Well, we lived through the eclipse and, truth be told, it was pretty cool. My assistant and I went up to the roof of the garage at work and stood around with other flyover university employees while the sun waned until it was, indeed, totally eclipsed.
And I have to say, I love it that my son-in-law made one of these.
It’s a wonderful world we live in, right?
(The photo at the top is from stltoday.com.)
Another whirlwind weekend involving a speedy trip to central Missouri has come and gone.
The OM and I moved some more stuff to daughter #1’s new apartment in a rented pickup truck. Her partial moving van-load from NYC had arrived on Friday, so her apartment was full of boxes, but she was grateful to get more.
We had lunch at the Flat Branch Pub
and then left her with her work cut out.
On Sunday we went over to the boy’s house to see the wee babes and to get some baby-holding-time in.
Good therapy for what ails you.
I also moved on to Longmire #12, An Obvious Fact,
which is full of wonderful things like:
In the great balancing equations of Dog’s mind, there are two things he cannot resist–ham, and me holding open a vehicle door. I’m pretty sure that ham is first and the only reason me holding open a vehicle door is in the running is because it might mean that we are going somewhere to get ham.
Walt makes me laugh and that is also good therapy for whatever ails you.
The total eclipse finally happens today and I will be glad when all the hoopla is over with. The media run-up to this has been wild. Enough already.
I’ll let you know how it goes.
Sorry for the late Saturday post, but I was off antiquing with son #2. Yesterday, he, his lovely lady, and I spent a wonderful afternoon poking around the Syracuse Antique Exchange — four floors full of antiques!
This was the real deal and I hope to get back there before too long.
Next, we ventured to Dalton’s American Decorative Arts,which specializes in Stickley Mission-style furniture and Art Deco pottery and prints — very high end and well beyond our means.
I’m not a huge fan of that period and style, but some of the prints were gorgeous.
Later, once we had recovered from all that walking and looking, we dined at Apizza Regionale, where we enjoyed two incredibly delicious pizzas: the daily special that had olives, goat cheese, capers, and roasted pistachios, and this one, with Yukon gold potatoes, caramelized onion, aged Gouda and rosemary.
Yum!
Here are the happy diners:
The next day, Chris and I ventured to the vast Madison-Boukville antique fair, which, frankly, I found impossibly large. The fair covers the entire town, spilling into every available space. There are tents and booths up and down main street and filling fourteen fields. According to the web site, there are over 2000 vendors. Unfortunately, few of them seem to sell antiques and overall, it felt more like a massive garage sale than anything else. To be fair, we probably only saw a quarter of the booths, so maybe we just didn’t find the antiques. We did have a lot fun wandering around.
“My feet are killing me!”
Expecting to haggle, the sellers priced things very high. I don’t haggle, but since I didn’t see anything I wanted to buy, that wasn’t a problem. We did encounter some exotic items, though. Take this crocodile, for example.
The photographer is a bit off-kilter here — the croc was too scary.
We gave up after a couple of hours — there was simply too much to see, and not enough of it seemed worth seeing, but I’m really glad I went. Our running commentary was great fun, and we also enjoyed stunning vistas and lovely weather on the long drive home.
Taken from the moving car.
We are now safely home, and I think I’ve satisfied my antiquing urge for now. This trip was a fitting end to a busy summer, but now it’s time to get down to work again.
Here we go…
*The Tragically Hip, “Pigeon Camera”
Is it Friday already?
Tonight the OM and I are loading up a rented truck with more stuff for daughter #1 and then driving it to Columbia tomorrow. Luckily the Mizzou freshmen moved in earlier in the week, so we are hoping we won’t run into too much traffic. When I checked to find out if this was the case (student arrival date) I found this:
Check out that Electronics section. I must say times have changed since I moved into my college dorm back during the Punic Wars.
I flew to Smith College from flyover country, so all I had were two duffel bags filled with clothes. I think I brought a clock
and maybe one of these–
(I never used it.) I didn’t even have a typewriter* when I was in college. My roommate and I shared a landline phone with other girls on our floor. There was a broken television set in the living room of our house. I didn’t watch tv for four years!
When my mother was a student at Middlebury College in Vermont back in the 1940s, she took the train. She sent her laundry home in a laundry bag on the train (in the mail?) for her mother to do back home in Worcester, Mass. And her mother sent her laundry back. She probably didn’t have a clock.
Ten years ago when my children were in college, times had changed, and I have no doubt my kids got tired of hearing about it. They had personal computers. However, daughter #1 is quick to remind me that she didn’t have a cell phone until she was a sophomore in college. Deprived, she was, deprived.
But really. Why do people go to college? To watch DVDs? Play computer games? In my day, we read books and studied! We spent a lot of time in the library.
On the weekend we might go to a party, but during the week we studied. That was just the way it was.
Well, I didn’t mean to rant, and I know I sound like an old lady, but a little deprivation might do some college students a lot of good. You know what I mean?
Anyway, I hope I will get to see the wee babes this weekend. I can tell from pictures that they are getting bigger and growing hair since I last saw them a week ago!
I wonder what college will be like in 2035? Maybe the twins won’t go to college. They’ll just be cowboys and ride the range…
Have a good weekend!
*A typewriter=one of these:
Well, the dog-days of summer are upon us. Oh, to be back east in a nice cool lake. In this snapshot one little dual personality is treading water with two older cousins in Massachusetts back in the early 1960s.
Good times.
Sabrina fair,
Listen where thou art sitting
Under the glassy, cool, transluscent wave,
In twisted braids of lilies knitting
The loose train of thy amber-dropping hair;
Listen for dear honour’s sake,
Goddess of the silver lake,
Listen and save!
–John Milton, from Comus
By the way, I did watch Under the Rainbow (1981) the other night., As expected, it was not a great movie. A young subdued Chevy Chase and a skinny Carrie Fisher were under-whelming to say the least and the movie was amateurish, but there were some very funny sight gags involving “little people”–not to mention Asians–which today would be considered politically incorrect and definitely inappropriate. I have to admit, I laughed out loud once or twice.
Silence again. The glorious symphony
Hath need of pause and interval of peace.
Some subtle signal bids all sweet sounds cease,
Save hum of insects’ aimless industry.
Pathetic summer seeks by blazonry
Of color to conceal her swift decrease.
Weak subterfuge! Each mocking day doth fleece
A blossom, and lay bare her poverty.
Poor middle-agèd summer! Vain this show!
Whole fields of golden-rod cannot offset
One meadow with a single violet;
And well the singing thrush and lily know,
Spite of all artifice which her regret
Can deck in splendid guise, their time to go!
–Helen Hunt Jackson, August
The painting is by William Merritt Chase (1849 – 1916)– “Japanese Print” (1898)
Seventy-eight years ago The Wizard of Oz (1939) premiered at the Grauman’s Chinese Theater.
I have always considered The Wizard of Oz to be one of the best movies ever made. It is definitely in my personal Top Five. It never disappoints.
Oh, but anyway, Toto, we’re home. Home! And this is my room, and you’re all here. And I’m not gonna leave here ever, ever again, because I love you all, and – oh, Auntie Em – there’s no place like home!
Everyone in this movie gives 100 percent. And this is still one of the scariest scenes ever.
You can watch it year after year and it never gets old. The test of a true classic.
Maybe I will watch it tonight. Or maybe this one:
A Giant comedy–somehow I doubt it…
Another weekend gone with the wind. I have been so busy lately, I sometimes don’t know whether I am coming or going. But I’m not complaining. My cup runneth over.
I had to include this photo from Friday night because it is so darn cute. I’m sorry I didn’t have one of the boy and the little guy in their dad and lad outfits–both were wearing Longboat Key t-shirts, blue shorts, mid-calf socks and gray Nikes. It was way too cute, even for this blog. I love the drool kerchief–it gives his outfit that cowboy je ne sais quoi.
On Saturday we got up early and packed up daughter #1’s new car.
Then we waited around for the boy to come over 😤 and then we packed up his truck with furniture. (We didn’t fit everything in the monster truck so the OM and I will probably be heading back to Columbia next weekend, but what the heck.)
We set off in a mini convoy and made it to her new apartment by 10:30.
#hillbillymovers (all due respect to hillbillys)
We unloaded and then headed off to Steak ‘N Shake ’cause we were mighty hungry (and we were not dressed for fine dining).
Her t-shirt says: NOT TODAY SATAN.
Then we set up some of the stuff we had brought in her apartment.
What a difference from her tiny studio on the Upper West Side! Most of her stuff won’t arrive from NYC for a couple of weeks, but she’ll have plenty to do settling in and luxuriating in all the space, not to mention the lovely pool.
We left around 2:00 so the boy could be back for some lacrosse event he had to go to later. He is so busy and working so hard, it makes me tired thinking about it. Indeed, I fell asleep that night watching Sing (2016)
which was not that inspiring and/or funny despite the voices of a lot of well-known actors. 👎
On Sunday I went to church because I was reading–a long passage from I Kings 19: 9-18 which included:
Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; 12 and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence.
So great to read! I came home and cleaned up my house which I had neglected in all the recent activity. I did laundry and thought of daughter #1 who has a washer/dryer room in her apartment for the first time. If you have ever done without them, you will never take for granted having ones of your own. I know I don’t.
I did manage a little R&R on the patio. And more Longmire.
It was a good weekend. Have a good week!
*Lao Tzu
While my DP’s daughter was packing up her UWS apartment and moving back to her home state this week, my son #3 moved to Indiana. It was a hectic week. First, Tim had to find an apartment and sort out all the paperwork, etc. This was no mean task, even though the internet proved handy, but he got it done. Then there was the packing, which exhausted both man and beast.
conked out after a long day hauling boxes around
Next the specialist, the DH, with helpers Abbie, Tim, and yours truly, played UHaul tetris.
Is there room for a piano?
Finally, we played ‘capture the cat’, who seemed to sense her future incarceration and escaped at the first opportunity. Tim caught her but Eve wasn’t happy — and, gosh, she has sharp claws!
Not a happy camper…
When everyone was all set, they drove off, Tim in the UHaul and Abbie driving Eve in the still nameless car.
I’m delighted to say that they made it to Indiana in two days, and got the apartment squared away in record time. Tim starts work on Monday.
All this moving and organizing is inspiring. After they left, I started working on another box of letters that the DH found in the attic. This one is full of gems from the 1980s and — fair warning my nieces and nephews — some truly wonderful anecdotes about tiny children. And did I mention artistic juvenalia? I’m saving these for a future post, when everyone has settled into their new digs.
Have a wonderful week full of good adventures — you know what I mean, the stuff of which memories are made.
Another big weekend ahead! The OM and I will be driving to Columbia with daughter #1 in her new car and the boy in his new truck–both packed to the gills with her stuff.
Life in the fast lane, right?
Meanwhile, it is the “Summer Under the Stars” month on TCM, so each day the schedule is devoted to a different star. Tomorrow is John Wayne day, so set your DVRs!
Check it out if you feel so inclined.
Happy belated birthday to Snoopy whose birthday was yesterday. Perhaps you will recall that this was revealed in a comic strip on 8/10/1968. I did not remember that, even though I was a huge fan of Peanuts back in the day.
Speaking of birthdays, tomorrow is the birthday of one of our favorites, Mark Knopfler. He’s turning 68!
Mark has played with all the greats from Bob Dylan to Chet Atkins and Eric Clapton. He’s the greatest and we love him.
Have a good weekend! Listen to some good music, watch a good movie, read a good book, enjoy the great outdoors! Smell the pine in your nostrils.
