Grandpa Florida

I think I speak for all of us when I say “I love Florida.”

I mean that, of course, in that special way that we reserve for “I love Grandpa (and make special allowances for him).”  Like Grandpa, Florida is great to visit on vacation, even if it is always good to get home again, afterwards.  Like Grandpa, Florida can get a little crazy in his politics.  The rest of us know that, like Grandpa, Florida sometimes takes a little longer, so we need to be patient.  We know that, like Grandpa, Florida sometimes leaves a mess for the rest of us to clean up.  And we know that, like Grandpa, Florida can’t always make up its mind.

That doesn’t mean we don’t love Florida; we do.  It’s just we’d rather not have Florida in charge of getting us to the theater on time; wouldn’t he just be happier to stay home and visit with us when we get back?  Can we make that suggestion for the next election?  Florida, don’t bother yourself; we’ll figure it out and get back to you when it’s over.

What difference would that make to the process anyway?  Every election, Florida stands there window shopping for days after everyone else has made their purchase: “I kinda want the red one, but I kinda want the blue one.  I dunno.  Red.  Blue.  The red goes better with my comfortable shorts, but the blue would look nice if I ever wanted to dress up.”

Who cares?  He’s gonna be happy half the time, and crabby as hell half the time whichever way we go.  Why don’t we just pick it for him every year like we did this year.  Let’s just make it official: on the first Tuesday in November of even numbered years, America goes to the polls; and Florida waits at home, watching on television to see how it comes out.

Goldengrove: Experimenting with video

I thought I would play with my camera and technology and see what it's like to put together a video. This is still rough and crude, but I like rough and crude.

  I've always liked Hopkins's poem and Vivaldi's music; and for visuals, it's hard to beat Meteorological Conditions:

Spring and Fall:
 to a Young Child

Margaret, are you grieving
Over Goldengrove unleaving?
Leaves, like the things of man, you 
With your fresh thoughts care for, can you?
Ah! as the heart grows older
It will come to such sights colder
By and by, nor spare a sigh
Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie;
And yet you will weep and know why.
Now no matter, child, the name:
Sorrow's springs are the same.
Nor mouth had, no nor mind, expressed
What héart héard of, ghóst guéssed:
It is the blight man was born for,
It is Margaret you mourn for.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRLu2lKx0sQ

Blustery Day It is such a beautiful, blustery day today, with leaves blowing everywhere. We know what it means: cold weather is coming, soon the leaves will all be gone from the trees, skies will be grey, our lives will turn cold and damp. But that's all ahead of us. Today, many of the leaves are still green. And they, and even their cousins who have already put on their brightly-colored autumn coats are clinging tenaciously to one more week on the limbs And that wind--that billows and builds and swirls and wraps itself around the house--it isn't really serious. It's almost southern. It plays with us, soothes our skin instead of cutting it, takes just a small nip as it calms before building again. It's like it's saying, "I'll be back in a month or two, all grown up, to make your life miserable, but today, let's just play. It's almost like an autumn politician, lying with the promise of March that summer is right around the corner. It is around the corner, but we are going the other way. That makes it a good day for looking back . . .

How STUPID is this sign? This yard sign (I have copied one from Texas) has begun popping up in yards in Indiana recently.

Indiana has a REPUBLICAN Governor. BOTH Houses of its General Assembly have REPUBLICAN majorities. BOTH of its Senators are REPUBLICAN. SIX of its nine Congressional delegates are REPUBLICAN. The current session of the House of Representatives, UNDER A REPUBLICAN MAJORITY, enacted less legislation than any session since the nineteenth century. Under REPUBLICAN leadership, they voted 33 times to repeal a bill, knowing that the repeal would not be passed by the Senate, and offering NOTHING in its place, simply posturing for political gain. Under REPUBLICAN leadership, this Congress deliberately precipitated an international monetary crisis over the debt ceiling, thereby lowering the country’s credit rating for the first time in history. The immediate consequence of this cynical REPUBLICAN strategy of putting partisan interest ahead of national interest directly corresponds to the months of highest unemployment rates, dampening the economic recovery so that they would have a campaign issue this fall. Let’s fix the problem, and re-write that sign:

So here's the game plan: As autumn creeps ever further south, the air gets cooler, the pollen floats more insistently, the leaves change colors (though, due to the drought, they mostly just turn shades of brown) and fall. If you have been noticing, the past few nights, the moon rises later in the evening and further north in the eastern sky each night, large and luminous. Soon, pumpkins will be carved and frightening little children will swarm around our doors, threatening us with mayhem and probably dressed like Kristen Stewart and/or Robert Pattinson. We will throw candy at them and hope that they go away. And if I keep my promises, then for a little while at least, I will be posting here again, and using photographs from the last days of summer at the lake to remember when days were long and life was good.

So, let's stretch and greet the day . . .

. . . take in the view with our morning coffee . . .

. . . look around to see what interesting things might capture our attention during the day . . .

. . . and pause to reflect that such beauty only shows up in our lives once in a blue moon. But if we are paying attention, that is more than enough.

Today seems like a good day to re-start Daily Paxil. It is bright and sunny, and their is that marvelously crisp quality to the autumn air that makes every breath feel like a bite of a fresh-picked apple. Colors have begun to change . . .

. . . and the cats are mesmerized by the songbirds outside the windows.

Change is coming. You can believe it.