Monday, September 26, 2011

Need to laugh!

So, I watched a few videos.... I hope they make you laugh, too.

Sunday, September 25, 2011

What I see...

I never thought anything about it. My early life with my grandparents, who were artists, and my mother who painted beautiful water colors, I believed everyone thought like I did. That was how I saw the world. Ideas and thoughts were always in pictures. I saw the image in my head, and I understood how to build, paint, draw and to a limited degree, talk about it. My vocabulary increased by listening to my grandmother, but words were in chunks of images wrapped up in place and time. Now, after reading about Autism and about how many who have this condition, think in pictures, could that have been a component of my life? Perhaps. Why not! I didn't read very well (that would be an overstatement) when I graduated from High School. But I read my first book after I had taught myself how to play my grandparents' piano - I visualized the staff as up and down in space, the keys as numbers (not letters A - G) and memorized music by its "shape." Music and reading were connected, somehow. What has this to do with what I am about to talk about? Well, I am welcoming you to my brain.... for just a moment. I am disturbed by the current events....


So, as the crappy world around us goes further into the stinking abyss, and Republican and their Tea Party lapdogs stand up to titillate their constituency (their corporate funding machines) to elect them to high lucrative positions. I have to say, I am not impressed, either, by the Democrats. But, it has been the rest of the world who has mentioned the monstrosities of our politics and policies, our corporate effluent machines, and the laws that only incarcerate
those without funds....
I imagine... what if one of the Repugs became our president... ? This image was made from a mock image of the Korean Leader
but I think they have some things in common.


The Republican talking points to eliminate "entitlement" programs that workers invested in throughout their working lives but with the same taxes on those working people, that money would go to Corporations (executives) ... is a horror....
They want to eliminate Medicare when Medical Insurance companies run our medical system into the ground. This would be devastating!
They speak of letting people die from easily cured diseases and mock those who serve in the horrible wars our system creates.

This is a monstrous travesty! I wish I had the words to really say what I feel! ... and our country is building drones to ... what? fight wars where???
Here, I say!
But who would lead the wars into our urban communities? Who would drop the bombs on our children coming home from school?
Not this guy....


I don't think any of the Republican, Tea Party people (with the helping hand of the Democrats) would LEAD the charge but they sure do sound familiar.... I see someone with lots of money... maybe a group of people with lots of money...
But this is how I see the contenders for the top position of our country, which perhaps is only a symbol of power. The contenders have to act and speak their parts.

Monday, September 19, 2011

And speaking of bees....

In May last year and this year, I had to remove the bees in my mother's house.... Two hives were over 20 years old. One was in the glass house (which my grandfather built for my grandmother to start cuttings but then decided it would be a great place for a work shop filled with slicing, cutting, drilling giant metal machines). The bees in the glass house needed to be removed first. The other huge hive was in the garage and that was the last one to be removed. Several happy beekeepers went home with bees, comb and honey. Another smaller one developed in some furniture from the main house. The man in the bee suit said that he had found a new queen and the old one had probably flown away in a swarm. He was correct. About a few months before the entire garden was filled with mad flying bees. Oh. I am so tired.

The people who removed the bees were the Backwards Beekeepers. The people who video taped, and commented behind the glass doors were new-bees (haha...) learning how to extract a hive carefully and take care of the animals. They got to take home the hive and try to keep them going. Taking home a twenty year hive is pretty unusual these days.


Then there were the bees in the furniture that were set out to clean up inside the house. The beeping you hear is the alarm system that needed fixing.


Then of course, there were the bees that lived in the garage for more then 20 years. The roof caved in afterwards. You can see the roof on other side had already discovered gravity.





Sunday, June 26, 2011

Bombus-A-Thon

Whittier Narrows will be holding an event to find the Bumble Bee in the Natural Area, find the closet trail marker or GPS the place where the Bumble Bee was sighted, and then to take a picture of it, if possible. After the nice walk and exploration, take the information back to the Nature Center where, at the end of the event all data will be sent to the Xerces Society.

Some background...