Tooling through the Cemetery

Spring 1986

White convertible,
1976 VW Beetle,
and Richard,
taking photos
of Daffodil Hill.

Spring 2010

White convertible,
2010 Volvo C70,
and Loren,
taking photos
of Daffodil Hill.

New Car

Top going down



Top going up

How's that for engineering?

Even the birds are happy about it.

My Back: Part 3

I managed to walk around the block today. Progress!

The trickiest part was putting my shoes on.

My Back

It seems much better today. Maybe I have escaped the gasp-inducing pain I have experienced before.

Keeping my fingers crossed.

Oh, my aching back!

Back pain is debilitating. I feel as if I am a decrepit old woman who can barely shuffle across the floor. Of course, that is only once I have conquered the pain of going from a sitting position to standing.

How did I manage to do this? I don’t remember any excruciating moment of knowing that I injured myself. My Sweetie reminded me that I was putting luggage away yesterday. Since I had to bend over to reach into the storage area in the knee wall of the third floor, I must have hurt my back then.

Time for pain medication.

Fusion Fest

For five years Cleveland has celebrated new works and combined art forms with Fusion Fest. This afternoon we took in two works at the Cleveland Playhouse that featured four actors from the Playhouse, five members of GroundWorks, one of our favorite local dance companies, and seven members of the Cleveland Orchestra.

The first piece, Catch and Release, was the more successful of the two for me. The well-trained and evocative GroundWorks dancers handled the difficult choreography of David Shimotakahara with energy and grace. Having live music played by the Orchestra members enhanced to the effectiveness of the piece.

The second piece, A Soldier’s Tale, had received excellent reviews. It did not live up to them as far as my Sweetie and I were concerned. Stravinsky’s music was sublime, the dancing riveting but the play fell flat. Maybe it was simply that it did not live up to the hype.

Both pieces projected images on the dance floor as well as above and behind the orchestra. Some of these enhanced the action. At the end they showed a photo of the Eddie Slovik, who was the first soldier to be executed for desertion since the Civil War. But then they showed home movies of a middle class family celebrating Christmas. If this was supposed to represent his family, it failed since Eddie’s home life was portrayed as very different from that.

I wonder what next year’s festival will bring.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Bottom, Flute, Quince, Snout, Snug and Starveling as Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band? Was Charles Fee, director of Great Lakes Theater Festival, under the influence of a medicinal herb when he decided to set Shakespeare’s comedy in London of the 1960’s?

If so, he should do it more often. The Beatle’s lyrics were sublime in this play of love and the fairy world.

It is a superb production that should not be missed by my local friends. I guarantee that you will come out with a huge grin on your face, a song in your heart, and a skip in your step.

Signs of Spring

Yesterday it was the scent of laundry dried outside; today it is the scent of newly-cut grass.

Spring is definitely here.

Earth Day and Sheets

One of the true pleasures of my life is hanging sheets and pillowcases outside to dry when nice weather arrives. No laundry detergent or fabric softener has been able to replicate the freshness of the outdoors. I also feel virtuous that I am not using any energy to dry them. Fortunately, neither my Sweetie nor I have any allergies.

There is also something meditative about the process. Once the wet bed linens are liberated from the washer and taken outside, I proceed to wash the line before hanging them. I am always amazed at the dark streak on the rag. I wonder what our lungs look like.

Then I shake the pillowcases, one by one, and use two wooden clothes pins per case to hang them. Then it is the fitted sheet’s turn. I always pin them unevenly so that the pockets are offset for better drying time. Finally, I throw the top sheet over the line in the same way.

When they are dry, I become almost intoxicated from the fresh smell as I take them off the line. As I fold the top sheet into a small rectangle, I bury my face in it.

I am reminded of my mother.

The Blind Side

An amazing film. It makes me sad to think of the many young people who never get the opportunity that Michael did.

This video includes interviews with Michael and the Tuohys.

Evening with Champions

Here are some clips and photos from my exhausting weekend. It really was a fantastic time. And it is for such a great cause: The Jimmy Fund. The Jimmy Fund supports the fight against cancer at Boston's Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Evening with Champions has held an annual show since 1970.

I love that the Zamboni has the Harvard crest on it.

In the video from about the 3:49 mark Dorothy Hamill and Paul Wylie skate a duet. I could watch them skate all evening.






Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Traveling is Wearing

After 10 1/2 hours of sleep last night, I thought that I would bounce back from my weekend.

I did manage a not-so-brisk walk around the block. I deadheaded a handful of daffodils. I washed the dinner dishes. I finished reading a mystery. I petted the cats. I watched a dvd with my Sweetie.

But I am still exhausted. Is this part of getting older?

When Life Interferes with Blogging

Having spent the weekend in Boston (Cambridge, actually) immersed in watching ice skating and rubbing elbows with the elite of the figure skating world (minus the Kween as avid fans call Michelle Kwan), I am too exhausted to write what I should have on Friday and Saturday nights.

But since three people have commented on my lack of blogging, I feel compelled to at least declare that I am indeed alive and I shall return.

A Recent Visitor

Imagine our surprise when a Great Blue Heron landed in our neighbor’s yard. He stood there for a few minutes and then effortlessly lifted into the air with his long legs streaming out behind him. Lovely.

Precious - Not My Usual Movie Fare

I almost couldn’t watch it but it was something I wanted to see.

The acting was absolutely amazing. Gabby Sidibe, an unknown, deserved her Oscar nomination. I did not recognize Mariah Carey as the social worker.

One of my favorite lines is “They sound like TV channels I don’t watch.” Precious is talking about her teacher, Ms Rain, and her partner.

Shortly after the novel was published in 1996, the movies came calling. But Sapphire said that she wanted the book to have a life of its own.

It definitely is a film “For Precious Girls Everywhere”.

Stubborn Wii

Yesterday the Wii acted just like a child when asked to perform in front of company. The balance board refused to turn on. Just as a parent would describe what the child could do if she only would, I tried to explain what one could do on the Wii Fitness Plus. It just isn’t the same.

I changed its batteries. No luck.

This morning it was time for troubleshooting.

I synced it again. No luck.

Next step turn the Wii console off and unplug it for a few seconds. Plug it back in. Turn it on.

Sync it again. Success!

I hate it when electronics won’t talk to each other.

WOW!

An exclamation, yes, but so much more.

Once a month for four hours five diverse women come together and magic happens.

We range in age from 49 to 64. Three are still working. Two have grandchildren. There are two PhD’s, one JD, one MLS, and one BS.

We take turns hosting. Besides providing sustenance for our bodies, the host is responsible for a writing prompt since WOW stands for Writing on Wednesdays. Tho meeting on Wednesdays is the exception rather than the rule. But no matter when we meet, we share our lives and our writing.

We had to extend our meetings from three hours to four and include lunch because socializing was cutting into our writing time.

After lunch, we settle into comfy chairs prepared to write. Prompts have ranged from a collection of objects to game pieces to calendar pages to cards from The Writer’s Toolbox. I am still astounded by the writing that these summon.

WOW! Nothing more needs to be said.

Cat Fight

Last evening when we arrived home around 11:30, a black cat ran away from our front porch and dashed up the driveway and through the back yard.

Inside the house Callie, our 14-year-old tortoiseshell, and 636.8 aka Six, our 13-year-old ginger cat, were milling around the foyer. Then we noticed a dozen or so tufts of black and yellow fur on the hardwood floor.

Callie and Six co-exist peacefully about 90% of the time. Callie would like it better if it were 100% since Six pounces on her. When we are around, we can stop him by simply saying, “Six", in that parental voice that says you will die if you continue on the path you have chosen or, at the very least, be banished to the gulag, i.e. basement.

Since there is usually no carnage in his ambushes, we were amazed to see it last night.

Suddenly I heard Six yowl. He was looking out the dining room window. “Oh,” I said, “I bet the black cat caused this. Six was probably so frustrated that he took it out on Callie.”

Today normal relations have resumed. So far Six has not pounced.

Salon

My Sweetie and I belong to a salon that meets every other month to discuss a book, a movie, a topic - whatever the hosts select.

Tonight was an especially lively discussion on a book that all but one of us had read as adolescents: The Catcher in the Rye. One had read it at three different times in his life: as an adolescent, as a high school librarian, and now as an older adult.

Some of us had no patience for Holden’s adolescent self-centeredness; one found him quite amusing.

Since J. D. Salinger led a life of seclusion, we do not know how much of the book was autobiographical. But surely, the references to war and the army were based on his experience during World War II. Perhaps the whole book is about the battle fatigue he suffered.

Some were surprised to discover that the book had been published in 1951. They thought that it was surely written in the 1960s.

But we all agreed that the food and company was excellent.

Movies That Are Not Amusing

Our Netflix copy of Inglourious Basterds had been sitting on the shelf for almost two weeks. Neither my Sweetie nor I had been in the mood for it but tonight I suggested that we start watching it.

Two hours and 33 minutes later of being in an alternative universe (as one person put it), I can see why Christoph Waltz won the Oscar for best supporting actor. He was riveting.

Maybe now we will watch Precious which has been with us almost as long.

Snow in the Forecast

A friend called this afternoon wondering if she should pick all her daffodils, hyacinths, and tulips.

My advice? I told her that it wasn’t going to be cold enough for a hard freeze so they should weather tonight’s colder temperatures.

Then she asked what did a hard freeze mean. I explained that it would have to be below freezing. Since the ground is so warm from our summer temperatures, the plants should be fine.

Of course, since I am a retired reference librarian, I had to see if there was a quantitative definition of a hard freeze.

The American Meteorology Association’s defines it as “a freeze in which seasonal vegetation is destroyed, the ground surface is frozen solid underfoot, and heavy ice is formed on small water surfaces such as puddles and water containers.”

It sounds as if all the spring flowers will survive.

My Sweetie’s Birthday

65 years ago a baby boy was born in Atascadero, California. Thank goodness!

Without him I would garden alone.
Without him I would bowl against the Wii.
Without him I would do the grocery shopping.
Without him I would cook.
Without him I would take the trash to the curb.
Without him I would watch movies alone.
Without him I would have no one to talk to when I go to bed.

April 7, 1945 was my lucky day.

Summertime and the Living Is Easy

Today's high of 85 set another record. We may break another tomorrow since the forecast calls for a high of 84.

The crocuses have croaked and the early daffodils are fading fast.

But if I had to choose between that and what happened on April 6, 2007, I would take the heat.

Reach Out and See Someone

My sister and brother-in-law had a water feature installed at the Wilmington house. This afternoon I got to see and hear it with the use of video chat. As she and I “walked” around the yard, I saw the weeping redbud blooming as well as the dogwood and the azaleas that were just opening. It was great to see the pansies that she and I planted last fall doing so well.

Video chat was almost as good as being there.

Reconnecting with Old Friends

A few days ago I received an email with this subject: “how the heck are you??”

Kathy, who was one of my colleagues when I was the branch manager of a public library, was asking if we could get together. What started out as a plan for lunch some time over the Easter weekend became an invitation for my Sweetie and me to come to her house for dinner today.

What a lovely evening it was. Kathy, who is the same age as my oldest daughter, and Jeff have two delightful children. Becca shared the fantasy novel she is writing and Sam showed me all the fantasy series he is reading. I shared Simon’s Cat, an instant hit with all of them.

We talked about old times and future plans. We laughed at the antics of Darci, their rescued greyhound.

What a delightful evening.

****

For those of you who may not know Simon’s cat, here is one of my favorites.

Now That’s More Like it!

Weather in Northeast Ohio is changeable like many areas of the world that are located near a large body of water. Yesterday’s 86 degrees was a record-breaking high and 34 degrees above normal. Today is the third day in a row of temperatures above 80.

This heat wave is accelerating our spring blooms. The lilac buds are almost ready to open. Fortunately, this afternoon temperatures dropped more than 20 degrees. We went from doing garden cleanup in shorts and tank tops to closing all the doors and windows when the chilly winds swept everything off the dining room table.

However, this week's forecast calls for temps still at least 20 degrees above our normal high of 50. Hopefully, our spring bloomers "won't go south" as my Sweetie said this evening.

What Happened to Spring?

82 degrees in the shade today! Mother Nature, I know you are going to do what you want but the crocuses are croaking.

Mii, My Sweetie Mii, and Wii

This evening my Sweetie and I bowled together. Since we have never bowled together in real life, I didn’t know what to expect. I wondered if his superior upper body strength would make a difference. Or would my minutes of practice minimize that?

Those who know me well know how competitive I am (no comments about that, please). I was just happy that he was willing to play with me.

And we had a good time! It is amazing how well the Wii simulates the bowling alley. Music is playing; other players are talking. The sound of the pins falling is spot on. Best of all there are no garish bowling shirts or smokers.

A rematch is scheduled for tomorrow. Yes, I did win all four games. My Sweetie just said that in the interest of a harmonious marriage I should let him win at least one game.