'Lost seabird' returns to ocean

The recipe is on page 73

The recipe is on page 73

The recipe is on page 73

OOOPS    unless you get three of them....

RoadYacht:   The  other  day,   it  was  me  who  was  triple-posting  the  same  entry.    Now  I  see  that  you  may  have  "caught"  the  syndrome.   I  had  the  satisfaction  of  knowing  that  the  event  was  triggered  by  the  spilled  expresso,  then  Park4  volunteered  that  she  too  had  managed  to  damage  her  keyboard.   Perhaps  we  are  not  as  skillful  as  we  would  like  to  imagine  ourselves  to  be,  but  it's  ok  to  be  less  than  perfect.   Mainly  I  wanted  to  tell  you  that  it  makes  me  happy  to  see  that  you  are  continuing  to  stay  interactive  here,  notwithstanding  your  difficulties.  That's  good  for  you,  and  for  us  as  well.
BBC  does  some  really  interesting  esoteric  things  that  they  research  and  report.  You  can  subscribe  to  their  series  of  nature  videos.  I  rarely  have  time  to  watch  each  one,  but  I  "cherry  pick"  those  that  I  relate  to  the  best.  No  BBC  membership  required.
As  I  think  about  the  birds  that  are  one  tiny  step  away  from  extinction  in  Peterman's  selected  topical  story,   it  makes  me  ponder  why  people  even  are  concerned  about  such  things,  especially  in  troubled  financial  times  where  research  projects  are  facing  budgetary  constraints.  I  think  the  answer  is  that  somehow  we  find  our  own  goodness  and  humanity  in  observing  and  sometimes  helping  other  species  cope  with  global  climate  change,  overharvesting  by  man,  or  other  ingredients.  Yesterday's  topic  showed  the  common  feeling  of  helplessness  and  hopelessness  that  we  all  felt  when  confronted  by  terrorism's  ultimate  work  product.   Psychologically  we  can  feel  enabled  {less  helpless}  when  gratuitously  taking  up  the  cause  of  documenting  the  numbers  and  habits  of  endangered  species.  It  becomes  sort  of  a  way  of  fighting  back,  and  of  reminding  ourselves  that  most  of  us  deep  inside  are  inherently  good  people  who  are  sharing  &  generous  in  times  when  our  neighbors  are  in  peril,  even  if  the  "neighbors"  are  exotic  species  of  sea  birds.  

 I suspect the extinction of species reminds us of both our own mortality and the fact that we are so quickly forgotten once dead. I'M (trying) to read a (very old and bad) translaton of Marcus Aurelius's 'Meditations', and this last observation is not my own 'original'.

Those who have 'gone back' and found the old house or neighborhood 'gone', have that same 'empty feeling'. Something once loved is gone, and will never come back.

All said, here's a reminder....http://mjperry.blogspot.com/2007/09/999-of-all-species-have-gone-extinct.html . Just as individuals 'disappear' so too do species, or -- in more poetic language -- the beloved dies, but so does he who loved her. And here is another reason (some of us) hate it when species are exterminated: terror.

Essentially, the human species is just as much (more?) and endangered species as any other, and the idea of a planet without humans strikes at our very core value: survival. As for those who laugh at the idea, consider both our present position and the future: nuclear weapons, genetic engineering of biological weapons, and so on. I've written before about the certainty of catastrophes and will not belabor that again. Still, let us not ask for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for us.

I'm going (hopefully) on a long hike next summer in Colorado.  Part of it has to do with the challenge, but part of it has to do with seeing something before it disappears... pine bark beetles, man's inexorable desire to bring nature down to his level, and my own eventual inability to explore what still exists.   Here's a poem they made us read in high school..... as I age it becomes more meaningful.

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud:
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbow'd.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.  --

 
by: William Ernest Henley

I'm back.
 
I'm up and having dark roast.
 
Trying to get myself in the mood to clean this house for the company I will have for the next two weeks or so, starting tomorrow very early AM.
 
Last night when I arrived I tried to log a comment but my computer at that moment died.
 
If animals and plants etc hadn't gone extinct there wouldn't even be a spot to sit down.
 
The earth would be fully covered and get to heavy and fall into the sun.
 
Now to  housework.
 
I'll check in later. 

The arms of forever are reaching out to my beloved Pinky,and when they caress, you must go.She spent more than an hour last nite,cradled in my arm,giggles escaping her throat,amidst labored breathing. as I dripped water int her mouth through a straw,and her eyes somewhat opened,I asked her why she was laughing;she was seeing our full life flash before her,and reliving the joy...      

Doc Nolan said it for me: Each death, each species' extinction reminds us of our mortality; of Shakespeare's "Seven Stages of Man." Having spent much time of late in doctors' offices and hospitals (hence my absences; now OK), as I lay unable to do anything profitable, even read, it occurred to me that each day my and others' doctors have in their waiting rooms -- and see in progression -- those Seven Stages. Yet they keep going, keep saving what's salvageable of humanity with grace, elan, and compassion.

On a day when I took cookies to a doctor's staff, he looked weary beyond weary, though he tried to hide it, so I said,"Don't let your blood sugar get low...brownies in the nurses' room." He's never spoken so, but he said, "As swamped as we are, it couldn't possibly get low...and when I finish I must, during evening rounds, tell a patient in ICU what he knows but can't vocalize -- that he's dying. But thanks for the cookies, and the thought that produced them."

I'm not generally unhealthy, yet this man has twice saved my life; called in a surgeon to save it again recently when a surgeon was required. I've always expressed gratitude even on a simple office visit, but everywhere I look, go, I see need. And though I worry momentarily about whales, birds, other species' becoming extinct, and appreciate Mr. P's informing me, for otherwise I wouldn't know such things, there's so much that needs doing, so much volunteer work waiting than the many years I've given in hospital, museum, public school, Scouts, on and on, you know the drill, that my focus returns to what I can offer in my small world (on levels well beyond baking cookies). Today's paper alone:
hospice needs help; Downtown Cooperative Church Ministries needs help; Salvation Army needs help (despite J0an Kroc's enormous gift to that organization for new buildings for homeless and desperate); soup kitchens, all of them, need help.... Would I had more energy; these are obligations....

DocNolan, how I envy you your planned trip. Nothing is wasted on you, I know from merely your words; every jot and tittle taken note of.

RoadYacht:   I  don't  consider  myself  to  be  an  emotional  basketcase,  most  {if  &  until  they  know  my  heart}  draw  the  opposite  conclusion.   In  a  confrontation  I'm  usually  the   one   gutsy  enough  to  stand  up,  and  even  at  my  age  it's  rare  that  the  hecklers  sit  themselves  down... But  reading  your  words  brought  tears  to   my  eyes,   not  tears  of  sorrow  but  of  happiness.   This  is  where  people  outshine  other  species,  they  emote  and  relate  deeply  to  each  other,  unless  they  choose  to  build  walls  instead  of  bridges.   You  have  been  very  lucky  for  the  years  together  with  Pinky,  as  she  has  been  to  have  shared  them  with  you...soul  mates.   Some  go  a  lifetime,  yet  still  wander  aimlessly  &  alone... 

RY - may peace and tranquility sooth you both in its loving and healing way

Given time, the Earth will heal itself and the animals will once again return. For that matter, given enough time anything is possible. But the time that is allotted is quite precious and should not be wasted. It is better to spend a moment talking about a happy moment than it is to speak of a sad one. While it is impossible to always be happy, it is ok to be sad now and then. RY, I hope all your memories remain happy ones.

RY:
 
My thought and wishes reflect BERT'S and PL'S.
 
I've been thinking about you and your beloved Pinky since I read your post.
 
Be happy as Pinky is to remember all that you have shared and continue to share.
 
Your love for each other touches all with admiration.
 
I think this must be the hardest work any couple has to face.
 
You are facing it with courage and tenderness.
 
 

Roadyacht I am thinking of you and your Pinky and I'm glad you have so many good times to remember and celebrate.  I can't make you feel better but please know warm thoughts are out there for both of you.  Wish I could help or  at least hug.

Thanks,all.   This community is the only outlet for my creative meanderings and whimsey,as Pinky was before you.   There is not a place that I would not hesitat to leave a love note;with crayon on the bathroom mirror,so her first morning view was a heart,or a smiley,or our standar argument  B.I.L.U.M.      That stood for  : But I love YOU more.... The first time I gave that to her was in the book she read on the train to work.   Texting back,she would nuh unh, ILUM.     It kept us in touch; don't forget,she worked in the Sears Tower,75th floor, on 9/11/01....  We wanted a solid link so there would never be a missed opportunity to reach out.     As time permits,after my life has a routine again,I shall tell stories to you,that will give you a mind picture of the dynamic of Love,that made other people to whom it was revealed,so happy.     Thank You,   Eli,  Captain of the RoadYacht

  
Eli,

On an unsteady feeling day, just a moment to say thanks for keeping us all in the loop and If we make it, as I hope, to Madeline this fall, we'll feel like we are among friends.

Stoney 

Eli, you have a perspective on life I may never find.  But it is a goal.

I have this quote in a journal of mine, I fell in love with it many years ago, not too long after I fell in love with my husband.
 
I thought I'd put it here; there's such truth and so much joy in it.  I was thinking of you, Eli ,and Pinky, when I went looking for it this afternoon.  As you know so well, this is how it is, when it's good -- and you will see yourselves in it, I think...
 
"So we were married and lived happily ever after.  Hoo.  Like hell we did.  We committed all the stupidities that you have committed, but we shared a kind of love that had nothing to do with the half inches and quarter inches that make the grand bosom or the noble jaw. 
 
It was an Antaean love, so to speak, that fed on the earth, on touch, on sunlight; that made whole again Keats weighty pearl....
 
We loved and we made love because they are not different, and we were one flesh and the flesh is life and the sun beat down on us and said, it is good...."
 
--Stephen Becker
 
 
And it is good, there's nothing better, is there?
 
I'm thinking of you and Pinky, Eli.  I'm keeping you both close to my heart.
 
 
Ever,
Paula
 
 
Wiggle your fingers.  Wiggle your toes.  Go naked to the market.  Rejoice in all mornings.  Join hands and kiss.  Dance. Laugh.  Love.  If you cannot love, pity.  If you cannot pity, have mercy.  That man is not your brother, he is you.
 
--
 
 
 
 

ELI,  PAULA,  DANIEL  ZEV,  KORTHAL,  PETER  LAKE,   et  al:   Holy  ravioli,  I  just  finished  up  my  work  preparing  to  be  a  "fierce  litigator"  on  Monday  morning.  Then  I  read  your  most  recent  posts.  Once  again  I  have  tears  rolling  down  my  face......    You  guys  could  blackmail  me,  by  threatening  to  hand  over  to  my  opponent's  tag  team  of  lawyers  a  transcript  of  this  text....Just  like  in  The  Wizard  of   Oz,  now  you  know  that  the  "lion"  is  vulnerable,  and  on  first  impression  may  appear  to  be  cowardly.....  Gotta   tell  you  all,  you  were  very  helpful  getting  me  through  a  very  difficult  week.  TYVM,  Bert

The Canada goose was nearly extinct in the 1950s but have made an amazing recovery so that they are now considered a pest in some locations. I understand they are a true nuisance at golf courses and Sheltie dogs are used to control them. Amazing!
I think we should institute eating the Christmas Goose again as a way to reduce their numbers.....and now on a more serious vein.
 

AN IRISH BLESSING for Eli and Pinky

May the blessing of light be with you-

            Light outside and light within.

May sunlight shine upon you and warm your heart

            ‘til it glows like a great peat fire

            so that the stranger may come and warm himself by it.

May a blessed light shine out of your two eyes

            Like a candle set in two windows of a house,

            bidding the wanderer to come in out of the storm.

May you ever give a kindly greeting to those whom you pass

            as you go along the roads.

May the blessing of the rain-the sweet, soft rain-fall upon you

            so that little flowers may spring up to shed their sweetness in the air.

May the blessings of the earth-the good, rich earth-be with you.

May the earth be soft under you when you rest upon it,

            tired at the end of the day.

May the earth rest easy over you when at last you lie under it.

May earth rest so lightly over you that your spirit

            may be out from under it quickly,

            and, up, and off,

            and on its way to God.

  
At the pharmacy drive-up window, the girl on the phone apologized for their mistake in giving me a double strength prescription and advised that I dispose of it safely.

I thanked her for catching the mistake and suggested that it might have been more convenient had it been brought up before I had taken the first one instead of after the last.

"Yikes, " she said.

There was a little dust-up while they tried to figure out who had goofed up. I didn't really care.

It had been the kind of walking-on-ball-bearings day which, had it not been Saturday, I might have gone in to get checked out.

A conversation with my doctor set my mind at ease. I did as he suggested and felt better just about when and how he had predicted.

Odd to say but I was darned glad to find out what was wrong and will be a lot more careful in reading the information on the bottles from now on.

Maybe you should too.

 

Wow! you are right...40% alcohol,by volume...thats 80proof...and I just had a double....who do I sue?

Stoney:  Yikes is right.  I'm glad you're okay.  "Walking on ball-bearings" kind of day.  I love that description.  It's so right about that kind of feeling.  You continue to delight, and amaze...with your words.