The Hills of Home

Yesterday I took a ride into my past. When growing up, my father worked for an oil company (drilling and pumping). The company owned three houses in a wilderness area and housed the families of the workers in them. When they closed the oil operation there, they burned the houses so they would not have to pay taxes on them. However, they could not destroy the magnificent setting.

The setting, as you can see, is a marshy area surrounded by forested hills. As children, we would sometimes find arrowheads left by Indian cultures long before we arrived on the scene. I used to imagine the Indian children who had played there before we did and wondered what their life was like.

When I explored yesterday, I realized that there were few traces of our lives there. We had passed the way the Indians had, silently, leaving the beautiful environment intact. May it always be so.

Forgiveness: My Thoughts

The anniversary of the tragedy in Pennsylvania and the discussions of the ability of the Amish to forgive has me thinking about forgiveness. The Bible tells us to forgive one another as we were forgiven by God through Jesus. Unfortunately, in my view, the ability to forgive was not an inherent gift from the Almighty. In fact, lack of forgiveness may be the greatest human flaw.

Think how differently human history would read if we could forgive one another: wars unfought, feuds forgotten, relationships unbroken. Iraq would be one united peaceful country. Israel and Palestine would quietly share their rich history. Divorce rates would drop. And on, and on, and on.

I think forgiveness must start with each individual. Ah ha! There's the rub. When I look at myself, I know I do not forgive. I can pay lip service to forgiving but deep in my being, I still harbor feelings of resentment and hurt. For me to truly forgive, I would also have to forget. And that part of my memory has not faded yet. I wish it would. Or that the Amish would share their secret with me.

Unmeasurable Losses

This rural area is reeling from the loss of four young people over the weekend, including three high school students and a recent graduate of the Jasper-Troupsburg School District. The photo above was taken by Lynn Brennan of The Evening Tribune and printed in today's issue. I can relate to the event because when I was in high school, there were close bonds between J-T and my school.

The four were lost as the result of a one car accident. The search for them started Saturday when they did not return from a party Friday night. The site of the accident was not discovered until late Monday afternoon despite intense searching by several hundred volunteers. The effort was greatly aided by teenagers who were determined not to give up until their friends were found.

I cannot imagine the pain their families and friends are suffering now and hope that they gain some measure of relief from the expressions of genuine caring from other people in this area, symbolized in the photo above.

Segue Into Fall

Moving along from mid-summer to fall, here's a picture from nearby Letchworth State Park, taken by Andy Thompson, managing editor of the Evening Tribune, in 2006 and published in today's paper.



This area becomes inundated with leaf peepers in the fall each year. The leaves haven't reached their peak in Hornell yet.

A Summer View

A cousin just reminded me of the hillside where I grew up. Perhaps that is the reason I so love the place we live now. This photo was taken earlier in the summer and down the street from our place. It's looking across the Canisteo Valley. Perhaps you can see how high up we are.

A Local Storm

We live in a great part of the country where we tend to escape weather-related disasters so common in other parts of the USA. However, on Saturday a violent thunderstorm passed through. We suffered only scared cats but down the road about four miles away, the village of Canisteo was heavily damaged---downed trees that fell on power lines, houses, cars, streets, etc.

The picture above is a scene this morning of crews repairing power lines. The mayor said that every street had some kind of damage and that a state of emergency will probably remain in effect until Thursday. Quite a consequence for a storm that lasted about three minutes.

My morning routine includes checking my e-mails, reading the important news stories, and then turning to a section of the news considered oddball. If you've never read the oddball news, you are missing something very entertaining. For example, here are the headlines for today:

MOST VIEWED: ODDBALL NEWS
Man rides mule from Minnesota to Wyoming AP
British dwarf's penis gets stuck to hoover AFP
Gambler complains of urine-soaked seat AP
Van was rocking, police were knocking AP
UAE father of 78 eyes new brides for century target Reuters

Magic

I've been thinking about Aunt Erma. We sat across from her at a family reunion last summer and watched as dozens of children came up to greet her. I remember saying to my husband, "That's the way we used to look at her, too."

For the children would gaze at her with wide-eyes filled with love and adoration, and a kind of expectancy, as if they thought she was about to pull a rabbit out of a hat.

And maybe she was. A magician, that is. She certainly made the rest of us greater than the sum total of our whole.

Another Erma Story

At my aunt's funeral yesterday, her pastor discussed the three things that best described her: fun, family and faith. It was a perfect summation of what made Aunt Erma so special.

He described a conversation he had with her the day before she died. They were talking about her family and he said, "Eight children. Erma, what were you thinking?" She laughed and replied that people had asked her if she was a strict Catholic. The pastor asked her what her reply was. She motioned for him to come close to her as if she was going to tell him a secret. As he leaned in close, she said, "I told them I wasn't a strict Catholic---I was a sexy Protestant! "

Family and friends will be telling "Erma stories" for decades to come.

A Great Lady Is Gone

I am going to paste in a post I wrote in over two years ago:

Sunday, May 08, 2005

A Great Mother
During my lifetime, I have been blessed to know many great mothers, but today I want to pay tribute to one, Erma Allen, my aunt by marriage but my mother by nurturing. She says that she was delighted to discover there were many children in his family when she married my uncle. She came from a family where there weren't many offspring. She immediately opened her home and heart to all of us, my siblings and cousins. Her quiet and gentle guidance was always there, along with her steadfast love, no matter how large a load she carried. What a lady and what a mother! I love you, Aunt Erma.
Posted by Lillian at 8:14 AM 0 comments

Sadly, Aunt Erma passed away last night. Her great wit remained with her right up to the end. Two or three years ago, I went over to sit with my uncle so that Aunt Erma could go out with her dying sister. As I went up the steps leading to the kitchen, I fell flat on my face and acquired a spectacular black eye.

My sister was visiting her in the hospital a couple of days ago and told her that I wanted to be there but I couldn't walk that far in the hospital. She told Aunt Erma that she would pick me up Saturday and take her to her house (she was supposed to go home today). Aunt Erma said, "You tell Lillian she can fall into my kitchen anytime!"

I'm trying to remember those types of things about Aunt Erma. Otherwise, the grief will be overwhelming.

Yesterday's Sunset

Here's a shot of last night's sunset. I concentrated on getting the sun itself rather than the surrounding sky. My camera is a Sony DSC-H1 with a 12x optical zoom lense and it produces great photos.

Old Friends: Old Wine

Last night we had dinner with four of the people dearest in the world to us. Our friendship spans back several decades and even though we may not see each other for several months or several years, it survives. In fact, it seems like some wines; the older it gets, the better it is. We're so lucky.

Alec Baldwin: My Thoughts

I watched the Alec Baldwin interview on The View yesterday. I saw little regret and remorse but much rage and ego. Baldwin used that forum (and shame on Barbara Walters for letting it happen) to release another attack on his ex-wife, Kim Bassinger.

I know nothing about Bassinger. She may very well be a bad person and poor mother. I don't know. But I do know that Baldwin has lashed out in the past and directed rabid tirades at other people and in other situations. Unfortunately, his latest loss of control was directed at his own daughter.

He and Bassinger have made their daughter the bone of contention between them. Regretfully, the bone of contention in this case is a wishbone and they are both pulling it as hard as they can. Eventually, the bone will break and one of them will have the bigger piece. That really doesn't matter. The point is the bone is broken. That poor child.

On the program, Baldwin portrayed himself as a noble man capable of directing the rest of us in dealing with parental alienation. Step back, Baldwin, and look in the mirror! There you see the root cause of parental alienation. You'd better fix yourself before you try educating the rest of us.

P.S. Whadda I know?----I don't even know if his name is Alec or Alex.

A Mary Celeste Type Mystery

Remember the tale of the Mary Celeste back in 1872, when a "ghost" ship was found off the coast of Spain. Everything seemed normal except the lack of any humans on board. Rueters has reported finding a catamaran a similar occurance off the coast of Australia. The sails were up, the engine running, food on the table, a laptop was on but the three missing sailors were gone.

It's Not Polite to Stare---At the Chimps!?

AP reports that the Antwerp Zoo is asking that visitors try to avoid making eye contact with the chimps who reside there. They explain that one chimp was raised by a human family and they are now trying to have him bond with his own kind. Sounds reasonable to me....I think.

Virginia Tech Mixed Feelings

We share the disbelief and sorrow caused by yesterday's events in Blacksburg. At the same time, we are feeling relief and gratitude to learn that one of our friends, a professor of chemistry, is safe. His wife was one of my college roommates and matron of honor in our wedding. His e-mail this morning indicates his empathy for the parents.

Global Warning Exception

Here's a note from the National Weather Service local storm warning bulletin:

SNOWFALL ACCUMULATIONS OF 8 TO 12 INCHES WILL BE POSSIBLE OVERNIGHT...ESPECIALLY IN THE HIGHER TERRAIN . TOTAL SNOWFALL ACCUMULATIONS COULD WELL EXCEED A FOOT BY MONDAY EVENING...WITH 12 TO 18 INCHES POSSIBLE IN THE HIGHEST TERRAIN ALONG THE INTERSTATE 81 CORRIDOR.

I just read this as I looked out the window to nearly bare ground and sort of gloated about the bad weather missing us. Uhm......I suppose I could be wrong.

Happy Easter

I hope everyone's Easter was as joyful as ours. We spent it with my sister Nancy's family in Pennsylvania. I love Pennsylvania's colorful place names. For example, Nancy lives is a town called Shinglehouse and on a road called Horse Run.

The star of the day was Ava, my great-niece and Nancy's granddaughter. She held her own in a crowd of adults.

Construction Day Three

Here we are on day three. It's not quite done. The screens have to be put in, railings added on the exterior and more hardware installed. It's great and closed in just in time for more low temperatures and possibly snow. The installers have added some of their tools to the mix on the porch so the cats have been very nervous about going out. They'll love it tomorrow when it's all done.

Construction Day Two

Here's the update after the second day of work. One wall is completed and work has begun on the other two. The door going to the ramp has been framed in.....it's wider than the one we had which will make it better for scooters, etc. Hopefully, the job will be completed tomorrow.