Garden, visitors Early July 2010

Today went to the garden in the morning and evening - about two hours each time

Our garden this year is not great - we had a very late start and have not done much very often. Got the peas in mid-May, too late to really get much from them. We pulled them this week, and tilled over them and planted corn, very late now.

We got up fairly early for a Saturday, around 9, ate and stuff, and went to the City Market with the slim possibility Robert and Suzanne would be there for breakfast stuff, but didn't see them - I got beans as Deej dropped me off, and she found a parking place quickly and got peaches. Then we went to get seeds at South States - corn, squash, zucchini, okra, and (against Deej's advice, cause it's way too late) watermelon and pumpkin. They had no veg plants so we went off to K Mart which had a $6 pot of about 8 watermelon plants.

Then home, and off to the garden around 11, working there in the hot sun until about one. Deej watered some and picked garlic, dug holes and planted zucchini and squash seeds; also a third row of beans; I weeded and then tilled the pea area.

Came home and rested, after picking up Taco's taco and burrito each. Saw Spain beat Paraguay. I went by myself around 6:30 and worked until about 8:30. Planted the corn, dug holes for watermelon and pumpkin and planted their seeds. Also dug six holes and planted watermelon plants. Also okra seeds at the east end between the corn rows. And watered what I had planted. Indian family came to water the east Europeans garden. Earlier the girl, just to the Indian's eat pot, worked and watered her plot.

Exhausted, showed, made ice tea, drank refreshing vodka and tonic, before warming and eating the hamburger, corn cob, and bean supper.

The garden has pretty good pepper plants, and the tomatoes are coming. Last weekend we worked, forked up and tilled the northwest area, and planted two rows of beans.

That was Saturday.

Last night, Friday night - Robert and Suzanne came to town, staying at the Hydraulic / Emmet road Holiday Inn, we figured out. We picked them up around 7:30 and went to Maya restaurant; moving to a back quiet room to ourselves. Fish and oyster suppers - including Robert's story of bumping into an Indian women at a Texas convention, getting her to pinpoint she was from Jabalpur, with an aunt in Pendra Road, and maybe even one of her aunts was a nurse for Robert's father. Robert was facing the window and got exited as trains went by - much to the derision from the women - hey, trains were important in our Indian childhoods. And I told them the story of killing Frederick Hart and Gene Markowski's cockatiel. Robert had asked if we knew Fred, and so I told him.

After going past the parking lot for the City Market, we took R and S back to their hotel. It was a pleasant, and different Friday night. Really glad they contact us when the come through.

Signs of Spring 2010

There were beginning signs of Spring all around and in our yard this last weekend Feb 27/28, the last weekend of February - sprouting daffodils and other plants, crocuses, snowdrops, melting snow, melted snowman, birds - even dog, raccoon, and deer poop. Lots of limbs had been broken off from the heavy snow during the storm, many from our evergreen 'pine' tree.

Also tis the season of birthdays - mine last Wed, Tim's the next day, and the twins on Sunday.  Deej took me to supper and then made a cake Thursday.  We took over and left gifts and a card for Tim on Saturday, even though no one was there.  Didn't get over to give the twins gifts and cards, though.



My digital classes keep going on - last Thursday we had a nice session at the Bayly Museum. In teams of 4-5, we decided on cataloging schemes for our 7 MesoAmerican art objects - I was the Handler for our group, wearing plastic gloves and carefully lifting and turning the objects.  Two schemes were hierarchical and two were serial.  This night's (Tuesday 2 March 2010) class focused on Mind as Metaphor with the developer of a web site, Pasanek, at the class for interactive conversation about his work.  The dreaded mid-term is coming up.

Snow in early Feb 2010

Snow - we've had unusual amounts of snow and storms this winter of 2009/2010, and last Friday was another one, though not as huge (about 8-10 new inches of snow). But it lasted all Friday and all Saturday.  Luckily a neighbor clears our street, but still it was hard to get the refrozen snow off of Deej's car and shovel for more than an hour to clear out the snow around her car.

See Snow Feb 2010 and click on Slide Show

Lots of limbs fell with this storm - Ned across the street had about 3 large limbs fall.  At 502, the owners moved two cars from their drive way, and 4 hours later two large branches came down on top.  Over night Saturday a huge branch fell on to our front east-side yard - luckily hitting no roof, but ruining a couple of bushes, like the bamboo 'holly'. 

I went late Sunday morning to help Ned and his son to carry branches down to the bottom of the street, and Ned kindly chain-sawed our fallen branch.  The smaller longer branches are in a pile to the right of our sidewalk, while the sawed logs are to the left of our sidewalk -- ready for Shirley to pick up some time.

The wet snow just kept building up, and building up on the branches all Saturday.  I think the low temperatures (around 10 F) Saturday night stopped some of the build up, and Sunday's 40s degree sunshine made snow to keep plopping down and falling all day long - squirrels had a hard time getting out of their nets on the snow-laden branches, and walked or clung to the underside of branches to get around.

Then Monday morning we woke to a broken furnace - by 10 am a repairman had come and replace the thermo coupling so that the pilot light would light and the furnace would run again - after $119 expenses.

I'll try to link some photos here later

Deej took me to work around 1:30, and I went to a somewhat disorganized Kaltura training hour in Clemons, lead by a trainer in Israel. And then did other work.

Int the late evening, Mark came by to pick up a check for his college expenses - the same amount for a check I had sent to him in the last days of December, and to Brian, and Rachel (and Eliza and Lauren), but which Mark has not been able to find where he put.

We had a nice steak, baked potatoe, and broccoli dinner Monday night.  Norton anti-virus people called or chatted with me twice, and remotely took over my computer - Priyankar before I left for work and Sripad in the evening, supposedly to fix the Norton software which keeps saying I have to uninstall and re-install my software.  Still not fixed.

Minds in Motion 20 Jan 2010

Minds in Motion is a program for 4th graders

in Charlottesville, Virginia to encourage physical activities linked

to mental activities - improve and develop those synapses.

Also it was a lively performance by Greenbrier school 4th graders [55 second video link]

on Wed night the 20th Jan 2010 at their school, for parents

(and grandparents like me

to see my granddaughter Rachel in action, or motion [26 second video link]).

Afterwork Tuesday 19 Jan 2010

Librarians meeting after work just to relax? what a concept!  I joined several other librarians AfterWork at a Corner restaurant, for cheap beer, good snacks and nachos, and conversations - personal, professional, the whole range!  Good time.

Montalto Heritage Harvest Festival

The Montalto 3rd Heritage Harvest Festival attracted a large number of cars, people for a great variety of talks, workshops, events, stalls, food, tastings.  This year it was on Brown's mountain, just a across the road from Monticello.  Deej went up around 10:30 am and said it was packed, crowded, but good with lots of apple, cheese and other tastings.  She came back to get me, so we could go up and go on the 1:45 pm tour that Peter Hatch gave.

He did a fantastic job - talking first about Montalto's history and plans about it, then walked over and viewed Monticello below, and finally around the back or south part of the mountain where he talked about the vineyards, Thomas Jefferson's failed attempts at farming, etc.

We then (around 3 pm) went back to the main areas of tents and stalls, with Deej standing in a long line to get the wonderful donuts they were making and sold up there.  We sat and ate them with $1 sodas.  Deej had seen Betsy and Wes, Gary and Linda L up there. I didn't see Betsy, but Gary and Linda went on the tour also.  Annie and Herb were there also - they had been at the two previous festivals.  Anne B bought a plant, but we didn't talk to her. I briefly talked with Peter who remembered me as making some Indian food at the beach (20 years ago?) - food he really doesn't like, but he enjoyed mine.  He mentioned that he had gone up and visited Vijay and family in the intervening years, but not in the last couple.

I took some photographs with my new Lumix, and, for the first time, took some video with my new Sony.  Don't think I yet know how to use it well.  Learning and experimenting.

It was a beautiful sunny day, and we left around 3:40, before the Festivals end at 4, and went down to Carter's mountain and bought some apples before coming home.  We then went to the new Monticello Center, where I had not been yet. Deej made some great steak, potatoes, salad for supper, as I finished listening to the Texas Christian U defeat UVa - around the last 3 minute mark UVa was down 30 - 0, but they quickly made two scores (no first downs in the second half), so the 30-14 score didn't look that bad.

Last night I went the After Five and a nice crowd there - it is already getting dark, which makes my photographing people not as good.

The work week was normal, with several difficult and different purchase requests for expensive items, which makes it hard with this reduced book budget.  Gene, Paul, and Kurtis are trying to figure out exactly what is in the microfiche and microfilm in the Buddhist gift which we retained, and I think expecting more than what is there.  I finalized my list of South Asia and Buddhist journals for the Asian Studies Room.  Dawn turned over Overseas Acquisitions correspondence and management of those invoices and payments, out of Bud's hands.  David G was very good in his 1 hour presentation on Shanti.  Deej and I gave an ENWR session Friday for a class on Utilitarian Ethics.  Reference work has with the usual requests for searching and discovery for first time users.  The Schwartzberg SA Historical Atlas copy in Alderman Ref is missing, and we were almost blamed for that, but the copy we have in the Asian Reading Room is 1978 and not the 1992 one missing from the Ref room.

Re-organized my CD collection - alphabetical, except for groups of Indian, Mali, self-made collections, and audio reading CDs.  Some disputes over a few that Deej thinks are hers.  Cut down the privets in the back upper yard, and topped off the blackberry bushes.  Went and got a few tomatoes and peppers from the garden and weeded the corn there. The smelly dead mouse, which Deej caught and killed in a trap in the pantry, didn't deter the groundhog in the back yard, though we put it on his path under the fence
.
Some nice photos of Eliza and Okiboji from Julie on Facebook; and Tim's messages.  Betty phoned Thursday evening, saying they were not going with Scott to India in late Demember.  Kathy sent a new schedule of Rachel's soccer for the next 2.5 months, starting next Saturday.

Well, the Festival and Peter's tour was certainly the high point for this week.

Monticello Walkway

Went with Deej, late Labor Day (Monday 7 Sept 2009) morning for a 20 minute walk Monticello Walkway. 20 minutes up and 20 down, in order to start to get ready for hiking up Nag Tibba in the Himalayas in late October. But it's up the peak is at 10,000 feet and here its around 450 feet.

Also Saturday turned in our visa applications through Fed Ex.

Sunday did some picking of a few tomatoes and peppers, and marigolds, and of the first okra. That night make a delicious okra, tomato, onion mix with rice and shrPlus someimp, followed by 1/2 Butterfinger bar and 2 rasgullas. Yum.

Mehr wrote a wonderful poem, and Deepak and Holly's baby girl was born the evening of the 5th Sept. These were the positive things over the week end, compared to learning two negative hings 1) of Helen's brother George's horrible accident mid August in Mussoorie tripping over the khud and air lifted to Delhi from Dehradun with a C5 fracture paralyzing him (a web site started up for donations to pay for George's expenses, so he could eventually get home to Australia), and 2) Marianna's husband Bob's death after a couple years of cancer.

Friday Jane came over from Lexington (from her home in England), where she was staying with a college friend, for 3 or so hours of meeting, lunch, touring the Pavilion gardens - warm re-connections after 50 years and talk of family, friends, travels, etc. Friday afternoon the Pakistani ambassador gave a talk in Newcomb Hall.

Today Tuesday (8th Sept), it was back to work, meeting Eve and her American Indian language class, as she showed them the PM books, and a little time in Clemons 407 about InterLibrary loans, etc. Also trying to deal with Gene's request for some microfilm or other materials, working with Nawang and Cindy. Lunch sandwich downstairs as it was still drizzling outside, with the new beer or stout rye bread I made yesterday. Not a really tasty loaf. The Reference from 1-3, helping 3 new users trying to find books, and other stuff. Walter's "Biography as History" book - to get Annette to rush catalog it - plus two D Kosumbi titles and the two Bihar People's volumes. Finished up the hot dogs - after did grocery shopping. Snoozed away as usual in front of the TV

Gail wrote a wonderful description of her lush surroundings - plants, trees, birds, animals, butterflies, cats. Lindsay's off for 3 weeks.

Sorry this is such a random hogepoge