June 23, 2013                                      Madison, IN

We were walking along the short distance of woodland path along the Ohio River on the west side of town, and my partner said, "Look!  A fox!"

I saw something that looked as if it was leaping short leaps and pouncing.  I couldn't see any color.  "Are you sure it wasn't a cat?"  It seemed so small.

"A fox," with certainty.

Then we saw something else on the side of the path the fox had come from.  "Bunnies!" he said.  "Turkeys," I thought.

But no, two more little foxes appeared.  One crossed the path and the other followed the path straight towards us.  He came on for 10 or 15 feet, paused, and with a flick of his white-tipped tail, disappeared after the others.

Later my partner commented on the reputation of foxes.  He experienced none of the slyness associated with them, and neither did I.  They were just playful and inquisitive.

And, probably contrary to any possible stereotype the fox population may have of us, we did not think of fur stoles!


June 22, 2013                                      Madison, IN

People call people lazy who don't want to do what the people calling the shots want them to do.

Is anyone really lazy who is doing what she really wants to do?

Maybe there are people who never find what they want to do, and they are called lazy.

I think I would call them unfortunate.  Of course, if I wanted them to do something they didn't want to do, I would probably call them lazy.


June 21, 2013                                      Madison, IN

The longest day of the year.  Now that I am more conscious of these seasonal changes in light and aware of SAD from which I am absolutely sure I suffer, I am looking for a way out of the short day time of year.

A bouncing back and forth between the Southern and Northern Hemispheres sounds like a good solution to the problem.

The Summer and Winter Solstices would be the ideal time to transfer residence, I guess.  I would prefer a whole year of Midsummer Days, but I guess that is not to be.

Hmmm... but what about the Poles?  Maybe I could get longer days and more of them if we moved...

Nah.  Too cold.


























































































































June 5, 2013

Trying to pin down what I was thinking on the hour in any hour yesterday was illuminating, all right.

I don't know if it was such a narrow time window I gave myself, or whether Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle really is infinitely expandable, but spontaneity was difficult to maintain under observation - even my own!

One of my most fun random ideas of the day was at an off moment:  If the dust we clean out of our houses is 70% sloughed off skin cells and a house is left empty for thirty years, is 70% of the "dust" in it sloughed off cells from spiders, cockroaches, mice and rats?

Eeeuw!












June 4, 2013                                               Madison, IN

Thoughts on the hour:

3:00 am   I have to pee

4:00 am  "Only the paranoid survive."

5:00 am  Well, maybe it's worth trying to go back to sleep.

6:00 am  ...water...into microwave... for cereal - for coffee - for cereal - for coffee (while pivoting)

7:00 am  According to morning TV, sunscreen is supposed to make your skin more resilient.  According to my dermatology PA, slathering lotion on in the summer months helps your skin defend itself against winter drying-out.  Slather, slather

8:00 am  Nothing inspires me to clean house more than morning TV - anything is better than sitting down to that.  If I am in danger of being snared by something interesting, I will be rescued for the cause of a cleaner house - by the stupid ads.

9:00 am  Dang!  Cut off in the middle of a phone call with Jos again!

10:00 am  Walking down Main St., lots of people on the sidewalks, I hear the church bells chiming ten o'clock.  What will I write about?  "Aaaa!" a teenage bicyclist races right by me, literally within 2-3 inches of my left arm, cuts in front of me, and races across the street in the middle of the block.  The woman coming from the other direction, missed by maybe a foot or two, says "Jerk!" as she goes by.  Next thing I notice, the church bells are still chiming.

11:00 pm Stranguvulating in the bathroom from chlorotoxic spray I used over an hour ago.  Guess the ceiling fan doesn't work too well.

12:00 noon  huh?  Don't know what I was thinking.  Lost track of time while I was cleaning out a wallet cum checkbook of out-of-date deposit receipts and looking for a credit card that I already had tucked away for my trip.

1:00 pm  Going "down by the riverside has got to be a better ride than what you've got planned!"

2:00 pm  Told Mary Ice that I just saw the Gene Herde and Joseph going upstream.  Felt all warm and fuzzy from all the waving and because the pilot honked the horn for me!  An experience of a lifetime.  Third time the Gene Herde has passed here with Jos aboard - first time today in the daylight!

3:00 pm  Grabbing some carrots out of the fridge, noticing some of them have root hairs.  Wonder if they'll be edible when I get home from NM?

4:00 pm  Staggering into the living room to read (perchance to doze) kind of surprised at how thoughtless I am.

5:00 pm TV on - Judge Judy?  No, rerunsszzzz...

6:00 pm zzzzzzzzzz

7:00 pm zzzzzzzzz huh?

8:00 pm  Let's see if water melts green witches, and the sun melts me, what does that make me?

9:00 pm  Start new game

10:00 pm  Rachel Maddow is awesome.  Too bad I am usually asleep during at least half of her show.

My guess is that 11:00 and 12:00 I will be not sharing my thoughts because I will be sleeping.  You never know.  It's been an interesting experiment.  Surprising.

June 2, 2013                                             Madison, IN

Yesterday walking along the river I saw some geese clustered together and wondered about the goslings I had seen last week.  They were still really fluffy then.  Today I saw a few much larger young ones.  Were they the same group?  If so, where were the others?

The other day my neighbors were talking about having seen a fox coming up from the river bank and cutting across the park which comprises the next block.  How well could those geese protect their babies?  Pretty well, maybe!  They sure intimidate me.

As I was walking along the river this morning, I saw a duck paddling at the edge of the water.  If I were a duck, I'd think the broad Ohio River a pretty good place to be.  If a fox were threatening you one bank, all you would have to do is swim or fly to the other side.

Er, unless a fox could swim all the way over there!  Maybe he could!

This morning I saw a pretty linden shaped like a Christmas tree with its pale yellow bunches of flowers hanging down from its branches like ornaments.  Add the scent of linden and catalpa to the bouquet of Spring floating around Madison!


June 1, 2013                                                  Madison, IN

Went on a rainy walk this morning with an umbrella.

Found myself wanting to twirl the umbrella just for fun, realized it has a practical purpose.

When you twirl your umbrella, you get rid of the wet stuff on it by centrifugal force.  Instead of dripping limply on your toes or legs, the drops swirl outward.

So, guys, don't assume that a girl twirling her umbrella is flirting with you.  She might just be trying to make sure those drops of water land on your boots instead of hers!

Not that I had to worry about anyone misapprehending my umbrella-twirling motives.

For all but the last 10 minutes or so of my walk, I was the only pedestrian out there!