Hodge-podge day

 

Posted to Southwest US on Facebook. I don't plan to be hiking much, but it's nice to know that others can!

These pop-together toys were only available for a while, and I saved this one for my inner child to play with.

An old saying (don't know who wrote it or drew the sketch) which I liked enough to keep in  spite of the damage.

My Uncle Jimmy sketched me when I was about 10 years old. He was an accomplished artist for an insurance company in Wisconsin. I used that knowledge to study art for years myself, hoping that I could have some of his talent in my genes.

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I'm so sad from the recent Supreme decision that will put so many immigrants in jeopardy. The political situation will probably hit me one of these days...from losing some programs which help me live to maybe infringing on my voting rights. I will sure make a lot of noise, if that happens. But I also make a bit of noise now, though I feel pretty powerless. The least I can do is to say something here.

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An old photo of my ex hubby's family, with our two sons as kids. Only the 5 people to the right are still alive, my ex (with the beard) and his sister and her hubby, as well as the kids. My ex just turned 87. 

Sharing with Thankful Thursday

"Just the other day, I was in my neighborhood Starbucks, waiting for the post office to open. I was enjoying a chocolatey cafe mocha when it occurred to me that to drink a mocha is to gulp down the entire history of the New World. From the Spanish exportation of Aztec cacao, and the Dutch invention of the chemical process for making cocoa, on down to the capitalist empire of Hershey, PA, and the lifestyle marketing of Seattle's Starbucks, the modern mocha is a bittersweet concoction of imperialism, genocide, invention, and consumerism served with whipped cream on top. No wonder it costs so much."

 -Sarah Vowell, author and journalist (b. 27 Dec 1969)

Happy July everyone!

 Whoohoo! Summertime is here for sure!

Hot days bring everyone to the pool. So the parking lot is mobbed and us seniors either have to hike a ways to get to classes and lunch, or get there really early since the pool doesn't open all that early. Speaking of parking. The other day...

My trunk is packed with folding chairs. I've loaded my picnic lunch in its cooler into the car, as well as a big shopping bag of things to give Teresa, who I'm meeting for lunch.

BUT, the recycle bins haven't been emptied yet. And the maintenance guy put them out where the truck could easily access them without banging them against the sides of the car which is parked facing the little corral where they are usually kept.

The trash corral on another day.

So I texted Teresa to come pick me up. In the mean time, the maintenance guy moved the bins enough for me to back out. I texted Teresa never mind, I could get my car out now. She didn't get that text, because as I back out she arrives, and follows me driving down the hill where I turn around and go back to my original spot. And maintenance guy shouts, the recycle truck just arrived anyway.

So I park and make sure to leave space for the bins to be taken back to their corral, while MM tells Teresa the recycle truck just arrived, and then I unload my stuff into Teresa's car, while she waits right behind mine...after the recycle truck had done it's duty.

I could just imagine the entertainment factor for the seniors in the rockers on the porch across the way. I felt like the keystone cops had just arrived.

We had originally intended to do a Blue Ridge Parkway drive up to Mt. Mitchell for our picnic...and to give me a chance to breath at higher elevation. But it looked partly cloudy, and that would have kept us from seeing any views from the highest mountain east of the Mississippi. So we went to Lake Tomahawk instead, and ate in the picnic pavilion with a great breeze off the lake. I didn't take any more photos.

Then there was the  fiasco of the ironing board.

I had asked the maintenance man how to dispose of several items, a lamp which had shorted out, and the ironing board, which was metal. I asked if I could put it out to recycle. Nope, he said it should go to the household items pick up on Friday...the next day. These things, including beds and furniture, are placed at the foot of the hill of our parking lot. He offered to take things from my front porch for that pickup.

So the lamp, a couple of indoor/outdoor rugs, and the ironing board, and a whole plastic milk crate full of old VCR tapes were put on my front porch before I went picnicking.

He didn't take the blue recycle bin, perhaps because the ones here are green. I can use it to pack something in anyway.

I mentioned to Teresa that I was giving away the ironing board, and she said she really wanted it. She does something called slow stitching. OK, I was pretty sure I could ask the maintenance man to give it back. I didn't get to see him, but mentioned it to the landlady, who passed it on to him, and within a few hours he brought it back. 

I wonder if the porch sitting elders got to see the ironing board go down the hill and then back up again within a few hours. And then Saturday Teresa came back and loaded it and some Christmas wrapping paper into her car. I certainly don't plan taking rolls of wrapping paper out west with me!

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Another note is to wish family members much joy as they attend World Cup games in Atlanta and Philadelphia. Here's a quote from a UU minister who writes a daily newsletter, shared on Substack. 

Keith Kron from Keith Kron What Really Matters

My favorite part of the World Cup happening here in the US is that people from other countries are rediscovering that the American people is not reflected in its government’s political rhetoric. The tourists are reminded that the Americans have more in common with them than Americans do with their own currently elected federal officials. The people of the United States are reminded of how much in common we have with people in the world. Tourists love our ranch dressing. Americans love the competitive fight of players’ loving their countries, the raucous joy of Norwegian fans rowing like Vikings and the drinking ability of the Scottish fans. We love the polite kindness of the Iranian team and their notes of appreciation to the people of Los Angeles. We root for underdogs like Cape Verde when they advance and the accomplishment of being here for countries like Curacao, Haiti, and Jordan, and Uzbekistan. We feel the mutual love and admiration that Lawrence, Kansas, and the Algerian national team have developed for each other.

The world can be amazing and be a place of hope. Thank you World Cup fans for bringing hope for the humanity of the world this month. As you’ve embraced us, we’re grateful to have embraced back.

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Is it June or July or January?

 I thought it was already July. Nope, a few more hours of June.

It has actually been quite busy. But I'm focused upon the actions that I'll be gearing up for at the end of July. Like an athlete training for a race...I'm in the final days here.

OK, goodbye June. You've been good to me. Thanks for the memories. I sure spent as much time as possible with friends this month. It was almost daily seeing someone for some reason or another. I'll miss them so much.

This is a unintented photo...as I was walking along carrying the phone, leaving the Lakeview Center's lunch program last week. I like the colors though.

Not my photo, and I am not sure where it came from... while the moon is actually just past full tonight. Last night it woke me up, shining in my eyes.

Don't speak negatively about yourself, even as a joke. Your body doesn't know the difference. Words are energy and they cast spells, that's why it's called spelling. Change the way you speak about yourself, and you can change your life.

   Bruce Lee

Suzanne and I have frequently had Sunday lunch dates by the Flat Creek on Ole' Guacamole's patio. The water wasn't too high last week while there was steady rain.

I also ran into Tina, Dawn, Jeff and Tim, who have befriended me many times while living for the last 19 years here in Black Mountain. I met all of these friends through the Unitarian Universalist Congregation here. 

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I posted my experience of my friend's husband's recent death over on my other blog, Inner Workings.

What kind of oak is it? (plus Alligator Alcatraz news)

 

A friend shared her photos of a grandmother oak where she visits at Emberlight. Her husband is staying there (in Swannanoa) while Hospice cares for him. But we don't know what kind of oak this might be.

Any ideas? (my iPhone kept saying a red oak...mmmm?)

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Before

Aerial image of the site before any construction shows a “before” comparison with the newly paved area to the west of the runway. Friends of the Everglades.

I shared my feelings about Alligator Auschwitz on a Before and After blog earlier.

June 26 Facebook postings tell this...

Getting high(er)

 Only 2 more days in the month of June. It has sure been a busy month!

A compass in the sidewalk outside our local history museum surprised me, that State St. in Black Mountain flows North-east to South-west...rather than just E to W. Well, it does have a few bends that are almost unnoticeable.

And it tell us the elevation is 2,499.1 feet above sea level. I'm going to move to Durango CO at the end of July, and it's 6, 532 feet in elevation. Not sure exactly what part of town it is, since there's a big hill behind my soon-to-be-apartment building, with Fort Lewis College located up there. 

But the message to me is it's 2-1/2 times higher than where I now live. Thus all my trips up to the mountains nearby on the Blue Ridge Parkway. (You thought I just loved them, which is actually true.) What will I do when I have really high mountains to climb? OK, I'm not planning those trips until I can acclimate to the altitude where I'll be sleeping! Pulmonologists are saying I may acclimate in a few weeks. I still get to sleep with oxygen and my CPAP. And I have portable oxygen for possible need as well.

The other day I talked to scheduling in Durango and made my first doctor's appointment. A primary care provider. I'm learning to talk to the people on the ground, so to speak. The insurance folks thought another doc was taking new patients, so I called there for an appointment the month after my move. Nah, when I got the scheduler at the hospital where all the doctors are part of a network, she said that doc wasn't taking new patients, and what kind of doc did I want, an internist or general practitioner.

I honestly didn't know the difference. But I told her my major needs and she said a GP would do well. Of course he'll probably be 25 years old, and I may have to drive through awful traffic to get to him, where the first choice was 2 blocks from my soon-to-be apartment. 

There have been times in my life when I was unemployed and had no health insurance. We stayed healthier then, I think.

Wouldn't it be nice to have good healthcare that is free and no longer dependent upon profit making insurance companies?

How is it that this country has gotten into this mess?

My soon-to-be apartment building on the left, but my apartment will be on the other (west) side of the building.

I can't wait to see this boulevard covered in snow! Of course I may eat these words!

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For climate change interest:

See the new site as described in this NPR article for up to date info that's no longer available from NOAA due to the government cutbacks. climate.us

https://www.npr.org/2026/06/26/nx-s1-5869615/climate-noaa-data-trump-doge?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=npr&utm_medium=social&utm_term=nprnews&fbclid=IwY2xjawSrZTNleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBicmlkETFvcFV4MDJVTjB4b21xdURnc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHj6tvo_8YB7uXgj3HtJr8fpZQMUyFeuvqZ4qlFdBdGE3cdB9c3y01gA6w3w1_aem_nHmjFgA4B9JfVK5bHI1GnA

Intergenerational fun

 A favorite song for children and adults to join together...

All God's critters got a place in the choir
Some sing low, some sing higher
Some sing out loud on the telephone wires
And some just clap their hands, or paws, or anything they got
All God's critters got a place in the choir
Some sing low, some sing higher
Some sing out loud on the telephone wires
And some just clap their hands, or paws, or anything they got now

Listen to the bass, it's the one on the bottom
Where the bullfrog croaks and the hippopotamus
Moans and groans with a big t'do
And the old cow just goes moo

The dogs and the cats they take up the middle
While the honeybee hums and the cricket fiddles
The donkey brays and the pony neighs
And the old coyote howls

All God's critters got a place in the choir
Some sing low, some sing higher
Some sing out loud on the telephone wires
And some just clap their hands, or paws, or anything they got now

Listen to the top where the little birds sing
On the melodies with the high notes ringing
The hoot owl hollers over everything
And the jaybird disagrees

Singin' in the night time, singing in the day

The little duck quacks, then he's on his way

The 'possum ain't got much to say
And the porcupine talks to himself

All God's critters got a place in the choir
Some sing low, some sing higher
Some sing out loud on the telephone wires
And some just clap their hands, or paws, or anything they got now

Illustration for the 1917 book Christmas in the Wood by Philip Vinton Clayton

It's a simple song of living sung everywhere
By the ox and the fox and the grizzly bear
The grumpy alligator the the hawk above
The sly raccoon and the turtle dove

All God's critters got a place in the choir
Some sing low, some sing higher
Some sing out loud on the telephone wires
And some just clap their hands, or paws, or anything they got now

All God's critters got a place in the choir
Some sing low, some sing higher
Some sing out loud on the telephone wires
And some just clap their hands, or paws, or anything they got now

Above photos from the Halloween critter parade in Black Mountain NC 2024

When I've been in a choir singing this, frequently children (or adults) would give the voices of the animals at the end of each line. So it was pretty fun!

A video gives the melody, in case you want to sing along!

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From the internet

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Sharing with Saturday's Critters

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Yesterday was Pearl Buck's birthday, the author of The Good Earth. Here's a quote from her, which really means a lot to me.

The truly creative mind in any field is no more than this: A human creature born abnormally, inhumanly sensitive. To him... a touch is a blow, a sound is a noise, a misfortune is a tragedy, a joy is an ecstasy, a friend is a lover, a lover is a god, and failure is death. Add to this cruelly delicate organism the overpowering necessity to create, create, create -- so that without the creating of music or poetry or books or buildings or something of meaning, his very breath is cut off from him. He must create, must pour out creation. By some strange, unknown, inward urgency he is not really alive unless he is creating. -Pearl S. Buck, novelist, Nobel laureate (26 Jun 1892-1973)

FYI:

 Pearl Buck was born in Hillsboro, West Virginia, in 1892 to two Presbyterian missionaries, Absalom and Caroline Sydenstriker. The family moved to China when Buck was three months old, and she lived there for most of the next 40 years. As a child, she was homeschooled by her mother in the mornings. In the afternoon, she was taught classical Chinese by a scholar named Mr. Kung.

Her first novel, East Wind, West Wind, (1930) sold well, but it was her second novel, The Good Earth (1931), about a clan of Chinese peasants struggling to survive during a drought, that became an international best-seller and won Buck the Pulitzer Prize. She was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature in 1938, one of only two American women to do so (the second was Toni Morrison).

Sepia photos with wood

Unknown 1911 location. I remember my parents having one of those sling chairs like the man is lounging in....a canvas strip adhered at a top and bottom bar, with wood struts which collapsed so it could easily be carried around.

Madison County NC shows another wood frame hanging from the ceiling with fabric attached, this time to be quilted with the cotton batting which is shown around  the edges. 1936

More use of wood and ropes on a derelict dock, with industrial gravel piled in the distance waiting to be shipped somewhere. Tampa Bay Florida in the 2000s.

Daughter of white tobacco sharecropper at country store in Person County, North Carolina, circa 1939.

 

Women having tea, New Zealand, 1890.

Sharing with  Sepia Saturday.

Nature in a pot

 No nothing about pot, not even really about pottery either!

Just what is growing in my pots. Here all the other buds but one have fallen off, and this is what the cactus is putting out.

I don't know if Ms Spider came inside with her web or not. 

Tiny but mighty succulents.

I gave away the other big square planter, but plan to take this with me when I move...as well as these happy Kalanchoes.

My Spirit House to invite good vibes to visit!

These succulents are getting more sun. I should take the others outside to the porch railing too.

Unfold your own myth.

Rumi

Very strange, this Kalanchoe is not doing well, and then I just stuck a flower from the other one into the pot, and it's still blooming after 2 weeks. I think this is one of the pots which got the fungus in it a couple of years ago.

Sharing with Thankful Thursday!

Being present lets us experience each moment in our lives in a way that cannot be fully lived through memory or fantasy.