Granny Sue's News and Reviews

Wednesday, July 8, 2026

Open Mic Night

69°f/20.5°C, mostly clear but storms possible later. Still very humid.

Last night's open mic. I forgot to video our featured artist, storyteller Bill Hairston, whom I have known for 30 years.

We had a fantastic time at open mic last night. I was worried that being so soon after the 4th, people would be worn out and not wanting to come out, but that was not the case.

First presenter was 92 year old Ervin Barr, who had not played any music in about 37 years. He was definitely rusty, but did his best and was much appreciated.

Matthew joined us again with his fiddle. He has been teaching himself to play for about 6 months.

My friend, author Cat Pleska, brought the student she is mentoring in storytelling; Cat read an absorbing essay and her student told a short story.

And regulars Barry and Fred were there. Bless their hearts, they helped me set up my sound system, which I got back from my son to use here because we really didn't have one after Corey had to stop organizing the open mics. His music career is beginning to take off, so he is focusing on that. Since I wanted the open mic nights to continue, I have taken on the organizing, booking, promoting, etc, until Corey can do it again. Not something I expected to be doing but oh well.

We had a full house, ran out of chairs. This photo captures about half of the crowd. Not a huge crowd, of course--- this is a pretty small venue---so 40 or more people is a lot. The staff were hopping to serve all the tables.

Bill did a great job and I am sorry not to have a video of him telling stories of a freed slave who became an integral part of a WV community at 12 years old because of his mathematical genius, a story about a church mission he went on in Russia, and ending with a funny tale that had us all laughing. In his first two stories he wove in two spirituals, sung in his deep, rich voice. He was quite a hit with our audience. This is the promo pic he sent me. Wish I had taken at least one photo last night though!

Larry couldn't come with me, as his treatments have made him the color of a lobster and he didn't want to go out like that. I can't blame him! But I missed his company.

Today, back to the routine. Sure was nice to have that break last night though.

Monday, July 6, 2026

Projects, Cooking, Fire, and an Old Photo

69°f/20.5°C, showers, then cloudy, then rainy, then clouds...a steamy day but not too hot, only reached 81°.

Since it has been too hot to work, or even sit, outside, I have been busy with inside projects. These needed to be done, for sure, as they were clogging up my kitchen terribly.

I intended to sell this little table, but decided to keep it and eventually use it as a coffee table, as soon as I can figure out where to put the old chest

I am currently using for that purpose.

For now it's in place under the window. I like the drop leaves, which will be handy at holidays or other times we have visitors, as poeople will have a good space for plates and cups.

This big 'ol boy is about done, just needs another coat of poly, then waxed and new pulls put on.

This wardrobe took forever! The reason? The door hinges. The mirrored door came off in my hands when I was cleaning it up to paint. Apparently the seller just tacked it on to hold for a little while. Ugh. Then we realized the hinges were bent, had the wrong screws in them in the screw holes were wallowed out. Getting all that straightened out, and then getting the doors to close properly again, was more work than you would think. In the end, I decided to keep this one too, for Larry to use in the bedroom. The d$%^&d doors still don't close properly, and I didn’t want to sell it like that. Aggravating thing.

I have been doing some cooking too, since we gave been home for the past 4 days. And that wardrobe is out of my kitchen! Yesterday I made more banana raspberry bread. Today I focused on using up the plethora of zucchini and peppers from the garden. I chopped up a lot of the zucchini in the food processor and Larry gave that to the chickens and rabbits. Then I ground some and drained it well, to make zucchini bread tomorrow. The rest went into a stir fry with chicken, onions, and the peppers, making a big enough batch for several meals. I used up the green beans in a huge batch of beans and new potatoes cooked with a ham bone. So delicious. I put some of that in the freezer, as it was far more than we could eat. I also cooked up some beets, and sliced a bowl full of cucumbers for snacking. So now I am caught up with the garden, for the moment anyway, and haven't had to can anything yet!

In other news, my friend Billy-Jo posted this little happening at her place (used with her permission):

Amazon driver: Knock knock.

Me: Hello

Driver: can I please use your phone or your wifi to call someone? My van is stuck in the mud up the road.

(There’s zero cell service out here)

Me: Sure but you want me to just pull you out with that Bronco?

Driver: That would be awesome but I don’t know if it will be able to and I don’t want you to get yourself or your vehicle muddy.

Me: 🤔😎 Ah……it’ll be a walk in the park compared to what I’m used to! 😂😂😂

I get to where he is stuck and I start to pull winch line.

Driver: Ma’am I’ve never used one of these.

Me: No worries. I got you!

After I get him pulled out backwards and then yank the van back around to head back down the road.

Driver: Ma’am you’re my hero!

The ol Bronco never even had to come out of 2wd. Good job Bronco! Good job!

Billy-Jo is a wild child! She loves to go muddin', as they call it around here, and has some pretty cumbersome antique cars too. Her story, though, reminded me of the early days here, where we sometimes had to use a winch to get our vehicles unstuck. Happy to never have to do that again though!

The big news story around here right now is this huge fire in Parkersburg, about 40 miles north of us. A friend posted this photo on Facebook:

As I write, this fire is still burning, and there is considerable concern over what chemicals are in the smoke and ash. The governor declared a state of emergency for the area, and there is a shelter in place order as well. The smoke and ash are not drifting our way, but are affecting a very large area to the east of the city. I have not heard of any casualties, thank goodness, and the community has poured out generous support for the many, many firefighters on the scene.

As I was sorting out a drawer today, I found this old photo of one of my English great-grandmothers, on the Wilson side. How it came to be in that drawer I have no idea, but it may have been in an old book from my parents' home. Pretty sure I have bever seen it before. I wonder what she was carrying in the bucket?