Miscellaneous week ending

 

From the internet

This is your brain!

researcher Alexander Shapson-Coe decided to focus their gaze—and the full power of electron microscopy—on just one cubic millimeter of the temporal cortex. 

The dent in my landlady's brand-new car. Mea culpa.

Before hiking the trail to High Falls.

Almost finished with the 1-1/2 mile hike...yes were were plumb tired out. Then had our picnic.

I'll share the wonderful High Falls soon!

Sunrise TN.NC by Jack Cathy Ollis, from FaceBook. Sharing with Skywatch Friday.

Throwback photo:

A gathering of pottery and plants 2015. 

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Today's quote:

The human skin is an artificial boundary: the world wanders into it, 

and the self wanders out of it, traffic is two-way and constant. 

 

—Bernard Wolfe

Where on the earth are we?

  

Sharing with Thankful Thursday!

Austrian artist Heinrich C. Berann

Closer to home, my neighbor across the way has lots of pretty plants.

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Adventures of inner ear, in all likelihood:

Yesterday I talked with my Care Coordinator, Rob, about my scary dizzy episode in the middle of the night before. I went about the day until around 3, when I called him, thinking I needed it in my chart at least. I drove just fine to pick up my lunch, and even did a bit of photography up in Montreat (those will be part of blogs probably.)

Rob said it would be a good idea to have neurological signs/symptoms checked out so I got in to see my Doc. at 4:10.

On the way I backed my car into Peggy, my landlady's car, however, which was parked in a no parking zone, and I was coughing so didn't look fully and see it. So I stopped and found out it was her brand new car. Yikes. She said her husband would be quite upset. Then we did the exchange of insurance info while she was trying to make me feel less stressed.

I explained I was on the way to the doctor, right across the street, about vertigo last night. I didn't have it now.

Went to Doc. who said I was ok, all systems looked good.

Came home to find the police were by Peggy's car, talking with her. She said her insurance wanted a police report. I got out and went to explain that I had been the one who hit her car. They got my particulars, but never heard my side of things, and then gave me a form with a number on it for getting the accident report, which may cost $5.

I had called my insurance while waiting to see the Doc. and they said they'd already had a call, (probably from Peggy, and hung up since by then I was being weighed.)

BUT my nurse said I should be sure to tell the insurance that she had been parked illegally...that that might make a difference.

I didn't get a chance to say a thing.

I lost my first come/first serve disabled parking spot too, so had to park way up the hill and walk down. That means the next time I drive, I'll have to climb the hill.

And thankfully I can go on the picnic at the waterfalls today, with someone else driving!!

Wordless Wednesday

 

Today's quote:

"You can best serve civilization by being against what usually passes for it." Wendell Berry

Sharing with Wordless Wednesday

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I woke in wee hours to do the necessary and couldn't even stand up...the room was revolving at a cant that kept going this way and that. I gingerly held on to furniture, and shuffled slowly into bathroom and back. When I again woke at dawn, I didn't even want to turn my head...but eventually was brave enough to move and found the dread dizzies had left. A good friend has had trouble with vertigo and has been taking Meclazine. I knew I had some of it, but would have to turn on light and look for it at 4 am, so I just went back to bed. So far this morning the world has stayed right side up. Sorry, this was supposed to be wordless!

The old buildings, etc.

 

A friend's car had had the back bumper pulled off by a bear, apparently. So she needed to get it reattached at an auto place that did body work. I followed her to Gray's Valley in Ridgecrest NC where lots of different Gray families live and work. This old out-building caught my artist's eye.

Some farming type outbuildings, and different wings where different things were stored. They look unused today. 

You could always find your shoes in the dark, if these were yours instead of the dad at the optometrist office.

Residents of Black Mountain are known to drive around with flags flying. At least these seem totally patriotic (I think the black one is for MIA)

Below are some good books that I just gave to my son Russ and his family.

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And another old building!! Thanks Mesa Verde Cliff Palace.

Today's quote:

Finding time to be as naked as the day you were born can awaken feelings of contentment, freedom, and self-love.

Flat Creek in Montreat NC

 

Creekside view from 2013 - before the flooding almost 11 months ago in 2024.

High water on Flat Creek, Montreat, NC

compared to another shot at same place...several months later also in 2013

Today's Quotes:

 C.S. Forester, born in Cairo (1899) to British parents. He created the character Horatio Hornblower, an English naval officer who is heroic but also introverted, suffers from seasickness, is a fanatic about efficiency and discipline, and hates the poetry of Wordsworth. He also wrote The African Queen (1935), which was made into a movie in 1951 by John Huston, starring Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn. In it, Forester wrote, "When a man who is drinking neat gin starts talking about his mother he is past all argument." 

He also wrote, "A man who writes for a living does not have to go anywhere in particular, and he could rarely afford to if he wanted." 

And, "When I die there may be a paragraph or two in the newspapers. My name will linger in the British Museum Reading Room catalogue for a space at the head of a long list of books for which no one will ever ask."

 He died in 1966. He was a favorite author of my father's, who read all of the Hornblower novels. I didn't remember that he also created the African Queen story!

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Update on healing from dental extraction last week: Taking antibiotics again, and still having swelling on my cheek and sometimes my eye on that side of my face. I’m making myself not do very much But yesterday I did go to the grocery store.

Dry Falls

 From former blog (where do old blogs go? some disappear apparently!) "Living in Black Mountain NC."

From under "Dry Falls" near Highlands, NC.

It's a myth, you can't really stay dry under these falls, at least when they are really working.

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Today's quote:

 Buckminster Fuller used to say that "changing human nature is hard, and when you try, you mostly fail, and it's discouraging. Changing tools and technology is relatively easy." 

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Old photo:

My mother and father at Epcot, Disney World, FL with my nephew Zachery, about 1982-3. I'm so glad my niece, Lisa, is happily living in Italy now. She and I (and our  families) are the only living people from my nuclear family. It's so strange to see these people who were captured in a moment in time.

It's Caturday (with a few dogs too!)

 For Saturday's Critters this week:

It's a shoe box tunnel for the out-of-focus electric train going around in a circle. TP (a.k.a Tiny Patches) was my only cat interested in watching the strange thing going around and around.

Not my photo, from the internet.

My son Russell as an infant...today is his...*&)S* birthday!

Three years ago Russ posed with his father and a frog in Florida.

Persephone (Queen of the underworld), the pit mix, is a sweet sissy.  Stormagedon is the barking home protector. These little critters are at home with my family where a grandson and ex-daughter-in-law live.

Sweet Muffin, who was born on my front porch in St. Augustine FL. She lived then in Tampa and Black Mountain, and was the sweetest little calico I ever had.

Panther, my last cat...who had been somewhat feral until a friend gave her lots of lovin'.

You may have seen this before...

Have a simply wonderful weekend, everyone!

Today's quote:

 “Sometime they’ll give a war and nobody will come,” the poet and author Carl Sandburg

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Americans of Conscience give this:

Good news boost

Want to know what's going right lately? A lot. Check it out:

• The Economic Progress Institute highlights 10 recent social equity and economic progress wins for Rhode Islanders.
• WI’s Supreme Court clears the way to permanently ban so-called “conversion therapy.”
• 20 states sue the administration for releasing private Medicaid data to deportation officials.
• 20 states sue the presidential administration for unconstitutionally cutting billions in disaster preparedness funding.
• Key West’s City Council voids an agreement with ICE that would have trained and deputized local police to enforce unjust federal immigration policies.
• Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass issues an executive directive to provide cash cards funded by philanthropy to aspiring Americans who miss work due to fear of ICE activity.
• Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller signs an executive order to protect the rights of community members who immigrated to or are seeking refuge in the U.S.
• The Pittsburgh City Council unanimously passes three bills to further safeguard LGBTQ+ residents from medical and other forms of discrimination.
• Cassandra Chase is elected mayor of Lakewood, CA, becoming the first Black woman ever elected to serve as mayor of the city.
• Fort Collins, CO police implement the Blue Envelope Program, designed to make interactions with police safer and easier for drivers with communication-related disabilities.
• Washington, DC moves a step closer to ranked-choice elections.
• NYC's recent primary was the largest and most diverse ranked-choice voting election in U.S. history.
• 76% of NYC voters want to keep or expand ranked-choice voting.
• Avelo Airlines, which contracted with the federal government to operate ICE deportation flights out of Arizona, closes operations on the entire west coast.
• Drag Race’s production company helps support small-town Prides across the country.
• Immigration rights advocacy groups sue the administration over lack of access to legal counsel and violations of due process for people detained at an inhumane detention camp in the Everglades.
• Local residents demonstrate outside an Albuquerque Walmart in protest of ICE activity being allowed on the premises, which resulted in a community member being tased by agents.
• Community members protest against the immigration detention and attempted deportation of former hospital chaplain Ayman Soliman.
• California farmworkers launch a statewide labor strike to protest immigration raids.
• Arcade workers in a Denver restaurant and performance venue join their local IATSE union and receive voluntary recognition from management.
• The United Nations’ top court rules that a healthy environment is a human right.
• 79% of U.S. adults across the entire political spectrum affirm the importance of childhood vaccinations.
• AEW wrestler Brody King raises more than $27,000 for families affected by ICE through t-shirt sales.
• The percentage of Americans who affirm the reality of climate change now outnumbers those who don’t believe in it by a ratio of more than four to one.
• Pope Leo will not rescind Pope Francis’ declaration of approval for blessings of same-sex couples.
• In recognition of her efforts to support LGBTQ+ rights and enhance climate protections, Pattie Gonia becomes the first drag artist to make the Time100 list.
• Sinners becomes the first film to stream with Black American Sign Language interpretation available to audiences.
• Michael Jordan opens a fourth free health clinic for North Carolinians who are uninsured or underinsured.
• Animal crossing bypasses funded by the 2021 infrastructure bill provide safe passage for animals and safer roads for drivers.
• Boston opens a new park named in honor of Rita Hester Green, one of the people whose death inspired the creation of the Transgender Day of Remembrance.
• Marisol Magaña, Andrew Roa, and their daughter raise money to support Los Angeles street vendors who cannot safely work due to ICE activity.
• Demand for clean wind and solar energy continues to rise in the U.S.
• LGBTQ+ people of color break records with this year’s Emmy nominations.
• Seven winners of the Nobel Prize for Economics call for appropriate taxation of the extremely wealthy.
• In June, Poland generated more power from clean energy sources than from coal for the first time.
• Budapest residents gather for a massive Pride celebration in defiance of Hungary's new, oppressive anti-LGBTQ+ laws.
• In honor of Mandela Day, South African cooks collaborate to make 67,000 liters of soup for food-insecure community members.

Swimsuits

 The swim suits!

What a fun way to walk on water!

Serious swimmers, a team of high school students at a meet. My granddaughter is in the black facing us on the right, from about 5 years ago.

A few years ago my family went from OH to FL for Christmas, where they found more freezing weather. Here one granddaughter smiles, while her sister in background wears pajama bottoms I think to keep warm, and dad, Russ, looks on by the Gulf of Mexico.

Finally getting to the sepia photos. Here my husband in the 60s rigs our little boat, while Russ (whose birthday is tomorrow) wears a orange lifejacket, and I'm in my favorite yellow (no polkadots) two piece suit.  An unknown little girl photo bombed the shot in the foreground. It's possible that my oldest son is floating around in the direction I'm looking, maybe wearing a white floatation thing. The water was really shallow!

Yep, someone captured me in my yellow swim suit floating around.  No my hair isn't that yellow stuff, but it's a little swim cap with fake hair! I'm not posting my latest swim suit where I definitely resembled an Easter egg.

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Today's quote:

Our essence is an expression of fulfillment, and the universe wants to satisfy our needs and desires.

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Sharing with Sepia Saturday!

Alan Burnett invites others to join our free fun site...

It's the middle of summer (well, it is in the Northern Hemisphere) and here on Sepia Saturday we are paddling in the seas of nostalgia. To protect our bodies from the sun we are hiding in the shade of countless memories, represented by a host of old photographs. Join us by sharing an old photograph or two either on themes (bathing suits, beaches, sand) or off theme (giant vegetables, top hats, or whatever you want) on or around Saturday 16th August 2025 and add a link to the list (on the site).

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And a very happy birthday wish to my second son, Russ. I celebrate virtually your life which has enriched so many!

Camping in St. Mary's GA with Tai (on left) and Russ when he was in college. We went to Cumberland Island GA for the next day.

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Today's quote:

"Do you ever read any of the books you burn?" "That's against the law!" "Oh. Of course." -Ray Bradbury, science-fiction writer (22 Aug 1920-2012)

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See Open Yesterday's Pages for details of anniversary of Woodstock!