A Knockt on the Head

We had a perfect 8 inch snowfall on Valentine's Day. As I didn't get my Christmas wreath put away, I was a little startled by my icy valentine the next morning.

We are reading (and listening to) a most amazing book. "History of the Indian Wars by Samuel Penhallow" tells of the bloody conflict between the English Colonists and the French, Jesuits, and Canadian Indians. The time period is 1702 to 1723. It is written in Old English Script, many of the s's look like f's. Nouns of all sorts are capitalized within sentences; and proper names are italicized and in subscript. I am reading words that have been out of favor for a hundred years or more. I am experiencing a great deal of brain push-ups. All the while folks are getting 'knockt' on the head by the dozens; some are suffering fates worse than death...and then there is that too.

"A fecond was a Child of Mrs. Hannah Parfons, of Wells, whom the Indians for want of Food had determined to Roaft alive, but while the fire was kindling, and the Sacrifice preparing, a Company of French Mohauks came down the River in a Canoo, with three Dogs, which fomewhat revived thefe hungry Monfters, expecting to make a Feaft upone one of them. So foon as they got afhore, the Child was offer'd in Exchange: but defpifing the offer, they tendered a Gun, which they readily accepted, and by that means the Child was preferved."

Valentine Snowfall

He Who Must Be Obeyed came home from a quick trip to Aldi's with a bouquet of red roses. While he was gone, I stepped into the snow in both the back and front yard. Omaha is snowed in. All area schools and daycare centers are closed and were announcing that fact before one flake of snow fell. Obviously the predictors were accurate. Since I took the photos, another three or four inches of snow has fallen.

Roses are lovely as is a cozy day inside while the city quiets itself for a snowfall. I truely do like winter.

Saturdays & Sundays

We were with friends last night. All four of us had gyro's then came here for dessert and more visiting over coffee. Laughs with friends are good for the soul.

My friendship with H is my link to the Jewish community in Omaha. Most here are Ashkenazi, having been sponsored from Russia by a very active group here. In the Hebrew Bible, Ashkenaz first denotes a grandson of Japheth and great-grandson of the patriarch Noah (Gen. 10:1-3; I Chr. 1:4-6). Albert Einstein was Ashkenazi, one of the German Jews. Many Ashkenazi Jews later migrated, largely eastward, forming communities in non German-speaking areas, including Hungary, Poland, Russia, Eastern Europe and elsewhere between the 10th and 19th centuries. With them, they took and diversified Yiddish, a Germanic Jewish language

My friend is a Shepardic Jew. Her family left Egypt, spent time in a refugee camp in Paris and came to America when she was 14. Her life story is wonderful.

These folks were expelled from Spain in the 15th Century. Those Sephardim who were forced to convert to Christianity during the period lasting from the 1391 massacres in Spain to the 1497 forced baptisms in Portugal. As time passed, many made their way to more tolerant lands, where they openly returned to Judaism, ending their double lives. Many Sephardic communities were decimated in the Holocaust, and others were depleted by emigration to Israel and elsewhere.

In the literature we Finns, the Basque, and some Jews are linked by DNA evidence.

In Need of Chocolate

I don't get here as often as I would like to. Why? Who knows? My days are so predictably uneventful, but nonetheless comforting in their sameness. I sometimes wonder if everyone has the same morning routine, lunch preparations, and dinner down and out. In between? Work on Aunt Liz's biography, exercising, walking, reading, a bit of television. We gave up digital cable and are back to the basic 28 channels which are all I need; a little news, a little information, a little entertainment. Simple needs for a simple person.

Today we went for groceries. We frequent our Aldi store not far away. To our surprise one of our son's friends is working there and was very enthused over his new job, great salary, great benefits, great groceries. We think the greatest prices.

This is where our Seattle son gets Austrian chocolate. One year we mailed him 50 pounds of it. Doesn't that seem crazy! To tell the truth, I wish I had gotten some today.

Opposite Attraction?

"Easter had always struck Fogel as a holiday without real punch, though there was, among the more vivid of his childhood memories, a magical peep into a big sugar egg; it had been at his aunt's house, in Connecticut, where the houses seemed cleaner than in New Jersey, the people wealthier, the daffodils a brighter yellow."

Wen I got to the bottom of the first page: "Fogel was sixty-two, and felt retirement drawing closer. In the daily rub he discovered all sorts of fresh reasons for irritation..." He Who Must Be Obeyed asked me "Do you really like this?" There was a sting to the question and I knew there was no right answer. I thought for a while before I said, "Yes." It was apparent that he had no time for such stuff. I find my own fresh reason for irritation. I thought to myself, I will just keep my reading skills to myself. Elder bonding be hanged.

Maybe it is too much winter. I am desperate for something to divert my mind and get it off of my Lumbar Spine. Last year's histories do no do it right now. "If you want me to read to you, you choosed a book." John Updike's Short Easter was not his cup of tea.

Teaching Old Dogs

Photo: Caleb Jones for NPR


The time marches along.

I am sad about John Updike's death. I have found some news articles on him. I am listening to National Public Radio's "Fresh Air" and they are going to replay some interviews of him previously. The nice thing about the Internet, one can listen to them on the computer as well. I found a couple audio links to him this afternoon. He was a funny fellow...and eloquent. I wish I had read more of his work. His last book will come out this spring. I wish Kurt Vonnegut had not died either. But people die and we miss them when they are gone.

I suppose a person should purposely decide to appreciate those we admire before they die. I have a lot of folks that would fit that description.

The new trick I am trying to learn is a switch-over from Word 2000 to Vista. It would be nice to have a text that I could dog ear. As it is I attempt to decipher the on screen helps. I find my vocabulary is sadly lacking. In over an hour I learned one thing. I had inadvertently locked my document and had to find out how to unlock it to work on it. I reminded myself not to become discouraged and to keep my enthusiasm for the task.

A New Day

We are now on our way to peace and prosperity! So say the new faces in our capitol. It would be a good thing if they are correct in their assumptions. As optimistic as I am, usually, I am not holding my breath for a couple of years while the gears of government get new grease.

Actually, it will be a huge relief not to hear the continual vilification of Former President Bush. His genuine kindly behavior to the Obama family was another testament to his core values.

Aren't people always disdained for their core values? I recall a time well over 50 years ago when my high school friends and I were called the "Goody-Goody Girls." It stung then but rather amuses me today. We weren't all that good; but maybe it was ok to give some people our own age that impression. So, I will let my better angels guide my thoughts and words when at all possible.

The Prayer Service yesterday morning at the National Cathedral was my idea of a proper beginning. It was inclusive, with top notch music and a thought provoking sermon by the Rev Dr. Sharon Watkins. The Cherokee fable she used as an illustration could have been a parable with its thought provoking moral lesson.

Not Shoveling Coal

No, we are not shoveling coal. We woke up to a cold house this morning. When I got up the first time about 6:30, I turned up the heat, went back to bed, but the gas never came on. He Who...fiddled around with the thermostat and turned the fan to 'on' instead of 'automatic' so we assumed our trusty ancient furnace had come on and we would be eating breakfast in comfy accustomed warmth. It was not to be.

Here we are, nearly noon, and with more thermostat fiddling and the fan back to 'automatic,' the gas is finally burning and the house is again over 60 degrees. "Maybe we need a repair man," I suggested. "Messing with the thermostat is easier than shoveling coal," was the reply to my suggestion. One can over-do the frugality, methinks.

While Waiting

A fair amount of our time is spent in waiting. Over the past decades I have waited in hospital waiting rooms while the man in my life endured various surgeries. Waiting for the doctor's exhausted news, waiting for a good outcome, waiting with anxious anticipation for his return to health.

I have waited for many pregnancies to come to fruition. Only the first wait was one with real anxiety, the rest were just what they were, a long wait. And then the wait until each one was out of diapers, could tie their shoes, for school to start or end. Children each come with a lifetime of waiting.

Today I await the return of He Who Must Be Obeyed. Either his cell phone does not work or it hasn't occurred to him that I might be waiting with a little bit of anxiety. Traveling this region in winter can hold the surprise of icy or blizzard blinded highways.

I wait for the end of a seemingly unending financial burden. I pray we are relieved from it. Some say be careful what you pray for and I have experienced a prayer answered in a way that the first situation was actually easier to live with than the resolution. Of course there is the old saw, "God helps people who help themselves." So I act with impunity and pray (again) that I have done the wise thing.

During a wait yesterday, a somewhat disheveled woman asked me point blank "Are you having a Happy New Year?" It took me aback. I don't know why I found it so completely startling. Everyone else sat in a silent and properly buttoned down wait. "It is only the 5th," I told her. "Well," she said, "I have won $27!" How lucky.

Ghost Dance

"Today is the anniversary of the massacre at Wounded Knee, which took place in South Dakota in 1891. Twenty-two years earlier, the local tribes had signed a treaty with the United States government that guaranteed them the rights to the land around the Black Hills, which was sacred land.

But in the 1870s, gold was discovered in the Black Hills, and the treaty was broken. People from the Sioux tribe were forced onto a reservation, with a promise of more food and supplies, which never came. Then in 1889, a prophet named Wovoka, from the Paiute tribe in Nevada, had a vision of a ceremony that would renew the earth, return the buffalo, and cause the white men to disappear. This ceremony was called the Ghost Dance. The Ghost Dance scared the white Indian Agents, and they moved in to arrest Chief Sitting Bull, who was killed in the attempt.

The next leader they focused on was Sitting Bull's half-brother, Chief Big Foot. He was leading his people to the Pine Ridge reservation, seeking safety there. But it was winter, 40 degrees below zero, and he contracted pneumonia.

Big Foot was sick, he was flying a white flag, and he was one of the leaders who had actually renounced the Ghost Dance. But the Army didn't make distinctions. They intercepted Big Foot's band and ordered them into the camp on the banks of the Wounded Knee Creek.

The next morning, federal soldiers began confiscating their weapons, and a scuffle broke out between a soldier and an Indian. The federal soldiers opened fire, killing almost 300 men, women, and children, including Big Foot.

One of the survivors was the famous medicine man Black Elk, who told his story to John Neihardt in Black Elk Speaks (1932)." From The Writer's Almanac, December 29, 2008

Here Today, Gone Tomorrow

This is the way of life. If you see something that appeals to you, you'd better memorize it because it is quite likely not to be there a moment later.

Fun with Ice

In Finland and perhaps in some places in the U.S. people place candles beside the graves of their loved ones. It must be a beautiful sight on a quiet dark night under the fir trees. Ice Candles are lots of fun when it gets so cold one cannot stand it.

Ice Candles

Merry Christmas To Each of You!
It is Christmas Eve. We have six large glistening ice candles. Five by the front door, one on the table. Candles are much better than solar lights. The frugal, creative Finns on both sides of the Atlantic have a very good thing going with these wonderful candle holders. On Christmas Eve in Finland they put them in their churchyard cemeteries. It must be a beautiful sight for people going to candle light services.

We too, will go to the seven o'clock services at Holy Cross Lutheran Church. The Living Nativity was canceled due to the -17 degrees. The person who has the animals, refused to have them out for several hours in that cold night. I suspect the Bethlehem crowd was relieved, especially the bare legged Centurion and the beautiful choir of angels.

May each of you have a Holy, Blessed Christmas!

If You Want to Feel at Home, Stay at Home

We are about as traditional as we can get. We are baking Finnish Cardamom Braids and freezing Ice Candles. It is supposed to get below zero tonight and I am counting on two more buckets of ice. A son told me that instead of candles in them, he used those little solar lights and they work well. I suppose sometime in the morning hours as the batteries are about dead they even flicker.

We are expecting a son, daughter-in-law, and their daughter who is a young woman already; they will be here for an early lunch, which is actually a main meal. He Who.... went out and came home with a standing rib roast. That is a first time and it is a pricey piece of beef to practice on.

This year Omaha will have snow for Christmas. Maybe even a blizzard tomorrow, who knows? That is an exciting prospect now that we are retired and still have the sense not to lock ourselves out of the house without our coats, or wander off and not find our way home. I think that someone can make a fortune when they put GPS with voice directions into those nifty little hearing aids that they sell these days.

Yes, after nearly a year, I still love my little hearing instrument. I found out that when I lock down the battery and if I get it in my ear fast enough it plays a little tune for me. Nano technology is really wonderful. I think I can get a little MP3 device to play music through it. I am serious, the nice lady told me it is available.

Christmas Eve in Omaha 2007

Don't you love winter scenes! Snow and ice capture one's imagination. Unless of course you have to work outside. I found last year's Christmas Eve photo. I am going to be happy with it. But we could be a little more cheerful than we are.

Our childish dependent 28 year old disregarded all of my darling's advice and expectant requests of the past many warm weeks, so last night and today in zero weather he drove halfway downtown to check the antifreeze in her car. With cold fingers he dropped the cap from the reservoir, couldn't find it and is there again today in a -20' windchill to get the car towed to a garage to have that fixed among other things.

A wise pastor that I read daily wrote in his meditations that only when a child gets their own car and place to live and pays for both can she be considered an adult. So HWMBO pays for it in many ways. I was written out of the picture when she was 15 as was my philosophy of raising children to be responsible and respectable adults. It is easy for me to sidestep the parenting guilt; but being spat at, cursed, with hateful words, are harder to duck than a size 10 Iraqi shoe.

Caught in the Act!

He Who Must Be Obeyed loves vegetables; and he likes them the way he likes them, blackened with herbs and seasonings. A few summers ago the chunks were larger and skewered for the grill. This Finn likes hers bare with butter, haven't seen that for a long while.

Is it Christmas yet? Where is the snow? Time to get out the Carols on CD's. Our street is alive with lights once it gets dark.

Chihuly to Russell and Remmington

Dale Chihuly exhibited in Omaha a few years ago. It was during the years that I volunteered in the Joslyn Art Museum Library. The opening was mind blowing.

We just returned from Oklahoma City and enjoyed the art in their Museums. Downtown we saw American Impressionism and they purchased the entire Chihuly traveling exhibit.
The glass and lights are spectacular



Then we amost ran through the Cowboy section of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum as it was getting late and nearly closing time. The paintings and sculptures were amazing. I recall my dad buying Charles Russell calendars and books when I was a child.

Guess who was very happy to see Ed Lemmon's name on the Cowboy Hall of Fame!Yes, Oklahoma is cowboy country.

WhiteHouse Ornament from Nebraska

NEBRASKA
"The sun rises over land
that has long rewarded
a hard day's work."

I looked over a few States
ornaments. Marty Amsler
has created beauty from the
inspiration of our citizens.

Every State has submitted an
ornament to the White House
tree.

A Hiring Guide

Our own Oracle of Omaha has written a book and his 47th bit of advice for business is this:

In looking for someone to hire, you look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence, and energy. But the most important is integrity, because if they don’t have that, the other two qualities, intelligence and energy, are going to kill you.

There are a lot of folks out there looking for jobs. It goes back to what parents are teaching their children apparently. Intelligence and energy come with the bundle of joy without too much coaching from the adults in a child's life. Integrity. We all want it. We all want it in the people around us.

I want it because it enables me to trust, to love, to experience the joy of being human. When the integrity of a people is nonexistent, it destroys the structure that holds up a society. If the integrity of even one member of a family is lost, cohesiveness of the family is jeopardized because of the breakdown of trust.

Camryn and Me

Much to be thankful for.
Sweet baby, great granddaughter.
Her grandmother, best cook ever.
Beautiful Christmassy home.
Her mom, a pediatric ICU nurse.
Her dad, a charmer.
Her grandpa, my darling son.
Her aunt loves her.
Her uncle does too.

Her family is amazing.

We are a part of it
Though far away.