I have a confession to make. I’m here in my nice air-conditioned house, typing on my computer instead of singing in my choir’s afternoon concert. Shame, shame, shame on me.
The concert is in a tent at Town Hall and the audience usually looks like an ad for the local medical supply store. When they need to leave extra space in the aisles for the walkers, and the audience members refer to the occasional song from the 60s and 70s as ‘that new hippie stuff’, you KNOW it’s an old crowd.
While I usually enjoy the relaxed nature of this concert, I chose not to attend this afternoon. The reason?
temperature – 81 degrees (Okay, that’s not terribly hot compared to many other places this summer, so there must be another factor. Hmmmm, let’s read just a wee bit further into those weather numbers…)
humidity – 76%
dew point – 72 degrees (which puts it well within the official ‘oppressive’ category)
So, yes, I will hang my head in shame for a full 19 seconds, which is substantially less than the time I would likely be unconscious after passing out on the top step of the risers and hitting my head on the way to the grass below.
Don’t hang your head in shame,Girl. We have a minority political party that is overly oppressive and make us gentle progressives feel the heat. If you get too hot now or too cold this winter the oppressive minority will push taxcuts for the wealthy. That is their answer to all America’s RW created problems. Hope your weather cools off.you have to sign with sweat drops your students eyes will be burning.
It is nice to kinda be back,even though I didn’t really go anywhere. Suffered some heat-related misery-skitters. I am enrolled on Medicare and am still looking for appropriate prescription drug insurance and still need back surgery and am having recurring right knee and hip problems. Need a walker to get around and will soon hook up with Florida nephew( he’s coming to Iowa) who has MS(advanced stage) and just had arthro-knee surgery and hernia surgery and needs a walker to get around. His life makes mine sound like a walk through the park. Hope to have him on the farm for a short while and work his Florida tail off. Just kidding. BTW I did leave one short note on Aug.1st. Last comment under Chilkat Blanket.That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
I have been working on gratitude, as of late, and I just want to say how grateful I am to come to this site and visit with people I’ve never met but have come to love.
Mikey, I was so worried about you that I had already contacted the Duke’s former minder, Julian, a rather wide boy from Stepney to fly over and start making inquiries. He was a bit put-off when I told him his services would no longer be required. When we rang off, he was muttering something about delivering a “rebuke in Dubuque”. Welcome back, andif Julian shows up, tell him to ring me before starting anything.
Does Julian fly a yellow crop-duster? There’s been three or four around here for about two weeks trying to drive Mikey nuts. They apparently don’t need mufflers,the noise must scare the bugs to death in the fields. I swear one looks like a Limey bloke,no offense.(The pilot,not the plane) You getting your house sold or did the little fella,St Joseph, let you down?
Oh my word – Julian’s favorite film was “North By Northwest”.We’d watch it for hours while the Duke was getting detoxed. He doesn’t have a license, but the Dowager Duchess did give him flying lessons. Stay indoors, Mike. Steps will be taken.
In a previous life, I used to run the recreation department for LI State Parks and spent a LOT of time coordinating programs and special events at the various beaches and parks around the Island, although far more of them were on the south shore than the north. One of the few things I miss about living there is the smell of the ocean. We have some nice beaches here on Lake Ontario, but it’s just not the same without that tangy, salty air!
As someone who doesn’t much like the sun or heat, I always preferred the beaches, north or south, during the off season when they were cool and free of crowds. Much better for strolling and finding treasures like shells and pretty rocks!
I still have several jars of rocks that our youngest gathered from beach walks. I finally had to tell her she had to leave some for other people to find.
Earlier this year, Idiot in Chief Scott Walker and his merry band of RWNJs passed a voter ID bill that would require voters to show a photo ID in order to vote. Of course, widespread voter fraud made this bill absolutely necessary. What’s that you say? There WAS no outbreak of voter fraud and this bill was designed specifically to disenfranchise that part of the population which traditionally supports Democrats? How cynical (and correct) of you!
But wait…there was more…
Last week, Walker announced plans to close 10 or more DMV offices, where Wisconsin citizens needed to get those photo IDs. And they just HAPPENED to be in strongly Democratic districts, but that was just a big, silly coincidence…really! See, because they were also extending the hours in other DMV offices which just HAPPENED to be in strongly Republican districts. But that was just a happy, birds-chirping-in-the breeze coincidence too!
Well, there seems to have been quite the backlash against Ebenezer Walker’s plans, thanks to the wonderful and determined Wisconsin citizens who actually value their civil rights. Walker just announced that the DMVs will NOT close after all, and their hours will actually be extended instead. The voter ID bill will still, unfortunately, be in effect, but at least more people, including those evil, lefty libruls, will now have greater access to DMVs.
Wisconsin-ites…you are showing the rest of America the way to take back our government from the slimy, vile, hateful right wing that now holds it hostage. I hope the rest of us are taking notes.
Well, Walker finally did something sort of right. There still is that restrictive rule about the photo ID. Personally, I think he’s just hoping this will be enough so people will forget all the rotten things he has done and he won’t be on the next recall petitions and ballot.
DS1 and his bride of 9-months, AKA my DDiL, just moved yesterday to WI — she is doing her internship for her doctorate, there. I have a feeling the two very Blue southerners will be having much heartburn with their new enviorns because of the governor of the otherwise neato-keano state…she, much more than he. Poor dears. beth.
I would like to make a brief suggestion,if I may. I’m gonna suggest it anyway. I have (not really) trademarked dd-for dumbass dubya when I get into conversations with nutjobs that say America’s financial problems originated with Obama. I have zero respect for dd as a former potus and even less respect for him as a human being. In my opinion,DD is fine for daughter-in-laws,dd is a cross I’m gonna insist dubya wears. Thank you for your patience and attention span.
Gov. Scott “ALEC” Walker shows his true (slimy, ugly) colors more every day. I don’t know about Wisconsin, but in NY, a DMV-issued non-driver ID is between $65 and $80 (with deep discounts for seniors on fixed incomes). Perhaps Patrick or Nick or another Wisconsinite can let us know the Wisconsin price, and if there’s a fund (for the unemployed, the poverty-stricken, those on fixed incomes, etc.) to which we might contribute, so that a photo ID is obtainable for those without the means to purchase one.
On a completely different subject, which I addressed in today’s other thread (to pray or not to pray), today is the Hiroshima anniversary. If we’re going to pray for anything, let it be the beleaguered population of Japan, and for a future free of both nuclear energy and nuclear weapons. Tikkun olam shalom.
Somehow I suspect that the wackadoodle, evangelical, hateful, religious phonies who are gathering in Texas today for Governor Goodhair’s infamous prayer meeting will NOT be praying for the people of Japan.
Or for the starving people of Somalia.
Or for the unemployed, poor and suffering people of our own country.
Or for the people around the world who are dealing with hunger, poverty, fear and opression.
I suspect they have much more selfish and exclusionary themes in mind for today’s prayers.
I also suspect that the rest of us combined, including those of us with no particular faith, can outnumber them and create a powerful spiritual counterforce that blows those narrow minded bigots out of the water. I am certainly not religious in any formal sense, but I have a strong conviction in the power of love over hate! 🙂
Everyone mark their calendars for next Tuesday, the 9th. That’s when the WI recall elections will take place. I’m going to be glued to the TV/internet that night. Join me? I’ve got a whole case of Sam Adams beer to share!
“The author said she was “astonished and very happy” to join previous winners who are “like a partial list of my heroes.” They include Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel, the late Chicago-based author Studs Terkel, and Taylor Branch, who chronicled the civil rights struggle.”
We have no rocks or stones in Florida, unless we import them. Lots of sand and dust; no stones. Mama says I’ve been a “rockhound” since I was old enough to toddle about and pick them up.
I’d put several of these in my pocket. 🙂
Look how water-worn, tumbled smooth
and shining, water-washed
in rich, vibrant colors…
*swimming downstream, rock hopping, while Happy fishes upstream on the rez long ago and far away*
We can’t see autumn from our porch yet; August and into September is the Gulf Coast at its steamiest.
DH Happy and I call it The World’s Largest Outdoor Sauna. Since I am a Winter Soul at heart, I imagine that summer is my sweat lodge. Good timing, there, between the end of a long school year and the beginning of a fresh new school year full of possibilities. It doesn’t make me feel any cooler, but it gets me through. It doesn’t get “cold” here until the (inter)State Fair at the end of October. Sigh. 9 years until retirement… set my compass North…
We’re escaping to the Carolinas next week for our annual family reunion; my parents, my sisters, our spouses and as many of our kids as can come. Fabulous fellowship and feasting, lots of love and laughter, stories and sharing, weaving new threads into our family tapestry, adding some patches to the family quilt.
Meanwhile, Happy and I are having So Much Fun with Littlebird home this weekend. She worked all summer at a camp in Mississippi. It’s for Jewish children from all over the deep South (and beyond). These kids are often a tiny minority in their communities (Littlebird was the only Jewish child in her schools K-8), so it’s a chance for them to feel connected, part of the larger Jewish Community.
Littlebird started camping there when she was eleven, and has been every summer since. High school seniors can work as counselors-in-training; she did. High school graduates/college students can work as counselors; she did. This summer she was the Activities Director (waving to fawnskin 🙂 ), and the youngest member of Senior Staff. (She bargained weekly leave time so she could meet with her professors in Jackson. She’s working on her Senior Honor’s Thesis: rhetoric in reporting about the Deepwater Horizon.)
Anway, she’s Wonderful and she’s Here, so we’re feeding her all her favorite foods, snuggling together on the sofa watching movies, just basking in the glow. She’s sleeping like a baby now. Yes, I peeked in. When she gets up, and after morning prayers, she wants to go thrifting and to her favorite Mexican restaurant. After a nap, we’ll swim if it’s sunny, watch more movies if it’s rainy.
Dean Bowman had Havdallah and gave a concert at Camp this summer
You and fishingmama woke up a memory, much to be enjoyed in this time and place I am in, where my son has been a grownup as long as he was a child.
Seen from a doorway, young man home from university for the summer in what turned out to be the only summer work allowed for that, nappingwith his dog who missed him so snuggled up to his feet, under his collection of favorite childhood hats and caps.
The beanie with the whirly-gig on top, the ballcap with golden wings , the stocking cap with the long tail which once drug on the floor, and Big Bird- his favorite.
yes, fishingmama, cherish them when they are young and yes, crow- celebrate them when they fledge!
Have a lovely time with extended family in NC, dearest crow! Hope you’re nowhere near the flooding. Glad you & littlebird are having such a fantastic visit.
It’s soooo important for children to have the opportunity to be with others like themselves. For almost 30 years I’ve been involved, either as staff or a volunteer, with adapted sports programs for kids with physical disabilities. Often, these kids were the only one in their schools in a wheelchair, or blind, or missing a limb. It was wonderful for them to have the chance to meet and spend time with kids who were just like them, and they formed instant bonds through their shared experiences.
There was one young girl who was blind who came to our events every year. She was smart, athletic, and sang like an angel. She has tons of friends in school and competed on her track team. Her mother asked her once why she was so determined to come to our games when she had so much going on in her school and community. She told her mother that it was the ONLY place where she wasn’t different…where other kids were EXACTLY like her.
We often had children with dwarfism come to our program who had NEVER met another child with dwarfism before. It was quite a moving experience to see their expressions when they spotted the first Little Person coming their way, or met the whole family of LP who ran our pre-school program, or the married LP couple who helped run our food committee. Their eyes would bug out and they would be drawn like a magnet to the first person they had ever seen who looked just like them!
I’m sure Littlebird is a treasure for her camp, able to give the younger children the benefit of her own experiences.
See if this gets in before smart aleck mike from iowa comments. This case pits boroughs against jackasses.. There,take that mike from iowa. BTW- seriously lovely stones. Look like seven or thiryeen bean soup mix,dry.
Oh, my goodness! There you are! You have been missed so much we were all talking nicely about you. Whoof. Glad you are back, because all that nice was getting a little syrupy.
I need to go read the court info but some of the issues turn round the borough’s rights and responsibilities as regards land use planning v the state’s rights and responsibilities to manage resources for the benefit of all.
Yes, I have noticed that the air has turned. Only in the last few days. It has taken that lovely deep ‘almost over’ scent and feel that comes just before the leaves start to fall. This will be the first time in 23 years I will not be enrolling a child in school.
This empty nest thing is not too bad. But something to be missed. It was such a short time between the kindergarten days and the wedding plans…
an amish saying — “ve get too soon aldt and to late schmardt”
“Pile of Stones” looks like the material we will be using in the exposed aggregate porch-walk-way that is going to be poured here this week in front of our home. Apparently in the final outcome the rocks are shiney. I’m anxious to be part of the process. best of all being able to enjoy beautiful pebbles in front of my front door that won’t be tracked into our home..the porch is going to slope down from the front door area.some fraction of an inch.. And another positive..the porch is covered..
it is here in Southeast too.
The light is lower and angled, the air has that smell, the first tiny patches of orange and red are showing on the mountaintops.
Where we happily watched the green flame of spring shoot up the avalanche chutes and open flanks of the mountains such a short time ago the change has begun. There are yellow leaves appearing here and there and August rains have filled the waterfalls with the beginning of their last wild song before the cold of winter quiets them in ice.
It goes so fast.
I was thinking about your visit last fall when I wrote it 🙂
There are other signs too- like the chard trying to go to seed , peas and raspberries ready to pick (the ones the %##%^ing bears and porkies didn’t damage ), and potatos flowering.
These spuds are kinda scaring me.
I ordered seed potatos from a farm out of Fairbanks this year.
The plants are as tall as I am.
I hope they are making spuds underground at the rate they are overtaking the above ground garden.
it’s the way it is here, bubs
it’s very short
is why we all sound sorta frantic about i-gotta-go-fishin/gardening/hiking/berry pickin-now! this time of year 🙂
more so , the further north you go…
here’s some beautiful views : http://www.alaska-in-pictures.com/autumn-photos_page8.htm
Alaska Pi, those are some of the most amazing pictures of autumn I’ve ever seen. Thanks SO much for posting them. Every time I think of your abbreviated (but bright) summer, I’m reminded of our ice age ancestors as imagined by Jean M. Auel (I read the last book in the Earth’s Children series about two weeks ago).
What are you doing posting, anyway? Don’t you have fishing/gardening/hiking/berry picking/gathering/etc.ing to do? 😉 😉 🙂 🙂
Last comment of the day- here 🙂
I’m glad you enjoyed the pics.
Since early morn today, I have been cleaning , cooking, freezing berries and garden goodies I gathered yesterday but am now done and heading off to other adventures.
Tried something new this year with my basil-growing-wildly-in -the -windowsill.
Source said to cut, wash, and pack leaves in a small amount of olive oil and freeze, to be broken off and used almost as fresh through the winter.
Looking forward to it!
Bubbles, my dear friend, you know that’s not true of our fair city. We bake and/or steam throughout August, and it often lasts past the Autumnal Equinox. I’d still love to meet you for an icy drink. Did you get my email on that subject?
yes dear Zyx i got your mail and i would love it. i have been recovering from dental surgery and other problems and have not been feeling very well but i hope to meet with you when i return from Ohio. there is a little bistro nearby or we can meet closer to you. maybe the Essex Street Restaurant.
Those stones look like the ones we have in the beds near the house. So pretty!
Exciting news! I can’t believe it, but I was given the Patrons’ Choice Award for best show at our Community Theatre’s Gala. *thud* I was absolutely stunned. I am so proud of the cast, crew, musicians, and all who worked on “Smoke on the Mountain” about a year ago. Whoof. I am still not quite sure it really happened! We had such a great season of five plays. Some made you laugh, some made you cry, and all were just great.
In other news, the State of Illinois can’t seem to find the cash to repair 1/4 mile of Interstate down here, but can continue to pretty much pour money into Chicago. There again, we have a Legislature that forgets us. We are promised it will be fixed in 2015. 2015? Hello?
Having spent many, many hours working in community theater in my younger years, I know how much blood, sweat and tears goes into a production. A standing ovation to you, your cast and crew for a well-deserved award!
The feel of fall was in the air today. It won’t be long and we will be looking at piles of snow. In the mean time, the pebbles are a nice diversion. Hopefully that “other” pebble will not surface. (the big hole in the ground near Illiamna)
I have a confession to make. I’m here in my nice air-conditioned house, typing on my computer instead of singing in my choir’s afternoon concert. Shame, shame, shame on me.
The concert is in a tent at Town Hall and the audience usually looks like an ad for the local medical supply store. When they need to leave extra space in the aisles for the walkers, and the audience members refer to the occasional song from the 60s and 70s as ‘that new hippie stuff’, you KNOW it’s an old crowd.
While I usually enjoy the relaxed nature of this concert, I chose not to attend this afternoon. The reason?
temperature – 81 degrees (Okay, that’s not terribly hot compared to many other places this summer, so there must be another factor. Hmmmm, let’s read just a wee bit further into those weather numbers…)
humidity – 76%
dew point – 72 degrees (which puts it well within the official ‘oppressive’ category)
So, yes, I will hang my head in shame for a full 19 seconds, which is substantially less than the time I would likely be unconscious after passing out on the top step of the risers and hitting my head on the way to the grass below.
Don’t hang your head in shame,Girl. We have a minority political party that is overly oppressive and make us gentle progressives feel the heat. If you get too hot now or too cold this winter the oppressive minority will push taxcuts for the wealthy. That is their answer to all America’s RW created problems. Hope your weather cools off.you have to sign with sweat drops your students eyes will be burning.
Some justice at long last!
http://news.yahoo.com/police-convictions-katrina-shootings-cover-044927184.html
Sentencing won’t be for a few months.
It is nice to kinda be back,even though I didn’t really go anywhere. Suffered some heat-related misery-skitters. I am enrolled on Medicare and am still looking for appropriate prescription drug insurance and still need back surgery and am having recurring right knee and hip problems. Need a walker to get around and will soon hook up with Florida nephew( he’s coming to Iowa) who has MS(advanced stage) and just had arthro-knee surgery and hernia surgery and needs a walker to get around. His life makes mine sound like a walk through the park. Hope to have him on the farm for a short while and work his Florida tail off. Just kidding. BTW I did leave one short note on Aug.1st. Last comment under Chilkat Blanket.That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
{{{{{mike and Florida nephew}}}}}
I have been working on gratitude, as of late, and I just want to say how grateful I am to come to this site and visit with people I’ve never met but have come to love.
Mikey, I was so worried about you that I had already contacted the Duke’s former minder, Julian, a rather wide boy from Stepney to fly over and start making inquiries. He was a bit put-off when I told him his services would no longer be required. When we rang off, he was muttering something about delivering a “rebuke in Dubuque”. Welcome back, andif Julian shows up, tell him to ring me before starting anything.
{{{{{Mag}}}}
*loving you back*
Does Julian fly a yellow crop-duster? There’s been three or four around here for about two weeks trying to drive Mikey nuts. They apparently don’t need mufflers,the noise must scare the bugs to death in the fields. I swear one looks like a Limey bloke,no offense.(The pilot,not the plane) You getting your house sold or did the little fella,St Joseph, let you down?
Oh my word – Julian’s favorite film was “North By Northwest”.We’d watch it for hours while the Duke was getting detoxed. He doesn’t have a license, but the Dowager Duchess did give him flying lessons. Stay indoors, Mike. Steps will be taken.
No action yet on the part of Holy Joe.
As a lifelong rockhound myself, I give that photo the Zyxomma seal of approval ;). It looks like the north shore of Long Island.
In a previous life, I used to run the recreation department for LI State Parks and spent a LOT of time coordinating programs and special events at the various beaches and parks around the Island, although far more of them were on the south shore than the north. One of the few things I miss about living there is the smell of the ocean. We have some nice beaches here on Lake Ontario, but it’s just not the same without that tangy, salty air!
As someone who doesn’t much like the sun or heat, I always preferred the beaches, north or south, during the off season when they were cool and free of crowds. Much better for strolling and finding treasures like shells and pretty rocks!
I still have several jars of rocks that our youngest gathered from beach walks. I finally had to tell her she had to leave some for other people to find.
Go Wisconsin…and keep up the pressure!
Earlier this year, Idiot in Chief Scott Walker and his merry band of RWNJs passed a voter ID bill that would require voters to show a photo ID in order to vote. Of course, widespread voter fraud made this bill absolutely necessary. What’s that you say? There WAS no outbreak of voter fraud and this bill was designed specifically to disenfranchise that part of the population which traditionally supports Democrats? How cynical (and correct) of you!
But wait…there was more…
Last week, Walker announced plans to close 10 or more DMV offices, where Wisconsin citizens needed to get those photo IDs. And they just HAPPENED to be in strongly Democratic districts, but that was just a big, silly coincidence…really! See, because they were also extending the hours in other DMV offices which just HAPPENED to be in strongly Republican districts. But that was just a happy, birds-chirping-in-the breeze coincidence too!
Well, there seems to have been quite the backlash against Ebenezer Walker’s plans, thanks to the wonderful and determined Wisconsin citizens who actually value their civil rights. Walker just announced that the DMVs will NOT close after all, and their hours will actually be extended instead. The voter ID bill will still, unfortunately, be in effect, but at least more people, including those evil, lefty libruls, will now have greater access to DMVs.
Wisconsin-ites…you are showing the rest of America the way to take back our government from the slimy, vile, hateful right wing that now holds it hostage. I hope the rest of us are taking notes.
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2011/08/06/289545/facing-backlash-for-disenfranchising-voters-gov-walker-reverses-course-on-plan-to-close-several-dmv-offices/
Well, Walker finally did something sort of right. There still is that restrictive rule about the photo ID. Personally, I think he’s just hoping this will be enough so people will forget all the rotten things he has done and he won’t be on the next recall petitions and ballot.
DS1 and his bride of 9-months, AKA my DDiL, just moved yesterday to WI — she is doing her internship for her doctorate, there. I have a feeling the two very Blue southerners will be having much heartburn with their new enviorns because of the governor of the otherwise neato-keano state…she, much more than he. Poor dears. beth.
I would like to make a brief suggestion,if I may. I’m gonna suggest it anyway. I have (not really) trademarked dd-for dumbass dubya when I get into conversations with nutjobs that say America’s financial problems originated with Obama. I have zero respect for dd as a former potus and even less respect for him as a human being. In my opinion,DD is fine for daughter-in-laws,dd is a cross I’m gonna insist dubya wears. Thank you for your patience and attention span.
Gov. Scott “ALEC” Walker shows his true (slimy, ugly) colors more every day. I don’t know about Wisconsin, but in NY, a DMV-issued non-driver ID is between $65 and $80 (with deep discounts for seniors on fixed incomes). Perhaps Patrick or Nick or another Wisconsinite can let us know the Wisconsin price, and if there’s a fund (for the unemployed, the poverty-stricken, those on fixed incomes, etc.) to which we might contribute, so that a photo ID is obtainable for those without the means to purchase one.
On a completely different subject, which I addressed in today’s other thread (to pray or not to pray), today is the Hiroshima anniversary. If we’re going to pray for anything, let it be the beleaguered population of Japan, and for a future free of both nuclear energy and nuclear weapons. Tikkun olam shalom.
Somehow I suspect that the wackadoodle, evangelical, hateful, religious phonies who are gathering in Texas today for Governor Goodhair’s infamous prayer meeting will NOT be praying for the people of Japan.
Or for the starving people of Somalia.
Or for the unemployed, poor and suffering people of our own country.
Or for the people around the world who are dealing with hunger, poverty, fear and opression.
I suspect they have much more selfish and exclusionary themes in mind for today’s prayers.
I also suspect that the rest of us combined, including those of us with no particular faith, can outnumber them and create a powerful spiritual counterforce that blows those narrow minded bigots out of the water. I am certainly not religious in any formal sense, but I have a strong conviction in the power of love over hate! 🙂
Everyone mark their calendars for next Tuesday, the 9th. That’s when the WI recall elections will take place. I’m going to be glued to the TV/internet that night. Join me? I’ve got a whole case of Sam Adams beer to share!
Great news for all the readers among the ‘flats (most of us). Barbara Kingsolver has been awarded the literary peace prize:
http://www.care2.com/causes/barbara-kingsolver-to-receive-literary-peace-prize.html
“The author said she was “astonished and very happy” to join previous winners who are “like a partial list of my heroes.” They include Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel, the late Chicago-based author Studs Terkel, and Taylor Branch, who chronicled the civil rights struggle.”
Marvelous news. I’m going to reread a Kingsolver this very weekend in celebration of the award.
Well deserved. She is a great author.
This can’t stand. That prize clearly belongs to Snowdrift Snookie and/or the younger Snookie Bristle.
[Did we mention how *incredibly glad* we are to have you back, mike from iowa? beth.]
[Did we mention how *incredibly glad* we are to have you back, mike from iowa? beth.]
dang straight.
We have no rocks or stones in Florida, unless we import them. Lots of sand and dust; no stones. Mama says I’ve been a “rockhound” since I was old enough to toddle about and pick them up.
I’d put several of these in my pocket. 🙂
Look how water-worn, tumbled smooth
and shining, water-washed
in rich, vibrant colors…
*swimming downstream, rock hopping, while Happy fishes upstream on the rez long ago and far away*
We can’t see autumn from our porch yet; August and into September is the Gulf Coast at its steamiest.
DH Happy and I call it The World’s Largest Outdoor Sauna. Since I am a Winter Soul at heart, I imagine that summer is my sweat lodge. Good timing, there, between the end of a long school year and the beginning of a fresh new school year full of possibilities. It doesn’t make me feel any cooler, but it gets me through. It doesn’t get “cold” here until the (inter)State Fair at the end of October. Sigh. 9 years until retirement… set my compass North…
We’re escaping to the Carolinas next week for our annual family reunion; my parents, my sisters, our spouses and as many of our kids as can come. Fabulous fellowship and feasting, lots of love and laughter, stories and sharing, weaving new threads into our family tapestry, adding some patches to the family quilt.
Meanwhile, Happy and I are having So Much Fun with Littlebird home this weekend. She worked all summer at a camp in Mississippi. It’s for Jewish children from all over the deep South (and beyond). These kids are often a tiny minority in their communities (Littlebird was the only Jewish child in her schools K-8), so it’s a chance for them to feel connected, part of the larger Jewish Community.
Littlebird started camping there when she was eleven, and has been every summer since. High school seniors can work as counselors-in-training; she did. High school graduates/college students can work as counselors; she did. This summer she was the Activities Director (waving to fawnskin 🙂 ), and the youngest member of Senior Staff. (She bargained weekly leave time so she could meet with her professors in Jackson. She’s working on her Senior Honor’s Thesis: rhetoric in reporting about the Deepwater Horizon.)
Anway, she’s Wonderful and she’s Here, so we’re feeding her all her favorite foods, snuggling together on the sofa watching movies, just basking in the glow. She’s sleeping like a baby now. Yes, I peeked in. When she gets up, and after morning prayers, she wants to go thrifting and to her favorite Mexican restaurant. After a nap, we’ll swim if it’s sunny, watch more movies if it’s rainy.
Dean Bowman had Havdallah and gave a concert at Camp this summer
from Psalm 133:
הִנֵּה מַה טוֹב וּמַה נָּעִים שֶׁבֶת אָחִים גַּם יַחַד
In transliterated Hebrew:
Hine ma tov u’manayim
Shevet akh-im gam ya-khad
Translation: “How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in harmony.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yweBRovUL1w
…all that from a pile of rocks…a picture is worth How Many words? Many thousands, maybe.
And that, my friends, is what we call Shalom Bayit, Peace in our Home.
Wishing you all Shalom Bayit,
Peace in Your Home.
thatcrowwoman and littlebird
You and fishingmama woke up a memory, much to be enjoyed in this time and place I am in, where my son has been a grownup as long as he was a child.
Seen from a doorway, young man home from university for the summer in what turned out to be the only summer work allowed for that, nappingwith his dog who missed him so snuggled up to his feet, under his collection of favorite childhood hats and caps.
The beanie with the whirly-gig on top, the ballcap with golden wings , the stocking cap with the long tail which once drug on the floor, and Big Bird- his favorite.
yes, fishingmama, cherish them when they are young and yes, crow- celebrate them when they fledge!
Have a lovely time with extended family in NC, dearest crow! Hope you’re nowhere near the flooding. Glad you & littlebird are having such a fantastic visit.
It’s soooo important for children to have the opportunity to be with others like themselves. For almost 30 years I’ve been involved, either as staff or a volunteer, with adapted sports programs for kids with physical disabilities. Often, these kids were the only one in their schools in a wheelchair, or blind, or missing a limb. It was wonderful for them to have the chance to meet and spend time with kids who were just like them, and they formed instant bonds through their shared experiences.
There was one young girl who was blind who came to our events every year. She was smart, athletic, and sang like an angel. She has tons of friends in school and competed on her track team. Her mother asked her once why she was so determined to come to our games when she had so much going on in her school and community. She told her mother that it was the ONLY place where she wasn’t different…where other kids were EXACTLY like her.
We often had children with dwarfism come to our program who had NEVER met another child with dwarfism before. It was quite a moving experience to see their expressions when they spotted the first Little Person coming their way, or met the whole family of LP who ran our pre-school program, or the married LP couple who helped run our food committee. Their eyes would bug out and they would be drawn like a magnet to the first person they had ever seen who looked just like them!
I’m sure Littlebird is a treasure for her camp, able to give the younger children the benefit of her own experiences.
“She’s working on her Senior Honor’s Thesis: rhetoric in reporting about the Deepwater Horizon.”
That sounds absolutely fascinating. Love that child! Enjoy.
Speaking of piles of stones….
http://www.alaskapublic.org/2011/08/05/state-may-intervene-in-pebble-mine-case/
Is an interesting case. Pits borough against state in a way we haven’t seen much of here.
See if this gets in before smart aleck mike from iowa comments. This case pits boroughs against jackasses.. There,take that mike from iowa. BTW- seriously lovely stones. Look like seven or thiryeen bean soup mix,dry.
MIKEY!!!!!
So happy to see you!!!!!!!
{{{{{mike}}}}}
Oops. Sorry for shouting so early in the morning. I know not all mudpups are early birds, but I’ve been missing mike and He’s Back.
🙂
(((Mike! )))
Mike! We missed you!
I was afraid that dastardly Ike from Miowa had kidnapped you. 😉
Just what I had feared as well. Welcome back, (((((( mike )))))). We’ve missed you.
Mike!! don’t you scare us like that again! you must report in dear Mudpup! we was about to send Brian to sniff you out.
Oh, my goodness! There you are! You have been missed so much we were all talking nicely about you. Whoof. Glad you are back, because all that nice was getting a little syrupy.
I need to go read the court info but some of the issues turn round the borough’s rights and responsibilities as regards land use planning v the state’s rights and responsibilities to manage resources for the benefit of all.
http://www.commerce.state.ak.us/dcra/LOGON/plan/planning-power.htm
lake and pen borough is a home rule entity.
http://www.commerce.state.ak.us/dca/commdb/CF_BLOCK.cfm?Comm_Boro_Name=Lake+%26+Peninsula+Borough&Data_Type=generalOverview&submit2=Get+Data
This will be intersting.
There are a couple other things about the personalities involved which are flying under radar which may affect outcome too- rightly or wrongly.
Yes, I have noticed that the air has turned. Only in the last few days. It has taken that lovely deep ‘almost over’ scent and feel that comes just before the leaves start to fall. This will be the first time in 23 years I will not be enrolling a child in school.
This empty nest thing is not too bad. But something to be missed. It was such a short time between the kindergarten days and the wedding plans…
an amish saying — “ve get too soon aldt and to late schmardt”
Cherish your young children…
“I’m just one or two years and a couple of changes behind you…”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07dMMn7kPmM
{{{{{Fishingmamma}}}}}
“Pile of Stones” looks like the material we will be using in the exposed aggregate porch-walk-way that is going to be poured here this week in front of our home. Apparently in the final outcome the rocks are shiney. I’m anxious to be part of the process. best of all being able to enjoy beautiful pebbles in front of my front door that won’t be tracked into our home..the porch is going to slope down from the front door area.some fraction of an inch.. And another positive..the porch is covered..
It is true, the air is autumnal. The light is changed also. I am not encouraging this, but I am watching for the signs.
I have been to that, (unless the pix is a zen garden).
Lovely, lovely. Thanx, MKM !!
it is here in Southeast too.
The light is lower and angled, the air has that smell, the first tiny patches of orange and red are showing on the mountaintops.
Where we happily watched the green flame of spring shoot up the avalanche chutes and open flanks of the mountains such a short time ago the change has begun. There are yellow leaves appearing here and there and August rains have filled the waterfalls with the beginning of their last wild song before the cold of winter quiets them in ice.
It goes so fast.
That was beautifully written, dear friend
I was thinking about your visit last fall when I wrote it 🙂
There are other signs too- like the chard trying to go to seed , peas and raspberries ready to pick (the ones the %##%^ing bears and porkies didn’t damage ), and potatos flowering.
These spuds are kinda scaring me.
I ordered seed potatos from a farm out of Fairbanks this year.
The plants are as tall as I am.
I hope they are making spuds underground at the rate they are overtaking the above ground garden.
I hate the porkies; they’ve demolished next year’s fruiting cane AGAIN! And they ate some rose bushes; seriously!
*goose, er, crow?, bumps*
*shiver*
*smiling*
{{{{{Alaska Pi}}}}}
Pi! loved your words but it seems summer has just barely arrived and now it is almost over?
i haz a sad.
it’s the way it is here, bubs
it’s very short
is why we all sound sorta frantic about i-gotta-go-fishin/gardening/hiking/berry pickin-now! this time of year 🙂
more so , the further north you go…
here’s some beautiful views :
http://www.alaska-in-pictures.com/autumn-photos_page8.htm
Alaska Pi, those are some of the most amazing pictures of autumn I’ve ever seen. Thanks SO much for posting them. Every time I think of your abbreviated (but bright) summer, I’m reminded of our ice age ancestors as imagined by Jean M. Auel (I read the last book in the Earth’s Children series about two weeks ago).
What are you doing posting, anyway? Don’t you have fishing/gardening/hiking/berry picking/gathering/etc.ing to do? 😉 😉 🙂 🙂
Last comment of the day- here 🙂
I’m glad you enjoyed the pics.
Since early morn today, I have been cleaning , cooking, freezing berries and garden goodies I gathered yesterday but am now done and heading off to other adventures.
Tried something new this year with my basil-growing-wildly-in -the -windowsill.
Source said to cut, wash, and pack leaves in a small amount of olive oil and freeze, to be broken off and used almost as fresh through the winter.
Looking forward to it!
Bubbles, my dear friend, you know that’s not true of our fair city. We bake and/or steam throughout August, and it often lasts past the Autumnal Equinox. I’d still love to meet you for an icy drink. Did you get my email on that subject?
yes dear Zyx i got your mail and i would love it. i have been recovering from dental surgery and other problems and have not been feeling very well but i hope to meet with you when i return from Ohio. there is a little bistro nearby or we can meet closer to you. maybe the Essex Street Restaurant.
Did somebody mention an icy drink?
Those stones look like the ones we have in the beds near the house. So pretty!
Exciting news! I can’t believe it, but I was given the Patrons’ Choice Award for best show at our Community Theatre’s Gala. *thud* I was absolutely stunned. I am so proud of the cast, crew, musicians, and all who worked on “Smoke on the Mountain” about a year ago. Whoof. I am still not quite sure it really happened! We had such a great season of five plays. Some made you laugh, some made you cry, and all were just great.
In other news, the State of Illinois can’t seem to find the cash to repair 1/4 mile of Interstate down here, but can continue to pretty much pour money into Chicago. There again, we have a Legislature that forgets us. We are promised it will be fixed in 2015. 2015? Hello?
Congratulations, jimzmum. I’m sure it was well deserved and what a lovely surprise, also, too!
jimzmum,
Hurray, congratulations !!! Community recognition is the best. Our various communities are stuffed with talent. We cannot forget that.
The pebbles are beautiful. Can we disguise Pebbles as polished stones??
Community Theatre adds so much spice, so much seasoning to the flavor of a community.
Congratulations, jimzmum, for cooking up a meal that really hit the spot for your friends and neighbors! 🙂
Woo hoo, congratulations!
Having spent many, many hours working in community theater in my younger years, I know how much blood, sweat and tears goes into a production. A standing ovation to you, your cast and crew for a well-deserved award!
Thank you all very much. I am still wearing the sappiest grin!
Congratulations to you and your theater. Sorry about your piece of the Interstate.
Congratulations!
wow! that is great news. congratulations Jimzmum.
Well, I’m certainly impressed! Congratulations!
The feel of fall was in the air today. It won’t be long and we will be looking at piles of snow. In the mean time, the pebbles are a nice diversion. Hopefully that “other” pebble will not surface. (the big hole in the ground near Illiamna)