Thursday Thoughts #15

1. It is odd that newspapers trumped by technology are once again front and center and in demand and some issues are selling for over $100 on the Internet due to this election.

2. I was talking with hubby about the successful cloning of the frozen mouse and how creepy it was to think they could possibly clone a mastadon. Hubby (ever the scientist) thought that sounded 'cool' no pun intended. I responded with my concern about some virus for which we have no immunity that might come along with that frozen mastadon tissue. His face fell and he said, "Yeah, there are always hitchhikers in biology."

3. I am seeing more roadkill (deer) these days. Hubby explained it was probably due to mating season. "The hormones rise and the deer get crazy, unlike male humans whose hormones are always up and therefore, they are always a little crazy."

4. I got tired of spreading the composted soil that hubby was dumping in each of the raised beds with the wheelbarrow. Wiping the sweat from my forehead, I complained and hubby (who has a Ph.D.) said he was the one that got to pile higher and deeper and since I had only a Masters...I had to do the spreading.

5. While I was in the nearby larger town last week for my mammogram (OUCH!) I saw a sign above the door as I entered that said Medical Arts Building. My immediate thought was that I wanted the Medical Science building not some artsy-fartsy place.

6. Hubby was reading our latest retirement financial report and sighing audibly. I glanced over his shoulder and looked briefly at the bar graph and the line graph at the top of the report. Since nothing was above the baseline on the bar graph I immediately said he was holding the report upside down. He glared at me and said NO...he was right!

7. I cannot keep thinking that Condolezza Rice would be a good Secretary of State for Obama...but with Kerry in the running and being owed for all those emails I kept getting from him during this campaign, it will never happen.

8. I thought it odd that McCain drove away all by himself out of the garage at the hotel in Arizona the following morning. Where was his wife?

9. I learned this month that it takes almost a year for birds**t to wash away by weather from the roof shingles...just a little trivia for your information.

10. Speaking of birds**t, the cardinal is back and hanging out on the inside edge of the lantana pot. He was eating the bugs, pooping into the pot and then tapping at the bottom of the deck window at his image. Now I know why my lantana is so healthy.

Hang in there, Colleen, I will try to make it to thirteen... some Thursday...but don't hold me to a theme ;-)

The Morning After

The lines at the voting booth yesterday morning were somewhat long but it only took me 30 minutes waiting time before I did my duty as a citizen. Everyone in line was calm and friendly and the polling staff were super friendly...almost as if anticipating frustrated citizens.

I came home and spent the better part of the day watching the election coverage while doing laundry, small cleaning and nursing hubby through a cold he caught from his precious granddaughter.

As the rainy day progressed and the tension built I tried to keep my mind on busy activities. I channel surfed through a dozen news channels to make sure I didn't miss anything. In the P.M. I ran outside and took some pictures of the fall which has peaked in my yard but was drawn to the TV each time I came back inside. I knew and told my husband that we were not going to get any resolution on this until at least 11:00 P.M. and so we prepared for a long evening.

Late in the evening after dinner, as the network I was watching ran the final vote of Virginia across the screen; we turned to each other and high-fived each other realizing that at last our hope for this country to get back on track was now very possible.

I was so impressed by John McCain's speech and wondered why he had let the party base transform him into that very erratic and angry man that we had seen over the months. Yes, he was talking about losing to my candidate, but the real man came through and I realized the election could have changed on a dime if he had been his true self.

Then we watched the faces of all the people in times square as Obama made his dignified and statesman-like speech. No bragging, grinning or fist pumping. He knows the huge challenges that lie ahead and that is why I voted for him. He knows that this is about turning the Democracy around as the world watches--and the international newspaper headline this morning confirm my view. I had tears in my eyes and was so elated that it took quite a while to fall asleep after watching the happy black and white families on the podium wave to the citizens.

Now this morning I realize that wasn't just a romantic dream and feel so relieved...so safe...so honest once again.

VOTE!

Tomorrow, as early as I can muster, I will go to my polling place to vote. I am "dreading" the possible rainy weather and the possible long lines since I did not decide to vote by absentee ballot. If I had lived in this small town for longer, perhaps I would see this as an opportunity to visit with townfolk that I had not seen in a long time. It would be an opportunity to catch up on the activities of children and grandchildren. If I had volunteered, as I was asked a few weeks ago, to work at the polling place, I would be so busy that I would not have time to dread a long line. Instead I would be dreading the long day! But I passed this effort this time and actually hope to volunteer in some way in the coming years.

In all honesty I am not totally dreading the voting lines or the slowness of process. I am excited as I always have been every time I voted over the years. I am romantic and passionate about my country and the beauty of this process whereby we select those who will lead us. Sure, sometimes my candidate doesn't get in and once or twice we even get a duffus who hasn't a clue about the constitution and the significance of the job ( like the last two presidential elections). I only missed one vote since I turned 18 and that was when I was living overseas and failed to get an absentee ballot on time. Early years that I have gone to cast my vote I took my small children with me so that they could see this important process. I talked to them about how powerful it was and when they grew up, they all could be a participant in this process.

I disagree with Sara Palin and honestly believe that every single person in line with me tomorrow will be pro-American. Every person will be from the "Real" part of the States in America. And I am proud to stand with them no matter how they vote. And if you have not already voted or are not going to vote tomorrow...you better have a d**n good reason!

The Room With Walls or the Wren House

Due to the cooler evenings and my craving for a substantial dinner, I decided to roast a 4 pound chicken for our meal two nights ago. I marinated the fat bird in the early afternoon and started to preheat the oven. I stuffed the bird with onions and sliced apples and it took several hours to roast making the kitchen cozy and warm. Adding some cheese potatoes and a nice salad made the meal complete. When all was ready, hubby and I sat down to a perfect late October dinner. We threw our healthy caution to the wind and proceeded to stuff our little stomachs to the brim. With my last swallow of wine, I pushed myself back from the table and wondered if I would regret my piggyness.

Hubby graciously offered to clean up after dinner and I slowly burped my way upstairs to read some blogs. I heard him banging the roasting pan lid trying to get it clean. He called up to me asking what he should do with the drippings at the bottom of the pan. I did not want all that tempting but unhealthy fatty salty broth sitting around and suggested he may want to dump it in the woods outside.

I heard him open the front door and then I heard him bang the pan on the stoop and I heard a whuffet sound and my husband swearing softly under his breath.

When I called down asking about the commotion, he said that the new porch resident, a wren, flew into his face. We have a little wren that has tried to set up tenancy in my autumn door decoration and with the addition of the bug-filled split wood for the fire now added to the porch, she has a grocery store just beneath her new home.

I could hear the door was still open.

"She didn't get in, did she?" I asked.

"I am afraid she did." hubby sighed.

Well the next hour (or what seemed like an hour) of our leisure evening with stomachs full of food was spent trying to encourage a small wren to leave the house. We closed all the doors and cupboards and turned off the ceiling fans. I had to get out the very, very long light-bulb changing pole to make her leave her perch on the chains of our hanging foyer lights in the second story. Hubby almost destroyed the geranium I had recently brought inside and placed on a corner near the window as she tried to hide behind that plant several times.

After depositing bird doo on various walls, she eventually tucked in behind some decorative basket ware that we have on the shelf above the foyer. Hubby was determined to get out and balance on that shelf and try to catch her, but I was adamant that I was not willing to add a visit to the emergency room to this evening's adventures and insisted that we try alternatives.

We don't have a butterfly net, but in desperation, got out the fish net to see if we could capture her. Of course, the weave is too big and although we swooped it over her several times, she acrobatically made it through the holes. Once hubby and I almost bumped heads as we dived for her, temporarily caught beneath the net on the kitchen floor.

Eventually she became tired and we were able to catch her in our hands. We very gently and carefully took her out the front door where she instantly dive bombed into the shelter of the wood on the porch. I sw her hopping around the porch today, appearing none the worse for wear, but chiding me in her whistling fashion. (The photo above is of another wren, perhaps a juvenile relative, that was on our deck this summer.)

Full Fathom Five

According to a search that I completed on the Internet, 101 submarine movies have been made and viewed by American audiences over the years.

I have, oddly enough, been attracted to submarine movies and I am guessing that is because I would be terrified to be out on a submarine. My fear of being beneath the surface of the ocean and being cramped in a metal machine probably allowed me to enjoy vicariously the challenges by watching the adventures of submariners much the same way that people watch horror movies. Therefore, as I perused the Internet list, I have seen approximately 30 of these movies. I do not read books about submariners and their adventures or the history of the Navy.

But, I had been reading Mary Lee Coe Fowler's blog about living in Maine for over a year and when she published her book, I decided to give it a try.

ML's book is introduced this way on the cover:

"Mary Lee Coe Fowler was a posthumous child, born after her father, a submarine skipper in the Pacific, was lost at sea in 1943. Her mother quickly remarried into a difficult and troubled relationship, and Mary Lee’s biological father was never mentioned. It was not until her mother died and Mary Lee was a middle-aged adult that she set out to learn not only who her father was, but what happened to him and his crew, and why—and also to confront why she had shied away from asking these questions until it was nearly too late."

The book is filled with the extensive and dedicated research that she did to find all of the puzzle pieces to put this compelling story together. It was a rush against time as many of the people she talked to and corresponded with were quite elderly. But it is not written like a research treatise. I found it easy to identify with the little girl in search of her father, her mother who finds romance with a young Navy man, and the young seamen whose lives depend on the leadership of this man, her father. Having traveled throughout Hawaii and the South Pacific and having seen the remains of the war with the Japanese on some of these Pacific Islands, I was very familiar with the setting of the latter part of this book.

I learned about the bureaucracy of the Navy Department, and how back then, much like today, a bureaucratic and career protectionist leadership can hinder the safety and success of the missions we give to our sailors (military). I was inspired by the tremendous dedication these Navy men gave to their jobs under very difficult conditions.

This is a well-written and also compelling story. ML is able to step back and give the story the balance it needs as she searches for the truth about her father. It is one that is, perhaps, enjoyed more by readers with the perspective that comes with age and experience. So, if you are looking for some good reading as the seasons change and you must remain indoors for longer times, I can certainly recommend this book by the fireside.

Meeting the Spirit of Blogging

The ghost of Mary Lee

Many bloggers, especially those who have been posting for a number of years, have had an opportunity to meet and greet an actual person that has a blog that they have been reading. While I was fascinated by this social activity, as I would read about the event in the many other blogs, I often felt that it must be something like a blind date... exciting in the beginning but usually somewhat disappointing at the end. We all have images and expectations of these bloggers that we think we know from regular reading of their blog, but to put these expectations to the test I felt would only result in somewhat of a failure. What we see through the blog can be revealing, but we are complicated individuals and I think we only see a ghost of that person since we are not able to read any body language or hear a tone of voice in the sometimes superficial ongoing digital conversations that we have.

I had an opportunity to meet a 'blogmate' recently and was filled with a little dread in the beginning...would they like me...do they really know me...do I know them?! I mean this wasn't just a lunch date, I actually invited her to spend the night. I live in an out-of-the-way place and when someone visits it means they have an hour and half drive to the activity that brought them to this area in the first place if they decide stop by my house as part of their travels.

I wrote Tammy about this potential meet-up to voice my concerns because she meets bloggers fairly often, many of them involved in her mission in life. She encouraged me to go for it and insisted that I would not be unhappy with the meet-up at all. While I realized I should take her advice I also took it with a grain of salt knowing that Tammy is a really nice person and I cannot imagine her meeting anyone that she would not be able to adapt to or like.

So when Mary Lee Fowler emailed me that she was coming to give several book talks in my area and wanted to see if we could meet and also asking how close I was to several nearby cities and towns where she would be, I offered to drive up for a coffee or lunch. Then I threw caution to the wind and also asked if she would like to come down my way. I explained that it was a lengthy trip and she should plan on spending the night if that could be worked into her schedule. She accepted! Of course, the closer we got to the day, I became a 'little' nervous wondering about her expectations and mine. Some of the few readers of my blog may be wondering about my maturity right now...but I am a little anal and want things to go fairly well or not at all. (ML is probably smiling at this revelation as she reads this.)

Well, of course, the meet-up went very well. We were in sync on politics and religion and didn't have any tension in talking about the things for which we feel great passion. We also both love the out-of-doors and worked in a long morning wooded walk to a small beach, which is a great activity for someone who has been sitting in a car for over 10 hours. She had to leave by early afternoon which gave us just enough time to not get tired of each other. I cannot help but think how brave she is to drive alone almost 600 miles to meet a stranger and spend the night in their house! I don't know that I would have that fearlessness. I certainly hope she sold a lot of books.

Blogmates

Next post I will write about her book which I read.

Monday Madness--Feeling "Blue" and Needing a Nap

1. I am very very tired of hearing how getting an ivy league education makes you an elitist. It makes you (or means your already were) smart and/or rich...and only, perhaps if lucky or hardworking, you can become a member of the elite. Was our last Ivy League educated president an elitist? (Def. elite: being an expert in an area.)

2. I am very very tired of class warfare. Some rich citizens are greedy crooks and/or lazy and some poor citizens are greedy crooks and/or lazy. Making everyone a black or white peg is even more lazy and cannot help solve our problems. Most of us are hard working and honest.

3. I am very very tired of all the hoopla about the price of gas. We in American are not having any effect on its rise or fall in price anymore...other countries are. We have lost our strong economic lead in the world...get over it.

4. I am very very tired of hearing how the "bailout/rescue" package will work. Anything it does is temporary. The economy will be forced to correct itself when the value of everything from stocks to housing prices to jobs reaches true values once again and this will be months and months from now. There will be more death and destruction along the way. (Most of the rich will be impacted only in the amount of caviar they can consume.)

5. I am very very tired of hearing talking heads on TV discuss the stupid issues and refuse to delve into the more complicated issues because we are a nation of channel surfers and want our news microwaved not baked. (ACORN is a primary example.)

6. I am very very tired of Barack Obama being touted as the first Black American candidate who has gotten close to being elected. Our culture is so prejudiced that his mother's heritage is trumped by any tinge of 'other.' I've got news, if elected he will be our first Bi-racial President.

7. I am very very tired of the lack of statesmanship and honesty that this election has been reduced to. Both sides have gotten mud all over themselves and it isn't even solid enough to make good pottery. Where are the great leaders?

8. I am very very tired of the argument that 'experience' trumps intelligence when we are looking for leadership. A President will have access to great advice. So if an intelligent candidate seems inexperienced look at the advisers that he/she selects. And of course the counter argument put out is that being an insider and having lots of experience is bad. Just look at the their record.

9. I am very very tired of the lack of transparency in our Republican candidates. John McCain's wife said that Sarah Palin was vetted very carefully and she was ready for prime time and to "Bring it on." OK, when is this babe ready for taking on the "liberal press?" As Tina Fey comments, she gets lost in a corn maze when talking about important issues. (I remember Bush's restriction of access by the press and lack of press conferences. The free press may be mostly liberal because it constantly questions, but truth trumps all.)

10. I am very very tired of the fact that this Presidential election has taken the focus off of our Congressional and State elections. This is where much important work will be done in this economy. Thus, I am all for shorter campaign trails with more restricted spending on them. (Disclosure: Since I have recently moved to this local part of the state I need to get my game on in this area.)

Now I will go take a nap and not rant about this election anymore because whomever inherits this mess deserves a medal, it is a promise!

Thursday Thoughts #13

1. Yesterday we put in a three-foot high retaining wall and moved about 15 wheelbarrows full of dirt to the area. I said to my husband that my mother would be greatly dismayed to learn, after my expensive college education, I had become a 'ditch digger' in my old age. His response: "At least it's your own ditch!"

2. I do not know which I hated most yesterday as I sat on a small stool in the dirt and wound large bolts into the posts of the retaining wall...the smell of the deer repellent I had just sprayed throughout the yard or the smell of the Deet that I had sprayed on my legs due to the mosquitoes.

3. We are approaching what is called 'open season' in the health care world and my husband and I will be changing health insurance carriers. Why do I think this is going to be a maze from which I will probably need hospital care?

4. I have been married 38 years yet I keep forgetting that when my husband asks if I want to go for a boat ride, he really means do I want to spend 4 hours fishing up and down the bay---NOT a lovely sunset ride with a glass of wine in hand?

5. My kitchen floor is frequently covered with bits of food after cooking which is a very good reason I need to get a dog. My floors were clean when I had a dog. Even the one-year-old granddaughter cannot keep my floors clean these days.

6. I am thinking about letting my hair go gray...yep...Oddly, Hubby is more shocked about this thought than I am.

7. #6 above means I am probably letting myself go in retirement, but I still put on mascara and lipstick before I head to the Post Office. All of my vanity is not totally gone.

8. The whole family sat around the metal fireplace that we put out on the new patio last weekend. I noticed that sitting around fires keeps the 20 and 30-somethings and even the little ones subdued long enough to have great conversations.

9. Loving this 80 degree weather but I know that the colder fall air is jet-streaming over the trees this week.

10. I have been using the elliptical machine fairly regularly (running 2.5 miles about 3 times a week) and after much sweat---real, honest, disgusting sweat---I have finally lost 10 pounds. 15 to go...I hate the elliptical...love the free weights and the yoga and most especially the stretching at the end when I get to lie down.

Who is to Blame?

The media seems to be ignoring the statistics and facts on the demographics of the subprime crises perhaps because they are not sexy. But, by paying attention to these demographics we can perhaps craft a better fix so that it does not happen again.

"The problem with portraying the foreclosure crisis as a minority and low-income problem is that it affects how solutions will be approached. If, on one hand, it is believed that subprime rate loans were predominately made to marginal segments of society (Black, Hispanic or low-income) housing policymakers may approach solutions with bias assumptions about minorities and minority qualifications (low education, bad credit, and low-paying jobs, etc.). Thus, there may a tendency to write-off the subprime lending debacle as a type of affirmative action gone bad. On the other hand, if it is believed that the foreclosure crisis affects broader and more
demographically diverse segments of society then a more politically responsible approach is likely, thereby changing the tone, climate and context of how solutions are crafted.

Not enough research and media attention has been devoted to other causes of the subprime crisis that may have race and gender effects. Issues of steering, weak underwriting, fraud, and discrimination have not been aggressively investigated. Despite the presence of federal regulation and periodic examinations for safety and soundness, Community Reinvestment Act compliance and fair lending compliance, efforts to uncover whether subprime rate loans can be explained by legitimate business justifications will be impaired based on erroneous assumptions about the
demographic distribution of subprime rate loans.

Last, if it is believed that subprime rate lending is predominately an urban minority problem, officials will fail to see that in 2006 non-Hispanic Whites had 1,108,676 subprime rate loans of which 868,806 or 78.36% were in census tracts <30% minority. The subprime lending meltdown is better described as a mainstream white suburbia problem with aspects that affect minorities and urban communities. Erroneous assumptions about the demographics of subprime rate lending will only lead to poor decisions that result in ineffective solutions." The whole report is here:

In addition, note that the primary areas for defaults on subprimes are in the states of Florida, California, Arizona and Nevada and a substantial number of these defaults are for NON_OWNER occupied homes.

We can't fix this if we don't fully understand the details and try to determine the causes.

Too Much of a Good Thing

If you look closely you will see two trees (actually two sprouts from an older cherry tree that is growing straight up right next to these two widow-makers) that are going to fall anytime soon across the path to the dock. The last tree fell without a wind, heavy rain or anything else that would give one pause.


This is the wood from the most recent tree which we have put at the back of the wood pile to dry.

This is the first tree (another cherry) that fell that we still have to move to the wood pile!

This is the pile of old logs (perhaps you remember from my "build that house blog") that my husband asked the builder to leave so that he could use them for firewood. Yeah, right! Here they sit sheltering snakes and creating food for termites. He did say he would split the wood this year...we will see. The orange tarp to the back shelters a LOT of wood that has been split and cut for the fireplace. Enough to keep us warm for this winter and perhaps next!

One Down, Three Thousand to Go

This is the second time in a month that our contractor has been blocked from exiting (first time was entering) the lot to work on the patio due to a fallen tree across the road. This happened just 30 minutes after he return from an errand! Please bring your trailer by if you need any firewood this winter. We have two widow makers over the path to the dock and no cash to deal with them at this time!!

Fall Projects

We had saved up a sum of money to put in a patio under our deck this fall and we now realize that was better than leaving it in the market! For the past week or so we have been doing our little bit for the economy by employing almost 4 men full time to clear grass, put in drains, set paver stone, aerate the lawn and seed the destroyed areas. It was supposed to take a little less than 4 days, but I think that with economy slowing down the landscape firm was in no rush to have staff return to the store and sit waiting for another assignment and so the crew was actually here for 7 days which did not increase the cost of the contract.

During that time my husband and I began clearing the garden and moving ALL of the soil (he did most of the work as I have been fighting some illness) and now we will level the whole area and put in a series of raised container beds. We spent the last of the wad of money on cedar boards--the worst grade they had which is stunningly beautiful even so---for the walls of the beds. Hopefully with landscape cloth and mulch on the paths between the beds, we will get some control over the weeds next year.

They had to tear up the lawn with the little bulldozer, but also aerated and reseeded the areas and now we wait for the lawn to come up once again. We also had them take down some dead trees on the edge of the lawn in the front yard, and now, guess what? I get to put in ANOTHER flower bed. (I still haven't gotten the deer fence up but I tend to be more optimistic than realistic!) The far side of this bed will be for cut flowers. I love cutting flowers and bringing them inside the house to enjoy as I do my chores.

The new patio provides a rather large sitting area beneath the deck that will be handy during the hottest part of summer and also nice for fall when we want to sit around a small fire pit. Right now a fine layer of dust and dirt is everywhere --- on the window sills, the deck chairs, the potted plants and the brick. Thus the project today, if the weather stays warm enough, is to wash all of the outside before the grandchildren show up on the weekend. S'mores anyone?

Walk the Walk

Sunday, an absolutely perfect fall day, was our reward for going to watch our son's band play for the Humane Society Walk for the Animals. This first photo was before most of the crowd showed with their dogs. His band played off and on for FIVE HOURS---10:00 to 3:00. He was fighting a head cold and had to be there at 6:30 that morning for early set up as they were closing Constitution Ave. in the A.M. It was a good cause, but I am glad he still has his day job.

The location, Constitution Gardens, was perfect for both dogs and their owners.

And my little Xman had a good time listening and dancing to his Uncle's beat. We all were afraid he would fall into that "E. coli" lake, but he kept his coordination together.

They were supposed to have a tent with potential animals to adopt and I was worried my husband would lock eyes with a mutt and fall in love from across the room (tent). But this was put on hold for another day, because we were so busy visiting, listening to the music, and watching the toddlers that we didn't make it back up the hill. We ARE going to get a dog, probably sometime this year, but we have escaped mutt love for the time.

The Good Life

Yesterday I went to a wine festival. I haven't attended one of these in a decade and discovered in my old age that my palate can get quite tired of the swishing and not swallowing as much as it got tired of the actual drinking. There is only so much wine an old palate can survey before it all starts tasting the same. I decided I was going to just compare the cabernet sauvignons, pinot grigios and maybe a chardonnay or two...but I also came across a new wine called a traminette. Some of you may be familiar with this white wine, which used to be NY65.533.13 and has only recently been given the name Traminette. It was developed at Cornell---those aggies have a grape breeding program. If you go to the link you can see that the wine grows best in a climate such as the mid-Atlantic and thus the one I tasted was both fruity/spicy and also smooth without being sweet. So with a 15% discount I had to pick up 6 bottles of this and then 6 of another wine they had, the Viognier. This is an old grape but also one with which I am not familiar.. Its buttery flavor on the tongue was what won me over.

I now have a mixed case of white wines to get me through the crisp fall days. I also bought a small basket of fuji apples that are so crunchy sweet we may eat them all before I get around to making another pie. I sliced (too lazy to peel) them and fried them in butter, brown sugar, threw in some cinnamon, freshly ground nutmeg, black walnuts and some dried sweet cranberries...a dessert that was so quick and easy last night and put the perfect ending on our dinner of fresh corn on the cob, tomato salad and crab from the dock. I have died and gone to heaven.

Where Have All the Leaders Gone?

A month ago I heard Jim Webb, best selling author, on National Public Radio talk about America's current situation. I liked so much what he said and even more so the tenor of his speech that I immediately ordered his book "A Time to Fight, Reclaiming a Just and Fair America." I am not as smart as I should be and I really didn't know anything about Webb prior to this radio interview and prior to reading this book. He is a bestselling author, a former much-decorated marine, an award winning journalist, a highly placed member of the Reagen administration and now a Senator with a son who fought as a marine in Iraq.

I have just finished this book and was relieved to find that intelligence and common sense do exist in at least one member of the Senate these days. This is not a fun read nor a beach read, but something that helped me put together the pieces of the puzzle that form the picture of America today. This book reassured me that leadership of the right kind can set this country back on track. Rome is burning, but its citizens can put out the fire with this election.

"In short, our problems are not systemic, as in those of other countries where despair, tyranny, and revolution became the order of the day. ..Our challenges are not in repairing our system of government but in improving the way we have been selecting our leaders. .. Those who do not want significant reform in America enjoy the emotional arguments that occupy hours of political commentary while keeping our citizens distracted from the issues that truly threaten our future. Should we imprison people who burn our flag? Should gays be permitted to marry? Can you love the troops and still hate the war? Should Britney spears be allowed to keep her kids? Did Charlie Wilson use cocaine?...

"We need to get past these artificialities and focus on the long-term good of the country. And today, the inalienable bottom line of solving America's may problems is to simply find good leaders and hold them accountable."

I saw the most recent debate and I am voting for the candidate who was not condescending, could look his opponent in the eye, dismissed simple solutions, and kept all options open, including diplomacy, in solving the worlds most dangerous problems. America is not about looking tough but about being tough.

Life in Interesting Times

After much anxiety these past days, I am pretty much against the bailout unless it goes directly to citizens who are losing their houses or who are losing jobs based on the decisions of the greedy barons. Those who made 6+ figure salaries and bonuses and actually had authority to make these greedy decisions should be sent home to lick their wounds and use this as a learning experience. There is no doubt in my mind that many of them have sheltered most of their wealth prior to this debacle anyway. I do not trust those on Paulson's team who decide who gets this big bag of money. I do not like the fact that they are giving the greedy and stupid a pass while those banks and investment firms that were careful and honest will not be rewarded for their contributions to keeping our economy stable. Maybe the money should go to those smaller banks and investment firms who are not in the red and let them decided which 'toxic' assets they wish to purchase at a discount. Let the Feds work on regulation---again!!

Having written the hard line above, I must admit that I have the luxury of not having to live off of my small stock portfolio which has already lost 30%. I have a small retirement salary that is insured by the feds as does my husband, our health insurance is insured and transferable and our daily needs have been reduced greatly in retirement. Our home is paid for. Our biggest expense is property taxes, but the value of my home has fallen 13%---so maybe in a year or two I will be rewarded by that.

Yes, I accept that inflation will rise rapidly (which it may do anyway) and that affects those who are not as lucky as I am. Perhaps we can use this money to stimulate that side of the economy, subsidizing fixed needs--let socialism rear is ugly head. I also accept that heating oil may triple in costs as will food. I also realize that my portfolio may disappear. Those who, with pain and sacrifice, lived through the Great Depression came through and were wiser and stronger. Maybe this is the dose of medicine America needs when we complain about how expensive it is to heat our swimming pools and eat in 4 star restaurants and plan those huge weddings and put gas in our luxury transportation vehicles. We already use most of the worlds resources per capita and now is time to pay the piper for that lifestyle.

Ike

A long while back I posted a story about the flooding of my house during a tropical storm in this blog entry. This story took place just 10 miles north of Galveston. During the time of this event I was working in Galveston part time. Ike has brought all those nasty memories back again.

Where I Fit In.

My husband was able to take some time off during his business trip to visit South Point on the Big Island of Hawaii. This point is the southernmost point of the United States and from what I remember during the two times I have visited there, it is a windy and vast and humbling place. If you walk toward the water you will see the green sand beaches where polished olivine mineral colors the sand with lime green. I love places like these. I love the desolate parts of the desert in the mid-west where the sound of human civilization is not heard. You are all alone and you can almost feel as if you are the only person on the planet. South Point also gives this isolated and breathtaking feeling. My inner spirit does not shrink with loneliness or fear or loss in places like these. I do not feel alone, but instead, feel as if I am part of something so big and so wonderful that I also have a place on the vast green beach just like the grains of sand. These isolated places are restorative for me. They give me some perspective on my daily problems and concerns.

While visting South Point, my husband encountered a Canadian couple on their honey-moon trying to take their own picture. He volunteered assistance and that lead to a conversation about the U.S. election. The Canadians asked my husband where he stood in this time in our history. My husband is an ardent supporter of Barrack Obama as he feels his ideas reflect global views and reasonable approaches. He explained that having a President of color would also improve the skewed view that the world currently has of us. It would show that we have moved beyond prejudice and finally grown up as a country. As they talked, the Canadians could not believe that there was still prejudice in the United States to the extent it would affect an election.

Well, it appears from a recent poll that the evidence (and I caution my readers that I do not place much weight in political polls nor do I think the connection of the dots in this particular poll is necessarily supported) does not bode well for our evolution as a country. If you are still afraid of something different, big changes or concerned with something you do not understand about human behavior that bothers you, I strongly recommend you take a course in Critical Thinking.

Jaded

For those of you who have passports, can you remember the first time you got yours? I can. I was heading out to live in Palau, Micronesia, and while a passport was not absolutely necessary since it was a U.S. Territory at the time, it was a good idea. After all, we were going to be pretty close to Asia and I might get a chance to visit those many exotic and intriguing countries...and I eventually did! I was in my early 20's and had never traveled outside the U.S.A. This passport was like a luxurious cruise ticket to me. I felt very sophisticated and as if the next best part of my life was just around the corner.

As a teenager I wanted so much to get out of that tiny farm town and see the world. I had no money and was barely able to save and borrow for college. But the best part of the world was just beyond my reach. I was so sheltered at that time, that a trip into Denver got me excited! I even considered joining the Peace Corps to insure travel, and while I got the big intimidating envelope they send out, after reading each page, I felt I could not afford the two years as a volunteer. I had to get on with college and get a job.

Kenju had asked in the prior post if I had passed up a trip to Hawaii just so I could cook. I am a little embarrassed to admit that, in part, I did. I am somewhat jaded by my life experiences. While I love each and every unique island in Hawaii, I have been to Hawaii maybe a dozen times. I actually lived on Oahu for over a year when I went to graduate school there. I spent my honey-moon on the big island---which is very interesting life story in itself that I have to blog some day. I have passed through the tropical state and spent weekends recuperating on return trips from living or visiting various parts of Asia.

So, yes, Kenju, I did pass up the trip to Hawaii. I do know that I am not so jaded that had the month been January or February, I probably would have thrown a swimsuit into a bag and jumped at the opportunity. But for now, retirement and free scheduling around my house are still very fulfilling. After all, yesterday I cleaned out the refrigerator for the first time in two years! And today I have on my schedule to paint those two large iron suns that hang above the garage doors so that they match the window frame colors more closely. (Smile.)

Sometimes, being jaded just means you have lived a pretty rich and fulfilling life.

Fall is the busy season

The fact that my husband is again off to Hawaii means once again I can enjoy a free schedule and alone time. Thus I finished the apples and peaches and have a freezer full of pie fillings. Next my energies were focused on filling ice cube trays with parmesan pesto to use up a lot of the basil. Then I filled the cookie sheets with leaves of Thai basil, licorice basil, and lemon basil and then put those trays into the freezer for about 20 minutes. Then working like Speedy Gonzales I placed the flat leaves into zip lock freezer bags for this winter's meals.


Finally, I have begun to fall behind on using the fresh tomatoes---and believe me, this year we have a very small harvest because my husband put in a fast garden. I dread the tons of tomatoes we will harvest next year when he really gets his game on. I had to preserve the plum tomatoes and so I made my version of tomato sauce---which means I am too lazy to remove the seeds---and I got about two quarts of garlic, basil tomato sauce which I froze. I might have been able to make more if I had been less sloppy!


One of the nicest things about retirement is that one can enjoy life's harvest at leisure. I do not have to cram all this cooking into a weekend along with doing the laundry and driving kids places and paying bills! I can actually slow down and smell the sauce and take my time in labeling the zip locks and plastic containers so that I know what in the world these gray freezer bags contain when snow is on the ground and I need something for dinner. I can actually take time to rearrange the freezer under the refrigerator and the chest freezer in the garage so that the older things are near the top. (We finally finished the last of the frozen crab from last year this summer!)

Yes, one of the things about getting old is that it tends to be all about food!

Do Some Research!

I am trying to stay out of blogging about this election because I am so passionately opinionated and concerned...but Bill has a good blog referral here for everyone who is confused and/or thinks everyone is a crook and wonders why they should vote!!

Bloody Ground

This weekend we stopped by the Gettysburg National Military Park which has a brand new museum and visitor center, much of it is funded by Northrup Grumman. For some historians the Battle of Gettysburg was the turning point in America's Civil War. The fact that hundreds of books, new ones each year, are written about America's Civil War are testament to this wound that still scars our history.


The photo above seems so sterile compared to the lives lost and blood soaked ground that it represents.

"In the aftermath of the battle, every farm field was a graveyard and every church, public building and even private homes were hospitals."

While reading some information about this war I came across this quote:

"The most astute theologian of the crisis, a layperson named Abraham Lincoln, framed the issue in simple terms: "Both sides read the same Bible and pray to the same God." And since they prayed for different outcomes, "the prayers of both could not be answered." In an environment like ours in which the role of religion in public life is energetically debated and values such as freedom are said not to be "America's gift to the world" but instead "'God's gift to humanity," the Civil War provides a cautionary tale about the limits of religious belief in guiding a democracy."

Sound familiar? I guess what amazes me is how easily some folks take the high ground without a second thought. They clearly have a clearer channel to the pure truth than I do.

Fall Baking

Hanna must have dumped a lot of rain and not much wind. We don't have a rain gauge, but this storm left far less damage and mess than a recent summer storm that passed over our heads in July and brought a nearby tornado. Even the lawn is not covered with much debris. Ike does not appear to be planning to pee over our heads, so we may be spared this summer once again.

I brought back small baskets of apples and peaches from the farms in southern Pennsylvania and will be making pie filling all day today for enjoyment this winter. If I smell like nutmeg and/or cinnamon and the door handles to the garage (where the freezer now sits) are sticky you know I am in the midst of pie making.

Of course, this also means I have to spend more time on the elipitical in the future!!

P.S. Yes, the photo below is of one of my three humming birds that seem to spend most of their time fighting over the one lantana pot I have on the deck!

A Girl Scout is Prepared

They are talking about winds of 25-35 and gusts up to 50 MPH. Moved all the outside furniture and took the boat out of the water. Had to take down the hummingbird feeder, sorry. We have to be somewhere else over the weekend, so I hope the house is standing OK and dry when we get back.

JOY

There is clearly not enough joy shown by me in my life and the older I get the less it rears its orange head.

There are common places to find joy...other's joy...dogs, grandchildren, newlyweds, rock stars. Once self-consciousness and self-awareness begin to grow as we become teenagers and young adults, it seems that the joy level in many people gets buried under what looks right and what feels normal and what we know is acceptable. Or it manifests itself as dorkiness.

Sure, there are lots of cool souls that keep their joy levels erupting at regular intervals and feeding energy into the atmosphere for the rest of us. I remember years ago going to a country western bar at Disney World, and as the band started playing, this 70-something lady in a country western skirt and shirt began clapping her hands high over her head as she stood in front of the band and let the music fill her soul. She was singing out and having the best time of her life and would have been acting this way even if no one else was in the room. I am guessing that she would not need a country western band to let her joy show. She is the kind of person that probably shows joy in a perfect morning breeze! You know, the person who throws their head back and grins at the sky as they walk.

Several of "my" bloggers are the joy-filled type. I could get a whole new perspective if I hung out with them. They savor the minutes and give thanks through passionate release of joy each day.

I will give you a full-faced smile, but that is the extent of my dorkiness release. I am married to someone who has no problem dancing in the streets at a moments notice. He can get excited like a puppy dog at bait fish jumping or a lovely sunset. He is that balding wild guy at the wedding that has a ton of fun without a sip of alcohol. And,yes, the joyful energy is magnetic.

Hey, I can show happiness...but joy(?), I have always been too auto-pilot self-conscious. I guess I have to work on that before turn into an old fart.

Alot and videos

After hours of finagling and testing I downloaded the alOt toolbar into Firefox in order to both search and view videos and it seems to be working. Who knows what kind of spam or problems I may have in the future by doing this!! The toolbar has a nice search engine and lets me see the videos so I am happy.

"Who We Are:

We are an eclectic bunch of people…while our day jobs are at ALOT, we have a music-maestro, a trivia buff and a ballroom dancer within our team. We’re a group of fun-loving folk, based in Soho, NYC and what brings such a varied group together is one thing – our passion for making great Internet products that help people find information easily.

We’re a small group that’s part of a larger family. We’re owned by a NASDAQ-listed company, MIVA, Inc."

Three day weekend

I got back yesterday and totally collapsed. Napped on the couch for about an hour in the afternoon and then watched chick flicks and ate snacks. Fortunately hubby can heat up leftovers---of which there are many---for himself. A three year-old totally drains every drop of energy and then watching his one-year-old sister yesterday morning was the final hill that I climbed.

Today, my son and his girlfriend are coming to spend the night. I was thinking about how nervous she probably is...and of course, for no real reason. But visiting with the guys parents is always a bit of a challenge.

I have shopped for food and cleaned the house after Xman's adventures.

I am too tired to write anything creative and also kind of in a slump about the hurricane that is heading to Louisiana. The one right behind it is currently heading our way...ugh.

Thursday Thoughts #12

I learned and did so many new things this week that they will fill my Thursday Thoughts for a long time:

1) One of the most special times wishing someone good night after the traditional two stories, the prayers, the traditional made-up "monkey story" and the kiss good night, is when the little guy calls you back one last time and asks you to give him a dream :-)

2) I had forgotten how special it was to touch the back of a turtle and to let a monarch caterpillar tickle your hand and to let an inch worm tickle your arm.

3) Running and running and running is hard, but it is harder carrying back 30 pounds after all the running is done.

4) The muffled voices of grandpa and grandson as they make putty animals on the deck is like the sound of the ocean waves or the rush of the wind in the trees. Very soothing.

5) If you are going to the toy store to pick out a toy you have to be firm that the little one STAYS in the shopping cart. If you give in and let him free, all is lost.

6) Waking up to the sound of a little voice rather than an alarm clock is golden.

7) Bubble baths in the big tub are very wet even if you are not the one getting the bubble bath. And it is very wicked if your daughter puts some "squirty balls" in the overnight bag.

8) The biggest surprise of all this week was that he never got homesick. Sitting on the couch one evening, he asked my why I have my own house. And one other night he asked about his mommy and daddy. But not once did he fell sad or ask to go home. We are heading out late this afternoon to return to his home after a brief appointment and I will miss him soooooo much! I will miss him from the earth to the sun as he says.

9) I do know how to count my blessings.

Alarm Clocks

Sometimes the stars are aligned perfectly, the gods are satisfied with their place in the universe, Mother Earth is taking a little zenful rest, and the golden energies of karma are everywhere...That is the way things were this morning at 7:00 when my grandson awoke and then crawled into bed with my husband and I. His peaceful chatter about the hummingbird outside the window, the bird song in the trees, the plastic snake on the windowsill and various other miscellaneous bits of news were music...the music of temple bells dancing over the bed.

This lasted about ten minutes and then the kid grew 10 new elbows and at least a dozen more knees...ugh. Time for breakfast.

Passing the Time

Company (my kids) should be here in less than an hour. Hubby has harvested the last batch of crab and I am steaming them as I type this blog. I do not like the sound of scratching claws on the inside of the pot so have retreated upstairs to blog and pretend that I am not actually killing my lunch.

I can no longer view videos in either Firefox or Internet Explorer on my PC and decided to try to solve that new and irritating problem. I have upgraded Adobe Flash as suggested, cleaned up the tools section of both browsers and still I cannot view any videos. Popups are not blocked and I 'think' I have adjusted anything on my firewall that could prevent me from watching something on YouTUBE and still I cannot view videos. Ach! One of the disadvantages of retirement is that you loose that little group of geeky guys who would most generously stop by and fix my computer. I hate technology and how it wastes ones time.

By the way, the photo above was not a wind vane....

My Little Secret

This next week I will be taking care of my grandson, Xman, since his Montessori school has closed for 8 days. My daughter took off from work last week for three days to watch him and when she asked us to take him this week, we agreed. It will save her money and we love the child, so, are more than happy to get geared up for the challenge. He is inquisitive, emotional and self-centered. He is physically active and has no fear. He finds joy in most things but can get quite unhappy when he doesn't get his way. I am guessing that without Dad or Mom or the 'other grandmother' to run interference for him, he will be more amenable to hearing a 'no' now and then.

I have my reservations on his homesickness level as this will be the first time that this 3+ year-old will be away from both parents and his home for at least four nights and five days. I know that it will be a good growing experience, but that does not mean we won't have down times. I am going out to buy some games and videos this afternoon as tranquilizers if needed.

Xman then gets returned on Friday of next week by us. Then my son's girl friend has talked him into coming down on Sunday and spending the night through Labor Day to spend time with us. My Secret is that, guiltily, I did not invite my daughter for this three day weekend as well, because I would really like some adult only time with my son and his girl. Hubby wanted everyone here for that three-day weekend, but I would end up doing most of the cooking and much of the babysitting and wouldn't get a chance for adult exchange and told him that. My daughter and I can rarely complete sentences with each other when both little ones are underfoot! Hubby looked surprised...but then when we have company he is...well, let's just say he doesn't notice why things run pretty smoothly.

I don't really like family politics.

Time is Such a Moving Thing

I have not had much energy nor any ideas for blogging lately, but probably exhausted due to the following activities:

Celebrating my granddaughter's first birthday
Transferring and editing the video and slides I took of my granddaughter's first birthday
Putting in a 30 foot pyracantha hedge to hide the vegetable garden from the front window
Replanting the sod from area where we planted the hedge
Loading and distributing a wagon load of mulch, (free mulch is crap and we won't do that again)
Moving an entire palate of leftover brick to the back of the yard
Meeting with Comcast twice to resolve the issues we are having with the sporadic cable TV connection, the phone connection and the PC...Cause is probably one of the two cables to the house being able to push only 80% of the signal. They said it is because we live so far out in the country and they can't boost the signal anymore. I asked if I only had to pay 80% of my bill, but they ignored me.
I have also managed to squeeze in some housecleaning, laundry, and bill paying.
We are also meeting with a landscape company to put in the back patio under the deck and since they are talking over 10K it will have to go in in stages. They did agree to put in and level that strange fountain we bought a while back.
AND as a reward, I took a short day trip to a lovely east coast beach town and ate lunch in a charming little restaurant and watched the activities on main street.

My Blog List is gone

That's all I have to say. I went away for the weekend and the deer did not eat my roses, but blogger ate my blog list.

Just Asking

I am going away for the weekend. Can you keep these guys away from my rose bush---and everything else for that matter? (Don't you wonder what they were whispering about before I showed up?)

The City Mouse and The Country Mouse

The majority of my recent adult life I have lived in the suburbs and most recently I have lived in the city...or within walking distance of one of the city centers. I enjoyed the ability to be able to walk to a large movie theater and safely walk home after seeing the movie. I enjoyed being able to walk to restaurants, and even better, being able to visit a large Borders Book store and waste away a Sunday afternoon.

Then we started and finished that epic part of our lives where we built the cliche retirement home in the country. We are so far into the country that, if I have my bedroom windows open, I hear roosters crowing in the distance in the early morning. I hear strange noises in the night such as large limbs falling from trees in the ravine or screech owls as the dawn breaks. Yes, living in the woods is just as noisy as living in the city.

I love the country, but schizophrenic soul that I am, I also miss the city. I miss the restaurants and plays and museums and little stores for shopping. Last year we learned that our small town, which consisted primarily of a brand new post office, a corner gas station, a liquor store, and the elementary school, was going to build a new shopping center...actually two little centers within a quarter mile of each other. These were not malls, but traditional shopping centers: one anchored by a SuperGiant grocery. It has been exciting watching the one area go up with a doughnut shop, a cleaners, a pharmacy, a steak and ale house, a small exercise gym, a real estate office, a nic-nac shop and a second liquor store among others.

The second and slightly larger shopping area started with a Starbucks! This got me excited but in the year it has been open, I have driven by each time on my way to the post office and not stopped once. This second center, which is just down the road, added the Giant grocery, a Food Shoppers grocery, another cleaners, two pizza restaurants(!), another pharmacy, another liquor store, another doughnut shop--this one with an ice cream wing, two mexican restaurants, one Korean restaurant (totally awful food and terrible service), one Japanese/Chinese restaurant (serving even worse food in a clinical plastic table atmosphere), and a paint store. There are several finished buildings waiting to be leased, but I have long since given up any interest.

Is this a country thing? What economics planning went into this development? This is a rural community, although with a nearby military base and all the resulting contracting companies, a nearby atomic energy plant that is adding another reactor, and a growing community of city retirees---I don't view this as a typical rural community.

I drive by a large dirt filled area behind the new bank and hold my breath while wishing for a movie theater with a wine/beer/cheese bar attached and a little second hand bookstore on the side or a branch of the library which is 12 miles away. I also would love a non-chain restaurant that serves interesting and healthy food.

Yes, I know. If I want all this I should move back to the city.

Getting Ones Work Set Out for Them

My husband is off on a 'business' trip to Hawaii...something that is either winding down or winding up. Anyway, prior to his departure, he picked all of the above that are sitting in glasses of water on the kitchen counter. Various varieties of basil. He then encouraged me to begin the process of freezing this abundance for the winter months when their pungent goodness would be better appreciated. Licorice, cinnamon, lemon...whatevhah! So, tomorrow I head out to find ice cube trays, as I recently gave all of mine away. I also just added all of the pinion nuts to a dessert dish and those would have come in handy for a pesto. Planning is everything.

An Inventory of Reading

The Big Read motivates a personal inventory.

Bearnaked reminded me of this inventory. The books I have read...some many, many years ago and some as a college assignments...are in bold. Which books have you read? Post this list on your blog!

1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2. The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkienn
3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4. Harry Potter series - J.K. Rowling
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6. The Bible
7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens (Can't remember?)
11. Little Women - Louisa M. Alcott
12. Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare (80%??)
15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkienn
17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18. Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
19. The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch - George Eliot
21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22. The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25. The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33. Chronicles of Narnia - C.S. Lewis
34. Emma - Jane Austen
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen
36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - C.S. Lewis
37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38. Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40. Winnie the Pooh - A.A. Milne
41. Animal Farm - George Orwell
42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables - L.M. Montgomery
47. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50. Atonement - Ian McEwan
51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52. Dune - Frank Herbert
53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66. On the Road - Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding
69. Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72. Dracula - Bram Stoker
73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75. Ulysses - James Joyce
76. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal - Emile Zola
79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80. Possession - A.S. Byatt
81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87. Charlotte's Web - E.B. White
88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94. Watership Down - Richard Adams
95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Tabor's Holiday

View from inside the African American Museum

I have had two sets of company visiting and staying back to back last week. (I am really not the social animal that is painted by this blog. I do not attend a church, belong to any clubs (yet), or party hearty on weekends. While no one I know would describe me as an introvert I do seek out the quiet times more often than not. I am fortunate to know some nice people who drop by during the summer months. Actually my husband is the real social butterfly in this finely aged duo.)

Anyway, Mr. Butterfly invited two buddies down for a weekend of fishing after the above busy week and I was immediately motivated to conclude that Tabor needed an 'alone' holiday. I headed up to my daughter's house for the same weekend. She was going to be away with family, and I would have the whole place to myself. The tiny house is within walking distance of a metro's ride to the center of Washington D.C. and all of its free and wonderful museums...are you getting jealous?

The famous Smithsonian Castle

Entry to Moongate Garden

I took my camera along and found that I needed this alone time to adjust my viewpoint and to take time for some focused photography. Having seen these outside architectural pleasantries many times, I photographed with a new eye and new angles and then used Paintshop Pro to have fun tweaking away with styles, hues, etc. I personally think they look cool and refreshing in this way...little egocentric gal that I am. You can click on them for a larger view.

Moongate Garden