Barbie goes to Seattle (and back)

Barbie joined Ella, David and me on a cross-country road trip, leaving home September 5th and returning September 29th. In that time we drove almost 8,200 miles, visited (or at least drove through) New Hampshire, Vermont, New York, Ontario (Canada), Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, Utah, Colorado, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Massachusetts.  

At Cranberry Lake, New York

At the Corn Palace, Mitchell, SD

It poured in the Badlands; wind ripped our tent; Barbie (and we) survived.

Back on the road, to the Black Hills and Big Horn National Forest

Big Horn National Forest, beautiful lake, Barbie catching some rays

 Now we're cooking! (Stove is still so clean!)

On the road to Yellowstone

Barbie says beware of bears!  Proof your camp site!

Ella says, "When it's cold, sleep on the picnic table until they let you in the tent...."

Once in the tent, steal a sleeping bag... 

Motel 6, Seattle, well-earned rest (and showers for us, not for Ella or Barbie)

Most beautiful place visited: Cape Disappointment on Long Beach Peninsula, Washington

Back on the road, on the way to ... Colorado?

Barbie at Solace in Fort Collins, a brief but interesting visit

Motel 6, Kearney, Nebraska, another shower and good coffee. Now heading home...

Okay, now that you've acknowledged Barbie's 8K travels, I'll try to get back and post some photos in which Barbie doesn't star.

Peace, peace, far and near.

Barbie goes camping at Lamoine State Park

Today

It's the Fourth Day of July.  It's the birthday of the United States of America, born at a time when "inalienable rights" applied only to white males, and usually only to propertied white males, a minority, a fraction of the persons living in the new "democratic" republic being birthed.  Let's remember that the "democracy" established on July 4th was a "democracy" where some human beings "owned" other human beings as if they were cattle.  Let's remember that the fact of chattel slavery continued as the "law" of this "democratic" republic for almost another 100 years and then, "de facto," as racist Jim Crow laws and "de jure" federally sponsored and supported housing segregation for yet another 100 years, and still today, continues as mass incarceration resulting from "anti-drug" campaigns, cash bail programs and racist policing procedures.  

Let's remember this country's beginning when, in 2019, the government of that country holds hundreds of children in what are essentially cages, without their parents or other adult relatives, and without toothbrushes, soap, change of clothes or, in some cases, beds, where one child holds and comforts another smaller child, a stranger, because there is no one else to do it; a country whose lawyers go to court to argue that "toothbrushes" and "soap" are not included in the requirements of the country's own laws that children held in border detention camps be held in "safe and sanitary" conditions.  

My next door neighbor - who is Canadian - hangs out an American flag this week.  I remember burning American flags in Washington, D.C. to protest the war in Vietnam.  Something like 35 years ago, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that flag burning was "protected speech."  Would that be SCOTUS' ruling today?  I'm not so sure.  Having upheld extreme partisan gerrymandering in the past week, who knows?

I didn't even get around to mentioning yet Trump's $2.5 million (at least) plan to turn the July 4th fireworks event in this nation's capitol in 2019 into a rally to re-elect his racist, likely rapist, fascist cheeseburger inhaling self. 

When I began this post, I just intended to include one local calendar event (but please do note the name of the town where it is being held):

OLD COOTS GIVING ADVICE AT LIBERTY LIBRARY, 59 Main Street, 10 a.m. to noon Saturdays all summer.  Get a donut and some free advice.

I might pass on the donut, but I do need the advice.  Where do we go from here?  I really need some advice.  Can you help?

Peace, peace, far and near.  

Barbie's Roadtrip To From Away

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We're on the road.  Barbie waits in the car while we shop for dinner at the Giant supermarket somewhere in Pennsylvania.

Back in the car, the miles are melting away and Barbie thrills to the wind in her hair:

Catching the rays and some rest at Hayne and Georgie's place on St. Simons Island, Georgia

 Gotta earn our keep; Barbie helps by doing some gardening for Hayne and Georgie:

On our way to Florida crossing the sunshine state, we're starving so we stop at Sonny's BBQ.  Barbie approves!

At last, the roadtrip feels like a real vacation.  We are enjoying the lovely pool at Kate and Phil's - of course, we couldn't actually take a swim because Kate and Phil were busy pouring in doses of acid to correct the ph level and always scraping, scraping, scraping something or other off the bottom.  But I don't think Barbie minded:

From Florida, we're on our way to Atlanta to visit family.  We make Motel 6 in Tucker our home away from home and Barbie is (and all of us are) soon off to dreamland.

Time to chill with Sam and the boys - the kids playing video games, Sam listening to jazz, and Barbie taking it all in.

Next stop, Etowah, NC, suburb of Asheville, and a lovely visit with the Waycaster clan.  Ella had to stay behind with her BFF, Rex (she didn't seem to mind that either)...

but Barbie joined us for a lovely morning at the North Carolina Arboretum:

On the way home, another Motel 6.  Barbie asks when this damn roadtrip will finally end (don't let that smile fool you; this girl's ready for her own damn bed):

Home sweet home!

Spring

This year I bought seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds to start indoors, and then didn't get around to getting the soil and planting the seeds until this past week.  I bought 2 kinds of tomatoes - both big beefsteak types, one so dark it is almost black, and eggplant and collard green seeds. After about 3-4 days in the seed tray in my kitchen south-facing window, the collard green seeds sprouted.

In other news, I've been busy (too busy, I think) "volunteering."  Here's what I'm doing these days:  (1) entering data for our local food panty (I go by the pantry 1-2 times a week, pick up sheets that list the people who came by for food, and enter the data in an on-line database), (2) acting as interim treasurer for our synagogue until June 30 because the prior treasurer suddenly resigned; this is a pain because he resigned right before starting to prepare next year's budget, so I'm doing that without having any history over the past year; oh well; (3) working with a couple of other people to negotiate a contract for someone our shul is hiring; (4) volunteering once a week at the local animal shelter where I pick up poop, scrub and wipe out dog kennels; (5) acting as mentor for a young person undergoing delayed disposition by the court by agreeing to work with Restorative Justice, and (6) working with Waste Watchers, a local group trying to work towards better approaches to solid waste disposal in our city.  And I just finished working with a group of people from our synagogue to put on an Easter Community Dinner on Easter--we served about 100 people.  And I'm playing music about once a week with a group of friends.

Here's what I do for fun:  performance art - Barbie Visits Maine:

Barbie volunteers at the Apprenticeshop, local boat school. So very Maine!

Barbie learns to sail

Wow - look at Barbie handle than line (line! not rope!)

Up in Maine, our lobstahs get REAL big! Watch out, Barbie!

Wave to the folks, Barbie!

That's what's going on up he'ah.  How are you doing away they'ah?

Peace, peace, far and near.

Trying new things

This past November I took a community education course in beginning knitting.  I made a very imperfect but still lovely pair of fingerless gloves for my daughter, sent them to her and they were lost in the mail.  I am knitting another pair now and I do find I like knitting. I decided to take the class and try to learn to knit because I thought it might help the stiffness in my hands from arthritis.  I think it does. Up to a point.  Then it may do the opposite.

In December some time, David and I went to the local (hoity toity e.g., prohibitively expensive) sporting goods store so he could look at winter gloves.  While there I came across their display of flies (for fishing).  They were so beautiful!  Who knew?  Certainly not me. Here are a couple of photos I took.  They don't do them justice.  The flies were all shapes, colors, sizes, of all kinds of materials, including Elk hair.  Elk hair!!!  And look at the Hexagenia Dun!  What a wonderful name!

David told me that he took a fly tying class as part of Boy Scouts.  I thought what a wonderful thing to learn how to do.  Lo and behold, the catalogue of community education classes came today and in March, they are offering Beginning Fly Tying, 4 weeks, $35.  I'm signing up.  What, you ask, will I do with the flies I learn how to tie - assuming I am capable of learning to tie them?  I have no idea.  Maybe next summer I'll take a Beginning Fly Fishing class.

Here in Maine we are trying out a new approach to state government.  We elected a Democrat and a woman, Janet Mills - the first woman governor of Maine and the first governor to win more than 50% of the vote in quite some time.  (Our last governor, Paul LePage -- who was Trump in our state politics before Trump was Trump in national politics -- was elected with 39% of the vote because of a third party candidate who split the vote.)  Governor Mills has already signed into law Medicaid expansion - which passed 2 people's referenda here in Maine, backed up by several law suits, and still LePage refused to implement the expansion.  Meanwhile, the Democrats also control the State House and Senate.  So there's a possibility that the state government will actually get some things done - for the first time in a long time.  Of course, some of what they do may be metaphorically "lost in the mail" or they may fail at some things they try to do.

I guess that's the risk of trying new things.

Peace.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

It is a weirdly warm day in mid coast Maine - 44 degrees - after an inch or so of snow, followed by sleet and sort of misty rain, melted to slush and now to big puddles of water and mud (likely to freeze into slick ice sheets over night tonight).  I have acquaintances complaining about the lack of snow this fall-winter.  I don't mind snow, but can't say I'm pining for it.  What I don't like is wild swings between icy cold temps and spring-like weather with rain/sleet.  Which always leads to ice, which is the downfall (pun intended) of we the "elderly."

Anyway, this is just a brief post to say Welcome to 2019, when my (only relevant) new year's resolution is to try to post more often.

I'll start with this photo from this morning, continuing my on-going New Year's tradition of taking a photo of Ella and me every January 1.

May the year ahead be better than the year behind - a low bar indeed.  Now I'm off to cook black-eyed pea stew, collard greens, rice and corn bread.  Yum.

Peace.