down but not out

ok,so.....our p.c. flashed a major blue error screen this morning.....rather than booting up as usual......couldn't locate boot disk......no blogs until it is ack from repair limbo....

summer

ok, so......aside from a wedding in upstate new york, i appear to have no summer plans other than that of showing up at work.....i am going to st louis for a diabetes conference, but that is work.....and not my idea of a prime vacation locale.....most of my travel schemes involve off-season jaunts.....times when i suspect that the destinations will be less crowded.......granted, paris on spring break was far from idyllic in terms of long lines and hordes of bodies milling about......but paris in december should be decidedly less teeming with visitors......if i have a potential trip lined up for december, i can manage to make it through a summer of staying home....

biathalon.....

ok, so i rode on the back of the tandem for 28 miles......on a lovely ride that included family and friends......out almost to shakertown, then doubling back to h-burg to eat mexican....then bellow mills road to home.......and the mental image that sustained me on that last leg of the journey was of jumping off our dock into the lake.....which i did in my clothing-already soaked with sweat......no use chanmging clothes only to get wet again.......pontooners from yesterday had left one of those foam noodles behind...caught under a branch across the creek.....i managed to swim over to retrieve it.......with my last ounce of strength before i dragged my sorry body up to the whirlpool bathtub......maybe later on if i catch a second wind i'll walk around the circle, and call it my triathalon day.......right about now i do believe i am going to rest a bit.......

ulysses (2)

ok, so......while my close kin went hiking...i walked 2 miles ont eh treadmill, then settled down by the waterfall to read ulysses....i am to the part where leopold bloom eats a cheese sandwich with a glass of red wine in a pub.....wikipedia claims that the cheese was gorgonzola...but the reference to the variety of cheese was so very vague......someone who can infer with such conviction clearly has nothing better to do......i am nearing the 200 page mark.......not even a quarter of the way through......i very much appreciate reading companion pieces....like wikipedia...that give overviews as to wtf is happening so that i can see more of what i am supposed to see as bloom makes his way through june 16 in dublin......might be a reasonable goal.....to complete this book by bloomsday.......

unlikely......

ok, so the collective we got into a friendly debate over sunday night pizza over the probability of there being another c-dub family somewhere.......given that google searches do not show any signs of such a family......one child surmised that there could be another family with the same hyphenated surname...but that they are luddites and not on the grid......yeah, well...hyphenated luddites not on the grid sounds pretty unlikely.......but then...there is a professor at the middle child's college that has a name quite similar to mine.....and there is an eve-so-slight chance that she will leave her spouse and marry inot the last name of the hyphen.......it could happen....wouldn't want someone's marriage to go bad just to set up the scene, though.......there were alternative debates about even more improbabilities....like a kentuckian who moves to the benelux countries to sell cars.......i believe it has actually happened......maybe a gay couple currently in the car business who seek a more lifestyle-embracing community in amsterdam........it sounds possible to me.......

page 93

ok, so i am to page 93 of ulysses....and i can honestly recount the cliff note-version of what has happened this far......happily, pages 65-93 were much more interesting than what happened earlier......the scene where leopold bloom makes breakfast-in-bed for his wife molly was intimate and sweet........and so detailed as to be palpable..... a concrete memory for joyce...such things cannot be made up

sweet

ok, so....all three of my children are frolicking in the creek, my spouse is mowing the front yard listening to npr on his headphones..the roses and boxwood and lavender and honeysuckle scents are wafting as one.....and i almost have supper ready to bring out to the deck......as kurt v. would quip...if this isn't sweet, i don't know what is......

saturday.....

ok, so...i am 7 minutes from my goal of 'jammies til noon'.....at which point i really do intend to shower and get dressed...so far i have walked 2 miles on the treadmill, made latkes and omelets for those who are not even out of bed yet.....sat by my pond, strolled through my flowers sipping coffee......and read the newspaper...the actual paper copy.......what a great start to three days off......

t.g.i.f.(2)

ok, so i have used this headline before....the computer tried to fill in the blank automatically as i typed......but the sentiment is genuine and fresh.....the week has been harried and i so look forward to a bit of down time......or at least.....a nice lie-in tomorrow morning.....maybe lounge in the pajamas til noon......i have gardening projects that could be initiated: expanding the side-yard bed up-the-hill....and use the grass to fill in dead-spots in the lawn...can't really start that until the yard gets mowed....a chore not in my job description.....i am sad to admit that i cannot turn on the mower......not that i haven't tried...but those pull-cord starts are ever-so tricksy......might just have to read a few more tedious pages of ulyssess and hope for simpler prose to come....

right ring finger......

ok, so i accidentally smacked my right ring finger earlier today...causing it to swell.....and when i decided that it was prudent to take off my gold signet ring....the one i have worn for 30 years since my college friend/grad school roommate/maidofhonor gave it to me on my 21st birthday....and i could not get it over the swelling...and my finger was starting to turn blue....and the nurse i know best in my thursday county called her brotherinlaw and asked him to come by with wirecutters......relief....but now i have a plastic bag with a 30 year old signet ring to be fixed.....and valid qualms about my wedding band......which feels a bit looser, but an accident could render it as un-removable......

back to work....

ok, so.....having been off for 5 days......i suppose it is time to go back to work.......not much to stay home for today.....my boy takes an on-line exam this morning til noon, then has a doctor's appointment til its time to pick up the youngest and bring her home.....by the time i get home 5-ish......all that will be over and i can sit in my garden and relax.....i do have a graduation gift to deliver...running out of time with it, actually.....maybe while we are in town friday afternoon getting eyes checked and glasses ordered.....

ulysses

ok, so i started to read ulysses, on this my sick day off....back strain from 3 days of driving and lifting.....and my first session with this classic novel lasted a full....fifteen minutes.....i got through the part where the guy from a portrait of the artist as a young man is watching his friend shave.....in some locale that included a living space in a tower accessible by a ladder.....and the portrait guy is feeling guilty about his mother's death......it took pages and pages to get that bit of background across.....and i only knew about portrait guy because i listened to a lecture on joyce this morning......a summer of ulysses could be long and arduous.....

aromatherapy

ok, so......back home again.....and even at this hour have made the circuit to see my garden.....the scent of moist boxwood in the early morning is therapeutic for the fatigue and general physical pain that comes from extra-long car trips.....scents are curiously tied to locales and to memories......standing outside of forbes college waiting/attending my stickerless vehicle......the smell of warm pine soothed and amused me...the scent was more intense because of the workmen feverishly raking up needles in anticipation of alumni coming by for graduation.....the luxury of having a workcrew crosses my mind from time to time, but i can not imagine trusting my little piece of paradise to anybody else.......back at my brother-in-law's house the roses were breathtaking.....at supper on monday night there was an impromptu smelling of the numerous aroma possibilities for roses....at the table were no fewer than 12 varities....each with a notable variation on the scent we call rose: rose to the peach or cherry, rose to the lemon or vanilla..rose to the apple...rose aromas that lingers with peppery notes....a rose that smells like oriental tea.....that one, mrs. b.r. cant...is one of the original tea roses...named after their actual scents....the roses now called tea-roses have little in common with real teas....there are light scents, heavy scents.....back home i was struck by the variety of scents with my own roses.....i do have the peppery, the lemon, the sweet, the apple......and roses that smell lovely without identifiable influences......i suppose these latter roses simply smell of home.....and while i live to travel elsewhere, at the end of the day i am so very happy to be home again....

almost heaven

ok,so.....my broherinlaw's garden with it's 1000- plus roses is twenty percent in bloom....wow.....driving to princeton and back today-hopefully more will blloom while i am traveling

the first day of my vacation.....

ok, so technically i am on vacation.....and will not return to work until wednesday...or maybe thursday if i am feeling poorly after my trip......i can feel something coming on......haven't narrowed down the symptoms just yet...but then i do have time for this illness to...gel.....but since today is glorious....i spent as much of it outside as possible......i cut down the trash greenery that block the view of the lake from my new terrace.....wow.....this is square-footage that i am un-used to seeing....and there are many opportunities now that the underbrush is gone.......i also tilled and planted my vegetable garden...such as it is...behind the hedge.....i am thrilled to glean a few squash, tomatoes, green beans, and lettuces from this area....curiously, there are three cosmos plants that came up from last year's seeds......which didn't germinate at all last year...go figure......i planted numerous nasteriums....a plant that promises to be easy grow....which seems to imply easy for anybody but me................the rambler rose that has grown to enormous proportions behind the hedge is in bloom, and the aroma is intoxicating.......no idea what it is called.......tuesday night i plan to get out the rose bible and re-identify plants.......the deal is....sometime after we adopted our third child.....she helpfully gathered up all the tags from most of the roses....and presented them to me much as a cat presents a dead mouse......and i was so stunned that i made no attempt to put any of those tags back.....and so....the older roses i know well, and the newer roses i know...but those midling roses are a complete mystery.......lovely, but without names......we are leaving for cincinnati around 5.......and tomorrow i will venture out alone to d.c....to see the mother lode of rose gardens at the home of my bother-in-law nick...he has acres and acres of 'rooms' in the gertrude jeckyl style....and 2 substantial ponds.......and boxwood taller than most humans......it is one of my favorite places on earth, besides my own house...and i am thrilled at the opportunity to visit 'in season'......catch y'all tuesday night......

bike rack 101

ok, so the lion's share of my morning has been spent in tutorial...bike rack tutorial.....at some point on monday i will be called upon to set up the rack on the back of my car to transport a bike from new jersey......while i have been around bikes for all these years...there has been no knowledge transferred by osmosis.....yikes!.......my spouse assures me that i can manage to do this, especially if i break out the directions.......

ok, so the rose in the foreground is belladonna, an 18th century old-fashioned rose from my grandfather's house in cleveland ; the rose in the background is rosa mundi, a rose from the 15th century

ok, so the mm had to buy gas today...gosh darn, but the prices have gone up........

book club.....

ok, so...i spent weeks grooming my yard for my very best friends to stand on my deck and drink wine and move no further........i suppose that this is how book clubs go......but i thought that the discussion would extend beyond my introduction....about growing up in mt gilead, ohio or even beyond the biblical meaning of gilead or mizpah.....or to fathers and sons ..no such luck....

not cut out for this.....

ok, so it would seem that the parenting of daughters does not come naturally to me......there is much more i could add to this sentiment, but i will keep the rest of the sorry and sorted details to myself.....