Judith's Morning Glory; Stew's welding; Dee's pot pie; HOT DAMN!; Jeffrey on the Hudson

Dipping the first oar of the day

on Thursday, Oct. 4th

the day after the first presidential debate

-  a singularly disappointing event -

we were looking for good omens this day.

Festoon Fox shone down on the level below

and as light began to enter the Odd Fellows

we thought we saw something different

about the morning glory vine which 

has been summitting the east window.

Descending the stairs with daylight

intensified, we approached and saw

what the difference was about the vine.....

The indomitable Judith Williams Morning Glory vine

that sprang from a volunteer seed within the aloe's 

small pot that she gave us,

had thrown a blossom here in our light-deprived

north window!

It seemed fitting and omenlike

that this bloom trumpeted it's existence

aimed directly at the Romney window picture

 a neighbor across the way has taped to his glass.

His too is the adjoining window  that heralds

a Don't Tread On Me flag as his shading window treatment.

The bright green organism inside our opposing window

is living without threat to the limestone architecture

that forms the arched shape on the other side 

of the glass.

That stone is from Silurian Age

sediment that is circa 137,000,000 years old.

Our unexpected volunteer has done a dear thing for us.

It's brief life is so transitory, like our own.

Already the lower leaves have dried and separated

from the stem, an artery conveying the moisture

we provide to sustain the ephemeral vine

so that its fate might be fulfilled.

Two more blooms are yet to fully form

but we wish the enterprise well,

before the inevitable curtain falls.

Another vine climbed a similar journey

up our Tamarack tree on Arcadian Ave.

The Tamarack had died three years earlier

but had reached a height of 30 feet

before it succumbed after many years

of living where it was not thought

by some it could survive.

But the donor of that seedling

plucked from a Marinette County swamp

advised that it would live:

"Just keep it wet, Dave!"

The Bill Vollmer Memorial Tamarack Tree
provided support after death for morning glories
and beautiful pale green lichen.

Dee in this old picture was then about as tall as the young Tamarack.

Deciduous, the needles at the time were Autumn gold.

...................

This week

we received a gift from a corresponding friend, Stewart Tolbert, whom we have never met face to face but have written to for five years now.

Stew lives with his wife Donna, a lifesaver, in proximity to Dillonvalle, OH, near the Ohio River which boundaries Ohio and West Virginia.

We became acquainted with him through Laurie Leonard who works for the Wheeling Symphony in their office.  We've never met her, either.....

Stew is a retired steamfitter turned art welder.  He lives in a trailer on an abandoned coal mine.
http://raccoonnews.blogspot.com/2008/10/what-means-namaste-srn-corresp.html

Stew wanted to make a welding for us since we both have been welders, and I'd sent him something.

To our great Odd Fellow surprise, this below hefty construction came:

Putting the welding on the best pedestal we have -
a piece of our Arcadian Ave Tamarack -
it is representing Stew's view of our
brotherly relationship.
Brothers of the 2500 degree C cutting power.
'Brothers of the Flame', he says.

Stew purposefully made this object so that
it would look good from any angle.
To show that, we have taken multiple photos,
which are below.

Embedded in this piece of the old Tamarack
three trunk is a piece of a squirrel-feeder bracket
which the bark eventually grew around.

The new owners of our house were sawing down
the dead tree, but my son David salvaged a piece
of the tree trunk for us here at the Odd Fellows.

There has not been too many things lately that have brought so much pleasure.
One thing happened last night, however, that reached for similar stars.
Dee made us a chicken pot pie from scratch that was really delicious.

Super-flaky crust laid loose on top, wafer thin.
Fit for General Lorens Lowenheilm's tribute
to the mysterious cook in BABETTE'S FEAST
the great movie http://www.siue.edu/~evailat/babette.html):

I was so busy enjoying the pot pie that I must have jiggled the inexpensive lower crustacean cell camera when I took this otherwise good exposure of Dee enjoying her cooking.

....................

HOT  DAMN
BAND played again last Saturday at the Waukesha Farmers Market on a beautiful fall day, from 8 AM to noon.  People toting bags of produce, munching fresh bakery and sipping hot coffee or cider lingered in front of their space at the Civic Theater back parking area in the midst of a passing sea of leisurely market customers. Some fans brought folding chairs.

There were all sorts of pot pouri people, lots of children dancing their jigs, oldsters tapping canes, parents encouraging their tots to have some fun in the way of boaters pulling ropes on Evinrude outboards.

IT WAS BEAUTIFUL !

Julius and friend

This soft-spoken man asked for Autumn Leaves.  They willingly played it, giving it an intricate samba beat.

The Hot Damn Band is a recent start-up group comprised of seasoned area musicians who began getting together for fun.  Now, Hot Damn is available for gigs.  Think seriously about it!
....................
Hudson River sailing with Pete Seeger

Play: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVnHHaB-5oc

Dee's brother Jeffrey is probably sailing on the Hudson right now.

Mr. Means Means Business
a Brooklyn photographer ....................

Lapel flag; Diddy-wa-diddie; At long last; Lee teaches in Harlem with his great fingers; Crows and such

The New Yorker cover illus.

titled 'Driven'

(a cartoon within)

...

A Sunday message

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GBpGrhf2gs;feature=fvwrel

...

...

In good hands,
LELAND
THE SON
is now teaching in New York City -
kindergarten at the renowned charter school
Harlem Village Academies
where he has been identified as a stellar teacher of 
disenfranchised children.

He is shown above leading a fifth grade class in Houston TX, at his first teaching job out of college.  As his two year stint with Teach For America neared completion, he flew to New York
and interviewed with HVA, a charter school that frequently hires outstanding TfA teachers.  HVA was starting their
first elementary school in Harlem.  See his employer on  Good Morning Joe: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhdUG8C_cCc
Lee landed and accepted the job which would take him to New York and a
challenging new life chapter.  But first he had a wedding to go to in Wisconsin:

Lee was home at the Odd Fellows in August to visit and attend the wedding of a good friend from UW Madison.
http://raccoonnews.blogspot.com/2012/08/brian-doorman-intersections-right-has.html
Lee and his sister Erin were both in Waukesha then.

When Lee sent a picture on Facebook of himself at that wedding wearing the old US Army Counter Intelligence Corps spy tie clip we'd given him because he now wears ties in his teaching, I again noted his long prehensile fingers.  Fortunately, he inherited the stature and grabbing fingers from his mother's side of the family.

We remember when he was out for Junior Blackshirts football in 8th grade,  his coaches called him 'PAWS'
for his talent at catching long-reaching passes as a wide-end receiver. 

Fortunately, Lee's life wasn't endangered by his continuing with football as a high-schooler. He opted instead for playing drums with the Blackshirt marching band, orchestra and jazz ensemble,  under the direction, first, of  famed saxophonist Jamie Beckman, and then the also great director, Guy Kammerer.

Through his now 25 years,  Leland has been digitally, expressively skilled.

Here, he explains to us why he and his sister were so wet, caught in a rainstorm,  after attending a town parade some distance from home.

In his just-started job at HVA Lee is working long hours and is so busy that he has not had the time to write much as yet.  But he will.  We know.

The founder of his school,  Dr. Deborah Kenny - see above video link - has written a best seller book, BORN TO RISE, about the founding of her charter school, an idea funded in part by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Lee has his own autographed copy from Dr. Kenny.
It is an impressive story, entirely.
READ THE BOOK!

...

CROWS AND SUCH

A crow scratches around on the skylight overhead our office here in the Odd Fellows.

Another crow walks through seasonable stubble
today in Norblei's blog, Basho's Road
- regularly read here -
See it at http://bashosroad.outlawpoetry.com/dave-etter-alliance-illinois/dave-etter/haiku/

...

LEFT HAND AT 76

Average finger length
blotched rat poison induced
facade
yet mighty, and decorated at the wrist
by the late Uncle Lee's Arizona
sterling silver and turqoise watch band
holding a simple Timex

Able to remain still as its mate
holds its own
shaking the hands of strong women
at church.

(v.Z. 9.27.12)

Photo here of Uncle Lee and nephew Lee play cribbage some years ago.
Had a couple of beers together.
Actually, it was Uncle Lee's second.


For more Uncle Lee, see http://raccoonnews.blogspot.com/2009/03/kind-mans-boots-to-fill.html

The Left Hand Speaks

by Alice D’Alessio

Perfect, save for one flawed knuckle, beautifully seamed and creased, I am content to be what I am, the left hand, the second hand, the neglected hand. For I have a secret.

It is true that my neatly fitting skin is turning blotchy now, stretching into ridges and crevices. Yet it does its job so well, wrapping tight the underworkings, the critical bone and tendon, the rivers, streams and estuaries of blood and other juices that keep the fingers active and lubricated. It protects from invasion of those enemies that would enter and do great harm.

After seven decades of flexing and gripping, I am capable and strong, my five digits line up like soldiers for review, from short to tall, and back to short, to my sturdy thumb, altered a bit at the base with a lovely triangular scar. How well they stand at attention.

It’s true my partner, the right hand, gets all the glory. It is the one extended to shake the hands it meets, it picks up the pen and writes, brushes teeth, waves, plays a major role in buttoning, tying, stirring. But behold – on keyboards we are equal! And furthermore, there were glory days, now gone, when I was supreme. When we teased that violin into music, the runs and trills, the haunting melodies – it was I and I alone who found the notes, knew exactly where to press the string – never flat nor sharp – to make the purest sound. All the other one did was saw that bow across and back, across and back. I made the music, created the sweetness of tone with my vibrato. I, the genius twin, blessed with the gift of perfect touch. The other one, purely utilitarian. I rest my case.

(Written by a woman attending a writing class in 2011 on Washington Island, WI taught by Ellison Bay WI author, teacher, publisher, Norbert Blei)

...

Post Script

The new electric stove with the dancing flames
holds forth in this photo taken with our inexpensive
lower crustacean cell camera.  (ATand T Z221)
Note the plastic ziploc-bag of genuine fireplace
ashes the Rev. Leroy brought us
from his REAL fireplace
to scatter around the stove
for added realism.

They lean, in the bag still, against the
whistling tea kettle.  Knowing they're there
is effect enough.