February | dual personalities

February 18, 2020

“January cold and desolate; February dripping wet”*

by chuckofish

The OM and I had a fun trip to Jefferson City last weekend. We took the “River Runner” train after work on Friday. The next morning daughter #1 drove us to Columbia where we checked out the new State Historical Society of Missouri building…

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(The sky was grey and overcast when we visited and there was a much more brutalist feel to the building than in this photo.)

The museum inside was small but very nice with some good paintings and drawings by George Caleb Bingham and Thomas Hart Benton.

It was pretty cool. We had lunch in a hip, Brooklyn-esque restaurant and then headed home to Jeff City where we dropped off the OM at daughter # 1’s charming apartment…

…so that we could do a little mid-MO shopping. After a late afternoon glass of wine, we hopped on the train and returned to Kirkwood. It was a lovely, hassle-free overnight visit with daughter #1.

On Sunday I went to church and came home and caught up on laundry and vacuuming and got ready for the wee babes’ arrival later in the afternoon. I had bought them little Valentine presents, which turned out to be big hits. The Jumping Bear stacking toy was for Lottie who, as you know, loves to stack, and the Fisher Price Nifty Station Wagon was for the wee laddie who loves all things on wheels.

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Note that he has taken out the Dad, Mom and dog and put more cars in the “nifty station wagon”…

There’s a whole lot of concentrating going on here…

I was pleased. My choices are ~~seldom~~ not always so successful…

In other news, I forgot to watch the Westminster Dog Show last week. I always got a kick out of it, but I’m afraid it has become a bit of a clown show…

Screen Shot 2020-02-17 at 1.15.24 PM.png That poodle, good grief.

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Here’s to the rest of the week! Maybe the sun will come out!

*Christina Rossetti, “The Months”

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February 12, 2019

“Like gold stitches in a piece of embroidery.”*

by chuckofish

Three kids.jpeg

A Valentine picture from the past!

“You think you will never forget any of this, you will remember it always just the way it was. But you can’t remember it the way it was. To know it, you have to be living in the presence of it right as it is happening. It can return only by surprise. Speaking of these things tells you that there are no words for them that are equal to them or that can restore them to your mind. And so you have a life that you are living only now, now and now and now, gone before you can speak of it, and you must be thankful for living day by day, moment by moment, in this presence. But you have a life too that you remember. It stays with you. You have lived a life in the breath and pulse and living light of the present, and your memories of it, remember now, are of a different life in a different world and time. When you remember the past, you are not remembering it as it was. You are remembering it as it is. It is a vision or a dream, present with you in the present, alive with you in the only time you are alive.”

― Wendell Berry, Hannah Coulter

*Wendell Berry

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March 18, 2017

“In the falling quiet there was no sky or earth, only snow lifting on the wind.”*

by chuckofish

On Tuesday and Wednesday this week we got the blizzard that the weather people mistakenly forecast for NYC. All three of my sons — spread out though they are from DC to Syracuse to northern Vermont — enjoyed days off. Almost everything up here shut down: all the schools, both state universities and most state-run organizations closed; the mail went undelivered, and the garbage uncollected. By contrast, the DH and I received multiple emails reminding us that classes at our universities had NOT been cancelled. Oh, well. What’s 20 plus inches of snow or instructions from the state police to stay home? The show must go on…

Driving home from work on Tuesday in whiteout conditions was exciting to say the least. Unfortunately, my photos don’t capture the howling winds that caused all the problems, but this picture does.

I got this from Google. It’s not my storm, but it could be.

I felt as if I belonged in an arctic horror movie — something with wolves and polar bears lurking. Still, it wasn’t all bad.

Despite the back-breaking shoveling that this storm required afterwards, it also restored my faith in people. Everyone pitched in to help each other. People stopped to chat and commiserate. My heroic snowblowing neighbors rescued the rest of us after the snowplows walled off our driveways. After the storm stranded one family in New Hampshire, several of us dug out their driveway, sidewalk and porch so they could get in when they returned. The work was satisfying and the cameraderie decidedly uplifting.

Now we have blue skies, killer icicles (note how some have detached and stabbed the snow),

and ice-dam floods. In one nearby town, a mile-long ice dam diverted the river onto the streets with predictable results.

picture from North Country Public Radio

Never mind, spring break began yesterday, and although I have plenty of work to keep me occupied, none of it involves grading. Life is good!

*Truman Capote, “Miriam”

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February 16, 2017

A February face

by chuckofish

“Why, what’s the matter,
That you have such a February face,
So full of frost, of storm and cloudiness?”
– William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing

Cheer up. February is not so bad.