The Curious World,
Heads Into August

8/29/06:
I read interesting things, or run across interesting things here and there, then set them aside to share later. It is not unusual for these things to languish where I left them, hoping for my attention. I may have mentioned this tendency before...

Back in June I copied an obituary from the New York Times that caught my eye and have just now run across it again, in a file on my computer in which I keep such things. James Cameron died in June, he was 92. I had never heard of the man, have you? Maybe you have, maybe you saw something on the news about him back in June? I don't have any idea if his death was on the news, I watch so little TV these days. The picture to the left links to a copy of the NYT obituary (I shortened it a bit), so click on it. I think the picture, of a lynching "party", was on a picture postcard from back in the "good old days", back when people knew what morality was and so therefore knew a good postcard when they saw it. I had saved it alongside the obituary and am not sure of its source. Mr. Cameron established The Black Halocaust Museum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, so that we could remember those days, when he was a young man.

We have moved away from that violence of the past. Mr. Cameron worked to keep the memory of that past alive, for we cannot learn and grow if we do not remember. Life is amazing; our history as humans and as Americans is also amazing. We have come a long way and that history is there to guide us and inspire us. We need leaders who will give us a positive future to yearn for. There is much yet to be done.

If you want to build a ship, don't drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.- Antoine de Saint-Exupery

8/28/06 (more):
In the midst of an insane work week I was able to make it down to see Kira last Wednesday evening. I got to see her new apartment and meet the cat.

I took a few pictures holding the camera out and pointing it at us- two turned out okay. To see them, click on the closeup of Kira to the left.

Nobody gets to live life backward. Look ahead, that is where your future lies.- Ann Landers

8/28/06:

8/27/06:
Okay, a teeny bit more fun...

Click on the picture to the left for a video titled "All Your Snakes Belong to Us"...


"Procrastination isn't the problem, it's the solution. So procrastinate now, don't put it off."- Ellen DeGeneres

8/26/06:
Jay brought this news story worth sharing to my attention:

Teacher Arrested in New York
NEW YORK, NY - A public school teacher was arrested today at John F. Kennedy International Airport as he attempted to board a flight while in possession of a ruler, a protractor, a set square, a slide rule and a calculator.

At a morning press conference, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said he believes the man is a member of the notorious Al-Gebra movement. He did not identify the man, who has been charged by the FBI with carrying weapons of math instruction. "Al-Gebra is a problem for us," Gonzales said. "They desire solutions by means and extremes, and sometimes go off on tangents in a search of absolute value. They use secret code names like 'x' and 'y' and refer to themselves as ' unknowns', but we have determined they belong to a common denominator of the axis of medieval with coordinates in every country. As the Greek philanderer Isosceles used to say, 'There are three sides to every triangle'."

When asked to comment on the arrest, President Bush said, "If God had wanted us to have better weapons of math instruction, He would have given us more fingers and toes." White House aides told reporters they could not recall a more intelligent or profound statement by the president.

"A little government and a little luck are necessary in life, but only a fool trusts either of them."- PJ O'Rourke

8/25/06:
My cousin Diane sends me lots of interesting and informative emails, mostly because she knows I am always on the lookout for new ideas and information... or something. She keeps me informed and on my toes.

I think Diane sent me one that included the interesting ad to the left- clever idea, eh? Diane is also incredibly invested and interested in current world events, particularly in our country's airport security. If you click on the cat ad you will see a picture (beware, x-rated!) she sent me showing new airport security measures designed to keep us safe.

If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they'll kill you.- Oscar Wilde

8/20/06:
Well, I did it, I bought my new car Friday- a Hyundai Accent. I wanted a compact car with high miles per gallon since I do so much driving for my job, and wanted a very safe car. The Hyundai Accent and Honda Civic have the same crash test ratings, which are the best in this car size. The Honda gets 30/40 mpg while the Accent gets 28/37mpg. The third car I looked at was the Chevy Aveo, but I was concerned about its very small size if I needed to carry passengers. I test drove both the Honda and the Hyundai and found the latter more comfortable (I can get in and out of it easily!), with better visibility and instrumentation design, and I liked the smoothness of its acceleration onto freeways better. The price tag ($5000 less) was a clincher, since I intend to keep the vehicle for quite a while. My new car is pictured to the left, and links to information about safely adjusting head rests.

Just be what you are and speak from your guts and heart - it's all a man has.- Hubert Humphrey

8/19/06:
Today we drove up to Lynden, about an hour north of us, to go to the Northwest Washington Fair. It is a nicely organized, larger fair with lots of animals and exhibits. We walked quite a bit, got plenty of sun, and enjoyed the fair's sights.

Some of my flowers in the yard are fading with so much sun and no rain, but the dwarf sunflowers are soaking it up and getting big. Isn't that a nice picture of Jay posing with one of the sunflowers? I snapped his picture as we headed out to the fair today. Click on it to see a closeup of the sunflower.

The future is made of the same stuff as the present.- Simone Weil

8/18/06:
It was a busy day today, but more about that later. The weather today was lovely, with a high of 80 degrees, and this weather is expected to continue for at least a week. That is good news for our tomatoes...

My niece Kristin turns 23 next week on the 22nd. I made her a church sign and emailed it to her, along with birthday greetings. If you want to see it, click on the picture of Kristin to the left, from November 1983. When her mother was pregnant I got confused about the due date and kept telling people it was August 22nd... Kristin moved from her hometown in Indiana to Florida a month or so ago, after graduating from college. Kristin is a bright, creative and pretty woman, and she is off on quite an adventure. I wish her the all the best and hope she finds everything she needs to find.

I look to the future because that's where I'm going to spend the rest of my life.- George Burns

8/13/06:
The weather here has been lovely- sunny and 75 degrees- what more could you ask for? This weekend we have done one of our favorite things- piddling around. Yesterday I whacked on our spirea bush, to get it to better conform to my idea of what its size should be. We ran some errands and stopped by the Honda dealer so I could get in and out of a Civic- how much more fun can you have? A couple of months ago my left hip was bothering me and my always difficult to exit Grand Am became quite bothersome. Because of this I have decided to change vehicles and my research has focused on safety (crash test data) and fuel economy. I have settled on the Honda Civic and the Hyundai Accent, which are practically identical in both areas. The trade-in value of the Honda is much better, but it would cost me, after rebates and Costco discounts, $5000 more. The Civic was named car of the year, but came in a couple of slots behind the third-ranked Accent in initial customer satisfaction surveys. Later this week I will go check out how easy the Accent is to get out of, take it for a spin, and will let you know my exciting verdict!

Today I have mostly been cooking, and now I am full. I cleaned, parboiled and froze a batch of green beans from the garden, then cleaned and put away some potatoes. After that I shredded enough zuchinni for 6 loaves of bread, froze two thirds of it and then made two loaves- which now is down to one and a half loaves. While the bread was baking I prepared a zuchinni casserole with green chilies, onions, 1% cottage cheese, lowfat cheese, crackers, and maybe some other stuff I can't think of right now- it was yummy according to Jay.

I ran across a very, very interesting article in the New York Times about research into causes of obesity- click on the tossing salad up to the left to read it. In case you wondered, the picture just above to the right is of our tomato plants as we received them from Territorial Seed Company.

The whole problem is to establish communication with one's self.- E. B. White

8/11/06:
Wednesday evening Jay and I went to the Skagit County Fair, a little country fair held in Mount Vernon every year. We caught a show by the all-time favorite Northwest Washington celebrity, Stan Boreson. Jay grew up watching Stan's children's shows, which were on for eighteen years, until the later 1960s. Stan is getting up there in years, but you wouldn't know it watching his show. He played his accordian while singing very entertaining songs, and stopped to tell stories and jokes that had the audience laughing out loud- a fun treat. Stan does his shows all over North America, sells CDs and a DVD of his old TV shows, and has a great gig with his wife- conducting tours all over the US, Canada and even abroad. The picture of Stan to the left is off one of his earlier album covers- click it to listen (wav file) to a snippet from a song about pickled herring...

Since we were there in the evening, we ate supper at the fair, sticking to health foods like curly fries, always fat-free cotton candy, and ice cream cones. We saw the sights, looked at animal and craft exhibits, and walked about. Yet another pleasant outing...

Age to me means nothing. I can't get old; I'm working. I was old when I was twenty-one and out of work. As long as you're working, you stay young. When I'm in front of an audience, all that love and vitality sweeps over me and I forget my age.- George Burns

8/7/06:
At the beginning of the summer I began thinking about the amount of diet soda we drink and considered making cold tea. I wasn't interested in making instant tea, didn't want to go to all the trouble of steeping hot tea and then making it cold (boy that's a lot of fanning, and I have that sore shoulder...), and suspected Jay's favorite method, sun tea, wasn't really safe.

I did some internet research and quickly found lots of safety concerns with sun tea- click on '60s blonde for info. But I did run across a method for brewing cold tea that was easy, and most likely everyone else in the world but me already knew about it- refrigerator tea. You simply put tea bags in water and refrigerate it a couple of hours or overnight, then voila! Cold tea with virtually no effort. Needless to say, we have had cold tea ever since. I don't usually drink caffeine after my morning coffee because I can still feel it when I go to bed- and I like to sleep. I drink decaffeinated green, chai, ginger and ginseng teas hot, but have stuck, at Jay's behest, to decaf green tea for cold tea at home.

I know your heart must be palpitating with all the excitement of this new, ground breaking information! To check out some of the health benefits of green tea, including weight loss, click on the dancing soda...

I'm going to speak my mind because I have nothing to loose.- S. I. Hayakawa

8/5/06:
It has been extremely pleasant weather here this last week or so, mostly sunny with high temps in the upper 70s or very low 80s. Today we worked a bit in the yard/garden before heading north to Lynden's Puget Sound Antique Tractor & Machinery Association Annual Show. We had been there once before, I think in 2003. We enjoyed looking at the old farm machinery and looking through sale booths of various "antique" items (I bought a kitchen towel from the '50s or '60s), many items being ones we personally remembered as similar to ones in our childhood homes...

Before heading to Lynden though, we did a little garden/yard work. I moved some post-bloom lillies from an area we are thinking we will expand the house into, putting them under some honeysuckle that drapes on our back fence. While standing there I was startled by a squirrel clattering along the top of our wood fence at a breakneck speed- literally. He whooped along as if he was being chased by ghosts or something- it had to be for some very serious squirrel reason, because he moved so fast and in our human presence. He gave me a start!

I haven't said a lot about politics or the other happenings in the world lately even though, as you know, I have strong feelings about these things. For me it is disheartening to see our country repeatedly squander goodwill and opportunities to stabilize areas of conflict. The other day I thought back to Bush's "huge mandate" (62 million votes as opposed to Kerry's 59 million), how we all watched the election results spread across a map of the United States- Bush's wins represented by the color red. I reflected on how fitting it was, after all, that the color representing Bush's win was the color of blood.

It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood...War is hell.- General William Tecumseh Sherman (1820-1891)

8/4/06:
There is one window in the lunch room at work; it used to have a large, green-leaved plant in front of it. The plant was not attractive, so I wondered about it being there until one day I found it covered by unusual blooms. It bloomed a couple of times, then I took a small cutting from it and kept it in water in an old coffee cup on my desk. After many months it indeed formed roots while, in the meantime, its mother plant had been tossed out by its owner...

I took the cutting home and potted it, then placed it on a glass shelf I had put up in the window area above our kitchen sink. The plant grew but, like its mother, looked kind of scraggly. I think the plant belongs to the Lipstick Plant family, and right now one of its branches is blooming. This is the second time this plant has bloomed. Seeing the blooms makes it clear- the flowers are its pride and joy.

And finally I twist my heart round again, so that the bad is on the outside and the good is on the inside, and keep on trying to find a way of becoming what I would so like to be, and could be, if there weren't any other people living in the world.- Anne Frank (1929-1945)

8/1/06:
It is once again, as time flies, my daughter Carrie's birthday. Today she is 24. Carrie has been promoted a number of times while working at Target, and I understand she is now considering going back to school for a master's degree. She is a smart, strong woman.

Carrie played the bass clarinet in her high school marching band and orchestra. Marching band was tough, with lots of practices and competitions, but she stuck it out and was able to go with the band to England and Ireland, and march in the real St. Patrick's Day Parade. I drove over to Spokane and down to Portland to watch Carrie in competitions, and was always proud of her. The picture at the left was taken at a 10th grade performance and links to a picture of Carrie taken 11-12-98.

Carrie's middle name is Ann, same as me, same as my mom, Charlotte Ann, and same as my mom's mom, Alice Ann Ellison, and same as my mom's mom's mom, Charlotte Ann Watkins. The picture of Carrie at the right was taken the summer of 1987 with our dog Bear, and it links to my grandmother Alice Ann's high school graduation picture.

I lost several pregnancies, including one 20 weeks along, before Carrie was born. I remember holding her and hoping I could shield her from the pain and heartache of this world. It seems I had much more to learn about this sweet old world. We cannot shield our children from life- what would be the point? Despite the great depths of a mother's love for her children, sometimes even the very course of her own life brings them pain.

Happy Birthday Carrie, Love Mom

Who will tell whether one happy moment of love or the joy of breathing or walking on a bright morning and smelling the fresh air, is not worth all the suffering and effort which life implies. . . . - Erich Fromm

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