Riverkeeping!!

DC has a fabulous organization:  the Anacostia Riverkeeper.  There's also a Chesapeake Waterkeepers, too.  I went on a boat tour led by Anacostia Riverkeeper Emily--8 miles from the DC Waterfront to the start of the Anacostia River--two days ago, and I am still thinking about it.  We had a huge rainstorm here yesterday, and the riverkeeper's words about why the Anacostia is no longer 40' deep, but 20'--because of the silt washed from the DC storm sewers into the river.  and I was inspired to pick up some trash at the bus stop across P Street NW from Whole Foods.  Somebody's grocery bag had split open, and I stacked the salvageable parts (4 cans, 1 bag of rice, two fresh peaches) under the shelter, and then picked up the half-eaten pear, an open bag of whole-wheat pasta, and tossed that in the trash can next to the shelter.  This is a good occupation for an old retired woman who doesn't see well enough to ride a bike or drive a car.  Keeping the trash out of the river before it gets there.

Often Wrong....Never In Doubt

Hard to imagine, but we all do make mistakes--especially mistakes in perceptions and assumptions.  I have always had supreme confidence in my perceptions and assumptions--of course, I've been a proofreader and editor for more than 30 years.  I have a bunch of books to back up my assumptions, especially.  Perceptions?  Well, that's one of my weaknesses.  I'm deaf, for one thing--much deafer than most people think--and I can't see very well now, either.  Bleah.

So, last week, when I went to get a replacement for my Senior Smart Trip metro card, I mistook what the clerk was asking me.  I thought she was asking to see the second SST card that I had been issued.  I said, "but I'm sure I didn't get two copies....just one, and I've lost that."  Well, the angels were working on my behalf.
A kind young Metro worker asked me if I wanted to come inside the building (the window for purchasing, etc., is outside.  You just walk up, and make your request......It was in the mid-90s that day, and very hot.)  I was sweating and uncomfortable and had to change the batteries in my Cochlear Implant, and needed a place to sit down.

So the kind young Metro worker led me inside to a comfy bench in the air-conditioned building, where I could breathe and replace the batteries, wipe the sweat off my face, and put the CI processor back on my head and....HEAR!!!  When my CI was back in operation, I told the young Metro worker about not having received TWO copies of the SST card, and she said, "Oh, no....she just was asking you for two dollars to cover the cost of the new card."  That's a major misperception/assumption, and that kind of thing has been my life since I lost my hearing at age 27.  I'm 80 now, and it's still going on, though not quite as often if my CI processor is working, and I have it on my head.

Anyway, I've been reading a wonderful book The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz, and these are the four agreements:

1. Be impeccable with your word.
2. Don't take anything personally.
3. Don't make assumptions.
4. Always do your best.

Easy to write them down, but not so easy to put into practice.  Especially the part about making assumptions--if my perceptions are faulty to begin with. 

"O L H"

As indicated, the title of this post is a quotation.  It's from the fabulous CDB by William Steig.  CDB is a book--small, slim, inventive--masterfully drawn and written by Steig.  It supplies more of my quoted texts these days than the Bible.  CDB? Just say the letter names out loud, and you'll catch on.  I used to have at least one copy of this book, but no more.  Why oh why do I give away these priceless books, when my later years (Steig calls them O L H) has revealed them as mainstays of my life?? Yup.  I'm in O L H now--turning 80 impressed this fact on me.  O L H...very O L.

The sun is still shining on the lawn across the drive......I am not getting NE younger, but Steig's books do light up my mind and heart.  Have to start buying copies and mailing them to my precious great-grandchildren, whose birthdays i have of course lost/forgotten.  But you can still have a wacky great-grandma who sends you a present just cuz you're you and on the planet, not because it's your
birthday....ha....you don't remember yours, either. Oh, well.....Or as Steig would say, "Y R U YNN?"

Hot Days in Summer

It's been quite hot here for the past week or two:  temps in the high 80s, middle 90s.  That's too hot for a sweatshirt and even long pants, socks.  Even when it's raining, it's been hot like that.  My dear friend from Tucson was visiting, and she thought it was very pleasant.  The temperature there has been in the 100s, and she has photos of the oven mitts that they use when they open their car doors.  Sigh.  I don't have a car, so I don't need any extra gear to get into it.  And I have not owned a car since I left the Midwest more than 20 years ago.  I am a pedestrian who relishes all the public transportation hereabouts:  Amtrak, the Metro--train and buses, the MC RideOn buses, the dear little taxis (not all that expensive)--and you can talk with the driver, which is virtually always fun. (Sometimes they are not in a talking mood, but that's ok.  We all have our moments.)

I keep repeating that I'd rather be hot than cold any day, and that's definitely true.  It was so cold in ND and MN (less so, but still) that I've had enough of that.  Every summer in the upper midwest plains, we'd have at least one REALLY HOT DAY--like 93F or more--and it would feel WONDERFUL.  We have lots of REALLY HOT DAYS here, and my old body just soaks them up.  Thanks, Universe!  Nothing like heat if most of what you've had for decades has been COLD.

My best pal just got back from 10 days in Florida, all suntanned and relaxed-lookiing.  She brought me a wonderful long-sleeved Tshirt that's a lovely light turquoise color, and even though it's been
quite hot, I've had it on for 3 days straight, 24 hours at a time.  I've got it on now, and it's comfortable. 

Will have to take it off soon to wash it in the machine (spilt some melted butter on it, and a few drops of salsa).  that's life in my OLH.  I eat wot I want, and mostly that's butter and salsa.  Not on any fancy nutritionist's list of foods to keep you going.  It's just wot i like.  I don't spill peanut butter or jam, much, though I eat a lot of that, too.

I did grind some fresh-made peanut butter at Whole Foods.  The peanuts included chunks of chocolate in the grinding jar.  It wasn't as good as I could have imagined, but I liked it.  And that's OLH.  Eat wot you damn please and ENJOY IT!  No matter wot the temperature is outside.

Here's a new twist.....

If you were raised in the Roman Catholic Church, you doubtless know that St. Anthony is the patron saint for  recovering lost objects.  I asked my very devout niece Paula about that this morning cuz i lost a tote bag on MAY 1, and although it had no wallet or credit cards or cell phone or anything that expensive to replace, it did have my most recent ADDRESS BOOK! and the newest Donna Leon Guido Brunetti mystery (half read and quite precious to me).  I did all the right things:  called places where I'd been on Monday, including CVS, and the local Metro Lost & Found.  I've prided myself on finding lost objects  by imagining how happy I'd feel when it was back in my hands. This has worked many times, but not as swiftly this time.  Was mentioning this to Paula, and I asked her if St. Anthony was still considered the patron saint of lost items.  Yes, she replied....lost souls (did she throw that in there for me?) and items.  Then she told me a story about our wonderful late Aunt Trudy, who at one point lost her diamond.  Trudy recited this prayer to St. Anthony:  "Tony, Tony, Come around....Something's lost that must be found!"  And she found her diamond in a SNOWBANK! 

 Leave it to Trudy.  Anyway, I resumed my search for the tote bag this morning, and recited this verse several times.  

And YES, I DID FIND THE TOTE BAG--at a CVS, of course, but not the CVS I'd originally  thought.  A different location three blocks away.  Everything was there.  THANKS BE for the address book!!! And whoopee for Donna Leon's The Waters of Eternal Youth. Dint have to spend another $16 to replace it. 

So, thanks, Tony and Trudy and Paula.  Nothing like Family!!!!

                                              

Ever Wonder About the Antarctic?

Check this out:  antarcticsun.usap.gov
Click on the Around the Continent, McMurdo Station
article "The Perks of Being a Winterover" is by my grandnephew Stephen McGowan.  He's a cub reporter for the Antarctic Sun.

Stephen's sister, Jeanne (Letizia) McGowan, just won her election as 4th Ward alderman in Geneva, IL (suburb of Chicago).

Congratulations, Jeanne and Stephen!

shredding papers

 I have about 20 boxes of papers here...Kon-Mari suggests throwing out all papers!!!
but then I open one, and find things--poems--like this:

In my memories of childhood, days are mostly mornings, the prairie sun slanting through the asparagus fronds, and my mother picking berries ahead of the heat, her freckles grace notes on her ruddy cheeks, her housedress cool and smooth as the ground behind the shed, and the smell of her like wash hanging, and her laugh like the lark on high....

 The other part is night, the dark velvet earth
scent and the stillness, the house lights drawing bugs, and such peace, such safety, in the nighthawk's bounce, and my mother singing, folding clothes like sheets of sunlight dried.

When my mother died, after all the old, after
all the pain and shrinking, after the robber's art, she looked a baby then, new and helpless.
My tears fell on the leaves she loved, and
in the sparkling sunshine, we put her in the ground,

Now what?

So many changes in the world as I knew it when I started this blog in 2006.  An old old book/Bible? found recently (or reported recently--the powers that be have known about it for quite a while) says Jesus was not crucified, and the Pope recently said wine is good for you (well, he's been reading his Thomas Aquinas, perhaps, who wrote in his Summa Theologica that getting tipsy is good for us--keeps us humble.  Not that drinking wine has anything much to do with getting tipsy--lots of beverages can do that). 

And it's not only legal but ok for two people of the same sex to marry each other--I know LOTS of gay married couples now.  Most of them are highly educated and working in educational or medical or religious administration (that would be the girl rabbis).  I remember the 1993 MOW, and what fun it was to see all the GLBTQs coming here to march, have fun together, and express their joy at being who they are.

And we now are faced with the end of our democracy as we knew it.  So now what?