Weblog 343
September 9, 2012~ 12:00 am
This was Holly and Gary's 'anniversary week'..... TEN YEARS already. Wow! It seems that only yesterday we were gathered on the covered bridge in Mingo State Park for one of the prettiest weddings I'd ever attended. (Certainly, one of the most lovely settings.)
So Friday, Wayne and I visited -- and got the update on Charles, Holly's rescued pigeon. (I think there's always a soft connection between girls and doves.....)
Holly found a pink cage on Craig's List, and tried to make him as comfortable as possible-- but she fretted terribly about his broken wing.
She finally made a torturous trip to the Wildlife Association (she got impossibly lost, not knowing where she was going, and there was Charles in his cage beside her, busily snacking on seeds.) In Holly's email to me, updating me on his condition, she said, "The man took the cage and said 'oh, a pigeon' and disappeared into the back room. I was thinking, 'Not just a pigeon. He is the most magnificent pigeon, he is my pigeon, and his name is Charles." (Yep. A girl and her pet bird are not easily parted.)
They examined Charles and pronounced his injury an 'old break' but he was suffering a bone infection, so they put him on antibiotics and kept him for treatment. He'll never fly, but Holly is waiting patiently, praying for a full recovery so she can take him home. (I do hope he fights off the infection because honestly, I don't know of a home as loving as that one for him to return to, so here's hoping
only JOY will come of this chance meeting of 'rock dove' and a very soft-hearted human. ) As for me, I ADORE birds. Flightless or not, there's nothing quite like the bewitching stare of a bird, sitting within all that fluff, staring out calmly.
While we were at Holly's on Friday, we AGAIN got to sample my son-in-law's FANTASTIC homemade banana pepper sauce. Gary has quite a garden, and his yield of succulent, spicy peppers this year has been excellent. He used a recipe from a fella he works with, donned rubber gloves for 'de-seeding' those buggers, and put on a face mask and GOGGLES to set to work. (Holly said it was amazing to see when she walked in on the process. "You never know what you're going to find with him..." LOL!!!) But you can't be too careful with those beauties.....
as Wayne can attest to after using the bathroom directly after chopping some of those at home last week, given how male bathroom habits are 'hands on'. OUCH!!! lol!
Gary 's batch of sauce is an honest-to-goodness prize winner. I told him if he marketed that, he'd be rich... I've never tasted anything with such a perfect blending of "sweet/sour/tangy/mildly hot" in my life. It wakes up the flavor in anything it's added to and puts a whole new slant on what's on the plate.
Oh! And I also forgot to mention Gary's OTHER new venture last week! While the family was vacationing at the beach this year, he bought himself a great, looooooooooooong Australian
Diggerie Doo
that makes a deep sustained sound like a foghorn or like an announcement of SOMETHING MOMENTOUS about to happen. It's amazing to hear! (Like Holly, Gary's interests are fairly eclectic and wholly engaged in- so much so, he went ahead and made his own diggerie doo from a piece of white plastic pipe you'd use for household plumbing. (He played that last week for us as well, and damned if it didn't sound better than the real thing!)
But the unbelievable part is that THIS week, I didn't even recognize it. Gary had heated the pipe, bent it, 'distressed it', colored it and shaded parts of it with india ink, so now it's like a scrimshaw instrument that looks, for all the world, exactly like a long wooden tree limb! (I really have to get a picture of that thing. It astounded me.)
Hey...... even the BEATLES had a curiosity about that aboriginal musical wood.
I'd remembered the name of that thing from the tune, 'Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport' from back in the 60's.... but never gave any thought to what it actually was or what it looked like. Now my son-in-law not only has one.... he MADE one.
Saturday was movie night, and my selection from Netflix is based on scandal from the early 70's-- (and one as unsavory as one could imagine.) We watched
The performances were brilliant in an otherwise dark, dark tale of the Barbara Baekeland stabbing murder by her 25 year old son. Barbara had married the heir to the 'Bakelite' fortune, the 'wonder plastic' of the early part of the 20th century. Telephones, jewelry.... you name it, if it could be molded, it was made of Bakelite and even today, genuine pieces of Bakelite jewelry survive perfectly intact and quite pricey as collector's items.
But the extremely wealthy mother and son are enmeshed in an unhealthy and incestuous-leaning relationship due to Barbara's own neediness and lack of control.
Once her husband leaves her for a younger woman, all hell breaks loose in their strangely bizarre, ingrown household.
The adoring young mother and baby son (pictured here in an actual photo of the two of them)
become way too entwined. There are no boundaries, no privacy or autonomy allowed, and due to what was, in son Anthony- most probably a very real mental illness developing as he grows into manhood, a hideous tragedy results. (Tony also was becoming very much aware of his own homosexuality, a development that greatly disturbed his mother as he did all she could to try and 'recondition' him to responding to females instead, using her own sexual wiles.)
Julianne Moore is excellent as Barbara, and Eddie Redmayne is an exquistite, helpless counterpart to her smothering love. (Wayne has pointed out that I'm 'obsessed' with Eddie Redmayne, and it's a fact. Three of the last batch of films we rented starred this gifted young actor, and he never turns in a bad performance. Never.)
Because of its volatile and often upsetting content, this film will certainly not be suitable fare for every viewer, and at times it seemed the editing was snipping things out that should have been better explained, but I do think perhaps that added to its tension. There are dark undercurrents GALORE, and a very real sense of forboding. It's hard to imagine this was an actual story.... but it was.
Tony Baekeland was convicted of the stabbing death of his mother and served a manslaughter-by-diminished-capacity sentence in England, then released into the custody of his maternal grandmother in 1980. He stabbed her as well within a week, though she survived the attack. Sentenced again to Rikers Island, Tony was found dead in 1981 in his prison bed with a plastic bag around his head.
(I scoured the net to find an actual picture of the Barbara and Anthony as adults, and managed to find only this one.)
Haunting, in that it mirrors their appearance just before Barbara lost her life.) Not a pretty story.... but certainly an altogether fascinating one, captured in a film that- while never easy to watch, offers spellbinding performances.
September 13, 2012~ 5:30 pm
It's been an upsetting week thus far (despite perfect weather) .... the anniversary of 9/11 hit me hard this year, then the attacks on our embassies and the deaths that resulted, now war ships moving toward Libia .... everything has a feeling of heavy foreboding.
Mum's COPD has finally made an oxygen-converter necessary for her room, so there's the constant cannula up the nose.... her having a TORPEDO-sized tank that has to be pushed when she's out for her meals, etc..... her grousing about all of it... it's been tough.
Tuesday night I was up and down, stomach upsets that prevented any kind of real sleep so I called off on Wednesday and tried burrowing down under the covers for the whole day. Just one of those 'off times'..... we all get 'em. It's like walkng around with Frankenstein-sized lead shoes.
However, today I saw something that made me smile ear to ear. I'm wondering if you ever heard of
Room 8
He was a stray cat who lived for 21 years, and was 'adopted' by a school. He lolled about on desks, slept through the Pledge of Allegiance, and literally, had the run of the place.
He'd show up on the first day of the school year, year after year.... then disappear at the school year's end. What a heart-warming tale! LOL!!! I LOVE that guy. (And something just struck me..... this first part of September is when I too, lost my own cat Beethoven, when he was nearly 21 years himself (minus one month.) This heaviness makes sense now ... a feeling of 'being at a loss' with things this week ... but seeing that cutie and the way the kids adored him has helped to buoy my spirits greatly. Animals do that. Every time. :)
***
(Return To Weekly Archives)
This was Holly and Gary's 'anniversary week'..... TEN YEARS already. Wow! It seems that only yesterday we were gathered on the covered bridge in Mingo State Park for one of the prettiest weddings I'd ever attended. (Certainly, one of the most lovely settings.)
So Friday, Wayne and I visited -- and got the update on Charles, Holly's rescued pigeon. (I think there's always a soft connection between girls and doves.....)
Holly found a pink cage on Craig's List, and tried to make him as comfortable as possible-- but she fretted terribly about his broken wing.
She finally made a torturous trip to the Wildlife Association (she got impossibly lost, not knowing where she was going, and there was Charles in his cage beside her, busily snacking on seeds.) In Holly's email to me, updating me on his condition, she said, "The man took the cage and said 'oh, a pigeon' and disappeared into the back room. I was thinking, 'Not just a pigeon. He is the most magnificent pigeon, he is my pigeon, and his name is Charles." (Yep. A girl and her pet bird are not easily parted.)
They examined Charles and pronounced his injury an 'old break' but he was suffering a bone infection, so they put him on antibiotics and kept him for treatment. He'll never fly, but Holly is waiting patiently, praying for a full recovery so she can take him home. (I do hope he fights off the infection because honestly, I don't know of a home as loving as that one for him to return to, so here's hoping
only JOY will come of this chance meeting of 'rock dove' and a very soft-hearted human. ) As for me, I ADORE birds. Flightless or not, there's nothing quite like the bewitching stare of a bird, sitting within all that fluff, staring out calmly.
While we were at Holly's on Friday, we AGAIN got to sample my son-in-law's FANTASTIC homemade banana pepper sauce. Gary has quite a garden, and his yield of succulent, spicy peppers this year has been excellent. He used a recipe from a fella he works with, donned rubber gloves for 'de-seeding' those buggers, and put on a face mask and GOGGLES to set to work. (Holly said it was amazing to see when she walked in on the process. "You never know what you're going to find with him..." LOL!!!) But you can't be too careful with those beauties.....
as Wayne can attest to after using the bathroom directly after chopping some of those at home last week, given how male bathroom habits are 'hands on'. OUCH!!! lol!
Gary 's batch of sauce is an honest-to-goodness prize winner. I told him if he marketed that, he'd be rich... I've never tasted anything with such a perfect blending of "sweet/sour/tangy/mildly hot" in my life. It wakes up the flavor in anything it's added to and puts a whole new slant on what's on the plate.
Oh! And I also forgot to mention Gary's OTHER new venture last week! While the family was vacationing at the beach this year, he bought himself a great, looooooooooooong Australian
that makes a deep sustained sound like a foghorn or like an announcement of SOMETHING MOMENTOUS about to happen. It's amazing to hear! (Like Holly, Gary's interests are fairly eclectic and wholly engaged in- so much so, he went ahead and made his own diggerie doo from a piece of white plastic pipe you'd use for household plumbing. (He played that last week for us as well, and damned if it didn't sound better than the real thing!)
But the unbelievable part is that THIS week, I didn't even recognize it. Gary had heated the pipe, bent it, 'distressed it', colored it and shaded parts of it with india ink, so now it's like a scrimshaw instrument that looks, for all the world, exactly like a long wooden tree limb! (I really have to get a picture of that thing. It astounded me.)
Hey...... even the BEATLES had a curiosity about that aboriginal musical wood.
I'd remembered the name of that thing from the tune, 'Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport' from back in the 60's.... but never gave any thought to what it actually was or what it looked like. Now my son-in-law not only has one.... he MADE one.
Saturday was movie night, and my selection from Netflix is based on scandal from the early 70's-- (and one as unsavory as one could imagine.) We watched
The performances were brilliant in an otherwise dark, dark tale of the Barbara Baekeland stabbing murder by her 25 year old son. Barbara had married the heir to the 'Bakelite' fortune, the 'wonder plastic' of the early part of the 20th century. Telephones, jewelry.... you name it, if it could be molded, it was made of Bakelite and even today, genuine pieces of Bakelite jewelry survive perfectly intact and quite pricey as collector's items.
But the extremely wealthy mother and son are enmeshed in an unhealthy and incestuous-leaning relationship due to Barbara's own neediness and lack of control.
Once her husband leaves her for a younger woman, all hell breaks loose in their strangely bizarre, ingrown household.
The adoring young mother and baby son (pictured here in an actual photo of the two of them)
become way too entwined. There are no boundaries, no privacy or autonomy allowed, and due to what was, in son Anthony- most probably a very real mental illness developing as he grows into manhood, a hideous tragedy results. (Tony also was becoming very much aware of his own homosexuality, a development that greatly disturbed his mother as he did all she could to try and 'recondition' him to responding to females instead, using her own sexual wiles.)
Julianne Moore is excellent as Barbara, and Eddie Redmayne is an exquistite, helpless counterpart to her smothering love. (Wayne has pointed out that I'm 'obsessed' with Eddie Redmayne, and it's a fact. Three of the last batch of films we rented starred this gifted young actor, and he never turns in a bad performance. Never.)
Because of its volatile and often upsetting content, this film will certainly not be suitable fare for every viewer, and at times it seemed the editing was snipping things out that should have been better explained, but I do think perhaps that added to its tension. There are dark undercurrents GALORE, and a very real sense of forboding. It's hard to imagine this was an actual story.... but it was.
Tony Baekeland was convicted of the stabbing death of his mother and served a manslaughter-by-diminished-capacity sentence in England, then released into the custody of his maternal grandmother in 1980. He stabbed her as well within a week, though she survived the attack. Sentenced again to Rikers Island, Tony was found dead in 1981 in his prison bed with a plastic bag around his head.
(I scoured the net to find an actual picture of the Barbara and Anthony as adults, and managed to find only this one.)
Haunting, in that it mirrors their appearance just before Barbara lost her life.) Not a pretty story.... but certainly an altogether fascinating one, captured in a film that- while never easy to watch, offers spellbinding performances.
September 13, 2012~ 5:30 pm
It's been an upsetting week thus far (despite perfect weather) .... the anniversary of 9/11 hit me hard this year, then the attacks on our embassies and the deaths that resulted, now war ships moving toward Libia .... everything has a feeling of heavy foreboding.
Mum's COPD has finally made an oxygen-converter necessary for her room, so there's the constant cannula up the nose.... her having a TORPEDO-sized tank that has to be pushed when she's out for her meals, etc..... her grousing about all of it... it's been tough.
Tuesday night I was up and down, stomach upsets that prevented any kind of real sleep so I called off on Wednesday and tried burrowing down under the covers for the whole day. Just one of those 'off times'..... we all get 'em. It's like walkng around with Frankenstein-sized lead shoes.
However, today I saw something that made me smile ear to ear. I'm wondering if you ever heard of
Room 8
He was a stray cat who lived for 21 years, and was 'adopted' by a school. He lolled about on desks, slept through the Pledge of Allegiance, and literally, had the run of the place.
He'd show up on the first day of the school year, year after year.... then disappear at the school year's end. What a heart-warming tale! LOL!!! I LOVE that guy. (And something just struck me..... this first part of September is when I too, lost my own cat Beethoven, when he was nearly 21 years himself (minus one month.) This heaviness makes sense now ... a feeling of 'being at a loss' with things this week ... but seeing that cutie and the way the kids adored him has helped to buoy my spirits greatly. Animals do that. Every time. :)
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