Saturday, March 31, 2012

@ the Beach

 

We went to Hampton beach, NH last night

and I wanted to share a few photos of this lovely state park

across the street from where we stayed.

ocean front for one night. Thankful for the

relatively mild and a little chilly

weather.

These are on the Beach @ Hampton, NH State Park

DSC02029

DSC02038

3 panoramics out the balcony

DSC02023

 

DSC02041

DSC02048

Sunrise, slightly cloudy

DSC02053

There are a few places open this early.

We had a great seafood dinner

& ocean facing room w/balcony at

The Boardwalk Inn & Cafe,

they have pleasant helpful staff and

nice local brewed beverages.

DSC02055

Home again in a blur.

Friday, March 30, 2012

Tractor Moment


A memory moment with the first tractor from the farm,
@the Famous East Charlotte Tractor Parade Preview
it was sold long ago & restored by a friend.
I wanted a pic of me with this special tractor.
Fred obliged and told me where to put my feet
and how it operated.
Happy Friday.





Thursday, March 29, 2012

ESA - ATV - Follow the docking of ATV-3

ESA - ATV - Follow the docking of ATV-3

Posting this a little after the live docking. The link is very informative.
We watched last night as ATV-3 successfully was docked into the International Space Station.
Amazing is the word!
Great collective of people working together.
Follow their channel...

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

The 700th

The 700th post.
apple tree blossoms are in order...

In this blogosphere I have found friends and allies, challengers, and empathizers.
Musicians,artists & poets & those who fight the MonSter, star charts, auroras, nebula up real close,stars an incomprehensible distance from here thanks to Hubble, and Nasa and ISS, and all my friends who share their lives finding friendly waters here.
And yet each day I have to blog, record, my feelings, or the music I found or photos I have to show you. I remember a woman who had notebooks stacked halfway to the ceiling. Each contained stories, poems. Her lifetime in a stack of notebooks. This is my notebook, found more precious when google
went out on me for a day. Still, if it is lost, perhaps it remains in someone's memory and makes them smile. Start your own legacy of words. You may be surprised and happy later, as you gaze at your train of thoughts and images. best wishes, mary gerdt, monkton,vt   march 2012

Monday, March 26, 2012

Forces

 

dormant trees

Forces made these ledges,

like fingerprints of God,

trees grow, die and grow again

in a dynamic balance with the 4 seasons.

Spring



A chilly spring day,
Here are photos from past springs.
Color such a welcome sight after stick season.

and yesterday was
the day i turned 54,
a curious age, the number,
it haunted me,
then it gave me
a reason to research the number.
Significant and not. Haunting and reassuring.
the number laden with "3"s.
3x3x3x2=54
3 to the 3rd x2=54
5+4=9 which is 3x3
and other combo's.
For me a day to recalibrate and consume chocolate at all meals.
Fred's chocolate waffles, sausage and our maple syrup started the day.
3 meals with chocolate in them...
feeling the threes..


Friday, March 23, 2012

Friendly visitor


DSC02009
This morning we had a visitor to the garden.
Was it a turkey?
No, It had a tail like a Pheasant
and a ringed neck.
He strutted down the dormant garden rows
and I followed him with my camera.
He did make a curious call, Pheasant spring.
Spring flowers
DSC02016
DSC02015
one more of our friendly visitor…
DSC02008

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Link to poetry

http://www.okonlife.com/poems/index.htm
copyrighted by Shahriar Shariari
posted for educational puposes only.

Mom would love this link to multiple translations of The Rubiyat of Omar Khayyam.
Each translation a lesson.

Thanks to Mom for leading me to that pretty illustrated simple complicated book (4th version Fitzgerald).

Found an email she sent me with a quote in the year 2000.
by Omar Khayyam (Fitzgerald translation 4th)

I sent my soul into the invisible,
Some letter of that afterlife to spell.
And by and by my soul returned to me,
And answer'd, "I myself and Heaven and Hell."

Heven but the vision of fulfill'd desire,
And hell the shadow from a soul on fire,
Cast on the darkness into which ourselves,
So late emerged from, shall so soon expire.

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

More sides of town meeting day

Yes, I know some people may read the title,
sigh & flip back on
animal planet or desperate housewives re runs.

believe me I am doing this to help the future voters in Vermont to be better informed.

I did a little research, never done, re: the traditional town meeting.
Interesting...
Robert's Rules only around since post Civil War c.1865 or later.
He was a military man.
Vermont towns were chartered 250 years ago.
Likely the early genuine source Monkton town meetings were guided by Friend's, Quakers.
Maybe I was in the right meeting, only the wrong year?
In 1820 as a woman I could not have voted. I could however, have elbowed Fred
to ask about changing an article.
I bet the meeting rules of yore would have recognized a Change as an Amendment.
And each voice could have felt free to be voiced.

Here is a good article about town meeting...


http://www.palisadeshudson.com/2012/03/vermonters-buy-into-a-constitutional-mess-of-pottage/

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Last of the Ice

The Last of the Ice,
not necessarily recommended
& they gather there
walking on an icy shelf
over icy water
to harvest the silver salmon,
perch, smelt & pike
and whatever fits through the hole.


Monday, March 19, 2012

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Tommy

 

DSC01939

Tommy has “that look” in this photo and I finally captured it.

Enjoy your Sunday.

Summertime in Vermont, oh so rare.

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Interview with a Clone Chapter 6

Interview with a Clone Chapter 6
Alice tried to really run far away from home only once.
“She was seven going on 25” as Susan would say (Alice called her Mom Susan).
Alice felt left out of the 8th birthday party for Georgia’s daughter, Katie.
Katie’s friends all attended public school, native Bahamians, hip to the streets.
Mainstream, homogenous, they looked and dressed all the same. A person could blend in with the crowd.
There is a comfort in that. Alice was however forever isolated by her origins.
Before Alice was 5 she was desribed as
Unique,
Special,
Unusual,
Or some thought a
Novelty,
Grotesque,
Demonic,
Possessed,
Hollow,
Soul-less,
Unfeeling,
Robot.
“enough!” Alice said internally, that string of names running through her mind
As she sat alone in the Wolf’s Den, that dark stifling crawl space where they kept the Christmas decorations, old dishes and moth eaten blankets. Alice rolled up old blankets and propped them up like her babies.
All alike. All the same.
They told her to go down to the beach, to run away from this party of strangers.
She left a note:
Dear Susan,
It is obvious that I do not belong here.
Alice.


She tucked the note under the top dish in the pile, being careful not to clank it. She kissed goodbye each of the tattered pretend dolls. She gave a silent speech, finger pointing, head nodding, turning, as if to the crowds.
“Welcome to my homeland, the Bahamas. This is the infamous Wolf’s Den, home base for
Alice Karma,
The first clone in the history of man (Alice really did not know what a clone really was at this point, just that it meant being different and she was not supposed to know.)
She tidied up the makeshift table and laid the pretend rag dolls down on their sides. “Sleep tight”, she would say to them, “Don’t let the bedbugs bite.” (That is what her grandmother used to say. How did she remember that?)

She had to time her exit carefully. She had to slip out without being noticed and she had a little practice doing that. Often Susan or more likely Georgia would be calling out for Alice to come out. Usually she was hiding in the Wolf’s Den where she was easily apprehended once the fun wore off.

Today, she was determined. “I will run away, “ she mouthed the words with a barely audible whisper.

She grabbed some candy from her little nightstand drawer, an umbrella (no rain, yet could serve as shelter and a weapon.), a photo of her Mom Susan when she graduated from West Point, and an extra pair of underwear.
Once safely outside, she hustled towards the edge of the dunes. Her golden hair camouflage in the tall waving beach grasses.
On the beach, Alice skipped lightly at first, dodging shells and seaweed, glancing over her shoulder at times to see if anyone was following.
Her foot steps slowed to a cantor, then became more labored,
The glances over her shoulder became longer looks, and she found herself wondering how far she had gone.
Is she lost? None of this looks familiar.
A panic set in and she almost did not go on.
Still her stubbornness,
A clone of Susan’s stubbornness,
Innate in the make up of this child.
She did not turn back and went on at a defiant crawl
Head pointed straight forward at a lean into the headwinds.
She was feeling the breeze. A chill in the air.
Then a shock,
Her foot kicked it….

 Suddenly,
Alice dropped everything.
Her lower jaw fell slack.

Alice found the little girl’s tattered broken body
Washed up ashore,
The girl asleep, cool, wet and soiled.

Alice began to scream,
As loud as she could,
One long piercing high sustained
Blood curdling scream.

No one could hear her.
The waves crashing ashore.

Alice gasped for air,
And screamed again,
Eerily higher pitched,
Desperate,
Frantic,
Alice’s skin shivering and cold.

She realized they could not hear her.
She was too far away.
This girl, what to do?
She shook the girl and told her to awaken.

 
The girl vomited sea water and Alice turned her
As she had seen the rescuers do on the beaches.
She coughed and sputtered and drew a big breath
All in a deep gasp.


Alice looked at the little girl and the little girl looked at her,
Dazed and lethargic, gaining awareness slowly with each subsequent breath.
Alice said in her most proper polite Bahamian English,
“Hello young lady, my name is Alice Karma.”





Friday, March 16, 2012

Archival post, number 1

approx. 4 years after starting my blog...
this quote came to mind.
"We shall not cease from exploration and the end of our exploring
will be to arrive at where we started and know the place for the first time."
t.s. eliot

Archival post first gen travelogue post #1


Wednesday, February 13, 2008


Debut of Mary's Blog

Hello everyone and welcome to my Travelogue. I hope you are comfortable and feel free to move about the cabin. Please obey the signs when you need to sit or slow down. There may be unexpected turbulence. Try to roll with it. I know, that is not easy to do.
Drink fluids and get plenty of rest.
When stress rears its head, look it in the eye and say, "Who are you?"
Sometimes you will see your own reflection.
Strange, huh?
I was going to add a few more pictures but I am getting used to the new computer and Vista and all the quirks we have to endure when adopting a new computer system.
Don't worry, there will be posts and pictures and web links and ultimately the philosophy of one person who wants to share her thoughts in the hopes that we all can improve and be happier, healthier and satisfied even while
the wind blows through our hair.
If you impulsively subscribe and want to read this blog forever remember where you are. I guarantee by the time this blog turns to ashes you will be long gone too. That is the world according to the rules. I did not write the rules. I only read them outloud.
I wish you all well.
CULTURE
It is worthwhile buying Levon Helm's Grammy award winning latest CD, Dirt Farmer. Go to his website and buy one. He and his wonderful family and co-musicians preserved songs of history and styles of elders. What a beautiful project. levonhelm.com
Also used to  [**e 4 yrs ago used to have cable, now  I listen on 770 am online]  watch IMUS imus.com in the morning on RFD channel. He helps us get started in the morning in spite (or because) of the off color humor, we can get into our day with a laugh and smile. We marvel at the ranch story. What a great thing Imus and Deidre and donors have done for children with cancer and sickle cell anemia. Having worked in a hospital, their approach is certainly not sterile but clean and uplifting. A stark contrast to the regimented surgeries, protocols, and chemotherapy these kids are subjected to. It is wonderful to see these kids looked at with "normal" eyes. Not the pity look they are used to. These kids are stronger than those around them. They need the tough and hard aproach. Their life is so tough already and they can't show that to Mom or Grandad. This gives them the chance to really lose themselves and forget even for one moment that they have a cancer. Thanks folks. First stop on my trip around the universe.
Good day to you and Yours.
Mary Gerdt 02/13/2008 Rainy,Snowy,Icy day in Vermont

1 comments:


Hi Mary, In trying to respond to your message i ended up creating a page myself by mistake. I really just wanted to respond to you so here goes. I definitely was getting feelings of Starship Enterprise. Thanks for all the good advice. I want to recommend a fabulous book i just finished called Born on a Blue Day by Daniel Tammet. It about Daniel's story growing up and being in the world while also being autistic savant. This is a very revealing book and will change the way you think about lots of things. Coincidentally i picked up another book recently not knowing that it was about the same thing but this one is fiction. It's called THe Curious Inciden of the Dog at Night (something like that). Again, a compelling read. I too am now in the land of Vista. So far i like it just fine. I don't have a video card yet so when i do i will send some pictures (if i can figure out how too). Cool idea and i look forward to hearing about your travels in the universe that's so vast that we rarely get to see each other. At least we've got cyberspace. Love...........N

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Sun video Link



link to the sun burst,
truly?
incomprehensible.


and must view one minute link to an owl descending on prey, no blood, only the incredible photography of the person who did this:
http://www.dogwork.com/owfo8/#

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Sunday 1 & 2

Sunday photos


Not sure of the phenomenon that captured these
digital camera sun dogs

beautiful sky...warm day

oh and link to Burlington Free Press editorial about Open Mettings law

Monday, March 12, 2012

Travelogue for the Universe: Maple Sugaring NW Monkton, Vermont

Travelogue for the Universe: Maple Sugaring NW Monkton, Vermont

Archival posting from 2010...
Short sap run, warming up fast.
Heard & saw the red winged blackbirds...
happy spring!

oh yes, the "time changed", that odd phenomenon
where we try to steal some light.
well nothing is all bad. will have daylight until 7:30 now

Friday, March 9, 2012

Friday Night musik



link to Warren Zevon on you tube...
thanks to Donna for sending us a tape of his album
a few ...solar years ago..
Tgiff

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Monkton Chronicle update

Monkton Chronicles update


Monkton Vermont citizens defeated the 1.5 million dollar Town Hall complex
(per the burlington free press)
286-224

I am relieved the townspeople will not bear this burden at these difficult
economic times for everyone.

The rest I am not concerned with,
looking for a used copy of Robert's rules.
Studied phobias about speaking in crowds.
More later.

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Monkton Chronicles.Town Meeting 2012


Monkton, Vermont Town Meeting




Monkton Chronicles




March 6, 2012
by mary e. gerdt
all rights reserved 2012


My first rough draft was eaten by Google. Perhaps a conspiracy theorist would call it the next generation of social engineering. A realist would blame my inability to press “save” early & often enough and using the wrong version of something. I took it as a sign to, well, start over.

I wanted to start with a photo looking out at Monkton on Town Meeting Day 2012.
town meeting day monkton,vt 2012




For my first 25 years in Vermont, I had to work on town meeting day,

Or take a vacation day. In Monkton town meeting is on a March voting Tuesday during the day.

My initial plan was not to go to town meeting. I felt a release of anxiety with that plan.

A day for myself. We had voted absentee. At the only few town meetings I have been to,

I did not like how people voted out loud, others were looking at you or them, judging, frowning, questioning, holding to the Rules.

To Fred, a lifelong Vermonter, it was a piece of cake. Natural. He knew how to glide with the questions.

How different we can feel with experience, being an expert, or going through the cognitive motions when they are familiar. What is next on the voting?

Is everybody understanding the 200 pages of town and school budget spreadsheets?

Hurry, the Jell-O salad is melting.

How odd that being an Illinoisan, that I find this town management by the citizens to be

Foreign, haphazard, and dominated by the most vocal. The little people mute in the back.



This morning Fred talked me into going.

I made a few notes in the town report and made some calculations, like the hourly wages of the tax collector and any big concerns, like my dreams of delinquent property tax law reform. I Ink it out, my visualization technique, the first step towards realization. Come on, it is for the children who lined the crowded school auditorium/gym.
The children should not bear costs like late tax penalties and fear of zero tolerance tax sales on top of the high taxes.
If I ever am successful at reform, they might thank me when they or their parents are having hard times.

It was nice to see so many people out to vote. The room was packed.. A few people spoke up.
The agenda moved along.

Still I could not consistently say out loud “yeah” or “nay”, and kept thinking, well that passed,

Or that is OK to pass. Only when I reached a vote I felt strongly about could I muster a “nay,” one of the very few I heard considering the size of the room. I did not hear enough voices for the crowd.
What was it?

I did manage to ask several questions and tripped over Captain Robert’s Rules when I used the word change instead of amendment and was told no you can’t again.

The room got a civic lesson and I got a lesson in how perhaps we need a new system

Of communication besides Robert’s Rules.

It was a wow I am still a flatlander moment and one I will not forget. Always learned better that way anyway.

After the meeting, more moments perhaps better left on the gym floor with the cake crumbs.

I do want to thank the moderator for keeping us all on track and encouraging attendance and participation.

It really was the

Knowing and courage to speak up that I saw as an invisible wall

Between awestruck citizen statesmen, and the more experienced citizen activists

And those oblivious to tax burdens.



Fred looked down at one of the kids and said, “Are you getting all this?” and the kid nodded and smiled.

I was encouraged. The next generation.

(Did I make faces their teacher could not see when she promoted one of her agenda items,

“a teachable moment?”)



It was a relief to get back home to the cats and fresh air and sunny cold March day.

I tried to write a post once for over an hour and it seemed nothing like this one. Then it died.

That is OK. I made it through town meeting and my foreign-er anxiety and my flub at Robert’s Rules and my rant after class.



Can we ever hope to reform this system of yeah and nay and….

did you hear the silent ones? Overwhelmed, perhaps cannot understand

The complex systems or just too tired or beat to fight?



So here is my post of town meeting 2012.

The town hall vote is still pending

But most other things got approved,

The civics class has a paper due,

We exercised a right many people do not have,

6:37 pm, And I am ready to move on with my day off.
taking tomorrow off the blog to let this diffuse into the blogsphere...
mary gerdt, citizen legislator for a day 3.6.12
monkton,vt








For anyone looking to improve your meetings,
some suggestions and facts
from Ohio State U.
http://ohioline.osu.edu/cd-fact/l700.html

Very interesting was the fears that kept people from speaking up.
There are a number of barriers to overcome so you can formulate what to say
while people are looking at you.

All Alone in the Night & Blues link

NASA astronomy pic of the day from yesterday.
You really need to see this one.


Flying Over the Earth at Night
yesterday's astronomy pic of the day.
Video Credit: Gateway to Astronaut Photography, NASA ; Compilation: Bitmeizer (YouTube);

Music: Freedom Fighters (Two Steps from Hell)
credit to the astronauts, scientists and creators of this amazing movie.


also...
blues link to really great music
Wayne Baker Brooks...



Monday, March 5, 2012

Lisa Goes to Washington

Lisa is my go to girl for info about MS.
When first diagnosed, I searched the web for info.
I found Lisa and her carnival of MS Bloggers.
She even posted some of my stories....
Then her research,
and her love of music, hearing about her music lessons,
piano and brass.
And most of all my friends, some suffer,
all survive, all support each other.
(links to Herrad in particular helped me make a dear friend & also connect with the world.)
Lisa is also an expert on Rheumatoid Arthritis.
Her widgets always in my margin.
Now Lisa is live blogging from the center of political actions, Wash DC.
Lisa is looking out for those with MS. Follow her trail talk as she
navigates the political Arena.
Don't let the lions get you Lisa.
brassandivory.blogspot.com

oh yes, 4 inches of new snow, winter arrived in VT last night,
don't worry, it will be gone tomorrow.
mary

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Interview with a Clone Chapter 5

Interview with a Clone Chapter 5

by mary e gerdt c 2012 all rights reserved


Betty Wolf held the tiny little baby in her hands and her heart filled up with love.

All the arguments with Susan, all the doubts, all the misgivings, internal strife, the grating thoughts, all the bad in the world could not steal this moment from Betty.

Betty had longed for a grandchild to hold, to love, to start over with. Her only daughter was Susan, who was always so wrapped up in science, the space program, her travels,

And into her loneliness as Betty thought, her never marrying, a foreign concept to Betty, whose conventional wisdom apparently was not genetic but taught. Betty grew up in the rural hinterlands, survived many years and felt grounded, she had her faith, her belief system, her solid community involvement, in the groove of a fragile place.

Here, she was finally a grandmother, and facing her worst fears.

This was also her scientifically created daughter.



Alice Karma was a beautiful baby, just like Susan. Betty would say that over and over.

Susan at first angry, annoyed, came to accept her mother’s quirky actions and well, the truth. Susan came to see her mother as who she really was only in the last 18 months of her mother’s life.



Susan had spent 2 years in Switzerland in a lab where she helped develop animal, plant and then human cloning. There must have been some unknown corporate backing. (As an adult, Alice stayed up late some nights wondering who backed the production of her.)

No one knew then and no one knows still just who or what funded this project. No records exist as far as anyone knows.

Susan then began the long trek towards giving birth to Alice, the first cloned baby.

Several miscarriages named only by number gave Susan nightmares sometimes. She had been pretty far along. A boy (no one knows whose DNA that was) and a girl, Alice's sister.

This time she flew back and went to full term.

Her Mom was there and was asked to wait outside the birthing room. There were so many doctors (who also owned the company) and Betty thought something had gone wrong.

Instead, they softly cheered at the healthy scrappy girl and each felt their wallet expand and their minds went wild with possibility. They are only human.

Each doctor had put in their life savings and more.

They were bound to silence and each left shortly after the birth.



All so confusing for Betty. She sat all alone on a hard bench staring at the linoleum at the hospital in Bermuda. Counting the tiles, one, two, three, trying not to cry. No shoulders here, or ever Betty thought, a total life review on this hard hospital bench.

Georgia was Susan’s midwife and was busy caring for the baby and afterbirth care.

The doctors filed out with a cold congratulations, eager to call their wives, their brokers, their banks, their lawyers. They were part of something wildly phenomenal.



Susan was overwhelmed. She held Alice to her heart, she felt nothing.

Then she felt, why did I do this to you? Why did I bring you here?

Then a rushing feeling. “Alice,” she uttered softly, “I love you.” Then Susan asked Georgia to knock her out with something. Susan had never felt that kind of love before.

Georgia settled Susan with a sedative.



Georgia took the baby to Betty.

“Please help us Betty and love this child in your normal way. We do not want anything out of the ordinary for Alice. We cannot have this child thinking she is ..well…different, or a thing…”



Betty nodded and began her 18 month love affair with little Alice.

Alice does not remember and cannot remember these moments. Georgia would not tell her, Susan was wrapped up in her life work. Betty was gone now, a woman of few words anyway, but the one woman who could have explained that day, that balmy Bermuda day,

When the first human clone was born.

Saturday, March 3, 2012

Saturday nachtmusic Link



Link to the wonderful
Teresa Williams & Larry Campbell

wow
happy saturday nacht

Farewell to Davy Jones. Condolences to his beautiful family and such sorrow.
His music I hold in my heart, his cute face and English accent made him #1, well for a minute, then the others would be #1, they were all 4 my favorite. A fun show and happy music, breaking away too from some of the downer stuff of the times. His music will live on with such simple tunes as my favorite:
I'm a Believer...

Friday, March 2, 2012

Space Travel Dreams



A Dream
A Dream of a day
crossing the wide voids
to a new land,
new possibilities,
hope for perpetuity,
hope for reasons to hope
and dream.

Town Meetings, lessons

Lessons in Town meetings,
I was searching for answers why Monkton Chronicles seemed frustrated
about
taxes and criticisms about minutes
like wanting to see town minutes timely and more thoroughly and participate
as fully as i can.
if i do not feel comfortable getting all bully in someone's face or shouting Yeah
at the meeting, my meek nay getting a dirty look, sorry if i am so sensitive,
so if taxes go up-they will-because i could not attend town meeting because it makes me nauseated to see such an antiquated out of date,
intimidating for some process of yelling votes and dirty looks, the 85% of communication
nonverbal. how do i say this? to the world.

Here is a great link to a town meeting that made me laugh and realize I really am better off at home and did my absentee ballot.

http://villagetattler.com/2011/08/14/the-bullies-pulpit-huntingtons-town-board/

oh yes, Happy 113th Birthday Mr. Kuethe. I still remember your rough weathered hands
your kind face and riding on your shoulders home up the hill to my parent's place.

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Archives of the First Gen Travelogue

The very first post I did on the old archived Travelogue.
about 4 years ago and first comment,
thanks sis...


Wednesday, February 13, 2008


Debut of Mary's Blog

Hello everyone and welcome to my Travelogue. I hope you are comfortable and feel free to move about the cabin. Please obey the signs when you need to sit or slow down. There may be unexpected turbulence. Try to roll with it. I know, that is not easy to do.
Drink fluids and get plenty of rest.
When stress rears its head, look it in the eye and say, "Who are you?"
Sometimes you will see your own reflection.
Strange, huh?
I was going to add a few more pictures but I am getting used to the new computer and Vista and all the quirks we have to endure when adopting a new computer system.
Don't worry, there will be posts and pictures and web links and ultimately the philosophy of one person who wants to share her thoughts in the hopes that we all can improve and be happier, healthier and satisfied even while
the wind blows through our hair.
If you impulsively subscribe and want to read this blog forever remember where you are. I guarantee by the time this blog turns to ashes you will be long gone too. That is the world according to the rules. I did not write the rules. I only read them outloud.
I wish you all well.
CULTURE
It is worthwhile buying Levon Helm's Grammy award winning latest CD, Dirt Farmer. Go to his website and buy one. He and his wonderful family and co-musicians preserved songs of history and styles of elders. What a beautiful project.
Also watch IMUS in the morning on RFD channel. He helps us get started in the morning in spite (or because) of the off color humor, we can get into our day with a laugh and smile. We marvel at the ranch story. What a great thing Imus and Deidre and donors have done for children with cancer and sickle cell anemia. Having worked in a hospital, their approach is certainly not sterile but clean and uplifting. A stark contrast to the regimented surgeries, protocols, and chemotherapy these kids are subjected to. It is wonderful to see these kids looked at with "normal" eyes. Not the pity look they are used to. These kids are stronger than those around them. They need the tough and hard aproach. Their life is so tough already and they can't show that to Mom or Grandad. This gives them the chance to really lose themselves and forget even for one moment that they have a cancer. Thanks folks. First stop on my trip around the universe.
Good day to you and Yours.
Mary Gerdt 02/13/2008 Rainy,Snowy,Icy day in Vermont

1 comments:


Hi Mary, In trying to respond to your message i ended up creating a page myself by mistake. I really just wanted to respond to you so here goes. I definitely was getting feelings of Starship Enterprise. Thanks for all the good advice. I want to recommend a fabulous book i just finished called Born on a Blue Day by Daniel Tammet. It about Daniel's story growing up and being in the world while also being autistic savant. This is a very revealing book and will change the way you think about lots of things. Coincidentally i picked up another book recently not knowing that it was about the same thing but this one is fiction. It's called THe Curious Inciden of the Dog at Night (something like that). Again, a compelling read. I too am now in the land of Vista. So far i like it just fine. I don't have a video card yet so when i do i will send some pictures (if i can figure out how too). Cool idea and i look forward to hearing about your travels in the universe that's so vast that we rarely get to see each other. At least we've got cyberspace. Love...........N

Lions & lambs

In like a Lion
this year,
March is
my birth month.

Martian horoscope,
Red my color,
Ram is my animal.
First, Headstong,
Like a Lion.

In 6th grade,
I adopted a persona,
Gerby Growler,
My image,
a rough drawn lion face.

I felt sorry for the lions
at St. Louis Zoo when I was younger,
caged, pacing, panting,
now knowing my pet cats,
the lions were confined,
trapped, uncomfortable,
now inconsolable.
What a great day when they opened the lion exhibit
that allowed lions to at least have a little space.
It is still like jail to a cat.

Lions must be free
and balanced by the
lamb, the personality which we also adopt at times
of vulnerability or satisfaction.
(loved the book/song/movie Born Free about lions..)

Lions can be docile but lambs cannot be ferocious.

As a Mary, I have been asked how was my lamb, garden, etc.
Everyone thinks they are funny ha ha. not.
And still, I love the Stevie Ray Vaughn version of "Mary had a Little Lamb"

Back to the weather, in like a lion, March predicted by folk rules
to be out like a lamb,
check back March 31st.

Gerby Growler