This will be a short blog. I missed the 29th. Will aim for April 5th.
Further explanation later.
~~~
Weather reporters keep predicting that we’ll be hit with major rain or snow and so far they have been wrong. The storms have been going north or south of us. We still have leftover snow from the previous time when they were right and still have dirty snow berms.
As of 1057 the 28th the entire entire I-5 corridor between Ashland and Redding is closed and has been since midnight last night as a precaution.
Right now 29th (0898) there is more than 2 feet of snow atop the globes over the street lights in the village. Tuesday was snow of all kinds and all day with only a very short look at the sun.
~~~
The birds of Spring, so far, are Juncos, Robin Red Breasts, Blue Jays, Ravens. Have yet to hear the geese or ducks.
~~~
Tuesday was snow of all kinds and all day with only a very short look at the sun.
~~~
I was counting the mass shootings this week. Too many of them were in schools. But any yayhoo can get a gun and carry, sometimes openly and sometimes not until pulled out to use.
So far the tally is total mass shootings – 1 and schools (included in total count) – 1
~~~
To close out the week …
We know we must learn from and take responsibility for the painful lessons in order to move into a better future.
Friday morning snow overnight with fox tracks across front snow pile-up.
Sunday time change. Snain. I was up at 5 PDT Still dark at 0700.
Tuesday all day… Raining. Fortunately I don’t live near a creek or river or I’d be on possible evacuation order due to the melt of the snow pack added to the rain in any area burned over in one of the fires last summer.
~~~
Last thursday Putin launched nighttime multiple attacks on no real military sites but multiple civilian sites during hours when he knew people would be asleep. He has repeatedly aimed at hospitals, schools, various care facilities such as elder care, new born, other maternity, critical care, and comparable facilities.
If that kind of pinpointing doesn’t qualify as war crimes what does?
~~~
Just read an article about the 6.4 earthquake which killed 120 people and caused $50 million in damages centered in Long Beach, California in 1933.
I was 3-years-old and I remember Mama grabbing me and pulling me with her under the stove (in those days stoves stood on strong legs rather than right on the floor like now). She told me that was the strongest place in the house and would protect us from falling whatever.
I’m not sure I believed her but I wasn’t more than a toddler so I didn’t know much about anything and Daddy was at work at the gasoline refinery in El Segundo, but when Mama allowed us out I remember seeing everything other than a couple of broken vases and glasses. Otherwise the house looked the same to me. But that wasn’t the
case for many others.
I looked up the quake and it was an underwater fault running from Newport to Inglewood just off the coast which means the fault ran south to north.
I do remember the first of the Northridge earthquakes. It was a 6.6 quake. “ The Sylmar earthquake occurred on February 9, 1971, at 6:00:41 am Pacific Standard Time (14:00:41 UTC) with a strong ground motion duration of about 12 seconds as recorded by seismometers, although the whole event was reported to have lasted about 60 seconds” (copied from Wikipedia).
Neither George nor I wore night clothes and I was nursing a baby. George’s favorite story about that quake was that “Wilma grabbed the baby and ran to the upstairs bath yelling for George to check on John, who was a teenager, while she took the baby and Michael, who was 5, and got into the into the tub with books falling out of the bookcases on either side of the bathroom door nattily attired in child, baby, and wedding ring.”
I don’t remember that but I do remember George yelling “It’s an earthquake” over and over and me yelling “I know”.
I don’t know what was happening with John, but he told me later that he stood looking down the street at the view out his bedroom window and watching the pavement rippling toward the house.
It was quite destructive.
The Olive View UCLA Medical Center
The I-5 freeway looking north
The interchange near the center of LA
Residential areas in the San Fernando Valley
And this is only a smattering of photos.
I neglected to mention all this happened while we were on the second floor of our house on Celtic Street in the San Fernando Valley.
Our neighbors were away skiing at Mammoth and I was to check on their house while they were away and found their refrigerator door had swung open and everything was on the floor. Talk about cleaning up a mess.
Our kitchen was angled in a different direction and its door stayed closed. But our backyard swimming pool had tilted and the tiles around the top edge always looked strange after that quake because water level showed the tilt.
The other thing about the pool was that the neighborhood was without water delivery so all the neighbors came to us with buckets to take home to flush their toilets.
George, being a Chicago boy, had never been in an Earthquake. Hence the “It’s an earthquake” “It’s an earthquake” “It’s an earthquake”
That one was a big one.
I grew up beside the San Andreas fault and often watched things in the house sway such as the Coleman lantern over the kitchen table where I sat to do my homework.
Quakes were fairly common while we lived there, the “big” ones being 5 somethings while most were so little they probably were not worth noting by any one other than seismologists.
We were no longer living there when a really big one shook parts of Southern California in a magnitude 7.1 quake later when more than 100 homes and businesses were damaged, and the terrain shifted upwards of 14 feet.
The area is still waiting for the REALLY big one everyone knows is coming.
~~~
Another memory was triggered at this year’s Academy Awards when Jamie Lee Curtis won her Oscar as Best Supporting Actress and mentioned that her parents were each nominated for an Oscar but never won and there she stood looking dazed.
That memory was of something I hadn’t thought of for years.
I had just graduated from high school and was working at the Idlewild Lodge where the cast in what we knew as “Quantrill’s Raiders” but which was released as “Kansas Raiders” were being housed.
I met several of the actors … among them was Brian Donlevy (who was so short he needed a stool to get up on his horse), James Best (a good poet), Richard Long (who thought because he was a ‘movie star’ any girl was easy), a fairly new actor whose name was Bernie Schwartz (more about him later), and the WWII hero Audie Murphy, whom I didn’t meet because he was not in any of the scenes being shot in the mountains of the San Jacinto Mountains, not in Utah as some film information claims.
But back to Bernie Schwartz.
A classmate named Gerry was working at the Lodge with me as maids. You know … cleaning, changing bed linens, etc. and Gerry had a baby in diapers which we kept with us in the baby’s buggy (now known a prams or something else).
One day we were assigned to be on the set to do whatever maids are required to do on movie sets and either Gerry or I were always with or near the baby trusting she would be okay.
She must have started to cry and by the time it registered to either of us she needed something, and before I got to her, a very nice young actor found a diaper bag and was in the process of getting the baby ready to be changed.
I thanked him and took over and he nodded as he went back to the filming area.
It wasn’t until dinner that evening as I was helping wait tables (Gerry had taken the baby and gone home) that I learned his acting name as Tony Curtis.
By the way, on another much later interaction with a cast member from that movie I wrote a letter asking if James Best was the actor who, as the Sheriff in the Dukes of Hazzard, was also the actor I had met so many years ago while he was making movie western in the mountains near Idlewild and who was in addition to being an actor was also a poet. He wrote back saying yes and we exchanged a short trade of notes about poetry.
Small world. Long memories.
P.S one of the things a young maid does on a movie set is to make sure a footstool is always available for a short actor. Too bad I was not still in a situation to perform the same for Alan Ladd.
Oh well …
~~~
To end this week …
Character is how you treat those who can do nothing for you.
Weather has become one storm after another. I still can’t complain since other parts of the country or even the world have it worse.
Friday morning outside my front sliding door the snow is chest high. On me that would measure close to 5’.
As of friday midday the driveway had been plowed as far as the carport. John was able to help me to the car and we went to get the mail and do some grocery shopping. That helped with holding off the SAD.
Saturday morning heavy snow started at o8oo. No plowing. By the time Jennie’s footprints, made due to a poop run at 0900, were no longer visible in the new snow at 0924 and it was still snowing heavily. And the dog had been slipping on the ice, even when not on the street but out on the grassy area.
Sunday and monday both snow days.
Tuesday’s(temp 26 degrees) and Wednesday’s (temp 29 degrees) both snow days.
~~~
For those still interested in the High King who united all the kingdoms after pulling the Sword from the Stone, here’s an interesting archaeological find …
Two swords seeming to be markers for the bravest of warriors to carry with them to Valhalla or whatever it was called by the Vikings around 860 AD.
When I read the article and saw the pictures
my first thought was this might be a clue to the origin of the Arthur legends.
I’m sorry my friend Geoffrey Ashe didn’t live to see this find. I wonder if it would have altered his thoughts about Arthur.
If I’ve told you about this before just skip ahead …
The previous owner of my house must have liked yellow because the plantings in the small front yard were shades of yellow and orange. But, while I don’t dislike yellows, I prefer shades of blue and purple.
In the Spring Brecks’ catalog I marked all the offerings in that colour range which caught my eye, gave it to John and asked him to plan a spring planting for me. He had taken classes in plants and landscaping and has a good eye for design.
I know that colour scheme will be more pleasant for me and I will post photos as things develop.
~~~
No new word about Jimmy Carter. I can understand his desire for death at home DNR and I will mourn him.
He was a better President than for which he is usually given credit.
He was the first President to put solar panels on the White House roof.
He was a good man in all things. He and Rosalynn remained active in their church in many activities like Habits for Humanity in efforts to follow the admonition to “All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.” (Matthew 7:12)
~~~
Post Picard, the next in the prequel to the Next Generation, will be crewed by children of the crew of the previous Enterprise which was Captained by Jean Luc and will be titled Strange New Worlds.
I’ll be there.
~~~
Still with me about doppelgänger sightings?
The latest was closer to home. An on-scene reporter for one of the major television networks is a doppelgänger for the woman who shares a birthdate with me, except the tv reporter is younger than either of us who share the birth date but not the birth year (I’m a couple years older).
The other connection is that my birthdate “sister” was teacher to my youngest in two grades in Elementary School and was elementary in his life in more ways than one. He was a bright but easily bored child and his teacher moved his seat next to her desk so when he got the wiggles she would give him something constructive to occupy his attention.
One of my favorite tales out of that school is when my son was playing the cowboy hero in the class play and his memorable line was “My oh my, what a purdy little heifer.” aimed at the girl playing the lead and not about a young cow. ~~~
Speaking of Star Trek, I recently watched an interview with LeVar Burton (Star Trek’s Gordi LaForge & Reading Rainbow among others) about how today’s schools are failing to teach children how to read.
His opinion is that politicians and schools choose power and money over education.
I remember in the early 70s when children were taught how to read by sight memorization. One of my nephews was unable to see the difference between look and book because he had not been taught phonics.
Now children are shown a picture book and asked to “read” the story.
Fortunately my young grandson is a good reader and loves reading. He was taught by his parents so he likes picture books and word books equally.
He and I used to go to the library every friday when I picked him up after school. We both had library cards so he would go to the kids section while I went to the mystery, scifi section, or history sections. He learned how to check out his choices without help. Then we’d go to the HiLo for dinner of chicken strips and french fries.
One time, by mistake, we got fish sticks instead of chicken strips. I gave him the chance to ask for chicken instead of fish and he chose to stay with the fish so the “server wouldn’t be embarrassed”.
And as Dr Seuss said “The more you read,the more you’ll know.”
~~~
There were two gentlemen on television in the days when we had great television programs for children … Mr. Rogers and Captain Kangaroo.
~~~
Every day when I check the morning News and weather reports there are always, at the very least, only one mass shooting.
Last month there were twice as many shootings and five or six times as many deaths as there were days in the month.
It became too depressing a way to start the day so now I use the mute button when that part of the overnight news starts and mute the evening news when other than local news starts.
Maybe I’m sticking my head in the sand but there isn’t anything I can do about it and government won’t do anything for fear of offending gun toting voters and the NRA.
Also too many teenagers who aren’t being shot are commiting suicide because of school or computer chatroom bullying.
Is this the future we are creating for the next generations?
~~~
When I turned on my bedroom wall television sunday morning I stumbled on an entire news presentation concerning a woman’s right to access reproductive health care. It would only make sense that making a choice regarding one’s own medical care is a fundamental right.
The program provided information about the interesting ways women of all ages are providing access to that right.
There are young women in colleges and universities adding female care products to vending machines such as tampons and medications not reqiring a perscription.
Private female pilots are flying women between where they live and states which don’t restrict a woman’s right to choose her own medical care without asking the reason for the flight and without a cost to the woman.
And to my surprise an increasing number of men are taking part in the right to make personal pregnancy choices by opting for vasectomies. There are even mobile clinics offering the quick, easy, inexpensive procedure.
Young persons are increasingly saying no to oppressive invasions of privacy such as requiring information regarding menses information.
I recognize not everyone agrees with the people making these choices.
I guess they are taking to heart the 1937 Gershwin’s song music and lyrics saying “… they can’t take that away from me.”
~~~
Remember when back in February I wrote “One of my favorite poems is about the boyhood of Judas”?
Well, I found my copy and here it is. Written by Georgie Starbuck Galbraith and titled
“Old tears in Galilee”
No woman that ever bore a child,
And worshiped his eyes and the way he smiled,
And ached with pride at his first clear word;
Who bound up his hurts and loved his absurd
Fierce concentration, watching a spider;
Who saw him grow till he stood beside her,
Straight and tall as a mountain pine;
No woman who had a son like mine
Ever believed that aught than good
Could come to this fruit of her motherhood.
No woman ever believed …
Not I! …
That this life of her life was born to die
As mine, going down from Nazareth
To Jerusalem and sorrow and death.
Some say he was wrong, some say he was right
In the thing he did that dark spring night.
I only know what is done is done,
And I weep for Judas … weep for my son!
I weep every time I read it and remember that it is said what Jesus whispered in Judas’ earwas that he (Jesus) had chosen Judas to be the one to fulfill the prophecy and as a result he would face blame and infamy.
And that is why I suggested you watch Jesus Christ Superstar.
~~~
One of my genealogical cousins is slipping past needing fulltime care into dementia.
I am becoming a phone buddy of his wife rather than just hearing her voice in the background when I was talking with my cousin. We talk every week or so and she tells me when she reads the blog to him, he seems to remember it and often smiles.
I don’t know whether to smile or cry.
~~~
To close out the week …
In Dandelion Wine Ray Bradbury tells us “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.”
Sunday 26th – Snowing lightly on and off 2” total new
Monday 27th – Snow with fog temp low 29 temp … Snow stopped 1300, still no sun … Snow started again, wind from the south, 1412
Tuesday 28th – 1” extra snow overnight, light on and off snow most of the day until about 4:30
Wednesday 1st – No countable snow over night and sun is shining at 0753. I had expected more but it is said is more coming. Our Village streets are plowed and John came to relieve my possible SAD and do whatever I need done like pick up mail and do a mini grocery shopping.
~~~
James D. Watson and Francis H. C. Crick announced the discovery of DNA’s chemical structure on the 28th of February 1953 (Old Farmers Almanac, online daily post) … not that Watson and Crick) discovered it because actually they didn’t.
The discovery of the structure of DNA in 1953 was made possible by Dr Rosalind Franklin’s X-ray diffraction work. Her creation of the famous Photo 51 demonstrated the double-helix structure of deoxyribonucleic acid: the molecule containing the genetic instructions for the development of all living organisms. (Technology & Science … Posted 11 October 2016)
Notice it was a woman who did the breakthrough work and men who get the credit.
And now you know the rest of the story (to quote a well-known radio personality).
~~~
There is an old Tennessee saying that when it is snowing or raining and the sun is shining, the Devil’s wife is crying.
I think it applies even if the sun isn’t actually seen but its light is fully visible like through falling snow or fog.
~~~
I have been back to genealogical research. I recently got an email from the LDS Family Search site that an addition had been recorded in my family records by a second or third cousin, all of whose details were hidden because they are still alive.
I was able to check my own records and discovered it started with a second cousin’s wife or his sister or a daughter of one of them. I was able to narrow the list to three living third cousins.
Doesn’t sound exciting to a non-genealogist, but being able to identify who it might be and so being able to contact and ask for some information not yet in my files was interesting to me but is most likely a so-what to anyone else.
Oh well …
~~~ Evidently I wasn’t the only one who noticed that every woman on television no matter what her age or any other category or what program , with the exception of Whoopie, all have the same upper torso profile.
There was an ad on some site, I can’t recall which channel or program, and which remained on the screen for just one viewing. It was posted by the company manufacturing and selling the bra which creates the profile. Before I could grab my camera to document the source of the look, evidently the company had second thoughts and withdrew the ad.
No sign of the ad since.
~~~
The tv series on Paramount+ called Pickard seems to have only two episodes in season #3 which ended with an interesting reveal of Pickards’ son, appearances by Dr. Cusher and Worf, and what looked like the teaser for a new Star Trek series. I think I’ll rewatch that episode.
~~~
To close out the week …
Find a way to compromise what you want to do with what you are still able to do. Trust your instincts, allow them to be your guide, and you can cope with anything.
