Short Blog

This morning I tossed out the possibility of us spending some vacation time this summer inside the Wisconsin State Capitol Building.  Seems as though the public is welcome to do that for free.  BOP......bring own pillow!

The Answers Are Everywhere

Mother Nature sprinkles answers to life all around us, with the hope that we'll recognize and learn from them.  This poor little tree, growing inside an old silo, is a good example.

• Does this tree have the perfect life......safe and protected from man, beast, and harsh weather conditions?
• Or, has this tree grown faster than normal in order to reach the sun?  leaving it weak and unable to ever care for itself like the trees growing out in the open?
• Will this tree ever be productive and useful?
• Is it lonely?  

How would you like to be my guest blogger? 

I'm inviting my readers to contribute a guest blog for my retirednatureweaver blog site.  You may share your viewpoint about an issue or topic.  Write about what you truly feel and speak from your life experience or simply share a recipe or a tip that might be useful for the rest of us.  My blog is anonymous, so you will need to come up with a "handle" like my Nature Weaver. 

Guest blog guidelines:

• The post must be original and must have never been published before on the Internet.
• The post must not have been published anywhere else (i.e., in your own blog or as a guest post in other blogs).

If you are interested, please email me at nature.weaver@yahoo.com (notice the "dot" between nature and weaver).  Please consider giving this a whirl.  My blog is very down-home, as you know, and all I ask is that there be no profanity, vulgarity, or discriminating or derogatory comments.  All submissions will be reviewed by Nature Weaver, and between the two of us we will decide when your post will be published so you can tell your friends and family to tune in. 

My blog is about sharing thoughts, ideas, and insights.....we all see life from different angles, and here's your chance to share yours.  Don't be shy.  Your post will not be published until both of us agree that it's ready to hit the screen. 

C'mon, let's have some fun!  I'll be waiting to hear from you.  : )

Ta-ta      Nature Weaver

"When I see birches bend....."

Robert Frost's poem, Birch Trees, came to my mind yesterday as we drove past these weary trees, laden with ice.  Can we compare ice storms to life's hardships that get us down?

Deployed to Afghanistan

Just received the first email sent by our niece who was recently deployed to Afghanistan.  She is in the USAF and is nearing her retirement, but had to make one more trek to the Mideast.  We are incredibly proud of her, although I sent her an email back telling her to get her sweet little red head back home to her hubby in Colorado so we don't have to worry about her.

Along with her email, she attached 12 single-spaced typed diary pages of her first week story so family back home can get a glimpse of what her life is like over there.

The Mideast is violently ratcheting up its unrest.  What sorrow to send our military over to a place that doesn't know the meaning of peace in the first place.  Isn't it ironic that the supposed birthplace of humanity and religion is a bubbling cauldron of dictatorship, deceit, despair and death for the innocent people living there. 

We will continue to cling tight to the belief that maybe......just maybe.......one little prayer on our part will hold within it the power to protect the destiny of someone's son or daughter who has been sent over there to intercede for human dignity and justice.

Please Be Safe, Little Red! 

Sounds

Ten sounds that I really like listening to (besides the voices and arf-arfs of those who love me) are these.......

• Wren singing.
• Coffee pot perking.
• Piano music.   
• Daytime thunderstorms (non-violent, of course).
• People laughing and joking around with one another. 
• Wind chimes tinkling in a summer breeze. 
• Mourning dove cooing. 
• Hot dog roasting on a campfire, bursting open and its juices fizzing in the fire.
• Champagne cork popping.
• Silence.

The Buddy Plan

A few months back we bought two lots on our church cemetery and picked out our gravestone.  Neither of us want a big fancy marker, so we chose a simple black stone from India.  Today we are going to the memorial company to decide on the style of lettering for our names.  Twenty years ago, this would have seemed a morbid thing to do, but now it feels okay and isn't scary at all. 

Then there's the decision about burial vs. cremation.  The thought of being locked inside a box with six feet of ground on top of me is enough to make me insane.  Being put in an oven and frying to a crisp is hardly an appealing alternative, but at least it takes away those paralyzing claustrophobic fears.  Besides that, I really don't like the idea of another generation possibly digging me up in a thousand years and putting me on display like King Tut.

Our wish is for The Buddy Plan, where the three of our ashes (fuzzy one included) will be put in one wooden box so no one has to be alone forever.  My husband is concerned that I may die first and he won't know what to do with my ashes until he goes.  I told him he can just put me and my little wooden box in the closet and I promise to be quiet.....I can see that there are more details we have to work out yet!

While we're on this subject, did you hear about the man and his ever-nagging wife who went on a vacation to Jerusalem.  While they were there, the wife passed away.  The undertaker told the husband, "You can have her shipped home for $5,000, or you can bury her here, in the Holy Land, for $150."  The man thought about it and told him he would just have her shipped home.

The undertaker asked, "Why would you spend $5,000 to ship your wife home, when it would be wonderful to be buried here and you would only pay $150?"

The man replied, "Long ago a man died here, was buried here, and three days later he rose from the dead.  I just can't take that chance."

Crumbly Pancakes

My Mom used to make us kids Schmorum, an old Czech recipe for crumbly pancakes.

3 eggs
1 c. milk
salt
3/4 c. flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder

Beat the ingredients together, pour in a hot skillet with a tablespoon oil.  Mix and brown into big crumbles.  Serve with syrup.

Sign of Spring

Guess what we saw yesterday?

Yup, robins.  Two of them were sitting in our backyard between a tree and the gas tank.  Poor little souls, I felt so sorry for them in the freezing rain that glazed everything over with ice.  I always feel so sorry for the creatures who don't have a roof over their heads like I do.  Too much compassion makes for lots of heartache.

We are up earlier than usual.  For the life of me, I don't know how we responded to that frickin' alarm clock all those many years, got up every morning at 5 o'clock to get to work by 8.  Sleeping until I feel like getting up is probably my #1 retirement perk. The reason we are up early is because it is dentist day. 

Before seeing the dentist, each patient must fill out two pages of personal information.  Two blanks will be left blank...social security and driver's license #s.  Having worked in the office environment my whole life, I'm quick to critique page formatting.  There simply wasn't enough room to write in what medications we take.  I had to write small, use arrows and lines to separate one med from the other.  Something so simple just drives me nuts.

The road crews are out tending to the icy highways.  We can hear the county's large trucks going through town.  Would imagine schools will either be two hours late or there won't be classes at all.  We're skeptical about being out on the roads in this kind of weather and just might call and cancel our appointment.  If it isn't an emergency, it's kinda silly for people our age to be out on the highways.  From now until spring, there will be some less-than-desirable weather days.  The gravel roads get mushy, and mud ruts make driving a real mess.  It's pretty hard keeping vehicles clean. Saturday we noticed the long lines at the automatic car washes.

The robins give us hope for early spring.  Our Bichon's black nose starts turning pink when she doesn't get enough sunshine over winter.  Bichons are that way.  When she'll be out in the sunshine more, her nose will return to its original jet black color.  Isn't nature fascinating?

February, the Spring of Genius

Throughout history, February has been a month of some fascinating events and human turning points.

In February of.....

• 1884 First volume of the Oxford English Dictionary, A-Ant, published.
• 1898 First auto insurance policy in US issued by Travelers Insurance Company.
• 1926 Land at Broadway & Wall Street sold at a record $7 per square inch.
• 1949 RCA released first single 45 rpm record.
• 1954 First TV soap opera "Secret Storm" premiered.
• 1863 Samuel Clemens became Mark Twain for first time.
• 1892 The bottle cap with cork seal patented by William Painter in Baltimore.
• 1935 The lie detector was first used in court.
• 1955 First Presidential news conference on network TV - Eisenhower on ABC.
• 1959 Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper died in a plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa.
• 1982 "Late Night with David Letterman" premiered on NBC.
• 1991 US postage was raised from 25 cents to 29 cents.
• 1914 Cub Scouts founded in England.
• 1690 The first paper money in America issued in the colony of Massachusetts.
• 1876 Albert Spalding, with $800, started sporting goods company, manufacturing the first official baseball, tennis ball, basketball, golf ball, and football.
• 1913 the Income Tax was first levied by US Congress.
• 1877 The piano piece "Chopsticks" was copyrighted.
• 1957 The electric typewriter placed on sale in Syracuse NY.
• 1850 Adding machine with depressible keys patented, New Paltz NY.
• 1870 First motion picture shown to a theater audience, Philadelphia.
• 1922 Reader's Digest magazine first published.
• 1969 US population reached 200 million.
• 1971 Alan Shepard and Edward Mitchell (Apollo 14) walked on Moon for 4 hours.
• 1978 Fred Newman made 88 consecutive basketball free throws blindfolded.
• 1935 The board game "Monopoly" went on sale for the first time.
• 1943 Shoe rationing began in US (could purchase up to 3 pairs in 1942).
• 1964 Beatles arrived at New York's JFK International Airport for their first American tour.
• 1879 Sanford Fleming first proposed adoption of a Universal Standard Time, by dividing the world into 24 equal time zones, with standard time within each zone.
• 1926 Walt Disney Studios was formed.
• 1863 Fire extinguisher was patented by Alanson Crane.
• 1877 US Weather Service established.
• 1969 the world's largest airplane, Boeing 747, made first commercial flight.
• 1956 "My Friend Flicka" premiered on CBS TV  (later NBC)
• 1961 Niagara Falls hydroelectric project began producing power.
• 1752 Benjamin Franklin helped establish the Pennsylvania Hospital, the nation's first hospital.
• 1852 the first British public female toilet opened on Bedford Street, London.
• 1943 Ottawa imposed severe wartime gasoline rationing of 10 gallons a month for every private car.
• 1635 America's first public school was established--the Boston Latin School.
• 1895 Moving picture projector patented.
• 1959 Barbie Doll went on sale.
• 1919 United Parcel Service formed.
• 1924 IBM Corporation founded by Thomas Watson.
• 1963 First successful kidney transplant.
• 1842 Postage stamps with adhesive on the back were sold for the first time at the NYC post office.
• 1903 First teddy bear introduced in America, made by Morris & Rose Michtom.
• 1926 Contract air mail service began in US.
• 1950 Walt Disney's "Cinderella" released.
• 1838 Kentucky passed law permitting women to attend school under certain conditions.
• 1878 The Silver Dollar was introduced as a US coin.
• 1838 "Ladies Home Journal" began publication.
• 1968  America's first 911 phone system went into service in Haleyville, AL.
• 1881 Kansas became the first state to prohibit all alcoholic beverages.
• 1906 W.K. Kellogg and Charles B. Bolin incorporated Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company, Battle Creek, MI.
• 1913 Prizes were inserted into a Cracker Jack box.
• 1960 "Family Circus" cartoon strip debuted.
• 1872 Luther Crowell patented a machine that manufactured paper bags.
• 1842 First known sewing machine patented in US, John Greenough, Washington DC.
• 1878 The first US telephone directory was distributed (District Telephone Co., New Haven, CT).
• 1968 Baseball announced a minimum annual salary of $10,000.
• 1983 Donald Davis ran 1 mile backwards in 6 minutes 7.1 seconds.
• 1854 First meeting of the Republican Party, Michigan.
• 1860 First organized baseball played in San Francisco for the first time.
• 1879 Frank W. Woolworth opened his first store in Utica, NY.
• 1935 Airplanes no longer permitted to fly over the White House.
• 1868 First US parade with floats (Mardi Gras, Mobile AL)
• 1938 Nylon's first commercial use in toothbrush bristles.
• 1862 Paper currency (greenbacks) introduced in US by President Abraham Lincoln.
• 1863 Congress created the national banking system, comptroller of currency.
• 1879 Two American chemists discovered saccharin (artificial sweetener).
• 1912 First ever parachute jump from an airplane.

"Let us love winter, for it is the spring of genius."  -Pietro Aretino