Ecclesiastes 3:1

6 September, 2023

To everything there is a season.  All good things must end.  I was raised with this understanding.  I have lived my life by it.  I have touched on it many times in entries I have published in this blog.  And now I have reluctantly to acknowledge that even the season for publishing the blog itself is coming to a close. 

When I started blogging I did so mainly as a way to share what used to be called “plowin’ and preservin’ news” with many people at once.  George and I were living the life we had planned for ourselves at Cold Comfort Farm and our days were charged with events and excitements.

In the many years since – just how many I could not hope to tell you at the moment – what had started out as a journal of my physical life became much more a celebration of the life of my mind: all the intangibles that have made my life worth living. 

I have shared discoveries in genealogy.  I have shared information regarding historical events about which I had recently learned, or just learned something new.  I have shared thoughts on interpersonal relationships, and cartoons and aphorisms I found particularly apt, and pithy quotes from people I love.  And pictures.  I have shared a lot of pictures.

Essentially, I guess, I have offered up pretty much anything and everything that has caught my eye in some particular way that made me think, and learn, and grow, and want to pass these blessings on to those I love.

But George has been gone for more than five years, now, and in that time learning and growing and wanting to share have become much quieter activities for me; more particular and private and, from time to time, now, confusing and sometimes embarrassing.

Three Wednesdays ago, I fell in my house in McCloud and broke my left hip.  The following day I had hip replacement surgery in Mt. Shasta.   After spending that weekend in the hospital, I have come to live in a convalescent home in Weed, where I am receiving physical therapy, rehabilitation, and recuperative rest. 

This is not someplace I very much want to be, and it isn’t much of anything I really want to be doing.  But it is where I am, and it is what I am doing, because it is the season of my life for such things.  It is incredibly hard for an old nurse to allow herself to be nursed, but I’m learning.

I am reading books.  I am enjoying visits from people who love me.  I am, occasionally, talking on the phone.  But these days I am not able to sit at a computer and compose a blog I’d want to read, or to ask anybody else to try to understand.  Time has turned, and the season for such things is over for me now.

I will miss writing these entries.  I miss them already, just like I miss some of the people for whom I have written them, who are no longer with us to read.  This has been quite a ride.  I have learned a lot, and enjoyed my readers’ feedback, and felt like we were all involved in a fascinating series of ongoing conversations.  I cannot help but miss that feeling, but I certainly treasure the memories.  Thank you all, for all of them.

While I am sorry I can no longer hold up my end of those conversations as well as I once did, I welcome your cards and letters and phone calls.  Please check with my sons John and Mark for current contact information: you can reach them via my post office box in McCloud or the phone number I have had for many years, both of which they monitor, or by emailing  jsdibelka@outlook.com.  I look forward to hearing from you.

But mainly, I want to make sure I have thanked you just for reading what I have written.  I have had a great time with this blog, and I hope you have, too.  Writing for you has been a pleasure and a privilege I would not have missed for the world. 

It’s just that now, in the way of such things, it’s someone else’s turn. 

All things are as they are and will end as they must.

Thanks for everything.

Blessed be.

To Life!

Love,  Wilma

 29 July ‘23 

Tuesday am  29 July’23  WU 68o  WW 52o  

~~~

I told you I’ve been watching old stories from the original Twilight Zone.

I also told you I remember a few of them and I was waiting for the one where all the residents are either “embalmed” bodies posed as what they wish they could have been when they were alive or manikins created to “flesh” out the dead person’s final wish.  None alive including the caretaker, Mr. Wickwire, who was in charge of seeing they are posed correctly for their final wishes and of keeping them dusted; and who was actually a “robot”.

I finally got to see it again.  It was called “Elegy”.  It was #20 in season 1.

I will ask again … Do any of you remember the Twilight Zone and Rod Serling?   What were your favorite episodes?

 ~~~

Recently read a note in “… Walking the Red Road” about a Mohawk woman named Pauline Johnson who was born to an English mother and a Mohawk Chief father in 1861 at the Six Rivers Reserve near Hamilton, Ontatrio, Canada. cHer first book  of poetry was published in 1895.  

However the woman named as the first American woman poet is acknowledged to be Anne Bradford nee Dudley.  She was born in Northampton, United Kingdom in 1612 into the Puritan family prominent as founders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.  I have a copy of her first book of poetry published in 1650.

~~~

My friend of long standing, Bill King, recently sent me this interesting information:

 “Came March 1941 when Americans were ordered to leave China; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C11gYQih8Xk;

then came Dec. 7 (or 8, in Asia time).  Some of us recall being ordered out of China in 1941 …  

“I could have been  a passenger, too – save I was born a King in the US in March, and not, still earlier, a son of Presbyterian missionaries to China,  – a Van Etten.”

And as Bill said … Here we go again.

~~~    

There’s a rose in my porch garden just outside the northwest corner window.   It’s called Joseph’s Coat.  I first saw one of them in the front yard of the house Mark owned on Maltby Street in Rochester, NY.  If you’ve never heard of them, or seen one, their blossoms come in varied colors.

My rose’s blossoms start with yellow centers and as they age the yellow becomes ringed with red petals and wind up dried pinkish before the petals start to drop.  The bees love them and even the hummers sometimes visit them.

~~~

And another blast from the past … Presenting the Smothers Brothers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJfwMkO9h1o&ab_channel=CBSSundayMorning

Watch for the VietNam Joke (!)  

I still wear my Another Mother for Peace necklace given to me by the Founder Donna Reed because I was an initial member.  

Another time I’ll tell you about my interaction with the LAPD over that war.

I still miss the Smothers Brothers.  CBS made a big mistake when they allowed censors to fire them over their political opinions. 

American involvement in war in Vietnam lasted from August, 1964 until April, 1975.

Our older son would have been old enough for the draft in 1974.  That was the reason we made a trip into Canada to look for property in case we needed a place to go to keep our son out of the draft to go fight in Viet Nam.  We found a place and opened a Bank Account.  

Fortunately, the draft was over before it was needed.  

And here’s a bit of trivia … Did you know Tommy Smothers has one blue eye and one brown eye?

~~~

I’m still reading The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels.  Pagels is an American historian of religion. She is the Harrington Spear Paine Professor of Religion at Princeton University and has conducted extensive research into early Christianity and Gnosticism

The Gnostic Gospels were found in pieces and went from owner to owner during translation of the Coptic so even though Pagels is listed as the author, actually she is a translator and a compiler of translations of the Gnostic Christian texts found over a span of years in Egypt at Nag Hammadi.

It is not an easy read.  However I am learning a lot from Professor Pagels. The first Chapter is titled “the Controversy over Christ’s Resurrection: Historical Event or Symbol?” 

My first note, which I wrote on the first page of the first chapter in The Gnostic Gospel, is, “What about Lazarus?”

I’ll probably be making notes and offering opinions in this blog as I read further.

~~~

A chain started by a friend in re Mitch McConnell’s problem .. 

“Just wondering, .. whatever happened to the type of senior senators who really loved America, like, say, Hubert Humphrey?”

And others added …

“Or ran for president like Adlai Stevenson with the hole in the bottom of his shoe?”

“Or Jimmy Carter, who spent time preaching in his church, or teaching Sunday school, or building Houses for Humanity.”

“Or Harry –  on retiring –  back to his home in Missouri mowing his own grass?” 

“We’ve been robbed.  And now we are too stunned to weep.”

To Mitch et al … seems there was once a teacher who taught something about reaping what you sow …

Who would you add to this list? 

~~~

Now to end this week’s blog with …

“We do not worship the Great Spirit as the white people do.  But we believe that the forms of worship are indifferent to the Great Spirit.”

Red Jacket (Sagoyeawatha) Seneca, 1811 

So ‘til next week …

22 July ’23

Weather … HOT

~~~

I’ve been watching old stories from the original Twilight Zone.

I sort of remember all of them so far (there are 36 in season 1) and I particularly remember a few of them … Where is everybody?, Walking Distance, The Lonely, and Time Enough at Last are just a few in the first few I’ve seen so far.  

I’m waiting for the one where all the residents are embalmed bodies posed as what they wish they could have been when they were alive.  None alive except for the caretaker who was probably in charge of keeping them dusted.

Do any of you remember the Twilight Zone and Rod Serling?  

What were your favorite episodes?

~~

Last week one morning I awoke from my midday nap with a chill and did a Covid test which came out negative.  So I decided it was just Summer punnies.  

Still I wanted to make sure the house was cool so I got up about 8 to open windows for ventilation.  I could feel the cool outdoors so went back to sleep without any covers.

The next time I woke up it was nearly 2 am and I felt very cool so I pulled up a sheet and went back to sleep.

Next time I woke up it was a few minutes before 5 when is the time I usually turn on the front porch light (more about that later) and watched the CBS morning show until a bit after 6, checked the neighbor’s front door light, settled in to watch the morning news until time to get up to make my morning cup of tea with some crackers.  

Then it was time to get dressed and do my outdoor watering chores and it was already 94 degrees.

Now about the front door lights at my house and my neighbors.  I am 93 and they are in their mid-80s, so we keep tabs on each other.  The lights are just a way of making sure we are still okay.

When I had the chill and wanted to sleep in I called them the evening before I went to bed to tell them I was sleeping in and wouldn’t turn on my light but they shouldn’t worry.  

Suzanne called about 10 just to make double sure.  

The woman who lived between my house and the Abbott’s just died about a month ago but it wasn’t a surprise.  She had a heart monitor, diabetes, and did overnight abdominal dialysis for her kidney failure.  

Once her family was gathered, Diane had them turn off the dialysis.  Until the snow last winter she used to make jam or jelly and shared it all around.  They were small jars but the jam or jelly was always good.

I’m in pretty good condition for my age and walk with a cane. Suzanne had a stroke before I moved in here and uses a walker and David walks with a cane so we three don’t expect any surprises any time soon.

~~~

My younger grandson Paul (his birth name) Francis (his Baptismal name chosen for the Saint) is preteen and interested in baseball and swimming. 

Last year he played either right or left field on his TBall team.

He is also on the local swim team and won two medals in the multicounty meet last fall. Not bad for a kid who began being afraid to even jump into the kiddie pool a couple of years ago. 

He participated in a meet in Redding last week.  He got some individual firsts but their relay team didn’t do as well as  last year.  They’ll do better with a bit more practice.

~~~

On Thursday the 20th it was already nearing 80 but my screensaver was a field of snow diamonds and the Mountain was snow covered.  Leftover photos from the days when we lived on the farm. 

~~~

And now back to Pandora’s Box…

Page 32  Notes from Alex Cole’s biography of the first President, George Washington’s farewell speech … (notes begin here – actual word are in quotes) Cole writes Washington (Washington) was concerned we would be dragged into battles with nations when we would do better to be trading with all of them … his greatest concern was the prospect of an authoritarian ruler … “Political factions incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual.” … that leader would use “this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty” … We must guard our inheritance.  If we allow sectional differences to eclipse national interests the republic will be in peril.”

The entire address can be found at https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-CDOC-106sdoc21/pdf/GPO-CDOC-106sdoc21.pdf

And back to the Smithsonian …

Page 36  “The growing impression is of a place curiously ahead of its time.” 

Starts with a face carved in a stone during the Paleolithic era more than 12,000 years ago which was recently found in Israel.

Page 66  “Magic in the Felt” … People staged a dance jumping on the wool to effect the transformation from fiber to felt.

Page 76  “We thought of the legend of Prometheus.  Of that deep sense of guilt in man’s new powers.  That reflects his recognition of evil, and his long knowledge of it”   Quote – J Robert Oppenheimer

Page 92  “Larry West has found a number of connections between the photographers, abolitionists, and the Underground Railroad.”

I always lived too far west for the Underground Railroad, but once when I was visiting Mark and his then family in Rochester NY they took me to see one of the stops on the Underground RR.  The hidey-hole was in the small attic space over the front porch.

Page 98  “In search of Willa Cather”  Her hometown Red Cloud, Nebraska was named for the famous Oglala Lakota chief, a Sioux leader and a fierce fighter.

~~~

For those of you who know I am an avid reader, here is a list of what I’m reading now in addition to the two magazines, Smithsonian and Archaeology …

Jeffery Archer’s “Next in Line”

365 Days of Walking the Red Road … The Native American Path to Leading a Spiritual Life Every Day

The Gnostic Gospels by Eaine Pagels

Finding Arthur by Adam Ardrey

If you choose to read any of them, read closely, there might be a quiz later.

And finally from the Smithsonian …

Now after months of scanning a month’s issue, I’ll be looking more closely at coming issues page by page in anticipation.

A short list from the April+May issue includes articles about the Canadian woman who wrote Anne of Green Gables and much about Westminster Abbey, probably because of the Coronation.  

There is a picture of Reg Greenacre who is in charge of raising the flag of whatever festival, state visit, or other event is occurring in the Abbey.  

The picture of him reminded me of Admiral Boom who lived next door to the Banks family in the Mary Poppins movie and who fired off a salvo at 8 am and again at 6 pm.

There is also a wall carving in the Abbey of a memorialization dedicated to Shakespeare and which  guides often tell tourists he is buried there although he is actually buried with the family in the small local parish church in Stratford-on-Avon.

In the July+August issue there is a large article about a farm in New England which is turning the manure from 600 cows into enough methane gas using an anaerobic digester to create biogas which  produces renewable energy as well as vehicle fuel, organic crop fertilizer, construction materials and other useful byproducts. 

And information about how controlled burns help prevent large forest and range fires a practice known to indigenous peoples for at least centuries.

~~~

If your reader’s brain isn’t on overload, the current issue for July+August has information about HipHop history; 

and big gun bunkers at or above beaches along the southern California coast aimed out to sea like those at Cabrillo Beach.  I used to go to the beach and look out through the aiming slits making up stories about the military men who were assigned to those posts during WWII watching for Japanese submarines.

Another was about the Los Alamos labs where atomic bombs were being developed.  My brother-in-law, a Physicist, worked there.  Los Alamos was much like being in solitary confinement in prison.  He couldn’t come out easily and security was tight on family coming in.

~~~

Switching to Archaeology magazine … 

You can explore a sunken Roman city; a flushing toilet dated from 2400 to 2,200 years ago; a sphinx with dimples and a slight smirk circa AD 41-54; mid 19th century AD indigenous South Africans who stole cattle from colonizers to resist enslavement; a 6th century BC poet; and the defeat of  invaders in ancient Chicksaw heartland in the Blackland Prairie.

~~~  

And in the July.August issue page 120  — Someone asked “Why do chickens have wings if they can’t use them to fly?”

The answer was Chickens can fly, just not very well.  When humans started to breed chickens for meat they wanted heavier birds so wild chickens adapted to being ground birds who can stay aloft for less than 50 feet and some can do little more than jump.  

And now you know the rest of the story … 

~~~

I’ll end with a quote from Rod Serling ..

“Being like everybody is the same as being nobody.”

And another quote …

“…the worst aspect of our time is prejudice… In almost everything I’ve written, there is a thread of this – man’s seemingly palpable need to dislike someone other than himself.”

So ‘til next week …

8 July ’23

Weather is more like summer, cool mornings followed by warmer late mornings followed by heat, and followed by wind not hard but too much sun to get on the kneeler in order to weed.  Somehow I’ll figure out how to do that.

Am able to water the east side of the drive … asparagus, the basil, the rhubarb, and the wisteria start on one of the carport uprights, and sometimes the porch roses and tomatoes before the morning begins to get too hot.

Hummers have come back to the feeder seen out the north window in the living room … one bully and two others. 

None of the small birds are coming to the feeder outside the kitchen window after Blue Jays chased them away before I chased the Jays away.

Wait and they will come …

~~~

My copy of “finding Arthur” by Adam Ardrey has arrived. As I said when I first opened it, the reviews said it is extensively footnoted. 

That certainly is true although I haven’t counted all of them. Ardrey seems to include Signe Pike as one of the authors among those who name Uther as Arthur’s father and affirm him as the Red Pendragon, the leader of the warriors who defended the southeast borderland of the Scots circa the 5th century AD. 

I don’t know how I’ll read Pike’s books, treating them as continuations of the Ardrey book or as stand-alone novels based in part on Ardrey’s book.

The Lost Queen arrived last Wednesday.

I’ll continue to look for an affordable (for me) copy of “finding Merlin” and report on my decision whether to pay the current price or wait until the price comes down.  I’d like to find the Merlin book to fill out the “King Arthur” collection, (although not all by the same Author).
Before I moved I felt I needed to find new homes for all of my books, including my Jeffery Ashe collection, not knowing where I would wind up living.  Of course, now I wish I’d kept at least those books.  

Oh well …

All I can do now is wonder what Jeffery (who was the primary expert on “King Arthur ” when I was at Glastonbury in the early 1990s) would think of Ardrey’s new research and Pike’s fictional  take on Arthur.

It could certainly make for an interesting tea with Jeffrey.

~~~

Atara came to visit last Friday and brought me a menorah from Israel small enough to set in my north window.  She has a friend who got a similar one for his Mother and plans to add small electric lights to use instead of candles.

I’m going to check with Atara about the lights since I’m getting anxious about any lit candles in my house.  

We had a good visit cut short due to the high temps but she’ll be back after the holidays and a family wedding. 

~~~  

Everywhere around us the pines are dying of pine beetle infestations.  It is very sad.  But the forest is changing due to climate change.  

Pine beetles cause the trees to die beginning in the top and the tree dies from the top down. 

We had an infestation several years ago and the place where we lived at the time controlled it by topping the trees and/or dropping the infected tree and quickly burning it.

I’m seeing the same pattern all around here now.

Probably after I’m gone the forest of evergreens … mainly pines, cedars, and firs … will have been replaced by deciduous hardwoods.  

In a few years I’ll bet I won’t recognize the “forest” any more.

~~~

Once when George and I were on a road trip the first leg of which was across the California/Arizona border at Yuma Arizona before there was a border crossing station there and I was sweating so profusely that salt was beginning to coat my skin.  There was a gas station with a restroom across the road so while George got gas, I went into the restroom to wash off the salt and cool down a little.  

Instead I nearly fainted and grabbed the door.  Both the station owner and George started running toward me.

I said “I’m fine.  Just a bit of heat exhaustion.” but the station owner said “NO it’s a heat stroke and I live just across the street.  We have to get her over there.  My wife’ll know what to do.”  

From then on all I remember is being nearly carried into the house and put on a couch and someone wiping my face and wrists with a cold cloth and someone else trying to make me drink tepid salt water and something about “Not exhaustion … Heat Stroke”.

That’s when I learned the difference between feeling sick and being on the verge of something much more dangerous.  Information which later became useful when I was an RN working in the Emergency Department, riding as an ASL responder with the Ambulance, and teaching a First Responder class at the local Community College.

Lessons come in strange places so don’t ignore what seems to be trivial, you never know when it can be life saving.

~~~

 Another memory from the past is the classical pianist named Victor Borge who could always make me laugh. 

He’ll really turn you on to (or off of) Classical music.  You can hear him or see him on You Tube, or you can check on him at 5 hilarious videos from the funniest man in classical music

~~~

And here’s a Sad story … 

Thurgood Marshall was the first “Negro” on the US Supreme Court appointed by Lyndon Johnson in 1967 and who died in1993 after retiring from the Court.

He sought to attend his hometown law school, the University of Maryland School of Law in Baltimore, but was told he would not be accepted because of the school’s segregation policy. 

Later, as a civil rights lawyer, Justice Marshal sued the school in 1935 over this policy and won. 

Once when waiting to catch a train, the Justice had to stand in the section of the station waiting area to enter the “Black Section” of the train  and because there was a sign on the toilet’s door saying “No Blacks allowed”, the Justice was forced to stand there and pee in his pants.

On 3 1964 July President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibited segregation in public places.

Learning more about that Brave and Honorable man is well worth the time spent to learn from him.

Too bad one of the current Justices doesn’t copy Justice Marshall …

~~~

 I don’t think I shared this which I received from Mark, my younger son, but here is a sharing …

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPs1Jw8EKZc&ab_channel=CBSEveningNews

Cal Worthington’s commercials were almost more than just selling cars. They were entertainment worth watching, even if you weren’t in the market for buying a car, just to see what kind of pet he would have with him next time.

Have you ever been kissed by a camel?

~~~

To close the week …

Words of wisdom from Chiricahua, a notorious Apache leader  1812-1874

“ I was going around the world with the clouds when God spoke to my thoughts and told me to .. be at peace with all.”

Taken from the entry on 2 July from “365 Days walking the Red Road”      

By Terri Jean

And so ‘til next week …

28 June ’23 …

28 June ‘23 …

Things are so slow around here, (except opinions and memories) so unless something extremely notable happens the blog will reset to biweekly.  

As a result the blog may be longer and hopefully of more interest.

~~~

Temps with cooler mornings lately with an unexpected  frost then a return toChilly morning but increasingly warmer days.

We did have an interesting rain last week.  

The evening of the 25th started with a rain so heavy it sounded like hail and was accompanied by thunder from the southwest. 

~~~  

I’ve been reading the book titled Finding Arthur by Adam Ardrey which is leading me along an interesting path using very thoroughly researched footnotes.  

There is another book by Ardrey titled Finding Merlin of which I have yet to find a copy I can afford.  

There is also a series of books written by Signe Pike which seems to be based in part on information in the Ardrey books. Her books start with the Lost Queen followed by the Forgotten Kingdom and Pike has promised a third book to finish the story.

Wait and they will come.

~~~

I remember seeing and recognized the widely scattered depiction of a Síle na Gigh pronounced …. Sheela nah Ghee  (for want of a better descriptive designation, a pagan fertility Goddess) called by Archaeological scholars by several names and in articles from several sources citing stone carving in/on prehistoric sites as well as many 6th Century Irish and southern England buildings including castles and cathedrals such as …    

This carving is titled “A 12th-century sheela na gig on the church at Kilpeck, Herefordshire, England.” 

And then I saw the following as part of an article in the June 2023 issue of the Smithsonian magazine about a Puerto Rican artist named Alice Cheveres citing her remarks concerning her work being particular to her family as a way to preserve ancient Taino traditions and educate other indigenous peoples and the modern world about the influence of African inheritance (which she labels AfroCaribbbean) on current art forms and lessen the modern risk of cultural amnesia …

This is her version of the Sheela Na Gig which she calls “Survived by Few” and is based on an ancient Taino deity which she claims is an art form founded in Torrecillas in 1984 by her mother Earin Chereres.  

It is what caught my eye when I remembered the Sheelas seen all over the southern UK.

~~~

 Then I was reminded of other things from my past …

A picture of my parents on their wedding day , 25th of December 1928, which I call “Cracker Jack and Orange Blossoms” because my Daddy was a Gunners Mate aboard the USS Pennsylvania (which was at that time a Battleship and the Flagship of the Pacific Fleet) and the picture on boxes of candy covered popcorn was a sailor in Navy blues called “Cracker Jack”, and the flowers in Mama’s hair and bouquet were small white flowers (of which I never knew the name) and lots of Navel orange blossoms which bloom in late December .. hence “Cracker Jack and Orange Blossoms”

~~~

Another memory was of the truck full of baked goods such as cakes, pies, cookies, jam filled doughnuts, and lots of other good stuff which drove through the neighborhoods stopping to show you all the wonderful treats in the drawers in the back of his truck.

Mama would let me pick out my favorites.  I loved the messy jelly filled doughnuts.

Of my three sons,only the eldest had the chance to enjoy visits from “The Helms Man”, about which he wrote recently:

“If there’s one memory of growing up in Los Angeles County I could share with everyone I know, this would be it. The whistle – even on these suburban trucks, it sounded like steam – that let you know the Helms Man was in your neighborhood. The way the driver remembered who ordered what kind of bread and how often. The jelly-filled doughnuts dusted with confectioner’s sugar. The drawers  and cabinets were hand-built out of oak good enough for a Rockefeller yacht, with their silent bearings and their precision fits and the way the waxed lacquer caught the sun every so often glowed like it was lit from the inside. And all of it right out in front of your house, just about the time you got home from school. Imagine that.”   JSDibelka

~~~

It’s well documented that the areas surrounding Mount Shasta are full of legends and mysteries. From paranormal encounters to treasures lost in history. Dramatic tales seem to have found a welcomed home in Siskiyou County. 

There are stories of mystical creatures like the Lemurians, a presidential extramarital rendezvous, missing gold and horses at 14,000 feet, and that’s just a smidgin of what I call the woowoo tales with the exception of the affair between Hearst and Davies which was real.  

I had nursing friends whose families lived in the McCloud area and remember as children being invited to Wyntoon by Ms Davies for Christmas parties.

 ~~~

And last but also memorable was the time when the Beatles’s album called Yesterday and Today was issued with a rather blaaaah picture of the Fab Four on the cover.

Then I got a letter explaining the original cover had been meant to be satirical but was upsetting the Yanks and so was covered with the bland cover picture. 

Of course … but I’ll let my son tell the rest of the story.  He sent me an email …

I thought you might get a kick out of the attached.  I remember your having noticed your copy of this album had two covers and steaming off the tame version, this is what she found …”          JSDibelka

The world was a very different place fifty years and more ago.” JSDibelka

~~~

So to close the week …

I believe that ancient tribal cultures have important lessons to teach the rest of the world about the interconnectedness of all things and the simple fact that our very existence is dependent upon the natural world we are rapidly destroying.

Adapted from a writing by Wilma Mankiller, Deputy Chief, Cherokee 1991    

‘til next week …

10 June ’23

  

10 June ‘23 …

Weather is Summer.  Sleeping with only a light sheet.

~~~

ARCHAEOLOGY – March/April 2023 … Swords in Stones

STANDING SWORDS

While excavating a Viking cemetery near the Swedish town of Köping, archaeologists discovered a pair of sword hilts protruding curiously from the earth.  After further investigation, they determined that the handles belonged to Viking swords that had been thrust into the earth above two burials and had remained upright for 1,200 years.  “Viking Age graves containing swords are very rare.” says Anton Seiler, an archaeologist working with Sweden’s National Historical Museums.  “Graves where swords were set in a vertical position are even rarer.”

Because it would have taken a great amount of force to hammer the weapons through the soil and large stones that covered the burials, researchers do not believe the blades were in this position by chance.  “It was clearly a conscious action,” Seiler says, though he is not certain why the swords were arranged in this unusual way.  Perhaps, he says, it was a gesture meant to aid the deceased warriors’ journey to Valhalla.  It also may have been a way of commemorating the death.  Family members visiting the graves would have been able to touch the sword handles, thereby maintaining a close connection with the departed. … Jason Urbanus

This artical triggered thoughts about the legends of King Arthur pulling a sword from a stone to identify him as the rightful King.  

Myths and Legends often start as word of mouth repetition of real events lost in time. I believe this is one of those situations. in which truth for its time became legend.

 ~~~

The Black iris is beautiful.  It is velvety black with a touch of Burgundy or Claret at its heart.

The latest iris looked to be possibly white or light yellow iris.  But as it has begun to open the first bud and it may be one of the light blue iris we are adding to our proposed iris garden.  

I’ll get a picture as soon as I can.

~~~

There are now two rhubarb plants in the front yard … one planted there when John planted the asparagus and the other a transplant from the yard where Steve, the Village gardener, grew up and he has to be in at least his 50s, maybe even his 60s, so it is almost a heritage plant.

The first was trimmed by the local doe but she hasn’t been back and the other rhubarb has really settled into its new space (I started to say “into its new digs” but decided that was too goofy for a Yank) so passed up the chance to go for the referral to my first lesson in Brit language which would then lead into the time I asked the young lady behind the bar in the first pub where we stopped and I asked for directions to the “restroom” and she responded “That depends on whether you’re a Brit who wants to rest or if you’re a Yank who wants to go to the toilet.”

And that story leads to later finding the real “bath” room which was a room containing only a 6-foot long bathtub shared by all the sleeping rooms in our section of the second floor.

There was a French movie several years ago in which a character was murdered by being pulled under the water in a tub like the one in the “bath” room I shared. The murder was achieved by using the victim’s feet to pull her head under the water. 

I think the movie was Diabolik. The first film by that name was released in 1998.

~~~

The sourdough focaccio was a dud.  I followed the recipe to the T and wound up with a flat center in which was nothing but all the toppings were burnt as were the edges … burnt crackers.

Jenny suggested the oven needs to be recalibrated since the previous owner never used it.

Maybe … but maybe I just need to get an oven thermometer and set it around the oven in various spots and see what the temperature is in the different spots in the oven and learn to use it accordingly.

 But that looks like a lot of trouble.

We shall see.

~~~

To close the week …

Don’t wait for things to get simpler, easier, better. Life will always be complicated. Learn to be happy right now. Otherwise, you’ll run out of time.

So ‘til next week …

24 May ’23

24 May ‘23 …

Made the Dandelion Pesto yesterday using lime salted almonds and grated pepper parmigiano with the olive oil. 

It turned out quite good.  I had some last evening with those small wheat crackers.  Will try it as salad dressing later today.

~~~

Had a loooooooooog visit with the Mastermans (Paula and Larry) whom I have known from the time I was working in the Emergency Department.

At my age I am Blessed to have wonderful memories about wonderful people.  I could tell you memories which still make me laugh, and memories of the ER tools which defused so many interactions with frightened children and the little boy who was frightened by a clock which chimed the noon hour loudly while he was sitting on the stairs watching the clock and waiting for the spaghetti dinner.  His eyes got bigger than I thought a kids eyes could get when the cock began to chime and over he went to his parents’ protection.  

Another memory is being able to hold the younger son when he was only hours old.  And enough other memories to fill a book.

~~~

Went to the clinic early on Monday for the blood draw.  The young lady who tried the draw was having a not so good start to her day and blew the vein in my right arm and got so uptight she called someone else to give it a try. 

The second was the assistant to my FNP I had just seen last week and he hit it right away.  

He remembered my name from my appointment with Claudia last week and told me at that time he was getting ready to go back to school to get an RN and probably a BSN and I agreed that was a good goal and I would have done that were it an option when I was in training.  

Instead I studied and was one of the first group of  120 California RNs to become a Certified Emergency Nurse.  

Were I just starting my career now I might not stop at a BSN and go for at the very least a Masters degree and maybe even a Doctorate in Nursing.

Wouldn’t it be interesting to have an MD say “Please help me with this procedure Doctor.” and I’d be wearing a name tag indicating I too was a Doctor?

~~~

The “Michael” iris are coming into bloom.

I don’t know what their real name is because the starts were given to me by middle son Michael who received them from a friend many years ago and I brought some starts with me from the farm to my present house. 

I found the place where I got the start for the unusual green rose which was my Daddy’s favorite and which grew and still may be growing at a corner of the backyard outdoor living/dining/room building on the farm which we called the pergoleebaliss (a mash of three names for an outdoor garden building which I can’t remember right now).  It is an heirloom rose available grown only from a cuttings since it has no flowers, only sepals which look like leaves forming a corona ring hence no seeds.  

I’m on the waiting list for one of the plants from this year’s cuttings of that rose.

Also found a source for a black lily which was also one of Daddy’s favorites.

John will be helping me create an iris garden in my small plant area in the front of this house for which we found a couple of purple/black iris and some others which I like.  Am leaving just one clump of daffodils for contrast.

The rhubarb which John put in the yard in a spot I can reach to gather stalks for pie or sauce was pruned to an almost-not-there by a local doe.  But we were shown where several plants were growing along the creek at the end of the cul de sac which came from a garden where the local landscaper for the Village grew up as a kid so there are now two rhubarb plants in my “garden”.

There are at least five asparagus plants along the side of the driveway.  And I am soaking green beans for a planter on the porch.

And there is a thyme plant near the Michael iris.

A very small food garden.

~~~

To close the week …

Be grateful for all the people who were kind to you and you pass it along as a random act of kindness.   Other people then become kind to other people … and it becomes addicting.  

So ‘til next week …

18 May ’23 …

18 May ‘23 … 

Spent some time Mother’s Day morning gathering Dandelion leaves for pesto using the Dandelion leaves, a few Basil leaves, some garlic, some almonds or pine nuts and Olive oil plus grated parmigiano, sea salt, and black pepper.

Put all the ingredients in the processor even if used as a blender or a mixer and have a spread, crust for chicken, or as an all purpose chip or veggie dip.

I’ll let you know how it turns out.

~~~

Recent read … River God by Wilbur Smith

Fiction/Historical setting – 1300 BCE

Worth the time spent reading since the author knows a lot about Africa, both current and past. 

I was particularly interested in learning about the introduction of chariots and horses to early Egyptian culture.

~~~

If you don’t know Rusalka https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZVyq2ooPI4&ab_channel=RareMusicalsVideos

 you’re missing some great music.  Rusalka, Op. 114, is an opera by Antonín Dvořák. The Czech libretto was written by the poet Jaroslav Kvapil based on the fairy tales of Karel Jaromír Erben and Božena Němcová. A rusalka is a water sprite from Slavic mythology, usually inhabiting a lake or river. Rusalka was the ninth opera Dvořák composed. 

Written: 1900

Language: Czech

Listen particularly to Renee Fleming singing “The song to the Moon” from the first act. 

And if Opera ain’t your thing, listen to and watch the following cut of Reinking doing a lead number from Chicago.

You’re welcome …

~~~

Spent the afternoon seeing my FNP.  Final diagnosis … not in bad shape for the shape I’m in at my age.  

I’m to go back Monday as early as possible (non-fasting) for a lab draw.  The clinic opens at 0900 so John will pick me up and have me at the Clinic about 0930.  

The Blood draw shouldn’t take too long and I should probably be the first or soon after and be out and back home before1030. 

I don’t expect any surprises.  

Report to follow.

~~~

To close the week …

What do you find when you open a book?

What are you seeking?

So ‘til next week …

11 May ’23

11 May ‘23 … 

Weather felt like Spring last week until Monday afternoon when the wind came up and clouds began to form. 

Then we had a couple of days of snow skiffs and then rain clouds followed by sun and warmer temperatures.

Now we can expect just about anything.

~~~

Got an email from a Tyler cousin with a note that soon he will be 91. He’s the generation behind me. There are only two of us left in my generation and we are 91 and nearly 93.  

Spoke with Dottie’s daughter Theresa.  She told me Dottie (the one who is 91) isn’t feeling well.  I’ll check with Theresa in a day or so.

~~~

I am part of an on-going general health test sponsored by two MDs in Massasscutes titled the VITAL Study.  It is using people over 50 so I qualify nearly times two.  

Had to answer yes to several questions on the once a year survey.  My yes answers were related to my age.  I used to have no “no” answers. Now I don’t walk as good as before and I lose a word here and there.  

I wonder if they compare the yes answers with my age?

Oh well …

~~~

Speaking about the VITAL Study (“The VITamin D and OmegA-3 TriaL — VITAL)”, which began in 2010, is an “ongoing research study in 25,874 men and women across the U.S. investigating whether taking daily dietary supplements of vitamin D (2000 IU) or omega-3 fatty acids (Omacor® fish oil, 1 gram) reduces the risk for developing cancer, heart disease, and stroke in people who do not have a prior history of these illnesses” (I never took the dietary supplements so I must have been/are in the control group). The MDs who are conducting the study are at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, an affiliate of Harvard Medical School, and are studying people aged 71 and older, so they must be adjusting the responses to the yes/no for age (see the previous paragraph).

“Each year that a participant is in the research study, he or she will receive an emailed questionnaire that takes approximately 15-20 minutes to complete. The form contains questions about health; lifestyle habits such as physical exercise, diet, and smoking; use of medications and dietary supplements; and family history of illness.”

If it’s like the last test of which I was a part using nurses as test subjects. And since I am a nurse I knew I was in the control group that time based on my lack of the symptoms I expected were I in the placebo group.  

~~~

Interesting overlapping facts from the Old Farmers Almanac … 

Dr. Benjamin Spock and Dwayne Johnson were both born on the 2nd of May and both Joseph McCarthy and J. Edgar Hoover died on that same date. 

Interesting coincidences.

~~~

According to the Old Farmers Almanac, this month’s Full Moon is Depending on which Native American tribe’s culture, the Full Moon in May was called the Full Flower Moon as well as Mother’s Moon, Milk Moon, and Corn Planting Moon”.   

Which do you like?

~~~

Yesterday, Tuesday the 8th, I went out with the Monday Lunch group which I haven’t been able to be with for several months. 

Some Ladies in what I think may be called the McCloud Catholic Altar Guild since they are the Ladies who are responsible for the flowers etc. during Mass and all other events, held a fundraising salad luncheon.  I was able to go with the remaining four of the Monday Lunch group but not yet able to handle my cane and a buffet plate at the same time so one of the Monday ladies, Bless them all, looked out for me and filled a plate for me as well as one for herself.

Those church ladies did themselves proud. There had to have been at least two dozen kinds of salads offering at least four or five kinds of pasta salad including rigatoni.

When our plates were empty, Darlene went back for seconds and returned with plates for me and herself and fluffy white cake for dessert.

It was a day out really a gift for me and a real Blessing when they all came back to my digs.

~~~

There are now what appear to be endings for many of us.  Sometimes I have trouble differentiating between endings and beginnings. 

~~~

So to close out the week …

What I’m learning about grief is that it sits in the space between laughs, comes in the dark, steals the warmth from the bed covers, threads sleep with thin tendrils, is a hauntingly familiar song … yet you can’t remember the words.
Grief rolls in like a heavy mist, settles into the crevices, lingers on the skin, visits, then visits again.
It is chaotic laughter from splintered memories. 
It is jagged cries and single tears. 
Grief sneaks up on you.  It can come like a whisper or as loud as thunder. 
It leaves a hollow, to be filled with a new planting when you wake to another day that feels oddly the same as the last.
Eventually, it will say “See, it’s not so bad. I got your back.”
What I’m learning about grief is to acknowledge its presence.  
What I’m learning about grief is that it is still learning about me … learning that I am strong and resilient.
If the trees can keep dancing … So can I.
Author Unknown

So ‘til next blog …
 

27 April ’23 …

Weather has been turning toward a warm May.

~~~

While sorting photos and identifying the people in them with the year the photo was taken I tried to determine if I could remember or guess at an approximate year a photo was taken.

During sorting I came across a photo of my paternal grandfather, Laben Jehiel Elmer Tyler, and his older brother, John Purnell Tyler, both of whom were born during the Civil War so they were about 6 and 9 when the photo was taken.

Notice their feet …

~~~

A sideways change of subject

Here’s an interesting note about an “event” reported in the Old Farmers Almanac …Tony Gemignani spun 17.6 ounces of dough for 2 minutes to form pizza base 33.2 inches wide, in Minneapolis, Minnesota — 2006

I enjoy watching the local pizza spinners, but their pizza skins never get quite that big.

~~~

And another change of subject. This time Copied from CNN friday morning 21 April ‘23

“The shooter who killed five co-workers at a Louisville, Kentucky, bank this month left notes that revealed part of his goal was to show how easy it was in America for someone dealing with a serious mental illness to buy an assault-style weapon. The gunman purchased the AR-15-style rifle seven days before the April 10 shooting after quickly passing a records check. Separately, communities across the US are grieving several recent shootings in which young people were shot after making a common blunder. Among the cases, a 6-year-old girl was shot after an angry neighbor opened fire over a basketball rolling into his yard. Other young victims include two teenage cheerleaders in Texas who mistakenly approached someone else’s vehicle in a grocery store parking lot, a 16-year-old boy who rang the wrong doorbell in Kansas City and a 20-year-old woman who turned into the wrong New York driveway.”

Now tell me again why assault-style guns are a “right” which was granted under the 2nd amendment to any member of a legal government militia, and not to just anyone who happens to belong to a made up army to own one of these killer guns.

More than once I’ve been told “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people” when actually people with any kind of gun, particularly one designed for only killing people, do just that … kill people

 ~~~

I’ve been watching a tv show called Alaska Daily on ABC.  It’s about the high number of native women who disappear with no effort by the law system making little if any effort to find them, living or dead.

The lesson to be learned is a dismal one.

However there is, in addition to the central lesson which makes it well worth watching, a lot of it is shot on location.  

I have a cousin living north of Anchorage away from the cities with no paved or even gravel roads. She travels close to 20 miles by shanks pony or a snow mobile or a two dog sled to pick up her mail ad comnicates by radio.

I always enjoy her paintings and photos. 

  ~~~

And speaking about Alaska … Remember the widespread oil slick created by the sinking of the tanker by the name of the EXXON Valdez? 

1987 she went aground in Prince William Sound spilling 11 million gallons of oil, the largest oil spill ever. 

My middle son was in the Coast Guard aboard the buoy tender the Iris which was deployed to help in the cleanup and he brought home a small jar of the bay water including some of the spilled oil floating on top of the water.

~~~

Because I write this blog using stream of consciousness and because I read the Old Farmers Almanac’s daily post which includes along with who was born on whatever date of is the printed issue, who died and a list of what events of note happened on the that date, one day last week it included the Hindenburg Disaster in 1937.  I remember when it happened because it was all anyone at school was talking about and one of our teachers had a radio at school (we still didn’t have electricity on our farm and so didn’t have a radio).  I clearly remember hearing a reporter on the scene saying “oh the humanity of it”.

I also clearly remember Les Nessman, the news reporter working at WKRP in Cincinnati, repeating those words verbatim when the Owner of the station decided to throw turkeys out of a small plane to celebrate Thanksgiving as a PR stunt and as gifts for the station’s listeners.

The only problem was that the turkeys were frozen hence Les’s declaration as he watched the mayhem below …  “Oh the humanity of it”

   ~~~

To close out the week … Robert Burns, also known familiarly as Rabbie Burns, was a Scottish poet who probably said it best …

“The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men / Gang aft a-gley.”

So ‘til next week …