Waiting for more snow

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Shabat dinner became a sleepover. I let Steve pick me up before dinner because I didn't want to clean my car to go home. I just figured he'd take his out of the garage and take me back. The other guests had to be shoveled out of the driveway so unprepared, without a toothbrush, I slept in the guest room.

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Looking out the front door at 11 pm.

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Darcy, after a not very successful walk. Note the snowballs on her feet. Her back legs were worse. She likes cold, but not snow.

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Robin and I walked back to my house Saturday afternoon. She wouldn't let me go alone, my good daughter.

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We were lucky. Those lines haven't come crashing down, yet. Lots of people lost power because of this circumstance.

My neighbor, Gene, spent Saturday and Sunday shoveling out the driveway and the concrete pad behind the garages. He says he liked the exercise. He's a great guy. On Monday, I took the car out of the garage and went to the fitness club, then next door to Trader Joe's. Today I'm staying home again. It just started to snow; we're supposed to get another 3 to 9 (?) inches on top of the 21 we got over the weekend that was supposedly Pittsburgh's fourth heaviest snowfall. I'm glad I never saw the other three, although I remember one in Chicago with 26 inches.

Jury Duty

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Citizens have a responsibility to participate in the political process by registering and voting in elections. Serving on a jury is another responsibility of citizenship.

This from materials I was using to prepare Abdul for his naturalization exam. When I received the summons for jury duty, although I could have opted out because of my venerable age, I agreed to participate. It was only after I arrived and the clerk began a long instructional harangue I realized I couldn't understand/hear him. I could hear the sounds, but I only got one word out of ten. He spoke very quickly, and Pittsburghers tend to swallow syllables, and I was out of it. They gave me a pass on the basis of my hearing and that was it, although I had to spend the day there. I'm not sorry I went, but I'm also not sorry I didn't get on a case.

The proceedings were held in the Allegheny County Court House, a wonderful building. I'm always happy to go there, although the upper floors are not as wonderful as the first and ground floors. Here is one of the lamps on the staircase leading to the second floor.

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Here is a picture of the architect's drawing for the building. It was hanging in a lounge next to the jury room.

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As usual, it's a little different than the actual building.

I've always been intrigued with this part of Pittsburgh, one of the real mysteries. At one time there was a very steep hill, called Grant's Hill, that covered the ground floors of both the court house and the Frick Building across the street. Both were built knowing the hilltop would be removed. There is a small plaque on the second floor of the Frick Building indicating the top of the hill. I have trouble envisioning it. Here is a quote from the Post Gazette which throws some light on it:

But by the 1910s, what was left of a whittled-away Grant's Hill was an
inconvenience known as "the Hump," and so the last of it went, leaving
two of Pittsburgh's best buildings with their bottoms exposed — H.H.
Richardson's Courthouse and the Frick Building that upstaged it,
walling it off from its city.

Today I am Wonder Woman

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Grace, no wonder I loved you from the first moment I saw you. No one else is perceptive enough to understand that I am Wonder Woman. It's nice that someone finally figured it out. From the time I first found the WW comic books I wanted to be Wonder Woman. I wanted to look like her and have her powers. I'm sorry to say the only thing we had in common was dark hair, now that's gone also. I hope you had a good nap.

I often feel like lying around and reading all day (mystery stories); occasionally I do it. But I have this feeling I have a choice about how I grow old. For me, reading all day, getting a cat, stopping my tutoring or not going to classes would be actively embracing old age. I'm not ready yet. The cat has nothing to do with getting old, but I'd have to find someone to take care of it when I travel. Stopping traveling has a little to do with getting old and a lot to do with the difficulty of getting on an airplane. Enough deep thinking. Thanks for your comment.


Exercise and ears

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I have lost patience with everything. Last night I turned off NCIS in the middle; I didn't care if the whistle-blower got killed. I can't seem to plan a trip to Israel. This is a country I'm familiar with, although I haven't been there for 20 or 25 years. I don't know where to begin. How much worse than planning for Japan could it be? This morning I can't get through my blog list. I don't know if this is winter doldrums or my brain is finally going. I'm going to exercise. Maybe I'll be able to concentrate when I get back.

I got in a good workout, came back for lunch, then went to a hearing aid place. I've been putting this off for some time. They gave me a good hearing test, a sales pitch about new aids, and readjusted the old ones, now six or seven years old. I'll probably get new ones, soon, but I decided to think about it and also to see whether the adjustments helped. I really hate these aids because they block my entire ear canal. I always feel like I'm up in an airplane with stuffed ears. The new aids don't do that, and supposedly offer more options for better adjustment.

One of our dinner guests on Friday night thanked us for helping test his new hearing aids. He said they were great. I never realized he was wearing aids. He actively took part in the conversation and never asked anyone to repeat. I have to find out which aids he bought. They range in price from $6000 down to about $1500 for a pair. The audiologist thinks I should get the top of the line, of course. Considering I can hear most things without the aids, I am loathe to spend the money. There are so many other things I want.

Mage, thanks for your inquiry. I am feeling fine. If this was a cold, it hasn't lasted even the usual seven days.


Catching up

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I'm feeling better today. Don't you love that? You don't know what I'm feeling better from, whether it was serious or not. Many years ago, probably 40, I was in Israel and received the daily letter from my mother: "My leg is better now." This was long before computers, email, cell phones. In fact, calling overseas, or calling anywhere in Israel at that time, was an incredible chore. I didn't know what to do. I had visions of having to cut the trip short. Finally an earlier letter showed up with an explanation: nothing serious.

So, I was sick with what seemed like a terrible cold. I was fine on Thursday, getting through a very long day. Pitt Osher presented a series of lectures about medical issues. I went to a lecture about the brain at 10 am, a lecture about the drug creation process at 1 pm, my pre-Columbian art class at 2:30, hung out in the library for 2 hours, then met my Chinese ESL students at 5:45 for a two hour session. Robin picked me up and drove me home afterward and I was fine the entire time.

I woke up Friday morning feeling not so great; by the end of the day I felt awful. Yesterday was even worse; I spent much of the day in bed, but got up and went for a walk in the afternoon. It was an unusually beautiful day for January and I didn't want to miss it entirely. Today I feel much better but the weather isn't very nice. I'm thinking about how I could go for another walk.

On Monday I went for a long walk with my neighbor and her dog. We drove over to the south side where there is a bike/walking trail created from unused railroad property. Here is a picture of Leo announcing he wants to go into the icy Monongehela River.

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The river wasn't frozen over. The ice was moving downstream from wherever the Mon comes from.

Here are some other pictures I never got around to posting:

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Looking at some of the Carnegie Mellon campus with the Pitt Cathedral of Learning in the background.

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This is the courtroom where Abdul was sworn in as a citizen. I was thrilled he finally achieved his goal.

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Abdul is holding the certificate of naturalization (and the shopping bag), the Somali woman next to him also became a citizen, next to her is Abdul's wife, holding Abdul's baby is a young woman who has been tutoring the other two children. 

Conversation with NPR

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I got really irritated yesterday afternoon listening to NPR talking about Pat Robertson's diatribe about the people of Haiti being afflicted because they made a pact with the devil in order to win their independence from France. I don't usually comment on these things, but this prompted me to send the following:

Why
do you repeat the nasty words of an obviously demented man. I'm sure
there is more important news than giving a platform to this religious
bigot.

I don't know what response I expected but I got this marvelously non-committal reply:

Dear Ruthe,

We appreciate your sharing your concerns with us.

We regret if you were offended by what you heard while listening to
NPR programming. Your thoughts will be taken into consideration. 

Additionally, NPR has an Office of the Ombudsman. The Ombudsman is
the public's representative to NPR, serving as an independent source of
information, explanation, amplification and analysis for the public
regarding NPR's programming.   For more information about the role of
the NPR Ombudsman, please visit http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6407004

There was also something about all of this on MSNBC–Rachel Maddow's show. It seems to me he should be ignored instead of being given wider publicity, which I realize I am also doing. I guess this is one of those no win situations.

Writing in depth

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Alice of Wintersong has a great post about a technique for writing in depth. I've been thinking about it since, dredged up some well buried thoughts that alternately entertained and appalled me, came up with nothing when I set out to write it all down. Rather, I tried to set out without knowing what I would write. The idea is to keep your pen on the paper and keep writing without thinking about it. I can't do it; I can't let go.

I learned as a very young child to keep my emotions, and the events that caused them, to myself. My mother had no sympathy for my problems. Most often her reaction would be something along the lines of, 'How could you do this to me?' If something bad happened, like the guy who exposed himself to me in a hallway, and I told her about it, I would get more restrictions on my freedom, ostensibly to keep me safe, but no sympathy, no consolation. I was supposed to behave in such a way as to avoid anything that produced strong emotions. I didn't behave, I didn't live in a box, I kept my mouth shut and my feelings to myself, a very hard habit to break. So this is probably the most you will ever get about my feelings. And my writing will never be compelling.

New project

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The next book I make will be about Japanese Gardens, at least the ones I've visited. I'm still enchanted with the gardens. I would like to return to Japan and remain from October through April or May so I could see the gardens at the most interesting times. It probably won't happen, but working on another book lets me enjoy the photos and memories all over again. Here are three collages using some of the photos from Rikugien, the Tokyo garden where I met the origami lady. Most of these photos were not posted before.

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Rikugien-base3

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I never took multiple Gigapan-like photos as I did in my backyard, so I can't make that kind of collage. Only the one immediately above comes anywhere close to it. I want to immerse you in my view of the garden. I don't think any of these are really successful; I'll keep trying.

Looking back

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Just finished Barbara Kingsolver's newest, The Lacuna. Her fictionalized protagonist interacts with the real history of the early twentieth century: Russian revolution, Trotsky, Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo and finally, the anti-communist witch hunters in Washington. I don't know much about Russian history, but the witch hunters had a profound affect on me. I was 16 years old and started college in 1950 at the height of all the madness. The college seemed to be noted for its communist sympathies (the chancellor was one of the few who stood up early on to the various investigations), and my father was worried about what this would do to me. He made me promise not to get involved and not to sign any petitions. Did I know any Communists? Maybe. Was I afraid? Absolutely!

I obeyed him until I finished school, after all he was paying the bills. Then I decided I would never act out of fear again. I sign any petitions that sound reasonable. I write my Congress people often, and tell them exactly what I think. But I have given up marching. After months of marching against the Vietnam war, and being photographed (by the FBI) so often I have no soul left, I decided the whole thing was useless. 

All during the Bush administration I felt we were headed back to the same mentality that made Joe McCarthy and J. Edgar Hoover into heroes. I still feel like we're going there when I hear Glen Beck, Sarah Palin, etc. expounding on patriotism, being an American and denigrating Obama and the Democratic Party.

Going over the Constitution with my Somali refugee I realized we have diluted the power of that amazing document. How about the first amendment:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or
prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of
speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to
assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

We have made religion a major concern of government, freedom of speech and freedom of the press into a mockery of rational thinking and reasonable ideas. And here in Pittsburgh we have more than a few questions about the right of the people to peaceably assemble. My student has many questions about our right to bear arms. He's afraid of his neighbors and their guns.

Have you read the preamble:

We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect
union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the
common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings
of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this
Constitution for the United States of America.

Sometimes I think it should read: We the lobbyists of the United States, in order to pursue more perfect profits, …And how do you insure domestic tranquility when you don't know who is carrying the submachine gun? Explaining all this to him was not easy. I'm glad he passed the test and we can go on to something easier.