The Moon, August 31, 2012

I saw the moon tonight – it was wonderfully clear and bright – and I remembered hearing that this full moon was going to be a blue moon.

Although most months have one full moon [it occurs every 29.5 days], August of this year is one of the special months that have two full moons: August 2 and August 31.

The moon is never really blue, but apparently at times it can appear blue if somewhere in the world a volcano is spewing ash into the atmosphere.

The expression "once in a blue moon" naturally refers to a rare event. I first read this phrase in a British book when I was a kid. I thought it was only a fanciful expression and was amazed to learn it was based on a real occurrence.

And of course I have to add a video of the wonderful ballad Blue Moon, written in 1934 by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, performed by Nat King Cole. This has nothing to do with the astronomical event, but it's a great song that needs to be shared! 




--Cat

One for the lefties

Yes! Here is truly a day for me.

August 13th – International Lefthanders Day – Promotes and raises awareness about the inconveniences experienced by left-handed people in the world today, observed since 1976.

http://www.lefthandersday.com/

Wait a minute, I thought. True, I was born left-handed. But in those olden days in some countries, people [obviously the righties] believed there was something sinister about the left-handed. 

Per stackexchange.com –

In the past, to be left-handed was considered touched by the Devil. As Wikipedia notes:

Historically, the left side, and subsequently left-handedness, was considered negative in many cultures. The Latin word sinistra originally meant "left" but took on meanings of "evil" or "unlucky" by the Classical Latin era, and this double meaning survives in European derivatives of Latin, and in the English word "sinister".

Meanings gradually developed from use of these terms in the ancient languages. In many modern European languages, including English, the word for the direction "right" also means "correct" or "proper", and also stands for authority and justice. 

So, if you were left-handed or sinister, you were associated with evil. In time, sinister itself meant evil and threatening. EtymOnline said that sinister attained this meaning in the early 15th century. 

Because these old superstitions were still around when I was small, I was trained to use my right hand for most everything except writing. [I'm told I fussed too much.] Therefore I never experienced the inconveniences true left-handed people face every day. 

I've never had problems with scissors, knives, saws [all sharp objects, notice]. I can ride a motorbike, use a mouse, a sewing machine and all the hundreds of things that are designed to be used by the righthander.

So I'm only partially entitled to call International Lefthanders Day my day. I'm surely less than half qualified, but since writing, drawing, etc. can be seen as important, I will say one half of me [the left half] will celebrate this day.

I want to note that many who are born right-handed bat and throw a baseball, bowl, golf, etc. with their left hand. Isn't life strange?

Some people tend to overthink this left-sided right-sided thing and   pigeonhole everyone into categories: for example, more serial killers are left-handed, more models are right-handed... [Okay, I just made that up, but this is an example of what's going on].

Interestingly, five of the last seven American presidents have been left-handed. Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan and George Bush Sr. 

Among other notables who used their left-hands — Julius Caesar, Charlemagne, Alexander the Great, Queen Victoria, Winston Churchill. 

Canada has not had any left-handed prime ministers.

These things are only important because left-handers have been seen by others as "different." Otherwise, who cares?

That all said, I do feel a slight kinship with other lefthanders. But that's only because we have something in common. I might admire them or I might think they're nuts.

I always felt odd writing in front of other people. I guess it's the awkward looking curl of the hand that looks like you're trying to hide something.

A gawking customer who watched me write out a receipt told me, "It's fascinating the way you people [you people must be lefties] can write that way."

He wasn't the only one that remarked on the way I wrote or looked at me as if I were from outer space.

So maybe there is something different – and sinister – about me after all.

– Cat

Ingenious, not

One of my daily newsletters indicated August 9th is a holiday --
UN International Day of the World's Indigenous People.

I took a brief glance and misread it as the World's Ingeneous People.

At last, I thought, a day for me!

The glow quickly faded when I read that the day "Promotes the protection of the rights of the world's indigenous populations and recognizes the various contributions that indigenous peoples have made to society."

I am excluded by the meaning of the word indigenous.

Well, I guess I am also excluded as I have not made any contributions to society.

So I am doubly excluded.

My day was better before I read this.

But let's hear it for the indigenous peoples of the world. They deserve to have protection of their rights.

It does leave me thinking, though, that all the people in the world were at one time indigenous to a certain place. What would the world look like if no one had left their indigenous homes in search of adventure, new lands, gold?

Maybe that's just a silly thought, one of many I have.

Now I will wait to see if they have an International Day of the Silly People of the World.


– Cat

Oh, Canada

Today, July 1st, was Canada Day.

It's great to see patriotism on display everywhere.

We had a beautiful day and tonight at dusk my son lit off some fireworks in the driveway. I was sitting in my office, the window wide open, and I heard the fireworks explode and some children in the neighborhood oohing and aahing at each burst.

And then a chorus of small sweet voices sang the national anthem, O Canada, and finished with a cheer and the words, "Thank you, Canada!" 

It was a perfect moment in time.

Thank you, Canada!

-- Cat

Musical Interlude

Gary Moore -  Still got the Blues 
Great blues from 1990







Secret Garden - Moongate [2007]

Simply because ...





--Cat

Another scam, another scare

The phone rang this morning. Call display showed it originated in Washington from a toll-free number.

I've had enough of those to know what to expect.

A lady with a thick South Asian accent told me Microsoft, who constantly monitors such things,  [Yeah...!?] has determined my computer was in imminent danger of being infected by a terrible virus. The infection would destroy everything on my computer, render it a useless shell. She, of course, was authorized to help me stop this from happening.

I told her I had an excellent program that would prevent any threat or virus from damaging my system. I felt well protected and didn't need help from the outside. Besides, how could she tell that I was infected?

She said she would show me if I press the Windows key on the bottom left of the keyboard and hold down the R key at the same time. I told her I was not going to do this, thank you anyway but I didn't need her help. Goodbye.

I found many referrals to this scam on the Internet. The Windows key+R opens the "run" line. It's presumed the caller spells out a certain executable program to type in, which gives them full control of your computer and all the information on it. One person noted he told the caller he had a Macintosh computer, thus no Windows key. This confused the caller who said she would have to get her supervisor to solve the problem.

If I had been more quick I could have told the lady I had the run line open, then typed out her instructions on to a text file and sent it all to Internet cops, whoever they are.

Or maybe Bill Gates should know what's going down.

Foolish me. I'm sure Mr. Gates already knows. I read somewhere that just holding down the Windows key gives him and his gang a window into your computer. [A window – get it?]

Is this paranoid, or what? I put it right up there with those people who think our TVs are all equipped with little cameras and microphones, and our phone lines are all  bugged.

Then again, how many of you have watched in wonder as a technician from the cable company takes control of your television set from their office in another city?

It has come to pass. Big Someone is watching you. Trust no one.

– Cat

The Final Frontier

So Dragon, the first commercial spacecraft, carries among supplies and other equipment for the international space station, 308 canisters of ashes to be disbursed into the great void. At a cost of $3000 per it doesn't seem a great amount, especially compared to the million dollars plus that has been quoted it would cost a live person to visit the space station.

Included among the canisters are the ashes of James Doohan, who played Scotty on the original Star Trek series. How appropriate to have his remains suspended in space for all eternity. For anyone, I would say.

I always wanted my ashes to be spread into the ocean, preferably somewhere warm -- Tahiti, Hawaii, where a warm current circulates. 

I'm close to changing my mind. The more I think about it, the more inclined I am to opt for the vastness of space. 

I do have questions, though. We've all seen how the absence of gravity causes liquids to float around in one blob. Will the ashes do the same thing – cling together and create a solid mass? What happens if gravity exerted by a passing asteroid or meteor attracts the ashes? Or if they float close enough to a planet or a moon to be sucked down? How about a spaceship returning to Earth? So you end up back in the place where you hadn't wanted to be in the first place... 

Would any of this happen? Could any of this happen? Does it really matter? 

I still have some childhood dreams of blasting off into outer space. Maybe that will be the way to come full circle. 

-- Cat

Modern Devices

I must be getting loopy.

Today I found myself talking to a robot vacuum as it trolled the room. "Over here," I said, pointing. "You missed a spot."

Naturally, it ignored me.

It just needed a little nudge to move in the right direction, and it soon efficiently completed the task.

Somewhat like some people.

Or maybe, like some people, it just has a mind of its own.

Come to think of it, I often talk to my computer. It can be pretty obstinate about certain things. When that happens and I am about as frustrated as I can be, I pull the plug and say, "Take that!" And when I turn it back on it's as sweet as anything and pretends nothing bad ever happened.

Like some people.


--Cat

e-books and all that

I received an e-book reader for Christmas.

Yes, it had to happen. Technology, and all that. And the floors in my office are sagging under the weight of hundreds of books, big hefty ones, tall skinny ones, hardback, soft back, new, old, and older.

However, can I say "the writing is on the wall" while keeping a straight face?

I love the idea of hundreds of books in a "library" sized 5 x 7 x 1/2 inch and weighing a couple of ounces. I can buy books without leaving my house, my office, my chair. I know I will have much use of this e-reader.

And yet... I love books that are more than mere phantoms existing in a place called cyberspace. I love the feel of a book in my hands, I love turning pages made of paper, I love looking at pictures, I love the smell of paper and print and binding. How can I abandon something that's been a big part of my life since I was a child, that exists in reality, a 3-D tangible object and replace it with something that is zapped through the air from a virtual plane?

Yes, yes the future is now. Save the trees. Save space, save money.

To that, I say bah, humbug.


The Joy of Books



--Cat

Welcome New Year!

2011 light display --






--Cat

Musical Interlude -- The ghosts of ....

Calling up the past, I'm posting a couple of favorites, and some poignant dark humor ...


The Shadows – Cavatina [1979]






Simon and Garfunkel – The Only Living Boy in New York [1970]






And finally, based on the much-loved Calvin and Hobbes comic strip which ran from 1985 to 1995





Merry Christmas!

–-Cat

Another inconsequential meandering ...

Today we had snow!

With the temperature now hovering near the freezing mark, I fondly recall an unusually warm September evening, two scant months ago.

My office window was wide open to cool the room, yet no breeze stirred the air. I was listening to Santana's Smooth when I heard a rustling sound just below the window, where shrubs grow thick and flowers bloom all summer and into the fall.

An animal, I thought, perhaps attracted by the music. And I wondered, do animals hear music as music? Or is it simply sound to them, part of the background noise that comes with society?

Of course animals hear. [I discovered spiders can hear when a very large spider appeared in my basement. I said, "eek!" The spider jumped six inches into the air, then scurried on.] Animals differentiate loud and angry from soft and calm. They know the roar of a motor, the crack of thunder, children laughing.

Some dogs and cats, some wild things, too, howl along to certain tones. But do animals hear the beat, the rhythm, the shades of music? Do they feel it? Do they rock to the Rolling Stones? Sway to jazz, tap their paws to upbeat dance tempo, weep to the sad violins of Schubert's Serenade? Was a cat, mouse, maybe even a snake listening enrapt to Santana?

An intriguing thought, made all the more possible when the song ended and whatever had been there rustled away.

Then reality, as it always does, popped my little bubble of fantasy. You see, my husband had been outside watering flowers, and the sound I heard had been him dragging the hose through the shrubbery.

I don't give up easily, though. I spent some time at You Tube where a dedicated searcher can find anything rather quickly, and found a few videos that could confirm that yes, animals hear music as music.

Decide for yourself.













--Cat

Hallowe'en

October 31, 2011
Pumpkins and that little devil, Roxy, ready to rumble.

November 1, 2011
The party's over...

--Cat

And the winner is. . .

New Zealand! 8-7 over France.

The same way I watched the beginning of the first game, I watched the end of the final game, and parts of many games in between.

While I still don't know all the rules, I was able to follow what was happening.

The last game was a nail biter – it could have gone either way.

Rugby is a tough sport, the toughest I've ever seen, definitely not a vanity sport. These rugged players from all over the world won my respect.

Well done, all the teams. Well done, New Zealand All Blacks!

--Cat

In Memoriam -- K F Hartwell

Kevan F. Hartwell Dec. 21, 1920 - Oct. 3, 2001

I wrote this poem for the fifth anniversary of my father's death. I've revised it to reflect the tenth year. I sit at his desk, surrounded by his books and feel his spirit beside me.


In Memoriam

Ten years, Dad, since you’ve been gone.
And here’s a new October dawn.

Ten years passed like one moment in time, the blink of an eye,
a solemn whisper, a small sad sigh.

We miss your music, miss your voice, your wisdom and your cheer.
The world has changed since you’ve been gone, for you’re no longer here.

The space is dark and empty you once so brightly filled,
but we are not forsaken; you're here beside us still.

Your words still clearly echo, your hands, with love, still guide
As we reflect upon the past with tears, with smiles, with pride.

Ten years now since you’ve been gone,
And we, the living, must live on.


--Cathrine

It is not length of life, but depth of life. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

My First Rugby Game

Last night I was channel surfing when I came across the opening ceremonies for the 2011 Rugby World Cup, in Auckland New Zealand. It was a grand spectacle, lights, music, dance, incorporating aboriginal moves with classical and modern.

After the grand fireworks display ended, the first rugby game began. I had never seen this game played so thought I would watch. I had the impression that it was like football, a game whose intricate principles I have never understood. Well, I know what a touchdown is, but because I don't get it, I am bored.

The teams from New Zealand and Tonga marched onto the field and formed a long line. The national anthems played, and it was a lovely display of patriotism for each country. They regrouped, team glaring at team. Then, with the unison of a well-rehearsed chorus line, the Tonga team huffed and puffed, made belligerent hand gestures, and shouted out what must be their team song, their voices harsh, faces mean.

New Zealand's turn. Oh yes, these men were also skillfully choreographed and showed equal fist-pumping anger. I watched in astonishment. Was this an ancient male prewar ritual? These teams were ready to do battle.

I was reminded of a nature show I recently watched where two handsome male birds fluffed their feathers and strutted about, baiting each other, cawing, their goal to impress the female bird who stood coyly waiting. They menaced and charged toward each other until one backed out of the game.

Instead of a coy female, the prize here was – The Ball.

The game began in earnest. Wow, those goal posts stood close together. This ought to be interesting, I thought. And it was. Rugby players do not wear the humongous padding that our football players wear. [Why? Is our football so much more dangerous? How can I now not think of these well padded footballers as, well, sissies?]

This is impressive. Everyone piles on the player who has the ball. That may be the same as our football, but there it seems the similarity ends. There are no whistles, no interminable stopping of the clock, no advancing two yards or two inches, or whatever. Someone wriggles the ball out of the pile and runs with it, dodges the opposing team, then throws it to a teammate, who throws it to another, and so on until there is another pileup.

I could understand what these people were doing. The trick was to form a line and not let the opponent get through to the goal. [We played a kiddie version of this in grade school, without the ferocity, without the pileups.]

All in all I found it a fast-moving game, with players constantly moving about, passing the ball, or jumping into a big pile on the one who has it. I didn't watch the entire game, but I hear New Zealand won 41-10. This may have been the first and last rugby game I watch, but I'm interested enough to keep up with the results.

And I have to say, I'm impressed.

-– Cat

Because some days . . .

. . . no matter how warm and bright, are just plain shitty . . .


Chris Rhea -- The Road to Hell
from 1989, yet could have been written yesterday/



Sometimes the world is just too much . . .

It seems to have been so forever. This was written in 1807. Wordsworth would like to return to a time when man worshiped nature and the old gods.

William Wordsworth

The World Is Too Much with Us

The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon,
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers,
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
It moves us not.--Great God! I'd rather be
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.

--Cat

Summer Flowers

I've been "breaking in" a new computer. (Or it's been breaking me.)
Not much time for anything else, so here's a few pix.













--Cat

Saxy music

When my son was in seventh grade he was required to take Band. As he would learn to play a musical instrument--not provided by the school--he announced with great excitement he had chosen to learn the saxophone.

To the music store we went in anticipation. Ouch. Saxophones = much money. (I distinctly recall playing a triangle in elementary school band. Supplied by the school.)

The store owner wisely advised us not to purchase the saxophone outright, so we opted for the rent-to-buy plan. Yes, he knew that most kids' initial eagerness to learn this beautiful, shiny instrument waned after the first year.

Not so, Son assured us. He would learn to play like a pro. He would practice, practice, practice.

I have a fun memory of him and his buddy sitting in our living room for about an hour with their brand new saxes making all sorts of horrible sounds. I'm sure the neighbors up and down the block also heard the clamor.

Well, he learned to make the proper sounds and string them together in a progressively smoother manner. He practiced, he cleaned and buffed.

Ah, we thought. Could he aspire to the lofty heights attained by Charlie Parker and John Coltrane? Were we listening to a budding Kenny G?

Grandiose delusions aside, here comes the inevitable however . . .

His interest, although less keen, lasted through eighth grade. He reached a plateau, not the apex for which he'd once aimed. Improvements ended, regular practice sessions dwindled. He was no longer "into" playing a sax.

Yes. Puberty.

We returned the instrument to the store. No one said, "I told you so."

Somewhere, we have a picture of him and his gleaming sax. Somewhere, we have a video of his band concert.

Must find them.


Two of my favorites:

Sonny Rollins accompanies Leonard Cohen in Who by Fire





Candy Dulfer plays Lily Was Here from the 1989 movie of the same name. Dave Stewart on guitar.



--Cat

Never underestimate the power

Horrifying reminder of nature's awesome power--



Heart-breaking tragedy for the nation of Japan.
We hold our collective breaths as we wait for news.

Quote:
We have resolved to endure the unendurable and suffer what is insufferable.
Hirohito (Japanese Emperor, 1901-1989)

--Cat