Tuesday at work I had a giggle during a meeting with the crisis team for a case I was involved with. Two of the crisis team members are locals who grew up in a small community about 10 miles from here. A third crisis team member asked why the client’s family member involved in the case was acting in a particularly unhelpful way. This family member also was from the same community as the two crisis team members. The crisis team members replied “Well, you know, she was a Hapsburg before she got married!” (name changed to protect privacy) as though that explained everything about the family member’s behavior.
The funny thing about that exchange is that it did explain everything! One delightful thing about working in a sparsely populated rural area for 36 years has been getting to know all the quirks and peculiarities of local families. By local, I mean people who live in an 80 mile radius of where i work. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree out here. It isn’t even necessarily pathological. It’s just that if someone is a so and so from Belfield or a such and such from South Heart, they often act the same as the other members of their families, and you can predict how they might respond to you. “Oh, she was a Hapsburg” gives us all sorts of information to know how to proceed.
What is your family known for?Any interesting peculiarities or quirks? Where do you look to for answers?
About twenty-five ago, my gym started opening locations in the Twin Cities; sales reps from the gym were available for a few hours in my company’s lunchroom, offering memberships at a huge discount. Huge. Another of the selling points was that most major insurance companies were now giving credits for getting healthy. My insurance company was offering a $25 credit for going to the gym 12 times a month. The location near my office wasn’t even built yet but I thought it was a great opportunity so I signed up.
They didn’t start taking the money until the facility was actually built and in that six months, my company ramped up their “get healthy” policy. If you worked out/went to the gym (the same 12 times a month), you’d get $20 award credits. If you added the insurance money and the good healthy policy, it was more than the monthly charge for the gym! It was like getting paid to work out. Even when the health policy changed about ten years ago (and I didn’t want to mess with it anymore), it was still an excellent deal as the gym never increased my fees.
Except for a few months when I hurt my back, I went to the gym 12 times a months year after year after year. Swimming laps sometimes, a few classes but most routinely the stationary bike. (I can read while I’m on the stationary bike… win/win.) But only 12 times. In all those years, I think I went more than 12 times a month just a few times. I wanted to get that credit but nothing more.
When I retired, I was able to change my membership to Silver Sneakers which is free to me. I was pretty sure when I made the switch that I would never go to the gym again – if it was about the discount and the credit all those years, what value would I put on it if it’s free no matter whether I go or not.
Surprise surprise. I’m still going to the gym, but I’m going MORE now. Pretty much every other day. Still mostly the bike and book show, but occasionally some laps. I keep think I should try the spin class but then I couldn’t read.
So why do I value it more NOW when it’s free than when I was paying for it?
There was absolutely nothing useful I could think of to say today – my stomach has been roiling for days. Despite Linda’s exhortations, I did not get around to voting early so I’m expecting I will be in line for a while this morning. My plan is to go early and have a good book. And if the forecast is correct, an umbrella.
My to-do list for the rest of the day is to take it easy. Some time in my studio. Some tv, but not coverage. Make some waffles. Read, but something very light. Go to bed early as possible.
What are you doing today? Any good way to keep our minds from blowing up?
“Alexa please tell me the meaning of ‘pellegrinaggio’.”
I was reading a book of poetry by Barbara Kingsolver (How to Fly in Ten Thousand Easy Lessons) and came across “pellegrinaggio” as the title to the first poem in a section on a trip she made with family members to Italy.
Pellegrinaggio
At the end of the long-bowling alley lane
of a transatlantic flight, we crash and topple
like pins in the back of a Roman taxi.
split or spare, hard to say what we are but
family, piled across one another: husband
and wife, our two daughters, his mother
Giovanna who has waited eight years
to see what she’s made of.
Her parents, flung out from here like messages
in bottles, washed up on a new shore and grew
together. Grew celery for the Americans. Grew this
daughter who walked to school, sewed a new
cut of skirt, and became the small interpreter
for a family. They took her at her word but stamped
a map called home on a life she believed would end
before she could ever come here to find it.
What other gift could we give her? But now our taxi
crawls like a green bottlefly through the ear canals
of a city, it is half-past something I can’t stand
one more minute of, and I wonder what we were
thinking. We all might die before we find a place
to lie in this bed we’ve made for her. Beside me
she sits upright, mast of our log-pile ship in this bottle.
Made of everything that has brought us this far.
Alexa coughed up a very thorough definition (pilgrimage) and then surprisingly asked me if the information she had given me was useful. I said “Yes, thank you.” YA came into my doorway and asked me why I do that. I wasn’t sure what she was referring to so she said “why do you always say please and thank you when you’re asking Alexa something? You know it’s not actually a person?”
I DO know that Alexa isn’t a person. However she does represent the work of a lot of people and is certainly programmed to sound like a person. I’m not sure when I started saying please, thank you and no thank you when interacting with Alexa. In this world that seems increasingly abrasive and mean, it just feels nice to me to be polite, even if I’m the only one if affects.
And to my credit I actually rarely say thank you – only if she is waiting for an answer, such as her wishing to know how her definition of pellegrinaggio played out.
Do you have any little quirks/habits that others give you grief for?
Hasn’t been much farming happening at our place this week. It’s tech week at the theater. So, all day every day there.
We got almost an inch of rain Wednesday and Thursday so that was really nice. Haven’t got my corn out yet, even though they had thought maybe Sunday and then he said maybe Tuesday but they’ll get to it one of these days. The weather doesn’t really hurt it at this point, I mean as long as we’re not talking blizzards or anything, the corn can take some rain.
The header photo is a view we haven’t had in twenty years. Kelly has done such an impressive job cutting and clearing all the buckthorn on this hillside. Once she got done working from the top down, I cleared some of the bottom of the hill and she started from the bottom up. It’s a good workout for her and it’s so great to be able to see all the way through again!
I did get all the hydraulic hoses replaced on my chisel plow a couple weeks ago.
I opened the big, fancy, new, garage door and backed onto the concrete and replaced or turned over the shovels so they all have good sharp points on the bottom. Two bolts in each, and I was smart enough not to hold it with my thumb as I mentioned a few stories back where I sliced open both thumbs doing this job. You might have to tell me things twice, but you don’t have to tell me three times. A couple of shovels were broken off, so I replaced those. There’s a point on each end that will wear off. Sometimes you can just turn them over and use the other point. They’ve got a slight twist to them so they either throw the dirt to the left or the right.
I was short a couple of bolts so I picked them up one morning, and then while home for an hour one afternoon, I finished all the shovels and now it’s ready to go once the corn is out.
I really like having the concrete in the shed and outside, and what I’m learning about having concrete is that it’s always dirty. I’m beginning to realize why the farmers with these concrete shops all have floor sweepers. Trying to keep it clean is an ongoing battle. In the shop, at this point without the fourth wall and the dirt floor just outside that, I use a leaf blower and just blow all the dust back out on the dirt. Same thing outside, although sometimes I use the lawnmower and drive back-and-forth with that to funnel the dust off one edge. Soon I’ll be buying more tools to keep it clean. Power broom? I’ve got shop brooms, they’re boring and too much work. Industrial vacuum? Drivable floor sweepers?? Industrial vacuum!!
Hopefully once I finish the wall and keep the door shut more it won’t be as dusty in the shop, but you can see from the photo that when I’m working on something I might bring a lot of dirt.
Speaking of buying more tools, the soybean check is in the bank and I’ve been shopping. (Yeah, yeah, I’ll get to the bills too.) I bought a few more deep well, impact rated, metric sockets to finish off the rack. Twenty mm – 26mm
And I ordered the wifi bridge so I can send the wifi signal from the house to the shop, and then put my remote thermometer and camera in there, and get the wifi thermostat hooked up, and the wifi-garage door. 😊
Also, I always get a couple new pairs of work boots with the soybean check. My lousy feet, I wear out a pair of shoes in a year.
The first college show is Saturday at 2 o’clock. “Still Life with Iris”, by Steven Dietz.
Sunday is the final open house at our old Haverhill Township Hall before the Rochester Fire Department uses it for a training burn. More on that later.
Next week we have two shows per day at the college with the final show on Saturday the ninth. I hope to be home working on my shed in the afternoons. This weather isn’t going to hold forever.
When I was nine, the St. Louis Arch was completed. Not the whole she-bang (viewing room, elevator, greenway, museum) but the structure of The Arch. It took 2½ years from breaking ground until October 28, 1965, when the last piece was put in place.
Although my family was actually living in Jefferson City at the time of the completion, we were St. Louis folks through and through. The Arch was a big deal back then and we had been down to the site a couple of times during the build; it was exciting to see the two legs each inching up.
As a child it seemed impossible to me that they could build each leg separately and actually have them meet in the middle. The day that they put the last piece in place, joining up both legs, it was big news and as a family we watched it on television. Here’s a short version:
At the time there were a lot of folks who thought once they put the last piece in place, The Arch would just fall down. My father was not in that camp, asserting every time it came up in conversation that it would be an engineering marvel. I guess he’s right – it’s been standing 59 years now. Growing up mostly in St. Louis, I’ve actually been up in the Arch about a dozen times; it was always on the agenda when folks visited from out of town. Since it’s my “home-town” monument, I’m pretty proud that it’s still standing!
Any monument you think is particularly impressive? Or not?
Husband and I have rarely watched much TV the 40 years we have been married. Our TV has always been in the basement. We rarely hang out in the basement. The TV is currently completely disconnected from the cable because we had a basement remodel in the spring. The only news we hear is NPR and the local papers we get. I avoid any news that comes up on my phone regarding the election.
I am in Dallas right now at a conference. Husband is back at home. I have turned on the TV in the hotel room, and I am so glad we don’t watch much at home. I was struck by Jacque’s comment about a self imposed news desert during the election weeks right now. I am stressed enough by the election news, and if I was regularly watching TV I would be a complete mess. Self care is important. When our children were little, we would often say “Scary Bears! ” when something frightening happened. Self care actions like Jacque’s can reduce the Scary Bears in our lives.
How are you coping with the current election stresses? What do you do for self care?What will you and won’t you watch on TV?
I have a fair few number of favorite fictional characters but I know it won’t surprise anybody here that Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot are tops in my book. I have the movies Hound of the Baskervilles (Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce) as well as Murder on the Orient Express (Albert Finney) saved on my TV so it’s accurate to say I’ve seen them repeatedly.
Several years ago my BFF and I decided that for our birthdays we would do experiences together rather than do more “stuff”. She does Cantus tickets for us and I do a play for us each fall. I pick three options, write them up a bit and she chooses one.
This year, a production called Holmes/Poirot was finally scheduled at Park Square Theatre. There had been discussion of it during the summer of 2023, but it never materialized. When I presented BFF with the three choices this year, I had my fingers crossed that she would choose Holmes/Poirot. Luckily she’s a sleuth fan as well. We’ve done a couple of other Sherlock “knock-offs”s as well as doing the Science Museum exhibition a couple of years ago.
The expectation was that the play would be a mash-up with the detectives pitted against each other, even though you’d have to mess with the time continuum to do this. Considering I’ve read a book with Sherlock as a dog and another with a time traveling Miss Marple facsimile, I can handle a little time continuum disturbance. When we sat down with our programs, it was clear that it was going to be two different stories…. Holmes in Act One and Poirot in Act Two. The two main actors change roles for the second act. Sherlock Holmes becomes Colonel Hastings and John Watson becomes Hercule Poirot. The other seven actors switch up characters as well.
During intermission BFF and I wondered aloud how long it would take us to re-orient ourselves to the actors changing parts. We didn’t need to worry. Within just a couple of minutes, we were all in. It was an inspired juxtaposition; both actors were excellent and completely believable in their roles. The second act was played for more comedy, which was perfect because…. well… Poirot. It’s hard not to play him with a splash of silliness.
Absolutely no spoiler alerts here but suffice it to say that the writing was great and had BFF and I guessing to the end of each segment. It was an immediate standing ovation. I’m highly recommending this if you can stlll get tickets.
Do you have a preferred detective? Fictional or otherwise?
I see that the Badlands Opera Project, our local opera company, is putting on Amahl and the Night Visitors again this December. They staged it last year, with our church choir director and her 12 year old daughter as Amahl’s mother and Amahl. Both have wonderful voices. This year’s production will have a different Amahl and mother, this time a mom and son duo.
All the singers are local, except for the guy who sings the part of the tallest King with the deepest voice. He sings that part and other low, cameo roles such as Zarastro from The Magic Flute, all over the county. I am not sure where he is from, but he isn’t from ND. Imagine having a specialty voice like that. He’ll be back for this year’s production. I guess he really liked singing with our local company.
If I could magically have a voice other than the low alto voice I have, I would want to be a belter like Patti Lupone in Anything Goes. Of course I would also have to be able to dance, which would be a problem, I’m afraid. Oh well, I suppose I could magically make myself a dancer, too.
If you could magically get an operatc or musical theater voice, what roles would you want to perform?
Yesterday was Reformation Sunday, a big day in the Lutheran Church. At our Lutheran congregation it was also the day for the 9th graders to get confirmed. Husband and I are both choir members, and we sang at both services.
I am a lifelong Lutheran, but I have never liked the Lutheran penchant for singing every single verse of every hymn. Even though I am a church musician, singing verse after verse is annoying and exhausting. Yesterday was particularly annoying, since many of the hymns had five verses. We barreled through A Mighty Fortress and Built On A Rock. I was thankful, that the slow, emotionally expressive organist had the day off. When she plays, she takes us slower and slower through each verse and song. She has no understanding of the difficulty of breath support for singers during slow hymns. I was also thankful that for the second service when confirmation was held, they cut all the hymn verses to three to save time. What a relief! Husband and I came home and took three hour naps.
What do you find annoying about the organizations you belong to? What songs do you like to sing?
