I grew up in a great neighborhood. Lots of big families, ethnic families, Catholic families. We didn’t seem to notice any difference between our tribes. Everybody, all the little clans, gathered for stick ball, hopscotch, frog catching, and tag. And we all seemed to operate under the same, ominous rule: You had to go home when the street lights came on. Magical, really.

We had neighborhood birthday parties. God, I loved those. We wore pointy hats. We ate cake and ice cream. We played pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey, and dropped wooden clothes pins into milk bottles from the tips of our noses. Fabulous.

Tonight, this photo reminded me of it all. When I was six, I went to Elena Mikalauskas’ birthday party, just up the street. She was turning five. At one point, just before the “opening of the presents”, she became exceedingly happy and excited. That wacky Elena raised her arms over her head in a celebratory fashion, and when she lowered them, she trapped a wasp in her right armpit. Stung. Shouts of joy quickly transformed into cries of pain. Kids running every where. Tables over turned. Mayhem. Panic. All because a young Lithuanian Catholic girl was assailed by a WASP. Hmmm. Not so good.

Stingers

You know, I looked up “corn” in the dictionary, and it said it was a North American cereal plant. (And it yields large grains, or kernels, set in rows, blah, blah, blah.) But hey, the interesting thing is that it’s called a cereal plant. What exactly does that mean? The obvious ones, I get. Kellog’s Corn Flakes. I see that connection. But what about Cap’n Crunch? Or…. Or…. Fruity Pebbles? Do they have cereal plants too? What the heck do those plants look like? Lucky Charms, for crying out loud. Is that little green fella’ for real? Oh my gosh. What about the Jolly Green Giant. I saw ears of corn in one of those commercials. (and WHY ears?) Now, I am spinning. Oh my aching head.

Corn.

Daisy, Daisy,
Give me your answer do!
I’m half crazy,
All for the love of you!
It won’t be a stylish marriage,
I can’t afford a carriage
But you’ll look sweet upon the seat
Of a bicycle made for two.

made for two....

We have a swimming pool. The swimming pool has a cleaning-do-widgey that meanders its way around the bottom and sides of the pool. It does it all day, and all night, until we make it quit. All that aside, we also have two dogs. One of the dogs is named Maxine. Miss Max believes the pool-cleaning-robot is her arch-nemesis, her adversary, foe, and biggest enemy in life. This rivalry takes up a large part of Max’s day. Yet, she never slays the beast.

Did you see the size of that thing?

Altercation

We rock, here in Camden, Ohio.

Here in Camden, we have some cave paintings of our own, I’ll tell you. I noticed this one while out walking the dogs near the pond this evening. I am saying it is 17,001 years old, and represents the first known instance of an Irish Setter.

The better known Lascaux is the setting of a complex of caves in southwestern France famous for its Paleolithic cave paintings. The original caves are located near the village of Montignac, in the Dordogne département. They contain some of the best-known Upper Paleolithic art. These paintings are estimated to be 17,000 years old. They primarily consist of realistic images of large animals, most of which are known from fossil evidence to have lived in the area at the time. (OURS, here in Camden, are at least 17,001 years old, as I mentioned earlier.) Rock on.

Keith, and Timmy

There was this pod, you see, walking down the street. The pod wasn’t really watching where he was going. He had his mind on other things, like where was he going to get the money send the little pods off to college, and such. So pod, let’s call him Keith, was shuffling down the street, when all of a sudden, out of nowhere, falls a leaf. Let’s call the leaf, uhhhhhmmmmm, Timmy. So Timmy falls out of nowhere, like he’d been hanging in mid air from a tree or something, right on top of Keith!

Needless to say there was a HUGE collision. Keith went crashing into Timmy, and the two tumbled and tumbled, round and round, until finally they came to rest on a quiet dirt path. Stunned, and stammering, Keith says to Timmy: “You wanna’ know something?” “Sure,” says Timmy….. (to be continued).

I never used to. But now and again, I will take one.

Watch and learn (from this beautiful video)…

The Sloth Orphanage.

This semester, I took Fine Art Photography. My favorite class of the Spring Session. We had to pick a genre and stick to it throughout the entire class. My chosen area was Landscape, which I enjoyed exploring. One of the categories was Abstraction (also Still Life, Form, Portrait, etc). I had absolutely no interest in “Abstract”…. none.

But, after seeing and learning and varied exposure to this genre, I became very fond of it. So, I may shoot it from time to time. Tonight was one of those time-to-times.

East of Zippel Bay, Minnesota

I’m feeling a little lightheaded and I bit bedazzled… I’ve been waiting and waiting. And finally it is that time of the month. I’ve realized that pads have come a long way since I was growing up.

My iPad came today. Period.

Aunt Ruby never told me it would be this good.

Another one of those, I know, I know. But here it is.

On May 16th, 1804, Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, was born. Who’s she? Well, I am glad you asked. She was an American educator and opened the first kindergarten in the United States. Kindergarten things: I am not quite sure if she is the one that came up with the idea to roll out beach towels, and take naps on them. Or if it was her idea to have the nap fairy walk around and wake everyone up. Bunny ears to tie shoe laces…singing songs for the heck of it….. or even having a designated cookie prince / princess to dole out the treats mid-afternoon.

I think all of these things should be integrated into corporate America.
Here’s to you Ms. Palmer Peabody.
5/16/1804 – 1/3/1894

Merry-Go-Round, another good idea.