Loose Leaf Notes

1. Joe was off on his latest trip less than 3 hours when he face-timed me from a cafe to show me his pimento cheese burger.

2. While face-timing, I saw his big brimmed hat on the table, “Now you have to carry that around in and out of airports.  It may as well be a cat!” I said, which made me think about the Cat in Hat or naming a cat “Hat.”

3. “Every Olympic event should include one average person competing for reference.” – Bill Murray

4. Corn is the new candy.  At my house husks are littered about like empty wrappers.

5. Posted by a friend on Facebook: When a presidential candidate gets two thumbs up from the KKK and the Nazi party, time to think…

6. TRUMP SAYS HE WOULD ONLY USE NUCLEAR WEAPONS IN A SARCASTIC WAY: “People who are worried about me having the nuclear-launch codes should stop worrying, O.K.?” Trump told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. “If I ever used nuclear weapons, it would be really obvious that I was just being sarcastic.” Pressed by Blitzer to explain the difference between a sarcastic and non-sarcastic nuclear attack, Trump responded, “You’d use the weapons and everything, but then you’d say, ‘Just kidding.’ ”  – author/comedian Andy Borowitz

7. Waiting for a meteorite/ to shoot across the sky / is like waiting for a blind date to show up / I’m alone in the dark / in the middle of the yard / And nothing happens / And nothing happens … Read the rest of Watching the Perseid Meteor Shower for Kyla HERE.

8. Kyla, my dear friend Mara’s daughter, is struggling in the hospital waiting on a heart for a heart transplant.  HERE is the latest update on her progress and HERE is her Gofundme page that raises money to support her and her family members.

9. Speaking of Face-timing, when my grandsons were here all day on Sunday, they played a make-shift Face-time first shooter video game with Joe on the phone for over half an hour.

10. And HERE is a blog post about attending my mom’s 90th birthday via Face-time.

11. On the hour long drive home to Roanoke at the end of the day, Bryce said, “I wish we could just teleport there.” “Maybe when you’re my age you’ll be able to. They already have cars now that drive themselves.”

12. Sweet Joe cut his trip short and took the red eye home to drive us to Massachusetts for my mom’s funeral.  On the morning that I learned she had just passed, August 15, I read an update from a Facebook friend that said:  Today is the Mother Mary ascended to heaven. My mother told me this as it was her birthday today and she liked that connection a lot. If she hadn’t ascended herself, she would be 103 today.”  My mom was 91.  HERE is a radio essay I wrote about her in 2007.

13. Death is the ultimate blind date.

______Thirteen Thursday