Only three more days of summer

School starts Monday for the teachers, Thursday for the kids ...

We are getting heavy bursts of showers for ten minutes, and then the sun comes out and air gets more humid. The puddles vaporize quickly and the steam just rises. Then it clouds over and rain again. Going from the car to the outside immediately fogs up my glasses ... lol, I can't wait for September and cooler weather! But we still need the rain. We have drought though it's been downgraded from extreme to severe, thankfully. Every inch helps.

I plan to do a collage later and then scan it and upload it to a blog entry. I am trying to do something with a subject lighter and more frivolous than I usually do. Also more surreal. This weekend I may try another collage with more paint in it than collage elements.

I'm also trying to finish a book before the hectic school year starts, "The Limehouse Text." I discovered this author I really like, one of the abiding joys of a well-stocked public library. The review starts: "The streets of turn-of-the-century London teem with trouble in this third offering in Thomas' atmospheric series..." Ah, yes, turn of the century London and two well-drawn and interesting characters. You don't find such good writing, characters, and evocative atmosphere these days! I am always happy to find another good author. The books I've read of his so far are easy to read but not so light my brain turns to mush.

I've been missing Thomas Hardy and may turn back to him when I finish Limehouse. Ah, well, time to make brown rice! Have a great evening all.

Summer's a-going...

What a great day! The sun was partly hidden half the day behind fluffy clouds, which helped the heat index quite a bit. The humidity was lower and there was a breeze. I think the high temp today stayed below 90. This morning it was positively cool so I quickly baked a blueberry cobbler and steamed a bunch of veggies for supper (to have with brown rice and Asian sauce). Then I did the dishes, in hot water, no less!

The pears are ripe so I picked about 30 pounds of those, and about 5 pounds of apples. I also gathered a huge bag of figs. Inside again, I washed them all and the pears will be set to finish ripening at a friend's and the apples, we will prepare for drying on Friday. The figs will be bagged and frozen.

The cobbler came out great, and with the minor exception of accidentally setting my dish cloth on fire and searing my finger on the metal slider all went well. LOL, I am really a domestic disaster...

Church tonight and then television and reading my new book. A good summer day of one of the last summer days...before SCHOOOOOOLLLLLLL!

Birth certificate eligibility lies contradicting themselves now (UPDATED)

State of Hawaii official Statement October 2008-

Obama's Birth Certificate Verified By State
"Therefore, I as Director of Health for the State of Hawai‘i, along with the Registrar of Vital Statistics who has statutory authority to oversee and maintain these type of vital records, have personally seen and verified that the Hawai‘i State Department of Health has Sen. Obama’s original birth certificate on record in accordance with state policies and procedures," Fukino said.

CNN's Lou Dobbs is starting to wonder where the birth certificate is, and said so numerous times this week. This query prompted a vicious reaction from J. Richard Cohen, chief of the left-leaning Southern Poverty Law Center who called for Dobbs's firing. In the ongoing "Shut up Lou Dobbs" campaign under obvious pressure, per CNN President John Klein in his response to the Letter:

"It seems this story is dead- because anyone who still is not convinced doesn't really have a legitimate beef." Klein asked CNN researchers to dig into the question of why Obama couldn't produce the original birth certificate. The researchers contacted the Hawaii Health Dept. and confirmed that paper documents were discarded in 2001 when the department went paperless. That reportedly includes Pres. Obama's original birth certificate.

So....how can Fukito have examined a document in 2008 that was discarded in 2001?

UPDATE: "Vital records (birth, death, marriage, and divorce certificates) for events that occurred in Hawaii are received and preserved by the Office of Health Status Monitoring, a unit of the Department of Health. Certified copies of these records may be issued to authorized individuals and used for such diverse purposes as school entry, passports, Social Security participation, driver’s licenses, employment, sports participation, survivor’s benefits, proof of property rights, and other needs."

1. Someone should tell the webmaster over in Hawaii to change that language about preserving the certificates. All the paper has been discarded when they went digital in 2001.

2. How can the Department issue a certified copy of a certificate that was discarded in 2001?

Figs are in!

The figs are ripe! I wrote before about finding a fig tree on my property. I love figs, and since they are such a delicate fruit and therefore so little shipped, I am thrilled to be able to go out and pluck to my heart's content. Many of the figs are ripe enough to eat now, so after hanging laundry (the line is next to the fig tree) I started picking.

I heard an angry bird squawking on the wires above the street and knew that a baby was about, somewhere. Ha ha, I have thoroughly learned that lesson! None were visible at that moment however. So I made my way around the interior of the tree, picking and dropping gently into my shirt held away from my body and gathered like a handkerchief. Then I saw him. The nest was just above, and he was stock still on a branch, huddling and shaking. Poor baby! I said that I would be out of there tout sweet, but snapped this photo first. His mom swooped in a moment later and I shot a pic of her too.




Tonight's dinner will be light since I ate with friends and had salmon and potatoes and fresh tomato salad for lunch. Dinner: sliced, chilled figs atop grilled slices of very thin smoked ham (not prosciutto, but I wish!). Grilled hunks of crusty whole wheat specialty bread drizzled with olive oil. Accompanied by iced green tea and a compote of blackberries and blueberries. Yum!! Living off the land. Almost.

Speaking of that, the apples and pears are coming in. I'm picking pears tomorrow for my friend, the one who has picked and given so many blueberries to me. I mean, huge quantities of blueberries, she picked 45 quarts worth. I was on the receiving end of 10 quarts. We are in a barter economy now. I have a lot of pears to pick to make an even barter!

Sigh. Next week is the last week of summer. August 3 I start school, and since I am a long-term sub in a pre-K, the principal wants me at the pre-planning meetings as staff. That's Monday, Aug. 3 and the kids come in August 6.

To Sir with Love!

Trip into Athens

I drove a friend to the hospital to visit her dying daughter. Not exactly the way I had hoped to have an excursion. A sad situation for all.













I'm often caught by this train on Sundays. Nothing to do but take photos of the graffiti on the cars.














Handicapped parking at the emergency entrance. My friend asks me to drive her car, which has the handicapped sticker. She is 84 and suffering from cancer, herself.














Hospitals always seem so stark. What's going on in the interior is bad enough (aside from births and successful life-saving operations) but the exterior is pretty harsh too.












After a few hours in beeping hospital machine-land, I and my friend drove home, once again enjoying the rural aspects of the apartment. This bird skidded the circumference of the feeder while nibbling on the dwindling feed. Mental note: buy more feed.














Lichen on the tree the feeder hangs on. The shape so perfectly mirrors a flower, or a snowflake, doesn't it? And the light green is so pleasing.













Looking out at all that beauty from inside. Ahhh, better than jagged angular lines of hospital building and roaring trains,...and dying daughters.

Townhall meeting erupts over Obama birth certificate

Rep. Mike Castle's town hall meeting erupted over the Obama birth certificate scandal:



Meanwhile people are starting to clue in that the first Executive Order Obama signed was to suppress release of his birth certificate. Probably a smart thing since Obama can't remember which hospital he was born in. Hmmm, was it Kapiolani? Or Queen's Medical? No matter, career soldiers are balking at deployment because they are charging he is usurper. Where will it end? The illegitimacy of his presidency seems to be gathering steam even as his poll numbers plummet.

RIP Walter Cronkite

The journalist whom at one time was The Most Trusted Man in America, Walter Cronkite, has died. The New York Times called him "iconic" and he was. Who could forget the moment he reported that JFK had died? He was with us at the moon landing, just shy of 40 years ago next week. He brought us information at the Democratic National Convention riots, Martin Luther King assassination ... we grieved with him and we learned with him as he brought us the world's information night after night.

A great write up is here at the Museum of Television. The photo above is from when I attended the Society of Professional Journalism conference in NYC in 2004. Pictured with Cronkite is Betsy Ashton and Brian Williams.

And that's the way it is, Friday, July 17, 2009.

Rethinking the Obama handshake snub

I posted a video that showed Obama extending his hand and in turn the line of men at the diplomatic function not shaking it. For all the world it looked like the Russians are snubbing him. That is what I, and most of the blogging world, thought.

Then I posted an entry describing my education regarding the depth of racial tension in Russia between whites and blacks. I thought maybe racial hatred could be the reason for the snub.

In looking at the video again from a different angle I think no such snub occurred. Sure, the Russians are suspicious of excessive adoration of new leaders proposing fascistic solutions. Sure they want to tightly control the crowds and disallowed the usual rock star raves at his entry and departure. But an outright snub? Look again, this time with the thought that he is introducing Medveded to his own entourage:



Therefore, this series of entries is called "evolution of a thought."

Simple racial hatred the reason for the no-handshake snub?

As Obama returned from Russia many news outlets touted the visit as a positive step with concrete outcomes.

U.S.-Russia summit called 'groundbreaking'
A recent U.S.-Russia summit was "groundbreaking" for relations between the former Cold War adversaries, a senior Russian diplomat said Thursday. The two sides "have managed to stop the degradation of our relations," Russian Foreign Ministry representative Andrei Nesterenko said in comments televised in Moscow.

President Obama in Moscow
Obama deserves a solid ‘A’ for his Moscow trip.

But then photos and videos and other reports started coming out from other media... and people (including myself) wondered what the real story is.

What not to say in Moscow
Obama’s reception in the country this week was, well, chilly. No screaming crowds. No glaring headlines. Icy resentment at the traffic jams his motorcade produced. Perhaps, Russians and Russianists who spoke to the American press speculated, it’s because Obama’s hosts are skeptical of politicians or the sincerity of powerful people who profess to hold high ideals.

Then the other day I posted a video of the Russian mucky mucks refusing to shake hands with Obama and mused about the reasons for the diplomatic snub.

A commenter informed me of the deep racial hatreds in Russia and told me of the violence against blacks in that country. After some digging I found this contention confirmed through media reporting, though it is not widespread reporting, much to our shame.

Reuters: Obama to visit Russia, where minorities live in fear
When U.S. President Barack Obama flies into Russia on Monday for talks at the Kremlin, he will be visiting a country where anti-migrant sentiment means blacks and other minorities must live low-profile lives to avoid danger.

For Russian Blacks, Obama Visit Stirs Special Interest
[F] for Russians of African descent, in particular, the new U.S. leader is a potent symbol of triumph over the same challenges they themselves face in a country where dark-skinned people remain rare and often unwelcome.

So I am left to add to the list of possible reasons for the snub, in addition my musings of diplomatic machinations and shadowy summit meanderings, the simple but monstrous possibility of simple racial hatred. And if that is the reason Russian diplomat after Russian diplomat refused to shake hands with Obama in the welcome line, I truly sympathize with this man.

Getting the boot

Life in rural Georgia often means visual surprises. Hay rolls made into snowmen, advertising fresh corn. Escaped goats crossing the road. An over-exuberant rooster crowing us into church. And yesterday's surprise, a man's boot carefully placed on the cow pasture fence post.