Travel | dual personalities

I really do love Colorado. A lot of our family history is tied up in the state and quite a few ancestors were buried there in the 19th century. I didn’t get a chance to do any genealogical work while I was out there last week, but being there did whet my appetite.

However, I was able to get out into the fresh air and “smell the pine in my nostrils”–literally.

One morning I ventured to Seven Falls which is located less than one mile from The Broadmoor and is “one of Colorado’s most captivating natural wonders.” This magnificent series of waterfalls is situated in a 1,250-foot-wall box canyon between the towering Pillars of Hercules. I walked up the trail to the base of the falls…

…but I admit I did not climb the “challenging” 224 steps to the hiking trails. Since I had knee surgery ten years ago, no way, and I am not ashamed to say I know my limits.

I rode the elevator up to the observation deck.

It was challenging enough, thank you.

I mentioned yesterday that we went to the art museum at Colorado College.

It had a nice collection of American Art and I enjoyed it and, as you know, I am always ready to visit a college campus. But I have to say, the collection of Western Art at the Broadmoor was every bit as impressive.

Maxfield Parrish’s own rendition of Seven Falls–he climbed higher than I did!

This is just a sample of the wonderful art on view at the hotel. C’est magnifique, n’est-ce pas?

And what about this from the Small World Department? The Mighty Pines band, who played at one of the evening events we went to at the OM’s conference…

…are from STL! We thought they were great, and when we went up to tell them so during one of the breaks, we found out that they know our good friend Gary and that they consider him a “mentor” and good friend. In fact the lead singer is a cousin of a girl with whom daughter #1 went to school. What d’you know, right? We are cooler than we thought.

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August 13, 2018

Postcards from Colorado

by chuckofish

The OM and I had a wonderful time in Colorado at the beautiful Broadmoor Hotel. Granted there was a huge hail storm while we were there. You might have read about it or watched a video about it.

Screen Shot 2018-08-07 at 6.51.44 AM.png Pretty intense.

The view out our window before…

the view out our window after (note geraniums)…

Millions of dollars worth of roof damage

Flash flooding

It was the talk of the week, that’s for sure. We had fun nonetheless and visited the Garden of the Gods, Seven Falls and the art museum at Colorado College. We got lost going to the Airforce Academy and had to go back to the hotel and drink rosé on the patio, but c’est la vie.

Back in church on Sunday I read the first lesson from First Kings, but the second lesson was a better one from Ephesians, which we should all take to heart every day:

²⁵Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body. ²⁶“In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, ²⁷and do not give the devil a foothold. ²⁸Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need.

²⁹Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. ³⁰And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.³¹Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. ³²Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. 5 ¹Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children ²and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. (4:25-5:2)

The rector gave a good sermon on the gospel lesson (John 6:35, 41-51). Helen Feesh was back as the substitute organist, although she played the piano for some reason and the Voluntary was Debussy’s Arabesque No. 1!

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She brought her son with her, who was visiting. A professional baritone, he sang two great solos, which I enjoyed, especially Watchful’s Song from Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Pilgrim’s Progress.

When I was leaving the rector made a joke about being glad to see me back before Labor Day, but he wasn’t being snarky. He understands why I don’t go in the summer and doesn’t hold it against me. So, all in all, it was a very pleasant experience, although I got a little misty-eyed when the congregation bid adieu to Brenda, our wonderful soloist/cantor, who is moving to Colorado with her family. Sunrise, sunset.

I’ll have a few more postcards tomorrow. Until then,

Whoopi-ty-aye-yay
I go my way
Back in the saddle again

3 Comments

August 3, 2018

“Live thy Life, Young and old, Like yon oak, Bright in spring, Living gold”*

by chuckofish

It has been a very busy week–at work and at play! If going to the baseball game on a work night wasn’t unusual enough, last night my brother’s son and daughter stopped in overnight on their way from San Diego to Michigan. (He’s moving his stuff home before moving to Istanbul to teach at Boğaziçi University, also known as Bosphorus University.) The boy brought his family over and the OM barbecued. The cousins got a full dose of the wee babes.

The wee laddie emptied the box and then climbed in. So. Much. Fun.

I fit in a box, Mommy!

Look at me. My head fits in a box!

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2018 08 02_3244.jpg Normally I would collapse after such a week, but I have to get ready to head out on Sunday morning (bright and early) to fly to Colorado. Zut alors! I am not complaining. I am blessed to be busy doing things that I love with friends and family.

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Have a great weekend! I probably won’t be blogging next week, but maybe my DP will, which would be lovely.

O God, our heavenly Father, whose glory fills the whole creation, and whose presence we find wherever we go: Preserve those who travel; surround them with your loving care; protect them from every danger; and bring them in safety to their journey’s end; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP)

PSA: August is Summer Under the Stars time at TCM–you know when they highlight a different star every day. Here’s the schedule.

*Alfred, Lord Tennyson

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July 23, 2018

“Like a band of Gypsies we go down the highway”*

by chuckofish

Screen Shot 2018-07-22 at 11.12.22 AM.png Our roadtrip adventure this weekend took us all the way to Marion, Illinois. We had planned to stop in Mt. Vernon, but we got sidetracked looking for various “antique malls” in various cornfields and lost our way a little bit.

Check out that cornfield!

Check out that crocheted tire cover!

Our antiquing was a total bust, but we had a hilarious time, not to mention a lovely lunch in Johnston City (pop. 3500) at Andreson’s Cafe.

Screen Shot 2018-07-22 at 11.18.11 AM.png This is the kind of place where the regulars hang out and when strangers from out of town walk in, they know it, and some nice old lady doesn’t hesitate to come and ask you from whence you hail. We had a nice lunch (and a piece of pie!) and I would recommend the cafe to anyone passing through Johnston City.

Aren’t I lucky to have two friends who agree that this is, indeed, a fun way to spend a Saturday?

I made up for my lack of luck on Saturday by striking gold at an estate sale on Sunday. The OM and I had to borrow the boy’s pickup truck to haul home the bookshelf I found just down the road in Webster Groves. This involved driving out to the boy’s store, taking his giant raptor-mobile and driving very carefully to the house where the estate sale was, loading up the truck, driving home, unloading the bookshelf in the garage, driving back to the store, and then–finally–going home in my own Mini.

The wee babes and their parents came over for our Sunday night barbecue. The boy carried the bookshelf from the garage to an upstairs bedroom. Now I will have the fun of rearranging a room and a lot of books.

I wish I had another day off to recover from my busy weekend, but it’s back to the salt mine today. Have a good one!

*Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson

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July 20, 2018

Back in the saddle again (and a little Friday vent)

by chuckofish

Today on the Episcopal calendar of saints, four American women who were pioneers in the struggle for black emancipation and for women’s rights are honored: Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Amelia Bloomer, Sojourner Truth, and Harriet Tubman. The date chosen for commemorating them is the anniversary of the Women’s Rights Convention held in Seneca Falls, New York, July 19-20, 1848. These new additions are a result of the church’s work on the Lesser Feasts and Fasts revision, which includes an effort to increase the diversity of people held up as models. All very well and good.

My question is why choose Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who attempted to re-write the Bible as her own ‘Women’s Bible’–blasphemy to many–and Ms. Bloomer, who designed the pants that were named after her. Great.

Where is Susan B. Anthony? A Quaker by birth, she became over time more of a Unitarian, but she was no blasphemer. I would much rather recognize her today as a true saint than either Stanton or Bloomer. I would love to know what the thinking was behind these choices, but, then again, maybe I don’t want to know. My denomination disappoints me on a daily basis.

O God, whose Spirit guides us into all truth and makes us free: Strengthen and sustain us as you did your servants Elizabeth, Amelia, Sojourner, and Harriet. Give us vision and courage to stand against oppression and injustice and all that works against the glorious liberty to which you call all your children; through Jesus Christ our Savior, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Anyway… it is Friday at last. I have a fun outing planned for Saturday with my BFFs. We’re driving to Mt. Vernon, IL to check out the antique malls there, which we noted as we drove south to Nashville, TN in June. We’re always on the lookout for new junk!

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I mean, wow, downtown Mt. Vernon sounds like an exciting place (a kitchen store!):

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(From the “Illinois: Are You Up For Amazing?” website)

Well, we’ll find out for ourselves on Saturday. I know Lottie can’t wait until she is old enough to go antiquing!

I wanna go too!

Whoopi-ty-aye-yay
I go my way
Back in the saddle again

Also a toast and a happy anniversary to my DP and her DH! Twenty-nine years! We won’t watch Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf (1966) in your honor…

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…but maybe The Thin Man (1934) or one of its sequels…

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Have a good weekend!

3 Comments

June 27, 2018

Wednesday round-up

by chuckofish

So did you read about the brouhaha over Laura Ingalls Wilder’s classic Little House on the Prairie series?

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A division of the American Library Association voted unanimously last week to strip Laura Ingalls Wilder’s name from a major children’s literature award over concerns about how the author referred to Native Americans and blacks. Funnily enough, I bought a hardback copy of Little House on the Prairie at an estate sale last Saturday. I started reading it on Sunday and I have to say I was impressed with the beauty and simplicity of the writing.

“In the West the land was level, and there were no trees. The grass grew thick and high. There the wild animals wandered and fed as though they were in a pasture that stretched much farther than a man could see, and there were no settlers. Only Indians lived there.”

Haven’t these PC-obsessed librarians ever heard of context?

I say, “Phooey!” to the American Library Association.

It may be time to road trip down to Mansfield, Missouri to see the “House on Rocky Ridge Farm”–where Laura Ingalls Wilder and her husband Almanzo lived and where she wrote her books.

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There is a museum there as well. Mansfield is located in the Ozarks on the south edge of the Salem Plateau. It is a 3.5 hour drive from St. Louis. Branson–which is not on my bucket list–is a little over an hour from there.

On the movie front the OM and I watched Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954) last week when it was on TCM and I thoroughly enjoyed it. That dance sequence at the barn-raising is superb, as is the subsequent fight-dance. It is so appropriately athletic. All that stomping!

Wow. Sure looks like fun.

Anyway, you might want to check it out.

And speaking of drama, thunder storms here lately have been quite theatrical. This was how the sky looked as I drove home yesterday.

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I was reminded of the night of June 28, 1969 when a severe storm with winds of near tornadic force struck the St. Louis riverfront. The riverboat restaurant Becky Thatcher,

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with her barge and a replica of the Santa Maria (not kidding) alongside, broke loose and drifted several miles downstream, safely clearing two bridges, before crashing into the Monsanto dock on the Illinois side. One hundred restaurant patrons were aboard at the time and all were rescued by the towboat Larrayne Andress and taken back to St. Louis, where they were safely landed at the Streckfus wharfboat. The Santa Maria, we are told, sunk like a tub.

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Quelle flyover weather drama.

Well, try to take time to smell the flowers and enjoy the week. Read something controversial–like Little House on the Prairie!

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June 22, 2018

“A man never gets so old, that he forgets how it was being a little boy.”*

by chuckofish

The wee babes and their parents are back in town after a fun-filled vacay in Florida where they visited their other grandparents. The boy went to DisneyWorld, which is the happy place of his wife and in-law family, for the first time. He even wore a special shirt during the 14-hour day-trip. When in Rome…

The boy deserves a party, but he has to work all weekend at his store, so we will not be able to get together as I had hoped for a belated Father’s Day celebration. Sigh. Well, we’ll bring him some Chik-fil-A for lunch as a treat.

Funnily enough, now that summer is officially here, the temperature is dropping and we are in for some rain. Well, that’s flyover weather for you!

Screen Shot 2018-06-21 at 12.19.17 PM Daughter #1 is coming home for the weekend for a little R&R (and to see the wee babes). Plus, my oldest BFF is in town so we are getting together this afternoon for Episcopal souffle and a good old gab-fest.

I have nothing to complain about. I mean, look at the great bookmark daughter #2 sent me after she and DN visited Appomattox!

Perfect! Have a great weekend!

*Ward Cleaver

7 Comments

June 15, 2018

“On a lonely road quite long ago, A trav’ler trod with fiddle and a bow”*

by chuckofish

On this day in 1836, the Arkansas Territory was admitted to the Union as the 25th state. In 1861 Arkansas withdrew from the United States and joined the Confederate States of America during the Civil War. It returned to the U.S. in 1868.

Screen Shot 2018-06-14 at 10.25.28 AM.png Arkansas borders Louisiana to the south, Texas to the southwest, Oklahoma to the west, Missouri to the north, and Tennessee and Mississippi to the east. Considering it is our neighbor to the south, I am not at all well acquainted with this state. I have been there only twice. The OM and I visited Eureka Springs, an historic Victorian town in the Ozarks, years ago, and daughter #1 and I drove to Bentonville a few years ago to see the Crystal Bridges Museum.

Historically, the Arkansas River, a major tributary of the mighty Mississippi, is a very important river, especially in regards to the Santa Fe Trail, which, you know, interests me a great deal.

Screen Shot 2018-06-14 at 10.36.31 AM.png However, I can’t say I have a great desire to go to Little Rock.

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The William J. Clinton Presidential Library kind of looks like a giant double-wide…seriously, did they do that on purpose?

The Fort Smith National Historic Site might be interesting to visit with Judge Parker’s courtroom…

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…but I’m not putting it on my bucket list. Instead I will suggest we watch a movie starring one of these illustrious sons of Arkansas:

Alan Ladd in Shane (1953)

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Billy Bob Thornton in Sling Blade (1996)

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Dick Powell in Murder My Sweet (1944)

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Arthur Hunnicutt in El Dorado (1967)

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…or True Grit (1969) which stars Glen Campbell, who haled from Arkansas. Fort Smith actually plays an important part in the action of the film as does Judge Parker, the “hanging” judge.

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Of course, one of the most famous sons of Arkansas is Johnny Cash.

How can you top that?

Have a good weekend! Mine will be a quiet one. The wee babes don’t return from Florida until Monday night!

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We miss them!

*The music for the Arkansas state song, “The Arkansas Traveler,” was written by Colonel Sanford (Sandy) Faulkner (about 1850). Lyrics were added by the Arkansas State Song Selection Committee in 1947.

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June 5, 2018

Postcards from Nashville

by chuckofish

Nashville. as you know, is a very swinging place and always fun to visit. We stayed downtown this weekend so we could walk everywhere.

Friday afternoon we staked out good seats at a bar in sight of the river and people watched. We were amazed by the huge amount of bachelorette parties, i.e. groups of young women in matching tank tops sporting some cute bachelorette-themed saying, short shorts and cowboy boots. Ahem. (There were also large groups of young men–not wearing matching shirts.) The main attraction looked alarmingly like someone we know:

From there we moved on to the Wildhorse Saloon, which although huge, is not so loud and intense.

The crowd is more middle-aged and the line-dancing lessons are a spectacle in themselves.

The next day we walked around town and over the river for a good view of the city.

We checked out the Johnny Cash Museum and were very impressed.

We had lunch at the Ryman…

…and generally had a lot of fun reacquainting ourselves with Music City. Eventually we had to go back to our hotel to get gussied up for the wedding.

We did not look like this for long, as it was pretty warm in the airplane hangar in hipster East Nashville where the wedding reception was held.

Don’t worry, we stayed hydrated.

The parents of the groom had rented an RV, which was parked out back to be used by a select few to cool off, which we did.

Despite the heat, it was so much fun! And the bride and groom were lovely…

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Thankfully, the OM did not burn down the house, but held the fort while we were gone and rested up. We made it home in time to enjoy our usual Sunday night barbecue with the wee babes and their parents.