07 September 2005

stacking up to be an interesting autumn


One of my sisters and I were discussing the weather during a telephone chat today. She lives near Wisconsin's Cave of the Mounds, a national landmark and a fascinating (tourable!) geological wonder. The house is on a high hill with a miles-wide view south and west; behind the house -hell, surrounding the house like a stronghold- are old oak trees. They're surrounded by woods deep and full with them.

She said that the trees there have been mighty stressed this summer, that the leaves have already begun their abracadabra-presto-chango seasonal color change. But the trees seem to be grunting and groaning as their leaves fade into pale greens and sickly yellows, as if to say "Please, just leave us with the small amount of chlorophyll we have left. We're hot. We're tired. We're thirsty. We need our dormancy, dammit. We need rest. Leave. Us. Alone.". We both agreed that the first week of September is unusually early for trees to be changing colors and/or losing their leaves. It's indicative that the summer's drought was very hard on the natural world and I can't help but wonder if that can't be an ominous sign of the upcoming autumn and winter months which I already find to be difficult even in their most boring most regular guises.

Not only have they been seeing leaves changing colors already, but she reports that the acorns are falling by the bajillions. Never having lived in such a rural location I've never had reason to consider it, but my sister reports that an oak forest dropping its collective acorn load on a house roof sounds not unlike an automatic weapon loaded with approximately 10 minutes worth of bb pellet rounds. Every ten minutes.

MORE FUN WITH ACORNS
She asked me to picture a cartoon creature throwing an open package of ball bearings across a floor, just before another character enters the room. Arms flailing, legs scrambling so fast that the eye cannot see them moving, the dastardly do-badder snickering from behind a wall as he hears "whooaaa whooaaaa whoooaaa whoooaaa!" emitted in high-pitched squeals from the slippery floored room... this apparently describes EXACTLY how her family looks when they try to go outside. The only way they can clear the bajillions of acorns off their long driveway (and the porches and the steps, and the...) is to use an electric leaf blower which really doesn't get rid of them as much as it gets them rolling like a big clickety tumbleweed until they hit the ditch at the end of the driveway. And the flat surfaces stay clear for about 4 hours, max. Then it's time to start the whole process over again.

Once she starts talking about how two adults, one child and a dog all turn into cartoon characters when they are forced to walk on said acorns I can't help myself -- guffaws and chortling, blowing coffee up n'out my nose in fact. I say to her, "Gosh I wish you could be at my bedside every morning to wake me up this way. I can't remember having laughed so hard so early in the day. I love how much and how easily you can amuse me".

She said "Amuse? Or abuse. Because the difference is slight but probably fairly important".

I replied, "If you can do the former I probably won't even notice if you try the latter".

We all have to live with a variety of adorable nuts. Some put a wrench in the mobility works while others - like K., simply enhance the experience while we're here. I'm glad I have siblings and I wish our trees a restful season soon.

05 September 2005

auction action



It's never a bad time to take a nap. Take these two vintage Santa coin banks, they found a sunny spot and curled up for a snoozer at the auction I attended... if it hadn't have been for the heat and the crowd I may have just laid myself down to join them!

Consider how you spend your time and how much of that time you think 'eeh, it's just sleep'. Pretend your days and nights were magically reversed, and all that time you spent going and doing and talking and seeing and meeting and appointmenting and planning and reporting in on got to be turned into sleep time.

What would that be like, do you suppose?

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