Update on that last post

My mom told me a got a package at her house.  Hmmm.  I didn't order anything.

Where is it from?

"Kimberly Clark.  It says yoga pants."

"?? Go ahead and open it, please."

"It is a sample of Depends."


I'm so pleased that someone is reading my blog and having fun.  Thanks.

And, where are the yoga pants?

Is this really necessary?

From July Aug 2015

I think about aging.  Sometimes.  Sometimes I ponder the process while watching clouds float by and sometimes the world steps up and slaps me across the ever-more-lined face.  I've long considered compiling a (surely incomplete) list of aha moments of aging.  Then, in Coles (the grocery) a comment from another shopper.....

Many of my aging insights have come from observations of myself.  I'm not overly good at this.  Despite the fact that you've just looked at one or maybe two photos of me that I took in a mirror, I don't really much look into mirrors.  I make sure I get my hair cut in ways that don't require styling and often don't require that I remember to comb my hair after I get out of the shower.  I don't now and never have worn make up.  The only mirror I've ever owned were the ones that came stuck on the wall or medicine cabinet in the bathrooms of homes I've owned.  Still, I do remember the day I turned 40.  Kevin and I were traveling and staying in a YMCA in Perth.  I looked in the mirror and noticed I had lines going between my nose and mouth which must be my face slipping off my skull.  (For quite some time after I wondered how long they had been there and even considered collecting old photos to find their origin - but that didn't happen.)  And then there was the time I was practicing my qi gong and doing a forward bend and saw that my thighs were trying to droop over my knees.  These days I don't need a mirror - I can feel gravity pulling my face (primarily though not exclusively) into the ground.

That being said, PLENTY of aging comments have come from OUTSIDE me.  The first time I was offered a senior discount at McDonalds was only WEEKS after the Perthrevelation.  Really?  Really?  At 40?!  There have been other fast-food-faux-pas but the comments really accelerated after I started going out with Zupe.  I'm sure the grandma comments exceed the mommy comments by 10 to 1.  I've started just nodding my head and moving on.  Maybe when it bothers Zupe, I'll start correcting people again.

But then - in Coles -   Kevin and I and Zupe were doing our Sunday morning grocery run.  Kevin had the cart with Zupe in the produce  section and I had stepped aside to pick up something elsewhere.  When I returned he was talking with an older woman.  (Yes, they do come older than me.)  She was making over Zupe - as they ALL do.  (Here I must apologize because I cannot recall her exact words but to effect...) "Aren't you lucky to be out with Daddy and Grandma?"

The silence that this met with was only surpassed by the pain cry which followed.

Praise be to Kevin who introduced me as his wife while I was drawing back my walker to beat her about the head.


NOTE - photo from my 40th birthday party - sorry, your invitation must have been lost in the mail - would you offer this woman a senior coffee?????!

NNV- A Blog Down Under: Mirror, mirror…. review

From May, June 2015

Kevin fixed my iphoto problem and now I have access to the photos I scanned before moving from the US so many eons ago.    With regard to this blog, particularly this blog entry, I refer you back to October when I wanted to do a contrast of my mirror image between Ann at University and Ann visiting at home. But in October, I couldn't access the old photo.  Now, I can/have.  And, you can make the comparison by clicking the link below.


NNV- A Blog Down Under: Mirror, mirror….

Toe news

Just cause I know you've been up at night wondering.

I was released from my anti-fungal regimen last week.  My toe is now considered "healthy-ish".  I don't think anyone would yet consider it beautiful.

My life of crime

I thought I'd begin my life of crime yesterday.   Well, I suppose not.  I suppose like most hardened criminals, something just happened and, there I was, a fugitive on the lam.  (Note - not on the lamb - they run much too slowly.)

I was filling up the car at the local service station and mulling over whether Zupe really needed a flu vaccine and if I had time to run all my errands and still make the 2 PM school pick up and then I found myself driving out of the parking lot.  I entered the currently not so busy road and thought,

"Hey.  Did I pay for that gasoline?"  (I love saying gasoline here.  People find it so irritating.)

I quickly reviewed my memory and couldn't see myself going into the shop to pay.

So, there I am on Beams Road with a big slab of concrete between the right and left lanes, the east and west-bound lanes, and no obvious near-by turn around spots.  The light ahead was red and I did what I had to do.  U-TURN.  Driving west now toward home - but there is still that slab of concrete between me and the service station.  It (the concrete) does end before I get all the way home and so, continuing on my life of crime, I made a second illegal U-TURN, buzzed back up east back to the "Woolworth's Petrol" station, and into the spot in which my life of crime began.

I ran into the station shop and waited.  Waited and wondered:

a.  why does it take so long for someone to come out from wherever they hide to take my money
and
b.  are those sirens in the distance?

Turns out the clerk was busy watching my criminal activity on her video recording and no.

"You're lucky.  I haven't called the cops yet."

My felonious behavior could all have been prevented by a simple pay-at-the-pump system - but here in Oz they pride themselves on growing crims and selling an unnecessary candy bar at every fuel purchase.

All this reminds me - the new season of "Orange is the New Black" returns this weekend!  Hello sisters!

Once in a lifetime

From May, June 2015

The pitch was something like that.  This is your only opportunity.  Be a part of history.

Walk the Legacy Way Tunnel!

I missed one of those limited opportunity events back in Cleveland.  Posing nude with scads of other people (over 3000) in the way too chilly (winter) dawn photoshoot of/by Spencer Tunick.  I regret it, sort of.  I still balk at the cold even in my imagination.

So, we went for it.

From May, June 2015

It seemed like a much bigger opportunity until I learned that every tunnel opening or bridge opening or new crosswalk in Brisbane is accompanied by this same historic event.  (Not the opportunity to walk through the Legacy Way Tunnel, but.. you know.)


We did it.  It was 4.6 km of windy, noisy, fluorescent-light adventure.  Zupe walked and was carried and was forcibly strollered.  I doubt the photos will ever make a traveling exhibition.

Well, it's official

The Royal Queensland EKKA Show will once again have no entries in the best photo from Ohio.

With Kevin out of town this weekend, I sat down to complete the application to find that entries closed May 27.  Ten days ago.

The show shows in August.

I'm pretty sure I could still get an entry into the world famous Poultry Days Fine Arts show that starts on the 12 of June.  I think I could probably FLY to the US then drive to Versailles and still get my entry submitted.  Of course, the competition in the category photo from Ohio will be stiffer.


Moral of the story - don't forget Poultry Days in Versailles, Ohio next weekend!

And the rain, rain, rain, came down, down, down

From April 2015

That would be two Fridays ago on the 3rd of May.  The rain had started Wednesday or Thursday.  Steady.  Not overly impressive.  But, on Friday, every time I went outside the rain had gotten heavier.  I took the day care supplies to the car.  I took Zupe to the car.  I took everything into the day care.  I came home.  I went to work.  Still, that was nothing.  Mid-afternoon it let loose.

We live on the north side of Brisbane.  I work a bit farther north.  A little farther north - less than 30 min drive away (I've read recently that people from Ohio identify distance by driving time - there you go; it must be true!) was the place it rained the heaviest.  Let me check the stats.  I saved them.

About 4 PM I got a call from day care that the kids were being evacuated.  I left.  It was maybe 4:10.  I remembered the way the little cut through road I usually take flooded earlier this year and chose the highway- where I sat unmoving for almost 30 minutes.  Unmoving and without a phone to call to let the school know I was trying but unsuccessful.  Five minutes before my "give up" time - the time I was going to stop the car and GET OUT INTO THE DOWNPOUR to beg a phone from one of the other dozens of stopped cars, the traffic started moving again.  I drove through almost a foot of water, I'd guess.  There and then again on Beams Road.  I turned the little "u-turn" on Beams that is required to get to the day care and saw the lane into the center.  Well, not really.  There was no seeing that lane it was sincerely under water.  As the evening was getting dark, very dar.  I returned up Beams and took the left at the round-about to attempt the back way into the center.  It was a good drive, until the road dipped down and who knows how deep the water was there!

I ended up parking in a high lot and wading the block to block and a half to the center.  As I waded through knee deep water I thought about the new shoes I was wearing that I had to buy for work and I watched the unmoving traffic on Beams Road.  I decided it looked very unlikely that I would succeed in driving home and that I would need to carry Zupe home.  Or, maybe Kevin could.

I borrowed a phone at the center, after stripping out of my coat, my shoes and my socks, and called Kevin.  He said he'd bring the stroller.  I said "Do not bother."

He came through water over his knees and his knees are pretty high!  Walking home it was even deeper than walking TO the center.  The water washing across Beams was moving - that was fun!  But, at least the deepest bit - in the train station parking lot - mid thigh on me - was still.

I left the car overnight.  By morning the water was mostly someplace else.  The photo above shows all that remained in the lane at the day care.

I am so thankful that we live close enough that we can walk to the day care and that Kevin is/was working from home.  Carrying Zupe on my own, particularly where the water ran fast or those times I stepped into deeper holes, could have been treacherous.

My free lesson to you - socks really help keep your feet warm.  I couldn't face putting my soaking socks back on to make the walk home and so I had only my nylon running shoes between me and the flood waters.  Nylon = breezy in a watery sort of way.  Breezy and cold.  Yikes.

Request - Yes, I'm asking you

Every year I think I'll enter a photograph in the state fair here in Qld.   And, it never happens.  It is that time again, I think.  I'd really appreciate your input - have you seen a recent photo on my blog(s) that grabbed you.  You know, in a good way.  Thanks.

How many times

can you read "The Silence of the Lambs" - in succession - before people start crossing the street to avoid you?

Just asking.

Happy Birthday to me!

From April 2015

Ohio April 2015 - Happy Birthday Dear Zuperfliegen

HOW COULD YOU BE FOUR YEARS OLD?  Mommy and Daddy love you.  Thank you for the best birthday gift - YOU!  And, learning to say mama on the 7th was pretty great, too!

Ohio April 2015 - Spring springing

There is no green, like a spring green!  A breath of fresh air!  A promise!  A hope!

And, then there are the flowers.

From April 2015

Wheat field, St. Peter's Church of St. Peter's Road.

From April 2015

Stillwater River, Webster.  (November 2014 - Stillwater River)

From April 2015

Church in Webster, Ohio.  See this same scene in Autumn.  (November 3, 2014 - Thoughts about home)

From April 2015

My favorite stream - at the corner of SR 185 and SR 48.

From April 2015

And then there are the flowers....

From April 2015

From April 2015

Ohio April 2015 - Post 3

From April 2015

The third photo series - though I am now remembering previous series ideas (The Stillwater and Ohio Barns - that's a really old one from when I was driving back and forth between Versailles and Urbana University) - so - the third series - "Outstanding in their field".  I know I've already written about how fascinated I've always been with the way whereever you look in the Ohio countryside, you see the edge of some forest.  It has been beaten back to make our acres and acres of fields, but the primordial forest of Ohio still peeps out.  (Perhaps, primoridal is overstating the issue - but don't you wonder how long those little miniwoods have stood?)  In addition, at very regular, irregular intervals you'll see a tree or a small collective of trees at the edge of what may have been or may still be a fence row or where a home once stood or who knows?  I love these brave trees standing alone or in small groups hoping to recapture the fields and take Ohio back.  (You can see some of this in Post 1, too.)

Here are a very few sending their love and speaking their courage.

From April 2015

From April 2015

From April 2015

Ohio April 2015 - Post 2

From April 2015

Well, what do you know?

At home I imagined three different photo themes.  The first one I shared in Post 1 - the open road.  The second one is Harrison Street.  Being home.  Being home and looking out at the world.  I am not sure why this tiny corner of the world inspires me with so much awe.  Maybe it is love.  Maybe if you are completely comfortable in a place you (or I) can stop hiding inside and really look out at the world.  Or, maybe it is just a function of time.  There is so much time in Versailles.  There are no movies.  There is no job.  There is no cable tv.

I shared a photo from our visit last Christmas looking out onto Harrison Street (and East Wood) and one from our last visit in October.  Here are more - including early on a foggy morning, and a stormy spring evening... not to mention the photo at the top - morning in the new bedroom.

From April 2015

From April 2015

From April 2015

Ohio April 2015 - Post 1

&

From April 2015

There may not be a post 2, but you never know.

I am so thankful that I got to spend another spring in Ohio.  When we arrived, my mother's day lilies were only peaking out of the soil.  By the time we left, almost a month later, they stood at their full height (being only Stella del Oro) with a bud tightly wrapped and presented on a stalk.  Leaves unfurled.  Grass greened.  Daffodils bloomed.  And, trees bloomed.  (Not the crab apple - it took another week - nor the lilacs.)

Many evenings I would put Zupe to bed then jump in my mom's car and just cruise the local roadways.  My goal ostensibily was to photograph the field of daffodils that bloom on Versailles Southeastern Road at the corner of Kelch Road.  I should give up that idea.  It is not an easy task, especially when you are a bit shy and don't want people wondering what you are doing, let alone asking you to maybe not walk through their yard.  And, where to park?

What I discovered on my sojourns was how liberating it felt to be driving along open fields.  I spend way too much time in the city here... or at least the suburbs.  There are houses and trees and high grassy plants closing in on me everywhere.  The jungle is green AND concrete.  Ah, to catch one's breath on the open road!

Your mileage might vary.  Here are a few photos that I took celebrating space and light.



From April 2015

From April 2015

More for Maeve

More of Mighty Maeve

Mighty Maeve, Mighty Maeve, what will you make?
An splendiferous house made entirely of cake!
Or maybe a bus that is fueled by dog farts,
Or a salve that will mend all the world's broken hearts.

Mighty Mave, Mighty Maeve, what will you dance?
A little soft shoe with a mime straight from France!
A two step, a waltz, a cha-cha-cha-cha!
I will dance every dance for my precious Mama!

Mighty Maeve, Mighty Maeve, what will you sing?
A green dragonfly with a gossamer wing
He will buzz past the pond while the bull froggies croak
With a wee little fairy wrapped tight in his cloak.
Tadpoles and cat tails
Fireflies glow
Giant moon moths
Soft breezes blow.


The mirror

Mermaids at the seaside
Fairies at the brook
Ogres under bridges
Come on, take a look!

Rhinos playing croquet
Lions playing jacks
Llamas knitting sweaters
Monkeys playing sax

Zebras running circles
Cars are stalking moose
Mice are dancing waltzes
Cows on the caboose

Look into my mirror
What wonders you will see
Imagination miracles
Your mind can set you free

Lily's playing dress-up
Mommy's sipping tea
Daddy's taking photos
What would you like to be?

Close your eyes and see it
Hear, touch, smell the day
The journey to your future
Beings in just this way.

Two poems for a little friend - neither one with a title - also in need of illustration!

Mighty Maeve, Mighty Maeve, What will you write?
A fanciful tale on the tail of a kite!

A girl with a bow on a horse by a hill
A dragon, a fairy, an elf named McGill!
A shiny white pig
A dog with no hair
A small purple cat and a pink dancing bear!




Mighty Maeve, Mighty Maeve
Mighty Maeve is mighty brave!

She's not afraid of witches.
She's not afraid of brooms.
She's not afraid of shadows
That lurk at night in rooms.

She's not afraid of tigers.
She's not afraid of bears.
She's not afraid of bogeymen
Who live beneath the stairs.

She's not afraid of ghosties.
She's not afraid of ghouls.
She's on afraid of monsters
Who swim in deep, dark pools.

She's not afraid of chickens.
She's not afraid of cows.
She's not afraid of lumberjacks
With extra shaggy brows.

She's not afraid of doctors.
She's not afraid of shots.
She's not afraid of octopi
Or cocoa that's too hot.

She's not afraid of darkness.
She's brave all by herself.
She doesn't need a pirate,
A dragon, or an elf.

She's braver than a lion.
She's braver than a kite.
She's braver than an astronaut,
A diver, or a knight.

She doesn't run from danger.
She stands and sets her eye.
And everything that's scary,
Just seems to pass her by.

How to change a nappy*

1.  Apply baby to changing table.  Collect wipes.

From February/March 2015

2.  Take fingers OUT of your mouth (optional).

From February/March 2015

3.  Don gloves.

From February/March 2015

From Auntie Jack - the unseen next steps....

4.  Remove nappie with screwdriver.

5.  Put baby in suitcase.


I really wish 4 and 5 had been my ideas!  Thank you, John Farrell.  You are a master of child care.





*Showing off by bi-lingualism.  That's diaper in Australia.

Catching up on January - Part 2

Note:  Still not March.

From Start of Kindy

On January 28 something momentous happened.  Something so awesomely exciting that it required coloring images of James the train at 6 AM.  Zupe started Kindy.

Start time - 9 AM.

From Start of Kindy

Arrival time 9:10 AM.  We like to make an entrance.  Honestly, I was advised that it would be easier to park to drop him off if we came a bit on the late side.  EVERY OTHER KID WAS THERE.  Both of them!  Yep, it is a big class with 3 kids and 2 teachers at the Geebung Special School.

I don't really know what goes on there.  Still.  And, it has been a month now.  This is the uncertain reality of living with a nonverbal kid.  I have seen his weekly art piece - Brown Bear, Red Bird and, most recently, Yellow Duck.  (The teacher is running through Eric Carle's book "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?".)  I've been told that he's a really good eater.  (Yes.)  And, that he "takes charge" on the playground.  ??  I should have asked a follow up question like what do you mean? and is that a good or bad thing?

Now, one month in the class has grown.  There is now a total of 4 little boys and 1 girl.  By the end of the year, I've been told to expect a class size of about  10.  Sure hope there's another little girl soon.  She looks shell shocked.

From Start of Kindy