biography – The Hermits' Rest

Still a Weird Happy

If there was a biography about you, what would the title be?

Yes, if there was a biography about me (Zzz) it would be called Still a Weird Happy. That was the name of our club of misfit hippy girls in 7th grade, which we turned into imaginary alien friends. Anita and I wrote stories about the Weird Happys (spelled that way on purpose) when we were young teens.

All of us Weird Happys were odd in one way or another, both the humans and the imaginary ones. But we embraced it. And I’ve always tried to keep that attitude. (I was trying to write something nice, but I’ve been interrupted five times now.)

I interrupt this whine with a hairy buttercup. They are so shiny.

Yeah, I’ve skipped blogging for a couple of days, because I’ve felt pretty boring. It’s been fine, just nothing extraordinary. I had a good lesson on Apache yesterday, and it was great to have him rideable again. Here he is very tired after Tarrin made him do things he didn’t want to do.

Even his new brow band didn’t perk him up.

Drew seems better, too. Today I was able to exercise him and groom him normally. He just had one little expression of annoyance when cantering. I was able to remove his burs and everything. Wow, both horses doing okay! It must be time to leave town for a few days!

I’m in love with Mabel now and let her nip me.

The other mildly interesting events this week so far were bird related. On Monday, I had the chance to hang out in the back yard and listen for birds around sunset. I was entranced at the sound of two great horned owls calling to each other. Mourning doves were also cooing away, which was so soothing!

And yesterday I was out walking when two red-tailed hawks flew right over my head, calling and calling.

They began their love dance, and I watched the whole thing! Next, they flew over to the big electric pole and began making little cooing chortling sounds. I’d never heard hawks speaking their love language before. What a privilege!

Soon enough, they flew off together. I saw and heard them again today. I wonder if these are the same ones I saw a few weeks ago?

I never see these guys at the same time I see the red-shouldered hawks or harrier. That’s unlike the woodpeckers, who seem to all hang out at the same time. Today I heard a Downy, a Ladderback, and a Pileated within 5 minutes of each other.

Yes, my life is calm right now. I’m loving my work and enjoying my leisure, which is pretty great. However, if you have a spare moment, please send healing vibes to my Purple Martin-loving friend, Donna, who had back surgery, as well as to family members dealing with challenges.

Stay weird. Be happy.

Reading? Of Course!

What book are you reading right now?

It’s a good time for that question, because I started a new book a few days ago, The Invention of Nature (2015). It’s about Alexander von Humboldt, whose work was very important for people like me.

I have it because folks were discussing naturalists and people who have a lot of species named after them. It became apparent that I wasn’t very familiar with von Humboldt, compared to Aldo Leopold. So, my friend “JC Maxwell” (a pseudonym) said she’d send me a book.

Sure enough, it showed up, along with a book called Regretsy, a humorous look at awful things sold on Etsy. I admit I read that first. It made me laugh aloud.

The author tells funny stories about herself, too.

Back to Humboldt. So far he’s still pretty young, but he’s been running all over Prussia and its neighbors being an eccentric genius and meeting famous people. I guess that’s what you did back then. He seems to have had a lot of time off from his job looking at rocks in mines.

Right now he’s hanging out with Goethe and the king of some small chiefdom or whatever it was before countries emerged in central Europe. They eat a lot and discuss poetry and new ideas about how the natural world works. Plus, of course he knows Charles Darwin.

I’ll get to the parts where he goes off and identifies lots of plants and animals soon enough. Right now he’s just way over-studious and energetic.

Did you know in the 1800s he was the most famous person in the world? That’s what the book says.

Today was full of chores, but Anita and I had fun grocery shopping for Thanksgiving at her favorite H-E-B store. We also visited Target and a couple of other places.

I still got home in time to horse around with Drew, who calmed down a bit today. All good.

Daily Bird

Today I went out on my usual morning walk and animal inspection. I heard an interesting hoot/honk sound. I looked down at the Merlin app and it said snow geese! Sure enough, they were flying over.

These guys are only here during migration, so I was lucky to get a glimpse. We saw tons at Bosque del Apache wildlife refuge in New Mexico when we went there. Beautiful birds.

Book Report: Susan, Linda, Nina and Cokie

With all this extra time at the beach and having mostly run out of things to do that actually appeal to me, I’ve had a lot of reading time. I bought three books on Amazon a few days after we got here, and have already finished two of them.

The minute I heard that Susan, Linda, Nina and Cokie: The Extraordinary Story of the Founding Mothers of NPR, by Lisa Napoli was out, I ordered it. I have listened to National Public Radio for many years, even when my kids were young, because they would listen to stories and stop the chatter briefly (love those kids, but they had a lot to say…perhaps that’s from being related to me?). I knew they’d had some troubles at some point, but I started listening long after that. What I did know was that I loved listening to all the varied voices I heard, especially Susan Stamberg, Linda Wertheimer, Nina Totenberg, and Cokie Roberts.

What a fascinating story of how women came to be “allowed” to be public-facing voices in the news media! And what interesting people these four are/were! My favorite has always been Nina, because I love hearing her describe what goes on in the Supreme Court. It’s like a soap opera. I knew her father was a famous musician, but it was great to learn his story along with hers. And Cokie Roberts, now there’s someone I probably would have hated in college, to my detriment, since she was actually incredibly talented, versatile, and smart. Susan broke the ice for everyone else, and her story of courage and tenacity is most inspirational. It’s similar with Linda, who was so focused on her goals that she just made them come through.

The stories about the history of NPR are just as captivating as the stories of the founding mothers’ lives. A real parade of quirky, visionary, and sometimes not-so-helpful leaders showed up and left. The dude who just let them go bankfupt because NO ONE was watching the money, Frank Mankiewicz, was the villain in the book, and he never shut up after his big screw-up. What impressed me the most was how most of them remained fiercely devoted to NPR even after they left or were shown the door. Public radio is very popular with its fans!

Napoli does a really fine job of weaving fun anecdotes and insider stories about all of the characters in this group biography, and it makes you feel like you know these inquisitive, tough, chain-smoking news geniuses yourself. I appreciate that Napoli doesn’t make these women into saints, but shows how ruthless and cut-throat they could be at times. Their devotion to the news and the truth is fierce and strong, as apparently is their ability to love, since they all seemed to have great spouses to cheer them on.

Yep, this book impressed me and brought me a lot of joy. It easily took my mind off of what is going on in the world around me, but let me pretend I was paying attention to the news; it was just news in the 70s and 80s.

Book Report: Bunny Bunny

This book is a follow-up to the memoir of Alan Zweibel that I posted last week. In that book, Zweibel talked about a little book he wrote about his late best friend, Gilda Radner, who died of ovarian cancer at a very young age. He said the whole book was dialog that just came to him after she passed away. I was interested.

The cover was put together by Zweibel’s wife and an artist they commissioned for the painting.

So, I set out to get a copy. That was harder than it might have been, because Bunny Bunny: Gilda Radner: A Sort of Love Story (a book with TWO colons) is out of print, having passed its prime in 1994, I guess. Luckily I selected a reputable vendor of used books and got a copy in pretty good shape for just $7.

Once again. Zweibel made me laugh a lot, but I was also touched by the little stories he chose to tell. It’s a wonderful tribute to an amazing friendship. I had to read some passages aloud to the family, so they could enjoy them, too.

I got a real kick out of the illustrations, as well. They are simple line drawings by the artistically impaired author, but they are also really sweet and convey the essence of the stories perfectly.

Here, they have taken a taxi in New York City. I left in a snippet of dialog to show you the format.

So, I’m pretty sure none of you are going to go out and buy this book, but if you want to borrow it from me, see me after people can meet up more easily!

Enjoy some flowers. They’re left over from yesterday’s photo expedition.