Really?

Must I?

mohawk

One of my granddaughter wants to go on a mission trip.

Her cousin spent many years in Albania and is organizing a group of students and advisors to make the trip this spring. The thing is that it costs about $1500 for the trip.

Her oldest brother said that he was not sure she could raise that much money, and that if she did he would get a Mohawk haircut.

I'm going to give him the space that his offer was one of encouragement and not of spite, but he is losing. Badly.

So next week, after a job interview, he is scheduled for a haircut.

As much as I like both of them, it will be fun to watch!

And, never make that kind of bet with ANY woman!

Next trip to Idaho, I pick up the garden, all but the dirt, and take it with me.

The new owner is not a gardner, and says I can take it all. So the drip irrigation system, the trellises and fences, the posts and grow boxes all get loaded up next trip.

That is a fairly serious move, I think.

Motor Sports

I am not a great fan of motor sports.

My step father would always listen to the Indy 500 each year (that was way before it was on any teevee). I knew the names of the powerful in that era of open wheel racing.

But nowdays not so much. Indy is not what it used to be and what used to be the home of the brightest lights, seems to be less so now. I hardly ever go out of my way to watch any more.

Yesterday there was a big "stock car" race. Sunday there was a medium big race (I think it was) and in the evening ther was to be the grandaddy of them, but it rained, and while they may play football in rain and snow, they don't race cars in anything resembling rain.

So the race was put off.

Gotta tell you honestly, the only reason I was interested in watching guys drive extremely expensive cars at 200 miles and hour was because there was supposed to be a gal in the race. She had recently converted from Indy cars, and while she was new to "stock car" racing, she was not new to racing.

In the rain delayed race yesterday, she was involved in a multiple car pile up very soon in the race. Her car was damaged, but with a little legal fixing, she was allowed back on the track. She drove well and could keep up with the guys. Mostly she wanted to finish the race (which she did) and gain experience in the deal.

Girls driving at 200 miles an hour is not common in our male dominated world. I rooted for Janet in her day and now it is Danica (bet her dad was a Dan).

Still not sure how it qualifies one as a "sportsman" to sit in your duff watching others do something. Sometimes it is called "spectator sport" which seems a lot closer. Yet, those who duff set will proudly tell you how much they are involved in the "sport" of racing, or football, or baseball.

I'll not push that point, and once or twice a year I will watch mostly guys push each other at 200 miles an hour. That is fast, but boy do they do wonderful crashes.

Worth the wait, almost.

Motor Sports

Battered old tree trunk. Beat up and shredded by ocean water.

Powerful stuff.

silly season

This is the silly season.

It is the time of the year when politicians are running around saying things they will regret later. Sometimes they do things that make you shake your head in amazement.

My own state senator was a rising star. He was a young lawyer (aren’t they all?) who was considered to be in training for a US Senate seat and/or Governor. He had been re-elected several times with little opposition. He held leadership positions in the state senate.

Then last year in a throughly drunk state, he stole a pickup that had a camper trailer attached, drove it a few blocks and was found asleep in the cab. Not good for anyone, much less a rising star.

This week one of his female staff members accused him of sexual harassment, and yesterday he resigned from the state senate. Even though he was on a different page on most issues from me, I really feel bad for him. His rising star just burned up, and he set the fire.

One of the national pols made a real big deal about how his opponent made promises he had not keep, then he took a deep breath (I think it was deep) and made promises that no one in this world could pull off. Oh well. He hopes the mics were turned off, but of course they weren't.

Through this I remember a point my pastor made in church a while back.

He said that all political speeches are the same. The speaker says that if you elect him, you cannot even begin to guess how good it is going to be. BUT, if you are stupid enough to elect the opponent, the worse you can imagine is not the beginning of how bad it is will be. Obviously you should elect the speaker. His opponent makes the same speech, by the way.

But, the pastor observed, things don’t change as much as any pol promises.

Somehow, I find some really bent and bruised logic in that comment. It does help me put this season in a degree of perspective.

Imperfect perfection!

ownership

We’ve been in our house in Idaho for a couple of days now.

It has warmed up enough to be quite comfortable. That is good.

I sold the garden and shop acre to a neighbor who dismembered the bridge to keep traffic from cutting through. That meant for me to get a stick of firewood I had to drive 6 or 7 blocks to get to the back of our property.

Yesterday I did a reversible repair. When I leave I can quickly return it to a unusable state.

The house seems strangely large. It is seriously under furnished right now, which makes it seem larger. There is space, almost an excess it seems, and this is not a large house.

As I do every morning, I made a cup of tea. I use a small electric teakettle. But the milk I add to the tea comes out of a full sized refer. There is a range with a real oven.

Such luxury.

I have always been almost Native American in my belief on ownership. I am not sure I own much of anything. I sure don’t own Miriam for instance. This house has been mine for several decades, but it is time to move on.

Someone came into my unlocked shop the other day and stole a bag of tools. I am not too sure what was in the bag yet. And, only when I can’t find a tool will I realize what is gone.

If a tools is really needed, I’ll replace it. If it is not, I’ll live without it. Either way it is really OK.

When all else fails I photograph rocks!

what to write?

A blog is a commitment.

It can be as binding or as non binding as one might wish, but it is there. I have written about a lot of things in this blog in the last few years. If a subject came to mind, I usually wrote about it.

My life is not one of continued adventure. Most of the time it is long periods of quite boring time between bits of interesting events. Little of that is worth writing about.

It does not make sense to talk endlessly about Miriam's AD, even though it is the underlying topic of the blog. Her changes are so slow that a sentence of two every few months would suffice. Besides, if I complain too much my daughters likely will come to overblown conclusions, and I'll get it trouble!

Miriam is a putterer of the highest order. Tonight she finally made it to bed. It rarely takes less than an hour to get her between the covers, and tonight it was an hour and a half. But time we have.

Tomorrow we are loading up and returning to Idaho for the week. I have to see my doctor, and I suppose I should get a haircut, but I don't want to rush that one!

But there is lumber to mill into several kinds of trim for door and window trim and there is glass stops to cut. I'd like to get the wood shop moved, but I don't really have a place to put it yet.

The church needs some oak trim for some interior windows. I did not offer to install the trim, just make it.

Then there is carpenter work to do in the house, then a lot of inside painting.

I may have internet and I may not. And this time I will have Miriam. That is mostly good.

I met a young physician this weekend and we began to talk about photography. I shoot with a two bit camera (or my iPhone) now, and sometimes I am compelled to say that in the old film world, I worked with top quality gear.

This portrait of daughter two, was taken with a Hasselblad 500c. It was a fabulous camera for portraits.

Unfortunately, I'll never afford digital equipment that can hold a candle to my old Hassy or my Leicas or my Nikons. Those cameras exist, but they are totally out of my budget.

Oh well!

must the show go on?

At church this week there was a LOT of big music.

The church I attend is connected with a bible college. The college has a very fine music department creating a lot of great musicians. The wind ensemble performed along with 2 different choirs. The performance was fabulous and lended so much to the service.

In total there were 150 to 175 people on the stage at the same time (about capacity!). A lot of musicians.

The choir was made up of a small choir in the center with the large choir divided on both sides.

There is a young lady who sings in the large choir. She arrives at the front of the building riding, standing, on an electric scooter device. She wears braces on both legs and walks with two canes.

When she needs to go up the stairs to the choir seating, she cannot navigate the stairs, so a man picks her up and carries her up the steps. She is not very big, which helps.

This time, just as the combined choir was ready to sing, there was a crash. The lady with the crutches had fallen.

The conductor had his baton raised to start. He lowered the baton and waited until the young lady was steadily on her feet, then he raised the baton and began.

I have known a lot of musicians in my life, photographed a bale of them. Not all of them would have waited so kindly for something like this. Many would have “the show must go on” attitude.

So I commend the director, who patiently waited until all was ready to go, and I commend the young lady for persevering in her desire to sing in the choir.

Thank you each.

I am humbled to remember my visits to Ketchikan Alaska.

The sun hardly ever shines and it rains for weeks at a time.

I am waiting!

We may have some idea of when this AD thing began.

Not the day, but the year maybe. At least the year when it was diagnosed.

But no one knows when it will end. The disease forces the whole family to accept the disease time table, and we don’t get to know that table.

Someone asked if there was a life after AD, and of course no one knows that one either. I met a man who is always wanting to know where his wife is on this trajectory. He wants to know how long it is till the end of the movie.

Most of the time I deal with this unknown part on an OK basis. Sometimes no so OK.

As I wait for spring, I get antsy. This area has a lot of deep inversions in the late winter, so there are weeks when it is cold and foggy. The growing season is a full 2 months longer than where we lived in Idaho, but right now it is hard to visualize.

The weather people seem confused too. “Partly cloudy. High about 48 to 52.” Then the day is totally cloudy and the high is in the middle 30’s.

But I know that when spring breaks it will all happen over a weekend (or less). I can argue with mother nature but it is a one way argument.

She also has her own schedule!