ruth and the ticklewhiskers

we didn't know ruth at all when we knocked on her door.

the vet said she had kittens, and we were looking for a kitten..

he said her landlord told her some of her cats had to go.

she had 26 or was it 32?

her house was small, run-down, unmowed,

yard full of dandelions,

and ruth herself, when she came to the door looked run-down and unmowed.

she was sweet looking and slight -- boney slight -- like my aunt emma

but unlike emma she had a warmth and friendliness that lit up her face,

weathered more than aged.

she welcomed us and took us to meet her cats.

inside they were everywhere.

i tried not to look at her scratched up legs,

imagining it must be from the cats,

but was probably from berry-picking.

all sorts of cats came over to greet her when we sat down outside.

she greeted each by name, and they responded.

we looked at some kittens, all adorable,

trying to decide,

and then out came a tiny long haired white kitten with big blue eyes.

well, of course, that was the one!  Our Kitten!

""oh " said ruth -- were we not supposed to see that one?

"well " said ruth, possibly thinking of her landlord.

"you can't take that one -- unless you take her brother too."

out came the brother - bigger, short-haired, white, blue-eyed.

well ok then, i will get a kitten as well.  we'll take two.

and so we ended up with silky white ticklewhiskers

and sunny jim ticklewhiskers!

a year or so later ruth stopped in to see them.

she looked at grown-up sunny jim and said

"he is the spitting image of his grandmother lulabelle!! "

tea room gets tweeted - also Henrietta Lacks book

while researching info on Salazar's lands for the upcoming event in june, i stumbled across a tweet Sal sent about my tea room!
so here is a picture:

click to enlarge

oh and yes that is Lucy, who is a woman of color lately, perhaps because i am reading The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.
highly recommended!  an amazing book!  be sure to read it if you haven't already.

left behind

barney: it's really dark in here. i hope the tall ones let us out soon.
hank:  it's your fault - you hit the door and made it snap shut.
barney: i'm getting hungry.
hank: i don't think they'll let us out.
barney: yes they will!
hank: i think they went on a trip like they did one time. only for longer.
barney: no they didn't!
hank: they're going to be gone a long long time. they probably left lots of food out for us.
barney: i'm hungry.
hank: but we can't get to it because YOU got us shut up in the bathroom and we can't get out!
barney: it's not my fault! you were jumping too! are we gonna die?
hank: one of us is.
barney: which one? me?
hank: with no food and water you'll die first 'cause i'm fatter and i can live longer.  then i'll eat you.
barney:waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
-- OH THERE YOU ARE!  DID YOU TWO SHUT YOURSELVES UP IN THE BATHROOM AGAIN?  YOU SILLY CATS!

what to do with bin laden

my computer shut itself off

it had some important update thing going on for itself.

meanwhile, i'd left an unsaved note to myself

with a long poemy sort of thing 

asking have you found your inner bin laden

and that it's important to do so

but then what --

don't want to kill off part of yourself!

bin laden's a smart energetic dude

if you find where yours is hiding

best plan is to turn all that energy

to something beneficial!

anyway, i didn't say it just right

and it was too long anyway

and now it's gone.

but i like the idea.

you know -- bin laden lives on

in each of us.

but most of us don't know him.

he hides out in a cave or mansion

and ambushes us from time to time

and we say omg how could i do/say 

something like that!

mr & mrs phoebe get a new nest

mrs phoebe thinks they'd best be heading north to grab a good nest site.

mr phoebe says nah, nah, no hurry!

last year's nest was in good shape! we'll just fix up that nest.

piece of seedcake!

little did he know
last year's nest -- on top of the light fixture on my back porch -- is gone.
i did appreciate them eating up all the GIANT BARN SPIDERS we used to have BRRRRR!!!!
but not from atop our light fixture!

when the weather felt just like it does
just before we hear FEE-be!  FEE-be!
i cleaned away that old nest
and wrapped screening around that light.

all night i worried
those birds will come home to....no place to live!
so i built them a little platform!

and HOORAY!  when they came back

well she gave him a hard time for a week or so

but then, she relented, and in no time at all 

had a nest on that little platform!

here's how to build one http://www.50birds.com/MPOpenPlatform.htm

april 23 easter in ogunquit

we look at each other and at the falling snow
should we go?

the crocuses vanished!

the car slides on the road even before we are out of the village.
we drive on eastward slowly! cautiously!
finally -- behind a salt and sand truck
slow but not slippery.
into new hampshire it is 33 degrees --
a slippery road temperature -- and snowing.
it lets up for a bit, but then before concord
even deeper snow. on we go.

finally it is 35 and a freezing rain.
gradually, gradually, the land is lower
the trees shorter, the ground flatter
"i smell the ocean" says john.

the bridge, the state of maine,
its motto "maine --cold, but damp"
the hotel, a good dinner.

next morning winter's fist unclenches
its open hand offers bright sunshine!

long rolling waves, the marginal way,
children in easter clothes go barefoot on the beach

coats are shucked in surprise!
a perfect day!  are we really in maine?
more fishy meals consumed
we sit with the coatless many --
where did they all come from?? --

click to enlarge!

in late afternoon sun watching the ocean

  and the next morning
in bitter wind and icy rain.
we start for home.
and along maine's shore road,
forsythia has bloomed!

mjane & lucy

it's nice that my alts get along. here mjane and lucy discuss a table and chairs lucy wants to borrow for her new cafe. mjane is happy to help out!

fire drill

when the smoke alarm earsplittingly clangs 

there's not much chance of finding cats.

they be gone!

when the fire engine pulls up to the house

and the firemen stomp in

clanking and clumping in their monstery gear and gadgetry

you'll never find a cat however hard you look.

and should you spy one under the bed

you'll never get it out and boxed.

i'm thinking of having fire drills for the cats.

put some of their very very favorite treat

in the cat carrier

which we'll keep open by the door

then turn on the fire alarm.

or maybe turn on the alarm first,

then turn it off and put treats in the carrier?

what do you think?

then if it sounds for real

will they run to the carrier?

Oh and you are probably wondering, but no, i'm sorry to say i didn't think of it until too late, to ask the firemen "would you like something to read?"

in defense of northern spring on April sixth

a friend in maryland emails:
Sympathy to you both......my lilacs are blooming and the purple martins have returned with nesting materials in their carpetbags.....82 degrees yesterday

my maine friend responds:
Ah, but talk to us in July or August, when WE'RE at 82 degrees 

and i am seized with inspiration and my love for the north and my annoyance with those who think we are somehow held here against our will and are to be pitied, and i emal back:

or talk to us now!
when snowflakes are falling
and the white hills with their bare black trees
backdrop for the fields, white with brown showing
and vernal pools form where soon
frogs will thaw - riotously desperately fatally mating
yelling their heads off about it

and talk to us now
while the streams crash and thunder
as boulders moved by the roaring waters
are fueled by the melting ice
that crashes into the bridges sending the river over the land
and the birds maddened in their homecoming excitement
trill and call raucously all day
in the misty air of the hot sun on the cold snow

i've learned to love a wilder spring
not the generous ripening sort
from my southern childhood
all perfume and soft breezes
now i love the crazed dance
of a crooked crone and her consort
staving off death
dancing wild and desperate
clamouring for life
drinking the cold maple sap
straight from the bucket

That'll tell 'em

  

catching up with my second life!

i have gotten better at remembering to take snapshots in Second Life but then forget to post them here! so this is catch-up time (i don't really spend all my time in SL).
there was carnival back in feb or march - serious business in some of the roman sims!

too bad i don't speak italian, but i could dance anyway!

while searching for a carnival costume, i found this - i wanted to be snoopy, but for obvious reasons, i had to be lucy!

a friend and i explored the Unfairgrounds fair - a fund-raiser for cancer or something- it was pretty good but could have been lots better!  i think people created a scene of their worst nightmare! but mostly lacked good ghastly endings.

my favorite - click to enlarge!

and i have become a groupie going to live performances by Bubbac and the Bubbettes, who does a mean Elvis show...great voice and guitar and believe me he knows all the songs!  apparently he is an Elvis performer in 'real life' too.

the bubbettes are not usually so overdressed for SL :-)

almost famous

a mystery picture appears in the alumni magazine - a girl on a skateboard. barefoot, madras jacket, flying down a campus sidewalk.

the magazine asks "If you know who this girl is please let us know."

the grainy black & white picture is from the 60s, like 1964 or 1966.

who knew from skateboards! 

someone knew.

someone's surfer brother had made it from rollerskate wheels.

sister brought it to college and mostly just rolled up and down the long halls.

sister's pretty blond barefoot friend tries it outside on a gorgeous day 

on a looong sidewalked hill - a smile of delight on her face, hair lifted by the breeze -

someone took a picture!

years later the picture turns up!

now the secret identity is revealed.

girl becomes famous - the girl on the skateboard!
eventually a book is written, a stage play, then a musical, then...hollywood!

at the oscars, many years later,  the actress strides across the stage to accept her award.

an overdressed crone in the audience lifts herself up by her walker and yells 

(this is the sister yelling - see paragraph 3)

"IT WAS MY FUCKING SKATEBOARD!"

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

hold still for just a minute will you?

winter battles spring
regrets snivel, hopes dance
why do i live here

                           ~mudpie

what leaving already?

it isn't like her
she's never done this before,
elizabeth taylor

                              ~mudpie

i'll be changing my hairstyle

at the reading,
the good poems were by poets
with weird hair
              
                         ~mudpie

what do you say to a dead man?

i fell in love with Warren Christopher yesterday

npr's website said he died
i knew the name. i clicked the link
i saw his picture
my heart burst with love
an old man 85
a good man
he tried - he worked so hard
he did so much
his heavy spirit clung to me
i held his spirit i didn't know what to say
it would not leave me
my heart was so full
i said what little i knew
or understood
of how to guide the dead
he would not let me go
i need to learn more
in case this happens again
i tried to send him off
to people who know how to help
in these situations
but the love between us was so strong
at last i remembered that today
i am going to a friend to work on a project
a friend who knows
who can guide the dead
or the living for that matter
my heart grew lighter then
and i wrote this

early spring call of the human

redwingzarback!
bright and sunny today - March 8 - and a fresh new layer of snow.
nothing is whiter than snow -- snow defines white!
yesterday morning, shoveling the walk,
the snow heavy, wet spring snow,
falling and falling even as i shoveled,
wishing i was not doing this,
but knowing anything else i might be doing
would be equally if not more meaningless,
like i'm not going to be discovering
a cure for cancer or anything like that...
i suddenly stopped.
could it be?
am i hearing that unmistakeable sound of spring?
yes it is - a red-winged blackbird song.
and now another.
not a flock mind you, but just the few crazies who risk all to be first arrived.
when their gamble pays off, they get the best land and the best mate months later when the girls drift in.
smiling, i call my hubby, using the spring call of the northern human "redwingzarback! redwingzarback!"
soon our call will be heard all over town,
in the store and the post-office,
on the steps of the library...
"redwingzarback!"

University of Western Australia

Arches in the Mist at UWA's Virtlantis

Blue Tsuki's installation Vessel which closes today.
"Before you is a concentric landform of unknown time and origin. It appears to bear witness to an ancient artifact in the sky known as the Vessel. Walk the circular labyrinth to the center where you will find teleports to the Vessel." 

they don't mention that the labrynth is more fun if you are riding your horse, and the Vessel above is way more fun if you are on your unicycle!

click to enlarge - see me on my horse?

wheeeeeeee!

a dream of pigs

i dreamt that some men in a couple of boats were pulled up in the shadows across the river to watch a huge white pig that had escaped as pigs so often do, swimming away from the near riverbank encampment of naked beautiful dark-haired women , one or more of whom would soon notice and be coming to chase it back to their compound.

no doubt this is a very obvious and common sort of dream...which can be interpreted to mean....ah would you like to guess?

Cutting for Stone

by Abraham Verghese.  a good read, as they say!
long and involving with the depth and breadth of the truth of human existence and emotion mostly found only in fiction.
complicated characters living as the best humans they can be considering where and when they live. ethiopia. which i didn't know when i started reading.
and coincidentally, friends of mine had just a month ago moved there from here.

Raglan Mardi Gras

one day lucy sez to osprey  "there should be fortune cookies in Second Life" and osprey grabs it and ran wid it!  

she made fortune cookies dat breaks open and gives you a fortune when you click's dem (fortunes made up by lucy and enjah and maybe more peeps ... dey so funny!) 

somma da fortunes only makes sense if you hangs out in second life.

den she went charging on an made fortune cookie avatars we wears so we is fortune cookies in ossem red sneakers, and we was in da Raglan Mardi Gras parade yestiddy - best second life parade i ever seen! 

it wuz Mysteries of da Orient so we fit right in behind a chinese takeout float! 
here some pics.  hunnerts of peeps wuz dere!

~ mudpie

dere we is lining up at start