It's Official

He's gone.
On his way to Afghanistan.
Wearing Army drab, not Air Force blue.
His parents don't understand that.
None of us do.
But it's what it is.

His tour is slated to be six months.
We hope by March he's on his way home, hale and hearty.
We pray.
Just like millions of other families.

We wonder why.
But we know.
"Freedom and liberty".
The United States shouldn't have a monopoly.
We share.
It hurts to share.

God Bless the American Soldier.

Apple Time

It's also the time of year when the trees bring forth their annual harves of nuts and fruits. In my backyard there is an apple tree that has been here since before we came 40 years ago. It has never had any care, and it used to have the smallest knotty-looking apples. Since my husband cut off a few dead and dying branches, it seems to have gotten new life. The last two or three years we've had almost "normal" looking apples. Of course, they still have little bugs or worms in them, so you don't want to use them as eating apples.
I have a call in to the local extension office, so I can learn if there are things we should do to eliminate the pests. According to an old fellow at the local "Adult Care", the tree was purchased in Vermont and is an Ida Red. He is a relative of the people who lived here before we bought it, and he sounds believeable.
If these really are Ida Reds, they are good for eating and cooking. I can attest to the fact that they make the most wonderful PINK applesauce!
Anyway, the apples are beginning to ripen and fall to the ground. I have already picked up several offerings and made applesauce. Now I am offering them to my friends. There seems to be enough for all!

annual gut-wrench

This time of the year gives me the feeeling of trying to hold on to something infinitely beautiful and desirable, with no success.
Summer is ending; autumn and its responsibilities looms before me.
The weather has just turned liveable, with pleasant days and cool nights.
The garden is being harvested and stored.
And....it's school time again.
I spent 26 years in school myself, plus the years of my children.
While they were beneficial and educational, they were also grindingly required.
There was a schedule and an expectation of activity.
As I mentioned the other day, this time of year I have an impending sense of doom in the depth of my being!
Maybe this is why, in our retirement, we chose this time of year to head out and live a life of unfettered movement and relaxation, free as the wind that mumurs in the trees.
Hurray for changes of seasons!

Training?

If you have a dog that is very smart, congratulations.
If you have a dog that likes to chase birds, squirrels, and other wildlife, what do you do? I mean, it's a dog. That's what dogs (would like to) do!
If you have a 7-year-old kid, hooray.
If you have a kid who inadvertently lets go of the dog's leash, what do you do?
The kid knows he will be in trouble for letting the dog go, so he chases the dog.
The dog likes to run.
So the two of them end up at a park 3 blocks away.
What do you do?
I'm not going to give you any options.
Just tell me what You would do.

hmmm....

Going to "meet and greets" is fun, if you're otherwise unemployed and can spare the time and travel. You get to see who else is in the same mindset. Most of us are not "supporting" the candidate as yet; we're just seeing what he/she has to offer as far as ideas.
Yesterday I went to meet Jay Townsend, a Conservative candidate for US Senate. Taking Chuck Schumer's place would be a daunting task, but for some of us, it's a necessary event. Chuck has been around too long; he's practically a barnacle on the ship of state. So, he's said "yes" to most all of the current administration's ideas....for over 20 years!
I'm not sure Jay is the one to replace him, but at least I've met the fellow up close and personal. When I asked "income tax, flat tax, fair tax?", he allowed as how he needs to study up on that. Well, yeah, I think he needs to!

Of course the barn isn't sided yet. It's a BIG barn!
Did I mention my husband is a perfectionist?
Of course, he has every right to be.
If you don't do something right, it'll be staring you in the face for the rest of your life.
It's the same thing, in a smaller sense, with wallpaper.
Did you ever put wallpaper up?
Was it all straight?
If it wasn't, you'll be looking at it until you change it--or until you move.
(Well, you'll be looking at it anyway. But you will notice the imperfections.)
My mom was great at wallpapering.
I never am, because I get in a hurry and want it "done".
So....I have to live with my impatience.
I don't generally put wallpaper where people can see it.
It's hidden away in my bedroom closet...but it's still not straight!

Siding

The latest project is siding the big old barn. The siding is steel and painted brown. It's easily scratched, so we have several places that are painted with spray paint of a similar color. (Because they got scratched)
My boss and husband is very particular, so he's put on and removed several pieces. The hardest part, of course, is getting the pieces from the ground to the higher climes. We have a nifty machine for that. I'm not sure of its name, but it's one you see on construction sites so workers can walk around way up there.
My job has been the running of this machine. It's really easy, but nerve-wracking. Just push the yellow button so the little lights flash. Then grab the stick and squeeze the handle and either push ahead (for "up") or pull back (for "down"). The major problem that I seem to have is releasing the squeeze in a smooth way, so we don't have dramatic STOPS.
Oh, well. I never said I was an expert.
And, so far we're still speaking.
That should count for something.

Amuse

Facebook has a site "Learn you're your too to two its it's". I've offered to teach a course, but no one has taken me up on it yet. It's so distracting when people employ the wrong usage. But it's also habit-forming. The more I read facebook, the more I feel my standards slipping. Sloppy speech/writing is easy to fall into. It's good that we have blogs, where we can vent in standard English. If I misspell something, or employ improper usage, please understand that is is my typing at fault, not my knowledge of grammar!

Just so

Just so proud of my Dad for memorizing all those poems and remembering most of them for, oh, like maybe 60 years. That was back in the day when teachers expected kids to memorize...and when kids did what they were told. The first one is "Nobility" by Alice Cary, and the second one, of course, is "O Captain! My Captain" by Walt Whitman.

Dad went to a one-room school for all his elementary years. He walked up a small hill, then down, then up a BIG hill to get to the schoolhouse on the top. What a view they had! It looked out over the 9-Mile Swamp and was gorgeous in the fall. Of course, in the winter, it was a bit more of a problem getting there. But...they took their sleds.....so the ride home was stupendous!

The schoolhouse was abandoned before I started school, but I had trespassed inside it. Nothing exciting. A blackboard on the wall. The desks had been pillaged. I don't remember if the wood-burning stove was there or not, but it surely was in the days of the school's use.

This is one of the benefits of growing up across the road from where my Dad grew up. We had a lot of similar memories. Of course, his were much earlier than mine, but the geography didn't change. And I did attend the same school building that he did when he was in high school.

By the time I came along, it was a two-room elementary school. So I had "Miss Oaks" for first and second grade, and Miss Oaks taught grades one through three. So I learned some things from the students in the grades above me; and I think I may have taught a few things to the students in the grade below me.

True Worth

True worth is in being not seeming
In doing each day that goes by
Some little good: Not in dreaming of great things to do by in by.
For whatever a man sayeth in blindness in spite of his fancies or youth
There is nothing as kingly as kindess, and nothing as royal as truth
We get back our mite as we measure we cannot do wrong and feel right
No(r) can we give pain and gain pleasure for justice avenges each ----
The air for the wing of the sparrow, the bush for the robin and wren
But always the path is straight and narrow for that of children of men.

Assanation of Lincoln
Ah: Captain my captain our fearful trip is done
The ship has weathered every rock, the prize we sought is won
The port is near the bells I hear with people all exhaulting
With following eyes and stead keel the vessle grim and daring
But ah Heart, Heart oh the bleeding drops fo red
Where on the deck my Captain lies, fallen cold and dead.

as I rember from grade school
CDH

(The above was found in my Dad's Bible after his passing.)

PAEAN

Tomorrow will be my Dad's 100th birthday. He passed away in 2003 at the age of 92+. He had seen many new inventions and lived through WWII, the Korean conflict, the Viet Nam war, and saw 9-11 on TV.
He learned to fly a Piper cub plane and even bought one. Landed it "up on the hill" on his farm. I remember his giving me a ride when I was a mere child.
He was a pitcher on local baseball teams for many years. The last church pastor remembered coming as a young pastor to the Sunday School picnic and playing in the obligatory softball game. When he saw Dad was the pitcher, he was sure he was in for an easy run, or at least getting on base. Dad's first ball was a scorcher; Pastor swung after the ball was already in the catcher's mitt. Of course, the next two were so slow he didn't have the patience to wait for them to clear the plate, and the young preacher was struck O-U-T.
Dad was good in that kind of psychology. He was about 5'7" and weighed the most when he graduated from high school, a whooping 128. So he had to make up in brains what he didn't have in brawn.
He enjoyed the Roaring 20's well into the 30's, before he finally settled down with the shy young miss from Tinker Hollow. She kept him on the straight and narrow from then on.
Dad was an innovator and an inventor. He figured on things to make his farm work easier and quicker. Of course, he never got around to getting patents for his inventions, but several of them later appeared for sale in machinery shops.
He worked to improve his farm and his cattle. He was one of the first to go to the added trouble and expense to register his Holstein cattle and keep records of milk production for each cow. I joined in this endeavor in my 4-H years, owning and showing several registered Holsteins.
In later years he took up bowling, and then even later, golf. He was always a competitor, but a gentle one. He and a long-time friend also had an annual competition to see who could shoot the most woodchucks. They had to actually pick the chuck up by the tail in order to count it.
Fishing was another lifelong passion. Our family vacations were almost always spent beside a lake where he could take his fishpole and his boat out to troll for bass. That was his relaxation, after months of farm work.
I miss him a lot, but I know he's in a better place and I will get to spend eternity with him and a lot of others who have gone on before.
Happy 100th, Dad!

Legal

Well, That was enlightening!
I just watched a political video put out by Kristin Davis for Governor of NYS.
She's apparently running on the libertarian party platform.
She's for legalizing marijuana, prostitution, and gay marriage.
She's the madam who got in trouble when former governor Spitzer went down.
She was valedictorian of her graduating class.
She has a degree in business.
She's worked for a hedge fund.
She's run her own escort businesses.
I agree that our state is in deep doo-doo.......but, I will not be voting for Kristin Davis.