Monday, August 29, 2005

You Are Likely an Only Child

At your darkest moments, you feel frustrated.
At work and school, you do best when you're organizing.
When you love someone, you tend to worry about them.

In friendship, you are emotional and sympathetic.
Your ideal careers are: radio announcer, finance, teaching, ministry, and management.
You will leave your mark on the world with organizational leadership, maybe as the author of self-help books.



Well I'm certainly thankful I wasn't an only child, I loved having my brother and sister in my life. As for feeling frustrated, yes, I am frustrated, usually by my inability to fix things for myself and other people so that everyone has what they want and is happy. And by my failings. This makes my life a frustrating existence. Leaving my mark on the world? Perhaps by writing something, but most likely NOT self-help books. A record of my existence, perhaps.
Aug 26, 7:05 AM EDT

Chinese try to get chimp to quit smoking

XI'AN, China (AP) -- The handlers of a smoking chimpanzee in a zoo in northwest China are trying to get her to kick the habit.

The 26-year-old female chimpanzee has been smoking for 15 years. Her mate died recently, which caused her to smoke even more.

Now, the chimp's keepers are worried about her health as a result of her intense smoking. So, they're trying to give her milk instead of cigarettes.

She started smoking years ago by picking up butts from tourists.



© 2005 The Associated Press. All righ


Well, you know, you can teach a monkey to make a sandwich...

I had a busy weekend but managed to spend several hours in my famous telescope chair on the dock, reading, sunning and napping. Dogs were there, napping on the end of the dock in between their visits with my cousins' children's children. That was Saturday and it was wonderful. The water is colder, due to cold nights we've been having, but it was still great for swimming and dunking when my skin got hot.

Friday night I ended up at a friend's camp on Union Falls, one with probably the best view of any camp I've seen. Whiteface, the end of the bluffs, tip of Silver Lake Mountainn bluffs in the distance, Catamount and Douglas. I showed up as a surprise, which thrilled Peter because he's invited me at least 4 times and I've either been unable to come or haven't wanted to come (last time I was in my jammies). I met the people who live in the really nice house about 2 miles down the hardtop and had a nice long talk with them. They were as excited to meet me as I was to meet them, which is such a nice feeling--someone knows of you and wants to meet you. I had a long visit with Dennis, who is the caretaker for the big girls camp at the end of the lake and lives there intermittently in the winter. Linda and Erdvilas were there (which is why I was there, I tagged along with them). There was some strange man who was building a house in the woods for a friend and was living in the house while he was building it. Linda said he had his sights set on me but I must be really out of touch because I didn't notice it at all and I even gave him a ride back to his car later on. I spent the evening trying to figure out where this house of his was being built. Anyway it was really nice to be there and I enjoyed myself a whole lot.

Saturday night I had dinner with my cousins, ones we have avoided being with for the last several years. There sons are now 15 and 12 and are turning out to be very nice people. The parents are actually almost pleasant except I had to sit on the porch with the mother for 45 minutes after dinner, in the dark strugglingg to stay awake while she told me all about the seminars and workshops she attended earlier in the summer, learning how to teach Spanish better and hearing an incredibly detailed description of the project she did comparing male vs. female treatmentt of romantic tales in early Spain. yawn. Anyway they are always very nice to me and very welcoming and I like their sons. Yes, family, faint in surprise, I like those boys now, they are nice.

Sunday dinner was at Linda's and was delicious. It was grilled lamb chops, which I don't normally like, but she had marinated them and they were really good. Fred joined us but Bill was unable to be there. We had a really nice time. I went home, hung out, read a really awful nasty letter from my mother, got depressed and sad, then got invited to dinner by my cousins from across the lake. Nice surprise. They have two children, a 2 year old and an infant. Kelly, the baby, slept the entire time, but Kyle was running around and very busy all evening. I had a good visit with Tom and Sheila, whom I hadn't spent any time with earlier in the summer, and who are good friends.

So, whew! what a weekend. I got next to no housework done. I watched Kevin Costner's The Upside of Anger last night, which wasn't bad but sure wasn't very funny. He's aging well, though.

And now I'm back at work, cataloging Jack Nicholson Cult Classics, a 3-video set that includes the 1961 version of Little Shop of Horrors. Is there someone in Saranac Lake waiting to watch it?

Friday, August 26, 2005

It's a beautiful day
I went for a ride at lunch, to run errands, and picked up my pictures. Mostly they are pictures of my cousins' children and their children (these would be my first cousins twice removed). There are some very nice pictures of some very nice children. They will go in the camp photo album, and in 10-15 years these children will really enjoy looking at them, as we all enjoy looking at the albums my mother put together over the last 40 years. I didn't take any good pictures last year, nor did I put together the collection from 2003. I need to do that, and to put these in the album I have. We have a picture taken each year of the family meeting (as my brother said, some families have reunions, our family has a meeting) and I include that in the album as well.

Last night my friend Linda had her annual campfire party. It was unusually big this year because more people were around for it. Some of my favorite people were there, and I sat in the middle of the gathering, next to the fire, surrounded by my tribe of friends, feeling very happy and very much part of the group. A nice group. Among them is a woman who used to date Christopher Reeve. Yes, Superman has been to Silver Lake. Two of her daughters and her niece put on a musicale for us, selections from the show Oliver! It was totally wonderful and sweet and reminded me so much of my sister and me when we were that age, around 8 and 10. They sang and acted out about 4 scenes. This was one of the musicals my father really enjoyed, and he used to play it for us when we came home from school for lunch, every day. When we left the house he would quote the play and say, in a British accent "I shall be waiting for you hear when you get back." It wasn't until I was an adult that I realized how much he enjoyed feeding his daughters their lunches every day.

Anyway, I had a wonderful time at the campfire, and after the 35 or so people all left, Erdvilas, Linda and I sat around the embers and reviewed the evening. The little girls who put on the play were the same ones who had my dogs last year, and one of them said to me "Tessie visited us the other day, she swam out to our float with us and stayed for a really long time." I didn't say "Yes, and I cried my eyes out with worry while she was gone." I just said how nice they had been to her. But the evening was truly special and made me realize what great friends I have and how much I like being part of the community I live in. I'm not sure I could stand it all year long, though, but I sure do enjoy the summer.

Tomorrow is supposed to be 80 degrees and sunny. Sounds like a dock day to me. Better vacuum the living room, clean the bathroom and finish the laundry tonight! Ken said he had the liquor bottles out and ready for me last night, but I never showed up. I got my hair cut instead, and honestly I can't stop there every single night, I have to have my own life. I told him I'd stop tonight.

I tried to pick blackberries last night but the deer had eaten them all in one spot where I pick. They nipped the branches right down. On my way to Linda's there was a doe and fawn standing at the edge of the road, just standing there, not even swishing their tails. It was a stand-off, me in my car and them. Their ears were huge and they refused to move. Finally little fawn flipped its huge white tail, as big as the tail on a dog, and leapt into the woods. Its mother waited until it was a safe distance away, then followed. They were really pretty. But they've eaten all the blackberries!

Steve worked on my deck yesterday. He has the front finished, but has come to a grinding halt on the side and stairs connecting to the mud room door because there is a huge (2-foot wide) paper wasps' nest in the corner of the door. Very dramatic. I don't know when they built that, sometime in the past few weeks. He said he would spray the poison into it if I bought the stuff and left the can on the deck. Yeah! for him, I'm too short to have a stable grip on the ladder and spray at the same time.

I must finish stacking my firewood this weekend too, since Ken wants another load, Linda wants a load, and I need another load. There's no place to put my load until I clear out the spot where the first load was dumped. Then I'll have to stack the whole SECOND load! And soon, too. Winter is approaching.

Liza's space


Liza's space
Originally uploaded by woodsrun.

Molly's space


Molly's space
Originally uploaded by woodsrun.

Liza in repose


Liza in repose
Originally uploaded by woodsrun.

Molly at work


Molly at work
Originally uploaded by woodsrun.

Tess


Tess
Originally uploaded by woodsrun.

Molly's new glasses


Molly's new glasses
Originally uploaded by woodsrun.

Thursday, August 25, 2005

What my life is like
Right now it's very dull. The most striking things I've dealt with this week are:
I was late for work because I didn't think I had to go to work on Monday so I went back to sleep
I got the wrong size coffee this morning at the store because my eyes deceived me and I picked up the wrong cup
I spent an hour yesterday trying to establish an authority record in the data base for a new series, but needed to delete the record for an old series that had the same subtitle, but couldn't delete that record because the records with the new series had the title of the new series attached, etc. Catch-22 with Horizon.
I almost forgot that I have an appointment to have my hair cut today and am supposed to go berrying with a friend instead: SCHEDULING CONFLICT, OH NO!
My dog's ragweed allergy is acting up and I took her to the vet for prednisone. I saved $22 because I diagnosed it correctly myself so all I had to spend was the $6 for the pills and she didn't need to see the vet (although he came out into the waiting room full of people to see where the hair was missing from her scratching)
I had to spend MORE than $22 to replace the purse she subsequently chewed the straps off of the next day.
I have been cataloging videos, old rotten videos for one of our libraries ALL WEEK long and it is very boring. very boring. The days are dragging on and on and 7.5 hours has never taken so long to get through.
Tonight my friends and I will sit around a campfire together and drink a lot. I am looking forward to this.
Everyone at work agrees that Pat Robertson is a fool and should not be Secretary of State, even though we would save a lot of money and could balance the budget if he were.
I turned on the heat in my living room night before last because it was really cold. This may be the earliest I have done that but I doubt it.
The dog peed on the bed in her sleep the other night. A big, wet puddle that I put my foot in when I stretched out in my sleep. It was the same night that I dreamed my mother, my sister and I were going to Paris together.


All of these things make up my week. I am not being forced out of my home in Gaza. I am not in danger of stepping on a land mine. I am not being threatened by a hurricane. I do not have a dog that bites me or other people (my friend with the therapy dog had her dog lunge, teeth bared, at another friend's son recently. We all secretly giggled because Ann is so proud of her therapy dog). I do not have a son serving in a war I do not believe in (although I still do not believe in the war). And, as usual, I do not have cancer.

Tuesday, August 23, 2005

At work, listening to Internet radio. Always a risky proposition. Today I read Molly's email letter, which made me feel in touch with her, made me miss her, made me feel sad. So what I hear on the radio is like a trip through my past, which I shared with a number of people. First I hear Crosby, Stills and Nash. Well, that's Howard, a special time in my life. Early college, insecurity but incredible happiness and being cherished so much by someone really wonderful. Then we have some Donovan. My sister, late high school. NOT a good time for either of us, particularly, but his voice somehow makes me feel ok right now, just makes me miss my sister. Sort of a sad sound today. Then there is a lot of the Beatles, first Sgt Pepper. That makes me feel wonderful at the sound, the harmony, the music, but it makes me miss my brother terribly. He introduced me to that music, he loved the album and thought it was a great revolution in music. "You've GOT to listen to this," he said as we sat in his room at Winthrop Lane. So that music sometimes makes me very happy because it's truly wonderful and a marvel, but it's pure Henry to me. Then we have "Here Comes the Sun" Beatles, which is what I always wanted to, and did have played at my wedding. I love that song, it means nothing but good cheer and hope for the present to me.

And now I return to cataloging crappy CD's for Schroon Lake, with Led Zepplin wailing away. That's just college dorm music.

Monday, August 22, 2005

I just spent 20 minutes visiting with a good friend of mine, one of the first friends I made when I moved here 20 years ago. She's the mother of a woman who became my best friend, half of a couple which made up the quartet of my ex-husband, myself, Brook and Dan. Brook and Dan: they lived in a one-room cabin without running water. She worked with me, part time, then moved on in her career climb until she was head of the County Youth Bureau, a very professional job. She finally said she needed more--like, indoor plumbing, and a man who had a real job and a commitment to a relationship that included real communication. We all adored Dan, who has a great intellect and sense of humor, but who keeps most of what's going on with himself inside. I've seen him within the last 7 or 8 years, spent some time with him, just the two of us, and since I don't take him too seriously we had a great time together. Anyway, Brook's mother Ann was here to see me and in the course of her visit she told me that the land next to their 40 acres was sold and the survey that was done revealed that the parcel of land their house (which is a special, owner-built home with only solar and generator-provided power) sits on is not on their property, but rather on the parcel that was sold. This has been an understandably huge and emotionally stressful deal for them. They think they can buy the land from the new owner and it will all work out but she's worried that, if they can't they will have nowhere to go. I told her they can certainly move into my house, with their 2 dogs and 4 cats. I have an entire upstairs that was built to support a second family. She was moved to tears. I always offer my house as a home to people in need: I have all this space, and it's certainly available to people who need a place to live. People I can stand to live with, of course. I told her that if they're going to live there for any length of time her husband will have to build an outside entrance and will have to finish the upstairs kitchen.

Before she came I was playing with pictures posted by my sister and my niece, trying to decide which one I want for my desktop image. First I had Molly's view of Torca, then I settled on Jenica's view from the bluffs at Silver Lake. I like to change images often, makes that part of my life interesting. I spent a lot of time on interlibrary loan this morning, both clerks are out. One is due in 10 minutes ago. I sort of enjoy ILL, but it's really frustrating here because we can only find the books about 75% of the time. I don't understand where the books are the rest of the time.

I had quite a weekend. Friday night was Big City Bingo, the 16th annual. There was a record crowd: 51 people. We play for prizes that are picked up at yard sales, donated by people, baked goods, etc. I talked Fred into picking a 5" TV set that you can plug into your car for me when he won his 2nd time. "DON'T WATCH TV WHILE YOU DRIVE!" every told me. I won't, I just thought it was really neat. Do you know how cute a 5" TV is? Now I can listen to Oprah on the way home from work. Or not. Anyway we had a lot of fun and I didn't win a single thing, which was GOOD. The grand prize was a change purse made out of a toad, front legs and head intact. Totally gross, but Jim Nadal, the winner, wore it around his neck proudly for the rest of the evening.

Saturday afternoon the Hawkeye Conservationists (shoreowners' assoc.) met at our camp, so I was the hostess. Prepared refreshments and set up the porch for them. We had about 20 people, not bad for our annual meeting. We have 75 members, which is good. All went well, uneventful, with good suggestions for programs for next year. Linda is our new president. After the meeting Tess followed someone somewhere and was gone for more than 3 hours. I searched frantically for her, including 2 trips into the bog, one going halfway up the bluffs before it got too dark so I turned around. I cried, deciding that I'd lost 2 dogs this summer. I searched the roadway for her body. There was still a car in the bog parking lot at dusk, so there was a chance she was with the people who where on the bluffs. Sure enough, after 8:30, in total darkness when I went to camp she was running down to the boat house in a frantic search for me. Of course I cried harder when I found her.

Sunday dinner was at Bill's camp, hosted by our good friends (who also put on Big City Bingo). He's a judge, they're from Mass. I like them a lot. We spend Columbus Day weekend together. Anyway, Ken made his baked beans so it was a special occasion. I stopped at Linda's first, to welcome her and deliver some fresh eggs I picked up in Peru Friday night. Erdvilas invented a new drink for me, which we call The Lost Dog, in honor of Tess. After dinner I prepared food for my book group, which met at the boat house. All 6 of us were there, discussing a book entitled "We are gathered here," about life in the Adirondack iron mine regions in the late 19th century. We had a great time and everyone liked the book and the refreshments. Stayed for 2 1/2 hours. Lin even called me up last night to tell me how great the evening was--good hostess, good food, good book, she said. I made a crab dip with crab meat that had been left behind by some camper a while ago. I didn't think it was that great. I had tons of cut up vegetables with 2 kinds of dips. Good organic juices with seltzers to mix with. It was a really nice evening. Next book we're reading is Wicked by Geoffrey Maguire. About the Wicked Witch from The Wizard of Oz.

And now it's today and the day is nearly half over and I have little to show for my time. I've got plenty to catalog for Tupper Lake. Old travel books. Has much changed in Colorado in the last 20 years? I think so, but apparently they don't. We had a good laugh about "Walking Barbados" on Friday. It's hard to get a flight to Barbados, you never know where it'll be once it starts walking.

Monday, August 15, 2005

Mountain women


Mountain women
Originally uploaded by woodsrun.

Back at work, after a long break. Had two very nice weeks off. Spent time here, at the lake and spent time in Rhode Island, in the Ocean State. Saw a LOT of people I'm related to. There were, apparently 40 people at camp the day of our annual meeting. 20 people staying at camp for a few days, then 17 for a few more days. Then we left. I drove to Rhode Island, back to the Adirondacks, to Burlington three times, back to Rhode Island, then home. I got to be with my sister for 2 solid weeks with pretty much enough time apart. I got to see my nieces, and got to spend days and days with my sister's daughter. I NEVER get to see her and I really enjoy being with her so I loved that. She is great. Jenica and I had our standard let's-be-librarians-together time, but we got to have Drew too, which made it even more fun. We all sat on the dock a whole lot, and stood in the water to read as well, since we had day after day of broiling hot weather. That weather, however, was nothing compared to what happened when we got to RI. It was in the 90's and terribly humid when we returned there on Thursday. Too hot to swim in the ocean, I think.

Anyway, it all made me happy to be part of my family, and it all made me think of my brother and miss him very much. I am thankful to have the family I have left and I love them very much. I did not go to the cemetery but my sister took a lot of digital pictures of his grave, other graves, my mother planting flowers, etc., so I feel very connected to it all and that makes me feel good. It made me feel sad to think of going there so I didn't want to go. Next year I will be stronger and will plant flowers on my brother's grave. This year I could not.

It was raining when I got home, and I was happy to see that but I feel really bad that there is no rain in Rhode Island. They are in desperate need of rain and I hate to see that. Drought is something that really frightens me. It was in the 60's last night, very cool and comfortable. Only in the 70's today here--what I consider to be NORMAL temperatures. Very pleasant.

I wrote my first review for Library Journal today and emailed it to them. I reviewed the book The Storm Gourmet: a guide to creating extraordinary meals without electricity. It's a good book, except it's clearly written for hurricane victims: at one point the author instructs the reader to pick up the tropical fruit that's fallen in the neighbor's yard. Lots of mangos and avocados in the recipes, but some useful stuff as well.

I also sorted through 348 emails, most of them spam and online newspapers. I read plots of the last 2 episodes of Six Feet Under, since I found out last night when I watched it that one of the main characters had died while I was gone. Only one more episode left in the whole show. Didn't realize I'd been watching it for 5 years.

Got my med. situation straightened out with my doctor. He'll give me samples to tide me over until my prescription can be filled on 9/9. Guess the pharmacy shorted me the whole bunch of pills I needed between now and then--2.5 pills a day. Disconcerting.

The day has been pretty quiet, all in all. Internet was down for most of the morning so I sorted through my paper work--journals, notices, bills that have come in while I was out. Read my review book. Contemplated my August schedule. Tomorrow I can start cataloging again and can put together a massive book order, since I'm way behind with that.

I looked at a bunch of pictures from Colorado--we've all posted our pictures on the same site, accessing our images via our own emails and passwords. I ordered some prints of other peoples' pictures, some nice group shots. They were pretty cheap, about 12 cents each.

And now I'll start reading book reviews. yawn.