My friend Gail died today. She was one of my small circle of high school friends who chat frequently. So, today am taking time to remember this strong, resilient, funny woman. Probably gonna do more of that tomorrow.
Four of us who struggled through high school together: me, Anita, Gail, Jana
I feel the worst for Jana, who lost her best friend today. Wow they were lucky to have each other to share tragedy and joy.
Jana, her husband Reggie, and Gail
I bet Gail had no idea what she meant to some of us. We need to remind those we care about that we do care, through ups, downs, absences, and all that. Go hug your dear friends, or call, or text. I did a lot of that today. So glad for true friends, old and new.
We also lost this sweet high school friend recently. His presence is missed. I keep wondering why I haven’t seen him in social media.
And the tarot cards were eerie again. Yesterday was the 9 of Swords, grief. That was me, knowing Gail was failing.
Also that lady kind of looks like Gail
Today was 6 of Cups, that healing circle of friends.
It looks like our group, with one friend transformed and swimming off.
Scour the news for an entirely uninteresting story. Consider how it connects to your life. Write about that.
Fine. I found an article on the worst cars of the early 1970s, the Ford Pinto, Chevrolet Vega, and AMC Gremlin. These are three small cars introduced to fight the tiny Japanese imports from Toyota, Datsun (future Nissan), Honda, etc.
Pinto, Gremlin, Vega
How does this article about bad cars of yore connect to my life? Remember now, I’m old. My first car was a 1972 Ford Pinto wagon. It was light blue with fake wood paneling. It was originally purchased for my mother, but the second I got my license, it was passed on to me to drive my brother and myself to school activities. Mom hated driving on “big roads.” My high school friends and I enjoyed blasting the little radio and cruising by the homes of cute boys.
This poor car could only hit 70 mph going downhill and had a radiator too small for its engine. But it carted me, my boyfriend (one of the cute high school boys) and our roommates back and forth through college.
It went forward and held 4-ish people. This was the car of my other male high school best friend.
The actual Pinto coupe shown above was smaller than the wagon. It was great for me, Anita, and the two guys, but add a fifth person and someone had to sit on the dreaded hump in the minuscule back seat. Of course, hormonal teens enjoyed the forced closeness. Good times.
Look, it’s Gremmy.
My second car magically appeared one day in the summer between my junior and senior years of college, after too many Pinto issues. I had high hopes for an upgrade. Nope. 1974 AMC Gremlin. Black, black interior, aftermarket air conditioner. Just perfect for a summer commute in South Florida. Sarcasm there.
Speaking of heat and humidity, these Lark Sparrows are here to say today’s humidity was awful.
But the Gremlin got me through three years or more of grad school in Illinois until it got us (me and same boyfriend) home from Florida in a blizzard and never moved again. Thus ended my time with two of the three worst cars of the 70s.
By the way, my friend Lynn’s dad had a Vega, so I got to experience it as well. Those cars rusted through amazingly quickly near the ocean.
[car photos from Motor Trend in 2001]
Mission accomplished. I related the article to my life. It was nice to think back on fun teen memories. A dear friend from that time is very ill right now, and thinking of good times when we rode in our little cars is a balm to my heart.
Tarot card of the day was The Teacher again. I drew it just before an educational talk by my horse teacher.
That might not be news everywhere, but it rarely rains here in August. It was a bit less than an inch, but pretty spectacular. I was out looking at birds when I realized the wind was picking up. I had a hard time making it to the porch!
Ominous
I’ve heard the winds were more than gale velocity, so it’s no wonder cushions flew and my birding station became a bare concrete platform.
Yes. Lee likes to mow paths.
Lee, the panting dogs and I watched the storm from the new porch, since the wind was blowing away from us. Sometimes the rain was close to horizontal.
More debris
We ended up outside longer than planned because, unsurprisingly, the power went out for an hour or so. It was too dark in the house, so I came out and read while bonding with nervous dogs.
My buddy Carlton
I managed to get all my work done despite another power outage, since they came between meetings. So, all was well and the grass will be green.
Sky post storm
Oh yes, I remembered to photograph my new planter, which it turns out is English. I’m just a fan of pansies, even if they’re out of fashion, so I’m glad to have it. It rained during the time I was going to plant baby plants in it, but maybe I can soon.
Yep. Pansies.
Sorry it’s not too exciting right now. Wait, I’m not sorry. It’s GREAT to not be all stressed about anything! Even the tarot card of the day is cheerful.
Or King of Cups
This guy is gazing at a bird, accompanied by his otter pal. Yay, another otter. The meaning is to use the wisdom you’ve gained from introspection to be of service to others. I get the hint. Now off to bed.
I hate to get in bed after the house cleaner makes the bedroom look so good! Lee’s recliner is so sweet with its pillows. But he can’t sleep in it like that! The bed is for me and dogs. If you think that’s all weird, I can assure you that LOTS of people of a certain age sleep in recliners.
Today was hot, but otherwise a fine Sunday. I started the day by listening to birds, as usual. I felt like getting some exercise, so I took the long walk to the cemetery. It looked very spiffy, and the birds were happy with how nice things looked, both there and at the old school/church property.
I found out later that whoever the Walker’s Creek people are will be holding a picnic there next week! Maybe it’s people with plots in the cemetery—they do that at other cemeteries in the area. what a nice tradition.
While I was there I noticed many Black Vultures gathering in two of the grand dead oaks adjacent to the old “town center.”
That’s a big gathering.
I also heard lots of dogs barking and a familiar voice telling them to stop. Were they barking at me or the birds? I went around the corner to Vicki’s house to find out. The answer is that her dogs really don’t like those birds, or they DO and are enjoying themselves. Since I was already there, I paid a visit (so un-hermit-like) and checked out an Australian saddle she’d bought to try to use with Drew.
I also got to see a hummingbird!
And, since I was there, I got to go inside and see extremely cute Sheltie puppies. They are very fluffy and bounce around most charmingly. They are destined for great things, given their lineage.
They are very wiggly and hard to photograph.
I had so much fun being a new stimulus for them. Much tummy rubbing and fur ruffling occurred. I also got to see the brand-new puppy whose mother is a national reserve champion herding dog. There was a lot of dog beauty and skill in that house!
The little black girl was too fast to photograph There were two Merle boys. Click to enlarge!Puppy frenzy
I dragged my self back home for a shower and some rest. I don’t know why I showered, since I was soaked with sweat after working with Apache and dealing with the water trough Spice had managed to overturn. She, Drew, and Mabel seemed mighty pleased to have done that. At least Apache was good. He’s really getting used to the paths in the front field. He likes the Johnson grass and goldenrod and I like the shady areas.
No horse photos today, so here’s a tired Spicebush Swallowtail.
But, I’m out of sequence. Before horse time, Lee and I took one of our random drives, since he hadn’t been exploring all weekend like I had. We saw lots of crops, which we have in this area because we are east of Interstate 35. The soil is completely different on the west side, because the road follows a fault. Fertile farmland to the east, and alkaline karst formations to the west. Anyway, we saw feed corn being harvested, cotton in bloom, and to my surprise, a rice field. It was irrigated by the Brazos River.
We ended up in Calvert, Texas, which is fairly close to Cameron. Lee saw that some of the antique stores there were open, so we stopped by one, which is in the tallest building in the town. The building was erected by the first Black millionaire in this area as headquarters of a benevolent organization. This is probably inaccurate and no doubt a local person can set me straight.
Picture of a woman teaching a little girl to knit.
The shop had lots and lots in it. Luckily there wasn’t much of what I want, but I wished I had a space for this embroidered screen. It’s very cool. I’d love to restore it.
The screen is tall but I just took pictures of the embroidery.
I did end up getting a planter with pansies on it. I’ll show you once I get it set up. I didn’t get these. They had two similar pairs.
The Queen of England and her spouse as bedroom slippers. Classy.
Enough blather about my day. But I investigated many things, ranging from cute to weird!
I’m missing RV travel, I can tell. Anytime I get an offer to go do something, I try to figure out a way to tack on a nature trip. I did that today!
Nature. She is good. Maximillian Sunflower.
I stayed in College Station last night after the dinner with my friends, which provided me with the chance to visit some parks there. After a hotel breakfast with many food labels in Spanish (see, Texas IS bilingual), I walked around behind all the hotels and restaurants to find a nice, older neighborhood that was chock full of Blue Jays. They love urban spaces! I found some wild areas, so my iNaturalist needs were sated.
Common sunflower Horse weed Hackberry Pubescent Gall Midge TievineSlim pickings
I checked out and went to the next place, which I could probably have walked to. It was a small nature preserve in the middle of the nice neighborhood.
Dr David E. Schob Nature Preserve
I noted it had a Texas Master Naturalist sign. The park has seen better days, maintenance-wise, but the paths are still there, and there are good places to sit and look at wildlife. And if you like ragweed, it’s a great time to visit.
Pearl CrescentLittle Yellow
Still, I found some interesting plants and saw lots of birds, including this Greater Roadrunner with its catch.
I decided next to go check out Lick Creek Park, where lots of the outings at the Texas Master Naturalist meeting in October will be hosted. I’m glad I went, since I couldn’t register for the Annual Meeting until today, one day after registration opened, so all the field trips were full.
Park map
Anyway, it was already hot by the time I got to the huge park, so I just did a short loop trail. There was much to see and photograph, plus quite a few summer birds. A Summer Tanager taunted me for at least ten minutes hopping from tree to tree, but hiding. I certainly knew it was there!
Little Yellow on Rose PavoniaBeautiful beauty berriesBird blindPepperdineBluestem along pathPartridge peaBeautiful oakWeird Mockingbird on the ground. Hope it was ok. Gulf Fritillary on Turk’s cap
I made my way home full of nature and happiness, only to spend the rest of the day enjoying nature at home. Beautiful clouds came in bearing very welcome rain, which was pleasant to observe from the shelter of the porch. Lee and I read, looked at birds, and relaxed for quite a while!
Big ole clouds! We got .33” of rain It’d flock heading to a tree. Zooming All in the treeOur viewpoint.
This all constituted a fine day in which I had no complaints. Well, I didn’t get to ride horses. Maybe tomorrow!
Lee got these pictures of the Mockingbird babies in our small tree. They look great!
Write about a random act of kindness you’ve done for someone.
Seems that this here blog prompt wants us to brag on ourselves about some spectacular kind thing we’ve done for someone. I don’t feel like doing that.
I don’t have to follow instructions! Here are basil blossoms.
Instead, I’ll share how I manifest my small and unspectacular acts of kindness. In a nutshell, I just make an effort to see the humanity of people I come across, even when I’m tired, hungry, in a hurry, or distracted. It’s hard to do! Perhaps that’s why I mentally pat myself on the back when I’m kind under pressure.
Treating people who serve you your food or check you out at a store like someone worth knowing and sharing a kind word with is usually pretty easy and always very kind. I’ve had some great conversations that way!
Bonus: Lee bought and repotted this lovely angel-wing begonia for the porch. He also got the screens clean! He did a kindness for me!
Waving at people going down the road, that lets them know you remember a human is in that car. So I do that.
At work I try to check in with folks, to remind me that they’re not just annoying employees and remind them I’m not just the weird Planview lady.
I have a long history of being that weird lady, though.
No need to go on and on. I truly feel that the best kindnesses we can bestow are when we could most easily skip them. I find it takes no more energy to be kind than to be grumpy, though often being kind makes you stop and think about what you’re doing. And voila! you’re being kinder to yourself.
In more mundane news, I started August with dusty violet hair (way more subtle) and purple geode nails. It’s already Lammas, the first harvest celebration. The year is flying by.
Before hair After hairHair, nails, sky, purple shirt. Nails.
I drove to College Station all by myself this afternoon to go to dinner with friends. Great food, fun stories of war, crime, and peace…and even some pleasant live music. Tomorrow I may seek out a park and birds.
Italian restaurant aftermath.
Tarot card of the day
The Hanged One, or the Tree in the Gaian Tarot. It’s about keeping your center even when things get topsy turvy. I love the sky in the upside down yoga woman (tree pose)’s outfit.
I have more confidence than usual that I’m handling all the world’s weirdness. Hope it lasts!
The Hermits' Rest 