S'mores

Well, Hannah fixed me my first S'more the other day. It was pretty godawful sweet. But there was none wasted. And today I drive past a field with...

Giant Marshmallows! The fixin's for S'Mores!

Sep 14

It appears that travel by 2 wheels has something to say today. First off, a bicycle race was in play right on the country road where we live. This is the same road to the dump where mutant toxic black mold squirrats roam the bins and crevasses of trash.

Just after passing the speeding bicyclists, and arriving at the next stop sign preceding the turn to the dump, a long, long line of motorcyclists held up traffic for 15 minutes.

It reminded me of a story where Mini Cooper owners and aficionados meet en masse, numbering in the hundreds, and drive madly across Chicago, holding up traffic and disrupting the usual flow of things. Sounds fun.

Found objects

From a previous entry of Clover patches dated August 17, from that same patch,

A Four Leaf Clover!!!!

Found this morning on a walk through the tree nursery, along with a freshly blooded turkey feather and other, more pristine feathers along the way. Saw a dead eviscerated mole (no pictures), coyote scat (likewise) and the dug-out tracks of dirt bikes, footprints of their motorcross through the woods.

Goob Luck to all you readers. This one's for you, all four of you.

Grape Juice

Sometimes this novel is better off without its words.

911

The grape harvest has begun in record time far before the hint of frost. Picking...,

stemming...,

washing.

They are very sweet this year and may not even require sugar to make good juice. Crushing comes after a night of refrigeration. When will we get a scratch-and-sniff computer application with grape juice as one of the scents?

Shooting Rats at the Dump

The car trunk is in possession of a large box filled with cardboard tubes weighted with cement, old 24-shot purple passions, rockets of green paislies and assorted detritus of explosive devices from the Fourth of July. That, plus an old cat piss carpet, wicker lampshades, books, T shirts that are perfectly too small, and a cracked 30 gallon plastic jug for hunting camp water are all heading out to a better place. Better, that is, than the boat house or the entryway to camp.

Earlier in the morning, before the sun came up, I spotted a gray pointy-nosed rodent heading towards the crawlspace under the house. It was the size of a large chinchilla, with a bushy tail. I hope it was a squirrel, and not a water rat. Bushy tail gives me that hope. Please, please, please, don't be a dump rat or a mutant toxic black mold squirrat!

Nine Nine Ten

Yesterday my car stayed parked in the dirt part of the driveway. It did not move. But we still managed to burn gallons of fossil fuel.



There was a sunset scenic flight, a smooth, glassy water landing, and the dusk of afterglow.



This weekend is the Greenville, Maine International Seaplane Fly-In. Contestants tie canoes to their plane floats, taxi to an island, take off the canoe while one paddles the canoe and one taxies the plane back to the shore, then reties the canoe, all as fast as they can. Others see how short a distance they can take off or land. Crowds eat greasy food, drink beer along the banks of the water at Moosehead Lake, and listen to the roar of 185s, Beavers and one Sikorsky float plane painted as a leopard.

A few years back we saw the Northern Lights while camping with friends at the Greenville airport next to our land airplane. I could put a video in here, but couldn't find one without an ad. National Geographic has a nice one showing aurora borealis in Norway.

Sep 8

Light, dark, patterns and shadows.

Sometimes light is the focus. Some things can only be seen at an angle when the light is shining just so. With light appearing, darkness is not far behind, just to show the contrast. Without darkness, there is no concept of light.

Likewise, without light, there is no good perception of darkness. Some things can only be seen by the shadows they cast, like translucent minnows at the edge of the water.

It is the contrast of light color to dark edge that makes a brick pattern so appealing. It is certainly not the heaviness of the gravel in the bucket, nor is it the sharp bricks poking the knees that satisfies. Like medical rounds in the hospital, LGFD.

Looks Good From Door. And so the march against chaos continues.

Sep 7

Yesterday just after dawn, as I was sitting at the dining room table writing by candlelight, a dark shape flew by in the corner of my eye, and slammed into one of the windows to my left. As fast as I could jump up, I ran to the window and saw a predator bird face down on the brick patio that was to be repaired on Labor Day.

The bird sat up, blinked, blinked again, still fierce but also confused. In its beak was moss from its face-plant on the patio bricks after hitting the window. A hawk, swooping down to pick off one of the many chipmunks living near the fireplace, had miscalculated the reflection in the window.

I ran muttering about the house, "My camera, my camera, my camera..." grabbed the case from the purse on the couch, pulled out the camera and turned it on to discover a dead battery. "The battery, the battery, the battery..." I said, as I threw the camera on the table and went in search for the bag of electronics, cords and batteries. Found it, unzipped and took out the replacement battery, loaded it in the camera and ran back to the window.

The hawk was still there, blinking. Then I opened the door to get a better view.

Happy to say the hawk flew off into the neighboring trees, wobbly and without chipmunk, but alive.

Sep 6

Today is Labor Day. Nobody works on Labor Day. I wish to haul gravel and rebuild a brick patio that washed away in a storm two years ago.


I also wish to eat well, organically, and think good thoughts. As always, "that which you resist, persists", and so doughnuts, filled with inorganic sugar, are high on the obsessive list. If only the display was haphazard, cluttered, piled on top of each other, oozing fly larvae and gravel, instead of this beautiful, orderly, sweet temptation.

Today is Barby's birthday. She would have loved drinking a glass of scotch, scoffing at self-help books, and throwing her cigarette butt in the sacred organic gravel pit. Happy Birthday, Barby.

Tropical Storm Earl

Tropical Storm Earl has come and gone. Not too much wind, but lots more rain than the roof could handle. Fortunately, we have lots of buckets and spare cookware to catch the overflow.

The aluminum foil made a temporary gutter at the worst of the sieve-of-a-roof and funneled the excess into receptacles on the floor. Still, the carpet is wet and requires a wet/dry vacuum, fan, and soothing patience. What would have happened if the wind had blown?

Sep 4

A birthday party for a 90 year old is full of loud noise (hard of hearing), singing and good cheer.

These ladies are, from left to right, 87, birthday girl 90, 90, and 82. And of course, though there is no dancing, there's plenty of cake.

Sep 3

Today's the day for a flight review. So my instructor is happily riding in the back seat.

As we flew home, the humidity rose, the haze blocked out the ocean, and the wind picked up from the east. Earl's on the way, but further out to sea than first predicted. It'll rain, but maybe not blow too much.

Sep 2

The Colorado connection lost its internet email provider yesterday afternoon. Every email sent to them bounced back with the daemon notice. And even though I don't send all that many emails, it's disconcerting when they don't go through.

We are waiting for the hurricane to come up the coast. The sky is creepy, a pale and hazy shade today with the sunrise. Weather alerts have sounded, warnings given for poor air quality. The German Shepard next door is barking and the sound carries very well on the particulate matter.




I'm still on Mountain Time, and on the bad food diet of Crisco and red licorice. Nothing seems right, so, might as well mow the lawn before it starts raining. What other icky chores await? My cheerful self, currently still upstairs sleeping, might say, "Well, at least the sun came up."

Rabbit Rabbit

Some of my favorite old non-people friends on this latest trip include:

Chimney Rock

The wide Missouri at Ponca State Park

Downtown Omaha from a distance

And the wild angry blue brombie outside DIA

Happy September.