The Thursday Ramble: A Horse of A Different Color

The main campus of the University of Louisville has long been home to a colony of albino squirrels, an inherited genetic anomaly. The squirrels are white, with red eyes. It is considered good luck for a student to see one or more of the albino squirrels on the way to an exam. Pure superstition, but I did well taking a long walk across campus on the way to exams. 

Most squirrels in North America are grey. Grey squirrels were imported into Great Britain, I have no idea why. Probably as retaliation for Britain sending starlings to North America. The Grey squirrels have proven to be aggressive, squeezing out the native Red Squirrels. Sorry! The Reds are prettier. 

I was on a walk in Old Town Alexandria on one of our warm early spring days, and saw the black squirrel above. A rare sight. And he let me take a couple of photos before scampering up the backside of a tree and out of sight. 

My grandfather was a hunter.  After World War II, my grandmother refused to cook squirrel.  She said it was too much work, for to little. I will eat almost anything.  I don't think I have ever tried squirrel.   

My World of Wonders aka The Wednesday Ws March 12th edition

What am I looking forward to? Bon Voyage this time next month. 

Where have I been? The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (we had tickets for three shows in two weeks.) The Library, the pharmacy, the grocery store, the gym, the pool, the Renwick Gallery, and Lunch at GCDC (Grilled Cheese District of Columbia.) Mt Vernon for a nice long - very long walk.  The UPS store, Trader Joes, Harris Teeter, a morning of running errands. 

Who have I seen this week? The water aerobics people, Ruth, Warren, Paul, Giuseppe,  and Mike. My sweet bear. Susan and Anna for our first friday LGBT community gathering.  I made pizza this month, it was a huge hit.  

What made me angry this week? We have a dear neighbor who recently retired with about 40 years of service in the Federal Government. She managed a major program, bringing honor to the country, doing really world-class work.  She is receiving a lifetime achievement award for her work.  Her father had received the same award about 20 years ago. It will be the first time the award has been given to father and daughter. The awards event was scheduled for early April, then delayed, then cancelled. They will mail her the award. Someone decided that honoring people in person who have spent a lifetime doing extraordinary work, is government waste.  She deserves better. Acknowledging achievement and accomplishment shows the person the world cares, and sets a standard for others.   

What saddened me this week? The actor Gene Hackman and his wife were found dead in their home a couple of weeks ago.  Law enforcement and the medical examiner released this week, that she died first of a respiratory virus. She was about 30 years younger than he was. He died several days later.  He had dementia, she was his caregiver, with no one else checking in on them.  It is sad, that he lingered, lost in the fog of Alzheimer's. The point, establish a habit of communicating with someone outside your home. If that is missed, reach out. The quarterly security report for the condo association where we live, shows that security did 18 wellness checks in the last reporting period, 12 of those resulted in needing medical attention, and a couple of deaths (there are over 1000 apartments in the community.) I trade daily text messages with three people, good morning - we are still alive. 

What am I watching?  A lot of YouTube, Glen and Friends cooking, Escape to Rural France, the Pethericks and others that interest me. Entertaining and no American politics. 

When will the weather start to get warmer?  This week. 

What do I want to say, but don't?  A friend of mine posts everytime HWSNBN goes golfing for the weekend, which so far has been every weekend. What do I want to say and don't? I wish he would stay on the golf course for the next 4 years.  I don't care what it costs to secure the golf course and haul his fat orange ass back and forth, he does less damage when he is cheating at golf. 

What am I reading? The last couple of books were not worth mentioning. I have finished 21 so far this year. 

What is on my calendar for this week? Whatever I want to do, no meetings or appointments. 

What do I tire of? People whining about the price of eggs. I just picked up a dozen pasture raised brown eggs at Trader Joe's for less than $5.  Ten years ago when I started frequenting the farmers market on King Street, I started buying eggs from a local farmer. The Chicken Man took very good care of his hens, and it showed in the quality of the product.  I was paying $5 a dozen for large, $6 a dozen for jumbo or duck eggs ten years ago.  Raising chickens is a lot of work, and fraught with many dangers that can wipe out the flock overnight. The birds require constant attention.  It is time we pay the famers what they are worth. The Chicken Man dropped the market during covid, I miss him, and his silly chicken jokes. You are highly unlikely to go bankrupt paying a couple of dollars more per dozen for eggs. And feeding this conversation, just helps those who voted for HWSNBN justify their vote in the face of overwhelming chaos. 

  

 

 

Travel Tuesday: The Phoenix Art Museum.

Wisdom 

This show was worth the price of admission 

The light changes in this room

I love this landscape

Great Space 

I tiny Caulder model 

The finest sheep art

The color and texture in this piece are amazing. 

 

Monday Moods: Breathe in, Breathe out, Move on

So how am I doing? No one dropped a bomb on my house last week, no monsters pounced on me and tried to eat me. So I am doing kind of okay. 

Sometime in the past couple of years, I read or heard someone talking about, breathing in deeply to an eight count, then slowly out to an eight count, repeat for a couple of minutes, and you will calm down. Your blood pressure will go down.  Hey it worked for me on my latest doctors appointment. 

The Supreme Court ruled against the White House on USAID funding for work that is already done or underway.  It was a five to four decision, with one of HWSNBN's justices voting with the majority. Even more telling the four others dissented not on the merits; but on procedural issues (if the case was appealable.) I would need to know more to have an opinion of the procedural question.  

In the meantime, I will turn the wise words of the Bard. 

The Sunday Five: Cars

1: Would you prefer to live without a car if you could? 

2: Have you ever been with someone when they decided to stop driving? 

3: When was the last time you drove a car with a manual transmission? 

4: Have you ever owned a diesel? 

5: Do you park inside or outside? 

My Answers: 

1: Would you prefer to live without a car if you could? One of the nice parts of living here, is I could. 

2: Have you ever been with someone when they decided to stop driving? Many years ago, my grandfather gave up on trying to get the car in garage, and handed me the keys, and said, "if I can't see to get in the garage, I guess I shouldn't drive anymore." It was a touching moment. 

3: When was the last time you drove a car with a manual transmission? Last spring in France, the rental car. It was the first time in about a decade. 

4: Have you ever owned a diesel? In the early 1980s I owned a VW Rabbit Diesel, I loved it, but it was a mechanical disaster. 

5: Do you park inside or outside? My car is outside (covered in snow in the photo above), the other car is in the garage.  

Please share you answers in the comments. 

The Saturday Morning Post: 50 states in 52 Weeks Georgia

Georgia is on the Atlantic coast, in the far southeast of the United States. Passing through Georgia is almost required to get to and from Florida.  My first visit there was before my memory, visiting grandparents in Florida one winter when I was about 3 years old. We started going to Florida every year when I was in the 8th grade. Georgia was the longest state to drive through from north to south. Interstate Highway I-75 passes through the state the long way. I-95 on the east side, is about half the distance. 

Savannah Georgia is a port city, about half way down the state.  I first visited there when I was driving my grandmother between the farm in Michigan and her home in Florida in the late 1970s.  Savannah became a favorite weekend getaway spot when I lived in central Florida. It was 4-5 hour drive.  Savannah was one of the first cities in the USA to deeply embrace historic preservation, triggered by the building of a very ugly, utilitarian parking garage on one the city squares.  I bought a rug from Jim Williams, the guy who was accused of murder in the book "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" a few years before the events and the book made Savannah a travel hotspot.  His brother Jerry operated an antique importing business down on the waterfront, I have half a dozen leaded glass windows I bought from him one day.  

Atlanta is headquarters for Delta Airlines.  When we lived in Lexington Delta was the dominant carrier.  I probably changed planes in Atlanta 50 times in 10 years.  We joked that you couldn't go to hell from Lexington without changing planes in Atlanta, and Atlanta was close enough to hell to be the same thing.  

Georgia, a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there. 

 

Fluffy, Fleecy, Funky Friday

About 20 years ago we spent a week in the hamlet of Pateley Bridge in Yorkshire.  We rented a house, Duncan and Stephen rented a car and we spent several days exploring Yorkshire.  We visited the Wensleydale Creamery. Between the parking area and the visitors center we walked across a meadow with a small herd of sheep. It was my first encounter with our fluffy and fleecy friends. These sheep were used to seeing hundreds of people each day, and were very tame and friendly.  They welcomed a nice scratch on the back of the neck.  Growing up in the United States sheep were a very rare sight, I had never been near one before.  I found them to be gentle, and fluffy. 

I remember riding the train from Dublin to Galway in Ireland, everytime we passed a flock of sheep, I would go "bahh!" The older women sitting in the row in front of me, probably to this day thinks she was sitting in front of someone who had just been released from a mental hospital.  Bahh!

We have a large collection of house sheep. They are quiet and easy to take care of, the perfect inanimate house pets and they get along perfectly with the flock of house penguins.  

When you visit, feel free to give them a nice hug.  Enjoy the fluffy, fleecy, Funky Friday. 

You don't have to be crazy to live here, but it would make things easier to explain. 

The Thursday Ramble: The first top down days of spring

The weather has been going back and forth between nice and freezing, we have had a few warm and sunny afternoons.  Warm enough to put the top down, with the heated seats on.  The little VW is the first car we have owned with heated seats.  Until I had heated seats, heated seats never really made sense to me.  My father's last Buick in Florida had heated seats - a car that he never drove out of Florida.  To get the compass in the rear view mirror, he had to buy the package that included heated seats. 

On cold mornings, I twirl the switch and within a couple of minutes my lower back and rear end are nice and warm. The seat warms up much faster than the heater starts to warm the air. On a warmish day, turning on the seats and putting the top down, makes me warm on the back side, cool on the front side, with a little sun on the top side.   

The signs of spring are out there.  The ends of the tree branches change color, showing green or red depending on the variety of the tree.  The buds are swelling for the early bloom.  The daffodils are 4 or 5 inches tall and soon will put up flower stalks.  We saw snowdrops blooming when we were out for a walk last week. 

The changes of season are subtle.  Growing up on a farm with a grandfather who really understood nature, I probably notice signs that many do not. 

I enjoy this time of the year, except for the back below freezing part. And it is so nice to drive with the top open after the coldest months of the year.  

My World of Wonders also known as The Wednesday Ws March 5, 2025

Where have I been this week?  Trader Joe's, a walk on King Street and lunch with my sweet bear. The local independent bookstore. The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, we ended up with three shows in less than two weeks.  Out for a haircut.  The First Saturday morning community coffee, water aerobics. The gym, the pool. My doctor for my annual prescription renewals, the library, Aldi, and a tiny Mexican Restaurant that was very good. 

Who have I talked with? Ruth, Warren, Paul, Mike, Giuseppe, Larry, Elaine (she and I rode the condo shuttle bus at the same time until we retired.) Erica, Jessica, Cathy, a couple of ABA committees. My middle brother, three times. 

What have I been avoiding? Listening to the local lament about HWSNBN. The side chatter when I was having my hair cut was depressing - people summarily dismissed from jobs after 15-20 years of loyal service. 

What have I been reading? I finished The Plot Against Native America about the horrors of Indian Boarding Schools in Canada and the United States. Low Hanging Fruit Randy Rainbow's new book of sarcasm (if you want to know about him, search YouTube for his videos.) 

What have I been writing? I finished editing a piece on retirement planning, I am finishing an article on blogging, one on defining Elder Law, and one on staying active in the Bar Association as a reason to travel. These are all due while I we will be traveling, so I wanted to get them in early. 

What is a great relief this week? Taxes are done and filed. It was a complicated year, I had employment income, consulting income, pension income and retirement income. In the end, all is well. Turbotax gets less user friendly every year. I also did my middle brother's taxes, he is getting $38 back. 

What is the best thing I have read this week? 

(Warning it is political) 

"The Trump administration is a soap opera. The president is the producer and the star, responsible for the plot lines, the script, and the cast (all of whom are chosen to look the part). If a plot line works, such as a drive for a Nobel-Prize winning peace deal, then it will be developed and might run for many episodes. Otherwise it will be quietly dropped, or may just peter out. The purpose of every episode is to demonstrate the star’s brilliance." 

Read more at https://samf.substack.com/p/two-steps-backward 

Thank you to Angus in St Andrews for this link. Thinking of the chaos this way, makes sense. 

Travel Tuesday: From the Air

Potomac Yard, New Virginia Tech offices

Home is in one of the crescent shaped high rises on the hill

The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

Lincoln Memorial, and Washington Monument

 

Moody Monday: What am I thinking

 Several readers asked about the pieces I have the current community Art Gallery Show.  

The top piece is a sterling silver hollow construction.  It is a round box, about an inch tall, with a malachite oval bevel set on top. I started with a flat sheet of silver, and built it from there. 

The second piece is a large painting 30 by 40 inches, in colorful stripes. It was painted in 2020 in the dark days of lockdown. 

The third piece is a print of my favorite photo from last year, take mid-Atlantic last May. 

The last piece is metal inlay with cast silver features.  The body is brass and copper sheet, cut and inlaid. The head, shield and spear are lost wax silver castings.  

I should go back to doing metal work.  I really enjoyed it.  When you are in the middle of working on it, the rest of the world fades into the background.  

The weather has started to warm up a bit.  I have been out for a few nice long walks outside.  As much as I enjoy my treadmill time watching YouTube, walking outside allows me to get away in my mind. The think about what I want to think without reminders of the horrors going on around us.  I walked along the Potomac River along the north side of Alexandria, just down river from last month's airliner crash.  I couldn't stop myself from looking at the water, wondering what might be floating by. 

There is a call for the next art show, but I think I will pass on this one, among other things I will be unavailable when that show comes down, they want you to retrieve your art when the show ends. There I am thinking ahead. 

I have a couple of short articles to write before we leave in a little over a month for the next adventure.  What was I thinking when I said, yes I can do that? 

I am tackling things that need to be done that are within my control.  We filed for ETA permission to enter the United Kingdom, we need that for April. I filed on the App, Sweet Bear filed online. The application portal is still glitchy, for example, it won't process the credit card unless you enter the "state" and there is no designated line to enter the "State or Province.' Whoever wrote the code has never traveled outside of Britain.  Both of us were approved within a couple of minutes. I have done as much checking in for the cruise as I can. I am working on getting taxes done.  By the end of this week everything that needs to be done, should be done.  The got to do list, plus the current chaos have a low level anxiety simmering in my mind.  By tackling the things within my control, it becomes easier to live with the things I cannot control.  

Control what you can.  If you feel anxiety, you are not alone. Do what you can.  We will survive this. We must be here to rebuild when the dust settled and HWSNBN is a permanent resident on a golf course.    

The Sunday Five: Shoes

1: Do you prefer shoes that are comfortable or stylish? 

2: Do you wear shoes in the house when you are at home? 

3: About how many pairs of shoes do you currently own? 

4: When was the last time you had a pair of shoes resoled or otherwise repaired? 

5: When the weather allows, do you prefer to wear shoes or go barefoot? 

My answers: 

1: Do you prefer shoes that are comfortable or stylish?  Comfort - this has changed over the decades. 

2: Do you wear shoes in the house when you are at home? No, they come off and go in the closet as soon as I come in the house. 

3: About how many pairs of shoes do you currently own? About 30, then there is the big suitcase in the back corner of the closet that has probably another dozen in it. Yes, I had to go count. 

4: When was the last time you had a pair of shoes resoled or otherwise repaired? Probably 40 years ago. 

5: When the weather allows, do you prefer to wear shoes or go barefoot?  Barefoot, when I lived in Florida I would drive without shoes much of the year. 

Please share your answers in the comments. 

The Saturday Morning Post - 50 States in 52 Weeks- Florida

 

Ah, Florida, the Sunshine State.  Florida played a major role in my life. My family first took me to Florida when I was 3 or 4 years old. We went back the year Walt Disney World opened, then a couple of winters later started spending winters in Florida.  My grandparents were on the west coast, north of Tampa about 60 miles.  The first winter we lived in Spring Hill.  After that we went to the east coast, across the intercoastal waterway from the space center.  I moved there after high school.  I lived in Titusville for about three years, then moved to Orlando. I lived in Orlando from 1980 to 1995. The last decade of that about three miles directly north of Orlando International Airport, step out the back yard and count the tires on the landing jumbo jets. 

I earned my first University degree at Rollins College in Winter Park. I built myself three homes. I sold and built over 250 houses over fifteen years (I didn't keep track of how many.) I had dark times, and good times.  I grew a lot, while I lived there. 

I met my sweet bear, and we moved when he had a great job opportunity, and the move opened the door for me to go back to school and earn a doctorate in my field. I was ready for a change, and moving was the surest way of assuring change. 

When people think of Florida, they think of sandy beaches and Walt Disney World. There is so much more to it. Central Florida is a complex landscape of pine and palmetto scrub.  There are thousands of freshwater lakes. There is rhythm to the four seasons in Florida that is subtle, and unique. It took me a decade of living there to really understand the seasons, the landscape, the place.  

Florida is crowded. Traffic is terrible due to poor planning and lack of infrastructure.  I can't explain the rise of far right politics. And hurricanes were an annual concern. 

I have to list Florida as a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there again.