Month: September 2022

The weather has come to feel like Autumn, but not yet looking quite like Autumn.  

We’ve already had a frost but there is just a bare touch of colour on the Aspens, a few faded blossoms on the butterfly bush which will need pruning soon, five small green beans waiting to grow a bit more before becoming part of a salad, several small to middlin’ tomatoes remaining to finish ripening, four late buds on the Double Delight rose, and no seed pods on the Peace rose which I had hoped would be a source of vitamin C this winter. 

Still a lot of weeds to pull as well as a couple of the small sunflowers and an unknown with lots of stickers to to pull and cut-up for the trash. 

There is a middlin’ amount of snow on the Mountain but only rain down here.

~~~

The fox has stopped its noisy predawn rounds but it was scolding over in back of the neighbor’s as I put out the trash last wednesday before it began to be light.

~~~

The bad news this week was the hospitalization of another genealogical cousin, who lives in Tampa, who was hospitalized with a combination of Covid and pneumonia.  

I spoke with his wife and their younger son on monday.  They are awaiting evacuation orders waiting for the hurricane scheduled to hit their area later today or early tomorrow.  I’m sure the hospital must have plans in place  for evacuation if needed. 

The storm surge is predicted to be less than 20’ and I recall Don telling me their house is high enough (35’ above sea level). 

I will call to check on them saturday when the pressure of calls is past.

~~~

My cousin Roxie stopped to see me on her way to Washington from San Luis Obispo last friday.  She was making stops to see family and friends on her way.

She and I have a genealogical link (her great-grandmother and my grandmother were sisters).  That means we share a great-great-greatgrandfather for her and 

a great-grandfather for me.

Confusing.

We are friends as well as relatives and spent a lovely afternoon and evening together with dinner at the Meat Market in the old McCloud Railroad Mercantile building (anyone remember Tennessee Ernie Ford’s song about how you owe your soul to the company store?).

Then we came back here and spent another couple of hours talking about our lives and some genealogy before we called it a day around 8 o’clock.  She had to make a drive to Portland the next day and it was already a bit after my farm routine bedtime so she returned to the local B&B and I went to bed.

I had a great visit.  I think she did too.

Cousins are cousins no matter how many generations or miles apart.

Here are some pictures from that day …

 The Mountain has a good covering of snow.

Roxie’s view ..

… John wasn’t able to be here but he shared a dawn picture of the Mountain. 

I admire and enjoy the Mountain from any view, any time.

~~~

I joined a friend last sunday to see “The Woman King”

It is a fairly good movie based on some history of the slave trade when area kings sold (or traded) their people (men as workers and women as breeders) to the European and American slavers.

The movie was about an all-female military regiment formed as a result of Dahomey’s male population facing high casualties in the increasingly frequent violent warfare with neighboring West African statesmainly with the Oyo Empire, which used slaves for commodity exchange in West Africa which existed from the 1600s until 1904.  This led to Dahomey being one of the leading tribes in the slave trade. The women warriors were called the Dahomey Amazons.  They called themselves”Agojie” (Ah go’ gee).

It was a pretty good movie marred only by specious asides about the relationship of one of the recruits to the leader of the Agojie and a never-to-be romantic connection (think Romeo and Juliet) of that younger warrior and one of the traders who was half Dahomey and half European.

I guess the producers thought they needed some intrigue and romance to offset the history of some bad a– women who changed some history.

All-in-all, I’m glad I went.

~~~

Now to end the week …

“You feel it when someone comes to your home for the first time and looks at all your stuff and you find yourself telling them backstories, or when you tell someone a story about your childhood and they look at you like they understand you a little more and give you the warmest smile …

You watch sunsets as often as you are able because you love the way they remind you that there’s a new day ahead …

And sometimes you pause just to notice your breath and the slow rise and fall of your chest and it makes you glad that you are here.

When you look back, you know that there is no need to stay in the past anymore and instead of waiting for the world to save you, you finally learn to save yourself.

You are going to be okay.”

—  Rae Pathak

So, ‘til next week …

The weather is feeling like an actual change of seasons … chilly mornings in the low 40s, followed by midday middle temperatures, evening highs in the low 60s, and rain of varying intensity requiring a flannel sheet with a light blanket and a crocheted throw overnight.

Morning walkabouts are starting about 0830 rather than 0715.

I’m enjoying it.

~~~

 I am in the process of changing my primary care provider from a PA in Weed to a FNP in McCloud.  It has been quite an adventure.

It started when the car decided to do the “I won’t start right now”.  It has done that a few times in the past (three or four that I recall) and when I found someone to help, which for some reason was usually a man, the car started right up.  The last time it happened I called Mark who was already in Weed and, as in the past, he got in and the car started.

A car with a mysynogist streak?

But Mark showed me the “secret” which was to make sure my foot was firmly on the brake and the “shift” was in park.  At any rate, since then I did as he taught and hadn’t had any further trouble until last wednesday.

Then  it happened again.  I tried all the tricks and, after several attempts, the car still refused to cooperate.  Mark wasn’t available so I called John.   

I had made an appointment to start the care provider transfer and so John took me to the clinic.  Then due to the tremor, which makes my handwriting erratic (even my printing), John helped me fill out the forms.

We  brought the forms home to be filled out and John would deliver them back to the clinic on his way home.  While he was finishing that, I went out to try the car and it started without a hitch.

I tried twice to make sure, and no problem.

Go figure.

The forms got delivered, an appointment for an introduction and initial exam was made, and the car hasn’t been a problem since.

~~~

I have long been involved with EMTs and then Paramedics in ambulances and as first responders in the field.  I had always thought that was the brainstorm of an MD at LAGeneral Hospital.

Then last tuesday I heard an article on NPR’s Morning Edition over JPR, our local NPR outlet, about a Black group in Pennsylvania who had created a group called Freedom House, to act as first responders, who were accepted as part of first response teams quite a time before the LA program.  (for more information see  How working-class Black men in Pittsburgh pioneered emergency medicine … 20 September 2022 NPR Morning Edition … “Freedom House was Pittsburgh’s first professional ambulance service, and likely the first anywhere. The first paramedics were a group of Black men from the city’s historic Hill District.”)

The EMTs, played in the popular tv show “Emergency” was about EMTs as part of an LA Fire Company crew, (Randy Mantooth, Kevin Tighe, Julie London, and Bobby Troup) were all white actors.  No mention of their black role models.

Now, thanks to NPR, I know the rest of the story.

~~~

On my mondays for the elder lunch, I often use Old Stage Road since I don’t like driving the freeway.  Never have.

On those drives I noticed the pine trees seem to be becoming more obviously infested with pine beetles.  Trees with pine beetles die from the top down.  When they are either already dead or dying they are obvious brown among all the non infested green trees.

~~~

Even the BBC can be caught in the disinformation quagmire …

The BBC headline reads “Occupied areas in Ukraine call vote to join Russia” while the article points out that it is actually Russian backed officials calling for the vote, not the people.

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba dismisses the votes as a sham and says they will not change anything.  

Beware of distorted headlines.    

(That reminded me that those who write headlines don’t always know proper grammar like the time a headline read something about responding officers killing the dead men.)

Read carefully, even from usually trustworthy sources.

~~~

One last (?) observation in re the Hill fire … While driving through the burnt area in the Heights on my way to the elder lunches … 

That fire is no longer news but the damage lingers.  Oregon fires have surpassed California fires in acreage, but the damage to Lincoln Heights was severe, including two deaths, and the fire damage in Shastina was limited to a few houses and was lighter and more spotty.  

Now over 50% of the residential area in the Heights no longer exists.  The Heights is a predominantly Black area, previously called “The Quarters” which was and remains a predominantly segregated area as a result of the timber milling in this area where blacks were hired (imported) to handle the more dangerous jobs.  

One of those jobs was on a  piece of loading equipment securing large logs to transporting trucks requiring the use of heavy iron chains subject to breaking and snapping which resulted in the free chain ends whipping around and often !!! hitting those handling the loading.  It was called the “Nigger killer”.

As a result of the Mill fire, HWY 97 just outside of Weed, looks like some of the bombing pictures from Ukraine but without bomb craters.  Instead it is flat destruction.

The highway just north of Weed is yellow taped off with no slowing or parking admonitions.

Some of the traffic slowed anyhow … rubbernecking, filming, or taking photos.  

I didn’t even slow.  I will be driving through there once a week for several weeks since the Community Center where we usually have lunch is unreachable.  Access to the 

Community Center goes through the burned area so we are meeting in a church to the north.   

The fire went around the church area because it had been cleared of trees, brush, and duff as CalFire has been advising be done by all property owners in fire prone areas.

 I can rubberneck on one of my trips to lunch.

~~~

Now to end the week …

I was the recipient of a small Random Act of Kindness a few days ago.  

I was checking out at the grocery store and I was short 17 cents.  I was getting ready to use my debit card for the purchase knowing there was sufficient money in my checking account to cover the groceries (I had paid in cash) when the lady behind me in the checkout line said “Don’t do that.  I’ve got seventeen cents.” and she paid for me.  I thanked her and assured her I would pay the act of kindness forward.  We shared a smile then the cashier and the lady behind my benefactor joined us with their smiles.

I was reminded that …

… even the smallest bit of kindness can cause a big ripple in the world.

So, ‘til next week …

The Queen is dead … Long live the King.

Although the US is not a member of the Commonwealth, and I never met Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor Mountbatten,  I mourn her loss to this world.

~~~

News reports told of the new UK Prime Minister going to Balmoral to meet the Queen for the ceremony during which the reigning Monarch asks the new Prime Minister to create a government.  That was less than two days before the Queen’s death and an echo of her promise to serve however short or long her life might be.  

EIIR was increasingly dependent on her cane, after all she was in her later 90s and had a right to require folks to come to her rather than expect her to go to London just so that first meeting could happen in Buckingham Palace as in the past. It was nice to see the Queen continuing to discharge her duty as she promised so many years ago displaying her usual smile of greeting.

~~~

I stumbled on a rodeo on the net and during the bull riding I began to think about pronunciations.

Having grown up in a farming/cattle area, I learned to say road’ ee o.  Then when my address became citified I heard some folks saying row day’ oh.

So which is correct?  I  suppose it depends on whether you choose to be a little bit country and go to a road’ ee oh or go to spend your money on Row day’oh Drive.

Oh well …

~~~

One time this last week I was treated to four hummers at the feeder together.  It lasted long enough for me to enjoy before the bully showed up.

Of course, I’m hoping to see that repeat more often.  The other change is that visits to the feeder diminish as temps rise.

~~~

Just can’t seem to avoid seeing doppelgängers.  Last week it was Prince Harry as a firefighter on one of the Oregon fires.  

~~~

 Francis was here overnight at the start of the Mill fire.  His parents were busy with helping those evacuated from the fire area. 

Francis and I had a quiet time.  I need to set in a supply of games, both card and board to help fill the boring gap between generations. (those google eyed yellow creatures aren’t my choice of TV).

The most excitement during his stay was a fox, who had taken to making predawn rounds between 0130 and 0330.  

Foxes make a strange sound, much like someone clearing their throat, loud enough to wake you up.

I’ve seen the fox but never been able to get a photo.

 ~~~

My reading has been a Jesse Stone mystery (are you surprised again?) and was interested and a bit dismayed to see that someone who had read the book before me had obviously been eating something chocolate and left a hefty blot which they tried to wipe off.  It was a few pages later with another swipe and again … oh well … followed by several gradually smaller and fainter marks and efforts to wipe.  Of course I wondered who it was since there was no way to check the 17 readers before me.

It was a good reminder to be careful of what, if anything, I eat while reading.

And another thing … lately in some standalone novels as well as Brit or Aussie or Kewi tv the story just ends with the solution of the mystery/murder.  There is no follow up concerning what happens after to the murder participants, although the storyline for the main characters goes on.

It was a bit jarring the first time, but now I kind of like it.

~~~

 Big news, other than the death of the Queen, tuesday morning was an unruly turkey which refused to honor orders to get out of the road.

Other big news was a herd of deer honoring the crosswalk as they were making their way to the other side of the road.

Nature making us laugh or at least smile..

~~~

 The monday elder lunches have resumed.  The Community Center is closed because of evacuations and home losses. So we were sheltered for lunch at the Berean Church between the burn area and the road into Shastina.  The road to get there goes through the burned out areas on both sides of the road which are blocked off with the ubiquitous yellow tape.

Some vehicles were slowing, evidently to see and maybe take pictures but not stopping.  I didn’t even slow.  I’ll be seeing that area enough in days to come.

~~~

Now to end the week …

Ever noticed that the rear view mirror is smaller than the windshield?

Well here’s the philosophical answer if not the proper driving advice.

Don’t waste time looking back.  You’re not going that way.

…  Ragnar Lothbrok

So, ‘til next week …

Yesterday was the Anniversary of Helene and Barry’s Wedding.  I can remember so many things about that Blessed day.  

The Celebration of Life for Barry is to be held this coming sunday.  John, who remembers his Uncle Barry as the one who taught him most if not all of what he knows about photography, will be here with me to join those who can’t be there in person. We will be participating via zoom.  

Helene is sitting shiva today. 

~~~

Weather is still in the pattern of cooler mornings and HOT by early afternoon.  It was 101º yesterday with a repeat predicted for today.  

I’m not sure it has ever been this warm (?) here in McCloud.  My walking partner had to go to Medford, so I walked alone this morning. 

 The season is changing.  Equinox is almost here.  0710 sunrise in Village and sunset 1905.  That’s nearly equal days and nights.  We’ll see what that does for temperatures.

~~

I know a lot of you could care less about our fires, but they are taking up a lot of news time here. I’m secure where I am so this will be the last of the fire reports.

The Rum Creek Fire near Grants Pass is burning on both sides of the Rogue River.  It may be the biggest ever in Oregon.  Interesting report that several companies, whose stock in trade is raft trips down the Rogue, were busy ferrying firefighters downriver into areas where choppers could not be used.  Winds made smoke jumping dangerous and foot approach was impossible.  The firefighters were heard to say the rafts were so much more fun than packed trucks.

Mill fire  —  as of this morning 100+ homes were lost in Lincoln Heights and the Garrick Addition where the fire jumped Hwy 97.   Two people were reported dead, two older ladies, one 60s and the other in her 70s.  In addition 2 were injured, one of whom was seriously burned. Total acreage burned has been 42K+ acres and is 40% contained.  

As of tuesday evening, it is unknown how many houses were lost in the Lake Shastina subdivision where one one of my monday lunch buddies lives.  

The Mountain Fire west of Gazelle is larger than the Mill fire but no buildings have been lost.  It is in a mountainous area with few houses.   

A new fire near Edgewood on the east side of I-5 near the airport is not dangerous to any houses although it has been evacuated.

The big concern to me is the new Fairview Fire in and around Hemet where I grew up from 1937 to a couple of years after my high school graduation in 1947. There are no longer too many friends left there.  Most of my classmates have already died and I know I would not recognize the area now.   

Lots of memories there.

~~~

 Francis was here overnight at the start of the Mill fire.  His parents were helping as volub=nteers with the evacuatees. Francis and I had a quiet time.  I need to set in a supply of games, both card and other.

The most excitement was a fox, who has taken to making predawn rounds between 0130 and 0330.  

Foxes make a strange sound, much like someone clearing their throat, loud enough to wake you.

I’ve seen it but never been able to get a photo.

~~~

Okay Okay … enough about doppelgänger sightings … except sister Susee is running a winery in Medford which sells Jolee sparkling Rose.  Seems right since Susee was a wine aficionado.

And a young comedian, whose name I can’t recall, is a copy of Flip Wilson in both looks and presentation.  For those who don’t remember Flip … too bad.  You missed a lot of laughs in the early days of black and white TV.  I wonder if Flip is on YouTube?

Oh well …

~~~

On the 5th of September 1860, a set of twins on Daddy’s side of my family, were born in Columbia, Tuolumne, California making me a member of a First California family.  The boy was named Lincoln and the girl (my 3rd great grandmother) was named Eureka in honor of being born in the new Golden state.  The family had come from New Jersey via Iowa to California.

I was always fascinated by her unique name. 

Another name that fascinated me was my maternal grandmother’s first name … Araminta.  I had never been able to find any other Araminta in the family. 

Then in an article about the underground railroad during the time of the Civil War which contained information about Harriett Tubman I found that Harriet’s first name was listed as Araminta.  

I don’t know if Nana’s first name was a copy from Harriet’s slavery name or was chosen to honor Harriet since my family at that time was in Bourbon County, Kansas just across the river from Missouri.

During the division of state royalties, during the Kansas-Missouri war, Kansas came in as Union while Missouri was Confederate.

Interesting things that come to light and understanding in genealogy.

~~~

Just learned of the Navajo custom of communal celebration when a baby first laughs.  

Sounded like a great thing to celebrate.

~~~

Now to end the week with this thought for contemplation …

Relationships matter more than being right.

So, ‘til next week …