Tracking the sun

Since Christmas this graceful swirl of metal around bright glass balls has hung in the breezeway.

I have admired the shape and sparkle, and the fact that the metal color is exactly the same color as the blinds behind it.  This morning I decided that it was finally warm enough to open those blinds.

Lo and behold! The sun is finally far enough North to strike the glass and make wonderful shards of light around the room.

Also noted: some one needs to wash those windows....

"R"???

There was a brief time between snows when the front walk was merely wet.  

There I found this carefully arranged message from the universe:  "R".  

It was unexpected.  The very medium of frozen worm was unanticipated.

And despite the clear attempt to communicate, I am left with many unanswered questions.

"R"???

Our own disapproving rabbit

"EXCUSE me -- this is a private conversation!"

Backyard Horror

No picture will accompany this morning's observations - first of all because it's raining buckets and second because, yuck!

I was squishing my way down the hill to the farthest bird feeder this morning in dreary rain. I was keeping a sharp eye (as sharp as possible early in the morning with cold water dripping off my nose) out for the suet feeder that the raccoon made off with last week.

I didn't find the suet feeder. What I found was a backyard bunny. A leaping bunny. Frozen in the act of leaping. A bunny that had been in the lily garden and was leaving it. Not by the hole in the gate that's big enough for a dog to get through. By a tiny hole in the wire fence. A small hole big enough for the bunny's head. For the bunny's shoulders. For the bunny's belly. But not for the unfortunate bunny's hips.

There it hung, front feet on the ground, hind feet in the air, caught by its hips and unable to wiggle free. Stiff by the time I spy it, eyes glazing over and fur sodden in the rain.

Now what? Do I try to push or pull it out of the hole? Um, actually I don't really want to touch it. Let nature take its course? Why not?

Well, there's the dog to worry about. The dog I caught ripping apart a randomly dead cardinal last week. The dog who would be thrilled to find a bunny body in her yard and would take advantage of the opportunity to show us that a dog really should eat raw meat instead of special kidney diet dog food. That dog.

What am I doing about it?

Thinking: Maybe the rain will stop. Maybe something will come along and carry the carcass off.

Maybe I'll deal with it later.

"Dust off and go on"???

What???

These are cough drops, folks, things you take when you are feeling miserable.

What brilliant mind thought I needed annoying platitudes to go with my sore throat?

What you couldn't take a picture of anyway

So early in the morning I'm dreaming the usual escape-from-the-apocolypse dream when suddenly...

an advertisement pops up.

An ad? What's an ad doing in my dream!

I am so indignant that I wake right up.

Umm...I might be spending too much time on line.

Limit exceeded? Who knew there was a limit!

Yes, I've finally officially posted too many pictures.

I was just getting ready to post a dozen very interesting pictures of our weekend in Louisville visiting my dad's elderly cousin and staying in an unusual bed-and-breakfast...with a fascinating trip to the cemetery...and a few cute pictures of geese and squirrels.

I know you're disappointed.

I'll have to figure out a way to continue the well-documented life.

In the meantime, use your imagination.

Sometimes the best stories aren't in the headlines

This is why I read the classifieds....

Cleaning

I picked up The Fifth Elephant, a disc-world novel by Terry Pratchett, to carry it downstairs and shelve. Opened it up to a page and read:

"All he knew was that you couldn't hope to try for the big stuff, like world peace and happiness, but you might just about be able to acieve some tiny deed that'd make the world, in a small way, a better place."

Figure this is a great quote for someone who just spent a lovely sunny summer Sunday afternoon cleaning the toilet.

Clearing out

Clearing out a file drawer for a new project...what emerges?

Mementos of teaching before computers - the hand-typed syllabus with the white-out corrections, the badly reproduced dittoed handouts, the class list typed on a form - they were all there in neatly labeled files -

and the things I saved to share with classes

a cover from a review journal ....

photo-copies of trendy articles...

...and interesting bits of newspapers.

All carefully preserved - what did I think? The 80's would come again? It's all in the recycle bin now!

Cutting styles

What I do with a pair of scissors: What the Bloomingtonaut does with a pair of scissors:

This fantastic cut-out is an Indigo Bunting which arrived yesterday decorating a card.

Isn't it incredible?

Earth Day

In honor of Earth Day, here's a little woodland stream to contemplate...

And, sadly, here's why we need to educate and motivate everyone:

I walked up to this waterfall in Cascade Park and found two nearly full fast food drinks left on a rock -

and two women hurrying away down the path - which goes directly to a shelter house and trash container.

Just another time when planning ahead didn't work...

So I was all proud of myself for composing a birthday post for The Dessert Child in advance! Yes, I actually found a picture and got it all together last week! And I told blogger to post it TODAY, which is the actual real birthday date. Oh what techno prowess!
I logged in to admire my excellent fore-planning - and the post wasn't there! No! Where did it go?
Oh shoot - I found it. Hidden away in last week. So it was posted today as if it was posted last Saturday? So much for planning ahead.

Road under construction

I haven't gotten out much since last October, when Granddad first got sick.

So I haven't really gotten accustomed to the construction on the bypass.

I am still surprised every time I leave the house.

Fascinating if I think about it as if I had a three year old boy with me to watch it. Granddad is gratifyingly interested when he gets out, so he is my little boy substitute.

Such huge machines! I started taking pictures out the car window, especially of the intersection with our road.
Every week something changes.
Here's a picture from one week when our road was blocked.
The arrow points to our intersection.
Good thing we have a back way in.

Wait - what happened to the other side of this bridge? I'm sure it was there the last time I went to the grocery.
I really want to stop the car and take some pictures that do justice to the mess.

However, there is now no place to get off the road...

But traffic inches along in a slow moving tangle and I manage to snap one or two shots when the car is stopped.

Two years of this, they say.

What have we here?

Hummm....

It's red, but not a valentine. Looks like the caterpillar in "Alice in Wonderland". Except it's not blue. Still, I can imagine it saying "whooo are yooou?" and sitting on a mushroom.

And it may well end up sitting on a mushroom at that.

I am just admiring one of the peppers from last year's CSA, now dried to become pepper flakes in tonight's soup.

Fiction slithers into the landscape

I have just finished reading this tentacled book in which all manner of "squiddity" occurs

and now find myself seeing portents and signs everywhere.

Hand cream Ancient Egyptians may have used still good today!

We are beginning yet another round of treating Granddad for a C-dif infection.

This involves a LOT of hand-washing.

With soap.

(It is a mystery to me how anyone involved in medical care manages to keep their hands from drying out and flaking off with all the constant hand washing.)

I am going through a ton of hand lotion, which I no sooner put on than I wash it off again.
Fortunately I have lots of hand lotion which has been sitting around for years.

By years I mean decades.

I am pulling out bottles from the back of the cabinet.

Like this one:

Not a contemporary design.

I begin some archaeological analysis.

We can date the design to 1988.

The sticker shows it was bought at Phar-mor (which went bankrupt around 2001 I think).

Phar-mor was an anchor store in the Huntington Mall.
My mother had very dry skin and we were always trying to give her lotions and creams to help with it. Some she liked and used up and others were so full that after she died I brought them home so they wouldn't go to waste.

I'm guessing that this was a present to her 23 years ago...and you know what?

It is still pretty soothing.

And after I use this up, I'll bet there are even older lotions waiting!

Wipe down

Yesterday was "Clean Granddad's Room" day.

Every surface had to be wiped down with a bleach solution...

from the ceilings to the floors, and all the stuff in between.

Thank goodness I had hard-working help! We wore our cleaning rags to pieces!

Stone cold

This morning was icy and snowy. Schools were closed and our driveway unplowed.

So I walked to the nursing home to see Granddad.

There are sculptured figures tucked into the landscaping around the retirement center.
The snow made them more noticeable than usual.
I was reminded of the statues I admired in the cemetery this past summer.
Sort of solemn figures to set around a nursing home, I thought.

Then I caught sight of a bright red hat and scarf decorating a different sort of statue.
Here's a figure celebrating vigor...

but he does look cold!

Invisible fingers

As you walk into the hospital lobby you hear someone playing the piano.

There - see the piano:

See the player? No? Don't you think this is a little creepy?