My older son, Joshua Aaron, called last evening, while en route to Toronto from Rochester.
He uses the travel time to keep in contact with family members who he seldom sees.
We enjoy the calls when it is our turn in the rotation. He told us that his wife, Amy Lee was experiencing problems with her research program and was probably going to have to repeat her protein synthesis and restart at least part of the project. He and I talked recipes. He’s taking a turkey into Canada to cook for Canadian Thanksgiving, Monday. Joshua is planning to fix a traditional American turkey so that they will have left-over’s and soup stock to work with later. Of all my offspring, he is the most ambitious cook.
The Canadian Thanksgiving Day can be linked to a celebration held by explorer Martin Frobisher in 1578 in the Newfoundland/Labrador region in thanks of surviving a journey in search of the NW Passage. The Canadian First Nations people have long held harvest festivals as have the Europeans who immigrated to North America. Canada has fixed the second Monday in October as their national Thanksgiving Day. Not all provinces celebrate the day, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia are the exceptions; but all companies regulated by the federal government officially celebrate. It is a three day weekend. There is religious observance much like that in America. Some American traditions were brought to Canada by immigrants not wishing to be part of the newly formed United States.
Like us, he was surprised at the Obama Nobel Peace Prize. He, as do we, feels it to be as much a remark about being rid of Bush/Cheney as any approval of Obama’s action to date. He also thinks the action taken by Obama prior to inauguration with regard to the tanking economy was a factor. His take on health care reform progress also differs from ours. Rather than the medical professional and progressive viewpoints we both hold, he brings a progressive attorney’s thoughts to the discussion. He seems to be more hopeful than we are of the eventual outcome. Listening to his view of the necessary legislative and political dance going on, it is possible to see where his hope originates. I hope he’s correct.
His phone calls to us usually are limited by his cell phone connectivity and proximity to the border crossing he uses going into Canada. We spoke for about an hour last night and, as always, were happy to have the time to talk with him.
Today is overcast, low clouds, and it is raining intermittently. We‘ve had 0.58in. of rain in the last 24 hours, 0.13 since midnight. Yesterday found us under tornado watch until 2200. As the heaviest group of storm cells moved through, I was watching radar feeds from the NWS at Morristown TN. I noted one cell that was showing a tornadic vortex signature – rotation evident on Doppler radar. It seemed to last on the replay only about 1-2 minutes before no longer being detected. The cell’s projected path had it passing directly over us. The weather tracking program I use allows me to see projected storm tracks including location over time projections. It is a lot of fun for me to use. At the same time it can be a bit disturbing, seeing the radar generated indications of hail and tornadic activity that may never be confirmed by spotters or that may be only probable rather than actual instances of severe weather. Given my extreme concern about tornadoes learned growing up and living in tornado alley, I’m doing right well not getting too excited at the projections. As steep as the valley walls are, we’d be hard put to detect a funnel without knowing exactly when and where to look.
It seems to be an auspicious day to talk with family. Joshua called after the formal astronomical beginning of Shabbat last night – which, of course, begins the day on our Hebrew sol-lunar calendar. Gloria talked to her nephew, David earlier today and now is talking with her cousin Laurie in Massachusetts. I’ve had little time to actually sit down with Laurie and talk. But as with all Gloria’s family, she has always been wonderfully warm and welcoming. She is continually involved in all manner of things, familial and civic, that allow families and communities do more than just subsist. Her children seem to be wonderfully grounded in life and understand that they are expected to do their part in healing the world. I’ve no doubt that they will do their part and as much extra as they possibly can.
Instilling such regard for others in children is hard, often impossible. One can only offer encouragement when they move in the right direction. I’m happy, by and large, with who my kids turned out to be. As I told Joshua last night, I take pride in the fact that none of my offspring voted for Bush II. They fall in the upper quarter of the bell curve of human concern for others. I make no claim that who they are is any of my doing. Very importantly, they read for pleasure. I believe that to be highly important in whom people become.
We slept in this morning. The lack of sunlight filtering into the bedroom allowed us to manage that. I only sleep in about two days a week. Most days I probably could sleep later than I do but I like to have a chance to read the newspaper and eat breakfast, drink coffee before having to deal with outside intrusions. Mike and I walk for exercise five days/week. I’d like to walk earlier in the day but his schedule differs from mine. Currently, our best compromise is that I walk down to his house between 09330 and 0945. We cover two miles and then, most often stand by his mailbox and talk for another 10-15 minutes before I walk back up valley. He has a great view up and downstream from his front deck and his footbridge that crosses the creek
view downstream (S) from Mike’s
Images acquired ca. 1030 9 October 2009 Note that the right (W) bank of Cassi creek is still not fully illuminated by sunlight and left bank (E) is fully in shadow.
We are now searching for the restaurant we will use for dinner in Asheville next Thursday evening before attending a dance. It is hard to pick the right place. We have to consider what Gloria should have and how much affect dancing will have on her glucose levels as the night progresses. We also have to consider food for her after the dance. Fast food places are pretty much excluded but so are most restaurants. One of the local dancers suggested a Greek-Italian restaurant close to the venue but the menu looks less than satisfactory for Gloria. Something will pop up.
We’re also looking for a place to have dinner on the 1st of November before seeing Leonard Cohen. If we leave here around 1600 we should have time to park and walk to a nearby restaurant and then back to the concert. There are several Japanese restaurants in the vicinity. Sushi, good sushi, is sounding very good right now. So is tempura, Tekka don, uni!
The day just turned unpleasant. Gloria let Loki out for her afternoon walk, had her control collar on her as always.
The neighbor across the street has three dogs which roam loose, chase cars, and are frequently on our property. We try to keep Loki away from them as they are not properly vaccinated, appear to have intestinal parasites, and have been a problem for us repeatedly. They chose that moment to chase a truck up valley, Loki responded to pack instinct ran across the road despite Gloria’s best efforts to stop her. One of them, we believe the pit bull puppy, bit her, just missing her left eye, tearing a 2 cm laceration in her left muzzle. She came back home, bleeding steadily from her muzzle, one paw covered in blood. By the time I heard Gloria call and got to the front door, the deck had, perhaps, 25 mL of blood dripped about. Facial laceration and head wound bleeding is usually more apparent than actual. I was able to put direct pressure on the wound with a towel and stop the bleeding well enough to see the nature of the wound. Gloria got our veterinarian on the phone and we discussed treatment. We chose to try closure with surgical glue rather than bundle a bleeding dog into the car and drive 18 miles to the vet’s office on a late Saturday afternoon for sedation and possible sutures or more likely, glue.
We washed her wound, applied peroxide, let it dry and then, after some struggle and contest of wills I was able to squeeze enough glue into the lac to approximate and hold the edges, filling the gap between skin and muscle as well. Immediately after that, she accepted and ate a treat then went to her food bowl and ate more. No signs of shock, bleeding stopped, back to doing normal doggy things. I don’t believe the dog that bit her has been vaccinated for rabies. Loki’s immunizations are current She’ll have a scar on her muzzle but should be alright. Her paw was not wounded, just bloody.
If the bite had happened on our property, I’d be on the phone to animal control. We’ve already lodged two complaints with them regarding the dogs in question. Shortly after the first one, the youngest dog, now replaced by the pit bull puppy, was killed while chasing a car. The neighbor across the street is the only problem neighbor we have to deal with. He believes he can live today as his parents did fifty years ago. He and his son throw trash in the creek, toss bottles and cans along the road side, and are less than desirable neighbors. Right after we moved in, his then pack of dogs was so hungry that they were stealing newspapers and anything else they could find hoping to eat it. They stole and dragged to his house driveway marker lights, a plastic flamingo we’ve had for years, a shoe cleaning mat, and other items which he did not bother to return until I went over to complain one morning. He had all our dog-stolen property in a chest by the door, knew who it belonged to, but had no concern about it. There are too many pit bulls in this valley. His is of unknown breeding, dropped off by his daughter, and like all his other dogs exists hungry, poorly socialized.
In 2008 he hosted a very noisy 4th of July party with a band. We put up with the noise, which bounced off the hillside behind him and then amplified in synergy with the speaker output, until 0200. I went over to find him and asked him to drop the volume. He looked at me, said,” Well, you was invited.” And walked off. I said, “No, I wasn’t, and it doesn’t matter, please turn it down. “ I left; he had the band jack the volume up .even louder.
This year, he apparently has serious income problems. He sent his son over to ask if we had odd jobs so that he could earn money for some school project. He then went to Mike, seeking money with a different story. Since then, he’s been sent to Mike’s several times to offer him some gun or other item that the neighbor wants to sell. Mike always refuses and we’ve not been approached again.
At least the dog is not badly injured. Off soapbox, back into good neighbor mode.
Dinner tonight, Tom Yum soup with shrimp and cilantro, pot stickers.
Ground venison is thawed for tomorrow.
Loki, with her chew cat toy, before injury
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