Moose on the Loose

For the last few weeks, a humongous and hungry moose has been wandering our neighborhood.

My next door neighbor, Mike, caught him on video and shared with me. I captured these two photos from Mike's video.

He's peeking over our neighbor's 5 foot tall fence. Mike said that when he was done eating, he just hopped the fence like it was no big deal.

What a rack! Incredible, huh?!!!

A Corner of Beauty & Hope

Today was one of the BEST days my daughter Jodie and I ever spent together! And it was no one big event that made it grand. It was moment after moment of small tasks that we muddled through side-by-side, laughing and talking and noodling things out.

From a two mile walk to plucking eyebrows. From a breakfast of vanilla protein shakes infused with fresh hand-picked raspberries to a lunch of fish sticks and turkey burgers at Carl's Jr. to a dinner at home of fresh honeydew melon and bread bowls filled with chili and cheese.  From taping a window frame to prepare it for painting to purchasing clothing online. From researching wheel barrow prices to getting an astounding, on-the-spot 40% discount on the purchase of a $150 sewing table.

If there is one highlight of the day, it was building our first flower garden together.

You see, our home is currently one of the homeliest on the block. Our grass is dead, the front yard full of moss. We're in the process of revamping the yard, but it's been a slow, slow process.

At the moment, you can see painted lines where we intend to install curbing and sprinklers.

There are 15 holes in the yard where pine trees used to stand, the stumps ground out just yesterday.

The roof and rain gutters are covered in pine needles that need to be swept away with the yellow jacket nests.

But as of this evening, there is one spot of calm and color that you see as you approach our front door.

Jodie and I tilled the soil, pulled out as many tulip, hyacinth, crocus and grape hyacinth bulbs as we could find. (We're sure there are still many hiding that will surprise us next spring). We headed over to Lowes to check out those wheel barrows, but drove away with a car full of purple flowers and bark mulch. Then still side-by-side, we built a garden, including some ivy that I'd been babying in my kitchen window all winter.

Now as we approach our front door, we have a spot of color and hope for what the rest of the yard might finally become. Our garden toad is contemplating the drastic change. I think he's smiling.

I know we are!

Poof!

These puffs of color caught my eye on my daily walk. The blue reminds me of buttons, the pink reminds me of bows.

Buttons n Bows

So vibrant in the morning sun.

At the DMV

In Idaho, when a teen turns 18 years old, they make a trip to the DMV to turn in their first driver's license and get a new one that shows they are an adult. That's what Jodie and I did this morning. It wasn't even a horribly long wait. Besides, Jodie and I always find ways to amuse each other when we're stuck in a line.

Today, we had fun watching folks with their frozen smiles while waiting for the official to take their driver's license photo and making up stories about the folks in the waiting room.

• There was the old guy who was sitting there nervously, wondering if he would even have a driver's license reissued. 
• There was the middle-aged British woman who just became a US citizen and was getting her first American license. 
• There was the Hispanic family whose son was having his license renewed for the first time, mother and sister nervously waiting. 
• There was the hefty impatient woman who hoisted herself up and waddled to the door, muttering and scowling. But then, she's one of those folks who didn't believe her father when he told her, "If you keep putting your face in a frown, it'll freeze that way." Because it did! Goodness, she was unpleasant.
• And then, there were these three friends ...

Waiting on Line at the DMV

Seriously, folks. Do any of us need to be exposed to this in a public building?

Post Graduate

This is my favorite photo from Jodie's high school graduation last month:

Shadows of Graduations Past

After the ceremony, the graduates processed to one area of the school to hug and say goodbye while the parents, relatives and friends meandered out a different door to wait for their student to find them. The sun was setting as we stood along the west wall of the school talking, waiting, laughing, crying.

Duh ..!

My daughters and I had lunch at Panda Express.

This was tucked into my fortune cookie:

Strange. 

I doubted an admirer could think any other way!

The Cross is Borne

In March 2009, our family took an exploratory trip to Bellingham, WA to see if we might like to land there when Dale retires. After a good look around, we decided it's not quite right for us. We did like the countryside, though. As the sun was setting one evening, we passed this crumbling barn. I loved the pattern the light made as the sun broke through the window.

The Old Rugged Cross

Sand in the Feathers

On that same warm evening in June 2009, the seagulls stopped to rest, preen and people-watch here on the edge of the North Idaho College campus where Lake Coeur d'Alene spills into the Spokane River.

 Posin' and Preenin'

NIC Beach

Just as the sun started to set on a warm day in June 2009, I took a break on the beach at North Idaho College. This is the spot where Lake Coeur d'Alene spills into the Spokane River. It's a favorite gathering place for both humans and geese.

Goose at Riverbank

.

Splash o' Color

Last summer, the family reunion was held at the home of Dale's Uncle Bob. Beautiful country setting. Aunt Sally has quite a green thumb. I just loved this burst of color.

Aunt Sally's Flowers

A Dad Story

The Heart of My Father
for Dad on his 90^th birthday

Over and again

Tone Codispoti, age 77

you asked your cardiologist 

          for a pig heart.
You were only half kidding.

At 77 years old
it was a habit to read
articles of cutting edge 

          procedures
in Diabetes Forecast
and watch the evening news
when Peter Jennings 

          and Dr. Tim Johnson
introduced stories
of medical breakthroughs.

It turns out we humans
          are brothers to pigs
where our hearts are concerned.
Already common,
leaky human valves are replaced
          with pig parts.
God knows, your valve leaked profusely,
backing up into your chest.
With hope and wonder
you told stories of experiments
where entire human hearts were
being replaced with those
of our piggy friends.

Your heart had seen too much.
Too much sorrow at the loss
of both sister and father
when you were fourteen.

Too much ache and wonder on Tinian
when war brought the atomic bomb
onto the tarmac
and you sneaked aboard a plane
to get a peek.

So much pride

as each of your eleven children were born.
Then rent for the two babies
who didn’t survive.
How could your heart take it,
carrying your bloody blue son away
wrapped in a sheet,
leaving your wife grieving in bed,
alone after the miscarriage?

Your heart swelled
in pride, watching
the first of your offspring
accept his USC bachelor’s degree.
Then be ripped
as that same man lay stiff,
a gurney bearing the weight
of a body thrown from a Jeep,
smashed by a drunk driver.
Anguish bled from your lips
in the cry,
“My son! My son!”

This same heart grew healthier
driving alone
from southern California to Moscow, Idaho.
You quit smoking
cold turkey
on that journey to a fresh chapter in your life.

Your heart floated with laughter
as you raised, in turn,
each infant grandchild high
over your head,
then slowly lowered
them close to your grin,
only to raise and lower and grin again.
It guffawed
as your eighth granddaughter
sat in your lap,
slapping your bald head
with palms and kisses

in a way your own brood
never dared touch you.
Your pulse echoed
your chortle
as grandchild #16 chirped,
“Grandpa, I have a question…”

The vision of building a new business
swelled your heart
with possibility.
Years later, that business sold,
attempting a transition into retirement,
that faulty valve gushed
as “My Emily,” succumbed
to a failed kidney.

Further trauma arrived at Halloween.
The first of your heart attacks
sent you to a Spokane emergency room for a day.
I stayed by your side, massaging Lubriderm
into your cracked and calloused feet,
speaking heart-to-heart
of the pain you inflicted
in my childhood. We offered
each other apology, forgiveness
and redemption.

Three months later it flooded over the coffin
of your eldest son
as you stood alone in grief
sighing, “Oh, Pablo.”

My brother fought a long battle with cancer.
Hard as it was to see him
lying silent, face shrunken and sallow,
torso swollen with the deadly mass,
dressed in Dodger blue,
you accepted the end of his pain.

You never did get that pig heart.
The doc said
your body couldn’t take it.
Your days of experimenting with life
were over.

A week after your boy’s funeral,
your heart gave out completely.
You landed in the same hospital
where three floors away,
five of your children entered the world.

Now it was our turn to visit

to pace
to watch
to wait
to hope
to fear
to speed to when the call came:
Emergency Bypass Surgery.

You never quite awakened
from that anesthetic,
though you did hiccup for hours,
your fingers working to squeeze mine
as I sat vigil.

After you died,
I peeked under your gown
to see staples in your chest,
so insensitive to your desire
for a renewed heart
ready to reconcile with my siblings.
I placed my hand on your sternum
in silent prayer,
then kissed your cooling forehead
in farewell,
my own heart doubled
over, punched in the gut.

.

Lemon and Lilac

A year ago today, I visited Falls Park to see the annual torrent that happens during spring runoff. Not only were the falls beautiful, but the roses at the park entrance were in full bloom.

 

Watercolor Rose

Phlowers and Fotos and Digital Distortion

I installed a new quick-n-dirty photo editing program today ... then started playing.

In the Spotlight

I can have some simple fun with this!

The Approach

Clouds Over Hawaii

In September 2009, I flew to Hawaii to help my sister through a difficult time. This is what I saw from the air as I approached my destination.
[ click photo for a larger view ]

Country Club AM II

That same October morning in 2008, I captured this shot:

Aura on the Green

Country Club AM

I have a new goal: Thursday as Photo Day

I got a new digital SLR camera that I want to learn to use. Plus, I have a bunch of old photos that need some massaging so that I can share them with others. So I plan to use Thursdays to do a bit of learning and editing.

 October Morning

 Today I worked with some photos I took in October, 2008

Making Time

Learned the hard way.

 Love you, Dale!

Pause a While

Sometimes you just have to slow down

and look at what you really want.

Let the waves of time wash over you.

~ Maureen Reynolds, Cooking My Life

Wave Wash

In Sept '09, my sister's long-time companion died. I went to Hawaii to help her through that horrible week as she buried him. It was my first and only trip to Hawaii. We went to a beach where she and her guy used to hang out. I took this photo there as she stared into the waves.
[ click on photo for larger image ]

Through the Gloom

There's a bright side to even the darkest clouds.

Perspective

It's simply a matter of finding a new perspective.

Out of Sight; On my Mind

Last February, all these little hidy holes were exposed.

At the River's Edge

Now, due to the spring runoff, the river is flowing high. This tangle of root and rock is completely submerged.

[ click on the photo for a closer look! ]

Sunday Morning: Vignettes at the Falls

I marvel, sitting on the rocks overlooking the power of Post Falls crashing through the wide-open floodgates and into the narrow canyon of the Spokane River. The wind hurls the branches of new growth at my elbow, then calms again. A parade of locals have made this pilgrimage to witness the annual phenomenon of Spring Runoff. Weathermen say Lake Coeur d’Alene, upriver, is only six inches from flood stage.

Post Falls - Spring Runoff 2011

A small child, wrapped in his mom’s protection, cries. There’s fear in his voice at the power unleashed before him. He sits on her hip, clinging to the fabric at her shoulder.

A middle aged woman wraps her left arm around her aging mother’s waist, steadying her against the impending vertigo.

Tourists read the plaques, learn a smidgeon of our history, then point at the power station and gears, explaining the mechanics to the kids. They take photos of each other with the green torrent at their backs, and then mosey on to the next landmark.

Families, fresh from church, gawk. The starched dress grows limp, the child-size tie now askew, the woman’s heels, far too high and narrow, slip between the planks on the wooden boardwalk. They huddle together at the railing, awash in God’s wonder, then shield their eyes as clouds uncover the mid-day sun.

The mist billows from the tumbling onslaught. A northern breeze pushes it against the south canyon wall. Moss and lichen cling to the slick rock, six shades of green.

Downriver

All that mars this landscape are the young folk squinting into their cell phone screens, voices billowing to push past the falls’ roar. A tall skinny man with droopy worn jeans drifts by, acrid cigarette smoke wafting into the late Spring breeze.

A small coiffed cockapoo cowers against the fence on the far side of the boardwalk, her leash a barrier to passersby as her owner gapes in awe, leaning on the railing that overlooks the drop-off.

A 50-something grandfather turns and gazes at me, his back to the railing, unconsciously toying with his granddaughter’s Barbie. His eyes ask, “What are you up to?” I smile, eyes and pen returning to my notebook.

A child climbs the rock next to me and exclaims to his mom, “It make me thirsty!” Then he jumps off the rock and skitters down the boardwalk to get a closer look and feel the spray on his face. He opens his mouth wide and sticks his tongue out, trying to taste the river the way he tried to taste snowflakes just two months ago.

A young mother pushes a stroller up the small incline, concurrently attempting to corral her four-year-old son. She is more terrified of the water’s rush than he, but is putting up a brave front so he can experience this spectacle first-hand.

I marvel. An inordinate number of pants with striped side seams stroll past me. One is accompanied by the soft rhythm of an aluminum cane. Another swathed around the hips with white polka dots splattered on black ribbing. That’s a lot of look!

Feel the Power

Small birds circle and dance overhead, some in pairs. Their wings beat ferociously through the air currents the falls generate, then spread wide to soar over the calm river above the floodgates.

A 20-something girl climbs the ramp with her young husband. Her abdomen is swollen with child beneath the broad horizontal stripes that circle her waist. It won’t be long, I suspect, until her floodgates open, bringing forth her first-born. A whisper of a smile creeps across my face as I watch her waddle down the path to the duck pond.

East of California

Shrouded

Book Review: When You Reach Me

A short review today ...

I looked forward to reading this book, as I collect Newbery Award winners. One of my daughters gave this to me as a gift, knowing my love for children's literature.

I was ... dissappointed.

It's very likely I would have enjoyed it more if I had recently read Madeleine L'Engle’s classic A Wrinkle in Time. But it's been eons since I read that classic, so I missed a lot of the references in this book.

My two main objections?

I suppose I just got too creeped out by the notes Miranda was receiving ... notes from the future. This, of course, is likely what lots of kids like about the book ... the creepiness that comes with imagining time travel. To me, it was like having a stranger invade my space and steal from me. I'm super-sensitive to that scenario.

I also thought that the characters could have been drawn more distinctly. I was left with an image in my mind of only two of the minor characters, none of the main characters. That's pretty unusual for me.

I do recommend going over to Amazon.com and reading their Exclusive Q&A with the author, Rebecca Stead. Perhaps I would have enjoyed the book more, if I'd taken that step.

But I think it's a shame that I couldn't just enjoy this book on its own merits, picking it up blind and delving between the covers.

On a five star rating, I give it three stars.

WIP: Single Rose 3

I had a nice block of time to stitch today, so worked on my Single Rose some more. The bottom 2/5 of this piece is just about done. For comparison, to the right is what the last update looked like:


And here's my latest progress:

I was hoping to get all the backstitch done in this section. I have just one more branch in the bottom left corner to finish outlining.

I've been enjoying the stitching on this piece quite a bit. I haven't used a blended needle very often, and this piece has a number of blended colors. Such nice subtlety!

Through the Rain

Road to California

This photo was taken last March when Jodie and I were on a road trip during her Spring Break.

Words Have Power

Nuance matters.
Choose wisely.
It's not all just semantics.

Irony

Bus Stop

At Our Doorstep

The tulips and grape hyacinth have finally arrived at our front door.

At Our Doorstep

The lilacs can't be far behind!

Sunday Secrets: May 15, 2011

PostSecret is an ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a homemade postcard. I find it to be an insightful sociological experiment.

I could relate to the following two secrets from today's post:

It sucks that he picked alcohol over me and his daughters.

It ended up killing him.

We are thriving.

I didn't have the nerve back then

But I told him over 30 years later.

I still like him and keep in touch. 

We're like siblings now - only better.

Sunday Secrets: May 08, 2011

PostSecret is an ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a homemade postcard. I find it to be an insightful sociological experiment.

PostSecret was full of Mother's Day cards last weekend. These were my favorite three:

When Julie was an infant, 

she saved my life as my marriage fell apart.

A sweet baby on my lap gave me hope 

when hope seemed lost.

My older daughters assure me of this over and over.

They're worth it.

Amen.

My mom taught me how to be a good mom.

Tomorrow would have been her 90th birthday.
Happy Birthday, Mom!

WIP: Single Rose 3

I've made a fair bit of progress!

This piece is a joy to stitch -- so far!

WIP: Single Rose 2

OK, so this isn't the most impressive post in town.

But I did get a chance to stitch for a few hours again today. Too bad it doesn't look like I got much accomplished. But as I was stitching along, I could tell that this was the type of design where I could get lost in the stitch count much too easily. So I pulled out some blue sewing thread, and stitched a grid.

The stitched lines on my fabric now match the dark grid lines on the chart, thus making it much easier to keep track of where I'm supposed to place my stitches. This, in turn, keeps the frustration level down and keeps those darn frogs at bay.

One thing a stitcher really hates is rippit, rippit, rippit!!!

WIP: Single Rose 1

I started my next cross-stitch project. This time, I'm stitching something for myself! It's called "Single Rose" and is a Dimensions Gold Collection petite kit. This is how it will look when finished.


I found this kit last year when I was on a trip to Denver to visit my daughter. I had the luxury of stopping at a little shop called Country Crafts in Greeley, CO and spent hours there, pawing through every rack and every basket and every flat surface.


Much of the background on this chart is stitched using a half cross stitch. I've begun in the bottom left corner.

The colors in this lovely piece go swimmingly with the decor in my living/dining room. So when it's stitched and framed, it will be displayed on a wall in one of those two rooms.

Happy Dance: Easter

After several weeks of not stitching, yesterday I got around to finishing up this quilt square for my charity group. This Easter bunny square is for a quilt that will incorporate holidays from throughout the year.

The chubby bunny is a web freebie that I found on a French blog: Bienvenue chez Echevette
http://echevette.over-blog.com/article-3911091.html
#16 - Joyeuses Pâques

The little basket in the original chart didn't quite work for this square, so I found another Easter basket chart that I hoped would work. Unfortunately, that basket was about twice as big as I needed. So using that chart as inspiration, I created my own little Easter basket design to stitch at the bunny's feet.

I sure love this little guy's attitude! He makes me smile each time I see him.

A Little Extra Love

Let's hope we can teach the next generation more about love and kindness and diplomacy and cooperation and forgiveness than we do about retribution and retaliation and evil and hatred and revenge.

It's a harsh world with bitter realities. It's also a world where those who hurt are helped by those who are able and willing to give.

Let's teach our children balance.
If we err in balance, let's error on the side of love.

Dry Run

My daughter Julie got hired at Silverwood theme park for the summer. Yesterday was the park's first day of the season, a dry run for the employees. Friends and family were invited into the park so that new employees could have a chance to get some on-the-job training before the public at large is invited in.

We had a charming time. It's always nice to spend time at Silverwood. The western theme town includes an old-time mercantile, a saloon with live musical acts, a theater that plays black & white flickers from the early 20th century, a candy store, a general store, a live theater that boasts a magic show, the Sugar Shack with freshly-made confections to satisfy your sweet tooth, an opportunity to dress in western gear and 'have your picture took,' and more.

Garfield the cat and his sidekick Odie can be found wondering main street. Then there is the whole midway and amusement park area with wild roller coasters and calmer rides for the more faint at heart. As the weather warms, the vast Boulder Beach water park will open.

A 'must' ride for old timers and bitty kids is this classic narrow gauge train ride through the wilds of Idaho. You get to see a herd of bison, cross the tremulous trestle, and then find yourself in a ghost town where hustlers board the train to rob you at gunpoint. The local marshal saves the day, of course, then serenades you until you're safe at the depot once again.

Engine No. 7

We took it slow, wandered through the town square, and were headed to the amusement park when the sky opened up with rain and hail. I've never seen a theme park clear out quite so quickly!

The the season has just begun. We will return. It's good to be transported to another time for a day.