Weblog 244
October 17, 2010~ 12:00 am
A fall week, all week long. Vivid colors, colder temperatures- (I even turned on my furnace on Saturday and took out the kitchen window fan.) Dipping into the low 40's at night- never warming the house much during the day -finally had me caving in to making Columbia Gas richer once again. (Damn robber barons.) Even my little chickadee house is bedecked in fall.....
See? Even weeds and peeling paint adopt charm when Mother Nature has those golds and orange-reds on her palette. The whole yard looks a bit unkempt since I 'retired' the grass-cutters prematurely during the drought in September, not counting on so much RAIN late in the month, but oh, my! -the grass is GREEN, that's for sure. As well as WAY too long. Saturday, Wayne pointed out some charming light-brown mushrooms growing on my railroad tie steps...
I had to snap their picture. (Wayne did not like the look of their 'buddies', growing in globs in the wider crack. "Too much like tumors," he said. LOL!!) And so their are.
Friday night we visited the grandkids after a two weekend stretch without seeing them. I'd brought along souvenirs from Gettysburg- an authentic kepi for Bill (which DAZZLED HIM!)- he stuck it right on, a perfect fit, and announced after donning a navy blue long-sleeved jersey and his dark side striped pants, that he's going to be a Civil War soldier for Halloween. I was tickled. The rest of the evening was questions about the war between the states, and things like, "Grandma...why do you love WAR so much?" LOL!!!
I told him I hated war- all wars, but I found that particular one fascinating because of the voluntary nature of the thing and the huge personal sacrifice, mostly for ideals. (I still think he believes I'm some kind of 'hawk'.)
Kay loved her Amish doll, but no sooner did she hug her, than the doll was stripped down to her plain white underclothes, being dressed in something pink and modern. Black bonnet off, Kay stared disappointed at her chopped, bowl-cut, dark hair. "She still has a pretty FACE," she said. "She still looks like a girl." (Kay could never be 'black bumper Amish'. If there ain't sequins and flounce, she's not interested, whereas I'm not a 'girly girl', and never have been. It's amazing we find common ground at all. LOL!!!)
When I got home on Friday, after seeing the kids, I stumbled on some wonderful old photos of children from the past. Late nineteeth century and early 20th-- and I have to conclude, those tikes had a tough row to hoe, and were serious as all get out. Busy being 'seen and not heard', while observing all the proprieties of those times.
Look at THOSE TWO, grim as can be, clutching their bibles in their laps.. no 'Sesame Street' or 'froot loops' there, that's for sure! There were no hyperactive children in those days; it wouldn't have been tolerated for more than a minute- (the one before the spanking.) And they WORKED! My goodness, yes!
Have a gander at these miserable little oyster-shuckers from South Carolina early in the last century. (I doubt those little gals had ever seen PINK in their lives!) It's in the nature of old-style photography that folks looked so grim. In the really old ones, the daguerrotypes and ambrotypes, they were posed with such looooooong exposures the subjects couldn't move or the picture would blur...photographers even had metal braces to hold the head from behind and keep the subjects stock still. (It's no wonder some of those vintage pictures scream 'LIFE IS DOUR!' right out loud when you stare at a peck of 'em.) Gosh.........even the dogs were miserable.
Poor Fido. Chained at the neck and being good... unable to reach that stick to chew on or run off with... sad little guy. And gone. All of 'em now, gone- with only their stark composure left behind.
Were there ever any happy photos? I found one that is my favorite. It speaks to the 'Tom Sawyer' in all of us- that free-spirited ball of youth, gadding about in the rural life, toes in dirt and smelling like sweetgrass. Long days of exploring and 'getting up to things.' Here it is........the APPLE PICKERS
Almost like an etching, that glorious black and white -now faded to sepia, capturing a late summer day of enormous freedom and happiness. Tom....... with his sidekick below, when days were 40 hours long and years were lifetimes.
Yes, certainly there are troves of 'American Gothic' type photos-- and the 'American Experience' sort of pictures like those scruffy, over worked little gals, but there's also the FREEDOM and the time-stopped wonder caught -every now and again. Caught in a farmer's yard a century ago when life was slower- and doubtless, richer. To be happy, we need to find those boys in us. They're part of our collective memory, our over-soul, and yes, o yes....... our absolute delight.
And since HALLOWEEN will be here in less than two weeks, to usher in the season here is the front door, fully decorated, of my buddy Annette, out in Los Angeles..... a perfect gateway into this spooky season!
It cheers me so that she decorates like mad for Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas- (the 'three big ones', she says. :) My daughter's yard is graveyard scary, as we saw on Friday evening. All the ghosts and skeletons have come out, and the inside is a-drip in spider webs and skulls. LOL!! It's the nature of the lively hearted to 'do it up'. (Me? Well..........I do have a rather large Dracula decal on the hood of my car. Does that count?)
But I intend to KEEP it on, through Halloween and until it crumbles off in small bits. I like it! Here's the image: a fifty-nine year old woman speeding down the highway in a periwinkle blue Focus, Dracula on her hood and yes........big PINK sunglasses with RHINESTONES IN THE CORNERS, propped on her nose! (I suppose I do have a pink indulgence now and then. Who'd a thunk it?)
October 17, 2010~ 9:00 am
Once again......I am about a decade behind the times, having fallen in worship of someone who is just now, leaving the picture.
Charlie Brooker, a british TV critic with a rapier wit, has written his farewell piece -and is tiptoeing off the stage. Browsing his past columns this morning had me in stitches. (A more crotchety, curmudgeony sourpuss would be hard to find) and in someone so badly in need of blepharoplasty - (he looks like a frog after a bad night, one with a gnawing ferret up his ass) - his physical description of celebrities and the puke they can produce is mighty bold, and always hysterical.
If you are in the mood to HOWL, catch up on his best 10 columns. Go to Screen Burn and laugh your butt off.
Goodbye, old chap. I nearly missed ye....
October 20, 2010~ 4:45 pm
Brilliantly lit day today......fall all the way. And today is mum's Halloween Trick or Treating Parade of costumed kids at the Assisted Living residence. I bought 3 bags of halloween treats, so she's ready-- and very excited to see my sister with her grandchildren --and all the tikes marching along happy as all get out to have an early Halloween activity... (and more candy!) Time to put on the halloween Game Face...
(yep! -that's a carved wonder, it is.) Many more to be found on MSN, but I hate that damned commercial website so much I won't link to it. lol
I was very happy to see that the birds have FINALLY taken to my new 'feeder'. (The old one-- that Italian-looking column made of plaster and painted to look antique-y) was never meant to be an outside fixture, so the rain slowly wore through the flaws and cracks in the finish, turning it into mush till it collapsed this past weekend. There it sat on the grass in pieces- the metal support pole up the cherub's butt, nothwithstanding -it was to no avail. Down it went like Rome...... busted.
I rigged up a marble bowl sitting on top of a solid 3 ft. vase (that IS coated) and hopefully will prove to be weather-resistant-- but the birds ignored it. (Makes me wonder if some poor fellas were feeding at the old one when it went the way of Humpty Dumpty... so now they're cautious? LOL!!!) But today when I pulled in, the cracked corn was gone! And when I happily refilled it -PINTO, the patchy, spotted black-and-white rock pigeon, landed there almost immediately! Then all the little buggers -the sparrows- showed up and began to feast. It made me happy. (Their new feeder looks pretty solid.......so far.)
And today Wayne sent me a wonderful link! Do you know what this is?
Not a regular statue...... no my friends, that gorgeous work of art is ORIGAMI!! Sadly, the genius who created it has just passed on --but his work will live forever. It's ASTOUNDING! Go have a look at Eric Joisel He was a master at turning paper into mystical, magical sculptures; some from one piece of paper that would equal the square footage of a small apartment! Recognized the world over as "THE" origami wizard-- your mouth will gape right open and you'll be delighted. (If one is to leave something behind after death, great art is a fitting tribute to the life lived.) Rest now, Eric. Your work lives on.
***
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A fall week, all week long. Vivid colors, colder temperatures- (I even turned on my furnace on Saturday and took out the kitchen window fan.) Dipping into the low 40's at night- never warming the house much during the day -finally had me caving in to making Columbia Gas richer once again. (Damn robber barons.) Even my little chickadee house is bedecked in fall.....
See? Even weeds and peeling paint adopt charm when Mother Nature has those golds and orange-reds on her palette. The whole yard looks a bit unkempt since I 'retired' the grass-cutters prematurely during the drought in September, not counting on so much RAIN late in the month, but oh, my! -the grass is GREEN, that's for sure. As well as WAY too long. Saturday, Wayne pointed out some charming light-brown mushrooms growing on my railroad tie steps...
I had to snap their picture. (Wayne did not like the look of their 'buddies', growing in globs in the wider crack. "Too much like tumors," he said. LOL!!) And so their are.
Friday night we visited the grandkids after a two weekend stretch without seeing them. I'd brought along souvenirs from Gettysburg- an authentic kepi for Bill (which DAZZLED HIM!)- he stuck it right on, a perfect fit, and announced after donning a navy blue long-sleeved jersey and his dark side striped pants, that he's going to be a Civil War soldier for Halloween. I was tickled. The rest of the evening was questions about the war between the states, and things like, "Grandma...why do you love WAR so much?" LOL!!!
I told him I hated war- all wars, but I found that particular one fascinating because of the voluntary nature of the thing and the huge personal sacrifice, mostly for ideals. (I still think he believes I'm some kind of 'hawk'.)
Kay loved her Amish doll, but no sooner did she hug her, than the doll was stripped down to her plain white underclothes, being dressed in something pink and modern. Black bonnet off, Kay stared disappointed at her chopped, bowl-cut, dark hair. "She still has a pretty FACE," she said. "She still looks like a girl." (Kay could never be 'black bumper Amish'. If there ain't sequins and flounce, she's not interested, whereas I'm not a 'girly girl', and never have been. It's amazing we find common ground at all. LOL!!!)
When I got home on Friday, after seeing the kids, I stumbled on some wonderful old photos of children from the past. Late nineteeth century and early 20th-- and I have to conclude, those tikes had a tough row to hoe, and were serious as all get out. Busy being 'seen and not heard', while observing all the proprieties of those times.
Look at THOSE TWO, grim as can be, clutching their bibles in their laps.. no 'Sesame Street' or 'froot loops' there, that's for sure! There were no hyperactive children in those days; it wouldn't have been tolerated for more than a minute- (the one before the spanking.) And they WORKED! My goodness, yes!
Have a gander at these miserable little oyster-shuckers from South Carolina early in the last century. (I doubt those little gals had ever seen PINK in their lives!) It's in the nature of old-style photography that folks looked so grim. In the really old ones, the daguerrotypes and ambrotypes, they were posed with such looooooong exposures the subjects couldn't move or the picture would blur...photographers even had metal braces to hold the head from behind and keep the subjects stock still. (It's no wonder some of those vintage pictures scream 'LIFE IS DOUR!' right out loud when you stare at a peck of 'em.) Gosh.........even the dogs were miserable.
Poor Fido. Chained at the neck and being good... unable to reach that stick to chew on or run off with... sad little guy. And gone. All of 'em now, gone- with only their stark composure left behind.
Were there ever any happy photos? I found one that is my favorite. It speaks to the 'Tom Sawyer' in all of us- that free-spirited ball of youth, gadding about in the rural life, toes in dirt and smelling like sweetgrass. Long days of exploring and 'getting up to things.' Here it is........the APPLE PICKERS
Almost like an etching, that glorious black and white -now faded to sepia, capturing a late summer day of enormous freedom and happiness. Tom....... with his sidekick below, when days were 40 hours long and years were lifetimes.
Yes, certainly there are troves of 'American Gothic' type photos-- and the 'American Experience' sort of pictures like those scruffy, over worked little gals, but there's also the FREEDOM and the time-stopped wonder caught -every now and again. Caught in a farmer's yard a century ago when life was slower- and doubtless, richer. To be happy, we need to find those boys in us. They're part of our collective memory, our over-soul, and yes, o yes....... our absolute delight.
And since HALLOWEEN will be here in less than two weeks, to usher in the season here is the front door, fully decorated, of my buddy Annette, out in Los Angeles..... a perfect gateway into this spooky season!
It cheers me so that she decorates like mad for Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas- (the 'three big ones', she says. :) My daughter's yard is graveyard scary, as we saw on Friday evening. All the ghosts and skeletons have come out, and the inside is a-drip in spider webs and skulls. LOL!! It's the nature of the lively hearted to 'do it up'. (Me? Well..........I do have a rather large Dracula decal on the hood of my car. Does that count?)
But I intend to KEEP it on, through Halloween and until it crumbles off in small bits. I like it! Here's the image: a fifty-nine year old woman speeding down the highway in a periwinkle blue Focus, Dracula on her hood and yes........big PINK sunglasses with RHINESTONES IN THE CORNERS, propped on her nose! (I suppose I do have a pink indulgence now and then. Who'd a thunk it?)
October 17, 2010~ 9:00 am
Once again......I am about a decade behind the times, having fallen in worship of someone who is just now, leaving the picture.
Charlie Brooker, a british TV critic with a rapier wit, has written his farewell piece -and is tiptoeing off the stage. Browsing his past columns this morning had me in stitches. (A more crotchety, curmudgeony sourpuss would be hard to find) and in someone so badly in need of blepharoplasty - (he looks like a frog after a bad night, one with a gnawing ferret up his ass) - his physical description of celebrities and the puke they can produce is mighty bold, and always hysterical.
If you are in the mood to HOWL, catch up on his best 10 columns. Go to Screen Burn and laugh your butt off.
Goodbye, old chap. I nearly missed ye....
October 20, 2010~ 4:45 pm
Brilliantly lit day today......fall all the way. And today is mum's Halloween Trick or Treating Parade of costumed kids at the Assisted Living residence. I bought 3 bags of halloween treats, so she's ready-- and very excited to see my sister with her grandchildren --and all the tikes marching along happy as all get out to have an early Halloween activity... (and more candy!) Time to put on the halloween Game Face...
(yep! -that's a carved wonder, it is.) Many more to be found on MSN, but I hate that damned commercial website so much I won't link to it. lol
I was very happy to see that the birds have FINALLY taken to my new 'feeder'. (The old one-- that Italian-looking column made of plaster and painted to look antique-y) was never meant to be an outside fixture, so the rain slowly wore through the flaws and cracks in the finish, turning it into mush till it collapsed this past weekend. There it sat on the grass in pieces- the metal support pole up the cherub's butt, nothwithstanding -it was to no avail. Down it went like Rome...... busted.
I rigged up a marble bowl sitting on top of a solid 3 ft. vase (that IS coated) and hopefully will prove to be weather-resistant-- but the birds ignored it. (Makes me wonder if some poor fellas were feeding at the old one when it went the way of Humpty Dumpty... so now they're cautious? LOL!!!) But today when I pulled in, the cracked corn was gone! And when I happily refilled it -PINTO, the patchy, spotted black-and-white rock pigeon, landed there almost immediately! Then all the little buggers -the sparrows- showed up and began to feast. It made me happy. (Their new feeder looks pretty solid.......so far.)
And today Wayne sent me a wonderful link! Do you know what this is?
Not a regular statue...... no my friends, that gorgeous work of art is ORIGAMI!! Sadly, the genius who created it has just passed on --but his work will live forever. It's ASTOUNDING! Go have a look at Eric Joisel He was a master at turning paper into mystical, magical sculptures; some from one piece of paper that would equal the square footage of a small apartment! Recognized the world over as "THE" origami wizard-- your mouth will gape right open and you'll be delighted. (If one is to leave something behind after death, great art is a fitting tribute to the life lived.) Rest now, Eric. Your work lives on.
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