My Rock Story - Much Ado About a Stupid Rock

Ken about to drop the rock

The rock in its place

It all started when a member of the congregation wanted a piece of the rock, the rock that had previously occupied this location--a quartzy pink rock that stuck out like a sore thumb. I did not have any special affection for the pink rock. It was short and was being dwarfed by the burgeoning hostas. I asked a number of older congregants about the rock. Many said, "what rock"? They had no special feelings for it either.

So the pastor got involved. He likes rocks. He had been rock shopping for his house. He would help me pick a new rock! So off we went, rock shopping. The hostas had not even emerged yet.
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Weeks later Ken sent me the picture below to confirm that it was the rock we wanted. We were pretty sure, although we had looked at hundreds of rocks!

The rock at the rock place - 8 cents a pound

So Tuesday night the time came for the rock to be delivered. Ken has done this before and knew how to unload a 200 pound rock without dropping it on his toes!

And it was very good. A rock with which we are well-pleased!

 In a few days it will be surrounded by bright flowers. 

My Raccoon Story

Ahh. The first night in a while that a family of raccoons has not tormented us in the night!

It all started with scratchy sounds in the attic--and I thought I heard a growl-like noise that did not sound like a squirrel.

It's all Tom's fault. He had left a hole last fall near the roof, where boards had been removed and siding had not been finished as promised. So we called Tom. He placed a trap in the far corner of the attic.

The first night we captured what turned out to be Momma raccoon. I checked the attic at 10 AM but was not about to remove the critter myself, still very much alive.

the dead momma 

Tom could not get here until the evening and he found momma coon dead. Maybe she had had heat stroke. It was Saturday night and we had no sightings yet of any babies or a mate. Traps were set up again under the former hole. Tom sprinkled peanuts in the traps and dripped Alpo chunks around to attract them.

All night four desperate babies (kits?) tried to get back in where they had last seen momma--scampering over the roof and clawing at the boarded up spot. But nothing in the trap.

We were tired. One of us was up in the night and we didn't make it to church. One of us went to On-line Orthodox, since Pillow Presbyterian was interrupted.

They were cute little monsters, sticking together and playing follow the leader, on the roof and up a tree to take a nap.

One little monster was caught a bit later and the three sleepy siblings eventually found a spot under the roof overhang:

Donning first set of gloves

By this time I had neighbor C across the street involved. She is an animal activist of sorts and knew of a sanctuary that would take them. C put on a sweatshirt and double gloves, including a thick leather pair from the husband, with the intention of removing them from the roof. We tried a golf club (mine) to dislodge them into a large cardboard box and she also tried to pick them up. They dug their sharp little climbing claws into the roof and were immovable. C exclaimed that they stuck like velcro. They growled and hissed at her. She was actually a bit frightened of them and I don't blame her!

We gave up. C put the first raccoon in a big cage she had in her garage with a whole can of cat food and we set up the three traps with more fresh cat food, in the back of the house.

We exchanged phone numbers. I slept on the sofa. Apparently there was scratching in the night. C woke up early, concerned about the little monsters, and texted me--about 7:30, but I was still fast asleep. By the time I got up she was in the backyard and we had caught 3 raccoons--one in each cage! She had been told it might take a few days to catch all of them, but that cat food must have been pretty enticing for the hungry little motherless critters!

She packed the raccoons into the back of her car, with a towel over each cage. First we both had to take some flash photos with our phones--the last I would see of them, thankfully!

While she was waiting for her friend to come over the raccoons started whimpering and talking to each other. The one raccoon still in the big cage in the garage somehow escaped from his cage and crawled into the hatchback of her car and snuggled near his siblings. A trap with more cat food was placed in the car and soon he was also trapped in a nice small cage that was much easier to transport!

The volunteer at the center in Lowell was an expert and just picked up the raccoons, no problem. C told me that they teach the raccoons to fish (what??) and release them when they think they are ready, in Fallasburg Park. That is far enough away, I hope!

She gave the facility a donation and that is the end of this (half-happy--depending on your perspective) story. (I did not feel that bad about a dead raccoon, but I did feel sorry for the cute little orphans!)

Last night I hosed off the cages to remove the last bits of raccoon cooties. Hopefully Tom will pick them up soon.

The Times They Are A-Changin'

My mother would have to wait for the 6:00 evening news--available on only three stations, the "alphabet" channels (and only two coming in clearly on our television which we did not purchase until the mid-sixties!)--to find out what terrible stories of madness and mayhem had occurred in the world. And she would sigh and ooh and wince in sympathetic pain over the latest tragic accident or evil deed. When I was very young we still had a party-line phone, and that would occasionally be a source for fresh local news--or a little gossip.



But now I am alerted instantly to breaking news with a notification beep or jiggle from my smartphone. Just last night it was the terrible Amtrak accident near Philadelphia. My NYC kids had just taken a bus from D.C. to NYC a few days earlier, which instantly made me think, what if?

So I am wondering if you think things in the world seem worse today, or do we just hear about more bad news because of our wonderful and sometimes terrible new means of communication?

My parents, Melvin and Lydia, born just over a century ago, used to wonder out loud (more likely my mother) "what is this world coming to?" Now as I am in my (very recent!) senior years, I am thinking the same thing! How long do I really care to live in such a world?

I am witnessing the demise of many of the institutions and values that I have grown up to accept as the norm. I suppose each generation feels the same way. And do we really want to turn the clock back? Then we would have to give up our smartphones, too!

I will briefly mention a few things that come to my mind when I think about some of those changes.

Marriage

 I have always been taught--and thought--that marriage was an institution reserved for one man and one woman. Adam and Eve in the garden--not Adam and John. Not Adam and Eve and May and Sarah and the family pet cheetah. Destroy the definition and anything becomes possible! (Of course, there was Solomon with all his many wives and concubines).

(I actually heard a story about a man who wanted to marry his horse. He was denied because the horse was underage and would have needed parental permission!)

Our president (as well as most of our politicians), until just a few years ago, proclaimed his belief in the traditional definition of marriage. Today he and many others, our children included, have changed their tune, because the world is changing around us so fast.

Church

The traditional church is fast disappearing. I am guessing that if I live long, the denomination that I have been a part of all my life will have merged, or dissolved or otherwise disappeared. Most of our churches are not ornate enough to become museums (like empty churches in Europe) so many will likely be torn down or repurposed.

God
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God is increasingly being excluded from schools and the public square. Christians (and the Jews to some extent) are seemingly the last group of people that can be freely mocked without retribution from the political correctness crowd..

Family

Out of wedlock birth has skyrocketed--over 70% now in the African-American community. Single parent and welfare families are at an all-time high. Family no longer means a mother and a father. "Family" values are eroding, along with the definition of the family.

Sexuality

 Besides all the pornography, the sleaze, the promiscuity, and the sexualized language depicted on media outlets and in our music--so different than a century ago, or even ten years ago--definitions are breaking down in the area of sexual gender as well.  I did not know one could be trans-gendered or bi-sexual when I was a child, did you? Or did we just not have a word for it other than weird?

 I just watched the first part of Bruce Jenner's coming-out-as-a-woman story on television this past week. That is what got me thinking about this topic! If you believe him--and I do--he has had a lonely and sad life, feeling like a woman on the inside ever since he was a little boy, masking this while developing his unbelievable athletic prowess, becoming the top Olympian in the world, winning the gold in the decathlon, appearing to be the epitome of masculinity, even on our Wheaties boxes!

And now he takes female hormones and weeps as he tells his story.

There are so many questions that I never considered 50 years ago!

When a trans-gendered person transitions to a chosen gender, but still has the anatomical parts from the body he/she was born with, what bathroom does he/she use??

If Bruce Jenner "comes out" as a woman, but is still attracted to women, does that now make him a lesbian? Leslie Stahl asked him that question!

These are problems that were not publicly discussed back in the day. I wonder how many suicides have resulted from just such confusion?

Do you remember in 2007 when the president of Iran famously declared that they have no gays in Iran. The students he was addressing at Columbia University laughed in his face!

We have learned too much to just deny evil and deviance and genetic anomalies in the world. But now it seems deviant behavior is celebrated. Shooting a cop is now a cause for rejoicing in the inner city. We have gay pride parades. The internet has become a playground for the pedophiles. We have television shows and children's books that offer normal accounts of "my two dads." We include the mentally challenged (and too often the mentally deranged) in as much of society (for better or worse) as we are able. These things have all changed dramatically in my life time. (They say crime is actually down, although the recent city riots and news stories make us think otherwise.) Stricter laws for criminals? Birth rate? Abortion? That is another topic.

Do you remember the day when Rob and Laura Petri were filmed in separate twin beds? That now seems like ancient history!

I don't have any answers, but all this surely makes life more complicated. The lines of right and wrong and black and white have become a blurry rainbow of choices for many.

I still like living in this country with all its craziness. Iran may not have any gay issues (ha) but what American would chose to live under that government?

It is hard to believe that we will all just get along in the next life where there will probably be no marriage and no gender issues and no racism.

(One closing thought about Bruce Jenner. That bathroom thing worries me as much as anything! I don't really want a Bruce Jenner changing next to me in the locker room (with or without his man parts)--or even freshening his makeup beside me in the restroom mirror! No! No! I do not like it--not one little bit!)

And then Politics...

Another post for that subject!!

"Resurrection" Symphony - A Finale Concert

This was David Lockington's sixteenth and final season with the Grand Rapids Symphony. I actually sang under him (under his conducting baton!) some years ago for a Bach B Minor Mass performance and have always respected his abilities immensely.

I like to chose a symphony concert here and there to attend--and picked three really fine ones this year!

In January Lockington joined his wife Dylana Jensen for an exciting performance of the Brahms Double Concerto for Violin and Violin-cello in A minor (he plays the cello) which I attended alone, procuring an excellent last minute (and most expensive) seat at St. Cecilia.

Then I attended a performance featuring Axiom Brass Quintet. I am a brass person, so this was a particular delight. I do not know why David Lockington was taking the above photo of just the tuba player from behind--but I whipped out my phone and caught the moment. O. and I had the least expensive seats, which put us just left of center in row B, which were excellent seats for this performance, and also allowed me to take this secret shot of Lockington!

Last night it was a full house (mostly same color-couldn't resist)--the concert dubbed "David's Grand Finale." We were relegated to seats in the top row of the mezzanine--row T, in the middle.

On the  program was Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 2 in C minor, completed in 1894, even though the program book had Mahler's dates listed as1910-1981! It was a spectacular performance of about 80 minutes, with 2 female vocal soloists, an expanded chorus that joined, finally, on the 5th movement and lots of exciting brass and percussion as well as soft beautiful descriptive sections. There was also much hoopla before and after, with acknowledgements of years of service of both the orchestra members and the conductor, culminating with speeches and gifts and flowers.

While O. and I had nothing critical to say about the pre-concert lecture or the performance (we loved it), between the two events we sat sipping red wine in plastic glasses and watching what people were wearing. It was a warm and humid day and the air conditioning seemed to not be functioning fully in the hall, but still, some people were just not dressed right! Especially bad was the footwear! So that was fun--sitting on a bench drinking and critiquing.

Then after crawling over people to our seats, at the last minute two fat and unattractive gay gals joined us in row T. They did not behave properly, engaged in inappropriate touching and other things I cannot even talk about. I sat beside a young man who remained completely immobile and statue-like for the entire performance, his hands crossed in his lap--and I didn't really have to look at the girls.

Someone's cell phone was briefly heard during the soprano solo, but probably won't be audible on the recording. That, too, was most annoying.

We were able to find free street parking less than two blocks away. All in all, for $18, this was a good value--wonderful music, wonderfully performed. Different seats would have been nice, but the acoustics of the hall were just fine in Row T.

After mowing our rental house front lawn on a rainy day and planting some pansies at church I came home and put some 8 1/2 A on my greying blonde roots and then scrubbed my nails with Comet cleanser! attempting to clean up after contact with spring-green chlorophyll and hair dye. If any one had looked closely, they could have critiqued my summer-gardener's nails. In the darkness of Row T on the very top of the mezzanine section with the misbehaving lesbians--no one seemed to notice. But I kept my hands to myself and I had on cute pink footwear that didn't show my old toes!!

Spring Walk in the Woods

I no longer have a Thursday afternoon client this year so I feel like I have some time to indulge myself on Thursdays. So I persuaded friend O. (didn't really take much) to walk with me today through Aman Park, where the wild flowers grow in abundance, many of them ephemerals.

We chatted too long over coffee and it was getting a little warm on trail B by the time we arrived at the park, as the sun was now shining brightly through the emerging leaf canopy, lighting up the blooms on the forest floor.

 We found that trail B had some significant hills and we worked up a bit of a sweat navigating them. A washed out crossing, a bridge over the creek, a few interpretive signs and very few human beings on the trail all added up to a great walk in the woods! We not only found massive expanses of trillium, which I had expected, but we also found huge swathes of Virginia bluebells on this trail--all so beautiful!

So many trillium ... can the forest spare just one?

A Beautiful May Day

May 1, 2015

Virginia bluebells under the magnolia

The first of May, or May Day, has a varied history of celebration dating back to pagan Rome and ancient Celtic rituals. It has astrological significance as a mid-point between the March Equinox and the June Solstice. All sorts of rituals, that included fire, flowers and fornication are part of this day that has historically marked the beginnings of  a new season of growth and fertility.

May 1 also marks socialist celebrations and worker strikes--even in Chicago--in the late 19th century.

And then there's dancing around a May Day pole with ribbons, a  tradition that sounds really ridiculous!

Some distribute May Day baskets of flowers. That sounds okay!

On our farm my recollection is that we planted a Mayday tree behind the chicken coops. Was that so the chickens could enjoy the berries from this May-blooming tree?

I don't have any reason or motivation to celebrate May 1 as May Day.

But for me, May is the most spectacular time of the year. This year, too, here in West Michigan the ornamental pears and weeping cherries are adding their blooms to the still blossoming forsythias and magnolias, with tulips also beginning to open in all their vivid colors, and a few late daffodils still hanging on. Lawns and trees are greening and lawn services are spreading fresh mulch to freshen the landscape and set off all the spring-greens and tulip-reds. The glory that is Spring in West Michigan is upon us!

On May 1st I was busy trimming hydrangeas and raking leaves out of flower beds, but I took the time to notice and photograph a few small things--and a few large things--of exquisite beauty in the landscape. The weather was perfect, if a little too warm in the direct sunshine.

Here are a few things I noticed:

large weeping cherry

robin egg in the sweet woodruff

naturalizing tulips in my front lawn

tulip detail

And robins were bathing joyfully as I sprinkled the lawn for the first time this year--but I couldn't capture them easily on my camera.

There are so many robins hop-hopping around my yard this year  that I am not surprised that one of them dropped an egg.

A descriptive phrase came to my mind that I just had to add to this post:

Robins ... enjoying emerging markets of earthworms.

Yes. Spring has really sprung!