Update about blogCa

A sneak peak at the view, when it’s 97 out and soon the sun will be shining in…the blinds do their job!
Showing posts with label Russ Heym. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Russ Heym. Show all posts

Saturday, August 16, 2025

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.





Friday, August 15, 2025

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!


Wednesday, July 30, 2025

An imaginary trip

Considering

          mountains...

              and valleys ...

                          and rivers!

The attraction of the Appalachian mountains...the wonderful vistas.


In Colorado and Utah, hikes are working through different formations of rocks. Here son, Tai, and wife, Kendra, pause for a dual-selfie.

Tai is standing next to a little stream under a cliff.



Me standing near the overflow falls from Lake Susan which continue the path of Flat Creek from Montreat to Black Mountain NC.




Flat Creek in Black Mountain, a few summers ago, when it was behaving itself. It goes under a highway and joins the Swannanoa River waters, which definitely ran amok in September 2024.

Flat Creek when it flowed nicely by Ole's Guacamole restaurant, before 2024 when it flooded it for the second time. Ole's is being renovated at this time, and due to reopen.

A brilliant high school buddy, Jinni Stahl, spent her later years using scooters to help her get around after MS took so much of her mobility.


My other high school friend, Rosemary Beddingfield, had breast cancer that was in remission the last 5 years of her life. She always had a positive silly attitude. Both of these friends may be gone from walking the earth in their bodies, but their spirits are still part of my life. They both had birth anniversaries last week.


Son Russ and wife, Michelle seem to have found a way to cool off, maybe in FL.



And where our American adventures all began, when Giles Fitz Rogers came to Jamestown VA in 1664. (Here are replica ships moored in Jamestown VA, much as his would have been.)

And that reminds me to check out some Ancestry "hints" to see if there's any new information that can be substantiated. My cousin who's a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution thinks we descended from Giles' son, Peter, where I think it was more likely through his son John.

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Today's quote:

Incorporating human touch into our everyday lives is vital to the healing of our emotional and physical selves

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An old photo:


Granddaughter Cayenne and her Great Uncle Norm Dewolfe in 2011. Norm is husband to my ex's sister.


Thursday, July 17, 2025

Beauty and love (and Good Trouble)


 


My neighbor's planters with abundant flowers!

Summertime at Lake Tomahawk, 2025


An unframed version of wedding photo of Michelle and Russ Heym, April, 2000. 



Some of the wonderful people at my son Marty Heym and Barbara Baker's wedding in May, 2019. Barbara is in the great white hat. Marty on far right with bow tie. I know Beverly Baker is in center with the black lace dress. But the rest of the folks are unknown to me.


Hiking in Colorado, 2025, here Kendra uses 2 poles on rocky trail.


I love this with Kendra stretching her hair out while by her left elbow Zora has her tongue hanging out. They made it to this wonderful flower-flung place of rest!

Family portrait with Zora dog, Kendra and Tai Rogers, 2025 July.

Today's quote:

We cannot have harmony and balance in our lives if we forget to include the Earth and natural rhythms in our lives.

An old photo:


Myself as bridesmaid for my friend Rosie, in 1962. (Dress was pale blue chiffon which I never wore again.)



Today there will be demonstrations of "good trouble" as taught by Congressman John Lewis.

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Personal update!
I found it!

In a file folder between "Pets papers" and "Pottery," was one called "Papers - Important." And there was my original birth certificate. I received it from my parents when I got my first passport in 1963.


I do hope that will serve, it has numbers and a seal of Texas.


Friday, March 28, 2025

For the bookish among us

At Lake Tomahawk there are two free libraries, one for adults, one for children's books. I gave you this peek a few days ago.



I guess someone is reading all the adult books. Mmm, have to see if I have any to donate! They are supposed to return them of course!


Children's books were there that day, gone the next.

I and some of my friends are lovers of books...and usually are reading at least one, while there's a pile waiting for us.

My current fun is rereading Sir Terry Pratchett's Wee Small Men with Tiffany Aching. They may be geared for young adult, but are smashingly funny anyway. I'm listening to this one, and have several others of the series waiting. I just finished several non-fictions, and am due for a few laughs.

I was happy to have access to audio library books on my phone for my recent hospital visit. The TV was awful, and I hate daytime TV anyway. (a tiny blurry screen, Direct TV choices.)


I recently posted this photo of my mother while on vacation, and she enjoyed reading more than any activities. She never enjoyed being photographed though.

Linnie and Lou(ise) George, distant cousins of mine, 1880. We shared our ggg grandparents  One of them wrote her journal of moving from Alabama to northern Louisiana, with all the trials of growing up and being educated in the south before the Civil War. I've transcribed it for my descendants if they are ever interested. Here's the first of four chapters describing their lives. They were my first cousins three times removed.

Sarah Louise George Tompkins Specht, journal keeper (Lou George) at 84 in 1926


A tea party with laughs, unknown date (maybe 1900?)

Teresa and her hubby, Chuck, in Pigeon Forge TN a few weeks ago. She is one of my favorite book-lover friends. And yes, that's really his beard!


Sharing with Sepia Saturday where there's anything one wants to share that perhaps is related to the posted meme of the week. Yes, there's a fellow reading late into the night. I know the feeling, and fortunately nobody has taken my photo while doing that.




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Today's quote:

There is a fountain of youth: it is your mind, your talents, the creativity you bring to your life and the lives of the people you love. When you learn to tap this source, you will have truly defeated age.
-Sophia Loren, actor and singer (b. 20 Sep 1934)


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Today's art:

Cyndy Salisbury...paper artist..mask maker..sculptor....Bainbridge Island..Washington


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(More) Family Album:

Granddaughter Kate

My middle son Russ, and his daughter Kate, 2023-24

Kate's senior photo

Kate recently played Lacrosse in tournaments with her team in Clearwater FL (they live in OH). Then she and her family went to Berlin Germany for a week to meet with her sister who's doing a study abroad semester. Such fun to have those opportunities for this family!

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Sequestered!

Smoke from wildfires several miles away, came roaring (blowing!) through last evening. Sitting in my living room with windows closed, but curtains and blinds up, I started coughing.

So now blinds are down, and curtains closed. It's a dull place inside, while bright sun shines outside.


Screen shot of warning of unhealthy air last evening.

It has gone down this morning. I'm wearing my N-95 mask when I go pick up my lunch at the senior center.