Anne's Links

I'm trying the new, expanded links-list Blogger just called to my attention. It looks useful. Now I can spot at a glance what's been updated, without clicking thru everything. {SMILE}

I'll try it a bit before deleting the old, plain list, but I think I like this new list better. {BIG SMILE}

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

Woodpile residents

We have a problem in our woodpile. It has termites. So we need to get rid of the whole thing, and it's pretty big. Mom and Dad decided that they don't want to throw it across the street into the swamp; it's far too close to our house. They don't want to take it all to the dump, either. The dump is across town, and the woodpile would be several loads worth. With gas already over $4 a gallon here, they'd rather avoid that if possible. {half-smile} They don't want to heat up the house by burning it in the inside fireplace; not in the summer heat. So Dad has begun burning the kindling in the little outside fireplace where the barbeques dinner at times. {smile}

There was just one problem: whenever he did that, he heard angry buzzing from a carpenter bee behind by the woodpile. One seemed to be living in the woodpile, and she didn't like us disturbing her nice home. They're generally gentle bees, but we're disturbing her home... Dad decided to kill her before she attacked us for disturbing her home. Besides, the hole one makes in wood to make a home is an excellent starting place for termites. It's too late for this woodpile, but we don't want too many around. {wry smile}

So anyway, Dad decided to get rid of the carpenter bee before he got to that part of the woodpile. He went out two evenings ago, and sprayed the hole he found in the end of one log. When we checked yesterday, we found more bees - at least two females and a male - and at least nine other holes. Dad went out last night, and sprayed all the holes he saw, using almost all the wasp killer we have.

We checked today. Mom saw one bee, then she saw two bees, both kind of going around behind something, like their holes were back where Dad hadn't looked. I only saw one bee doing that, but she swerved in about a foot away from me, doing a convincing enough portrayal of an angry bee to convince me to go back inside the house. I didn't want her to start bumping me aggressively, let alone stinging! They're big!

Now Dad is thinking about what to do next. I hope he thinks of something soon! {odd smile}

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

Reading snapshots

In The Lord of the Rings, Sam and Frodo are plodding thru Mordor. The water tastes pretty awful there, but at least it wets the throat. {smile}

Meanwhile, in A Thousand Words for Stranger, Sira, Barac, and Jason are busy trying to get out of the council's building and away from the Clan. {smile}

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

Blue Paisley picture

Well, I think it's time to try out the new picture mailing lists, including the one that refers to this blog. I thought I'd start with a picture of a mu'umu'u I made for myself I got it into wearable condition several years ago. I wasn't really happy with it until I tacked down enough of the lace to keep it from curling, and added a couple of lace medallions on the pockets. So it was completely finished after one I made in the meantime. {Smile}

This picture is of me wearing it when I was finally happy with how it looks. {SMILE} You might have to click on it to see the full picture; Blogger seems to like to cut off one edge. I do need to figure out how to deal with that. {smile}

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

Why do you write?

I don't know that I expect any answer but the one I give myself. {smile} However, I've been asking myself that a lot. I think the answer might be tied into my recent bout of writer's block. That's eased, but... I still need to work on it. {smile}

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

Reading and Writing

Sam and Frodo are having an awful lot of trouble with a humongous, hairy spider.

{Smile} Yes, my reading is coming along. It hasn't been going quickly, but it is progressing. {Smile}

{bite lips}

I just wish I could say the same for my writing. I got both moving nicely during Lent. Since then, the reading slowed, and the writing stalled pretty completely. {small smile} I'm going to have to figure out some way to break this bout of writer's block. {pause} I just wish I knew what would work. {smile}

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

May Day

I hope folks had a happy May Day. Dad and I celebrated it by wearing leis, since May Day is "lei day" in Hawai'i.

We were the only folks who did. Every one Dad talked to remembered to late. {half-smile}

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

The Hilo Woman's Club We Care Teddy Bears Club (and car trouble)

Well, I guess it's official. Mom and I have joined the Hilo Woman's Club's We Care Teddy Bear Club. {Smile} We attended our first meeting this morning. Mom was going to drive us down. However, her car wouldn't start. So Dad drove us down. He dropped us off, and we tried to get in. There were two garages right in front, side by side. However, Mom spotted a gate to oneside, so she went thru it. It went to a back porch. Nobody was obvious, but there were lots of stairs. So I went back to the driveway. I spotted Dad driving past, so I waved to him, and explained we were having a little trouble finding anyone. He offered to come back and wait for us, just incase. Shortly before he did, Mom waved to me. So I told Dad we were okay. Mom led me down a long, narrow path between the garages, and up two steps, and another, and another, into the house. They didn't even have railings, but I managed; my balance is doing better these days, and there was a convenient post I could hang onto by the two steps. {Smile}

Once inside, there were no more steps between the entrance and the dining room. So we sat around the dining room table, and started talking. Then we started tying bows on stuffed animals while we continued to talk. It was just Mom, the club president, and me. I wondered a bit, but continued to tie bows. Then the president wanted to show us some of the other animals. We debated. I'm not that good at stairs, but I did want to see the animals. I eventually decided to try it. She led us over to the stairs, which we'd passed on the way in. They were steeper than usual, but they had good, sturdy railings. So we tried it, and it worked. She went up, and took us into a room where she had more animals some school kids had fixed up. She said she had even more in another room. I wanted to see them while I was up there, but she didn't want to fix them up first, since they weren't even washed. So we went back down. I found the steps were steep enough, I couldn'twalk down forwards. I had to face backwards and find the next step mostly by feel. That did work; I didn't have to sit down and lower myself step by step like a two-year-old. However, I'm not going up those steps again, no matter how many animals she has to show me while I'm there.

Back downstairs, we continued to talk. The president continued to tie bows. Mom found a dog who needed some shout, and a frog who had some things taken off her. I found a dog whose nose was half off, and a brand new bunny who needed her tags snipped off and her tail sewed back on. I was working on the bunny when Dad showed up to pick us up. The president invited him inside, and we asked him to tie a necktie on this one animal. None of us could remember how, and Mom felt a few animals should have more masculine decorations. {SMILE} So Dad sat and tied neckties. Mom finished the frog and started on more bows. The president did more bows, too, and I finished fixing the rabbit's tail. {Smile}

Then Dad took us home. Mom went inside for a few things, then went back out as Dad got out the jumper cables, and prepared to fix Mom's car. Just before he connected them, he told Mom to try to start her car one last time.

It started easily, tho it made a funny noise. Mom drove down tot the service station to ask them what was happening with her car. They ran a few tests, and decided the alternator was fine, but the battery was weak. So now Mom has a new battery just like Dad's. {Smile}

If you're wondering what the Hilo Woman's Club's We Care Teddy Bear Club does with all those stuffed animals, we give them away to "children and adults who need a hug." The club started by giving them to the police to keep in their cars, so they have one when they meet a kid who needs comfort in the course of their work. The club got many, many more bears than the police here can use. So the club has branched out to underprivileged children, fire trucks, nursing homes, domestic violence help centers, adult day care, doctor's offices, and giving them to other charities for prizes and such. The president even gave some away as Halloween favors last year. She hadn't thought of many of these options yet, and she felt her house was so full of bears and other stuffed animals, she has to do something! {Smile} If it's still full enough of animals, she'll probably do that again this year. {SMILE}

The one place we don't give them to is the hospital. They insist the animals would need to be sterilized, and that's beyond our cleaning skills. {lop-sided smile}

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

What I'm reading

So... What am I reading? {Smile}

Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien: Frodo, Sam, and Gollum have left Faramir and are heading towards Minas Morgul. They've stopped to hide for the day, but the day isn't getting lighter.

A Thousand Words for Stranger by Julie E. Czerneda: In this one, it's harder to describe where I am. {smile} Sira has landed on a strange planet with Jason. (They were separated from Huido because he's big enough to need his own escape pod.) Then she got separated from Jason. Worried he'll be in more danger with her than separate, she didn't want to go back. So she called Rael, who she doesn't remember thru her amnesia, but who knows her well. Rael who teleported in and fed Sira after saying the line that gave the book it's title: " Rael left again when some of Sira's news upset her.

"The Color of Plants on Other Worlds" in Scientific American April 2008: It's a non-fiction article about the various photosynthetic compounds found on earth, and how they use the energy they're getting from the sun. It also speculates how this might be different around other stars, especially how it might affect what the plants would look like. {Smile} I find it absolutely fascinating. {SMILE}

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

Small talk

I was thinking about what we talk about when we don't have much to talk about. I know the weather is traditional, but my parents and I rarely bring it up unless it affects what we're planning to do. {smile} Instead, we talk about what we're reading.

We'll ask each other "What are you reading?" "Where are you in the story?" or "What's happening?" and we'll listen to the answers.Even without questions, we talk about it. Dad will say "Gollum is leading Frodo and Sam thru the marshes." Or he'll say "Rammage just captured a pirate ship." Or "Piemur is at a gather, and just stole some pies." {SMILE}

We ask and talk about this even if we haven't read the book. I have read Anne McCaffrey's Pern; it and Darkover are the two series all three of us are quite interested in. However, Dad was telling me where he was in The Lord of the Rings two decades before I read it. He tells me about Rammage, and I still haven't gotten into that series. We have enough overlap in reading tastes, the stories often sound interesting. We might read it eventually... maybe we'll even read it soon. {Smile} And if not... it's still more interesting than the weather most of the time. {Chuckle, SMILE}

I think I might post this type of thing here.

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin