Summertime

 

The first draft.

Homework

Natural Chimneys Park, VA: The Creek

The old swimmin' hole: where festival goers go to cool off. 

Not this year.

Dry. 

The People We Meet

Another festival, another wonderful chance to connect: Jeremy, PJ (So much discussed in a 3 minute ride!), Michael (Wife of Jeremy), Margo, Phylis, and Joyce; all shuttle drivers willing to chat.

Neighbors: Daryl and Karen; easygoing, open and friendly, in short perfect!

But the best? A woman who sat down next to me at the tent and started talking. I wanted a break but Karen was a talker. An incredible woman who was here alone, happy, knowledgable, and inquisitive. Better than the quiet I thought I wanted was the luck of meeting a wonderful woman who reminds many who meet her, I bet, that our lives are what we focus on, not what we don't have but all we have and can do. 

Karen, a person who reminds us to love life. 

Red Wing Roots, '26

Just Saying

I've lived it. Not the word of the day, but the idea that we women have always, and continue, to take care of men and put them first...often without even realizing it, or realizing it and then thinking, "Well, I'm just being kind and caring." 

Or, better put, I have lived the word, trying to not just go on autopilot but to think why I do what I do and should I be doing it differently. Sometimes I adjust and sometimes I slide.

With each generation (I can hope) this gets better. Not through Tiktok but through understanding how much men's needs and care are paramount in our culture, yes, still today. I know I've improved from my parents' aged people, and so too the people younger are continuing to break this bias. But it's still there.

Women need to be taking care of themselves and other peers too, not just the man. Respect of who needs what is the key. This ingrained drivel is wrong. Gender care should be changed to human care. It's so hard to break, I know, but with knowledge, it will be done. 

I'm Working At It

Channeling (Poorly)*

There is that step 

where Biggie sprawls.

It's neither up

it's neither down.

But halfway down

or halfway up,

he owns them all.

AA Milne

*A book my sister had 

when I was growing up, 

a book of poems 

by AA Milne. 

Pink it was.

And this is the only poem

that stayed.

Funny what lasts

 with us.

What Do You See?

On the floor yesterday doing my exercises, I saw I wasn't alone. Staring back at me was a gibbon. 

Once Seen, Hard to Lose.  

Math.True

 

Terribly True 

Message In a Bottle?

No, but still, a step out of my life into someone else's. 

At Aldi's parking lot I'd gotten a call from a loved one. Couldn't miss it but didn't want to sit in the car or go in the store. Instead I went walking the perimeter hoping for some treasure. No money did I find, but a neat, concise grocery list. Pippi, I think, would have been pleased.

Dinner? Special one? Usual one? A date? A solitary meal? Who knows but I took a minute to enjoy wondering.

Message in the Grass

Here and Now

Live a balanced life. 

Learn some and think some, 

draw and paint and sing and dance

play and work every day some.

                            ~ Robert Fulghum

Four days  

with the senior classes 

I was subbing in. 

A bit of work

a bit of relaxing.

Beautiful weather. 

Nice students. 

But now.

Summer Vacation

Humor

I've been on the receiving end of many eye rolls, and they sure could set me up for buying into them and then getting angry at the perceived slight. 

I think I like this poster found at the high school because it turns it around and makes it funny. 

A Good Defense

Personal and Historical

Coming back from a visit to family, the hotel in Erie, PA, was next door to the Maritime Museum. Before leaving for home, it was a short walk to boats, memories and the War of 1812.

In the first room, three memories. The first being the fun our friend group has had with one who believes in Big Foot. The legend of Erie lake, though, was of a dragon. Having been saved from ruin, the figurehead, of a boat that the owner had commissioned, was on display. I laughed, thinking of my friend. 

That same friend was the builder and owner of a 42 foot trimaran that began in an Owego farm field, moved to Cayuga lake to our dock, until it took its final trip, at least with us, to land the boat in its new home, Chicago. Four of us went, traveling the canals to get to the lakes. Seeing maps reminded me of our travels and the fun we had. It took three weeks of no winds, flies, and lots of motoring to dock it and leave it, while, of course, taking our memories and stories with us.  

Turning, I ran into another time in my life. Having bought a lake house, a friend and I decided we needed, not a sailboat, but a fishing boat, one for me to row and he to fish from. Putting an ad on Craig's List, we were called and went to look. The wife, trying to sell the boat, came out and said that there was another buyer on the line....we looked at the husband and he at us. How could there be another buyer? We laugh still at that morning. While this boat at the museum looks so much better than ours, we sure enjoyed it until a flood took it away. 

In one of the final rooms I went it, there was the history of the War of 1812. Interestingly enough, we'd learned a bit about that war on our trip back in '90. Stopping at Put In Bay, a tower was there built for the war, the third tallest structure in the United States in its time. Here at the museum, it was more on the ships that fought and the people who commanded them. Two notable quotes took on their context for me. For one, there was a replica of a banner made during the war, of a famous quote, "Don't Give Up the Ship," but also in reading about the war, there was another, "We have seen the enemy and they are ours." 

My partner at the museum is a sailor so while he took in so much more, I was content to go down memory lane while once again learning bits about a war that is all but forgotten, while its words are not. 

Reminiscing at the Museum 

Ps. I would be remiss not to mention how much fun I had visiting family: gardening, basketball, dinners out and speed finishing a puzzle, it was a relaxing, wonderful time. Driving, we also had fun finding places we like to visit. The museum, but taverns too. 

Finding one right on the water, we enjoyed sitting at the bar and talking with the bartenders. Behind me, I found this sign. And, while it is certainly more true than not, it made me recall a funny story of a colleague's time out at a bar that did start with a salad. 

My friend, being pretty drunk that night, came into a bar before that year's Super Bowl was to start. Seeing a man eating, yes, a salad, she walked over and well, told him that one just shouldn't do that on Super Bowl Sunday; chicken wings and fries yes, but salads? No. 

I wasn't there but I still laugh when I think of the assuredness and exuberance that was used on the poor guy being assaulted... for eating a salad.