Kitty Porn

My cat has recently taken to stretching out on my lap when I watch the news. He lays out on his back, paws in the air, ready and waiting for his tummy rub. Because of his hair, I have taken to laying out a quilt on my legs when he does this. I decided to take a snapshot that in itself is not spectacular, but when I thought of the caption, found it pretty hilarious. I hope you do too.

Halloween Quip

Overheard Trick-or-Treat quip:

Departing boy: "She was soooooo pretty!"
Departing sister: "I liked her pants!"
...wait for it...
Departing boy: "I meant the kitty!"

In the quaint midwestern town where I live, for some reason, the Town Wise Men and Women have decided that children go trick-or-treating on the Thursday before Halloween. I've got a couple of problems with this, which I'll enumerate here.

First, the Thursday before Halloween was October 26th, 5 days before Halloween itself. Secondly, if it *had* to be on a Thursday, why not November 2, which is only 2 days removed? And finally, the trick-or-treaters were done by 8:30. Thursday, just like Tuesday, October 31st, is a school night. Why move it if it's finished early enough not to interfere with school night activities? Why have it on a Thursday at all? I just don't understand that, and no one I've asked locally has any answers. So, I'm going to have to draw out the big guns, and Write the City Council.

I'm a big fan of Halloween fun. No weird contextual underlying thing to infer here, I just love it as a way to celebrate the changing of seasons and a really good excuse for a costume (as opposed to work, which is my typical Monday - Friday costume habit). And, I'm glad I was able to experience it here. This town of about 40,000 is incredibly safe and peaceful, so children here, unlike in Houston or other metropolitan areas, can still go door-to-door trick-or-treating in relative safety. No fears of being snatched up by predators or poisoned by sickos.

So, as soon as it got dark, the traffic along my street was incredible, with cars parked all along the south side (no parking on my side!!). A steady stream of kids poured through, and there was some definite creativity put into a number of the costumes. Many of the kids stepped all the way inside the house and would comment about the fireplace, the carpet, the tv, etc. - very nice and polite munchkins. Most even said "thank you", and one chatty Cathy, after thanking me, wished me a Happy Halloween, Happy Thanksgiving, and Merry Christmas!!

The best costume was worn by a young boy. He definitely had help from a parent or two, but his costume was ingenious. It was a cardboard construction of a refrigerator. There was an opening in the top freezer compartment for his face. Upon reaching the door, he'd say trick-r-treat, and open his own door - the fridge door. Inside the door were some empty bottled drinks, a carton of eggs, and other condiments. The body of the fridge had a cutout with a bag attached marked "Candy". Ingenious!
The other notables of the night were a young girl dressed as Velma, the brainiac from Scooby Doo. Kudos to young girls dressing as smart girls. Then there were a group of four teens. They wore probably The Most Shocking costumes in town - and probably the Rebel Teenagers. One girl was dressed as a pregnant nun, accompanied by her muslim husband. They in turn were accompanied by another couple - a gay priest holding hands with a hassidic jew. All very Benneton.

So, here in NW Ohio, Halloween is apparently over. We'll have to see if my yard pumpkins go missing on the Real Hallowed Eve......

Winter Already?

Pac-Man Pumpkin Pie......

Another winter is upon us. I know, it’s only recently officially become ‘autumn”, but here in NW Ohio, the leaves have for the most part changed color and many are already on the ground. This week is cold, grey, and rainy, and last week we even had a short snow flurry. So, because I’ve had to run the heater, it feels like winter. And I think this has triggered some latent domesticity in me. I still find this an interesting process and reflect upon it as an observer, even as I find myself experiencing it.

You’d think, after finding a 125 year-old house that needed some work, the domesticity bug had already bitten. It had not – that was purely a financial decision made easier by the rentals available in my new town. The needed work posed for me a new challenge. Could I re-do two bathrooms? Would I want to? Could I get someone to help me? Can I learn enough about grout repair online to effectively employ it without hosing up my home’s value? These seemed like fun little distractions.

But now, the majority of my Home Projects are complete. I went project-happy earlier this year and probably, in hind sight, should have spread them out a bit. But, at the time, part of me just wanted Everything Perfect so the only thing I would HAVE to do at home was enjoy it instead of continuously working on little projects, which would inevitably, and quickly, remove the attraction I have for This Old House.

But, I think, with the onset of the Cold and the Grey, I’ve taken a subconsciously different turn on the home life. Take this weekend. I had some plans for around the house, so opted not to go out of town. My plans took a tangent on Saturday – which started by not being able to operate my new chainsaw. Fortunately, a friend called with Something Else to Do, so I eagerly left the work behind. Enjoyed cooking a meal for a friend later that night, and somehow, I think that triggered a massive cooking itch.

I decided, for some reason, to cook a jambalaya on Sunday. I’ve not cooked one in years, and don’t really know how to prepare a good jambalaya in volumes small enough for one person. I think my version could literally feed 12. Fortunately, I had some help in putting a dent in the volume of food, but there’s still a lot left over. (And, yes, it’s even better now!). Also, for reasons unknown to me (but still entertaining), I wanted to make a low-fat pumpkin/spice pie. So I did. And an Indian twist on a salad. Did that too. I even finished up all sorts of lingering laundry and other chores of the domestic ilk. Except dusting. I had to leave something to do for Some Other Time.

So, for now, I’m hoping I got all that out of my system. This weekend promises to be sunny. I promise to explore it, beyond the bounds of my home and yard. A girl’s got to keep things things at bay, after all……

Telepathic Radio

I've recently had a discussion with a friend about this phenomenon I call many things - soul radio, telepathic radio, internal radio - I've not yet landed on a term that fits it best. At any rate, we've all experienced that tune that, unwarranted and unprompted in any way, just seems to enter your head. It seems practially everyone experiences this. In Australia, I met a crystal-loving hippie that described this phenom as a kind of radio signal reverb from the universe, and that it was a signal that one needed to heed as a cosmic communication. I don't know about all that.

I tend to experience it a lot. And, I've toyed with creating a list of those that seem to "pop in". There are a couple of ways I'd categorize the songs that enter my thought process: oddball, coincidental, nature/acoustic, and reminiscent.

Those in the oddball category are just that because they are not a genre I'm otherwise interested in, or I have very little generational relevance to them. These include songs by the Andrews Sisters, Newcleus (Jam on It), Kraftwerk (ewww!), and a few operatic stretches. When they start up in my head, I often think, "what? not again.......". So, right here I'm ruling out some sort of personal affinity for the songs that come to me. Or the theory of some cosmic communication. What is the value of the cosmos sending me Tannheuser when I don’t speak German?

The coincidental ones are my favorites. For example, when traveling through Bosnia-Herzegovina during the war, I had a close encounter with the butt of a soldier's rifle. And just before that event, Rockwell's "(I Always Feel Like) Somebody's Watching Me" was running through my mind. Other interesting flukes seem to happen prolifically when I’m overseas. I’ve never really been a big fan of Tom Petty before the Wildflowers cd, but in the early 90’s, his “American Girl” and Bowie’s (who I’ve always been a fan of) “Young American” often entered the thought process. At one point, 4 Non Blondes “What’s Going On” was popular all over Europe (after having exhausted itself in the US), and this would frequently play in the background on events when I encountered translation difficulties. Ironically, I met the drummer for the band at a bar in Istanbul, who said, literally, “What’s going on?”….but that’s another story.

Nature / acoustic type music -- and no, I’m not referring to a recording of crickets in the forest-- seem to come to me when on a really good hike or a camping event. These are heavily populated by John Denver tunes, with CSN&Y, Nick Drake, and Neil Young’s later solo work (mostly from Harvest Moon) thrown in for good measure.

Finally, the reminiscent songs. Because I’ve become aware of the effect that music seems to have on me in a recalcitrant manner, sometimes I plant musical seeds for later harvest. For a few years, my friend Matt and often drove to western Wyoming, throughout Utah, and Colorado for some camping and hiking adventure. We always brought along some music for the occasion. One thing these areas have provide to the outdoors fan is a looohhotttttt of drive time. So, anymore, I can’t hear Rufus Wainright, Coldplay, Jack Johnson or G. Love, Beck’s Sea Change, or Mightymouse without also feeling a momentary elation about having been able to hike, climb, and camp in some of what I consider the best outdoor country in the world. Or driving in that region, singing at the top of my lungs. Sorry, Matt – the Meters just didn’t leave the same impression. So, now, if I’ve got a bit of a drive and I want a happy memory boost, I’ll bring along a cd from one of these previous adventures, and relive it, just a little. Even better is when they just come to me in my thought process. It’s at that moment that I reap what I’ve sown years before.

Likewise with my mp3 player. The music on that hasn't changed much since I was working overseass. It's as though I've been able to freeze some of the best memories and events of that time through the music on my gadget, and adding more music to it now would skew its reminiscence factor.

On my last weekend adventure attempt, I brought along the Coldplay cd, along with a few Jack Johnsons, and the new Beck. Unfortunately, the Coldplay and JJ's In Between Dreams cd cases were empty......

Con - sarn it!!!

I tried to go for another weekend camping adventure. As you can probably guess, it was not quite a success. I've encountered the third location that was "full" and unavailable for backpacking!!

I still have a difficult time accepting this. In my outdoors experiences in states West of the Mississippi, in National Forest country, there are lots of little gravel roads that lead like little capillaries into the heart of the forest. Sometimes, there are campsites scattered within; other times, trailheads. In any case, if you find yourself exploring one of these little roads, you - as a single owner representative of Public Lands - can strike off on the trail or pitch a tent. Even in Texas, in the State Forests, the same holds true.

Not so in Ohio! I visited Mohican Memorial State Forest. I'm not sure what the 'memorial' is for - perhaps obliteration of the Mohicans? Their western-most lands were in present-day Vermont. There is a memorial shrine in the forest dedicated to Ohioans who lost their lives in wars from WWII onward.

Here are some differences in the way Ohio manages its State Forest: it closes at 11 pm. Yes, that's right - with actual gates that are closed on the roads. There are trailheads that close at dusk (whatever you may interpret that to mean), with their own sets of crossroad gates. It has trails that you can walk, bike, or weather permitting, snowmobile - but they are marked with signs indicating that you must stay on the trails. So, I suppose, if you're snowshoeing on the trails and a flock of snowmobiles roars forth, you're SOL.

On the plus side, it is located in beautiful rolling hills and heavily treed. The trees were putting on their fall colors in beautiful arrays - the forest had the most reds I've seen (but probably only about 10% of the color observed was reds). It has a lodge and a resort with associated campgrounds, which were all literally overflowing with people and tents. Who wants to camp like that? Maybe that's all these eastern midwesterners know, but I find it almost repulsive to pitch a tent 5 foot away from someone else's tent unless we're at something like Burning Man. There are also natural gas transmission lines throughout the forest, which to forest management's credit, are well tucked away from the trail structure.

So, it was with a bit of a sigh that, after driving and hiking and exploring this region, I decided to come home. It's only about a 2 hour drive, and wasn't worth hoteling to explore the next day, because I'd been able to walk the trails in one shot. Besides, it was going to get down to the upper 30s, so I could take a soak in the giant tub and light a fire. Which is just about as fun as camping anyway. And, I've not been home for a weekend since August, so there is a whole lot that I needed to catch up on. At least, this way, I was able to make a dent in my ever-growing list of Things to Do and still enjoy some time outside.

Some of My Favorite Photos

My Favorites
Originally uploaded by partially landed vagabond.

From Top, Left to Right:
Morocco, Morocco, Wyoming, Ohio, Cambodia
Morocco, Morocco, Canary Islands, Thailand, Singapore
Norway, Nepal, New Zealand, Cambodia, Morocco
Morocco, Morocco, Morocco, Singapore, New Zealand.

Looks like I've got - by count anyway - a new fave setting for travel shots!

Meet Arya Gaduh

I've been enjoying a bit of blog-versation on one of my favorite blogs, "On Indonesia and the Economy". It's a ripe, heady blog that feeds my interest in economics as a behavioral indicator on a more global scale than what I could find on, say, cnn. At any rate, Indonesia being a Muslim country, the topic recently has turned to Ramandan, and one of the features of the season being helping the poor. A few postings have been made about begging. In it, Arya...pardon the pun....begs the question of who really benefits by giving to the poor: the poor, or the giver. During Ramandan, it is said that the generous are richly rewarded in heaven. But, the recipient is also a benefactor. Is there a way to quantifiably measure who benefits more? In this series of posts, I commented about an experience in New Delhi when the beggars - during the Hindu Diwali festival - went on strike, thereby preventing any potential donor from accumulating good karma. At any rate, if you are interested in some really good reading, soul-food style, and an appreciation of the economics of Indonesia in particular, by an incredibly well-read and well-writing blogger, check it out. Often.