Aw, heck. I had posted about a writing contest called Mirror, Mirror, On The Wall. I wanted you to tell me about the most hideous beauty experience of them all!

Obviously I am the only person I know who has had one of those, because I’m the only person who has posted about an awful beauty experience.

I don’t know what went wrong here. Maybe I didn’t offer a grand enough prize. Perhaps y’all were too busy. Maybe you didn’t like the subject. Should I have badgered you about it every day? The fact remains that the deadline was noon today, and nobody has entered so far. So, I’ll just put this off until a time that is less busy, and maybe folks will want to enter.

I’m sending this helping hand to Barbara at the Purplemoose Gazette for writing about the contest. She deserves it anyway for her hard work for Share A Square.

Y’all have a happy Fourth of July. We’ll play the game another day…maybe.

I’ve been thinking about “luck” after finding a hand-written note to myself. I’ve been cleaning out some of the papers I’ve saved and found a paper from 1996! Do y’all think it was time for me to clean out my files?

For some reason, I had written these superstitions about luck down with my left-handed writing. I was left handed when I was little, and my parents were always taking crayons out of my left hand and putting them in my right. The night before my sixth birthday, I had some bad luck. I fell and broke my left arm. After that, my parents were finally able to break me of the habit. But, I can write with my left hand, and I practice sometimes.

Maybe I was just practicing handwriting, maybe they were fortune cookies, perhaps I was just copying from a book. I don’t remember, because I’ve slept since then. I can’t believe I wanted to save them. But, I guess it was lucky for me that I did, because there were Thirteen Superstitions I could share with you! :

1. “Sneezing to the left is bad luck, but sneeze to the right and good fortune will come.”

   Crud! That’s my problem - I’m a left-handed sneezer!

2. “Sweeping dust out the front door sweeps your good fortune away.”

   Oh, maaan! What happens if you throw it in the trash can? Where are you supposed to put it?

3. “It’s bad luck to cut off both ends of a loaf of bread.”
   
   Whew…good thing there is sliced bread these days. Noooooo! Both ends are sliced! I can’t win for losing.
4. “Cut your fingernails on Friday to avoid having a toothache during the month.”

   Does that mean I don’t have to brush, or floss, or see my dentist regularly?

5. “It’s bad luck to lean a broom on the bed.”
   
   Well, I’m in luck there because the bedroom is carpeted. What does it mean if you lean a vacuum cleaner on the bed?
6. “If your left hand itches, don’t scratch it and money will come to you.”
   
   The word “itch” for me is like the word “yawn.” If I read, say, or think the word then I experience it. My left hand is itching now, and I bet I scratch it before I finish writing. However, my right hand is itching, too! Does that mean that the money that comes to my left hand leaves by my right? Well, of course it does. And, my scalp and my back itches. What does it mean?
7. “Drop a spoon and you will have visitors soon.”
   
   I hope they don’t mind that I didn’t sweep out the dust.
8. “When setting the table for a meal with friends, put the salt shaker down first to preserve your friendship for life.”

   Of course, if your friends eat the salt, it might spike their blood pressure and cause them to stroke out at the table. It might be a short life…but you’ll be friends when they go.

9. “It’s good luck to bring sweets to a friend on the New Year.”
   
   It’s also a great way to get rid of your leftover Halloween candy.
10. “If your favorite baseball team is losing a game, wearing a baseball cap backward will change their luck.”

    Wait a minute! What if you were wearing the cap backward in the first place? If you aren’t wearing a cap, does that mean you don’t have to watch baseball? I’d rather watch the clothes tumble in the dryer down at the laundromat.

11. “Sleeping with your head at the foot of the bed will bring sorrow on your house.”
    

    Indeed it will! If my husband got a whiff of my stinky feet, he might trade me in on a newer model. Come to think of it, his feet don’t smell like petunias.

12. “Picking the first violets of spring is good luck.”

    Except, you don’t want to do that at my house. I have some lovely violets, but to get to them you have to crawl through poison ivy. But, then your hands would itch, and you’d get money! And, you could give it to your doctor for a cortisone shot.

13. “A ladybug landing on you will carry off all of your troubles when it flies away.”

    Poor ladybug! It would break it’s back trying to carry off troubles around here! But, I think I’ll go sit in the garden and hope she comes along. I’ll be sure not to sit near the poison ivy.

Yes, folks. I saved that drivel for twelve years just so I could share it with you today. Aren’t you the lucky ones? I have three more file drawers filled with information just as useless.

Now that you’ve been enlightened, you can leave me your favorite superstition. Do you have one? I promise I’ll write it down and save it for twelve years. Then, you can visit some other people participating in the Thursday Thirteen meme.

Y’all have a great day. I hope it’s lucky!

I wish I could show you pictures of the birds in my backyard, but my camera is not the best for taking “nature shots.” I’ve been sitting on my back porch watching those birds this morning, intrigued by something I have never seen.

I’ve watched one particular bird for several days. Perhaps it is some kind of thrush…I can’t seem to find a picture in my field guide to birds that matches it exactly. It’s just a nondescript brown bird the size of a robin (but it’s definitely not a robin). The bird seems to be infirm. It sits on the deck and shakes, as if it has palsy.

As the other birds gather at the feeder, it sits aside and does not approach. I wouldn’t either, if I were that bird, because those birds are crazy. It’s like a free for all on one of those wrestling shows on television. Blue jays hassle the cardinals, who pounce on the wrens. They all seem to tackle the sparrows. Grackles come in and beat up everybody.

Those birds are vicious with one another, as they vie for their place on the feeder. No family of birds seems to tolerate sharing the feeder with any other kind of bird.

All the while, this little bird just sits on the deck and shakes.

This morning, a regal red cardinal flew down beside that sick bird and just scooted up next to it, wing to wing. They sat quietly side by side for a few moments, and that seemed to calm the shaking for that sick bird. Then, the cardinal flew up to the feeder, grabbed a sunflower seed, and dropped back to the deck beside the sick one. The cardinal placed the seed in the sick bird’s mouth.

As that little brown bird flopped around struggling to swallow the seed, the cardinal flew to the feeder for another. Again and again, the cardinal brought seeds for the sick bird and fed it. I was mesmerized, because I’ve never seen one kind of bird “helping” another. Then the squirrels converged on the scene, and all the birds flew away.

I’d like to think that cardinal is “kind,” but I have seen it fight aggressively with other birds. I wonder what possessed him to take the sick bird “under his wing?”