Art Painting & Paint Balls

Well, I almost got back to normal, then allergies became a cold. A couple of days indoors mostly, leaving trails of unfulfilled ambitions and kleenex. Just as well I was indoors since the winds were mighty. Even the squirrels stayed indoors the worst day. The recent heavy rains just about finished off the ice moguls by Marge's curb. Here's what was left yesterday morning...

I haven't been back to the park yet to see if the snow repository at the basketball court is melted. I avoided destroying Marge's lovely, but sodden, landscaping in the backyard by treading very carefully while I refilled bird feeders. The squirrels appreciated me doing that. Pretty soon the birds will, too.

I want to pass along a recent, wonderful Facebook discovery. Decades ago my Drawing I and II instructor at Pima College was Jim Waid. Say what you want about FB but aren't we all glad for finding the special people we've known and maybe lost connections with. He persevered with his painting and saw success. He posted one of his paintings exhibited at Tucson Museum of Art that starts today through June 10th.

I see in his FB comments section it is six and a half by eight feet. There are plenty more works to see on his Facebook page.

I just tried unsuccessfully to photograph the squirrel hanging from the bird feeder in the yard chowing down his morning portion. That next life when I'm a wildlife photographer will solve the logistics of getting into a favorable position with possibly a longer lens to show off the little acrobat hanging upside down, eating. He/she had to shinny up and over the steel 3/8 inch post to do this.

A different use for paint is about to take place. Aidan gets to complete his birthday (a week ago) celebration with friends at the paintball place this morning. Wendy and I are going to go at midday to secure a place to sit at Jesse's barbecue for the celebrants' lunch.  And ourselves--Jesse's has local and regional renown. Mmmm-mmm.

Weather Report: Unfurled Umbrellas Jousting into Wind-Driven Torrent

Comcast's passive aggressive approach to customer service has at last yielded reconnection to Marge's Internet which was down for over two days. The tech was a good guy not-withstanding. I do wonder sometimes if Comcast gets away with treating their techs the same way they treat their customers. Poor things.

If ever I wished I had a picture it would be Cousin Jim, his wife Nancy and I bent into our umbrellas braced against the wind and rain as we hurried across the parking lot to the SEPTA Regional Rail Station...

Jim and Nancy

...to take ourselves to Philly for some historical visiting at the Independence Hall complex which is otherwise known as Independence Mall in Center City. I'm qualifying this because, from the sounds of it, Jim rightly thought the latter was a shopping place and I've no doubt he'd have thought very little of rain-jousting for such a goal. But with the clarification that it was the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall and related structures, Jim's enthusiasm returned. He and Nancy are so game. They said, "Oh well if the weather gets too bad we can just come back."

So, that attitude brought us through to access all of Independence Mall's historical site nearly devoid of tourists and the National Park Service wasn't charging anything that drenched day.

Rocky Balboa helping out.

Jim and Nancy with the Liberty Bell.

The docents were all on duty and quite relaxed as only a handful of people gathered for tours. Since Justice Scalia's death only was only two days before, it was grounding to see the Supreme Court's chamber...

1791-1800 the Supreme Court met here in Philadelphia. Since a new justice is now to be considered, here is a page from the .gov site if you want to brush up on the Supreme Court FAQs:
Supreme Court

...where all six justices presided. That and the House of Representatives meeting room and upstairs the Senate chambers put a perspective on our current times that felt encouraging that we are somehow going to get through the mess we are now facing. There was something collectively stronger going on that got this country's ball rolling than I think we realize. When we finished touring, the rain stopped for our walk back to Reading Terminal Market and the train station.

It was a distinct pleasure to host a supper with Jim and Nancy, Wendy, John and Aidan all at the Harleysville Hotel restaurant for a Philly Cheesesteak sampling by Jim and Nancy and H. Hotel's famous wings for the rest of us. Plenty of common ground conversation was found and explored, including Jim, Nancy and John's discovery of their mutual computing foundations in the languages of cyber-world history which didn't sideline Wendy with her online business history nor Aidan's young experience growing up in our world of cyber communication. Far-ranging conversations developed and it was as satisfying as the food was to hunger.

There was time the next day for a tour of Rhapsody Ridge. Wendy was home to show us around the place.

Jim and Wendy after the goat inspection. It was the goats' and horse's first day out in the pasture after the recent crazy weather.
Toby is hurrying to assist the tour.

Shoutout to Marge: Thank you, for sharing the comfort of your home to these traveler's who'd "frozen their butts off" in the minus 27-degree wind chill experience of Boston's Amtrak station waiting for the train to Philly.

Freezings and Groanings

I'm happily anticipating a visit from a portion of family. By this time tomorrow Cousin Jim and his wife Nancy will be here with me in Quakertown for a couple of days. I say that in a cautionary tone since Winter is having her say. Record cold in the region is letting up, but another mass of air from the top of the world is coming this way whispering snow. The howling wind has in the meantime, stopped.

My pony Subaru looked like this on Thursday morning when we had a little more fresh snow.

The snow made the grotesque, salt encrusted roadway snowbanks pretty again.

I was glad the snow was light and easy to brush away with a broom since I had come down with some intestinal upset that persisted two or three days. It seems to have vanished today.

Thus, the week was filled with groanings and times up to do the essentials followed by spates of work before the deadline for the newsletter I work on. During the day, I tucked the last of it into bed. I had gotten up early and spent a pleasant time at church where the charcoal of The Last Supper is now occupying its Station of the Cross among the 15 others up for Lent. Each station was done by a different individual and collected it brings a freshness to the whole idea it grew from in Scripture.

This morning, my pony's temp was two degrees by 8:30 a.m. Up from zero at dawn. It seems extraordinary that there are fish out there in Marge's pond that are sort of hibernating under the ice. The electrical warmer she installed keeps a small portion of the surface ice-free. I guess the fish need it for oxygen. Something to look into cyberspace for an answer.

The little tree in the back on a snowy morning was as graceful as a swan.

Snow and Birds

I have turned into a snowbird that didn't go south.

The Eastern sky this morning has been alight with a broad spectrum of winter pastels spread across a blue background. Coffee is enhancing the experience.

Snow is still melting.

Through the week...

Last Tuesday I found where some of the dump trucks unloaded snow. Note basketball backboards.

Wednesday the back of Marge's showed considerable melting in the rain. The mists that rose from the warm rain on the frigid snowdrifts grew to a regional fog hazard.
And, I could see the fish pond surface was melted from an upstairs window.

Friday morning saw a new inch of snow on top of it all. Temps rose and soon cleared it as well as plenty more of the sodden mess underneath. The new layer disguised the dirty, salted roadway snowbanks. 

The neighbor has resumed walking his dog around the back in the early mornings. I haven't seen the cat with him, though. She must be avoiding the snowy, wet world.

The high temps allowed me to right the outdoor pathway solar lights that had all frozen into forlorn, skewed positions. Today I'll be able to refresh the bird seed out there.

Early one of the snow mornings while rushing for the school bus, Aidan grabbed a quick picture from a dining room window of the sunrise across the road.

It looks like the woods are on fire he texted.

We must have been in tune.

Marge's back yard view.

You've seen photos Carol and Janie have been sending from Tucson of sunrises and sunsets and storm clouds that stir something deep inside me. Here's another...

Carol sent.

And, I grabbed these from a forwarded email that Terry in Oregon made during her adventures...

Thinking it over, I guess it's OK for me to be a northern snowbird. If Tiger Tomcat Toby can morph into a dog, I can be what I want, too.

Plan A, Plan B, Stay Loose

Getting on toward three years now we've looked at what is new in my transition to the East Coast from an entire adult life in the southwest of our country that I might let you know how things are with me. But, mostly, to share the immediacy of all that happens in the transition; a cat's life; adjustments of small and large scope; settling in to new surroundings and people; criss-crossing the country three times; seeing from very young to old people, near and far; in a life I am grateful to still be living.

A story I love to relate is about grandsons Keoni and Aidan's alternating, monthly overnight visits when we all still lived in Tucson. Without initially realizing it, I'd learned to have in mind a Plan A and a backup Plan B for what we might do while one or the other boy visited. It gave some shape to the day ahead as long as flexibility remained--a desire even, to let the day shape itself, but neither willy-nilly nor over-planned.

One of Keoni's visits with me took place during a time his six or seven-year-old interests had led him to enthusiastic research of raptors. He had early on loved diving into subjects--anything from the Wizard of Oz to every music instruments' orchestra position until he'd acquired knowledge of the subjects to a level of mind-boggling minutaea. This visit, he brought along numerous raptor drawings he'd made to show and tell everything he knew about them up to that point.

Plan A: Came from Keoni's request to find on Sunday morning the falcon that had been reported living amongst the tall buildings of downtown Tucson. My grandmotherly rules were: I drive--you look; tell me when you see a raptor; wait until I pull completely to a stop; then, when I say so, you can step out and use my binoculars to look at the bird. We tooled about the quiet Tucson Sunday morning streets. It was so much fun looking! But, disappointment overtook the enterprise. No falcon.

Plan B: Came to mind just before we had started out as a concern entered my mind that a possible disappointment lay ahead. So, when the downtown hunt revealed only pigeons I could suggest we continue along the nearby Tucson Mountains' foothills where I knew many of the back roads and had seen hawks, again and again. His enthusiasm, and mine, began to return with the addition of a drive-through breakfast and sightings of hawks started happening.

Slowly, we drove the backroads, stopping for birds and interesting lookout places. We came upon a National Park Service Visitor Center and learned even more from his many questions willingly answered by the Park Ranger. During a walk around the adjoining trails we saw a hawk unusual to the area. I'm terrible at remembering names of anything or anyone, so I'll pass on naming the handsome bird perched on the top of a sahuaro. Back to the car and many stops; the hours flew by. Along the way, we phoned his parents assuring them that we were slowly returning to deliver him home after completing our giant loop around the Tucson Mountains. Reaching nearly the end of the back roadways and our trip, he saw two birds circling high above. I stopped and we both got out. We were so amazed to see we'd found two Golden Eagles!

That's what Plan A and Plan B are like. Over time, we looked at floods, saw what a forest fire did, rode a ski-lift in summer, climbed the white-painted "A" on "A" Mountain, swam, picnicked, museumed, swung, slid, made soccer moves, shot baskets, checked out a University Student Union, Apple Store products, rode trolleys, and lots else on those many wonderful Saturdays and Sundays. Sometimes, it was Keoni with me, sometimes it was Aidan.

Maybe that is what life is like...I have today. The right now.

Make Plan A
Add backup Plan B
Stay loose

Start

You never know when or if
But sometimes
Around the bend
There'll be Golden Eagles.

See you later...