Things I've Seen

Another photo I like

Another select from my fall photos.

Fall leaves on a board fence

I needed new seasonal photos for my screensaver slideshow, so last weekend I charged up the (extreme) short-life battery on the Canon and went out to take a few. This is one that I like.

I need to blog

Can I get away with just posting a winter-scene photo again? Dave likes my photos, anyhow.

2-8-08. Finally finished this.

1-15-08 Hey, this isn't finished ... but I need to post it anyhow. Begun on 1-9.

Hard to believe this was just a week ago, even though this was in Kalamazoo, where I'm guessing close to a foot of snow fell while we were there over New Year's. Temperatures rose to 65 degrees here on Monday and the snow is completely gone.

The Holidays passed better than usual for me. Odd, too, because it was the first Christmas without Dad ... Mom stayed with us from Dec. 21 until after the New Year, although she did make the trip - Grandy in tow - to Monroe for a couple of days at the end of the week.

I think what made it better in some ways was that I had to rise to the occasion and try to be a better Christmas person - something I've not been so good at for several years now.

First of all, we had to figure out some way to get most of the family together for the holiday. Thanksgiving, in many minds, had not been ideal. Each sister (there are four of us) pretty much did her own thing: Nance had Mom over for dinner; we went to Monroe to see Margie and Mat and family (first time in all the years they've lived there!) and Loraine and family celebrated at home and in Muskegon with Jeff's family. My in-laws gathered with Clay's mom's family. In years past ALL these people have gathered together - close to 30 people in some years - and this, the first Thanksgiving after my Dad's passing, was not considered an ideal situation in most peoples' minds, although at the time we were planning things, this did not occur to most of us - or to me, anyway.

After nearly a month of mostly unsuccessful planning using a Google Group, it was decreed (by me, because I set up the group, which left me also guiding what little planning/conversation there was) that the clan would gather at our house for Christmas on the Saturday prior. So Mom arrived on the 21st to stay through the holidays, Meagan was released from school on the same day and came home with suitcases full of laundry, and we planned an as informal, inexpensive get-together as we could.

I just asked people to bring their favorite Christmas 'treat,' whether an hors d'ouevre, candy, cookie, or what have you. And everyone had to bring a $5 'fun gift' for a person of their same sex. We hosted about 20 people and had plenty to nosh on. Of course the highlight was the gift to Mom from Loraine and family of that darn cute little dog. And I think everyone thought the gift exchange - new for us - was fun. So even though Joe and Erin arrived very late (she had to work; they got lost) and Drew's girlfriend had to leave early (she got the showiest gift - a photo frame from Susan) and Margie and Mat weren't there (but they usually aren't), this felt like an adequate solution to the "what do we do for family Christmas now?) dilemma.

Then came Christmas eve - Mom hasn't been to church in years on that night, and last year, we didn't go either. But Meagan and I both wanted to sing in the reunion choir, where the college kids always come back to sing with the remnant adult choir.  We always sing "And the Glory of Lord" and "Halleluiah" from Handel's Messiah, and since I've been almost two years out of choir now, I really wanted to sing. So Clay, Mom, Susan and Amberly went to the service, while Meagan and I sat in the loft and sang. After the service we drove home looking at all the holiday lights, as has been a tradition since my own childhood and one we've carried out with our own family. It was pretty much all that Christmas eve is supposed to be.

Christmas Day was a little strange, but it was also best of all. I had asked Drew more than a week before how he wanted to handle the morning. This is his second Christmas living on his own, and last year I picked him up at his place early and brought him here for our usual gift opening and big, special breakfast of egg casserole and cheesy potatoes (his favorite). This year he an Michelle are together and I wanted him to be sure about his Christmas morning plans. Would she come over with him? Would she go to her own family? Would she stay at their place by herself? He told me he'd come over by himself. We said, OK.

Christmas morning when I called him, he said, "There's been a change of plans. I'm bringing Michelle with  me." All kinds of thoughts ran through my mind at once: first - how would the girls feel about an "intrusion" on their family Christmas morning? What would Mom think? Then, the really big consideration - in all the Christmas preparations, I had not once thought to buy a gift for Michelle (this is a brand new relationship). So shame on me. I paused only a few seconds and bought some time with, "will she feel comfortable?" trying to appeal his sense of the potential awkwardness of the situation (mostly with his sisters,  but I couldn't bring myself to say that). By not expressing this directly enough, I got nowhere, of course. "She won't feel weird," he insisted (Michelle is VERY outgoing). "I can't leave her here alone," he said. And of course he was right.

So I broke the news to the girls, who, as I'd guessed were not very amenable to having this relative stranger here in the midst  of our family traditions. "It's what Christmas is about," I reminded them and now I was sure of it myself. Michelle would be here with Drew and she'd be welcome, by god.

Then the mad scramble began. What to give her?  Clay suggested my last bottle of wine. Great idea! I knew Michelle liked it, because we served it at dinner when she was here after Thanksgiving and she raved over it. I rummaged through the gift wrap trappings in the basement and came up with a wine bag and tag: "To Michelle." Inspired, I thought, "What else?" "She's got to have a stocking. Give her mine," Mom offered, getting into the spirit.

So, wine, check. Stocking with candy cane and chocolate (most notably a big bar of noir 60% cacao - yum!). I was getting into this! What else can we give?

Then, a final thought. In our room I had, wrapped, my gift for our god-daughter and niece Lauren. I had the same gift under the tree for Meagan and for Susan: a cozy pair of "pink-ribbon" ankle socks and a silver bracelet from the Breast Cancer site. We wouldn't see Lauren until New Years - plenty of time to find another gift for her that would be  just as meaningful. The socks and bracelet would be Michelle's. And easy and right-feeling decision.

I'm sure Michelle didn't expect anything from us, but you can't have people as guests on Christmas without giving gifts! It's what the season is about, for heaven's sake. And so Susan went to pick up her brother and his girl and our morning began. I don't know what she really thought about us, or our gifts, or the traditions of loud, slow gift opening, lots of attention to dog gifts and cat gifts, plus long exclaiming over everything. But she seemed pleased - genuinely surprised, too - at being included. Michelle is anything but shy, and she joined in and fit into the morning chaos like she was one of us.

Breakfast was a joyous sort of tragedy - for the first time ever, the egg casserole didn't set up in the hour allotted it in the oven, so we drank juice and coffee and ate crockpot cheesy potatoes, banana bread and clementines while we waited for the casserole to finish up in the microwave. Any other Christmas morning this would have sent me into a pouting quiet, but this year I just said, "oh well," and we laughed and chatted while we waited - and ate the eggs, ugly now, but still tasty, when they were cooked through.

---

So let me finish this up.

Since the kids were born, we've always spent Christmas afternoon and evening in Muskegon - afternoon at the VanderVeldes and evening at the McBrides. In the early years we spent the night - Meagan and Susan at my folks and Drew, Clay and I at Clay's. In the past couple of years, we "adults" have had things to get back to Grand Rapids for, so we haven't stayed over. Meagan and Susan however, continued their tradition of spending the quiet calm hours of Christmas night with my folks.

Of course this year had to be different. Mom was staying with us, and Michelle was with Drew. Clay's folks, early on in the season, had made it very clear that they expected Mom to come with us to their house on Christmas day. Bless those special, loving people. Especially after we called Christmas morning and told them Michelle would be coming with us too!

Christmas day at the VanderVeldes is always special. Her house is always carefully and exquisitely decorated for Christmas. A beautiful, perfect, white-lighted tree with a satiny skirt. Lighted villages on the bay window sill, Hummels and Santas everywhere, greenery on the mantle, the tiny foil pond with skaters on the low table near the sofa that have been there every Christmas that I can remember. Not garish or overdone, but tasteful, joyful, quiet, lovely. My mom was welcomed with love, gentleness and kindness of old friends - who know and understand the losses people their age experience.

---

Obviously I didn't start out to recount details of this special Christmas with this post. I just needed to write! But now, more than six weeks later, here you have it. I haven't really captured the the sad sweet joyful melancholy of it all. New relationships, loss, enduring love - So much of what Christmas, and life are about.

New year

It's gettin' deep

Am I getting lazy or what? Phone pictures, and obvious subjects at that. Well, it's a cold, snowy, lazy weekend ... Spartans beat Iowa, anyhow, 81-49.  Memphis (nation's longest winning streak now with 14 games; Florida got knocked off their winning streak, among others) is trying to beat Gonzaga ... Meg and Suze are in Detroit at a Jack's Mannequin concert ... nothin' else much going on!

Update: Memphis squeaked by Gonzaga in overtime, 78-77.

Blizzard-y

10 a.m., Saturday: Since 6 a.m. at least five inches have fallen, if not six. More is on the way -- maybe up to 10 inches total. Temperature: 9 degrees F.

New phone, 6 a.m.

Takes better photos in full light ...

I know, I know -- I just got a new phone about a year ago. But then, technology years are even shorter than dog years, so my phone was ancient. I wouldn't have replaced it though, if Meg's hadn't quit working completely last week during a week of "what else can go wrong?" You know those weeks. As it was we had to wait till payday to get to the cellphone store. Where we all got flippy new camera phones which we pretty much wasted the weekend playing with. And mine is pink.

Walking stick

Haven't seen one in years, although I guess that's this guy's point.

Volunteers

More willing than you'd imagine

For most of the summer we watched these "pretty green leaves" wending their way toward the ground from the place where the old cherry tree splits. Obviously, we never looked at them too closely or we'd have noticed what they were. Well, a couple of weeks ago they started to bloom, and as you can see, they're impatiens.

So how did they get there? There's a pouch of impatiens hanging above them on the left tree trunk this year, as in most years, so I suppose seeds or natural "cuttings" from that fell there and took root. But one thing makes us wonder: Some of these flowers have been pink, while the plant hanging above them sports only deep red blooms. There are pink impatiens around the sassafras tree some yards away. Is is possible they traveled in the wind? And how is there enough growing medium here for these to take root? Will they come back next year, or is this a one-time stint for these volunteers? Hmmm. Don't know; can't say. We'll just enjoy their surprising presence while they're there.

Leaving season

The bird has flown ...

It's leaving season. Parents all over the country are starting to pack up their first-borns and their belongings as they venture from home for the first time to head off for college. 

Had he followed that arc, we'd have done this three years ago. So I guess you might say we've been lucky to have him around a little longer. While other parents wondered from afar what their kids were up to -- what new friends they'd made, what hours they were keeping, whether they were eating right, sleeping enough, partying too much -- we knew. We watched him shed his curfew, eat anything and everything he could find in our fridge or freezer, sneak in at 3 a.m. and sleep till noon or stumble in at midnight with a goofy too-much-to-drink grin on his face, only to grab a jacket and leave again, walking down the street to his buddy's, where the party still was in full swing ...

We got to watch him learn the ins and outs of finding a job, losing it, finding another, then another. Girlfriends, bank accounts, junk cars, court dates. Friends in some kind of trouble or another, friends having their first babies, buddies going off to the military or coming home from a far-away war.

It isn't easy having another adult in the house and we've all agreed for awhile now that it was time for him to go. But the timing and opportunity weren't right. Until now. He's moved into a house with a couple of friends from high school, a few miles away "down by the river."

He spent all of yesterday packing up his stuff. Not all that much for his 21 years: a few clothes (though I still have a lot of his socks), TV, dresser, easy chair, a few books and papers, toiletries, the infamous "trunk of mystery" left to him by a friend who moved to Florida a few years ago. At about 5:00 his buddies rolled up in a red pickup and in just two trips, they'd taken it all. Then he was gone.

Before he left I managed to get a hug from him. He was anxious to get going and didn't say goodbye to his dad, who was in the basement and didn't hear him come in for the last of his stuff. In that way it wasn't much different than any of his other comings and goings (except for the hug). Kinda left things open for him; after all, he still has to come back and get the bathing-suit beauty posters off the walls of his room. Maybe it was easier that way.

Summer flowers 2006

At the front of the house

I just had to share this photo. I think these flowers are so gorgeous. Even better than last year's.

We do not garden. I really have no patience for it at all. Back when we lived in married student housing at MSU, we rented a plot in a community garden with my sister Loraine and her husband Jeff (a real gardener and man of many talents) who were also students at the time. Cool idea, community garden. Wonderful way to have fresh vegetables and salads ... but all I remember is bugs, weeds, mud and hot sun ... and having to haul water in a 5-gallon pickle bucket out to our little plot. Oh, and lots and lots of zucchini...

As I said, we don't garden, but we do usually have some nice annuals in summer. The house had some pretty decent landscaping when we moved in 10 years ago, and Clay keeps that up pretty well (although he did kinda destroy the ornamental cherry on the northeast corner of the house last week, trying to shape it back to a more landscape-y size).  We keep trading ideas about what we might do in the way of  more permanent  flowers, but so far,  it's just talk.  Still, we are looking ahead to the big double graduation openhouse next June for Meg and Suze. Anything we do to the house and yard will have to be done this summer. Hmmm. Hostas seem pretty easy. Maybe a row of those along that bleak and shady back fence?

Rhodo

Suddenly they're in full bloom

Blossoms

Same motif, different tree ...

Hoppy

The Bunny was good to them

Click the photos below to see a few more ...

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Leaflets

On the old cherry tree out back

April foolishness

At first I fell for it. Then I laughed.

A friend called with some disturbing news. Not the kind of thing you  usually joke about. For a minute I fell silent. Then there was laughter on the other end of the phone.

"April  Fool!"

For about a half second I felt a little peeved. Then I had to laugh. It's a good Fool's Day joke if the other person falls, even for a few seconds.

We don't do April Fool's Day in our family. I honestly never even think about practical jokery until I get a trick played on me. Why? Because the time others spend thinking up their pranks is time we spend in panic mode that typically  leads up to a birthday celebration: What to buy this year? (Mom, you always buy Whitecaps tickets!) Where to go to dinner? (No place too expensive this year) What kind of cake: scratch, box, or bakery made? When will everyone be home so we can sing Happy Birthday?

Yeah, my lucky husband was born on this day some 40 odd years ago. As you can imagine, he's heard all the jokes. And practical pranks just have never seemed like a fair thing to pull on someone's birthday. On top of that, his mother's birthday is just a few days later, on the 4th, as is that of one of my dear brothers-in-law. Easter or Palm Sunday have been thrown in the mix more than once in the last 29 years. So you can see why the tomfoolery of the season is lost on us.

Now that you know this, you also know (as my friend does) that I am one person you can get on April Fool's Day, simply because I'm  not paying attention. And when you're laughing 'cause you tricked me, take a minute to call my husband. And wish him a happy (fool's) birthday!

Morning after

After the ice storm, 7:18 a.m.

Snow sky

  Snow sky 
  Originally uploaded by kathleee.

You wouldn't know it by today's weather -- raining, dull, nearly 50 degrees -- but it is still winter here. We got a glimpse of it last week ...

I just blogged this from my Flickr account, which is why it looks a little different than usual. Not bad -- had to give it a try, anyway.

Tip: if you want to see a larger version of the photo, click on it and you'll go to my Flickr page, where -- TaDa! -- you can also view all of my photos. Fun!

Belated New Year's post

That's Matt and Margie in back; Clay, Me, Loraine and Jeff in front.

Yeah kids, this is how the over-40 crowd whoops it up on New Year's eve. We did our usual delectable standing rib roast dinner. Jeff was sick this year, but he still did a fabulous job, with a little more help from us than he's used to.

Afterwards we played a colossally stupid DVD game called "Scene it" (sorry Lor!) for which I never did understand the rules. But I did come to understand that I caused the women to lose the game by blurting out -- during guys' turn, mind you -- the only answer I  even came close to knowing. (Did you guess? It is a movie trivia game. Not exactly my forte, shall we say?)

Midnight came and went and we watched Monty Python's Flying Circus DVDs (it's becoming another tradition) until most everyone trailed off to bed. Jeff (the sick one?), Clay and I stayed up another hour or so watching old b&w movies on A&E (or was it TCM?)

No excessive eating or drinking, no hangovers, no indigestion. Yes we may be boring but we sure felt fine in the morning.

Update: Like a dork, I posted the the above photo twice instead of including the first one I just added, below. Oh, and those photos will pop up to full size if you click on them.

                                            

Christmas photos

As promised. Click on the photo badge, go to Flickr and see the photos.

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Notes on Christmas

First of all, I want to say that I did virtually no shopping this year. And so I give a huge thank you to my family (especially my husband) for making sure that Christmas happened in wonderfully fine style.

On the other hand, I received what I consider to be the best gift (others will disagree, and that's as it should be): an iPod Nano. Engraved, too: "Merry Christmas 2005 (from the kids and me)" Very cool.

Most astonishing gift had to be Suze's life-size cardboard standup of James Dean. In color.

Brunch on Christmas Eve at Nance and John's house was special. But then it always is. Missed our Monroe sister, but then we always do. (See you on New Year's Eve, Mart!) Starbucks beans and a coffee grinder from the folks -- Mom knows I'm always on the hunt for good coffee.

Christmas evening at the in-laws was cozy and everyone enjoyed their gifts (my husband is planning to grill steaks tonight, I believe, on the new George Foreman). It was nice to see newlyweds Joe and Erin at my folks' house later that night.

Daughter Meg started coming down with something on Christmas Eve. She is still not feeling well.

I started feeling vaguely unwell soon after and today I feel really punk. Think I'm getting what Meg has, whatever it is.

JDog got three stuffed toys to destuff (one is nearly complete) the cats have scattered various colorful toy mice everywhere. (I wish they'd take on the brown one that I saw scuttle from under the woodpile in the garage last night, but I suppose that's too much to ask.)

Photos coming soon on Flickr.

Next up: New Year's in Kalamazoo.

Cold

Yeah, it’s cold. In the 20s the past few days, but a couple of weeks ago it was consistently down in the teens. And snow! Seems like we get a fresh layer of the stuff every other day or so. It’s the first year in recent memory that we haven’t been wondering if Christmas will be white. (For most of us Northerners, it just ain’t Christmas if there’s no snow, ya know.)

I wouldn’t mind it so much if not for the high cost of heating this year. Freeze season has barely begun and already we’ve had a bill higher than most of last year’s coldest months. It figures I’d pick this winter to be home all day. I’m keeping the thermostat turned down, but I’m afraid 68 degrees still won’t be low enough. Most days I’m wearing a T-shirt, sweater and sweatshirt, plus I’ve got my down throw wrapped around me wherever I am. At least I got the wireless working now for the PowerBook, so I can work upstairs instead of having to sit for hours in the stone-cold basement in front of the desktop PC.

And then there’s the minivan … earlier this fall, the heater fan began working only on high. Then one day we noticed steam billowing out from under the hood when we turned the engine off. A few days later, on one of those really bitter mornings, I noticed the air blowing on me was getting cooler … and cooler. By the end of my morning taxi run (I take Clay to work at 6:30, Meg to school at 7:20 and Suze to school at 7:40) I had no heat at all. For the afternoon run (Meg at 2:30, Suze at 3, husband at 3:30) I bundled up as best I could and brought blankets along for all passengers. That hour and a half was one of the most miserable I’ve spent in a car, I’ll tell you what.

The following morning, taxi mom was decked out in ski pants, snowmobile boots, my down jacket over layers of sweatshirts, hat, gloves, and the ever-present down throw now across my lap and wrapped around my legs. I felt like I was riding in an open sleigh (sans horse), but at least the trip was tolerable.

Next day, the thing overheated on me – the antifreeze had all pretty much fast-leaked from somewhere, and today the van sits in the garage while we look at expenses and figure out a day  -- during Christmas break, probably – when we can spring for repairs.

So now we’ve been forced to cram ourselves into the little Ranger truck as best we can. I won’t even tell you what kind of undrivable shape that thing is in since Drew and his friend ran into and over god-knows-what awhile back. (I hear we’ll get money from the guilty parties to repair that mess sometime after the first of the year. So far I’m not holding my breath.) But at least the truck has heat. Hmmm … and the fan only works on high …

Looks like a (compact-size) rental car is in our future for the Christmas trek to Muskegon and back. At least we’ll be warm and (relatively) safe. I just hope there’s room for the dog. And that there’s no big lake-effect snowstorm in the forecast. On second thought, it might be kinda nice to get snowed in at home. Hot cocoa in front of a roaring fire is one of the best things I know for beating the cold. 

Lights

Entrance to Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park, 7 a.m.

I drive past here every weekday morning. And every weekday morning I say, "Oh, I need to bring the camera out here," (having obviously forgotten it again.)

On this day I remembered, and so I pulled into the entrance, found a spot where I thought I could get a decent shot,and climbed out of the van into the 15-degree cold.

Then I looked around me. Virtually all the pines surrounding the entrance to the Gardens are lit: thousands of lights, some red, some white, some green. The spectacle probably covers a quarter mile along the East Beltline, tucked a little back from the road, and it is glorious to see.

It is also practically impossible (for me, anyway) to photograph. To get a decent angle on it, I probably should have parked on the other side of the four-lane divided highway. But then there'd be even more poles and wires and cute little street lamps in the way of the lighted trees.

So I had to settle for capturing just parts of the display. To get your own eyeful, I recommend visiting the Gardens yourself this holiday. Their annual Christmas and Holiday Traditions Around the World should not be missed. The light display at the  entrance is only a prelude to the magical things you'll see inside.

Long holiday weekend

Cousins

One of the things I like about the long Thanksgiving weekend is having a chance to relax a little and catch up with family. This year was a little odd -- a snowstorm kept some of the relatives away from the big dinner on Thursday. And two sisters had to work on Friday so nobody did much visiting or shopping. Still, we had one brother-in-law and our goddaughter/niece over for two nights. I cooked up our own small family feast on Friday. The guys took in some hockey on Saturday. I mostly napped and did the chauffer thing for the girls. Oh and I blogged a little and got a few photos up on Flickr.

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Interfaith Thanksgiving service

Daughter Suze is the blonde with curls. Meg was to the left, on the end. I was way to the right. (They're altos; I'm a soprano.)

Westminster Pres. hosted the sixth annual Community Interfaith Thanksgiving Service last night here in Grand Rapids. The Sanctuary Choir and Kirk Singers (high school age) sang the prelude and acted as lead on hymns. It was an amazing service where Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Christians, and others came together in thanks. Read the Press account here.

A member of the Catholic Native American community lights a smudge pot to purify the area "so that good medicine can flow."

Photos: Grand Rapids Press

It's Veteran's Day

The site CODE PINK Women for Peace reminds that Veteran's Day originally was established in part "to perpetuate peace through good will and mutual understanding between nations ..."

In their essay, "How to support our troops on Veteran's Day," coauthors Medea Benjamin and Gayle Brandeis suggest that we can champion our men and women in the service without supporting the war itself.

This November 11, as we honor the sacrifice and courage of our veterans, let us recognize that the best way to support our troops is to call for their swift exit from Iraq, to guarantee them the care they deserve when they return, and to make policy changes that will stop us from ever again rushing into a reckless, oil-hungry war.

Fall creek

Looks a little different than it did in January, hmmm?

Broken bridge

Damaged by a fallen tree in last spring's storms, this footbridge at Lamoreax Park (my favorite dog-walking place) remains unpassable.

From an autumn yard

Sassafras against a backdrop of oak

Ivy on the fence with sassafras peeking over

Trees in the yard

This the most melancholy, bittersweet time of year when the brighter the colors the more the tears come. Tears for years that have passed, time lost,  lovers and loved ones long gone. An ache, a longing for, what -- another time another place another circumstance? Another me.

Maybe not so ironically, the peak of this colorful-sad season is also the time of my birthday. But don't think my sadness is some kind of midlife crisis in bloom.  The season has always had this effect. The year I turned 12 , I remember one gray day standing on a hillside under some trees in the rain. Notebook in hand I was composing the week's "theme" for English class. I expressed similar sentiments in a piece that earned a place in the end-of-year anthology of the district's best student writing. It's the earliest I remember understanding that I could express a whole world in writing. And that the so-called "blues" are the sweet sweet sadness that fuels the creative mind.

Can you see people ...

Sailing so slowly, high up in the starry sky ...

Through some quirk in the way my brain works I have this odd capacity to remember just about every song I ever learned as a child. I mean I can recall songs my grandfather tunelessly sang to me when I was 5 years old. (A red fox ran away; he ran so far away; his mother had no telephone...) I still can sing the "Hello" song that Miss Prine taught us in kindergarten. The gruesome stop-look-listen ditty Miss Loverin taught us in grade one? (Though you can buy many a ball, you never can buy a new leg.) Of course I remember it, along with every song I learned from the second grade music book.  Camp songs. Sunday School songs. Oh, and all those fairy tales set to music that I had on 33 rpm vinyl.  And don't forget my favorite musical soundtracks: Mary Poppins, Music Man, The Sound of Music.

Sometimes the tunes in my early piano books had lyrics set to them, too. Whenever I see the full moon, I remember this one:

Big moon, bright moon
Sailing so slowly, high
Up in the starry sky
Big moon, bright moon
Can you see people
So little as I?

Yes, and I can sing it, too. What a total waste of brain space.

Hanging basket

One of  many gracing my inlaws' deck

Hotter 'n ...

We don't see too many days like this here in West Michigan.

... blue blazes, Hell, Hades -- which is just another word for Hell, really. It's a day too hot to do much besides sit and read and sip something cold. Got any favorite hot cliches? Those timeless sayings everybody drags out when the mercury reaches a certain level along toward the end of July? Let's hear 'em.

Bag a bug

Stalking the Japanese beetle

Got a haircut

Sporting my new, easy 'do at Michigan's Adventure

Ok now, this is a catch up post. Because I've been on vacation this week and being really lazy about this blog (although I have written in the other one, which I may or may not tell you about some other time.)

Hair (If this topic bores you, skip to the next subhead.)
Tuesday I decided I just had to have my hair cut right now. I hadn't had it cut since February in prep for my trip to Hawaii. I don't know why. I've never let my hair go so long between cuts; Ive always been an every 5-6 weeks kind of gal. Guess it's true, as one friend suggested, that I've been letting myself go of late. LOL!

Anyhow, I like this cut 'cause I don't have to do ANYTHING with it if I don't want to, other than mess with the bangs a little. Too late I realized it is exactly like my sister Loraine's hair, but oh well. She's a blonde. And I never see her anyway. (Sorry Lor. Just kiddin'. Really!)

GR Blogger (If you don't like this one, you're so in the wrong place.)
I finally went to my newsreader today (didn't get very far, however) and saw -- wowee! -- TWO new Technorati search results for this blog. One was from my buddy at work, who links to me every now and then, especially since I quit blogging for my company :-).

The other was from a blogger here in GR whom I've read a couple of times and who is a member, as am I, of the Grand Rapids Bloggers Webring (oh, the buddy above is a member also). Matt VanDyk is an attorney here in town who seems to have started a blog rather recently. He's done a waaaaay better job than I have of ferreting out local bloggers, and some worthwhile reads, too. Well, Matt has me on his blogroll right now, which is cool. He's got several recommendeds on his site, which I'm going to check out. Trouble is, they all seem to be Calvin grads. (As is he. Hey, Aaron, you should be on the list -- do you know Matt?) Well, I guess that's not really a problem.  And anyhow, I do sing at Calvin in the Oratorio Society and my last name begins with Vander ... Maybe those two things make me meet the criteria????

Reading (This one's for Lori S. and you.)
A couple of my friends have tried to encourage me to read more, one by loaning me a bag of books (which I have yet to read or return) and another by telling me pointedly, "You  need to read more." So right now I have three books with bookmarks showing progress made in each since oh, January. Pretty pathetic, I know.

The one I'm working hardest to get out of the way is the worst: Scar Tissue by the Red Hot Chili Peppers's Anthony Kiedis is getting pretty ho-hum after 335 pages (only 130 to go!) of fired guitar players, drugs, sex, shows, drugs, girlfriends, sex ... I mean, how many girls can possibly be the sweetest angel ever in Anthony's world? Quite a few, evidently, but it's geting old.

I'm also reading  a free pdf version of Lawrence Lessig's book, Free Culture, and I'm going to say that the reason I haven't finished that one yet is that my pdf is stored on the flash drive that I ruined ... no, that excuse won't work for a downloadable file, will it? OK. Anyhow, I'm about halfway through Lessig's look at where art and culture are headed in the digital age. If you've ever illegally downloaded even one song off the internet, you need to read it. It's scary. Truly!Which is maybe the real reason I haven't finished it. (You're not buying that either, are ya?)

The third book I really just started this week (OK, so I lied about January). It's a fiction work  by Goldberry Long called Juniper Tree Burning. The name of the novel is also the female protagonist's name, and so far most of her problem seems to stem from a troubled upbringing that is exacerbated by (and obviously signified by) having been given such an odd appellation.  So far the woman mostly just irritates me -- she's a real hard-ass bitch. I'm thinking she'll redeem herself though, so I'll keep reading.

Weekend (You're almost done. Hooray!)
The daughters and their cousin are spending the weekend at my folks' house in Muskegon. My brother-in-law (the niece/cousin/god daughter's dad) is here entertaining my husband. There's nobody online -- NOBODY -- to talk to, so I'm just taking it easy. Reading, walking the dog, taking little naps, lounging in the sun, half heartedly catching up on stuff online. For two nights now I've  gotten away with refusing to do much in the way of fixing dinner. OH -- I do have some laundry I'd better get busy on, but other than that it's been a nice, lazy weekend. A fitting wrap up to a pretty laid back week off.  Well, the dog is whining at me, so I guess I'll take her for a walk before it gets too dark. Can't neglect all my duties, don'tcha know.

Fourth on the third

The clan got together for the second big summer holiday yesterday, this time at house of Frazier in Kalamazoo, this time missing the one big family of eight (which isn't eight these days anyway and is either 12 or six, depending on if you want to count spouses and their offspring ...)

The day began and ended with swimming with some very excellent pulled pork, Chilean wine, s'mores, and fireworks in between.  See the rest of the photos here.

Ryan and Connor

Independence Day

O say does that star spangled banner yet wave o'er the land of the free
and the home of the brave?

On a summer evening

Several of these lightpoles illuminate nothing in particular on the site
where the old Fingers restaurant used to be.

With no wires strung yet, the new poles look somehow magnificent.

People at the park

At Old Kent Fifth Third Park last Sunday.

A button on the back of his chair read "Veterans for Kerry"

Lansing Lugnuts fans. Clue: red hair

At the ballgame

What people wear when it's all sun and 92 degrees.

Lately last week

We had a nice outdoor Father's Day.

Drew (left) and his "studly" friends (their word, not mine) take a
break after some driveway basketball.

Susan, mowing for money (to fund a James Dean poster, I think).

Storm

Trees bent in the wind

Yesterday evening we experienced one of our famous late spring thunderstorms. It threatened all day, then, just as we were about the light the grill for dinner, the storm blew up in earnest.

Oh, I know while this was going on they were sweatin' it down south waiting to see if Arlene would become full fledged hurricane (she didn't). And as Michigan thunderstorms go, this wasn't all that dramatic either. Still, I wanted to see if I could at all capture the effect of the wind in the trees.

I think I got it somewhat. Lori caught the downpour on camera, too.

Daisies

In the field outside Suze's school

Quelques fleurs

Hanging flowers

Old photos, newly posted

Taken  February 5 at Lamoreaux Park, Grand Rapids

I finally got around to playing with the photo hosting site, Flickr, posting a few sets of photos over the weekend. Don't know for sure, but I think photos look better if they're not compressed. Of course, that also uses more space. These are depressingly wintry, but they're my favorites.

Cold picknickin'

Ross Park at Mona Lake. Chilly but sunny; we had the place to ourselves.

You'd think we'd know better by now than to plan a family picnic. Memorial Day in our home town on Lake Michigan's eastern shore is almost never warm, especially if you're near the water. Temperatures will be in the mid to upper sixties if you're lucky. And If you're really lucky, you'll see sunshine.

Still, it's the first big family get together of the year. Plus it's Mom's birthday on the 26th, with birthdays for cousins Evan, Meg, Sus, and Jonathan falling in the first few days of June. Tradition is stronger than weather, I guess. So we gather and we feast. Play kickball. Catch up on what's been going on since Christmas. Make plans for the next get together. Bicker a little, and go home.

This year, nice surprise. It was warm enough in the sun that we didn't have to wrap ourselves in blankets. We had enough charcoal, and somebody remembered the grill tools. My baked beans were redundant, but oh well, you can't plan everything.

Except for the fact that we were missing one family of four (somebody had to work), the day went pretty well. The next gathering is June 18 for nephew #2's wedding, an outdoor deal on campus at MSU.

Probably the weather will be warm by that time.

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Happy Easter

Suze. Meg. In the bathroom mirror.

Spring 1st

Yeah, it's spring all right ...

First day of spring and Palm Sunday. You'd think having both on the same day would bring something of spring weather our way. But no. it's gray and cold; windy, bleak. The bottom of the driveway is mud and slush. The foot of snow still on the ground is brownish, soft, sludgy, wet.

The only relief is watching the Tigers in spring training (during commercials of the Spartan game, of course).  Alan Trammel stands along the foul line in his wrap-around sunglasses taking notes. The fans are in short sleeves, squinting into the sun, sipping on their beers.

The weather here can only get better. Right?

Winter walk

I tried to catch the translucency of these winter-left leaves. Not much luck.

In a bit of a rut these days waiting for the seasons to change; tired of the same old cold scene; looking for a little more sun, a little more warmth, a little more life.

I have to admit  though that these woods are more beautiful right now as winter is coming to a slow close than they will be in the coming weeks of thawing and spring's wet rains. We got a taste of that today when the temps "soared" to 50 degrees and everything that wasn't mud was white, wet slush.

There was no place firm to put your foot down along the trail; every step broke through the packed surface left by the cross country skiers, sinking your foot into a cold puddle. JDog and I didn't get very far before my pant legs and my merrells were soaked through. We opted for a short circle that didn't cover much ground but still counted to her as having been there.

Things I heard:

• Birds making spring noises. Don't ask me what those are; I'm no birder. I just know the difference between spring songs and those airy dry winter chirps.
• The schush and clank of a cross country skier moving along a path parallel to ours, near the river (oh, wait. That was yesterday. No way anybody was skiing there today.)
• Cars on the expressway a few miles away. The sound is all wind and hollowness; constant. But if you can tune it out for a minute, you can almost believe you're far away from the city.
• Jingling of JDog's ID tag against the metal ring on her collar
• A dog's bark floating over the river from a house on the other side
• A stream caught up on a tangle of branches, gurgling as it passes through on its way to the river

More from the ice palace

JDog and I spent an hour and a half at the park today. For the first time we were able to get past the sheets of ice that had formed at the first spot on othe trail where a rivulet flows in from the river. When the river is high like it's been, the water rises over the banks, into the park and over the trail. In winter, of course, all that turns to one big sheet of ice. As the water starts to recede, the ice cracks and breaks up, leaving remnants of itself behind. 

 

Iced

Ice jam on the Grand

I’m sorry to say it, but I am counting the days until February 8, when I’m leaving this ice palace to spend 10 days in Hawaii. It’s not just the weather I’m glad to leave behind for awhile, but also that general winter malaise that strikes in February – at work ,at home, everywhere I seem to be.

This is not even a vacation, and still I’m looking forward to it. Mostly it’s the getting away. This’ll be work, and the job I’ll be doing is a lot like what I did back in November/December in  Florida: business convention coverage consisting of photos, captions, interviewing, speech editing for the web and a DVD. Can’t swing taking Clay along (one of these years he’ll be able to take this trip with me – he’s got to build up some vacation time on the new job first).

Anyhow, most of the team (many of the same we worked with in Florida) leaves around 9 a.m. on the 8^th. We fly to Chicago O’Hare, then it’s straight on to Kahului. We’re staying at the Grand Wailea, which is a pretty fabulous resort. (We’re lucky -- the marketing staff and others have to stay at the nearby Marriott because there’s not enough room for everyone.) We’ll be there for Chinese New Year, through Valentines’ Day and beyond, returning to Grand Rapids on the morning of February 18. I suppose the ice will still be here, but at least we’ll be that much closer to some warmer days ahead.