SMALL TREASURES

Yesterday, I referred to a big black asteroid as a comet, and I stand corrected.  And, last night the moon and Jupiter were shining so brightly, my bedroom was completely navigable in the dark. I appreciate small treasures. Today I leave for Sacramento to attend to business and then look after  my two youngest grandsons over the next  four days. They too, are small treasures and I always learn something from them.

My photo file contains small treasures, a few of which I’ll post today. It never ceases to amaze me how different each builder chose to make a small, friendly edifice for our feathered friends.

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In the fall, birds really appreciate  additional food a feeder supplies. It must be kept clean.

Bird feeders are fundamentally the same, yet individual as well.
I had my windows washed on the outside yesterday. Now, I must be careful that the birds do not batter themselves on a too clean window. I’ve learned how to stop it when it happens. I cover the window from the inside with cardboard for a week or so. The sun’s position changes and the birds no longer are fooled into thinking they are flying into the reflected woody area behind them.  Birds are another small treasure that inhabit my yard. I keep water for them and a bird bath. And, I’ve decided to never own another cat. Cats are plentiful and the birds take a beating.

MISSED THE COMET

A neighbor, down on his luck, had the ambulance at his door three days ago. He is suffering from congestive heart failure. Home from the hospital, he invited me and another neighbor over to play RummiKub. A tile game with similarities to all rummy card games. Fun and lively if you are competitive,  and casual if you like to curse politics between moves. We all decided we’d have to hold our noses to vote and pick the least damaging person. Not exactly the way you want to decide the leadership of your country. We also wanted to check out the comet as it streaked toward the moon or earth or missed the moon and earth. Unfortunately, by the time we remembered and got outside,  the event was over. But, the moon was surrounded by a beautiful aura and some pattern of visible dust in the sky. A lovely clear night to view a gorgeous moon. The view was worth the burrs I got in my shoelaces tromping around Brian’s darkened back yard.  And, we guessed that it missed since we didn’t feel anything earth-shaking.
Brian has an oxygen bottle with a pump delivering him air wherever he is. It has a 50 foot hose and we threatened to step on it if he didn’t behave.

His sister, Anita, mimicked his nose tubes. Hey, life is short. Might as well laugh. The next comet might be “the big one.”

CHOCOLATE CRANBERRY APPLESAUCE.

Can’t think, brain numb, inspiration won’t come. My destiny for today.

I worked apples yesterday, putting up bags of apples in the freezer for later use. Since I had a bag of frozen cranberries I thought I’d make cranberry sauce. With a sink full of apples, the combination intrigued me so I put them together and found it very tasty. After dinner, I thought about the ways I’d used cranberries. I remember putting them still frozen in the brownie mix  just before putting them in the oven.  A huge success. In the market, cranberries, cherries, ginger, nuts of all kinds and pomegranate seeds are paired with chocolate.  I decided to have a dish of warmed cranberry applesauce with chocolate.  It was okay. Not great, just okay. I guess I could experiment with the amount and type of chocolate and come up with a better result. A chocolate sauce instead of grated. Or perhaps chocolate chips. Maybe a bit of brandy? You know, some things are just best left alone. I like chocolate and I liked the sauce.   Nuff said.

ANDY ROONEY AND 60 MINUTES

I’ve always loved Andy Rooney’s wry comments on the irritating things of everyday life.  Made me think we had something in common. I admired his unflinching honesty and that he stood behind his convictions whether others thought he was right or wrong.  A number of times he apologized if he felt he had  made a mistake. Not often. I gave up watching 60 Minutes some years back when they changed their time slot. And, I gave up watching television almost completely since I’ve been on the road with Jim. Don’t miss it, but I  had to watch 60 Minutes’ tribute to their uncompromising Irishman.  It was an interview of a previously aired program. I was glad I watched it.  I was surprised at how much about Rooney I didn’t know; his years with Godfrey, Reasoner, Cronkite. His original bits with 60 Minutes as a shadow character. His early career and awards.
The Seattle Post Intelligencer aired a video of Rooney’s final goodbye on 60 Minutes.  I had never seen it. I was glad I watched it, too. His final statement that goes something like this:  If you see me out to dinner, just let me eat my dinner.  Typical crusty Rooney. I heard him say that several times over the years. He didn’t like people to bother him during his private time. He never let fame go to his head.  He had substance, a great sense of humor, often serious, funny, sometimes angry, or silly; telling it like it was. Here is a link to  his last program if you missed it to:
http://www.seattlepi.com/ae/tv/tvguide/article/Andy-Rooney-Dies-at-92-2253704.php

TOUR OF CALIFORNIA 2012.

There was a time when  the Motherlode made national or statewide news only when something sensational happened, such as the Valley Springs rancher who  got arrested for drunk driving on his horse;  or the time a guy swallowed his bar mate’s gold nugget at the Murphys Hotel Bar.
Shoot, things have changed. Yesterday, the Capitol Christmas tree started its trip to the White House.  And, Assemblywoman Kristin Olsen unveiled a sign surrounded by about one-hundred  bikers that the Amgen Tour of California, a major biking event, is scheduled to have its fourth leg start in Sonora.  Mayor Canning, with city and county leaders, planned  to bring the tour to Sonora  for several months. They just learned they’ve been accepted this week.
The fourth leg will begin in Sonora and end in the City of Clovis in Fresno County.  The start for Sonora is expected to be mid-May.  Not only bikers, and their entourage, but friends follow this event all over the state.  A local member of the Gold Chain Cycling Club, David Bowman, expressed his opinion that cycling is a way of life, not just a sport. The ride will begin in Santa Rosa, followed by a ride across the famous Golden Gate Bridge, through San Francisco and on to Santa Cruz.  Third stage will begin in San Jose and end in Livermore.  It is a competition. The time trial will be held in Bakersfield, then on to Palmdale,  Big Bear Lake, Ontario and Mt. Baldy.  The race will finish in Los Angeles on May 20th.
I’d love to follow that event. What fun. It would even be better if I could bike it, but that is not in the cards. Not only would I not be capable, but it  is an elite competition regarded as a testing ground for top-tier riders who plan to compete in the Tour de France in June.  Wow!
I wonder how an extreme biker would do in an event like this?  Fascinating to watch You have to watch a 30 second ad to see this amazing video.  check it out on the following link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=Cj6ho1-G6tw&vq=medium

CAPITOL CHRISTMAS TREE

A small county, a rural county, not much of interest on the national radar happens here. We do have  scenic beauty with mountain vistas and plenty of trees.  One of those trees will be the 2012 Capitol Christmas Tree.
This morning, volunteers will cut a previously selected 60 foot tree from the Stanislaus National Forest. A Miwuk tribal elder will bless the event before the tree is lifted by crane and set on a flatbed truck and attached to a water bladder at the base. It will then be transported to the Sonora Fairgrounds guided by the California Highway Patrol.
The tree will be greeted by the townspeople and become part of  a parade through town and culminate in all day festivities at the fairgrounds. The weather was perfect last night, to stop the sap from flowing at about 26*, hardening off for the long trip across country to Washington D.C.
The festivities include wreath-making, wine tasting, music and food, seventy displays, vendors and children’s activities. The festival begins at 10 a.m. today.  The tree will arrive for all to see and smell before it heads east.  It is a unique festival and those who see the tree  on television will have a personal memory of  the famous Whitehouse Christmas Tree, especially the many volunteers both local and beyond who put in countless hours of donated time to make it happen.  It is customary for the tree to be decorated and stand from the Monday after Thanksgiving through the end of December on the White House lawn.
The Whitehouse Christmas Tree is selected from a different National Forest every year, so if you miss this celebration, you aren’t likely to see another in a long time. The trip and related events are funded by private donations. Donations are still being accepted to help cover travel expenses for the 10 day trip, and can be sent to the Sonora Area Foundation. Only one tax paid employee, a veteran U.S. Forest Service person, Maria Benech, coordinated the event.
The tree will be taken down 108 to Oakdale, then Manteca, Sacramento, Modesto, Merced, Fresno, Kingsburg, Santa Clarita, Los Angeles, Rancho Cucamonga, Barstow, Flagstaff, AZ., Gallup N.M. Amarillo TX, Tinker AFB, OK, Ft. Leonard Wood, MO, Santa Claus, IN, Cherokee, NC, Greensboro, NC, Newport News, VA, Dumfries, VA, Hersey, PA to Washington.

It’s a bit early, but the season is upon us. Kind of makes a person wish to get out the Christmas Cards.

DOGS AND CANDIDATES FOR SALE

The news is so ugly it makes me sick.  Registered voters in Florida, polled by Suffolk University's Steve Benen, believe that the GOP is willing to sack the economy to beat Obama in 2012. One- fourth of Republicans and one-third claiming to be conservatives said yes to that question.

In Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, hundreds of thousands of dollars are being spent  to support GOP legislation that will  change the way the electoral college awards votes in a Presidential Election. (The donors can legally keep their names or companies secret.)  Because Republicans will draw the boundaries of the districts, Obama could win the most votes and still get the fewest electoral college votes and lose the states.
Candidate Rick Perry is for sale!  As Governor, nearly half of his high rolling donors have received business contracts, tax breaks, or appointments from Perry.  (Probably true of all candidates who have formerly served in public office.) It's ugly out there.

A positive note for Californians  is the clean money campaign, designed to make big money donors transparent when pushing for  legislation and candidates.  Check it out at :
http://www.caclean.org/support/donate_thankyou.php

After all that ugly news, gotta have some humor.
Real Newspaper Ads. These are old but still funny:
Free Yorkshire terrier. Hateful little dog. Bites.
Free puppies...Mother AKC German Shepherd, Father Super Dog,...able to leap tall fences in a single bound.
Found Dirty White Dog. Looks like a rat..been out a while. Better be a reward.
Cows for sale. Never bred. Also one gay bull for sale.
Nordic Track.  $300. Hardly used. Call Chubby at...
Georgia peaches. California grown.  89 cents a pound.
Joining Nudist Colony.  Must sell washer and dryer, $300.
For Sale. Complete 45 volume set of Encyclopedia Britanica. Excellent condition. No longer needed, got married, wife knows everything.

SOME DAYS ARE LIKE THAT.

Theresa, my brother Clark’s fiance,  is an excellent cook and I should have taken pictures of the food, since I did such a lousy job of taking pictures of the people gathered at my brother’s  home yesterday. Some days are like that.

Dawn, my sister, with our visiting  cousin, Gary Rowe  enjoyed a rich artichoke dip with a variety of crackers and chips;   brie, pomegranate & pepper jelly, candied pecans, cookies,chips, and assorted drinks. I rarely indulge in such rich foods, but couldn’t resist snacking and drinking a good barbera wine. Theresa makes everything from scratch. Delish!

It is naturally an event when an out-of-town cousin visits.  Conversations around the table get quite spirited and old memories are displayed and hashed over for the fun and laughter they bring.

Clark was known most of his life as Corky, and only took back his real name late in life. He and my son,  Doug work together sometimes.  When dinner was served, I was full of goodies and could have skipped dinner.  I didn’t though.  Why resist the most beautiful Cobb Salad with roasted chicken and bacon, three different dressings;  four different kinds of quiche, jumbo shrimp, and apple cobbler for desert. Naw!  I loaded up and went home feeling like a stuffed toad.  Food for a King or Queen. Some days are like that.

CHANCE ENCOUNTER, LOUIS ZAMPERINI

Last week, my cousin Gary, who is visiting from Southern California, ran into Louis Zamperini at the doctor’s office. Zamperini, a runner, was expected to beat the four-minute mile in the 1936 Olympics.  Realize he is in his nineties. He didn’t win the race but he stole a Nazi Flag from Hitler and ran with it.
Later, he became a World War II hero, imprisoned, tortured. His escape was 47 days adrift on a raft without food and catching only rainwater and a few fish. Not that he was celebrated for his heroics but Laura Hellenbrand, the woman who wrote Sea Biscuit heard about him while researching Sea Bisquit and wrote the book Unbroken.
Gary, got an autographed copy of the book from the tireless Zamperini who currently occupies himself by taking kids involved in gangs and on the fringe of entering a criminal career, into the mountains on long tough hikes. Zamperini told him the kids open up and talk to him after they reach their goal. “They tell me more than they tell a psychiatrist for the state in two years of treatment,” Zamperini told him.
I loved Sea Biscuit, so naturally I had to look at Laura Hellenbrand’s website. I didn’t find it but I did find a story about the author, an invalid,  who is as interesting as her subjects. She has never met Zamperini. The book has been on the NY Times bestseller list for a year.  Of course, I’ve got to read it.
Take a peek:  http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/news/2010-11-10-hillenbrand10_CV_N.htm

THERE ARE BEARS OUT THERE.

Yesterday, in excerpts from Bill Dryson’s book, I learned that getting ready for the trail can be very expensive. Today, I want to impart information about bears in the woods. Dryson writes:
“Imagine, if you will, lying in the dark alone in a little tent, nothing but a few microns of trembling nylon between you and the chill night air, listening to a 400 pound bear moving around your campsite. Now, imagine reading a nonfiction book packed with stories…soberly related, just before setting off alone on a camping trip of your own into the American wilderness. …David Anderson, aged twelve, at 3:30 a.m. his tent was abruptly rent with a swipe of claw and the bear, driven to distraction by the rich, unfixable, everywhere aroma of hamburger, bit hard into a flinching limb and dragged him shouting and flailing through the camp and into the woods.”  (Before his fellow campers could give chase, David was dead.)
“…while my wife slumbered peacefully beside me, I lay saucer eyed in bed reading clinically precise accounts of people gnawed pulpy in their sleeping bags, plucked whimpering from trees, noiselessly stalked as they sauntered unawares down leafy paths. People whose one fatal mistake was to smooth their hair with a dab of gel, or eat juicy meat, or tuck a Snickers in their shirt pocket for later, or have sex, or even, menstruate, or in some small way, pique the olfactory properties of the hungry bear. Or inadvertently round a bend and find a moody male bear blocking the path.”

Herrero (the author of the book Dryson is reading entitled Bear Attacks: Their Causes And Avoidance) recounts the indestructibility of grizzly. But, Dryson also learns that if he is to be pawed and chewed by a bear it would be Ursus americanus.  Black bears, with as many as 700,000 in North America,  are agile cunning, immensely strong and always hungry. Herrero researched and found only twenty-three black bear killing of humans  from 1900 to 1980. But, there were twenty-five non-fatal attacks per year from 1960 to 1980. (Black bear picture from People-First website, no attribution given for photographer.)

Herrero then outlines the avoidance strategies for black bears that are just the opposite from grizzly.  Playing dead is futile, a grizzly will lose interest in a limp form, but a black will continue chewing . It is foolish to climb a tree because black bears are adroit climbers and you will simply end up fighting the bear in a tree. To ward off an aggressive black bear, Herrero suggests making a lot of noise, banging pots and pans, throwing sticks and rocks and “running AT the bear”.  Then adds, of course this could merely provoke the bear. Dryson concludes that no one can tell you what to do. Bears are unpredictable.

I have had two encounters with bears in my native Michigan woods, as a child. Scared hell out of me. Three of us slept with our sugar and milk for our cereal near us, food  planned for the next morning’s breakfast. The bear mowed over our improvised log structure for that bit of cereal and sugar. I learned how fast I could run.
The second encounter was a bear standing and looking into the window of our cabin while we slept. It woke us instantly and wildly awake. A male, he went from window to window, seemingly unruffled by the presence of humans on the inside with a gun. We were ruffled.

I hadn’t given much thought to bears since then, even though one has recently been on my property robbing the garbage cans of my tenants. I explained to them they have to quit leaving cat food out at night in an automatic feeder. And, not to toss any food garbage out until the bear quits coming back. It worked after four visits. I’ve taken to freezing my meaty garbage and only put it out on dump day. I’m beginning to rethink walking the Appalachian Trail. I’ve re-arranged goals before. I guess I could be called Greenhorn, Buttercup, sissy. Yup!  But, I have yet to contact Hilda. Gotta do that!  If other people survive…surely I will too.