Showing posts with label locals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label locals. Show all posts
Saturday, August 2, 2014
Tuesday, July 22, 2014
A wet month
Among the many things I have not been blogging is how much rain we are getting, in part because this seems like bragging. I realize that many of our local crops require a very rigid sun/water/ temperature routine (on the other hands the catch-as-catch-can farmers market sellers have stalls overflowing) so all this rain is not a good thing in that way. After the fires the first year we had this house & every couple years after that pretty much up until the year before last I have vowed not to complain about the rain.
But.
But the pressure in my head has been killing me. My allergies are on wild monkey at the wheel overdrive & my ear are popping like that monkey is sitting on my brain flicking a clog/pop switch at random.
Speaking of monkeys, we have had so much rain that we seems to be looking at an early banana crop. We had some verrrrrry cold days last winter & I did not have my hopes up for bananas at all, but those distinctive purple petals showed up on the walkway last week so I looked up. Sure enough, two purple blooms are emerging. I have been reliably told that the variety we have is "lady fingers" which have a very distinctive (wonderful!) flavor & do not ship well at all so they are a strictly local pleasure. & by local I mean my own house & maybe a few friends & neighbors.
In a not entirely unrelated note: we have been doing a lot of gardening this year & I plan to di up some of the young banana plants that are encroaching on other parts of the yard. If anyone (locals only again, sorry) is interested let me know.
But.
But the pressure in my head has been killing me. My allergies are on wild monkey at the wheel overdrive & my ear are popping like that monkey is sitting on my brain flicking a clog/pop switch at random.
Speaking of monkeys, we have had so much rain that we seems to be looking at an early banana crop. We had some verrrrrry cold days last winter & I did not have my hopes up for bananas at all, but those distinctive purple petals showed up on the walkway last week so I looked up. Sure enough, two purple blooms are emerging. I have been reliably told that the variety we have is "lady fingers" which have a very distinctive (wonderful!) flavor & do not ship well at all so they are a strictly local pleasure. & by local I mean my own house & maybe a few friends & neighbors.
In a not entirely unrelated note: we have been doing a lot of gardening this year & I plan to di up some of the young banana plants that are encroaching on other parts of the yard. If anyone (locals only again, sorry) is interested let me know.
Sunday, May 25, 2014
Monday, May 19, 2014
The best plant sale of the year
This past Saturday was the local IFAS extension/Master Gardener's plant sale. & it was packed. they open at 8am & at &7:45 I was waiting in a looooooong line of traffic to make the turn into the IFAS extension office building lot. I have no idea if they opened early because by the time I got parked & out of the car it was after 8.
I had planned to take pictures even though my camera was on a trip to Miami (next week it goes to Paris without me!); I have been learning the camera on my phone which s actually a nice one but my hands were full almost immediately. I had brought sturdy bags which enabled m to carry plenty of plants but next year I am bringing a wagon!
I came home with one calendula which I immediately repotted (it had two unopened blooms & I was hoping to save one of them) & one cut-leaf coneflower. I actually went hoping to find one of the varieties of purple coneflower but they were gone by the time I made it to the perennials section. What I did find was a different variety of the rain lilies I am already crazy about. I also go two lavender plants because I never can resist them & four roses: two Belinda's Dream & two Louis Philippe. I forked over a whopping $26. Consider if you will that roses this size cost >$15 a the local discount rose garden. Yes I am delighted with my haul but that's not all.
The famously difficult to find UF campus IFAS bookstore had a booth where I could have easily dropped $100. What I did buy was a book on native tree identification, an updated poisonous pasture plants guide & a small but thorough booklet on fruit plant propagation with a special focus on different kinds of grafting. Yee-ha!
On the whole this event seemed to go smoothly. There were two unruly people, both of them elderly men who were probably themselves overwhelmed, not that that is an excuse. Still two cranks in a crowd of I don't know how many seems like almost nothing. There was also a snafu as I was checking out; they kept coming up with a different plant count & I nixed it each time; all of their numbers added up to an even number & I knew I had nine plants. In the end it was quite the headache to recreate the prices of what I had (they talked about going back to look but I knew the lavenders & one of the roses were already gone). As I walked away from the table I could not help but notice the older lady responsible for pulling the color stakes used as price tags still had some of the tags from my plants in one hand when she started pulling them for the next sale. Then she put them on the table & began to pile all the stakes together. The woman who was working with her caught my eye, smiled & shrugged. I can see how the crowd of people no matter how happy to be there could easily fluster a person who would rather be gardening.
In all the sale runs for five hours (four actually but there are still people there even as the are wrapping up) & it is just once a year. I have heard they made over $15K for the local Master Gardener program. A good day.
I had planned to take pictures even though my camera was on a trip to Miami (next week it goes to Paris without me!); I have been learning the camera on my phone which s actually a nice one but my hands were full almost immediately. I had brought sturdy bags which enabled m to carry plenty of plants but next year I am bringing a wagon!
I came home with one calendula which I immediately repotted (it had two unopened blooms & I was hoping to save one of them) & one cut-leaf coneflower. I actually went hoping to find one of the varieties of purple coneflower but they were gone by the time I made it to the perennials section. What I did find was a different variety of the rain lilies I am already crazy about. I also go two lavender plants because I never can resist them & four roses: two Belinda's Dream & two Louis Philippe. I forked over a whopping $26. Consider if you will that roses this size cost >$15 a the local discount rose garden. Yes I am delighted with my haul but that's not all.
The famously difficult to find UF campus IFAS bookstore had a booth where I could have easily dropped $100. What I did buy was a book on native tree identification, an updated poisonous pasture plants guide & a small but thorough booklet on fruit plant propagation with a special focus on different kinds of grafting. Yee-ha!
On the whole this event seemed to go smoothly. There were two unruly people, both of them elderly men who were probably themselves overwhelmed, not that that is an excuse. Still two cranks in a crowd of I don't know how many seems like almost nothing. There was also a snafu as I was checking out; they kept coming up with a different plant count & I nixed it each time; all of their numbers added up to an even number & I knew I had nine plants. In the end it was quite the headache to recreate the prices of what I had (they talked about going back to look but I knew the lavenders & one of the roses were already gone). As I walked away from the table I could not help but notice the older lady responsible for pulling the color stakes used as price tags still had some of the tags from my plants in one hand when she started pulling them for the next sale. Then she put them on the table & began to pile all the stakes together. The woman who was working with her caught my eye, smiled & shrugged. I can see how the crowd of people no matter how happy to be there could easily fluster a person who would rather be gardening.
In all the sale runs for five hours (four actually but there are still people there even as the are wrapping up) & it is just once a year. I have heard they made over $15K for the local Master Gardener program. A good day.
Monday, September 23, 2013
Elephant Appreciation Day
So it turns out, Sunday September 22 was International Elephant Appreciation Day. I already had the Madeleine L'Engle post queued for the first day of banned books week, so I kinda missed it, but not in real life.
In real life, we went to see the ELEPHANTS!!!!! First I had no idea there was an elephant sanctuary just one town over & I had no idea that they pretty much only open to the public on Elephant Appreciation Day & I found this out the Friday before so:
So on Elephant Appreciation Day I was indeed, appreciating elephants. Not since the baby elephant followed the mama elephant into the water feature at the Jacksonville Zoo & then stood there, under water with his baby elephant trunk sticking out like a periscope have I been so elephantly appreciative.
The event itself was...meager. The elephants were wonderful, as were the elephant people but the promotion had been slim (also it was drizzly) so there was no crowd. This was good for us but not great for them. One of the elephant people told us they opened for Elephant Appreciation Day for the first time last year, expecting 500 people they got 1,500. This year they maybe could have managed 1,500 but I doubt they got 500. Just as well because the volunteers in charge of parking nearly caused two accidents while we ere pulling in. Considering we were the only people pulling in & only two other vehicles were in motion, this was impressive in its own way.
Yes, we went to see the elephant(s), in the rain, still worth it. Also the whole wind-up reminded me of a book from last year's bookclub: Stewart O'Nan's A Prayer for the Dying. His narrator talks about "seeing the elephant". & wholly unrelated to elephants is himself confronted with what he believes is his duty to his fellow men & his god, & what happens when these responsibilities meet mother nature. Good book.
In real life, we went to see the ELEPHANTS!!!!! First I had no idea there was an elephant sanctuary just one town over & I had no idea that they pretty much only open to the public on Elephant Appreciation Day & I found this out the Friday before so:
So on Elephant Appreciation Day I was indeed, appreciating elephants. Not since the baby elephant followed the mama elephant into the water feature at the Jacksonville Zoo & then stood there, under water with his baby elephant trunk sticking out like a periscope have I been so elephantly appreciative.
The event itself was...meager. The elephants were wonderful, as were the elephant people but the promotion had been slim (also it was drizzly) so there was no crowd. This was good for us but not great for them. One of the elephant people told us they opened for Elephant Appreciation Day for the first time last year, expecting 500 people they got 1,500. This year they maybe could have managed 1,500 but I doubt they got 500. Just as well because the volunteers in charge of parking nearly caused two accidents while we ere pulling in. Considering we were the only people pulling in & only two other vehicles were in motion, this was impressive in its own way.
Yes, we went to see the elephant(s), in the rain, still worth it. Also the whole wind-up reminded me of a book from last year's bookclub: Stewart O'Nan's A Prayer for the Dying. His narrator talks about "seeing the elephant". & wholly unrelated to elephants is himself confronted with what he believes is his duty to his fellow men & his god, & what happens when these responsibilities meet mother nature. Good book.
Monday, September 2, 2013
Labor rich Labor Day
Things have been a little quilt heavy here, at least you would think so from the blog posts. The reality is most of our time has been spent outside. We have had a very rainy rainy season (YAY) so there has been a lot happening out there & none of it has had anything to do with wildfires (YAY YAY).
This weekend we went grape picking at Loftus Family Farm. We try to do this every year, but this year the grapes were bit behind schedule. All this rain is good, but they need sun, too, to ripen. Mr. Loftus told us that on Saturday 900 pounds of pick-your-own muscadine were weighed & sold. We came home with 10+ pounds of our own. I brought about a third of them over to W*****. She is doing OKay with the radiation but she is so thin! & I know she loves them.
I also brought her some cuttings from the Reve d'Or which is going gangbusters up the live oak tree, probably because of the rain & being up high in rich well-drained compost. This is the second set of cutting I have done for her. The first set got so slammed with the rain, they flooded & never took root. She will make a better rose-sitter than I ever was & if they all make it (& really they should) she will 14 tiny little rose bushes to plant along her fence.
Michael Faraday went squirrel chasing (nothing new there) up the banana tree (uhm...OKay) & took down the stalk with the closest-to-ripe bunch. We have had seven banana blossoms this year (I can stop talking about the rain right?). Those stalks are quite sturdy but Mr. Faraday is no lightweight. Since they have already started to turn yellow, A cut the stalk & it is hanging from a rope tied to the covered walkway between the house & the garage. We are hoping this will approximate the light it would have gotten in the banana thicket. The blossom still had some petals, so I brought it over to W***** with the rose cuttings & the grapes.
So you see, it is not all quilting-quilting-quilting. Of course, with all the rain I get a chunk of time inside to do something pick-up-put-down, like bind a quilt or... No more about quilts or rain, for a few days at least. I promise.
This weekend we went grape picking at Loftus Family Farm. We try to do this every year, but this year the grapes were bit behind schedule. All this rain is good, but they need sun, too, to ripen. Mr. Loftus told us that on Saturday 900 pounds of pick-your-own muscadine were weighed & sold. We came home with 10+ pounds of our own. I brought about a third of them over to W*****. She is doing OKay with the radiation but she is so thin! & I know she loves them.
I also brought her some cuttings from the Reve d'Or which is going gangbusters up the live oak tree, probably because of the rain & being up high in rich well-drained compost. This is the second set of cutting I have done for her. The first set got so slammed with the rain, they flooded & never took root. She will make a better rose-sitter than I ever was & if they all make it (& really they should) she will 14 tiny little rose bushes to plant along her fence.
Michael Faraday went squirrel chasing (nothing new there) up the banana tree (uhm...OKay) & took down the stalk with the closest-to-ripe bunch. We have had seven banana blossoms this year (I can stop talking about the rain right?). Those stalks are quite sturdy but Mr. Faraday is no lightweight. Since they have already started to turn yellow, A cut the stalk & it is hanging from a rope tied to the covered walkway between the house & the garage. We are hoping this will approximate the light it would have gotten in the banana thicket. The blossom still had some petals, so I brought it over to W***** with the rose cuttings & the grapes.
So you see, it is not all quilting-quilting-quilting. Of course, with all the rain I get a chunk of time inside to do something pick-up-put-down, like bind a quilt or... No more about quilts or rain, for a few days at least. I promise.
Friday, May 3, 2013
Something to do
This is a monster big weekend around these parts.
First it's graduation which means a lot of people coming & going which is good for local businesses (& hard on local-locals). But unless you re a graduate or related to a graduate or otherwise student involved, you are not going to make a special trip for that.
Well, this is also my favorite weekend of the month: the weekend the antique rose place is open. They only do this once a month because they have other pay-the-bills jobs but once a month it is like a little rose festival. This is where I got I got my Reve D'Or. They are out of stock today, but keep checking they are worth it.
& finally it is the Tree City Quilt Guild's every other year quilt show. It is not a huge show, but it is still interesting. There are a lot of outstanding local quilters & what with snow birds, there are a few outstanding not-always local quilters. Also that snow bird thing means techniques from other parts of the country seem to make there way here & sort of mix together. Whatever the reason, despite being a local guild show, there is usually something new to me every other year.
First it's graduation which means a lot of people coming & going which is good for local businesses (& hard on local-locals). But unless you re a graduate or related to a graduate or otherwise student involved, you are not going to make a special trip for that.
Well, this is also my favorite weekend of the month: the weekend the antique rose place is open. They only do this once a month because they have other pay-the-bills jobs but once a month it is like a little rose festival. This is where I got I got my Reve D'Or. They are out of stock today, but keep checking they are worth it.
& finally it is the Tree City Quilt Guild's every other year quilt show. It is not a huge show, but it is still interesting. There are a lot of outstanding local quilters & what with snow birds, there are a few outstanding not-always local quilters. Also that snow bird thing means techniques from other parts of the country seem to make there way here & sort of mix together. Whatever the reason, despite being a local guild show, there is usually something new to me every other year.
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
One bad apple
Now that I am breathing clearly again, mostly, I have started running again. Kinda. I have been scaling up slowly (one minute run, one minute walk for a mile & the walk back a mile). I have also rearranged my route somewhat. Let me go back a bit:
Last year I had a couple mildly unpleasant encounters with one particular old man; I honestly cannot remember if I blogged about it or not. The gist of these encounters was he would tell me something I was doing wrong such as running on the wrong side of the road (which was odd as I was running against traffic, as I should), or running on road instead of the shoulder (where he started talking about this there was actually no shoulder, the road went right up to a tree line so I don't know what he expected BUT I often do this even when there is a shoulder because of the litter, especially broken glass & when the grass gets long it see hard to see holes that would be happy to trip me or worse), or he would drive by (in a gold extended cab pick-up) & honk & zoom way out around me, like I was in his way. He was just generally be someone I wanted to avoid.
Apparently this guy was a well known neighborhood grumpy old guy. One day after passing the Marine Corps. Flag House (many places along my route have names like this), Grumpy Old Guy jumped out at me (really) & stopped dead in the road & started talking about....something. I don't know what because I veered out into the road & just went around him without otherwise acknowledging he was there at all. When I came back down that road, the Marine Corps. Flag House Husband...or Uncle I suppose, was there & beginning with an "excuse me", flagged me down to ask if Old ?Jack?Tom?Billy? (I really don't remember) was bothering me. I said well, yea, actually he was, whenever I see him he has some unreasonable complaint. I don't know if I said I thought he was harmless, but the truth is I did & mostly still do. I suspect he is lonely & has no idea how to interact with people, so he opens with something anti-social & then cannot understand why people avoid him (I m not so very insightful, I have relatives who behave this same way & then complain their grandchildren never call).
Marine Corps. Flag House Man said he would talk with Grumpy Old Guy's son (our neighborhood is thick with family farms; we might be the only people totally unrelated to anyone in the area). He also indicated his own children (I have only seen one ?10?11? year old boy tearing round the fenced yard with the dogs, but apparently there are more) had been harangued by Grumpy Old Guy. I said that would be great actually, as I don't know who this guy is, but some of the things he does are dangerous, like zooming up behind me & slamming the brakes & the horn. Turns out he had been doing that to Marine Corps. Flag House Kids when they rode their bikes. Sweet guy.
I went back to my run & Marine Corps. Flag House Man walking across the street. Since that day I have only seen Grumpy Old Guy a few times. I have seen his truck, but he hasn't been behind the wheel (I don't know if this is a new development, the only time I really noticed it before was after he had done something obnoxious). I sometimes see him in one of two front yards & although he has shouted at me (!), he has never started walking towards me & he certainly hasn't jumped out like he used to. On the other hand he often shakes his fist at me, one of those "get off my lawn" gestures.
& now that I know roughly where he lives, I have changed my route to not pass it. This change isn't permanent; it is along nice shady bit of road & en route to my favorite stretch & once the summer sun hits, I will want to run down there. On the other hand I hear Grumpy Guy got quite the corking last week, so maybe it won't be that big a deal. Have I ever mentioned Running Girl? Running Girl is pre-teen, bone thin & lives for speed. Foot-speed that is; one run she passed me three times, that is three different points along my route she zoomed up from behind me & went on by. I have never seen her without Bicycle Boy, who I would guess is in his mid-teens. Running Girl RUNS, flat out RUNS, she RUNS like a bear is after her & Bicycle Boy rides just behind her, usually in a weaving sort of pattern. It is very clear he is her escort. He almost never gets ahead of her, but sometimes he rides up alongside her & they have brief conversations. Their interactions are familial, there is no other way to describe it; they are either siblings or close cousins or something. They are clearly both fond of & frustrated with each other. Neither of them is ever discourteous, but when I see them I move over. Running Girl hates to stop & it's not like my running is a speed event. There is one other thing about Running Girl & Bicycle Boy: Bicycle Boy is black & Running Girl probably isn't. She has golden skin, but straight loose blondish hair. The color means nothing, I know, but it is floppy white person hair; she usually wears a pony tail that swings around in a way black person hair just doesn't. Because of this racial/ethnic/whatever combo, I am 99.9% sure I know which house they belong to; there are plenty of mixed race families in our general area but only one white spouse/black spouse couple near my route.
So Running Girl & Bicycle Boy are fairly regular fixtures I don't usually see them when school is in, but week-ends or holidays I am likely to run (no pun intended & not literally) into them. So it should not have surprised me that Grumpy Old Guy had seen them as well. & of course, why would his interactions with them be any happier than with me. Or with Marine Corps. Flag House Kids.
The version I heard was that Grumpy Old Guy shouted at Running Girl & Bicycle Boy & I believe it. It was implied that is was racial, but no one I talked to knew what was said exactly & given Grumpy Old Man's history I am not sure it had to be, but maybe it was. Then he threw something at them & maybe he did. On the other hand I have seen Grumpy Old Guy shake his fist like a Scooby Doo villain which could look like throwing. It doesn't matter really, except to Grumpy Old Guy who got a visit from the sheriff's department. A complaint had been made that he threatened two local children & he has been under much closer watch by his family since then (this I have from Marine Corps. Flag House Woman who had it from Grumpy Old Guy's daughter-in-law who has historically been in sympathy with the neighborhood). Apparently if you yell & jump up & down, that is one thing, but the minute you throw even a newspaper that can be called assault. Toss in a few racial slurs & you have a legal problem.
So Grumpy Old Guy got a stern warning. It was made clear that, given his history in the neighborhood (apparently there had been there had been other calls to the police, specifically about the aggressive driving, but no formal complaint), he could expect a charge next time. His family does seem to be doing their best to keep him under wraps. When I drive by either of the two houses, I sometimes see Grumpy Old Guy well away from the road, sitting in a chair, looking around. He might still yell & throw things but no one walking by would know it. Whether this will continue to be the case, who knows. If he does jump out at me again, or shout something or whatever I'm not sure if I want to be the one who calls the cops again. & for me, the first time. For now, I am just avoiding that part of the route.
Last year I had a couple mildly unpleasant encounters with one particular old man; I honestly cannot remember if I blogged about it or not. The gist of these encounters was he would tell me something I was doing wrong such as running on the wrong side of the road (which was odd as I was running against traffic, as I should), or running on road instead of the shoulder (where he started talking about this there was actually no shoulder, the road went right up to a tree line so I don't know what he expected BUT I often do this even when there is a shoulder because of the litter, especially broken glass & when the grass gets long it see hard to see holes that would be happy to trip me or worse), or he would drive by (in a gold extended cab pick-up) & honk & zoom way out around me, like I was in his way. He was just generally be someone I wanted to avoid.
Apparently this guy was a well known neighborhood grumpy old guy. One day after passing the Marine Corps. Flag House (many places along my route have names like this), Grumpy Old Guy jumped out at me (really) & stopped dead in the road & started talking about....something. I don't know what because I veered out into the road & just went around him without otherwise acknowledging he was there at all. When I came back down that road, the Marine Corps. Flag House Husband...or Uncle I suppose, was there & beginning with an "excuse me", flagged me down to ask if Old ?Jack?Tom?Billy? (I really don't remember) was bothering me. I said well, yea, actually he was, whenever I see him he has some unreasonable complaint. I don't know if I said I thought he was harmless, but the truth is I did & mostly still do. I suspect he is lonely & has no idea how to interact with people, so he opens with something anti-social & then cannot understand why people avoid him (I m not so very insightful, I have relatives who behave this same way & then complain their grandchildren never call).
Marine Corps. Flag House Man said he would talk with Grumpy Old Guy's son (our neighborhood is thick with family farms; we might be the only people totally unrelated to anyone in the area). He also indicated his own children (I have only seen one ?10?11? year old boy tearing round the fenced yard with the dogs, but apparently there are more) had been harangued by Grumpy Old Guy. I said that would be great actually, as I don't know who this guy is, but some of the things he does are dangerous, like zooming up behind me & slamming the brakes & the horn. Turns out he had been doing that to Marine Corps. Flag House Kids when they rode their bikes. Sweet guy.
I went back to my run & Marine Corps. Flag House Man walking across the street. Since that day I have only seen Grumpy Old Guy a few times. I have seen his truck, but he hasn't been behind the wheel (I don't know if this is a new development, the only time I really noticed it before was after he had done something obnoxious). I sometimes see him in one of two front yards & although he has shouted at me (!), he has never started walking towards me & he certainly hasn't jumped out like he used to. On the other hand he often shakes his fist at me, one of those "get off my lawn" gestures.
& now that I know roughly where he lives, I have changed my route to not pass it. This change isn't permanent; it is along nice shady bit of road & en route to my favorite stretch & once the summer sun hits, I will want to run down there. On the other hand I hear Grumpy Guy got quite the corking last week, so maybe it won't be that big a deal. Have I ever mentioned Running Girl? Running Girl is pre-teen, bone thin & lives for speed. Foot-speed that is; one run she passed me three times, that is three different points along my route she zoomed up from behind me & went on by. I have never seen her without Bicycle Boy, who I would guess is in his mid-teens. Running Girl RUNS, flat out RUNS, she RUNS like a bear is after her & Bicycle Boy rides just behind her, usually in a weaving sort of pattern. It is very clear he is her escort. He almost never gets ahead of her, but sometimes he rides up alongside her & they have brief conversations. Their interactions are familial, there is no other way to describe it; they are either siblings or close cousins or something. They are clearly both fond of & frustrated with each other. Neither of them is ever discourteous, but when I see them I move over. Running Girl hates to stop & it's not like my running is a speed event. There is one other thing about Running Girl & Bicycle Boy: Bicycle Boy is black & Running Girl probably isn't. She has golden skin, but straight loose blondish hair. The color means nothing, I know, but it is floppy white person hair; she usually wears a pony tail that swings around in a way black person hair just doesn't. Because of this racial/ethnic/whatever combo, I am 99.9% sure I know which house they belong to; there are plenty of mixed race families in our general area but only one white spouse/black spouse couple near my route.
So Running Girl & Bicycle Boy are fairly regular fixtures I don't usually see them when school is in, but week-ends or holidays I am likely to run (no pun intended & not literally) into them. So it should not have surprised me that Grumpy Old Guy had seen them as well. & of course, why would his interactions with them be any happier than with me. Or with Marine Corps. Flag House Kids.
The version I heard was that Grumpy Old Guy shouted at Running Girl & Bicycle Boy & I believe it. It was implied that is was racial, but no one I talked to knew what was said exactly & given Grumpy Old Man's history I am not sure it had to be, but maybe it was. Then he threw something at them & maybe he did. On the other hand I have seen Grumpy Old Guy shake his fist like a Scooby Doo villain which could look like throwing. It doesn't matter really, except to Grumpy Old Guy who got a visit from the sheriff's department. A complaint had been made that he threatened two local children & he has been under much closer watch by his family since then (this I have from Marine Corps. Flag House Woman who had it from Grumpy Old Guy's daughter-in-law who has historically been in sympathy with the neighborhood). Apparently if you yell & jump up & down, that is one thing, but the minute you throw even a newspaper that can be called assault. Toss in a few racial slurs & you have a legal problem.
So Grumpy Old Guy got a stern warning. It was made clear that, given his history in the neighborhood (apparently there had been there had been other calls to the police, specifically about the aggressive driving, but no formal complaint), he could expect a charge next time. His family does seem to be doing their best to keep him under wraps. When I drive by either of the two houses, I sometimes see Grumpy Old Guy well away from the road, sitting in a chair, looking around. He might still yell & throw things but no one walking by would know it. Whether this will continue to be the case, who knows. If he does jump out at me again, or shout something or whatever I'm not sure if I want to be the one who calls the cops again. & for me, the first time. For now, I am just avoiding that part of the route.
Friday, February 22, 2013
The ongoing adventures of...
I have said before I can be kind of goofy about Twitter. I still a little bit am. Things have changed in my life since my last posting about twitter postings (!). Some things haven't of course. The county emergency management twitter feed still blows. It is worse than useless to me; if it did not exist it would be exactly useless but this business of existing but being inaccessible is just, well, so bureaucratic. There. I said it. & the genius who retweets the brief useful info provided by other counties & then comments in a link...the only thing that comes to mind Well Done, Jackass.
Another thing that hasn't changed is my brother, who still sends along what he thinks might be amusing. Lately it has been the twitter feed recounting the misadventures of Florida Man. We have actually been following Florida Man since before he was on twitter (before we thought of him as Florida Man, actually). It all started with the taco incident. At least that is how I remember it. Let me give you the highlights: a drunk guy goes to the Taco Bell drive-thru, gets his order & falls asleep. I did not skip anything there, he did indeed fall asleep behind the wheel of his car in the drive-thru at Taco Bell. Don't laugh yet, though because there is more. So much more. The employees of Taco Bell call the police because there is a guy passed out on his car in the drive-thru lane. When the cops get there, they try to get an ID from Florida Man. They wake him up & ask for it. Florida Man hands them....a taco. They ask again handing back the taco & he smiles & starts eating the taco. Who knows how long this might have gone on if his car hadn't caught fire. Turns out that while he was napping, his car was in park (or neutral, I suppose), but his foot was on the accelerator. All that fuel, no place to go & the engine caught fire.
Sadly, the taco part I get. I have a really big purse & sometimes I have had to hand people a few things before I can find what I want. Things I have handed to cops: tampons (he took it well), 100 $1 bills still in the wrapper (I wasn't trying to bribe him & thank god he realized that) & a collection of small flashlight/keychains (yes, mom, just like the ones I bought you). These were different cops, at least it was different times. I suppose it could be the same cop. Having never gotten a citation (only one of them even involved a moving violation, the others were...you know what never mind, it's too stoopid. Suffice to say they had nothing to do with me really, wrong place/wrong time & the police were just taking names), I cannot say for sure the distraction didn't help. My brother, the other brother, used to throw on a goofy smile when his driver license photos were taken, much to the chagrin of the DMV photographer-that rule about not letting you retake a picture because it makes you look like a serial killer cuts both ways.
Back to Florida Man. Every day really is a new adventure. Earlier this week Florida Man was arrested after he posted pictures of himself & his children harassing a manatee cub. Just for fun I looked to see what New Hampshire Man was doing-turns out he was being reunited with his dog after ten years. Way to go New Hampshire Man! Connecticut Man shot a masked burglar that turned out to be his own son, but it happened months ago. Connecticut Man has been laying low since it would seem. I had high hopes for Texas Man, but mostly he seems to be on death row. Or going to death row. Or being acquitted. Texas Man plays a much higher stakes game than Florida Man. California Man is all over the map. Today he is both trying to sell an estate to someone who cannot move into it until California Man dies & just died from a gunshot wound, 36 years after the shooting. & just to be fair & balanced & cover the whole family: Arizona Man died in a small plane crash yesterday but not in Arizona. He was in Mississippi. Mississippi Man was busy pleading guilty to shooting an eagle. Still no contest: Florida Man takes the taco. Molesting a baby manatee wasn't enough for you, you had to go & steal a BMW because...you didn't have a cell phone to couldn't call for a ride. The flip side of this of course is that Florida Man left his BMW running, keys in the ignition, unlocked while he shopped at a CITGO.
Another thing that hasn't changed is my brother, who still sends along what he thinks might be amusing. Lately it has been the twitter feed recounting the misadventures of Florida Man. We have actually been following Florida Man since before he was on twitter (before we thought of him as Florida Man, actually). It all started with the taco incident. At least that is how I remember it. Let me give you the highlights: a drunk guy goes to the Taco Bell drive-thru, gets his order & falls asleep. I did not skip anything there, he did indeed fall asleep behind the wheel of his car in the drive-thru at Taco Bell. Don't laugh yet, though because there is more. So much more. The employees of Taco Bell call the police because there is a guy passed out on his car in the drive-thru lane. When the cops get there, they try to get an ID from Florida Man. They wake him up & ask for it. Florida Man hands them....a taco. They ask again handing back the taco & he smiles & starts eating the taco. Who knows how long this might have gone on if his car hadn't caught fire. Turns out that while he was napping, his car was in park (or neutral, I suppose), but his foot was on the accelerator. All that fuel, no place to go & the engine caught fire.
Sadly, the taco part I get. I have a really big purse & sometimes I have had to hand people a few things before I can find what I want. Things I have handed to cops: tampons (he took it well), 100 $1 bills still in the wrapper (I wasn't trying to bribe him & thank god he realized that) & a collection of small flashlight/keychains (yes, mom, just like the ones I bought you). These were different cops, at least it was different times. I suppose it could be the same cop. Having never gotten a citation (only one of them even involved a moving violation, the others were...you know what never mind, it's too stoopid. Suffice to say they had nothing to do with me really, wrong place/wrong time & the police were just taking names), I cannot say for sure the distraction didn't help. My brother, the other brother, used to throw on a goofy smile when his driver license photos were taken, much to the chagrin of the DMV photographer-that rule about not letting you retake a picture because it makes you look like a serial killer cuts both ways.
Back to Florida Man. Every day really is a new adventure. Earlier this week Florida Man was arrested after he posted pictures of himself & his children harassing a manatee cub. Just for fun I looked to see what New Hampshire Man was doing-turns out he was being reunited with his dog after ten years. Way to go New Hampshire Man! Connecticut Man shot a masked burglar that turned out to be his own son, but it happened months ago. Connecticut Man has been laying low since it would seem. I had high hopes for Texas Man, but mostly he seems to be on death row. Or going to death row. Or being acquitted. Texas Man plays a much higher stakes game than Florida Man. California Man is all over the map. Today he is both trying to sell an estate to someone who cannot move into it until California Man dies & just died from a gunshot wound, 36 years after the shooting. & just to be fair & balanced & cover the whole family: Arizona Man died in a small plane crash yesterday but not in Arizona. He was in Mississippi. Mississippi Man was busy pleading guilty to shooting an eagle. Still no contest: Florida Man takes the taco. Molesting a baby manatee wasn't enough for you, you had to go & steal a BMW because...you didn't have a cell phone to couldn't call for a ride. The flip side of this of course is that Florida Man left his BMW running, keys in the ignition, unlocked while he shopped at a CITGO.
Thursday, November 8, 2012
This week's big event
Sometimes it seems like the entire community has been getting ready for a great big day this week. There have been months of planning & allocating police & other resources, weeks of coverage in the newspaper & television & of course, the pep rallies will stop traffic.
That's right, I am talking about Gator Homecoming.
Football is a bit of a mystery to me. Periodically I have to ask a question about the rules, the names of things & all. I have never learned what the positions are called (I mean place on the field). When I was in high school, the high school football team apparently won something important & I did not have a clue. I would have remained clueless if not for some "Remember When" Facebook-thing. I didn't remember so much as learn for the first time, but whatever.
It's a funny thing, homecoming. A didn't realize it had nothing to do with a home game (well it does in that an away game homecoming would be odd) so much as alumni. Even schools that do not field a football team have an annual homecoming. Around here, the school shuts down (I know, right) no classes the Friday before & getting through town is a bear. There is a parade & a pep-rally-sort-of-thing with headline guests (this year it's Tracy Morgan & some country music guy; Fladidah is a melting pot!). A lot of money comes into town this weekend, national news crews pay a visit as well.
& this is not all good. A couple of years ago a person I know who was hiring for MicroSoft declined to go to UF's job fair. To paraphrase: I don't have to travel across the country to get a jock-wanna-be party animal who will disappear early Friday & puke on his keyboard Monday. In many ways, his loss; in order to keep the cream of their public school system in state UF offers a tuition & scholoarship package that is like no other. As a result more than one undergrad decides to go here instead of anywhere else you can think of.
That's the thing about these high octane events. What it looks like from the inside or even from just out of the edge bears no resemblance to what it looks like to the majority who only get these glimpses.
That's right, I am talking about Gator Homecoming.
Football is a bit of a mystery to me. Periodically I have to ask a question about the rules, the names of things & all. I have never learned what the positions are called (I mean place on the field). When I was in high school, the high school football team apparently won something important & I did not have a clue. I would have remained clueless if not for some "Remember When" Facebook-thing. I didn't remember so much as learn for the first time, but whatever.
It's a funny thing, homecoming. A didn't realize it had nothing to do with a home game (well it does in that an away game homecoming would be odd) so much as alumni. Even schools that do not field a football team have an annual homecoming. Around here, the school shuts down (I know, right) no classes the Friday before & getting through town is a bear. There is a parade & a pep-rally-sort-of-thing with headline guests (this year it's Tracy Morgan & some country music guy; Fladidah is a melting pot!). A lot of money comes into town this weekend, national news crews pay a visit as well.
& this is not all good. A couple of years ago a person I know who was hiring for MicroSoft declined to go to UF's job fair. To paraphrase: I don't have to travel across the country to get a jock-wanna-be party animal who will disappear early Friday & puke on his keyboard Monday. In many ways, his loss; in order to keep the cream of their public school system in state UF offers a tuition & scholoarship package that is like no other. As a result more than one undergrad decides to go here instead of anywhere else you can think of.
That's the thing about these high octane events. What it looks like from the inside or even from just out of the edge bears no resemblance to what it looks like to the majority who only get these glimpses.
Saturday, October 27, 2012
Big doings week-end
There is A LOT going on in our little corner of earth over the next few days. Let me start be describing the one thing we will not be doing & yet benefits us greatly. Wait, let me back up.
How do you feel about football? College football? Gator college football? Well, we have a love hate relationship. More like a like, don't really care relationship, but whatever. The short version is when there is a home game we do everything we can to get the hell out of Dodge. It is not just what the people attending the game do. I don't mean drunk & disorderly, although that is a factor, I mean thing like the university reselling ALL THE PARKING SPACES to alumni & other fans, so if you have not done something about your car before the end of business Friday, you can count on getting towed & fined. When you consider how much it costs to park near A's building (I will give you a hint: it is more than $500), you can see how it might get old. Fast. But added to that are all the people not attending the game, who just want to hang out & bask in the drunken halo outside of the stadium. & that is before we get into any real rivalry games.
Well, this weekend is the most famous college football rivalry of all time: The World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party. & the good news is it is so damned big (& the rival is so damned close), they have all agreed to move it to Jacksonville & we get our town back. Which means we will be able to move about freely & do everything else going on this week-end.
Today is the first day you can vote in the election here in Florida. I am told that this is the second busiest day (the first being the actual 2nd Tuesday in November), but I probably won't get there until Monday myself.
Today is the first day of the Friends of the Library Book Sale. We actually have a FOL booksale twice a year (we do love our library) but the October sale is usually the BIG one. We will not be there this first day, but we do plan to go Sunday (the book sale runs Saturday to Wednesday). We are arriving late because
Saturday is the only day of the Bat Festival at the Lubee Bat Conservancy. We have never been, but I am determined to go this year.
Yesterday I was on campus, for the first time in a long time I might add, & was talking with the most recent set of undergrads work-studying in the Herbarium when one of them bemoaned the "home game" being "so far away" & how he was just going to have to watch it on tv because without football there is "nothing to do in this town".
How do you feel about football? College football? Gator college football? Well, we have a love hate relationship. More like a like, don't really care relationship, but whatever. The short version is when there is a home game we do everything we can to get the hell out of Dodge. It is not just what the people attending the game do. I don't mean drunk & disorderly, although that is a factor, I mean thing like the university reselling ALL THE PARKING SPACES to alumni & other fans, so if you have not done something about your car before the end of business Friday, you can count on getting towed & fined. When you consider how much it costs to park near A's building (I will give you a hint: it is more than $500), you can see how it might get old. Fast. But added to that are all the people not attending the game, who just want to hang out & bask in the drunken halo outside of the stadium. & that is before we get into any real rivalry games.
Well, this weekend is the most famous college football rivalry of all time: The World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party. & the good news is it is so damned big (& the rival is so damned close), they have all agreed to move it to Jacksonville & we get our town back. Which means we will be able to move about freely & do everything else going on this week-end.
Today is the first day you can vote in the election here in Florida. I am told that this is the second busiest day (the first being the actual 2nd Tuesday in November), but I probably won't get there until Monday myself.
Today is the first day of the Friends of the Library Book Sale. We actually have a FOL booksale twice a year (we do love our library) but the October sale is usually the BIG one. We will not be there this first day, but we do plan to go Sunday (the book sale runs Saturday to Wednesday). We are arriving late because
Saturday is the only day of the Bat Festival at the Lubee Bat Conservancy. We have never been, but I am determined to go this year.
Yesterday I was on campus, for the first time in a long time I might add, & was talking with the most recent set of undergrads work-studying in the Herbarium when one of them bemoaned the "home game" being "so far away" & how he was just going to have to watch it on tv because without football there is "nothing to do in this town".
Friday, October 5, 2012
The race I will not be running
So. Shortly after my 47th birthday I decided to start moving my ass (& not just from the kitchen to the tv room, etc.). As of this morning, I am covering approx. 4 & 1/2 miles in walk-run (stroll-jog) intervals in just over an hour. It is no the best hour of my day but the results are worth it. No I am not losing weight hand over fist, but my hip (& all my joints) feel much better, I have more energy, blah blah blah.
But back to the beginning. I had decided, when I started-as part of my starting actually, that I wanted to run a 5K before the end of the year & it really looked like doing this was going to happen. I was unlikely to win anything, but I could certainly finish. Maybe finish last, but finish for sure. & the race I had decided on was the first (& maybe last) Run with the Wild at Carson Springs Wildlife Conservation.
Up until maybe two weeks ago, I had every intention of running (with the wild or more likely trailing behind everyone else running with the wild). Then a series of things happened here at home. The short version is somehow we have two different significant yet not-emergency medical procedures scheduled in the ten days before the race & that the race is scheduled on the same day as the annual arts festival downtown (a festival I never remember happening in October before; all I can think it their usual weekend is homecoming this year & in their shoes I would find another weekend, too).
Unrelated to my decision there are not one, not two, but three other running events scheduled for that same day. Something called the Hustle for Humanity at Boulware Springs. Another unknown-to-me called The Pickin' Patch with no links, but I am guessing might be the Florida Track Club's own autumn holiday event (it's on the calendar, but not being a member I know no details). & lastly the Halloween Hobble on campus.
So for a number of reasons, I will not be running with the wild. Or hobbling for Halloween. Or hustling for humanity. & I feel bad about it, the wild running one. I hope they have it next year. If anyone does run with the wild, let me know how much fun it was? Please?
But back to the beginning. I had decided, when I started-as part of my starting actually, that I wanted to run a 5K before the end of the year & it really looked like doing this was going to happen. I was unlikely to win anything, but I could certainly finish. Maybe finish last, but finish for sure. & the race I had decided on was the first (& maybe last) Run with the Wild at Carson Springs Wildlife Conservation.
Up until maybe two weeks ago, I had every intention of running (with the wild or more likely trailing behind everyone else running with the wild). Then a series of things happened here at home. The short version is somehow we have two different significant yet not-emergency medical procedures scheduled in the ten days before the race & that the race is scheduled on the same day as the annual arts festival downtown (a festival I never remember happening in October before; all I can think it their usual weekend is homecoming this year & in their shoes I would find another weekend, too).
Unrelated to my decision there are not one, not two, but three other running events scheduled for that same day. Something called the Hustle for Humanity at Boulware Springs. Another unknown-to-me called The Pickin' Patch with no links, but I am guessing might be the Florida Track Club's own autumn holiday event (it's on the calendar, but not being a member I know no details). & lastly the Halloween Hobble on campus.
So for a number of reasons, I will not be running with the wild. Or hobbling for Halloween. Or hustling for humanity. & I feel bad about it, the wild running one. I hope they have it next year. If anyone does run with the wild, let me know how much fun it was? Please?
Sunday, September 30, 2012
Banned books & living in the library
Starting today, a writer & editor (& fan of Kurt Vonnegut & free speech, I am guessing) will live in the Kurt Vonnegut Library in downtown Indianapolis. His plan is to stay into October, through the end of Banned Books Week.
Well, good for him. I am planning on reading a banned book; I have started the Alice series by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor because I adored Witch's Sister & the sequels when I first read them when I was maybe ?12? I am guessing they have been banned somewhere as well (witchcraft!).
More interesting to me, though, is this business of living in the library. I am interested because last month someone returned a dachshund to our local library. The librarian does rescue cats, & feeds strays (& underfed "pets") & our best guess is someone knew she would find a good home for the little dog (& a good home has been found).
Cats & the occasional dog are not the only ones who call our local library branch home. According to the 2010 census, this particular town had a median income of $12,345 (to put this in perspective the 2010 threshold for poverty for a person under 65 was $11,344). This town has no community center (although there is a Senior Center that does an excellent sideline with mentally disabled adults of any age). There is not even an in-town high school; the kids that stay in school go to high school in the booming metropolis next door (population 3,630 per the same census).
What is does have is a well funded library. This is because the county has a well funded library & this branch is part of that system (not coincidentally, the school district is also county wide & one of the best in the country). If the library seems like a waste of money in a town were people are barely scraping by, I promise it isn't. This place is hopping pretty much any day you go in: On school days, the tables get set up for all kinds of board games in prep. for the school bus unloading, the computers with internet access have long sign-up sheets & as it gets close to closing time, the kids line up to use a phone (in a just-scraping-by community, the kids don't all have cell phones, never mind smart phones). Earlier in the day it's moms & grandmoms & great-grandmoms with toddlers having their own story hours on the carpet in the miniscule children's section. On Sundays, after church, the Mennonite ladies stop in for their romance novels & the Mennonite men surf the web.
For the start of this Banned Books Week there are big, big plans; here the first day of Banned Books Week is the Family Literacy Festival. Because the first step in getting books off the burn pile & on to the shelves is teaching everyone to read.
Saturday, May 26, 2012
Tree Kangaroo Awareness Day
I know, right? But there it is. May 26th is Tree Kangaroo Awareness Day. We actually observed this high holy day on Thursday when we went to the teaching zoo (where you go to learn to be a zookeeper).
We have been to the teaching zoo before (I have even blogged it before), but my mom is visiting & she hasn't been so of course I brought her there, even before I knew about the baby born not-sure-when (no one is) who is still keeping a low profile. It is easier to go these days. They have more public-friendly hours, but they used to have mandatory guided tours which were kind of nice & now they don't, unless you call in advance, which I didn't. On the other hand, the trail was crawling with zookeeping students who were hapopy to flip through their books & answer any question they didn't know the answer to.
What else is there to say? It is a pleasant walk, mostly shady. The animals you see can be seen at many zoos; the first purpose is to teach undergraduate zookeepers their craft/trade. Animals with large territorial requirements just don't fit. Many of the breeds that could be found in the wild locally have actually been injured & cannot rejoin their fellows. Many of the others are endangered & are part of breeding programs.
Which brings us to Tree Kangaroo Awareness Day. & the events they have planned around it at the zoo. When we were there we didn't see the baby Matschies Tree Kangaroo (although maybe you would today), but we did see the baby monkey/capuchin/I don't quite recall & even better, in my opinion, the peachicks following their mamas around the trails as you go from exhibit to exhibit.
We have been to the teaching zoo before (I have even blogged it before), but my mom is visiting & she hasn't been so of course I brought her there, even before I knew about the baby born not-sure-when (no one is) who is still keeping a low profile. It is easier to go these days. They have more public-friendly hours, but they used to have mandatory guided tours which were kind of nice & now they don't, unless you call in advance, which I didn't. On the other hand, the trail was crawling with zookeeping students who were hapopy to flip through their books & answer any question they didn't know the answer to.
What else is there to say? It is a pleasant walk, mostly shady. The animals you see can be seen at many zoos; the first purpose is to teach undergraduate zookeepers their craft/trade. Animals with large territorial requirements just don't fit. Many of the breeds that could be found in the wild locally have actually been injured & cannot rejoin their fellows. Many of the others are endangered & are part of breeding programs.
Which brings us to Tree Kangaroo Awareness Day. & the events they have planned around it at the zoo. When we were there we didn't see the baby Matschies Tree Kangaroo (although maybe you would today), but we did see the baby monkey/capuchin/I don't quite recall & even better, in my opinion, the peachicks following their mamas around the trails as you go from exhibit to exhibit.
Saturday, November 5, 2011
Holiday cookie swap guidelines
Yup, it's that time of year when we start thinking about cookie swaps. Last year was intended to be...better than it was. But Farley-boy dieing right there in the middle of the planning made it all too much for me to deal with. I know he was a smelly old man who loved only me, but that was kind of what I loved about him.
This year I WILL have my act together. & this is how it will go. I think.
Anyone can participate, you do not have to show to win. You can send your cookies with another person who IS coming (Tuesday, December 13th, 7:30 pm) or drop your off anytime from Monday on (although if they need to be refrigerated we need to talk beforehand) or mail ahead of time (USPS flat rate box is $4.95...I'm just saying).
You need to bring at least 2 dozen cookies. & you need to package them somehow in units of 1/2dozen OR 1/2dozen-equivalents. I say 1/2dozen-equivalents because some cookies are just less than others. For example, I make these very popular, very easy nut balls every year. They are a kind of shortbread rolled with walnuts & have maybe five ingredients, aren't really decorated & 1/2dozen of them would not overfill the palm of my hand. I would consider a dozen of these to be roughly equal to 1/2dozen of any normal cookie.
For every 1/2dozen you have to trade, you walk away with 1/2dozen made by some one else. If you like a good variety for the holidays, the way to go make a lot of the one or two cookies you really like making & know you won't be stuck eating them all (because there is no punishment like having to eat extra cookies).
I know some people will be bringing 1/2dozens for people who cannot attend which is perfectly OKay. if you think you might be interested, let me know....
This year I WILL have my act together. & this is how it will go. I think.
Anyone can participate, you do not have to show to win. You can send your cookies with another person who IS coming (Tuesday, December 13th, 7:30 pm) or drop your off anytime from Monday on (although if they need to be refrigerated we need to talk beforehand) or mail ahead of time (USPS flat rate box is $4.95...I'm just saying).
You need to bring at least 2 dozen cookies. & you need to package them somehow in units of 1/2dozen OR 1/2dozen-equivalents. I say 1/2dozen-equivalents because some cookies are just less than others. For example, I make these very popular, very easy nut balls every year. They are a kind of shortbread rolled with walnuts & have maybe five ingredients, aren't really decorated & 1/2dozen of them would not overfill the palm of my hand. I would consider a dozen of these to be roughly equal to 1/2dozen of any normal cookie.
For every 1/2dozen you have to trade, you walk away with 1/2dozen made by some one else. If you like a good variety for the holidays, the way to go make a lot of the one or two cookies you really like making & know you won't be stuck eating them all (because there is no punishment like having to eat extra cookies).
I know some people will be bringing 1/2dozens for people who cannot attend which is perfectly OKay. if you think you might be interested, let me know....
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Going going gone to the dogs
I should have caught this earlier, but alas I have been wrestling the kitchen demons. So, way late & not one iota less for it: September is National Guide Dog Month.
A long, Long, LONG time ago, I worked oh-so-briefly for a company with offices on the green in Morristown, NJ. Morristown, NJ for those who do not know, is the home of The Seeing Eye, where the whole seeing eye dog moniker originated. Funnily enough, I still hear people calling all kinds of service dogs seeing eye dogs, even the dogs helping people who can see just fine.
Anyhow, every day, rain or shine, the dogs in training would do convoluted laps around the green, encountering people, crosswalks, hotdog wagon, etc. the green was a hopping place in those days & may still be, I have not set foot in Morristown since April 1994.
On an entirely (OKay not really) I have been following a story that is happening locally, in the great football mecca just east of me. First you should know that there is a better-treated-than-average homeless population in that city. I think liberal politics, moderate climate & high population turn-over what with the average citizen graduating in five short years (URP!). A large homeless shelter & soup kitchen has finally gotten their dream legislation, specifically there is no longer a cap on how many meals they can serve in a day but instead a beginning & end to the hours they can serve. This really is a good thing, even for people who think the homeless should be beat to death in the street (a favorite local pastime in that great cartoon mouse mecca to the south). Instead of people always asking if there are any left, the giant clock on Century Tower will tell you whether or not you should hang around.
For a few years now, adjacent to the people facility, there has been a pet clinic. & before you get in a twist about homeless people having pets, it turns out to have been a good idea. It turns out a person who has no home, no family except a transitory, cobbled community, a person who has intermittent access to the prescriptions etc. that keep them from believing someone is out to get them, such a person is more likely to remain peaceful if they can share their lives with someone who does not care that they are homeless. It turns out that someone is often a pet.
Not surprisingly, it also turns out to be better for the rest of us if those pets gets neutered/spayed, vaccinated, flea & tic treatment & general veterinary care. & while they don't have the paperwork or the training to prove it, after watching homeless people & their pets, it is impossible not to see that each companion is a bona fide service animal.
A long, Long, LONG time ago, I worked oh-so-briefly for a company with offices on the green in Morristown, NJ. Morristown, NJ for those who do not know, is the home of The Seeing Eye, where the whole seeing eye dog moniker originated. Funnily enough, I still hear people calling all kinds of service dogs seeing eye dogs, even the dogs helping people who can see just fine.
Anyhow, every day, rain or shine, the dogs in training would do convoluted laps around the green, encountering people, crosswalks, hotdog wagon, etc. the green was a hopping place in those days & may still be, I have not set foot in Morristown since April 1994.
On an entirely (OKay not really) I have been following a story that is happening locally, in the great football mecca just east of me. First you should know that there is a better-treated-than-average homeless population in that city. I think liberal politics, moderate climate & high population turn-over what with the average citizen graduating in five short years (URP!). A large homeless shelter & soup kitchen has finally gotten their dream legislation, specifically there is no longer a cap on how many meals they can serve in a day but instead a beginning & end to the hours they can serve. This really is a good thing, even for people who think the homeless should be beat to death in the street (a favorite local pastime in that great cartoon mouse mecca to the south). Instead of people always asking if there are any left, the giant clock on Century Tower will tell you whether or not you should hang around.
For a few years now, adjacent to the people facility, there has been a pet clinic. & before you get in a twist about homeless people having pets, it turns out to have been a good idea. It turns out a person who has no home, no family except a transitory, cobbled community, a person who has intermittent access to the prescriptions etc. that keep them from believing someone is out to get them, such a person is more likely to remain peaceful if they can share their lives with someone who does not care that they are homeless. It turns out that someone is often a pet.
Not surprisingly, it also turns out to be better for the rest of us if those pets gets neutered/spayed, vaccinated, flea & tic treatment & general veterinary care. & while they don't have the paperwork or the training to prove it, after watching homeless people & their pets, it is impossible not to see that each companion is a bona fide service animal.
Saturday, May 21, 2011
No, not the rapture
This morning, I took time out of my busy schedule to observe one of my own high holy days. Not the rapture (like that needed saying). & no, it is not the library book sale; those are April & October. Today was the annual Master Gardeners Plant Sale.
I look forward to this sale all year; well for months anyhow. I start making lists of things to try & find at the sale. In the past I have hunted lilies of the valley, any white flowering flower, something that will survive deep shade, lemon tree, plum tree, any kind of flowering fruit tree. This year I went looking for the fruit trees, especially lemon & plum, lavender & catnip. Last year I got the worlds most gynormous catnip plant for W***** & now I want one for my own cats.
I came home with a catnip plant & nothing else I went for. There were flowering fruit trees, but nothing that really whet my appetite. The lavenders sold out before I got there, less than an hour after the sale started (curse you people who can leave home before milking the cow). Instead I got lime basil plant, a lemon balm & two cannas. The taste for cannas was slow in coming to me, but now whenever I see one that even suggests it might be a color I do not already have, I must purchase it.
I look forward to this sale all year; well for months anyhow. I start making lists of things to try & find at the sale. In the past I have hunted lilies of the valley, any white flowering flower, something that will survive deep shade, lemon tree, plum tree, any kind of flowering fruit tree. This year I went looking for the fruit trees, especially lemon & plum, lavender & catnip. Last year I got the worlds most gynormous catnip plant for W***** & now I want one for my own cats.
I came home with a catnip plant & nothing else I went for. There were flowering fruit trees, but nothing that really whet my appetite. The lavenders sold out before I got there, less than an hour after the sale started (curse you people who can leave home before milking the cow). Instead I got lime basil plant, a lemon balm & two cannas. The taste for cannas was slow in coming to me, but now whenever I see one that even suggests it might be a color I do not already have, I must purchase it.
Monday, April 4, 2011
Spring is over, long live spring
In mid-February, when my mom was visiting, we took a walk around the local botanical garden. I used to spend a lot more time there than I do now; I had not been since the last time we took my mom.When we went our own backyard camellias were peaking & slipping down the other side, theirs were as good as over; their azaleas were in full bloom, ours opened later in March; the bulb garden was in full swing, ours were also in full swing, mostly because I force them indoors BUT the amaryllis someone planted outside the back door, when the house ended at the kitchen & now that garden is in the corner behind the Trane were not blooming yet, then. They are just opening now.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
If it's Wednesday, this must be the Farmer's Market
Alachua County has a farmer's market six days a week, but the crown jewel, in my opinion, is the Union Street Farmers Market on Wednesday 4-7.
I know, the Saturday market has its fans, but this business of closing when the produce runs out means you have to get there no later than 9am on a Saturday & what with dogs & horses & so forth I have trouble getting anywhere by 9am any day of the week. Therefore I have never made it before half the vendors have packed it in so it just didn't look like much. The Monday market at Tioga also seems to be growing (& it is closer to me), but my Monday's are already crammed. As for the markets in High Springs & Alachua township. you can see how I might not have made it to them more than once, more than a few years ago.
The Union Street Farmers Market is not on Union Street, they outgrew that location quite some time ago, & are now at the Bo Diddley Plaza. About a yer ago there was a campaign to bring people to the downtown area & the idea was floated that the unused Bo Diddley Plaza (unused per the organizer except for the handful of times of year there is an outdoor concert or on Fridays in the summer when they show free movies or the three different annual street festivals...) should perhaps be taken down & sold/rented to something that might make the town some money. This was shouted down pretty quick by the farmer's market people & it was quickly understood that the people/person suggesting this did not actually spend all that much time downtown. It probably also helped that they crunched the numbers & it turns out that short-term leases on very small lots (say the size of a metered parking space in time slots of 20-40 minutes) already net the town about as much as they could expect to see in the early years of any proposed development project & probably quite a bit more, once you factored in the kinds of costs other such proposals actually cost (as opposed to proposed cost). Then the economy tanked & enough other projects stalled/spaces opened up that it has not come up since. On the other hand, when all the students are gone, when & basketball are out of season on the rainiest coldest Wednesday there ever was in this part of the country, the plaza is always hopping.
I know, the Saturday market has its fans, but this business of closing when the produce runs out means you have to get there no later than 9am on a Saturday & what with dogs & horses & so forth I have trouble getting anywhere by 9am any day of the week. Therefore I have never made it before half the vendors have packed it in so it just didn't look like much. The Monday market at Tioga also seems to be growing (& it is closer to me), but my Monday's are already crammed. As for the markets in High Springs & Alachua township. you can see how I might not have made it to them more than once, more than a few years ago.
The Union Street Farmers Market is not on Union Street, they outgrew that location quite some time ago, & are now at the Bo Diddley Plaza. About a yer ago there was a campaign to bring people to the downtown area & the idea was floated that the unused Bo Diddley Plaza (unused per the organizer except for the handful of times of year there is an outdoor concert or on Fridays in the summer when they show free movies or the three different annual street festivals...) should perhaps be taken down & sold/rented to something that might make the town some money. This was shouted down pretty quick by the farmer's market people & it was quickly understood that the people/person suggesting this did not actually spend all that much time downtown. It probably also helped that they crunched the numbers & it turns out that short-term leases on very small lots (say the size of a metered parking space in time slots of 20-40 minutes) already net the town about as much as they could expect to see in the early years of any proposed development project & probably quite a bit more, once you factored in the kinds of costs other such proposals actually cost (as opposed to proposed cost). Then the economy tanked & enough other projects stalled/spaces opened up that it has not come up since. On the other hand, when all the students are gone, when & basketball are out of season on the rainiest coldest Wednesday there ever was in this part of the country, the plaza is always hopping.
Saturday, January 29, 2011
In which everything old is new again
I thought I was done posting for the month & then....& then:
the fruit bats at Dove World are trying to make headlines again. All that publicity last year & they still did not unload the merchandise they hoped to. I remember reading about cow being tried for witchcraft in 18th century France. Dove World would love to put something living in the mix & burn it alive, I am sure, but the local constabulary are all out of patience with Jones et al. Thankfully the inter-webs gives us full & free access to their whole agenda. The only thing that cheers me about this is the typo in the title of their own event.
bring your guns to school day is working its way to reality, if unofficially. A week ago I listed three gun related good times already on the record here in Fladidah schools. Since then we have had another...in a pre-school. The short version is the five year old found the gun in his step-fathers vehicle. He made this claim after it fell out of his pocket during music class. These are hardly the only armed incidents so far this year, they are just the only ones involving schools. For those of you keeping score, we are averaging one a week.
In other local news this week: a man died last night when he drove into (& killed) three horses in the dark; the horses had broken loose from their paddock & were not visible on the unlit state road. Two different babies in two different towns are dead because two different adults rolled over & suffocated them while sleeping. A drunk driver was arrested before he did any damage on the road when the people working the drive thru at the Taco Bell he was patronizing called the police & then discovered a child asleep on the back seat . There is good news to (I suppose the Taco Bell story was good news, kinda): a local rapist was identified via his FaceBook photos & has been arrested. A pilot landed a small plane safely after deploying the parachute in his plane, for his plane. The family of the officer shot & killed in the line of duty earlier this week expect to be keeping his K-9 partner. I guess the good news is a little thin.
So I went out the back gate, into the fog & watched the sunrise over the horse gate between our back pasture & W*****'s. Then I took this picture.
the fruit bats at Dove World are trying to make headlines again. All that publicity last year & they still did not unload the merchandise they hoped to. I remember reading about cow being tried for witchcraft in 18th century France. Dove World would love to put something living in the mix & burn it alive, I am sure, but the local constabulary are all out of patience with Jones et al. Thankfully the inter-webs gives us full & free access to their whole agenda. The only thing that cheers me about this is the typo in the title of their own event.
bring your guns to school day is working its way to reality, if unofficially. A week ago I listed three gun related good times already on the record here in Fladidah schools. Since then we have had another...in a pre-school. The short version is the five year old found the gun in his step-fathers vehicle. He made this claim after it fell out of his pocket during music class. These are hardly the only armed incidents so far this year, they are just the only ones involving schools. For those of you keeping score, we are averaging one a week.
In other local news this week: a man died last night when he drove into (& killed) three horses in the dark; the horses had broken loose from their paddock & were not visible on the unlit state road. Two different babies in two different towns are dead because two different adults rolled over & suffocated them while sleeping. A drunk driver was arrested before he did any damage on the road when the people working the drive thru at the Taco Bell he was patronizing called the police & then discovered a child asleep on the back seat . There is good news to (I suppose the Taco Bell story was good news, kinda): a local rapist was identified via his FaceBook photos & has been arrested. A pilot landed a small plane safely after deploying the parachute in his plane, for his plane. The family of the officer shot & killed in the line of duty earlier this week expect to be keeping his K-9 partner. I guess the good news is a little thin.
So I went out the back gate, into the fog & watched the sunrise over the horse gate between our back pasture & W*****'s. Then I took this picture.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)