Memorial Day Weekend 2010

Any day is a good day to be alive of course, but some days more so.  Enough of shuffling paper, and the cleaning and mowing just needs done again as soon as you finish.  The sun is shining, the van has good tires and a tank of gas, so Marcy and I are heading out on a quest.  First we stop at Mt. Healthy Dairy Bar for a malt to share as we drive.  Very "Archie & Veronica" isn't it?  We take Gray Road along the northern boundary of Spring Grove Cemetery (We'll have to stop at that Weavers Guild sometime).  Circling around to the front gate we find the cemetery had closed at 6 p.m.  So we don't get to visit Marcy's dad George's mausoleum and we don't get to enjoy the beautiful, historic cemetery.  We sip the last of the malt as we take Spring Grove Avenue to the incedible urban industrial nexus where railway, Mill Creek, and highway throb together like an aneurism ripe for rupture.  We get on I-74 West and the landscape soon begins to open.  Each breath comes easier as wooded hills appear.  We cross the Great Miami River and soon comes the New Haven Road exit to Harrison.  The land of my people!  We roll down Broadway past my dad's old high school, hang a right on Hill to go past our old church.  I turn down the radio's Memorial Day countdown of hits as we approach the cemetery.

Marcy & I share a wedding anniversary with my aunt Robin (Beatty) and late uncle Ernie.  It all looks good here.  Respects paid, we exit the cemetery.

This house at the top of the hill was where my dad grew up.  Because my Grandpa Lloyd Price died when I was little I always thought of it as Grandma's house.  We would stop there after Sunday church, sometimes eat lunch, and Grandma and I would watch Mutual Of Omaha's Wild Kingdom, yes, in living color, and often linger over Marty Stouffer's Wild America.  It's changed, and I don't want to look too closely.  Some neighboring houses have been torn down, and the big new house in the background was built in the big side yard/garden.  There used to be nice maple & catalpa trees out front, and a gigantic willow behind the house.  The porch is wrong.  Better move along.

Down the road along the hilltop ridge, the turn on Flora.  It's the old church shelter house.  Summer revival meetings on hard wooden benches in the thick summer air, fans a-flutter in old ladies' hands.  My cousin Kenny Hornsby was married here.  So many dinners laid out on long tables covered in sheets of that glossy Champion paper cut from rolls.  Granny Jones' annual birthday gathering.

Down the hill was the water fountain, bathroom, and garage for the church buses, complete with mechanics pit in the floor.  The urinal in the men's room had woodsy spiders the size of saucers.  The outdoor water fountain put out a big thick stream of unchilled water that made great misty rainbows when directed skyward by any youngster who dared to get his church-clothes wet.

The softball field filled the terrace just above the shelter.  There was a real nice big backstop along the tree line back there but there still must be a lot of softballs composting quietly just inside the woods.  Some stout fellas could jack a ball clean over the shelter.  Wasn't that a ground-rule home run?  That house on the hill was built for the preacher.  It was quite an obstacle course when it was under construction.  Too many changes here, time to roll on.

We navigate over to California Road and enjoy the ruler-straight northward course up hill and down towards Governor Bebb Park.  But Okeana-Drewersburg Road calls me to turn left and we ramble over the Indiana border somewhere.  My smile grows wider as the roads grow more narrow and rough, the landscape seemingly an endless expanse of fields and pastures planed smooth by glaciers a few thousand years ago.  Holstein cows freshen the air.  I channel my inner Daniel Boone and  we find Indiana Route 252 and head east.  Look, here are a bunch of wild turkeys!

If I have to travel, let it be on a two-lane highway.  We roll through the tiny border-town of Scipio and resist the urge to go north on State Line Road up to the old pioneer church.  We can not resist a quick look at Governor Bebb Park, one of the most wonderful places in my world.  All is well, not too crowded on this holiday.  Away we roll, thinking it might be nice to go downtown to Taste of Cincinnati to round out our day.  The ribbon of asphalt carries us along the creek past the superlong rail trestle, through Okeana, through Shandon (Strawberry Festival coming up June 12!) we wave at the Francis sisters' alpacas, go past the Fernald Uranium Plant where my dad & I have both worked, through Ross (Venice Castle is for sale) and we turn south on US 27.  I think about the airport that used to sit where Northgate Mall does now.  So many things I look at used to be something else.  Is that a sign of age?  No, just longer perspective, stuff to write about later.  Before long we are back down in that valley where we first started our ramble.

We wander around downtown a bit then manage to find free, fairly safe parking on East 4th Street.  Wheelchairs in a thick crowd have advantages and disadvantages.  I only run up on the heels of one person.  We score a couple of Great Lakes pale ales and a mythos gyro and settle down on the doorstep of my old employer to enjoy Bad Veins play.  P&G must really be working on their public relations.  The gardens used to be a sacred and untouchable spot.  Now they seem to be avoiding any appearance of elitism as they open at least the walkways to the public.

The drummer seems to be looking up at my old office in the Twin Towers.

When finished, this building will replace the Art Deco era Carew Tower as Cincinnati's tallest building.

Farklishly Nice Things

Yeah, you Facebookers know what I'm talking about.  But this is real life.  Over my shoulder I hear the click of the five dice and then the rumbling roll on the gameboard.  We call it "Zilch."  Dylan, Sarina, and Marcy each won a game and this is the tiebreaker.  Friendly family competition to relax in the heat of the night.  We already played a game of Scrabble - The Nightmare Before Christmas Edition - and I won.  I got "unique" on a triple word space.  I also got to play the word "naif."  Like Dad always told me, I quit while I'm a head.

In the background the TV is playing "Diners-Drive-ins-and-Dives."  I was hoping it was the episode where they visited Cincinnati's Terry's Turf Club but I guess it's not tonight.  It's nice to hear the threesome next to me laughing and having fun.  Oh, they've switched to "Uno" now.  I wish you could hear Marcy laugh!  Mom & Dad, thanks for getting her that playing card rack.

We went with Sarina to her ultrasound last week.  It was cool that we got to see our grand-daughter Logan and all, but I was amazed by the technology, how far it's come since our kids were tadpoles.  That GE machine showed us the girlie parts, the beating heart, a well-formed spine, a palate un-cleft.  We saw the healthy placenta, then they highlighted the cord and measured for proper blood flow.  Neat.  Then they clicked the images of the leg bones and arm bones and it calculated her size to be perfectly average for a 32-week tadpole.  It did everything but take the kid's fingerprints, and that's probably in next year's model.

I've been too busy to post much lately besides some photos and a poor excuse for writing.  Our mental energy has been poured into a few very important and time-sensitive challenges but now we are seeing the results of our efforts just as we set out to do.  First of all, the bankruptcy.  "But wait," you say, "Isn't bankruptcy bad?"  Yeah, like chemotherapy is bad for cancer!  I really like our attorney, Robert Liebman.  He reminds me of Charles Foster Offdensen, the manager/lawyer for Dethklok on the show Metalocalypse.  He nailed the bankruptcy for us and got a lien on our house cancelled.  He's a lethal legal fencing master.  We actually shared a laugh right before the hearing, tee-hee!  Next, Marcy's medical care.  We finally got her approval for state Medicaid with actual "insurance" provided by Buckeye Healthcare starting in June.  Whew!  And speaking of her condition, we also completed a symptom report for SSI.  That was not so much fun.  List ALL symptoms, what they feel like, where you feel them, whether they spread, what makes them start, what makes them worse, how bad on on scale of 10 is a good day, how bad on a scale of 10 is a bad day, how many good days vs. bad days each week, how long each symptom lasts, how often each one hits, and even more.  Grueling, but it produced a well-organized picture of Marcy's misery.  Social Security also required a Work History analysis for the last 15 years, detailing all work duties plus how much she had to sit, stand, walk, crawl, climb, crawl, stoop, crouch, reach, schlep, manipulate, write, and so on.  Done.

The Victory Garden has produced its first tomato!

Speaking of which, I found another great use for the profusely growing lemon balm:  bruschetta.  I chopped up a couple of ripe tomatoes, took a few plucked tops of fragrant lemon balm and cigar-rolled them and cut little chiffonades, slivered a few "wild onions" I plucked from the back yard, a shake of dried basil and a splash of extra virgin olive oil and presto!  Spoon that stuff onto slices of Kroger Italian bread (marked down to under $1) and it is so delicious and fresh.  And take a look at this salad I made using baby lettuce thinned from the Victory Garden, plus garlic mustard, lemon balm, chive blossoms, wood sorrel (shamrocks), and those beautiful little wood strawberries.  We had it with dinner when our old friends Terry & Loey visited.

Totally Rad-Ish

Hey, Lili!  Check out the moose in the iron fire-ring.

Hungry as a wolf.  Friends like this keep a lot of pesky bugs from invading your home. 
Click the pic for a good look at the eyes, the fangs, and the pedipalps.

 

Is there a bit of a happy tear welling in Marcy's eyes?

 

Marcy and I shared the first radish of the season.  The texture was perfect and the flavor flowed from sweet to peppery.

Happy Mother's Day

Hi Mom, happy Mother's Day.  I love you and miss you a lot.  See you soon!

Shroom Bloom

I'm pretty sure these are Inky Cap Mushrooms.  I would not consider eating these unless I was desparately hungry.

I read that Inky Caps are sometimes called Alcohol Caps because if you drink alcohol within a few days after eating these you'll feel like you're gonna die, even if you don't.  I don't want to have to worry about that.

Inky Caps mature quickly and can turn to black slime within a day.  Don't even try to pick and store them.  Manna from heaven?  No thanks!  These are growing near the stump of a red maple and they follow the tree's old root system.  And these mushrooms are really all connected.  Mushrooms are called "fruiting bodies."  Imagine a bunch of apples scattered on the ground, you wouldn't think of them being connected, all fruits of the same subterranean tree that's managed to push its progeny to the open air for dispersal.  The mushrooms are connected all over the yard.  And certain mushrooms have affinity for certain trees.  In late summer I'll show you some ash tree boletes that appear in the back yard.  Fungi are so fascinating!

Stella's 94th Birthday

Stella Marie (Wellman) Beam, born 4/29/1916, with her daughter Marcy.  Happy Birthday!

Progress in The System

I haven't had much time to compose decent posts here lately because we've been so tied up with administrative stuff.  But it's having the desired effect.  Marcy finally got approved for Ohio Medicaid For The Disabled and we picked a carrier, so now we're waiting for delivery of the manual & provider directory so she can choose a primary care physician and then make an appointment.  That's a real relief to me.  Our son Derek got approved for Medicaid pretty quickly because he is under 18, no quibbles about it.  That's the way it should be - we provide for the care of those who really need it.  We also spent an afternoon at Social Security and I think she'll finally get approved for SSI assistance.  It still has to be looked at by some state disability board but I think it's the same one that just approved her Medicaid, so we should be OK there.  Too bad she is not eligible for regular Social Security Disability, but they ruled that she did not have enough work on the books.  Raising kids, caring for the home & neighborhood, being a room mother, raising tens of thousands of dollars for the PTA - these activities are irrelevant to Social Security.  It's for workers, not volunteers, and it's mostly women who pay make that sacrifice, who pay the price when they become disabled and find big gaping holes in the safety net.

I swear this picture was not selected to go with my next topic:  bankruptcy.  Our hearing is scheduled for mid-May, not much to do on our end but take Part 2 of the required credit counseling.  Part 1 told us that we were not doing anything wrong or living extravagantly, but that we got dealt a tough hand to play.

Sometimes I can detach from all this struggle and view it objectively.  It's interesting to consider all your possessions and their value in regard to the precious minutes of your life that are required to earn stuff, buy stuff, store stuff, clean stuff, dispose of stuff, let alone just to ENJOY the stuff.  The picture above came about when I realized I spent more time skimming than swimming and just let the chips fall where they may.  It's also interesting to be told that you can't get help because you have too much stuff.  And there are whole industries based on taking away your stuff and more industries built on the sorry fact that you ain't got no stuff.  Aw, stuff it!  George Carlin might say, "Move your crap so I have a place for my stuff."

Today is Marcy's mom's birthday.  Stella is 94.  We'll go visit her and take her a little gift, a framed collage of some recent photos of the boys playing music.  We wanted her to have a tangible reminder that they are not little babies anymore but young men getting on with their own lives.  She can't keep much stuff, but she'll like the picture.

Wild Greens For Dinner

This is broadleaf dock, a weed that I let grow all over my back yard.  We'll take the larger leaves that aren't too beat-up or bug-bit and we'll base our dish on that.

A few leaves of Garlic Mustard in the mix will make the flavor more interesting.

I've got so much lemon balm it actually serves as ground cover in parts of the yard.  Might as well add some to the greens pot.  It should balance the garlic mustard nicely.

We'll leave the dandelions out this time.  Been there already.  I might go back and dig out the taproot next time.

Chives are another flavor boost in the greens pot.  I actually pulled several wild onions from the middle of the yard, cut off the little fibrous root and chopped up the rest into the mix.  Yum!

I got caught up in foraging and forgot to take pics of the Poke and Long Lettuce that I also found.  Gotta eat that Poke when it's young or it will poison you.  I only plucked a few partially open leaves on some shoots only about 6 inches tall.  It's taller than me when it's grown.  I don't take chances.

Here's how you cook this bunch of yard trimmings:  After you wash the greens, roll them all up like a big cigar on your cutting board and cut slices about 1/4 inch wide.  Get your (cast iron) skillet medium hot with some extra virgin olive oil covering the bottom.  Toss those strips of greens around in there so it all gets a little oil and then stir occaisionally as the heat collapses it all down.  No salt, no pepper, no vinegar.  Just wild plants and a little olive oil.  We ate it with beef tenderized with an overnight marinade of wine and onions, slow-baked in the juice.  So there were some big strong flavors jumping up and saying howdy to each other but they complemented well.

Friday pics

Hope everyone is well.  There seems to be a bug making the rounds of everyone we know.  We had to reschedule Derek's eye exam so we wouldn't spread germs there.  Here are some old pics and some new ones.  Hope you enjoy!

Shhh, be vewwy, vewwy quiet, I'm hunting wabbits!

Friends, romans, fungi - lend me your ears!

Jelly Ear Fungus, sometimes called Judas or Jew's Ear.

Golden Ground Cherries hiding inside...

"Don't worry, stewardess, I speak Chive..."

Universe in a dewdrop.

One Morning In My Back Yard...

One moist September morning I looked closely around my back yard and took some of my best pics ever.  Guess which one is my favorite.

Not Socialist - Corporatist

So Ron Paul agrees with me:

WSJ April 10, 2010, 4:20 PM ET.Ron Paul: Barack Obama is Not a Socialist.NEW ORLEANS–Republicans and tea party activists are fond of accusing President Barack Obama of being a socialist, but today party gadfly Ron Paul said they had it wrong.

“In the technical sense, in the economic definition, he is not a socialist,” the Texas Republican said to a smattering of applause at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference.

“He’s a corporatist,” Paul quickly added, meaning the president takes “care of corporations and corporations take over and run the country.”

Supporters of the Texas lawmaker appear to represent a significant number of the 3,500 attendees here, fueling speculation that Paul is likely to win the straw poll later today. The Campaign for Liberty, Paul’s political outfit, declined to discuss how many of his supporters were at SRLC.

The Texan’s supporters often descend on political gatherings to vote for him in 2012 straw polls. In February, he won the Conservative Political Action Conference’s straw poll with a hefty 31% of the vote.

Copyright 2008 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Here's a good explanation that American Thinker posted almost a year ago:
 

May 22, 2009
Corporatism comes to America
By Lee Cary

"Fascism should rightly be called Corporatism, as it is the merger of corporate and government power." Benito Mussolini

Some members of the Republican National Committee have recently wondered aloud what others of us wonder privately. What name do we give to the direction in which Democrats and the Obama administration are taking America?

In 20th Century Italy and Germany, particularly during 1933-1945, fascism merged the self-interests of despotic, single-party rulers with large corporations for whom big war offered big profits. Mussolini called it Corporatism.

Garden Patch Update

Time to thin the radishes.  Radical radishes, they share the same "root."

Better thin those lettuces too.

Chives will soon be blooming.

I need to find a good use for lemon balm.  It's taking over!

How do you like my drainage tile planters?  A stripped strand of copper electrical wire keeps them bundled around the apricot tree.  I planted coriander, basil and dill in the central space, no sprouts yet.

The redbud has volunteered in several spots in the back yard.

I wish we had this mossy carpet in the house.

My Pocahontas lineage

Revised for readability.

We had a little visitor for Easter.  Dylan's gal Sarina brought her daughter Mercedes (Sadie).

We had an eggsellent time!

 

Derek's surgery went well and he spent the weekend recovering.  It hurt him to move for a few days but he toughed it out and now can walk around pretty normally.  No heavy lifting for a while.  He of the nimble fingers owed me a favor so he keyed in the document detailing how my Dad's side of the family is descended from Pocahontas.  I originally posted it with all the "begats" cluttering things (sorry Lili) so I pulled a few highlights out up front and you can read/copy the rest if you want.  Enjoy!

...The Garland Family was criticized greatly for marrying into the Indian Families.

...Suzy Bowling’s mother was pregnant with her when Quantrill’s Renegade Rebels came through scavenging. The Rebels wanted her to tell them where the fresh horses were and she wouldn’t tell them, so they hung her and while she was hanging she pulled her clothes over her head as far as she could and hissed at them. They left her hanging until her husband, who had gone to the mill, arrived a few minutes later and cut her down. She was apparently dead but he worked with her and brought her to. When Suzy was born she was marked by this tragedy and at times they had to make her stay in the house because she would pull her clothes over her head and hiss and be out of her mind, all this being caused by the trauma before she was born...

...The rebels just took everything in sight. The Irish potatoes were in a hole under the floor and they didn’t get them but the family was left without anything to eat and this was in the winter months. So papa Solomon and the older boys armed themselves with axes and went to the woods and hunted a hibernating bear and killed it to have meat. Their dogs were starving too, so they ran a deer on the ice below the house and the men killed it for the dogs. This saved the family over...

Spring's Bounty

The apricot tree is in full bloom, loaded with pinkish blossoms packed with pollen and giving off a sweet but almost stinky fragrance.  It's swarming with bees of all sizes, from the little ones the size of flies to the regular honeybee to the big bumblebees like this one.  As I paused in the aroma stream downwind from the tree a bee quickly discovered the pink flower on my Hawaiian shirt.  Beautiful skies.

A new crop of chives is coming up.

Dandelion greens, yummy!  Saute them with some bacon, some (wild) onion, maybe some red pepper flakes, a dash of balsamic vinegar.  Loaded with minerals, fiber, and vitamin C, they make a great spring tonic.

Radishes are sprouting.  Hmm, soils looks dry.  No rain forecast, better water today.

Lettuce is sprouting too.

We have some other things nearing fruition.  We've been wrapping things up with our accountant and our attorney.  Derek gets his surgery tomorrow.  We should have some great weather this weekend just to hang around the house and continue the ongoing clutter-clearing as he recuperates.

Derek has also been catching up in school.  He did well on the OGT tests and the school pays a bonus to all students who complete the 5 tests in 5 days.  His English teacher wants to publish some of his writing!