Paul McCartney 'Early Days'

Was quite thrilled to see a tweet from Sir Paul McCartney
as he connects with the worldwide audience

Tweet your questions now! #askPaul pic.twitter.com/3vkXCLenWw
— Paul McCartney (@PaulMcCartney) October 20, 2014

and without reservations, we adore him.
Above is a YT video link to a movie Sir Paul did.
He is on tour in the US and putting out a new album....
Great movie ...
meg

And thrilled to get a tweet...
So much am posting late today...
Why we tweet & blog  <3 p="">

.@marygerdt Spend three days in bed! #askPaul
— Paul McCartney (@PaulMcCartney) October 20, 2014

Thursday Gaz round up...

After awhile,

I can only ignore just so many stop the pipeline updates.

Being a citizen #Fracktivist

takes more than a high speed modem, a google account and 

a stupid rant.

After hearing the blowhard biased Journalismus,

Have been repressing

rage

irritation

hostile anger

mild hostility

mere annoyance,

demand for censorship/equal time.

oh, what difference does it make, anyway?

note to self: let go of petty haters, people who put others down.

Just wanted to get that out of the way early on. 

You know, if I ever affect how someone feels about an issue,

or clarify something, or share an emotion, music, art, a story,

then my work is done. I am not out to make a living at any of this.

That is not why I blog.

I blog because it connects people, it logs my thoughts,

it shares my views, literally and figuratively,

it is living history, the kind I wish I had when My grandparents were young.

It is a shelf of stories, short enough to enjoy and move on,

knowing a little more each time it is read or viewed.

So, for what it is worth in my amateur world of reporting, for free, unemcumbered by conflict of interest save

saving the planet and our water, lakes, streams.

First a link to seven days, the local paper:

http://www.sevendaysvt.com/vermont/in-pipeline-battle-vermont-gas-may-be-its-own-worst-enemy/Content?oid=2366668

Next, a piece from public radio:

http://www.northcountrypublicradio.org/news/story/24827/20140509/critics-supporters-tangle-over-pipeline-under-lake-champlain

From Burlington Free Press:

http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/story/home/2014/05/07/pipeline-hearing-draws-crowd-shoreham/8831783/

Rutland Herald:

http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20140508/THISJUSTIN/140509960

Too tired to keep going...

Ending with a witty quote attributed to Canadian owned Vermont Gaz rep:

Best quote from VGS so far: “We’d be laying the proposed pipeline just right of this road…actually right where you see all of those ‘stop the fracked gas pipeline’ signs.”

Legacy

Legacy

is a powerful concept.
Ideally must be
simple,
condensed,
to the point,
and yet
it takes a
Lifetime
to
create.

Judging by the
bad boys in the news
(you know who-why waste ink on their
creepy name/image),
a
Legacy
can be ruined
by
one or more bad acts,
or deeds and or
a scandal,
that becomes public.
(ethics ? does that mean if no one knows, legacy unscathed?)

Also certain,
If one at first hears
Scandal
and it is later
retracted...
The impact of the Scandal
sears a pathway in the observer's head,
never to be undone by
retraction....

Is that powerful?
 

why

why we blog

 

and you should too

 

Because:

 

What you say, see, think, hear or believe,

is shared by at least one if not a billion people

and

if even one says

bravo

or

well done

or

Yo

or

 

 

 

(nothing)

 

the energy of the message, that you formulate,

compose, devise,

then respond,

revise

and publish,

that energy is precious

in spite of

sometimes glaring typos you cannot see until the next day,

and even then,

it is your blog.

it is OK.

 

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

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

Battle & Reflection

Battle & Reflection



tommy & me
reflections



it is a strange little shadow box

with a mirror back,

found @ a rummage sale

& I in put little special stones,

one 82 cal lead slug

&

Florence Nightingale's quote,

"I think one's feelings are wasted in words,

they should all be distilled into actions

which bring results."

Not that I totally agree with that which was

the reason for the dinosaurs, 'gators,

rocks & the elephant gun slug

we bought in Chambersburg,PA

(& why I am a nurse blogger, not a war nurse)

Florence was a nurse in the Crimean War

which gives a layer of meaning to her quote.

She started forensic nursing then, lending

sensibility, order & science to abhorrent conditions.

In our daily battles,

 when dodging monsters,

sticks & stones,

we are grateful

& there is no doubt we are guided by

Guardians Angels

obvious after some time

&

 further reflections on the battle.

No more Folks, please

In winter's tedious nights, sit by the fire With good old folks, and let them tell thee tales. --Shak. [1913 Webster]

Sometimes you hear a word one too many times.

In fact, (my factual universe), in my opinion stream,
(as a common tribal blogger),
the most overused word in the last few years is

Folks.

It grates me, like fingernails on a chalk board,
not the fake eraser board crap they make now,
no,
the real old fashioned,
big, all wall,
chalkboard.
Do you remember running your nails down a chalkboard in that classroom of the 1950-60's?

Are you really a "Folk"?

(i looked it up finally today, been meaning to, and it has interesting roots if you want,
just google it. discussion points for tribal suppers: tribal? Is this a distinction from the educated class?)

OK, back up. They have an overused word list every year. Somebody does,
someone in the word authority field. As if I am not a word authority myself.
Well, even an amateur status. That is what must make me a

folk blogger. n. informal,unvalidated uneducated science,history journalist, photographer, poet, lover of art, music, medicine
and sharing her limited folk-wit with the world at large
in a non profit but honest folk wage way. may travel in blog packs in the blogosphere. may be blonde :) 

So the word Amazing made the overused word list last year.
And I posted Sean Costello's video of him singing Amazing,
(which was, I am not sorry to say, Amazing!)
Come on, it is a great word to describe amazing things!

So now do you hear the word

Folk

and feel like someone is putting you in a tribe?
Like someone is placating the folk?
ah shucks politics again.

amazing

I am a Blogger, Don't Mind Me

i am just a blogger, don't mind me, take your big newspaper and sell it, I am Free



You might hear
"those damn bloggers.



how dare they



have opinions or



voice them



what do they think?



that they can think? "



copyright 2012 mary e gerdt

in spite of that you may distribute ad lib

for non for profit reasons

[i am a blogger and support bloggers. When I heard Bob Schiefer
cry out Bloggers as if a dirty word, this poem came to me. Come on,
bloggers are expressing their right to self express. If you do not like the message,
turn it off. If you want to control my messages, then I believe we have a difference of opinion.
mary.e.gerdt 1.28.2012]

The 399

The 399

This is my

399th

post.

And as I write,

 squeezing out a story,

fantasizing I am a

newspaper woman

of the 1950's,

silk stockings,

a pencil behind my ear,

a typewriter

with ribbon,

do you even know what that looks like?

Or a typesetter,

I have known one at least in my lifetime,

they set the individual letters

for printing presses and

made the nickel newspapers

of long ago.

But I am a blogger,

wondering some days why

but mostly feeling,

it gives me a place to spill

my perspective

and read a few others'

viewpoints.

My support group,

my opinions

displayed

my feelings,

what I can reveal,

my struggles

for justice,

my place for me.

This is the 399th post.

That is why we blog.

Blogging to win friends and influence people

The title is really for fun and a little flashback to a book that sat on my mother's bookshelf.
Soon, books may not have that effect on us. Books now in digital format, paper falling away to the cyberworld revolution.
I would pull that book off the shelf sometimes, hoping to absorb some wisdom from the chapters.
In reality, how to win friends really has little to do with reading a book or practising the outlined strategies in chapter 3.
So do blogs win friends or influence people?
I really cannot say.
And if these posts do influence someone to right a wrong or enjoy an image or song, or cry,
then perhaps they are influential.
Will my blog Win enemies? Perhaps.
Win friends? Maybe.
But there are some interactions that do require more human-ness and less cyber-stuff.
And we lock the memories we keep in our protein silos in our brain,

How do I describe that feeling, that moment so rare?

That is what I meant,
That  is why we blog.

Reading Posts

Feeling too busy to read all the posts of the bloggers I follow.
I will catch up. They are all such great writers and people.
They are documenting daily Earth life and who they are.
A living book or something I had a dream about-so witty it was, I lost it when light peeked through the window waking me.
Trying to spring clean which seems endless for being a new beginning.
Still wondering about the anal-ysts who changed daylight savings
the last time. Our VCR (yes we still have one) skipped ahead this morning causing quite
a discussion, wonderment, puzzlement until Fred figured it out.
It is so old, the daylight savings is on the wrong day.
Without spending energy on that foolishness, I might have had more time to read those posts.
Feel free to visit my favorite sites listed on the far right lower page.
Back to cleaning.

Legacy of words

All she had were words
at the end.

A string of words on pages
scribbled at the end of the day
or when she was too tired to write the whole story.

Hoping the words would help her recapture the moment she had that
Aha type moment
at the end of her day.

The next morning, a clear cold sky awaits the next battle,
the next battle scars,
the challenge to help her find the strength
to endure the day after tomorrow.

The scars a memory of stressors past,
now so distant seeming,
but still full of feelings,
things could have gone a better way.

Yes the mean people shall not falter
or fall in front of you,
but wait a minute, you need do nothing,
rest assured, traveler,
they will fall.

The universe was meant to right the wrongs and wrong the rights
and at the end of the day,
perhaps we can find some solace
in that thought.

My Blogger Review

My Blogger Review for 2010.
I now have my favorite bloggers list down on the right hand column.

My blog is still being fueled by a need I have to tell a story.
My inner desire to publish my own variety newspaper, in this
new medium, one I can see, share and revisit.
I started blogging several years ago after being diagnosed with MS.
The clinical info was one thing. But I wanted to know the real
story. I was drawn to Lisa Emrich's blog, Brass and Ivory. Excellent in every way.
Through Lisa I found Herrad's very special blog Access Denied,
Marc's entertaining informative Wheelchair Kamikaze,
More favorites: Judy's Peace be with you, Chain Reaction, Words Salads.
Daily Athens shares life in this ancient city as well as German
poetry,  photos, philosophy. Also Che with her fabulous shoes at Wobbly Teetering...
These and the other blogs I list are my galaxy.
on wordpress.com, looking over the kitchen sink draws me to a kinder gentler place....

I have to limit the number I follow, but I try to read their stories even if I am late sometimes.
Like a newspaper, my list consists of blogger friends who lighten the day
with their kind and honest pearls
chronicling life in the 20 tens.....

From the Archives

I started blogging on the old aol site until they closed down.

This picture of our classic barn cat Napoleon

appeared in the First Edition of the Travelogue.

I found blogging started out as being a place to unload

my personal views, frustrations, hopefully some

wisdom or empathy for another's plight. For what hurts me hurts you too.

I connected with some other bloggers who also have MS

and in that respect, a virtual support group with infinite

acceptance from my worldwide friends who comment and

read my rants and dreams and enjoy a random photo of

a cat we found when a little ball of fur out by the barn.

The first night I went out because he was crying. I reached to rescue him and

he hissed and bit at me.

"Forget you!" I said.

The next day he was crying. Fred went out

and picked up the hungry little orphan who by now

relented to human contact.

That is how we got that little scrapper who beat up kittens twice his size.

At one time I might have jotted this down in a notebook.

But these days we can ping this message around the world

and perhaps people reading this later, will enjoy,

these random trains of thoughts and images

and perhaps they will understand

why we blog.

mary

Final Chapter

The final chapter decided to be, well, the final one.
I promise not to go on and on about it any more.
There could have been many more chapters. There could have been emails and I could have posted the response from the town fathers. In fact I promised that.
But I find myself spinning stranger than fiction living yarns
and the more that is said, the more disbelief by the reader.
That is no way to tell a story, a believable story.

There will be nothing more said except when I twitter a one liner to show the universe my fight is still alive. My story,
a book to be put on a shelf labelled, Monkton Scandal.

The future holds the answers as to how the tax farmers of 2050 will rake the victims. The future knows how many might have owned land, but for extraordinary circumstances, they suffer the
cold and callous hand of the tax ferrets of 2100.

My battle lost and surrender complete.
This subject must stop.
Let the universe correct any wrongs.
The girl is tired of fighting.
Potato review next....

Chapter Three

Something kept me from posting Chapter Three. I tried a couple of times and it didn't work so I stopped.
It was a sign, perhaps.
I knew I did not want to post all bazillion emails I sent to the town, the town's lawyer, the newspapers, secretary of state, politicians, governor, and myself. I wanted to post the 2 responses I got, one promising to send me proof I was contacted (never received) and an apology from the lawyer who had a conflict of interest but still made $1,000 while we did not have Christmas that year. But I cannot.
Suffice it to say these things happened. And if you do not believe me, seeing the letters won't convince you anyway.
The data I wanted to post were all mysteriously hijacked by adobe and un-paste-able in these posts.
No, it is not like the dog ate my homework.
It is indeed more of the mystery of the stranger than fiction reality of property tax lien sales.
Hard to define, explain, track down.
Impossible, it seems, to reform, call attention to and correct.
The German ancestors crying in their sleep about the dollars wasted here being mined or milked by taxmen, lawyers and carpetbaggers.
Can someone wake and see the tide of incivility where a quaint little town like this sleepy camelot might threaten a girl's property and not see fit to talk to her, know who she is, what she is fighting?
It all sounds so unreal that I know I risk losing more readers to games, shopping, or baking cookies.
So Chapter Three will be short and sweet. A promise of more data as I can collate it,
and other experiences to demonstrate my demands for reform every day that I live on this travelogue of life.
mary gerdt, monkton, vermont

Take a look out over the kitchen sink

Take a trip with our country neighbors...

http://windowoverthekitchensink.wordpress.com/

oh that relish looks yummy and hope for the donkey's deliverance into his proper care and love.
i would judge a person by how much they love a donkey, wouldn't that be an easy indicator.

mary

Write your heart out.

Write your heart out folks, or read others write their hearts out. Start with my blogger friends on my profile. They are the best to me.
I found through a Guy Forsyth song, the name Jack Kerouac and was wondering who he was.
Googling I found this link:

http://www.poetspath.com/transmissions/messages/kerouac.html

Kind of eerie he died before blogging but here we are some of us, stream of consciousness, chronicling life, normal stuff, poems that don't rhyme well enough for some.
One way trip out there.
Gave me something to think about.
Made a marinated tomato salad. Pulled some of the early blight leaves off the tomatoes. Put in the garbage. The rest of vegetation is healthy.
Fred treated them with baking soda and water.
Hope the late blight stays away.
Follow up to perio surgery-doing OK. Plan phase 2 next month. For now back on more regular food.
Captain back to normal again.
Guy's song still playing in my head about Jack...
(from 2 CD live at Antone's-unreal)
"Children of Jack..."
awesome
Mary

Blogger trails

For some weird reason I have been unable to post since Friday.
Now it is back up as if nothing happened (did it really?)
Once again this situation points to the fact that I have become dependent on my train of self expression, my highway to catharsis, my blogger dusty trail.
Somehow it was also linked with some posts I almosts did which led me to call it Random Blogger Bingo.
The words spit out sometimes like in real life and then they are hard to retrieve. These three almost posts ended up instead in my archive e-mail likely to never see the light of day or a monitor glow.
Will you wonder about the blog never posted? The trail not taken seriously?
Was it my road lesser travelled?
Best wishes on your dusty blogger trail. Read the bloggers I follow and your path will be lighter I guarantee.
They make it look easy and help me spit out my feelings so that someday, someone may understand
my viewpoint and not
what someone else thinks of me.
Click on Carolyn Wonderland's link, Her song so true, I don't want to be Miss Understood.....
Now what was I talking about?

Oh yes, Bingo.....