Tuesday 4, Books and Movies

 Time for another Tuesday 4. This time it's about books and movies. Join me if you'd like.

1. Is there a hero or character on TV, in a book or a movie .. or even on all three, that you are especially like? What do you find attractive about them?  I'm sure there are characters that I admire if I could only think of them. Scanning my bookshelf, I see three books about people I admire. They are all nonfiction. The first one is Educated by Tara Westover that tells of her overcoming a severe childhood to be successful in the outside world. The next is The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot which tells the story of how Henretta Lacks's cells became one of the most important tools in medicine and how that affected her family. The third is Animals in Translation by Temple Grandin where Temple uses her autism perspective to understand animal behavior. All of these women did extraordinary things even though they had one form of handicap or another. I marvel at people who have the strength, talent, and determination to do that.

2.  Was there a book that was better in movie form? How about a movie you thought didn't live up to the book? Once again, a blank. We don't watch that many movies, but I did watch the trailer for the Temple Grandin movie. And while the actress seemed good, she did not really get the style of Temple. I have seen Temple talk in person a couple of times and she is very distinctive.

3. When you choose a book, program, or movie, which subject it is most likely to be: science fiction, mystery, romance, comedy, documentary, etc.?    What draws you to a particular book or movie? I don't always gravitate to a particular book genre like my friend who is an avid mystery reader. In general, I like more character-driven stories as opposed to action-driven stories. Most of my selections are based on recommendations from friends. For movies and shows, I am first attracted to comedies, and then mystery and romance. And a well-done documentary is always interesting no matter what the subject. I generally don't read or watch science fiction like the rest of my family but have read some that I liked. A well-written book can tell a good story in any genre.

4. How important is the title or picture on the cover of a book?   How much importance do you place on a movie because of the actors who are in it? The title or picture on a book is not important to me. In fact, I sometimes don't remember the title of a book even when I'm reading it. Also, I don't choose a movie based on the actors in it. However, if an actor makes mostly a certain style of a movie and I like that style, I am more likely to watch another one of their movies.

More Sightseeing

Recently, Ward and I took a trip to western WV to celebrate our wedding anniversary. Most of it was spent enjoying the mountain scenery and trails, but we spent a little time also exploring man-made things. 

Here are a few more scenes from our recent trip.

On the way there, we stopped at Lonaconing Park in MD. The park was centered around a coal and iron furnace that was built in 1837. This is one of several furnaces in the area that is rich in iron ore and coal. BTW, this was the first furnace to use coke instead of coal for smelting.

Also, on display was this old coal mine car complete with the track.

And right on cue, a coal train went by. 

After one morning of cold hiking, we had a look around the nearby town of Thomas (population 550). This building greeted us as we entered the town.

Across the street was this carved Pegasus. 

We visited the local library. It was a small, but friendly space that served not only the community but the nearby school.  And yes, we did come home with a couple of books from their book sale. 

The first stop on the way home was a visit to the Fairfax Stone State Park.

There wasn't much to see, but I wanted to visit because I had heard about this surveyor's stone all of my life. The first one was laid in 1736. This replacement was erected here in 1901. The stone marks the boundary between West Virginia and Maryland and had been part of land disputes and court cases for many years.

We followed another road sign to this chapel which claimed to be the smallest chapel in the lower 48 states. The grounds and the inside of the chapel were very pretty.

On our way to our next planned destination, Cathedral State Park, I was intrigued by this old stone tavern. Unfortunately, it was a private residence, so I could only admire it from afar.

This trip proved once again that if you take the time to look around, there are always interesting things to see.  (Of course, "interesting" can have a very broad meaning depending on who defines it.)

Until next time...

Celebrating

Ward and I recently celebrated our wedding anniversary by going to Blackwater Falls State Park in West Virginia. That's where we spent our first night as a married couple many, many years ago. When we got married, Ward was working in New Orleans and had only been at his job a few months. He hadn't earned any vacation time but his company gave him a couple of personal days to come to WV to get married. Because of time constraints, we got married on the Friday after Thanksgiving. Following the wedding, we drove 3 hours to Blackwater Falls to spend the night.  The next couple of days were spent driving to New Orleans where Ward returned to work and I immediately began a new job. 

We have visited the Falls since then, but more as a passing-through stop than to stay, so we decided it was time to have a longer visit. We rented a small cabin and when we weren't working puzzles or reading, we spent time exploring the park. The weather was cold and ice and snow covered most of the trails. Even though the the snow was not deep, footing could be treacherous at times especially considering all of the roots and rocks to maneuver around. There were a few slips, but no falls. Yay! 

Below are pictures from our hikes. 

Deer outside our cabin.

I didn't think there were many pay phones around these days,
but we found one in the woods.

 

Shopping on Saturday

and Other Things

So Ward and I lost all of our common sense and went shopping Saturday afternoon. We knew it would be crowded and tried to get into the right frame of mind to handle that before we set out. And our expectations were met. There were people everywhere getting ready for Thanksgiving. Parking lots were full and check-out lines seemed to stretch for miles. Despite all of that, we were able to maneuver through the crowds with success. 

And why did we not choose a different time to go out? Well, we've been waiting for extended family to figure out whether or not they would be joining us for Thanksgiving dinner. There were many moving parts to consider before deciding that we won't have any extra guests for that day. So as soon as we knew how many we'll be feeding (4) and what our menu was, we headed out to shop before the shelves were empty.

Our menu started out featuring smoked ribs, but that got changed when Theo was given a big turkey at work. We are going to try a new-to-us cooking method for it. Basically, you heat the turkey for an hour at 500 degrees and then turn the oven off and let it sit in the warm oven for the next 5 or 6 hours. There is almost a cult following on the internet for this method. We'll see if we're able to produce the browned skin, meat falling off the bones everyone is raving about. I think the hardest part will be not opening the oven or lifting the lid on the turkey to see how it's doing.

Back on the homefront, we have had a few surprises in the yard. Our camellia tree is blooming! We planted it last spring and it is a variety that is supposed to bloom in the fall. However, we didn't expect it to bloom the first year, so when it hadn't shown any signs that way, we weren't surprised. But we were surprised when after several frosts, we saw our first bloom.

There are a couple of other things that are braving the cold weather and still flowering. What a treat for this time of year. 

Camellia

Spirea

Cosmos

Dianthus

Until next time...

Tuesday 4, Home Sweet Home

 Today's Tuesday 4 asks questions about where you grew up. Join me if you'd like.

An aerial view of my town when I lived there. You can see that the business part of the town was built in a valley but most of the people lived in the hills surrounding the downtown, including me.

What was your hometown like?   Or home state or both! I've talked here about my hometown and state many times. As most of you know, I grew up in a small town in West Virginia. My parents continued to live there until they passed away a few years ago, so I was able to keep up with the town and the people there. I haven't lived there full time since I was 18 years old, but I still get the weekly newspaper. So you might say, that I have a deep connection to where I grew up.

So what was it like? The town was the county seat of a county of about 14,000 and the town had about 3000 people. We had one stoplight in the middle of town, 3 grocery stores, and a movie theater (built in 1907 and one of the oldest continuously operating movie theaters in the country). The main employers were a state mental hospital and a plant that made hockey pucks and shoe soles.

While you might not know everyone, you knew most people, and things were done on a personal level.  One story I like to tell is that one summer I went to Girl Scout camp with a friend and after camp, another camper wrote a letter to me using my friend's address because she lost mine. However, the post office delivered it to my house. 

It was a town where my parents did most of their business by talking to people when they saw them instead of calling an office, and most local elections were determined by what people thought about the character of the person running rather than what they promised they would do.

My town was a place where you greeted everyone you met on the street. I lived in town and walked to school and most everywhere else. Friday night football games and Sunday church were a big part of the social life for many people including me. (I was a cheerleader, so I was at most of the sporting events by default.)  

Did you enjoy where you grew up?  Why? I did enjoy where I grew up because of the sense of community. It was also small enough to be able to get involved in many things. More than once, my parents told me that I had to cut back on my activities in both school and the community because they were taking up too much time. I would drop out of a couple things, but somehow a few months later, I'd be right back where I started. Luckily, I was able to keep up my grades and home responsibilities (Mostly. I won't say that I always completed everything on the worklist in the most timely manner but the important stuff got done.)

How much did where you grew up shape you? I was greatly influenced by where I grew up as I think most people are. I learned to value hard work and be genuinely friendly. I learned to appreciate the simpler things in life and the importance of being responsible for yourself. These were values not only present in my family but ones I saw around me.

What were some of the best and worst things about where you grew up? I think I've covered many of the good things, but one of the bad things about my county was the schools were not in great shape. At one point, money was misspent from a school bond issue and people had a long memory of that. No school bond issues passed the whole time I was in school and the top two floors of my high school were condemned. (Note: The pro votes were often over 50%, but they had to pass with 60% of the votes.) I had many classes in termite-infested portable buildings that another county got rid of. But it wasn't as bad as it sounds. They were just fine except in the spring when the bugs swarmed. Then we'd meet outside. However, I had some great teachers along the way and competed quite favorably with others in college who had gone to much more privileged schools.

This is a topic that is hard to cover in just a few paragraphs, but this will have to do for now because the cats are calling me.

Until next time...