Squamloonland

Glad the obituary is better balanced than the news articles. You were a lot more than a ‘91 beauty queen, Deb.

I was finally inspired to figure out how to upload a video to FaceBook & YouTube. AP’s Champs Elysées is ready for prime time.

The Newfound Community has just lost a valued colleague and friend. The poem that follows was one of her favorites. Rest in peace, Deb Howard.

The Guest House

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

~ Rumi ~

…only kindness matters.

Flying to Philly!

I’ve enjoyed my one day of SINI, two days of High School Redesign, and today’s Assessment Literacy, but bring on Summer Vacation, Part II.

Summer vacation… for me. And Sunday, for P. We didn’t venture any further than a half a mile from home.

I wish I had a “before” shot for this, my first shot of the day taken out the front door—I’ve been cutting trees like a madman.

We’ve had more rain in the past month than in any year since 1944, so the vegetable garden’s way behind.

The grandkids slept over last night—E’s first night away! Here he is walking this cube across the floor—another first, which we sent to his mom in a video last night. (BTW it’s pure coincidence that they’re in two 12 of 12s in a row—we hadn’t babysat since the last one.)

Last night I was indoctrinated into Ponyland via DVD, and this morning I had the pleasure of meeting several of its inhabitants. I found this one particularly disturbing.

Playground equipment’s evolved quite a bit since I last interacted with it. Here I’m taking M’s order of a purple ice cream cone with a bunch of a cherries.

After the kids went home, I walked the dogs around the perimeter of our yard—which my GPS tells me was about .75 miles. And I’m having trouble making the math work now.

Our land is mainly woods, and one of my summer goals is to build a trail that gets us to this view of the Ossipees from the lot’s far end.

My mother gave me this book many months ago and has been continually asking if I’ve read it yet, which has kept me from reading it. Now that I’m suddenly two thirds of the way through it, I must thank her for the recommendation. The protagonist could be me.

Another summer goal is to clean out my desktop computer’s hard drive.

Evening setting in, we had the requisite pre-dinner glass of wine on our fancy deck chairs…

…I filled the Tiki torches by the grill…

…and we had a fantastic Delmonico steak salad with an intriguing new wine. (Incidentally, we ate this while watching a competition of food stylists on the Food Network, and my suspicions were confirmed as to why my food pics are never as good as those in the magazines. In order to make this look as delicious as it was, I would have had to render it nearly inedible.)