source for this story, there are several versions) is a terrifying story to read to a small child.  Hell, it scares me now.  Parents, if you want to read this book to your children, please read it first, and than be prepared to stay up late at nights as your children cower under their blankets.

A Gray and Rainy Day

Today is a gray and rainy day, with thick clouds and a general blah feeling to it.  So, to keep the day from getting us down, I though I would post a list of things that are great to do on a generally blah day, or things that make the day less drab.

1.  Staying under  cozy blanket in the PJ’s, reading a good book.

2.  The smell of fresh-brewed coffee before anyone else is up.

3.  The comforting sound of the dog snoring as she curls up on the sofa.

4.  The crackle of the fireplace on the hearth.

5.  The happy feeling of laziness that steals over you when you are warm and secure.

6.  The steady sound of rain tapping on the windows.

7.  Talking to a good friend on the phone for an hour.

8.  Enjoying a quiet cup of coffee with cream and sugar.

9.  Sleeping in late.

10.  Knowing it could have been worse.  It could have been snowing today.

55 – Sorrow

The depth of sorrow

is a single tear falling

unheeded to earth.

Thursday Thirteen – February 3, 2011

In honor of the recent snowstorm that took Illinois by…um…storm, I guess, here are thirteen fun facts about blizzards.

1.  A blizzard, as defined by the National Weather Service, is a storm in which temperatures remain below freezing, winds are at or above forty miles an hour, with falling or blowing snow and visibility reduced to a maximum of 1/4 mile, for a duration of at least three hours.

2.  One of the dangers blizzards is caused by blowing snow.  Known as “white-out”, snow carried by the wind reduces visibility to zero.

3.  A second danger that accompanies blizzards is wind chill.  Wind chill is the effect of the wind removing the warmth of your body faster than the air temperature would normally.  If the blizzard occurs when the air temperature is 10 degree F and the wind is blowing 35 mph, the perceived temperature feels like 37 degrees below zero.  At this wind chill frost bit occurs on exposed skin in less than 30 minutes.

4.  Don’t eat snow.  Eating snow will actually lower your body temperature and can hasten the onset of hypothermia.

5.  In 1888, a storm called The Schoolhouse Blizzard struck the Plains states in January, stranding many children in their small schoolhouses.  235 people died, many of them children who attempted to walk home in the blizzard.

6.  Also in 1888, the Great Blizzard dumped between 40 and 50 inches of snow on New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Connecticut.  Snow drifted into piles towering fifty feet.

7.  If someone is experiencing hypothermia, work to raise their core body temperature.  Treating the extremities first actually drives cold blood into the body core which could lead to heart failure.

8.  The name “blizzard” originated in the United States.  It was used by an Iowa newspaper in 1870 to describe a snowstorm.  Previously the word was used to describe a canon shot or volley of musket fire.

9.  In Mongolia, Siberia, and other parts of Asia there is a wind known as the Buran that typically creates blizzard conditions, sometimes closing mountain passes for weeks. 

10.  In Alaska this type of wind is called the Burga and typically carries snow and ice pellets.

11. It is possible to have blizzard conditions when no snow is falling.  High winds can pick up previously fallen snow and carrying it into the air.  This is known as a ground blizzard.  Ground blizzards usually require large, flat, open spaces and dry, fluffy snow.

12.  There are three types of ground blizzards.  Ground blizzards caused by horizontal advection, wind blowing flat across a surface blows snow but has little upward lift.  With Vertical Advection the winds have strong upward motion which lifts snow high into the air.  If a ground blizzard occurs due to thermal-mechanical mixing, winds and snow form massive convection rolls of moving snow in the atmospher, large enough to be viewed from space.  These types of conditions can bury a two-story house and suffocate those caught outdoors.

13.  The Blizzard Treat at Dairy Queen was introduced in 1985.  That year, Dairy Queen sold 100 million Blizzards.

Storm

Howling winds swirl

against the small house, striking

with impotent rage.

 

It’s the End of the World

At least to here Chicagoans talk about it.

It’s gonna snow.  A lot.  Not just a little, but a lot.

On the ground.  Snow falling from the air and accumulating on the ground in big piles, unbroken fields of white, and blowing through the air in blinding clouds.

‘Scarf weather’ I believe it is called.  Yes, here in the midwest, where it snows EVERY…SINGLE…YEAR…people seem to think that a snowstorm, even a sizable snowstorm like the one that is creeping up on the city and suburbs, is an event on par with the Rapture, nuclear war, or puppies raining from the sky.

In short, for some bizaare reason, people who live in the midwest don’t seem to know how to deal with the snow.

And now a blizzard is coming.

Scarf Weather

So, for the edification of all those who don’t understand what two feet of snow and blizzard conditions means, I am providing you with this handy list of do’s and don’t for the impending armageddon of winter that will soon be upon us.  Some of you may want to print this out, put it on the fridge, perhaps share it with your children, so that the next generation, instead of experiencing the pure thrill of panic that set’s in the moment the first flake touches the ground, will instead look out the window when visibility has been reduced to ten feet, snow is piling up against the side of the house, and wind chill is down to 50 below zero, shrug and say:

“Looks like some weather’s comin’ in.”

1.  DO slow down on the roadways.  Be aware that ice and snow is slippery and it will take you a lot longer to brake and slow down than normal.

DON’T press your accelerator all the way to the floor, close your eyes, and sing along to the radio as you go screaming down the Interstate doing 70 while straddling the lane marker.  This accomplishes only two things.  One, every driver being careful will be quietly cursing your name and two, I’ll be warm and safe at home in my pajamas while the EMT’s are still trying to figure out how to unwrap your SUV from the light pole you just wrapped it around.

2.  DO leave a generous space between your front bumper and my rear bumper.

DON’T assume I’m driving this slow out of some misguided need to annoy you and that you can simply snap me out of the obviously wonderful daydream I’m having by closing the distance between our two cars to 1.5 inches.  This only serves to A. make me nervous about your ability to correctly judge time and space coordiantes and B. makes me drive slower, because now you have made it my mission to annoy you.

3.  DO Pay attention to road conditions, signal when turning, and be aware of your surroundings.

DON’T talk on your cell phone while fiddling with your radio, and steering with the left cheek of your ass while reaching for your purse in the back seat.

4.  DO understand that in a blizzard, blowing snow reduces visibility, sometimes to near zero, and be prepared for these contingencies.

DON’T assume the guy in the semi riding your bumper is offering you a gentle suggestion to move over.  He’s in a semi. He wins.  MOVE OVER.

Follow these simple rules, and we should all get along much better on our winter roadways.

Quitting – Day 8 – The Weekend and Beyond

Cigarettes Smoked:  One  (Not bad, considering we’re talking three days)

Days spent feeling sick:  Two

Time wasted playing Farmville on Facebook:  Not that much

Time wasted playing Zuma on Facebook:  Way too much

Time spent on other writing:  A few hours here and there.

Attitude of the Lung Spiders:  They are getting surly.  Apparently, when you quit smoking you start coughing up a lot of things that I guess cigarette smoke weighs down.  No spiders, as yet.  I believe those guys are stuck in there good.  But we’ll get them.

Overall attitude about quitting:  Improving.  I have found that my sense of taste is going through weird fluctuations, which I’m not sure I spelled right.  Occasionally I can really taste things good, the next, not so good.  Hoping this is a good sign and that my tongue is not permanently broken.

Other strange symptoms:  Still get weird hot flashes.  Either it’s the quitting smoking or I’m going through menopause.  Either way it’s really annoying.  I am also getting really weird fits of energy, like I feel like I could kick the ass of three separate things.  Not all at once, mind you.  I mean one at a time, like the bad guys in a martial arts flick, where if they would all just attack the hero at one time they could take him, but they line up and charge him one at a time and he kicks their heads off.  Than the next guy gives the hero five minutes to catch his breath, instead of doing the smart thing and running away because, hey, this dude just kicked your buddies head off!

Still chewing gum.  I’m going to have great muscles in my jaws.  I feel like a could bit a fence post in half.  RAWR!

That’s the sound you have to make when biting a fence post in half, by the way.

So, the fight goes on.

Quitting – Day 4 and 5 – 12:16 pm

Cigarettes smoked – 1 on day four

Had a pretty stressful day yesterday, and broke down and smoked a cigarette. Just one, but it still makes the day overall a failure in the quitting game.  Going strong today, so far.  Patch is on, but feeling awfully jumpy for some reason.  Not the most comfortable feeling in the world, but doing my best to maintain composure.