A lonely grave?

On my way home from St. Louis, I passed, then did not pass a spot that had been intriguing me for years. This time, I turned around and returned for a close look.

You can see why this lonely site interested me. There, with a pine tree and some flags for company was some kind of marker stone. I had been passing it each time I drove to and from St. Louis, about four times each year and had gone my way, wondering.

The new highway was being built opposite the site. It and the wall holding that majestic pine and earth had been left. The highway builders may have felt the same kind of mystery and awe that held me there for more than a few minutes.

Was this a grave? Had some soldier fallen, been buried and stayed on that spot? Perhaps it is a memorial to those thousands of men, on both sides, who had been mutilated past recognition in the battles of that war. Perhaps the body of a soldier, uniform torn beyond identification had been found there and the stone memorialized the place.

A Boy Scout troop in a nearby town maintains the marker. I guess they refresh the flags and flowers I found there. I salute them for caring beyond most of us. I wish that I could tell that unknown what I waited 20 years to hear: "Welcome home."

Short and sweet: Today, I found a toad lily in our garden (several really). It was growing in the partial shade loved by the Japanese anemone and astilbe.

The toad lily is a native plant in Arkansas and found in other places where the great prairie formerly ruled.

Ridiculous

This image is a poster painted by Sigfried Reinhardt. It is copyrighted so don't reproduce it.

If it seems a little ridiculous, good. That's the title of this blog after all.
I love the new styles. The oversized trousers and baggy shirts remind me of the photos I have seen of "zoot suits" that were fashionable with young people before WWII. They went out of style when cloth rationing came as part of the war effort. But, some of these things have their disadvantages. For example, there is this quote from the Houston Chronicle from July 23 of this year:

"Police say an 18 year-old carjacker approached August Peters, 74, as he exited his vehicle. "Give me your car or I'll kill you," the carjacker said, putting a knife to Peter's throat. Luckily for Peters, he had an item that made him the physical equal of his youthful adversary -- a firearm. Peters grabbed his pistol from inside the car and fired, striking the carjacker at least once. The suspect fled through a nearby home, struggling to run in his baggy pants, which fell off in the kitchen as he ran for the back door. Police caught up with the pantless suspect nearby."

The title of this particular blog applies to that and to those silly fashions which insist that a man's underwear show over his trousers. The super baggy pants and shorts remind me of a baby whose diaper is full. They hang in that suggestive way and I smile. Youth will out, they say. The quote says that isn't all that will out.

The fact is, we're a pretty silly race, us humans. I suspect that is one of the reasons the Gods haven't just given up and started over. Look at all the fuss we get into as a result of sex. A man and a woman or two of either sex take a look at what is available to them, make a choice then decide whether to marry or live together. Before long one or the other or both start looking around again. They often decide that a little variety in partners is what the doctor ordered. It's decisions that let divorce lawyers get rich and fill the dockets of the civil (not really) courts. So we don't know our own minds. And most of the time, we don't take the time to explore inside ourselves to find out if we're really in love forever or just looking for a little security and love.

Even those couples who don't cheat and stay together (after all, infidelity is only one of the reasons for divorce) have trouble communicating with each other. Those troubles have given comics almost infinite material to make us laugh or at least grin sympathetically. If it isn't communication problems, it's the insecurity of one partner or both that makes for fights and someone ending up sleeping on the couch instead of next to their partner of choice.

We get terribly excited about things that haven't happened yet. We grab a small slice of something and make it into a huge to do. Look at the health care arguments that are currently in the media. I have to ask myself if any of the people shouting in meetings have read the proposed legislation. I tried, but the darned thing is over a thousand pages long. I'm not a lawyer. Neither am I endlessly patient with legalese. So I, like most of us have to make do with what people tell me is in the bill. When I get two or three or a dozen different takes on what's there, I get confused.

It's the same about our president. Folk are accusing others, who disagree with one or more of his statements, of being prejudiced against blacks. (Oh, is that politically okay? I know that negro is absolutely out and that African American is better. By the way, everyone with dark skin isn't African or American. So label me insensitive. If it isn't a really insulting epithet, it should be inoffensive.) Unhappily, there are people around who are prejudiced against anyone whose skin is darker (or lighter) than their own. Another example of ridiculous.

But my favorite example of "what you say?" is computers and cell phones. How many times have you asked yourself, "why do I have to press the off button to turn this thing on?"

late summer in the garden

While my daughters were here, I lamented about the sad state of blooms in late August and early September. They laughed and said the garden looked pretty good to them. So I walked out this afternoon to document some blooms. Alas, I was too late for the magnificent thistle we found, but there were quite a few others.


azaleas

Along with the goldfish above, we found a cute, little garden snake who was sharing the pond with the fish. He/she/it(?) had also staked out a couple of rocks upstream where (pronoun of your choice) could stick its head up and survey all goings on. I haven't been lucky enough to get a picture yet.


knockout roses

Indian blanket flowers

Dahlia

zinnia

love lies bleeding

wild onion

And I have no idea what this one is.

I had been so busy looking for holes in the foliage that I missed the flowers that were there. I guess there's a lesson in that. Treasure what you have.

By the way, if you recognize the above 'wonder what' please leave a note here.

A book review

I have just finished a remarkable novel. While I did not start this blog to review what I read, I like this one enough to want it shared.
LIFELODE by Jo Walton
NEFSA Press, Framingham, MA
hard cover
published February, 2009
ISBN - 1: 1-886778-82-5 other versions are available

The first thing I noticed about LIFELODE was the language. It is as simple as a peasant farmer's narrative would be. But imbedded in that language are words and concepts that were irresistible to me. First was the thought of a world in which the use of a force (yeya) is easier in one direction than another. Where it is easy, people join with gods. Where difficult, without the use of this force, people would become as automatons. Time is also different in the two directions, moving slowly in one and quickly in the other. The story is based in a village located between the two extremes.

While the story is essentially a fantasy, there are strong elements of science fiction in it. The world in which it takes place is Not Here. Things work differently. There are strong hints that people (or beings) from outside it made the world and then migrated to it. It is also theorized that when the originators came, they were gods and people slowly moved away from them, in the process having less yeya to use, but more independence of thought... to a point.

I mentioned language. I confess that I was hooked by the first paragraph. But I was wowed by part of an exchange explaining just what Lifelode was:
"...It's how you survive, how you put food on the table, and beyond that it's what moves your soul. It's not just the lode of your life, the seam you will mine, and not just the direction your life points in, it's also the load you'll carry through it. It isn't something you can just work out in a minute..."

The story is told in a present, but flexible tense. Things logically move into past perceptions and events. People see shadows of both past and future. That is a part of what makes the characterization so strong. By the end of the first chapter, I was involved in the lives of two of the major characters. By the end of the fourth, I was concerned with the entire extended family.

The plot takes the family and pushes three characters into it. First is the former lady of the manor, great-grandmother to the present lord. She left the family to go east where time goes slowly and learn yeya. She returns with a secret that is pursuing her. The second is a scholar who loves women easily and falls in love with two of the family wives. The third is a priest of a god pursuing the first and ruthlessly using anyone she can to accomplish her mission. She uses the scholar to sow discord into the family. When she is defeated, the goddess sends an heir of a former lord with armed men to reclaim what he believes to be his birthright.

It is more complicated than that, and more enchanting. But each word, each sentence solidifies the characters and adds to the story. This is the first book of Jo Walton's I have read. I'm going to buy and read everything of hers I can find.

renovation finished

For the past four months, our house has been home to both us and various contractors as we remodeled the guest rooms we maintain for visitors. The old bath was a 1960's small one for teenaged boys. The new bath has been designed for luxury and so that our friends won't want to leave. We also redecorated the bedrooms.
Pictures are above.
Our daughters quality tested the suite and it meets with their approval.
In addition to the guest suite, we tiled the hall. This will make cleaning easier. We tended to track dirt into the carpet on our way from the doors to the kitchen and back.
The contractors were uniformly nice and cooperative. A couple of them had worked with us on other projects.
But at last our home is ours again. Now we await guests.

various thoughts on different things

I'm in St. Louis for the third time this summer. The drive from Little Rock was, for the most part uneventful. But there were a few close calls I saw from impatient drivers who did not wait for a clear sight distance to pass slower vehicles. That reminded me of a couple of days ago when I was almost hit head-on by a driver who swerved into oncoming traffic (on a four lane road) to pass another car.

That incident made me think of other times that my life could have been ended. Most of these times were the result of either luck or split-second decisions on my part or someone else. Examples: I fell once and my head missed a sharp protruding rock by inches; There was an accident at a plant where I was working, before I could go to check on people, someone handed me a gas mask (the accident was a leak in an ammonia tank). Onthese occasions, it was just one little thing that meant the difference for me.

Science fiction writers have thought about these decision points that change a life, sometimes, a world. Would WWII have come about if Hitler had died during WWI? If Moses had turned right instead of left, would Israel have all the oil? The theory proposed by the writers referred to in the first sentence of this paragraph is that each time we make a decision, our world moves onto a different track. The movement and our consciousness move, but on another track, an "us" makes a different decision and so on. Naturally, if some of the movers and shakers of history had not existed, our world might have been quite different. One good friend, John Dalmas explored what the world might have been like if the Normans had lost the battle of Hastings in 1066. He has not written that yet. But I'm looking forward to the result when he does.

If you want to try some of these "what if" histories" look for Harry Harrision, Harry Turtledove or just search under "alternate history".

I watched the crops as I was driving north yesterday. It reminded me that my wheat was in the elevator and had been sold. Last year, there was a huge price spike during harvest. I think it was caused by the use of corn to make gasahol (is that the right spelling?) The demand for the one grain lifted the price of alternate food grains like wheat, rice etcetera.

I had confidently predicted to a friend that the corn demand would have no impact on the poor of the third world. Boy, was I wrong. Even though the demand for corn is still great, the markets have adjusted to a more level phase. That is what makes commodity dealers rich and why I do not even try to play in the commodity market. Of course, the stock market recently underwent some confidence shaking moves. The difference is that you can hold a stock until its price goes back up or the company goes out of business. If you buy futures in a commodity, when that future matures, you must either buy the commodity or sell at a loss.

It is odd how a few things can make a huge difference in our perception of things. I'm staying at a Sheraton hotel in Clayton, MO. The room is large and clean, but there is no refrigerator or microwave and the bathroom is quite small. Those three details made me think, "what a lousy hotel" at first. I got over it, but I'm still not happy about the fridge.

There were several other topics in my mind when I began typing this. They have all gone away and so will... for a little while.