dual personalities

October 7, 2021

What are you reading and other stuff

by chuckofish

Last week I read the newest Longmire book, Daughter of the Morning Star, by Craig Johnson.

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It is the 17th novel in the series and, as you know, I am a big fan. This one–about Walt and Henry Standing Bear (Walt’s best friend) investigating the disappearance of a Native teenager and the harassment of her sister–did not disappoint. Walt and Henry are always a literary breath of fresh air.

Now I am waiting to receive my copy of the latest novel by Amor Towles, The Lincoln Highway, which was released on Tuesday.

Let it be noted that Tuesday was the birthday of Jonathan Edwards (October 5, 1703 – March 22, 1758).

“And yet some people actually imagine that the revelation in God’s Word is not enough to meet our needs. They think that God from time to time carries on an actual conversation with them, chatting with them, satisfying their doubts, testifying to His love for them, promising them support and blessings. As a result, their emotions soar; they are full of bubbling joy that is mixed with self-confidence and a high opinion of themselves. The foundation for these feelings, however, does not lie within the Bible itself, but instead rests on the sudden creations of their imaginations. These people are clearly deluded. God’s Word is for all of us and each of us; He does not need to give particular messages to particular people.”

Some things never change, right?

I don’t miss being an Episcopalian, but this was kind of funny in a sad way, i.e. this is all Episcopalians have to offer these days. And, newsflash, that is not enough.

This is very special, indeed.

Also, today is the 71st anniversary of our parents’ wedding in 1950. They made it 38 years until our mother died. So I will toast them tonight. Mazel tov, Mary and Newell.

I pray for the day ahead and that I might bring Glory to God, in word, thought and deed. I thank God that his mercies are new to me every morning. I thank God that his grace is sufficient for all situations that I may encounter.

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October 6, 2021

“I feel that way every time I get on the school bus.”

by chuckofish

Remember how like a year and a half ago, at the start of COVID, every day was stranger than the last? And we all thought that would eventually end but it hasn’t really? Well, I present to you this push alert I received on my walk home.

I mean, I’m glad the GORILLA is doing well, but a breaking news push alert.

In other animal news, last week, I ventured north to the big city (Columbia) to hit up Macadoodles, my favorite liquor store. Naturally, it started pouring rain while I was there. But, I did get to see this guy.

Yes, that is a Budweiser Clydesdale chilling under the eaves at Macadoodles. They were promoting an event at the Warm Springs Ranch in Boonville. So, after having an employee carry my case of wine to my car for me, I asked to have my picture taken. See what I mean about each day being stranger than the last?

Last week, I also got to travel up to Troy, MO in Lincoln County for an event. Lincoln County was known only to me as a county close enough to St. Louis as to be in the viewing area but far enough away that they always got more severe weather. Troy is not on the river, so it lacks that charm, but the people were nice. Plus their historic courthouse is getting renovated and the Clerks’s Office has exposed brick and high ceilings with big old windows.

I had a quiet weekend, still recovering from our Colorado adventures. I will be heading to St. Louis this weekend so that I can get my hands on the new Longmire book which sources (my mother) tell me was good and is basically just Walt and Henry talking, so that sounds like a recipe for good times. Hopefully, we can enjoy happy hour at the Red Pony and Continual Soiree (or Club Taco).

*the blog post title comes from this

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October 5, 2021

Dust in the wind

by chuckofish

Since returning from our trip to Colorado, I have been re-reading The Old Santa Fe Trail by Colonel Henry Inman, a classic memoir of “the Old Trail” which was, as Buffalo Bill described it, “the arena of almost constant sanguinary struggles between the wily nomads of the desert and the hardy white pioneers.”

It always helps when reading history (especially a primary source such as this) to be able to picture the location.

(Stagecoach ruts in the Comanche National Grasslands)

Since most of the Symposium we ostensibly attended consisted of lectures on topics not of particular interest to me (“The origins and history of the Spanish saddle used on the Santa Fe Trail from 1820-1830”) and which surely included much editorializing, we chose to skip them. Likewise we chose not to join the bus tours of points of interest, but re-visited on our own places we had been before (Bent’s Old Fort, Boggsville)…

…and also some places we had never been before (Bent’s New Fort site, Las Animas, Lamar)…

We attended the two award ceremonies (2020 and 2021) and chatted amicably with the legion of “living historians” (John C. Fremont et al) also in attendance–not to be confused with re-enactors (i.e. men who like to wear costumes). I met a nice couple who had retired to West Pueblo, Colorado after having owned the Best Western in Las Animas for 40 years. They told me that all the movie stars stayed there when the mini-series Centennial was filmed at Bent’s Old Fort in 1978, but that things had quieted down a lot after that. After dinner we cut and ran and drank the wine we had purchased at the local liquor store which we had found after two friendly locals pointed the way.

Mostly, it was just “being there” that mattered to me. I hope we can return someday, maybe with a grandchild or two in tow. No Disney princesses live there, but something much better does. I feel it is my duty to try to impart to them a love of history and appreciation of their ancestors’ part in it.

“We have a few old mouth-to-mouth tales; we exhume from old trunks and boxes and drawers letters without salutation or signature, in which men and women who once lived and breathed are now merely initials or nicknames out of some now incomprehensible affection which sound to us like Sanskrit or Chocktaw; we see dimly people, the people in whose living blood and seed we ourselves lay dormant and waiting, in this shadowy attenuation of time possessing now heroic proportions, performing their acts of simple passion and simple violence, impervious to time and inexplicable.”
William Faulkner, Absalom! Absalom!

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October 4, 2021

“There’s the respect that makes calamity of so long life”*

by chuckofish

Can you believe it’s October already! Zut alors–We are on the downward slide to Christmas. I am a little discombobulated by the alacrity with which the year is speeding by. And my weekend, which I thought would be a quiet one, turned out to be busier than I anticipated and it flew by.

Not that I did anything particularly noteworthy…The OM is trying to put the complicated audio/visual system back together in our new built-in “entertainment unit” and that has been very stressful. The boy came over for awhile and helped. We are 90% there.

We also hauled a bunch of electronics (old computers/printers/monitors etc) to an electronic recycling event and felt that we had really accomplished something. I also moved some books around to make room for other books…the usual stuff.

The wee twins and their parents came over for dinner Sunday night. We had not seen them in three weeks!

They ran around merrily outside for awhile after dinner. They are getting to be such big kids. (Well, not really.)

After they went home we celebrated having our DVD player working again by watching My Darling Clementine (1946)–a movie that is literally perfect (except for Linda Darnell’s hairdo.) I had been meaning to watch it ever since watching the heinous Tombstone (1993). It did not disappoint and I highly recommend it. The minor characters are all wonderful John Ford regulars. The wildcard is Victor Mature and, boy howdy, he pays off.

The movie was filmed in Monument Valley, which is next on my travel wish list (after Oklahoma City).

Meanwhile back in Maryland baby Katie et famille did the pumpkin photo op thing and we texted our appreciation back and forth.

Fall is just about here and that’s okay with me, although I still feel like I am lagging behind in August somewhere. Well, I’ll catch up.

*Hamlet (III.I.66-70)

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October 1, 2021

Willows whiten, aspens shiver.The sunbeam showers break and quiver

by chuckofish

Call me bourgeois but I have a soft spot for Alfred Lord Tennyson and his overwrought contemporaries. The other night as the DH and I chatted, The Lady of Shallot came up in conversation, and soon we were trying to recall our favorite lines. Although we couldn’t complete even one couplet, we agreed that the poem returned a little romance to our decidedly humdrum lives, so I thought I would share a few stanzas and illustrations here.

You will recall that a curse required the Lady to weave all day and night. She was not allowed to look out the window toward Camelot but could only see it reflected in the mirror that hung by her loom.

‘I am half sick of shadows,’ said The Lady of Shallot, and then one day she saw Sir Lancelot in the mirror:

Now we get to my favorite part. The Lady of Shallot jumps up from her weaving to get a better look:

Here’s another interpretation by William Holman Hunt.

Things go badly wrong for her after she breaks the spell and leaves her chamber:

Finally, for a musical version, try Loreena Mckennitt:

Romance isn’t dead, but to find it you may have to look in the past.

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September 30, 2021

“If it’s a horse, ride it, if it hurts, hide it/Dust yourself off and get back on again”*

by chuckofish

One of the highlights of our recent adventure in southeastern Colorado was attending the Michael Martin Murphey concert in the Koshare Kiva, which boasts the largest self-supporting log roof in the world.

President Dwight Eisenhower visited the Koshare Kiva back in the 1950s and acknowledged that the ceiling was truly amazing. It is a fascinating place, built by Boy Scouts interested in Indian lore. They raised the money to build the Kiva and also started collecting the art that is housed in the museum. Quite a testament to what young people can accomplish when they are inspired and supported in their efforts.

Anyway, it is a pretty cool place to attend a concert. I’m not sure how many people it holds, but it was full. We were in the third row, center and so had a clear view of Murphey.

The acoustics were excellent. We are not particular fans of MMM, but we have certainly been aware of his career through the years and daughter #1 and I remembered seeing him at the Grand Old Opry back in the late 1990s during his cowboy songs period. He was the honorary chairman of the Santa Fe Trail Bicentennial Symposium so we thought we should support the concert. I’m glad we did.

He is now 76 years old. A native Texan and descendant of Roger Williams (1603-1689), founder of the First Baptist Church in America, he is a student of history and a lover of all things western. It is in his blood he says, and I hear him. He has a good take on the pioneers, believing that they were not looking for money and power (as so many today believe) but a home and the freedom to live there. At the same time, he is a lifelong advocate for Native American rights. He talked at length during his concert about his various interests, and to be truthful, I could have done with less talking/lecturing. He rambled on for over 3 hours and how he stood there for that length of time, I do not know. (It was a long 3+ hours on my metal folding chair!) But he is an engaging old man now, who can still play like a virtuoso and his singing voice is strong and impressive.

So it was certainly worth staying up long after my bedtime to go to this concert, and I’ll admit that it’s a good idea to get out of one’s comfort zone every once in awhile.

It is supposed to rain all weekend, which is okay as I plan to stay home and get organized. And I’ll go to church–I haven’t been in two weeks while out of town!

Blessed Lord, who putteth down the mighty from their seat and exaltest those of low degree: Save us, we beseech thee, from pride and vainglory, from self-seeking and false ambition. Give us a humble and contrite spirit, that we may think less of ourselves, more of others, and most of all of thee, who art our mighty God and Saviour; to whom with thee and the Holy Spirit we ascribe all praise and glory, now and for evermore.
–Frank Colquhoun, evangelical priest and popular author in the Church of England

*Cowboy Logic by Michael Martin Murphey

4 Comments

September 29, 2021

“We don’t say ‘Indian’.” “Oh right. Yes, yes. Um, always behind on the terms. Still trying not to refer to you lot as ‘Bloody Colonials’.”

by chuckofish

You can expect interesting posts from my mother about the things we saw and the places we went on our trip. I bring you, however, a tongue-in-cheek look at one of our favorite places of the whole trip: Otero Junior College.

Otero Junior College was the “home base” for the symposium. I mean, technically. We went to Bent’s Old Fort three days in a row, so I’d put that on the home base list, as well. Anyway, Otero had a pretty little campus where I was always able to find a parking spot. And they have a rodeo team–Go Rattlers! Sadly, we didn’t decide we wanted Otero sweatshirts until Saturday when the bookstore was closed.

But the reason I count it as one of “our favorite places of the whole trip” is that it had real UC Sunnydale vibes. Specifically the Thanksgiving episode where Buffy’s perfect Thanksgiving feast is disrupted by an army of Chumash Indians, the original inhabitants of Sunnydale, whose spirits have come alive to avenge the wrongs that were done to their people after Xander inadvertently releases their spirits from the remains of the old Sunnydale Mission.

Otero even has the Koshare Indian Museum and Kiva. UC Sunnydale had a Cultural Center.

I couldn’t find a picture of the Cultural Center but this is the Sunnydale Mission.

In case you’re wondering, the kiva, a modern adaptation of ancient subterranean rooms used for rituals, is owned by the Otero College. It was built in 1949 by the La Junta Boy Scout troop under the leadership of James Francis “Buck” Burshears. The museum holds a pretty impressive collection of Native American art and artifacts.

I’m just telling you guys, I kept expecting to see this guy around every corner.

What can I say, but we amuse ourselves.

Also, I’d like to thank the super nerds who maintain websites like this so that not-as-super nerds can find the information they seek and still be thankful they haven’t reached that level of nerdom.

4 Comments

September 28, 2021

Postcards from Colorado

by chuckofish

We made it to southeast Colorado and home again, exhausted now but having had a merry old time. We participated in the Santa Fe Trail Bicentennial Symposium, saw everything we set out to see, ate a lot of tasty Mexican food and enjoyed ourselves along the way. Daughter #1 demonstrated the navigational and driving prowess she has acquired while living in mid-MO. Today I’m just going to post some pics while I process it all.

Descendants of JS Hough, SFTA Hall of Fame 2020 inductee

Bent’s New Fort site on the Arkansas River

The Picketwire running a little dry in Vogel Canyon

I must say I love this country–the wide open spaces and the big sky! The stars at night were insane! The weather was beautiful. We did not see any tarantulas–try as we might. Dusk was the prime time to do so and we were always on our way to one of the nightly events of the symposium.

We stopped in Denver on our way out of town and were shocked at how big it has gotten and how much traffic there was between Colorado Springs and Denver (there was a Broncos game which might account for some of that). We went to the Colorado History Museum, which has, of course, gotten quite woke since I was last there in 2013. Thankfully they still have Kit Carson’s hunting coat on display, which you will recall was donated to the state by JS Hough.

They also have John Wesley Prower’s branding iron on view in the Centennial State in 100 Objects display.

By the way, here I am with the great-great-great-grandson of Kit Carson who I ran into in Boggsville.

Small world.

We covered quite a bit of territory in Otero, Bent and Prowers counties and you’ll hear more about that in upcoming posts. When we returned our rented SUV at the airport it was insect encrusted and dirt covered–signs of a well spent four days.

10 Comments

September 27, 2021

This and that

by chuckofish

How was your weekend?

Daughter #2 is back on a Monday since our travelers arrived home late on Sunday night. I promised that I would not post two posts effusively describing a toddler’s every development, so I have a few other thoughts to share.

We are not great at keeping up with television or movies, since the evenings somehow slip away between bedtimes (Katie’s at 7 p.m. and mine, which edges closer to 9 p.m. every week). We are also watching Only Murders in the Building and identify deeply with Martin Short’s character’s affinity for dips. Sometimes we mix it up by watching old episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm, which is a real vibe. I think readers of the blog would appreciate this clip, beginning at 0:35.

“We wouldn’t treat you casually” — “Then why the hell you dressed that way?”

I feel this.

On Friday night, we watched the newest episode of Great British Bake Off, a show which my aunt has blogged about before. The thing is, it’s so soothing in its pure-hearted competition that it puts me to sleep by its second round of baking (the “technical”). Sigh.

Then, on Saturday, we tried a movie — a Woody Allen pick, since Katie loves to sort the stack of DVDs and the Woody Allen collection is often on the top of the pile. We chose The Purple Rose of Cairo.

Mia Farrow’s character falls in love with a fictional character and the actor who plays him. OK, sure. I fell asleep for the last five minutes, so I never found out who she chose. (DN told me.) I think this was the first Woody Allen movie I’ve seen that didn’t star Woody Allen, and I’m not sure if it landed. Plus, all I could think is that Jeff Daniels is kind of a Dave Coullier type?!?

In an unbelievable twist, I managed to watch another movie on Sunday afternoon. Modern mothers will love to tell you that doing anything relaxing during a baby’s nap is torture — there is a bathroom to clean! Work to do! And it’s true, it does feel highly unproductive to relax. But I indulged and watched You’ve Got Mail while Katie slept, because the weather has been so autumnal, and I felt like it. I think most people are either You’ve Got Mail fans or When Harry Met Sally fans, and I’ve definitely seen the latter more times than the former. Even so, that line about sharpened pencils is what I remembered, so I went for it, and I managed to finish it even after Katie woke up and wanted to run around rather than find out whether Meg Ryan would figure out who Tom Hanks really was.

“If you ask me, all of these people are losers.”

Me clicking “purchase” on another pair of overalls for Katie

There you have it — a few media updates that may or may not inspire you! And if you’re wondering what we’re reading, rather than watching, the answer is Sandra Boynton:

“I don’t understand the question and I won’t respond to it.”

4 Comments

September 24, 2021

Quietly quotidian

by chuckofish

Sunday is boy #3’s birthday. He will turn 26! Although we won’t be together on the day, Tim and Abbie paid us a visit last weekend, and we celebrated then. I baked a gluten free version of Sarah’s special cake #2, yellow cake with chocolate frosting and Heath bar bits on top. It was quite yummy, and we even got a couple of photos of notoriously camera shy Tim. Here I am holding him in place as Abbie takes the picture.

We had a wonderful time with the newly affianced couple – aren’t they sweet?

I hope Tim, the last of the September birthdays, has a wonderful day on Sunday!

After they left, the excitement waned and we returned to our busy but boring routines. I went to the dentist and discovered that I need a crown on one of my back molars; I went to meetings and discovered nothing, and now here we are on Friday morning. This morning I’m feeling A.E. Housman’s Yonder See the Morning:

Yonder see the morning blink:
The sun is up, and up must I,
To wash and dress and eat and drink
And look at things and talk and think
And work, and God knows why.
Oh often have I washed and dressed
And what’s to show for all my pain?
Let me lie abed and rest:
Ten thousand times I’ve done my best
And all’s to do again.

I am really looking forward to my DP’s tales of western adventure, aren’t you?

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