FIVE SECOND STORIES

DINER NEWS

Lil' Woody has been a daily regular at the Diner this week. Mornings and Evenings. This guy is really packing it away-a human version would be one of those guys who rotates all-you-can-eat breakfasts around town.

IT'S SMORGASBORD NIGHT AT THE DINER!!

Yep, C cleaned out the department frig and brought home a variety of food to be put out on the giving stone. The peanut butter jar was our contribution.

Stampy was a early diner.

The next day:

Not much left. I put out green tomatoes after trimming in the morning for MamaC who, oddly has not been seen in days and the tomatoes remain uneaten.

 

Where is MamaC? PS Brief sighting evening of 8/30

Now, some folks holler that wild critters should not be given human food. Well, it's feeling like September and our friends are bulking up for the coming cold and food scarce times.

Early fall evening:

Look at this long tail! Name evolution: from Stubbs to Rene to LTR for Long Tail Rene or LT for short.

The Bun Bros grazing

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There is something enjoyable and satisfying about tending to the tomatoes especially when events have postponed my attention. With the protective fencing in place, this is not a quick job along with the pruning and picking of fruit. The centers of the plants need to be opened up to provide both sun for the fruit and provide air circulation. Tomatoes can be divas in temperament: they whine about too much sun or too little, same with watering and food and of course the temperature. They complain if it's not like Southern Italy-hot and dry. But we tolerate this demanding plant because its fruit is so delicious and versatile that we prize these once a year treats (store 'maters: fuggitaboutit-they are tasteless billiard balls). So, mission accomplished as we approach the final stage of the season.

Bowl of newly picked cherry tomatoes-these are Moby Grape variety that I have grown for years. Very prolific, tasty and available as plants from Horrocks.

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More paw paw fun facts: The paw paw is the state fruit of Ohio. 

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2021

It's been a meager water summer for the Watergirl. Only 6 pool days, 2 days of pool at the Saugatuck Hotel, 0 days at Motz Lake. Weird weather: hot & chilly, drought & rains, a few v muggy days. But in true Michigan fashion, other than the 2 month drought, most things changed after 2-3 days.

The Watergirl loves sea turtles.

                                                                                                                                                                                                            Justin Kelefas

 

We were watching turtle vids during supper and she mentioned how curious it is that I have no affinity with water. "A whole different universe" she said and she especially loves looking up at a wavy, sunlit surface from below. "Water is a roof". 

"Turtles look like they have an easy life" she said watching them just floating weightless in ocean shallows buoyed by the salt water. "Yep" I replied "they eat, procreate and avoid not becoming a meal for a predator. We, on the other hand, are pretty much on the top of the food chain in terms of predators. What is dangerous to us are each other and microscopic viruses and bacteria who use us as a host, often killing us as a result". 

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While watching ocean life vids, the subject of sea monkeys came up. "A bad scam targeting children" said C. Just add water and watch them come to life. Actually, what was being sold was dead, dried shrimp that never reanimated". Ads for such turned up in kid's magazines and comics in the 60's-80's before the authorities finally cracked down. Kits are still being sold and complaints are still out there.

 

Photo by Krista Bennett, Archie Giant Series Magazine, The World of Jughead, №523, 1982

 

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A great tonic for any teacher who has completed their first day back to work in late August: Deck yoga with Buddy!

 

 

 

C and Buddy have a pretty stable morning routine. She's often up 5ish and he seeing the frig light come on and hearing a glass rattle, comes up on the deck and mews. He's let in through the slider and his lordship's breakfast is already plated. While he's eating, she goes out on the couch with her tea, journal and blanket up. A few birds are singing. The Diner already has its early regulars: Mr.& Mrs. Redbird, Stampies and Freddie. After finishing breakfast, Buddy comes out to the couch and jumps onto the protective blanket and first laptime proceeds. Often quite vigorous to start then settling down to a lengthy belling rub. With my getting up signalling what time it is, she'll head to her office picking a cup of joe on the way. She begins bed making chores with Bud's unsolicited help. Done, she'll be in her chair firing up the internet and readying for 2nd laptime with a protective blanket across her lap. Bud will deposit himself across her thighs and receive some prime massages from Mum. Often, I'll pop in with a cup on my way to my office, give a kiss and a scritch and Bud will jump down giving C a chance to go pee, freshen her cup and stretch out her numbing legs from the 15 pound cat. Bud will claim the chair only to be deposited on the bed when C returns. This routine continues often with Bud becoming more and more persistent about having the chair. Finally, C will get fed up and mosey to her business of the day.

Isn't it time for you to go to work?

A subtly intelligent move by him-he knows who the bread winner is. Gotta keep the flow of Little Friskies coming in.

-or-

He really would like to take his morning nap. He's been at work all night and Mum's chair smells like her, nice and soft and he curls up nicely in it. Plus, it's elevated. Like a tree limb in Africa.

A Comfykatter who is totally at ease with manspreading.

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DICTATOR'S CORNER

Life imitating Art: you couldn't cast a better evil villain in any 007 than Vlad Putin. The people jabbed in the calf by a passerby's umbrella delivering radioactive poison, those dubious window jumps and car "accidents"-all explained away by the Kremlin. Just a mere coincidence that they had run afoul with Vlad. 

He could not give Yevgeny Prigozhin and other Wagner leaders a pass after their attempted putsch. Hmm, not a missile or drone strike on the jet but an onboard explosion? Vlad was coyly silent the first day after the jet went down. Then cryptically calls Prigozhin a man "with a complicated fate." What?? Shortly afterwards, the Kremlin machine swung into action with blanket denials and that poor Vladdy was the victim of western anti-Putin propaganda. Meanwhile, rumors are swirling whether Prigozhin was actually on the plane. He was known to have used body doubles and Wagner owns a number of jets. We'll probably never know the truth even if the Kremlin sez they have DNA evidence. PS August 27-The Kremlin's investigative team verifying via DNA that Prigozhin was on the jet.

This was a clear message to the oligarchs: you cross me, you die. It is reported that the smart ones have already raised private security forces to give themselves a fighting chance to survive. You crawl into bed with the devil...

Really, isn't this playing out like some low-grade Netflix flick?

Meanwhile at the Fulton Co. jail:

#P01135809 Donald John Trump

My pick for the official presidential portrait to hang in perpetuity.

One of Roach's continuing conspiracy rants (it turned up on his special with Tucker) concerns the lack of water pressure across the country. It's everywhere! Hotels, restos, homes! Why? So Roachy can't do his coif. Those libtards want him to look bad.

Hypnotoad's evil cousin-Hypnotrump

How the Roach manages to control the GOP and his unswaying followers.

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Fabulously strange Fan Duel (sports gambling app) ad with chickens considering the morality of gambling: living the straight life or let loose once in a while-after all, life is short.

Wow.

And its follow-up:

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You know it's muggy when your bare feet stick to the linoleum floor.

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I was watching a tornado vid-upon entering a small Kansas hamlet you are greeted by a sign that says "I'd turn back if I were you". Stephen King territory for sure!

Tornado Fun Facts-tornado color: front lit-white, back lit-black when relative to the viewer.

                                                                      Gene D Roden

 

                                                             Stephen Jones

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cutebuddypix

I'm pooped from the heat and the big storm

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8/30-I was deadheading the butterfly bush when I spotted a new butterfly, our third species this season.

                          

                                                                                                                                                                                                     Gilles San Martin

This is a red admiral.

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                                                                                                                                                                                                      Lindsey Wasson

 

And they're off...the T-Rex World Championship races at Emerald Downs in Auburn, WA on August 20. 

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                                                                                                                                                                                                          Anadolu Agency

                The supermoon rises over Grand Çamlıca mosque in Istanbul, Turkey

Last night, August 30, there was a memorable lunar event. Not only was it a blue moon, meaning a second full moon occurring within the same month, but the moon was at perigee or its closest point in orbit to Earth. We saw it emerge from the neighborhood treeline, fat and bright. One those rare things where a good chunk of the world's population experienced an event together.

The following morning, the temps dropped to 45°. Yikes! As we drove to campus, in the fields to the north of us:

Sandhills! Same couple from last week?

It's a Tom Convention! Our turkey bros have added new members or did 2 clans merge?
 

 

 

NEW WIKI ARTICLE: GENE CAESAR

One of this Summer's accomplishments for C was the creation of a Wikipedia article honoring her father, Gene Caesar who wrote outdoor fiction, American history and natural history. His biography of Jim Bridger, King of the Mountain Men, won the Bronze Wrangler for Outstanding Western Juvenile Book in 1961. 

                                                                           C. Caesar

C comes from a family of writers including her father, paternal grandmother and aunt. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_Caesar 

Wiki has quite strict and demanding guidelines concerning content, especially source material. But, C overcame their hurdles and is quite pleased to have this included in the collective digital history of the world.

Well done, C! I am very proud of you!

A SUMMER STORM

We had a real twig snapper Thursday night (8/24). Seven tornadoes hit the state setting an all time record for August in MI with several in the Central MI area as a storm system swung through. A F-2 touched down for 5 miles next to I-96 between Williamston and Webberville. 

It was a pretty muggy afternoon and Buddy was sprawled out in his furry pjs:

The storm hit around twilight with sheeting rain and such wind that made us worry about our old trees. I worried about a twister hidden in the storm as so many tornado vids have shown rain wrapped monsters lurking within.

Our neighbor related this tale to me: he had been at his grandkid's baseball game which was called off because of the approaching storms. Driving home, he was caught in it coming across his car from the right. The wind driven rain was so intense that his wipers on high couldn't move quick enough to clear. He was driving into a grey mist. "Scary" he said.

In terms of tree damage, this was the worst storm in the 13 years we have been here. It took us a combined 9 hours to clean up. Yep, things can happen in this state. Frequency can be years in-between so it's shocking when it occurs. Sometimes, it's a once in a lifetime event. Thank goodness!

Around the house:

Back deck-at least the 'maters were wrapped up nice and snug

Tithonia losses

Cup flower losses

After the big blow, the trees were talking. It had been hardest on the elders, old man birch and his younger brother.

"So many children lying lifeless on the ground, on the street, on some ape's roof. Or dying a long way from home, taken by the winds. At least those here, on some properties, they will rejoin us in the ground. Most, sadly, will be taken off to a barren plain that smells and is full of ape activity. Maybe in a couple of lifetimes, the plain will cease it's function and the area will be replanted. Who knows, that soil may be composed of 24 generations of great uncles that will flow through the veins of the new growth and the connection with their kind will be renewed".

FIVE SECOND STORIES

Flora & Fauna

Rene formerly Stubbs with a finely grown out second section on his tail. Lookin' good, dude! I think he is living to the West.

Uh oh, DHS has decided to approach MamaChuck. She didn't pay much attention and moved along under the pool deck.

Sadly, one of our little Stampies has died. It perished under our deck and C (bless her heart) retrieved it and I lay it to rest in our critter burial ground.

The hydrangea blooms are entirely pinkish-rose now.

Here's a surprise-a sunflower in Pepperland. Evidently some critter or bird left one of the seeds from the feeder and it germinated!

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Two of Buddy's favorites on his play list:

"Close to You" by The Carpenters

 

 

"I'm a Happy Man" by The Jive Five

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Oddly enough, I had never heard of paw paw fruit before C mentioned a childhood song concerning them.

 

Often called "North America's tropical fruit," as it is the only such fruit indigenous to the continental U.S., pawpaws taste boldly bright, vibrant, and tropical. Imagine a mix of mango, banana, and a hint of tangy passion fruit, and you'll have a close approximation of a pawpaw's unique flavor.  They are in season August-November depending on the site.

 

Why don't we see paw paw fruit in the stores very much? Why don't my neighbors have these fruit trees? Well, the problem is with how it's pollinated: flies or beetles that are attracted to the fetid odor of the blossoms. Some folks place road kill or manure to attract pollinators but these options won't be appreciated by neighbors in a urban/suburban environment. Growers will plant trees/shrubs that bloom around the same time in April as the paw paw such as red bud, American plum and the sweet scarlet goumi.

 

The village of Paw Paw, MI, located between Kalamazoo and South Haven, is named after the fruit by Indigenous people. 

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The aforementioned song C spoke about is "The Paw Paw Patch". This is one of many she remembers from her elementary school days. I don't remember a lot of singing in my grade schools and it makes me wonder if there was a movement in the early 60's to modernize away from the traditional singy-songy teaching. In C's case, the principal at her Ann Arbor school (whom C refers to as a martinet) was very much a traditionalist in many ways, having come and perhaps receiving training in her native Eastern Europe. She had lots of rules but that did not bother C-they were perfectly reasonable to her and happily complied unlike the crazy nonsense her mother came up with. 

 

Fortunately, it wasn't all rules with no rewards. One concerned the library books. When a student began school, they could only read those books on the bottom shelf until staff determined that the kid had advanced enough and be allowed to "graduate" to the next shelf up. For some like C, who loved to excel and be rewarded, plus the double-bonus of a chance of reading new books-this was catnip.

 

Very much a common sense approach that I reckon is used world-wide: you have to work for rewards in this world.

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C is a true watergirl-we were talking about scents that trigger memories-chlorine reminds her of swimming pools.

 

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From 1983- "Swordfishtrombones" by the inimitable Tom Waits. Odd song structure with curious sound rattlings and stream of consciousness lyrics.

 

Well, he came home from the war
With a party in his head
And modified Brougham DeVille
And a pair of legs that opened up like butterfly wings
And a mad dog that wouldn't sit still
He went and took up with a Salvation Army band girl
Who played dirty water on a swordfishtrombone
He went to sleep at the bottom of Tenkiller lake
And he said "gee, but it's great to be home"
Well, he came home from the war with a party in his head
And an idea for a fireworks display
And he knew that he'd be ready with a stainless steel machete
And a half a pint of Ballentine's each day
And he holed up in room above a hardware store
Cryin' nothing there but Hollywood tears
He put a spell on some poor little Crutchfield girl
And stayed like that for twenty-seven years
He packed up all his expectations, he lit out for California
With a flyswatter banjo on his knee
With a lucky tiger in his angel hair and Benzedrine for getting there
They found him in a eucalyptus tree
Lieutenant got him a canary bird and skanked her head with every word
Chesterfielded moonbeams in a song
He got twenty years for lovin' her from some Oklahoma governor
Said "everything this Doughboy does is wrong"
Now some say he's doing the obituary mambo
Now some say that he's hanging on the wall
Perhaps this yarn's the only thing that holds this man together
Some say he was never here at all
And some say they saw him down in Birmingham
Sleeping in a boxcar going by
And if you think that you can tell a bigger tale
I swear to God you'd have to tell a lie

 

THE BURTON AGNES DRUM

This six inch carved chalk drum was discovered in 2015 in a burial barrow located near the north Yorkshire village of Burton Agnes. It has been billed by the British Museum as “the most important piece of prehistoric art to be found in Britain in the last 100 years”.

The piece is roughly 6" in diameter with great detail and a variety of motifs. It was found in a burial site of 3 children and the bones have been dated to 3005-2890 BC which coincides with the first wave of building at Stonehenge.

Another site at Folkton,15 miles away, is another barrow that was excavated in 1889 and contained children as well. One unique aspect of these sites is that formal burials were not commonplace in those times. At both sites, chalk drums were placed next to the skulls of the children. The drums were all different and seemingly made with love. Were they meant as more than a personalized tribute to each of the dead? Or symbolic of a companion or protective spirit for the transition from this world to the next?

This late Neolithic period is remarkable in our species' history as it marks a flowering of creativity in the cultures of the British Isles and Ireland. It was also a time of early farming and the people needed some sort of instrument to tell time. Stonehenge in England and New Grange in Ireland notably, but also the thousands of stone rings from the Orkney Islands North of Scotland to the Scilly Island off the Southwestern tip of England have this in common: they are calendars to determine where the sun is in our year indicating when it is time to plant. To farmers then and to this day, the sun is at the center of life. 

The sun and other motifs such as crosses and swirls turn up in pottery, jewelry and metal work. What fascinates scientists about these motifs is that they turn up across the British Isles and Ireland showing that these communities must have traded with each other and shared communal knowledge and concepts.