It's Been Awhile

First, thank you, if you've had faith that there'd be something here and take a look once in awhile.

It would be boring to further enumerate the frustrations with the tech part of this blog save noting that vexing, time-eating circumstance coupled with further demands of changing and updating my personal finance put doubt into what I might say about all that and besides was numbing in a weird sort of way. Oh yes, and taxes. All's mostly resolved now except for the tech, but maybe a new iPhone one of these days will resolve a bit of the remaining frustrations.

That being said, it was a beautiful day of non-winter here and we celebrated Aidan's 17th birthday. (Holy Cow! he was 10 years old when we were at Carol and Janie's those last days of Tucson living.) He and his mom and dad went for a sushi (I don't eat sushi) lunch and brought along a magnificent chocolate cake Wendy made for him to go with the local-made ice cream I had at the ready here in my comfy digs. After which, we hiked through the complex to the pool room and enjoyed three games of pool.

I didn't get a good one of John at the pool table, but Wendy shared one from yesterday...

That Picasso Luckibird knows where it's at.

I sketched (and framed) this for Aidan's birthday from his Heifitz photo we posted a couple of years ago.

Speaking of a couple of years ago...

The Earring Story

At the end of the day a couple of years ago, I discovered only one earring was left from the pair I'd started the day with. I searched every nook and cranny of my dwelling, the car, the sidewalk, the porch, but found no mate to my earring. I was unhappy, not only because I liked the earrings, but also they were a gift from my granddaughter, so I felt extra sad about losing one of them. I put the remaining one away with hopes the other would turn up.

Yesterday, there was a blurb in the church bulletin that said to take a look at the lost and found because Monday the accumulated items would be jettisoned. Hmmm. I thought about my lost earring and almost couldn't wait to check the cubby where the small, lost items were stashed. As soon as the service was over, I began pulling items from the stuffed box but, alas, didn't find the earring. So, I began putting the lost bunch of items back. As I finished, something slipped out and landed on the floor. A yellow post-it and...the earring was taped to it.

A couple other sketches from a small sketch book I carry around sometimes...

I named this one "I'm Confused".

I acquired another walking stick for the Dock area. I still have the other one to use at the farm. Yes, it's becomne necessary on uneven ground these days. They are pretty handsome, really. My first one was from a gas station curio store in West Virginia. This one is from online Walmart. I'll get Aidan to get a picture one of these days.

The Mennonite Heritage Center two or three miles away has a new exhibit area and had a show of quilts that were remarkable...

From the heritage and history section of the center...

These are the people that built and care for my dwelling, and me, and all the others housed here. As I shop or interact with the commerce in the general area, I can feel the impact it and some similar sects have had on the region. Kindness. Yes, its culture is more restrictive than mine and they have conservative and progressive factions, yet there is the statement above. And never once have I experienced even a modicum of intolerance for my obvious differings.

The Weather Report: One good thing about all the rain--it isn't snow.

The Music Report: Aidan had another moment during the PYO Showcase performance at Kimmel Center. After the show was over...

Next Sunday, I'll take the train into the city again for a full PYO concert. These days we 65+ ride the public transportation for free. I still get a thrill out of taking the train into the city even though it, like so much infrastructure, is starved for more funds for upkeep beyond bare-bones safety. I'd be thrilled to use a broad deployment of busses or trolleys for my needs.

Something new is happening though. The newest director of the regional transportation system is a woman. The new Chief of Philadelphia Police is a woman. The Souderton (nearby town) police department just hired Megan, my friend Pat's granddaughter. Their first female officer. She's seasoned by 20 years on the police force in South Philly. Go Megan!

The Farm Report: The chickens are laying again after the winter drop off. Wendy continues her goat project and Aidan and I get in a walk pretty often.

Aidan's pano one late afternoon.

 One day, Aidan pointed out a fox hole...

Fox went out on a chase one night
Bayed at the moon to give him light

He had many miles to go that night

Before he reached the town-o, town-o...

On the way home, a sundog lit the evening sky...

Flip Wilson's Church

Yes, we made it through December and piles of subsidy paperwork during early January. This has an actual side benefit of prep for taxes sometime in the weeks ahead, and besides, we can rest with assurance that the government is protecting your taxes from possible extortion by me.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

At the end of December, Keoni, Aidan, Peter and Seth held a benefit concert for my church. I've lost their interesting program in the paper pile so this may not be spelled right. Anyway, a piece from the evening...Piazzola's..."Winter"...

Grrr. After 2 1/2 hours the video is finally uploading to YouTube and I'm questioning my sanity and my patience is screaming. The wrestling match to take video from my iPhone to iMovie, to YouTube, to blogspot persists. Plus, more and more, my iPhone screams that I am choking it to death despite stripping out all the mysterious holdings lurking in its background.

3 hours later. Well, it still hasn't showed up on YouTube. Bah Humbug!

(Then, there are the photos that won't Air Drop! or transfer with a wire.)

4 hours later. Hah! It's now on YouTube...



Aidan texted this next one to me from a couple or more audition videos he did with Seth last week for submission to a summer camp. (No video transfer problems!!!)



There have been some nice walks with Aidan. Yesterday, he captured these, then sent to them to me...

On Silver Pond.

A mystery animal.

So, life moves along. In the meantime...

One look at me and you know

I'm a looonnnngggg-time senior--

no body piercings or tattoos

declare there's a 30-year-old-woman

living in this 80-year-old-body.

Rebellion pulses her

strides down the hall,

a miracle of

arriving thus far--

paeons of praise

for medical patchwork, of course,

and membership in

Flip Wilson's 

Church of What's Happening Now.

Happy New Year!!!

Yes, we've almost made it through December. In a couple of hours we'll switch to 2020 on our date lines. January has already begun in earlier time zones.

Everywhere communications reach, there are myriad assessments of 2019. So many, that I've stopped looking at them. Even though I know they are interesting, there are too many. It's too much to absorb. Maybe that is my take for 2019. Too much to absorb. Well, no, there's Greta Thunberg's image on the cover of Time that will be in my mind's eye until there is no there there. And, I don't want to forget that I see other women standing strong for our earth, for justice, for equality. Half the earth's population is rising to grasp the reins of leadership and equality and fairness. Our problems now and ahead are complex, vast, vexing and need both halves of earth's inhabitants to deal with them, to inspire, to wrest solutions from the insoluble, and find better and still better smart ideas and the grit to use them for what lies ahead.

*

We go now to the Weather Desk: Greta, we NEED YOU!!! Christmas in Pennsylvania was warmer than Tucson!

From the Cyber Desk: Woes. Without going into detail, there were cyber woes. The usual routes to mess with photos and videos are now changed. A resolution to some of it made the following video possible...



I can't remember the name of this game set that Aidan got Christmas morning but as soon as gifts were all opened and Wendy's delicious cinnamon rolls were eaten, outside they went. Aidan played it a lot with friends at the Michigan music institute last summer. He talks the family through the ropes.

My workarounds for all this software hair-pulling are yielding some progress but are slow, slow, slow so I must leave out some of my visuals since I want to post something this last day of 2019. Nearly all of Keoni and Aidan's concert with Peter and Seth are stubbornly out of reach. The four of them had a rousingly good fund-raiser for the church the Saturday after Christmas. Keoni is back now in NYC and no doubt experiencing a rousing Big Apple New Year's.

Here's a bit of what I was able to upload or download okay...

The boys always set the table.

My friend Pat sent along the chocolate (delicious) mice she made that became part of the centerpiece.

Hunger pains about to be satisfied.

Wendy and her incredible Yorkshire Pudding.

This astonishingly wonderful quilt was made by Valerie for Wendy. 

And Val sent me this beautiful, quilted throw that she named "Sea Glass". All of cotton and linen. (My kids know I like a little nap in the afternoon. This works great for that and adding some calm color to the bedroom.) 

Picasso Luckibird at home on Keoni's head.

Toby also figured in one of the gifts I received. Wendy had made several of the Toby pictures (some were once featured here in the blog) into a batch of greeting cards. I miss his rascally self. I'll see him tomorrow when I go fetch Aidan to carry in a large mirror from the car to the apartment.

From the Health Desk: Jeanenne is recovering from a knee replacement done on the 23rd. She told everyone not to come visit her in the hospital. She wanted to sleep! That's what happens when you have a knee replacement two days before Christmas and you just got your holiday prepped for seven grandchildren.

And Sonja shared some snaps of their holiday, too...

Elijah and Kingston.

Elijah and Grandpa Santa Tim.

A new tricycle!

Nap time for Santa and Dimetrios.

So great seeing Dimetrios regaining his usual self.

Pre-dreads haircut.

Elijah.

Well, it's time to stop and wish you a very Happy New Year. May you grow and prosper throughout 2020.✌Peace.

If We Make It Through December...

It is the last half of December. 2019 is hurtling to a close. Whew! Our physical, technical and political worlds teeter on brinks, edges, thresholds and cusps--at a colossal clip. It's impossible to do an ostrich with our heads in the sand. The sand is shifting.

Well, that's a dismal take, isn't it.

Like my 2019 upsizing, there is a lot to be done. Energies fueled by the creation in trying things out, put together my new home. Many resources, every stripe of people; the overwhelming became a home. Everything in the world's upsize challenges are in the new looks and energies and creativities that shimmer just ahead. There will be discoveries, creations, people, ideas that we don't now know as we plunge ahead and find what works, toss what doesn't, discover what works better, how to do it. And, that's the adventure--we get to find out. Together.

***

On this part of the planet the week ahead takes us to next Saturday's longest night. It's good remembering that the following week starts the march to June's longest day.

With a bit shorter span between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year, I feel like I'm a squirrel running around to all my acorn hidey holes, doing backflips off tree trunks, and hanging by my toes to dine on bird feeder largesse. The roadways and big box parking lots are jammed. I actually welcome waiting to cross a one-way bridge reconstruction I often pass. A reward for one of the waits was getting to watch an Asplundh Tree Service worker suspended far and high clearing branches by the bridge over the creek below...

Just outside the door at the end of my hall, a couple of bushes have beautiful flowers blooming on them, weathering freezing temps, ice and snow...

Jeanenne texted photos of her big cookie baking family crowd in her vast kitchen. Here are a couple of them...

...her seven grandkids.

Climbing through technology thickets for weeks, I found at last how to publish video again after YouTube changed without a how-to or a how-do-you-do. It's annoying that I can't eliminate the "card" now at the end of the video where it shows you random video choices. I'm still working to get rid of that feature, but tonight I don't know how. Stay tuned.

I'm happy to share with you a frequent highlight of my late afternoon walks...



I love to hear and see the geese doing their late day flights. I'm guessing they're heading back to their favorite pond for the night after a day of foraging in cornfield stubble and such.

A larger, lone bird flew overhead. It might have been an egret type...

As it flew by a jet photo-bombed.

 The late afternoon walks around Dock are growing on me.

...everything's gonna be alright.