Friday Meanderings and some Haiku

It's been a stressful week here in Mauiville. My aunt, who was hospitalized a couple of weeks ago with dehydration, turned out to have a growth in her colon which is cancerous. I had to take her to the doctor to hear the news on Tuesday; he had given me a hint of what to expect when the biopsy results came in, so I kind of knew already that the news was bad. She took the news well - she'd had a similar diagnosis 20 years ago, was operated on, and was OK - but of course she was a lot younger then.

My aunt will need to undergo an operation again, if she is strong enough to withstand it. She is 88 and frail, so the outcome would be uncertain. I am hoping she can gain strength back after her illness (which was not caused by the growth). Then we can see whether she is able to undergo the operation, which would probably cure her if she can survive it.

My aunt has always been part of my life and it is hard to imagine the time when she will no longer be with me. Her sister, my mother, is two years older, yet my mother has always been the healthier one. At 90, she is doing well despite her pack a day smoking habit, whereas my aunt has heart failure, high blood pressure, and has always had digestive issues.

It seems as if my aunt always got the short end of the stick in life. My grandparents were not wealthy, and it was my mother who was sent to college; my aunt, who was less sure what she wanted to do in her life, ended up going to some kind of trade school where she was trained in occupational therapy. That didn't work out so well, as she was working with mental patients who were kind of violent, and after one of them knocked her down and broke her glasses, she left that career rather quickly. She then tried to join the WAVES during World War II but was discharged for health reasons shortly after she joined, after she had an allergic reaction to something and fainted.

She eventually found a good career working in a laboratory performing spectroscopy on precious metals and worked her way up to being the group supervisor, so she did finally find her niche.

My mother married and had me, and stopped working at her chosen career of journalism after that; my aunt, who never married, was the one with the career even though she didn't get the college education. She also was the daughter who ended up taking care of her parents in their old age.

When I was young I thought of my aunt as quite glamorous - unlike my mother, she had this career, she had a lot of friends, and used to travel a lot when she was younger. She was also willing to sit on the floor and play with me when I came over to my grandparents' house and was always a lot of fun. I loved going over there.

After she retired, she still kept busy with her church group, she played cards with friends, and did volunteer work. Now of course most of her friends have moved away to retirement communities, are living with grown children, or have passed away. She had to give up her house last year and move into the seniors apartment building my mother had moved into the year before, as taking care of the house was too much for her.

Now it seems her time may be running out, and it's hitting me rather hard. She is not always an easy person to deal with, as she has very strong opinions and tends to be rather contrary sometimes. But she has always been a fixture in my life and it will be hard to imagine her not being there. And she's always been very good to me.

It also makes me realize my mother will not be around forever either (not that I didn't know it, but we always tend to be in denial about these things). That's another thing that's hard to imagine.

I was going to write about President Obama's decision to begin the tribunals in Guantanamo again (disappointing, despite his reassurance that the prisoners would have expanded legal rights).

I am also concerned that he has decided to try to block the release the torture photographs from Iraq. Maybe his motives are correct, and that it would indeed inflame anti-American sentiments, but it is still a concern when he reverses his position on these issues. And we're still waiting for him to reverse "Don't Ask Don't Tell."

But I find despite these concerns, it has been hard to concentrate on them this week with everything else going on. So instead I've used my spare moments to play Scramble on Facebook...or sleep. I'm really good at sleeping, it's a great avoidance technique.

This weekend will be a busy one - after a neighborhood park cleanup we're heading up to the Adirondacks just for Saturday night, to get away and relax a bit. In the meantime, we have received the good news from our contractor that the painting will be done inside the cabin shortly and the well will be drilled soon as well. So by the time the summer really comes we may actually be able to stay in the cabin itself instead of paying to stay in a cabin nearby!

I'll close with a few haiku. Hope everyone has a good weekend!

Cheney is guilty
Of authorizing torture
We all know this now.

Nancy Pelosi
Knew about waterboarding
Way back in '03

She too is guilty
And so are many others
Where is the justice?

On to other news,
GM is closing dealers
And so is Chrysler.

Luckily for us
Our Jeep dealership survived
And will still be there.

And what of the Saabs?
There are two or three bidders
Who may buy the brand.

Times are really tough
For all the car companies
But some may survive.

Back From the North

Sorry I haven't been out and about in the Blog World this past weekend. We spent the weekend up in the Adirondacks visiting our cabin and dropping off a bunch of appliances we bought so the contractor can have them installed for us: a propane-run instant hot water heater, a propane wall heater, propane lights (they're like gaslights, and will likely be a good way to get light without needing electricity), and a shower apparatus to install in the bathroom.

When we first made our way up the gravel road to the cabin, we were surprised to find that a fairly large tree had fallen across the road - directly before the driveway to our property. So we had to cart all the heavy boxes up the side of the hill to reach the cabin instead of parking directly next to it! It wasn't until we'd gotten everything up there that we realized the obvious solution: We should have driven the Jeep up the hill. Sure enough, it went right up with no problem, even though it was a steep hill and had no gravel or anything to make it easier. We are still not thinking like Jeep owners, I guess!

Giggles over at Wits and Wiggles was talking about getting back in touch with her inner "nature girl" and I must say that I am feeling the same way whenever we go up to the Adirondacks. When I was young I was very into birdwatching and my mother was always showing me wildflowers in the woods. Living in semi-urban New Jersey for my whole adult life, it was harder and harder to find anything worth looking at. Now that I'm able to go to a location that is rich with wildlife, I'm getting back into what I enjoyed so much when I was younger.

This was another good visit in terms of seeing and hearing interesting wildlife. On our way up the main road, we saw an actual porcupine waddling along the side of the road! He looked up at us and started to head into the woods before I could get out my camera. He must have been somewhat alarmed by our presence because his quills started to rise on his back. Neither of us had ever seen a real porcupine before!

Then while we were sitting out on our deck having lunch we heard a strange call in the woods. It went on for quite awhile. We couldn't tell if it was an animal or a bird. After Googling "coyote calls" and "wolf howls" on the Blackberry I decided it was neither of those. When we got home I was able to do a more thorough search and found that the spooky sound was a Barred Owl. Go here to listen to what we heard. (Go to the Barred Owl and click on the link called "typical"). I was surprised because it was still daylight and I didn't realize owls were out during the day.

I also came across some great wildflowers - I saw a Jack in the Pulpit and also a whole bunch of Trillium. I even managed to take some pictures of it without them turning out all blurry. Here is one of them:

Here is another attempt at nature photography - the new ferns popping up among the leaves around the pond:

While I was walking along the roadway, I saw an Ovenbird, but didn't get a picture of that. I am amazed that anyone can manage to get great pictures of birds. It is a real skill. Of course, they probably have better cameras with very close-up lenses, unlike my point and shoot variety.

Speaking of Nature, we discovered that Something has been destroying trees around our cabin. Check this out:
This was a perfectly good tree. Now it has three huge holes in it. There are also several farther up in the tree on the other side. After seeing this, we noticed a bunch of other trees in the woods with similar damage, some done recently and some that was obviously from previous years. We can only conclude that it is caused by our friends, the impressive, beautiful, Pileated Woodpeckers, which I decided after Googling "Pileated Woodpecker Damage." (See below - note pile of wood chips like ours).

I was so thrilled to see them when we were up there last fall. Now I'm starting to think of them as a menace to the forest!

So much for Nature! Now I'll move on to our other adventures.

During this visit we also put the Jeep to another test. First we took it around to the other end of the Jeep trail that runs past our cabin again. Since we'd done it last time, I was feeling very brave. I even got out and took a picture of one of the somewhat challenging parts of the road. Here is the stretch of road, followed by the Jeep making its way up:

We then decided to do something even more daring. We turned down a side trail off of that road, and headed toward Lake George. We didn't even know whether it went all the way through. As we went along, it got less and less like a road and more and more like a bunch of rocks strewn along a narrow ledge; the hill sloped steeply away from the edge of the trail. At any moment I expected the trail to end abruptly with a bunch of trees and couldn't even imagine trying to back up! I also envisioned tumbling over the side of the cliff to my right if the Jeep tipped too much going over a rock.

I didn't get any pictures of this road. I was too busy holding on for dear life, closing my eyes and calling on the Diety to protect us. Even Diva was nervous - she was panting the whole time!

We did finally make it through to the road that goes along Lake George - and lived to tell the tale. And, the Jeep made it through with no problem! I guess that's what they're made for! I even made up a new motto for Jeep, based on the fact that the GPS map was showing no road where we were driving. "Just because the road ends doesn't mean you have to stop!"

I'll end with a few more pictures of the cabin and the surroundings. It was wonderful to be away from it all. We didn't even watch television while we were up there this time. However, we still got our newspapers and learned that Souter plans to retire from the Supreme Court. In the next post, it is Baxter's turn to do a news roundup so we'll get back into current events then.

Here is the cabin with its new green metal roof:

The new slate underneath the woodstove, and the new pine flooring that was installed. Now it just needs to be stained.

Birches reflecting in the pond.

Scenery along the Jeep trail.Views of Lake George.The little public beach on Lake George that is nearest to our cabin.