If I Had A Hammer

This morning the temperature was negative seven degrees. One of the more difficult morning chores I have is bringing water to the chickens. Their rubber bowl freezes solid in this weather.  I have a brick near the side of the house to use as a sharp edge to bang the water bowl against but that brick is buried in the snow. This weekend I got the bright idea to bring a hammer out there. Now I don't mind the water bowl being completely frozen. Now I don't have to bang that bowl around for 5 minutes to get the ice out. Now I just hold it in one hand and use my trusty hammer all around the edges and the bottom and voila! The ice falls out and I can add warm water to it. I wish I had thought of this eight years ago!

Swing Time

I could get more reading done if I spent less time on my forced hobby of shoveling snow but I did  manage to read Swing Time by Zadie Smith. This story is about two girls who grow up near each other in London, the only girls of color in their class. They go to dance class together. One of the girls, Tracey, is a good dancer.  The other girl, the narrator of the story has flat feet and drops out of dancing. Their paths separate as they finish school. The narrator goes on to become a personal assistant of a super star. Some of the story takes place in New York City and some in west Africa. I think the author does a great description of the places in the book.  Friendship, race, and class are recurring themes in the book.

Snow

Today at work I had a late meeting. Snow was falling down heavily. Everyone in the room complained about the weather. The snow banks are so high they can't throw the snow over them. There is no room in the yard to push the snow. Then, just as I had put a swallow of water into my mouth but before I swallowed it a man said (about his son), that "He is the only happy person in Minnesota." Why was that so funny? Written down it doesn't sound as funny as it did when I heard it. I thought it was so funny I did a spit take.  I spit water all over my papers and the table. I swallowed the water, got up, grabbed a napkin, wiped up the mess, and told him, "Quit being so funny!" I was slightly embarrassed.  I don't think I have ever done a spit take before in my life.  All this snow is making me punchy.  By the way, what do you call an old snowman?  

Water.

Paris, He Said

In this novel by Christine Sneed, a struggling artist named Jayne is asked by an older man and art gallery owner if she would like to move to Paris to work there and live with him. They have a romantic relationship. He says he wants her to have the time and space to realize her potential as an artist.  He can see she is barely making it financially in Manhattan. She agrees to this idea. This story is about a man using a woman and vice versa. I liked the description of Paris. I thought the relationship between Jayne and Laurent was not fleshed out as well as it could have been.  I really didn't get a feel for why the two lovers behaved the way they did.

Never Tell A Secret To An Icicle

This month alone 36 inches of snow has fallen down on us.  This has led to a plethora of icicles hanging from the edges of our roofs. Yesterday I was looking out the kitchen window of my father.  The icicles hung down from above and they looked like clear, pointy teeth. I felt like I was Jonah inside the whale only this whale was not a whale at all but a Great White Shark. I have seen icicles larger than my leg.  I have seen icicles larger than a human body. I saw an icicle hanging from a two story house that almost reached the ground.  I drive home and the accumulation effect of seeing so many icicles makes me think the roof of each house is a large white upper lip and the icicles are sharp cold teeth. I read once that an icicle makes the ultimate murder weapon because the evidence melts away.  All these icicles are getting to me. So you know what they say, never tell a secret to an icicle. Why?  Because they break under pressure.

Bell Museum

Today Offspring #2 led me and a couple other folk to the new and improved Bell Museum.  I was anxious to see if my favorite dioramas were moved from the old museum. The new building is large and roomy. I liked the art deco style of the old museum though more than the expansive space and large windows of this one. I might like it more in the summer though. Seeing the white out conditions outside was not a pleasant sight to my eyes. We walked upstairs first and spent a good hour and a half up there.  I was pleased to see the wood duck diorama was still there. That one was my favorite because I feel like I could walk right into the window and down to the lake. In this diorama the baby ducks are being called out of the nest by their mother. One little wood duck landed on his or her back. The classic wolf diorama at Shovel Point on the North Shore was there. The moose is still there. The elk at Inspiration Peak are still there. The sand hill crane diorama is still there.  The snow goose diorama is still there. I am sure it wasn't easy to move those dioramas. They had to deal with unsafe things like mercury and asbestos in the materials. Added to the museum are interactive computers.  Near the sand hill crane diorama was a screen with a sand hill crane on it.  In front of the screen were two sand hill crane feet outlines. So I stood on the crane feet outlines. The screen told me to imitate the crane.  The crane bowed.  I bowed. The crane flapped the wings.  I flapped my arms. The crane jumped. With  my artificial hips I am not supposed to jump but I jumped anyway. We went through the same three steps again. Then the screen showed me acting like a crane. Now everyone in the room could see me acting like a crane. We all laughed at that image. One of the docents is a man I met with the master naturalist program. I couldn't remember his name but I did talk to him.  He remembered me too. In one area of the upper floor they had a model of a wooly mammoth, a giant beaver and a musk ox. Downstairs they had a touch and see room and we spent 45 minutes in there touching and seeing.  A large exhibit on climate and weather took a large area on the north side of the first floor. I learned a lot today.  I don't remember all of it. But I do remember this. One of the most resilient creatures on this planet is a tardigrade. I had never heard of this microscopic creature that lives on moss. This tiny creature is so tough it can live in the arctic, near a volcano, on mountain tops and in the deep sea.  Known as the water bear this creature survived exposure to space. Look at this photo of a tardigrade.  Tell me you won't have nightmares about this eight legged creature tonight!

Epidaurus

Today, as I was shoveling the driveway AGAIN, I thought about my trip to Greece and the time we went to visit the ancient Greek theater Epidaurus. We had a sunny bright day that day as the bus took us up the winding hill to the theater. We had a long walk from the parking lot.  The WC's were cold.  Only cold water ran in the sinks. The toilets, like many toilets in Greece, were porcelain. That part is fine. The difficulty comes in that they don't use toilet seats. Sitting on a narrow porcelain ridge is very cold. Squatting is also difficult. One solution I used was to put my hands on the porcelain and sit on my hands which is warmer but more germy. I washed my hands thoroughly in the cold water and marched up the hill to the theater. Guards are on duty at these ancient ruins. They sit in little huts, smoking and watching. When they see a visitor do something wrong they blow their whistle.  We walked into the theater.  I walked up a row of seats.  My daughter in law recommended I stand on the circle in the center of the stage and move my feet.  I walked back down the many steps and stood on the circle.  I moved my feet. The sound of the gravel under my feet came back to my and into my ears from what seemed like every direction.  The acoustics were amazing. I danced a few steps just to hear the sound of my feet moving on these ancient marble slabs.  Then I walked back up to the top of the theater to look down. As I was coming down I walked near Offspring #1. I recommended he stand in the circle and listen for the sounds.  He walked to the circle at center stage. To my surprise he began to sing the national anthem of Canada in a strong voice.  "Oh, Canada, our home and native land,"  Tweet!  Tweet! Angry whistles are bleating. Evidently it is against the rules to sing the Canadian national anthem at Epidaurus. Now that was a moment to remember! We were all laughing. Except the whistle blower, I don't think she was laughing.

Adversity

Yesterday nine inches of snow fell on all of us here and the word adversity kept coming to my mind. The snow poured down on the morning commute and throughout the day. I tried not to look out the window at the snow piling up but I could not resist the horrified fascination of inch after inch coming down.  My place of business was open so I went to work. Local schools were closed so the traffic was light but it was tough going.  People got stuck. One vehicle near my job in Blaine left the east bound 5 land road, crossed a ditch, a pond and ended up tucked next to the sound barrier. How that car got so far off the road is beyond me. At work one of our vehicles was severely stuck. I was asked if I could take two people home in a mini-van that has a wheelchair lift.  I said, "Yes."  My heart said no way.  My soul said no way.  But my mouth said "Yes." I got the key, started the vehicle, and proceeded to dust 8 inches of snow off of it.  Snow fell on my head and into my boots.  As I am doing this other vans in our parking lot are stuck. Wheels spin loudly. Flattened cardboard boxes are put under tires and several staff push. As one van gets pushed free another van comes in and gets stuck. Shovels are throwing snow in all directions. Finally the parking lot snow plow truck comes through and while that is helpful, my van is now plowed in. I am still working on it when I get the word that I do not have to drive this van anymore. Another driver said he could do it. I feel so grateful and filled with the energy that comes with elation that I clean off four other vehicles next to the one I was going to use.  As I tromp back in the building and prepare to brush the snow off my own car, I admire the way people pull together in times of adversity. I think it is a pleasure to help others and a pleasure to be helped. And also, it is a pleasure to pull into my own garage after a day like this independently!

Creatures of the Kingdom-Stories of Animals and Nature

Last night my book club discussed Creatures of the Kingdom-Stories of Animals and Nature by James Michener. This was my turn to lead the discussion of this book of short stories.  Michener is known for his lengthy writing. Several of his books are over 1000 pages. Born in 1907 he was an orphan. A Quaker woman adopted him and raised him in Pennsylvania. During World War II he served in the Navy and those experiences as a naval historian led him to write his first book, South Pacific, which was later made into a musical play by Rogers and Hammerstein. He has written books about Hawaii and Texas and Poland. When he describes dry material such as geology and dinosaurs he makes it more pleasant to read by giving mountains and diplodocus dinosaurs human emotions. Of the many chapters in this book my favorites were the ones on squirrels and armadillos.  Both of those chapters describe the frenzied behavior of home owners who want to keep these animals out of their yard. Any huge fan of Michener would not like this book because he takes the beginning chapter out of many books and puts it into this one. Therefore it would be  waste of time and money to buy this book if you have already read all the others. I have read several Michener books in the past but I didn't think this one was a waste of my time because I read the other books so long ago I didn't remember them. Most people enjoyed this book as much as I did.

Happy President's Day

On my ride to work today I was thinking about Presidents as I enjoyed the light traffic on a federal holiday. Over the years I have had several favorite Presidents. I like Washington, Lincoln, Carter, both Roosevelts, and Jefferson. Teddy Roosevelt, although a pugnacious man, is well liked because of the national parks he set up. But then on the way home I saw the very beautiful full moon. My thoughts turned to the home of democracy which is Greece because that is where I was during the full blood moon. That evening, coming into Athens on a bus we witnessed a political demonstration that included men throwing rocks at the police.  Since the 5th century BC this country has had direct democracy. Being the birth place of democracy is very important to the Greeks because every museum and archaeological ruin has signs that talk about that fact. I find it almost unbelievable that just a month ago I sat on a bus holding a toddler with eyes wide open watching the scene unfold. The event feels like it happened six months ago rather than only one month ago. I think it's odd how travel benefits me. Travels expands my comfort zone and opens my mind to new ideas and ways of thinking that are, in my opinion, very much worth the money. I guess I am more of a vagabond than a settler.

Finally!

Finally! I saw a moving van at the house across the street.  I am happy to have neighbors again.  The house has stood empty for a year. For six months prior to that the former owner came weekly to pick up her mail. Evidently her husband died cutting the lawn and she could not afford to keep the house any longer.  I liked that guy.  I liked her too.  I used to buy coupon books from their high school aged football playing sons. He helped me with my driveway a couple times.  Before that his father and mother owned the house.  I liked them too. They were friendly and helpful. Once I went over there and he offered me a hamburger. I declined saying I didn't eat meat.  He was so disappointed. Then he offered me a whiskey. I turned that down because at that time I didn't drink alcohol. Then he offered me a  glass of milk.  Although I really didn't want to drink a glass of milk I took it because i was afraid he was going to cry if I didn't. Before them was a couple who always let their dog run loose.  Before them was a young couple who had three girls. One of the girls was a year younger than Offspring #2. That girl and Offspring #2 used to play together. One day in March they took a bowl from the kitchen and picked all the white berries in the woods. Offspring #2's subsequent case of poison ivy was the first of the year at the clinic. The neighbor's daughter used to sing to us out of her bedroom window.  I can still hear her yell, "Nah, nah, a ha ha!"  Once, as I was installing an invisible fence for my golden retriever named Ruby, her father came over to investigate. He wanted to feel the shock of the collar.  I showed him the box that explicitly said it is not recommended for humans to feel the shock. He insisted so I let him feel the shock.  His hand shook when he felt it and I laughed. Once the woman who lived there invited me over to admire her paint job in the bathroom.  Sponge painting was in at the time and she tried sponge painting but she didn't like it. Instead, she went out to her car, got the snow brush out, dipped that snow brush into the paint and whopped it all over the bathroom walls in mauve and green over a cream colored base. She asked me how I liked it.  I lied and said I did like it. Later they moved to the Mankato area. Now Dave and  Stephanie live next door. I brought them a fruit and chocolate basket as a house warming gift. I hope they sleep well tonight.

Napflio

On my trip to Greece we spent a third of our time in a seaside town of Napflio. This town has a population of about 35,000 people.  As we walked from the bus to our apartment we strolled by the public school. Children from age 5 to 15 were outside on the playground talking and playing and having fun. The town is on a peninsula that forms a protected bay. There is an island on the bay on which there is a castle.  The town is on a steep hill.  Halfway up the hill is a castle named Acronauplia.  We walked up the hill and through the castle and thought the view was majestic. From here we could see the swimming beach. There was a man swimming but I imagine the water was cold. High above us was another castle named Palamidi. The next morning we took a taxi to the Palamide castle and walked through that. I was blown away by the view. I tried to imagine what the castle looked like when it was used. This castle was built by the Venetians but as soon as they finished the work it was overtaken by the Turks. We decided to walk down the hill which, according to the sign, was a total of 990 steps.  These stairs, unlike most other stairs I walked on in Greece, were of equal height and quite flat. All I had on my back was a back pack.  Offspring #1 and his wife were both carrying children.  I don't know how they did it.  My legs were shaking by the time I got to the bottom of those stairs. A quick lunch and a bus ride back to Athens cured my shaking legs. We got the chance to eat at several restaurants, shop at the grocery store, and to buy a pair of shoes at the shoe store. We toured the Archaeological Museum in the town.  In the evenings we visited the play ground near the sea so the grand girls could expend their energy.  I would definitely go back to Napflio again if I ever got the chance. 

Live and Learn

When I came home from my trip I felt wired and awake. I had a pile of mail on my kitchen table. I sorted the mail into piles. That was a mistake. I had been traveling for 30 hours straight. Even though my eyes were open and I could read, I was not making good decisions. I was too tired to sort the mail. And this mistake explains why my recycling container is in the garage and half empty.  I am sorting through what I recycled that day and so far I have found my property tax statement and other important tax documents.  Oh, well, live and learn. Do not sort your mail when jet lagged.

Happy Valentine's Day

Mystery Plow

Do you remember reading the fairy tale about the elves and the shoe maker?  When the humble shoe maker went to bed the elves came and finished sewing a pair of shoes. The shoe maker was very pleased to see the work completed. A similar thing happened to me yesterday. When I got home about 6 o'clock in the evening yesterday I saw that someone had plowed the straight part of my driveway. I had already shoveled a narrow path through the snow but it wasn't very wide. In fact it was so narrow I had to move the trash can into the street so I could get my car out.  But last night I had a widened path and it was completely clear of snow and there was plenty of room for a car to get out and a trash can to stand at the curb. Who plowed for me?  I have no idea.  Why did they plow for me?  I do not know. There was no bill in the mailbox or at the front door.  The bigger question is, will they do it again?  Like tonight, for example, plow out my driveway before I shovel it out? Yeah, that would be great.

The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane

Every single sentence in The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane was succinct and moved the story forward.  Lisa See transported me to the mountains of China the entire time I read this book. I have read other books by her including the Shanghai Girls and Peony in Love.  This story is about Li-yan, a girl who lives in the remote mountains of China. Her family lives by selling tea leaves to the local tea market. While reading this book I learned a lot about tea and China. I was totally transported into the scenery of the book and away from the snow and cold temperatures of Minnesota. This book was so good I picked up another Lisa See book at the library today.

Re-Using Coffee Grounds

I read somewhere that a greener solution to an icy sidewalk is to spread coffee grounds on the ice. My sidewalk, once the snow is shoveled off, is quite icy. I had saved two weeks worth of coffee grounds in December and had them stored in the garage so I thought I would give it a try. When I went to spread the coffee grounds on the ice I realized I had a 3 cup frozen solid chunk of coffee grounds. So I brought the coffee ground chunk into the house over night to thaw and tried it again.  Yesterday I spread the coffee grounds on the sidewalk. The coffee looked very dark against the white of the ice. Since the sun was shining I thought the dark color of the coffee would help but the temperature outside yesterday was too cold. So the jury is still out on this green method of melting ice but I can tell you this.  Every time I come in the house I drag coffee grounds in on my boots making a mess of my floor in the entry way.

And What Else?

My second granddaughter is not even two years old but she knows how to say a lot of words.  She can say no, mine, Daddy, Mommy, Eva (sounds like Haddie), Grandma (sounds like Bahpah), boots, high, whee (which means a playground slide), meow (means all cats and dogs), kaka, please, thank you, excuse me, yes, ciao ciao, kefir, latte, milk, night-night, and bye-bye. My first granddaughter has a very extensive vocabulary including onomatopoeia.  She likes to ask many questions. She listens carefully to the answers.  Then she asks, "And

what else?" She will keep asking "And what else?" until you run out of things to say.  I think she has an interesting interview technique. When she asks me that question I find myself taking the conversation in places I did not think it would go. As I listen to her question her parents I realize she gets some explanations that even I didn't know. I think I will take a lesson from this young child and start asking, "And what else?" myself!

Warm Feelings!

Snow fell all day today and I wasn't happy about it at all until I glanced out the window and saw that a coworker had dusted the snow off my car for me without saying a word. What a warm feeling it was to see this kind act performed for me.  I had a pretty good idea who it was because a woman who parks near me walked by a half hour earlier with snow all over her clothes and a snow brush in her hand.  I thanked her and gave her a fist bump. Unfortunately I had to work an extra hour today to help someone who was stuck in a ditch. So when I finally got to warm up my own car, quite a bit more snow had fallen on it. Still, if it wasn't for this snow, I wouldn't have had the opportunity to feel the warm feeling of gratitude that I did today.

Brown Sugar Slush

I was looking out my office window at the parking lot as I searched for something in a file cabinet when I glanced up to see a man walking with two young boys. The smaller of the two boys had a blue parka on with snow boots and a little pair of jeans on his legs.  The man and the older boy walked ahead of him. The smaller boy changed course and instead of going around the speed bump, he attempted to go over it. He lost his balance a little so he reached his bare hand into the brown slush to steady himself. The slush has the consistency of brown sugar which might possibly explain what he did next.  The little boy put his slushy hand into his mouth to taste the slush. Then he took his hand out and wiped it on his coat. He did all this before his father and brother turned around to look at him.  I am sure I made a disgusted looking face watching him do that.  I cannot imagine what that salty slushy mixture of chemicals, oil, transmission fluid, salt, bird droppings, ash, and sand tasted like and I do not want to know. Sometimes I am surprised any humans make it to adulthood at all. The things kids put in their mouths can be disgusting. Once when Offspring #1 was about six months old I had him outside in the early morning before work so I could hang his cloth diapers on the line. I set him down under the clothes line. When I finish I pick him up and see that his teeth are green. Yeah, he ate a rabbit turd. He lived through that so I suppose this boy will make it too.

Sharp Snow!

This morning when I went to do my chicken chores the snow had a hard crust on top. I was reminded of a walk I took. I was in the eighth grade. I walked from my home to a Girl Scout meeting. (This might have been one of the last Girl Scout meetings I ever attended). The meeting was at Capitol View Junior High.  To get there I could have walked along the street. Instead I decided to take a short cut across the field (where there are now houses and an extra street and an elementary school) to the road. I was wearing a skirt, ankle socks, and those black rubber overshoes with the fake gray fur collars. These boots zipped up the front.

The snow came nearly to my knees. Walking through the snow with my bare legs was unpleasant and cold. When I got to the street I looked down and saw that the icy crust on the snow was sharp and I had numerous small cuts to the skin on my legs. Each cut had a couple drops of blood. This snow was sharp snow.  My skin was so cold I didn't feel all the pain so that was good. As I finished the walk to my Girl Scout meeting I began to question the benefits of being a Girl Scout. Walking home I decided not to cut through the field and stay on the side of the road instead. Today it snowed all day. Accumulation was not as much as I thought it would be.  This fall I read the Farmers Almanac forecast and it called for a mild dry winter. Because of that forecast I decided not to pay for a plowing contract this year. Well, I just spent a full hour shoveling snow. Actually it wasn't so bad.  I was dressed appropriately so I wasn't cold.  I like how the snow stifles the sounds and all is quiet out there. Since I have been shoveling this driveway for a quarter of a century I have an efficient shoveling pattern that I follow. Is the driveway perfectly clean of snow. No, not by a long shot. I am fairly certain I will be able to drive out of here tomorrow without a problem though and that is my goal for now.

Airport Security

On my last trip I went through security a dozen times. Different countries have different rules about what to do. Most security agents want travelers to put their small liquids in a plastic bag.  I forgot to do that this time and no one worried. Security in our country wants u to take our shoes off but I didn't have to do that in Italy, Greece nor Turkey. All airports I have been in want my computer out of my bag.  Because of the metal in my body I always get a physical pat down search.  This feels awkward but most of the security staff are nice about it. On this trip I was questioned about an item I forgot I even packed.  I guess when my trusty old backpack goes through the x-ray machine the image of a harmonica causes eyebrows to raise.  Harmonicas seem harmless to me; annoying but harmless.

Hygge

I just finished reading this book by Meik Wiking about Hygge - The Danish Way To Live Well.  Actually I listened to the author read it to me. This is a short book yet a very thorough explanation.  The author claims that the Danish nation is the happiest country on this planet. Hugge involves being in the moment, being comfortable, being self-indulgent and being satisfied.  Candles and fire places are hugge.  Cozy sweaters, hot tea or mulled wine, and spending time with friends are hugge. In the book are several recipes for foods that are hugge and most involve butter and sugar. If you want to feel more contentment in your life, you should read this book and start living like a Dane.

Italian Folktales

While in Italy I read Italian Folktales by Italo Calvino.  This is a collection of 200 folk tales. Some of them resemble folktales from other countries. Several resemble Bible verses. Many of the stories talk about love at first sight. A man sees a woman and is in love or vice versa. Some stories involve animals and other stories involve kings and paupers. This is a book best read in segments. I think it would be a good bed time story book for children.  Reading 200 folktales in a row is a bit overwhelming because they all run together.