Losing Weight is harder as you age, school and writing and Nanowrimo month!

    While my talkative class has settled down, I still find that teaching can be both tiring and stressful. Am I in the wrong business?
     It would be fun to do something like the "Crocodile hunter -- Steve Irwin" did-- go out and talk about nature. Talking to a camera has to be easier than talking to 18-20 year old students! But my quiet class does listen, so that's a good thing. Students don't realize that listening can be a good thing!
     I am jealous of a neighbor. She has lost 70 pounds. I lose a few pounds, gain a few pounds, back and forth. It is difficult to lose weight after menopause, and after being put on an anti-hormone pill that I think compromised my hormones and metabolism even more! What do you do with a low metabolism? And don't tell me to eat hot peppers -- it hurts my throat! I have acid reflux and a hiatal hernia to boot!
     Losing weight is more of a struggle than reaching students, perhaps.
     But it is Nanowrimo (sp?) -- national novel writing month! And I am working on something I call "A Moroccan adventure". A member of my church mentioned some things about their culture and it sounds somewhat exotic and could be an interesting locale for a story. They have  cities somewhat like ours, and so the traditional sheep herding tribal clans and maybe I could tap into that -- and in the mountains hashish is grown, illegally but still used by many, and they will throw foreigners in the clink if they think they are using/trafficking in it, so that gave me a few ideas. And the idea of mistaken identity, which could get you into a lot of trouble in a foreign country. So I am writing about that and how a young couple gets separated because of this mistaken identity. Maybe it could be a good short story or novella. I am trying to write that AND my novel on education, "Lessons".

Do Students Have Manners Anymore?

    Do students today have any idea what "manners" or classroom etiquette is? I had to tell my college sophomores they were acting like ninth graders as they mostly "talk over" me when I am explaining something to them. Although it is a "Core" class that is required and some of it may be review, is that any excuse to not be polite and listen for a change?
     If Judith Martin, "Miss Manners" in the papers, were to come to my one overly talkative class, what would she say? I think young people today want to have it all. They want everything to be their way as they have been spoiled by their parents, many of whom have good paying jobs and have given them everything their heart desires. And when it comes to college, since they are away from Mom and Dad and are on their own, they tend to do things not in an adult fashion but in a "know-it-all" fashion, not respecting the instructor as they think they know better. They know more than moi, their teacher? I don't think so.
     And I don't even have a huge class. I saw a commercial where candidate Mitt Romney for president said only teachers' unions were interested in smaller classes in public schools.No, kids don't want to be in a huge class either. And some of them want to listen and learn.
      But as I am teaching older students you would think they would know better. I actually moved some students (and one emailed me to complain) but I guess you can't please everyone. Teaching is a stressful profession (and college adjuncts are certainly not paid for the work that they do). I'd just like some constructive conversation in the class. Is that asking too much?

Highlander Fest in Radford, enjoy outdoors at a festival

     The tum-tum-tee-dum-dumt of the different Highlander fife and drum corps precede us who are either in a sorority, fraternity, dance group or political party on display.  We were surprised there were about 35 of us in our group, a few members in very political, patriotic red, white and blue striped hats and clothes, to point out that the Democrats are in town promoting the national election coming up. Then, as we went down Main Street with our signs, we turn onto Tyler and then onto the R. U. Muffet quad field, home of the annual October "Highlander Games" in Radford, Virginia.
     The "Highlander" with his red, green and black Tartan kilt is the official mascot for the college and anyone of Scottish descent (or who aspires to be, like being Irish is the thing on St. Patrick's Day) who wants to come. So you can be Scottish in spirit. 
     The Scots have an interesting history. William Wallace of "Braveheart" movie fame fought for Scottish independence from England in the late 1200s. He died and has remained Scotland's big national hero. And it's funny that the Wallace family Tartan pattern is the one used for the national brand, "Scotch tape". Scotland is still not totally independent of England but does have its own governing body now.
     A member of the MacPherson family, at one of the many clan booths there surrounding the Muffet Scottish games field, informed me of this and said you "never" call a Scottish man English as it is considered an insult of the highest order. He also suggested it would be easy to visit Scotland -- though you would have to first have to figure out how to navigate on the left hand side of the road. Once there he said you could visit the most photographed castle in Scotland, the Eileen Donan Castle, which is located on the lower west coastline. Above that to the north are still people who speak the (difficult to learn) native Gaelic. Isn't that language associated with the Irish? The Scottish and Irish can both speak this language.
     "The games"  they have at the Highlander festival are quite unique. I've not seen them anywhere else in southwest Virginia. They toss a long pole a caber and also toss hay bales and what they call a "hammer toss". Elsewhere on the college grounds you can see children tossing these long rolls of cardboard, like huge paper towel holders, as nearby some adults encourage the some little ones to bang on drums. 
     Back at Moffet field, 341 pound Justin Smith, a senior at Radford University, is taking his turn at doing the hammer toss, tossing it over 40 feet. But his competitor Ryan Stoltz tosses it over 60 feet! Stoltz admits he is not of Scottish descent but just likes participating in the games, and no doubt the crowd is please he came.
     While this is going on the "Warpipes" are standing in a circle off to the side by the clan and arts and crafts booths, their bagpipes humming to the soulful tunes "Alabama" and "Amazing Grace". One female member tells me she has been playing the bagpipes for 35 years, when few were admitted to this predominantly male association. But now there are over 1,000 female members who play in such groups.  And just beyond them, a female black and white shepherd dog is actively corralling three sheep in a cordoned off area, watching her owner's hand gestures to proceed.  They are considered a very smart breed of dog (unlike the stubborn shi tzu I have back home).
     There are all kinds of food vendors and unique items for sale, from clan books for the familes Sullivan, Keith, MacDonald, MacMillan to crushed false leather purses with a Celtic symbol on them to stationery. One booth even solicits donations for a Sheltie rescue operation in the area and has water available to those walking their dogs on the ground.
     Going to (or being in a parade as a walker), wandering the booths, listening to the fife and drum corps with their bagpipes as you bite in an "unScottish" Polish sausage, makes for a fun and interesting day of exercise outdoors in early fall.

Students will be students, life in general

     I guess students will be students. Some of them are fairly diligent, some fall far behind. I have several who haven't even bothered to pick up the assignment that is 25 percent of their grade!
     I shouldn't take it personally that some of them are just sorry. But teaching can be a frustrating thing. Students don't listen much anymore. They would rather be on their cell phone texting, I guess.
     I was going to go on a hike with the NRV Outdoor Rec club Sunday, but it turned out to be wet and cold and cancelled out on Saturday night. I was looking forward to that little adventure. I have so little adventure in my life. Some would say writing is an adventure. It is more a frustration sometimes. You write and you try to get noticed, but it is difficult to make that happen. I'm no Stephen King. (Should I be?)
     It is wet and dreary today too. I hope the leaves don't all fall before I take my classes on a "leaf collecting" expedition!

Do People Socialize Anymore?

    Well, does anyone socialize anymore? Or know how to? If you move into a new neighborhood and don't know anybody, you would think that people might give you a fruitcake, drop by, say hello, invite you for tea? But noooooooo, people don't do that today, not even in this relatively small town I live in now.
    So, the other week I invited a number of people, including retired women and a few neighbors, to visit me for some tea and cookies. And did they come? A few said no, one said maybe, several didn't even respond, including the next door neighbors. Some people have a lot of family and old work friends. But if you are new to an area, your coworkers are much younger and don't invite you over, AND you have no family nearby, it can be a bit isolating sometimes. Maybe I should just concentrate on my writing. People don't know how to socialize today. (One person showed up for all that work cleaning up the house!)
    They said it is not healthy to be isolated. It can affect how your body works, especially if you get depressed. On the other hand, I feel like I have this nice little house to myself and can fix it up just for me. And wear a bathrobe half the day if I want, as no one comes by. They are working or busy with family or old friends.
    And speaking of that, I have been unhappy with my big, unsocial (they do little if any socially oriented activities, like a Christmas play and dinner, hiking group, newsletter a writer like me can contribute to, couples' group) Catholic church. So we went to the church of a fellow Democrat. It is much smaller and they have a "reception" after every service, I guess. Maybe I will alternate between the two, as I still "feel" like a Catholic and the Episcopalian church near me in Radford is very, very similar. But the pastor talks more to an adult audience, I think. The people after church were certainly friendly to me. (The next step would be to go from friendly to friends. Once you hit over 50 friends are harder make.)

Start of school has new smells, stresses -- life experiences too

     This year in my teaching I am going to try to be more relaxed, more knowledgeable about my different topics, which may make the teaching experience less stressful.
    I know that some of my students are not too with it when it comes to getting their books on time. And following directions. That is a simple thing older students can learn to do but a number of them don't, and goof off a bit. And I had, interestingly, one of my classes in the science building and man, could I smell it! It smelled a bit like urine and something else. I pointed this out to a science professor and  "he" said it was mothballs. I went into his calss and and got a whiff of a faint smell of formaldehyde, you know, that preservative they use that also promotes cancer (if you're alive, that is).. The smell has since faded but maybe I've just gotten used to this smell in the halls of science.
    Been reading off and on conservationist John Muir's crazy adventures -- he slid down a glacier, rode a tree in a windstorm, caught malaria and almost died, charged a bear, etc. And when he ventured to the Gulf of Mexico from Wisconsin, the smells of the sea reminded him of his early childhood near the craggy shores of Scotland. There isn't a particular smell of childhood I remember, but the taste of salty ocean water at Jones Beach on Long Island is prominent. And chocolate I think is my constant mood enhancer, even though I am (perpetually) trying to lose weight. Roses have a calming, slightly sweet scent, but most classrooms have the scent (or did) of pencil shavings and chalk. Medicinal, dental office smells never really put me at ease.
    And I can't sense any smell of "fear" in my students. Can they smell fear in me? Hopefully not. We live in a smelly world, no matter how you slice it (sliced fresh bread smells and tastes gooooooooood). 

Batman 3 reviewed, Violence in media, society

     "Batman 3:The Dark Knight rises," has a fair amount of violence, a ton of action, a lot of memorable quotes, most of which escape me now. For instance, the bad guy, Bain, tells Batman that when Gotham is in ashes, then you can die. And he's gotten weak in his victory, and he says that as he knocks Batman like he's a doll, which was impressive if not out and out mean.
    The movie I believe is philosophical about heroism and idealism and doing the right thing. It's difficult to be the lone hero, to carry that persona around with you. Madmen, many charismatic enough to garner a lot of followes, seem so persuasive (yet so unreal -- think Hitler, Idi Amin, Pol Pot and the rest). But they're not there, and we would hope they would stay away from the wider public arena.
    It was a powerful, interesting part of the movie when handsome actor Christian Bale is put by Bain in a prison that is at the bottoom of what looks like a huge stone well somewhere in the Far East (and the Wayne mansion looks a  whole lot like the "Highclere Castle" mansion I visited in England in 2001). The other prisoners talke to him about motivation when things get desperate. A blind man points out that it was a child who found a way up the walls and Wayne had to think like him. He was dedicated enough to Gotham City that he had to find a way out, something many of us wouldn't have the strength to do. Did that make it seem unrealistic? It certainly added to the drama and tension.
    But there certainly was a lot of fighting, explosions and other violence. Is there too much violence in the media? Not long after the movie came out a young man with red hair said he was the joker and shot up a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, killing 12 people who didn't even know the guy. The media said he got 6,000 rounds of ammunition off the internet. We have all these ways to communicate and buy things electronically, but at what cost? Why didn't someone pick up on this weird behavior?
    The movie gave Bruce Wayne a "point" in his life. What was the point (logic) behind the shooting in the movie theater?
    In real life, don't we need more heroes? But then, going it alone is too hard. One person can't "do it all," so we should work together more, compromise even. And use the media more constructively.
     

Men Think They know it all

    Men -- aggravating and annoying and think they know it all. We were going to the next town and I knew, basically a shortcut. Did my husband take my suggestion? NOOOOOOOO. He went by what our visiting son said, who doesn't live here and know the roads like I do. We drove 40 minutes out of our way, then learned our destination would have been closed if we had gotten there early to get tickets anyway!
    And planting a garden-- doesn't that go in the back yard, not the side of the house? But does he think so? NOOOOOOO. Either we agree or totally disagree. It's ridiculous.

Have moved, College orientation and moving to college essay

    This will be short in that we are are "still" in the process of moving in. Once you get all your furniture and papers and clothes and pictures and art and such in another house, then you have to sort it out. It is a "process," interrupted by my watching the Olympics. Man, they are so young, disciplined and fit (all the things I'M NOT).
    But, I am now copying an essay I wrote about my son Adam going to JMU for orientation a few years back. It involved alot of ravel and some interesting conversation...  (below)

   

An Inch Closer to Independence (Talking ‘bout their generation)

By D. J. Mathews

    It was going to be a big day, day to meet new people, maybe encounter a few cute coeds – for my son, that is. The news that our son Adam, a rising senior who was third in his class at his small high school, was accepted at a prestigious college was no surprise. Getting up at 4 a.m. to see the hotshot school was.

    “Grief, it’s the middle of the night,” I said. We were starting out for a college orientation session and the drive was over four hours away! I was dreading the drive and the thought of his leaving home. Then again, I would get some storage space in the house.

    Adam seemed wide awake – easy to do when you’re not the one driving – and very relaxed about this whole thing, staring out at the stars as I pulled onto the interstate. And he came up with a topic I never would have thought of.

     “My generation will probably live to be 500,” he proudly announced,as though we were on some obscure, out of this world talk show.

    “How would your generation manage that?” I had to ask.

    “Oh, you know, Ma.”

    “No, I don’t know. Give me a hint,” I said.

    “Cloning. By the time I’m your age they’ll be cloning all my organs so that I can live a much longer life.” Science had done a lot of things in the last thirty years, when I was a young undergrad. Mapped out the human genome. Come up with the Concorde supersonic jet. But they still haven’t invented a ball point pen that writes upside down on a refrigerator pad. As a computer science major maybe my son could work on that, or how to clone a pen that writes upside down on a refrigerator. Or maybe he could invent a time machine, so I could go back to a time of having a body without  lines and sags. But that’s a pipe dream for sure.

    Arriving at the university at 8:30, we had to rush through the registration line, running into the administration building to  have his picture taken.

     “What do you think?” he said as he held out his new student ID. He looked like he’d been caught in a tornado; the tornado won.

    “Looks great,” I said. “I can’t wait to show it to Dad,” he replied. But did he have to?

    My parents’ packet included information banking options, bookstore mementos and the joys of what looked like dorm rooms the right size for a squirrel. As Adam was dragged away with an orientation program assistant for his own special conference, I followed  other middleaged adults I surmised were parents into an auditorium so that they could discuss education options (read: how to afford college).

    At lunch time we met up at the dining hall, which I thought would be a great moment for a thoughtful, serious  conversation on what college life and the future would bring. What commanded his thoughts? The amazing variety of food.

    “We don’t have this in our cafeteria,” he enthusiastically opined, spreading his arms out to showcase the food stations around us. At one place you could get a hamburger with anything on it and fries, at another several kinds of pasta; yet another have several soup combinations. And chocolate. There was chocolate cake, chocolate cookies, brownies, chocolate and vanilla swirled

ice-cream. Maybe that talk could wait till later. Now it was time to sample half those desserts.

    The afternoon session, while Adam and his peers were seeing advisors and signing up for courses, we middleaged fogeys were entertained about what college would bring for our children, and ourselves. Some wore purple, some wore yellow and black stripes (like bees) and pretended they were surprised by their "new" children, coming home much different after only a semester at college in their leather skirts and tight jeans.

    They specifically showed teens home on break dressed in a punk look of micro mini-skirt, heavy eye makeup and spiked hair, exerting their independence by announcing they would be home late, causing concern for the parents, who realized they had to adjust to this strange new person.

    Then they turned around and  also showed teens who wanted to go home the first weekend, who didn’t consider college their real home and were homesick right away. Being the independent middle child, I figured Adam’s adjustment to this brave new world of possibilities would be somewhere in-between. But as I slowly walked with him back to the car later, I knew that as he inched toward independence, the “real” adjustment for a student away from home would have to be mine. As I thought about it, the adjustment would be more mine, in more ways than one. I needed another focus.

    I considered  going back to college myself.

    While Adam had successfully gone through college and gotten a job using his computer skills for a company for away, I looked at Master’s programs close to home. After he graduated college, I decided to get back in the academic game again and see what it was like. It was not that easy; it required a lot of reading and preparation, which took my focus away from my sons and gave me the opportunity to see what possibilities were out there for me. And it’s been worth it.

    Whatever I do, I know encouraging my son’s independence and (eventually) mine, is the best thing a good mother can do.

                                                      - 30 -

   

Great First Night in House in storm

    You don't expect that your first night in the house you just got the deed for would maybe, no longer be there. I was a little worried about
that. Our first night in the house was in a great storm!
    Why, oh why, must we have this hurricane-tornadolike weather? The lights were blinking as the husband was using the electric pump to blow up our mattress -- yes, we were "camping out" in the house -- and I worried the lights flickering meant we were stressing out the circuits.
    We went out the front door and he said "Auntie Em!" It looked like a tornado might be close by, the branches of our small trees out front were literally being 'wrenched' back and forth. I felt sorry for the trees. I would feel even sorrier if something fell on the house we just bought.
    But the lights and everything electric had gone out now. This, our first night in the house! There was hardly anything in the house as we still had flooring to be put in and we were there, specifically, to take adavanage of the great electricity from the heat pump that was cooling ALL the rooms, something our rented house did not have. And all of a sudden, poof, it was gone, no electric, no escape from the high 90s outside. Or was it maybe a tiny bit lower?
     It probably was not that low outside, temperaturewise, as this was a weird storm. Dark and gloomy clouds, very high winds and no rain, to speak of. The  newspaper gave it a Spanish name, techerecho, or something like that! It is mostly a wind storm, and at the end of our block it caused a mature maple to almost split in two, and bring down a wire to the home in back of it (luckily, not ours). Even if we do have insurance, I would like the house to stay in one piece!
    By this time it was getting "really dark" in and out of the house,so Fran ran across to the neighbors and asked for a flashlight. The wind was still whipping things around and I wasn't brave enought to go out there with him. He brought back some of those white 'storm' candles and a lighter, dumped our almonds into some aluminum foil, and created a holder for the candles by lighting them and dripping the melted wax into the bottom of the tin. Then he set them in it and there they stood! Not bad for a former boy scout!
    You never think about hurricanelike weather this far inland in June. We did get the air mattress inflated before the lights went out, and opened our "one" window with a screen so we could get some breeze from outside. But at 11 pm or so a neighbor must  have been bored in the dark and started playing the drums, in a neighborhood with no electricity at all! It was difficult to get to sleep.
    I hear people in the bigger cities like Roanoke still may not have their power  -- ours came back on in the middle of the night. I went to bed early but the drummer and cars driving by and hitting the house with headlights were no help!
    Our second night was better. I guess it would have to be.

Optimism with new house of one's own

     When you get, obtain, purchase (whatever you call it) a house of one's own it is a big deal. You can put holes in the wall wherever you want. You can keep the lights on all night (though you wouldn't since "you" are paying all the bills now!), you can landscape and decorate however you want. You have a "place to stay". 
     We have lived for years in substandard student housing. It was very "close" to where we work, but it was in the midst of student partying and we older folks didn't quite fit in. Will we fit in in this new neighborhood of families and such? Sure hope so. We want to fit in somewhere and get to know our neighbors -- I think we will have things in common. Having a place of one's own is a responsibility, but also fun. It is something to feel upbeat about!

Pursuing Writing Seems healthy, can be frustrating

     It seems the writing life (and by that, I mean striving to be a writer and learn more about it) agrees with me. I will be moving soon and I have a plethora of notebooks, hopefully with intelligent, helping writing material in them or ideas for writing articles and books. My oldest son has reminded me he will one day toss my magazines I save. But will he save my very own notebooks, especially the ones with some humor? Humor is good for your health and sometimes the writing life too.
    So I "helped" my writing life by going to a writer's club meeting at a fancy new library to learn about the publishing business. It is interesting that our speaker,  Kathleen Delaney, had lived out in CA. and written about the wine industry there. Wines -- made from grapes grown in a certain soil, picked at a certain time, fermenting for a certain length of time. It's very much an outdoor occupation, an interesting kind of work. And they say some wine is good for you, although, as a breast cancer survivor I'm not "supposed" to drink alcohol -- don't know if it's the sugar content (did you know cancer "loves" sugar) or the alchohol. Sugar all around is not too healthy an option, although a Dr. Wright says xylitol may actually prevent tooth decay (and is used in some gums).
    Anyway, guest speaker Delaney has some unique cozy mysteries out -- one is out by Poisoned Pen Press: And Murder for Dessert. She pointed out that she took adult extension courses to learn how to deal with things like structure, form and creating relationships in her writing. I think a lot of people just interested in memoirs could do something like that.
    Our meeting was at the "Tah Mahal"  of libraries  -- the new "Southside Library" in Roanoke, VA -- wow, with its big Marquee out front, like a half mile from this "edifice," and tribute to reading. There was a huge parking lot with a spacious downstairs. And besides book shelves there was an auditorium where they were showing a movie, and snack bar nearby (what? in a library, what is this, Barnes and Noble). And upstairs a private reading room with a fireplace (what is this, somebody's house) and with a big paperback book section too. The reference rep sais it only cost  around $15 million. Your tax dollars at work. And man, did they work! I need to come back sometime, for dinner and a movie! Ah, and also books, maybe books on writing.

Working the computer can be stressful

     I thought for a while I didn't have my  "antivirus" gizmo working. I am not the most computer savvy and  and was worried I could get a virus and ruin the computer and what was saved to it. Then, I bought a version and it didn't do squat. So I went to "find" it on the computer, opened it, put in what I thought was the "license" info and it seemed to activate. Then I restated the computer and it said it had no antivirus protection! In state of stress I contacted the company and in the meantime it seemed to straighten itself out now "I think" it's working! Phew.

Did some walking yesterday

     Here I am, lollygagging when I should be working on my writing. I tried to follow a member blogger's advice on how to do a caption and I guess things have changed and you can't do that anymore. I want to put a caption below this picture of the mountains and yet, there is no "draft" function that allows me to insert a caption. Anyway, these are mountains in Virginia and I walked, for health and to help my Master Naturalist organization, at a place in the Jefferson National Forest called Glen Alton. It is a farm in the middle of nowhere in the woods! Very scenic, with some interesting paths and wetlands too.

Virginia mountains

"FOOD Inc", "Planeat", Being vegetarian

    It  has been a busy semester. I have had an extra class and we have looked at the theme of food. How interesting could "that" be, you might ask?
   Food today in the US, perhaps in other Western countries as well, is mostly mass produced, on a scale, I and my class learned, that is really not so healthy. We read part of Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma and  saw part of the movie Food, Inc. Both about mass production of food in America. So, putting food on an assembly line is not so bad, right? Well, the assembly line doesn't help, but before the food hits the assembly line, the way it is produced is, well, not so healthy. We feed cows and chickens grain that is mostly likely genetically modified, and put antibiotics and growth hormone in there so the beef and chicken grow big and fast. In Food, Inc. a woman farmer showed how the chickens were "so heavy"  for their frames that they could only walk a few steps and then sat down. And they were always inside and didn't see the sun or grass. Is this natural? (Should we care?)
    If we don't care about the animals we should care about the end product -- food that is very manipulated, at least where meat is concerned. Vegetables conventionally mass produced have a lot of immune system compromising pesticides on them. Organic vegetables are better. Organically raised meat "can" be better (depending on what USDA laws are followed). But my students saw our mass produced food is not all that healthy.
  And a fellow teacher showed the film Planeat  and it provided info on studies following vegetarian protein (nuts, beans, lentils), unlike animal protein, will not increase heart disease or cancerous tumors. Vegetarianism can prevent tumor growth! Wow, what an idea, enough to make me a full fledged vegan! 
    But I do like meat. I don't need steak but I need to eat some meat. But I am going to try for some vegan days (no milk either) each week. That will be a challenge. Hey, if studies show vegetable protein is healthier, then why not?
    

Intestinal Issues, Enjoyed having my "gran kitties"

          Well, you never know when it comes to health issues. Someone I know in her forties had a stroke the other day. The last time I was at the doctor it seemed my blood pressure was borderline high. I hope it doesn't continue that way, though it's likely as my father had high blood pressure many years. But, unlike me, he got his weight down to where he was very thin and lived a number of years like that (till last summer, when he passed on). We all wonder what exactly is coming next, but I 'm told by a very spiritual friend that the monarh (?) butterfly that flitted by me in October was his way of saying he was in a better place.
           A few weeks ago I had a pain in my side and thought it was intestinal blockage. That weekend oldest Son came for his cats. At his apartment they said he had to get rid of his gray and black kitties and he wasn't going to do it. So he brought them to our place to "cat sit" while he hoped they would inspect his apartment and say all clear. After a month they finally told him they were coming over on one particular day, and so they didn't see the kitties!
           I call them kitties but they are long and thin, the length of full grown cats, at least. The black male, Sirius, would come and stay on my lap over an hour at night as I watched TV. Jean, the gray one, would stay on my lap 20 seconds and jump off! She would also jump around if she bumped into something and knocked it down. They knocked over pictures, DVDs, and ran after things that rolled, from balls to spools to cat toys. They were entertaining, though cleaning their big litter box was not. The closest I am coming to grandchildren, it seems.
          Right after Zeb left I went to the doctor and found out that pain was from a pulled hip muscle. His prescription? Oh, pain medicine. Nothing about putting cold/ heat on it and easing into using it again. Typical doctor. I was also constipated. Took the "Miramax" 4 days and this week it seems to all be coming out! I hope I can be regular again. That stuff comes from petroleum (!) so it can't be too healthy, me thinks!
           While here I took Zeb to both the "peace garden" and nearby "Stadium Woods" of VA. Tech. They need to preserve that small woods. It has oaks in it that are maybe 300 years old, so old you can't put your arms around them!