ok, so the bikers have reached pueblo, co and estimate another 2 days/140 miles of riding before they hit the kansas border. today the temp was at least 108 degrees. stephan said that it was like riding in a full-body blow dryer. they plan to get up early and ride the next 2 days before the heat or the wind get testy. speaking of hot, when does the loyal opposition travel down to texas? i hope that the texas clan are e-connected.......

ok, so my multi-summer watermelon curse is over.......today i successfully purchased a delcious watermelon. my technique seemed no different than past failures- thumps with the thumb in search of one with a hollow sound. for summers in past memories, these hollow thumps were false alarms, and the melon destined for racoon dessert, thrown over the hill. not this melon- it is sweet and succulent and juicy- i may not even share it with the kids......

ok, so i had the best cake yesterday afternoon, and i am not really a cake person. the wedding cake was made by someone named leigh. it was white, moist, flavored with some sort of raspberry liquour, with raspberry jam spread thinly between the layers. divine........the wedding was typical of those i have catered- people become out-of-control in the buffet line- taking 4 beef tenderloin buns and 20 shrimps, and mounds of artichoke dip and skipping the vegetable basket. we always set aside a few of each item for the bride and groom to take with them- because most of the food is eaten by the guests before the spotlight couple ever make it to the buffet line themselves.......i did find amusement/fear of lawsuit in watching one particular guest, whose fanny was twice as wide as the chair on which she sat- we should be like southwest airlines, and charge extra for those who really need two seats.......i am somewhat surprised that she didn't collapse the chair splat to the ground......

ok, so i left 6 pork roasts, at 350 degrees in the oven overnight. ......i stopped at the kroger on the way to work to replace them- at the 1.99 per pound pork madness sale, and had the best time just people watching. i got caught behind a woman in the cracker aisle who had one ear to her cell, and the other handling each item on each shelf. the was conversing with her significant other about their mutual need for each and every item...... so much for shopping lists. i checked out in aisle 7. there was a couple in aise 8- the wife loudly proclaimed that her husband should have chosen aisle 9, because that line was shorter, whereupon he started in arguing that the lady in aisle 9 has a lot of stuff underneath her cart...........there was a man in the check-it-yourself aisle who appeared to be a near-dwarf- his children who appeared to be about 7 or 8 were almost as tall as he was.......i left the kroger with an amused and uplifted soul......and yes, when i got to work, those pork roasts were like charred logs.........

ok, so i enjoy writing in my blog, and this enjoyment may help me to live longer.......last night i sat and watched a 60-minutes wanna-be whose i can't recall with an hour-long special on stress. they followed around 7 people and had them wear blood pressure monitors to confirm which situations in their lives were the most stressful compared to the stress that each individual perceived.......the stay-at-home mom actually got more stress out of dealing with traffic and her spouse then with her small children, which surprised me. they didn't follow around a restaurant entreprenuer, so i cannot take much of the personal stories to heart, but i can ponder the 10 top ways to reduce personal stress- the list included 'writing in a personal journal'. a psychiatrist noted that journaling is even more effective in talk therapy in helping people work through their anxieties.

of course, some things can't be worked through- like the realization as i awoke this morning that i left something in the oven last night and that the pilot light has probably burnt it to a crisp. assuming the building is still standing when i arrive, i will have to start over.......there was a stress test involved with this tv program- and did give points for having to do too manythings at once............

stephan and ernst are in silverthorn, co, staying overnight at a condo owned by friends of bill and pearl, who met my parents at osu over 50 years ago. when i called, they were fixing to eat a watermelon, which is a shared joke between families. years ago, when my parents and bill and pearl, and many of the 'couples' who had dated in college got together for a little reunion, they sat and ate watermelon, with humerous antics like spitting seeds involved somehow- the story seemed more compelling when i heard it at age 5 than it does now- but they were eating watermelon in this condo and having a good time. ernst reported that they had had some sort of equipment breakdown- and that bill had helped him to gerryrig a solution. the condo is located near breckinridge, and is quite tony and expensive. today they ride up and over hoosier pass- the highest they will be on this trip. pray for them.......

ok, so i am looking forward to hearing what eminem does with aerosmith's dream on. i heard an interview on tv last night of steven tyler, discussing the permission granted to the rapper to do a revisit to this classic tune- i can recall sitting with my little brother in the driveway of our house, sometime after i had my liscense- with the 8-track cranked up- listening to the orginal version, from the toys in the attic album. that could easily be 30 years ago......i appreciate the comments of the loyal opposition about songs with upfront lyrics- so many artists like to modulate the voice to the point that the words themselves become indistinct enough to be meaningless. i have often thought this about opera- it is as if the prima donna is actually just singing notes, and there really aren't words attached.......on the other hand, bob dylan tends to make up new lyrics to old songs as he gets older- either that or he can't quite recall the words he wrote so he just wings it..... and of course, some songs contains such mumblings he could be reading off his grocery list..........

ok, so i agree with the appeals court in california over this pledge thing- when congress added God to the pledge in 1954 they WERE putting church into the state's business. i can remember saying the pledge in elementary school- i do not feel that it has made me into a better american to have said it. i am sure that charles manson, martha stewart, and amy fisher once pledged allegiance , and it certainly didn't put them on the right road toward model citizenship. i hate to see us as a nation get all mccarthy-like looking for unamerican behavior., when it was the search for personal freedom that brought us all to america. while i have the freedom to worship my version of god, i do not wish to force others to do so. i heard a congressmen quoted on npr this mroning who was drafting a law tro make those children have to say the pledge, and his words made me physically ill- allegiance is something that we should never force anyone to do- think nazis and heil hitler- it is the same thing to force americans to pledge allegiance to god when individuals may not believe in god and believing in god does not make one an american. my brother no longer goes to church because he contends that that is where the hypocrites all congregate- he has a point- making people pledge allegiance to god will not make them want to believe in god- only individuals living a virtuous life can lead anyone toward belief in a higher power through personal testament. i am also against school prayer, for the same reasons.........

ok, so the letter to the editor in yesterday's advocate about grey friar's bobby and the dedication/devotion that some dogs have to their owners may have been in reference to the crazy lady who wants the dog buried next to her parents exhumed. alas, the letter writer failed to tie the two stories together, and therefore seemed a bit crazy herself to be talking about a scottish dog, then a junction city dog without highlighting some relevant point. speaking of canine devotion, my mother's dog muffet continues to be under my feet at every turn. i could do with less devotion........

ernst and stephan are headingout this morning from walden, colorado. their ride yesterday was uphill and into the wind all day, and this day's ride appears to be more of the same. they will meet up with boulder,co-based college friends of my parents over the weekend- bill and pearl are in their 70's, but are more fit and adventuresome than many 50 year olds. they are the couple that ernst wants us to be when we are in our 70's. fine, as long as i don't have to ride uphill and into the wind........

ok, so the raging storm came and went before the swim meet, and it happened after all. i sat through 3 hours and 45 minutes of pure boredom- doing consulting paperwork and enduring the comments of those not doing paperwork at the pool. if i hear 'don't you ever rest?' one more time i believe that i will just go off. when your child swims for 1.5 minutes every 45 minutes or so, something has to take up the slack time- might as well do billable work while i sit..........and the mean mamma wouldn't even stay for the potluck.........

ok, so meanmamma is praying for a raging thunder storm so the swim meet will be canceled and i can just take cayle home and chill out for the evening. we are into our 4th day without ernst and stephan, and knock on wood it is going ok- no tantrums, no blowups, no need for time outs. andrew has been exceptionally nice to cayle, and she seems to respond to this kindness with pleasant behavior. i just hope her medication holds out...........

ok, so it turns out that stephan was right about grackles- on the news tonight it was reported that west nile virus has been found in 2 dead grackles in some rural location in ky- west nile virus rarely kills humans according to this report- jst flu like symptoms. of course, it appears to be deadly to grackles.......

stephan called tonight- he and ernst rode 61 miles today. they had a bit of excitement yesterday while still driving on the interstate- someone was smoking outside the reststop bathrooms, and through a lit cigarette into the bushes, and started a fire- right there in front of ernst and stephan- they helped the staff put it out, but not before there was a large patch of grass left in charred ruins. stephan said that everything is very dry- they are actually in wyoming- they started the colorado ride across the border- for reasons known only to themselves..he was mostly interested in the cracker barrel openign- i forgot to tell him about the dog burial....maybe next time.

ok, so i have had it with this woman in johnson county who is raising a ruckess over rocky fout, a 12 year old cocker spaniel buried 9 feet from her parents. is this woman just noticing that this was a dog not a person, or has this dog just been buried? are her parents canina phobic? my picture of a pleasant eternity could include a cat or a dog on my lap, under a shady tree.......why can't her parents, both dead, of course, embrace the same eternal rest with rocky- kind of adopt him. turns out that ky has no law banning the mixed burial of humans and canines or felines, or sharks and doplhins for that matter. this woman's ruckess sounds as foolish and complaining that her parents are buried next to blacks or hispanics et al.......she had better worry about the bigger things- like are the couple on the other side actually married or did they just shack up, did the father beat the mother, or were they involved in extramarital affairs..........will cemetaries begin to require character references lest people get concerned about one's eternal roomates.....it could be worse- those lucky enough to be buried next to jim morrison in pere lachaise in paris have to endure the wiffs of the lit joints left by doors fanatics.............

ok, so we are not yet 48 hours into this 2 week bicycle thing, and already those of us left behind in danville are pretty fed up with grandma's dog, muffet. she is a maltese, rescued from a puppy farm, and should evoke sympathy rather than disdain. however, one cannot move about in this houyse without that dog underfoot, with her toenails making noises on the tile floor. i keep stepping on her feet because she is always underfoot. she cannot just lay upon the couch (yea, we don't let our dogs lay on the furniture......) and just chill out- no she has to follow us around l;ike she will miss something if she isn't close art hand.

andrew and i walked last night, around the circle, after it had cooled off (somewhat). we were on our 3 or 4th lap when a lowe's truck pulled up in front of my mother's house. we both looked at each other- what did she buy and why didn't she tell us to expect a truck, and she certainly doesn't need what she bought........turns out if was a false alarm- they were looking for an address on gwinn island road not the circle- and they finally drove off. such relief. with my dad in the nursing home, we are quite protective of how my mother spends her money........when we bring in her mail we sift through all fo the catalogs, special offers, and the like for immediate discard..........

ok, so i enjoyed snatch, in spite of its connections to madonna, who(m) i loathe. i thought the parts with the dog were just too funny. today, gosford park comes out in video, so i will run by the titlewave and see if i can score a copy. also this week- a beautiful mind- which i also can't wait to see. i just can't seem to get to theatres before these movies have moved on- but videos will just have to do. speaking of madonna, i hear that she is pregnant again with guy ritchie- madonna is nearly my age- in better shape and much wealthier- but still in in 40's and absolutely crazy to be having a baby that will be starting college the year she can collect her social security. i can hardly handle children who drive at my age, let alone change diapers. of course, madonna surely changes no diapers- that is what the nanny is for.............

ok, so mean mamma gets really mean during transitions. ernst and stephan are packing up my mom's car, and the trio will soon leave for colorado. my mom will drop them, and their tandem bike, off somewhere across the border in wyoming, and meet them at the end of each day with a hotel room, until they reach the kansas border. this trip has mean mamma in a bundle, because it appears that most of colorado is on fire, bikes are vulnerable to car traffic, my mother is not the driver she once was when it comes to attention to the road.........oh, so many disasters are possible, and mean mamma has worried about each and every potential fly is the ointment.

then there are the worries at home- cayle will be spending 2 weeks at camp two roads cafe. ernst usually takes care of daycare, as he has always had more flexibility in his schedule. he also has a backroom with a tv/vcr that has served us well over the years as place for kids to chill out until a better option comes along. in the restaurant we have no such backroom, so cayle will hang out in the kitchen, or with customers.......i hope this 2 weeks passes quickly.

i rented movies last night, thinking that they would be leaving yesterday afternoon- i watched laura linney in you can count on me, for which she was nominated for an oscar. i thought she did a fine job, but couldn't quite figure out why they cast that particular actor as her ne'er-do-well brother. he did not seem to be related to her at all, in looks or demeanor. not that all siblings have noticable similarities, but these two had none- i aalso rented snatch- but haven't watched it yet. i have til midnight tonight- maybe i can watch it later on tonight and beg andrew to drive it back into town...i haven't seen a first run film since lord of the rings- and there are many out there that i want to watch. i want to see the importance of being earnest at the kentucky- i can recall seeing the play in college with a man named maynard that was a fixup date- he told me that he couldn't seriously consider going out with me on a regular basis until i stopped being so stuck on myself- i still laugh about that from time to time- only a man totally stuck on himself would think to say such a thing to a blind date.........the play was good, though. i trust the movie will be in true bbc-style, with the usual cast of period costume players, like colin firth. reese witherspoon is also in this picture, though i am not sure which part she plays. my family has given me grief for watching legally blonde more than once- i can't see the difference between watching that movie and all 6 pride and predjudice videos over and over- it is all escapist behavior. or maybe i really just want a chijuaha to call my own......

well, back to this bike trip. gentle readers,bear with me until these travelers are back.........

ok, so my last blog, the one about wilma brown, has disappeared. wilma brown is my new hero/heroine, based on her brave decision to publically get signatures on a wet-dry petition so that the fine citizens of boyle county can decide for themselves whether or not alcohol may be legally consumed in these environs. i don't know which makes me madder- theblog vanishing or the fact that i have to drive 27 miles to buy a bottle of wine. i am also unsure about the correct term for wilma- hero or heroine- heroine somehow makes me think of cheap romance novels- not brave female role models. wilma is perfect for this role- she has retirement income, as well as private funds from painting, which are nearly immune from economic pressure from the opposition- someone like myself, whose livelihood depends on public goodwill, could easily be bankrupted by those who dislike my opinion on alcohol sales. further, wilma has no children nor spouse, who can also be subjected to public riducule/personal attacks based on wilma's actions. presumably she isn't worried about getting kicked out of her church.......an aside- when i bought the restaurant, i was told by a co-worker that i would probably be kicked out of my church if i allowed customers to bring in their own alcohol or if i eventually sold it myself in the event of a successful wet-dry vote. i replied that i would simply rename the place cana- as in the wedding at can where jesus turned water into wine- and let the opposition throw the first stone........i run into people from my church at the liquor barn - so i am clearly not the only one in my congregation, nor in my sunday school class who imbibes....

so back to wilma, she has many connections, with many subgroups in danville- the intellecutals, the college, the artistic, the librarians/teachers, the gentry- i can see her getting the signatures by august, and getting this thing on the ballot by november. where do i sign., wilma?

ok, so i am so glad that the italian travelers are back- because no one blogs like the loyal opposition- sorry about newark. i am also sorry that i didn't save some of the more humerous responses to your letter to the editor. welcome home......

ok, so mean mamma has had a revelation about cable television, cellphones and other techy stuff. if mean mamma wasn;'t quite so mean, she would backoff on this lifetime cable tv ban and be watching us-germany on espn instead of blogging at this very moment. not that i am a soccer hooligan, but i like to watch on occassion. on the other hand, mean mamma is now paying for 3 family talk phones- which means that mean mamma has a deep need for communication/opportunity for human contact in emergencies- and is much more willing to pay for that than for mere entertainment. paying for cable tv will not get you a tow truck when your car is broken down soemwhere. i will just have to read about this landmark soccer game in the paper tomorrow morning.......the paer only costs 50cents........

ok, so i like to reread books- mostly because i am an impatient reader the first go-round, and read books through quickly to see what happens in the plot line. the second and subsequent readings are get the finer points of plot development that i missed while finding out what happens in book. this week i dug up sylvia plath's the bell jar- a book about the poet's dip into madness while she was in college- not to be confused with her dip into madness as an adult mother just before she killed herself. the bell jar reminds me of catcher in the rye- for its first person narrative as well as for its strung out and acutely described late-night outings in new york city. in each book there is a feeling that the madness involved was a coping mechanism- that the madness was somehow the only option for the hero/heroine. in the bell jar there is a poignant scene where upon the heroine is standing nearly naked in her hotel room window throwing her ill-fitting but newly purchased clothing out of the window- one piece at a time. it is something that only a madwoman would do- throw new clothes out the window- 'sane' women hold onto them whether they fit or not until the closet just cannot contain them anymore. the heroine seems the sort of woman who is compliant to the will of others about what she should be doing with her college career, her time in nyc, her choice of boyfriend and her life in general. i see this book as a handbook for independent minded women if only to show them what NOT to do. next i think i will dig up catcher in the rye, and see how h. caufield's madness compares.......

ok, so i have to report on something really funny that tompoland said to me last night at the potluck after the twinkie run. we were contemplating the big urn of artificial flowers that the church had outside its front door- int he summer when real flowers could actually grow- mind you- and tom started commenting about how they (the church) could probably add to their collection by going to yard sales- that there were usually a great assortment of artificial flowers at yard sales, and don't their colors seem to improve with age? he then digressed into a concept idea for an exhibit at the smithsonian- there hasn't been a definitive display of these american icons at the smithsonian- maybe he would start his own collection and then donate them to the smithsonian and be the curator-

like most funny episodes, you really had to be there. but the thread throughout his rant/monologue is worth retelling and rehashing. there is a house on gwinn island road that used to have fake flowers in its window boxes 24/7 and 12 months out of the year- like the neighbors wouldn't be fooled by geraniums peaking out of a blanket of snow. the cemetary in burgin has a large sign posted at the gate- no artificial flowers- yet each grave is adorned with a walmart-grade array of red, white and blue blooms. in europe, graves have their own mini-garden in front, with real petunias, marigolds, and geraniums in season, and ground covers the rest of the year. a brief note to my own family- no fake flowers near my urn when i am gone......please.........maybe just a genuine single orchid.........
when we bought the restaurant we carried out garbage bag after bag of fake greenery- the space had been a shrine to unreality when it came to silk flowers and vines. people still comment on how our decor was more charming then.....

these summer days, when i work long hours and have such little personal time, i relish my early morning hours on the deck, with all of my pots of marigolds, herbs, petunias, geraniums, etc- i sit at the table, with a tablecloth, mind you, and read the paper, with my coffee, and take in the sweet serenity of the flowers along with the lake, the birds, and my dogs wanting in the house. the cat is much more vocal- she won't stop caterwalling until the is let into the house. the dogs are content to just sit under the table until i am ready to go in the house....the scene just wouldn't be the same with 26 pots of silk greenery- they don't need watering and the heat can't kill them, but they have no fresh scent, have no buds to watch until they open, and little to offer in terms of enjoyment. enough said.......mean mamma's quiet morning timeis over and she has to go to work.