O! Christmas Tree

I am a little too taken with our Christmas Tree.  Every year when we lug it out of the garage, we tell ourselves when we next put it in the box, we will have some "taking out order" to the task.

Every ornament, at this stage in life, has a story.  I gave most of mine to a granddaughter a few years ago.  But what I kept, I treasure and cherish.

The star on top was one my father cut out of a chrome car part in 1933 or '34 for my parent's Christmas long ago.

The little knitted dolls were given to me by a lovely elderly lady, Lempi, in Finland, who shared her small apartment with my mother and me in 1980.  She was a cousin of some of the Cave Hills Finns.

The small white feather snowball was one of a dozen I made from some Canada Snow Goose feathers that a neighbor fellow gave me after he hunted one Nebraska Winter.

He Whom I Love to Obey and I were alone, but not lonely, this Holiday. We laced the table, lighted candles, and opened large boxes full of many wondrous gifts, sent by sons and their families.

We drank champaign and dined on 'sweets and nuts' on Christmas Eve and shared our love and appreciation for one another.
Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve and Day Snowstorm

Churches cancelled Christmas Eve and Christmas Day Services.

We were cozy inside while people tried to keep their driveways cleared of snow. The little Wrangler with snow blade has done a good job with a man at the wheel who knows how to engineer snow around.  No doubt it has prevented a heart attack or two over the years.

Lessons and Carols

The Services last night at church were the Lessons and Carols.  Small children and adult choirs sang, the bells rang, solos were sung, and we joined in with verses and chorus's.  All in all it was beautiful to look at and listen to.  The fourth and final Advent candle was lit...Christmas will soon be here.

We are simply tripping over packages and decorations.  My little endeavor this afternoon was trying to find the photo we took one Christmas Eve downtown just before church services. Digital cameras are truly easy and convenient; but it is far too easy to take too many photos and trying to find a particular one in the hundreds on too many CD's and DVD's could try ones patience.  But find it I did and it replaces my snowy church scene.

I Love You Too

The love of friends is a great gift. Yesterday was one of preparation for dinner guests.  It included some tree trimming, some candle lighting in which we discovered that the fuel in our lighter was all used up. HWMO used his blow torch to light the grill. It sounded like overkill, but worked. We are a good team in the house and in the kitchen.  Of course we cooked.

Last night we had two couples over; the guys all worked together in the architectural/engineering firm for over 20 years.  They enjoy each others company.  They all worked in" sludge," they sometimes jokingly say, environmental engineers...in other words they kept the drinking water clean and set up large and small waste-water treatment plants for towns and cities in the Midwest including our own Omaha.

We visited about the wonderful Jewish wedding ten years ago.  The discussions we wives have are  from the viewpoints of three decades.  What wisdom we draw from that.  We talk about everything, our aging husbands, our own expectations, and determine that there is more stereotyping and little that is normal. I treasure our diversity.  Each of us live lives of quiet desperation over our particular situations.

It is heartwarming to be with friends, especially friends of such faith and love.  We are three Catholics, two Lutherans and one who is celebrating Hanukkah this week.  Our table graces include a blessing in Hebrew with the salted bread, the lovely Catholic blessing said by the three in unison, and instead of my prayer, I read from Jeremiah, " I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you."  ..."This is a very fundamental truth of your identity.  This is who you are whether you feel it or not.  You belong to God from eternity to eternity.  Life is just a little opportunity for us during a few years to say, "I love you, too." Henri Nouwen

It is a wondrous time of the year.

Kindle for PC

I have longed for a Kindle; even when I didn't really know if I would like it.  When Amazon offered the Kindle for PC without charge I was pleased and delighted.  Now I have one "free" book which I just downloaded. 

Today is Horace's birthday 65 B.C.E.).   "His father was a former slave, but by the time Horace came along, he was well-off and had a lot of money to spend on his talented son. He sent him to Rome as a boy, and then to Athens to learn philosophy and literature. What is not to like about Horace?  Or Free!

“Jäälyhty” or Finnish “Ice Lantern”

A double cousin...a nice chap related to me through both my paternal and maternal grandmothers sides of the family, sent me the Finnish translation for these amazing ice candles. Our connection goes back before our people immigrated to the USA.  Little did we know about this before he so skillfully researched my family.

We have been making these ice lanterns a couple of  years now and enjoy them especially during these deep, dark, cold winter nights. We set one out in front, under the basket ball hoop beside the driveway, for our neighbors to enjoy.  Instead of a candle we put a solar light in that one. Apparently it was too cloudy for the little solar plant to work today.

Photographing them is a little tricky and as you see I took the picture in the early evening and the snow is still much too white.

Iowa PBS

Some days start out with a bump or two; and then the road is total washboard.  Driving on a washboard road is dangerous and rattles one teeth.  Living a washboard day is close to the same.

But then...amazing things can happen in the blink of an eye, or just staying with a thing till something good happens.  HWMBO came home from the Asian taylor's with a 40 foot coaxial cable to hook me directly to the internet.  My wireless system dug its feet in and would not, could not be coaxed into use.

It all started with a phone call to Cox, our service provider to get our main house computer online and when the phone was handed over to me I changed the topic, as a person sometimes does, and spoke about our cable television.  That led to a call to Manilla, Phillipines, with a young man who led me patiently through the television settings to find that I have 21 cable channels that are decoded by the Sony television set.

The lovely young Cox representative called back and was just as excited as I was;  she gave me all the channel numbers that I can get...just because.  Just because that is the way the world works.  But it took the visit to Manilla, and two phone calls to Cox.  And there it is all before me...hanging on the wall.  All I wanted was Iowa PBS.

I got so much more.  He is getting his pants hemmed by his favorite ladies. No they do not sell cables!

Two is Good, Three is Best of All

 Two Boe men, both named Bryce;  there is a third in the generation between these two. We have a concensus that they have the best of all names.

Voices: Words that Shaped our Souls

A dear friend gave me a small daily calendar a few years before she died. I am one of those people that enjoy the pithy words of wise souls. Today's is from Henry Van Dyke (1852-1933) Clergyman, author, and professor. "Think seldom of your enemies, often of your friends, and every day of Christ; and...spend as much time as you can, with body and with spirit, in God's out-of-doors." Today is Thanksgiving Day and I/we have so very much to be thankful for. Tomorrow a California Grandson will be with us for lunch and for that we are thankful. Actually our lives are bursting with blessings and our gratitude accompanies each one. Words are blessings. Thank you Bryce and Hildred for your kind comments regarding our little wedding photo.

1954 Faith, Hope, Love

We were optimistic about our future and thought that with enough faith and love we could turn our hopes and dreams into reality with hard and constant work. The sad state of affairs today that it all crumpled at our feet along with our carefully planned retirement.

Isolation and the Social Media Revolution

We all have lived through a few revolutions.  About the time we got our heads around Marshall McLuhan's premise of a Global Village, the reality is now  larger than life itself.  How then, can a person feel so isolated when the entire world and almost everything that has been discovered or learned, is right in front of our noses? 

The pioneering thinker about the media, Marshall McLuhan, coined the term, "the global village" in the 1960s to express his belief that electronic communication would unite the world. The advent of the internet over the past 10 years has paralleled the emergence of globalisation as a concept. Proponents and critics of globalisation have very different perspectives on the internet’s role.

To counteract isolation, the amazing social media have sought to plug into this lonely congregation; the creators of it become incredibly wealthy, it serves the needs for connection, while leading to more isolation and lack of personal contact. I think that talking face to face about an idea, with exploration of it from many angles, and listening politely to a different perspective without expecting the other face to agree, or your face to fall into dismay, amazement,  or rage, is a lost art.

Six Degrees

According to an urban myth, everybody in the world can be linked to one another through six other individuals. We all seem to be connected! So the title of the magazine can represent this six degrees of separation, the yearly average temperature in the Helsinki area, or a direction on a compass, up north and a bit to the east, like Finland itself…

I have a Google Alert on the words Finns, Finnish.  It gives me links to news events that have those words within the body or title.  Tonight through it I found a Finnish Magazine in English called Six Degrees: Finland's English Language Magazine.  Writer after writer had published small essays about their impressions of Finland. It is always interesting to read the expat view, even of a foreign country.  Foreign?  What a strange word when I grew up thinking I was almost a native Finn.  I continue to wonder why my ancestral mothers could not let it go once they had made the decision to emmigrate in the mid-1800's.

The Creation of Adam

 Coming home from church last night, I noticed above our driveway that the branch tips from our neighbor's elm and our front yard maple just touched.  Above that was a bright lovely planet.  In the dark before me was my own Sistine Chapel.

Little by little as the autumn days go by, I clean drawers, dish cabinets, and little places of my closet.  If I get a bit discouraged by life or circumstance, I open a door or a drawer and admire my efforts.  All the blue Fostoria glasses are clean and on clean shelf liner, a bit of sparkling beauty to feast my eyes on.  I find pleasure in the smallest, most insignificant things.

We have an in-house garage sale enthusiast.  He found a very clean, and as we discovered this morning, a good working electric meat grinder.  Up to now we have had one of the 1950ish pot metal jobs in its original box.  We no longer have to wonder if our hamburger is tainted with ecoli.  Chuck roasts went on sale and we now have 9 one pound packages of freshly ground hamburger in the freezer.

Truely Nature's Bounty

As I dealt with the cataract surgeries and my changeover to Windows 7 from Vista, my dear and capable husband not only drove me to the many appointments, but he also picked and processed over 70 quarts of pears.

The last of the magnificant crop is pictured in the old pail under the sturdy old pear tree.  All of the live trapping and humane society release of opossums, racoons, and squirrels was worth the bother.

I can hardly believe on this 1st day of November we still had these yellow beauties clinging to the top of the tree.

So Long Vista

Pears, pears, pears!

The treetop windfalls are large and beautiful; He Who Must Be Obeyed canned five more quarts this morning, 59 quarts total. It is a cozy, thrifty, and satisfying feeling to have such activity in the kitchen.

Book TV has been interesting this weekend with a great deal of time given to the Accuracy in Media people.  Having almost a minor in Journalism way back when absolute objectivity was the goal for good news writers, what I see and read is almost unbelievable...literally.

The vitriol between our government leaders is dismaying to me. Exchanging ideas before passing bills is, and always has been, a good idea. The name calling and apparent lack of listening and thinking about all sides of a situation disturbs me.


I am about to say "So long to Vista". I ordered a Windows 7 upgrade from Amazon yesterday. The last time I worked on my Liz Book, the computer crashed to black twice in one day. It will be interesting to see if this new operating system will put an end to that. I must say that Vista captured and repaired what I was working on. To think that over two years work could be wiped out in a Vista moment is more than I can bear to think about.  Of course I have it backed up.  Actually I have so many copies so many places it is getting a little confusing.

After my heart stopping occurrence in May, I am determinedly working on keeping my stress level down. I have never been real good at that, mouse that I am and holding peace and quiet too highly, I agonize over too many things that I can't change. But I can change my operating system, if not my own modus operandi.

Back Yard Bunny

We are happy that this furry friend is not a tree climber. She gleans the windfalls and with our snow last night was happy to eat her pear in the back porch this morning.

Half Sight/-Half Right

The days have been dominated by appointments before and after cataract surgery.  I had no idea that I have been viewing the world through yellowing lenses.  I kiddingly joked to our eldest son that my days of yellow snow are over.  Sure enough, through the right eye the snow is how my mind imagined it, white and beautiful.  Through the left...yellow snow; this morning we awoke to our first snowfall.

This experienced phenomon accented the fact that people do not see things the same way.  I do not refer to yellow snow but the world in general.  I see it one way and the majority of the world, even my own family sees it differently. But I have cleared up, so to speak, of one of my misconceptions; that being that what is before our eyes is not necessarily true.

Willow-the-Wisp

This morning my coffee is poured and waiting;  I couldn't wait to add the photos of the morning events even though my steaming cup will cool to cold before I finish.

He Who Is So Gladly Obeyed gathered the equipment and pails for picking pears.  Our early temps were in the mid 30's this morning and the fruit needs to come off of the tree.  The live trapping of wild pear eaters has helped and we will have pears.  It has been determined that the top most pears, which of course are the largest and most beautiful, are not worth a ladder accident.

Last night was our last swim.  Ken Burns documentary on the parks kept us in the house until almost 9 o'clock, so our swim was truly by moon light and starlight for an hour or so.  The 90 degree + water is pure luxury as we swim a few laps across the pool in the dark.

Night before last we observed the strangest phenomena; it had been a windy day and there were still a few gusts blowing the neighboring tree tops sporadically.  Then in the dark sky, lit just a bit by a half moon, were some white whispy little bunches that I truely thought were a flock of white geese, like the ones I had seen during the day.  The lead bird can keep the flying flock following and this whisp behaved exactly like migrating water fowl.  It would swiftly fly over us and in the near distance it would circle and twist just like a flock preparing to land on a nearby body of water.  About three of these events happened right before our eyes.  There were no clouds in the night sky, none but these small willow-the-wisps, lighted below by the city street lights and the small moon glow overhead.

It was so other-worldly.  I wonder if it happens by daylight and is so obliterated by the sun that it is unseen.

I think last night was the first time the filter hoses were pulled in the moonlight...but better than getting into chilly water later on.  And so another summer passes and we make the preparations for a new season.

Apple Orchards

 

A daughter-in-law, granddaughter and great granddaughter from Wichita, KS visited and had dinner with us Friday.  The photo above was taken on a trip to an apple orchard with the other grandparents for lunch that noon.  This little charmer is starting to talk and it was such fun to be with all of them for a little while.  Babies first words are such treasures and when they start stringing them together it is a necklace of sparkling diamonds looping around your heart.

Fast Eddie

Our little life slows down to a comfortable routine. We enjoy our meals together which often consist of homemade soup canned and/or frozen with a slice of homemade bread with grape jelly. Meals are fast and easy.  The bread machine kneeds, rises and bakes a loaf of whole wheat and rye bread every five or six days.

We are starting the yard clean up with the calendar start of the season. Today is the second day of fall and would have been my mother's 97th birthday were she still alive.  I am thankful for her parenting as I am that of my dad's. His quiet way with a daughter after losing two sons at birth was perhaps unusual.  I loved my childhood.

We end our days with an evening swim in 90 degree water, and perhaps a glass of wine. It is otherworldly to watch  the clouds turn red, pink, at twilight; and finally darken while we watch the stars come out one by one. A quick outdoor shower and a dash under the down coverlet to watch the nine o'clock news.

Last night late I got a phone call from a cousin with a newly diagnosed cancer.  Nope, she isn't going to let them cut, burn and poison her, the triple torture; she is going to lick the tumor with coral calcium and two hours of sunshine a day, without suncreen nor sunglasses.  Within 31 days she will be cancer free and her body will go from cancer growing acidic to a cancer killing alcaline base.  She isn't going to die until she gets her life story written and will I type it for her if she sends me the chapters handwritten?  "Yes, I will."

I always loved her tall wild tales of adventures and mis-adventures. We ended the phone visit howling with laughter over her leaving Fast Eddie in a Tennessee jail on thier honeymoon; and she went home to find his kids loading up her furniture into a truck.  They didn't leave until they put everything back into its place in her house.

No Greater Gift

A son flew home Thursday to spend the day with us. There is no greater gift than that. He helped his dad fix a chair, we had lunch and went for a swim in a clear, clean, warm pool. Life is so good.

Harding County Homecoming

My small home town of Buffalo, South Dakota, celebrated its Centennial and an All School Reunion over Labor Day weekend. It was a homecoming in the best of ways. Spending time with friends from long ago and cousins that came back to my generation's start in life was heartwarming.

My high school friend, D, and I worked the registration table a couple of three hour shifts and got to see other students that came home for the occasion. What a great way to find out about all the activities during the four days and to greet travelers and those who were wise enough to stay and make their homes in Harding County.
A cousin who stayed operates the Tipperary Motel where we always stay. That in itself is a sort of a homecoming.

In the Rec Center basket ball court other cousins had set up the T-REX STAN replica that was found just south of my grandparent's homestead. In 1987, a cousin, Stan Sacrison found the pelvis weathering out of a sandy cliff 100 feet above the prairie.

Parties, pot lucks, parades, rodeos and the dedication of the newly designed city park were just a few of the activities that were offered. A couple of dear friends and I drove the 12 miles north in the Cave Hills to take a picture of the little Finnish Lutheran Church that my grandparents worked so hard in the early 1900's to build and establish. I was baptized, confirmed and attended this church until I went away to college. Early in my life this meant listening to the service in Finnish and about turn listening to it back to back in English. I loved being able to read the hymns in the Finnish hymn book.

He Who Must Be Obeyed had reproduced, prepared, and framed two of my dad's paintings, one for the Senior Center and the other joined the four already in the Museum. It was most pleasing to be able to honor my dad, who was the town blacksmith, in this manner.

There is nothing like a little canning to make a person feel useful. The birds haven't discovered the concord grapes yet and we sterilized jars, measured sugar and juice, boiled, poured, and sealed almost three gallons of jelly today. I wonder if only the old and retired can today? I think the prairie berry jelly provided a lot of little homestead children their vitamin C.

1959

Fred Kaplan, one of the writers for slate.com, has written a book, titled what the New York Times calls an extravagant, impossible declaration, 1959: The Year Everything Changed.

"Was this just coincidence, or was it part of a pattern? Was there something more broadly significant about that time? The more I looked into it, the more it struck me that 1959 really was a pivotal year—not only in culture but also in politics, society, science, sex: everything."

I watched Kaplan being interviewed on CSPAN's "Washington Journal yesterday. The year, 1959 was a part of my own imprint and as I listened to the different events, discoveries, and people he listed as a changing our society I came to this conclusion.

As everything was changing I got stuck with my Sony Walkman while the whole world is stepping to an IPOD.

The Mighty Mighty Trapper

Another masked bandit has been captured under the pear tree. Racoons have a natural instinct to dig up the soil and vegetation around and under the trap and pack it into the trap, making their own environment in their little cage.

This one will be taken to the Humane Society only to be released; hopefully far enough from here to take a year to make his way back to the pear tree. A friend suggested we tag our catches to make sure we are not trapping the same old pear thief.

Jazz on the Green

Ressurected Swing is setting up for the pleasure of this crowd. A click or two on a photo enlarges it.










A shaded/sunny crowd is not the best picture. He Who is the center of interest. Jazz on the Green is a program that Omaha's Joslyn Art Museum offers to the public in July. This is the first of the July Thursdays that we attended. We enjoy bringing a snack, the crowd of many colors, and of course the Glenn Miller and Big Band music that we courted to was very enjoyable.

The Rattler Has No Companion!

I hear complaints about the news gatherers getting things wrong. It is nothing new. In Sundance Times, Aug 6, 2009 column, 75 Years Ago, August 2, 1934, Ranger T.R. Cochran of the Bear Lodge Forest recently recieved a letter fro the editor of Outdoor Life in regard to the story about the interbreeding of rattlesnakes and bull snakes. The letter follows:

"There is absolutely no basis for the stories about rattlesnakes and bull snakes interbreeding. There are no snakes which are deadly enemies and which fight when they meet just to be fighting.

Several species are cannibals and eat other snakes, but it 's only when one of the cannibals decides to eat another snake that trouble begins and bull snakes are never cannibals. Bull snakes and rattlesnakes live together peacefully both in cages and in the wild.

The whole story is crazy and you might suggest to the editors of your local papers that some responsibility goes with their jobs and merely wielding shears is not editing."

So much for believing what you read. A little skepticism is good.

The Grands with a Fourth Generation

Some Sun Fun

A fourth generation explorer. Our back yard was his world for a few days.

Do babies come from under cabbage leaves?

Maybe there is more under a rock than one knows.

Big Splash

No more big splashes in the back yard. I wonder if our Washington family longs for the cool perfect days of Omaha while they were here.



We miss this darling boy, Ethan Axel.

Sam and Eggs

I am Sam
I am Sam
Sam I am

That Sam-I-am!
Than Sam-I-am!
I do not like
that Sam-I-am!




Do you like
green eggs and ham?






I do not like them,
Sam-I-am.
I do not like
green eggs and ham.


Would you like them
here or there?

I would not like them
here or there.
I would not like them
anywhere.
I do not like
green eggs and ham.
I do not like them,
Sam-I-am.







Would you? Could you?
In a car?
Eat them! Eat them!
Here they are.



I would not,
could not,
in a car.

You may like them.
You will see.
You may like them
in a tree!

I would not, could not in a tree.
Not in a car! You let me be.


I do not like them in a box.
I do not like them with a fox.
I do not like them in a house.
I do not like them with a mouse.
I do not like them here or there.
I do not like them anywhere.



I do not like green eggs and ham.
I do not like them, Sam-I-am.



A train! A train!
A train! A train!
Could you, would you,
on a train?

Not on a train! Not in a tree!
Not in a car! Sam! Let me be!

I would not, could not, in a box.
I could not, would not, with a fox.
I will not eat them with a mouse.
I will not eat them in a house.
I will not eat them here or there.
I will not eat them anywhere.


I do not eat green eggs and ham.
I do not like them, Sam-I-am.
Say!
In the dark?
Here in the dark!



Would you, could you, in the dark?

I would not, could not,
in the dark.

You do not like
green eggs and ham?


You do not like them.
So you say.
Try them! Try them!
And you may.
Try them and you may, I say.




Sam!
If you will let me be,
I will try them.
You will see.

Say!
I like green eggs and ham!
I do! I like them, Sam-I-am!



So I will eat them in a box.
And I will eat them with a fox.
And I will eat them in a house.
And I will eat them with a mouse.
And I will eat them here and there.
Say! I will eat them ANYWHERE!

I do so like
green eggs and ham!
Thank you!
Thank you,
Sam-I-am!

Project Gutenberg

This is not Gutenberg, nor is it the Project. In a college class called Electronic Information Systems, taught for the first time in the early 80's, we were put on the Internet and given university email addresses.

It was taught by my Advisor. I was mystified by the whole business. It was also my first introduction to Project Gutenberg.








This is a better picture of our Great Granddaughter and Dean's puppies! Maybe it isn't so odd that in photographing small children one inadvertently gets adult shoes, legs, skirts and pants.



Kim Komando hits my inbox daily. This is the Cool Site of the Day: There are 30,000 e-books available for free. And you don't need an e-book reader. To find them, go to today's site. But then perhaps winter is the time to read or during summer dog-days. So far we have broken records for the coolest night temperatures twice in July.

Family Reunion Activities

Dean's puppies were a huge attraction. The little sweetie by the dishes in the puppy pen is our great granddaughter. Her mother and grandparents are in the photo as are our steak fondue cowboy cook and the pup's owner.











One of our sons at the family reunion on July 4th. He is holding Ethan Axel, one of our three Great Grands, two of which were with us.






We were blessed to have these grandchildren come to the family reunion in the Black Hills of SD this July. The two on the left are from Wichita. The three on the right drove from Washington (state).








This reckless viking is doing what he does best, throw money around. It is his family reunion tradition; he saves change for two years and over the years generation of children seem to look forward to the coin toss. For a number of years he did a dollar drop. Where were the bills this year, HWMBO?