One of the Kindergarten teachers wore rainbow toe socks and colorful flip flops for Wacky Wednesday, celebrating Dr. Seuss’ birthday. I had this same pair in 1972 (approximately). Well, a pair just like them. And Mrs. D said exactly what I remember, how it feels thick in between your toes and they are humorous looking but not something you want to wear all the time. The floor is the cafeteria linoleum. Friday afternoon it’s going to be GREEN EGGS and HAM in the cafeteria and if anyone drops green eggs they will blend in with the flooring. I guess they’ll leave the ham pink?
It’s Girl Scout Cookie season. A wonderful student gave me a little present today. I can’t tell you how it touched me. Two Trefoil Girl Scout Cookies, held together by pink Silly Bandz. One cookie looks like there might be a little bite out of it. As you all know I am trying to watch what I eat ( forget the burger, pizza and milkshake posts) I am back on track. So I didn’t eat them. But I held them in my hand a long time and thought about the heartfelt gift. When I took it across the hall to Ms. P’s room to show her, she was touched by the sight of the two little cookies bound together by the Silly Bandz. We both said “awwwww. sweet.” Good to have nice neighbors at school to share these moments –thanks to everyone for looking today!
Presentation
The end of the week
and you’re whipped.
Happy to turn off the alarm for Saturday.
You review the week–
it can wear you out
but sweet moments come to mind.
There’s satisfaction.
To know a child was moved
to go to her locker and
bring a little offering to the art room.
p.s. If you get a minute, go and vote on my Keep or Pitch blog post to help me downsize.
At first I thought it was an upright piano on top of the pile. M-a-n-t-l-e is usually a cloak. M-a-n-t-e-l is the fireplace one. Although it seems they are interchanged frequently. I try to spell correctly on this blog but sometimes it’s tricky.
Driving to school I saw this pile of rubble which was a house last week. An abandoned, boarded-up house but still standing. Webb Construction guys were nice to let me take the photo. I asked them how they do it and he said you start at the top and work your way down. Oh, and I met a contractor who restores houses and is looking for worthy pieces to salvage for the homes he restores. What a contrast.
When It Is Too Far Gone to be Repaired or Restored
It gets torn down.
No one has the money to fix it up.
Houses stand boarded up a long time.
Sometimes there are occupied homes right next door.
Seems the city is demolishing abandoned homes at breakneck speed.
No archeological digs as in Philadelphia sites.
You wonder who lived here and the stories of their lives.
Spring for 4.99Seems the perfect follow up
to yesterday’s snow post.
At least the snow isn’t staying too long this time.
Stick to the shovel kind.
So until the bulbs push up from the ground
and bring some blooms,
I took matters into my own hands
at the grocery store.Opening slowly but surely a sign of Spring!
A friend called and invited me for a slice of cherry pie for President’s Day. Hot tea. I walked down the hill wrapped up in hats and scarves and boots. A good thing- I couldn’t believe it when I came out of her front door two hours later and the snow had accumulated and was piling up. That 60 degree weather on Saturday and now this? YIKES. I trudged home, shoveled the walk and it’s blowing and snowing and really cold. The snow was wet and heavy and a 2 hour delay has been called already for school. How they will clear all the streets before the school buses head out is a puzzle to me. (edit 5:30 AM. All schools are CLOSED! At least they didn’t wait to call it at 7 when everyone is already there. My friend just called, teaches instrumental music and gave me the news auf Deautsch singing Schnee Tag )
Not Spring Yet!
It isn’t that we aren’t ready for the crocus
and blossoms.
We got an unexpected snowstorm.
Shoveling again. And again.
Burrowing in the flannel sheets.
Florida friends, I am thinking of you!
Back to bed.
View from my friend's front porch as I started my walk home up the hill.
Heard from many friends and family who knew and loved Lori today. And from friends who didn’t know her but were touched by her story and loving image with Fredi. I tried to write back little notes of thank you to those who emailed or posted and I told her sister Sara about the overwhelming response but she can’t bear to look at it right now, understandably. A sad day.
A beautiful day. And though inside from 7:30-4:00 I was able to catch the unfurled flag from the second floor window AND the flag shadow on the asphalt during lunch. Right through the glass.
The Cathedral of Learning in the distance, the light fluctuating as clouds rolled across the sky. Had to tilt the camera to get both the flag and the shadow- the angle a technique I don’t use often.
Windy
In the daytime look out the windows.
Branches bend, papers blow across the yard.
Ripples or waves on water.
A pile of leaves caught up in a whirl.
You can tell it’s windy.
At night, listen.
A train along the river whistles.
Calm, a burst, a roar.
Earlier in my car on the bridge.
Wait for the light.
Feel it. Vibrate.
Bounce bounce bounce
right up through the tires.
Eye level to the top of a flag pole- a cool perspective.
Sometimes you are hungry
for something that is just not good for you.
And you eat it.
And regret doing so.
Or not!
Wednesday nights I take a class at Manchester Craftsmen’s and eat an early dinner on the South Side, driving down the slopes from Arlington. The last two weeks it was Carson Street Deli sandwiches but then I started thinking French fries. Undoing all the work at the gym yesterday.
So I crossed at 16th St and went into Mario’s, the only patron at that off hour but not for long. Cory was hosting and tending bar and took my order for an Alpine burger (don’t ask) and their house cut fries. A tall ginger ale. I asked if I could photograph the stained glass windows. Designed by Williams Stained Glass of Bethel Park. It was a good time to photograph the architectural details. Woshner’s was once “haberdashery” and is now Mario’s. I was too early for Karaoke night. Had to get to class.
Tonight at the book club meeting I sat at the table with this radio in front of me for the evening. I knew it had a story and the hostess just wrote to tell me I left my notebook where I had jotted down what I needed to know about the radio’s history. I remembered the location of Beaconsfield Street in Detroit. Here is what Lisa B. wrote to me just now about this radio from her husband’s family. Zenith Radio Model 12-s-370. found online Antique Radio Museum.
Here is what Lisa wrote in an email tonight- “So here you go: The radio belonged originally to neighbors of Virginia and Joseph Belloli who lived on Beaconsfield Street or Holcumb Street in Detroit. During WWII the neighbors were German nationals and as German nationals they could not own the radio because it had short wave capabilities. The neighbors sold the radio to “Granny” and “Grampa”. Joseph was born 1895 in Cuggiono Italy and Virginia in 1896 in the US, though her family was from Cuggiono as well. And just to make things complicated, three Oldani sisters married three Belloli brothers. You just have to accept if you were born Belloli and you meet another Belloli in Detroit or St. Louis, yes, somehow in some convoluted way, you are related.”
Saturday afternoon with the family . We checked out the indoor pools, one a leisure pool with a lazy river. Everyone had a good time. How to ward off cabin fever? Enter the balmy Westerville Community Center pool. We skipped the climbing wall. Note the little drips of water off the back of his suit as he jumped. Mark took the two oldest back on Sunday afternoon.
Someone left the chairs out in the snow. Today the sun came out. I photographed these a couple of weeks ago and they just looked uninteresting to me. So not the whole chair, just a part. It was the shadows that attracted me today.
This morning I saw my first sundog*.
I was unable to photograph it properly.
It was a stunning sunrise from the Birmingham Bridge.
I didn’t even know what a sundog was until Joanne
sent me a photo of one.
It was clear and cold, blue sky and a magnificent sun.
It is amazing how you can feel when it is light.
The view of the sundog from the school parking lot seemed less dramatic.
I was trying to show our librarian. Definition below.
*from good old wikipedia
A sun dog or sundog (scientific name parhelion, plural parhelia, from Greek parēlion, (παρήλιον), παρά(beside) + ήλιος(sun), “beside the sun”; also called a mock sun or a phantom sun) is an atmospheric phenomenon that creates bright spots of light in the sky, often on a luminous ring or halo on either side of the sun.[1]
Sundogs may appear as a colored patch of light to the left or right of the sun, 22° distant and at the same distance above the horizon as the sun, and in ice halos. They can be seen anywhere in the world during any season, but they are not always obvious or bright. Sundogs are best seen and are most conspicuous when the sun is low.
A classic assignment for beginning photographers- Capture the shadow!
