Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Rollover Rover
Rollover Rover
by Brandy Larson
I was dozing and dreaming under a leafless tree with my best friend Flicka here at the OK Corral. We were glad the trail riding season was pretty much over. So many hot, long days and clueless riders.
She drove in with a car full of mutts, as usual. I was saddled up for her pleasure. She’d brought a couple of apples for me, but this late in the year, kindness will only get you so far. As usual, her collie pup was jumping up like he thought he should be riding on top with her. So far as I know no one has invented a dogie side saddle.
We moved out and I was walking a slowly as I could as the dog pack spread out into the underbrush. I made sure to pass under every low hanging branch I could see, but she just laughed and called me a bad boy.
When we finally got out to the meadow she used the reins to whip me lightly on the neck, an annoyance more than anything, while giving me a kick or two in the sides, urging me to run. Like that was going to happen. Quick as lightning, I threw myself down on the ground. She moved faster than I thought she could, scrambling clear as I rolled over onto my side. She jumped up and looked me in the eye. I gave her an evil stare. This was effective and she walked leading me for some long, thoughtful minutes, successfully averting the galloping part of this ride.
Too soon she remounted and we turned in the direction of the barn. She finally got her little run in, as I took off like the wind - quick as I could - like any good old, rental trail horse should. Back at the ranch she told Ned about the rollover and said after that she was afraid that I might bite her. I hadn’t thought of that but will keep it in mind. He gave me a stern look but, so long after that fact, what could he do?
She coughed up some cash for Ned and herded her dogs back into the jalopy. I was led off to a stall for a little light grooming. Ahhh.
Well she never returned, no, she never returned and her fate is still unlearned… But I have a suspicion that her riding days are over.
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Halloween 2011
Scene - Dane Co Farmer's Market Oct 29, next to the last of the season. I'd just been hovering around the Antique Apples tent eating my cinnamon bun as Towneley picks out heirloom apples to send to his mother in Houston.
On the east side of the Capitol a band of ghouls play. They are made up for Halloween with skeletal faces. We run to hear them. It is kind of a brass band with an accordion. They play Dem Bones, When the Saints Come Marching In and some kind of Mideastern tune, among others. The market-goers pause in their shopping for Indian Corn, gourds, squash and pumpkins - what else? - to enjoy the show. I leap out and start dancing wearing my black velvet witch hat with a stared black veil. I soon and warm up have to take off my jacket dancing in my t-shirt. A cookie monster has joined in the dance along with a couple of guys, one wearing a huge, fake Afro wig. We dance apart and together. Many people are snapping photos, but only few are applauding. I find this curious, and truly "too bad," so lead by example - to little avail. At the end of the performance the band leader thanks me for dancing and invites me to a Freedom March around the Capitol that was starting soon in protest of Gov. Walker's misbegotten reign. I politely decline.
Later in the evening my friend Ky joins me and I prepare my Turkish nargile (water pipe) that we smoke with Egyptian peach tobacco. I have a cat costume of sorts for him and a Gypsy outfit with a layered, more than full circle skirt decked with ribbons that match the various layers of the bright printed fabrics and a black camisole. I dig out a bunch of jewelry with the full component of rings, bracelets and necklaces of garnet, pearl and turquoise faience scarabs, finishing off with a fringed Turkish scarf in reds, gold and pinks and a pair of burgundy velvet slippers encrusted with beads and sequins. I wear a lavender Islamic skull cap with my golden hair hanging free. Sadly, no crystal ball (maybe next year?)
We head out to the Harmony Bar. To my dismay the place, though decorated for the festivities, if filled with Badger football fans who are witness to getting their a** kicked in the last 5 minutes by Ohio State. Soon the revelers drift in, many in costumes. There is Tinkerbell and Peter Pan, he is Tinkerbell (all 280 pounds of him) in a green satin dress complete with hairy decolletage and no need of bra padding with a 6 foot fairy wing span, his full figured wife is Peter Pan. He said she had made the costumes. He had forgotten his magic wand - so sad.
One couple are dressed in underwear over black tights with sticks of dynamite in the waistbands. It took us a while to figure out what this was - terrorists! - the "Underwear Bomber." There are plenty of sexy vamps of mysterious lineage flashing fishnet swathed legs in high heels - of course. Also Fred Flintstone. I asked him where Barney was and he said he was lacking Wilma - she had a wardrobe malfunction. Several sets of Blues Brothers move through the crowd, one who is amazingly(!!) the spitting image of John Belushi. There are witches of all stripes, many in wigs but lacking brooms - or cauldrons, and two devils with red flashing horns, one with a Scott (the cursed governor) Walker mask who is accompanied by a female devil in the middle of a large cleverly rigged basket that restricts her movement - going to Hell in an hand basket! And a full component of vampy vampires, one with a foot long dagger tucked into her waistband.
Honor Among Thieves is playing some spiky blues, complete with a fiddler. Bodies heat up the room, filling the dance floor and providing critical mass that still leaves room to dance freely.
A Halloween ball for all!
On the east side of the Capitol a band of ghouls play. They are made up for Halloween with skeletal faces. We run to hear them. It is kind of a brass band with an accordion. They play Dem Bones, When the Saints Come Marching In and some kind of Mideastern tune, among others. The market-goers pause in their shopping for Indian Corn, gourds, squash and pumpkins - what else? - to enjoy the show. I leap out and start dancing wearing my black velvet witch hat with a stared black veil. I soon and warm up have to take off my jacket dancing in my t-shirt. A cookie monster has joined in the dance along with a couple of guys, one wearing a huge, fake Afro wig. We dance apart and together. Many people are snapping photos, but only few are applauding. I find this curious, and truly "too bad," so lead by example - to little avail. At the end of the performance the band leader thanks me for dancing and invites me to a Freedom March around the Capitol that was starting soon in protest of Gov. Walker's misbegotten reign. I politely decline.
Later in the evening my friend Ky joins me and I prepare my Turkish nargile (water pipe) that we smoke with Egyptian peach tobacco. I have a cat costume of sorts for him and a Gypsy outfit with a layered, more than full circle skirt decked with ribbons that match the various layers of the bright printed fabrics and a black camisole. I dig out a bunch of jewelry with the full component of rings, bracelets and necklaces of garnet, pearl and turquoise faience scarabs, finishing off with a fringed Turkish scarf in reds, gold and pinks and a pair of burgundy velvet slippers encrusted with beads and sequins. I wear a lavender Islamic skull cap with my golden hair hanging free. Sadly, no crystal ball (maybe next year?)
We head out to the Harmony Bar. To my dismay the place, though decorated for the festivities, if filled with Badger football fans who are witness to getting their a** kicked in the last 5 minutes by Ohio State. Soon the revelers drift in, many in costumes. There is Tinkerbell and Peter Pan, he is Tinkerbell (all 280 pounds of him) in a green satin dress complete with hairy decolletage and no need of bra padding with a 6 foot fairy wing span, his full figured wife is Peter Pan. He said she had made the costumes. He had forgotten his magic wand - so sad.
One couple are dressed in underwear over black tights with sticks of dynamite in the waistbands. It took us a while to figure out what this was - terrorists! - the "Underwear Bomber." There are plenty of sexy vamps of mysterious lineage flashing fishnet swathed legs in high heels - of course. Also Fred Flintstone. I asked him where Barney was and he said he was lacking Wilma - she had a wardrobe malfunction. Several sets of Blues Brothers move through the crowd, one who is amazingly(!!) the spitting image of John Belushi. There are witches of all stripes, many in wigs but lacking brooms - or cauldrons, and two devils with red flashing horns, one with a Scott (the cursed governor) Walker mask who is accompanied by a female devil in the middle of a large cleverly rigged basket that restricts her movement - going to Hell in an hand basket! And a full component of vampy vampires, one with a foot long dagger tucked into her waistband.
Honor Among Thieves is playing some spiky blues, complete with a fiddler. Bodies heat up the room, filling the dance floor and providing critical mass that still leaves room to dance freely.
A Halloween ball for all!
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Oct 1, 2011 Marijuana Harvest Festival, Madison, WI
A sunny Saturday. Perfect for biking down to campus. The 41st Annual Great Midwest MJ Harvest Fest is on the Library Mall (what might be called the quad elsewhere). The spunky band plays rhythmic tunes while a very mixed crowd looks on. A few brave souls dance here and there, including a couple of young "hippie" chicks. One girl wears a rainbow patterned shawl and long skirt riding low to display her slim midriff. De j'a vu.
There is a midway of sorts with vendors, helping to put the fest in festival. And today is also a big game day. The Badgers are playing the Nebraska Corn Huskers who are new to the "Big Ten" and will soon get their a** kicked. Both teams have red as their color. But many Nebraskans are wearing black with red accents, which they must do at away games, as are the Badger fans who must also have black as their alternative color (which, of course, isn't a color). I love red and black! Maybe black is new new jock color - I wouldn't know.
They stream through to the left of the band, some stopping to take in the scene and snap a pic of the poster announcing what this festival is about or listen to a tune or two. Surprisingly the smell of pot is wafting in the soft breeze. In other recent years this was not much of a feature. Though yesteryear it was not unusual for someone to be freely tossing joints off the stage and a couple of people moving through the crowd with ganga cake for sale for .50, or maybe even free. A lone policeman chats with someone, obviously not there for any kind of enforcement.
Fat chalk sticks are available and people have drawn a few things on the ground, so I make a yin and yang sign in yellow and blue. I had gone down to the terrace of the student union beforehand. Lake Mendota was dressed in sail boats bobbing at their moorings as the sun bounced of the waves. Many empty plastic pitchers are stacked up here and there now that most fans have headed toward the stadium. I had a brat (well done - the guy was torching it especially for me) and I got a pricey plastic glass of Octoberfest beer that I was nursing now at the festival. A gray haired woman (perhaps my age, but looking older, of course) was dancing with her eyes closed. A guy was on his knees trying to get a good pic and she skittered away, crab like, when she looked up and saw him.
Dancer that I am I did start to let the music move my feet and creep slowly up as the beat went on, but didn't knock myself out. I'd arrived late and started walking back to my bike at the student union with the last song. What did I see crossing the street but a half dozen young Saudi men dressed in white robes with traditional head dress. What next? Oh yes, on my way back up the mall two young Buddhist monks in red robes stand next to Memorial Library in the shadows wearing parkas to ward off the cool Wisconsin fall afternoon.
Happy day for the cultures this aft down on campus.
There is a midway of sorts with vendors, helping to put the fest in festival. And today is also a big game day. The Badgers are playing the Nebraska Corn Huskers who are new to the "Big Ten" and will soon get their a** kicked. Both teams have red as their color. But many Nebraskans are wearing black with red accents, which they must do at away games, as are the Badger fans who must also have black as their alternative color (which, of course, isn't a color). I love red and black! Maybe black is new new jock color - I wouldn't know.
They stream through to the left of the band, some stopping to take in the scene and snap a pic of the poster announcing what this festival is about or listen to a tune or two. Surprisingly the smell of pot is wafting in the soft breeze. In other recent years this was not much of a feature. Though yesteryear it was not unusual for someone to be freely tossing joints off the stage and a couple of people moving through the crowd with ganga cake for sale for .50, or maybe even free. A lone policeman chats with someone, obviously not there for any kind of enforcement.
Fat chalk sticks are available and people have drawn a few things on the ground, so I make a yin and yang sign in yellow and blue. I had gone down to the terrace of the student union beforehand. Lake Mendota was dressed in sail boats bobbing at their moorings as the sun bounced of the waves. Many empty plastic pitchers are stacked up here and there now that most fans have headed toward the stadium. I had a brat (well done - the guy was torching it especially for me) and I got a pricey plastic glass of Octoberfest beer that I was nursing now at the festival. A gray haired woman (perhaps my age, but looking older, of course) was dancing with her eyes closed. A guy was on his knees trying to get a good pic and she skittered away, crab like, when she looked up and saw him.
Dancer that I am I did start to let the music move my feet and creep slowly up as the beat went on, but didn't knock myself out. I'd arrived late and started walking back to my bike at the student union with the last song. What did I see crossing the street but a half dozen young Saudi men dressed in white robes with traditional head dress. What next? Oh yes, on my way back up the mall two young Buddhist monks in red robes stand next to Memorial Library in the shadows wearing parkas to ward off the cool Wisconsin fall afternoon.
Happy day for the cultures this aft down on campus.
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Refelctions on the 10th Anniversary of Sept 11
I had a dream of the chaos that was NY City two days before the attack. I had a hard time making sense of the images I'd seen in my dream and of the feeling of dread I had when I woke up from my nightmare at 4am. Sept 11 was the one month anniversary of arriving for two years as a teacher in Istanbul, Turkey at Uskudar American Academy.
We had just finished our teaching day (7 hours ahead of Eastern Time in the US), and gathered in one teacher's living room at the the teacher housing apartment building. We sat stunned as we saw the second plane crash into tower of the WTC. Later I found out I knew someone (Berry Perkins) who had been in on of those planes! All the local merchants and the Turkish teachers at our school were horrified by what had happened and said things to the effect of "This is NOT Islam." All of them said how sorry they were for this terrible event.
Today I watched the ceremonies for 2.5 hours. My biggest regret is that Bush - W - was at the helm. I can't help but wonder how different the world would be today if Al Gore had been our president at the time - all the lives that would have been saved and all the money that could have been spent building instead of waring. We are a sadder and poorer nation due to the reaction in Washington DC at that time.
Bin Laden was right - he has destroyed us - but only because of the mismanagement and thus the cooperation of our leaders who were so lacking in integrity at that time. Still, the message of healing was strong today from NY City and the memorial is beautiful and an appropriate tribute. Rest in peace for those killed that day and - Live in hope especially for the family members and those of us who have moved through and beyond tho sad days. May God guide us to refocus on a wiser and kinder future! Peace. B
We had just finished our teaching day (7 hours ahead of Eastern Time in the US), and gathered in one teacher's living room at the the teacher housing apartment building. We sat stunned as we saw the second plane crash into tower of the WTC. Later I found out I knew someone (Berry Perkins) who had been in on of those planes! All the local merchants and the Turkish teachers at our school were horrified by what had happened and said things to the effect of "This is NOT Islam." All of them said how sorry they were for this terrible event.
Today I watched the ceremonies for 2.5 hours. My biggest regret is that Bush - W - was at the helm. I can't help but wonder how different the world would be today if Al Gore had been our president at the time - all the lives that would have been saved and all the money that could have been spent building instead of waring. We are a sadder and poorer nation due to the reaction in Washington DC at that time.
Bin Laden was right - he has destroyed us - but only because of the mismanagement and thus the cooperation of our leaders who were so lacking in integrity at that time. Still, the message of healing was strong today from NY City and the memorial is beautiful and an appropriate tribute. Rest in peace for those killed that day and - Live in hope especially for the family members and those of us who have moved through and beyond tho sad days. May God guide us to refocus on a wiser and kinder future! Peace. B
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Bat in the House!
A BAT was swooping around the house just as I was getting ready for bed. It was wonderful watching how he could fly and turn, but of course it was under a lot of stress. For one thing it isn't used to lights at night. I wasn't sure what to do since I don't have a butterfly net! It was madly circling arpund so fast I didn't think I could catch it. (Amir did catch two bats in the summer with a towel).
I stood by the front door with the screen door open hoping and praying and sending it a psychic message so it could just fly out, but the poor thing was on radar and didn't have a clue. I think it finally went down stairs to the basement, which is probably where it got in by the window I have open down there with no screen!
When Aslan (my 25# gray tiger cat)came in from his nightly neighborhood prowling he got his "pet on" on his favorite rug, went to his food dish and then STOPPED in his tracks. I'm sure he could hear the bat down there (inaudible to me). He walked over to the stairs and was poised there listening. I turned off the light and went up staris to bed. I knew that finding much less catching the bat in the basement would be pretty much impossible. Later I heard Aslan romping around the first floor. I was hoping he wouldn't trash anything in his effort to catch the bat. Of course I was afraid that in the unlikely scenario that he did catch the bat that it might bite him.
This morning no sign of the bat and no broken sculptures - thank GOD!. I hope it found the basement window and could get out on its own.
Part 2:
After Signe left her two person birthday party (complete with chocolate - cranberry cake) I settled on the couch to read and looked up at the bricks of the fireplace in front of me.
There she/he was. A compact, symmetrical little ball of brown fur and darker wings. Of course it was sleeping upside down. I was able to stand on the couch and gently nabbed it with a pink hand towel. I saw his tiny little foot. I wanted to take a better look and maybe take a picture, but didn't want to wake it up or for it to be more frightened than it was already being in a foreign human home. Of course I didn't want to be bitten by a bat! I carried it outside and gently placed it on the small rocking chair on my big Midwestern front porch. When I checked a few minutes later it was gone.
I'm glad I was able to catch the bat and let it free. Earlier in the day I was concerned that it would be hungry as I was not sure what food it might find in the basement.
All's well that ends well!
I stood by the front door with the screen door open hoping and praying and sending it a psychic message so it could just fly out, but the poor thing was on radar and didn't have a clue. I think it finally went down stairs to the basement, which is probably where it got in by the window I have open down there with no screen!
When Aslan (my 25# gray tiger cat)came in from his nightly neighborhood prowling he got his "pet on" on his favorite rug, went to his food dish and then STOPPED in his tracks. I'm sure he could hear the bat down there (inaudible to me). He walked over to the stairs and was poised there listening. I turned off the light and went up staris to bed. I knew that finding much less catching the bat in the basement would be pretty much impossible. Later I heard Aslan romping around the first floor. I was hoping he wouldn't trash anything in his effort to catch the bat. Of course I was afraid that in the unlikely scenario that he did catch the bat that it might bite him.
This morning no sign of the bat and no broken sculptures - thank GOD!. I hope it found the basement window and could get out on its own.
Part 2:
After Signe left her two person birthday party (complete with chocolate - cranberry cake) I settled on the couch to read and looked up at the bricks of the fireplace in front of me.
There she/he was. A compact, symmetrical little ball of brown fur and darker wings. Of course it was sleeping upside down. I was able to stand on the couch and gently nabbed it with a pink hand towel. I saw his tiny little foot. I wanted to take a better look and maybe take a picture, but didn't want to wake it up or for it to be more frightened than it was already being in a foreign human home. Of course I didn't want to be bitten by a bat! I carried it outside and gently placed it on the small rocking chair on my big Midwestern front porch. When I checked a few minutes later it was gone.
I'm glad I was able to catch the bat and let it free. Earlier in the day I was concerned that it would be hungry as I was not sure what food it might find in the basement.
All's well that ends well!
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