By my lights
A week ago tonight
- we sit here presently on Thursday at 0300 hrs 11-19-15 -
we finished the last Sat.'s Raccoon piece
A Mowing I Would Not Forget.
It was the night before tragedy was to strike
France.
We didn't know what was to occur
in today's world of barbary
that next night, Friday.
We heard the news as the world did
late Friday night,
the day before the issuance of the Raccoon.
We already had that issue together
- 'Put to bed' -
and we had been pleased with it, a light-hearted
manifestation from the Raccoon archives office
at the Odd Fellows in the Five Points,
where light floods in by day through a big skylight,
passing through blown-glass globes and stained glass.
When we rose obstensibly to push the Send button
launching the SRN our wife said from bed, as she always does:
"Is it Raccoon time?"
"Yes," we responded in the lightening bedroom
via its own skylight beginning to turn into the new day
"But - we said - "We don't think we can go
with the lawnmower thing we've written
in light of these horrendous shootings in Paris."
Dee said from her not fully awakened state
that she thought we should go with it.
We/I thought about it hard
and opted to.
By our lights
(see above photo)
we thought it would be okay.
Long before our health bout of 2005
we've sometimes labored under the influence
of a sometimes off-track and trammeled mind.
The continued usage of the wheel chair
is symbolic of that.
We find it a good reminder of where we've been,
- the year-long road back -
AND the height is just right for the old sewing machine
we use for a desk. It is comfortable, and facile too.
During the past week's unfoldings following the killings,
having to do with hard realities of French presidential
statements of resolve, world reaction
and the ongoing manhunts and ensuing dispatches,
etc.
it leads us to start off this Sat. Raccoon today
with an apology for our inappropriateness
as it turns out to have been.
Nobody has told us that, but it is my opinion.
^,^
When I was in 8th grade
living in Wash. DC with my dad
I took French in school.
It was a fine school and I drew my best grades ever.
I wish I could remember the excellent French teacher's name.
She taught us the French national anthem,
The Marseillaise
Allons Enfants De La Patrie
- "Arise you children of the fatherland" -
a stirring anthem I can still sing in French
to this very late day.
That memory has been running through my mind
as I filter the magnitude of this dangerous time
and how to cope with my predilections
of what should happen with this ISIS affrontery to the world.
And I think of the indelible live-forever movie
Casablanca
starring Ingrid Bergman and
Humphrey Bogart and
Claude Raines and Paul Henreid
as Victor Lazlo the hero
Especially the scene played below
of the defiant French night club one-up-manship
between the Nazi soldier/singers with their German drinking songs
and the French customers answering defiantly
with the Marseillaise, their national anthem.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingrid_Bergman
In 1950
five years after my divorced father had served
in the US Army as a Judge Advocate General
soldier and officer
thoughts of the French liberation in which he participated
following D Day were still vivid in his mind.
Dad told of the happy, crying and cheering French
when his Jeep columns rolled into the village
more on this next week
more on this next week
so it isn't hard for me now in 2015
to imagine another United States
"coming to the aid of" scenario.
^,^
^,^
Odd Fellows foot warming by the stove
Dee brings fresh bread from the oven
I use the 'painting' setting on the LVD II memorial Nikon that are fortunate to have
^,^
Raccoonist Rev. Leroy
sends picture of mower
in his shed on Overlook Lane, Waukesha.
The simple machine is still used.
Some intrepid measures
were taken by a few inventive types
This is what it was like for me with Surely
Some readers wrote in with comments
on last week's Surely piece, ex.:
I have a "Surely" hanging in my garage. Am always praying it won't fall on my car. The mower hasn't been used
in probably 40 years. Before buying my new gas mower last year I considered getting one like Ben's but I wanted
to try one out to be sure I could use it. Ben is an inspiration to me. Maybe when I retire I'll look for a used one.
Thanks for all the good articles,
Beth Lawson
more next week
Erin Dix
uses her mower (with Ben co-sharing, taking his turn)
in Appleton. WI within walking distance to Lawrence University
where they both work.
Rory
New Cat In Town
Erin and Ben just adopted this kitty
from the Appleton Humane Society.
They named her RORY.
Rory had been up for adoption
for six months. She is 11.
When soulful looks were exchanged
all around
Ben and Erin elegantly selected her.
Rory loves her new owners
and the home they have provided for her.
She is inundated with love herself.
^,^
AIN'T ANIMALS GREAT?
