My Word Power posters started back in 2018. That’s the 1st year I started doing the Twelve Days of Christmas class with Julie Hedlund from 12x12 fame. I joined 12x12 in January of 2019. This is my 4th year with both programs. I have learned so much about me as a writer, and as a person since then. I’m grateful to Julie, and to her programs.

​                                                                                Part 1 – Word Power Past:

These screenshots came from Pinterest. They’re like class yearbooks from The Twelve Days of Christmas program.

If you’d like to take a look at Julie’s class, click on the link for 2018. It will show you day by day, how to look back at last year, and how to look ahead to the new one. Give it a little twist, and it can work for you and your job. The other 2 links are for the classes I took in 2019 and 2020. The goals are for the new year.
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                     Class 2018 – http://www.rindabeach.com/blog/the-twelve-days-of-the-new-year
                     Class 2019 – http://www.rindabeach.com/blog/january-20th-2020    (2020 goals)
       Class 2020 – http://www.rindabeach.com/blog/use-your-word-power-rinda-beach    (2021 goals)

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                          This is a screenshot of this year’s Word Power, 2022. 

​                                                          Part 2 – Keep Us Going: 
When I put my first poster together, I had 3 things to keep going. They’re still here at the top of my poster, and they’re still the foundation for my writing.

​The 12 x 12 Writers Group – It’s where I go for writing classes, where I can search for things from agents to mentor books, and where I can find people like me. I’ve been a member since 2018,

​Marketing – This is how I build my brand, to introduce myself to people like you. It’s the reason I started rindabeach.com. I’ve written over 380 posts and 280 book reviews so far, and I’m still writing both each week. You can find them on Pinterest, or you can email and ask for content. I love to write! I love to answer questions!

I started doing videos of my blog posts so that you can meet me onscreen. I’m up to 32 this week. You can find them on (3) Rinda Beach | Facebook, or you can email and ask me. I love finding content for you!

The Agent Challenge – It’s finished! Now I’m waiting for the answer. I’ll either sign on the dotted line, or I’ll keep looking for that agent. I didn’t realize till last week, that the answer I get will determine the kind of writing I’ll do.

With an agent, I’ll need to focus on national stories with a wide appeal. I’ll probably leave self-publishing behind. Without one, I’ll look for niche markets and regional stories that I can self-publish. Whichever way this goes, I’ll keep writing. I’ve become a writer over the last 14 years, and that’s what I need to do . . . for me . . . and for readers too.
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Part 3 – What’s New in 2022?  – 
​Growing these ideas into picture, chapter, or middle grade stories.

1. The Bat Idea – In 2011 it was an easy chapter book, 5 chapters long. I pulled it out in 2021, updated the first 4 chapters, and now I’m revising #5. The next step – to pivot and turn it into a middle grade novel.

2. The Baby Idea – I did a picture book version last year, and in 2020, but something’s missing. I have a few ideas I want to try out on paper, and with my critique partners.

3. The Frog Idea – I have a picture book/ chapter book version of this idea. The one I return to depends on the agent’s answer. If it’s a yes, it’s the picture book. If it’s a no, I’ll pull the chapter book up again and work to self-publish it.
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If I get stuck in those ideas, there are others sitting in my computer, waiting to be developed. ​

4. Ideas to Try – Could a private Facebook group or an account with Teachers Pay Teachers help both of us? Here’s to finding that answer in 2022!

​Food comes from all over the world. I picked three classic dishes for this post. Can you guess where they came from?

Part 1 – Swedish Meatballs
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Where did they come from?
Sweden looks like the logical answer, but is it?

Italy       Sweden       Turkey     Norway

Take a look at the map. Then choose the right answer.

                                                                              And the answer is . . .  Turkey!

I know! I missed it too. In 2018 Sweden’s official Twitter account said that “Swedish meatballs are actually based on a recipe King Charles XII brought home from Turkey in the early 18th century.” That always confuses me. Early 18th century – that really means the early 1700’s, when America was still a British colony.

The meatballs came from Turkish ‘kofte.’ You start with ground beef, lamb, chicken or pork. Mix in some onions and a few spices, and you have kofte. But the Swedes needed a little more flavor – so they added gravy! Everything’s better with gravy!
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King Charles didn’t stop with those meatballs. He brought home Turkish stuffed cabbages and coffee too. Now coffee’s so popular that Sweden is one of the top coffee-drinking countries in the world. 

This is how the Swedes eat their meatballs – with mashed potatoes, brown sauce, lingonberry jam, and pickled cucumbers, AKA pickles.
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​​Coleslaw
Where did it come from?
Italy     Holland      Turkey    Germany
Take a look at the map. Then choose the right answer.

​                                                                                And the answer is . . .  Holland!

Coleslaw came from Holland, AKA the Netherlands. It’s two Dutch words, combined. Kool is cabbage, and sla is their abbreviation for salade.

Dutch settlers brought cabbage to New Amsterdam in the 1600’s. It didn’t exist in the New World so the Dutch started growing cabbages along the Hudson River. When they made coleslaw, they drenched it in melted butter and vinegar. Later the British took over the city. They renamed it New York, but they kept the Dutch coleslaw.
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Coleslaw was on the table in Ancient Rome. They soaked it in vinegar before they ate it. As their Empire spread, so did their cabbage salad, to places like Germany, where they decided to add sour cream to some of their cabbage recipes. 
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​Coleslaw is part of restaurant platters from sea to shining sea, but with a small change in the recipe that came from Richard Hellman. He owned a deli in New York, and he bottled mayonnaise.  Would you believe his company is still making it for you today?        
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This question came from one of my trivia sites, but I forgot to copy the address. They got the idea for this question from . . . www.wikipedia.org   

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​Sponge cake is dry, but you soak this one in Kirschwasser or kirsch. That’s a special kind of brandy bottled only in the Black Forest. Don’t put any other kind in your cake if you’re in Germany or the European Union. It’s been against the law since 2013. Use cherry juice if you want it without alcohol, but whatever you do, don’t call it Black Forest Cake in Europe.

PS – if you want to make Black Forest cake, go to the link for Britannica. It has a video and text with the directions included.
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Sources:  Britannica                                                     Black Forest gateau - Wikipedia                                                 
https://www.traveltrivia.com/answer/where-did-black-forest-cake-originate/YZKS6XCprcEU2Kxs

​Part 1 – Talking Money – The Must-Have Conversation:  This is a tough conversation . . . I had trouble writing my post last night for you. Talking money anytime is difficult, and doing it with your parents is even worse. If you’d like some advice, try this link. They have some ideas that might be helpful for you. Link: 6 Ways To Help Your Aging Parents With Their Investments | Bankrate
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I was lucky . . . I didn’t have to initiate the talk. My parents did – after my dad’s heart attack. It changed their lives. They survived quadruple bypass together. Then they patched the potholes they found during that experience. They organized their important papers and told us where to find the things they’d need, like insurance and bank accounts.

Then they made out their wills. They set up medical and financial powers of attorney to take care of each other. They added clauses to allow my sister and I to help them, if they couldn’t help themselves.
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I didn’t want to look at that information when they first put it together, but now looking back, I’m glad my parents made me do it. At some point in the last few years, I realized . . . that it’s my turn. My husband and I need to have that talk with our kids. We need to put our information together. We need to set up wills, and power of attorneys, but for now, my husband and I are putting it off, like we’ve done for years. It’s easier to put things off, than to push through to do them.

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My father was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s back in 2011. He lived with it until he died in 2015. Mom managed the house, the finances, and watched over Dad during those years. She was sharp as a tack then, and she still is!

​Mom’s mind is sound, but slowly, over the years, her body has weakened. Now she can’t live alone, so she moved into a senior citizen home in 2019. Mom still makes her own decisions, financially and otherwise, but I do her shopping and pay her bills.

These tools helped me help her.

• A Living Will
• A Durable Power of Attorney (POA) for Finances
• A Durable Medical POA

 
The Financial POA helps Mom the most. Through it she grants me the power to do the things she needs done. If she ever changed her mind, she could take my name off and put someone else’s on. Over the years we’ve learned to work together; to listen to each other. I try to give her room to make choices, and I try not to make them for her. She tries to listen to what I can do for her, and what I can’t. It takes teamwork from both of us. It will take the same for you and your parents.

If it’s hard for your parents to make good choices, you can set up a Revocable Trust. It limits how much your parents can spend, but it may change your relationship. No parent likes to be told what to do by the child they raised.
 
If your parents are no longer of sound mind, you can set up a conservatorship by going to court. You’ll have to prove your case to a judge. If they agree, they’ll set up a guardian to make decisions. The guardian would control their checkbook and credit cards. It’s a last resort; one I didn’t have to use. My parents helped me into this world, and now it’s my turn to help them leave it behind. ​

Part 1 - A Little Family History: Do you recognize these characters? The Addams Family? I thought this post would be about two commercials, but whenever I start researching something, I find cool facts and images.  ​

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​This story started with Charles Addams. He created the original cartoon back in 1938 for the New Yorker Magazine. Charles drew another 58 cartoons in this series, and almost all of them were published in the 1940’s and 50’s, long before I was born.

​ The Addams family has come back in a few different incarnations since 1938. These photos are from two different TV shows from 1964. I was 5 back then.

 The 1st one is The Addams Family. I didn’t watch them, but this is their cast photo. Clockwise from the back left – Gomez (John Astin), Lurch (Ted Cassidy) Pugsley (Ken Weatherwax), Morticia (Carolyn Jones), and Wednesday (Lisa Loring).

​ ​ Photo Source:
- Cartoon By Charles Addams, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15992920
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- Cast: By ABC Television - eBay itemphoto frontphoto back, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=19464844

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​The real theme came from the 1964 TV series. It was written and arranged by Vic Mizzy, a famous TV and movie composer. I knew Vic used finger snaps for the percussion section, but I didn’t realize he used harpsichord for the rest. Amazing!

​​If you’d like to hear it again, search out Addams Family Theme song, and you should see these two images. Click one, and listen. Don’t forget to check out the harpsichord!
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BTW - This is a harpsichord! I think it looks a lot like a piano. What do you think?

Information Sources:
​The Addams Family - Wikipedia 
​The Munsters - Wikipedia
​The Addams Family Theme - Wikipedia


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​​If you watch TV, you probably saw both commercials. I did, repeatedly! They got a lot of air time during October, when the movie, The Addams Family 2, came out.  

​I found the Progressive Addams Family commercial first. It used the original music, but changed the lyrics to add in the Progressive characters. They’re as funny and quirky as the Addams Family, and the contrast between them is clever!

My favorite moment – when Morticia asks Flo how long they’re staying. Morticia looks positively horrified when Flo says forever. If you love clever, search out this commercial and watch it one more time! Enjoy!

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​Information Source:   Go RVing Uses Real RVers To Create RV Orchestra Commercial To Promote Addams Family 2 Movie | RVIA

Part 1 – The Song that Still Inspires Me – Back in 2013 I wrote a slide show on Photo Peach about my writing adventure. It told my story starting in  2007 when I started . . . until I retired in 2015. Unfortunately I can’t use it any more . . . because Photo Peach went out of business.
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My slide show featured one of my favorite songs, Fantastic Voyage. It was released in January of 1981 by Lakeside, and it hit #1 on the R&B chart. I still remember it from my colllege days when I was into disgo and funk. This song still speaks to me, 40 years later, and it still makes me want to dance!

Information Source: 
​Fantastic Voyage (Lakeside song) - Wikipedia

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Album Cover:
By SOLAR Records - Discogs. Fair Use
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=60306392

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​​I started my adventure last October, and I finished it this October. It was supposed to take 5 months . . . I should have been  done by February, but I couldn’t do it.
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I could have pushed to finish it. Or sent something in, but if you’re going to do something, you might as well do it right. I persevered! I finally finished the 4th and final manuscript on October 20th. Two days later, I sent off my query.  I got an answer – that I could nudge the agent in a couple of weeks. I won’t. I’d rather wait until after Thanksgiving. No one wants to be nudged when they’re celebrating Thanksgiving.

It’s been a year! My safety story was done first. That was the one that got the ball rolling, but it took until March to get it right. ​

The fourth and final book was my dog story. I’ve worked on it since 2011. I’ve been revising those ants and that dog for a decade, and now finally,  they’re both ready to send out on submission. I’m so excited!

When I accomplish something special, I go shopping – usually clothes and jewelry to celebrate. This is what I bought when I thought I’d reached the room of requirement. It was 2011, and Bruce Hale said fine-tune and publish. That was my ant story so I bought a tunic and this necklace. I don’t have the tunic, but I still have the necklace. Whenever I look at it, I remember that moment. When I video tape this post, I’ll wear my agent audition challenge outfit. This time I picked something I’ll still want to wear in another 10 years.
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​​Bruce was one of the critiquers available at the 2011 SCBWI conference in Cleveland. He read the 1st ten pages and gave me suggestions. One of them was making sure the things I’d written about ants were true. My first page said Poppy’s heart was pounding. Bruce asked if ants had hearts. I said I didn’t know, and he said that, if I wanted to get it published, I’d have to find out. I did! 
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​I bought this necklace when I got home from the conference to celebrate. I thought within a year or two, Poppy would be published, and so would I. Oh, how wrong I was! I had so much more to learn! About ants and bees. I found photos and charts like the ones in this post to help me get my story straight!

I pushed the plot and the characters. I took a workshop in 2016 and discovered I had a saggy middle. That I needed more of the 5 senses in my story. That I needed to show, and tell how my characters felt.  It took me until the summer of 2020 to get things almost right. That’s when I added another character to the plot. Why? Because a writing friend suggested it. I didn’t want to add Chase right away. I never want to change. Ever! I have to think about it first, process it, but after a day or two I thought why not? Chase and Hunter, the bees in the story, add fun and humor, but together they play a jokester and his straight man. My critique partners think they’re one of the best things about the story.

The summer of 2020 I got all the way to chapter 18. The saggy middle was gone! But I got stuck . . . Then I started the Agent Audition challenge. I started back with chapter 1 in March of 2021. The hardest part of this voyage was bridging what I hadn’t changed since 2016; then matching them to the new chapters I’d revised in 2020. I kept pushing. I even found a chance to work with my mentor across 6 weeks. Instead of revising a chapter a week, I learned to do 5. It was hard! But so worth it.
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I didn’t let off the gas until I finished chapter 30 on the 26th, but, I won’t reward myself until Callie gives me the thumbs up on my last three chapters. When she does, I’ll message my friend Stacy. She does medical massage, and I think it’s the perfect reward for a year of very hard work!

​Meet Neil Armstrong! He was born in my hometown of Wapakoneta. His claim to fame – he was the first man to set foot on the moon. That was  over 50 years ago, and I still can’t believe that someone from Wapakoneta could do something so history-making. Here are two trivia questions about Neil when he was16. Would you believe he was a school year away from graduation?!
 
1. Which license did Neil Armstrong earn first?         
Driver’s license                            Pilot’s license
 
2. What did he start building a month later?
A Wind Tunnel                             A Generator

The answers . . .
1.   Neil earned his pilot’s license first. He started taking lessons at age 15, and he paid for them himself! Neil worked at the local drug store, stocking and sweeping. He earned 40 cents an hour. When he turned 16 on August 5, 1946, Neil took his solo flight, and he earned his pilot’s license. He didn’t get his driver’s license until the following spring, just in time to drive to prom. 
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2.    Neil built a wind tunnel. He had dreamed about it for years. He’d studied them in aeronautic magazines, taken notes on how they were put together and how they worked. Neil modeled his wind tunnel after the Wright Brothers, the ones who were the first in flight. BTW – Neil build his generator when he was in Boy Scouts in Upper Sandusky. He was probably in middle school, but it was definitely before he moved to Wapakoneta in 1944. 
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Sources of Information:

Neil Armstrong - Wikipedia

​Neil A. Armstrong - Ohio History Central

Neil Armstrong’s Wind Tunnel Dream
         By Me, Rinda Beach

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​ Part 2 – Wind Tunnels  –   What are They?   What do They Do?     Why are They Important?    

​This is one of NASA’s wind tunnels. It’s 12 feet or 12 floor tiles long. It has a model of a D-11 airplane inside. It was made to scale so it’s a miniature version of the real plane. I think this picture of the wind tunnel was taken in January of 1996.
 
Why is it a wind tunnel? 1. It’s a large tube. 2. Large fans blow air through it. 3. The tube is used to test how a plane that’s anchored in the tunnel, reacts when wind moves around it. It’s the same reaction the plane would have when it’s flying through the sky.
 
Why are wind tunnels important? It’s easier and cheaper to test a model and correct the design before the real plane is built. Some tunnels are model-size, but there are some big enough for real planes and cars to fit inside.
 
This is one of the earliest wind tunnels. It helped Wilbur and Orville Wright design and fly the first airplane. Obviously the Wrights never put the real plane inside. But testing a scale model of the Wright Flyer in that wind tunnel, helped them get the real one off the ground.

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​Take a look at this wind tunnel. The photo was taken in 1935 when it was part of a German aviation lab. I couldn’t find anything else about this wind tunnel, but I wanted to share it so you can see how big they can be. I’d love to walk inside, and take a look around.

This is a photo from 1990. It shows fan blades from a 16-foot transonic wind tunnel. Transonic means the plane reached or broke the sound barrier. Those flights used to get bumpy, but transonic wind tunnels helped make them smoother.

Look at the dark bar in the middle. Shift your eyes to the right. Then look for a person who’s walking around inside the tunnel. Can you imagine a fan blade that’s taller than you? I can’t!
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Sorry, you can’t walk inside this tunnel any more. It was retired in 2004 from NASA’s Langley Research Center. I wonder what they have now.

​Information Sources:
 
Wind tunnel - Wikipedia
 
Wright Flyer - Wikipedia

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                                            Photo Sources:

- Replica of the Wright brothers' wind tunnel: By The original uploader was Axda0002 at English Wikipedia. - Photographed by uploader, CC BY-SA 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3780674
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- German Aviation Laboratory in 1935:  By Bundesarchiv, Bild 102-17158 / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5415574



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​I got interested in Neil because I used to volunteer at his museum in Wapakoneta. This is from one of their cases. The wooden square is part of a generator Neil built, probably in middle school. The red dog is his Boy Scout scarf, and the tub – that’s what’s left of his wind tunnel.
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Neil built it when he was 16. His fan didn’t come from his house . . . Neil used a propeller from an airplane, a real one! Neil was an incredible thinker and explorer!

I never thought my first published book would be about Neil Armstrong. I thought they’d be about ants or dogs or ducks. Surprise!

I got interested in Neil because I used to volunteer at his museum in Wapakoneta. This is from one of their cases. The wooden square is part of a generator Neil built, probably in middle school. The red dog is his Boy Scout scarf, and the tub – that’s what’s left of his wind tunnel.

Neil built it when he was 16. His fan didn’t come from his house . . . Neil used a propeller from an airplane, a real one! Neil was an incredible thinker and explorer!

​Next put the tubes inside the box. Start where the white boxes begin. End before the window. I used golf tubes, the kind that you put into your golf bag so your clubs don’t scratch each other, but you could use any kind of cylinder. Just make sure they’re the same length, then stuff them into your box.

​    Why do you need the tubes? To straighten the wind so you can control the way it hits your model.

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​You could do this step next, or the one below it.

First, get a fan. Pick one that’s strong enough to feel 30 feet away. This one disappeared. I bought another . . . it was too weak. The wind couldn’t lift my plane, at all.
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Once you have a fan, find a box that fits around it. Duct tape the box to the fan. Then tape it onto the white boxes so they look like my tunnel below.



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​​                                                                                                                            Part 4 – A Wind Tunnel Visit with Me

​Now that you’ve read this post about wind tunnels – can you imagine bringing me in for a school or club visit? I can do them in person, or on zoom. I can tailor your session to cover whatever you need. I taught 2nd grade for 33 years, and I’ve subbed in Preschool through 5th grade. I’ve also done a few clubs and museum visits.
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What would a wind tunnel visit look like? I’d probably start with a picture walk through my book. It gives you a baseline for what a wind tunnel looks like, and an idea for who Neil Armstrong was as a kid, and as a young man.
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​Then I’d pull out my REAL wind tunnel, and we’d play with it. No, I mean – I’d show you how it works the way I have it set up. Then I’d ask you for some ideas to experiment with. We could put my plane in different positions, or try new things that fit inside of it. It’s more fun when you test out your own ideas.

​We’d also use the scientific method (or reading skills) by making a guess or prediction about what the new object would do to my cooking scale. Would it raise the number of grams, or lower them? Next, duh! We’d test our guesses. Then we’d end by examining the data to come up with a conclusion. It’s fun to pretend to be a scientist!

​I can also talk about how to make your own wind tunnel. It’s not hard! If I can make one, you can too! If you don’t need specifics, your kids could tell me how they’d make one, after looking at mine. That’s what I wrote about in part 3 of this post.

If you’d like to make wind tunnels with your kids, I can do that too. I have the materials listed in my book. In fact, if you can get your hands on a copy of it, the back matter can be used to make your own individualized lesson plans.

Part 1 (language arts) tells you what parts of the story are true.  Part 2 and 3 (science or language arts) tell you how to make a primary or more advanced wind tunnel. I also have a link to show you an expensive primary wind tunnel that I wish I’d had when I was teaching 2nd grade. Part 4 (science) gives you some ideas for how to use your wind tunnel. Science can be so much fun! It’s still one of my favorite subjects to teach!

​ Would you like to learn about wind tunnels? What are they? How can you use them? I can talk about them in a visit, or you can take a look at the four photos I wrote about in part 2. Do you recognize this picture or the one below it?

​There’s gold at rindabeach.com . . . not the shiny metal kind. Mine is in the posts and reviews I’ve written. How many gold nuggets could you find on my web site? I just checked my spreadsheet . . . I have written 357, sorry, 358 posts now, across science, social studies, and language arts. I’ve reviewed 264 books altogether –  83 chapter books and 181 picture books. Sorry, 265 now.

​Pinterest used to be the easiest way to find my content. Now I’ve found a better way . . . a spreadsheet! The pieces for each blog post are listed across one line for me, AND they’re searchable.
I wish I could put it online for you, but I can’t lock the content to make it safe and tamper-proof. But, if you need something, message me, and I can look it up!

​ Part 1 – Posts in ABC Order – This is a screenshot of my spreadsheet. It won’t fit in one line on this screen so I took 2 shots of it. I’ve been working on it all summer. I typed in all my blogs. Look at the photo below, and you’ll see the first 4 categories – Post titles, Pinterest boards, Links/location, and Hashtags. Can you tell which one has the least entries. . . Hashtags. I’m just learning how to use them so I’ve only done them for my newer posts. The old ones will have to wait.

​ The 2nd screenshot is the other half of the spreadsheet. It has a list of the book reviews I’ve done. I write one for each post. I pick a book that fits the post. The spreadsheet lists the Book, Link/location, and Pinterest Board. I thought it would be easy to find each book on Pinterest. But not always! Sometimes I look in 2 or 3 places before I find it. That’s why I’m so happy to put this spreadsheet together . . . for me . . .  and for you!

Part 2 – My Videos, Interviews, and Podcasts – I have a spreadsheet for each of these. I wish I could share it with you, but I need to keep it secure.

My Videos – If you look below, you’ll see the screenshot of all the videos I’ve taped. It tells me the title of the post it came from and its link, where you can find it (, anything extra I’ve shared with you), and the link for the video on Facebook. I’m up to 15 videos that I can share with you!
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PS – If you look up at the screenshot from yesterday of the Posts in ABC Order, I note the ones with live videos in red. It’s nice to have it saved twice on the spreadsheet. The whole spreadsheet is saved on my Google drive. It’s good to know that I can find the things I need for you and for me.

​Interviews – The sheet below lists the interviews I’ve done so far. I have eight I can share. Six of them are in print. The other two are podcasts. I have two more yet to find, but it’s great to gather my resources in one place. I have interviews for each of my three books – Neil Armstrong’s Wind Tunnel Dream, Lake Fun for You and Me, and Zoe’s Scavenger Hunt Fun. They’ll give you some behind the scenes information, plus photos. If you’re looking for information, just message me. I’ll look it up and send you the answers either the same day or the next one.

​Podcasts – The final screenshot lists two of the podcasts I’ve taped. They both support Zoe’s Scavenger Hunt Fun, but I have 3 to find from Connie B. Dow. I talked to her about all 3 of my books. 

Tomorrow – Beach Girl’s Treasure Trove of posts, videos, interviews, and podcasts
  And how you can find them. 

​ Summer is almost over, but there’s a little time left for one last road trip. Here are 3 sets of trivia questions for you to answer. Maybe, there’s still time for that last summer get-away!

​Part 1 – Trivia Question #1 – Which state is home to the world’s largest convenience store?
   California       Texas       New Jersey       Colorado  
 
Trivia Question #2 – How many gas pumps can you find at its biggest service station?
        80               100               120               140

Answer #1 – Everything is bigger in Texas. Look for TX, its abbreviation, on the map.
Answer #2 – It has 120 pumps.
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​ My Texas kids made sure I went inside Buc-ees the first time I visited. They’re HUGE! Think grocery store size! They’re that big! Buc-ee’s opened in 1982, and it owns 36 stores across Texas, Alabama, and Florida.

Photo Sources:
1. Buc-ee’s in Terrell, TX - By Jameywiki - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=47876613

​2. Inside Buc-ee’s - By JamesRuddy93 - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=82979699

​3.         Buc-ee's - Wikipedia

Information Sources:
Source: The Balance | Date Updated: April 23, 2021
Which state is home to the world's largest convenience store?: Texas | Travel Trivia

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​

 Part 2 – Trivia Question #3 – What is a Dark Sky Park?
 
Trivia Question #4 – What state has the most internationally identified parks?
          Nebraska          Utah           Maine          Colorado
​

​The International Dark-Sky Association was born in 2001. Its first action – an initiative to preserve and protect the sky. To keep it dark enough that people can still look ​up and see the stars, generations from now.

​When I drive at night, I see the lights of each town I approach. It’s getting harder and harder to see the stars. I’m glad the darkest nights have IDSA protection now! That’s the International Dark-Sky Association in initialism (not an acronym).

​

​​ Thanks to the Association there are now 90 International Dark Sky Parks. This is Joshua Tree National Park, and it’s one of the 21 International Dark Parks in Utah. That’s impressive – there are 90 around the world, and 21 are in Utah. Would you believe Utah added three new parks this year?

​Don’t worry if you live hours away from Utah! There are 66 Dark Sky Parks in the US. Geauga Observatory Park is in Ohio, and there’s a Dark Park in Michigan to the North, Indiana to the West, Tennessee to the South, and Pennsylvania to the east. To think that I’d never heard of Dark Sky Parks, and now I found five in and around Ohio! Take a look on the map at the top, and see which states you can find!

​Information Sources:
-  Source: The Salt Lake Tribune | Date Updated: April 30, 2021
-  What U.S. state has the most International Dark Sky Parks?: Utah | Travel Trivia
-  Dark Sky Parks in the United States - WorldAtlas

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​

Answer # 5 – If you live in South Dakota (SD), you get the most.
Answer # 6 – Hawaiians (HI) get the least.  

​​

The CDC (Centers for Disease Control) recommends seven hours of sleep a night, but only about half of Americans manage that. If you’d like to find out how your state’s sleeping, click on the CDC link below. It’s under Information Sources.

Five states are real sleepers! They had 69 – 70% of their people averaging seven hours of sleep each night. South Dakota came out on top, followed by Colorado, Minnesota, Nebraska, and Idaho. If you need sleep, you know where to go! Can you find SD, CO, MN, NE, and ID on the map at the top?

Six states don’t sleep as much as they should! They had 56 – 61% of their people getting their nightly seven. Hawaii scraped the bottom with Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan and Georgia creeping in above them.​HI, KY, MD, AL, MI, and GA on the map at the top?

Information Sources:
-   Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention | Date Updated: May 10, 2021
-   Which state's residents get the most sleep?: South Dakota | Travel Trivia=

Part 3 – Rock the Boat – They’re at it again! The folks from Applebee’s have
another great ad on TV, and it’s a blast from my past! Have you heard it yet? I have,
and my toes still tap to that beat! Now, let’s rock that boat – but don’t tip the boat over!

​Meet the Hues Corporation! They’re the voices behind the song. From left to right – Fleming Williams, H. Ann Kelley, and St. Clair Lee.
​

Would you believe Rock the Boat was almost a flop? The trio released it on their debut studio album in 1973. The first two singles didn’t go anywhere on the top 40 charts.

Rock the Boat was their 3rd single in early 1974, and it didn’t look good either – no radio airtime or sales activity. Then somehow it became a disco favorite in New York City dance clubs, and radio picked it up. The almost-failure hit the top 40 and reached #1 on July 6, 1974.

Rock the Boat was one of the earliest disco hits. I was nearly a sophomore in high school back in 1974. Disco wouldn’t hit Ohio until I was in college. That’s when Saturday Night Fever struck. Funny, I don’t remember it from high school, but I do – from college. Disco was HUGE.
​

​ Fun Fact # 1 - Wally Holmes wrote it, and first lines are important. Wally’s was “Ever since our voyage of love began.” The producer John Florez thought the lyrics were trite and overused, and he got Wally to change that first line. Now you know how they got the notion.”
​
#2 – H. Ann Kelley, the girl in the band, was supposed to sing lead, but someone thought bands with female lead singers weren’t commercially successful, so they gave it to Fleming Williams. He left the group soon after the recording. I wish someone had the notion to give the lead to H. Ann.
​

​#3 – John put Rock the Boat out on the B side of the record. Back in the day, singles came out as 45 RPM records. The A side was the hit. The B side, not.
​
After it did so well in dance clubs, John remixed it. He boosted the bass and rhythm instruments. Then he re-released it, and the rest is history!

​

​Here’s what I found when I looked up Applebee’s new commercial. Take a look at the promotional information. I’ve never seen it written out like this before, but I like having all the important information in one place.

​OOPS! I almost forgot the most important part – the link! How else can you see the Hughes Corporation in action singing their #1 hit Rock the Boat?!
​
Google: Hues Corporation - Rock the Boat - Bing video

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​

Photo Sources:
1.  Restaurant image - By Michael Rivera - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=40559229
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2.  Applebee's TV Commercial, 'Jungle Cruise: Rock the Boat' Song by The Hues Corporation - iSpot.tv
3. The Hughes Corporation - By RCA Records - www.album.it, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=45459572
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​

Information Sources:
1.  Hues Corporation - Rock the Boat - Bing video

​2.  Rock the Boat (The Hues Corporation song) - Wikipedia
​
3.  Applebee's TV Commercial, 'Jungle Cruise: Rock the Boat' Song by The Hues Corporation - Bing video

​Part 1 – Meet Simone Biles – This photo was taken in 2018 at the Voice of America (VOA). It’s the largest and oldest international broadcasting company. It didn’t say why Simone was there, but maybe she stopped into say she was back in the gymnastics game again.

Did you know she took 2017 off? I didn’t! That was the year after the 2016 Brazil Olympics, and Simone won 4 gold medals, the most ever for an American gymnast. I’m glad she took a year off.

Simone probably started training nonstop in 2011. That’s when she became an elite gymnast. Imagine training as your full-time job, and school what you fit around it.  
​
And Me Too – I never found her training schedule, but I considered going into music. I played 2 instruments, and I was told to practice an hour a day, per instrument. That was the minimum to go into music, not to become a GOAT. I wonder what Simone puts in, on 4 pieces of equipment, per day.

Can you imagine the stress of being a GOAT? You always have to deliver. There’s no room for mistakes, and everyone makes those. Did you watch Simone in team qualifications, or in the preliminaries? She was GREAT, but not perfect. She looked unhappy after each performance, even though she was at the top of the leader board.
​
I wonder, if Simone’s a perfectionist. I’m a recovering one. I’m learning to be OK with mistakes, but I used to go over them, over and over, endlessly. Now I stop when they teach me something that will help me grow. I have a feeling Simone does that too.

I was shocked, when I heard Simone dropped out of the team finals. She put endless hours into each of her 4 routines, for 4 years. You don’t invest that kind of time, that kind of effort into something, then quit. I don’t, and I bet Simone doesn’t either.

You keep going, whether you’re injured, or sick, until you hit a wall that tells you, YOU HAVE to. For me, it used to be losing my voice. Then I could call in sick and get my kids a substitute teacher. For Simone, it was the twisties, and they don’t look like this photo.
​

Part 2 – What’s a Twistie? – It happens when a gymnast is flying through the air. They can’t tell where they are, or where to land. Planes have the same problem in fog. They don’t know which way is up, or down.

I discovered twisties on July 28th when USA Gymnastics announced Simone’s withdrawal from team competition. I was shocked till I learned more. Simone said her mind and body just weren’t in sync. She also said she didn’t think many people understood how dangerous gymnastic surfaces can be.
​

​Take a look at the picture above. It doesn’t look dangerous. Then look at the one below. It is! I thought Simone was upside down. NOT – she was in the middle of one of her twisty-airborne moves. If she lost focus, she might have landed on her head, or neck. YIKES!
​

Simone also talked about not having an inch of control over her body, not knowing where she was in the air. But even scarier, she had no idea how she was going to land . . . or where.  I can’t imagine being brave and talented enough, to keep going after that first twistie.

I didn’t know Simone had the twisties before Tokyo, on floor and vault. This year the bars & beam piled on too. YUCK! I’m glad she took a break, but I’m also glad she came back and won bronze in the balance beam. I read that she did it for herself. Yay, Simone! Here’s to your new life beyond gymnastics!
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​​

​​Part 3 – Daring Young Gymnasts – Do you remember the song about the daring young men on the flying trapeze? Now they’re flying around equipment in the gym. They’re defying gravity and some of the laws of physics. It’s crazy good, also a little scary.

​
Death is rare in gymnastics, but it happened to Melanie Coleman after a fall  from the uneven bars. It also happened to Julissa Gomez in 1988. She was vaulting and slipped off the springboard. Falls are dangerous.
​
Adriana Duffy and Sang  Lan were both paralyzed by vaulting accidents 11 years apart. I’m glad there’s a new, safer springboard and horse for athletes today.

​
​Men and women both vault over them, the gymnastic kind. Men also twist and rotate around pommel horses. It’s amazing what gymnasts can do, and they make it look so easy!

​Here’s the new springboard and horse. Look at the old one, then the new one. Can you see how they’re different, and why the new one is safer?  I’m so glad someone figured that out.

​1. Wear the proper equipment – wrist straps,  guards, grips, and footwear. Use spotting belts for new moves.
2. Warm up and stretch. That’s true for any sport.
3. Only practice on padded floors, not a hard surface.
4. Find a good coach! Somone who knows the latest in safety. A good coach will spot you when you try new/difficult moves.
5. Tell your coach if you’re uncomfortable with a skill. If you can’t, tell a parent or an adult who’ll help you. Kids don’t want to tell anyone. I saw it with my own, and with my 2nd graders. Sometimes parents had to tell me what their child wouldn’t.
6. Don’t try a new move at a game or competition, UNLESS you’ve practiced it A LOT.
7. No jewelry, gum chewing, or clothes that can get caught on equipment.
8. Never train alone.
9. STOP! If you get hurt or feel pain. Then get it checked out by a grown-up.
10. Play other sports so that you don’t overuse the same muscles. That leads to injuries.

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​CONGRATULATIONS to the Olympic athletes from all over the world! Win, lose, draw, or withdraw – you played the games and did your best. Thank you for the memories, for the inspiration you’ve given us, especially to the young athletes waiting in the wings for their turn. THANK YOU!
​

​​

​PS – OOPS! I forgot to write about mindfulness, but lucky for me, I already did! The link below will tell you what it is, and show you a few exercises that are great for kids.

PPS – They can help us grown-ups too!
​
Link: ​Rinda Beach - Blog - Rinda Beach

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​ Photo Sources:

1. Floor exercises, standing - By Agência Brasil Fotografias - EUA levam ouro na ginástica artística feminina; Brasil fica em 8º lugar, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=50584646

 

1. Floor exercises, upside-down - By Agência Brasil Fotografias - EUA levam ouro na ginástica artística feminina; Brasil fica em 8º lugar, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=50584658

3.       Balance Beam - By Fernando Frazão/Agência Brasil - Ginasta holandesa ganha ouro nas traves, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=50698007

1. Uneven parallel bars - By Fernando Frazão/Agência Brasil - http://agenciabrasil.ebc.com.br/sites/_agenciabrasil2013/files/fotos/1035034-_mg_0802_04.08.16.jpg, CC BY 3.0 br, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=50548410           

5.     Vault from 2012 - By https://www.flickr.com/photos/14183788@N00/ - Cropped from: https://www.flickr.com/photos/14183788@N00/7671937664, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=30719066

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Information Sources:
1. Simone Biles reveals depths of twisties problem at Olympics (nypost.com)
2. Simone Biles - Wikipedia
3. Gymnastics deaths are rare, but previous disasters have prompted safety changes - CNN
4. Safety Tips: Gymnastics (for Teens) - Nemours Kidshealth