Some of you may be familiar with The Tales of The Arabian Nights and the storyteller, Scheherezade. If not, let me give you the Reader’s Digest Condensed version of who she was.

You see, there was a Sultan who didn’t like women much, because his first wife had done him wrong and had ” R-U-N-N-O-F-T” just like Mrs. Hogwallop in “O Brother Where Art Thou.” But he liked “being married” (wink, wink). So each day he married a beautiful woman from his kingdom, spent the night with her and at dawn the next day he had that wife beheaded and married a new one.

Now, it seems to me that the men in his kingdom would have put a stop to this pretty quickly, because he was using up all the available women. I guess the men were just sitting around waiting for the sultan to get voted out of office, or something.

I digress.

The Sultan beheaded all his wives until he married Scheherezade. She was a storyteller. On her wedding night, she began to tell a tale for the Sultan that had more twists and turns in its plot than a ball of yarn on the floor after the cat paws get to it. When dawn came, the story wasn’t finished but the Sultan wanted to hear more. So he stayed her execution, but that story wound into another that didn’t end at dawn. She entertained the Sultan for 1,001 nights until he saw the folly of his ways.

You know that’s fiction. In real life, he never would have seen the folly of his ways.

Y’all may be aware that I am a professional storyteller, and I think of myself as having a “Scheherezade Complex.” I rarely finish a story. Often when I am telling to an audience, I leave the story open-ended and conclude by saying, “But, that’s a story for another day.” Sure, part of the reason for that is an affectation. Partly, I do that because when I was growing up none of my family was interested in hearing the stories. They always interrupted me before I got finished. So, I guess I’m trying to preserve my dignity in case you aren’t interested. Besides, many of my stories are about the journey, not the destination.

However, Matty at Running on Empty has gently chided me that she wanted an ending to a story. And, I have a couple of other loose ends to tie up. Here they are.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

I was a surprised as the dickens to get a comment on a post I had written last January! It wasn’t even spam. I had written a post called Travel To Turkey Without A Passportand told y’all about the town of Turkey, Texas. It’s a delightful little town, but I warned you, “There isn’t much food to gobble in Turkey.”

Last week, Joni commented this

Please allow us to invite you back to Turkey, Texas and experience the “Turkey Drive In” as my husband and I have owned and operated it since March 2006. I am so sorry you have to tell your readers to be “forewarned” as things in Turkey have changed dramatically since your last visit.
Allow us the honor of treating you to one of the best hamburgers or grilled chicken salads for lunch and then enjoy a fresh cut ribeye or new york strip with all the trimmings for your “evening meal.” We also have purchased the Turkey General Store and are in the process of combining the two downtown to make for quite an experience! We do carry “picnic supplies” so you will not have to “import” a picnic. Please give us another chance to change your “warning” and “gobble” some good food in Turkey, Texas. lol

I stand corrected! Thank you, Joni, for your kind invitation, and I might just take you up on that. You were planning to “treat” me to that meal, weren’t you?

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
I told y’all about my difficulties with the Apple Geniuses and my tech “support” problems. It seems the Apple Store at Willow Bend, in Plano, had sold me the wrong Protection Plan. They told me on the phone that I could buy a new one (and they would charge me for it), but that the refund for the wrong one wouldn’t show up on my credit card for two to three billing cycles. Because I had opened the box, the Apple Store told me on the phone that they couldn’t issue the refund (it had to come from “corporate”). I was not amused.

I put on my dressy sweat pants, so I would look professional and imposing, and drove to confront the geniuses at the Apple Store. I went to the trouble for nothing. It couldn’t have been less of an event. The young lady who greeted me was a manager, and I told her the problem and said, “Waiting two months for a refund is not acceptable.” She said, “It certainly isn’t!” Right then and there, she put the refund for the wrong plan on my credit card and charged me for the correct plan (which was $100 more). She then proceeded to help me register the product.

That woman told me she wasn’t one of the “geniuses,” but I much prefer a person of average intelligence who can get the job done! All is right with the world. I’m happy with Apple, Matty.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
I related about being contacted by someone who wanted to put advertising paragraphs on my site and said it was Too Good To Be True. I thought it was a scam artist trying to get my PayPal id. The Savvy Boomer told me that he had worked with folks like that, and that it might not be a scam, just someone who was unprofessional.

Turns out, that they contacted me again, and sent an attachment that is supposed to have the paragraphs they wanted to add. I’m afraid to open the attachment! It would violate my agreement with BlogHer, anyway. Not opening the attachment, putting the advertising would violate my agreement. And, I’m not sure that I want to have paid advertisements like that on my blog (as much as I’d love some money!). I don’t do PayPerPost, but I know that Damien, at Postcards from The Funny Farm, does. I think he likes it, so if that’s something you want to try, check with him to get some insight.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
I whine a lot, don’t I? Sometimes, though, I just have to “put on my big girl panties and deal with it.” I warned y’all to use your listening skills and hear the sounds your house makes. It’s a good thing that I did.

We’ve got major plumbing problems, but the jackhammers don’t start until Wednesday. When they told me it was going to be jackhammers through the foundation, my first instinct was to sit down and cry. We had a very similar experience last year at this time with the jackhammers, and I knew my house was about to be filled with cement dust. Do you realize what that would have done to these 72 afghans for Share A Square??

I spent the weekend packaging them in plastic bags and tying ribbon around the top. It’s done, and they are ready for delivery! I’ll show you pictures later in the week.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
Finally, Leanne is going to start work on my site in a couple of weeks to make a sub-domain for Share A Square, so that all the pictures will be in one place.

I’m also toying with having her make a sub-domain for

“A Daily Dose of Dear Dora.”
Y’all have met Dora here on my blog, but you didn’t know it. She was masquerading as “Dear Abby.” She’s Abby and Anne’s third twin; they never talked about her because she was half a bubble off plumb, and she was a bit of a witch. I’ve been channeling her, with the Dear Abby contest. It wasn’t really Abby answering, it was Dora. She wants to come to my blog on a sub-domain and answer letters every day. I think she’s crazy, but it’s what she has been telling me to do. Y’all know that I always do what the voices in my head tell me to do. Jamie, at Duward Discussion, is trying to help me find her picture. If you’ve seen her, and want to send me a picture (that I can use for free!), go ahead and do it. We have something close, but I think there might be a better picture of her out there somewhere.
♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
I didn’t mean “finally” when I said it before. There’s a contest at Bleeding Espresso.com! Michelle has unveiled a brand new look, and you can win a $30 Amazon gift certificate by linking, subscribing to her feed, and commenting. Congratulations, Michelle, on your new site!
♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
NOW, I’m done…and if you think you are exhausted, so are all my ideas for the week!

Technorati Tags: Scheherezade, Turkey, Texas, Apple Store at Willow Bend, scam, Share A Square

“Listen,” I said to my husband in a loud “stage whisper.”

And, he obeyed.

We stood in the doorway of our bedroom, hearing the sound of water pouring down the pipes in the wall as our son shaved upstairs. He shook his head and shrugged.

“It’s just the water in the exit plumbing,” he said.

“No! Our house doesn’t make that sound. I’ve never heard it do that. Listen!” I told him.

There was a gurgling in the pipes.

He was skeptical, but said, “Well maybe it is a little different sound than we normally hear.”

“We should have a plumber come and look at it,” I mumbled. He agreed. My husband knows our house, you see. Something big has to break every couple of months. It’s our karma.

My husband also knows me, and he knows that I know how to listen. Now my hearing isn’t keen (because of an acute ear infection when I was a child), but I can hear much better than many people my age. Unlike others of my generation, I didn’t blast out my eardrums with rock music when I was a teenager. My mother would argue that point if she were here, but she isn’t and I’m the one telling this story.

I’m not talking about “hearing,” really. I’m talking about “listening.” Those are two different things.

I spend much of my day listening to the sounds of my world. Unlike my husband and my stepsons, I do not need the “white noise” of a fan to put me to sleep. I prefer to hear the sounds of the night. Unlike them, I do not need to have the television and/or music blaring in the background while I putter around the house. I spend the day in relative silence, with only the sounds of the world around me, the “talking” of five cats, and the noises that my house makes. I know the sounds my house makes. This was not one of them!

The plumber came just before noon, and listened to the sounds our plumbing made. “It’s just the water in the exit plumbing,” he said. “It sounds as if it’s flowing well.”

“No, it’s not,” I replied. “We’ve never heard that sound before.”

He said, “Lady, I hate to start tearing into the walls for no reason. There is no water anywhere. I couldn’t tell you what you are hearing.”

“What I hear you say,” I said, “is that I have to wait until ‘exit’ water is gushing down my walls before you can repair it?”

He sighed with exasperation. To humor me (though I’m only a woman), he listened again. We turned on the sink faucets upstairs, came back down and he listened. First there was the gurgling, then the sound stopped.

“You see,” he smirked. “Nothing’s wrong.”

We went back upstairs to turn off the faucets. “Whoa!” he said, as he looked at the sink, which was almost overflowing with water. “Looks like you do have a problem. There is some kind of blockage in the line.”

“I tried to tell you, but you wouldn’t listen,” I replied.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Someone once asked me what I thought was a ridiculous question,

“If you had to choose between your hearing and your sight, which would you choose?”
Well, I don’t want to make that choice, but if it came down to it, I’d have to keep the hearing. I’ve always been an audile person, you would expect that of a storyteller, wouldn’t you? At this moment, I can without hesitation conjure the sound in my mind of my Daddy’s voice, my Momma singing, my best friend’s braying laugh, though they are all long gone from this earth. If I try to see their faces in my mind, it’s just a faded blur unless I have a photograph to remind me of their features.

Think about this question, though:
How good are your own listening skills? How often do you find yourself in “conversation” with your child, your spouse, or your friends “listening” to them talk, but not hearing a word they say? While you put on a facial expression of attentiveness, your mind is racing as you think about a problem at work, what you are going to cook for supper, or what you are going to say.

Maybe for today, just stop and listen. Sit quietly and count the sounds you hear. See if you can hear your own heart beating. When your loved ones talk, become consciously engaged in listening to their words. As you go about the day, don’t have the background noise of Oprah, or Days of Our Lives or The Weather Channel in the background. Just listen to the world around you. Hear the sounds your house makes. Don’t just “hear.” “Listen.”

If I hadn’t listened to the sounds of my house, we would have ignored that gurgling in the walls. It turned out to be much more serious than a “blockage.” A few months down the road my wall would have exploded with “exit water,” and I don’t have to tell you how crappy that would have been. Y’all go listen to your heartbeat.

I’m going to listen to the jackhammers drilling through my foundation.

Technorati Tags: listening skills

Didja get it, huh? “Chain Gang?” It’s my “hook” to draw you in (I sound like Jay Leno begging for pity laughter).

Some of you may be aware that I have been working on a little charity project on my blog. It’s called Share A Square, and it’s about making crocheted granny afghans for 140 children at Camp Sanguinity next summer. These are children who are battling cancer, and we will give them each an afghan made with the loving handiwork of 48 different people. [Update: You can see all the posts about it at the new blog for Share A Square, created January 21st if you want to know more.] It was time for an update, and I decided to combine it with Thursday Thirteen, because I have at least thirteen things to tell you.

1:

If you have been working on crocheting squares for the project, please stop and send me what you have this week.
Send them to:
Shelly Tucker
P.O. Box 2241
Denton, TX 76202
2: When I first posted about this project, I was sooo naive! I thought that if I got 6720 afghan squares I could make 140 afghans. WRONG! I’ve received more than 8,000 squares since last June, and we still need just a few more! I need to have 48 different names on each afghan.

3:
These seven stacks each have 22 squares in them. I have two more stacks with close to 40 squares in them. Once they all have 48 squares, we have everything we need to make the 140 afghans.
4:

But, don’t let that stop you from contributing if you had your heart set on it!
The extra squares are being put to good use. We have sent an afghan to Tayten Court, aka “Mr. T,” in Canada, and he seemed delighted to get it. In the December Share A Square Update, you can see an afghan that was sent to Lilly, a little girl with leukemia in California. We will send out as many as we can to children who won’t be at Camp Sanguinity.
5: In fact, I’m working on this one now, for a little girl who is a friend of our volunteer Rebecca T., here in Denton.

6: If you know a child touched by cancer, you can contact me and I will put you on a waiting list for any afghans that we have that are extra. Keep in mind that friends and family of the Share A Square volunteers will be the first to receive the afghans, and we will send others as we can. I make no promises! Our first obligation is to the 140 children at Camp Sanguinity.
7: Look at what we have done! We are well ahead of schedule! I have 72 afghans here at the house that are finished. I haven’t taken pictures of all of them yet, but you can see most of them on the Afghan Gallery. This is what my “guest bed” looks like! That whole end of the house is sinking!

8: I’ve put so many pictures on this blog about Share A Square, that I have exceeded the allowed number of gigabytes (almost doubled it!). I have to spend today getting a new plan, and I’m not sure how to do it. If my blog disappears, you know I screwed up!
9:I’d really love to make a sub-domain for Share A Square, but don’t know how to do that. Unfortunately, the designer of my blog (Leanne) has four projects ahead of mine. I’m afraid that by the time she gets to me, Share A Square will be finished. If any of you know how to make a sub-domain on WordPress and want to walk me through it, I’d be forever grateful! Otherwise, I may need to move all of this Share A Square stuff to a Blogger template.
10: Though I still have about 50 names to add to the list, you can see how many generous people have dedicated time to the project on this post. If your name isn’t there, and should be, please tell me!
11: Thanks to the generosity of several of the volunteers, I have had postage money for sending out packages! I had no clue how expensive this could be. I’ll take donations if you want to send a check or money order, but keep in mind that it is not tax deductible! I haven’t got 501C3 status! These are going to folks who are putting together afghans or putting the rims on the squares so other volunteers can stitch them together.

12:If you want to put together an afghan or help rim, please contact me at
shelly {dot} tucker {at} gmail {dot} com
13: People, I spend an average of 5 hours a day working on Share A Square. I indeed do have a real job, too. I apologize, but I don’t get around to answering comments much or visiting any more. I barely have the energy to post on most days. I hope that is going to change soon, I really do. Until then, know that I do appreciate your visits and your encouragement. And, I will be back to see you when I get some breathing room.

Leave me a comment if you would like (whether you are playing Thursday Thirteen or not) and you will be magically linked. Then you can visit some other Thursday Thirteen participants. Use your powers for good. And, come back and sit with me on the porch another day.

[EDITOR'S NOTE: The Share A Square project has ended, and the afghans were delivered on July 7th, 2008. Although we will not continue that project, an exciting NEW endeavor, called the Good Medicine Project is in progress for summer camp 2009. We hope you will join us.]

Technorati Tags: Share A Square, afghans, Camp Sanguinity, cancer, Thursday Thirteen