a funny little mystery

 As I've mentioned in a few blogs recently, I have spent a lot of time, off and on, in the last few weeks, putting pictures rescued from our water disaster into simple 'albums' - basically plastic pages in a three ring binder.  I now have saved, in addition to my spouse's and my wedding albums, a lovely fat notebook 'album' full of family pictures ranging from my father's youth to my grandchildren's wedding pictures.

I also have a section devoted to mutual friends that my spouse and I have known since college.  Among a bunch of these pictures that I had in a box (they had never made it into an album) I came across two pictures of my cat Athena.  On the back of each picture was neatly written "Athena's visit, 9/03." Not in my handwriting.  

The cat pictured was indeed my Athena but the house she is visiting is the house my wonder spouse and his first wife (one of my best friends) owned in 2003.  I do not know why Athena was visiting them.  When my first husband and I travelled (in 2003 we may have been going to Arizona or Kansas to visit baby grandchildren) we had a very competent teenage next door neighbor who was happy to take care of our cat while we were gone (for a reasonable fee of course).  

So why the visit from Athena captured in these pictures?  I just don't know.  

But she was obviously having a good time.

Play time!!!

 My west coast brother has informed me that today is "World Playdough Day" and "National Guacamole Day."  We both agreed that preschoolers would probably rather eat the Playdough. 

Playdough, also known as Play-Doh was originally invented as a cleaner to safely remove coal dust from wall paper. That was in the 1930s.  In the 50s it was reworked and introduced to schools as an educational tool.  By 1956 it was available to anyone to purchase in various department stores, in boxed sets of various colors.

That's a quick history.  I never used Play Doh in the classroom when I was teaching art in the 60s but my children and grandchildren have all enjoyed creating with it.  Snakes are a popular item, also small pots and animals.  It's a very satisfying material.  It feels good to work with, it comes in pretty colors, and, when you've created something that you want to keep, it will dry and harden and you have saved your art work.  This is it's advantage over modeling clay.  

Of course this ability to dry out can also be a disadvantage.  Be careful that, when you put your Play Doh away, you put the lid on the containers very tightly.  Of course, if you accidentally end up with a hard lump of Play Doh, you can always try carving it.  Or you could crumble it with a hammer (under adult supervision of course) and use the bits to make a mosaic.  If thinking about this makes you want to rush out and buy some Play Doh, do it!  Have fun and get creative!

more traveling...

 Yesterday I blogged about the trip my spouse and I are planning to take in October and November to historic places in the US southwest.  Today my wonder spouse and I took a different kind of trip - back in time.

I'm happy to report that crops growing in the "Great Black Swamp" area that I blogged about several days ago are flourishing.  The field corn is tall and the stalks are turning yellow, almost ready to harvest.  The soybean plants are drying and about ready to pick. We were able to buy tomatoes and an onion (locally grown) at our favorite produce market and bread, pumpkin bread and apple bread at our favorite bakery. 

What makes this a trip back in time is that all of this is happening in the heart of Amish country northeast of Fort Wayne.  What we see, as we drive from place to place, are horses grazing in pastures, and at one farm, six horses hitched to a wide plow and turning up the good black earth in an already harvested field.  And all of this happens in vast expanses of flat, flat land, the remnants of the footprint of a glacier from thousands of years ago.  

With just a little imagination, it's easy to picture this land as it was 250 years ago - swampy and covered with trees.  Early canals and trains opened this area to settlement by farmers who obviously made the most of the opportunity.  I do not mean to belittle the impact on Native Americans in this area but that's an earlier story for another blog.

Today we simply enjoyed the feeling of driving through history. 

ready to roam...

 Over the last couple of months my friends have been asking me where my wandering wonder spouse and I are planning to go next.  It's a fair question.  During the three years that we have been together we have travelled as far as Michigan, Canada, Alaska, the north western United States, the Caribbean, several countries in South America, Egypt and Japan.  

So, where to next?  We have just begun planning a driving trip through the southwestern United States.  My spouse and I, separately and together have visited most of the southwest, we have even, when my wonder spouse was still piloting his own plane, flown the length of the Grand Canyon, a truly amazing sight from the air.

But now I am ready to revisit places I have marveled at and long to see again.  Places like Mesa Verde, Casa Rinconada, Carlesbad Caverns, the Colorado Rockies, and so much more.  We will not, like some hapless tourists, stand on the edge of the Grand Canyon taking selfies.  Did you know that 12-17 people die in Grand Canyon National Park each year with falling being one of the leading causes of death?

We will of course be taking lots of pictures, we always do.  Cell phones have replaced our cameras for the most part.  Isn't that handy?  I can take pictures and blog through the entire trip.  That isn't always possible when we are overseas.  We will also visit friends and family along the way.  Travel time will be three to four weeks, departure date tentatively set for October 14.  

Here's our first draft trip map.  Our trusty Subaru will carry us through deserts, over mountains and across some really big bridges. Happy trails to us....

9x13 day...

 My west coast brother, wanting to be very helpful, informed me that today is "9x13 Day," "National Grandparents Day," "International Chocolate Day" and "Bald is Beautiful Day."  I appreciate a day for grandparents since I am one, and chocolate is worth celebrating any time, but 9x13 and bald have special significance for me today.  

55 years ago today I gave birth to my first child, a healthy, beautiful baby boy, so obviously the numbers 9 and 13 are very important to me. 55 years later he is bald but still beautiful (or handsome if you prefer).

But a little more checking told me that the 9x13 being celebrated actually refers to those incredibly useful 9"x13" baking pans that we all know and love. I personally use that size pan for my famous sweet potato casserole, brownies and birthday cakes of all flavors.  

When my son was one year old I used a 9x13 pan to bake a chocolate cake for him.  It was his first taste of chocolate and he loved it.  Sadly, not having a cell phone handy back then, and being too busy cleaning up the mess, I did not get a chocolate covered picture of him.  

Here he is, all cleaned up, at one year old.  Happy, happy birthday darling son.  You have been a blessing and a joy to me all these years.  

Do you speak German?

 I always thought it was amusing that, in my very German small home town, the only foreign language offered in our high school was French.  Mrs. Wetter, one of my favorite teachers, only spoke English and French.  My west coast brother, who, by the way, had French toast for breakfast with his grandchildren this morning, informed me that today is "Tag der Deutschen Sprache" which translate to German Language Day in English.  

You would think that, since my paternal grandparents grew up speaking German as well as English I might be able to speak some German but, as it happened I never really heard them speak German.  My German paternal great great grandparents immigrated to the United States sometime in the mid 1800s.  

My father was born in 1916.  World War One had begun in 1914.  Because they wanted there to be no doubt that they were loyal US citizens, my grandfather and grandmother decided to speak only English at home and that's what their three children learned.  

That was all very well except that when my father was sent to first grade at the local Lutheran school the lessons were being taught in German.  That made for a pretty miserable first grade for him.  

I never heard the whole story but somehow, by second grade, enough families brought pressure to bear on the school administration (probably one teacher for all eight grades) to assure that the classes would now be taught in English.  

So now you know why I don't sprachen de Deutsch. 

we remember...

 All of us, at least all of us of a certain age remember 9-11-2001.  The subsequent 25 years have slid by quickly but that day remains firmly fixed in my mind.  Like the day JFK was assasinated, or the days my children were born, some events are never forgotten.  I remember rushing around getting ready to go to work when my then husband called to me "You need to come in and see this. Something big is happening."  I knew he was watching the morning news as usual and didn't think much about it but he kept insisting so I went into the family room to see what was going on.  

I got there just in time to see a plane crash into the second tower.  We watched transfixed as towers fell and sirens wailed.  As the awful news continued to unfold we learned of an attack on the Pentagon and a plane crash in Pennsylvania.  A friend I was talking with earlier today reminded me of the mass confusion as airports were shut down and people were stranded all over the world.

I didn't fear for my own safety on that day but I did have a concern.  My daughter's best friend from third grade through highschool is Indian and Muslim.  She and her family have lived in the US since she was five years old.  They are loyal citizens but in appearance their dark skin and hair could be mistaken for Saudi.  I feared for their safety.  Happily they lived in a neighborhood here in Fort Wayne where they were well known and accepted by their neighbors.  

These days, when we travel by plane or ship, I try to be patient as we pass through security checks and have our carry-on luggage scanned.  "It's ok," I tell myself, "I'd rather be safe."