Mother's Day didn't seem to be Mother's Day Off

As one might expect, my Mother spent Mother's Day providing music. She plays the cello in a string trio, and they played at several church services today -- "That Wonderful Mother of Mine" plus hymns. It's not in her nature to sit back and expect pampering on Mother's Day.

But she did get a bit of pampering at a big family dinner which my sister-in-law Julie prepared in the evening, Of course, that dinner was a project requiring initiative by another mother. I also saw several mothers and grandmothers at church who seemed not to be taking a day off from motherly activities. Though they may have received a little more appreciation than normal. I don't know a lot of mothers who loll about all day waiting to be catered to on Mother's Day. I think I might have tried to make breakfast in bed for my mother once, but I don't think that this was ever her idea of a desirable activity. Not very efficient. Could be doing something more productive.

I was thinking earlier in the day about how different my mother, my mother-in-law, my grandmothers, my aunts and the mothers of my friends were from each other as I was growing up. Yet they all had a certain core of motherliness. And each had special qualities which enhanced my life. I feel very fortunate today to still have my mother and my mother-in-law. And I am grateful to have known so many other great women whose special qualities and actions made some aspect of motherliness memorable to me.

I also got an unexpected reminder of the importance of fathers today, especially for teenagers. And David saved the day for me by staying with the kids in the nursery at church while I was presenting music, a lesson and an activity for the older children (more kids than I expected) with the mother of two of them. We read a poem about Mother Love as one of God's gifts to us. I asked what kinds of people provide Mother Love. One boy told us solemnly about a girl he knew whose mother had died when she was 3 years old "so her grandmother is the only mother she has ever known". A ten-year-old boy in our group lost his mother just a few months ago. His grandmother is like a mother to him, and he and his siblings also get a lot of support from their nearby aunt and uncle as well as other family. This seemed especially important today. He and the other children all took special care in preparing their Mother's Day pictures to take home.

David had a little help from a young (pre-teen) mother-in-training, a sister of one of the young ones. They only lost one toddler, a visitor who missed his Nana too much to stay and play with the others. She just had something special, probably related to motherliness.

Auld Lang Syne

Today's a day for looking back and forward. Elizabeth Scalia and Peggy Noonan with some great thoughts on the song.

For us personally, it's been an interesting year. We've had some challenges and lots of blessings. There have been an unusual number of marriages in the family this year, and we've gotten to meet some new family members. David just got an interesting new job. All in all, I feel pretty grateful right now. We won't be going out, but Ken brought us some sparkling cider with which to "tak a cup o' kindness". Maybe tonight, maybe tomorrow.

Dougie MacLean with all the lyrics to the great old song here. It really is remarkable that this song has stuck with us through changes in culture and language. I think that's a good thing. Here's Guy Lombardo's instrumental if you want to sing it yourself. Another interesting tradition.

Hope everyone is looking forward to a bright New Year.

If you want something a little different for New Years Day, you might try Blackeyed Pea Confetti Salad

Goodbye to Kodachrome

A nice history of Kodachrome, with thoughts about its place in our emotions, here.

The story of Kodachrome is a romance itself, an odd intersection of the worlds of science and music.

Dad, the professional, preferred Kodachrome over all other films for slides, because of its color saturation and archival quality.

Somewhere along the line, I lost a roll of Kodachrome which contained images from a trip Mom and I took with Marianne and David, when David was quite small. Guess I'll just have to carry the images in my "sweet little 'magination". Dang, he was a cute kid.

One image I remember framing was little David in a yellow slicker which was too big for him, walking in misty rain along a boardwalk over mud flats between steamy hot pools in Yellowstone. He was cute even enveloped in yellow. We sang "How Much Is that Doggie in the Window", with variations, in the car. That wasn't on the film, but it's still an image in my head.

Ray Bradbury - "At play in the fields of the Lord"

I ran across this interesting article on the life and philosophy of Ray Bradbury. He's an original.

Ray's best friend growing up was Ed Barrerra, who was once my landlord.  Ed was an orphan, taken in by the family of his future wife in Los Angeles. Ray and Ed sometimes skipped school and went to the lots in Hollywood and hung around on movie sets, or sneaked into the theater. Ed's wife, Clara, thought that Ray was "crazy" when they were young - when he had some of the wild ideas which were later developed in his science fiction books. He didn't have as much schooling as you might expect for a famous writer.

Both he and Ed were drafted during World War II and went to Europe. Ray stopped driving after the war. When he came to visit Ed at our little duplex in the barrio, it was with a chauffeur, in a big cream-colored limousine. He often wore white shorts and knee socks.

He was a faithful friend to Ed as Ed's health deteriorated from rheumatoid arthritis and Parkinson's disease. I saw him a few times, and he always seemed to have some new and different project in the works. I'm happy to hear that he's still around and still has a zest for life.

Speaking of "zest", we have some zesty and delicious summer fruits on now. Descriptions here.

Breakthroughs

Today, we had a couple of breakthroughs.  David started working.  We weren't expecting them to put him to work right after his physical.   He's not making nearly as much as he did at the State, but this is still a very welcome development.  The ethical climate seems far superior.

James also learned today that he has a new job.

The weather broke into the hundreds yesterday.  Today, the high temperature was 107 degrees (41.7 C).  Four degrees below the record for today.  We managed to pick almost all the Blenheim apricots before the weather really heated up.  This variety is ruined by high heat, and we haven't had usable fruit from this tree most years.   We also got cucumbers  and more tomatoes last week.   There are a few luxuries from the garden which are hard to replicate with purchased produce.  

Much of my day was spend making sure the dogs would be O.K. in the hot weather.  David had to go to his Mom and Dad's after work to repair their air conditioning.  He will need another part to make a thorough repair, but at least it started working.

There were some political milestones, too.  Some ironies among them.

Abundance, June 2010

Gilly has influenced me to start adding photos to my blog.  She posts so many photos which remind us to look for beauty in the world.   Ditto Sissy Willis, who likes introverts and cats, among other people, animals and things.

My first photo here features some abundance from our garden.  Part of the early harvest this year.  It always seems a little bit miraculous to me that we can grow things like this in the garden:

Details about the early harvest can be found here. Follow the links if you like.

I cooked most of the squashes shown above, plus a few more, on Sunday for Munch and Mingle after church. People loved it. I made two variations on this recipe: one with bacon, topped with Colby/Jack cheese, and one with an Ancho chile, ground red pepper and Pepper Jack cheese.

Our little grand-nephew didn't eat any of the squash, though he was less picky about the desserts. The abundance of food in our country makes pickiness possible. I took him to Target on Saturday to keep him occupied while his Dad was at a wedding. He spent more than two hours testing all the demonstration toys with a button, lever or electronic gadget. He wanted them all. Had to settle for a yo-yo. Abundance can be frustrating when you're five and can't have it all. But he is learning to appreciate some more important things in life.

In a discussion with Uncle David about who should get to watch his choice of TV show, he said, "Uncle David, today is not about you. Today is about me." He later modified this statement based on the reaction he got. And he made sure I saved some ice cream for his Dad when I got some for him.

Stephen R. Covey says that small children share more easily when they have a sense that they really possess their toys.  It's like they cannot give what they do not have. I haven't quite figured out how this would apply to control of a TV remote, however.

MORE ABUNDANCE AND GENEROSITY

Medical Miracles: Our friend Hala, in Hawaii, told us that our friend Alice, in Texas, had normal tests 100 days after her bone marrow transplant for a rare blood disease. What a miraculous procedure.

A baby hears for the first time with a cochlear implant. A young woman hears for the first time in many years. Astounding. A lot of people engaged in a great deal of work to make those moments possible.

Other Miracles:  The power of a simple smile at the right time.

Some cautionary thoughts on preserving conditions which allow for continued abundance in a society: End the War on Wisdom. Having a good heart is a wonderful thing. Having a good heart informed by timeless wisdom is a much better, and more difficult, achievement.

Memorial Day, 2010

Things are quiet here today. It's a good day for contemplation.

Temperatures are forecast to be in the 90s for the first time after several weeks of below-normal temperatures. It's a pretty day. The garden is mostly in, and we had our first squash from the garden a couple of days ago. It's been cool enough that we're still getting a few peas from the latest variety, a super-sweet one (like super-sweet corn). And the little "summer turnips" were still good on Saturday. We'll see how 90 degree weather changes the flavor.

James and Uncle David took James' little son to see the Avenue of Flags at our little local cemetery, during his second outing of the day. Something he will remember for a long time. There was a ceremony there this morning as well. A good thing.

I started looking for thoughts about Memorial Day yesterday, in preparation for today. I found several, along with images and music. You might find something personally meaningful among the links here. Hope your day is a memorable one.

Happy Easter

Not a bad Easter Day here.  Nothing earth-shaking, which is usually a good thng.   Conference was on TV - some things to ponder, and some lovely music, too.  Hopeful music - before, during and after the conference sessions.  Including a choir performance in a big arena in a spectacular setting, which I had not seen before.

I fixed dinner for a bunch of men:  David, our nephew James, Ken, Elder Black and Elder Sanders.  The potato salad seems to have been the most popular item.  Kind of early in the year for potato salad.  It was the only thing I made today which required more than minimal effort.

James has moved in with us for a while, and has just gotten a job with a very irregular schedule.  But it's work.  We've also been in a mess around the house, moving things around for James, and for David's wall re-finishing projects.  David and James installed a new double door in the media room Friday.  The old one was poorly made.  It did not stand up to the weather.  And Troy the Giant Dog scratching when he wanted attention didn't improve the door's appearance, either.

It rained a little today, and more is forecast for tomorrow.  We can use it.   The air is fresh.  All the animals are O.K.  I got to talk on speaker phone with Keira, Wally, Lorilee and Sherm.  They're a little surprised about our tomato  project this year.   Lorilee talked about how people in Russia often leave the city for  country houses - tiny to large dachas -  in summer.  This may help account for the numerous open-pollinated tomato varieties from the former USSR.  Additionally, I imagine that with the food distribution problems in the old USSR, a lot of people informally shared tomato seeds with each other.  And the USSR did have some formal plant-breeding programs as well. 

Yesterday, our new neighbors brought over tamales, grilled meat and birthday cake (in three separate trips) from the big birthday bash held for their niece, a toddler.  The party featured big strings of ballons, rows of tables and chairs on the recently-poured patio slab and a bounce house for the kids.  The party got started early in the day and was pretty sizable by evening.  There were follow-up activities today for people who stayed overnight.  It's so interesting, this Mexican affection for huge parties for tiny people.  I went over for a few minutes.  It was windy, but the men barbecuing and the kids in the bounce house didn't seem to mind.  Nice people.

David and James are both becoming attached to the man of the house, also named David.  My David has helped them roof the house,  and he either helped with or lent them tools for other construction projects.  The neighbor David has sprayed weeds on the street side of our property and has introduced us to some new drip irrigation equipment.  He calls me "Mrs. Carolyn".  Or "Mrs. Caro".  Now that he knows me better.  "Caro" is my name to several friends in town.   They just all seem to decide eventually to call me that,   

It's nice to have neighbors again.  Neighbors who act like neighbors.  We have a lot to be thankful for today, especially with the message of Easter added in.     

George Washington's Birthday, 2010

Well, I haven't posted here since New Year's Eve and it's George Washington's Birthday already.

It's been a busy beginning of the year. We have (thankfully) had more rain than last year. But some  politicians,  bureaucrats and environmentalists are still set on dramatically limiting irrigation water to the West Side, despite the greater-than-normal rainfall. Our region's unemployment rate is likely to remain among the highest in the nation. One of the most productive food-growing areas in the world is being taken out of production. More wrangling ahead.

We also had some beautiful sunny days in January, sort of like Southern California January days. Then more rain, and chillier weather, even a little fog. Worrisome during apricot and peach blossom time. But we need the water.

Aunt Helen

Perhaps the most notable personal thing which has happened since the beginning of the year was our fond farewell to David's Aunt Helen at her funeral Saturday. She was staying with David when we got married, and she continued to stay with us for a while before moving in with David's Mom and Dad. David told the  people at the funeral about Aunt Helen's contented reaction to his insistence that she not wait for him to tell her what to do.  And he told the story about  her over-enthusiastic jump into the rocking chair, which went backward through the window.  She was lots of fun. We'll miss her a lot.  So will  other people.

At 92, though, she was ready to go home. She did not have an easy life.  She had developed some difficult health problems.

Her childhood was one of extreme poverty.   But you would not know it from her cheerful, straightforward, fun-loving manner. Nice to think of her with her husband, Uncle Pete, again.

We took a wrong turn on the Weedpatch Highway, on the way to the funeral, and saw the little town of Lamont near Bakerfield, where Aunt Helen once lived with Uncle Pete and their children. The town has nice homes behind fancy gates next to run-down trailers with goats in the front yard. It also features a refinery, and many typical elements of a hard-scrabble rural California town. When Aunt Helen and Uncle Pete were first married, they lived in a tent. Living in a home in Lamont was a big step up for them.

Trip to Utah

We went for another short trip to Utah early in the month. We got to see some wonderful mountain vistas and we went to a family birthday dinner celebration for Jake and  others at Rainbow Gardens, where I swam as a child, and where cousin Marie once got a nasty shin injury, as I recall. The swimming pools are gone now. The clientele got too rowdy. The bowling alley survived longer, but it's gone now, too. Rainbow Gardens has gone moderately up-scale.

The Ogden River runs under a corner of the building, and you can go onto the porch in the (now) gift shop and watch the water. An ancestor of the King Family which owns this establishment gave my grandparents credit for their photography business during the Great Depression.  They always expressed gratitude for this act of kindness.

We also got to visit with Keira, and we saw where Wally works.   I heard a book review at Mom's book club, in a beautiful home in the hills.  I took charge of their newly inherited little dog.

We took a look at the Felix home up the road from Mom.  It's for sale again.  Probably not an option for us at this time.  Big yard, big kitchen, out-dated, needs work.  Not that David couldn't do the work.

Music

Mom took us, and two of her friends, to a Utah Symphony Pops concert featuring Big Bad Voodoo Daddy  during the second half of the program.   The first half of the program featured standard Pops fare such as the Hungarian Dance No. 5, Sabre Dance and the Beautiful Blue Danube.  The conductor, David Cho, was chatty and engaged in a little Pops-type comedy - even juggling during the "Dance of the Comedians".  They played a Big Band medley.  It was all great.

The guest artists were refreshingly non-nihilistic and non-whiny for contemporary pop music - mostly a Big Band "retro" sound with other jazz and contemporary flavors. They're rather self-promoting showmen. Tons of energy. They did some familiar Cab Calloway pieces. They involved the audience as singers in some of them. Noisy. Fun, brash, theatrical, but not the ultimate in musicianship. It was an interesting cultural encounter for many regular symphony patrons. Some felt open-minded listening to this group.  Others were not sure quite what to think. Mom's friend Valeen said  "I don't like being yelled at".  I can barely imagine what their reaction would be to, say, Lady GaGa.

Big Bad Voodoo Daddy's original works are no match for, say, Gershwin. Still, I think it's nice that they are successful. Although they've been doing the rounds with pops orchestras, I have a feeling that the "Big Bad Voodoo Daddy Experience" would be more suited to a nightclub stage than to a sliver of stage in front of a big orchestra. When they played with the larger group, the effect was sometimes a bit ponderous.  One interesting effect was their use of bass and tenor (I think) saxophones playing the same notes. Gave an interesting depth to certain licks.

The symphony's chief clarinetist plays Big Band pieces with more finesse than the famous guest artists did. He's doing an Artie Shaw retrospective concert at a synagogue in Salt Lake soon. We spoke with him backstage before the performance.

I also went with Mom to one of her music clubs, and heard an interesting lesson on the musical sons (and a grandson) of J.S. Bach. I hadn't given them enough credit in the past, I think. One, the "London Bach", was Mozart's mentor, and some of his work sounds like early Mozart. Another wrote pieces which sound more like Haydn, yet another used counterpoint in a way which differed a little from his father's use of this musical style. They deserve to be known as more than the children of J.S. Bach. The family apparently dominated the musical world in Germany for some time.

We also heard a summery Lullaby by contemporary American composer George Winston. Sheet music can be bought and printed online. I think I might even be able to learn it.

On the Home Front

Back home, David's been tearing parts of the house apart and putting them back together, better. I've planted way more tomato seeds than we can use.  That good January weather looked so promising, and it's the standard time for planting tomato seeds here - even a week or two late, actually.  I planted some other things, too. We'll see how they do through the coming storms.

 David and I have both had persistent respiratory infections, like a lot of people in town.  We're starting to get back up to speed.

I buried our shy, shy kitty Brewster today. I think he had been hit by a car.  David saw a cat he though looked like Brewster at the edge of the road a ways from the house, and I went to check.  Sure looked like Brewster, though I couldn't find the knot that had always been on his tummy (the Vet didn't seem concerned - don't know what it was).  I didn't look too hard, though.  He had been feeling a little punky before he disappeared a couple of days ago, I think.  But he was still eating, etc. He had let me pick him up and pet him a few times during the last couple of weeks, which was rare behavior for him. But he was terrified when I took him in the house, and he would not let me look into his face. He was being extra affectionate with the other cats toward the end of his life, too.

He was too shy to have been a full-fledged "pet" - one of those cats who sometimes panic when you try to pet them and nearly die of fright on a trip to the vet.  But it's nice to have a half-wild cat around. Especially a gentle one. We'll miss him.

We've learned of some very serious challenges  for friends.  One young friend has just undergone a bone marrow transplant for a rare blood disorder.  She's grateful for the chance of a cure.  Another friend's grandson was born with displaced organs.  She was highly touched by a nurse who expressed appreciation for being able to help families with problems like these.

We need to count our blessings.  Loving family and friends, people who help, rain, etc., etc.

Happy New Year!

Tending skittish dogs tonight - they're afraid of fireworks and firearms. Not very New Years Eve-ish. But no matter. There's a "blue moon" tonight: the second full moon of the month. We can listen to Ella Fitzgerald.

We've had an interesting week: the furnace went out on Christmas Eve day and David did a not-to-subtle reindeer imitation on Christmas morning - stomping on the roof when he got stuck after the ice re-froze while he was up there. I squirted it down again and he made it off the roof safely - only slipping once. He needed a part, so our heat was mostly from baking in the oven and from a little parabolic space heater in the bathroom. It was almost enough. Makes you think about how much you heat the house up in the summer when you turn on the oven. David got the part Monday - 5 days (well, counting part-days) of a cool-ish house. I was glad we weren't in North Dakota.

My Christmas morning heating project was baking cornbread. David and Ken had some with pinto beans for breakfast. I made cornbread dressing and marinated broccoli salad to take to David's Mom and Dad's for Christmas Dinner. Prime rib, 4 kinds of pie, etc. Lots of people there. Lots of conversation. Since I can't eat corn, I made some bread dressing for myself with a little leftover bread from Christmas, fresh sage, onions, celery and chicken broth, but I didn't take it to dinner. There was plenty of food there.

Since I got some people cardamom pods for Christmas, I made some orange-cardamom pumpkin bread on Saturday to warm up the house, and some butter-pecan applesauce bread (recipe needs a little work). I decided that a tiny mortar and pestle was not sufficient for crushing cardamom seeds, and I discovered that tapping it with a hammer in a heavy plastic bag (from a cracker box) works much better. Feels sort of primitive to go out to the garage to beat spices to powder. But it's much less primitive than the actual primitive task of grinding grains with a smooth rock. We take so many things for granted.

We've got ham for tomorrow. I got blackeyed peas and a Pasilla pepper for this New Year's Salad.

The doggie logistics have dumbed me down for now. Don't feel like doing much. At the moment, I have Lucky and Troy. David has Maggie. Our geriatric dogs, Sparky and Dottie, are getting deaf and so far they're O.K. in their usual hangouts. Sparky may need to come in later. Little Buddy is not afraid of the noise, and stays in the big doghouse with his little heater. Things are fine, but not exactly festive.

I'm not feeling too philosophical right at the moment, either. But I found some interesting images and music before Christmas which you might like. And then some information about Hanukkah, if you're up for a little deeper thought. Or, for a more personal topic, an Alternative to New Years Resolutions, The Uberlist.

Hope everyone has a great year.

The Sometimes Bumpy Road to Progress

Before we left on our last whirlwind trip to Utah, we heard a story in church about a one-eyed, non-flying pet crow. After attaching a dog kennel to the crow's cage to allow her more freedom during the day, the crow's "daddy" would hear her screeching at sundown, clinging to the side of the wire kennel, unable to find her way back home to her comfy cage. He would have to unhook her claws from the wire and put her back in her home. In her anxiety, she resisted leaving the side of the kennel. Sometimes we are the same way. God wants us to move on to a better place, but we "cling to the wire". Sometimes when we "let go of the wire", progress comes in fits and starts.

While David was talking to people at a foothill facility in Utah, I got out of the car and was met by the most fearless Magpie I have ever seen. Glossier and fatter than the one here. It took food from my hand, even though I was a complete stranger. It flew around, showing off and flirting. And following its interests. Magpies are related to crows, and this one sort of looked like a medium-sized crow with prettier plumage. Quite a contrast to the story about the pet crow stuck to the wire in fear. Kind of uplifting.

David had a wonderful interview, but he did not meet all of the qualifications for the job. I was great to see Mom again. We went home in light spirits. Since that time, David has had another nice interview. When it's time, he'll find the right job.

He's back to work in the house. The sheetrock part is done and the kitchen arch rounded out. Now he's re-doing the surfacing and texturing in the living room and hall. What a mess. Things are piled up everywhere, covered in drywall dust, and the contents of some book cases and a hutch are in boxes. But the job that was done when the house was built has always bothered him, so I'm glad he's fixing it. I haven't been able to get into the office, the back bedrooms or the back bath for a few days. I'm taped into the media room right now. Things should look a lot better soon.

We've also been juggling dogs and cats in the recent wet weather (for which we are grateful). Princess Cat Darla accidentally came into the house while Troy the Giant Dog was inside, causing a big commotion and leading him to think for several days that she was still in the house. I winterized the Kitty Condo and made sure their heater was working. I put a kitty heater in the big dog house in back (Maggie, Troy and Little Buddy came in with me part of the time - it was a little crowded with the 4 of us). I set up a cold retreat in the garage for Sparky, who normally wants to be outside. Maybe it's his Husky/Labrador background. Huskies sleep in the snow, and Labradors were bred to retrieve fishing nets from the ocean. Brrr. He's getting unsteady on his feet and can't get his footing when he's lying on slick surfaces, so now he has a bumpy rubber mat and ridged fabric carpet. He's only wanted to come in on two nights, and I've still had to guide him into the garage against mild protest.

Troy and Maggie have stayed in the house with Lucky a couple of nights during the rain, leaving Little Buddy in the big dog house by himself. He gets separate snuggle time, as he still chews furniture and sometimes gets too playful when the other dogs want to rest. Old Dottie gets a kitty heater in her doghouse next.

We finally have new neighbors across the street, but the house next door is still vacant. Our princess kitty Darla is starting to think the house and yard next door belong to her.

Things are rather unsettled in the world at the moment, but President Obama gave a graceful speech in Oslo. He's on a learning curve, too, I think. On the lighter side of American media and politics, William Shatner and Sarah Palin read from each other's works on the Tonight Show. Maybe you remember Shatner's dramatic reading from Palin's Twitter posts, or his self-parody with "Rocketman".

But back to everyday life: At our fun Branch Christmas Party, the Cox family brought an entire "Polar Express" train painted by an artist friend on refrigerator boxes. The kids got to hear the story read to them in front of the train, while getting little treats. They also heard the Christmas Story via whispers from "Maurice", the shy camel hand puppet who belonged to one of the Wise Men. We sang carols and ate.

I made Spanish Green Beans and a big bowl of coleslaw very similar to this Christmas Coleslaw. I will post more lated on how I used the excess cabbage (bought too much for the party).

The Ongoing Thanksgiving Season

I've decided to expand that "Thanksgiving Feeling" to a longer season. No reason some of the thoughts and sentiments which Thanksgiving calls forward cannot be extended into the Christmas season. There is so much for which to be thankful.

And you really can't eat all the Thanksgiving Recipes on Thanksgiving. Already, our Thanksgiving has been stretched out. We were supposed to serve dinner to guests, then go over to David's parents' house for supper. But one of our guests locked herself out of her apartment, away from the Sweet Potato Pie, Cake, and Ham she had prepared. Another prospective guest took off to try to find a way to open the apartment. So we had company into the evening. But David still got some of his Mom's coconut pie on Friday. We missed Debbie, but saw Donny, Carmine, Mom, Dad and Aunt Helen.

This year, Ken brought a "complete dinner" again, so I just had to fill in with a few extra dishes. I made "boiled" ham, (a small butt portion ham) in an oval 6-quart slow cooker, pumpkin bread pudding, cauliflower and broccoli, and I tried to make this cornbread dressing, but got distracted and burned the cornbread and pecans. Later. I haven't made Dixie Salad yet, either.

Earlier, I posted on the Pilgrim's struggle against famine here. No matter how hard our economic circumstances are this year, things could be worse.

No time to write more now. Hope everyone continues to have a nice Thanksgiving-to-Christmas season.

Fred and Jenny Getting Married

Fred and Jenny are getting married today. Wish we could be there. It's a pretty good idea to get married 2 days before Thanksgiving, I think.

The family was over decorating for the reception yesterday. Mom made sandwiches. Hope everyone has a wonderful time today.

Thanking Our Veterans

A Veteran knows things: He knows life is precious, because he’s seen
life cut short. He knows life is strange, because those that should die
live and those who have the most life sometimes die. He knows life is
not easily wrapped up in a box philosophically. He knows that plans
fail. He knows there’s such a thing as luck. A veteran chooses his hard
lessons and walks toward them.

Veterans at the World War II Memorial in Washington D.C. The video is kind of hard to get through without a tear or two. They were brought to the memorial by an organization dedicated to providing such trips. An American volunteer organization which de Toqueville might recognize as similar to the voluntary organizations of yesteryear which he thought were such an important feature of American culture. I expect that this organization would accept a donation from you.

Two songs, one for WWII and Korean vets, the other for Vietnam Vets. More tears for me, especially knowing some of the experiences David's Dad went through. And the trials that others in our families and among our friends have gone through. The website supports training for companion dogs for disabled veterans. Such a great idea. They accept donations. Or, there's this bipartisan effort, started on 11/11, to encourage 11 million Americans to donate 11 dollars to veteran support groups.

The VFW in our little town have been out handing out little poppies for donations for a couple of days now. I first saw them on the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. I always donate and pick up a couple of poppies, even though the fabric ones of today aren't as nice as the paper ones, handmade, they used to hand out.

Once, on a night train with Yvonne to Paris, I woke up in the early morning to see a field of poppies out the train window, just like the poppies in Flanders Fields. Kind of made the poem real to me. Europe has seen so much war over the centuries and suffered through two horrific wars in the last century. Right where I was at that moment, there may have been a battle in the past. Certainly there were battles not far from there. But the field looked peaceful from my train window in the dawn light.

I know it's not Memorial Day, but Veteran's Day also makes me think of Grandpa Smith, a chaplain in World War I. Flanders is, of course, in Belgium, from whence he was writing.

Hope your Veterans Day today is rich and meaningful.

I got tagged

Brandy tagged me with a list. She had a lot of good stuff on hers. Mine's a little weird, I think.

Five Things I Don't Leave the House Without
1. Purse
2. Keys
3. Shoes
4. Eyeglasses
5. Pen & paper

Five Cartoons I Watched When I Was Younger
1. Mighty Mouse
2. Bugs Bunny
3. Rocky & Bullwinkle
4. Fractured Fairytales
5. The Roadrunner

Five Things That Terrify Me (or at least creep me out)
1. Things that go bump in the night
2. Being chased by a wolverine at twilight
3. Emotional confrontations
4. Being really unprepared (like when you start to dream about going to an interview in your bath towel)
5. A prowler in the yard

Five Things I Hate/Dislike That Everyone Else Seems to Like
1. Most board games
2. Most card games
3. Playing touch football
4. Action movies with no plot, quite a few TV shows
5. Willie Nelson's voice. Bob Dylan's is a little unusual, too.

Five Things I Want to do Before I Die
1. Get really, really organized and focused on what's important
2. Teach David how to dance (even a little bit)
3. Go to visit Yvonne and Attila in Switzerland, maybe do a better job of visiting Italy.
4. Become an expert - at something.
5. Make amends

By the Way: 10 new recipes up. Potluck dishes, salads, winter suppers, etc.

History - 20th anniversary of the Fall of the Wall with Alvin and the Chipmunks.

And a highly recommended comedic movie set in Berlin just before the wall went up, One, Two, Three. The review, here, reveals some of the gags. Gives you just a taste of what was going on at the time in Germany.

Happy Halloween

Another little trip coming up. David's Mom and Dad will be staying at the house.

For Halloween, some professional-level pumpkin carvings. And a Catholic priest talks about the current vampire craze. Whoa. An artist carves Tigerhawk's face. Scared the kids, he says.

Update: We didn't get any trick-or-treaters. Too far from other (inhabited) houses, I guess. Tonight we "fall back" to standard time. An extra hour of sleep, which we will lose in spring.

Mom's 80th Birthday Party

Not everyone throws a party with dancing when they turn 80. But Mom did, of course. It was a wonderful idea and I think everyone had a good time.

We had a hectic afternoon last Saturday, but I managed to get a few pictures. I haven't figured out how to get any of them on this blog page yet. All of Mom's kids were there. Jeanine flew in from Oregon. We had lots of other relatives and friends, there, too. Many people with wonderful memories of past times together.

Mom planned the colors for her party around a tablecloth her sister, Claudia, had given her. The roosters on the tablecloth had a little lavender in their tail feathers. She had lavender flatware, plates and napkins, lavender M&Ms and a lavender hydrangea as a centerpiece on the refreshment table. She ordered chocolate and carrot cakes and bought nuts at a specialty store where they keep nuts fresh. We prepared cheese and grapes just before the party. David bought dates to go with the nuts.

It was one of those relaxed kinds of parties with old-time country dancing. You could hear yourself over the music. Which was a good thing, because there were a lot of interesting people to talk to.

Mom's friends who played for the party included musicians who played at the driveway dance at our wedding reception. Mom arranged that, too. Jeanine joined them for a few pieces.

Last Saturday, Julie taught and called the Virginia Reel - more like this one than this one. My foot stuck to the floor when I was sliding (nephew David was my partner, and he was enthusiastic). I fell but was not injured, thanks to the floor in the cultural hall which is built like the floor of a basketball court. Note to self: Get some dancing shoes. No more rubber soles when dancing.

I taught some of the nieces, nephews and others a rudimentary Varsovienne and a simple Schottische. Not nearly as fancy as this one, danced in a square. It was the elementary school version, sort of a partnered line dance. It's a very old, genteel dance. Some new steps for the Sweetheart Schottische here. Never considered doing the Schottische to Reggae until I read the Wikipedia entry.

You could dance the swing to many of the pieces played at Mom's party. More people knew the Swing than many of the older dances. And there were waltzes and polkas. It was the kind of a dance where Betty could become a boy to teach the Virginia Reel to a little girl, and where the young father of a disabled little girl did not need to feel self-conscious about taking her to the middle of the floor to dance with her, in her wheelchair.

A lovely evening. It started to rain as we got home. A brief downpour, with thunder, started as soon as we had unloaded the car. Dramatic. David, in the kitchen, thought he heard gunfire. Jeanine, in the living room, discovered that it was fireworks after the football game at the university. So we watched fireworks from the front door. Not everybody rates fireworks at the end of their birthday party. But Mom did. She deserved it.

I'll write more about our little trip later.

When things aren't where they're supposed to be

A while ago, David decided that it was time to tackle the imperfect finishing of the walls in the house. Most people wouldn't notice, but he did. It has bothered him for years. In preparation, we moved things from the bedroom and bathroom to the shed. We moved the furniture into the media room and the closets (except for the bed). No pantyhose for church one week. The blankets went in the living room.

David started re-doing the bathroom walls. He used an oil-based primer and everything. Then we went to Utah.When we got back. David's Mom had tidied up quite a bit, but things were still out of place.

Laundry stacked high (at least is was clean). The dogs had dug a little hollow under the Iceberg rose. Things took longer to do. Sometimes I couldn't remember where an item of clothing was. We had to unpack from our trip, too. Soon there was dust from drywall mud everywhere. I got strep throat (which responded quickly to penicillin) and we got colds which lingered. We cleaned a lot of the mess up, put the dressers back and . .

The dogs went into the bedroom to inspect. Lucky grabbed a pair of socks and laid on the bed on his back. Little Buddy started chewing on the nightstand. Troy the Giant Dog hid under the bed with only his tail sticking out. When he didn't come out for a biscuit, I tried to make a space for him to back out. He worked his way all the way under the bed to where we could see his face, and his big, brown eyes were mournful. We moved the bed and he was free at last!

The bedroom walls look better, especially to David. We'll have more shelves in the closet and the towel racks in the bathroom are more secure. We have little constellations of paint spots in the corner of one set of sheets. One looks like the Big Dipper. Whew. A lot of work. I was inspired to start throwing away old magazines and such.

Now David's started on the living room. We moved the table and laid drop cloths. One of the dogs found an old stain on a drop cloth and pooped on it. I just caught Little Buddy eating a ballpoint pen. Dust everywhere indoors. Outdoors, there's a gopher under the apple tree.

Here we go again. So much for getting normal things done. But we'll get a few big things done. In other news, we're still dealing with some very bizarre bureaucracy, and it's the anniversary of 9/11. Which puts our mundane problems in a little perspective. Lots of things, and people, aren't where they're supposed to be. Andrew Klavan has a piece up about the power of ideas. A clear, poetic presentation, though not everyone will agree with all the ideas in it.

Like all real things, ideas have qualities, characteristics. There are true ideas and false ones, practical and impractical, good ideas and bad. According to their qualities, ideas exert a force on human action. . .

Ideas create a tension between themselves and our behavior—and the resolution of that tension can set the very course of history. . .

Memories with Marilyn

It was wonderful to see my cousin Marilyn at the family reunion. My memories of her go way back. When she was a preschooler, she became famous in the family for her ability to identify the makes and models of just about any car on the road. She got some coaching from her Dad. I wasn't famous for anything at that age. I wondered if I would ever develop a skill comparable to her mastery of car recognition.

We are about the same age and once lived only a few blocks apart. We played together. Marilyn and Carolyn. Once in a while, we also hung out with our more sophisticated cousin Marie. Marie's older sister, Lynne, even put up with us. Marilyn and I reminisced at the reunion about an early memory of the mystery disappearance of the little moths we had caught. They vanished from the little plastic purses in which we were "saving" them. I can't imagine Marie doing anything like putting little moths in a purse, even when very young.

Despite our joint insect experiences, Marilyn never developed much of a tolerance for spiders. Once, when she and Dana were newlyweds living in the Farner's basement (at least, I think it was the Farner's house) she called me and I walked up to catch a spider that was in her house. It was quite a big one. Ever seen a picture of a woman standing on a chair because of a mouse in the house? It wasn't quite that bad. I think fear of spiders or snakes is just built into some people.

Growing up, I had bad dreams about black widows. I developed little rituals for jumping down stairs which I imagined would protect me if there were a black widow in the corner of the bottom step in the basement. But I was usually not too upset by other spiders. Mom told stories about watching spiders spin their webs above her head on the sleeping porch in the summer when she was growing up - including Black Widows. I fell somewhere between Mom and Marilyn on the "fear of spiders" scale.

I also have a fragmentary early memory of something to do with Marilyn's sweet younger sister Suzie and an earwig. I tried eating ants once, Suzie. And I think Suzie once drank perfume, too.

I remember their Mynah bird. Too cool. Later, Marilyn's mother, my aunt Marlene, adopted an orphaned (by its previous owner) caiman. Not everyone's aunt adopts a caiman. They take some specialized care. If someone had arranged for a dozen strangers to mingle with all my aunts and uncles on both sides of the family, and then asked the strangers which of my relatives they thought had a caiman at home, I don't think many would have chosen Aunt Marlene. But I really don't know who they WOULD have chosen.

Marilyn and I sometimes visited with Grandma and Grandpa together, too. When we were little, Grandpa taught us to sing Ach du lieber Augustin in German. Somewhere along the line, I also picked up the first verse to this song. Lyrics here. Sing along.

When I still thought I was too young to be a fan of a popular music group, Marilyn was already a fan of the Kingston Trio. We listened to their records in her basement room. I always think of them in striped shirts, for some reason. I remember the banjo snd guitars, as well as the singing.

Somehow, all these years, I have missed Steve Martin's banjo career, however. I thought of the Kingston Trio again when I came across a Steve Martin Banjo video today.

When we were teenagers, I remember Marilyn and Suzie's younger brother Jeff, Lynne and Marie's younger brother Brad and my younger brother Brent as sometimes being kind of ornery or mischievous at family gatherings. They've all reformed now.

It's nice to have extended family.

Back from our little trip

Well, we returned yesterday from our little trip to Utah. We were tired, but had good traveling weather both ways - Rain in the desert on the way - 69 degrees going into Las Vegas and 81 in the city itself - at 2:00 p.m. in August! Moderate monsoon weather continued in Utah - cool and overcast, a little rain, with one hot afternoon (hottest of the year) at 101 degrees.

Going home, we stopped at a casino in Mesquite in the afternoon. Our room was partially subsidized by gamblers. Only 103 degrees at 3:00 p.m. We parked in a shady spot. Skipped valet parking. The "real people" part of town - supermarket, Walmart, etc., are easily accessible from the freeway. Mesquite is in quite a pretty setting, surrounded by mountains. It's near Bunkerville, where our deceased friend Sylvia's family was from. She was born in a tent in Las Vegas, where her father was mining (I think), Early settlers in Bunkerville didn't have much more than tents. How spoiled we are.

We left Mesquite at 3:00 a.m. Clark County, Nevada, where Las Vegas is, must be huge. County fairgrounds are near Bunkerville and Mesquite. Settlers were able to establish dairy farms to serve Las Vegas after a road to the city was built. Hidden Valley Ranch is between Bunkerville and Vegas. The city is still more than an hour away from Mesquite even at freeway speeds.

It was 68 degrees outside Vegas (a "lake of lights" before dawn, as David put it). If you have to go through Vegas, that's a beautiful time of day to do it. Only 81 degrees in Baker. And as low as 64 degrees in the high desert.

David's Mom and Dad stayed with the animals, who mostly did fine. Maggie, Troy and Little Buddy refused to go outside once and Grandma had to show them a broom (don't know how they knew about brooms). Lucky went on strike for a while and wouldn't eat (he even refused chicken) or go outside. He demanded sympathy and love from Grandma. He broke his hunger strike with peanut butter and toast.

This trip was a very nice change for us. The dogs were thrilled to see us - raced around the yard. Geriatric Sparky and Dottie looked contented. Cats took everything in stride. More later on the family reunion, etc.