Vernalruminations

  Messing around in boats Seems like this summer that means bailing rather than sailing, three little boats awash with rain water needing emptying over and over, a repetitive domestic chore like folding laundry or emptying the dishwasher.   Decades ago I delegated bailing boats to my three kids; decades later to my two resident grandsons.   Bribes in those days were easy, homemade cookies warm from the oven or maybe a trip to Moomers for the ice cream President Biden enjoyed on his visit last week. I used to dislike bailing.   I also disliked emptying dishwashers.   I was happy to fill the dishwasher as a way of cleaning up the kitchen surfaces, but I always got the children or someone else to do the emptying, just as I got children to bail the boats. Oddly, now, I enjoy sitting in the dinghy or in one or the other of the two sunfish and dipping the bucket over and over into the accumulated rain and emptying it into the lake.   Much of my life in reti...

  THE ADVENTURES OF BRIOCHE: CHAPTER TWO   In this sad and difficult year of deaths and distancing, rescue shelters across the country have emptied and breeders had more demand than they could supply for canine or feline companions to help deal with the unprecedented isolation and losses. Brioche was born in July and yes, I decided last spring to seek out a puppy to accompany me in this year of the quarantine and then, most likely, for the rest of my life. A mere 3 pounds when she joined me in September not quite yet 8 weeks old, Brioche now weighs in at a whopping 8 lbs. and has reached the advanced age of 7 months.  Although I was raised in a family with many dogs and always had a dog (and sometimes a litter of puppies) while I was raising my own children, once my nest was empty and work was fulltime and often required lots of travel, I gave up on living with a dog and for many years starting in the late 80s had cats instead. But now after a hiatus of almost 40 ye...

THE BOOK OF BRIOCHE It all began in March when we first wore masks and stayed home and saw no one except on zoom and even avoided grocery stores.  Neighbors were no longer neighbors. I said I wanted a puppy and a dear friend quickly sent me an adorable, huggable toy puppy.  I put him on face book and far-flung friends sent suggestions for names from France and even from Kyrgyzstan. But by then Governor Cuomo had started his daily briefings. I watched them, relied on them, took comfort from his insistence on FACTS, even when those facts were devastating.  So this little pup was named Mario in honor of Cuomo’s father and predecessor as governor (I had revered Mario Cuomo during my tenure at Lehman College in the Bronx) but nicknamed Merry.  And Merry took up residence in my study, on the couch where I watch TV, and eventually rode in my car the long drive out to Long Lake and Traverse City.  But by then I had decided to REALLY get a puppy, only it had to be a bl...

  PACKING UP   I started blogging just one year ago and have no regular pattern or topic, only what seems compelling to me at the moment.  Many of this year's blogs were short tributes to the 20 women in my book. A few like this one were journalistic, what is happening in my own life or in my own reflections or memories. The good thing about a blog is that no one needs to read it and anyone can.  I would love comments from  any of you who do enjoy sharing these ruminations, but that, too, is purely an option, not necessary, not an obligation. Tempus fugit.   That was the topic of one of my earliest blogs thinking back to my parents, and I still share that sense of time passing quickly and I still want to savor life and try to make a difference for others in the way I live the years that remain to me.    So summer is ending, this strange and tense summer of 2020, and I am noting my own migration from one home--my summer home for eight decades now--...

Dear Readers, dear Friends,  Until now I have not used my blog for any political statements with the possible exception of my story of our trip to Brownsville to help feed the asylum seekers.  Although the command to clothe the naked and feed the hungry is biblical, not political. But after the two weeks of DNC and then RNC I had to just this once react and share my feelings.  And you can choose to read it or not.  A blog is like the bottle thrown out on the waves for anyone or no one.  But I had to put it down in words.  HUMPTY DUMPTY “ When I use a word ,” said Humpty Dumpty, “ it means just what I choose it to mean.”   Last night I forced myself to watch the whole tawdry parade.   Somewhere early on—I think around Ben Carson—I grabbed this sweet toy that some of you remember Marti sent me when the quarantining started.   I needed something soft to clutch for comfort. Lies and more lies, lies repeated over and over, their insane mantra....