On my drive home after my last visit to my mother before she died, I drifted off the interstate at the New York, Massachusetts border and searched for a small town restaurant. I’d consumed my cooler food and I needed good eats and maybe some company. Since New Lebanon and Austerlitz, NY, were on opposite sides of the highway, I knew I’d find a white clapboard house with a Home Cooking sign in the window. I was wrong. But I did discover a commemorative plaque describing Edna St. Vincent Millay’s last home.

After my mother’s memorial service in July, I decided to stop again. Not for food, I knew there wasn’t any, but to see Edna’s place. I felt this connection between my mother and Edna. Both were strong, spirited, outspoken women. This time, with Diane’s mapquest help, I found Edna’s house, but for some unknown reason I couldn’t force myself by all the KEEP-OUT, NO TRESPASSING signs.

After I visited my father in December, I stopped again, and this time I walked right by those stupid signs. I made a little movie of her property, overlaying Edna reading “I Shall Forget You Presently.” The words don’t fit the film, but it was the best of the three audio poems I found.

Unfortunately, the movie is a bigger mishmash than my spinning daisy effort. I should have taken photographs.

Video

I Dreamed I Moved Among The Elysian Fields

I dreamed I moved among the Elysian fields,
In converse with sweet women long since dead;
And out of blossoms which that meadow yields
I wove a garland for your living head.
Danai, that was the vessel for a day
Of golden Jove, I saw, and at her side,
Whom Jove the Bull desired and bore away,
Europa stood, and the Swan’s featherless bride.
All these were mortal women, yet all these
Above the ground had had a god for guest;
Freely I walked beside them and at ease,
Addressing them, by them again addressed,
And marvelled nothing, for remembering you,
Wherefore I was among them well I knew.

On my drive home after my last visit to my mother before she died, I drifted off the interstate at the New York, Massachusetts border and searched for a small town restaurant. I’d consumed my cooler food and I needed good eats and maybe some company. Since New Lebanon and Austerlitz, NY, were on opposite sides of the highway, I knew I’d find a white clapboard house with a Home Cooking sign in the window. I was wrong. But I did discover a commemorative plaque describing Edna St. Vincent Millay’s last home.

After my mother’s memorial service in July, I decided to stop again. Not for food, I knew there wasn’t any, but to see Edna’s place. I felt this connection between my mother and Edna. Both were strong, spirited, outspoken women. This time, with Diane’s mapquest help, I found Edna’s house, but for some unknown reason I couldn’t force myself by all the KEEP-OUT, NO TRESPASSING signs.

After I visited my father in December, I stopped again, and this time I walked right by those stupid signs. I made a little movie of her property, overlaying Edna reading “I Shall Forget You Presently.” The words don’t fit the film, but it was the best of the three audio poems I found.

Unfortunately, the movie is a bigger mishmash than my spinning daisy effort. I should have taken photographs.

Video

I Dreamed I Moved Among The Elysian Fields

I dreamed I moved among the Elysian fields,
In converse with sweet women long since dead;
And out of blossoms which that meadow yields
I wove a garland for your living head.
Danai, that was the vessel for a day
Of golden Jove, I saw, and at her side,
Whom Jove the Bull desired and bore away,
Europa stood, and the Swan’s featherless bride.
All these were mortal women, yet all these
Above the ground had had a god for guest;
Freely I walked beside them and at ease,
Addressing them, by them again addressed,
And marvelled nothing, for remembering you,
Wherefore I was among them well I knew.

What do you do when your photos aren’t top notch? How about add grass and spinning daisies and animate the whole thing?

Watch the barn explode.

Diane, Matthew and Tulum

Diane, Matthew and Tulum

Matthew can now type the alphabet in 2.88 seconds.

Barney Fife and the Preamble to the Constitution.

Barney Fife and the Preamble to the Constitution.

I found this and thought about it posting it, but fearing the wrath of the once-a-week anti-youtubers decided not to. Besides, I’d already put up the same song sung by Live. However, when I sent the link to skating-fan Diane, she watched it, followed links to other competitions, came back and watched it again, left and came back again. That’s why it’s up now.

****************

On the father front. All his so-called docs knocked their heads together and decided they want him in intensive rehab three weeks from now. This plan for a man who still has a feeding tube in his belly(called a PEG for percutaneous endoscopic grastrostomy), has no gag reflex, understands questions, but can’t say but a word or two a day, lies motionless with his eyes closed unless sat up, and when on his thrice weekly dialysis, exhibits cardiac arrhythmias. Maybe they borrowed Johnny Carson’s Karnac hat. Diane and I are flying-in for a visit a week from Saturday.

****************

Jeff and Karen are born of reptilian blood and hardly bother to heat their house. While I was there I kept the fires going day and night and worried some about how much of their wood I was sending up the chimney. To end the worry I drove out to Zippy’s Firewood in Daylight, Indiana, for a truck load. I met the owner, Wayne, whose friendly chatter threatened to turn into an afternoon-killing torrent of words, until I told him to shut-up. Also, when he saw me pulling on my back-up pair of Adam’s black synthetic gloves, offered me his leather ones.

It took Jeffro a while to notice the wood I’d bought, but when he did he asked where it came from.

“Zippy’s in Daylight.” I said.

He thought for a long moment.

“Is that the place with the big pile out front?”

“Yep.”

“That you pick through yourself?”

“Yep.”

“With the guy who talks a lot?”

“Yep”

“Who offers you his gloves?”

“You’ve been there?”

State Of The Union

By Goose

I’ve known Mike Miller for a very long time – gone camping to Gilsum and worked summers for him. With all this time to get to know him there are a few things that I’ve learned, like how he thinks. He has a fascination about studying people and their actions in certain situations. When we worked together I noticed that if I said something or did something that was the slightest bit amusing to Mike, it was instantly up on the blog. For example the Cell phone Incidents and the Slug Throwing. This interest in studying people has rubbed off on me a little, and I did not really notice it until my trip to Colorado this past December.

A few years ago my aunt and uncle on my mother’s side bought a house in Silverthorne Colorado. Silverthorne is in the Rocky Mountains surrounded by three major ski resorts – Breckenridge, Keystone, and A-basin. These Mountains have given me the best skiing experiences in my life, so far.

When I was there this year Denver got hit with 18+ inches of snow. The airport was closed and the city was almost shut down. Now we were having some of the best snow for skiing so that was AWESOME, until it came time to go home.

The two days before we were supposed to leave for home the airport had closed because of the snow. I kept on looking at my flight hoping it was still scheduled, and I found there were until about 5 hours before I was supposed to leave. My cousin’s flight was canceled and things were looking grim, so we all decided to drive to Tennessee, and I would fly home from there. But then I found out that my flight was on, so I was taken to the airport. I checked-in at the curb for my plane. Then I said my good byes and walked into what look like a refugee camp.

I could not believe what I saw. The lines for the check-in counter were 300 people long. I was a bit hungry so I tried to find some food. NOTHING! All the cafes had run out of anything that was worth eating. I decided that it would be best if I went to my gate , but I found the security line looped around the whole airport.

I was in shock. It wound through all the ropes and then though all the cots, and people that had been stranded there for 2 days were around the airport. Knowing that I did not have that much time to spare, I hid behind a pillar and when no one was looking, I darted into the line and continued on my way. No one even noticed. When I got to my gate there were people there fighting for a flight to just get out of Denver. They wanted to find a way home, but seeing that it was near Christmas there was nothing for them.

It was really interesting to look at how certain people were dealing with their situation. I said to myself what would this situation look like if I was in Mike’s shoes, and it opened my eyes to people’s behavior patterns. Some were just patrolling back and forth looking for a flight that had one seat that they could use to get out of Denver. Others were just yelling and swearing and just making fools of themselves. I felt so bad for them, but there was nothing I could do. I was just one of those lucky ones that had their flight leaving almost on time.

I was very grateful that I made it home for Christmas, but I will never forget that I was one of those lucky ones.