Friday Unwind #24: Fluorescent Scorpions; Bank of Dave; Uke Phantom; It Ain't Over;
Scorpions, Phantom of the Opera, and Yogi-isms
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🦂 ULTRA VIOLET LIGHT
I was excited to move to Prescott, Arizona. It’s a town where they read cowboy poetry, hold the oldest rodeo, offer drinks from a whiskey bar with Wyatt Earp bullet holes….and….gulp….have scorpions. I haaaaatttttteeee scorpions. I have yet to meet a person who disagrees with me.
After finishing our new house, we went without a scorpion sighting for six months.😁 But then… (you knew this was coming…)one night along the white baseboards a scorpion scuttled along looking for an evening meal. I happened by at that exact moment.😱 Wham. Wham. Wham. I’m sorry. That doesn’t sound very kind, but even I have my limits.
I immediately bought an ultra violet flashlight because google told me that scorpions glow in the dark if you shine an ultra violet light on them. Scorpions have an exoskeleton that is called a cuticle… but not like the cuticles on our fingers. This cuticle has a thin layer called the hyaline layer which reacts to UV light and causes the scorpion to glow when you shine a black light on them or even in the moonlight.
I haven’t seen a scorpion since. Maybe word got out that I holster a black light flashlight when I walk around at night. They call me The Flashlight Cowgirl.
🎬 GROOVIE MOVIE: Bank of Dave
I love movies based on real life. Ok, I know those Hollywood producers can get a little creative with the truth. But still, I just love watching a movie and thinking, “This really happened.” (sort of…)
Bank of Dave is like that. 🏦
Dave Fishwick is a self-made millionaire. He’s also a hero in the small town of Burnley, Lancashire, England. He lends money to people who are down on their luck and those trying to start a business who can’t get a loan from the ‘Big’ banks.
He’s a positive, karaoke loving guy in every way… except one. He resents the snobbish, elite British banks whose greed has lined their coffers with money taken from the everyday working man, especially the working people of Burnley.
Dave sets his sights on taking them down and getting the first banking license issued in more than 100 years. (No Hollywood creativity here….this is true)
Rotten Tomatoes and the groupies all loved this film. Me, too. Netflix.
PS - For you music lovers, Def Leppard plays an important role…
🎻🎵 UKE PHANTOM
This is totally self serving…my adorable husband gave me a ukulele for Christmas. Early Christmas, actually. I have never played one. I’ve played the piano since I was a pipsqueak, but a ukulele….nah. I just thought it would be fun.
So far the skin along the tips of the fingers on my left hand are starting to peel (after being in some considerable pain), I’ve learned about a dozen chords and I can play (really slowly) We Wish You a Merry Christmas and Stand By Me and The Lion Sleeps Tonight.
But I have a goal….. to play Phantom of the Opera on my ukulele. I had no idea that it was even possible until I stumbled upon Carmen. Enjoy. PS - Pretty sure this is a BHAG.
BTW, the ukulele owes its origins to the Machete de Braga, a similar instrument from the islands of Madeira, Portugal. Portuguese immigrants brought the machete to Hawaii in 1879. Madeira is out in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, 669 miles from mainland Portugal. (This is a random fact paragraph 🤣)
🎬 GROOVIE MOVIE: It Ain’t Over
When I was a tomboy kid growing up in northern New Jersey I was a Yankees fan. My idols were Mickey Mantle, Whitey Ford, Roger Maris and Yogi Berra (Lorenzo Pietro Berra).
Until I saw this movie I never knew that Yogi was dealt a bad hand.
Original footage, including Willie Mays, Jackie Robinson, Hank Aaron, Derek Jeter, and Mariano Rivera and, of course, Yogi.
You don’t need to be a Yankees’ fan (believe me, I know there are plenty of folks who feel about the Yankees the way I feel about scorpions), but if you are a fan of the human heart, the spirit of integrity, and a great true story, you’ll like “It Ain’t Over”. After all, “Baseball is 90% mental. The other half is physical.” (Yogi Berra)
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💬 COMMENTS
What critter encounters have you had? 🦂
Do you have any ‘Bank’ stories?🏦
Do you play an instrument? 🎷🎺🎸🎻🪕
Yankee’s fans? Yogi-ism fans?⚾
Happy New Year! Thanks for ringing it in with me!🥳
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Wherever you are, I hope life is sunny. 🌞❤Heather
I’d also like to invite you to visit my other newsletter, Kindness Magnet. Once a week you’ll get some great ideas for bringing kindness into your world. After all, we could all use a little more kindness. 🤍
1. Insects of note. For me, it's putsi flies and chungalolos. When we moved first moved to Africa, I marveled at the luxury of ironed socks, underwear, Levis, and t-shirts. Then I found learned that it was not about luxury, it was about killing putsi fly eggs deposited on your solar dried laundry. unexpectedly, I developed what I thought was a zit on my waist. TG;DR (Too Gross; Don't Read) version? I witness from a front row seat as the guest of honor the birth of a maggot. Warning: if the mental image lasts longer than 4 weeks, please seek professional assistance.
Chungalolos are 6"ish millipede things the color of rootbeer, and if stepped upon barefooted at night, feels like crushing a cross between a Cheeto and a Twinkie. I watched in stunned, unblinking horror as a toddler picked one up and ate it in front of me, smiling angelically the whole time, as she sat on the dirt floor at my feet in a little village church. See warning information above.
2. Dave's Bank. In my trade, we call a Dave's Bank a micro-credit bank. Of all the program sectors I worked on during my tediously long career, the most sustainable and life changing programs of all were well run micro-credit banks. Poor people aren't often poor because they are stupid, they are poor because they don't have access to resources, including education and credit, some of us take for granted. I stopped at Trader Joe's last night and took out an $11 loan with no hassle. It's not that easy in most parts of the world. Micro-credit is there to change that bias. There are many different approaches to poverty lending, but the method I'm most familiar with involves people forming small groups to jointly secure a loan for one of the group members. When that loan is repaid, the next group member is eligible for a loan. In addition to going a group, a borrower must show what the loan proceeds will be used for and how they plan to repay the loan. Defaulted loans are almost nonexistent.
I watched small businesses start and flourish because of small loans. I know of small scale farms that increased their productivity and profitability. I know of small loans used to pay for family emergencies or necessities, including school fees, for money that otherwise would be borrowed from local loan sharks at exorbitant rates. I know there are a few micro-credit programs in the US, based on variations of the model I described above, because with all the bank consolidations, the local hometown banks where the banker knew the people in his community are a thing of the past. The new banking model of high profitability over community access pushes too many people toward title loans and payday loans.
Hurray for Dave. He understands how to make his wealth a blessing to many people. In an ideal world, there would be a lot of Daves.
Well, hello fellow Arizonan. Welcome to the Land of Scorpions and Snakes. LOL I live with my parents in Laveen and before they started building more homes across the road from their subdivision, it was a cotton field. Yes, they have black light flashlights. I think it should be a requirement here. When a new house is built, the realtor should give you a black light flashlight as a housewarming gift. LOL "They call me The Flashlight Cowgirl." <snort-laugh>