mean mamma

awakenings

2012-01-30T20:15:00.000-05:00

ok, so...dr. rick took my mother off most of her medicines on thursday....and today she has been up since 3:30 am...fully dressed and roaming her house for materials to complete long discarded projects.....she spoke this evening at supper of long-forgotten neighbors in cleveland....of her serger machine that does not seem to work...of the boxes upstairs that require sorting ....these being the very same boxes that i had intended to disperse amongst the many charities that use fabric, yarn and notions......that will teach me to procrastinate.....seems she has phoned several old friends, and dispaired at the numbers that have been disconnected since she last felt up to phoning old friends.....we shall enjoy this bolt of enthusiasm for as long as it lasts.....

unprecedented

2012-01-28T08:47:00.000-05:00

ok, so....i got up early three days this week to swim before work......this change in schedule was forced by the inconvenience of swimming after work, given that swim lesson season has begun, my time frame coincides with aqua zumba, and the general chaos/noise level in the pool got in the way of my good time.....and so i gave before work a try....i have had to share lanes on occassion, but the peace and quiet that reigns in the early pool hours is just what i was looking for in an exercise routine. today i will try out my new heart rate monitor....to qualify as a workout for my insurance incentive scheme there must be verification....my monitor will upload into the program's website.....just like my pedometer uploads and records steps as wrkouts......you might ask if any or all of this effort has paid off in pounds lost....the answer would be no.....but i am sleeping better and i feel as though the slightly firmer muscles will be able to handle Paris with less fatigue.....in fact, plotting paris is the general theme of each lap swimm session.....the exact routes for each day's circuit amongst the sites.....but swimming is not the only unprecedented event of the week.....i signed up to be a paid subscriber to the NYT......after it became clear that they really were not going to let me read entire articles after the first 20 of each month without chipping in.....at $3.50 a week i shou;d have subscribed ages ago......so...this morning i am going to read my way through the newer articles on the NYT website, then change and go the wellness center to swim laps.....if i can get in the water before 9:30 i can avoid the zumba crowd at 10:15.....

lap swimming....

2012-01-26T06:30:00.002-05:00

ok, so i am up 30 minutes early so i can manage all of my morning chores before going to swim laps on the way to work....a sign of the end-times?

the sunday i stayed home from church.....

2012-01-22T09:56:00.000-05:00

ok, so....the clock in the corner of this screen says 9:48 am......a time that i am rarely at home on a sunday.....when the weather is especially bad the church will call of services altogether as a way of keeping us all safe from the perils of ice and snow.....on this morning i am isolating my cold from my church family, mostly because i likely caught the cold from someone who went on out into the world feeling wretched rather than keeping their contagion away from society.....frankly, i should have stayed home yesterday, but i thought that a warm swim followed by refreshing errands would make me feel better......yea, right.......i feel worse today, what with the sneezing, the watery eyes, the stuffed up pressure in my sinus cavities that makes my jaws ache....and so i have treated myself to a rather hot whirlpool bath with hot compresses on my face, and several cups of Earl Grey, and I am thinking of going back to bed.....

come thou long-awaited green house

2011-12-27T11:03:00.000-05:00

ok, so...the long-awaited greenhouse is nearly done.....i say nearly, because now that i am working in it, i see the need to make improvements originally down-played by the builders....like an exhaust window with a temperature-gauged hinge.....yes, one can open up the doors when the temperature gets too high inside.....but i cannot do this from work.....i can see myself driving home at lunch on unseasonably warm days to open those doors....driving to and from work to check on a greenhouse is hardly sustainable food production....aside from the temperature issue...there is the lack of any opening big enough for an extension cord.....in the event we are sub-zero for a few days i might want to warm things up a tad.......heavy sigh....i am perusing the seed catalogs for varieties that winter-over well in hopes they will do as well in the greenhouse.....i have found an unused packet of rouge d'hiver lettuce that looks to be winterhardy...will plant these the next time i am home during daylight.....

cultural differences

2011-12-24T08:17:00.000-05:00

ok, so it has been months since my last blog....but as this space is resrved for the preservation of my (more important) thoughts and circumstances as i age, i feel the need to put down the events of the past few days. For starters, my eldest's girlfriend has flown back to Florida to spend the holidays with her family. He plans to drive there sometime next week to meet her family and to vacation in a warm climate. The drive will take him within the geographical vicinity of the birth mother to the youngest of our children. Naturally, the opportunity to accompany the eldest was put to the youngest, and that is where the chaos began. The birth mother has hounded the youngest for 'details' of the visit. Seems there are numerous complications to a potential visit: the birth mother's spouse works three jobs, they have taken in a border with a baby who must keep her job as a condition of probation, the restraining orders against close neighbors.....you get the picture. The travel dates have been shared, but even the dates has not been enough to quell the constant stream of texts asking for more information. Should Junior take off on the expected date of arrival? Should they find a sitter for the baby? It occured to me last night, when I lay sleepless after another unfortunate interchange with the child in question about the known trip details as i knew them: there is a cultural disconnect at play here. in our family context, we get up 'early' on a travel day and drive....with stops for food and comfort when needed, armed with printed travel directions that include expected mileage and timing. when this couple have (has?) visited us, they left whenever the spouse got off work, even if it was late at night, and drove through the night....even if it meant arriving while we were still asleep.......they have been known to sleep in their car in front of our house and wait until they saw lights come on. when they were told the arrival date, they appear to have figured that this child could arrive any time after midnight on that date, rather than 14 hours after a reasonable morning starting time.....the child in question, despite her increasing agitation over the 'lack of details' has yet to google the particulars on her own...she has both addresses, and could find out for herself just how long of a trip she has in front of her.....and could possibly come to the realization that there are many factors that will confound an estimated time of arrival- sheer distance, wrecks,construction, disorientation......as for me, i will continue to pray that the eldest and the youngest can complete a journey of that length without un-mediated theatrics.....and that the visit itself will be void of drama and danger....amen, amen and amen

the way

2011-11-06T21:51:00.000-05:00

ok, so....we went back to lexington this evening to see the way.....i called ahead to make certain that the projector was working and that we would not have to see the other film playing at the kentucky by default....like last sunday when we saw the ides of march because the projector for the way was broken.....ah well.....all this after an afternoon at the wildlife refuge and a substantial hike.....for the record..the way is about the pilgrimage to santiago de compestello....800 km of walking across southern france and northern spain to see the site fo the burial of st. james.....i envision myself on such an extended hike....and said as much to my treasured spouse on the way home.....whereupon he expressed concern that AT MY CURRENT WEIGHT i could not possibly entertain such a journey....he went so far as to express surprise that i managed to hike the refuge trails AT MY CURRENT WEIGHT......he went on to express concern that i lack the fitness required for my upcoming trip to paris......for the record, i weigh almost to the pound what i weighed on my last 2 trips to paris and my last trip to london...and somehow managed to drag myself to the sights AT MY CURRENT WEIGHT.....for the record i walk 4 lunches a week on a church-sponsored indoor walking track....as well as several extra 30 minutes in the evening on the treadmill...seems i need to be doing more..step it up a bit.......like the time slots when i am playing scrabble.....seems seeing me at the computer rather than on the treadmill this morning is what set off this day's diatribe.....heavy sigh.....no clue how i will manage to drag myself up to bed AT MY CURRENT WEIGHT

grey, short-sleeved t-shirt

2011-10-31T13:43:00.000-04:00

ok, so in my dreams i was wearing a grey short-sleeved t-shirt....with writing on it.....possibly writing above and below a crest of some sort....i was with my daughter's birth mother....at a county fair style aisle of rides and games and greasy food stalls....the scenario grows less likely as the descriptives pile on....i do not wear grey short-sleeved t-shirts, nor would i go to a county fair midway with or without the birth mother....i can recall announcing that i needed to change into a longsleeve shirt, because the grey shirt was dirty and because the sun was going down....and all the sudden i was riding in a car with my spouse....no sign fo the birth mother or the carnival rides...wearing jeans and a longsleeve t-shirt from DBF......go figure...

rocks and boxwoods.....

2011-10-23T21:28:00.000-04:00

ok, so....i have spent the past few weeks systematically digging out and transplanting 20+ year boxwoods ahead of the construction timeline for the greenhouse....without the row of boxwoods there is space for a 7 foot by 10 foot grrenhouse below the deck that will catch maximum winter and early spring sun and be reasonably shaded during the hotter months.....the entrance will be under the back deck....and will require a detour from the brick walk that connects the cabin-side yard with the garage-side yard...the detour necessitated the removal of decades of vine-growth that covered the rocks that i removed from the paths when i laid bricks.....and so i spent this weekend ripping out vines, moving rocks to two separate terracing projects, and laying the rocks into their new locations...for the record, moving rocks, even by wheelbarrow, uphill, is hard work....and just when i thought i was done with moving rocks, i noticed that there are more rocks by the cabin displaced when the workman poured real steps at the cabin door.....i say 'the cabin' though i really mean 'miss lulu's'...because that is what we have always called the cabin once owned by miss lulu bates.....no clue where i will move those rocks.....hopefully a good nights rest will inspire me...

a soggy tale of woe....

2011-10-08T15:36:00.000-04:00

ok, so...at the last minute this morning, as i was rushing about trying to select the appropriate outfit for making soup and sandwiches for the shut-ins with my church family, i decided that my shirt really needed to be ironed....and when i stepped onto the basement floor....the rug squished.....squish is never the sound one wants to hear...water was flowing out of the water heater....and i immediately reached for the yellow turn-off valve....we have been-there-done-that with the water heater before.....the plumber has been and gone and we have a brand-new water heater.....my children and their signifcant others are downstairs working the towels/shop vac/fans to dry out the carpet in the only downstairs bedroom.....thankfully the water never touched the numerous books.....i am also thankful that this leak happened while we were home rather than away....as the water damage could have been significant

sadness....

2011-10-04T10:17:00.000-04:00

ok, so....i was met at the door when i stopped by the methodist church last evening after work to pick up my mom from her regular phone-answering slot.....they had told her several weeks ago that they were putting her on the 'sub' list and that they had found someone else more reliable to answer the phone in that time slot....my mother had missed the week my brother came, and the next week because we forgot to take her....and the church used this opportunity to ease her out of answering the phone....'you know that your mother is going downhill, don't you....?'......that is not exactly how they said it but that is the gist of it....it was like being told that your child was no longer welcome to come over and play after some minor infraction.....the afternoon at the phones was one of the few outings my mother had, and i am saddened that the church could not figure out a way to make it work despite her memory issues.

no news is good news....

2011-09-29T14:34:00.000-04:00

ok, so...the local paper covered the board meeting and printed the summary a week ago. The piece was inaccurate in many ways....including a ridiculous statement that made it sound as if the ehalth department had no obligation to notify the community in emergency situations. The article also incuded a noye about the board vopting to give me a 5% raise. yikes! i have worried for the past week that there would be outrage about both the inaccurate notification statement, as well as about voting a raise in tough economic times. Happily, this week's paper had no letters about either of my issues....and i am very pleased to have dodged this bullet.....

the dream with my dad as a young man...

2011-09-29T14:29:00.000-04:00

ok, so....i am still thinking about a dream i had several nights ago...in the dream i am in my grandmother's farmhouse in rural ohio....the house had 2 screened-in porches...the one off the barnyard was the one used both to enter the house as well as for leisurely sitting.....the house was single story on the left -side....where the kitchen and dining room/laundry room/pantry were located....and two-storied on the right side....with a large living area, bedroom, the second screened-in porch downstairs and two bedrooms upstairs. There was an attic off the stairs that was essentially on top of the kitchen and dining room. In my dream, my gtrandmother was dressed like Jackie Kennedy, in a lavender linen sheath with large covered button accents, and her hair was bobbed...sadly...no pillbox hat....for the record, my grandmother never wore a dress like...she was a shirtdress kind of woman....but i digress.....so in the dream i am with my brother in the larger of the two upstairs bedrooms....there were far more beds in the room in my dream than there were in my childhood....and my dad is standing at the top of the stairs....a youthful version of my dad.....and i ask him why my grandparents had never converted the attic into another bedroom....and he answered...'you would have to ask me that!'.....this was a typical reponse to a question to which he did not know the answer....the dream went on....but this scene is one that i have pondered many times since waking up.....

recovery

2011-09-24T08:26:00.000-04:00

ok, so....the race for the arts was last sunday evening....this event is an all-hands-on-deck situation for the c-dubs and their extended circle.....i help with the registration table, and then cut the bananas to be offered alongside the grapes that i have previously washed and sectioned. I also share water duties with the altertnative water site at the finish line....this year's race was marred by injury.....not of the racers, but of my spouse.....he cycles the course to make sure that traffic is stopped at intersections.....some where near the corner of st mildred's court and main his left hand managed to compress the brake enough that he was hurled over the handlebars and onto the street.....runners veered off-course to assist....seems he did not get up immediately.....the ems was called to help a 40-year old who wrecked his bike on the course....but by the time they came he had gotten back on his bike to finish the taks at hand...his doctor checked him out after the award ceremony....he advised him to avoid the temptation to go to the ER, as the cost to diagnose bruised/cracked ribs will not be worth the expense given that there is not much that can be done about them... .fast-forward to saturday.....he still cannot get out of bed without help....the torn abdominal muscles still spasm on occassion....his bruised ribs are still tender.....his scrapes are still red and mean-looking..he finally sought 'official' medical attention on thursday....mostly over concern for the spasms....and the shortness of breath....yikes! let us hope that he has turned a corner and is on the road to recovery...

free at last?

2011-09-17T17:02:00.000-04:00

ok, so.....i unsubscribed today from the voluminous FB updates posted from our daughter's birth mother.....the threshold that triggered this action was two-fold....first.....she reached the age of 18 (consent) and she is now free to make as much or as little contact with her birth mother as she chooses......secondly, the woman has been updating her status at 30 minute increments of late....while my child was underage I felt responsible for monitoring the birth mother's mental status....the better to cushion the blow for whatever negative interactions she had with our child....but now.....i am allowing myself to detach myself from the ongoing drama....and allowing our child to deal with these tempests on her own terms.....

remorse...

2011-09-10T14:16:00.000-04:00

ok, so....in especially lousy day at work followed by a fitful sleep....i disclosed what i failed to see was a confidence....and all-hell has broken loose....between me and the person who told me, but not between me and the person from whom the secret was being held.....go figure...

wasted day

2011-08-30T22:14:00.001-04:00

ok, so.....i was up all night and gave in to temptation to call in sick, given that even the smell of brewing coffee added to my nausea...when i cannot sit in the computer chair to play my word games then it really is time to go back to bed. I finally dragged myself downstairs the second time around 10:30 am and decided that it was best to go right back up and strip the bed, gather anything i had worn or touch and run a load of laundry as a public health precaution....since nobody else seemed to be sick, then this illness was more likely to be a virus rather than food poisoning....ah well....i lazed about watching netflix on the ipad while playing word games on my iphone.....progressing from strawberry frozen fruit bars to potato soup to pasta by the end of the day....mostly it was a day wasted.....i could not imagine dragging myself out to the garden, nor sitting up to sort through closets or drawers....i suppose that is the purpose of a true 'sick' day...to be so sick that not only should one not attempt the trip to work, but one cannot do housework while off at home....

lamaze breathing

2011-07-06T17:42:00.002-04:00

ok, so.....sometime around 9:00 am, just after the plumber's insurance adjuster left after seeing the damage done in the second internal water disaster last wednesday....i decided that i would take time to move my select belongings from the downstairs makeshift office back into my repainted and refloored upstairs office. Most of my files and delicates (baskets, prints, diplomas) were in boxes in the conference room, but the files I thought I might need in the interim were with me in the near-broom closet i have called home for several weeks....and so i grabbed the dolly (?dollie)dragged it into the elevator...and pressed 1....and the elevator went down, but the door did not open.....and so i pressed 1 again.....and then pressed door open, and then started beating on the door until i noticed a call button....which buzzed loudly....i buzzed for a bit before i noticed the emergency call phone hidden behind the emergency call phone panel.....and i pressed the button clearly labeled in red....press for help......and a human voice answered.....and i told her that i was trapped in the elevator at the MCHD.....and she asked my name.....and after i spelled it out, she responded with....someone will be there shortly jackie.....and so the regrets started welling up....regret that i am not one of those people who carries one's cell phone around 24/7.....regret that i had not told anyone in the building that i was going to be using the elevator.....regret that i had not used the restroom first.....or gotten a drink of water......or thought to bring along a chair rather than a dolly (dollie)....with the recovery/restoration projects since the original water disaster on may 1, the floor of the elevator has become quite soiled.......at no point in my captivity did the notion of actually sitting down sound like a reasonable plan......so....help was on the way.......yet i was still confined and getting a tad warm...i took off my linen 'big' shirt and arranged it on the dolly (dollie)....a hymn came into my brain.......standing on the promises that cannot fail, when the howling storms of doubt and fear assail, by the living word of god I shall prevail,
Standing on the promises of God.......it is not even a hymn from the past sunday....so i can credit only Divine providence for sending this song into my brain.....of course, this was not the verse that i tried to sing...this happens to be the second verse.....and the act of trying to sing the song triggered a cathartic cry...not sobbing, not simple tears trickling down the cheeks.....just an outward sign that i was having an inward crisis at almost 9 weeks after the may 1 disaster...but even that explanation lacks the full amplitude of my angst.....i have as many or more issues at home that await resolution........and none that can be reolved while awaiting rescue.....so i reverted back to the last time i prepared physically for tense and trying times....lamaze class 27 years ago.....and it was lamaze breathing for the remainign minutes of my entrapment that allowed me to step out of the (braced) elevator door into freedom with my head held high and my tears nearly dried and forgotten.......

missing my dad.....

2011-06-19T08:17:00.005-04:00

ok, so yesterday at the red lobster, where my mom and i ate after picking up the remainder of our 30-year anniversary replacement china......i attempted to direct the conversation to dad......who liked red lobster almost as much as mom.....we were ordering, and i pointed out that dad would have ordered the clam strips.....she nodded....and then went back to perusing the menu......for no real reason because she always orders the fried shrimp and crab leg combination with a baked potato....she eats the crab legs and takes the shrimp and potato home for supper....this scenario worked out well yesterday, as we were going to our daughter's boyfriend's belated graduation party that involved a bbq supper at the battlefield....on the way back home my spouse asked if the boyfriend's father was involved at all....no, i replied, because he died some time ago after some peiod of estrangement.....i started to say that the boyfriend had that in common with our daughter....but then that is not true......our daughter has had my spouse as her very-involved father most of her life.....her birth-father was estranged, but he is now working on semi-regular contact.....she has no concept of father's day without a father.....ah well......there is a picture of my mom and dad above the computer table...the one taken at their 47th anniversary party....we celebrated the 47th rather than waiting on the 50th when it became clear that my father would be far from lucid if we postponed......he seems happy and content in this photo.....in the moment rather than agonizing over the past or the future....seems this gentle man still has a few things to teach me about how to live one's life.....

ok, so.....

2011-06-14T22:07:00.002-04:00

ok, so.....the nurse from Doctor H.'s office called not long after lunch with these opening words....'I am here with your mother, and she seems confused on her medications'.......i immediately bring up the calendar on my pc......no appt with doctor...then grab my phone and search for that calendar....yikes.....doctor at 3....but it is only 1:30 pm and curiously no mention of it is on the calendar synced with my phone.....but i digress.....i reviewed my mother's medicines with the nurse, who expressed concern that my mother said she took no medications.....he asked about problems...and i mentioned her laying about on her bed watching tv while complaining that her back hurt......her doctor called after another 30 minutes, and told me that she felt that my mother had no business driving, and that she had told her so in her examination....she suspected that my mother would not tell me about her recommendation....just as she had not told me of her appt......she suggested that i hide her keys if i felt uncomfortable with confrontation.....yikes.....my spouse is out of town til late tomorrow....so he and I agreed that we can defer the keys discussion until Thursday at supper, when he can support my request for her keys..........my mother did acknowledge that she went to the doctor today....but she left out the part about the car...go figure.....i feel quite conflicted....as I knew that she should not drive but did not confront her at supper tonight....and she plans to drive to church supper tomorrow....I pray that she travels safely until I have ht enerve to take her keys.....

2011-06-12T12:39:00.002-04:00

In honor of Rachel and Joe's wedding...the Collins piece read at our wedding 30 years ago....Judy not Billy...when I hear it read/sung I hear Dan Fogelberg....

What I'll give you since you asked
Is all my time together;
Take the rugged sunny days,
The warm and rocky weather,
Take the roads that I have walked along,
Looking for tomorrow's time,
Peace of mind.

As my life spills into yours,
Changing with the hours
Filling up the world with time,
Turning time to flowers,
I can show you all the songs
That I never sang to one man before.

We have seen a million stone lying by the water,
You have climbed the hills with me
To the mountain shelter.
Taken off the days, one by one,
All lyrics www.allthelyrics.com
Setting them to breathe in the sun.

Take the lilies and the lace
From the days of childhood,
All the willow winding paths
Leading up and outward.
This is what I give
This is what I ask you for;
Nothing more

closure, of a kind.....

2011-06-03T23:29:00.002-04:00

ok, so....i am torn between feeling as though my task is over...my quest has been fulfilled, and my promise has been kept.....and as if this hesitation along the trail is just that...another milestone in the path that is parenthood.....in the end the folks who were essential were there to cheer us to the finish line.....and for that i am grateful.....i can only hope that they wil be with us for the trials that are to come....

post traumatic stress.....

2011-05-26T19:12:00.002-04:00

ok, so...not only have i failed to blog these many weeks, i have failed to blog about momentous occasions....and for that i am sorry....the point of this blog is and always has been a venue for memory-keeping.....and the events of these past few weeks are certainly memorable.....i have failed to blog about the after-effects of 27,000+ gallons of water spritzing out of the broken water heater valve sometime between close of business on April 29 and 3:00 am on May 1 when the fire alarm was triggered and the fire department broke down the door of the health department.....the disaster was nearly a month ago, and despite overtime and actual meritorious bonus payments for dealing with the aftermath....the reconstruction is far from over and the day-to-day reality is a numbing fog of smoothing over hurt feelings and validating the extra work that many have suffered through to bring this expected insurance coverage about......and all with the clear knowledge that congress could cut off all our funding an make the effort a mute point.... ah well.....somehow it will all work out......i did the right thing by passing on my bonus for tuition due this summer....but i did indulge myself in a matching travel ensemble from vera bradley.....all i need now is a trip (to paris?) to show off my suite,......

sorry about your luck....

2011-04-30T11:57:00.002-04:00

ok, so i reserved the use of our truck this morning so i could get a load of mulch....and opted do some scant grocery shopping on my way to get said load of mulch....alas, i had far more in my cart than tthe express line could overlook....and was forced to wait on several folks with huge orders.....the lady in back of me was spouting tag lines to random shoppers.....'sorry about your luck'.....'it must be april fool's day'.......'i have picture ID' .......very surreal....

circles of hell

2011-04-15T17:45:00.002-04:00

ok, so i spent my afternoon off in the circle of hell reserved for adult children of aging parents....the space in which one cannot gain access despite a filed POA, the one where the key fits the lockbox at the bank, but the documents required are not there, the one where my mother can show me the drawer where these documents 'used to be' but not where she may have 'hidden' them....until this afternoon i was completely unaware that having a certificate of deposit involved an actual certificate that banks are loathe to replace because of the extra work involved.....heavy sigh.....looking for the silver lining in this otherwise dismal day....

what if god was one of us....

2011-04-13T22:24:00.002-04:00

ok, so...i encountered God this morning.....after i got out of my car in front of the comp care building and before i walked into the Rotary meeting.....i had stopped long enough to take off my coat and toss it into the passenger seat....and then tested the reality of my locked car doors by clicking again to hear the honk.....and i turned to walk into the church...and there was a woman walking by.....i am not sure whether she was coming from the home at the end of the parking lot, or from the church playground, or from comp care....i smiled at her......this much i can be sure....and she turned to me and said...'my, but you look nice today'......and then she walked on.....that my part i am doubly sure...because i listened extra carefully because she said "my".......my own family never bothers to comment on my appearance in public, and yet this stranger managed to stop me dead in my tracks with an un-foreseen complement.....i am reminded of the soulful tune by Joan Osborne...

"What if God was one of us
Just a slob like one of us
Just a stranger on the bus
Trying to make his way home

The woman who spoke to me was just a slob like one of us who took the time to say something kind to one of use....and this act of random kindmess made a differnece in my path toward righteousness.

exasperated....

2011-04-11T18:31:00.002-04:00

ok, so....i have so much going on that blogging appears to have dropped down in the list of priorities.....behind parenting issues, budgetary woes, supervisory snafus, and the small yet irritating annoyances that keep me awake at night....like the floral silk scarf that i last wore with the black linen dress ....lost.....and my mother's taxes that remain at the accountant's office......unfinished......that sort of thing.....and the hydrangeas that are either slow to bud out or are in fact....dead....and last ,but not least....is our blind but not deaf cat that decided at 4:30 am to demand her breakfast......not ready to put her out of our misery....too much going on....

a wink is as good as a nod to a blind cat

2011-03-26T11:50:00.002-04:00

ok, so.....long-time with no blogs.....there is plenty to blog about, but most of what is going on in my humble existence is embargoed information, either with regards to work, or family, or some form of denial on my part......that said, i have concluded that the cat's pitiable decline is fair game, so to speak.....the cat's eyes started out looking bloodshot, with dilated pupils and an eerie appearance.....the child most likely to be concerned about pet health insisted that she be taken to the vet and all manner of treatment be afforded her.....alas, the cat is at least 14 years old, scraggly and scrawny.....and while emotions may nudge at lifesaving heroics, reality suggests that making her safe and comfortable in her decline is the kindest thing we can do....and so we pick her up and bring her back in the house when she wanders, and nudge her in the general directon of the door when she runs straight into the wall....this has happened more than once, and it is painful to watch......she sometimes misses the plant shelf in the guest room where she takes her meals, or just barely gets her paws hooked on the edge and has to drag herself the rest of the way up.....our poor precious......

reflections on handedness....

2011-03-12T08:49:00.002-05:00

ok, so.....the nytimes had an article on handedness this week...one that i have read more than once in hopes of finding clarity.....here is a curious quote....The percentage of left-handers in the population seems to be relatively constant, at 10 percent. And this goes back to studies of cave paintings, looking at which hands hunters are using to hold their spears, and to archaeological analyses of ancient artifacts. So though there has been prejudice against left-handers, and though there may be some developmental risks, said Dr. Geschwind, “there clearly must be advantages as well. The reason why it maintains that way, nobody knows what it is.”

clear advantages to be in the bottom 10% of the population? hmmmm.....i am at a loss for what those advantages might be.....

for the record, i write (poorly) with my left hand, eat with my left hand, and as i sit typing my coffee is at my left hand......if it were the evening, my wine glass would be at my right....i use regular scissors, bat and hold a racket with my right hand......i type with 2 fingers...mostly...sometimes 4 but only if i make an effort and concentrate on the task....i wear my watch on my right wrist....a sure giveaway of handedness......it is a struggle to actually put on a watch, as my left hand is less agile with small tasks....

in my current work day i must 'sign out' at lunch on a board that can only be reached comfortably by a right-hander.....and so i have made it a point of pride to write 'walking' or 'rotary' or 'lunch' in vaguely recognizable block letters with my right hand......and i am in awe that i hold the marker as awkwardly with that hand as i hold any writing implement in my left hand.....could it be that i have no handedness at all? or is my state of ambidextrousness the product of a scrambled brain?

i mentioned at the start that i often reread passages for clarity.....reread entire books numerous times in hopes of gleaning a few extra insights.....could i simply have a learning disability relating to reading that has been overcome by sheer will and persistence? I have rarely read the printed word in novel form since i discovered how to click an order and download a novel to my iphone.....i find a level of satisfaction with the spoken word that i can never recall achieving with rereading the written word.....does this have anything to do with a brain muddled by handedness?

having had my say on personal handedness issues, where do i go from here?.....nowhere different than before my 'rant'.....i suppose...though it will be interesting to see how senility will express itself in terms of handedness....will i simply forget how to hold a pen with my left hand and start using the right hand? will i forget how to use my left hand for fork-ready foods and stop eating altogether?.....or could the advantange of left-handedness be the ability to roll with the punches of senility in a way unknwon to the righties?....hopefully these revelations are years away....and i wil have plenty of time to muddle through with my muddled brain in the meantime....

fast-forward....

2011-02-26T08:21:00.002-05:00

ok, so.....circumstances of late are mostly gloomy....with the potential for major cuts in funding for public health (maternal and child nutrition, contraception, breast and cervical cancer. etc...) funding cuts will almost certainly lead to staffing cuts, and mayhem and morale issues will certainly follow.....i would give my eye teeth to simply fast-forward past it all.....

eat, pray, love

2011-02-12T09:16:00.002-05:00

ok, so.....i went ahead and watched the movie despite being not-so enamored of the book.....maybe it is because i could not get my mind around a journey to self-discovery that did not include living for a time in paris....

the week that was.....

2011-02-06T14:29:00.003-05:00

ok, so......my week started off with the phone call from my mother asking me for a ride to the ER...seems she tripped over the cord to her electric bed pad and split her lip....the ER visit was complicated by the series of questions put ot my mother by each practitioner about the exact anture of her injury....was it an accident or granny abuse- not in so many words but that was the gist.....the fall came on the very day that her housecleaner picked up all the newspapers, inserts, envelopes and other mail components that my mother tosses aside after reading.....it is a miracle that she has not fallen long before this.....i volunteered at the free clinic on Tuesday after work, then went on to the college pool to watch our daughter's last swim meet.....Wednesday evening I helped serve at a church supper...Thursday after work was my EKU class......and finally on Friday I went straight home from work....amen, amen, and amen.....I am following the OSU-Minnesota game on CNN- given that CBS chose to air Wisconsin-Michigan State instead this afternoon.....will probably watch the football game- for the commercials if nothing else....

A Palin-free February

2011-01-29T11:28:00.003-05:00

ok, so.....one of my dear on-line Scrabble partners posted to her Facebook page a piece from the Washington Post in which Dana Milbanks takes the Palin-Free February Pledge....he theorizes that she gets coverage because so many of us are obsessed with reading about her latest foolishness, our 'clicks' on links/stories etc just encourages those who write these stories to cover her antics more often.....he further asserts that if we simply stop reading/watching about her, those who write and broadcast will move on to more substantive fodder.....worth a try on my end.....the woman makes me crazy, and is likely to blame (at least partially) for my recent bouts of high blood pressure....so starting Tuesday I pledge to not click on stories I know to be about her......i do not know if I will be able to avert my eyes from headlines that include her name....I would have to give up all news outlets for the month as well.....but I ceetainly can restrain my urge to click on those stories for 28 full daysa....

tragic shooting in AZ

2011-01-09T08:52:00.002-05:00

ok, so....a third term democratic congresswoman was shot and 12 others killed or wounded as a gunman opened fire at a town meeting in Tuscon yesterday....the shooter was captured and his myspace site scoured for clues.....from all i can read about him he appears to be anti-government.....my brother has FB'ed that the shooter was clearly a left-wing radical......clearly?......i would describe that sentiment as right-wing....the congresswoman was still shown as under the cross hairs of SarahPac....and the congresswoman herself has given public comment on the 'cross hairs' issue......so, should we as reasonable Americans hold SP responsible for inciting the unstable to actually put the targeted congresswoman in his cross hairs?

comfort and joy

2010-12-23T15:11:00.002-05:00

ok, so.....i figured out sometime midmorning that if my brother was on FB then he was not in the car driving to ky and would certainly not be here in time for the annual dinner at Shakertown......and so i sent a simple text....'coming?'....and went about my errands....the reply came just before i picked up my mother for her hair appointment.....not sure if and when he can come given that his roommate just had back sugery and his son has bronchitis.....gentle readers....the post that existed int his space temproarily was removed....as one should never leave a trail when one fusses about one's blood kin about the second year in a row that circumstances beyond their control has prevented them from visiting either their closest blood kin.....so where is the comfort or the joy in this post?.......it was in the short time i spent in my mother's beauty parlor...chatting with an octogenarian from my church, the estranged grandmother of my ex-partner and an elegantly dressed woman who looked 70 but was likely in her 80's (cream cashmere sweater over a taupe sweater/skirt set with lovely Italian cuffed boots with a heel that was not too tall nor too stumpy) named dolly who looked like she could be russian royalty...she told me that i had 'good hair'.....coming from a woman who has inspired me to grey gloriously, this was a compliment indeed.....at this time of year, and at my age one finds comfort and joy anywhere one can....

look in fridge

2010-12-18T07:57:00.003-05:00

ok, so.....i slept in til nearly 7:00 am this morning....and as i was shuffling through the kitchen toward the coffeemaker i saw a note on the counter that read.....'look in fridge'.....so i looked in the fridge.....and saw nothing that was not there last night, nothing out of place, and certainly nothing that looked special enough to warrant a note.......will wait for the person with that distinctive handwriting to return with an explanation....

smoked salmon dreams

2010-12-05T07:44:00.002-05:00

ok, so.....the few times i get around to blogging seem to be for the sole purpose of recording my dreams.....i was moved to blog on this particular day because i am still thinking about dream from earlier in the week....the one about the hunk of unsliced smoked salmon wrapped up inside a bread-bag and secured with a twist-tie.....the unsliced part was the problematic theme to the dream.....i wanted to have a few bites of the salmon, but the chunk has never been thinly pre-sliced....as every package of smoked salmon that i have ever opened has been so sliced, i had a problem to solve.....that si the part that i cannot remember these days later....just the salmon in the bread bag.....i could go for some smoked salmon right this very minute....preferably with a poached egg over a toasted enlgish muffin topped with hollandaise......oh my.....that is the stuff dreams are made of.....

hannah coulter

2010-11-30T17:16:00.004-05:00

ok, so i came to the part in this novel by wendell berry where caleb comes home from college and his father nathan starts to make plans for him to take over his share of the farm, and caleb has to tell his father that he is home for a visit but that he will not be staying....he has plans beyond the farm......this conversation is part of the vocal heritage of my father's side of the family......of my own grandfather sitting down with my father on a visit home after graduation but before my parents wedding to discuss the future......and my father having to tell my grandfather than had he purchased the adjoining farm when it came up for sale as my father had suggested, there would have been enough acreage to support two families but as things stood, there simply was not an adequate living for two families on the existing farm....and my father had made other working arrangements......i write this with great regret, now that a child of mine has voiced an interest in the livelihood that used to be a given for both sides of my family....my mother's father gave up all hope of passing on his farm when he fathered two daughters.....he sold off the farm for a housing development......i treasure the copper stencil that my great-grandfather used to paint 'stephan' on each of his crates of produce....the stephan family grew fruits and vegetables on a farm above the canal just south of cleveland, ohio since the civil war days......the family place i visited in germany actually includes several fields now worked by a tenant....which means that as far back as the 1500's our ancestors have worked close to the land..... and so i admit freely that there were tears in my eyes as i listened to this part of the novel....because i knew that this conversation is not singular to the coulters, nor to the crowns, but to far too many dwindling farm families.....

latkes

2010-11-27T17:24:00.002-05:00

ok, so......i view the making of latkes as a sign of a leisurely Saturday or long-weekend off....the variations depend on the available potatoes: white, red, yellow, sweet.....or a combination of those tubers....this morning we enjoyed sweet potato latkes with a sprinkling of parsley and sour cream........i get out the copper pan often enough that the latkes have become simply a sign that mamma feels like making them.....and i am therefore caught off-guard for a moment or two when i see articles in culinary magazines or the nytimes about the association of these wonderful fried potato confections with religious observances.....like Hanukkah.....i am not remotely Jewish according to my next-of-kin......but I suspect that I have Jewish roots that go deeper than the living memory of loved ones.....the connection between me and fried shredded potatoes is essential.....and too intense to be coincidental...

1/2 bottle of riesling

2010-11-26T15:24:00.002-05:00

ok, so.....yesterday at my in-law's home we gathered for a Thanksgiving feast......i arrived with our car-full around 1:00-ish to find the questionably-done turkey already on the counter covered in tinfoil.....and to witness another extended family member empty half a bottle of riesling into a large tumbler, drop in a few ice cubes, and move on......gentle readers......if i had married into such a household i would have drank the other half of her bottle, despite my loathing for sweet wines.....i did go out of my way to avoid the turkey, having suffered a severe case of food poisoning in that very place over a decade ago.....and i when i happened to see second half of the bottle go the way of the first, i smiled and went on about my business.......

2010-11-11T16:48:00.001-05:00

In Mass....on our way to supper....have not been in New England since Stephan looked at colleges

2010-11-11T12:14:00.001-05:00

In Chicago halfway to Albany and our weekend with Stephan

wine and cheese

2010-11-06T14:33:00.002-04:00

ok, so i started my round of errands with a visit to v the market.....i went in looking to buy goat cheese and ended up not only with Mont St. Francis from Indiana, but also Heinrich Red to go with it....and then several others bottles for upcoming occasions...and a jug of a pilsner from the tap....i like the notion of buying a jug and refilling it from a tap.....i will admit that i spent more per bottle than i spend per week on a boxed white.....i was determined to select my bottles based on their attributes rather than price....isn't that why i work that second job?......not only to fund my addiction to travel but also to add to the local economy by supporting home-grown entrepreneurs.....the red wine is delightful.....which i suppose proves that you get what you pay for when it comes to wine.....

2010-11-06T14:19:00.003-04:00

ok, so.....the day has come when Peggy Noonan and I have something in common....this piece is excerpted from Ms. Noonan's column in which she rips into the half-term governor for comparing her career to that of Ronald Reagan.

"Excuse me, but this was ignorant even for Mrs. Palin. Reagan people quietly flipped their lids, but I'll voice their consternation to make a larger point. Ronald Reagan was an artist who willed himself into leadership as president of a major American labor union (Screen Actors Guild, seven terms, 1947-59.) He led that union successfully through major upheavals (the Hollywood communist wars, labor-management struggles); discovered and honed his ability to speak persuasively by talking to workers on the line at General Electric for eight years; was elected to and completed two full terms as governor of California; challenged and almost unseated an incumbent president of his own party; and went on to popularize modern conservative political philosophy without the help of a conservative infrastructure. Then he was elected president."

"The point is not 'He was a great man and you are a nincompoop,' though that is true," Noonan continues. "The point is that Reagan's career is a guide, not only for the tea party but for all in politics. He brought his fully mature, fully seasoned self into politics with him. He wasn't in search of a life when he ran for office, and he wasn't in search of fame; he'd already lived a life, he was already well known, he'd accomplished things in the world."

WWGCD?

2010-11-01T12:57:00.002-04:00

ok, so i enjoyed the daylights out of watching the rally for sanity livestreamed on comedy central....while i was supposed to be outside helping my spouse build the faux rock wall that will add yet another terrace to our slope and give us a far deeper vegetable planting area.....i was moved to tears watching yusaf (AKA cat stevens) sing peace train.....that song really takes me back....and i so enjoyed the signs....especially the one pictured here.....WWGCD?.....ky's own george clooney would be a voice for sanity in the politcal debate....and i so grateful for patirots like jon stewart, whose poignant closing words summed up the rally quite nicely...really wish i had been there.....

2010-10-24T19:59:00.002-04:00

ok, so...this song was not only in my dreams last night, but also sung in church this morning by young children

Do Lord, oh do Lord, oh (clap) do remember me.
Do Lord, oh do Lord, oh (clap) do remember me.
Do Lord, oh do Lord, oh (clap) do remember me.
Look a way, beyond, the blue.

in my dreams...my dad was singing this song, not just the above refrain but also verses which i tried to recall when i woke up.....the vision was quite clear...my dad was leading the group of young people in song at some sort of church retreat along a creek-bank...i know the place...troyer's hollow.....in ohio.....i also recall that we took home plastic bags full of tadpoles, which never gre into frogs......ah well.....

the ghost writer

2010-10-23T14:25:00.002-04:00

ok, so.....we watched the latest of the netflix arrivals last evening......wow....what a thrilling surprise from roman polanski......and how clever he was to make the north/baltic sea look like martha's vineyard...i was totally sucked into the angst and the edginess of the impending doom....and never saw the end coming....

back to reality

2010-10-16T09:40:00.002-04:00

ok, so....it has been a long week......and i did find myself fantasizing about the time when i will not have to work each and every weekday.....i came to home to garden mostly dead....i try to tell myself that it is hybernating early for the long winter ahead but i will not be surprised when it is a vast empty wasteland come spring.....no matter...i will start from scratch with some planting scheme or another should the wrost case scenario turn out to be true......it is a bit soon to rake leaves.....so rather than get out early and tackle yard work i am still in my robe, sipping coffee, and playing wordtwist on facebook.....i could get up and start the laundry.....

home again.....

2010-10-11T13:28:00.001-04:00

ok, so......all's well that ends well....my rolling black duffel that was not at the post-passport control carousel in charlotte actually turned up in lexington......i had no clue as to how that happened...not until i got home and opened up the bag.....there was an official card from the TSA explaining that my bag has been searched as part on behalf of national security...or words to that effect....which kinda means that they had my bag when i was searching for it as well as when i was making inquires with the us airways folks.....ah well.....happy to be home....in one piece given all fo the terror warnings....

2010-10-10T14:11:00.003-04:00

Ok so I am in Charlotte and my black duffle is not.....numerous black duffles and the attendant suspects that someone mistook mine for theirs...cannot fi

2010-10-10T14:11:00.001-04:00

le paperwork until it fails to show up on the belt in lexington....mostly dirty clothing so it is the principle that counts here

same time, same station.....but tomorrow instead of today....

2010-10-05T20:37:00.003-04:00

ok, so the US Airways connection to Charlotte that was to arrive with a 90 minute window to catch our 6:30 pm flight to London......was in the line for takeoff when the captain announced that we were taxiing back to the gate, where we must deplane and await further instruction.....essentially we stood in line to inquire about rebooking til past the time when the flight to London was wheels-up and gone.....and so now we are back home, with confirmed reservations on the same flights we had to day....only a day later than expected.....i will call expedia to rearrange our hotel reservations and side trip to Bath/Stonehenge/Windsor......all places we must see now that we have spent so much time in 'queue' chatting with women on their way home from the WEG who happen to live in Windsor and Bath......seems WEG was part of the problem....all flights out of LEX are booked up with folks heading home....if we could have gotten to Dulles we could have had a late flight to Heathrow.....a group ahead of us in line were so task-oriented as to split up: part of the group rented a car to drive to Cincinnati while another group rented a car to Louisville while the remainder waited in line to rebook flights from either place or both places.....these folks wanted to go home very badly.....ah well.....i have devoured a lovely omelet, and now i must call expedia before i fade......

2010-10-04T14:12:00.001-04:00

Ok,so......let's see mobile blogging works...

terror alerts

2010-10-04T07:12:00.002-04:00

ok, so the terror alert scale has been ramped up a notch just in time for my departure....and while it gives me a good excuse to skip the London Eye......i can hardly avoid the Tower or Trafalger......i am certainly not frightened to the point of staying home.....but i will admit to being unnerved just a tad......on the other hand......ig one has to make an unplanned exit from this life it might as well be while traveling, one of my favorite pursuits.....

kitty

2010-10-03T07:25:00.003-04:00

ok, so our aging feline is going blind as she goes bald.......as i sit on the office desk chair in front of the pc in the hall....the poor dear attempted to jump up onto the arm where she likes to perch while i type.....she missed and fell awkwardly to the floor.....we have to pick her up to her food bowl, which is kept on the plant window in the guest room where the door can be closed and the dog kept away while the cat eats at her leisure....she seems to be hesitant at jumping up the shelf these days.....hard to tell if her eyes are clouded by cataracts, or if something just as tragic is going on......her gaze now has a crazed, wide-eyed look......she has slipped onto my lap from the arm....and is purring madly.....ahhhh......

people i don't know

2010-10-01T07:09:00.004-04:00

ok, so in my dreams there were numerous folks in my 'house' in all states of dress and undress that i do not recognize......they appeared to be present as guests of my in-laws, and appeared to have been invited without regard to there being adequate sleeping arrangements.....at one point i asked my m-in-law about her plans to accommodate these people, and she said that she had booked a condo at a good rate...except that she had booked the condo in florida and no where close to where her guests were milling about......and so my spouse and i gave up our room and invited ourselves over to the home of friends, where we were set up on a sofabed in the living room....and we awoke to our friend holding a very thin child, and suctioning out her lungs.......cystic fibrosis?......and then our friend sat down on the side of the sofa bed and started doing needlework inserts for wooden box lids.....she had a bag full of boxes and she told me that i could choose one for myself....but the lids did not match the boxes.......

hearts of palm

2010-09-25T12:48:00.003-04:00

ok, so.....i just got back from a round of saturday shopping...starting at the big lots, where i was thrilled to find jars of roasted red and yellow peppers, as well as cornichons, nicoise olives, and hearts of palm....all at bargain prices.....and there were more of the rose bubble bath that i bought out the last 2 jars the last time i dropped by.....on to the krogers and the aldi....and then the bonafide liquor store, which has relatively empty shelves and none of my favorite box white.....i did leave my picks on a wish list......and so now i have a pork shoulder roasting in the crock pot for barbecue, and a load of wash going, and the oven on self-clean.....and the luggage dragged up from the basement for the preliminary packing for london.....that trip is less than 2 weeks away......the birth mother's annual visit comes first and i must survive that weekend before flying away......i have downloaded 2 books for the trip.....in all truthiness, i had already downloaded pride and prejudice, but i couldn't help but listen to it now that i am walking at lunchtime at the h-burg baptist church....and so now i must hold myself back from listening to these books.....it is not like i have nothing in print available to read in the numerous stacks and shelving units spread over these three floors....i am simply spoiled with the luxury of being read to......so now.....i have water boiling for pasta (salad using those lovbely hearts of palm and roasted peppers).....and then i could either start into the upstairs shower stall with the lime-remover i remembered to purchase....or i could sit out on my terrace with the new yorker.......

sunday.....

2010-09-12T07:48:00.004-04:00

ok, so i had earnest intentions of sleeping late this morning...or at least til 7:30 am.....but my dog took up the spot next to the bed where his whining could best resonate in my upturned ear......and so i dragged myself out of bed, grabbed my robe and cuppa....and walked with him up the road.....where he could not be bothered to actually accomplish the only task for which i would drag myself out of bed to aid/abet.....and so i am fixing to take my iphone and my growing library of audiobooks out to my terrace for a few minutes before i get ready for church.....i am listening to Michael Pollan's Second Nature......his tome dedicated to gardening.....so far i find his observations on the growing of roses and the grappling with weeds to be satisfying.....especially when one listens to the book read by the author while sitting in one's own work-in-progress......i have felt validation in that sense.....that gardens evolve....or at least that people who live to garden cannot quite see their planting schemes as complete and/or finished.

i do need to point out that i sat about listening to the book yesterday rather than actually working in my garden.....i DID step off the terrace from time to time to deadhead cosmos and take out completely dead stalks of phlox......but mostly i sat and thought about what i will do with my beds when i have the time.....and the money and cook weather and a bit of help......the next garden project is a low wall at the bottom of the garden just up from the brick walk to the compost pile..... this will add at least 12 inches of depth to the plot where we hope to grow vegetables in summer and install a purchased cold frame for extended season goodies like lettuces and onions.....we did get the played-out privet hedge taken down, but the stumps must be dug out before we can move ahead......and neither of us had the gumption to get out the ax in 95 degree heat......i could slip in a secondary project while i wait on the hedge job.....the drought kinda burned off some Achillea that had gotten out of hand and spindly to boot.....the empty space could accomodate rosa shailer's pink provence that resides behind the deck by the wall.....where the dirt is deepest and possibly problematic for transplating a settled-in plant.....after i move the rose i can put in a new display of srping bulbs.....hopefully may-flowering to complement this rose that tends to bloom in early may.....ah yes......so many things one can do to upgrade one's garden....or at least day-dream about on this glorious sunday morning....

altercation

2010-09-07T08:33:00.003-04:00

ok, so.....someione in our neighborhood had it out at 3:30 am......loud voices that become screams...with at least 3 people contributed to the argument.....could not discern whether the voices came from a boat on the lake, or the cabin on the bend of our circle, or neighbors prone to disagreements who live up the creek.....i suppose i drifted back off to sleep at some point despite my determination to listen intently enough to make out actual dialogue.....i could really use a nap right about now.....

the pound and pedal

2010-09-05T07:58:00.002-04:00

ok, so.....the annual pound and pedal is over, possibly over forever.....this event has evolved over the past 23 years(give or take a year) from a one-way 20 mile bike/run from a friend's law office in downtown d-ville to his home in forkland.....when the friend moved his family to town, the venue changed to our house, and became a 10 mile out and 10 mile back bike/run.....in those 20+ years the original participants have aged, moved away, or passed away.....young blood has been recruited, the particpation choices ammended to include the option of biking the entire route has helped keep the event alive.....but the competition from the uk/uofl game as well as the tri-for-sight dramatically diminished the crowd this year.....we still ended up with 30 for lunch.....but it is disheartening to put time and effort into the preparations only for your friends to say that they have better things to do that morning.....

making progress.....

2010-08-28T14:06:00.002-04:00

ok, so.....we made great progress this week as parents.....in that we survived the reality of a child who managed to move without our physical presence.....granted......we packed up his selected possessions from home and sent them up east with another child to act as proxy.....and we conferred several times daily in hopes that said child had communicated with the other parent for advice and/or good counsel...'oh, he didn't call you either?'.......we may have located an aerial view of his new neighborhood, but we have no confirmation of which house he now calls home.......as for us.....our lives will remain much as they have always been.....our child will be able to call up snapshot visions of our kitchen, and my terrace, and the porch.....but we have only our recollections of the last time we saw him-on graduation day with his gown and diploma under his arm waiting for us to insist that we take this things home for safekeeping......i have created a summertime reading nook in his basement bedroom.....the club chair and hassock up against the sidewall with a pole-light....it is private and cool and a pleasant place to read on a Sunday afternoon......when the weather gets colder I will be back upstairs by the woodstove...but for now i enjoy the solitude of a room that has passed from eldest to the middle child but not to the youngest given the secluded outside entrance.....in my dreams the door opens into the greenhouse......problematic with the blue plush carpet......if we tunnel into the large cistern that sits unused just uphill, we could seal-off the bedroom door and create a new entrance by the hotwater heater.....on a winter's day the greenhouse might just be warm enough for yet another reading nook.......i reflect on these potential scenarios as i break from the book at hand.....not that i am actually reading these days....i have moved into the audio age full-force.....with an entire book downloaded onto my phone.....i listen even as i type.....as i drive to work, as i take time for lunch at my desk.....there is enough room on the....chip?..... that i have 3 novels downloaded for that day when i finish the current book....as well as talking points of the major works i will see at the national gallery in london this october....as well as a narrated walking tour of westminster.....ah.....making progress....

unconventional

2010-08-16T12:41:00.003-04:00

ok, so.....i got into a spirited discussion with several of my closest kin over the weekend about the notion of whether or not i am unconventional.....of course, the discussion started out not really being about me, but me being me i somehow made it so......below is the dictionary version, which is worse than i suspetced as the definition of unconventional....

Main Entry: unconventional
Part of Speech: adjective
Definition: very different; odd
Synonyms: anarchistic, atypical, avant-garde, beat, bizarre, crazy, eccentric, far-out, freakish, freaky, free and easy, idiosyncratic, individual, individualistic, informal, irregular, kinky*, kooky, nonconformist, oddball, off the beaten track, off the wall, offbeat, original, out in left field, out of the ordinary, unceremonious, uncommon, uncustomary, unique, unorthodox, unusual, way-out, weirdo*
Antonyms: conventional, formal, normal, standard, usual
* = informal/non-formal usage

sadly, the synomyms that i feel best describe my life choices are in the minoirty of the list....on the other hand, i have never desired to be descrbed as standard, normal or usual......so i suppose that unconventional IS the more desirable of the descriptives.....

the audit

2010-08-13T21:09:00.002-04:00

ok, so......this week was dominated by a local accountant and his very pregnant assistant.....who performed, under a pricey contract, our required yearly audit.....yikes.....the former director was asked to leave upon the results of an audit....and even though i have done my best to avoid his controversial ways.....i still hold my breathe that all of our accounts are in order.....

million (and a half) dollar houses.....

2010-08-09T18:07:00.002-04:00

ok, so......i took 2 vacation days off to drive my mother and my daughter on a whirlwind tour of ohio memories.....including dresden where my favorite aunt and three of her four children live on the family orchard....and then through holmes county...the amish country where i was born and thrived til 5th grade.....and then on to cleveland where my mother was born/raised and where her only sibling still lives and where her niece lives in the family homestead that dates back before the war( read that as civil war).... when my mother's father died, the newspaper published not a photo of him, but of the house and its role as one of the last stops on the underground railroad.....but i digress from the trip....made tolerable by 'the help' on cd.....the lives of my cousins (on both sides) make my life seem like a cake walk by comparison.....and may i say for the record that my mother is no more senile than either her blood kin or extended family.......my aunt's catch-phrase 'million-dollar houses' has become family legend to describe all that is ostentatious, indicative of northern ohio and better than anything we (from the south) could aspire to......on this trip the price of this standard jumped up to a million and a half......which i immediately texted to my middle child....and then covertly angled the text message to my daughter in a conspiratorial gesture...... we had a quiet chuckle of the inflation.....that moment may have been the best on the trip.....

amen, amen, and amen....

2010-08-02T08:51:00.002-04:00

ok, so.......i have three reasons to rejoice.....my eldest is back from his two-year Fulbright stint, mu middle child has a (perfect) job lined up for after his internship, and the first-ever meeting between our youngest child and her birth father went better than expected.....

beating back nature.....

2010-07-25T08:25:00.002-04:00

ok, so......i am convinced that should i neglect to weed my beds for more than a a few days....such as a 9-day vacation....my beds would be taken over completely by vines......time was when honeysuckle was the plant to rip out whenever it raised its ugly head....but this is clearly the year for vines..... thick, ropey vines....vines with thorns.....vines with pods (milkweed?)......vines that snake up the long canes of rambling roses, and hydrangeas, and.......even the dead daylily stalks......i have alrteady spent time this morning ripping vines off of the back fence....i swear they were not there yesterday.....i heard on NPR that the excess of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere makes for exceptional vines growth...as evidewnced by the huge poison ivy clumps that i must get around to ripping out with disposable gloves.....on the other hand, there is a lovely trailing ground cover that has hybernated in the boxwood oval that is peaking out from the nooks and crannies of the stones and bricks....it is from an Amish farm in northeastern Ohio.....Miss Fanny Schlabaugh gave me the original clump.....we were there with my parents, spouse and children.....visiting her father who was nearing 100 at the time....when we arrived he was out on the thresher......and he came rising into the barnyard waving his arms at my parents who had known him since the mid-50's....but i digress from the vining ground cover......which could possibly get out-of-hand and be just as pecky as the vines i did not plant and do not want in my beds......

jane austen's fight club

2010-07-24T14:30:00.004-04:00

ok, so this link is to the youtube version of jane austen's fight club......

"The first rule of fight club is one never mentions fight club. No corsets, no hatpins, and no crying."

book club selection gathering.....

2010-07-17T12:10:00.002-04:00

ok, so....we hosted the annual book club selection dinner last evening......and it was preceeded by a months of property upkeep projects....like restaining the deck and latticework, relaying the brick walk behind the garage, repainting the porch, spraying for chiggers, fixing the pond lining......last night the temperature at 7:00 pm was still above 90 degrees.....so we opted to eat inside rather than on the pristine deck area....and we found a workable solution to a gathering that exceeeds the maximum of 12-13 at the table expanded with all leaves....we left the table as it was and borrowed 2 lightweight folding tables from work that sat 6 each....and so we could have accommodated 18 folks for supper.....we dined on grilled citrus marinated salmon, pasta salad, a bean and barley salad, marinated asparagus, cumcumbers in sour cream, strawberry/spinach salad, and strawberry-pretzel salad...plus jan's peppermint patty cupcakes.....we will be reading several books that i have already read....which works out well as my spouse can take his time reading those books......we selected a book that our eldest was asked to read for discussion purposes.....which means we will host the january gathering and worry about clearing snow rather than upkeep projects......

humboldt fog....

2010-07-17T11:55:00.003-04:00

ok, so i dragged myself out of bed early to water the flower beds before driving into town to go to the farmer's market......i bought yellow tomatoes and 'bodacious' sweet corn from the only gut who appeared to be selling his own produce.....the other stand appeared to have boxes clearly labeled tomatoes under the tables......and then i popped into V-the market for the humboldt fog as promised on her facebook page.....omg.....i came close to eating it all when i got home from the stop at the aldi store.......if there is a flavor of this earth better than goat cheese i would like to know what it is......

incorrect spelling.....

2010-07-16T08:26:00.002-04:00

ok, so.....in my dreams i was editing the headlines for a blog that looked like the huffpost......and every time a word was spelled incorrectly i would correct it....and this tedium went on and on....no action, just spelling errors...i had my fill of headlines yesterday....especially the one that i found on the clipping ripped from wednesday's newspaper by my spouse......uk student in critical condition after police tazing.....seems we know this fellow.......seems he was on the roof of a two story apartment house.....a bit out of his right mind...and the police came to save him from himself by tazing him twice...he got back up after each tazing.....and when they went to taze him the third time he jumped off the roof.....omg.....i feel great sympathy for people who find themselves temporarily out of their right minds.....it is only by the grace of god that i cling to sanity on most days...i cannot fault those who struggle with their own....

world cup......

2010-07-11T19:58:00.002-04:00

ok, so.....we talked to our dear middle child after lunch, after church....then rather than heading outdoors to do manual labor....we settled onto the sofa for a nice afternoon of air conditioned world cup final play....which i am certain involved short naps for each of us.....i have no recollection of the first half after the group photo ops and handshaking.....and then i waited for the brilliant professional soccer moves that i have been led to believe comes with this level of play....but mostly all i saw was chaps dashing to the ground and holding various parts and screaming indignantly....well, all except the guy who got kicked in the chest.....that looked like a bonafide foul.....in my humble opinion, the dutch looked a bit meaner and rougher than the spaniards......

riding for reading

2010-07-09T13:17:00.002-04:00

ok, so.....my eldest child blogged his way across america last summer.......62 entries give or take.....with the blog hosted by the local newspaper....at some point after the ride was finished, the paper took down the blog.....which made the links to the blog broken, and made the actual content of the blog inaccessible.....phone calls and emails to the newspaper asking for access to the content by the author have produced no results....sad to lose such a valuable piece of writing and scrapbooking.......and then yesterday, while i was whiling away my lunch hour catching up on my favorite blogs on google reader......i saw riding for reading as a blog that had not been recently updated.....and there, drawn up into that site, was the entire blog, pictures, verbal descriptions and all.....and so i have copied and pasted my way through 160 pages of blogged memories, tidied them up a bit by downsizing the photos a tad...and downloaded them onto my thumbdrive......the days are not in actual order, and the end is somehow in the middle....but i will leave the final editing to my child when he gets back from his latest ride.......

true

2010-07-07T18:36:00.002-04:00

ok, so.....i was driving back into d-ville with errands plotted out for minimum carbon foot printing, when the song that was playing just before ATC was scheduled to come on had a lyric that almost brought tears to my eyes....'so true'......and i missed my friend gail so very much at that moment.....she who often described realities as 'so true'...or just 'true'.....and she has been gone for so very long...or has it been just the other day......i last talked to her on my birthday.....but i cannot remember which birthday it was.....

stain.....

2010-07-05T16:28:00.003-04:00

ok, so......i spent the afternoon staining the latticework that hangs below the deck.....mostly because now that the deck has been restained, the latticework looks grungy.....because it has never-ever been stained....and because i have a planting scheme for the bed beside the under-deck gate.....i figured i might as well go ahead and stain that entire area before i planted the new things and before the existing roses grow back from severe pruning......and so i managed to get all but the higher parts....and i found myself in a curious daydream as i dabbed down the long strips and across the counter-ribs.....even more curious is my reluctance to record the daydream for posterity...suffice it to say that gardening was involved.....

a moment of feline amusement.....

2010-07-05T16:18:00.002-04:00

ok, so...on this freebie day-off i started out early with the mid-summer weeding, removal of dead day lily stems, etc....and i ventured outside the fence to weed out the wild shrubberies that want so badly to grow between my boxwoods.....and 'all the sudden' as we like to say in these parts...i noticed that the dog had strayed off and so i called out to him with several extra-loud rounds of Buddy,Buddy,Buddy......but instead of the dog running obediently my way....the cat sprang out of the underbrush and came scurrying to me.....i decided to reward her with a little morsel of leftover porkchop out of the refrigerator......one must reinforce such loyalty......eventually the dog came home, but he missed out on the treats....

zones.....

2010-07-03T17:16:00.002-04:00

ok, so.....i appear to forget from sunday night to saturday sometime midday that our house is temperature and time controlled to maximize comofrt while we are home and/or sleeping to save fuel when we are not at home and/or sleeping......and so when i try to take a nap on saturday or sunday afternoon i wake up almost feverish only to recall that the daytime temeprature upstairs is way higher than the evening temperature....this is not huge news, gentle readers......just a window into my current state of confusion...

torn....

2010-07-02T20:59:00.002-04:00

ok, so recap my life for the past 4 weeks.....i discovered the day before we were to travel to our middle child's college graduation that she had not submitted her tax return...and soon after figured out that she was not taking her medication....and since that day i have been granted power of attorney, and have taken over her finances, cancelled credit cards, confronted the shysters who were soliciting repetitive charitable donations......tripled her loan repayment for early payoff....and entertained her nightly with supper and observed medication dosing.....and felt that she was really getting back to 'usual'.....and then the letter came today from the state folks advising her that she had failed to submit medical reports that supported her continued driving liberties....and that is where the angst comes into play......i was with her when she renewed her license....and nobody mentioned a medical statement.....and i have seen every bit of mail she has received in the meantime...and i have seen no request for a medical statement....and so i am torn.....this would be the perfect excuse to take her keys.....but then again...she is so much herself these days it seems wrong to take the keys without an exhaustive study of the facts...so i will call the state folks on tuesday, and take her to see her doctor, and suggest an evaluatuon of her skills before i relingiqush her license.....

sick and staying home.....

2010-07-01T07:50:00.002-04:00

ok, so...i was up at least four times in the night....lost count....and i have decided that sick time is for staying home when one's body is out of sorts.....and so i am getting ready to go back to bed......

just to recap...

2010-06-30T11:30:00.000-04:00

ok, so this from the daily kos...Let me see if I have this straight: in the last few days members of the GOP have savagely screwed the unemployed, protected the bankstas, trashed Thurgood Marshall, implied rape and incest is part of God's plan, defended BP, threatened to either end social security or screw over 20 million plus people who have paid into the system for at least 20 years by making them wait until age 70 to see their benefits, and screwed homeless veterans with children. That about it, or is there more?

a trip on the horizon

2010-06-30T10:15:00.002-04:00

ok, so....i booked a trip this morning on Expedia, with airfare from Lexington to London through Charlotte.....only the single stop.....and 4 nights at a South Kensignton hotel that managed to have only good reviews in non-Expedia forums....along with a bus/fully escorted 12-hour side trip to Stonehenge/Bath/Windsor......all for far less through Expedia than I could do on my own using RSteve's hotel picks...go figure.....

painter's remorse

2010-06-27T19:05:00.002-04:00

ok, so.....i stained the upright and cross pieces of the deck.... all sides......which involved getting out the ladder and carefully holding the paint can in one hand while i leaned in and painted with the other.....clearly this side was never stained when the deck was built.....neither was the fence or gates.....or trellis..........but i digress from the remorse part.....i should have left my glasses in the house, and covered my hair, and drank more fluids....as now my hair smells of paint remover and i feels quite out-of-sorts.....and now that i have started in on the gate nearest the deck...the rest of of the fence looks wretched......and old and frail.......could be a long summer of staining

saturday and sunday

2010-06-27T12:50:00.002-04:00

ok,so.....i got up early on saturday to plant the amethist mist heuchera plants that i have accumulated from the half-price tables of area road-side nurseries....12 in all.....in the space once-removed from the trellis rose....and then i cleaned up and drove to h-burg for the first annual books and arts festival to hear ed mclanahan read......holding my book-club (hard-back) copy of a natural man in hopes of a dedication.....enjoyed the reading from his newest work.....which included tales of high school basketball, courting of young women, and egg-tossing drive-bys......he did dedicate my book...to my eldest who knows him....and i bought the newest volume as a gift to my eldest as well......and then back by the plant-stand by the taco bell to buy their last remaining heucheras (6 of black currant) to put behind the deck......at half-price.....too hot to actually plant them soi watched wimbledon tennis, and then world cup soccer.....gentle readers......i have spent 25 years, give or take, watching children of varying ages play the game, and i have yet to recognize 'offsides' when it happens.....ah well.....but i digress from the heucheras....which have lovely burgundy foliage.....a pleasing contrast to the grey of our fence/deck and the silver of the lamb's ear....those that i planted by the trellis rose look out of place.....so i will move them elsewhere and figure out something else to place by the rose......my sunday morning was less ambitious...coffee on my terrace studying the lesson to teach, then a last-minute rush to water the beds before getting ready for church....i impulsively selected a little worn pair of strappy sandals, which broke when i stumbled on uneven pavement coming in from the parking lot.....i took them off and walked the rest of the way barefooted.....i suppose as god intended.....we are waiting for grandma to come home from church to eat lunch.....our youngest found her cell phone under her sofa, so she is not likley to call and let us know where she is....she so rarely goes to church that i never thought to make a plan with her for afterwards.....there is a sweet rain coming down now, with just a hint of thunder in the distance......a gift....as we cannot go out to stain the fence until it has dried......might try to take a nap in the downtime......

nightgown gardening.....

2010-06-20T09:15:00.003-04:00

ok, so i got in an hour of weeding, trimming and other assorted garden maintenance chores before 8:00 am......i even tackled the task of staking up the shasta daisies, which have become so leggy as to fall backwards into surrounding plants.....all this work while still in my nightgown....and robe for a short time until it got too hot and too damp from the dew.......the downside of this weekend habit of come-as-i-am work is that i cannot wear the same nightclothes to bed, and my fingernails get pretty nasty for lack of gloves......the upside is that i get a lot done and still maintain the illusion of leisure......a woman who is still in her nightgown is technically lounging about.....and a working woman needs to have lounging about time.....

weary

2010-06-19T17:30:00.002-04:00

ok, so.....the week really got away from me....in so many ways at so many levels.....dealing with my mother's decline has started to resemble a video game......just as i resolve an issue, another issue is revealed which takes the magnitude of the scenario to the next level......i have no hope that the shuttle will go off and the russian dolls will dance as they do when one wins at tetris......and i feel all the sadder for admitting that i feel no hope as we hit the three-week mark of the 'grandma takeover'.....i know that i am not the first and certainly not the last to struggle with this reality.....

2010-06-14T13:17:00.002-04:00

ok, so we watched this quirky Dave Eggars film on netflix last night.....it is a sweet piece about a couple who search for the pefect place to raise the daughter they are expecting after they discover that the parents they have moved cross-country to be 'near' are moving to Belgium just before their first grandchild will be born......they visit friends/family in Phoneix/Tuscon, Madison, Toronto, and Miami before realizing where they really need to set down roots......I enjoyed the movie......cnanot say that others with me like the talk/talk sort of non-action film....

digging up daylilies

2010-06-12T12:24:00.002-04:00

ok, so.....given that i was already hot and sweaty after my 5k walk this morning, i changed shoes and headed out to do battle with nature.....on this morning i chose to dig out the daylilies that had been between the privet hedge, now gone, and the limelight hydrangeas that are now the back-bed focal point......and when it was all over i had a huge bouquet of daylilies....a flower one does not usually consider for cut arrnagements.....but given that the bottom end of each plant was gone...might as well enjoy their single 'day' on my table.....

twenty-nine

2010-06-12T10:30:00.003-04:00

ok, so......it just occured to me that tomorrow is a triple-dip day of sorts....sunday at the band festival, father's day, and our 29th anniversary.......which means that monday is our eldest's birthday.....he was just starting his cross-country bike trip this time last year.....this year he is getting ready for his rhine ride.....i do treasure all of the years we were able to celebrate birthdays together, but i suppose it is most important that we were together for the first.....

brass band 5k

2010-06-12T09:50:00.002-04:00

ok, so.....i got up early and walked the brass band 5k.....out of nostalgia mostly....the race directors have been doing this event in some fashion for 12 years.....the first version being the montessori run for reading......all four of us did the event.....which was memorable as my best ever 5k time- just over 30 minutes.....a feat accomplished not out of fitness or competitiveness, but out of material protective instinct.....my youngest (at the time) child was jogging with me slowly through the green acres course when he decided that he wanted to go faster....and he took off in an outright run.......i can recall panicking over potential hazards, like 'would there be somebody at the intersections to make sure he doesn't get hit by a car' and i took off running to try to catch him......for the record, there was no catching him.......i thought of that episode this morning as a mother of five we know asked me if her little one could walk with me to the pavilion after i finished the course.....the mom called after us 'i just want to make sure somebody is with her when she crosses the road'......

commencement and closure

2010-06-04T09:28:00.000-04:00

ok, so.....we are trying to get back to status quo after a very long weekend of commencement activities in New Jersey. We missed the P-Rade, which is a transitional activity between The Reunions and Commencement. This parade is a procession of classmembers, wearing their distinctive class beer jackets. Seems this year's event was led by a 105-year old member of the Class of 1920. Wow! Kinda wish we had been there, but we were driving the obligatory 13 hours from Ky at the time. Sunday's Baccalaureate was our first taste of the pomp that is Princeton graduation. The procession, led by a mace-bearer and gonfalons (residential college banners) filed solemnly into the Gothic-style chapel, which we watched from a remote location given the restrictive size of the chapel. Jeff Bezos, '86 spoke of choices and challenges. Next came the Class Day procession, whereupon the Class of 2010 filed into the Cannon Green wearing their own jacket (orange and black and white with 2010 across the back), and listened to several student speakers as well as Charles Gibson '65, who regretted skipping out on his own Class Day. We did not arrive in time to find seats in the shade, and ended up moving our chairs when the heat became offensive. Box lunches followed, then on to the departmental receptions. French and Italian had a relatively small graduating class, so the reception held in Rockefeller College's vaulted common room was intimate and convivial. Commencement festivities started early with the finding of the shadiest seats possible that still had a decent view of the dais. The salutorial address was given in Latin, with the text provided. Clearly, it is a testament to the caliber of Princeton professors that they laughed heartily at jokes in the presentation that alluded those of us who do not know this ancient language. Ruth Bader Ginsburg was on hand to receive an honorary degree, which was a special moment given her health, and the state of the current SCOTUS nomination. The president of the university gave the sermon, and then it was on to Forbes College (our child's residential college) for the actual presentation of the diploma. The reception was quite lavish with white table clothed tables under huge tents and a lovely champagne buffet lunch. Whew.......a three-day lovefest. The diploma is entirely in Latin, and the only words i recognize are his name, and Summa Cum Laude. We are so very proud. And thankful that his summer internship with the Princeton Community Garden project is manual rather than acedemic. A little downtime might be welcome after the rigors of the intense final semester. I hope that gardening's cerebral qualities will be healing and restorative.

Hyphen lower level

2010-05-31T13:06:00.004-04:00

Ok,so......E. and i are hanging out in Air-conditioned Nirvana in Hyphen lower Level......Til 2:00 when we will Meet our Special graduate At the French reception in the Rockefeller Common Room.....Class day ceremony was enjoyed by two out of Three of us ....but i digress from the Events that we drive 13 hours to attend......i especially appreciate the old-ness of the buildings, the Awards,and the traditions......this is the 265th graduating Class....and i am in awe of the intense dedication to Learning that inspired it all.....

2010-05-14T18:38:00.005-04:00

ok, so this from the mudflats blog from alaska.....

coffee

2010-05-12T19:05:00.002-04:00

ok, so i was supposed to have the afternoon off to make up for travel time the next two days.....but early on it was clear that leaving early was neither prudent in terms of budget completion, nor politically correct given the last-minute tasks that would be left to others......and so i got home nearly an hour late....and dragged myself into the house with the starving cat and hyperactive dog.....and at some point after feeding the cat and dog..and strolling about my blooming roses......i smelled coffee......seems i had lasped into my morning routine of putting on the coffee, letting out the cat and dog while i walk to the mailbox for the newspaper..... and feeding the cat and dog when they come back inside.......omg.......i have too much going on to be senile at age 54........heavy sigh....and so i turned off the coffee after it brewed, with plans to simply heat it up just before i leave for an early meeting in frankfort......

2010-05-05T09:58:00.006-04:00

ok, so this from the huffington post....

2010-05-01T09:34:00.002-04:00

ok, so this from The Mudflats.....

up in the air....

2010-04-23T22:32:00.002-04:00

ok, so....since i cannot remember the last time i blogged, i should be asking for both forgiveness and understanding....thanks.......we signed up for netflix this week.....a huge move for us in that we skipped cable and satellite entirely as media options......and since we have signed on we have only watched a single dvd- Up in the Air with George Clooney...more on George later......the best part about Netflix is the streaming.....I have watched 7 episodes of The Tudors, mostly walking on the treadmill.....wow!...despite the historical inaccuracies .....I have been enanamored of HVIII since PBS showed the Six Wives of Henry VIII in the 70's.......and after every viewed episode this week I feverishly research the accuracy....which has already been researched by Wikipedia.......saves time.....but I digress from George.....I am distressed that it was not George but the female lead who was un-truthful.....though she never actually lied about having a husband and children....she never corrected our assumption that she did not......and George seemed so very lonely as he flew off at the end......must focus on Henry VIII whose life is an open book and less open to fret............

James Joyce Pilgrimage

2010-04-08T14:14:00.004-04:00

ok, so...Andrew and I walked nearly 9 miles round-trip through Zurich and up the mount overlooking the city to find James Joyce's grave and statue......maybe not quite as long as Bloom's circuit of Dublin but certainly an adventure....

easter with extended family

2010-04-04T11:52:00.003-04:00

ok, so....i have enjoyed a lovely day with two of third cousins in Lassee....Gunther and Werner...and their spouses and children....19 in all.....brunch was eggs and meats and bread....afternoon was a jause (pronounced yow-sa) that was a buffet of desserts....they are loading up the table for round three.....looks like champagne......

bon voyage...

2010-04-02T07:35:00.002-04:00

ok, so my plane leaves at noon...first leg to cincinnati...then to paris for a three hour layover between 6:00 am and 9:00 am.....will be lucky to find cafe creme available at that hour.....then on to vienna at 11:30 am....where upon andrew and assorted kindred are to meet and greet me....a few days in austria and then we travel to zurich....where we will pilgrimage to the grave of james joyce among other things.....a side trip to luzern and then on home.....lots to pack into a week.....nice to get away.....and it will be nicer to get back home to my blooming garden.....the redbuds are just coming out......

pruning

2010-03-28T15:49:00.002-04:00

ok, so......i have unloaded 3 scoops of mulch in the past 8 days onto my weeded beds.....or mostly weeded....after a while one figures out how to smother the finer of the wild onions with mulch rather than taking the trouble to yank them out......i also dug out yet another section of daylilies and random perennials to make way for a line of shrubberies the variety yet to be determined....the phlox i transplanted...the daylilies are in the compost pile......my aim is go for more year-round interest, especially along the fence......thinking of boxwood, but then i already have oodles of boxwood....i have plenty of time to worry over the particulars when i get back from my trip.....maybe the gardens in vienna will be inspirational....after lunch today i took to pruning the city of york trellis rose.....lots of dead wood to cut away.....thankfully the rain came again just as o managed to cut away a length that was only mostly dead....yikes...i felt sick as i tossed the greening strand onto the pile....i did a practice packing run today as well.....pruning away this and that until i have only the really useful clothing in the carryon.....of course, the really useful clothing are the things i wear most days......and now that they are carefully arranged in the bag i will attempt to finish out the week wearing my least favorite clothing.....life is complicated, yes?

mulch and mayhem....

2010-03-20T22:43:00.002-04:00

ok, so.....i took my mother to lunch at the red lobster in lexington today, before stops at j.beth to purchase a travel journal and tuesday morning.....and then home again....whereupon i traded out my car in her driveway for the truck...and drove over to h-burg where one can stil purchase bulk mulch....and a topiary alberta spruce that is delightfully twisted....the spruce is now in a pot on my newest terrace....the mulch....is spread over the spots closest to the truck......i calculate the need for at least 3 more truck-loads of mulch before the critical beds are done.....thankfully the whirlpool bathtub is there to negate any pain and suffering.....