News Junkie: Befuddled

In past times I loved these conventions! Think of seeing those outrageous delegations from various states and territories and you were tallying up the number of votes. Exciting!

No more. Everything is scripted, made for T.V., lies, slick, and nothing an ordinary person could really think about and consider. So, no wonder folks just want to tune into some reality show (that is more real than this convention.)

Does anyone really and truly look at the platform? Do people in America really want to be so noninclusive (as this Rebublican platform lays out?) Actually, I do not think we even think about these issues anymore. What's important is how "Loveable" our candidates are. So, Obama is really likeable with his great family and the dog (who never was strapped to the roof of the car). Romney is stiff and rich. Who should care if he has good ideas?

And folks do not really attend to the substantive issues! Can you stand a candidate who signs onto total abortion? Can you stand a candidate who has little investment in environmental issues? Can you stand a candidate who stands for a restrictive and noninclusive immigration program?

Are the economic issues paramount? Do folks really think that it is right and just for the enormously rich to continue to inflate their coffers?

But, what I really think is that this election is about race.

This election can be bought, and maybe it will be. We, in Florida, now see what happened when the governor's election was bought.

The next convention will probably be as t.v.oriented, scripted, over the top, and filled with lies. And, again, no real person could get a grip on what is true and what issues are up there for consideration.

So, I am thinking how magnificent it is to see the gentle rise of our river, the new fawn, and the hundreds of butterflies on the red sage. And I am looking forward to having my grandson, Quincy, here for the long weekend.

After the Rain

We kind of thought there would be a hurricane but we didn't do anything to prepare since the Cone Of Uncertainty was so uncertain. I thought about taking in my favorite orchid which is about to bloom. I thought about taking in the porch furniture.

But what I did was complete the quilt for Quincy. I hunkered down in my studio, watched the rain, and sewed like crazy. This is not one of my all-time favorites. It's a strong quilt for a kid- vibrant colors, simple construction. The top is complete and now I must take it and the batting and backing to the long arm sewing machine lady and she and I will decide what design we'll have.

Amazing stuff during this wild, windy and uncertain weather! The river is rising and rafts of duckweed tumble under the bridge. I have never seen so may deer and turkeys grazing in the pastures. I have noticed that cows lie down in inclement weather.(Yes, they do have a plan!)

I must say that my soul and heart is so filled with the vision of life here in the swamp, it presses eternity.

Tomorrow, if the rains abate, I'll be out in the vegetable garden topping off the planters and maybe planting a few rows of arugula.

So, is Charlie Crist the new Bill Young: what ever party you are from, Bill will help you!

The NYT in the lead editorial today probably said it all (though they missed the iniquities of emigration.) I believe that if any one of these Rebublicans could have the chance to speak with a pregnant fourteen year old girl from a gritty background, or a gifted Mexican illegal boy whose chances at a shot to get educated are nil, or a middle class high school graduate who faces such extreme debt to go to college, or a woman with five kids already who seeks abortion, or a person who doesn't have enough food to feed the family, or a veteran who can't get a job, they might change their minds. It goes on and on.

How mean spirited can they be? So, I finish the quilt for this beloved grandson, and I am thinking all the while that this next generation will be inclusive, generous and thoughtful about making an America that works for everybody.

Getting Old- But Then What?

This evening when Andy and I were finishing dinner, on the eve of our fifty-second wedding anniversary, and we were eating the ends of a wonderful plain supper he cooked, we looked in each other's eyes and spoke of some of the things that have made our marriage successful, and also of some of those things we regret.

There will not be anniversary gifts for each other. We have every thing we want. We appreciate that each of us has been willing to change with the times. We appreciate the necessity of facing the reality of growing old together.

Thankfully, we are healthy and still full of energy. But there are moments when we rage, rage against the coming of the night..

One of the things I know of is this rage against getting old. For some, it is  non-specific anger, lashing out at loved ones. For others it is despair, knowing that you are invisible when once you were king or queen.

In the newspaper today there was a story about a woman my age who made crocheted pillows for the Bucs - and has done this for thirty years! She is to be pitied, in a wheel chair, and never had the chance to actually SEE a Bucs game because she could not afford a ticket!

I know that getting old is such a bitch: even those new buff muscles of mine are covered by the wrinkled skin. You have to figure out just how cantankerous and weird you want to be!

So important to have friends of many ages - even the little kids who pluck your elbow skin because they are interested in everything!

Fifty-two years into a marriage with a guy who is so interesting it takes my breath away!

Happy Anniversary to us!

The Wedding

Here are the members of the wedding: Quincy, Carissa and Elizabeth. Elizabeth and Carissa were married in a lovely Vermont setting (Quincy was bestest man) last weekend, attended by immediate family.

The hills were decorated with goldenrod and purple loostrife and queen anne's lace. And the immediate scene was decorated with our eight grandchildren and their parents. And now we have another wonderful daughter-in-law!

We are so blessed with this enormous family! We spent a lot of quality time in an old ski lodge just lying about with the twins and the other kids who played outside in the cool Vermont evening catching caterpillars and running around with sparklers and wading in the stream. I loved it.

It was a wonderful family reunion, the first time we had been together with all our children, their spouses, and their kids, and Maria and Jay, everyone's adopted kin. We stayed in a big ski lodge, kind of funky but a lot of fun with many feasts and lots of skin, so many children, including the new twins.

We took Quincy, son of the bride, for a road trip to Maine to see my oldest best friend in Belfast and it was wonderful! Seven years old is a great age to be. Quincy fell in love with Juliet, my friend, and says he is going to live there.

While in Maine my email got hacked and his moms took the trouble to fix everything on my computer. (No, we are not in trouble in London!)

Now, we are all back home. And life tumbles on. Ten girl scouts are at this moment swimming in the pool and then they will go up to the little house to do girl scout things and spend the night. And I will have to think about the one girl scout who is missing because she is homeless and her mother is dying of ovarian cancer in St. Petersburg. And I can't think of what I can do! Where is our safety net?

In my studio, alone for the first time in many days, I begin the lovely process of laying out the fabrics for a new quilt for Quincy.

Rainy Season - still!

You have to imagine how deep and dark the edge of the woods seem now in the over lush days of early August. Looks like jungle here in the Green Swamp of central Florida. Often, pasted on this scene, are several deer feeding at the margin between pasture and forest. Underfoot are thousands of spade foot toads who have not made an appearance in four years. But this year we have truly had a great rainy season and all those toads procreated and are now underfoot everywhere.

At the end of the afternoon there is the tumult of thunder and lightning and several inches of hard rain falls.

Mornings before seven I drive the mile or so up to our mailbox to pick up the morning papers, and this is such a good part of the day! Driving very slowly I often see deer, bobcats, so many birds. The Withlacoochee River overflows and sends black waters into the swamp, and then, after a few days, everything reverses and the water flows out of the swamp.

So, I stop at the bridge and note the direction of the flow by how fast the duckweed is floating and I hope to see an otter or an alligator. So many ibises flock to the newly directed waters. Hawks scream above and the pileated woodpeckers are working on the snags. By now I know where certain birds hang out and I listen for them. Yes!

Here come the sand hill cranes getting ready for their day. And in a certain place in the lane I can always see the fox squirrel, and further up, the gopher tortoise burrow with evidence that he (or she) has been up already.

Some days I must stop and shoo away my neighbor's chickens who have congregated in the lane next to the mailbox.

I love living here! There is so much to be discovered: a patch of iron weed, a stretch of passion flowers on a fence, green fly orchids on a tree full of resurrection fern.

And there is the comical. Those hummingbirds who endlessly chase each other around the feeders. There was the armadillo a few mornings ago who appeared next to the screen porch where we were reading the paper. This particular armadillo was wearing a jacket around his middle (so astonishing that I thought I was actually losing my mind!) We looked and the jacket said, "Hot pepper." Seems that this armadillo had gotten into a peat pot surround - and everything fit perfectly. Our little dog went out to bark and chase and eventually nipped that jacket and it tore off.

So, rainy season, heat and all, is just what Florida is the best at. No complaints here. We see the rainbows and take a vacation from politics.
Seventy-two years old and I still feel like I am ten!