Random One-Liners

Some comments (in no order as my granddaughter is talking to me industriously while I type) on the trip and also in answer to a few questions:

• No we did not take in the play on PEI as Hubbie wasn't into that so much but I bought the Anne trilogy and am going to re-read it.
• The natural area where the author grew up on PEI was small and surrounded by a golf course, which sort of took away some of the atmosphere.
• I was also a "little" disappointed at how much potato, wheat and barley agriculture covered all of the island and how little natural park area was left.
• On the other hand, PEI has lots of nice beaches and lighthouses!
• The bear sign was both a warning and temptation on the bog walk in Maine and we used it that way.
• We did see a lynx on the ski trail while walking down after riding the ski lift up in New Hampshire and it did not see us.
• We also drove by the lake where "On Golden Pond" was filmed, and it was no more lovely than all the other New Hampshire lakes.
• We did not take the zipline down from the mountain at the ski resort which was long and very fast and kind of ominous in its whine.
• I also saw a large red fox checking out the playground of children one morning outside our hotel in Maine.
• I did not see any moose, unfortunately.
• I used to not like lobster but this trip I could not get enough and due to the warm summer there was an abundance.
• We were a little sad that it was NOT much cooler as we drove north, and global warming was showing its teeth.

Signs of This Time

My trip north through Maine toward Prince Edward Island and back through New Hampshire provided lots of opportunities for photos, many of which I have deleted upon my return already.  I will not bore you with them all, but here are a few that certainly reflect the area and are very different from what I might see in my neck of the woods.

Best place for breakfast in Bar Harbor.

Great place for a lobster roll at the ferry crossing.

Quote of Lucy Maud Montgomery, author of Anne of Green Gables.  Taken where she grew up.

Enough said...or written!

There were no skiers that I could see!

We didn't, but there were plenty of places where we could!

Back!

Yep, I am back.  Up to my ears in laundry, mail and yardwork.  Those of you who travel know exactly what this means.  Adventures are great, but it is wonderful to be home even if facing lots of work and more heat.  The very last day on our return we were stuck for two hours (no exaggeration) crossing the George Washington Bridge in NY.  Only one lane was closed for repair, but that caused a major crisis it appears.  So glad I do NOT live in the city.  Going off to read all the posts I have missed and not posting for some time it appears as I have to cover as babysitter this weekend (again!).

Aloha

Just a quick decision to head up north where the weather is cooler.  First there is a visit with friend in Connecticut and then further north until we spend a few days (too few) at PEI.  Maybe we will find it compelling enough to return and spend longer time.  Of course the weather here is dropping into the high 80's!  I have not decided whether to take my laptop, so posting may not be available.  So, Aloha, which means both hello and goodbye.

Freedom

There are so many freedoms we enjoy in this country.  The freedom of the press, the freedom to assemble, the freedom to travel where we wish in this country without having to present papers at state or city border crossings, the freedom to study and read what we wish, the freedom to pursue a career, the freedom to raise a family of as many children as we wish, the freedom to speak our mind, the freedom to divorce, the freedom to marry, the freedom to live where we want, the freedom to have personal privacy protected unless warranted by authority and so many other freedoms.  But freedom is a very fragile entity and it is certainly not free.  It is the responsibility of each and every citizen to stand up for these freedoms for everyone in this country and to be fearless in doing so.

I Done Something Right

This is a post my son put on his FB page today.  He has been without power since late Friday and probably will not get power until the coming weekend.   I read his post and had to share with my Blogger friends because I think he has it right on.

 "1.6 Billion people live without electricity everyday. That's roughly a quarter of the population. You still have clean water, available food, and natural gas. Get some perspective, people. You have been coddled and lulled into a state of flacid luxury, and your complaints mock the very global humanity you ignore everyday. Likely, you have done nothing to help build the infrastructure that lets you see this very post, yet at it's first failure, you cry foul. You are standing on the shoulders of giants and complaining of the view. Be thankful for what you have, and be thankful for the crews from around the country who have come help to restore.  If you have an elderly neighbor, stop by and check on them. Take the money you are saving on electricity and consider helping others get cleaner electricity: http://www.solar-aid.org/
or help those closer to home by donating to the United way: http://www.unitedway.org/ or the Red Cross: www.redcross.org.   I hope you all are well, and am proud you have read this far. Pedestal detachment commencing."

When it rains...when is it going to rain?

When it rain it pours...or not.  I was complaining about the fires in Colorado.   The storm that roared through our area a few days ago and which has left a large number of people in Maryland and Virginia without power in 99 degree heat, passed over us around midnight without dropping much rain, downing only a few large branches, which, of course, fell directly on the one bed that seems to have survived rabbits, ground hogs and drought, and leaving us with power!  We never lost power!  Tell that to my PC.  It lost its power and is now at the Geek doctor's.  Therefore posting will be intermittent until I pay what they wish or exchange my first born.  This global warming with it increase in intensive storms and weather patterns is a bugger!

Bewildered and Wiping Away the Tears

I taught in Carson Colorado for a year many years ago.  This is just outside of the city of Colorado Springs.  I hiked and skied the nearby mountains and know the area pretty well.  I do not know people there now, but it does not diminish the tears that I am shedding for these families running from this terrible and very large fire.  I have a brother and SIL in Boulder and am hoping so hard that this fire stops soon.  Droughts and heat and an angry planet.  I have another brother outside of Fort Collins who is still safe from the fire they say they have contained.  Worry follows me everywhere these days.

The Truth Will Set You Free.

Get the facts.

Epiphany...Ask the Peanut Gallery

I just realized that I have a reasonable number of readers who slog follow along with my convoluted elaborate writing, egocentric ideas and pithy conclusions.  Not all blogs can master all three of the above as successfully as I seem to do.  So then  Therefore, I had this epiphany.  These readers, you-all, are a source of ideas, wisdom and free advice.  When I have a bold decision to make and I am beginning that journey of weighing the pros and cons on some project, I should perhaps ask the pros in the ether-sphere what they suggest.  (I want to warn you that I rarely end up taking good advice, and my life has been richly rewarded with many roadblocks along the way as a result of that.)

As I mentioned a post ago, I am in the process of replacing my 1998 Mazda 626 car.  I loved this car the day I purchased it and it has only recently been giving me difficulty.  It is in reasonably good enough condition (the photo above is not my car---my car has a few dents and dings) with >130,000 miles on it, but I am mentally ready for something a little larger and envious of all those nice new technological things like Bluetooth and GPS which will take me years to figure out how to use.  A working radio would also be a nice surprise since mine works only on and off these days.  Although I am moving away from the endless number of infant and toddler chairs that keep getting put in the back seat, as you know my son is getting married in the distant future, if mother nature agrees there will be more little grandchildren then I must keep this in mind.  So, I am keeping two of the 3 infant seats in storage!  The third goes to the church store.

I do not want to spend more than 30K and much less if I can get away with it.  I have always bought the truly lower end cars because of budget constraints---which I am sure I will get a nice nod from you-all, but this time I think I should reward myself with something a little nicer.  I spend 16,800 K on the Mazda that many years ago!   (Here she goes talking about MONEY again!)

I have researched the hybrids a little and a mechanic has told us they are a bear to fix if something goes wrong.  Therefore total electric cars are out of the picture.  I would like to buy American, but many Asian cars are really made to a great extent in America, so that broadens the picture.  I do not care about looks, but I do care about safety, reliability and comfort and a good view from that blind spot window on both sides!

If any of my readers have a car they recently purchased or know about that they love...please tell me about it in your comments.  I, in return, will give you all the free advice you want this year!

Money, Money, Money

Father's Day shone forth a clean light on my son's immediate future plans.  While we knew he was serious about this sweet woman he was dating, as parents we carefully kept the conversations to the general and casual.  He now admits that he is saving for a ring and will probably propose sometime this fall and wedding plans are most likely to occur around the 4th of July in the year ahead.  While it is a relief that he now discusses these important events so openly with us, I am now realizing I have to plan a budget as I was going to replace my car this winter.


For my daughter's wedding (which was a somewhat elaborate affair) we contributed 1/3, the in-laws 1/3 and the married couple themselves 1/3 of the cost.  My daughter's in-laws are New Jersey people and while reality television tends to overdo the colorful culture there, big weddings are a necessity it appears.  Some seemed to feel that the wedding won't hold unless there is a large crowd in a fancy hotel dancing the night away.  Therefore, her wedding was held in a fancy catholic church in Washington, DC (neither hubby nor I are Catholic) and the evening reception was held in a ballroom of one of the largest hotels in Washington, DC.  Hubby and I held the line to the lower end of the 5-figure amount which we donated, as we are much more practical and just couldn't give more without acid indigestion for a one-day ceremony.  My daughter attended another wedding that summer in New York City where the budget for the flowers alone was $50,000!  I guess it is all a matter of perspective and values and disposable income.  At that wedding, with flowers everywhere, I understand both sets of parents of the bride and groom were barely speaking to each other and the priest almost had to perform some kind of intervention.  He actually lectured both parents (in a polite way) at part of the ceremony!  Yeah, there is some satisfaction in the rich being so dysfunctional.

Maybe we were just out of touch and each generation is less conservative than the prior.  Lord knows my wedding cost less than $1,000...food, flowers, dress and all.  But I was a poor graduate student and my parents did not offer to help when I told them I was engaged.  Perhaps because I didn't want to spend what little money I had on flying home from Hawaii for a home wedding since most of my (our) friends were there at school and our first jobs were taking us even further out into the South Pacific.  Although I must admit that both of us were surprised when neither of our parents felt they could spend the time or money to attend!  Yeah this IS a tragic story of the strange ways depression era old folks lose sight of what is important, but we survived and still talked to them after we got hitched and our marriage survived without a ballroom and is now 42 years old.  Years ago my sister and her husband eloped to Vegas...so  much for ceremony there.  Yes, they are still married and could actually have afforded a huge wedding as they are both attorneys.

Anyway, I told my son we would give him the same amount of money that we gave my daughter and he could use it any way that he wished toward the wedding, honeymoon, or savings for a larger house someday.  Perhaps we should add an inflation adjustment to that?  I try to be fair, but in all honesty my daughter and her husband make lots of money while my son and his future wife do not and I tend to be more sympathetic to that.

Hubby and I are comfortable in our retirement and we can be reasonably generous, so with great thankfulness we appreciate our situation.  But I also know that money can be a poisonous thing whether you have it or not.

Falling in Love Again

Two days of intense and painful swollen neck glands and a knife sharp pain on one side of my throat when I swallow has been the way Thursday and Friday have gone for me.  Heavy doses of pain killing PM sleep drugs to get me through the two nights.  I am home alone as hubby has headed to the city for a meeting and a doctor's checkup and a toddler's graduation.  Impossible to figure out how I caught this as my exposure to small children was not intimate at the seedling booth that I worked last week and I used the bacteria wipes at the grocery store as I always do...although I did sit with hubby in a doctor's waiting room, but never touched the magazines!

I am missing the toddler's (little gal) graduation from preschool with regret but was feeling so sick the regret is small.

On the third day I ate a sweet peach for lunch and then took a long afternoon nap.  When I woke at 4:00 PM it seemed the fever had finally lessened and my throat pain was no longer impossible to endure. I could actually swallow without thinking I had a knife plunged through one of my Eustachian tubes.

I pulled myself out of bed at long last.  Thinking my weekend visit with the kids coming here may get off to a great start after all.

Then just as I stepped out of the shower and dried my hair and put on fresh new clothes my best medicine cure arrived on dancing feet.  My 6 7-year-old grandson who came back with my husband ran into the house to greet me and see how I was doing.  He has lost both of the two front top teeth and both his bottom teeth and this toothless silly smile and lispy dialogue fills me with indescribable joy.

We had a 20 minute conversation about the loss of his teeth over the last few weeks,  the economics of the loss of teeth (such as daddy dropping one of the four teeth down the sink and they calling plumber to retrieve the dropped tooth).  I certainly went wrong in not teaching my children how to remove the elbow joint beneath the sink!  Then the next tooth was lost on the playground at school.  Several green bills later the fourth tooth is left with the tooth fairy and grandson has 12 dollars in his bank!!  Then our happy conversation drifts on to Harry Potter and how at 6 he has already read a shortened version of the first book and has brought the DVD with him so that he can finish seeing the visual of the story.  I ask if it is not too scary for him, and he insists he just gets scared at certain parts like where the troll is, but he knows it is just a movie.

Then with the twists and turns of magical conversations with young folk we talk about how he used to love Thomas the Train and how that time has passed so rapidly that he has forgotten the names of many of the trains which results in a brief search on the Internet down memory lane.

Then as I lay back on my sick bed, not really feeling sick anymore, he heads off to the kitchen where grandpa is making a grilled cheese sandwich with carrot sticks and freshly picked raspberries for dessert and the chore of picking more raspberries after dinner.

Remember when you fell in love and you could not do anything without working that person's name into the conversation, or working it into doodle or a daydream?  Well, it does happen again in old age.  I am so absolutely, positively lucky that this young boy has a happy and rich life and that he loves sharing it with me!  I do not deserve this, but I will not give it back!

Thursday Thoughts #37 Everything I Need to Know I Learned in My Garden---Thursday 13 Thoughts # 36

1. I learned to accept differing points of view but to learn for myself by testing.  One man's weed is another man's treasured landscape plant.  I have purchased beautiful landscape plants from nurseries only to discover that they spread or re-seed like wildfire and then leave my yard to invade the rest of the woods.  On the other hand I have learned that one man's treasured landscape plant sometimes becomes a Prima Donna in my yard requiring too much attention.
2. I have learned to think outside the flower bed and to compromise.  Do I want butterflies or parsley?  If I plant a lot of parsley there will be some left over and then I can have both.  (Now if I can only teach that ground hog how to compromise!)
   
   
3. I have re-learned each day that change is inevitable and we all must adapt.  Some plants die, some plants are eaten to the ground and some plants get too large.  Perennial gardens are replete with changes.  Every season requires digging, moving and replacing.
4. Target your enemies so that there is minimal collateral damage.  Picking off a few or spraying very specifically for the many insects such as Japanese Beetles while carefully avoiding all other insects means less harm to those birds that are also eating the insects in my garden and less harm to those insects that are beneficial to my garden.
   
   
   
   
   
5. I have learned patience.  Plants take a long time to bring forth their reproductive beauty and instantaneous results are only for those who buy annuals in large flats.
6. Keep your place, you are not a miracle worker.  While the intermittently large plant in the foreground adds interest, planting most tall plants in the background allows everyone to show off as is the same with people.  Also, as a gardener, you need to step back once in a while and let s**t happen without beating yourself up over it.  (The voles had a vacation in my dianthus bed this spring and the rabbits have eaten 90% of my zinnias I nurtured so carefully from seed.)
   
   
   
   
   
7. Gardening is common ground.  Gardeners are wonderful people and can garden side by side even when on opposite sides of the political spectrum.  Disagreements almost always lead to compromise or changes in activity.
8. Gardening is the only reality show that I like and watch each year.  It can cost money but if you are smart and buy from local garden club plant sales and get freebies from friends, you are more likely to get better and tested plants more cheaply.
9. I have learned that fear paralyzes intelligent action.  Anger has to be provoked and many dangers are not as they seem or as you have been told.  Bumble bees and honey bees and all pollinators are so busy eating that they do not have time to sting unless you step on them or sit on them.  I can reach in and cut all the flowers I want as the bees dance around my arms.  This lesson has broader applications in life.
   
   
   
   
   
10. Deciding where to start and how to start your projects are the most important preparations you can make.  Foundation is everything.  You have to know where the sun hits your yard and when and for how long.  You have to know the soil as if it was the back of your hand.  You have to amend this soil because it is the first and last meal for your plants and no soil is perfect.
11. Opinions on style and design don't really matter.  Mother nature can pull together pink and orange and it looks perfect.  Mother nature can pull together large and small, smooth and prickly, and it always seems to fit.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
12. Sharing is the richness in life.  If you are lucky to have something to share, be sure and do so.  Pay back is the smile on their face and the bond you have made.  Share your garden knowledge with your grandchildren, share your produce with your neighbors or the local food pantry, share your plants with new gardeners, share your time with Mother Nature.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
13. And the most important lesson I have learned is to enjoy myself.  If I feel it is hard work, then I am doing something wrong.  Work should be a little refreshing, shouldn't it?  Maybe I just need a smaller garden.  Yes, mistakes happen. The best thing about gardening is that there is always a do-over next year.

Musically Inclined

Make sure you have your earphones on for this.
(Yes I am related to one of the artists.   If you like it softer you may like "Sadie".  If you like it edgier than listen to "Coming Attraction."  If you are from the Isles you may like "Whiskey Rose".)

An Obligatory Life Style?...Only if You Cook!

As I have written about in the past, my close neighbors own a very expensive sail boat which does not get taken out very often.  This summer they are getting ready for a month's sail around the Chesapeake Bay.  Since they are novice sailors this is a good start and I am glad to see they are using this expensive toy more often.  Boats are like fashion models in that they require a certain amount of attention, money and an unreasonable amount of maintenance.

We have another friend that lives 15 miles away on the water.  We had not been to visit their home in the time that we have known them but I kind of had an idea that it would be one of those places where various sheds are full of various project supplies, gardens and landscape beds are like fraying patchwork quilts popping up every where and the house would be spacious, welcoming, and needing lots of work.  I was not wrong, except for the rescue cat operation that I later learned about!  Since I am allergic to cats, I sent hubby on the work errand to this house.

When hubby returned I asked if they lived on the water.  He said yes and that they also had a boat at dock.  He went on to say that the motor boat was idle and had not been used in years.  It seems that the first time the owner took out the boat he had some problem that had to be fixed.  The second time he had his grandchildren for a boating day in this new boat and did not realize he had to switch on some water pump to keep the inboard engine cool and the motor eventually overheated and they had to be towed back home.  That boat has not left the dock since that event.  This is a more interesting anecdote when you learn that this man teaches classes on boating safety and the rules of the road for boaters!  He has admitted that he actually does not like boating...just helping teach others how to be safe on the water.

I often wonder how we get ourselves into these expensive hobbies which we do not really want.  It happens so often to boaters.  People retire to the water in Florida and immediately buy a boat because everyone else has a boat.  They have never been boating but dive in head first (to mix an image) and end up with a headache that taunts them every morning.  Living on the water and enjoying the view does not mean one has to boat or sail.  Living on a golf course does not mean one has to enjoy golf.  Maybe you just like a perfectly "manigroomed" back yard view.  Living on the side of a mountain with a snowy view does not mean you have to ski just because all of your neighbors ski.  Surely you will find other things you enjoy with them such as apres ski warm drinks.  Living in the lively city doesn't mean you have to eat out all the time...maybe you just want coffee and like people watching.  Living in the country does not mean you have to farm!

I think we try to fit our personal round pegs into those lovely square holes that we find without taking time to test the hole.  We think we need to be exactly like everyone around us.  But we don't.  EXCEPT, I will never understand people who have huge gourmet kitchens with every perfect appliance and tool and yet they rarely cook!

Horses, Horses,

One never knows what one can find driving in the country but the sweet scene below is no surprise...

Then again, driving to the strip mall can also be a sweet surprise...

Pushing Air

The hot weather arrived a few days ago. We will still have days of moderate or temperate weather, but the hot and humid days will return again and again until they arrive to stay.  Every year I hold off turning on the air-conditioner until June 1 if I can.  I live in the middle south and our summers are always hot and humid for at least two months.  With global climate change, it will be for three months (or more) in the years to come.

I closed my windows to create my climate cave shutting out all the sounds from outdoors.  I lose the bird and animal sounds and the sound of the wind pushing through the fat green leaves, but I do not mind closing out the teenage girl's loud radio that sits on her dock across the river every weekend.  I do not mind missing the sound of the lawn mowers and speed boats and barking dogs.   I do not mind muffling the loud museum concert that is being held just two miles away in the outdoor garden that I help weed!  I live in the woods where there should be little sound, but the water is a perfect surface for carrying the abundance of man-made noise on weekends.

Once the AC is on, we become spoiled.  We go outside to work or shop or visit early in the day until the sweat drips from our brows and nose and then we quickly retreat to the cool space of this house and rarely go out again.  We tend to hide and find indoor things to do in the middle of the day.  We get better about combining errands.

I find that I must also remember to bring sweaters to restaurants and movie theaters and museums because they crank up the AC much higher than I do.  I am always amazed at the way stores in the beautiful climate of Hawaii find it necessary to create rooms like refrigerators for shopping.

When I flipped the switch this year I was even more aware of how big a decision this was.  Even with zoned cooling, I am burning fossil fuels to heat rooms with high ceilings that I rarely use.  I am pushing artificially cooled air down hallways and into upstairs bedrooms.  What a luxury to burn this fossil fuel while people all over the world deal with the climate into which they were born, without AC!  Here in the mid-south people used to quit housework early and sit on porches under fans and pant until the sun set and they could move once again.  What a luxury to be able to afford this expense...for now.  I cannot help but think we as a society in North America are at the peak of of our life style.  I cannot help but think generations to follow will have many compromises to make in how they live their lives that would surprise us if we were here 40 years from now.

Today

 

How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes!  ~Maya Angelou

Indexing This blog

I rarely look at my stats from Blogger since that is not my motivation for writing, but the other day I was curious as to the searches that lead to this blog...

famous russian drawings--4
osprey feather--3
zen--7
bad karma stories--6
bob marley hold hands with president--2
chinese help americans during wwii--2
how does people dress in jamaica--2
how much is scrap metal worth in michigan--2
i think too far ahead--2
osprey feathers--10
fiddle and faddle photos--8

These searches were entered over the past month I think.  Anyway, while some of these are really nice, and others are very confusing,  I clearly need to do a better job in wording my titles and in creating subject labels for my posts!

Yesterday we took a drive to the north part of the county and I captured some lovely scenery.  Lets see what descriptions I can give these to get more interesting hits!

This is the historic George Peters house and I could find absolutely nothing on this house on the Internet.  Guess I will have to look around locally!

This is why the chicken crossed the road, because this was on the exact opposite side.  The beauty captured me so I almost walked into an oncoming car on this lonely stretch of road.

Speaking of chickens crossing the road...we were weren't we?... this was a surprise bird that was crossing the road!

He is so stunning that he could stop traffic anywhere!  (Now I am waiting for Purdue hits or maybe KFC--that is an inside U.S. joke.)

Procrastination

This is such a repetitive theme with my blog that I should start a separate blog devoted totally to how creative or stubborn I can become in putting things off.  (Yes, I know I ended that sentence with a preposition.)  Many of these tasks are so easy, I just do not understand why I set them aside until they create sour thoughts when I look at my lists and they continue to sit at the top of a long list with nary a line through them.  Yes, I am a list maker, but that does not mean I regularly accomplish all on my list.  Some of the items I put on the list because I am a masochist, surely.

Cleaning the house items get ticked off cleanly and rapidly.  Bill paying, gardening chores, shopping items are all routinely completed.  BUT, answering invitations (those rare items) to weddings, graduations, and dinners get put off until the very last minute whether I am saying yes or no.  What is up with that?  Why do I find these so hard to complete?

Returning phone calls get postponed over returning emails and FB comments every time.

AND, of course, anything to do with exercise can be postponed until hell freezes over if my lack of guilt allows.  I have gone through periods of regular exercise activities...free weights, elliptical walking, aerobics tapes (Just the fact that I use the word tapes gives you a clue to how long ago I did that!) and yoga.  I felt so good after doing these each and every time.  But this period is easily interrupted by a trip, house guests, and most recently my ankle injury.  I still do lots of woods walking, but that is the exercise of last resort.  That is the exercise that people brag about...and it really is not exercise.  Admit it.  Do you work up a sweat?  Do you have sore muscles that need to be stretched at the end?  See, it is not exercise.  It is what we do...just like eating.

I still have a stiff ankle now and again and I readily use this as an excuse, a weak excuse, to avoid exercise.  I was going to start an exercise routine May 1.  I promised myself.  But then one day it rained and the next day the sun was shining.  OMG it is May 22 already!  Yesterday I ran after two rabbits that were in my flower bed and was shocked to find how strange and stiff running felt!

I absolutely must get off this pillow of fat on which I sit...after my second cup of coffee.