Checking In

When the work week wrings you out, the creative writing juices pretty much dry up. Not that they were ever overflowing anyway.

Yesterday was Barb's birthday. We were invited to Liz and Ryan's to enjoy Angel, Annabel, and Max. Stephanie and Henry came over, too, and we ate a Baskin-Robbins green chocolate mint cake and watched Survivor Man eat old salmon and get burned out of his shelter. Barb opened her gifts. Angel had found a flattened metal whistle at school and cut it apart and flattened it again to make a Mickey Mouse eared do-dad that we'll glue a magnet to for the frig. Pretty creative gal.




It was back home early - we had to be at work this morning at 6:00.

Complacency

Spring is being upstaged today as sneaky summer temps creep down the valley. We're expecting a high of 95 degrees tomorrow or Tuesday. Get out those t-shirts and shorts - for a few days at least.

Shock can be good. Water in the face - a dive into a cold pool - a near miss on the road - back to reality and appreciation for all that is normal.

This red rose shocks my complacency for viewing God's creation with blinders on most of the time. Shame on me!

Hey, Big Spender!

Uncle Sam is getting an ear full today, now that his new nickname is Big Spender. Hundreds of Tea Party protests (not the "dozens" reported on CBS radio news at 4 p.m.) were staged throughout the country as taxpayers vented and voiced their opinion on runaway government spending. Maybe there was one in your town, too. Maybe you attended. Maybe you don't mind being labeled as one of the right wingers who may end up in a clandestine militia group which is bent on overthrowing the USA.

My guess is that even if you didn't stand up and carry a sign, you were there in spirit - part of the silent majority.

That silence will turn to shouting come November 2010.

Sacrosanctity Lost

It was only a matter of time on the slippery slope to the depths of depravity that the fast food gang joined the marketable sex ad campaign. In sync with the porn craze, all things on the 'soft' side of triple X are becoming mainstream. In an America that once protected itself and especially its kids from in-your-face and gratuitious perversion, the tide has now turned, and all things sexual are beaching like huge dead (albeit, very perfumed) whales.

God tells us, "Woe unto him who calls evil good and good evil." Isaiah 5:20

Living On the Edge

Safety wasn't the number one priority in 1905 college football, and it hadn't improved much by 1923.

"In 1923 at Iowa State, Jack Trice, their first black football player wrote, 'My thoughts just before the first real college game of my life: The honor of my race, family & self is at stake. Everyone is expecting me to do big things. I will. My whole body and soul are to be thrown recklessly about the field tomorrow. Every time the ball is snapped, I will be trying to do more than my part. On all defensive plays I must break through the opponents' line and stop the play in their territory. Beware of mass interference. Fight low, with your eyes open and toward the play. Watch out for crossbacks and reverse end runs. Be on your toes every minute if you expect to make good. Jack.' He died from injuries suffered in the game."

The Wow Factor

Those of us who live and work in the Asphalt Jungles of America can't wait to get out of town and head for the wide outdoors, breathe in some relatively cleaner air, and fill our heads with the wonder of God's creation (as fallen as it is, it's still beautiful).

Poppy lovers of the world, this is your time to visit your local poppy fields!

You'll see a million of them at Hwy 49 and Electra Road, just south of Jackson, CA. Or if you can't make it, a few pictures may help quench your thirst.

ESC Hype

That's 'Embryonic Stem Cell Hype' for most of us who only read headlines and never hear about the details.

Here are a couple of well-written pieces that might clear up some of your questions.

Behind the Beauty

This is the sure way to ruin a perfectly good picture - add a spider or two.

Timex Trivia

Our October journey to Paso Robles and the All-60s Reunion has left wonderful memories to muse. The only regret and misfortune was misplacing/losing my favorite wristwatch, a super-lightweight Timex Expedition Camper with a worn and grubby band and badly scratched (plastic) crystal.

We scoured the house for the little ticker to no avail. I retraced my steps, tried to remember anything that would give a hint or clue as to its hiding place and finally gave up, hoping it would turn up after we left.

I've bought another, more expensive Expedition which I don't like and a cheap $10 backup for knock-around use. Both stare at me in the bedroom, vainly trying to tick, tick, tick their chronometric way into my heart.

Life has gone on now for six months. Six months of finally losing all hope of seeing my old friendly timepiece. Six months of fading memories.

The story ended this morning as I got dressed for church and found what had been tucked into my pants pocket so many months earlier.

Do you have the bill of materials/estimate from the house you're living in? Probably not. It was most likely built by someone you never met (or now wish you hadn't). In the old days, you bought the materials yourself and built your dream home with your own two hands, along with your brothers and sons and friends.

We don't work on our own cars anymore, either. Unless we happen to have a pre-smog clunker.

People had a great advantage in the past --- the art and ability to make and fix their own stuff. May God have pity on us!

Oh, this is a bill of materials for one of my grandfather's houses on Lawrence Drive in San Luis Obispo.

Not A Drought Year in California

"Rain in California. --- A rain gauge carefully kept and registered by Dr. Snell, of Sonora, shows that from the 11th of Eleventh month, 1861, to the 14th of the First month, 1862, seventy-two inches of rain fell at that place."

From the publication, The Friend.

California Earthquake on October 21, 1868

"On the 21st instant an earthquake was felt throughout a large part of the State, and in some places considerable damage was done to property. In San Francisco several of the public buildings suffered severely. The U.S. Marine Hospital and City Hall have been condemned as unsafe, and will have to be rebuilt. The total loss in this city is supposed to be between one and two millions. Alameda county suffered the most. Near San Leandro there were numerous fissures in the earth, from some of which came clouds of dust, and from others volumes of water. San Leandro creek, which had been dry for months, is now a rapidly running stream. At San Leandro and various other villages, the brick buildings were thrown down or rendered uninhabitable, and many of the wooden structures much damaged. At San Jose and Brachear City also, the destruction of property was great. No loss of life is mentioned. Slight shocks were felt in San Francisco on the 23rd and 25th inst., the last was of considerable duration, and caused alarm to the citizens."

From the publication The Friend.

Licking The Scorpion

All granddaughters share a number of things, including the ability to be cute no matter what they're doing. Some granddaughters love the wild and woolly, especially this one who wears a laminated scorpion necklace and is currently sucking on a real-dead scorpion sucker. Can you see the foreleg sticking out of the candy? Yummy!

"O, LORD . . . You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them. How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them!" Psalm 139:13-17

Where Have All the Flowers Gone?

An early morning March of Dimes fundraiser in the S-Mart parking lot left me bereft of reason as I tried to figure out what saving babies had to do with heavy metal/megadeath style of music. Hey, I like electric guitar even when it gently weeps, but this stuff was a strictly minor key meltdown. Yeow! The bass and drum beats reminded me of the slashing in Psycho. Stab . . . Stab . . . Stab some more. You get the idea.

Maybe I'm old fashioned. More definitely than maybe. I just hope there weren't any still-in-the-womb kids hanging out close by that were abused by the cacophony.



Or maybe I just don't appreciate the fine art art (sic) form presented by the dark side, as quintessentially presented by the band Infernal Method: "This is strictly a pantagraphic hauntography of proto-mantic motherworlds. Mysteriograms of toposonic radiances are deconstructed and raptoluminal resonances at residual numinophillic nemeta sites are reiterated in the mycoboreal precincts."

Cootsville At the Ritz

We visited our friends' upper crust recreation center yesterday. It is the focal point of a housing development where 55+ coots and cootettes pay an extra $155 a month to enjoy a panoply of activities. What a place! A first-class "guaranteed-to-keep-you-busy" facility. Everything from golf to a full-sized softball field, including scoreboard. Pretty tempting, but I haven't entered my old coot phase yet, and I surely don't have and extra $300k to buy a house and shell out $155 a month on top of it.

We'll just visit when I get in the mood to play ball.