The Weekend

Yesterday the peaks were snow covered; today they are three-quarters bare of cover.  It wasn't particularly warm yesterday, we had periodic rain showers, but I think the wind was the factor that removed the snow.  A light Chinook was blowing most of the day.  The Snow family and I got together to celebrate Sarah's birthday (a day late) at Reubens Bistro in the afternoon, and I got home in time to see Finding Your Roots on PBS.  Saturday evening I spent a couple of hours with Rosie and Remy, and I'm getting ready to head back over to walk them this morning.  My kits are enjoying the sunshine, even though Lovey keeps running in to check on me every 5 minutes or so.
  I found the other day that I can no longer multi-task doing important things.  I was watching the video of Kenny Rogers and the First Edition sing "Just Dropped In to See What Condition..."; I was really into the music and was tapping my fingers along with the beat.  That was when there was a close-up of Kenny Rogers, and I realized that it looked like my nephew Mike.  I was also working on my brother-in-law's family tree. His maternal family has a large number of members, and (thank goodness!) a relative documented the family up to 1898.  In my enjoyment of the music, and the startling sight of "my nephew" on the video, I managed to click the mouse twice.  Once to delete the original citation, and once to say, yes, of course I want to do that.  As I was clicking the second time, I realized that I had just erased the citation documenting over 3,000 relatives for Jim's family.  I freaked.  My cousin Sarah told me to do a system recovery, and I breathed a huge sigh of relief.  I did the recovery.  Then I realized that my PC thinks my family tree is a document, so the system recovery did not work.  I have spent the past week trying to get all the citations back onto the various relatives...   Aieee!
   The clouds cleared just in time for Boulder to see last night's eclipse of the sun.  ....  Gary Sinese and the Lt. Dan Band played in Parker yesterday (I would have gone, had I been aware of it).   ....  I'll Have Another has arrived at Belmont Park, and will begin to prepare for the final race in the Triple Crown.  Jockey Steve Cauthen, who was aboard Affirmed, the last Triple Crown winner in 1978, compared the two chestnuts yesterday, and said that he believes that I'll Have Another can win the Belmont, too.  He stated that the compact chestnut colt has the same quiet drive and will to win that Affirmed possessed. ....  Tangier Island, in the Chesapeake Bay, is disappearing into the  Bay.  The water level is rising, there is a good deal of soil erosion from the waves, and there is land subsidence, all contributing to the permanent loss of land.  From the air, Tangier used to look like a fish hook - now it looks like a teardrop.  The island town of Saxis, in Accomack County, is also disappearing.  If breakwaters and dredging are not done quickly, both of these towns with 400 years of history apiece will soon sink under the waters....

Duh! Apples, Plus Gravity, Can Hurt

Yesterday afternoon, I was once again watching Dhisana and Lyra climbing about in the apple tree.  I was sitting on the stone bench, looking almost straight up.  The kits were moving to another limb, and I was focused on the two of them.  Boy, am I stupid....  A large apple (they are red delicious apples, by the way) fell from one of the top branches and struck my forehead above my right eye.  While I was rubbing my forehead, and still stupidly looking up, another apple came down and landed on my upper lip.  Being me, of course my front teeth cut into my lip, but not all the way through (thank goodness!).  So I had a lump on my forehead and a bloody mouth because I was watching young cats climb a tree.   Sheeesh!  I looked like I had been in a fist fight last night, because I had this swollen bruised lump on my forehead, and a swollen bruised mouth (that still occasionally decides to bleed a bit).  - It should've happened on the afternoon of Halloween!

Last Saturday, Chincoteague held it's 39th annual Oyster Festival; it was again sold out 10 days before the actual event.   ....  And on that day, the Museum of Chincoteague Island, which opened on April 9 of this year, had it's 10,000th visitor.   ..... This Saturday, October 15, is the annual Chili and Chowder Cook-off  held behind Don's Seafood and in the new downtown City Park.  ....  I am also looking forward to the release of a new documentary, made by actor and director Hamilton Meadows.  We all know that folks from Chincoteague, Tangier, and Smith Islands speak differently, and have a lot of ancient words in their vocabulary.  In the PBS series, The Story of English, it was reported that these islands speak a preserved form of Elizabethan English - and having investigated several of my Mother's everyday words, I have to concur.  In any event, "Speak the Speech, I Pray Thee..." is a documentary about Old English and word usage; much of it was filmed on Tangier Island in the Chesapeake Bay.  I know that it is to be released soon, but I don't know exactly when.  However, one can view several clips from the documentary at:  http://www.hamiltonmeadowsfilms.com/ .

My kits seem to realize that Mocha is gone.  They are much more relaxed and Nedi is getting more demonstrative each day.  Lovey still talks up a blue streak, runs in and out, and generally has a blast.  Nedi wants love and assurance, and a sunny spot to bask in.  ....   Tessa is a funny girl - she bounds about the yard like a gazelle, and jumped over both Rosie and Remy this morning in the back yard.  I am going to take Lovey and Nedi over to the house tomorrow, after lunch.  Tazi, the house cleaner, will be there Friday morning, and she runs through the house, vacuuming and mopping, watering plants, dusting everything, doing laundry - although I do my own, when I'm there.  Lilly doesn't like Tazi because Tazi operates the vacuum, and she thinks the vacuum will suck her up, no matter where she hides.  So I figure I'll take my kits over after Tazi has left, and they can have four afternoons of playing in the huge back yard at Lynn's.