WITHERING, STIFLING, SUFFOCATING HEAT

Today,  Aug.2, my yard usually would be filled with brazen naked ladies who parade about my yard, front and back with only a eye-catching trumpet flowered covered bonnet on their slender body of a single stem. [Picture from previous year.]

Naked Ladies in Our
Formerly Benign Neglected
Front Yard

Nor have I seen any Naked Ladies in my area to date. There is still time, but peak weeks in my area have always been last 2 weeks in July and first 2 weeks in August.

In a previous post I mentioned unusual turning of leaves of a ditch weed known a sumac (not poisonous variety), a common colorful bush-like weed that exists in a number of varieties throughout U.S. It usually turns yellow to orange to red with a rather large seed head in mid-to late September in my area. 

Sumac, 2009- -Notice varying 
shades of yellow, orange, red
and no seed head yet in sight.

Sumac is turning color now. I further checked several areas near me to see if there was some reason other than heat. In some areas it appears the Arkansas highway mowers may be spray killing some where the mowers cannot clear right-of-ways and intersections. However, I have seen sumac which appeared to be on private properties as well as some green sumac with fully formed seed heads.

Sadly, I am seeing many native trees dying or already dead.

It seems paradoxical to have had flood levels of rains two consecutive years, and at least this year, followed by severe heat and drought.

Meteorologists and other specialties that study atmosphere of the earth and nature's response to various conditions claim changes in temperatures of the oceans directly affect the conditions such as the U.S. Specifically, the warming or cooling of the southern Pacific Ocean near the equator cause conditions named La Nina or Lo Nino and determine more severe summers or severe winters. at higher or lower latitudes.

The same specialists along with geologists and archaeologists also bring into account global warming. In September we will be touring a couple of archeology sites where effects of climate show a different life form once in existence.

I remember a similar Arkansas summer when we moved to here in May 1980 from Texas. It was transitory moved in that at times we were in a Texas apartment and other times, in Arkansas, setting up our manufactured home, or in a local motel.

Snoopy (spayed female), our first German
Shepherd bought in Morocco.
I am not sure who took this photo nor
exactly where we were living, except
except it was NOT in Baltimore.

We had our first dog, an aging German Shepherd female, named Snoopy. Once, while we all were in the Texas small apartment, the temperature was 110 deg.--no idea what heat index was.

The entire complex's air conditioning system failed--not for a few hours--for a couple of days, All three of us, yes, dog included, laid on the floor with oscillating fans moving air across our bodies wrapped in wet towels, Needless to say we were scantily clad.

My husband was finishing his job as a mechanic at a marine business which was closing due to a divorce settlement, if I remember correctly.

I am no expert, only an observer for my tiny part of the world. However, I know all nature is cyclic. Even this concept is Biblical, such as the oft quoted Ecclesiastes 3 with which I now sign off:

A Time for Everything

Naked Lady bud before opening -2009

¹ There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:
² a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, ³ a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
⁴ a time to weep and a time to laugh,    a time to mourn and a time to dance,
⁵ a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
⁶ a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
⁷ a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
⁸ a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.

and further in the same chapter:
¹⁴ I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that people will fear him. ¹⁵ Whatever is has already been,
and what will be has been before;
and God will call the past to account.


I interpret "fear" to mean respect. Verse 15 to be the Biblical equivalent of "history repeats itself." Hence, 1980 and 2011 are easily included in this cyclic nature.

[Photos, except as noted, and opinions are mine, and only that, opinion.]

RANDOM MEMORIES OF BALTIMORE

I haven't mentioned much about Baltimore in my 2+ years of postings. Baltimore was our first stop in 42+ years of marriage. I have no photos immediately at hand.

On one of my treks from Norfolk VA to Baltimore, I finally found a rental in Ferndale, a suburb. It was a very old two story house with basement that had been converted into two "apartments." We rented the larger lower one; electricity and water/sewer were paid.

The upstairs renters varied and often were short term. They made lots of noise. The ceiling was thin; we knew when they were on the toilet or taking baths (together) from sounds inas the drain pipe from the upper floor as it descended, exposed through our kitchenette, right near our little dinette. Glad it was cast iron and never leaked! We heard some interesting conversations while dining. The drainpipe and thin ceiling were very good megaphones.

One couple was into drugs and had a lot of parties. (also a dog which was prohibited by our landlord). The drugs led to a raid and they were evicted. I understand the dog's eliminations were all within the apartment and further description is needless. The landlord had unimaginable expense in making the apartment livable again.

About a year later the city sewer backed up into our basement. The city owning the sewer plant had to evacuate all of us into motels and were responsible for cleaning up the mess. YUCK YUCK YUCK. My darkroom was in basement; I think we had sort of a den in basementwhich we did not use.

This was a very busy time of our "just married" lives. I had found employment with a pharmacy chain, READ's, as a relief pharmacist. I covered all of Baltimore.

I quickly learned it was a city, whose citizens were of varied ethnicity. There were blacks, whites, Polish and Jewish  to name a vary few. It was somewhat amusing, within the city, various ethnic groups seemed to segregate themselves into areas of the huge city.

The pharmacy chain seemed to have mainly Jewish ownership, administrators, supervisors, etc. A large number of pharmacists were Jewish of various sects. The Jewish supervisor and person in charge of hiring pharmacists, said he loved to have a few "Gentiles" come along as they worked the Jewish holidays. I obligingly and gladly worked their holidays, but strangely the same Jewish persons wanted off all the "Gentile" holidays, too.

I had to learn a bit of a new language, as Texanese was not spoken in Baltimore. A BUN and a ROLL were exactly opposite my definition of each.  A bag and a sack were different too. Nobody there knew what a gunny sack was.... A delightful older Jewish pharmacist worked along side me at one of the all-night stores. He educated me in the language of Baltimore, not to mention he thought I had an awful accent and drawl. I thought the same of his Yiddish.

My husband is not a sports addict at all, but liked baseball a bit. We went to several Baltimore Orioles games. The tickets were not too expensive, especially when compared to the Baltimore Colts who were at their pinnacle of success with Johnny Unitas.

We usually left  game early. If it were a close game, we sat in the car and listened to the finish. One midsummer night I noticed a long line forming around the stadium. There were make-shift tents and cook stoves for cofee and hot snacks. I asked a passerby why the line was forming, as it was past 10 p.m.

To my amazement, these die-hard fans were forming to buy season tickets for the Baltimore Colts. Some had been there more than one day! Obviously, I never attended a Colts game. [Nor my Dallas Cowboys, either, and guess I never will, as one ticket is terribly expensive.]

We were tourists when our schedules allowed--Like Gettysburg, Fort McHenry, Washington DC several times.  I loved the Smithsonian museums.

What amazed me was how many Baltimore citizens never visited Fort McHenry. My husband's ship was moored near Fort McHenry, inspiration for our national anthem.

We never made Pimlico, the second leg of the Triple Crown of Horse racing, but we attended some kind of buggy racing, and a lot of demolition derbies.

We bought new cars, and wardrobes, and in general, settled into marriage, as much as possible.
This house is where I discovered a certain clock from Shelly's family was haunted which will have to be a separate story.
We had good neighbors with a spoiled old German Shepherd named Felicia, of which I have previously written. She had a 4 p.m. daily gravy train over about a 4 street area.

We made one or two trips to Texas, also.
Then the military change of station and new orders changed life again.

[Apologize for not finding pictures. I recently discarded all slides and prints.]

Dueling Chairs - Part V: Get Me to the Church on Time

Wonder if those lonely pair of rings will ever find a home?

It is time for the...hmmm.....fun, IF, indeed, any wedding can be fun. Grab a second cup of coffee or ?? and find a recliner, because this post is a LOOOONG one. There may be an epilogue, or two, because we did not arrive at our first home (Baltimore) for at least another month after as brief stint in Norfolk.

In Part 1 I compared our motivational types, A and Z. In Part 2 I illustrated the unusual 13-year courtship, the military aspect, my love of single life and finally engagement and a wedding date, Friday, Feb. 21, 1969. In Part 3 the problems LC had in arriving in Texas from Virginia, being basically MIA--a military term for missing in action. In Part 4 'Exasperated' is the best adjective for chasing an apparition all night in downtown Dallas.

If I had not been nearly comatose from previous two days, we might have thought of "shaking a leg" down the aisle as the couple in the YouTube video below.

It might been more appropriate for me in a hospital gown to arrive on a gurney suffering severe exhaustion, chasing down the groom apparition, also dubbed the 'ghostly groom' in Dallas for 2 days, including 400+ mi. in a car with 4 adventurous friends in tow. Life Companion(LC) might stagger down the aisle, 4 sheets to the wind, especially since he was so adept at dancing on the bar. Maybe he should have worn a white ghost sheet, instead of dress blues. Or maybe he could have pushed the gurney!

Now I think of it, that might have been fun, but we would have had to extend his leave to include the funerals of my conservative parents who would have expired before the church ceremony began. My friends, including 4 adventurous traveling companions, and certain family would have hooted and hollered right along with us.


After arriving home from Dallas about noon, Friday [the wedding day that wasn't], we kept a taxing, whirlwind schedule, (1) stopping by the clinic, where I worked, for our obligatory lab work, (2) LC meeting my parents, (3) contacting the wedding party and invited guests with the news flash the 'ghostly' groom had arrived, (4)trekking to the clerk's office for license, etc., all before 6 p.m. Friday.

The clerk could not issue a license without lab results, promised early Saturday a.m. The clinic was open half a day on Saturday. The wedding was at 7 p.m., but we could fudge a tad--not much, but after a whole day late, an hour or two was nothing! The clerk gave us her phone number to call when we had lab results.

We apologized for having her open her office Saturday. Amazingly, she smiled and said she did frequently. We weren't the only crazies in the world-imagine that!

As I remember, Friday was the first time LC met my parents. Mother took charge of eliciting her viewpoint of my better side, and at least one or two comments about her perception of my less desirable traits, which could have been left unsaid. He'd find out soon enough, without any outside help.

Geez! You expect your Mother to be on her daughter' side, but most of our married life, it appeared she favored LC over me in every facet of our life. Or this may have been her strange way of avoiding the "bride clinging to her mother's apron strings, etc." If you've followed this blog for any length of time, you know I respected and loved my parents but I was never tied to any apron strings when I had a choice.

Already armed with LC's family's kindly information his Mother favored him above his siblings and anyone else, I was an underdog with both Mothers!

The most humorous event in meeting my parents was Mother's ill-tempered Chihuahua nipped LC on the shin as we entered my parent's house the first time. Mother had 3 Chihuahuas before she switched to poodles.

The nipper was named Sugar Baby, who must have been suffering hypoglycemia and decided LC's shin was the nearest fix at her eye level! LC 's dislike of Chihuahuas stems from this painful encounter.

We spent Friday night in my apartment and early Saturday morning we accomplished the critical license when the lab results came in EARLY! Finally, a good omen!

Then it was to the church building to set up the auditorium. LC, my parents and I began to arrange the furniture, the flower arrangements, and the chairs. Everything was going smoothly for 4 individuals not used to working together.

That is, until the time came to set up the folding chairs. We had about 50 chairs to separate and arrange. First we simply separated and unfolded the chairs.

The fun began. My parents set up one side of 25; LC and I set up the other side with an aisle between them and on each side. When we finished, Mother and LC began to make the rows, more or less aligned on both sides of the center aisle. LC finished his side first and decided to help Mother out.

She had arranged her section with each chair directly behind the chair in front. LC had arranged his section staggered, which he perceived gave each person a better view. In both sections the rows were pretty much aligned with the opposite section.

LC began staggering the chairs in Mother's section. Since he was behind her, she did not notice. When she was through, she noticed the chairs were not as she thought, so she started over, rearranging them her way again.

I thought the chair's finish was wearing down to bare metal from all the shuffling. Of course, this was the most amusing situation of the whole week. I just sat down and watched to see how long this setup would take. Somewhere into the second round LC and Mother met in the middle of a section; fortunately she laughed, glad to know she really wasn't crazy; the chairs were not moving!

Although the dueling chair organizers ceased their duel, I don't remember if the two sections matched, There may have been one section even, one, staggered.

We had 39 guests including the wedding party in attendance, so there was sufficient seating.

Somehow everything fell in place. The cake and other reception items arrived. The trio of singers, composed of my best friend (from the second grade), a mother and daughter, were ready.

When we left the church building, miraculously everything was "go."

All we needed to do was dress, and get back by 7 p.m. with the rings. We managed even, though we all were numb with exhaustion.

We all arrived on time and the guests were early! The guests were a nice cross section of bowling buddies, co-workers, personal, family and church friends.

The wedding party of LC, me, the a Capella Trio, minister and one usher were assembled and we actually began on time!

Music I selected was Ah! Sweet Mystery of Life, *May the Good Lord Bless and Keep You (recessional). The trio selected Richard Wagner's Lohengrin Bridal Chorus (processional) and Whither Thou Goest (Ruth 1:1-16). [Links are words and music.]

LC and I walked down the aisle together, holding hands to Wagner's Lohengrin Bridal Chorus. Lord knows, I wasn't going to let him out of my sight, even at the church building. We both probably felt like crawling down the aisle by this time. However, LC has a very slow gait; we looked like zombies en route to the minister at the altar, but we made it without collapsing in a heap.

The ceremony began with Dad standing up to answer the 'give-away' question, (her Mother and I). He refrained from adding, "Thanks be to God, she finally made it."

We recited traditional vows and exchanged rings, after a short wedding- fairly traditional-sermon. Glad it was brief, my feet were killing me in those heels.

Finally, it was over! Let us at the cake...I was a foodaholic from birth. The reception was small. Of course, there was another glitch-the printer spelled my husband's (LC) name wrong on the napkins. He spells his first name, Shelly, without a second 'e!' After the reception of relief, a friend whisked us away to our honeymoon...my apartment. There was no time for a fancy trip to some remote hideaway, unless Baltimore could be considered in that category. I never heard anybody say, "We're going to Baltimore for our honeymoon!"

If Morocco had not been 2.5 years in the future... guess we could have called it a delayed honeymoon, but with the military intervening, it hardly met that criteria. Morocco was one of the most eye-opening, learning experiences for me, transforming my core values into less provincial and more conciliatory of people who are unlike me in every conceivable way.

We had a car to repair, a trip to LC's home where his family and friends waited for more celebration, a wedding shower, and then the military owned us. Plus we had to pack a small U-Haul with my possessions to tow en route.

Enjoy this video from YOU TUBE of the TITLE SONG used as basis for this series of post. I prefer the movie rendition with Rex Harrison and Julie Andrews.


As one of my followers commented, this saga would probably only have been one post, if we all had had CELL PHONES which were non-existent in 1969!

Part 5 ends the saga of Get Me to the Church on Time. There May Be An Epilogue or two, about the trip to South Carolina and Baltimore, via Norfolk, VA. Two months after our marriage, LC's Mother died.

*I actually requested this hymn, God Be With You Till We Meet Again [words and music link] as I was leaving all I knew to blindly trust and follow this man to far away places, unknown to me. My world, even though I traveled as a single person, always ended up in Texas, somewhere close to family and friends. Of course in Texas that can be, and usually was, 200 mi. apart! Even now, this hymn is a "grab the Kleenex box" funeral song.

However, the mother (who had a MA degree in music education) in charge of music mistook my request for this hymn with several similar titles and selected the one listed in paragraph about music selections above. The message is the same--but just one more glitch in what can go wrong on the way to the altar!!!

PHOTOS - old and faded; I did my best with the photo editing program.
Photographers were friends. No professional wedding photographer - imagine how many bucks I'd been out with all the postponements!

Thanks to my brother & his wife in Brownwood, who retrieved most of these pictures for this post from family musty family albums and boxes.

[Beginning at top]

1. Hers & His Rings finally find their home!
2. County Record - we finally received that elusive license.
3. Church where wedding took place.
4. Bride & Groom leaving Bride's apartment for the church.
5. Finally at the 'alt r' with minister - the minister momentarily had difficulty with the bride's ring. Shelly appears amused. I appear ready to jump in and help him. I wasn't going to lose this elusive ring.
6. The Groom finally has ring on his finger.
7. Finally, the minister says " I present to you, Mr. and Mrs. Shelly Coward!" (recessional with wedding license in hand).
8. Bride & Groom with Bride's parents - reception.

[Some one needs to show me how to put captions or cut lines with my photos. I tried to follow this Blogger help but it did not work for me. I'm using Blogger classic because it has spell check. Last I heard the improved version did not have spell check. Captions in the improved version is easier, I've been told.]

The Gravy Train

Countless bloggers I've read since joining the blogging world are animal lovers whether canine, feline or wild. Although I love all nature I am partial to dogs and cats. The only reason I have no cats is I am, or was, allergic to cats, but not dogs.

Like Arkansas Patti [ The New Sixty ]with her beloved dog, Mighty, who once operated an animal shelter, I have a number of dog stories. We now have a shelter dog, Luckie, but once we owned pedigreed German Shepherds. A recent story by Arkansas Patti, CAN CODY COME OUT AND PLAY???, stirred my memory of another German Shepherd, Felicia.

My husband's tour of duty when we married was a reserve training ship, U.S.S. Mills, docked at Fort McHenry in Baltimore. We rented the main floor and basement of an older house in a suburb. There was an apartment above us which was a separate rental.

Next door was a single family dwelling occupied by a family with children and an older, very friendly female German Shepherd, FELICIA, whose name had been shorten by the children to Fleecie. Since the children were young, I suppose they had difficulty saying Felicia, so it was shorten to Fleecie.

Being newlyweds removed from familiar settings, we made friends as best we could, including the dog, especially myself.

Since my husband's duty shift and my pharmacy shift rarely coincided, we spent time alone in an unfamiliar setting and culture.

Our kitchen served as an entrance; the kitchen window looked out at the neighbor's home and side entrance where the dog usually camped. Sometimes I sat on my steps and petted Fleecie and often fed her food scraps. The neighbors did not mind at all.

I noticed certain times of the day Fleecie appeared at my door even when I was not sitting on the steps. If I ignored her, she disappeared for awhile.

As months passed and winter set in, I notice Fleecie had difficulty getting up and down--my first initiation in the Shepherd culture of hip dysplasia and arthritis.

The owners took her to the vet for evaluation. They came over and asked me not to feed the dog because she needed to shed weight to prolong her life with less pain. Of course, I complied and only petted her.

After a period of time the owners asked me if I was still feeding the dog; I replied. 'NO" but I petted her and inquired why the question. They said, "She is not losing weight and we are barely feeding her."

I thought a minute and said I noticed she disappeared at a certain time of day every day about 4 p.m. She was not confined to a yard, nor tied, but only strayed once a day and always returned to her rug mat by her owners' side door.

Several weeks passed. I saw the owners outside one day when I arrived home. I asked them if they ever solved Fleecie's diet program. They said,"yes, and you won't believe it!'

Frustrated with their efforts for naught in Fleecie's weight loss program, one day the owners followed her, when she disappeared at the appointed 4 p.m. time. They were amazed the dog had appointed rounds throughout the neighborhood at houses where food was waiting when she arrived. This route was not just one block but involved several streets and quite a number of houses. The treats were not a few kibbles, but mounds of food scraps, dog treats and large bowls of dog food.

The owners followed her more than once mapping her route. When they had all the houses marked, they retraced the route and asked the owners to please refrain from feeding Fleecie.

The owners filled me in on Fleecie's well organized gravy train. The persons contacted were so disappointed, but apparently complied as she lost weight. Their comments were like mine: "She is such a sweet, friendly dog to adults and children. She would not hurt a flea!"

Before we were transferred the couple had marital problems and filed for divorce. We heard the couple didn't fight over the children, but there was much contention over Fleecie. Even though I am overboard in my love of dogs, I wonder how the children felt that their parents fought over the dog above them. Perhaps, it was explained to them, there was no need to fight over the children as they had reached an amicable agreement. I only hope so.

PHOTO: very old snapshot of our third German Shepherd, Gabriela, "Gabby" for short, a sable Shepherd. Felicia was the more common black and tan color.