June 2019 – Musings …

26 June …

Well, the bicycle event last saturday went better than I had expected. I was up and in the park by 0540 and left to come home about 1840. That made for a long day.

I was pooped, but I had good company (someone characterized Stephen and me as John and Yoko because of our glasses).

I brought home a box of leftover, unreturnable goodies such as melons and homemade cookies. Participants at these events snack well.

There had been no real central control except what I did as Net. I have plans for next year (you knew I would).

~~~

I spent most of Sunday napping and reading except for the couple of hours I went to the church to watch the local Chancel Players tell the story of John the Baptist.

“Chancel Players” date back to the Middle Ages. They do presentations in the style of the old First Drama Quartet who performed back in the 50s (about which I have written before). They speak their lines from stationary places. Little or no physical acting. Voices do it all.

They did a good job of putting a slant onto the old story which made you think. Mark spoke the Baptist and, of course, did a great job bringing the Baptist to life

Kamille was in the “Greek” chorus. Paul, my friend Joyce, and I were part of the appreciative audience.

And to top it off, the proceeds went to the local animal shelter.

~~~

The “Free Lunch for Kids” program has begun. Another way for me to be useful. I am to go every Tuesday morning through July and August and help pack the lunches for that day. There is a different set of volunteers each morning and the work runs from 0700 to 1000.

It gets set up like a production line. Yesterday we prepared 240 lunch bags with a green salad (greens, olives, salami, turkey, tomato, grated cheese, and Ranch dressing), a slice of watermelon, a small cluster of grapes, half a whole wheat-raisin bagel, and milk. Quite a balanced lunch. Part of the idea is to teach nutrition … teach kids they can like what is good for them.

The packing takes place indoors in a school cafeteria so weather is not a factor.

And speaking of weather … My bout with heat had been tuesday a week ago. Thursday I was chilled all day and had to add a layer.

It’s been “normal” ever since.

~~~

I’ve been reading a treatise on racism. Its title is “Stamped from the Beginning”. The book deals mainly with the history of American anti-black behavior and is by a professor at the American University, a private research university in Washington D.C.

He divides people into three groups regarding racism … segregationists who blame black people (he spells Black with a capital B), antiracists who blame discrimination, and assimilationists who blame both. He also points out that there are members of all groups in both white and black populations.

While reading it, I came across a thought elsewhere which made me ponder. That thought was …

“Without knowledge there is no commitment. One cannot love what he does not know. A person cannot do or understand what he has never learned.”

Folks are likely to repeat what they are taught.

To quote lyrics from Hammerstein’s “South Pacific” …

You’ve got to be taught to hate and fear.
You’ve got to be taught from year to year.
Its got to be drummed in your dear little ear.
You’ve got to be carefully taught.
You’ve got to be taught to be afraid
Of people whose eyes are oddly made,
And people whose skin is a different shade.
You’ve got to be carefully taught.
You’ve got to be taught before it’s too late,
Before you are six or seven or eight,
To hate all the people your relatives hate.
You’ve got to be carefully taught. You’ve got to be carefully taught!

~~~

On a lighter subject …

Somehow I got onto You Tube a bit ago and found a Liza Minelli cut which caught me. Watch it and then tell me who you think Michael Jackson wished he was.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ns6YbcoRy2U&ab_channel=jaykay

~~~

Last week I asked what was wrong with a scene from a tv show I watched. Two of you responded with the correct observation.

Look again and see if you can see it.

~~~

Solstice has come and gone.

The sun was shining in through the windows on the north side of the house … up and glorious by 0545. I’m out opening the chicken house a bit after 0600 every morning.

The Sun is as far north as it will be this year.

I have crystals hanging in my east window and Friday morning there were rainbows all over the room.

On Solstice I gathered yarrow from the neighbor’s meadow at noon for drying.

Then on the 24^th (St. John’s Day) I gathered St. John’s wort also for drying … as well as some lemon balm.

The catalpa is in full leaf with flower buds showing.

I have two new plants in my room … an aloe and a jade plant.

~~~

I recently read that …

Grief is strange and sometimes make you think you’ve gone completely mad. It ambushes and echoes and it’s impossible to anticipate how and when it will strike. That hollowed out place that grief creates in our souls isn’t for naught. If we are present and quickened to it, we may just be surprised by joy. … Author Unknown

All in all life is good.

So … ‘til next week …

19 June …

Paul lost the first upper incisor.

The Tooth Fairy left a dollar coin.

I remember when a dime was magnificent!

~~~

Big event coming … Castle Crags Bicycle Event … next Saturday.

In the past, George did net control and I worked the Mumbo rest stop high above Gumboot Lake. The ladies from the Mercy Hospital Auxiliary work that stop and always dress to a theme … circus, Star Wars, beach party, Wonder Woman. It was fun, but I am looking forward to being in the park as net control and not on my feet all day.

I don’t really understand the technology of radio. That was George’s thing. But I still enjoy being part of the action so I continue to volunteer.

~~~

The fence roses are putting on a show.

~~~

Here’s an observation resulting from having lived a long time, seen a lot, read a lot, and listened to a lot of music. I’ve probably said it before, but it is worth repeating.

It is said there are a finite number of stories in the world and every fable, tale, novel, sketch, etc. is merely a variation on one of those (I vaguely recall the number being 46 or some such).

It is my observation the same could be said of music. There are a finite number of ways to phrase in any scale and all music, regardless of genre, is merely a variation on those few … and that is not counting the times a lyricist has taken an entire classical composition and merely changed or added words (cases in point … “Song of Norway” and “Killing Me Softly”).

That theory of music was brought back a few evenings ago while I was listening to Symphony Hall on Sirius. The music being played was a quintet by Dvorak. It was also a pop song from the late 40s.

If you know the classics you can find a lot of them in Richard Rodgers’ music for Broadway. The first Rodgers one I noticed was the Southern Cross theme from “Victory at Sea”.

“Norwegian Wood” is a steal from the Greek Dorian scale.

Look at pictures … sketches … paintings. Variation is the theme.

And don’t get me started on dopplegangers.

Read. Look. Listen. Everything repeats. See if you can prove otherwise.

~~~

More from Vidal’s “Lincoln” …

When the Lincolns moved into the White House it was in really bad shape. Cheese stains on the walls … mismatched drapes … holes in the carpets … tobacco stains everywhere in spite of a plethora (I love that word) of spittoons … drafty windows … private and public rooms all mixed together … a real mess.

Mary Todd Lincoln was from an upscale family and so took on the job of renovating the “People’s House” to make it worthy of its role representing the country. Of course it cost.

A century later, when the Kennedy family moved in, nothing had been updated since the Truman years. Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy was from an upscale family and took on the job of once again renovating the “People’s House”. Of course it cost.

From there on the story is vastly different.

Mary Todd Lincoln was castigated as greedy, snobbish, and wasteful.

Jackie Kennedy was celebrated as classy, thoughtful, and thrifty.

~~~

Yesterday was the first of this season’s fresh produce sharing. It was a HOT day !!! I had to come home early. When my vision started blotching and my skin had a salt film … I remembered the time George and I were crossing the Arizona desert and I wound up on the couch in the home of the man running the service station eating salt pills and drinking warm water and so I headed for home where I took to my bed for a few hours while my body regrouped.

Oh well …

Packing lunches will be early morning indoors and the next outdoor Tailgate party will see cooler weather … hope.

~~~

I think I previously mentioned that I have been bingeing on a British crime show called “Waking the Dead” dealing with cold cases. Overall, it is a good show. I enjoy mysteries and trying to learn to outwit protagonists.

BUT …

Every once in a while there is a glare. Such as …What is wrong with this scene?

Fortunately, since I am watching on the computer, I can stop, when a disjoint hits, and figure out what stopped me. That makes it a bit easier than watching the telly and losing track of what’s going on.

I know … picky picky.

~~~

Based on the snafus of the last week or so, this is in my thoughts …

“Seven times the righteous person stumbles and yet rises again”

Proverbs 24:16

“It is important for a righteous person to fall down seven times, because after each fall, the righteous person discovers some sparks of insight on the way up.”

Rabbi Dov Ber of Mezritch

… and …

“I learned much from my teachers, more from my books, and most from my mistakes.”

Rabbi Yitchak

So … ‘til next week …

14 June …

Explanation for lateness …

The replacement of the forty+-year-old windows in the house was to have begun tuesday. When George put them in, they were top-of-the-line noted as “double paned”. The inner panes were removable. Now those are called “storm” windows and double paned windows are those with two panes sealed together. Interesting …

Replacing the windows requires rearranging every room in the house to provide access to wall space. Can you imagine pushing EVERYTHING into the center of a room and finding a place for all the tschotkes (and I most likely spelled that incorrectly)?

Well … the crew was to have arrived by 0900 wednesday morning. When they weren‘t here by 0920, I called to find out what the plans were and was told there had been a snafu in ordering the windows. Great Northern had filed the order but the hardware store had failed to place the order. Great Northern had been alerted that the windows had arrived, but when they went to get them tuesday afternoon … no windows.

So … no window replacement.

I spent wednesday afternoon and all day yesterday putting everything back in place and re-sorting since it will be two or three weeks before the windows arrive. In the process, a couple of necessities got misplaced.

Surprise …

In a few weeks I get to do it all over again.

Moving stuff and sorting was the second go-round after George’s death and more stuff got throw or given away. I’m sure it will happen again and possibly again before I am down to the bare necessities.

But as Mark says … That’s the way things are.

And as George used to say … Things are as they are.

All in all, wednesday was a very bad, awful, even terrible day.

Thursday was a bit better.

I have high hopes for today.

~~~

Last week featured attendance at Paul’s first grade “recital”. They did “Goldilocks” … and they did it as an opera. The entire show was sung (and danced). Later, I asked Paul if he knew they were performing opera and he didn’t. I wonder if the teacher knew?

At a couple of spots other folktales tried to take center stage (Red Riding Hood, the Three Little Pigs, and Cinderella), but they were emphatically sung off the stage.

The repeat chorus was “Grab your socks. Grab your socks. Here comes … here comes Goldilocks.”

It was fun.

~~~

Weather has been quite “summer” … hot and dry. There are fire preparation issues around this area having to do with planning for if-and-when. We are not yet completely ready, but we’re getting there.

Flowers are spreading their shows. No white, yellow, or black iris yet.

Red peonies have started.

And glorious poppies.

~~~

Reading headlines last week left me wondering (I do a lot of that) about Gaia’s take on population control. It started with someone on facebook posting about reproduction control. I read it as referring to choice … just replace yourself … but someone else saw it as eugenics and got quite angry.

Then there are reports, too many reports, mainly (or so it seems to me) of disappearing and dying women and children. Human trafficking, spousal abuse, starvation, war, school shootings …

And one book I picked up recently started off with the mourning mother of a child who had been beaten to death by its father.

This is not the world I expected when I was young.

~~~

Our area (northwest US) has been having small earthquakes. There was one day last week when over 350 quakes were recorded along a corridor from Seattle to Medford in just over a 24-hour period. Thinking connects them to the Cascadia fault line and opinions differ over whether they are relieving the stress or building up to the big one.

According to geological records, the BIG one is overdue. Any resultant tsunami won’t reach us, but a strong shaker could trigger something in a Cascade volcano … www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-volcano-california-20181025-story.html

Stay tuned …

~~~

Last tuesday was the monthly meeting of the landowners’ association. The Deputy Watermaster was supposed to be there to explain to us about water on the Ranch. She was a no show. That situation is becoming quite interesting. Water wars were common in the Old West. Maybe we’re going to go ’round again.

As I have said, fire readiness issues are a main concern. There had been a plan for an emergency evacuation road through a piece of private property on the north side of the Ranch. The owner was willing and several of those who would profit from it had donated money. The Landowners’ Association had pledged money in support. But when it was presented to the Firefighters’ Association requesting financial support, it hit a snag. There was a brouhaha in that association over the composition of the Board, and who could vote, which resulted in non-approval of donating to the proposed road. As a result, a resident of the Ranch who served on both that board and the HLA board, and was instrumental in implementing the involved road issue, resigned from the landowners’ association board. I don’t understand that resasoning and I still don’t know if he resigned from the firefighters’ association board as well. Oh well …

Fire preparation is the BIG issue around here right now. It is on everyone’s minds, especially when wind and thunderstorms come up. But there are new owners in the area who are city people and don’t really understand the care-for-yourselves aspect of living in a WUI (Wildland Urban Interface) area and are not immediately cooperative.

Again … oh well …

~~~

I’ve told you before that I am the first one up in the morning … to pour juice, start the coffee, and set out yoghurt and/or fruit. Kamille is second … to pour and fix coffee for herself and Mark. The interesting one is Mark. He is usually third and usually turns on the radio. His choice of Sirius channels is always interesting … country, 50s swing, 60s rock, disco, etc. I think my favorite for early morning is disco. Why? Because its beat is twice the normal heart rate (120 per minute) and it gets me moving.

School ended last Friday. No more mandatory 0500 mornings until next fall. Of course, I am still awake shortly after 0500.

~~~

The chicken flock is integrating. This year’s “chicks” are nearly as large as the hens and some of them have begun checking out the egg nests.

There is one red hen not yet adjusted to the “interlopers”. She is becoming a bully. Even where there is plenty of room on the roost, she will move around chasing off the new ones. We will see what happens when the new whites reach their full size. If the bullying continues, we may have to put the red hen in a separate pen for a few days. I read about that in one of the chicken magazines I’ve taken to reading.

~~~

I had lunch a week ago wednesday with my “grief” buddies. It was a good time. We had each had a “change” moment since our last lunch. I’ve already told you about mine (being able to say “George is dead” without crying). One of the others had been able to clear out her husband’s art workshop and give away stretched and/or previously used canvases for reuse. The other had been able to hold a yard sale and repurpose her husband’s tool collection.

Those may seem insignificant, but they are important.

~~~

The coasters for the Litha kitchen set are done, but I’m having trouble accessing the sewing machine to do the napkins. They may have to wait a while … until rearranging life has made a bit more progress.

~~~

Am still reading “Lincoln” (700 pages in regular print is a big book). Long, interesting read.

In addition to the nicknames for Lincoln which we’ve all known since childhood, such as “rail splitter” and “Emancipator”, and the ones I recently discovered such as “Ancient” (about which I’ve already told you), my reading has added “the original gorilla” (by a Cabinet member named Cameron) and “the undecided” by General McClellan who himself was known as “the Little Napoleon” and “the Great American Tortoise” (both because he did little other than strike a pose).

Lincoln’s wife called him “Father” even when speaking to the President as opposed to speaking to her husband. She was called “the Republican Queen”, “Hell”, “the Cat”, or “the Hellcat”, none of which was truly complimentary (and when added to the loss of three sons, a severe blow to the head in a carriage accident, migraines, and then the assassination of her husband makes her emotional instability a bit more understandable).

Nicknames move folks out of legend into humanity.

~~~

Ever heard of the “Bohemian Grove”? Look it up. Then see if you can locate the letter Lynda Hopkins, a Sonoma County Supervisor, wrote to them.

~~~

And to close, an interesting thought from one of my favorite authors …

The first thing you learn in life is you’re a fool. The last thing you learn in life is you’re the same fool.
― Ray Bradbury, “Dandelion Wine”

So … ‘til next week …

5 June …

Well … last week started out (after the blog) with preparation for the presentation to the Watermaster District Board. For some deep psychological reason, I never get stage fright when I’m playing a part in a play, but to speak before a group, as myself, about something I am involved in … sweat, dry mouth, shakes …

I got through the presentation without vomiting or fainting, but now I find there is a lot to learn about the Watermaster situation in California. I have much research in front of me such as in an Assembly bill creating individual Watermaster districts two members of the Board are designated as “not voters”. Turns out that doesn’t mean they are not allowed to vote on issues before the Board but that they are not holders of water rights.

And, contrary to common belief, the Watermaster isn’t actually the
Watermaster. The real Watermaster is the Board and the one who is in the field throwing around her position is the Deputy Watermaster.

And I’m on only the third page !!!

So the current plan is to give the Watermaster (i.e. the Board) three or four weeks to respond, then write to them again, and plan to be at their next meeting.

Maybe next time I can “act” Atticus Finch and skip all the sweat and shakes and dry mouth.

~~~

Weather has been … you name it. Afternoons have become warm and muggy. I didn’t see a lupine bloom this Spring. In the past, roadsides have been massed blue, but not this year.

The wild roses and the California poppies are coming into bloom however, as are the Iris …

and the locust trees put on quite a show.

There is pine “semen” all over everything, including my bathroom window, and folks’ allergies are in full attack.

Fire season was declared last Saturday. We have been having thunder and lightening but without appreciable rain and no fires so far.

There is beauty as well. I can see the birch trees out my window and when there is a breeze they “quake” with colour and light.

And the BIG change … the sun is rising NORTH of the Mountain.This was the view from the downtown cam this dawn.

~~~

One morning last week, about 0300, the dog woke everyone with frantic barking. Mark went out to check and heard activity near the chicken house, but didn’t see anything. There has been a rather large bear in the area, so it might have been a reconnaissance run.

Whatever it was, we still have all the chickens and it hasn’t been back.

~~~

On a trip north last week I saw a round-up. There must have been two hundred or so head of cattle with three cowboys … two on horseback and one in an ATV.

I also noted that the first alfalfa cutting has been done. I enjoy driving through the valley when they are mowing. The smell of fresh cut alfalfa is therapeutic.

~~~

My “household” project is a new kitchen set … tablecloth, napkins, place mats, pot holders, and coasters. The theme is sunflowers in honor of the Summer Solstice. The tablecloth is done, the napkins are ready to be hemmed, and I have started on the pot holders and coasters (crocheted). The only problem is the quilted backing for the place mats. Couldn’t get the material I need locally so guess I’ll have to make a trip to JoAnn’s in Medford.

~~~

I am currently reading Gore Vidal’s “Lincoln”. It is a massive book … a fictionalized history. Vidal was an author who is easy to read, did a lot of research, and was a deep thinker so I trust his insights and enjoy reading him … although nearly 700 pages is a challenge.

This “biography” starts the day before the first inauguration and depends a lot on contemporary notes, letters, records, etc. It paints a slightly different picture of Lincoln than we were taught in school. He probably was a lot more complicated than commonly believed. But still very important. The nicknames his staff and contemporaries had for Lincoln say a lot about those around him … the Ancient, the Tycoon, the Tyrant.

A note on the cover said that Vidal makes the point that had there not been a Lincoln, there would not be a United States.

Am also into “The Fifth Season” by N. K. Jemison. It’s a bit of a slog so far. Too many new words. I have to keep referring to the Glossary. There is someone on the library’s waiting list, so I may just return it and give it another try later when no one’s waiting.

~~~

Paul and I have begun planning for next spring. We will be creating a bluebell carpet under the trees at a spot along the upper driveway. We are ordering 100 bulbs and will plant them next fall.

~~~

George’s birthday anniversary came and went. He would have been 91.

I recently read a post by Keanu Reeves about grief. The gist was …

“Grief changes shape, but it never ends. People have a misconception that you can deal with it and say, ‘It’s gone, and I’m better.’ They’re wrong. When the people you love are gone, you’re alone.”

And that reminded me of a song from the past … “Alone again, naturally.”

I am scheduled to have lunch with friends from my grief group today after attending Paul’s 1^st grade class production of Goldilocks.

~~~

I am working on rebuilding my data base about the neighbors here on this part of Hammond Ranch. I used to keep up-to-date records, then things changed and I left the HLA Board. In order to rebuild, I needed to go to the Assessors Office at the Courthouse. While getting the records I need, I heard myself say “George was my husband and he’s been dead for a year and a half,” … and I wasn’t crying.

It’s true … grief changes.

~~~

This from a book I was reading. Good phrase … incisive …

{She} didn’t know what response was wanted, needed, expected. Increasingly, their interactions felt like an aptitude test for which she’d not sufficiently prepared. – Rivers Solomon

I was not able to finish the book. Nevertheless, it is a good descriptive phrase.

So … ‘til next week …