The View from Here

Malicious Mayhem

I had a relative who spent most of his adult life in prison for killing another man in a fight. I understand that. People get angry with each other. Men fight. It has been the way of humans since time began. That’s not an excuse, nor do I condone killing, but at least that sort of scenario has a certain logic to it. The outcome in such a struggle is predictable.

War is another form of killing that is “acceptable” to our minds because we have grown up with it- heard about it, read about it, seen it, experienced the effects. We do not like it, but we understand that sometimes it is inevitable.

This morning my television is reporting the results of another kind of killing…one that has become all too prevalent in our society. I don’t understand how something like this can happen. I can’t find any logic in randomly killing people you don’t even know. There is no reason, however sick or twisted, that I can comprehend for the kind of malicious mayhem that occurred in Colorado. I’m sure a motive will eventually be revealed, but whatever it is will never make sense to me.

I had to get away from the reports and go outside for a while. I had to take some photos of something natural and peaceful and comforting. I had to remind myself that most people are good and kind and just as appalled by this tragic event as I am. We will all pray together for the victims and their families…and the family of the young man responsible.

 

Hair

I remarked to my daughter recently that it is almost time for my “semi-annual haircut”. After she stopped laughing, I reminded her that I traditionally get my hair cut in July and December. The rest of the time I just wash it and go. I have “Orphan Annie hair”, the kind of hair you can choose to love or hate, adapt to or constantly fight. For years I spent time and money doing the latter. I wish now that I could recover even half the money and time I spent on straightening, coloring, cutting, and styling my hair! Of course I must admit that when I was younger I enjoyed looking different from time to time. Now my reflection in the mirror seldom changes, except to get a little older.

Most of the women I know spend a great deal of time and money styling their hair or having someone else do it. And according to industry statistics about half of the women in this country color their hair. Another thing that I don’t bother with anymore…I just don’t care if my hair turns gray. That’s what it should do after all the stress I’ve lived with for 62 years! Lol Coloring products account for about $2 billion that women spend each year on their hair. Who knows how much we spend at salons!! The national totals I found were around $40 billion total, but not broken down into categories.

Time is another factor in the hair care scenario. Each of us has to decide how much time we want to devote to our hair. My mother spent hours on her hair each week. She washed it, rolled it onto curlers, let it dry, combed it out, styled it, sprayed it. And I recall spending at least twenty to thirty minutes a day just pulling and drying my hair so it would be straighter. I had a friend who ironed hers!

One of the things I remember from my youth is how many women wore scarves to keep their hair in place. A woman might spend an hour styling her hair, and then cover it up so the wind didn’t blow it into disarray! My mother owned dozens of little flimsy hair scarves in different colors.

I also remember crowding into the bathroom between high school classes to do a “hair check”. There was so much hairspray in the air it’s a wonder someone didn’t pass out!

Men cannot scoff at these rituals as they are spending millions each year to color and/or grow hair! The selection of men’s hair care products gets more diversified each year. And I know some of them are spending quality time in front of the mirror each morning.

So…not a deep, inspiring subject this morning, but some amusing memories. What are you doing with your hair today?

 

Real People, Real Lives...

Yesterday I talked with a woman who was visiting the cemetery to clean her relatives’ headstones. See…I’m not the only person in Caddo who wanders around the cemetery early in the morning! The woman and I are old friends and we had a nice discussion about some of the people buried in Gethsemane.

It’s difficult sometimes to remember that each headstone, each name in the cemetery represents a real person, with a real life, and a real family. I know I seem to dwell on dead people, but I think it’s important to remember and respect the people who made it possible for us to live. And that often means learning the history of someone who was not a member of your own family. We would not have power and lights and roads and homes and stores if it were not for the hard work of the former residents of our community. People we know nothing about were the neighbors and friends and co-workers of our ancestors. I was reminded of that this week when I typed the obituary of someone and noticed their daughter was married to a member of our family!

As I’ve worked on photos and memorials for Find a Grave this past week I’ve been fascinated by the details that I’ve gleaned from funeral records. I’ve also retrieved the obituaries for some people and found out they died in tragic accidents or from violent actions and rampant diseases. Wagons and autos and machinery took the lives of many people. Shoot outs took several others. Typhoid, smallpox, and influenza once raged through parts of the country and destroyed whole families.

And patterns emerge when you look at the headstones of a couple hundred people. I know that many died in the same month they were born. I notice that many older couples died within months of each other. I am saddened to see that many mothers died with their newborns. I also know that many people are born, married, and die on holidays. Especially poignant are the deaths recorded for Christmas day and Valentine’s Day. I guess I am especially sensitive about that because my own mother died just before Thanksgiving and I remember how hard it was to be thankful without her. Sitting on my desk right now is the obituary of a young woman tragically killed in an auto accident on her way to visit her parents for Christmas. Her husband of three months lived. Real people, real lives.

The cemetery also contains the bodies of people who were considered “important” in our county- judges and sheriffs and attorneys and doctors. I recognize the names of several of the local businessmen and community leaders. There are also headstones for some of the hoodlums and bootleggers, murderers and thieves. The cemetery contains the remains of veterans from the Civil War, Spanish American War, World War I, World War II, Korea and Vietnam.

I continue to work on all of these memorials because I think it is important for us to value the people who lived here before us and to be aware of how they lived and died. 

 

Good Morning World!

I had to get out of the house this morning! Perhaps I was anxious because I stayed inside too much yesterday. All I know is that I was out at sunrise walking, enjoying the critters and appreciating the brief interlude of cool before the hot summer day begins.

Off to the cemetery and then the genealogy library.  Be good! Later…

 

This and That

It has been a somewhat “different day” for me. It was nearly five before I got up. I know that is early for most of you, but a late start for me.

I started out with my usual computer work. Last week I overheard a woman say, “Well I start out on the computer and then pretty soon I realize I haven’t had lunch. Then I eat and the next thing I know it’s almost bedtime. I just get carried away sometimes.” The woman was at least eighty years old! I found myself thinking about that this morning. When we first got a computer I used it only for writing and didn’t even have internet. When we got internet I thought I might “use it once in a while”. Now I find myself on the computer at least six hours a day and two of that is internet time. I could literally write, edit photos, shop, socialize, research, and read online from sunrise to sunset if I didn’t have other things to do!

I went out just after sunrise this morning for a little work in the garden, got bitten by an ant and developed a 3in x 2in welt that has bothered me all day. Yes I was wearing insect repellent, but I guess the ant wasn’t intimidated. He still crawled up a stem I was carrying, crossed over the edge of my glove, and took a nice bite of my arm. Yes, I put anti-itch cream on it, and iced it, and took antihistamine. Who knew ants could be so vicious?

Gary and I went to Caddo and Durant for a few errands. Stopped by the library and got a book about Jews in Oklahoma. I’m gathering background material for a biography of Ben Siegel. And I must say that I am constantly amazed by what I do NOT know about history. I am finding out all kinds of things about Jews and the Klan and racial tensions in Durant in the twenties. Also reading a book about Andrew Jackson. I think I mentioned finding it in a used book store in Monterey and then ordering it from another library. Did you know that Andrew Jackson was a carousing, often violent young man who ran off with someone else’s wife? Interesting perspective on early history.

Went to the pharmacy to pick up my blood pressure medicine and was told it wasn’t ready, despite the fact that I called in the renewal last Wednesday. A little problem in communication. Got it resolved by going over to the clinic. You would think that with computers problems like this would not even occur, but this is actually the third problem I’ve had with our pharmacy. Maybe it is time for a change!

Spent the afternoon completing some projects, and then took a short nap. Did not go for a walk or take one photo! Then as we got ready to go back into town for a meeting I glanced out the laundry room window and saw this guy! Thank goodness I took these shots through the window- don’t want to get too close. This is the poster child for “a face only a mother could love”. Lol

Good meeting with good friends. Dinner and dishes. Now I find myself posting so late that I know most friends won’t read it until morning. Oh, well…it was still a good day! 

 

Corn

We’re talking about corn today, and if you have been paying at least a little bit of attention to the news, you know why. Drought and despair have hit the corn belt and I can tell you right now that every single one of us is going to be affected by the outcome. In fact, predictions are that our grocery prices will increase by 10% within the next six to twelve months. Better stock up now on your “must have” food staples! And don’t smugly think you can just stop eating corn. Corn is used in 75% of the products sitting on your shelves right now. Have a sweet tooth? You’ll have a serious problem avoiding corn.

Here is just a sample list of products containing corn that I borrowed from an allergy warning:

* Many baby foods
* Bakery products
* Brewed beverages

* Carbonated beverages

* Cheese spreads and cheese foods

* Prepared cereals
* Condiments (ketchup, steak sauce, chili sauce, mayonnaise, tartar sauce, salad dressings)
* Chewing gum
* Prepared mixes (pancake, waffle, biscuit, cake flour, puddings)
* Gravies and sauces
* Canned soups and dehydrated soup mixes
* Coffee “creamers” and designer coffee drinks
* Sweetened condensed milk
* Most commercially prepared desserts
* Fruits (commercially canned, candied, frozen, pie fillings, jams, jellies, marmalades, preserves)

 * Fruit “drinks” and some fruit juices are sweetened with corn by-products
* Frostings and icings
* Oriental foods typically contain cornstarch as a thickener
* Cornmeal
* Tortillas
* Many distilled products-gin, vodka, whiskey
* Many fried foods are fried in corn oil
* Candy (Corn is present in virtually all candy, particularly when a smooth texture is present at room temperature)
* Ice cream, sherbets, and sorbets
* Marshmallows
* Meats (cured meats, luncheon meats, sausages, bologna, bacon, ham, wieners)
* Pickles, if sweetened
* Peanut butter is often sweetened with corn by-products
* Frozen seafood
* Sweetened ice tea
* Most snack foods
* Gelatin desserts
* Some nutritional supplements, unless labeled otherwise
* Popcorn
* Prepared mustards

Look for cornstarch, corn syrup, corn oil and/or the words dextrose, glucose, dextrin, maltodextrin, lecithin, fructose, high fructose, vegetable starch, “thickeners”, sweeteners, syrup, vegetable oil, maize, and sorbitol.

And don’t forget the hundreds of non-food products that are made with corn. Some sources list as many as 4,000+ products that have corn as an ingredient. For a comprehensive chart visit the National Corn Growers Association and scroll down to “Education K-12”. Prepare to be amazed…and worried.

So, this was my public service announcement for the week. Aren’t you glad someone watches the Farm Report for you? 

 

A Bunny Tale

People often comment that they like my photos…and then they ask me questions about my camera and technical stuff about aperture and settings and…my usual response is the I am NOT a photographer so don’t ask me hard questions. My photography is generally about having a user-friendly camera with several easy settings, and being in the right place at the right time. To take nature photos you have to actually be outside. To capture some of the things that I do you also have to be observant and patient.

I know these bunnies and they know me. We are out in the yard together most mornings. I water or weed while they play. I know they love to chase each other, eat, chase each other some more, eat some more, and then settle down for a little grooming before they head back to the tall grass to sleep. They are wary of me, but not afraid. So I get some pretty good pictures.

Here, in a few photos, is this morning’s game of tag. By the way, one bunny is definitely the “troublemaker”. Always sneaking, poking, chasing….

 

Life and Death

My week has been a constant acknowledgment of the contrasts between life and death, pleasure and pain. Nature has reminded me in joyful abundance of the importance of mothers. I’ve watched a new foal and several calves seek guidance, sustenance, and even protection from their mothers this week. I was privileged to be on hand within hours of the birth of the foal, and within minutes of the arrival of one of the calves. I witnessed a cow getting a pesky cattle egret to stop bothering her baby.

I’ve also been photographing and posting headstone photos of about a hundred former residents of Caddo. Unfortunately several of them were infants and children. It is a sad fact that in the early days many families had a dozen children because half of them died. Our local cemetery is filled with the graves of brothers and sisters laid side by side. Many died within months of each other- due to influenza, smallpox, typhoid, or tragic accidents. I know the cause of death for many of them because I have searched for their obituaries in the old newspapers. I like to be able to tell a family why and how someone died; it often explains so very much. One of the deaths I documented this week was that of a young man who was killed in a wagon accident just a few months after getting married. His wife was injured, but lived, and remarried about three years later.

As I stood on my porch last night and enjoyed the sight of hummingbirds, bunnies, horses, and cows frolicking in the rain I counted myself blessed to be a part of life each day. We never know how much longer we will be around…

 

Sex, Lies, and Idiots

Well tonight is the big event…the first episode of another show featuring sex, lies and idiots that I refuse to watch. Oh, I succumbed to temptation years ago and watched a few episodes when a local boy was featured, but I learned my lesson. NOT appropriate entertainment for an old woman with blood pressure problems! And given the “teasers” that have been aired for the last two weeks I would guess that the show has gotten worse.

My burning question concerning this show, a book everyone seems to be reading, and the latest “almost-porn” movie, is WHO is the target audience? Years ago I took several marketing and psychology classes that explored advertising statistics and strategies. I also worked in advertising for a few years. And I worked for a publishing house where we had to know, without a doubt, who was going to read our next book, and why…otherwise we didn’t make any money! So I ask you…who wants to watch sex, lies, and idiots?

Someone must be sitting on the edge of their seat waiting for tonight. And I know there are at least ten more shows on television that equal this one in virtual voyeurism. Even some people I personally know have surprised, okay shocked me, by going to the aforementioned movie.

Entertainment isn’t produced just for our enjoyment. The fundamental purpose of everything we see and most of what we read is to MAKE MONEY. People are paid big bucks to sit around and develop ideas for the next thing that will promote people, products, and programs that we will pay money to see, have, and participate in. Obviously someone has figured out who wants to see the nonsense airing tonight.

So…who are you and why do you watch this stuff? Inquiring minds want to know….

 

Sisters

I miss my mom every day, but I am so thankful that she has sisters who remind me so much of her and share so many memories of her. I had a great visit with one of them today. Thanks Betty!