Belated Farewell to a Hardscrabble Sister

I completely forgot to note that my favorite word -- hardscrabble -- appeared in the recent and ongoing Anna Nicole saga.

Not only was her upbringing in Texas reportedly "hardscrabble" (paragraph 2 -- just an example of the many references to her hardscrabble childhood), but she also died in the "hardscrabble part" (paragraph 1) of Hollywood, FL.

Hardscrabble from beginning to end...

Joe in '08??

Ok, this article kinda surprised me. Not that he'd run for national office of some sort eventually, but that it's being discussed now.

Yeah, yeah, I know I live under a rock and am completely out of it -- I suppose the Brooklyn Hillbilly, a true politics junkie, has seen a Hillary-Joe ticket coming for years.

Remembering the Buffalo Creek Disaster

Today marks the 35th anniversary of the horrible Buffalo Creek flood in Logan County that killed 125 and left thousands homeless.

I've always heard brief mentions about this incident, but today I finally took a moment and looked at the online exhibit at the WV Division of Culture & History's website and now have a better of understanding of what took place.

The second image on this page helped me envision the dams involved and the area devastated by the flood. Also note the first paragraph of that page. There are at least 9 Buffalo Creeks in WV, and two of those are associated with major disasters -- the mine explosion at Farmington that killed 78 and the aforementioned Feb. 26, 1972, dam break and flood in Logan County. I'd definitely never made that connection.

The Flu -- Real or Imagined

In the last year I've read two books about the influenza pandemic of 1918.

The first, John M. Barry's The Great Influenza, I read last spring. Let me tell you, if you make it through that one without starting a stockpile of bottled water and canned goods in your basement, well, you're more confident than I am.

The second was Wickett's Remedy, a novel by Myla Goldberg.

After reading those books, I was, of course, eager to get my annual flu shot. Reading the Barry book will tempt you to push the elderly and small children out of line to be first to get your flu shot. I refrained from doing that, however.

Well, guess what? I got the flu anyway. If it wasn't the flu, it was sure something that acted exactly like it. The person who gave it to me claims it was influenza B.

Whatever it was, I haven't had anything like it in years, and as I lay drooling, struggling to breathe, all I could think about was the The Great Influenza and the graphic descriptions of that flu's effect on its victims. The Black Death, it was called, and that's what kept running through my not-so-coherent mind during the worst hours of the illness. Surely I had come down with the very first case of the next pandemic. It was a long night filled with these thoughts, as well as many other bizarre ones, including the sudden urge to re-caulk my bathtub even though I couldn't get out of bed. I could NOT stop thinking of the current unsightly caulk.

But in about 36 hours I was suddenly feeling that I might recover, and I reported in all seriousness, "I think I'm going to make it," which sounded pretty amusing, I'm sure, to the other party who had NOT read the flu books.

Rethinking My Career Goal

My career goal for a while now has been pretty much any job that would allow me to work from home most of the time. I don't know what that would be -- medical transcription, selling antique--RETRO!!*NIP* Pez dispensers on eBay, or something of that nature.

Well, today I got to try it out. The commute yesterday was frightening. My car did pretty well, but there were other cars that weren't, and dodging them was scary and I was almost in an accident. So this morning when the rain turned to sleet turned to snow before I could get on the road, I opted for the daring (for me) "work from home" day.

In the beginning it was swell. E-mail, e-mail, e-mail, work, work, work.

But by noon, I'd eaten breakfast three times and was preparing lunch. Clearly, if I'm ever to work from home full-time, I'll need to put a timed lock on the kitchen.

By 3 p.m., I was stir crazy. I meticulously shoveled the sidewalk again, and then called to check my voice mail for the zillionth time. I rarely get phone calls at work, so for the heck of it I listened to my 8 saved messages.

And then I started planning dinner.

Well, At Least I'm Consistent

Grrrr -- I spent a long time at Hallmark this year picking out cards. And while I did pick up some other Valentines, most of the time spent was picking out the perfect card for the boyfriend.

I couldn't find the perfect card, but I finally settled on one that I liked.

Well, turns out it was THE SAME ONE I sent him last year. He was kind enough not to tell me if I wrote exactly the same thing, too.

I did manage to buy a different gift, thank goodness.

Resolutions

Well, obviously, not all of my New Year's resolutions are going well (blogging), but the other two are doing OK, though it's a struggle. I've read a couple of books, and I've been to the gym an average of a couple of times a week. Considering I was sick for a week, I guess that's OK.

I did haul my sorry arse out of bed this morning and forced myself to go work out. Decked out in my abominable snowman sweat pants (they add at least 30 pounds to my thighs), eyes puffier than usual, no make-up, hair flat and sticking to my head -- it was almost certain I would run into someone I knew. And, of course, it had to be the fashion-conscious grand-boss. Perfect.