dual personalities

Category: weather

January 24, 2020

Is it Friday yet?

by chuckofish

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And the robin flew

Into the air, the air,

The white mist through;

And small and rare

The night-frost fell

Into the calm and misty dell.

 

And the dusk gathered low,

And the silver moon and stars

On the frozen snow

Drew taper bars,

Kindled winking fires In the hooded briers.

 

And the sprawling Bear

Growled deep in the sky;

And Orion’s hair

Streamed sparkling by:

But the North sighed low,

“Snow, snow, more snow!”              –Walter de la Mare

Do you have plans for the weekend? We are going to the annual Elegant Italian Dinner at our church, which, you will recall, is the fundraiser for the youth mission trip. Big Doings. The boy and daughter # 3 are going with us. The wee babes will be in the nursery. If the weather cooperates, daughter #1 will drive in from mid-MO and join us. Since it is an Episcopal church, there will be a cash bar. Good times predicted and one of my first social “outings” in a long time.

In other news, Lottiebelle has continued to build towers…

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“The biggest in the world!” with a little help from Daddy

…and the wee laddie continues to improve his driving skills…

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And here’s some news you can use:

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Plus, I thought that this was real good.

Have a good weekend!

3 Comments
August 27, 2019

“They smiled at the good, and frowned at the bad, and sometimes they were very sad.”*

by chuckofish

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On Sunday Lottie got busy and took all the books off one bookshelf and made two giant book towers. Thankfully her daddy put all the books back (and dusted too). One of the books–The Illustrated Treasury of Children’s Literature (1955)–I took upstairs later and perused at my leisure. What a treasury, indeed! I recommend checking out some of these childhood classics. We forget how really good they are!

“Later on, when they had all said “Good-bye” and “Thank-you” to Christopher Robin, Pooh and Piglet walked home thoughtfully together in the golden evening, and for a long time they were silent.
“When you wake up in the morning, Pooh,” said Piglet at last, “what’s the first thing you say to yourself?”
“What’s for breakfast?” said Pooh. “What do you say, Piglet?”
“I say, I wonder what’s going to happen exciting to-day?” said Piglet.
Pooh nodded thoughtfully. “It’s the same thing,” he said.
― A.A. Milne,  Winnie-the-Pooh

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On another note, daughter #1 and I went to an estate sale last weekend where we hit the  proverbial jackpot. We found 12 place settings of my mother’s Lenox china for $30!

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No one wants fine bone china anymore! Noted. But some of us still do, and that is why we go to estate sales.  Quelle score.

Meanwhile it keeps raining here in flyover country and flash flooding happens, causing school districts to close! Enough already.

Have a safe Tuesday! Stay dry.

*Ludwig Bemelmans

5 Comments
May 8, 2019

Counting every blessing

by chuckofish

We have a had an extremely wet winter and spring. Yes, the trees have been beautiful and the grass is lush, but the flooding has been bad.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeYBKYOkGxo&feature=player_embedded

The eye shall look, the ear shall hark

To the hills, the doings in the hills,

And rivers mating in the dark

With tokens from the hills.

Now what is weak will surely go,

And what is strong must prove it so—

Stand fast in the lowlands, lowlands,

Lowlands under the hills!

(Rudyard Kipling, from the poem “The Floods”)

There is more on the way.

If this puts you in the mood to watch a disaster movie, here’s quite an exhaustive list of choices including a few about floods. I have seen Noah (2014) starring Russell Crowe and it is a pretty terrible movie. It seems odd to me that, considering it is based on the biblical story of Noah and the Ark, there is nary a mention of God in the whole thing. I think I would rather watch The Bible: In the Beginning (1966) which includes the Noah story from Genesis. You remember, John Huston plays Noah.

Screen Shot 2019-05-07 at 3.26.46 PM.pngHe also directed the film and narrates it. Yes, it is one of those elaborate star-studded Hollywood efforts and is  produced by Dino De Laurentiis, but its screenwriter Christopher Fry sticks fairly close to the original. I always thought that Peter O’Toole makes a good angel.

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As I recall, it is overly long and a tad boring at times, but I may have to check it out…

Meanwhile, we will hope and pray that the cresting rivers here in Missouri and our surrounding states do not wreak too much havoc with our neighbors and their lives.

2 Comments
May 3, 2019

“Yeah, well… sometimes nothin’ can be a real cool hand”*

by chuckofish

There is a lot going on this weekend, including the 145th running of the Kentucky Derby on Saturday.

Screen Shot 2019-05-02 at 1.19.57 PM.pngIt is also the 50th anniversary of the National Churchill Museum in Fulton, MO and there is a whole weekend of activities planned.

Screen Shot 2019-05-02 at 1.23.54 PM.pngThe St. Louis Fine Print, Rare Book & Paper Arts Fair is this weekend–always a favorite of mine.

Screen Shot 2019-05-02 at 1.18.50 PM.pngIt is Cinco de Mayo. Time for a margarita!

And it is my 45th high school reunion.

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I am getting together with my two best friends from back in the day for a gabfest, but other than that, I am playing it pretty cool.

Meanwhile the rivers are rising as rainfall continues to be higher than forecast.

Screen Shot 2019-05-02 at 6.07.23 PM.pngIt has been raining all week and the forecast for the weekend is not great. So let’s all say a weather prayer…

Compassionate God, source of all comfort,
We pray for the people whose lives have been devastated by rain and flood.
Bring them comfort, we pray.
Protect the vulnerable.

Have mercy on all those working to rescue the stranded and to feed the hungry.
And may our response to their suffering be generous and bring you praise.
For we ask it in Jesus name,

Amen.

I hope we get to see these goofballs.

IMG_0990.JPGAnd this made me laugh…

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Have a good weekend–whatever you decide to do!

*Cool Hand Luke (Paul Newman) in Cool Hand Luke (1967)

6 Comments
March 4, 2019

“Don’t cross the river if you can’t swim the tide”*

by chuckofish

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I can relate.

I had a busy weekend. The OM and I went to dinner with our old friends on Friday night. We had lots of fun, but, of course, we were home by 9:00 pm.

On Saturday daughter #1 and I went to a couple of estate sales. One was in an old friends’ wonderful home, but it was so packed with people that we hardly could look around. There were literally thousands of books, but we couldn’t really look. It was very frustrating.

I rescued a counted cross stitch sampler…

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…and daughter #1 got a great basket full of sewing projects and patterns. We would have gone back on Sunday but it snowed all Sunday morning so we stayed in.

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I went out and shoveled.

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The wee babes came over on Saturday night with daughter #3. The boy was working so he missed out on veggie burgers and tots.

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Lottiebelle arranges the ladies around the Party kitchen for a tea party.

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The wee laddie (with a mouthful of Gardetto’s) wrecks havoc. [Impossible to catch him in focus.]

Meanwhile the amaryllis continues to put on quite a show. As the wee babes say, “BIG flowers!”

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And now it is Monday and it’s three degrees! Have a good week.

*America, “Don’t Cross the River”–a song that really got Lottiebelle shakin’ her bootie.

8 Comments
March 1, 2019

“Dear March, how are you?”*

by chuckofish

Well, we had a snow day yesterday–or make that an ‘ice’ day. We awoke to a thin sheeting of ice everywhere, so most schools were closed for the day.

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I would have preferred not to close, but, oh well, c’est la vie. It snowed in the afternoon.

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I had a very low-key day at home, puttering and reading, putting things away. I did a face mask.

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I watched The Rains Came, which is one of the top-grossing films of 1939–you remember, I blogged about that last week.

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Tyrone Power as an Indian doctor, Myrna Loy and George Brent

It is hard to believe that Tyrone Power had two  movies in the top five that year! Indeed, he was the second biggest box office draw in 1939–second only to Mickey Rooney! He has never been a favorite of mine, but to each his own. Anyway, the movie is quite a melodrama with a flood and a monsoon and an earthquake and the dam breaks and there’s a plague. Eye-roll.

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And now it is Friday and the first day of March! Daughter #1 is driving home today. We have a few things planned.IMG_3892.JPG

She hasn’t seen the wee babes in weeks!

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That’s my girl!

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Have a super-fun weekend!

*Emily Dickinson, ‘Dear March – Come in’

3 Comments
January 17, 2019

The scattering winds

by chuckofish

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For to the snow he says, ‘Fall on the earth’;
and to the shower and the rain, ‘Be strong.’
 He seals up the hand of every man,
that all men may know his work.
Then the beasts go into their lairs,
and remain in their dens.
From its chamber comes the whirlwind,
and cold from the scattering winds.
 By the breath of God ice is given,
and the broad waters are frozen fast.

–Job 37:6-10

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I am grateful that I work inside. And have an attached garage. And seat heaters in my car. I am grateful for a warm coat and gloves.

What are you grateful for?

4 Comments
January 11, 2019

“Snow’s all right on a fine morning, but I like to be in bed when it’s falling”*

by chuckofish

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Well, they are saying we will get 5-7 inches of snow starting later this afternoon.

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We’ll see.

I plan to head home a little early and settle in for a quiet weekend. Hopefully I will get some reading done. I have a lot of new books.

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And there are always movies to watch, right?

In the meantime, try to focus on the little joys encountered every day. For instance, yesterday morning on my way to work, I passed the boy in his big ol’ truck driving the wee babes to their nursery school. We waved to each other.

Have a good weekend!

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*Samwise-gamgee (J.R.R. Tolkien)

7 Comments
November 16, 2018

“When we laughed round the corn-heap, with hearts all in tune, Our chair a broad pumpkin,—our lantern the moon”*

by chuckofish

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Well, yesterday we had our first snow day of the season–before Thanksgiving!

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Having a snow day is a big pain for school administrators, but for once, I was grateful. Boy, did I need a day at home to get things done! I worked hard all day and made great strides in getting ready for my Big Trip and also getting my house ready for houseguests next week and Thanksgiving.

The snow stopped when the sun came out around 2:15, but the OM and I still felt justified in skipping an event last night, which was a super relief. Sometimes you just have to know when enough is enough. I feel much better now about dealing with work obligations including a big event today. Phew.

The boy sent pictures of the wee babes walking around  in their yard enjoying the snow.

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The world is more than we know.

And the weekend is almost here! The wee babes are celebrating their 2nd birthday (3 weeks early) at a Toy Story-themed birthday party.

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Let the good times roll. But get some rest. Remember:

“Sleep is a daily reminder from God that we are not God. Once a day God sends us to bed like patients with a sickness. The sickness is a chronic tendency to think we are in control and that our work is indispensable. To cure us of this disease God turns us into helpless sacks of sand once a day.”
― John Piper

*from “The Pumpkin” by John Greenleaf Whittier

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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8 Comments