Tadpoles! 4/29/16

Froggy! (watercolor by Karen Kelly)

Tadpoles! Millions of tadpoles!

Each year the cover to the dark blue pool cover fills with water and leaf debris. As winter melts away, spring days bring sunny rays that warm the pool top pond.

I look at the calendar and realize I had not signed up to be one of the "first" customers for having the pool opened. I'm hoping I'm not "too late" - hoping that I won't experience another TADPOLE episode!

Days passed and I didn't check the pool pond, but I did call Pool Boys (Rodney Hoskins) to be put on his schedule.

Spring flowers popped up and disappeared. Spring shrubs bloomed, too. The giant oaks dropped fuzzy strings "everywhere"!

The purple finch returned and built another nest under the eaves of the cottage. Their offspring grew without my help and are now flying back and forth over the pool top pond.

With the help of Angie's List, I have Gutter Boys come out to clean the gutters and downspouts. The Gutter Boy who was here and I discussed gutters and gutter covers and . . . TADPOLES!

He said, "Looks like you have a lot of tadpoles!"

A lot of tadpoles! A LOT OF TADPOLES!

OK! I know I heard frogs croaking nearby awhile ago! But, how long ago? A month? Two months?

Whatever! It doesn't matter when! What matters is that the pool top pond had many thousands of tadpoles swimming and swimming around in the warm water. I felt remorse and guilt! These poor creatures would not live much longer - that is - just maybe if they swam their way to the neighbors' back lake they might, maybe just might make it.

Just as I came in here to my computer to write this "story", I see that Rodney has set up the drainage equipment to remove the water and the tadpoles!

As my counselor, Mr. Edgar Gibson, says "Mistakes are lessons. Problems are opportunities".

No sharing jars of tadpoles with home schoolers or NextDoor.com children. No Japanese tadpole soup (my idea). No tadpole fertilizer for my plants!

Reminder to myself: Ask Rodney to put me on his early list for 2017!

1974 Teflon Coated Minds

As I continue to sort through stacks of paper memorabilia and more "stuff" I often find something I've written and forgotten about. I wrote this "essay" for myself in a very small purse-size spiral notebook with orange pages.

Instead of saying, I "want, I want" shall I now say, "I give, I give" and keep giving until I am exhausted from doing so? I will give, but in ways that I can give best - the essence of my life, my soul - not fearing criticism of those about me for that is my greatest fear up until ow - criticism - fear of words and my son asks me "What are words?"

Words are nothing - so true - it is only by assimilating a series of words - thought - therefore - response, action - hopefully giving meaning to words.

Shall I write about fear? Fear of what? Mainly death - no not the hereafter, etc. It is fear of pain in those last moments,  but would it not be similar to being on the operating table - coherent - speaking, communicating with those preparing my body and then suddenly - instantly not here any more and surprised upon awakening finding oneself alive?

That must be death - gone - asleep and then awake in some strange new place, a new form and hopefully, amazingly - a greater intelligence to see and understand the reason for one's existance - how one fits into the total plan - the endless infinity - into the energy of it all.

Fear - of not being part of the universe. We are part of it. We are a functioning member of it all.

My only concern is looking and observing the cruelty - the primitive punishment animal behavior - for the scramble to survive at the expense of one another - those who are so afraid and always saying, "I want, I want".

I have said it, too and still I say it. I acknowledge this wanting! I want to know everything. I want to feel - to be. I want to sooth - to heal - to show how it is to be a complete force of energy.

Rainy Day! 4/11/16

BABY DEER NAPPING

What to do on a rainy day - a rainy, rainy day?

Stop! Listen! What's that sound?

Here in the cottage office are skylights which bring in much needed light and also serve as percussion instruments - for the drumming of raindrops. The rhythm changes from light to heavy with variations "in between".

Rain fills the pool cover once more. The other day I looked out to see major ripples along the edge of the "pool cover pond". It seemed, maybe, that some critter may have been struggling to get out of the water. It wasn't a critter at all! It was the wind "blowing up a storm"!

Water fills the ditch alongside my neighbor's driveway and makes its way to another neighbor's small lake. There are several major drainpipes that take water from the gutters, down spots and drainage network around my home, back to the lake.

Having plenty of rain brings water for local wildlife, too. We have deer, rabbits, squirrels, chipmunks, coyotes, groundhogs, birds and sometimes a snake or two that have made their home in our shared "green spaces".

This year the flowering shrubs and trees "made it out" before the snow returned. The daffodils survived, too. It's been a "Celebration of Spring"!

To see buttercups and red bud trees blooming in the wooded areas beside our "country roads"  has made "just going to the store" a special trip. For fun, I put the car windows down to hear the birds chirping in the trees!

I'm glad it's Spring! I'm so glad it's Spring!

Opening Day!

Here it is again! Opening Day! Parades, music, food, people everywhere - people dressed in red - all for The Cincinnati Reds Opening Day! Play ball!

I'm wearing my red sweater and viewing all the happiness and happening on my iphone via Twitter and Facebook and also by watching updates on our local TV stations.

All this excitement has triggered another "can't believe I did that" memory!

Time: back when Jerry Ford was president

Place: Cincinnati, Ohio

Characters: 3 (attractive) female friends, dressed "to the nines", big hats

Vehicle: Blue Lady - a '72 blue Rolls Corniche convertible

Deems (thinking that was her name) had been friendly with Butch Knowlton who I believe was invested somehow with the Cincinnati Reds. She was a decorator and he was her client. (There's probably a lot more to that relationship but I do not have anything here to share.)

Martha was a beautiful blond lady who had been a mistress to a fellow over in Highland Towers (thinking now that they both may be deceased).

Karen, just me, was without supervision by husband Bill who was a "travelin' man" to the West Indies and Lake Tahoe - one or the other place - every three weeks.

I will not place any blame on any one of us for our behavior on that particular Opening
Day!

We decided we wanted to go to the ball game. We had no tickets. We had no invitation from Mr. Knowlton who had a box atop the stadium! The "no this, no that" didn't matter to us!

I drove Blue Lady down to the entry gate of the stadium. The guy at the gate didn't question us when we told him we were the wives of the players (or was it the owners?). He ushered Blue Lady and us right on through into the stadium underground parking area.

We found our way into a secured area with Ford's secret service people. Again, somehow we were
allowed to proceed to the top level of the stadium where we located Butch Knowlton's luxury suite (box). We were welcomed with food and drink and friendship! And, we watched the Opening Day Game!