Travel Tuesday: Mt Vernon

The Original is back on display in the Museum 

A Reproduction 

Clothing Worn By George Washington

 

Upper Garden

Bacon in the Maken 

Monday Mood: How lucky I am

I Love and I am Loved. 

I am happy. 

I have time to do things I enjoy. 

Nothing has tried to kill and eat me this week. 

I do things I enjoy doing. 

I am still learning, still able to learn, still interested in learning. 

I am able to move about. 

I am able to travel. 

I have a safe and comfortable home. 

I am able to be creative.

I am able to help others. 

I have people to talk with, people I can listen to, people who will listen to me. 

I am able to trade messages with friends and family.

Some of this is luck. 

Most of it is the result of working, being wise with money over the years. Setting goals for myself. Holding myself accountable. At times, doing things I didn't want to do. Taking risks. Being stubborn and sticking to what I wanted to do. Being kind to others. Allowing myself to go and do and be creative. At times, pushing myself. 

I am lucky that I did what I needed to do, to be lucky in life. 

This is the third Monday Mood I have written, I am still not sure I like it, but it is almost Monday. Hopefully the Muses will be back from vacation by next week.  

The Sunday Five: Plants

1: Did you have a garden when you were growing up? 

2: Are you able to keep houseplants alive? 

3: What is a favorite thing you have grown? 

4: Have you ever planted a tree? 

5: What are you currently growing? 

My answers: 

1: Did you have a garden when you were growing up?  Yes, I remember one spring, saying I was going to stay home that summer and weed my garden, a classmate responded that he was going to stay home and garden his weed. My grandmother around the corner on the farm had a spectacular garden. 

2: Are you able to keep houseplants alive? Not really. The cactus died from neglect. 

3: What is a favorite thing you have grown? Roses, at the last house in Florida. 

4: Have you ever planted a tree? Yes, and driven by 35 years later to see them standing tall. 

5: What are you currently growing? Content with life, no plants in the high rise with the northern exposure.

Please share your answers in the comments.  

The Saturday Morning Post: Allow Yourself to Get Bored, To Get Creative

I remember being bored as a kid growing up, the farm was isolated, and time often dragged on. Over the years I have done some very boring work, traveled for long distances alone, spent a few weeks in the hospital unable to get out and about without help. Boredom does interesting things to our brains, it triggers thoughts, ideas, ways of entertaining our minds. It helps us find the connections between ideas that are seemingly unrelated. That was one of my strengths when I was working, I spent long days contemplating questions, problems, challenges in my brain, then it would hit me, how we could see the issue in new ways, how we could find a new way through the debris field of failed ideas.  

We need that bored time. I have read a couple of article this year, about the need for quiet time, time to allow ourselves to become bored. We tend to fill every waking moment with something.  A few months ago, I was overseeing the removal of art works in the community center, I had asked people to pick up their works by 10:00 AM, it was just after 9:30 and there were a few left to be picked up, before we moved the back-up plan of moving them to storage. I could have sat there, and doom scrolled on my phone, I decided I would go spend 30 minutes on the treadmill. 

Usually when I am on the treadmill, I watch streaming video on my IPad, but this was an unplanned block of time, and I didn't have my IPad with me. I decided this was a great opportunity to let myself be bored, for just 30 minutes, I would walk on the treadmill in silence, with just the birds outside the window for diversion. Before I knew it, I as seeing things I didn't know were there, flower buds on a tree, young birds. I started thinking about how the colors were changing on the hillside outside that window.  I found myself being creative in ways that I would not have been, if I was watching my favorite YouTube channel about sketching. Both are good for me, both are needed, but the boredom time is in short supply. I need to drop out, turn off the noise more.  

Funky Fridays: Cabinet of Curiosities

I am visiting the closest descendants that I have, my nephews and the two sons of one of them. In thinking about the trip, I thought about some of the family mementos that I have, what to do with them when I am dead. Will the boys be interested in items that were owned by great-great-great grandparents who were dead long before they were born? 

My cabinet of curiosities, has momentos from my life. A Leprechaun pencil sharpener that was a gift from Uncle Dick's mother when she returned from a trip to Ireland.  I have had it since I was about 5 years old. A silver music box that belonged to my great-grandmother - she died the year I finished high school.  A couple of photos from my parents, a photo on metal of my father that was taken when he was a teenager at the Michigan State Fair, the photo of the last airplane he owned that he carried in his wallet for 50 years. Probably a 100 little things collected from my travels, tacky Eiffel Towers, norse gods from Iceland, and a growing collection of tiny ceramic bowls. My father's pilot log books. Each one of these had meaning to me, but will they have meaning to anyone else. 

There are times when I wish someone had saved for me items that connect me to great grandparents and great-great-great grandparents all but one of whom died before I was born. Some tangible connection to the past, and the stories about those people, who they were, how the lived and died connected to those objects. The items are nice, the stories that come with them are even better. I have an enameled pendant watch, that my Great-Grandfather bought for my Great-Grandmother 114 years ago, when he returned from a job in Mexico. For my nephew's sons, they would be a great-great-great-great grandparents. I have their marriage licence, and birth certificates from there to complete the chain of relationships. I need to start making a plan, and moving these things on, or they will be just more stuff tossed in the dumpster someday. 

What is in the cabinet above, a long dead Pope who was recognized as a Saint - which one?

Thursday Ramble: Flawed Politicians

George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, were visionary - but flawed men. They wrote and signed their names to "All Men Are Created Equal," while no women were involved, and many of the men were slave owners. History tells us that many of them struggled with this, but economics and politics brought compromise that left many people without any rights, and others as property to be bought and sold.  

George Washington's will freed many of his slaves upon the death of his wife Martha. She wrote to a friend that she feared that some of the slaves knew this fact, and might try to hasten their freedom. She granted most of them freedom before her death (most of whom then stayed on as underpaid sharecroppers.) 

Thomas Jefferson had a long running relationship and children with one of his slaves. He was in debt, and could not free his slaves as his creditors had a lien on everything that he owned, including the human being that that was the mother of his children. 

Franklin Roosevelt spent the time before he died with his mistress, not his wife. 

When we think of the flaws of today's political leaders, we should look at the past. Look at the flaws of those before.  And know that We The People have been down this road before, and We have found our way. And if we focus on what we have in common, not on what divides us, we will stand together into the future. The authority of the governed is granted by the people, not be hereditary, or god given authority. 

My World of Wonders: July 8, 2026

Where have I been this week? The outlet mall at National Harbor to buy a pair of slip on walking shoes. The grocery store and Trader Joe's. The Farmers Market. The treadmill, both the indoor and outdoor pools. The Grill for first Friday with our LGBTQ+ neighbors. The library, the swamp for a nice walk, the supermarket, the pool. 

Where am I going? Indiana to visit my sister and my nephews. A solo trip. 

Who have a talked to this week? Mathew, Ana, Susan, Raf, Marcell, David, Erik, my Sweet Bear, 

What have I been up to in the kitchen? Gazpacho,  potato salad, coleslaw, cheeseburgers, hot-dogs, roast beef, roast potatoes, sauteed mushrooms, salads, 

What did I finish reading? Human-ish, a book about anthropomorphism. It was very good.  An interesting fact, more people in the USA die in hurricanes with female names, than hurricanes with male names. Why? Because they assume a storm with a female name can't be that bad and don't prepare or evacuate in the same way they do for a storm with a male name. Gender stereotypes carry over to storms. 

What am I working on? An article for a conference in October I am speaking at on the issues of health care decision making. 

What is on the easel? An 11 by 14 inch blank. I should do something with that. 

Travel Tuesday: Vienna

For Vienna I have to start with the hotel, MAXX by Steigenberger. Most hotel rooms in Europe are small, many are tiny with barely enough room to move about. This room was large, very large and very comfortable. It is three or four stops on the underground train out from the city center, and a five minute walk from the U-bahn station.    

 

Monday Moods: Memories

I was out at Mt Vernon for a long walk recently, and this split rail fence reminded me of the place my family lived when I was growing up. The farm, about 60 miles north of Detroit was an old homestead. Before my grandfather bought it had been in the same family since the area was settled and logged out. Around the edges of the field, the edges of the farm, there were remnants of split rail fences. The original concept of a split rail fence was split trees, stacked in a zig-zag pattern. The fences could be built or repaired with few tools, an axe, a wedge and heavy hammer to split the rails, then just stack them. There were no fasceners involved, just gravity to hold them together. They could be moved as the needs of the famer changed. They would contain most livestock. As a kid we would find small sections of these fences around the farm and neighboring farms. 

There were also remnants of stump fences. The area had been old growth forest when it was divided up, the trees were cut and sent off to build cities, ships, and provide fuel for heat; leaving behind the stumps, many of them massive. The tree stumps, with a large dense tangle of roots, would be cut loose and dragged out by teams of horses, mules or oxen, and stood on edge to make a dense fence. This was labor intensive, but the end product was a very effective fence for keeping in livestock, and lasted for a century or more. 

I was nearly the last generation to see these remnants of the past, changes in farming have eliminated nearly all of the fence rows, farm fields now run right up to the side of the road, 60 years ago there was a 20-30 foot border of trees and weeds, and fence remnants between the road and the start of the planting.  

At the time the farm was home. For a few years after I moved away, I kind of thought of it as home. But I no longer do. It is where I spent my childhood. I have no real connection to the place. I have no family there. It is a lifetime ago. In the fresh light that distance and time provide, I can see the flaws and difficulties of the place. I am glad I left.  And yet, I am glad I saw things that few people have seen outside of photos, paintings, and historical recreations. 

The Sunday Five: Baking Life

 1: Have you ever watched the BBC show "Bake Off" or as it is known in the USA the "Great British Baking Show"? 

2: What was the first thing that you "baked?" 

3: Where either of your parents good at baking? 

4: What would be your "showstopper" bake? 

5: Given a choice, do you buy sweet or savory? 

My Answers: 

1: Have you ever watched the "Bake Off" as it is known in the USA the "Great British Baking Show"? Yes several seasons of it. 

2: What was the first thing that you "baked?" Either chocolate chip cookies or apple pie. 

3: Where either of your parents good at baking? My mother was good, my father never tried. 

4: What would be your "showstopper" bake? Bread. 

5: Given a choice, do you buy sweet or savory? Savory. 

Please share your answers in the comments. 

The Saturday Morning Post: The 4th of July

250 Years Ago Today a Fundamental Agreement was reached in a room full of anarchists to declare independence, and form a new country. A creative and bold move. A risky move to be certain. 

"We must, indeed, all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately."
Benjamin Franklin 

Be bold in your creative endeavours. Think about what you need to say, and say it boldly. Take risks, do what is fundamentally right. 

Foodie Friday: Just ask

I didn't do a lot of research before this spring's grand adventure to find what was to be seen in the places we were going to be. Sweet Bear did, he bought advance timed entry tickets for several places, especially in Vienna. While in Vienna I did a couple of quick searches on my phone, including one for markets. I love exploring markets. And sure enough the major city market was one U-Bahn stop before the hotel. I don't remember what we had explored that day, but Sweet Bear looked exhausted, so I asked may I, get off and walk the market while you go onto the hotel to rest, I will be along in an hour or so for a nap before dinner.  He agreed. The Hotel in Vienna was really nice. 

The market was a mixture of new pavilions and older open sided stalls. In one of the newer pavilions was this wonderful organic fruit and veggie shop.  I went into look around, and asked "may I" pointing to the camera, "yes - thank you for asking" was the fast answer. 

The open stalls had a wide variety of fresh local produce and fruits. Again it made me wish I had a kitchen to play in. 

I was talking with one of my prefered vendors at the King Street Farmers Market last weekend, about cheese - his cheese man had a disk fusion in his neck and hopes to be back at the market this weekend, he and his cheese were missed. I bought a large block of 8-year aged cheddar. I mentioned the great markets in France, Italy, Germany, Austria. I really like the refrigerated trucks with the side that opens up to a display/ sales counter. He said, "yes, they know how to live." I assured him that the markets he is a part of are our version, and I am so grateful that I live near such a great market (there has been an active market in Alexandria for about 300 years.) Market life is not easy. The farmers/vendors are up early, often driving long distances in all kinds of weather.  My grandparents and my father were vendors in the Eastern Market in Detroit for about 30 years. 

Thursday Ramble: Daily Items

There is a genre on YouTube of videos of assumed to be famous people describing the things they carry with them on a daily basis, or that they never leave home without. Many of them are people I have never heard of, and many of them need a small moving van to carry all of the stuff they supposedly can't leave bed without. They should also all qualify for American Express Black Card if they can actually afford some of the items on their list. 

Here is my list of daily items: 

A simple analog Casio Quartz watch, one with an old fashioned round dial, numbers and hands. For years I wore digital watches, when I was studying for the Bar exam, I used the stopwatch in one to time my practice exams, knowing that I needed to answer 100 questions in three hours in the morning and 100 questions in three hours in the afternoon. An unanswered question is a wrong answer - and a failure to complete the questions is a major cause of failure. I used the watch to assure I would finish without panicking when I took and passed the exam. A few years ago I went back to a dial faced watch, because they are easier to set when I change time zones. I own a couple of valuable watches, and they never leave home, almost never get worn. The one I am wearing was less than $40, when the band breaks or the battery runs down, I will simply buy another one. It never leaves my wrist. 

I never leave home without my phone, but when I am home it is usually laying on the bedside table or desk, not with me. My current phone is a Google Pixel, simple, reliable, and it has a decent camera. It was a freebie from my overpriced service provider.  

When I am leaving the house, I almost always take a camera with me. A Nikon D5500 with an 18-200mm lens.  I own two of them, I felt so comfortable with the camera that when Nikon stopped making them, I bought a second one as a back-up. I have five other lenses for them. It is an exception to my general policy of not spending a lot of money on my daily carry, replacement cost, is about $800 for what often have on my wrist when I leave home. Overall I have probably $3,000 in the drawer of toys or tools.  

In my pocket when I leave the house, is a small leather case with a central zippered compartment for coins, and two side pockets with snap closures, one of them has cash and a credit card in it, the other one ID. Along with that is a leather ID case with my condo ID/gate card, and my subway fare card. My keys are on a brass snap and I only carry a couple of keys, the door key, and mailbox key. I only take a car key, if I am going to drive the car. Car keys are separate from my house keys. 

That is really kind of it. What do you carry everyday? 

 

My World of Wonders: July 1, 2026

Where have I been this week? The gym, the pool, the community center, the farmers market, out to lunch, the Grill, apt 608 to water the plants, Mt Vernon, the Old Town Waterfront, the outlet mall at National Harbor. 

Who have a talked with this week? My sweet bear, Amy, Brad, and  Marcell.  

What have I been up to in the kitchen?  Bland baked chicken and macaroni and cheese. Pork Stew. Hamburgers and potato salad. Fried chicken, with green beans and a tomato salad. 

What was exciting at the Farmer's Market? The cheese guy's supply is back and he is due back next week, he had surgery and has been out for a month or so. Pastry Boy is back, he had been out six weeks for surgery. He proved to be irreplaceable. 

What travel is coming up?  Indiana to see family this month, then Chicago for a board meeting, Syracuse in October for a conference, another board meeting in Philly next spring, and a cruise for later next spring. There will be another board meeting in Chicago in winter, and I should go see Family and Friends in Florida next winter. There will be plenty of time to rest when we are dead. 

What have I been reading? Class Clown by Dave Barry - I laughed so hard I had to stop and catch my breath. 

What is on the easel? An abstract poured paint work, kind of like Jackson Pollock. I was stuck, and a friend gave me a Bright Idea (her last name is Bright.)