point of view

once upon a time sam and dennis viewed the world outside from the ouside....a lot. i guess as they have gotten older they have the attitude that they have seen it all and it is quite nice to sit in the warm sun watching the birds outside on the back porch.

i think we need to have a change of view every once in a while....not to often...too stressful... but just often enough to keep us growing and our brain working, to keep the fires lit.

i am reading THE TIPPING POINT by Malcolm Gladwell and it has really opened up a new way of looking at things. weirdly it is applicable to the situtation our school has lasped into. his thesis states that there are three rules for the tipping point---the law of the few, the stickiness factor, and the power of context. and it is back up by some studies. just a few statements

....a child is better off in a good neighborhood and a troubled family than he or she is in a troubled neighborhood and a good family

....our immediate social and physical world play a huge role in shaping who we are and how we act.

...simple physical movements and observations cn have a profound effect on how we feel and think.

he proposes that the crime rate in new york went way down because one... the director of the transit system attacked the graffiti problem and made the cars nice and stopped the sneaking on the trains free. then the police chief attacked the small crimes of the neighborhoods.

so small things can make a big difference.

we need a tipping point here. i sneaked in a flower arrangement in the business office, traded out the ugly bell for a pretty one , changed the rack that held small papers. clean the counter which was really sticky. someone else cleaned the spots on the rug. now if i can just get rid of or paint the rag tag collection of tables. to have people perceive you are successful you must look successfull. you can't be niggerdly.


got the cell phone thing done.... a little thing, but i think it will help make a big difference.

the maintainace man is working mega hard to make things work... help moral of teachers which will make teaching better.

i thought we would need some charisma....but i think we just need the right connections after reading the book.

old wise and old hat

the gentleman who is head of education in the central united states is old, very old, he is 70 and still going. they asked him to stay for a little longer past retirement. a testament to his wisdom. he is soft spoken and absoutely non accusitory. still he can lay things on the line. quite a talent. he never raises his voice or uses body signals to undermine his statements. he admists his bias, ie couldn not work on west coast with its liberlism, but absolutely recognizes jewelry etc as cultural not salvation issues. old wise.
i am being good and fitting into a conservative place. i don't wear jewelry, not even my pins. save that for trips. don't think of it as being hypacrital though. if anyone asked me views i would tell them. only trying to be fittable into this culture. i am not completely silent...ie the cell phone thing. but i didn't say anything about egw on our little heritage trip, like her family eating squirrel and such while they were in colorado and supposedly eating meat at the end of her life. you never win firends or converts by tearing down heros or heroines . some of the campus team remind me of persons who figure out stuff in high school, ideas, hair styles, religious beliefs etc, and never revisit them... old hat.

death of an old friend

my friend has been with me through thick and thin, summer and winter, town and country, chic and country. i thought a while about buying my shirt--50 dollars which was a lot for a denim shirt 10 years ago. but it had little brown piping around the cuffs, pocket flaps and collar. it was soft and had a worn friendly look. after going by it several times i finally gave in and got it. it has gone over dresses and jammies. i am wearing it right now. the edges are all frayed and there are holes in the pockets and the cuffs have started to break away from the sleeves. i might have to patch it and see if i can wear it a little bit longer. going to have to look for a replacement. sigh

finding stuff

i love the falling bubble girl and set games.... keep wondering how i never find anything so i typed in fish mud and found the following....not quite as amazing as falling bubble girl.
http://mudfishmusic.com/games/golf.htm the rest of site not cool except for hangaroo

then there is the actual picture of a mud fish under cheshire cat.... weird fishhttp://www.papercat.com/ForSaleOne.cfm?Item=CCA0218


AND THEN A CHINESE FLOOD STORY!!!!
http://lair2000.net/Chinese_Poetry/stories/The_Fish_At_Dragon's_Gate.html

big leap two or three

there is a drawing of my new house if check the link

i decided that when i went to belle this time i was going to get something. my sister really, really, needed a place to live. all the old house we looked at had issues. one was quite nice with two baths but on separate floors, but........ after the lady nicely showed us the house, she said she and her sister had accepted an offer. maybe she was expecting a bidding war... no way. it was across the street from a huge grain elevator of metal. besides that it was on an irregular lot and if the house burned the city would not let you rebuild.

the next one had real oder problems in the basement suggesting sewer problems.
the next one had crack issues in the foundation and sidewalks around. nice yard. big.. but no way.
the next one was really cute and had a place you could rent to a college student downstairs.
a nice basement apartment. but you know the saying location, location, location.
it was surrounded by commercial property.

for just a little bit more we decided to buy a new house... it is not first quality building but we are not putting out first rate money for the size. you get what you pay for. besides the tickytacky on dahlia did go up in value. you just couldn't remove the 2 x 4 under the sink in the kitchen or it wouldn't drain right.

so the new place is only finished on the main floor. 2 bedrooms, open area that includes living, kitchen, and dining. a laundry room and a bathroom. a front porch and a hugh double garage. a deck off the dining area.

the basement is walk out and roughed out for 2 more bedrooms another bath , family room and a sort of little study place, it has a place for sump pump.... all the house in area have them. our house is toward the bottom of the hill and we put in contract to make double sure the water drains away from house.

there are covenents about parking vehicles, pets, colors, yards, and fences which is good. not way upscale but enough to keep neighborhood from becoming a junk yard. our house is beige with darker beige trim. :) all the others are earth tones , too, but have white trim. each time i have been there i have seen a deer in the distance.

we are decorating western but not overtly.... coffee and cream rug(FRIEZE- good for pets) and vynal that sort of looks like quarry tile (color matches rug), hickory cabinets with dark blue gray mixed counter tops. and blue as dominate color. going to get some chairs recovered....they need it. to put in.

the bath on first floor is small because the builder wanted a walk in closet for bedroom. it is small too. but all is workable. i just hope the garage comes with openers. we have to buy appliances.

it has pex plumbing and radiant heat from the ceiling and a 1200 btu air conditioner that looks like a room conditioner stuck in the wall by the dining / living area. we will see how that goes. but there is no duct work. how weird. like the pex plumbing though.

we decided to pay cash so we won't have to spreading our meger retirement over house payments.

air

the good and the bad of owning a jeep without air conditioning

it was sooooooo hot on my last trip through nebraska to the black hills i tied back my hair and used enough clips to capture stray ends to hear messages from mars. because all the windows were open and when you are going 60+ the wind winds your hair into mesh if left free.

but as a consequence of all that air rushing about i could smell corn ripening in the field. i think if i wasn't deaf i could have heard the cells popping out new cells. i could smell the water in the air over irrigated fields. when the coal train went by i could smell and feel micro coal dust in my nose. i could smell air unadultrated by concentrated auto fumes, heat rising from acres of concrete, and the neighbors cooking whatever.

the best part was driving through the black hills....the long route.... through little scattered rain showers. the smell of water washed by pine ..... no one yet has reproduced that

i didn't mind that the wind was blowing mist on the inside of my windshield making wipers pretty much useless.

a best book

i am almost to the end of LOCAL WONDERS. since the words are like cream to be savoured on the tongue, i read in small snippets. the author's account of an one hundred and seven year old's rememberance of an indian dance reminded me of a story told me by my grandmother. she and her mother went down to the airport in sioux falls, south dakota to watch the flight of the plane carrying the first "air" mail out of town. they had had quite a long discussion regarding the sinfullness or not, of sending an air mail letter that day. it was the sabbath. they finally decided it would be all right to put a letter --which i still have-- on that plane.

having grown up in eastern nebraska and eating polish kolachies, the stories of party lines, wind, and outhouses are very familar.

fire fly nights

now when i am out in the evening i am in the midst of the crazy flight of fireflies. even though they are small and the light is very tiny, their sparkly selves are hard to miss. little missionaries of cheer in the rushing darkness. i once read a book about the greek experience that put forth the idea that the great ideas of greece, democracy and all that, was the result of the absolute clearness of the air. i have not been to greece so cannot attest to the air, but i have not every seen a cloudy picture of greece. i guess you wouldn't do that...take pictures of cloudy weather, if you wanted tourists to come. in england, well, not that many really clear bright sunny days. so how important is light, and where the light is? you cannot see the fireflies in the daylight, i am not sure if they actually fly around in the day time. Christians are to be lights. surely the brightness of the light partially depends on where you are. does it shine any less in goodness than it does in darkness. it is easier to notice in the night, but does it shine less in the day?

what life has come to

well, if you look at the link you will see a picture of ge's new engine. and links to pictures. i am so excited.... i saw a very long stack train go by the other day with 6 new engines. wow! i need a life

caught in the middle

several times as i have been walking home i have heard this scolding from up above. i finally figured out it was a bird which i think is a female oriole. turns out she has been fussing at a school who has been wandering around the tree where she has a nest. tonight she was in the tree above the squirrel and i was below. poor squirrel.... no where to go. at least the bird couldn't dive bomb him as he was in the branches of the tree. i am sure everyone feels like the squirrel at their work sometimes. bosses up above pushing and scolding and those below with expectations of behavior and performance. caught in the middle.

old dog new tricks

Ideas for cover of bulletin for next year. In the past it has been just one color, on shade of one color in fact on white. Looked kind of 50's. I used some backgrounds from the yearbook program and then added text and pictures. The one with the most color has a photo I took of the road into the campus on the right side of the layout. WHat do you think? The white lines in the blue one have been excised!!!

phantasmagoria

so, here i am in lincoln, sitting in a funky coffee shop when a notice a pair of leather sandals......and that they are worn by a young man accompanied by a young girl in flip flops, jean shorts and a white T. i am young again....notice, i didn't say pretend, or imagine....i am. i had a pair of leather sandals hand made to fit my fit up on the hill in boulder in a shop called phantasmagoria. i am young again with all those hopes and dreams laying ahead of me. thick hair, skinny bones, and reading lord of the rings for the third time and reading carlos castenda and looking up and seeing someone else reading the same book and in the same place in the book, and those gorgeous flatirons just outside of anywhere i am. and eternal sunshine. and funky shops.

well, i may have skinny hair and thick bones now, but there are still dreams ahead and my mind is not as old as my body. i am getting my passport renewed and putting on my walking shoes, not sandals this time but crocs

ps when i was young there were no funky coffee shops in lincoln, but a lot of funky in boulder.

loft ....maybe, maybe not

this is the hallway ... the little window in the left wall is left over from a pharmacy that used to be there. can you imagine going up stairs that are one and half stories tall to get your medicine?
the door to the left goes to the bathroom. unfortunately the original door was torn off.


the wall straight ahead is part of the wall of the next building over. it has kinda cool finish and texture when you peal off the wall paper. it would be the east wall of the eating area.



not sure who's rear.... but anyway, the dining area wall is to the left and you are looking straight into the kitchen area. someone already lowered the ceiling. thinking about putting corregated tin on the ceiling.... maybe... door to kitchen is against wall. could use it for the missing bathroom door.



the windows are on the front of the building. they would be replaced. the area to the right is the dining area and to the left is the living area. i didn't take pictures of the bedrooms because it was too dark. !!!! thinking of resistance heating, or heat pump, demand water heating, and pex plumbing., insulating to the max. will have two sets of french doors on the back out onto a deck. the front door...which is on the side of the building still has a glass on it with the words lawyers office on it... cool. the mail slot has been nailed shut. the stairs up are in a narrow passage between two buildings. will get estimates and a structural engineer to look at it.

two old ladies

you just don't know what will happen when you get two old ladies out in the back yard on mechanical equipment! don't know how i got the underline on! i have that feeling about running the three wheeler. if it stopped, jay had to start it. i never was out of first gear. but i did know where the breaks where! we went up and down the field picking up junk from an old car junk yard. when they took out the cars etc., they just covered the small stuff up with dirt, but just like rocks the stuff heaves up in the spring. we found hubcaps, trim, brake drums and pads, lots of rubber stuff like belts and trim around doors, a girl's purse---empty--but no snakes or animals. we filled three little trailors with stuff. the trailor was hooked behind my sister's four wheeler.





it was fun.... don't think i will ever go very fast on one of those things though....very tippy. even though it wasn't very sunny, my nephew thought i should wear a hat. his property goes down to the trees. he did offer once to let my sister and i put a trailor on it. he already has a nice one at the top of the hill in the direction we are looking.

flying ears

once again i am in the black hills, and it is rainy and cold. that probably explains why the hills are so green that they look black from a distance. during one of the breaks from rain, the families gathered on the ball field to put up advertising signs on the boards of the back field. the men used there power tools while the women stood around and chatted. the kids were all over the field. at one point my great niece had put her mini dachshound --spotted splashy black and white with blue marble eyes--- into her little doll stroller. he was sitting up and belted in as she when flying across the field. his long ears caught the wind and were sticking out straight on either side. a little faster, a little bit bigger ears, and he would have taken off.

to life

just trying to do that carpe diem thing... usually think of doing big things in famous places. but since i am in the middle of the flat plains i have to be creative. that means taking time to consciously appreciate even the small things like two sleepy cats in a sunny window. a little house finch pair started to build a nest on top of my porch lite which gave the cats a thrill. haven't seen the birds lately though, must have been too stressful for them having cat eyes watching them all the time. cats really know how to waste a day....napping here and there. there is a little straw basket with a snuggly blanket in it by my computer which was originally for the white cat because he likes to help me when i am working or playing. he is a little heavy to hold in my arms while typing, hence the basket substitute. however, the black cat took over control of the basket so now i have both of them around....helping. sometimes the black cat just hangs out in the basket when i am not around...likes the basket better than me... oh sigh.... anyway, three times now he has fooled around and managed to slide the basket off the table with himself in it. doesn't stop him though for getting back in. either really gutsy, has alzheimers, or is a few whiskers short of cathood.

trains and tracks

we expected to find something similar to the website....but we only could see bits and pieces of the yard and the engines and cars. we stopped at the first thing that looked like an office and asked where the viewing stand was.... they all laughed .... said it hadn't been built .. in a politcal battle about who was going to pay and who was going to benefit. so what we found was the following.






well you can see that you can't see too much from here. but we were able to see the little hill they created to push cars up and then let coast down into the classification yard. one by one and two by two the cars slowly pick up speed until they are somehow slowed down with much screeching and sent onto one of the many trains that are being built. they just sort of ghostly glide down the tracks. none of the ones we watch jammed into a car so i assume an engine has to come along and crunch them all together.

we finally found an overpass for cars and people and got out and walked to the top to take some pictures from above. still couldn't see a lot, but could see more. unfortunately my digital camera was full, but took some with my 35 mm. supposedly the yard is big enough to hold 3800 football fields. i couldn't prove that from what i saw though. glad i stopped by though.

we also stopped at buffalo bill's ranch. great house... could use a little work on the hall wallpaper...doesn't look authentic.... looks like kitchen stick on shelf paper. but i could be wrong. the horse barn was great. lots of harnesses, saddles, and great pictures. got to walk up to the hay loft.

i wanted to see the famous canteen of ww2 but it has been recreated in a museum.. i thought it was the original... oh well...

it was still a fun trip with friends :)

also on the way stopped at a neat little resturant. serves taco bell and pizza hut stuff. looks ordinary from the outside but decorated western style inside.. they did a great job. it is just off i80 at gothenburg and worth a stop.

visitors

today i have a visitor helping me with my blog. georgia lives next door with her parents, her brother, and her dog, well her mother's dog--molly. we are planning to go and visit bailey yards in north platte --the world's largest classification train yard. it is owned by union pacific. will let you know how it turned out. taking my digital camera. i hope they let me take pictures. they might not because of 9/11. and security issues. we will see. i might just have to stand out back of my house and take pictures of trains going by and pretend they are in bailey yards. ha ha.

birds in the tree

today i looked out my east window and saw redwing blackbirds sitting in a tree of unknown species, but with bright red coats over new leaves. what a picture. beauty is everywhere... you just have to look.

other people's cars

every once in a while i drive someone else's car...which i really hate. it takes a while for my body to learn something... don't learn things that are physical automatically. my ski instructor didn't think i was ever going to make it down any slopes ....ever

so when i drive someone else's car it takes a while to adjust to the brake... a few stops after everyone lunges against the seat belt... a while to stop putting my left foot on the nonexistant clutch .... fortunately most of the riders don't see that... and adjusting the sound of the motor to the speed of the engine.

today i drove a load of kids to lincoln in the ancient school van. it is such a joy.
it doesn't ride to badly, the engine seems good, but it does have a few quirks. there is no pointer on the gear indicator... so you have to count to right selection. not to much of a problem because you don't do too much sifing with an automatic. the other little joy is getting it started. you really have to put your wieight and strength into turning the key to start it. it starts right off if you can turn the key. not made for old ladies. everything else works fine. it is a lot quieter than driving the jeep with its cloth top. most of the kids were tired enough to fall asleep and they all had their own cd players and ear phones so i didn't have to listen to their music. ! :)