Proof IS in the Puddin' Pages

Last weekend, I went to a place called Eastfield, somewhere near Albany, New York, where there was no electricity and no running wtaer. A little convergence of sorts. Most of my time was spent outside an old church that had been reassembled at that site, in a village re-created by a man who began doing so when he was a young man. The church was being used as a workshop for those interested in learning to tin, as in tinsmithing. One of the first things I noticed was a large tree to the right of the church. I made a comment to the instructor of the workshop, about the size of the tree and he said something to me about the tree trying to get into the church, whereupon I noticed a branch which llightly touched the right side of the church. At some point whilst I sat there, thumbing through some magazines given to me the day before, a dragonfly landed on my leg. I had never seen one with a red body, so I watched it carefully and I noticed the head was a dark brown color and that the little guy was quite animated. He kept looking upwards so I did as well. Right above the tree I saw the moon, so I took a picture of the moon above the tree, and brushed the little guy off of my leg and picked up the pile of magazines. I turned the pile over and saw an ad in which a woman was looking upwards and she was surrounded by fireflies lighting the night.

When we first got to the site, as I sat in a rocker listening to others chit chat I noticed three men sitting in the room with me each had the mark of an injury on their right knee, so I pointed it out at that time. I began to open the magazine, so I put the camera aside and settled into my chair. I found an ad in which there was pictured a woman's right knee, and on it was drawn a smiley face. I tore the ad from the mahazine and placed it aside. I could see someone working inside the church, and the next page read, "Someone was looking out". The next ad I saw had the words, HEAVEN SENT, an ad for Joan of Arcadia, so I knew I was in conversation.The next ad had in it a man on a ladder, standing near a hornet's nest at the corner of a building's eve. On the church near me was a hornet's nest, at the right rear corner of the church. Under the tree lay a blind dog. The magazine ad for OLAY showed a dog and the way I folded it the word FRIEND can be seen. I took pictures of all the things around me, and I took a picture of the magazine ads, just described.

Friday I took a few other photos, one of which was a large key that I removed from the wall of the tinsmithing shop while I was talking with a child/young man and placed the key in his hand, this child whom I later showed a cloud formation in the sky and told him I expected to see skywriting on this trip and thought I could see that which seemed to spell out the letters " I C" . He agreed. I didn't need to take a picture. I later came across an ad which in part read, "It may be IC." I took a photo of that piece of paper, on which I dripped some wax, after I tore it from the magazine and also showed it to the young man and his father, but when I had the photos developed, the picture was not in the packet. Doesn't surprise me, that happens sometimes, and sometimes I just go right back and have that particular frame re-done. Another other photo I took inside the tinsmith shop was a rabbit pattern, which was hanging on the wall amidst other patterns in the tinsmith's shop. The Big Guy and I have an unusual language, and rabbits play a part.

A couple of days without electricity and running water and the world seems far away. On the first part of the drive home, I ran across a cane in the road. I thought it was a bit unusual. It made me take notice. The sun was bright and I made good time to the Cleveland area where we spent the night. The next morning we began the last leg of the trip to Madison, in which I drove through torrential rains most of the way. On the radio they talked about the hurricane that hit and devastated the New Orleans area and we decided since we had a large van and trailer that maybe we would consider loading the van and trailer with water and heading to the area the next day. We were signed up to do a re-enacting event but thought we should scrub that and deliver the water instead. We stopped in Cincinnati for a few minutes for hugs. At the corner of the main street and a street off which I used to live, there is a white castle restaraunt. I noticed as we sat at the light, that the lights outside the building went off. I looked around and saw that all the other lights inside were on and that others in the neighborhood were on, I took it as a sign. (As I write this, WAVE3 reporter is on a segment of news in which the reporter is talking about signs at Papa John's that say I love Mississippi, etc.in response to hurricane) The rain let up by the time we got off of the expressway, and since we had no food at home, stopped for a bucket of chicken for dinner. We crossed the bridge a few minutes later and we pulled into town.

A police car blocked our route and we asked what had happened. We were told wires were down in our block but could get to our house if we went to the other side and told the officer we lived in the middle of the block. I pulled the vehicle and trailer off the road and we ran into the house as rain came down again. A few minutes later we realized that since the road is never without traffic it was a good time to back the trailer into the lot, neither of us good at this task. So the van backed the trailer onto the lot, and the trailer was unhooked. As the van was put into drive it stopped, powerless to go forward, lights still on. It was however, able to roll into the neighbor's driveway. At that point, we thought maybe we were not supposed to take the vehicle and trailer to the south, but instead supposed to head north as originally planned.

The next day, as we began to make ready for the next trip out, I went to develop my photos and pick up a few supplies. On the way, I saw something black fly from the right seat into the dash area of the car. I assumed it was a spider and laughed at its quickness. A moment later, there was a terrible noise under the car (this is my other vehicle) and I looked in the rear view mirror to see what I had run over. There were pieces of black stuff flying out behind the car. I made the realization that the car was traveling about 65 MPH down hill and that the check engine light and check gauges lights were on. My power steering was out, and I knew this could be a problem, it is more difficult to steer than I remember regular manual steering to be. I had to just keep it straight and make two turns, one left and one right into the Walmart lot. I parked it in the outer edge of the lot and went into the store to pick up a few things and make a call. At this point I pretty much knew that someone was trying to keep me from leaving Madison. The young woman at the photo counter let me use the phone and we chatted a few moments while I tried to locate assistance for my car. We got onto my area of interest and she told me about her father, who had been told he had "the worst kind of brain cancer" and given little hope from the doctors when he went in for surgery. Then with a hige smile on her face, told me her father is a living testament to what miracles can do, having said the doctors said it was a miracle that he has recovered. I told her there would be many more miracles.

My photos were finished a few minutes later, and I picked up a few other items, noticing that the meat department had a lot less in it than usual. I wasn't there for meat, but made note. I went to the parking lot and awaited my ride home. A few minutes later, we made a stop in town and as we discussed the two vehicles, decided we would not be leaving town to do the event, having the understanding that there had been two vehicles in two days...we were being told somehow it was more important to stay at home. A flyer had just been delivered to the shop in which we stood, and on it was a list wherein a couple had found a way to get a semi to put at the riverfront, for donations for hurriance victims. I knew we had just been given our opportunity, and didn't need to worry about a vehicle anymore. We weren't going anywhere, our plans had been delivered to our very hands. We went to purchase water in five gallon jugs with all the money we had available. We took them to the gravel lot and stayed the day to assist.

The second day, the truck was filled and taken for weighing (Friday evening). In the darkness I saw the figure of a man walking down the street, and somehow I knew to stand and wait for him. He came to me with a bag knotted and told me he wanted to donate...he said in the bag was an angel, among other things. I understood him to be a man of few means, but also understood he knew how important it was to donate. I placed the bag int he back of my car and went home, collapsing in exhaustion. The third day I was a little slow in starting. Before I left, I opened the bag. At that point it became the crying bag. I took it to the tent under which we sit to take out breaks and told the woman in charge that after the truck left the night before that a man of little means had spoken to me and told me he had his donation. She opened the bag and began to cry, and it was passed around. They told me they knew of the person who had given me the bag, and said his name was ________. I later opened the bag and took a photo of its contents. We decided this would be the last bag on the truck.

_____ knew his donation was important to give, it was all his most precious possessions...and yep, there was his little yellow rabbit inside, right next to his sunglasses, his favorite Budweiser cap, his bible, his angel, his Jesus candle, and his used cotton swab. I took that out, and threw it away before I took the photo. Would anyone else understand a cotton swab with earwax on it in the donation bag ? "It may be IC".

...a little wax goes a long way.

On Sunday, we spent the day loading a vehicle for hurricane victims, and at some point during the day a dog showed up, some stray it seemed, a female with painted toenails. Everyone began calling her Katrina, and she seemed to immediately understand that to be her name. She was petted and fed all day long, and as we began to clear up the area and place the final donations on our semi, it seemed she also knew it was time for her to go too. She had stayed away from the road all day long, and when I asked her to cross with me she would not. Now, as we closed the doors of the semi the dog walked to the middle of the road, and stood for a moment, right on the double yellow line. I yelled to her to get out of the road, but she did not respond. Then I knew something else was about to occur and heard myself said aloud, I asked you not to do that...but it happened anyway, the dog was hit. The driver of the car did not see her at all and was shaken by the accident. I told him it was not his fault. People rushed to aid the dog and a veterinarian was contacted. He said unless someone took financial responsibility for it it was a city issue,. We called him back and took responsibility. The dog was taken to the vet's office and given meds for pain. We were told the vet would do x-rays on Tuesday...this was Sunday evening that this occurred.

While they were at the vet's I went for a walk to use the facilities a block or so away. I stopped at the stop sign for a moment and crossed the street, not in the direction I needed to go. I stood for a moment to see whatever it was I was supposed to see. I saw one light, lit very dimly...I said aloud, will you bring that one back up? The light went full blast. A moment later it went out. I walked back across the street and went to the parking lot, not telling anyone what I had seen, but assuring the child there who was asking, that no matter what was to happen, everything was fine. We discussed that we both knew the dog would be hit by a car, and I said, since we both knew, we both know it would happen then and everything was fine. He went home feeling better about things. Everyone wanted to know if we were taking the dog home all day long. Home means different things to different people.

btw...i noticed and then took a photo of something that may or may not seem odd to some people...the place where we loaded the truck was a gravel lot down by the river side...and at the southwest corner of the lot, i wonder how many people had noticed there was a line drawn and below it the word  PLATE...guess we stepped up...

something familiar....

http://mywebpage.netscape.com/cauznefx/aheadoftime.html

http://spaces.msn.com/members/h20genius/Blog/cns!1p4wNAWi7SVhRicueY9P47pw!228.entry

 

piccalina1 at 9:05:41 PM EDT Permalink | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 2 comments: Show Recent | Add your own

Daughter #1 is getting ready to go back to school, having been here for #2's graduation. I am handed a little book to peruse, which #2 got from a favorite teacher...it is called Dare to Believe.  She tells me her favorite quote in the book is "When in doubt, make a fool of yourself. There is a microscopically thin line between being brilliantly creative and acting like the most gigantic idiot on earth. So what the hell, leap!" by Cynthia Heimel 

cool...I flip through the pages and see one I like immediately which says, "Chance is the pseudonym God uses when He does not want to sign His name."  by Anatole France

and decided to share one more, "Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen."  Ralph Waldo Emerson

Life is good, the sun IS out ..."coincidence" organized and predictable

piccalina1 at 4:14:57 PM EDT Permalink | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 1 comments: Show Recent | Add your own

I leaned back in the chair to try to see what channel was on, so I could write what I was listening to, and on the screen came the words "YOU ARE WATCHING small soldiers on TBS"...how fortuitous I thought, since the beau was outside at the moment and there was no one else to ask, lol...

Still coloring...what else does one do on a rainy day?

My beau did dishes for me this morning, nice treat!

A couple of toons for the journal and I am back to reallity, as it were, lol...a gorgonite is talking to the young man on tv...thus he places a sign on the door that reads CLOSED...

We can each choose our own reality...why DO they call those "reality shows" reality? My daughter drew a sign for me a few years ago...maybe you will enjoy it. It is picture number 3. IF you have a hard time reading the second compilation of pictures, a page was made so it could be seen more easiily: http://hometown.aol.com/piccalina1/page2.html

Off for now, I gotta holiday to find food for...

piccalina1 at 11:31:32 AM EDT Permalink | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 1 comments: Show Recent | Add your own

Laws of attraction, some guy that gets lightning strikes often on discovery channel, then my beau goes back to the travel channel...surfing beau...now a slingshot on travel channel again...enough to make me dizzy all the channel changes...springs, BIG springs they say, hundreds , giant electromagnet...oh boy, nice ride...slingshot!

I am catching up on some things while the garlic bread heats up, the gemelli, broccoli and mushroom/olive sauce is ready and waiting for us to eat...

My daughter graduated today, and now she is off to parties...seems easier to go to three or four other parties than to have one here..parties the last day, today and tomorrow, too. She is happy, especially since her braces are off, so she smiles really nicely now.

TV is Discovery Health, they are re-creating lightning and how the individual shown has survived lightning strikes four times...Guess I will put the rest of the first cartoon on too, lol. Kinda' like channel hopping myself with cartoons, in that I am taking pieces and putting something else in the middle, isn't it? A.D.D. works for me...

I decided to buy the newspaper today so I would have a little extra packing material, and to read the toons, and I noticed today something funny in the paper. When my friend Gary and I walked in Eden Park, near the gazebo I pointed out to him 2 dogwoods and three fringe trees, and counted them specifically the three fringe trees together...and when I opened the Cincinnati Enquirer today, I saw on the front of the A&E section, I saw two things...a story about squirrels popping up all over and a story called FACE the FRINGE FRINGE FRINGE...LOL!  Apparently there is going to be a "fringe" festival this next week and there is a squirrley gig in Glendale, like the Big Pig Gig downtown a few years back. I guess I need to get out more. The most entertainment I have had lately is making something out of the channel hopping my beau does. Somehow, I manage to make what I hear relevant in my life. I live in another world obviously...to think I am moving from so many weekly happenings to a town that pretty much rolls up at 5 pm every day of the year. That beau of mine must be pretty special, huh? LOL!

Time to eat!  Happy Sunday!

**TV said Time to fly on the commercial! Outta' here!

piccalina1 at 6:46:06 PM EDT Permalink | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 0 comments: Add your own

When I started this the Discovery Channel was on...the American Chopper show...two guys yelling at each other that the other does not "have a clue...".

CLUES? Someone say clues? Yesterday, my friend and I went for a walk around the "concrete pond" as we call it, the large pool with a fountain at Eden Park, Cincinnati...and we started our walk at the gazebo where someone had written on the floor in chalk the words: "CLUES" and a few clues I supposed. We laughed, but we read things a little differently!

Today's picture is made of today's cartoons, a couple I only took bits and pieces of, and an interesting little "card" that I just found on the floor, it appears as though it is something that fell from one of my daughter's magazines...timing is funny, and harks to the reynoldsunwrapped cartoon which has remained the same for the past few days, and of mention in a previous entry, where the guy runs out saying he has a board meeting, and he is carrying a surfboard. All of the pieces of today's picture relate in some manner to previous entries...part of my daily pattern of coincidence...even the "something different" is kinda' fun

My sister, Michelle, (not blood related) called me this morning with a tale she needed to share. She said that recently she was out with her sister someplace in Kentucky and they went to a WalMart store in (Somerset, Kentucky)to make some family photo copies. I am not actually related to these people and have never met Michelle's sister or mother. Michelle considers my mother, who is deceased, to be her mother for the most part. Understand, her story is no real surprise to me in many respects, since I am the one who taught her to see things a little differently.

Michelle tells me what happened while she was with her sister. She said her sister kept saying she was nuts because in Michelle's car was a bunch of mulch and flats of flowers. At some point, she had no idea where she was going but told her sister she was going to plant them in someone's yard. The sister became quite irate as they drove, asking when they would stop, etc., till finally pulled up to a stranger's house, knocked onthe door and asked the woman who lived there if she could plant athe flowers in her yard. The woman told Michelle that she was thrilled to have her do so, especially since she had not been able to do anything herself in the yard for awhile. Michelle's sister continued to call her nuts, and Michelle's response was, well, it was fine that she was nuts and snce her sister was there with her, then her sister could be a squirrel.

At some point in all this, her sister said she needed to get away from Michelle for a few minutes and Michelle watched her sister drive about a block and stop because a whole lot of squirrels were running nearby. The sister came back a few minutes later, visibly shaken. I think the two sisters are coming to an understanding. LOL!

Michelle and her sister went to make copies of family photos and while they were at the copier, a copy came out of a woman who Michelle's sister had never seen, so she showed it to Michelle. Michelle told her it was a photo of my mother and neither of them knew how it got there. She told me that it was a photo of my mother, with her garden behind her and two cars, one red and one blue. [Just now, my beau is in the room changing channels on the TV, and Wil Smith was saying (on the movie on the TV) something about red and something else, lol, qualifying that they got the "red"]. We had a discussion for a moment about the cars, and I said something about the matrix, red-pill blue-pill...and told her to remember a time when the photo could have been taken.

A few minutes later, my brother, who is handicapped, came out of his room, not at the place where I was located but where Michelle was (she is one of his caregivers) wearing a red shirt and blue pants. As we finished up our conversation I explained to her what today's LOVE IS cartoon was. Today's cartoon fit right in: http://www.tmsfeatures.com/tmsfeatures/servlet/com.featureserv.util.Download?file=20050528cplis-a-p.jpg&code=cplis 

piccalina1 at 12:24:30 PM EDT Permalink | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 2 comments: Show Recent | Add your own

adding a link today to the musee de venoge page I created, if anyone is interested in more photos as I add them and any other to do's for that site:

http://www.geocities.com/piccalina01/Venoge.html

piccalina1 at 6:06:05 PM EDT Permalink | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 0 comments: Add your own

My daughter just came home, celebrating her last day of high school. She came in with chocolate, chocolate  pancakes from IHOP, telling me about their parade of vehicles around the block at school...she says the pancakes are for me and puts them in the fridge after I say I cannot eat them now, even though they are warm...one bite is enough.

I started on this entry a couple of hours ago, had phone calls, helped a friend with an epiphany or two, computer went off a few times, and then of course, the daughter had to use the machine to yak at the friends for a few minutes...not like I have anything THAT important to say on this entry anyway.

Daughter turned the TV on, and there is Live FOX news about a man who has been on a crane for a few days. The sun is out, a beautiful day, why am I inside? So what I have a whole apartment to pack up in the next couple of weeks...I am going out for a walk in the park...because I deserve it. The guy-on-the-crane story will play itself out as it should. The way my mind works...Ride a Purple Pelican... and I am off for an afternoon walk in the creek of choice, one last time before I move.

Happy Friday to you too!

piccalina1 at 12:17:29 PM EDT Permalink | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 0 comments: Add your own

A couple of pictures from last weekend's event, where I mentioned (on Tuesday's journal entry) the turkey tail feather roof ridge finish...the guys did a great job on the roof...and check out that whitewash paint job I did, lol. In case you didn't see the cartoon that went with the mention, go back and check out Tuesday's postings.

piccalina1 at 3:13:36 PM EDT Permalink | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 0 comments: Add your own

OOPS! I realized this morning when I looked at my cartoons, that I had left off a most important link... my favorite cartoonist!!! The computer kept going off yesterday when I was adding links, so somehow it got left off...just an oversight...or maybe not, lol. I wrote something about board meetings (zoning variance and historic boards) on a previous post, so it is really no surprise in some respects that this came up today, lol http://images.ucomics.com/comics/rw/2005/rw050526.gif  so I add the link for www.ucomics.com/reynoldsunwrapped to my list today!

What else...oh yeah...I got a bunch of animated gifs off the internet yesterday and when I saw the BC toon of the day, decided to put the BC cartoon and the gif (properties of the file) side by side on the screen and copied the screen, adding the gif and putting it on here for today's "yesterday-to-today" connection...keeping with the flow of things, lol...

When I started my day, with cartoons, coffee and e-mails, in the middle of everything, as I sometimes do, I went off looking for something...today's something was passionflower, so I wound up with a nice photo and an Einstein quote. 

Here's the quote: "When I examine myself and my method of thought, I come to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing knowledge."  I really like the way Einstein thought. Considering I had added a few words to my description yesterday, something about my Joyce-Descartean (you know Descartes...I think, therefore I am...) methods, (AND James Joyce was a stream of consciousness thinker) I thought it most appropriate to include it today along with my screen shot. I guess if I had a quote of my own, it would be that:

When I remember one special moment from yesterday and I share it the next day with others I find each day a present worth documenting. Enjoy the present. I do!

piccalina1 at 11:53:40 AM EDT Permalink | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 1 comments: Show Recent | Add your own

I guess I am a little dorkey, lol...

Last night, daughter and I went to Hobby Lobby to pick up a few supplies she needed for school...On the way, we discussed some old keys I have ...one belonged to my mother, another came from my beau. One of my favorite quirky keys is what I call my "winged"key...I included a photo of it...

Hobby Lobby has a whole "key collection" of sorts...wall decor...some keys have door plates or knobs in the same frame, some a couple of keys alone, I like keys...I noticed one  item in particular that was of interest to me...a heart and key wall decor item and though I was tempted to purchase it, I decided instead on the two crosses pictured, my daughter picked one of them out. When I had my coffee this morning,  I ran across a cartoon that mentions door keys...the two kinda' connect...don't you think?

piccalina1 at 11:39:58 AM EDT Permalink | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 0 comments: Add your own