Waiting for the parade

Small towns are funny. This has been Jamestown Fair week. Since the high school is used for the fair, school has been cancelled. Today was the parade. I used to go to the parades. They were funny. Milk trucks and kids on horses. Kids in costumes. Very rural. The last time I saw the parade it was not the same. No milk wagons of course - the local dairy is no more. No horses. The floats are still pulled by tractors tho.

The parade is always at 1 pm. At 10 am this morning the parade route was already lined with blankets and plastic chairs. I came back thru town at 11 and the crowd was already gathering. The parade was at 1, remember? There were a number of people already in their seats with their lunch waiting in the cooler.

When the main street is blocked, there is no other way to go thru town. I live about 2 1/2 miles northeast of town. I went shopping in Meadville which is farther east. By the time I got home, the parade was history. I usually don't go to the fair either. I know perhaps a half dozen people in town. I do use the local drugstore and bank tho.

SynchroniciTi

An interesting 9/11 commemoration with narrator - sorry I didn't get his photo. Poetry between musical numbers. The Pittsburgh group is SynchroniciTi.

Wistful

Dudie would love to be a housecat and spends many minutes looking in. Little One is sick today. Must find a way to catch him.

Friday cat blogging 2

You've heard the song "Twilight Time"? Well, this is "toilette time". Jellico in the foreground with Little One then Dudie farther out. The grey tabby boys. It will embiggen.

Friday cat blogging

Only one photo so far and it is from a phenomenon last night. Tommie and Jellico lapping up milk together from the same dish. No songs. No hisses. Interesting. Jellico has had some sort of eye problem and hasn't been eating, just sleeping. I hoped some milk would encourage him as nothing else has tempted him. He jumped off the roof when I opened the door and Tom jumped up before he did. I was shocked to see them together. Jellico seems a little better this morning.

Friday shuffle

1. Rock and Rye Polka
2. Gold Rush - Mark O'Connor
3. Stay - Maurice
4. Handel: Coronation Anthem 2 - King's College
5. nearer, my god, to thee - rajaton
6. When You Are Old and Gray - Tom Lehrer
7. Chopin: Nocturne in B, Op 62/1 - Artur Rubenstein
8. Dawson: Soon-ah Will Be Done - Bach Choir of Pittsburgh
9. Fire - Crazy World of Arthur Brown
10. Take Good Care of My Baby -Bobby Vee

A little late but still relevant. Wish it didn't remind me of Episcopal schismatics as well. Hmmm. Some of the same people?

Kitten

One minute Little One and Jellico are sound asleep following Bishop Maya Pavlova's advice to nap frequently.

Before long however, Little One has other ideas.

I was able to scritch Little One's head this morning. What a fleabag! I'm beginning to think Little One is a he but it is very difficult to get a good view. Need to get the trap out and get him to the vet.

Oh, yes!

Hat tip to Dennis on Facebook.

Frustrating

This has been a dry year here. Watching the weathermap has been a source of frustration. The rain goes around us. North of us. South of us. East of us. The rain peters out before coming in from the west. For those on holiday this is good news. For those of us with wells, not so good news. My well is not happy as we have been close to drought conditions for many years. We were worse off a couple of years ago but will slide back there if we don't get rain this fall.

This is the pond between my property and the "tracks". There is little water in it. The logs and branches in the foreground should be in water rather than on dry grassy ground. The pond fills from the farm and other land above us. We are at the bottom of a long hill that runs parallel to the lake.
The lake is actually a little higher than usual. The old cement dock is normally almost completely out of the water in September. Part of the top is still submerged. The lake level reveals the large amount of rain that has fallen to the north of us - often as close as 5 miles.

Letter to Obama

Dear President Obama,

We elected you to make changes in health care in the US.

It is time to take advantage of the Democrats’ control of Congress and make real changes, not just superficial window dressing that satisfies only those who may see decreased income with a better bill.

We really need a single payer health care system but that is probably impossible. The next best option is serious competition for the current insurance/pharma monopoly via a public option. We need coverage for everyone. We need coverage for preexisting conditions. We need relief from catastrophic illness expense. We need coverage for prevention. We need the prices other countries pay for US medications.

Please just do it. Give us a bill we can recognize as real reform. Challenge the naysayers to ask their constituents if they want health care reform or what they are used to. The Republicans will never compromise. Please don’t back down and yield to the noise. You can’t possibly succeed if you don’t try.

Thank you for doing what you promised.

Sincerely,

Pymatuning

The leaves are starting to turn. Where did August go? We have had a most unusual Labor Day weekend for a change. Almost always there is one nice day, one chilly grey day and one miserable day in random order. We have had two gorgeous days so far.

It seems like everyone is out in the boat one last time. I can't see the lake proper because there is a long island between us and the lake. I took a short walk up the "tracks" to get the photos. I should have made the photos embiggenable so you could see the boats. Oh well.

Christ Church sings

Helps when the choir is in the congregation.

Little One is curious about the house

Not just education...

Knowledge is dangerous. It can cause people to think. Thinking can cause questions. Questions can be embarrassing. It is not good to expose our children to anything other than what we "know" to be "true".

Thanks to Susan who got it from Ann.

Bill Moyers on Obama and Health Care