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From Sherrill's Garden
May 2008 Raleighwood, NC
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Two deaths in one day. Two icons of US pop culture.
Guess which one had more meaning in my life?
(The answer can be found by ( clicking on through to the other side...) )
...Current Music: radioioClassic-Acoustic-Rock. |
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Soren
June 2009 Outside Raleighwood, NC
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After Ice wandered off to The Crab Shack Bonn started looking through the local SPCA's web site for another cat to add to the pride. She decided she really liked many of Mika's Maine Coon Cat qualities so when she found one on the web site she wanted to go see it right away. We paid a late Friday afternoon visit and found that the cat in question was not in the best of moods. The staff there spoke well of him but it was clear that after a busy day he was not at his best. We decided to come back the next morning and see how he was after a good night's sleep.
On the way out happened to look in the window of another Cat Room. There, by the window, lay an orange striped cat, sound asleep on top of some sort of hamper.
This was supposed to be Bonn's choice so I did my best to ignore the Very Loud Voice in my head that was saying, "That's the cat! Right there!"
EXCESSIVE CUTENESS ALERT!!!
You have been warned.
Only the brave will |
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Driving Clouds
February 2009 Outside Raleighwood, NC
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Lest I forget to post Part Two of "My Official Thirty Years Too Late Apology to Maureen Nemecek" I'll get to it right away.
Read on by
...Current Music: The Big Blue Kitchen w/Nick Delay - WVKR.org |
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Shattered by Day
May 2008 Outside Raleighwood, NC
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Last night was Game Night at my Friendly Neighborhood Game Store (FNSG). I was well-armed with an assortment of games (Tayu, Samuri, Ingenious, Zertz, Pandemic, Clans for those who are interested) and, as usual, didn't care if I played any of them or if I played something different. Game nights are like that for me.
After a surprisingly non-traffic filled drive on the highways I took the exit for my FNGS and got onto the main road. The six lanes of traffic at the overpass narrowed down to four, with the far left lane ending at the next light as an enterance to a shopping center. I ended up behind a huge pick'em-up truck with a bumper sticker with an image of the Confederate flag (or, more appropriately, the Battle Flag for the Army of Northern Virginia and the phrase "Heritage Not Hate." I looked at the bumper sticker and wondered if they really believed that.
We came to a stop at the light. The sun was making its slow Daylight Savings Time descent behind me and was angle was such that there was a general glare. As well, the back break light covers of the big pick'em-up truck were just the right color that, when mixed with the sun I couldn't tell if they were working or not.
The light changed to green and the big pick'em-up truck moved forward into the intersection.
And a second later my world inside the car was exploding all around me.
( (Click on through to the other side...) )
...Current Music: The Innocence Mission-Small Planes-Song About Traveling |
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Red Rose
May 2009 Outside Raleighwood
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Faith is never an easy question, nor is it an easy answer. What we choose to believe, what is real to us is a very individual decision. It's as much a part of our own personal definition as it is what separates us from other people.
Last week it was clear that Isis was going through the same problem she had endured last year. In the span of those months there were several new health problems that had added to make the initial problem seem much worse than it had before. (I'll spare you the details but simply add "if that's possible") Still, the question we had to face was literally one of Life and Death.
More on all of this? Just ( click on through to the other side... )
...Current Music: Hey Amba - Tina Malia - Jaya Bhagavan |
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Isis
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The company name may have been 5 Cat Gallery for all of these years, but there were really six cats. Isis was the first of them, joining us shortly after we moved down to Nawf C'lina back in '91 as a tiny kitten surviving on scraps from a park dumpster and desperate for a family and a home of her own.
It was a long, 18 year journey for her. And now she, too, is enjoying herself at The Crab Shack.
Should you be interested, ( click on through to the other side. )
...Current Music: Janis Ian-Night Rains-Here Comes The Night |
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Self Portrait In Maggie's Eye
March 200 Outside Raleighwood, NC
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Last Friday I was listening to a really good interview with Janis Ian on WXPN.org who was promoting both her new autobiography, Society's Child, and the 2CD set of music that accompanies it. In the course of the interview Ian was asked if she had to write songs (in the Artist's sense of having to create to feel at peace). Ian responded that she had discovered that writing songs was so much the important thing for her but, rather, it was writing in general that she needed to do. She pointed to her history in writing for various publications (musical and political) as well as her more recent forays into writing Science Fiction.
I'm finding much the same to be true.
A bit more can be found ( by clicking on through to the other side )
...Current Music: GotRadio - New Age |
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NATION
May 2008 Morrisville, NC
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Lately most of what my old elementary school teachers would refer to as "free writing" has been taken up with the Just For Fun Steampunk-ish kids book I've been trying to write. I find the voice of the narration and the voice of the main characters (especially the flamboyant Professor, which owes a bit Tip o' the Hat to ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) basefinder for unknowingly giving me the key to the Professor's Way of Speaking) very easy to slip in to and I keep thinking the writing ought to be going more quickly than it is. drood writes about epic naval battles and the killing off of thousands in the latest scenes he's written and I'm still working on getting three characters out of an alley.
I do cut myself some slack, however, by reminding myself that drood is doing his writing in his bathrobe, at mid-day, as a full-time gig and I have to scrounge an hour here or there, usually late at night after Bonn and the cats have gone to sleep.
In the meantime, allow me to pass along a few random thoughts:
* A friend of mine has taken on the self-challenge to eat well on $1.00 (US) per day. We discussed this for several months prior to her setting the date to start her project and it's been interesting to read how it's going on her blog. It's been downright amusing to see the type of media coverage she's getting on it.
* I'm getting Facebook notices that a number of people from my high school class are joining and are being suggested as Friends. I don't know about your high school experience but I tend to look back at mine as a particularly dismal time, one that I couldn't wait to have end. After high school I didn't have any contact with anyone that I went to school with for the better part of two years. (At one point I decided I just wanted to leave all of that behind me but one day I realized that I really did enjoy my time with sakkijarvi and gave him a call. I think he was just as surprised as I was) So I'm not going to be Friending everyone from my past on Facebook.
[Note: I have never attended a high school reunion and never intend to do so. My idea of a high school reunion night is to stay home and watch "Grosse Pointe Blank." The music is clearly better and watching John Cusack kill a would-be assassin with a ball-point pen in the basement boiler room of his old high school sounds far more entertaining]
* My mother just joined Facebook. There's something distinctly, um, odd about that to me. (And, yes, I Friended her. How could I not? I mean, she's my mother...)
* I've started going to a local board game store for Game Night every two weeks, meeting up with zombiefodder and his kids. Bonn has no interest in playing many of the games I have and want to play so she's practically kicked me out of the house to go be with people just as crazed as I am. It's been a whole lotta fun and I'm finding myself looking forward to those nights.
* If you aren't already a friend of aboutlooking you should be. And make sure to head on over to his LJ on Saturday to wish him a Happy Birthday!
...Current Music: Inexile-Capercaillie-Beautiful Wasteland |
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