I've been a little.... pensive??? ....lately.
Maybe it's the age I'm hitting, maybe it's watching one too many movies about love
and mortality
and all that shit.

I love being in love.
And I love seeing people in love.
But there's that little twist that lovers try ever so hard not to acknowledge.
but it's worked it's way into a cliche
Love and loss...
the rose and the thorn...
blah blah blah.

We try not to think about the inevitable truth that eventually the one we love will leave us
- and we will be alone.
Or
that we will leave the one we love behind
- and abandon them to their fear.

One way or the other
despite what all the pretty cards say
we won't always be together
and the one time it counts
i won't be able to save you

i would rather turn away from that thought in denial
than dwell upon it in truth
but it's always there somewhere
tugging a little in my mind

and this thought is always there somewhere



There is so much that I want
to do with you
to experience with you
to share with you

and so little that i'd want to do without

just some memories from a very good weekend.

It was a few weeks ago now. But it was a good weekend, and worth a little look back.

The weekend of my brother's wedding in Duluth.

The weekend he took the plunge

-metaphorically



- and literally



We walked a long way that weekend.
Maybe a little too far that one day....



but we made it back.

And I think Sarah learned a few things along the way.
...even if it did kinda sneak up behind her.




We looked for sea glass under the sun - in water so cold my feet went numb.
No matter how many times i'm told.... i'll never believe that sea glass is just stone smoothed garbage.

I know it's magical, and that day proved it.



oh dear wife of mine....
that is not sea glass.
that is the mythical Lake Superior "Nose Rock"



and no....
dear daughter of mine -
that is not sea glass either



It was a good weekend. And I'm glad we took the scenic route home.

our little patio

We don't really have a backyard. But we've got a little patio. A very little patio. It's on the west side of our place, on a thin little strip between our two story building and a big wooded hill that becomes a city park.

It's quite, there are no roads nearby, it doesn't face neighbors, and the trees dampen most of the city noises. And it's shaded. Very shaded. Somewhere between noon and two o'clock a thin bar of sunlight works it's way across the picnic table and then disappears. And that's about all the sunlight it gets.

It a beautiful place to sit in the late afternoon and read or write a little.

But nothing grows back there. Nothing. We plant grass every year, and by the end of the summer it dies. Last year we planted grass that was both hardy, and loves shade. When we bought it the guy even warned us that it's more like a weed. It will grow anywhere.

And by the end of the summer it was all dead.

So this summer we made an effort to find plants that do well in shade. We spent a weekend digging it all up, putting in new dirt, and planting things.

Some of the things were hostas.... not my favorite, but they'll survive.

We aren't about to be hired out as landscapers, or exterior decorators.

But this summer it has been my little slice of shaded heaven.

A Madison Mystery

We've been seeing these things all over the east side. They look like little miniature landscape models.

We've been trying to figure out what the heck they are. Finally last night we broke down and took some pictures of them.


They are made out of molded canvas on a wire frame, each one is shaped differently, but they all look like little mountains to me.

Does anyone know what they are?

Here's a link to a google map showing the locations we've seen them in so far.

a couple Feingold videos

I'm glad Russ is our guy.
He makes me proud in the way that not many politicians do anymore.

---

A new friend of mine

I love Concerts on The Square.
I think most big cities have some form of this event. And maybe even all state capitals.
So I'm not saying it's unique to Madison, but gosh darnit, I'm going to let myself continue to think that Madisons Concerts on the Square is still special amongst them.

We got there around 3:30, spread our blanket on the ground. Off to the side a bit, not right in the "prime real estate" in front of the orchestra. But hell, you can hear the music all the way around the capitol anyway.

We went to get a couple low to the ground style lawn chairs and something to eat - and I took the picture you see up above. I've taken that picture a hundred times. But I can't resist trying again and again every time I walk by. I've got a feeling it's one of those scenes that causes people to instinctively reach for their cameras. Especially in later afternoon on to sunset.


We got our food, settled in on our new chairs (I left the tags on mine because that's what all the cool kids are doing these days). We got some new books from our favorite State Street book store - A Room of One's Own - and I took mine out and started reading.

And that's when I met my new friend.



See her there up on top of the book (okay... graphic novel. no..... not comic book. graphic novel. sheesh)

I don't think she was any sort of exotic butterfly... and maybe she didn't have the brightest colours in the butterfly encyclopedia...

But she sat there on my book for a while. I finished the page, waited a little bit, and then slowly turned to the next page.

She - I never did get her name - fluttered up, caught a light breeze, and then spiraled back down onto my book just in time for the next page.

She kept doing that over and over.

And you know what the best part was?

Check out the title of the book.

huh?

I remember a time when I didn't care about politics... I kinda miss that. I don't like that little videos like this can get me all worked up.



SO let me get this straight....
It was right to impeach and prosecute Bill Clinton for perjury and obstruction of justice when he lied about getting a blow job because he later admitted that he lied?

It is wrong to punish Scooter Libby for the exact same crime because he never admitted that he was guilty?

1st.... Isn't one of the traditional supposed conservative values personal responsibility? What happened to that? That was one of the things I liked about the conservative side of politics. What happened to "if you can't do the time, don't do the crime?" Now it's "if you can't do the time, don't do the crime, unless you've got friends higher up the foodchain. Then don't worry about it. do all the crime you want."

2nd.... What the hell kind of logic is that? Where else would that logic work?
A man goes out and commits a crime - he shoots someone, he sells some drugs, any other crime really - he is caught and found guilty in a court of law. BUT throughout the entire thing, he never admits that he's guilty. So at the end of it all he should go free? How does that make any sense?

3rd.... We have a long standing tradition of going a little easier on people who admit to their crimes. It's pretty well established that admitting to your crime is a part of remorse and responsibility and eventually reform. NOT admitting to your crimes usually indicates the opposite, and infers that you'd do the exact same thing again.

grrrr arg...
It's not even the pardon (or the commuting that will soon turn in to a pardon) that really bugs me. It's the hypocrisy.