Tornadoes: Everything you should know about Tornadoes but really did not care.

 So I am posting pictures from several years back of damage done by wind shears that were close to being a tornado. We have tornados in the spring when our climate is changing from winter to summer. It is when a cold front comes rumbling through. There are sections of the lower midwest which are known as "tornado alley" in that they get quite a few tornados. We get tornados but not as many as these folks get. Nonetheless, the ones we get can be quite damaging and life threatening. 

One tornado ripped through an area called Sandy Point in the county next to me. The only person thrown from his house was a man who was very drunk at the time. He had no injuries. He was just tossed from his house to the woods behind his home.

I had a neighbor call me about the tornado in Fort Valley. I was on my cellphone walking my dogs and told her there was no tornados, no rain, somebody was mixed up. There was a tornado about four miles as the crow flies. It completely demolished a bank and only the vault was left standing. That system just whizzed beside the calm overcast sky over my home.

Another nearby tornado blew a woman's home off it's foundation. I understand she broke her ankles which I am sure was very painful. She sat in her bathtub during the storm for safety. The bathtub was tossed with the home. I noticed she did not rebuild. 

As you can tell a lot of damage occurs from the felling of large trees due to high winds and saturated soils.

Stories

 I made a run to the dollar tree. I did not want to pull anything out and get started on any project inside my home. It was too hot to garden. Getting out of the car, I need to find the restroom.. The seeds they had were just some generic flower seeds that I already had. I wanted watermelon seeds. .So I am prowling the store to find something to buy. I used their restroom.

I could use a bucket. Meh, the bucket they had was $5 and a loser of a bucket. I don't want an oval bucket with sharp points on the two ends. I think I will look for more seeds. Surely they would have more than the paltry offering in their gardening area. They have a small section of books. 

So I give the excuse in my mind to look over the books to see what get sold at the General Dollar Store. This from a woman who is going to the huge used book sale to buy books I may never read. I mean if I read non-stop for the rest of my life, I still would not finish my tbr pile.

And I spy a book by Louise Erdrich named Future Home of the Living God. I've wanted to read one of Louise Erdrich books. She has written so many. I inspected the book on Amazon and couldn't find it. Then I googled it. I could just read the dang book. Anyway, I bought it for $3. 

I have a feeling the novel is going to be like a play like Kenny Leon would pick for the Alliance Theatre. The plays could be a bit tedious and intense and dang if you did not think of the play for days even years afterward. My favorite play was Dancing at Lughnasa by Brian Friel. Later a movie was made from the play. I've seen the movie several times.  

There is a blog that is telling a story that I plan to read in it's entirety.  Actually there are several blogs having a serialized story as their A to Z blog. The one I know I will read is https://dbmcnicol.com. I've made my own spreadsheet of the blogs listed for A to Z and writing a crib note about each one. I want to visit all of the blogs. I'm not doing a very good job. 

I'm one to read several blog posts of any blog on one day and move on to another blog to read the next night. I've somehow become a lurker with blogs.. And you know, some blogs don't have a place to comment. Or I have become too dumb to figure out how to comment. Sometimes the link to comment is a little sneaky. I sent a message to https://dacairns.com.au/blog/f/a-to-z-blogging-challenge-r D A Cairns in I never figured out how to comment. 

You're probably wondering where I am going with this post. Well I am too.

I was going to write about Jack tales with the letter J and I found I already had a J written. So I would tell the Jack tales in a post about stories. My dad's name was Jack. So it all made sense. Maybe. I warned in my theme reveal there would be some rambling.

Well I'll give you a few more blogs I think you will enjoy.

Elephant's child posts beautiful pictures and offers a link up to other who post photos. I enjoy her photos of Australia with the brilliantly colorful birds. https://myjustsostory.blogspot.com This blogger is very kind with visiting and commenting. I read her comment on another blog and was touched with her kindness and observation of a detail. 

Debby is my sister from California. We aren't actually sisters but I enjoy her blogs. She had one called Have a Cup of Coffee with me or a similar title. Then she got attacked by trolls. And went to two of her other blogs. For A to Z, Debby is posting on her genealogy blog.I like history especially little real stories. I found myself getting worked up over how a 2nd great grandfather did my 2nd great grandmother dirty. That is two of the sixteen great grandparents mind you. Carrying 1/16 of their genetic material theoretically is not an especially close relation. Debby's blog is https://rooted-by-blood-and-dna.blogspot.com/

Another blogger lives in Hawaii and we are both retired teachers. So that makes us cousins. Her husband was in the military and they are a well traveled couple due to his career and their obvious love of travel. https://travelerswife.blogspot.com/

Carla Jones Gowan has been kind enough to visit my blog during A to Z. She is a lovely writer and I have enjoyed reading about her travels with her son in Chile and Peru. I love South America. I could easily move to a slow boat to China. Except they would not let me have my dogs and some imperial cats that own me. I went to Peru once and that is where I learned if I ever go to another country, I would like to return to South America. https://karenjonesgowen.blogspot.com

I'm always flattered when a real writer visits my blog. Two of them have had interesting A to Z blogs about villains and the like. One is erinpenn.com. Another one is https://illusionsofchaos.blogspot.com I don't think illusions of chaos has been by but I have enjoyed their posts. 

This blog is not doing A to Z but I love the slice of life in her posts. http://scarymarythehamsterlady.blogspot.com 

Well the font has changed on it's on. I guess that means this post is long enough. 

And I got an Elmore Leonard book to read. 

Cedar Creek between Irwin and Wilcox County Georgia USA

Royalty

 As an  American, the British royalty is not my business.

Why do Amerians like the British royalty? For me it is that it still exists. I love a bit of history. 

I am clearly descended from the British Isles based on my DNA  The story was one of my grandfather was German. In the 1940 census, he is recorded as being born in Germany. Dna linked me to his youngest sister Minnie who married a Revels. My grandfather served in the Spanish American War and was an ambulance driver in World War I. When my brother enlisted, our grandfather's military record was viewed by my brother and father. 

My father was a World War II veteran. My father got separated from his unit and was part of British Army for awhile. 

What I learned was my grandfather had colonial roots just like my other three grandparents. There was some German but it was several generations back. The native American in my family probably came from this grandfather in that I think one of his great grandmothers was either a Lumbee or Cherokee. Most likely, she was Lumbee. This so called German grandfather was mostly English.

Although I consider myself American and definitely not English. I suspect the fact that I am a lifelong Anglophile has a lot to do with my ancestry. My mother toured England with the Methodist church. She said it seemed so familiar although it was definitely a different country. The sight that amused her the most was the man carrying a butchered pig across his back in a market. 

If I were English, I would not be a royalist. The entire class system in England is quite tragic to me. I say that as a hypocrite of course. We have a class system in the United States which has benefited me. The chief benefit is I have a college education which was not considered important for many of my classmates when I graduated high school. 

I'm writing this as the whole saga of Princess Catherine has not unfolded. The worst part of royalty is it is not everyone's damn business what sort of surgery she has had. It is that Sword of Pericles which is the greatest burden of the Royal family. .

During King Charles coronation, it was amusing how they reported what lip readers saw people saying. I've bought the book "Spare" by Prince Harry. I haven't read it. So many books, so little time. I'm proud of Harry and Meghan building their own life. The British tabloid press is merciless. It takes a lot of guts to walk away from a untenable situation. 

I imagine King Charles and Prince Harry have the same relationship father and sons have all over the world. Dad wants Harry to live his life a particular way and Harry sees a different path that Dad may or may not understand.

My dad's mom wanted him to keep his civilian job on RAFB and move back to some of her property and farm. My father did not think it was a good idea. Dad worked side jobs as a car mechanic to bring a little extra home.  As my dad got older, he realized his mom's idea was not that bad. 

My dad wanted me to be a dentist. I knew it was going to be slim chance that I got in Dental College. I was never able to tell him I was pursuing a difficult career choice. When I entered college, the auditorium that held 300 was packed with pre-med, pre-dental majors. I was standing on the back wall. Of all those young people, 8 of us graduated with the degree. Three were admitted to Med School. 

I would have liked to have been a doctor. Frankly, I did not have the sophistication. My people skills would have made me a great doctor. My ability to empathize with people would have destroyed me with having to accept, deliver and witness what could not be changed. Teaching was a more suitable career although I was a square peg in a round hole my entire career. 

So yes, I do have a lot of sympathy for people living in a gilded cage. It is hard enough to navigate life but it is too hard to have your life torn to bits and examined and then opinionated about by whoever can write the jolliest garbage.  

I really don't think I would enjoy living the life they have. 

Quixotic

 Quixotic is something that is idealistic to the point it is impractical. 

Somebody must have been talking about me 

I washed cat food cans out. The cans are made of aluminum. I have been doing this for years.I put the aluminum cat food cans with the aluminum soda cans and take them to the recycling center. The man working there told me they throw them away. They only take soda cans.

So once again, I have been good for nothing. 

I decided, I will still wash the cans and keep the soda cans and periodically sell my cans at the recycler. It will not be a King's ransom. But it will pay my gas for the stop. I'll do this when I go to that part of town. My developmental disabled brother is so excited. I'm going to let him keep the money. He likes to get the "loot" as he calls the money.

Sometimes I see where someone has washed a waxed paper container that once held ice cream which I know has to go in the garbage. All that effort for nothing, I feel their pain. I put my waxed paper in my burn pile. I live in the country and I do periodic burns. 

Life is good. I got first world problems. I can see where someone will mine landfills one day for the metals.

Recycle Reduce Reuse

Politics

Politics make me think of the aftermath of the Civil War.

I had family on both sides of the Civil War. It is with a bit of irony that Georgia actually voted against seceding but after the big planters met in the capital which was Milledgeville at the time, the decision to secede from the Union was made.

The aftermath of the civil war in the South was like the American Depression of the thirties only magnified. Because of the inherent poverty in the South, the American Depression was most intensely felt in the Southeast.

Union Soldiers walked home heros. Confederate soldiers came home defeated to farms and homes burned and looted. Many were grievously injured which affected their ability to work.  

Like all young men, my older brother discussed with my dad about the Vietnam War. My dad was against the Vietnam War. When I was in elementary school, I was embarrassed by my dad's opinion. We went on vacation to Jekyll Island when I was around 13. Dad was in the parking lot talking about how we had no business in Vietnam. The man who dad had just met was solemnly agreeing.

My dad told my brother, you don't ever want to lose a war. That pain from a 100 years earlier lived on with my father. Or could it have been earlier. I have traced one line of my father back to a foot soldier named FitzStephen who came as a soldier for William the Conqueror in 1066. My father has humble roots but he came from generations of soldiers. 

My brother volunteered to join the army and survived the Vietnam War. My brother served in an unpopular war. My dad served in World War II which Americans felt proud. Hitler's Germany murdered 6 million Jews and 5 million non-Jews for his cruel ideology.

Slavery was abolished due to the Civil War.. African Americans did not really get their due until the 1960s when Civil Rights Laws were enacted. There are some good benefits to wars. There is also a lot of misery and destruction with war.

My grandfather was a Spanish American War and a World War I veteran and is buried in the original Marietta National Cemetery. The land was donated by a Henry Cole in 1866 to bury the 10,000 Union Soldiers who died during Sherman's march to the sea. There are 17,000 people buried there today. Henry Cole was an Atlanta merchant who remained loyal to the Union during the Civil War.

I plan to have the ashes of my dad, mom, developmentally delayed brother, sister who had mental illness and my Vietnam era brother interred at the cemetery. I am not eligible to be interred there but I am going to ask for my ashes to be scattered on their graves. 

I don't care how anyone votes. 

The moment you exclude anyone from being your friend because they have different politics from you; you have crossed the line..  

We all have feet of clay, 

I'm not afraid of whoever is elected. Bossing Americans around is like herding cats. We will be what we are. And I will vote and I will volunteer to take anyone to the polls who needs a ride. I'm ridin with Biden. If you are Trump's number One MAGA fan, get in the car. We all need to vote and be able to have an opinion. 

Otherwise we have already lost a much bigger war. And you never want to lose a war. .

Opossum

 Around 10 PM, the visitors begin. This is an average looking opossum. I do have one that is quite young and handsome. Another one is really big and ugly. They sort of have a peace made with the cats. The cats leave them alone and they leave the cats alone.

Nightmarchers

 All of the islands of Hawaii have the legend of night marchers. The Nightmarchers are the souls of dead warriors who may be escorted by past Kings of the Hawaiian Islands or of one the six Gods themselves. If you happen upon Nightmarchers, you should lie prone upon the ground with your face down in humility in their presence. Frankly, I would probably pass out in fear to be confronted by an army of apparitions.

If you were blood kin to one of the warriors, they would give the order to pass over their family member. Looking directly into the eyes of the marchers would result in a disastrous death to the onlooker soon after. 

The largest island of the Hawaii is the island of Hawaii. You usually take a tour from Hilo to the Volcanic National Park and of course the topic of  Nightmarchers was part of the tour.. The people who live on the island would hike at night across the volcanic lava fields. A red glow gives  warning that the lava flow is not so safe. 

One of the many lessons I learned from my eighth grade students was that scientist did get samples of lava from these lava flows. When asked, I said there was nothing that could hold that hot stuff. And I was corrected. 

The neatest thing I visited on the island of Hawaii were the lava tunnels. The molten lava continued to flow as the outer layer had long hardened. In the ensuing years ferns, fern trees and all sorts of plants had grown over and around the tunnel we walked through. It was a marvelous. There were also lava tunnels along the shoreline where periodically the salt water would spew.

 

Lava Field: Wikimedia Commons: Bob Linsdell