Throwing the Yellow Dodder-Snippet 11

You can read the last snippet here: Snippet 10.

...I know what is and it isn't livin' right, but life isn't always as cut and dry as some would have you believe it is..."


"You don't have to tell an old woman like me about how life ain't cut and dry. I don't think anything ever happens how we plan it out. I wonder why we ever try at all. I was in love with this handsome, young soldier who everyone said was on the fast track to becoming somebody big in no time when I threw that yellow dodder and found my sweet William standing behind me. We stood up there 68 years ago and promised to grow old together. Now its just me and 10 years is a long, long time to live alone with a ghost. It just never is how we plan on it to be. We'd told each other that we were finally going to sell off the farm and find some little town in Florida along the Gulf to move to that hadn't been eatin' alive by all the things they've brought in to that state that've turned it into someplace I hardly recognize anymore, but he left me. You hear that? The kids talked us out of selling and then he passed away. He just left me. He'd promised to grow old..." Mable couldn't finish. She couldn't seem to breathe and so she just cried and let the wind dry her tears before they could reach her chin.


"Now, now Mrs. Mable. Its too pretty out here to cover yourself with tears. I should've never started talkin' 'bout any of this. I just feel...I guess I just feel comfortable around you; like I could tell you 'bout everything that makes up my life. I feel I can just show you my heart and my head and you won't spit on it, laugh, or condemn me. I feel..."


"And you can," Mable said through her warm tears, "If two women, two friends can't be truthful with one another then what's left of this life isn't worth cheap horse manure anymore. Ya' hear that...cheap horse manure."


"It sure is that, Mrs. Mable. It sure is."


"Now enough of all this sad talk. People might blame it on my medications. I don't want those damn pharmaceutical companies gettin' anymore credit than they already give themselves. I can cry on my own and generate my own sadness, thank you very much. I'm afraid of so many things I see these days. Seems like if ya' made all these people stop for half a second they'd realize all the commotion is their own hands clappin' for themselves and its their own hands pattin' themselves on the back. And I hate it all. I miss the days when people did somethin' and the world around them clapped for em'."


"There ya' go again, Mrs. Mable. Talkin' the truth like it was the air outside. You'd better watch out. People don't like truth gettin' in their sweet tea. Kinda' makes em' have a gritty taste and then they have to go and ask for a new glass. I bet you stepped on a lot of toes before you came here. I can just see you back in the day."


"Back in the day...if ya' don't watch out, I might come after you just because I'm bored." Mrs Mable said with a short cackle. "You see that bush over there with the yellow buds?"


"Yes, ma'am. I do."


"Ya' know what it is?"


"Now, you know I don't know nothin' 'bout plants. I'm pretty sure I've killed several plastic plants in my lifetime. Plants is your specialty."


"It's yellow dodder. Ya' know what they say 'bout that?"


"No, but I'm sure you're goin' to tell me even if I didn't want ya' to." 


"Well, I will now that that you've begged for me to. They say that if you throw the seeds of the yellow dodder over your left shoulder and it grows, it means that your boyfriend loves you. Now, I know it sounds like a fresh load of hogwash, but I can attest that it is not. It is one of the truest things I know; its true as the day is long."


"I don't know 'bout all that, Mrs. Mable. I trust you though, but it sounds like one of them hoaxy old wive's tales. Like how if ya' drop ya' dishtowel company gonna show up. They should really say if freeloaders come round, they gonna be lookin' for somethin' free."


"Mrs. Lucy, don't you even think about startin' about old wives tales. I threw that yellow dodder over my shoulder on a Saturday and by the next Sunday my life had spun round faster than my head could think a' spinnin'. My army beau had dropped me like last week's news and I had met the nicest boy God ever did make named William Stone. He was farmin' his father's land and worked like a good pair of mules and showed me a man can be one and a Christian at the same time. I'd never seen that. Most Christian men I knew weren't what I'd call a man. Now, he was no macho big man or some flashy bulb. He was graceful and beautiful like slab of gneiss in a mountain stream. He wasn't gonna beg you to look his way, but if did you were gonna be thankful you did. He was my man and boy you shoulda' seen the size of that yellow dodder bush that sprouted from the seeds I'd thrown over my shoulder. I wish you could've seen it. I know you woulda' raised ya' hands like the Holy Spirit done showed for the first time at that Episcopal church no one seems like they ever go to...."


Be looking for Snippet 12. It may be the last of this short story, but we will see. 


Happy Reading and let me know what you think,


David

Summer 2012: The Summer of Ford

“And so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on the trees, just as things grow in fast movies, I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer.”
― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

“Maycomb was a tired old town, even in 1932 when I first knew it. Somehow, it was hotter then. Men's stiff collars wilted by nine in the morning. Ladies bathed before noon after their three o'clock naps. And by nightfall were like soft teacakes with frosting from sweating and sweet talcum. The day was twenty-four hours long, but it seemed longer. There's no hurry, for there's nowhere to go and nothing to buy...and no money to buy it with.”
― Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird

  Ford and I realize that summer doesn't officially start till June 20th this year, but we can't afford to drag our short little legs till then. We have got to make hay while the sun shines as they say. So...we have been as busy as a one-legged man at a butt kicking contest or as busy as a bee, or as busy as a WOW gamer at 3am, or as busy as a married man cleaning house when he finds out his wife is coming home a day early, or as busy as a beaver...I guess you get the point. And the thing about Ford is that he hasn't exactly been around for long enough to know how to fill his time, so he and I have had a lot of talks about great ways to spend the summer months, but sometimes he and I don't exactly agree, but we usually find a way to work it out or at least sleep on it after a good cry. So, here are a few things we have been up to as of late and its only June 12th. 

We have been playing catch, but Ford started crying a little when I said that, "The Natural" kills "Field of Dreams". What can I say, he already likes Kevin C. better than Robert R. He'll learn. But he stopped when I admitted that I thought, "Angels in the Outfield" was alright.

We have been catching up on our magazine reading. He says Running Times is the real deal, but Runner's World is for chumps. I tried to show him the merits of both, but he told me that I should just keep reading Garden & Gun and pretending I'd fit in at The Cloister. Ouch.

We tossed the disc around a little, but he said I've got to start thinking like a "handler" and not like a guy who likes to toss the disc on the quad on occasion. He also doesn't see the merits of the deep disc, but loves the short game. I told him I can see why. He said that was cold coming from a short man.

We have been cheering on our Braves, but there have been a couple times when we have had to drown ourselves in some milk after several multi-game losing streaks. He also doesn't understand why Chipper is always hurt. He doesn't really remember a time when he wasn't. I couldn't disagree with him.  

We've also been talking quite a bit. He seems to be interested in most any subject and loves to listen. He is the strong silent type, but when he does talk people listen.

Ford has also been trying to showcase the merits of the opened shirt look. He said it works for him, but not all of us have the body he does. He said mom loves you no matter what. What can I say, the little guy speaks some truth.

We've also had several disagreements. They end badly sometimes. He just doesn't understand some things. I try to tell him how things are, but he says things just aren't fair. 

He is a big fan of mom, but who isn't. She's the best and the only one we both know who can make most things okay.

FH has really learned to love the porch. He doesn't understand why everyone doesn't want a house with a porch. I tried to tell him about the suburbs, but he just wouldn't listen. He said they could have their subdivisions, security gates, prestigious, bourgeoisie names, and manicured lawns. He'd  rather just sit on the porch, watch the neighbors, wave a little, snooze a little, listen to the birds, and feel the breeze in his hair. I couldn't agree more.

We've also been changing quite a few diapers. He said cleanliness is next to Godliness. I told him that John Wesley said it, but he said he heard it was Charles, but he got a raw deal because he played the organ.

We've also been trying to find the perfect summer soundtrack. Sometimes we land on a keeper, but sometimes...

...we land on one we both hate pretty badly.

And we have even spent a week at the beach already. The weather wasn't that hot, but we didn't mind. The company was nice and we got to catch up on our favorite Law & Order episodes courtesy of a TNT marathon. Bring on the rain, grab the remote, and the Smartfood. And he said you don't have to have sunshine to rock the Wayfarers. I agree totally. 

Happy Summer and Happy Reading,

  David

Throwing the Yellow Dodder-Snippet 10

Snippet 9 can be found here: Throwing the Yellow Dodder

There are nine previous snippets of this story and I have set before myself the goal of trying to finish this story and two others during these summer months. I will be trying to add to this story and maybe adding the other two stories to the blog. I hope that is okay with you and I hope they're worth reading.


....He knew why I ticked and why I was really smiling." Mable replied having completely ignored Lucy's comment, knowing she hadn't really meant it and Lucy was glad she had......


...She needed a friend who could speak without using words. They never came out and said what you wanted them to. They seemed to craft themselves somewhere deep inside her and then flew out of her, but then forgot their purpose for being made and went their own way. They landed where they wanted and never landed softly; at least her words never did. 
   
    Mable longed to speak with William without the words that got in the way. She remembered driving to St. Augustine in the hours and days after their wedding. They just looked at each other and then out the windows and spoke to each other for days on end about all their dreams and fears. They laid upon each other all their hopes and how they wanted them to go all with nods and smiles. They agreed and disagreed all with glances and twitches. He could read her and she could hear him. They didn't need to talk. Their faces did all of it for them.


    "I know just what you mean, Mrs. Mable. I took some time off and I took my boy down to the coast. It was just too beautiful, Mrs. Mable. It was my first time down to the coast and it blew me away. All that beautiful, blue water and white sand spread out before you like Thanksgiving dinner. It was the prettiest thing I've ever seen. I used to have this place I loved to go down to on the river where the water made its way around two small curves and I used to sit in the middle of that river and think that nothing could be any more beautiful than that, but boy was I wrong. The strangest thing happened to me though when I saw all that beauty confined to one small spot. As soon as I saw it and watch my little boy see it, I wanted to share it with Melvin. Now I know what you're thinking...why in the name of all that is good and holy would she want to share something so beautiful with a rat bastard like Melvin? And you gotta' know that I agree with ya'. I hate that man and all he's done to me and Clive, but I must be pure crazy because something inside me still loves that man and I can't seem to hate him long enough to kill it. And trust me, I've been trying to kill it for the past eight years and it just won't die. You think hate would've killed it, but just the time you think you've buried it dead, something like the beauty of azure water makes it raise its ugly head. Oh' God, listen to me ramble like a crazy woman. I'm so sorry, Mrs. Mable. I'm sure that's more than you ever wanted to know about me. I just..."


    "Now, don't you apologize for nothing, sweetheart. It's just how we women are. If a woman can't talk to another woman than the whole world better shut up. I wish it weren't that way, but it just is and I hate it. I hate it almost worse than Satan himself. I have lived what you're talking about most of my life. There are just some things that won't die and there ain't enough hate, bitterness, lonlieness, or sadness to finish them off. Half my body wants to kill off every thought , memory,  and every everything that has anything to do with William, but the other half just sits there cryin', shakin', and sayin' William, oh' my sweet William, why'd ya' have to go so soon. Why did ya' have to leave me before I was ready to send you off? It about drives me even more crazy than I know I already am. Most of the time I sit here wishin' the good Lord would just take me to home so I could be with my sweet William again. It's all just too much to..."


  "Now look what at what we've started" , Lucy broke in with a high whine, " we're both singing the blues like ole' Blind Willie and wishin' for death or any old thing easier than livin'. I'm sorry I got this whole pity party started. We'd better get to walking and leave this sad place behind."


  "Now, Mrs. Lucy, eighty-eight years of living on this planet ain't no pity party and two women talkin' about the hand thats been dealt to them ain't no pity party either. Now, you just listen to..."


   "I didn't mean pity party like that, Mrs. Mable. It's just all I could think of at the moment. I just didn't want to cloud this beautiful day up with all this sadness, but I guess that Melvin always had a special gift of stealing any joy I ever got, so why would today be any different?"


  "Now, stop it right there, Mrs. Lucy. We ain't gonna place the blame on anyone for anything. Life is what it is and nothing else. I'm an old woman and I've lived a lot of this life and if there's one thing I've noticed is that everything in life is beauty and sadness. Ya' can't go wishing' for one and not get the other. It just wouldn't be right. How would we ever recognize the blessing of a sunrise if we hadn't almost got struck by lightning just the night before? I wouldn't and you wouldn't neither. You can't go round smellin' the roses without getting' stung by a bee and stuck by a thorn. It just wouldn't work any other way. Now I ain't sittin' here in this wheelchair sayin' its fun. I'm just telling you it is what it is. Now, let's get a move on and get some blood movin' or we'll both pass away and then find out livin' was so much better."


 "That sounds like a plan to me, Mrs. Mable. I've always appreciated the truth you always speakin'. I can say whatever's on my little mind and you'll listen and put it altogether for me. I don't feel judged and don't have to listen to someone preach at me 'bout somethin' I already know, but don't want to say out loud. I know what is and isn't livin' right, but life isn't always as cut and dry as some would have you believe it is..."


Be looking out for Snippet 11,


    David
   

A Meal from the Garden

The pleasure of eating should be an extensive pleasure, not that of the mere gourmet. People who know the garden in which their vegetables have grown and know that the garden is healthy and remember the beauty of the growing plants, perhaps in the dewy first light of morning when gardens are at their best. Such a memory involves itself with the food and is one of the pleasures of eating. The knowledge of the good health of the garden relieves and frees and comforts the eater.

--Wendell Berry, The Pleasures of Eating  

(I sincerely apologize for another Berry quote, but what do you expect from an amateur reader.)

     Something you may not know about me is that I actually really like to cook. And there are few things more fun to cook than food that you grew in your own garden. So, I had some pork chops that I had to grill, but we had nothing to go with it. I decided to go to our garden and find something to go with the pork chops. I picked some carrots, zucchini, and some green onions and here is what I did with them. 

I picked what I thought would be enough carrots for two people. 

A close-up picture of the carrots.

I had previously picked the zucchini and just clipped enough green onion for us to use. The little display of my garden goods.

First you have to wash the veggies.

Then trim them.

The finished product.

The left overs.

The clean carrots ready to be cut.

The carrots on the chopping block.

The cut carrots.

The bowl of carrots.

After I boiled the carrots long enough to make them a little softer, I put the carrots and added about a tablespoon and a half of butter.

I then added two tablespoons of honey and heated them up again hot enough to melt the butter and mix in the honey.

The washing of the zucchini.

The clean veggies.

The cutting of the zucchini.

I added the zucchini to a hot pan with onions and olive oil.

I then added pepper and garlic salt and sautéed the zucchini until it was a little softer.

I then cut up the green onions into small pieces.

The small onions ready to be consumed.

The final product. They all were very good. 

And some of the fun of cooking is the scraps generated that you get to give to the chickens. And so the cycle continues. 

Happy cooking and even happier eating,

    David

   

National Running Day

   Today is National Running Day! And the staff here at HTH want you to go outside and run. We don't want you to worry about your specialty running shoes, racing socks, GPS watches, your mile time, your gels, your personal records, or anything of the sort. In fact, we want you to forget all of that. We want you to revert to how you felt about running when you were in elementary school and your class finally got to go outside and you broke free from the classroom and the line as soon as your teacher gave you the word because there were 30 people in your class and there were only 10 swings. Run up hills not because they will make you faster, but for the view from the top. Run as fast as you possibly can not because it will help you increase your VO2 capacity, but because you like the feel of the wind in your hair. Challenge someone to race and try to remember how much fun the 50 yard dash was at school back when races were free, didn't come with a t-shirt, and you felt like you could beat everyone that was at the starting line because there was a blue ribbon at stake and bragging rights the next day in the cafeteria. Run alone to remember what it is to think your own thoughts. Run without music and remember what your gloriously created body sounds like and the very alive world around you. Run in a pack and draw your strength from the bodies around you. No matter how you celebrate today, we just want you to get out there and run like did when you did it for fun and for that alone. 

Happy Running,

   David

PS: Leave us a comment and let us know how you celebrated National Running Day.

My Ocmulgee Expedition-Part 2

“No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man.”
― Heraclitus

   All I can say is that I took too many pictures. The only explanation that I have is that even though it was only a 10 mile paddling trip, I was mesmerized with the fact that such a beautiful and scenic river was just a small ride in the car away from where I live. It made me very happy that God has allowed us to live here even though we have had some tough times here. It also made me so thankful that God created so many beautiful and varying biospheres on this awesome planet. I am so excited that one day Ford and I will be able to take trips like this as often as possible.

A small sweet gum sapling growing in the middle of the river on a rock. I love seeing the affects of seed dispersal, but that maybe the Biology teacher in me.

The worst of the drops in the second to last of the shoals. It doesn't look like much, but there was at least a one foot drop, which is a lot in a canoe. It was very exciting or at least I thought so.

The last of the shoals. I was sad to see them go, but I look forward to getting to make my way through them in the coming future. 

The bow of the trusty canoe as it finds the wide and slow Ocmulgee after braving nine shoals. 

The canoe launch at Amerson Water Works Park. My plan was to canoe the full distance from Pope's Ferry to downtown Macon, but by the time I made it this far, I was burnt and my rations and blood sugar were running low, so the call was made to Mel to come pick up her hubby.

I rested for about 15 minutes at the canoe launch at AWWP before I pushed off and made my way down another 30 minutes to finish off my little journey. 

The trip from the north end of AWWP to the south end of the park is very scenic and a great short (25 min) little trip. There are many places to stop and swim and several tree swings that people have set up on the banks that are fun to try out. 

The odd-shaped pavilion at Amerson Water Works Park. 

The little canal that I paddled through to finish my trip.

The bank and trees that I pulled my canoe through to load it into the car. It wasn't really that hard, but tougher that I thought it would be and made me marvel at the thought of transporting or porting my canoe any large distance like Lewis & Clark did. 

The trusty vessel after its first real trip. It did very well and did surprisingly well in the shoals. The only part that was tough was that I had to sit in the middle of the boat in order to balance it and it made it a little more difficult to paddle from that position. 

Thanks for reading and I hope you try the trip out. It is a great way to spend a day.

David

My Ocmulgee Expedition-Part 1

* I have been trying to finish this post since a little after Spring Break. Hope it is still a good post. Seems like sitting down to write a post is not quite as easy as it used to be. Maybe Ford can start writing them soon and then they will really be easy. In all actuality, I just haven't mastered the art of typing with one hand. And from what I've heard from others who have small ones, I am sure it is a skill I may be able to learn.

 I sailed up a river with a pleasant wind,

New lands, new people, and new thoughts to find;Many fair reaches and headlands appeared,And many dangers were there to be feared;But when I remember where I have been,And the fair landscapes that I have seen,Thou seemest the only permanent shore,The cape never rounded, nor wandered o’er.” – Henry David Thoreau,  A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers

It is wonderful how well watered this country is…. Generally, you may go any direction in a canoe, by making frequent but not very long portages. - Henry David Thoreau

   It began about a month after I'd moved home after college and I found myself in a used book store and I bought a very cheap copy of  A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, by Henry David Thoreau. It is about a week long trip that Thoreau took with his brother and all the things they saw and thought about while on the trip. I read it pretty quickly because it wasn't a long account and it was really good, but the idea about spending a week on a river was placed in my head and it has stayed there. It surfaced again when Mel and I were eating with some friends and one of the guys we were eating with mentioned that he used to hang out at a place called Pope's Ferry in high school and he and his friends used to canoe down the Ocmulgee to downtown Macon. He talked about how beautiful it was and how much fun he and his friends used to have. I decided I needed to take my canoe and make the trip, but wasn't sure exactly when and where that should or could take place, but then came the week that I had waited exactly three months for: Spring Break   I have previously written of my canoe and you can read about it here: My New Canoe. 

     As soon as we got home the night we ate out with some friends, I began looking up as much information as I could find out about all the landings there were on the Ocmulgee River. There wasn't much information that I could find, but I did find enough to feel that I could make the little 10 or so mile paddle down the river. And after church one Sunday, Mel and I drove a little north of Macon on Hwy 35 and found Pope's Ferry. It made me want to go right then, but the time wasn't right. During my Spring Break, one of the days was completely clear from any and all obligations and so, I decided to make the trip and I'm so glad that I did. Here are some pictures and some explanation of my trip. It took me from 11:00 AM to around 4:45 PM, but you could make it a little faster or you could make it an all day affair. 

Loading up the trusty canoe and heading out. We have to load it this way until Mel can lift again.

Backing the car down and unloading the canoe at Pope's Ferry, which is about 20 minutes north of Macon.

The signage at Pope's Ferry. 

You can never forget that you are in the South when you are in Georgia.

I had made around 8 small trips with my canoe, but all of them had been around Macon and the river is wide, smooth, and flat, but I was in for a day full of Class I rapids (very small rapids for those of you like me who don't spend their lives in a kayak). It was very, very fun and exciting. 

The backside of the first of 9 different areas of rapids or "shoals" that I got to take my canoe over and through. It was awesome and very beautiful. It made me feel like I was in North Georgia instead of just 25 minutes north of my house.

Getting ready to take on shoal #2.

A view from shoal #3.

Trying to decide which way would be best and lead to the best results (aka: not tipping over) as I approached shoal #4.

After I rode through shoal #4, I decided to take a break and ate two oranges and swam a little while. They both were a good break from paddling and from the sun.

During my little break, I jumped from rock to rock and did a little exploring around the shoal. I just couldn't believe that I was getting to paddle down such a beautiful waterway. I was used to paddling through small rapids like this when I lived on and near Lookout Mountain Plateau, but this was middle Georgia and the mountains were 2 hours north of me.

Back on the river and ready for the next shoal!

About an hour after my first little break, the sun was really starting to bake and I decided to take another refreshing swim. So, I parked the canoe and swam for several minutes and ate another orange and drink some water.

As I was swimming around, I noticed all the different types of rocks and the patterns that they displayed. I normally would have noticed this and moved on, but since I've spent the last year teaching Earth Science, I really noticed the rocks. Well, what can you say besides geology really does rock. 

A happy paddler on the Ocmulgee River.

Happy reading and be looking for Part 2,

   David