Monday, September 6th, 2010
Miners with Their Children – at the Labor Day Celebration, Silverton, Colorado. September 1940. (Russell Lee, photographer)
Happy Labor Day!
Here in the United States, Labor Day has traditionally been the demarcation line between summer and fall…the day after which most kids return to school. (Though in recent years, schools have been opening the last week in August.) It’s always hot and sticky, and minds are rarely on curriculum.
But for the last few days, I’ve been waking to 50° (F) temperatures and days that have barely peaked at 70°. Unusual. It certainly feels like Fall.
I love this time of year!
I love crisp air in the morning, the smell of woodsmoke, and leaves crunching under my feet.
(We’ve been keeping the windows open all day, and as much as my allergies are screaming, I can’t help but enjoy it. The house smells great with the wind whisking through it, driving away the stale, conditioned air. The house feels brighter and bigger – as if it’s grown a bit. I really enjoy crawling into cool, clean sheets at the end of a work day…)
I look forward to baking bread from scratch, making stew, and for the first time in about a decade: going back to school — though my class doesn’t start until September 10, and I’ll be teaching!
To those of you celebrating Labor Day today…I hope you have a terrific day. (To those of you not celebrating – I hope you have a terrific day as well!)
I plan to get outside and enjoy the weather while it’s still mild…what are your plans for the day?
Monday, May 31st, 2010
 On this Memorial Day, I’m remembering those in my family who’ve served.
That handsome fellow on the right is my great-Uncle Frank.
Frank Michalski served for many years in Germany, where he met the love of his life, my great-Aunt Lidia. Marriage between American soldiers and German women was forbidden at the time. Although my Aunt Lidia was from the Ukraine, she fell into the same group since she was a working woman in Germany.
Love conquers all, however, as does bribery. For a few cartons of cigarettes, the chaplain married them.
Frank was one of the lucky ones. He came home after the war, bringing Lidia with him.
Left of Frank is my great-Uncle Walter Rakowski. He was a bachelor through-and-through.
Walt gave his life in Germany. I never knew him.
This day, I raise a glass and salute them…and the others in my family who have served. I light a candle for the souls of those who’ve passed.
Just as I remember those closest to me, I remember the troops I’ve never met. Those who’ve served our country faithfully in the past, and those who are serving now. You’re in my thoughts today and most days.
Thank you, to all the men and women who serve our country.
Monday, May 10th, 2010
 I left for work in a hurry today, and forgot my lunch..left it right on the counter next to the coffee pot.
That meant Chinese for lunch, because, well, you know my propensity for Chinese. (Perhaps if Moe’s hadn’t have closed up shop across the street, I may have gone there today. But, well, no such luck.)
I was handed a cookie after I paid my tab. I got to the car, buckled in, slid out of the parking space and onto the road… the tension is building here, can you feel it? Then I unwrapped the cookie and snapped it in two, only to discover…no fortune.
Nothing. Not even a blank paper ribbon. I’m not sure if that would have been worse. (Perhaps this was karma at work, getting me back for that time I received too many fortunes in my cookie?)
I almost — almost – turned the car back into the parking lot so that could go ask for another cookie, but I stopped myself just in time.
Still, it had me bummed for the brief ride back to work.
Would you have gone back for another cookie, or accepted the unfortunate circumstances?
Sunday, April 4th, 2010
 I hope the Easter Bunny brought you something chocolate, or chocolate and peanut butter, or chocolate and coconut, or…you get the picture!
Tuesday, March 30th, 2010
 I’m one of those people who abhors having my photo taken. Because I’m so stiff in front of the camera, the photographer usually has to take a zillion shots to get a halfway decent pic. Inevitably, once it’s over, we’re both mad at each other and I’m exhausted.
Unpleasant, to say the least.
But, I needed a new author photo for the Eternal Press Web site. I also needed a photo for a new column I’m writing for the The North Eye monthly newsletter. I guess when two folks come knocking, it’s time to get things done. I buckled.
(In reality, I could have sent them both the same old photo I’ve been using…but it just felt the like the right time for an upgrade. You know?)
I put my hair in rollers for this shoot. Can you tell? It’s all smooth and shiny, not my usual wildness! And the curls are so bouncy that my hair looks much shorter than it actually is. Nonetheless, I think this pic is halfway decent, except for the smooth coiffure….in retrospect, I’d prefer my Medusa snarls.
Still, not half bad. And my big crystal spider is visible. Spiders: always a plus.
Sunday, March 14th, 2010
 Today is Pi Day!
The Greek letter Pi is the symbol for the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. It’s celebrated on March 14, (3/14) because the first few digits of Pi are 3.14. (Today is also Albert Einstein’s birthday…he didn’t discover Pi, but he’s geeky coolness unto himself. )
Pi is unique because it’s the only fraction which does not repeat. The folks over at Pi Day.org have links to Pi’s first million digits. Very cool.
Over at 360, they have a Pi Day Sudoko. (I’ve linked to last year’s puzzle, btw; this year’s doesn’t look so cool…)
I’ve always liked Pi (I’m a little Geeky that way…). I remember in school having to memorize it out to 15 digits for an exam…3.14159 is about all I can remember these days. I’m good with that: it’s probably all I need to know it in order to write.
Thursday, March 4th, 2010
Yesterday, after the reading at the Library of Congress, Colleen treated us to lunch at a Chinese restaurant. (I got “Happy Family,” btw, one of my favorites.) And, of course, at the end, we were treated to fortune cookies.
I’ve talked before on my blog about fortune cookies. I’m certain it won’t be the last time. [Because Chinese, like cheese and chocolate, is one of the four major food groups. (The fourth is salt.)]
Here’s a photo of my cookie…and for the record, there were seven fortunes inside, although some were duplicated.
(Yes, dear Broads, I smuggled that cookie into my purse and managed not to crush it during the LC tour, the crushing metro ride, or eventual drive home. And I was hungry on the drive home…very hungry.)
And, poor thing, after surviving the humiliating and cramped confines of my purse, I made it pose on a red background like some harlot, for your viewing pleasure.
Then I ate it.
(And it wasn’t stale it all…which is kind of scary, really, if you think about it, considering it had been nearly nine hours from lunch until photo shoot. Fortune cookies must have the same half-life as Twinkies™.)
Monday, February 15th, 2010
 …enough already!
We get the picture. There’s no such thing as global warming.
Now, please stop.
Signed,
The Northeastern United States and Beyond
Just when I thought it was safe to go outside again…the snow makes another appearance. It’s hard to believe it’s snowing again (and that another storm is predicted for next weekend).
We’ve had a bit of thaw since the last, but not much.
Most of the road are finally clear. The animals have just started venturing out again.
I’m really not up to shoveling anymore.
[The pic was taken by a friend of the family down in southern Maryland on Thursday 2/11/2010.]
Tuesday, February 9th, 2010
We were hit with just shy of 30 inches of snow on Friday and Saturday. It was undeniably pretty…for about the first 10 inches…and then things got hairy.
Luckily, we didn’t lose power (as we have so many times)–there’s a reason we keep a generator handy in the garage. But keeping up with the shoveling proved exhausting.
We have a huge snowblower – you’ll see why we do in the driveway picture below….our drive is more than 400 feet long and has an incline of about 30 degrees. It’s no easy feat to clear off after a big snow.
When a big snow comes along, we blow it off every few hours…but this storm came through in the wee hours of the morning. We focused on keeping the heat pumps clear. We still couldn’t keep the ice from forming on them.
To get to the snow early Saturday morning, we had to shovel a path for the blower to go up the drive. Then we could let it do its work…but the wet, slushy snow underneath couldn’t be thrown.
Here’s a shot of my husband’s hands nearly an hour after we’d come in. Four-plus hours of shoveling and snow-blower wrangling will do this to you. I shoveled just as much, but my hands weren’t so bad.
We managed to clear a path wide enough for a vehicle, but the pad below and the sides of the drive we let go. Finally, we called a snow plow to do the rest of the work.
Here are some shots of the snow around the area, nothing pretty…just a few photos to show you the depth.
| These are our electrical and cable boxes, nearly covered in snow. |
| The view up my driveway…after we finally hired someone with a snow plow to clear what we were too exhausted to manage. |
| The Great Wall of Snow created by the snow plow. I’m convinced that if the plow had done the job from the beginning, this wall would have been over six feet, not just chest high. |
It’s currently snowing…and the weather guys are predicting 10-to-18 more inches. Should be interesting!
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The LAST Sacrifice, Hank Hanegraaff & Sigmund Brouwer
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