Grocer's apostrophe

Ah...the joys of the internet....I learned something new today. On one of the music lists to which I subscribe, someone from the UK posted an apology for his "grocer's apostrophe". It turns out it is a term known here in the USA in some regions, but I'd never heard it. Being in the 4th generation of school teachers in my family, I am particularly sensitive to proper spelling and punctuation in ads and in everything I read. The grocer's apostrophe is that misplacement we've all seen in which the apostrophe is used incorrectly, i.e., egg's $2.00/doz. I knew this misuse was an epidemic, but I didn't know it was international, nor did I know there was a NAME for this!!

Here's my favorite signature line for this epidemic, borrowed I think, from a friend in the Atlanta Symphony:

My your his her our their its
I'm you're he's she's we're they're it's

A Feline First--redux

My Sweetie Cat is healing. After 3 days in the tree with no signs of coming down, she was "helped" down. I took my water hose and sprayed up over her head. Hating water as she does, she unhappily came down, and I was able to doctor her wounds.

A few days later, I took her to my regular vet who was shocked at her injuries. "No way", he said, "could she have done this to herself". So much for the burst abcess theory. He prescribed another round of the pink stuff, and I tethered the cat to a pet carrier in my back yard to be sure I could check on her several times daily. This worked fine until the air conditioner repairperson came last Thursday. In returning the water hose he used to clean the a/c filter and unit, he spooked Sweetie Cat. She took off, losing her collar, and was chased by my dog Poochie. Guess where? Back into her safe tree! Another two or three days passed, and my attempt to "shoot" her down with the water hose failed. I finally talked her down Sunday, and, although she goes up into the tree for the hot part of the day, she's coming down for food, and she meows at the back door until I come out and pet her. We've both survived the trauma, and we're friends again. I still have no idea what originally happened to her, nor does the vet. I hope I can be a better protector in the future.

Summer in way-south Texas

You know it's summer in way-south Texas when:

It's time to bring INTO the house the plants you put outside during the winter so they won't burst into flame.

You can get warm water from all the cold water taps.

Watching the temperature index is much more important than watching the temperature.

The central air conditioner struggles to hold indoor temperatures below 85 degrees.

Doing stuff outdoors in daylight hours? You must be kidding!

Sunblock is bought by the gallon--every few days.

People spend more time in their air-conditioned cars just driving because it's the coolest place they can find.

Outdoor critters and their resting places are hosed down several times daily to maintain a cooler temperature.

Nobody worries much about applying make-up or wearing panty hose because one step outside immediately drenches the wearer in sweat anyway.

It's no wonder water sports are so popular here!

One understands perfectly why the idea of the siesta caught on here.

No one suffers from SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) here.

Insomnia from being too hot to sleep increases.

What the heck do they mean this is a "semi-arid" area?

Temperature is currently 97 degreesF. Heat index is currently 102 degrees F.
Humidity is only 37 %. And the high today (which won't hit till nearly dark) is predicted
to be 103 degrees. Don't even THINK about what that heat index will be.

And, oh my gosh, this is the COOL month of the summer!

Lest anyone think I'm not counting my blessings, I am. I am grateful to have shelter, food, airconditioning, electricity, clean water, a wonderful support system of friends human and animal, and salvation thanks to the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ! I am trying to find the humor in a difficult situation before I retreat to a cooler part of the house! I'm heading for my siesta!

Reflections

David's Reflections from David Perkins' episcopalatlee@yahoo group

Annie Dillard in her book Teaching a Stone to Talk writes
about her experience attending a service of Holy Communion, weaving in her reflections in response to each movement of the service. In that essay, she speaks of the unpredictability of a God too often tamed by our meager expectations.
She writes, "Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of
power we blithely invoke? Or, as I suspect, does noone believe a word of it? The churches are children playing on the floor with their chemistry sets, mixing up a batch of TNT to kill a Sunday morning. It is madness to wear ladies' straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life
preservers and signal flares; they should
lash us to our pews. For the sleeping
God may wake someday and take offense,
or the waking God may draw us to where we can never return.

I was most impressed by this part of
the devotional today. What imagery this evokes! Don't we "water down" God's
power by taking it for granted or by putting it into the box of our
expectations? What if we could BELIEVE great things, and PRAY for great
things? Perhaps we can help God empower us by removing our chains of
expectation. I recall a choral anthem from a large church where I sang as a
scholarship alto:
The text began: "Draw us in the Spirit's tether...." Are
we prepared, ready, willing, and able to be drawn to where we can never
return?

New link added

I've added a link to The Community of the Holy Spirit, a group of Episcopal sisters in New York to which I've belonged as an associate since 1982. I chose St. Augustine's Order, the middle choice, back then, and the rule of life has provided stability for my devotional life. I have moved into a diocese that has no chapter of associates so I'm missing the fellowship that my group in the Panhandle provided. It was this affiliation with CHS that really lit my fire for spiritual growth (after Cursillo provided the kindling) and showed me the value of having a spiritual advisor. I've had some real treasures!

A feline first

Today, I took a photograph into my veterinary clinic for diagnosis. I bet you've never done that before, either. One of my formerly feral cats, Sweetie Cat, had gone up into a tree the day before I left for convention. It is her custom to go up there when it's really a hot day, but she always comes down at night to eat and to sleep on the patio. Well, she did NOT come down, and she was still up in the tree when I returned yesterday.

I was able to coax her down last night, and I was horrified to see that a big patch on her back was bare of fur and bloody! I treated her with what I had on hand, and I took a photo of her injuries, planning to take her to the vet this morning. Throughout the night, I went out to check on her, and I found her sleeping peacefully. However, when I went out this morning to put her in a carrier for the trip to the vet, I found her back up in the tree! Unable to get her to come down throughout the day, I finally just took a printout of the photo I'd made, and I asked the vet's receptionist to find out what the vet thought I might be able to do to help the cat. I came home with some liquid antibiotics (Pepto-Bismol type color and smell) and the advice to put anti-biotic cream on the cat's back. Well, if I ever get her to come DOWN, I'll do all of that! The vet's diagnosis based on the photo is that Sweetie had an abcess that burst, and that she licked all the fur off herself!

To paraphrase a line from Gone With the Wind, "Lawdy, lawdy, Miz Scarlet, I don't know NUTHIN' 'bout raisin' no cats!"

Convention Report

I've just returned from an international convention that isn't even on this continent very often, and I only had to drive 4 hours to get there! This was an international gathering of oboists and bassoonists with many choices of recitals, lectures, and exhibit areas each day. I renewed old friendships, made some new friends, and got to sit at the feet of some of my idols. This was my first time to participate in the Massed Double Reed Band performance on the last day of the convention. Because most of us oboe and bassoon players grow up in an environment in which we're the only one in our performing group or one of a couple of double reeds, it is quite a power trip to be in one "hugemongous" group of 'em! There were 55 of us on stage. I think we could generate nuclear power with a little practice!

The joy of rain--from the Internet

Have you seen the new GE TV commercial with the baby elephant doing Gene Kelly's choreography to "Singing in the Rain"?? It just makes me giggle every time I see it! Donna B. .

Saturday, June 04, 2005

Today's Meditation: Finding a sanctuary
Meditation time today focused on readings from Gordon MacDonald's
Renewing Your Spiritual Passion. I identify with his statement that, particularly as Christians,

we are headed toward an epidemic of fatigue andweariness that never has been
seen before.....The believing community has
never been so busy, never had so
many voices to listen to,
never had so many choices to make, never so many ways
to respond. That, I believe, explains why we are facing the potential of a
wholesale exhaustion of the spirit.

I have been drawn to the idea of creating a sacred space, a sanctuary,
a hospitable place, both for myself and for others. This turns out
to be one of MacDonald's suggestions for replenishment and
renewal. The "soccer mom"
lifestyle I see in my church exhausts me
just to watch! His advice to find
safe spaces for spiritual rest, even
if for seconds at a time only, rings
true with me.
My illness has forced me to turn from a human DOING into
a human BEING. Some days the fatigue is so overwhelming that
I can do nothing else but BE. Even so, I feel the need to seek out that
sanctuary, that quiet, safe, space, and I have to seek it out because I don't
LIVE there! How much more do the busiest of us need to stop, take some deep
breaths, and regenerate?

My intention last Fall was to teach an introduction
to Meditation techniques at my church. It's odd how life interrupts us
when we're making plans, but an illness in a family member caused
me to go and be a helper to that person. Even as I was making
plans to go, friends at church told me a class in meditation
would probably only put them to sleep!
Of course it would, because we're all so sleep-deprived that any pause in the
head-long , caffeine-charged rush causes stress-drained brains and exhausted
bodies to simply shut down!

Lord, help each of us to renew ourselves by
resting in You. May we
seek out that safe place, that quiet sanctuary, that
oasis in our daily walk (or run). AMEN

Fw: Complex statements for the simple minded

There are only three kinds of people; People who can count and people who can't. http://home.earthlink.net/~getwild/jokes/misuses.html

IM Evangelism

Will wonders never cease? I've chatted with a new friend from the UK for a couple of days now, and we got into church stuff today. I told her I was Episcopalian, and she had never heard of that. I witnessed as to what my faith has meant to me in dealing with some health problems both she and I face, without getting preachy, and I think she may just be at a point to investigate finding a church home. My Baptist friends would chide me for not leading her in prayer to accept Jesus Christ; I just don't feel that she's there yet, but I think she may have opened the door! IM-ing is perhaps not the place for deep spiritual conversation.

The Practice of Meditation

What is it about us white anglo-saxon protestants (okay, Anglo-Catholics) that we are so terrified of the practice of meditation?It's one of those spiritual things that folks where I grew up thought might be practiced by "those foreigners", i.e., anyone not like us! The concept of contemplating one's navel, sitting in one of those pretzel-like yoga positions, and "ohm"-ing was made to seem almost heathen.

I am currently reading everything I can get hold of to learn about meditation, and I am practicing some different types of meditation on a daily basis. My spiritual journey is leading me toward this as a life-saving, sanity-saving, stress-reducing technique. The genetic disease I'm fighting has played havoc with my nervous system, and I've been on anti-depressants and an anti-anxiety med to function as a normal human being. I'm convinced that regular and effective meditation practice would eventually replace this mediCAtion practice!

More on this process as news develops. Film at 11. Your mileage may vary!

The Eagles Farewell Tour I on TV

Well, well, well...the Eagles have gone spiritual on us! What a great concert this is! Two of the greatest new ones are Joe Walsh's "One Day At A Time" which deals with his recovery from addiction and "There's a Hole In The World", which they began writing on the evening of Sept 11, 2001, the day of the World Trade Center attack. They were just home from a tour and were due to go into the studio to record their next album--on Sept. 11. I was very touched and appreciative of both songs. And, gee whiz, who does better harmony in the rock world than the Eagles?

Laguna Beach

"Calif. Landslide Sends 12 Homes Crashing
By BEN FOX, Associated Press Writer 3 minutes ago
A landslide sent at least 12 expensive homes crashing down a hill early Wednesday and damaged 15 others in this coastal Orange County enclave.
At least three people were taken to a hospital for minor injuries, officials said. Crews were apparently able to evacuate most of the residents before the earth gave way.
"The pipes started making funny noises and the toilet sounded like it was about to explode," Carrie Joyce, a fire department office manager who lives in the neighborhood, some 50 miles southeast of Los Angeles.
"I could see one house, huge, we call it the mausoleum, 5,000 square feet or more. It had buckled, the retaining wall in the front of it was cracked. It just looked like the whole house was going," she said.
Laguna Beach, its shoreline dotted with coves and tide pools, has some of Southern California's most desired real estate, but it has also grappled with fires and mudslides over the years. Wednesday's slide came on the heels of a near-record winter rainy season.
The damaged homes, located in an area called Blue Bird Canyon about 15 blocks from the ocean, are worth about $1.75 million, which the mayor described as "average" for the area.
Twelve homes were lost and 15 damaged, Mayor Elizabeth Pearson-Schneider said. Forty more homes were evacuated.
Multistory homes came to rest at odd angles, some nearly intact, others broken apart and trailing debris. Around the edges of the gash at the top of the hill, several homes jutted out with no earth below parts of their foundations.
One house, snapped in two, had an American flag fluttering from a balcony. One road simply stopped in midair, beneath it a tangle of debris. Trees, cars and roadway also spilled down.
"We believe we evacuated the people who could be in harm's way," Pearson-Schneider told KTTV.
"My understanding is that we received a phone call from a couple that began feeling slippage. They were quite upset, as you could imagine, and we just told them to get out," he said. People began reporting problems around 5 a.m. and the hillside gave way between 6 and 7 a.m.
One man, clutching his cat, told KABC-TV his home looked "like it buckled in the middle and broke in half. We ran from the house. It started coming down."
Two injured children were admitted to South Coast Medical Center in Laguna Beach in good condition, hospital spokeswoman Maggie Baumann said. A third person there, a 71-year-old woman whose house was destroyed, wasn't injured in the landslide but appeared to be under emotional stress, she said.
The neighborhoods have been hit before by flooding, mudslides and wildfire. Several homes were red-tagged as uninhabitable in February during the second rainiest season on record in Southern California."

Okay, friends, I have a couple of questions. First, do homeowners in these slide areas have special slide insurance available? People who live in areas designated flood plains by FEMA do have flood insurance available (and required for a mortgage). My background in the insurance business just brings up questions like this.

My second question is: WHY do people build in these places to begin with? In a resort town in New Mexico where my family has a place, expansion has taken place by building along the 100-year-flood plain beside the river running through the town. Is this the "Oh-it-won't-happen-to-me" attitude in play, or what? Why would one build on a hill that has slid downhill previously? It must be the view. It must be the prestige. It must be that one feels bulletproof. Oh, and by the way, that resort community in Red River faces flooding this year because extraordinary warm weather is melting the snowpack much faster than usual. Bet those folks will rebuild after they dry everything out, too.

Why do I now live within 50 miles of the ocean, in hurricane territory? Why did I grow up in Tornado alley and spend 39 years there? I guess it's just the victory of the human spirit that we seek places of beauty, even if there is danger involved. In fact, maybe the possibility of danger is a greater attraction. Anyway, I have compassion for those whose houses have slid away today, and for those facing flooding as well. I just don't understand why they'd rebuild.

Your mileage may vary. dblrddonna