The Thursday Ramble: Sheep

We have a sizable fock of house sheep, sweet natured, fluffy, the inanimate kind of sheep. When watching video, I am often heard to say BaBas when I see sheep. I remember crossing Ireland on a train, and saying BaaBaas every time we passed a field of sheep, the elderly woman sitting across from must have thought I was daft or drunk. 

How did the sheep thing get started? 

About 20 years ago we spent a week one summer in Yorkshire. We rented a row-house in Pateley Bridge. The bedrooms were upstairs, we were in the one on the back, looking out over a meadow - with a flock of sheep in it. We could hear them in the morning, making their gentle sounds. We visited the cheese factory at Wensleydale. The parking area was a short walk from the tour, and the walk was through a meadow with the sweetest flock of sheep. These sheep had spent their entire lives with people going back and forth and stopping to sink their fingers deep into their fleece for a scratch.  Watch your step, it was a wonderful walk coming and going. Now I had never seen Wallace and Gromit so I had no idea what the connection was there. The cheese was decent - I prefer something with more age and less fruit - but the  sheep left a long lasting impression. 

If you ever come to visit, you may have to shoo a sheep off the chair. I have said it before, you don't have to be crazy to be us, but it would be easier.  

My World of Wonders: September 16, 2026

Where have I been this week? Trader Joe's, the National Portrait Gallery (see above), the community center, the pool, the treadmill, the farmers market. 

What have I been up to in the kitchen?  A chicken- veggie- pasta, pizza, pork chops and french fries, 

Who have a communicated with this week? My brother, I sent him an email, and several days later had a reply. He is unwell. My sister a couple of times. Amy, Eric, Anna, Giuseppe, Raf, Marcel, David, Warren, lots of neighbors. 

What social events have we been up to? We organize a nearly monthly LGBTQ neighborhood gathering. It was scheduled for the first friday, then the power went out, we postponed for a week. We gathered on the pool deck, I made a pizza. We had missed last month, it was good to see everyone.  

What is coming up this week? An art gallery show change, the current show comes down today, the new show goes up Friday, with an opening reception Saturday afternoon. I have one more to do this year - the December show is a solo show by someone who can handle everything.  

What am I writing? I sent an article on communication to the editor, an interview went back to the interviewee for his edits. I have two policy papers I am editing. Then I should be caught up for a while.  

Who deserves a slap this week? People who volunteer to serve on a committee, show up for the meeting, criticize the work that has been done and say "more research and editing is needed" and then don't have time to contribute when asked to help.  5 out of 5 slaps, this why it is so hard to find good committee leadership. 

What surprises me when I think about it? How much the rantings of the lunatic president, impact other countries.  Politely tell him to shut up and go away, and live your life while we wait for his term to end. 

Travel Tuesday: The Mansion at Mt Vernon

Above and Below are photos of the bedroom of George and Martha Washington. The desk was Martha's bought in Philadelphia. There are two closets, one was for clothing and the other was used by Martha to store valuables. Most precious were spices and bed linens. Bed Sheets were labor and materials intensive to make before the industrial revolution. They were numbered and she kept meticulous records of who handled each one and where they were used. 

Some years the Washington's hosted over 600 overnight guests, the house was large, but at times full. This space had originally been a storage room between bedrooms on the second floor, it was converted to be used as an overflow bedroom. It was the only guest room without a fireplace. 

 

Monday Mood: Life Is Good

I assure you, I can find things to complain about, my back hurts, it is too hot, or cold, prices are too high, but all in all, life is good. 

Some of it is happenstance, being born where I was, when I was. But much of it is choices that I have made over the years. Taking a leap out of my comfort zone to take a job with a home building company in Orlando back in 1980. A year or two later driving by a Community College and thinking if I want to do better than I am today, I need to learn more, and turning in and asking how to get started. A few years after that making the move to Rollins to finish what I had started, and convincing myself that I could do it, if I really worked at it. And I did. 

Joining a gym, running the first race, deciding that happiness mattered more than conforming to others expectations. Selling in Orlando and moving back north, going to law school. I remember when I started lamenting that I would be 40 when I finished law school, and my sweet bear simply saying, "do you want to be 40 with the degree, or without the degree?" And continuing to learn, reading a lot (I have finished 51 books already this year.) 

Putting money away for retirement, steadily over 45 years. Buying a home, working to get it paid off. Avoiding consumer debt. Really learning to cook, not just the basics, but pretty much whatever I want. I can make.  

The big bold move to come to DC.  Living in a place that I wanted to live in, doing a job that I loved, even if I did work too much. 

Finding ways to travel and experience north America and Europe over the years. Travel was not always easy, but in the end always worth it. 

In the end, we are in a place we enjoy, living a life that is engaged and enjoyable.  With luck we have a few good years left to go. 

The Sunday Five: Wants and Needs

1: What should you do, that you have not done? 

2: When was the last time you had a good hug? 

3: If there was a private jet waiting at the airport, to whisk you away to have lunch with a family member, who would you ask them to take you see? 

4: Is there a family member, you find it hard to love? (this can be a yes, no answer.) 

5: How many times in your life have you truly fallen in love? 

My answers:

1: What should you do, that you have not done? The airbag light is on in my car, I really should get that fixed. 

2: When was the last time you had a good hug? Today. Bear hugs are wonderful. 

3: If there was a private jet waiting at the airport, to whisk you away to have lunch with a family member, who would you ask them to take you see? My sister in Indiana, she is fun and I see far to little of her. 

4: Is there a family member, you find it hard to love? (this can be a yes, no answer.) Yes, he probably knows who he is. 

5: How many times in your life have you truly fallen in love? Once. 

Please share your answers in the comments.

The Saturday Morning Post: Linking Creativity

Everytime we are creative, we build a base, to link to the next creative project. Everything that works, I learn from. Even when I am unhappy with the work, I learn something, a color or technique that didn't work the way I had hoped, I learn from. On the August trip to Chicago I took a smaller camera, it was easier to pack and carry, but it didn't capture good images in overcast, rainy weather, not the right tool for that day. But I learned, it is fine in bright sunshine, not so great on a dull day. The right tool, at the right time, adds a link to my chain of knowledge. 

Everytime we spend time exploring other's creative work, we add another link to the creative chain.  I am often inspired by something I eat in a restaurant, to try something new in my kitchen. I love shopping in unusual markets, I see things, smell things, that inspire my creativity in the kitchen.  Seeing art in a gallery or museum, or on the street, gives me ideas of things I could do. Adding new links to my chain of creativity. 

Sometimes I will paint a series of paintings in a similar style or format. Repeating the same theme multiple times. Each time I learn what works, what does not, adding links to my chain of creativity. 

Through all of this, I have learned that I need to keep working, to keep trying, to add new links of knowledge with every step. 

Friday Reflections: September 11th

I never saw the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, I didn't visit New York until the fall of 2009. 

I have vivid memories of the events of September 11, 2001 and the days and decades that followed.  

I was producing a regional conference on grandparents and other relatives raising children. It was our third year organizing the conference and our first year at a hotel, the Holiday Inn Crown Plaza on the northside of Lexington Kentucky.  We were just finishing the opening plenary and getting ready to move into breakouts, when Dick Cullison the executive director of Legal Aid of the Bluegrass came up to the podium to announce that planes had hit the towers and little else was known. Some moved onto the scheduled sessions, some went off in search of televisions to try to see the news. I was teaching a session on elder abuse that morning, to be repeated in the afternoon. It was a strange session, with people either withdrawing or really needing to talk, to talk about anything. By lunch it was clear that it had been a four part attack, that thousands of people were dead and injured. The afternoon was surreal,  we closed out the program a couple of hours early so people could go home. 

My office was closed for two or three days. People were shell shocked. Some went to church, some drank, others took long walks. 

It was complicated.  We wanted to define an enemy that carried out the attack, but the attack had not been from a country, organized military, a definable or really identifiable force. And yet the government went in search of an enemy, and attacked two countries over a period of time, overthrowing the governments without a clear plan to replace them. The lack of a plan, often makes things worse than before. Ultimately the leader of the rebel group was found and killed, living quietly in another country, a country we never held responsible for harboring the man who ordered the attacks.  

Twenty-five years of effort, twenty-five years of grief. 

I am going to get political. 

Look Away if you are easily triggered. 

If the bastards that flew planes into the Twin Towers, the Pentagon and a farm field in Pennsylvania wanted to destroy the United States, it has taken years, but we are letting them do so.  As a country we are more divided than we have been in 50 or maybe 150 years.  The deep distrust of one another, has allowed incredible abuse by government. The fear of others has made it easy for the racists to push an agenda of racial cleansing that makes us weaker, and turns us again one another. A rising tide of isolationism, and protectionism has empowered a trade war, with global impact. Fears have destroyed religious freedoms, and caused the death of many more people. Our local police have gone from community policing initiative that were very successful, to being militarized. In many ways, all of this relates back to the shock of that attack 25 years ago. Instead of making us stronger, and uniting us, it has deepened the divides. If we are not careful, the bastards will win. 

Pearl Harbor was the defining event of my parent's generation, sadly this is ours.