Lend Me Your Ear

Some say Vincent cut off his ear for his true love; others insist he was crazy. I think I now know the true story. The poor man had an ear infection and the pain was so great that he was sure if he cut off his ear it would go away. I know this because I, too, have been suffering with an ear infection and, although I cannot say my pain is that intense, it certainly is bothersome. Probably the most frustrating thing about that particular malady is that the pain intensifies while a person is lying down, and I understand there is a very logical reason for this. Dr. Pennies sayd the fluids pool while you are in a prone position and that makes the pain worse. I think it is actually one of those attempts to keep us humble. Most of the time resting is the best thing to do when you are ill, and that is probably trues when you have an ear infection also, but you apparently are expected to rest standing up.

I awoke about 3:00 a.m. with a full understanding of why babies and small children wake in the middle of the night screaming with pain when they have ear problems. I did not scream, but I also did not get back to sleep. Short nights make for long days.

In case the pain doesn't drive you nuts, the clogged ear feeling and knowledge that you may be shouting at people without realizing it will. But this is the age of wonder medicine so I am sure I shall recover. And I guess since I came out OK on my lump thing I shouldn't complain about an ear problem. But I probably will.

Saturday in the Theatre With George

There are some constants in life. Each time I read or see "To Kill a Mockingbird" I find something new to enjoy in it. "Bridge Over Troubled Water" never fails to thrill me. And I will always laugh at "You Can't Take it With You".

The Wichita Center for the Arts presented that George S. Kaufman play with local talent this last week and we went to see it Saturday night. I have never been to a sold out production there, and this one wasn't, but it was the closest I have seen them come. It was an absolutely enjoyable experience. The audience really responded to the funny places and the wackiness of the family really came through.

I have come to the conclusion that I really love live theatre, even when it is just good, not necessarily excellent. There is just something about the atmosphere, seeing it live. I don't know if I will ever see anything on Broadway, but I don't really need to.

The next show the Center is doing is "Cheaper by the Dozen". The real one. I would like to see that. They are doing "A Raisin in the Sun" in February and "Taming of the Shrew" in April. That should keep me busy!

The Kansas State Fair: I Tip My Hat (And Almost Lose It!)

This is my last fair story, for today anyway.

On our way out of the fairgrounds we decided to make another stop at the petting zoo. There are some animals which make me laugh. Ducks and goats are at the top of that list. As we walked up to the petting zoo, a large numer of goats were in the outer pen, looking for a handout.

I had worn my straw wide-brimmed hat earlier in the evening, but had been carrying it since the sun went down. When I bent to pet a very small goat, I failed to be careful about where I had my hat. Suddenly a larger goat had spied it and immediately clamped his mouth onto it. I gave a tug and got it back, but there is a big chunk out of the brim. If I didn't like goats so much I might have been upset, but as it was I just felt like I was leaving with a little less hat and a little more story. I bet it wasn't very tasty though.

The Kansas State Fair: I Don't Know Much About Art, But I Know What I Like

We have a wonderful volunteer at work named Pat. Pat had been very excited about her painting she was entering in the State Fair. She had just started taking oil painting lessons a few weeks ago and this was her first "exhibition".

One of my early stops at the fair was the Fine Arts building to see if I could find her picture. Upon entering the building and seeing the displays, I knew I was in trouble. I had no idea what she had painted. The tags on the entries were in such small print that I could not read them from any distance, and it was not possible to get too close to them.

There were about 10 pictures hung on the wall just inside the south door. I just happened to glance at the one on the end and could almost make out the name on the tag. It was Pat's picture! I couldn't believe that I just accidently found it! Not only that, but she had a red ribbon! Probably well over half the entries don't get any ribbon at all, so even though a red is second place, it is a real coup to do that well. And this was the second picture Pat had ever painted. In her life.

It was a big sunflower (still life category) and she had framed it with old red barn wood. It really was a good picture. I am so happy for her. And I am so happy that I found her painting.

The Kansas State Fair: Who is That Boy in the Red Shirt?

One thing Kristy really wanted to do was ride the Tilt-a-Whirl, and I had promised to ride with her. I stipulated that we would do that before we ate; I really did not know how my stomach would handle it. So we rode it and I did all right. It was much better when we were really spinning than when we were just tamely going around.

Another ride which interested Kristy was the Tornado, so we stopped to watch it later on. It was starting to get dark. The Tornado has big kind of bucket cars which hold 4 people. It doesn't get too exotic. We were watching it and I kept seeing this young boy in a red shirt come by. It wasn't easy to get a look at his face because the car turns as it goes around, but he really looked like Conner, my niece's son. Finally I asked Kristy if she didn't think that little boy looked like Conner and she watched a minute. Then she said "I think that is Conner." Now it makes sense that it could be him because he lives in Hutch, but he is only 5 and I didn't know any of the people with him. Then Kristy pointed out that Harry was across the way talking to Danny, Conner's grandfather. Sure enough, the boy in the red shirt was Conner.

I am always amazed that I don't run into more people I know at places like the fair. I have lived all across the state and I was very active in 4-H for 7 years, but I just don't see people I know. So it was surprising to run into Danny, then Maggie (Conner's sister) and Mandy, another niece. Conner's mother was at the grandstand show.

The Kansas State Fair: Fair Food

It takes about 30 seconds after you enter the east gate of the fair to start running into food booths. It took Harry a little less than that to decide that he was thirsty and was getting something to drink.

Not too far inside the gate is a petting zoo. Kristy and I decided we wanted to go through that while Harry was getting his drink. This "petting zoo" had such things in it as a kangaroo, a tortoise, and wallabys, none of whom were interested in being petted. It also had the most embarrassed llama (or alpaca) I have ever seen. This poor thing had a French poodle haircut and sat in his pen looking absolutely mortified.

But there were goats. Big goats. Little goats. Tiny baby, nearly newborn goats. And they are adorable and pettable.

As we left the petting zoo we saw Harry who had not only a root beer but also a polish sausage sandwich. He had eaten lunch about 11:30 so it stood to reason that he would be hungry. Kristy was also talking about needing something to eat. I, on the other hand, had not eaten until about 1:30. It was board meeting day so I had more lunch than usual, especially the macadamia nut cookies with dried apricots and dried cranberries in them Yummm.

As we toured the midway, Harry kept asking what we were going to eat. I kept telling him I wasn't hungry yet. Actually, a part of the problem for me at the fair is that there is so much stuff, most of which is a short cut to a coronary. I have to have time to struggle with my conscience. Pronto pups, the ultimate fair food, have held no charm for me since I got an undercooked one back when I was a teenager.

They have some new, air-conditioned buildings at the fair and one of them is like a big food court. After checking out all (or 90%) of the eating places, Kristy and I ended up there. She got pizza (there's a shocker) and I had the closest thing to healthy food there - a chicken salad wrap and some cantelope. It wasn't that I was trying to be healthy. That just sounded like what I wanted.

I think the problem with fair food is that, not matter what you get, your going to wish you had decided on something else. Get a sandwich, you wish you had waited for pizza; get pizza - a pronto pup sounds better; get a pronto pup - wish you had an Indian taco. I was not tempted by the full course meals one booth was serving. It was too warm for that.

Of course we finished the evening with Kristy getting a funnel cake and all of us having a little bit of it. Counteracted by wrap and cantelope.

The Kansas State Fair: Getting There

I have never been to any state fair other than Kansas's, so I do not know how ours compares with others. I like to go about every 3-4 years, and decided this was the year. I wanted to go on a week-day evening; not only is it cooler than during the day, but it looks, smells, and sounds more magical at night.

We set out about 4:00 on Thursday evening. We knew we couldn't stay too late as Harry had to go to work at 6:00 the next morning, but we did want to make an Alco stop before we got to the fairgrounds.

We had bought an 8 cup coffe maker at Alco in Abilene on Father's Day weekend. It worked for about 3 weeks and quit. It had a 90 day warranty, so we took it back to the Abilene store on August 28. Like the silly people we are, we exchanged it for a new one. We realized shortly after we left the store that we should have had our money refunded and then purchased the new one. The replacement make, since it was an exchange, had less than 30 days left on the warranty. I am assuming a new purchase would have had a new 90 days.

Well, we used that coffee maker for about 2 weeks and it quit working. As of Thursday we had 2 days left on the warranty. We took it back to the Hutchinson Alco. Harry explained to them what had happened and that we did not want another pot; we just wanted our money refunded. And if I know my husband, he explained it in minute detail.

The young lady who was handling the refund asked as she was doing the paper-work, "Was there a problem with the item?" My inclination was to say "Not other than the fact that it quit working after we had it for 2 weeks and I do not need any more counter art in my kitchen."

We left Alco and headed for the fairgrounds. We had no trouble finding parking and were close enough to the east gate to not need the shuttle. We were ready to enjoy the fair.

DaVinci, Apples, Papayas, etc.

I finally finished listening to "The DaVinic Code" on tape. My review - Dan Brown needed a good editor. I was fairly disappointed. I just didn't think it was that good and it was way, way, way too long.

I have apples all over the place. Good Southeast Kansas Jonathan apples. I have apple pie in my stomach, apple butter in my refrigerator, and apple ideas in my head. Mind you, I am not complaining, but I will be happier with the apples when I have them all done up and they are not sitting there making me feel guilty. Except I enjoy feeling guilty about eating the apple pie. I do love pie.

Tomorrow is board meeting and I am making a tropical salad. I have been on the great papaya hunt. They are not that easy to find in Wichita, Kansas and they are also not that easy to afford. Since I knew nothing about buying them I looked on the internet and learned that there are Hawiian ones and Mexican ones. I ended up getting processed ones. They weren't that easy to afford either.

I think we are going to give the State Fair a shot tomorrow evening. I have been nagging Harry and Kristy to go so we are leaving when everyone gets home from work/school. We'll probably stay until about 7:30 or 8:00. I like to be there after dark; I think the atmosphere is different.

I am hoping to go see "You Can't Take it With You" at the Center for the Arts on Saturday evening. That is one of my favorite plays. The first time I ever saw it, I saw the old Jimmy Stewart (I am pretty sure) movie. I thought it was nearly the funniest thing I had ever seen. We saw "Arsenic and Old Lace" at the Center a couple of years ago and they did a really good job with it. Also saw "To Kill a Mockingbird" there. They did it justice also.

Community

I have read a lot of things lately which point to the way we build our physical communities as a source of several social problems. Urban sprawl has made it virtually impossible for a great many people to walk to any destination. The lack of sidewalks and/or bike paths makes non-vehicular transportation dangerous. All of these promote a sedentary lifestyle which leads directly to obesity.

Sometime in the not to distant past - the last year or two - our neighborhood lobbied for and got a sidewalk along 37th Street between Womer and Seneca. 37th Street is a narrow, two-lane road which has no shoulder and ditches on each side. Our neighborhood has a drainage ditch which made it impossible to walk very far without having to walk along 37th.

Even before the sidewalk was totally completed I started seeing people out walking. The pond across from our house is a popular place for a stroll. Regardless of the weather there are walkers out, some with dogs, some with ear-phones, some just walking.

Usually a bicycle traffic is not allowed on sidewalks, but in our case the sidewalk doubles as a bike path. Again the nature of the street makes it extremely dangerous for bike riders so they are encouraged to use the sidewalk.

Harry and I have started walking every night and I have been impressed by the sense of community which can be developed just be brief encounters during a stroll. People with dogs are easy to meet; everyone seems to be happy to have you admire the pet. People listening to their music seem happy to look up and say hi. The only ones who appear to be cut off from the other walkers are the ones on cell phones. I often wonder if they are really on a call or are just using it to isolate themselves.

I have never been one to become acquainted with a lot of my neighbors. When I worked full time and had "women's work" to do when I got home there just wasn't time. Often there is not opportunity as everyone stays shut in his/her own little world. Harry has always done better because he works outside in the yard and garden, but even then he usually only knows those adjacent to us or across the street. I still don't know many neighbors, but I do feel now that several people would recognize me as a member of the "hood" and there is comfort in that. I believe people need connection with other people and, amazingly, sidewalks and walking can help that.

I'll Take the Soup

On Saturday Wichita is losing a gem. Tanya's Soup Kitchen is closing. Unique for Wichita, Tanya's has long been a favorite lunch spot. She has served such soups as Pumpkin Bisque and sandwiches with chicken and apricot preserves. And she has made them delicious. But Tanya lost her lease and feels that Wichita is too enthralled with chain restaurants right now for an individual to invest in the restaurant business. So she is concentration on her cooking classes.

Harry, Kristy, and I decided to go there for lunch today. Theoretically Tanya's closes at 2:00. We got there shortly after 1:00 and had to wait about 15 minutes for a table. It was a little after 2:00 when we left and people were still waiting for tables. I think we were not the only ones saying good-bye.

I didn't get my artichoke soup, but I think Andy has the recipe. They sell the recipe cards there but they were out, just like they were out of strawberry soup.

The moral of this story is: If there is something you really like, don't take it for granted. Enjoy it today because it may not be there tomorrow. Also, thanks Tanya for some of the best bread pudding in the world.

On another subject, this summer continues to be amazing. It is warm today. Warm is the operative word. It is not hot. If you happen to be reading this and live outside of Kansas, you may not know that we can easily have temperatures well over 100 on Labor Day. We have only had a couple of days over 100 ALL THIS SUMMER. Since I don't like the heat, I have really enjoyed this. And the greatest thing is that even hot days have cool evenings. Harry and I have been walking in the evening and it is actually enjoyable. I took a jacket to the rodeo Saturday night. Didn't need it, but it was a distinct possibility.

So, I've covered food and weather. We are anxiously awaiting the return of The Ken Jennings Show, otherwise known as Jeopardy, at 4:30 today. Quiz shows just aren't the same in re-runs! I need to go to the grocery store but keep putting it off because I hate it. (Always come back to food!) No miniature golf yet, but I haven't give up hope. Got to watch a little Braves baseball and see John Smoltz save yet another game. Royals lost again. Some things are so reliable. It has been a good weekend.

Yipee Ki Yi Ya

In lieu of doing nothing over the long holiday weekend, Harry and I ventured north yesterday morning. After visiting my dad at Medicalodge, eating lunch at Subway, and Harry fixing cars and sink drains while I basically did nothing but visit with Mother, we all set out for the Longford Rodeo.

It had been years since I had been to a rodeo, but I have always enjoyed them at least moderately. This one was no exception. I could do with the announcer who talked incessantly and I much prefer the days when the clown was not wired for sound and had to do physical comedy, but there is excitement in the competitions themselves. There were assurances that the stock is well treated but I still struggle with that. I know sheep aren't that smart, but I still doubt they would consider having a five year old trying to ride them as "well treated".

Very few cowboys (I also struggle with the fact that it continues to be a male dominated sport with women only being allowed to do barrell racing) were able to wrestle their steers or rope their calves, but it was exciting to watch them fail. This was a PRCA rodeo, so they were professionals. But I have to bear in mind that a really good hitter in baseball is only successful 1/3 of the time, and in rodeo the cowboy has little control over the behavior of the steer or calf.

The two biggest drawbacks to the rodeo were:

1. I can only sit on bleachers so long before my back protests by becoming very uncomfortable.
2. Mother could hardly see anything. Her catarac surgery has helped her ability to read but her macular degeneration is bad enough to really limit her vision at things like this. Add to that the fact that the horses and cattle were mostly the same color as the dirt on the arena floor and she really could not distinguish details.

Still, we enjoyed each other's company and it was nice to do something unusual. We had several good stories to share with Daddy when we went to see him this morning.

We're hoping to get in a round of miniature golf tomorrow if the weather cooperates.

Holidays are great!

Mothering

So much for my socially conscious kids! My daughter just used her blog to look for single men. She did specify what kind of men, but still...............

Actually, among the things I don't understand, my daughter's lack of male companionship may rank the highest. She is attractive, intelligent, witty, and just generally a very pleasant person with whom to associate. She has and always has had a remarkable ability to enjoy the moment and not become jaded. I have to assume her situation results from two things:

1. In high school she thought all the boys were jerks (probably rightly so) and pretty much let that opinion be know. This may have kept the boys away at a time when young people are learning the "ropes".

2. Her schedule and life style just simply do not lend themselves to the opportunity to meet people, male or otherwise. She has lived at home all through her college career, she works Friday and Saturday nights, and don't suggest she should meet men at church. Our church is small and we have attended there since she was in the second grade. Even if she were a regular attendee, which she is not, she has known all the young men there for years and there really are not prospects.

I have to go or end up in divorce court. Kristy, be careful.

Mortality

I feel pretty petty. My socially conscious kids are focusing their attention on issues of national importance. (I am not sure how Andy's food fits into that category.) My life recently has been much more introspective.

On August 10 I had my annual doctor's visit. He found a lump in my breast. I had a mammogram the same day.

This was during Andy's visit and I managed very successfully to put it in the back of my mind. I have always known you should not worry about things about which you can do nothing, but I have never been very good at following through on that. For once I did. Then, the following Friday (the 13th) I got my mammogram report in the mail and it indicated everything was fine. I foolishly thought I was out of the woods.

We had my dad's birthday party and enjoyed Andy's company. Then on Monday the 16th the doctor's office called wanting me back in for a follow-up checkup. I think I did that on the 18th and the unwelcome lump was still there. So I got set up to visit a breast doctor on the 1st of September. I don't know about anyone else, but waiting is not something I do well. However, I continued to be able to put the whole thing back in the dark recesses of my mind. Then the 1st came and I went to see Dr. Cusick.

Once I walked into her office, I had to face the reality that not everyone who goes in comes out with a clean report. I had to acknowledge that it was maybe time to worry. I tried to not let it show, but I was worried.

The positive in this was that as I was walking into the building by the Via Christi St. Francis campus this purple Dodge Ram drove by me and honked. It was Harry, come to support me. We had talked briefly about whether or not he should come. I knew I really wanted him there but also knew he was pretty pressured at work and had a doctor's appointment himself later that afternoon. I was so thrilled to see him.

For 3 1/2 years I have worked for an organization which encourages people to admit their mortality and plan in advance for the unthinkable. It is so much easier to discuss on an academic level than to deal with in immediate reality.

Well, I am making a short story long here. My lump turned out to be a cyst which was drained that morning and was harmless. (I am not going to go into details about how we know that but feel confident that is the case.)I walked out a free woman with only a slight sore spot to show for my trouble. Funny thing is, I find it much harder to get it out of my mind now than I did before. Guess I was really surpressing it and can now let it run wild.

Other thing I learned - I am one terribly healthy individual. As they took my health history it was brought home to me that I never have had anything much more serious than hay fever, unless you count the 2 lb 6 oz baby. She is pretty serious!

If you are reading this, have a drink to my health. I am certainly enjoying it!

Sandwich Generation

Much is written about the sandwich generation - those of us who have assumed some level of care for our parents while we are still in the process of raising our own children and getting them out on their own. Mostly, when people talk about our situation, they focus on the negatives. Last month I stumbled across the positives.

Normally I would not be on my patio on a Kansas August evening, but I was grilling chicken breasts. This has been a totally atypical summer and it was pleasantly cool. I was nursing a gin and tonic and it occurred to me that I was very lucky. The meat I was cooking was for my father's 82nd birthday party. The next afternoon we were going to the airport to pick up Andy. What a privilege to have both my father and my son as a part of my life. At that moment the sandwich felt good. The gin and tonic helped!

I have a friend who must be considered a club sandwich. She looks after her 93 year old mother, helps her grown children with projects like painting and wallpapering in their houses, and spends a great deal of her time providing child care for her grandchildren. I am sure she loves it but that would be just too much for me. Still, it may seem like a privilege to her also.

The birthday part was great and Andy's visit was a lot of fun. Of course both went by too quickly.

Debut

I have a blog now! Testing!