Welcome
from The Casses Home for the Gracefully Aging
Late April 2014
It is a Good Day!
The building next to the one where I work is a two story mudbrick place. They just got a new roof but other than that, it
is the oldest building in town. Definitely saw the entire Civil War and was at the far end of town when the railroad actually
terminated at Depot Street. I bet it was wild and wooly in them days.
Russell Bowling has his law offices on this end of town. He's a good one. I mean he's both a good man and a lawyer.
Kind of a tall slim Nordic
looking guy, easy to smile and the people who work with him are happy.
There's a hanging sign over his door out front on his sidewalk - "Bowling Law Office".
An out of town friend was visiting once and as we drove past the courthouse I said "Here's where I work." My friend didn't care
at all about my building but saw the big print on Russell’s sign and said, "Jeez, you take your bowling seriously in this town."
arf.
Anyhow, behind our buildings, off Main Street, the common parking areas are separated by a short north/south road.
I turn east to park, the law offices are to the west and the funeral home back lot next to that.
(There's a colony of Turkey Vultures - buzzards - near the funeral home and more than occasionally a bunch will "circle" the building
for hours - spooky and funny at the same time.)
Three telephone poles, possibly as old as the building, string the 2 wires - one power and one phone - from the back of the
Law Office building across the short block north and into the main grid. The pole closest to the old building has a street light
(a greenish "farm light").
I've been noticing for the last few weeks, the mockingbird who hangs out on top of that pole.
He is "Hanging Out" in the pure do-whop sense. Like young 50's greasers would congregate on the stoop (know what is a stoop?)
and sing, hoping to impress the passing girls.
Hanging out?
More like he owns it. And what an amazing repertoire - he sings like Jimi Hendrix played - straight out of pure Spirit
- it all makes musical and rhythmic sense and it's mostly a grand surprise!
He has one often repeated phrase like a page separator - but between
these .... total full-tilt melodious anarchy. wowsers!
If the mockingirls don't notice him, they are at the wrong show - somewhere else in town.
Our guy is loud, talented and now - frosting on the cake - the last few mornings when he's cranking out the first volley of
the day - he's hopping!
From the flat top of his pole behind Russell’s he's blasting his solo and without taking a pause,
adds a flying hop - like a fighting rooster - straight up about 4 feet in the air (@ 6 birdheights) and back down in the
same spot - "sticking the landing" like a gymnast.
It certainly got my attention. If the girl birds don't know about our hopping guy behind the law office they are both deaf and blind (or faking it).
All this is going on when I get to work - on the walk from my car to the building.
(what? 40 seconds?) Wonderful. Amazing.
This critter came up in conversation during the weekend.
I guess he impressed me more than I knew. Somebody trying to tell me something?
More Bird Stuff:
Photo below - A local Cardinal breaking fast. (click it)
The second thing I do in the a.m. is put out birdseed and fresh water.
Mr. C. is usually waiting in the branches, doing an impatient "chip, chip!"
As soon as he gets a seed or two (maybe when his pals hear him quiet?) the other small birds come in and the morning meal begins.
They eat before I do.
The Bees are back! Couldn't bee (sorry) more pleased. My beekeeper friends tell me the hives are happier and more populated than in many years
previous. Yay!
Here is a photo of a bloomin tree at the Ingles Shopping center (remember to click any photo for the full spread then click the photo again to blow it up bigger)
- covered with busy bees (look lower left).
Way in the background and you can see snow dusted mountains. I just love it here.
I take these six-leggers as a sign of Nature bouncing back. It's going to be a very positive year.
Here's a shot of our favorite RedBud Trees - the kids used to call them Pepto Bismol trees (for the color) - blooming away right on 441
this magic usually lasts about two weeks.
One of the prettiest things I ever saw was one of these same trees totally bloomed out and
"sugared" with snow from a late spring flurry.
I'm still terribly excited about the events in Ben's life. I won't reiterate since I've sent all of you the details. The Wedding will
be on May 10. I'm prepping already - got a haircut and tried on my suit - it still fits and makes me look like a banker.
Next paycheck - a new set o tires and I'm set for the event.
More Six-Legger News (I really do have some human associates)
Had an ant event at the house. A few days ago I started seeing larger black winged Carpenter ants in the kitchen.
Curiously, they were not interested in food at all but in climbing.
Pretty sure they are the rarest of ants - males. Most workers are female (like the bees). These very short lived guys are
fostered fattened and sent out to do their job - fly off, find a queen,
do the thing and die. (we're disposable, guys). Then she establishes a new colony.
Their main nest must be pretty close to the house (maybe under it). Yesterday after work while relaxing on deck
(2nd day in a row of lovely weather) I kept hearing tiny noises. My curiosity looked back into the house and saw quite a
few of these dudes wandering around - in kind of a dazed hurry.
Didn't want to squash 'em so I started catching them in a small Tupperware container. I had to switch to a deeper container because
it quickly became like a Sesame St. type video game - if I got more than 3 in there they could run out of
the bucket while I corralled the 4th.
The deeper container gave me time as they had farther to scoot and I would kind of bang the cup down
to knock the quicker ones off the wall and down to start over. I had as many as 14 in one harvest.
I'd take 'em outside and dump them. Possibly more of a favor to the birds than the ants but my intention was good.
With the last batch (27 saved all together) I left the container open to see what they'd do.
Several adventurous individuals ran away "with vigah". The remainder of the group kind of huddled, walked around,
huddled again and didn't seem too keen on hitting the road.
I hope their short apparently stressful to me lives are totally wonderful to them -
nature is known to make compensating balances like that sometimes.
I'm sure you are also enjoying this marvelous weather and Spring. How can you miss it?
I saw an entire field of Dandelions in the 1st morning sunlight on the way to work.
Looked like a floating blanket of white light inches above
the brighest green grass. Haven't seen that many in a long time..
A lot of very good things have been coming my way since survival. A Tai Chi teacher has found me - I'm very pleased and a marvelous
set of tapes also found me at the first class.
Bill Moyers' discussions with Joseph Campbell were/are illuminating.
Mr. Campbell was a brilliant teacher (spiritually raised Roman Catholic) who gathered his information from cultural myth and religions all over the world.
The resulting synthesis is a fascinating revelation of human spiritual realities. I've watched the set several times through, each time
"getting" something new. This is beautiful stuff and I found the entire set on-line.
Here are the You Tube links.
I liked #s 2 & 4 the best. 5 is great too - they are all brilliant uplifting gems.
