A Recipe

Butternut Squash Soup

I do not often post recipes because the Internet is full of them and this blog is not a food blog, but this soup has been such a nice success that I wanted to share it. I made this the other day for the second time (and I have tweaked the recipe for my tastes) and found this so luscious in the cool fall.  It has a little fat, but is really healthy.

Ingredients

1 medium butternut squash cut in half and roasted cut side down  in a pan with just a little water until very tender at 350 degrees...20-30 minutes.  (Be careful in cutting the hard squash!)
1 tablespoon butter
2 or 3 tablespoons coconut milk
1 & 1/2 cups chicken broth or vegetable broth
1 tsp ground anise seed (If you do not like anise,  nutmeg or cinnamon can be used)
2 to 3 tsps. ground curry (less pungent type is best)
1 granny smith (or any other) apple peeled and chunked.
1 small piece of ginger peeled (size of thumbnail)
(You can also add a small bit of sugar if you want a bit sweeter taste...I like it both ways.)

When squash is tender remove it and let cool before carefully scooping out the seeds to toss and then spoon out soft meat from the squash and put in food processor.  Process squash, apple and ginger in a food processor until smooth.  Warm butter, coconut milk, and broth in the microwave or saucepan and add slowly to the pureed ingredients.  Add spices.  Add salt if you think it needs more and puree briefly.  Pour all into a sauce pan and heat until it is the desired consistency, some like a soup and others like it more thick like a bisque.  Serve with a dollop of thinned sour cream or low fat yogurt and a shake of smoked paprika (from Hungary if you have it ;-))  You can also add a shake of hot red pepper if you like that.

Yeah photo is blurred...but I was hungry!

Courtship

(With apologies to this state park volunteer.)

I was walking through the hardware store today (I had sold some stock and was going to buy some birdseed for the feeders '-) ) and I noticed that lines were beginning to get long as it was a Saturday.  A woman, close to my age, maybe a little younger, with a man's haircut was watching me closely.  I suddenly felt guilty pushing the cart with the 40 pound bag of bird seed toward the register thinking to myself that she might be having trouble meeting her food bills and here I was feeding woodpeckers!

An elderly man with a small electric drill got in line behind me.  She looked from across the other register line at him and smiled and called, "Hey, Joe, how are you doing?"

Joe smiled, left my line and got behind her, since she was already approaching a register clerk, and they chatted warmly while both paid for their purchases.

I saw them again in the parking lot as I was lifting the heavy bird meal into the trunk of my car.

They were joking about some project he was working on with that drill and she was laughing that she would just "paint a circle over it."

Then as I returned the cart to the store door and passed the elderly couple, the man turned to the woman and asked, "Say, where did you get those fancy pants?"

I looked up and for the first time noticed that the woman was dressed in a baggy gray sweat shirt and a pair of pink and purple flowered pants that only a colorblind or very confident person would wear out shopping.  I missed what she said in response, but could not help but smile...old people flirting and men still use silly lines!

Pass the Milk, Please.

Sometimes I feel like a waste.  I feel as though I am wasting my precious remaining time.  This usually happens after I go on Facebook and find:

One of my friends, a mother of three, is working her way through an innervation class memorizing tons of muscle names and what they do and getting an A in the class.

My SIL just rode 17.1 bike miles with her friends at lunch...I don't even have friends to go to lunch with, really!

A distant friend that I barely know has just finished a photography exhibit and sold a photograph.

Another friend who is fighting a serious disease has time to promote fund raising for her daughter's illness.

So....I logged off FB and made some Heath bar cookies and then promptly ate two big ones while they were warm and chewy.

Acid Base, Drinking the Kool-aid.

My mood is more creative these days.  I have less angst and fear of others.  If one met me, they would see a well-balanced, neat, clean, intelligent woman on the outside.  One would never see the turmoil, second guessing, sometimes sadness on the inside, but then, I was a drama minor in college and got all "A"s..

I do think the terrible things that the Tea Party representatives say about everyone from Girl Scouts to this President have created an acid base in my personality and has affected my mood.  I do not worship this President or think he is better than sliced bread or even one of our most outstanding leaders in history.  I do think he is so far better than the crazies the GOP has put forth who cannot relate to the poor, or those different in gender interests, heritage, religion and other areas of their life.  I keep trying to see why we are so different, because I do think the average American is willing to compromise and does not think every millionaire is a crook and every poor person is a lazy slug.  I lean liberal because I know who has more power to sway this world...the rich crook...they are more dangerous to our Democracy.  The lazy will not revolt if they don't get a free ride...they just want food and health care.  If we have a revolt it will happen when there is no longer a middle class.

I have been following the ACA Law and the criticisms of it as the weeks pass.  While certain conservative press releases indicated that Obama's presidency has raised the price of health insurance dramatically...the facts are that the last real study on this done by a non-partisan group was in 2008.  During that study and adding figures up to now it seems that under the Bush administration health care costs went up over 10% each year (closer to 13%) and under this recent President a little over 5% each year.  The other argument against ACA is that over 100 health care classifications have been adopted and forced on insurers and doctors by this President.  But research shows these classifications were created by the United Nations years ago, adopted under the Bush administration with a delayed implementation until this year! 

The issue of the terrible roll-out of this process rests totally on the shoulders of this administration.  I do not know why their IT work has been so very terrible, but I think it is because the people who got the contract were unqualified friends of the administration and they ended up subcontracting the work to some other contractor. (Shades of FEMA under Bush.)  We will see what the head of Health and Human Services says to get out of this.  There is no excuse!  The government does this all the time...under both parties...I have worked as a Fed and remember a Senator's nephew who got a job in our building for no reason other than that he was a Senator's nephew!

Whether this ACA will work effectively or not, only time will tell.  I do believe that everyone in the richest country in the world should have access to health care, everyone, including young working adults, should carry the burden of this health care, and I would much rather pay for someone's health insurance subsidy with my taxes rather than their visit to the emergency room in the hospital!

If you question how closely this subsidy will be regulated...that is up to each of us to question.  We don't do it with Defense contractors but maybe we will with health companies.

Growing Up

So Mom is reading grandson (9 years old) one of the last books in the series on Harry Potter tonight, and it is the book where everyone is starting to have crushes on everyone else...and there is lots of mistletoe and kissing.
Grandson stopped her reading and asked a question about the mistletoe and then another question about who was kissing whom.

Mom began to explain and then said, " ...but you probably don't like to hear about all this kissing,"

Grandson says, "actually, I don't really mind it"...."I am not one of those people that gets all uncomfortable when there is kissing."

Answers

In my prior post I had met a woman who had a serious medical issue but indicated that she had a family income that would not mean she could get all the expensive care she needed, although I know she must have an excellent insurance policy.  The Affordable Health Care Act is now a law and being implemented over the next few years (in spite of the fact that they hired terrible web page programmers and were really stupid about how popular this was going to be) over the next months.  The article below is one of the simplest I have read  in explaining what it is and what it does and what it costs.  If you, like the woman above, have excellent some semblance of a fair health insurance policy, this article below will not be important for you.

 http://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/03/29/obamacare-in-plain-english-what-it-means-for-you/

(As I have written before I have a federal health insurance policy just like the members of Congress.   It might be important to note that Federal employees currently working have had pay freezes the last three years and their health insurance premiums went up 7.3% in 2011, 3.8% in 2012, and 3.4% in 2013..2014 premiums are being sent out at a 3.7% increase.  Those bureaucrats sure have it easy.)

Need a Mantra Fast!

We had decided to throw away some money on a fancy seafood lunch on the porch/deck of the local tourist restaurant as a last fall fling.  The market was going to drop.  Our savings, which had finally climbed past their original high before the prior administration crashed the market with its deregulation of banks and investment firms, was going to thin once again.  One of the economists, those who rarely cry fire, said we should be prepared for as much as a 45% loss.  This time the crash would be because of love of power and the addiction to the sound of one's voice and the fear that one might be excluded from the club.  Even the rich puppeteers pulling the strings in the background were gasping at this monster they had created and backed off on their agenda because it meant they, too, were going to lose.  We were not confident they could stop the landslide at this late date.  Therefore, like sailors on the sinking ship we decided to drown ourselves in the last of the rum before all we had to drink was salty water.

I was a little mad pissed off and determined to order the most expensive item on the menu in self-destruction.  But since I live in 'good-ole-boy' land, that item was a HUGE platter of assorted fried seafood while the next was a steak and seafood heart-attack on a plate.  I kept seeing in my mind the type of person that would order this and with greasy fingers pummel it to breaded crumbs in no time.  Thus I ordered the crab-stuffed shrimp, not the most expensive, but hardly cheap for a lunch.  I ordered a glass of Chardonnay and fully expected to drink two glasses in celebration, but found one sufficient.  Hubby ordered the largest order of fried shrimp they had.  Then we also added an expensive tuna sashimi appetizer just for the hell of it.  As we selected excellent slices of raw tuna to dip into a soy and ginger and wasabi mixture I looked up and saw a woman working her way between the close tables from behind us and heading to the private corner of the deck overlooking the water in front of us.  She seemed a little unsteady on her feet as she grabbed a table with one step and then a chair with the next and I was wondering if she had decided to get drunk in mid-day.  She smiled at us as she passed and then proceeded to blue-tooth her way into some conversation as she faced the sparkling water.

She was pretty, pushing 40, and built like a stocky sex kitten.  She wore a soft blonde bob and dressed with casual chic.  There was some energy about her that caught my eye when she made eye contact.  When she finished her call she worked her way back past our table to the table behind us which was filled with other adults and children.  She winced as she leaned against an empty chair at our table.

She smiled and look at us and then said, "You two look like you have figured out this retirement thing."

I said, "I hope so." and then I asked if she was OK.  She looked in pain.

"Oh, 'Ma'am, I am just fine.  I am a warrior and working through this."

Since she clearly was open to talking and we were waiting for our entree, I asked if she had been in an accident.

"Oh, no ma'am, this is the result of a long story...an experiment on my body.  I was part of a drug trial at Walter Reed."

Because of her polite and frequent use of "ma'am" that clued me that she was either ex or current military or a southern raised lady.

She proceeded to tell us in a somewhat disjointed and lawyerly fashion that she was planning on an anonymous lawsuit so that others who had been in the same drug trial that debilitated her would get money when she won it.  She said that the drug had been 'black-boxed' now due to her campaign and while it was still advertised on TV, she said it could destroy lives.  She had taken it 10 years ago right before/after FDA approved it.  She was now being treated in one of the best, small, unknown and black hospitals in the city and she would not tell us its name...but "we could figure it out because we are smart people."

She also indicated she was married to a doctor who had lost his privileges at his hospital because he was outspoken and a warrior like her.  He now worked as an emergency doctor rotating through three hospitals in the area.  "We can afford this lawsuit and others cannot, so I feel it is right to pursue it."

We talked a little more about the illness although she continued to be cryptic because of her upcoming lawsuit and a little about how she had captured her husband when they first met knowing this was the love of her life and then she hobbled back to her family as they began to leave the restaurant.

Why people feel like sharing with us I do not know.  Hubby and I realized we must be looking our age, as she automatically assumed we were retired.  It was Memorial Day...so we could have both been off work...if we looked like we had the stamina to still work...which I guess we did not!  But we did look like the kind of people that one could share plans with for an anonymous lawsuit.

Anyway, I know a little about the FDA and have a friend who had worked there.  I know how budget constraints over decades and political interference and the pressure from the pharmaceutical industry had compromised its mission so much, and I guess I now saw what might or might not have been the result of a rush to market drug in real life.

But then we really don't need a gov'ment interfering in our lives, do we?  Pharmaceutical panels are just as concerned for our health and safety as insurance panels...right?  (I have got to stop this anger or I am going to need drugs...Om mani padme hum....OMG!)

Life is in the Details

Do you remember the good 'ole days of blogging when people posted photos of their view from there desks, or their bedroom window or even the view of the inside of their refrigerator?  No?  Well, I do.  It was somewhat exciting getting to look inside some stranger's home and you didn't even have to get out of your PJs!  That ability to reach across the Internet and peek into someone's life was kind of odd and exotic, at least I thought so.  Then we became familiar with their cat photos, dog photos, garden shots...they were still nice, but not nearly so exotic anymore because we had started to know the writers like we knew our neighbors.  Familiarity may not breed contempt, but it does breed boredom at times.  Some bloggers still post photos of their meals and their shoes and their pets.  Some, like me, post photos of garden harvests and food processing.  Boy, that is an exciting venue for readers. (!)

Well, our weather here has been wet, wet like being in a 24 hour shower, wet like sitting in a leaky boat, wet like camping during the rainy season in South America.  When weather is moldy like this I try to avoid eating vast quantities of chips and salsa, drinking too much wine, or raiding the chocolate candy jar and screaming at Congresspersons on TV.  I instead pass the time re-organizing my life.

I once had a blog about the building of this house.  I printed out all of the posts and then promptly deleted the blog as I felt it could be a security issue if someone nefarious stumbled across it.  Anyway, if you once followed that blog, you will remember that I wanted a walk-in closet.  Yes, I was no longer working and would no longer need a career wardrobe.  Yes, I could sleep in and not be bumping butts with hubby as I did in our former "walk-in" closet, but I still wanted a REAL walk-in.  I wanted a closet that did not smell musty, was not dark and had enough room to be organized. 

Well, I got it.  Wait for it.....I built a 12 foot by 10.5 foot walk-in closet.  Of course, it stores bedding, gifts, boxed photos, and other junk as well as clothes.  One would think with a closet this big it would be much easier to be organized...one would think.  It takes about 6 to 8 months before the closet shelves become messy, too full, and things starting getting lost.

Here are some photos of the busy messy closet.

I 

I re-boxed, dusted, vacuumed and gave away a bunch of clothes for the church.  Then I organized what was left and ta-da!

You are awful quiet out there in blogger land...!  It IS neater and you will just have to take my word for it!  Doesn't it give you just a little thrill to be admitted into my closet?  Oh, the hole in the wall is where I dump our dirty clothes, there is a basket in the laundry room on the other side.

That Touch to the Heart from Bloggerland

I opened my laptop and clicked into that world of writers, weavers, warriors and world thinkers this morning. They post their photographs with stunning clarity, their arguments with stunning passion, their poetry with sweet love, and their emotions with bold and naked honesty.  They visit my screen with irregular regularity and come for so many reasons, both hidden and open.

Sometimes I have to follow them for a while before I really 'get' them. Unlike Renee Zellweger in Jerry Maguire, I am not always captured at "Hello.'  I may have to read between the lines or pick through archival posts to fill in the picture as I am a detail type of gal.

Blogger lost one of these members today.  He wrote poetry, the type I have to re-read to fully grasp the journey of words that he took me on.  He had met death many years ago when he was a young boy and that struggle haunted many of his poems.  His comments on my poetry and prose were so wonderfully gentle and dishonest, but I loved him for it.

Once again I say good-bye to someone who had reached through the screen and touched my heart with startling reality.  I am so hoping, Dave, that you have found a lovely little pub where all the poets who came before you can sit and talk about your poetry and toast to your successful writing.

Storytelling for the Strong of Spirit

The evening was quite late for this group of four old-timers, the oldest having crossed the 8th decade of his life just a few months ago.  They had reminisced about times together decades ago, stories about their children and grandchildren, health issues, and as the candles flickered lower the conversation turned to the issues of the here and now.

The Octogenarian, whom I will call Jack, twisted his empty wine glass and paused before saying, "Most people today do not understand how it really was years ago and why the atmosphere is so toxic in politics today.  They live in a bubble thinking it is just an angry joke and that it has to do with differences of opinion on how to do something."

The others sat back in their chairs knowing that the eldest of the group was going to begin story telling as he usually did when the energy of the conversation came to a pause.  He looked at each of them with his clear blue eyes and went back to his boyhood years growing up in Florida.

"Years ago when I was about eight my mother had sent me to town for some pickling supplies.  I hopped on my bicycle and headed to the local store.  This store was next door to our local bar, a wooden building that was two stories high.  The ground floor was a 'whites-only' bar and the top was 'blacks-only.'  I was in a hurry and had not put on my shoes when I left the house, and when I skidded to a stop at the bottom of the stairs on the side of the bar and jumped off the bike my foot came down on the sharp edge of the lid of a discarded sardine can.  I was in pain and starting to bleed and focused on what I should do...this day is crystal clear in my memory.   A shiny black top-less jeep with the Sheriff's star on the side pull up to the building near my discarded bike.  The Sheriff got out and reached into the back seat and retrieved a rifle of some sort.  He looked at me and told me to head on home and then walked to the balcony side of the upstairs bar where I had a clear view of three black men that were leaning over the railing and talking.  He raised the rifle and fired, and blew the head off of the black man closest to us.  He then walked back to his jeep and drove off.  I couldn't move for a minute, but soon hopped on my bike and raced home.  When I got home and told my mother what had happened she looked at me and shook her head and said, "Son, you are going to have to realize that things like this happen.'"

To give this story some context, Jack's father was the local physician and his mother was a community leader and a member of the suffragette movement.  What he was saying was that his mother knew what battles to choose to fight and what battles would be dangerous to enter.

Jack took a sip from his water glass and continued with a second story, "When I was a teenager I was riding a bus to visit my Aunt in another city.  We came to small town and a black man and a white woman got on the bus.  They found two seats in the middle of the bus and sat down.  People on the bus murmured and looked around since blacks were supposed to sit in the back of the bus.  We waited for the time for the bus to leave.  In a short time two men boarded the bus, grabbed the black man, who sat across from me, dragged him off the bus and threw him to the ground outside my window and proceeded to kick and beat him mercilessly.  Then the bus driver released the brake and we drove to the next town.  I learned later in the paper that the black man had died the next day, the white woman was his wife, and they were visiting from the Bahamas."  He said all this without emotion in his voice.

Then he turned to his wife and smiled.  "Remember, Meg, that winter when we were walking on the black beach and collecting sea urchin specimens for research?"  Meg nodded with resignation.

"It was a cold and windy day and the beach was bare of people.  Meg and I had been married only a short time.  We were filling a bag when the local park ranger walked up, gun in hand, and asked us what in the hell we were doing and did we not know this was a blacks-only beach?  We explained, as he raised the gun, that we were collecting specimens for science and that no one was beaching due to the cold weather.  He told us to get the hell off the beach and that if we were found on this beach again we would be banned from all beach parks in the State for life!"  Jack smiled wryly.  "Of course, this was an idle threat with no means of enforcement but the gun pointed in our direction made us scurry away apologetically."

Tabor, who had grown up in the mid-west and not seen much discrimination, perhaps because there were few to discriminate against, was having trouble breathing as these vignettes unfolded.

Yet, there was still another story to tell.  "A few years later Meg and I had made friends with this musician from a black college and he had invited us to a concert the college was giving to hear him play.  Meg loves music and so we agreed to go.  When we arrived at the concert hall we were directed to four seats a few rows back and in the center in the auditorium.  The President of this black college greeted us with his wife and sat with us!  We enjoyed the concert tremendously.  A week later we received a letter from OUR university Dean that said we would lose all privileges at our university if we attended any more events at the black college while we were employed at the University.  I still have the letter."

As you read this, you might be thinking...well, times change.  That may be true, but people do not.  One more story to tell.  When Jack and Meg were at a church reception following the funeral of a dear friend a few years ago, one of the grand old dames of the community was holding court from her chair.  When complaints started about this new President Obama and how awful it was that he got elected she raised her cup of punch for emphasis and this church going lady said clearly "Someone should just kill the damn ni**er."

Jack leads a life full of dramatic and interesting events and has no need to make up or enhance stories.  These are all true with the names changed to protect the innocent and may the guilty be forever damned.

Taking Action

Yes, I have started taking a Vitamin D supplement as advised.  For the first few days I doubled the dose by taking a pill morning and evening to see if I could jump start how I feel.  I also renewed my calcium supplements.  Both of these were recommended by my physician a few years ago, but I did not follow through for very long as I should have.  (Thus, I am not taking these just because many of my blog readers recommended it.  We all should follow the guidance of our doctor when paired with blogger advice.  I do love you all for being so helpful and kind!)

I will wait on the therapy unless my next meet-up with Doc says it would be a good idea.  (I AM feeling better mood wise and MAYBE energy wise.)  I hate that mental therapy in culture is so stigmatized!

There was a delay in re-starting my exercise program because I have company coming this week.  These are old friends of hubby that we have not seen as often as we would like since they live in Florida.  They are the "millionaires next door" because they have received several mil from the DOD for their land.  They are allowed to live in their charming little house on this land until they die.  You would NEVER know they had this much money because they live a normal retiree life-style except for more travel to exotic locations than the average retired couple.

I did finally open one of the two Yoga DVDs that I bought so many months ago.  This summer has been too crazy for Yoga and I have been too lazy.  I will try to follow one of these when I am through writing this post.  I have found that only the beginners Yoga levels can be done with any safety by me!

I do think one of the stimulus for this downer period in my mood was a "co-leader" that I work with on one of my volunteer projects.  In the beginning she was very critical at the lack of communication from my end but this mid-summer anything from her role as the museum contact was deadly silent.  I would show up at our meetings to find that I was faced with some deadline or misunderstanding because the DD at the museum had met with her but I never got emailed or contacted on any of the decisions and/or resulting deadlines that she agreed to.  When I returned after my cruise and asked what had transpired while I was gone (so I could write the monthly report) her total response was "We accomplished a lot!  Just look around!"  It seems my resignation as co-leader did not release me from angst as much as I had hoped and feeling that I failed in some way...but I am moving forward on that.

The final punch to my gut has been the TP group that with hubris, glee, confusion and ignorance has adversely affected the lives of many young and highly professional people I know.  (When you cannot win the game by playing by the rules, kick that ball into the woods and then blame it on the other team.) The hidden frustration of my bureaucrat hard-working and furloughed friends on FB has worried me.  In a second fell swoop these past years the TP gang has reduced much enthusiasm for entering public service.  Big money has flooded the rural areas with radio and TV dishonesty and fed the frustration and anger most of us had with this world by advocating a slash and burn agenda.  And many have been boondoggled into thinking this is a good approach.  If this continues there is a good chance that my Social Security check will stop or at the very least pause.  I have saved several months of cash...but I know many, many, many folks do not have this luxury.  No wonder I am depressed, and not listening to the TV news doesn't remove what I see happening all around me where I live.  I have been waited on by an administrative assistant who lost her job at the nearby military base due to sequestration, I know scientists that have lost their research due to a lengthy gap in funding their work, and others whose federal budgets have been FLAT for a decade.  This President has lost my strong support by allowing the TP to put us in this corner with his lack of hard negotiating skills.  He gave away much with budget cuts with the sequestration months ago and now we are STILL in a corner and I do not have the stomach to go through this again in mid-November if we do move on.  He and his team have also failed to really explain the pros and cons of the ACA implementation...where it costs us more and where it saves us more.  (Although I will admit I am amazed at how stupid many Americans are about this. Sanjay guupta says 2/3s of Americans admit they do not know much about the ACA.   If you have not seen Jimmy Kimmel's street segment you probably do not know what I am talking about.)

On an uplifting note the pottery below was our recognition gift from the County for being one of their "beautiful" people.  The dozen people we were nominated with were so much more "beautiful" than hubby or I and I was impressed with how carefully they made this ceremony more than a token feel-good event.  Each County Commissioner was responsible for reading the information on two or three of the people being honored.  (It did surprise me how many of these Commissioners could NOT read!)  The press from a half dozen news offices snapped away making me feel like a celebrity and they provided a nice lunch.  I met that one County Commissioner (yep, a TP dude) with his genuinely warm smile and handshake and the fact that he remembered my protest letter...showing what a good politician he is...even though his response to me had been somewhat condescending in the original email reply last year, he was super warm and friendly at this event.

The wine cork trivets in the back were made by my lovely DIL as gifts from her wedding.

Thursday Thirteen #34--Random Conflicts

Is it sort of like answering the door in your pajamas when a new reader visits your blog for the first time and the post they read is a 'Debbie downer' rant on how bad you feel?

There are women who have regular hair appointments and then there is me...who realizes it is time to get a haircut when my side combed bangs cover my eyes and I trip on a fallen branch.

For almost a decade I have hated the low or even 'regular cut' jeans because only a 20-year-old has a flat
abdomen.   Please note, the term muffin-top began at the same time fashion move the waistband on jeans. By the way, wiki says it originated in Australia and was the word of the year in 2006.

The minutes from Congress this week, "I know you are, but what am I?"

Why is it that neighbors always say, "He seemed so normal," after someone runs amok?  (No I am not writing about Ted Cruz.)

So we are now 95% sure that mankind is causing global warming...when will scientists be 100% sure.  I know,  it will only grow to 99.9%  at the most but most of us will be treading water and not notice.

October 2 was National Kale day and also the day Putin was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize...I think these are linked in some way...it is a conspiracy of some sort.

While there were poor people on the streets of Budapest when I was there I was surprised that the legislature recently passed a law to ban sleeping on the streets or must tear down the shelters they have built in the woods.  Homeless will be assigned to community service or a  fine when caught.  A fine?  Has the world gone mad?

Something I never thought I would read in a headline "revenge porn."  ?

In case you or your children do not know this...the natural color of water is NOT green or even 'greenish'.

The shortest war in history lasted only 38 minutes...the Anglo-Zanzibar War of 1896.

There is a restaurant in Pittsburgh called The Conflict Kitchen and it only serves food from nations the U.S. is at odds with.

Only 11% of jewelry stores in the U.S. have a conflict-free diamond policy.  Where do you buy your diamonds, sweetie?

Depressing News?

Feeling wet, sticky and tangled these days.

I love fall, and am not sure why my mood is not lighter and brighter.  It is not S.A.D. because I do not feel that way until winter days have lingered with their cold gray shadows for some time.  I am having trouble sleeping.  I fall asleep easily but after four hours I am wide awake and wishing I could do something around the house without waking hubby.

I find that certain people with their self-centered or non-compromising approach to life annoy me more than ever.  I find I have feelings of paranoia, where my super confidence used to reside.  I worry that my children may be tolerating me more than I know.  Thank goodness my husband has enough self-confidence for a small army and takes my arm as we plunge forward.

I hiked about 15 miles over the three days we were in the mountains with no real exhaustion, so I am determined that this is not a health issue. I move lots in the gardens.  I hike.  I walk.  I move household goods.  My diet is reasonably good since fall is harvest season, so I get lots of fresh veggies.  I have not increased consumption of sugar or alcohol...although I think I am drinking more coffee these days. 

At my age if one lets one's mind wander, it can drift down dangerous and depressing avenues.  Could this could be a mild health issue camouflaging more serious issues?  I watch the news too much and wonder if, indeed, our world and our society are coming to a sad end?  Is that the source of my angst?  As I age I realize various neurons do not fire as they should...am I slowly loosing my mind?  Why am I forgetting things that I don't really care about?  Why don't I care about stuff?

My only plan for right now is to try to stop thinking about this.  And, yes, formal exercise should begin to filter its way into my web of days...maybe starting tomorrow?

I just hate that at this time in my life I am not more stable and more 'normal'.  I thought life would be far less of an emotional roller coaster.  I sometimes feel like I am in junior high once again second guessing every decision and every conversation and wondering who I really am and what the h**l have I actually done with my life thus far?

Trying to Find Time to Watch a Season Pass

I have been waiting for down time to write in depth on at least one or two of the many thoughts that flit through my head just before I drift off to sleep.  I think of some 'great concept' or some 'interesting idea' that I could elaborate upon in my 'unread' blog, but by morning the idea has melted away like the mist in the valleys of West Virginia this time of year.  My mind is freshly empty as usual, or the idea looks like stale popcorn in the cold light of day.
 

We both felt a call of the mountains this week, and while there was much to do here to get ready for winter, we took off on a last minute trip to one of the state parks.  We lucked out on getting the last room because they were renovating (which we had not known) and everything was being torn up.  Noise and sawdust and hearty laughs of construction workers mingled with autumn colors, morning mist, evening shadows, fearless deer and wet mossy trails to hike.

It is illegal to feed the deer, this tourist is just rattling some paper!

The pool was empty of summer visitors.

The tour bus and the convention started the following day, thus we had the old fashioned bar to ourselves.  It was slated for paint and new furniture that week!

Even the sign above did not discourage us in our pursuit of peace.

This trail was marked as "more difficult."

Finding a few last cranberries.

These prior weeks before and after the cruise were busy:  we had been briefly honored by the County Commissioners (yes including the one I wrote that nasty email to a year ago about the trees) for our volunteer work, visited by my daughter's family with her three children and her two friends and their twins to feed and entertain, worked at the art museum for their Art Fest and filled other weekends by working/packing/painting at my son's house which has now SOLD!!

Today we head up to son to help him move furniture into the new house.  I have made green chile.  But the craziness is not quite read to end.  This coming week it looks like we may have visitors from Florida for a few days!

Then maybe a break in busy activities?  Really!!  We needed that mountain respite.  I might have missed fall altogether.

My New Header

This wall sun clock in my header was taken while I traveled in Germany.  I saw a number of these, some simple in design and structure and others much more elaborate with a lovely painting as a background.  If the angles are even slightly off you will never get the correct time.  The clock has to be aligned parallel to the axis of the earth's rotation.  I am not sure how this works with the changing of the seasons and dropping angle of the sun.  That is way too much math for me!  i.e. "Since the gnomon's style must be parallel to the Earth's axis, it always "points" true North and its angle with the horizontal will equal the sundial's geographical latitude; on a direct south dial, its angle with the vertical face of the dial will equal the co-latitude, or 90° minus the latitude."

Just ONE image in this formula from wikipedia.

 

 I, of course, was more fascinated that it seemed to be an incorrect time when compared with my watch and I was enjoying the beauty of the swatches and swishes.

You Know When It Is Time to Move On.

I do not know if you have ever experienced working with a group and noticed something has changed or shifted in its personality.  You cannot put your finger on it, and you ignore it or forget about it because there is so much to do and accomplish.

I have been coordinating a volunteer garden group of gardeners for almost two years.  I had been cautioned when I took over leadership that the last leader did not communicate well enough with everyone.  Thus, I focused on maintaining an accurate email and tree phone list, wrote a weekly update along with plans for the coming week, made sure that people were thanked and praised for whatever project they finished or started.  I asked for ideas, suggestions, etc. on the work ahead.  I wrote a monthly report for the museum, which the prior person had not done.  But since all the other volunteer groups write monthly reports I thought we should do so as well.

I even took over the work of purchasing plants and equipment through the museum's various accounts (which is a nightmare!), because my "co-leader" had been doing it and felt she could no longer.  I had asked this woman to be a co-leader since both she and her husband were much more involved in the museum than I and I wanted an insider to make sure we were connected to the museum and its various activities and that we had a reliable contact and I had a back-up when I was on trips and such.

This woman that I asked was a very hard worker but she was also a hard critic of others.  I ignored her criticism of others and tried to focus on what was working rather than what was not.

The group's size has grown and shrunk and grown over the months as most of these folks are elderly and find the physical work challenging and new members to the area decide to join and give it a go for a while.  We can have as many as 10 volunteers but mostly we are down to a small core of permanent loyalists. 

I have noticed in the last few weeks that some of the group are more reticent in talk and tend to work in a smaller group in areas of the grounds.  I try to ask questions of each person for input on how we were doing and for ideas on challenges.  One of the more communicative members suggested that we needed to get a fall schedule of projects formalized and she compiled a nice draft suggestion list.  I pulled this together and organized it for weekly tasks and added a few things that went with the plants and their growth habits as the cool weather began.

Then I took off on my two week trip leaving all else up to the co-leader.  When I returned I sent out an email for input on what was happening and did not get any response.  When I showed up on the day of our volunteer work , the few that were there had already started earlier.  I assisted where I could although no one explained what they had been done and what they were planting.  At the end of the work session I asked how things had gone for the past two weeks and where we were on the fall schedule and what had been completed.

My co-leader, without stopping in her walk back to the shed, said over her shoulder,  "A lot.  Just open your eyes.  Look around!"

I was a little dumbstruck as she sounded impatient or at the very least short, but I smiled and said, "Great!" but also realized that I was not going to be able to write an update for the week or the monthly report with this much 'detailed' information as she walked away. 

I also decided at that moment in time and with surprising relief, this group was ready for new leadership.  I was ready to move on to something else, many other projects, garden and non-garden, that are waiting for me and that are more in the gardening education mode rather than maintenance.  On Monday I am stopping by the volunteer coordinator's office and letting her and the Admin. Assistant of the museum know I am quitting.  I will not be able to meet with the group on our regular session as I have a bank meeting that morning, but on Monday afternoon I will email all the volunteers and let them know.  I will finish a plant inventory that needs to be done in the coming weeks.  Our group usually disbands at the end of October until spring, so this gives them plenty of time to re-group and me time to mellow out and quite second-guessing myself!

Arrrgggh!

Since today is international pirate day is seems appropriate to post about the boat/ship part of the cruise on the Danube.

In one of the earlier posts on this series of posts about my river cruise I included a photo that showed how many times this Danube river floods and how high those floods go.  Actually, when booking the cruise, we had heard that sometimes you spend more time being shuttled by bus from town to town because the river is too dry or too high for using the long boats.  It cannot be helped.  We had read that the spring floods were more of an issue, so we booked in the fall and lucked out with gorgeous weather except for the colder rain on our last day in Nuremberg.

These ships are high tech including 110 and 220 outlets, wi-fi for passengers, and a flat screen TV in every room!

Since the Danube has numerous bridges across it, ten built in the last decade, the ship has a wheel house that lowers to go under the older bridges and sometimes the top deck will be closed to passengers if the bridge is deemed too low for safety.  

 

Everything in the photo above, including that wheel house, collapses or lowers down to the level of the railing on the right side of the photo when going under a low bridge.

This cruise also goes several hundred miles through three countries and I am guessing over 40 locks...but I did not count.  Most of them are entered during the evening when we were sleeping.  It took less than 30 minutes to go through most.  Some of the locks rise or lower the ship 100 feet and there is a high wall on each side of the ship during that time.  Lock time must be reserved ahead with the lock master since dozens of passenger and cargo ships go up and down the Danube each day.  Sometimes we had to wait for a ship to go through the lock before us and sometimes it was wide enough for two ships to go through at the same time.

During our cruise there was a strike in Germany by the lock masters.  Technology has made these jobs more obsolete with the trend to have many locks being managed by one lock master via computer.  Therefore, our schedule was bumped up just a little so that we got through the regular locks before the strike.  We were bused back to one of the cities for our day tour as a result of that.

These locks can be a tight fit and yet were rarely felt a bump!  But the piloting did require miniscule movements. 


In the photo below is a boat transferring cargo.  The interesting thing about these is that they are called "family ships" because a family lives on them in the back cabin.  They eat, sleep and work there.  Usually these ships are operated 24 hours for economic reasons.  We were told that the husband does an 8-hour shift, the wife an 8-hour shift and then there is a mate that is hired who lives in the front area of the ship and he/she pulls the third shift. Children are raised on the ship until they are of school age and they are sent to a special school with the children of other families that work on cargo ships.  There is even a 'town' of 'family ships' somewhere on the river which includes a hospital ship and repair ship. etc.  It is like a little water world community.  The children usually follow in their parents footsteps when they become adults starting out as mates.

Well, that is the end of my journey and I have enjoyed reliving it through my blog posts.  Yes, I did enjoy every bit of it and had not a single complaint for the whole time!  Thanks for enduring this memory and am so happy that some of you enjoyed this series.

The Danube Dump

I was perusing my (many) photos and found that there were so many interesting things that I did not discuss here and I can briefly address in the post below.  This post is what I call a photo-dump.  (Plus...just for Mage and other boat/ship fans I have ONE MORE post after this with an interesting history on shipping in the Danube and a few bits and bytes about that.)

Hungary and Budapest itself are primary places for making movies.  I could not get closer to this very interesting architectural building (multiple styles were combined) because they were making an Italian movie.  When the wardrobe lady passed with her plastic bag of Italian shoes, I did have to stare a little.

This driver lost control of these beautiful animals just as I was about to cross in front of him.  The reins had come loose and the animals were not being told where to go.  The jangle of a harness being flung around and hooves being clomped down can be quite breathtaking and attention getting!  

Above is a picture of my shipmates taking photos of the vast vineyards in Germany.  Such wonderful wines they do have!

As most of us know, Germany is taking the lead in renewable energy.  These were HUGE!

The tiny town of Passau, maybe 50,000 people, seemed to have an unusual number of doctors!!

This was the only shop where I was yelled at for taking  a photo...ooops...too late!  Clearly the doctor above is not helping with the stress of some of the folks here.

Food, Glorious Food!

 Only one more post after this on the cruise to make sure I covered a bunch of odds and ends as I promised some readers I would do and then back to my mundane thoughts about life!  I know that my blog readers cannot wait!

Oddly enough I never took photos of the meals while I was eating on this trip.  I totally forget about my camera when food is put in front of me! Those people who take pictures of their breakfast, lunch and dinner need therapy.  Also much of our food was eaten on the boat ship so I usually did not have a camera with me, although it might have been useful in remembering the many names of my mates.  Anyway, just scroll and drool at all the other places and things to eat:

German beer garden.  FRESH PRETZELS!

Really good beer...not too heavy.

Yellow beans that look like Italian flat green beans.

Love the low calorie foods that were found everywhere!

Exotic mushrooms.

Holy paprika and I did bring some home along with Gingerbread!