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May 31, 2006
Reason My Cats Are "Indoor" Cats #386
I just heard not one, but two Red-tailed hawks. And I'm in town.
Posted by sally at 10:29 AM
Freeze Cemetery: Memorial Day
I may have mentioned that I've been driving up to the Coeur d'Alene Tribal School in DeSmet once a week to help with a reading the 7th and 8th grade class was doing. Between here and there, on a road that winds through endless beauty, I noticed a little, white church, set up on a hill. I decided to treat myself to a visit there on my way back after the reading last Tuesday.
That's when I discovered Freeze Cemetery. It's beautiful. Peaceful. Quiet. Stunning views. 100 + year-old graves. Beautiful little 100 year-old church.
On Memorial Day, I decided to go visit again. It seemed like the right thing to do. Besides, I'd promised myself I'd go back when I could take pictures.
It's still a busy little place. Though there are many 19th century graves, there are also graves as new as 2006. And family members came out on Memorial Day to pay their respects. While I was there, at least 7 different cars came and went from the parking lot. Remember, this is a small, remote, rural cemetery. Not the kind of place you expect to get a lot of traffic. There was also a couple walking through placing a small American flag at each soldier's grave, which I thought was a nice gesture. I took along a jam jar full of irises and daisies and some pretty orange flowers from my beds and left them.
And then, working very hard to be respectful of those who were grieving, I wandered through the cemetery and took pictures. I must say, if I believed in burial, Freeze Cemetery is the kind of place I'd want to be buried.
As you can see, the place is surrounded by fields. Just down the hill was a flock of ewes and lambs. I could hear a pheasant, though I never saw him, in the field pictured above. And a meadowlark. I realize now why poets describe their songs as liquid.
The above grave is so sad, nestled in the grass, hidden from most. So small, so precious. There are lots of graves for infants and children in this cemetery. It's heartbreaking.
And this fellow fought in the Civil War. I fiddled with the contrast to make the dates readable. I'm not sure I succeeded.
I've never found cemeteries frightening. I know a lot of people worry about ghosts/spirits/phantoms, call them what you will. But I've never noticed anything but peace and stillness in cemeteries. Maybe it's because I can't imagine a more boring place to spend eternity than with my slowly moldering body. If I get stuck and can't move on into the Hereafter, you can be sure I'll be making a nuisance of myself in a theatre somewhere, or in the spot where I died. I'm not going to follow my ashes to the rosebush where they're scattered.
This photo really gives a good sense of the peacefulness I'm talking about.
I'll go back out to Freeze Cemetery sometime. Sometime when I want peace and quiet and a place to sit and think and soak in some peace and beauty. It's a lovely spot. If Dave and I were to stay in Idaho, it's places like this that would tip the balance and make it happen.
Posted by sally at 09:17 AM
May 30, 2006
Arboretum Project, Week 21
And now I am all caught up.
Panorama 5-28-06
Not many pictures for this past Sunday. I was wiped by the time we got home from Tacoma, so I shot some from the top of the valley and some from the bottom. Call it cheating if you want to, but at least I got the all-important panorama shot and some closeups I might not otherwise have had time for.
It didn't occur to me until I uploaded the pictures from 5/21 (today) that I didn't get an update on the goslings.
Red Iris
Greenway
Webbed
I wonder if the same spider (the dark spot near the top) did all of these...
Hens-N-Chicks
Palouse Sky
Spillway
Succulents
Trumpet
At the risk of sounding arrogant, this may be one of the best photos I've ever taken.
Posted by sally at 09:12 PM
Arboretum Project, Week 20
Panorama 05-21-06
Cloudy day, not much going on. Afraid it would rain on me. So on May 21, I only took a couple hundred pics. These were the top 24.
Pink Blossom
Closeup II
Sky Ripples
Pink Stalks
Ophelia’s Willow Plus Five
Eager
Parallel
Faerie Pond
So Blue
Tiny White
Oasis
Awakening Iris
Lilybursts
Starburst II
Small Falls
Starlily
Butterflower
Goldfinch
There were actually six goldfinch in this bush (it was pretty impressive), but none of the pictures I took of them turned out. You can't actually tell there are six in the shrub. Even when they're bright yellow, they're well camouflaged.
Spring Greenness
In a Family Way
This goose family actually has five babies. However, you only get to see this picture of a parent and two. They were just all strung out so far apart it was impossible to get them in frame and visible.
Wild Iris
Star II
Reflecting Lilacs
Posted by sally at 11:37 AM
May 29, 2006
Call Me Naive
But somebody's going to have to explain to me how it is that abstinence-based s3x ed is effective.
Remember, Ladies and Gentlemen, love won't kill you but s3x can.
**Edited 6/3/06 because I just realized the wrong sort of people are finding me.**
Posted by sally at 12:09 PM
Imogen Update
We spent the weekend in Tacoma, visiting friends there. We had dinner at the Sea Grill. Sooooooo gooooooood. In many ways, Tacomatose doesn't even seem like the same city it was when I first got there 20+ years ago. We got to see Narrows Bridge construction, and downtown Tacoma is so much more vital than it was when we lived there. But Ruston Way is the same. (We stayed at the Silver Cloud Inn.) And the weather is the same. It was cold and rainy all weekend.
I love the Pacific Northwest. So much. It dawned on me on this trip that I have been a resident of four different states in my lifetime. Arizona, where I was born, and about which I really had little to no choice. Idaho, where I grew up. Once I became an adult, Washington, Idaho, Oregon and Idaho, in that order. And since the time I was finally able to make my own choices, I have lived in the most beautiful places: the Puget Sound, the Willamette Valley and Portland, Oregon, and the Palouse. I have been so lucky. But the realization I had was that Tacoma feels like home and has ever since I first stepped out of the car and onto the University of Puget Sound campus for my spring break visit in 1985. "Home," said my heart.
Home.
Now, Dave and I realize that we need to find a new place to be, since he has promised me that we won't live in this tiny house in this tiny town for a minute longer than necessary. (That is the exact wording of the promise, by the way, "not a minute longer than necessary.") So we have to figure out where to go from here. And that's tough, because it's entirely up to us. He can work from anywhere, and we really want this next move to be the move. To the place where we can put down roots and just stay. It's hard to figure out where that will be.
But. I promised with the title to this entry that it was an Imogen update. Which I haven't given you yet.
Imogen and Katala boarded with the vet this weekend. With the special needs they have right now (meds and food and monitoring) we didn't figure a twice-a-day catsitter would be the best choice. So we boarded the girls. Leaving them behind was tough, but I knew they'd have the best care at the vet. So after their annual exams and rabies shots, I left them. Broke my heart.
They did a blood chem on Imogen while we were gone, just to see whether the antibiotics were working. The vet called and left a message on my cell. Apparently, it was an infection, because Imogen's liver numbers are back to normal. Which means we have a healthy girl again. And she and Katala are now home and very happy about it. Very happy. The least happy cat in the house is Q, who is following me from room to room like a small, fat (very fat), screamy, black shadow. Just to be sure I don't abandon her again.
So everyone's fine, and I'm going to spend the day getting the household back in order.
Posted by sally at 09:51 AM
May 27, 2006
Vitamin B-52
Two thoughts.
1) The other day, as I left the rec center after my sunrise yoga class (6:15am, people. I am exercising at 6:15am. If this is what maturity is all about, maybe I'd better regress) I heard a drum beat over the sound system. It sounded more like somebody banging on a bucket, really, and within three beats, I called it. Love Shack.
It's the only song I know of where the drummer could actually be a bucketer instead. I don't think it's cowbell...
2) On the way home, I was singing the song to myself and thinking about the awesome concert I saw with my brother and sister-in-law seven or eight years ago. The Pretenders and the B-52's. Awesome show. Outdoors on the Willamette River, gorgeous weather, the last night of their tour. So. Much. Fun.
Anyway, I'm singing along in the car (to the song in my head - the rec center uses satellite radio for their pa system) and I suddenly had a shocking realization about Love Shack. They do something in that song that I've never heard anyone else do before, and in the 10+ years since it was released I had never noticed it until Thursday morning.
They rhyme twenty with money.
I'm assuming it's a regional thing. Except that I'm pretty sure I myself have said I need twunny of something. And I and my preceding generations are from nowhere near Atlanta, GA. So maybe it's just an Americanism.
The sad thing is that from now on, every time I hear that song I will twitch. Just a little bit, but it will be enough to kill my B-52's buzz. Which sucks major rocks because I like the B-52's. Alot. And I adore Love Shack.
I must be getting old...
Posted by sally at 07:57 AM
May 25, 2006
Oooops...
You know how you do some tasks so often that you hardly think about them? And how then, sometimes, you realize that perhaps you should think about them? Because if you don't you'll royally screw the pooch?
I just had one of those reminders. Just now. When I realized I washed five pairs of jeans (three of them new) in hot water because I forgot to check the temperature dial on the washing machine.
I've already apologized to Dave in advance. Just in case.
Posted by sally at 10:44 AM
May 24, 2006
Arboretum Project, Week 19
Panorama 5-14-06
I know it's a little late (like a week and a half or so). At least I took the pictures. It was hotter than I expected and I wore too much in the way of clothing. So I took fewer than 200 pictures. With the result that I have fewer to post than usual. Lots fewer.
Green Explosion
Iris Rainbow
Appleblossom
Fluff
White Lilacs
Fox Sparrow?
Lilac Buds
From the Top of the Hill
Forest Floor
Pink Light
Goose Ponds
Holdout
Free Swim
Paraducks
Profusion
Purple Iris
Shy
Window
Radiance
Summerflowers
Blue and White
Upper Lake with Figures
Posted by sally at 03:35 PM | Comments (2)
May 20, 2006
And for Those Playing Along at Home
Pictures of the girls discussed in the previous entry.
Imogen
Though this captures her personality much better:
Imogen Eyes
Katala
Posted by sally at 09:10 AM
Cats (Care and Feeding of)
Just for the record, there are very few things I can think of that are more enjoyable for me than sitting in a dark and empty vet hospital emergency waiting room at 11:45pm, worried sick about the calico who had vomiting and diarrhea, knowing that even though she's clearly miserable and in pain, she might at that very moment be taking the hand off the vet tech (or vet) who is trying to draw blood/inject fluids/take her temperature.
Really. I love that.
I also love sequestering said calico in the bathroom all night, which requires my going back out after dropping her off at home to buy a second litterbox. And then spending the night worrying about whether she's actually dying or whether it really is just a recurrence of the intestinal bacteria her little sensitive tummy gets when she's upset about other things. And wondering whether this time it's an indication of something further, something deeper, something more serious. And whether we will suddenly have two cats with chronic diseases on our hands as of this week, whereas last week we were in blissful ignorance.
She's 11 or 12, after all. It's probably about time.
I also adore wondering whether we're about to lose said calico to some nasty disease. Because despite the growl that makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up, and the tedency to bite without warning, she's really a sweetie. So affectionate, and so willing to let you know when she's happy. She has a purr that is one of the most beautiful things about her (second to her coat and her overall sweetieness). When Imogen purrs, not only is the vibration loud enough to be heard in Pullman, but she vocalizes too. It's a gorgeous and happy sound.
I've heard her make it several times this morning, and so far, she's not only been quite active (I had to chase her down the stairs when she escaped from the bathroom), but alert and very happy. Also, she ate, which thrilled me like you wouldn't believe. And in the past hour, neither diarrhea nor vomiting.
Keeping our fingers crossed that it was just the unseasonable heat that threw her little system off whack.
Oh. The other cat with a chronic disease? On Tuesday, Katala, our fifteen year-old, was diagnosed with Chronic Renal Failure. Fortunately, her numbers are right on the borderline, so we caught it at the very beginning. We may have several more years with her before we have to make a hard decision. Unfortunately, right now I have to give her antibiotics twice a day and also a daily pill. The antibiotics will finish up soon. The pill? It's for life. Yay.
Posted by sally at 08:50 AM
May 19, 2006
Thunderstormy
AAAAAAaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh...
The temperature here has probably dropped 5 degrees in the last 20 minutes. And we've had a couple of thunderclaps that shook the house. Still have power, though.
The windows at either end of my office are open, and I am reveling in the breeze that keeps whooshing through. And loving the sound of the rain on the porch roof. It's raining fairly hard now. Good.
I'm cleaning my desk after a semester of inattention. Unfortunately, before I can really feel that I've accomplished something, I need to clean up the floor around my desk as well, AND take care of paperwork-y things that I can then put away.
Still, though, it's nice to be able to actually use my laptop at my desk again instead of at the coffee table, where I'd been camping for the past several weeks.
Okay. Break's over. Time to get cracking again.
One other thing - I've actually downloaded the images from last Sunday's Arboretum shoot. They are now on my laptop and not just camping in my camera. (I haven't stopped taking them, it's just been too hot to think.) I'll try to get them edited and posted tonight.
Posted by sally at 03:26 PM
May 18, 2006
Big Typo
I've been meaning to post this photograph for a while. Dave noticed this sidewalk on one of our many recent foot-jaunts through the neighborhood. It's an old sidewalk, so the error's been there a while.
For the record, it's on East B Street.
Posted by sally at 09:10 AM | Comments (1)
Happy 39th Birthday to My Sweet David
May this year be even better for you than 38 was.
*****
What's that? Someone's at the door? Could it be... Yes, I think it is...
Dave, it's for you.
It's 40.
(Because I'm not anywhere near that age yet.)
Posted by sally at 08:37 AM
Sunrise Yoga
I got up at the early end of the crack of dawn this morning to do "Sunrise Yoga" at the rec center. It's probably the only exercise I can handle at 6:15am.
I was going to do cardio after, but damn. I'm all rubber now. I feel like the Flying Spaghetti Monster. (Touched by His Noodly Appendage, IYCMD.) I'm not sure what I did with my bones...
Posted by sally at 07:40 AM
May 15, 2006
Walking and Orange Juice
Because it's nice weather and Moscow is a very, very small town, and because we both have the time, Dave and I have begun walking places when we can. Tonight we walked to dinner at the Mexican restaurant downtown (where I had one too many margaritas).
On the way, we ran into a young lady with an orange juice stand. Dave's immediate reaction was to avoid the young lady and her burgeoning capitalism, not wishing to deal with childish orange juice and dirty fingers. I, on the other hand, remembered all too clearly how I never sold a drop of Kool-Aid to my neighbors when I had a stand of my own at about the same age. And how much that hurt. So even though we had turned at the corner and were halfway down the block, I decided that the young stand owner needed to be validated.
I turned around and headed back to her.
You should have seen the way her whole being lighted up when she realized she might have a customer. She sat up straighter, she got more energetic; she was so excited. And then she realized that I might just be planning on walking past. She slumped in her seat. She put up her guard against the pain of my rejection.
And then I stopped and asked how much the orange juice was.
Ten cents.
I searched my pockets. No change. Only bills. I said, "Well, then, I'm just going to have to tip you really well."
I paid her a dollar for 1/3 dixie cup of weak orange juice. But as Dave and I headed around the corner, we heard her running into the house yelling to her mom that somebody had bought her juice. And given her a dollar for it.
Who knows if she'll remember that in ten years. Or ever. She certainly will have no idea of the reasons for my return. But maybe, just maybe, I've planted a seed of confidence that will blossom unexpectedly when she most needs it. In a couple of years when she hits jr. high, for instance.
Posted by sally at 06:42 PM | Comments (2)
May 09, 2006
The Arboretum Project, Week 18, Part Two
Panorama 5-7-06
It was windy and rainy when I got to the arboretum. The camera was in a "waterproof" casing created by Dave from a ziploc bag. It worked really well. The sun came out eventually, and with it, the people. But for a good chunk of my time, I was alone with the birds and animals and trees and flowers and raindrops.
Appleblossoms
I was so inspired by the weather and the quiet and the beauty that I took an outrageous number of photographs and I am insisting on using many of them. So I've divided the pics into two sections. This contains the first 25 (not including the goose photos I posted yesterday). I'll post the next 25 tomorrow.
Cinnamon Teal Pair
It took me a minute to realize that my eyes weren't deceiving me, that I really was looking at a rust-colored duck. They were really nervous. Wouldn't let me get anywhere near. Across the lake was the closest I was able to come. If I encroached too much, they would fly to the other lake. That happened twice. Both times by accident because I hadn't realized where they were.
Bedewed
Boquet
Pink Raindrops II
Bathing Mallard
I took this picture just before the first splash picture in the "Bathing Goose" series I posted yesterday. The difference in the size of the splash is pretty extraordinary.
Bridge
Yellow
Anonybuds
Poplar Quartet
Contrast
Knothole
Critter
A generic name, but the most accurate I can come up with, since I don't know if it's a gopher or a ground squirrel. It's certainly proof of the benefits of patience and persistence and rainy, spring days. I knew they hung out under the evergreens, but I'd never been fast enough to photograph one. The blustery weather on Sunday kept lots of people indoors, so this one wasn't feeling threatened by runners and bikers and random loudly-yammering beauty-seekers.
Distant Hills
First Lilacs
You'd better believe I was smart enough to bury my nose in these after I'd photographed them. Lilacs and raindrops. Gorgeous smell.
Glimmering
Goose’s Safe Haven
There's a mamma goose nesting on that island. She's the goose in the bathing photographs.
Purity
Liquid Yellow
Lower Lake II
More Iris
Pink Raindrops
Red Lilacs
Upper Lake with Magnolias
Posted by sally at 04:51 PM | Comments (2)
May 08, 2006
Arboretum Project, Week 18, Installment 1
The pix are edited, but there are too many to even think about right now. So I'm going to tease you with a series.
Because it was so cold and rainy yesterday, I mostly had the arboretum to myself. Which was fantastic. Because when you're the only person, you see a lot of things you wouldn't get to see otherwise. Tons of people tramping about, talking loudly to each other tends to put a damper on the wildlife activities.
Activities like bathing.
The following photographs are in chronological order.
Bathing Goose
Bathing Goose II
Bathing Goose III
Bathing Goose IV
Bathing Goose V
Bathing Goose VI
Posted by sally at 11:36 PM
May 07, 2006
Response to a Student Paper
One of my favorite students this semester remarked in their final paper that they enjoyed the last speech assignment the most because they could write in their own style and cover a topic they cared about. All semester I had been encouraging my students to speak on topics they had a passion for. It helps make their delivery more interesting and decreases the nerves. And many of them realized that, if their final analyses are anything to go by. However, one of this student's comments took me back to my own undergraduate career, and because this person is a smart, creative and talented individual, I really wanted to be sure they understood that "academic" does not have to mean "boring".
So I sent them an email. Which I am posting here in all its long-winded glory. Because I think this stuff is important.
Student,Something you said in your Manuscript Self-Analysis paper triggered a reaction in me that I wanted to share with you. You said, "I HATE WRITING LIKE I AM A 60 YEAR OLD ENGLISH PROFESSOR." I can completely identify with that remark, and I wanted to let you know that academic writing doesn't have to be boring. It can be interesting and reflect your own style. Unfortunately, not enough academics recognize this. No one has told them it can be interesting, and they fall into the trap of assuming that learned work must somehow be obfuscatory.
I figured it out by myself my junior year of college, when I realized that I either had to start writing papers that interested me or fail several classes. So for a race and ethnic relations class I wrote "The Civil Rights Movement in A-Minor." I compared each of the groups involved in the movement and each of the major actions/conflicts with a style of music from the time period or earlier. I received an A on the paper and a "See Me" from the professor. I approached her after class, afraid that she would tell me to go back to the stifling approach I thought academic work needed to follow. Instead, she wanted to argue with me that one of the groups I covered would actually have been better represented by a different type of music. Approaching the topic that way not only sparked my imagination, it stimulated hers as well.
After that, my writing changed dramatically. I started suiting the style to the topic. I was helped in this by a Macarthur Fellowship-winning instructor who also believed academic writing should be interesting to read. He challenged us to write shorter papers to be sure we could get to the point. He required us to write one paper using the most interesting verbs we could think of and absolutely no adverbs. He even insisted one paper be written in words of one and two syllables only. It drove some of my classmates crazy, but I loved it. It made my writing stronger and more vigorous. I took even more risks with my writing, creating one paper as a letter to the author of the book we were exploring, including questions to him as well as comments about his conclusions, and turning my final project for that class into a story.
I took those lessons with me when I graduated and used them both in my professional life and each time I returned to academia. They have served me well. Last spring, the head of the School of Music, who was a member of my thesis committee, remarked that he wished the graduate students in his program understood that academic writing didn't have to be dull. He wanted to show my exit project to them as an example of what it could be.
All this is a very long-winded way to say that you don't have to write like a 60 year-old English professor on topics you don't care for. Write like you. Your analyses are very interesting and well-written. You have a great written "voice." It's similar to your speaking voice and works well for you. And you can always find a way to make topics interesting to yourself. It may take more creativity, but you obviously have that in spades. Just be sure you support your arguments and that you follow the rules of spelling, grammar and punctuation. The good professors will most likely be thrilled to get a paper that is out of the ordinary.
Sally
Posted by sally at 11:57 AM
May 05, 2006
Roadside Memorials
I've been thinking about starting an on-going photoessay on roadside memorials. You know, those places where people have died in accidents and their survivors put up tributes? There are several around here, and some of them get pretty elaborate. I want to record these monuments to unnecessary loss.
Two days ago, I drove past a fairly large one between Moscow and Pullman. It reminded me of the project. And then I recognized the inherent difficulty in a photoessay about the aftermath of wrecks. Many of them happen because of the state of the road; blind corners, hidden intersections, etc. And getting out of the safety of my car to take pictures would put me in a potentially unsafe place with no protection from the same conditions that might have caused the lethal accidents in the first place.
I think perhaps I shall ponder the project for a bit longer before I undertake it.
Posted by sally at 10:09 AM
When Did It Get to Be Summer?
Three days ago, there was frost on my windshield. Not a lot of frost, just a little bit near the bottom. But still, frost.
Yesterday, the thermometer on our back porch read 75 degrees. And the attic fan ran for a while.
I don't mind it being summer all of a sudden. I'm just confused. And now I have to start doing yardwork in shorts. So my legs don't frighten people when I go out in public.
Posted by sally at 10:04 AM
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