dual personalities

This week I’ve struggled to take my DP’s place while she was away in Colorado. I only wrote two extra posts and their subject matter reveals just how little I have to say. After all, the first post reported on someone else’s (my son’s) adventures and the second one dealt with potatoes. Lest you still don’t get the picture, here’s how I filled my days:

1. I cleaned and tidied
2. went to the office
3. binge-watched NYPD Blue (thanks to my DP, who suggested it)
4. did crossword puzzles and read
5. made dinner when it was my turn

Outside of the house I went to the grocery store, the office, the bank, the drugstore, and one Tai Chi class. Nothing unusual happened. I didn’t even take a walk, although I did get to chat on the phone to my brother, and son #2.

I’m not complaining — I had a lovely week! It was relaxing and satisfying. I got some things done and did not hate myself for what I didn’t achieve. But you must admit that even the most creative imagination might have trouble squeezing an entertaining blog entry out daily activities. I guess that’s the trick, though, isn’t it?

As Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote, “As the years pass, I am coming more and more to understand that it is the common, everyday blessings of our common everyday lives for which we should be particularly grateful. They are the things that fill our lives with comfort and our hearts with gladness — just the pure air to breathe and the strength to breath it; just warmth and shelter and home folks; just plain food that gives us strength; the bright sunshine on a cold day; and a cool breeze when the day is warm.”

Sometimes life is a little colorless and we have no great pictures to post or deeds to recount. So be it. If nothing else, a few days of gray will make the eventful ones stand out all the more.

Until next week…enjoy the calm.

Well, we’re back home from our visit to Colorado where we partied with the big boys and wore funny hats. It was lots of fun, but I’m glad to be home. I’ll have more to share on Monday. Now I have to get back to the salt mine.

See you ’round campus.

Did you know that on this day in 1820 the first potatoes were planted in Hawaii? As fun facts to know and tell it will probably only come in handy on crossword puzzles (and I’ve been doing a lot of crossword puzzles lately so I should now), but when you think about it, it seems a worthy cause for celebration. After all, where would we be without this versatile starch?

Potatoes come in all sorts of colors.

Not only can you eat them, but you can make everything from ammo

to art

and even moonshine out of them.

Potatoes have many household uses. They are good rust removers (see #4),  and you can also use them to start rose cuttings.

They are reputed to have healing properties and make good beauty masks.

All that and more from just one little pomme de terre! As A.A. Milne’s once commented, “if a man really likes potatoes, he must be a pretty decent sort of fellow.”Hear, hear!

Don’t forget to toast the Hawaiian potato crop tonight…

Note: all photos gathered from Google Image.

On Saturday I reported that son #2 made it to Kodiak Island. Since then he’s explored the area and had his first bear sighting, a mother and her cub!

Photo courtesy of N. Potter

This bucolic photo put me in mind of the great bear stories that my children loved and that I loved during my own childhood. There’s Winne-the-Pooh, of course,

and Rupert the bear.

And let’s not forget Little Bear — we read a lot of those books and watched the cartoon on TV.

Paddington, though very cute, never caught on for some reason.

Everyone loves bears, especially cuddly talking ones that wear clothes and are kind to children. I guess that’s one of the benefits of civilization. Once most people encounter bears in zoos or on TV we can forget how dangerous they really are. Well, at least as long as we avoid stepping on lines.

“Lines and Squares

Whenever I walk in a London street,
I’m ever so careful to watch my feet;
And I keep in the squares,
And the masses of bears,
Who wait at the corners all ready to eat
The sillies who tread on the lines of the street,
Go back to their lairs,
And I say to them, “Bears,
Just look how I’m walking in all of the squares!”
And the little bears growl to each other, “He’s mine,
As soon as he’s silly and steps on a line.”
And some of the bigger bears try to pretend
That they came round the corner to look for a friend;
And they try to pretend that nobody cares
Whether you walk on the lines or squares.
But only the sillies believe their talk;
It’s ever so portant how you walk.
And it’s ever so jolly to call out, “Bears,
Just watch me walking in all the squares!”
― A.A. Milne

Have a bear-y happy Monday!

*Teddy Bears’ Picnic

At least that way you’ll be armed if you meet a bear.

Son #2 made it to Kodiak Island after a long, arduous journey full of delays and bumpy rides. They arrived dramatically in a raging storm and without their luggage (naturally), but the skies soon cleared to a stunning blue, and voila — the view from their apartment.

Here is my son contemplating the view.

We note the long-sleeved flannel shirt with envy — I gather the highs on Kodiak barely broke 60 last week. Ah, for those rugged northern climes! Lest we give in to flights of fancy, let us remember what Jack London wrote:

“A vast silence reigned over the land. The land itself was a desolation, lifeless, without movement, so lone and cold that the spirit of it was not even that of sadness. There was a hint in it of laughter, but of laughter more terrible than any sadness-a laughter that was mirthless as the smile of the Sphinx, a laughter cold as the frost and partaking of the grimness of infallibility. It was the masterful and incommunicable wisdom of eternity laughing at the futility of life and the effort of life. It was the Wild, the savage, frozen-hearted Northland Wild.”

Nature is not friendly. In the 1950s a Kodiak hunting guide found a broken gun, a human skull, and a bear skull all next to each other.

There’s a story in those bones, but if you don’t want to write it yourself, you might dip into some arctic literature.

For those determined to get out there and hike the wilderness despite the risks, here are some basic rules of thumb:

1. Before you go, educate yourselves about the conditions: weather, terrain, bears, risks…
2. Be sure to sign in with park rangers.
3. Prepare for the unexpected. Weather can change rapidly, so wear layers and always carry a hat, gloves, and rain gear.
4. Carry a charged cell phone. Sure, you may get out of range, but better to have it than not to have it. Don’t use up your batteries taking too many photos.
5. Don’t forget matches, flints or other fire-starting equipment. If you get stranded, you may need to start a campfire to keep warm and signal rescuers.
6. Carry emergency rations: energy bars, nuts, fruit and water.
7. Carry a good hunting knife and/or a gun, especially if you are going into a really remote area (hey, I read that terrible story about the bear hunting a guy on a glacier where there was nowhere to hide. It would have been much shorter, and the bear’s death more humane, if the backpacker had packed a rifle).
8. Bug spray!
9. Proper footwear and blister treatment are essential.
10. Don’t forget a well-stocked first aide kit, including sunblock, butterfly bandages, antibiotic ointment, and a good emergency care manual. And don’t forget an Epipen if you need one!

Preparation may not save you from bad luck, but it will reduce the likelihood that you’ll have it. I am comforted by the sure knowledge that my experienced hikers take all the right precautions, have good equipment, and a healthy respect for their environment!

*Jack London

 Some rich people have no shame.

Owning a shark can be “a power thing,” said Joe Caparatta, owner of Manhattan Aquariums and Unique Corals, who has owned catsharks and epaulette sharks in the past. “The shark is the most feared animal in the waters. To have one as a pet kind of puts you above it.”

And here’s an article that epitomizes a lot of what’s wrong and mixed-up about 21st century America. I mean really:

Create a time-capsule altar

Gather objects that have symbolized your journey through 2017 — no matter how mundane or crazy you think they are — and place them in a position of prominence (on a vanity, by your front door, on your dashboard). Dress them up magically (go wild with sparkles, flower petals, candles), and as you pass by each day, think of how far you’ve journeyed, and how the pieces of this object story might shift in the coming year.

Ugh.

But there is hope. Do you visit this website: The Babylon Bee, your “trusted source for Christian Satire”? It makes me laugh and it is a good thing to be able to laugh at yourself.

I thought this piece, actually written by an Episcopal priest, was good:

The reason the message of Christ spread so rapidly among the poor and outcast of the first century (and every century) is not that it promised to fix all injustice or “speak truth to power,” but that it offered the hope of salvation. Even if this life involves unjust suffering, even if we cannot make your life better, we have confidence in a God who raises the dead, forgives sin, and transforms evil into good.

And remember: