There is no blue without yellow and orange.
vincent van gogh
Deep in the heart of winter down under, aussies everywhere are gearing up, as the temp dips to a dangerously low 56F. comments such as, ‘ I cannot take this freezing weather one day longer!’, ‘ how are we expected to get through this ?’and ‘how long will this last?!, are heard on the street. Scarves, mittens, hats, winter coats, boots, hot water bottles, and of course, a cup of hot tea all come into play. I feel the air and i look to the sky and I wonder…….
there is no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.
relaxing way to ease into the day, with a stroll by the Indian Ocean, nothing to do but feel the breeze, take in the salt air, feel the winter sun on my face, keep a sharp eye out for shark fins, in Western Australia.
recently, after much debate and financial and political wrangling, the city demolished some of the old houses at the far end of main street in an attempt to create ‘a blight-free zone, a welcoming gateway to our city.’
this project and the demo crew doing the work were met with mixed reactions:
– a rotary club member stopped to applaud them and told them it was gratifying to see them going down. it was becoming ‘his kind of neighborhood.’
– 3 homeless people shared their memories of squatting in the houses with the crew.
“I used to sleep in the one on the end. It was called the Dirty Squat,” said a man who identified himself only as Pig Pen, a self-described train hopper and hitchhiker. He said they sleep out in the woods now, but at different points each of them stayed in the houses being demolished.
“That was the one I stayed in last year,” said a man who goes by the name Pooh, pointing to another of the houses. “I met my fiancee and we stayed in that one for two weeks.”
Karma, a local who was with Pig Pen and Pooh, said she had a bad incident occur in one of the houses and she’s not sad to see that one go, but she lamented the loss of the rest.
“My personal opinion is they should really keep these,” she said. “If they’re condemned and about to collapse like the one on the end is, yeah, probably tear them down. But if they’re perfectly good and could be fixed up to live in, they should donate it to the city.”
Karma said it seems like the options for homeless people who prefer not to stay at the homeless shelters are becoming fewer.
“I don’t know what they’re doing right now, but it seems like they’re trying to clean up the whole town and they’re clearing people out from underneath the bridges, all the parks, and they’re getting rid of every place for the people who have no place to go,” she said. “It’s a problem.”
the mayor and police chief could not immediately be reached for comment. luckily pigpen, pooh and karma, were available for comment.
Where thou art, that is home.
another walk down the hall with my kindergarten class.
another answer to a question much bigger than i ever imagined.
‘hey z, what does that key around your neck open?’
‘it opens everything in the world,’ says z.
nothing like the feeling of wearing my spring dress and strappy sandals to school. ha – winter be damned, i was floating on air – swingy, breezy, light, summery! found out halfway through the day, at recess, that not only was my dress light as a cloud, it was also completely see-through. i only found out at that point because a fellow teacher described exactly what i was wearing under my dress while i was wearing it, and happily chatting away with her in the sun. thought back on all the places i’d been that day – beginning with a stroll past the administration at our faculty breakfast, greeting our children at the curb as they were dropped off for the day, a saunter past many parents in the hallways, a walk to another building on campus and a meeting with human resources, dropping off the kids at specials’ classes all over the school, lunch with 2 classes, and on and on. well, at least it makes me feel better about the day i wore my shirt inside out all day as i completed errands all over town. not so bad in comparison and it really puts things in perspective – i am now beginning to better understand how janet may have felt after her wardrobe malfunction at the super bowl. i wonder if we’ll have a dress code next year?
Sometimes you can’t see yourself clearly until you see yourself through the eyes of others.
as we waited at the gate for our plane, i was amazed by the new ‘system’ in place. i couldn’t quite get a handle on it at first, didn’t know exactly where to sit, where to line up, when, etc.
this is how the gate agent explained it to me. ‘we’ll call you by your letter and you stand in a single file line by the pole that has your number on it that goes with your letter that we’ll call and then we’ll call you by letter and number together and and we’ll know you by that. there are approximately 100 small strips of spaces with seats with numbers.’ being the black sheep that i am, i waited until the last possible second to get into line in my assigned number/letter place, and was met with gate agent glares. i think some of the other sheep may have been upset with me too.
People, like sheep, tend to follow a leader – occasionally in the right direction.
In order to be an immaculate member of a flock of sheep, one must above all be a sheep oneself.
The shepherd always tries to persuade the sheep that their interests and his own are the same.
as we walked down the hall and he pointed into a classroom, v said to me, ‘i had a girlfriend eve, who is in that big kids’ kindergarten room, and she is 6, one year older, but now she has a new boyfriend, and so i got a new girlfriend, who is 5 like me, and is right in our own room.’ (well played v, and for some reason, the only word that came to my mind was, ‘cougar.’)
think he may be from out of town too.
1. the bullets & mullets store
2. cowboy church
3. dukes of hazard museum
4. goo goo clusters
5. honky tonks
6. live radio shows
7. southern stack breakfast – slow smoked pulled pork, sweet potato pancakes, fried apples, fried egg, home fries (pile it up, pour syrup on top, and go)
8. everything tastes better in a mason jar
9. full sized replica of the parthenon in the middle of a city park
10. washtub, washboard, spoons and other random household items band
11. mosey-ing is a speed you amble through life with
12. speak-easy’s still exist
each of these are part of life there and i love them all.
I didn't have my glasses on.... 