Still Life with Camera

We've lived here now for 6 weeks and I've only seen another dog walker once.  There are lots of dogs here but instead of walking their dogs, everyone here seems to have a solid 7-8 foot fence around their yard.  I miss meeting people with their dogs.  I made a lot of friends that way at Prairie Crossing.  And now I appreciate the wisdom of how Prairie Crossing was put together.  It was intended to encourage community so no big fences are allowed.  And no fences that block a view.  The houses all have shared common areas - not a block away,  but out the front or back door.  On a good weather day, warm or cold, people with children and dogs or cups of coffee or a beer, congregate outside. The kids play or ride their trikes around the square, dogs romp with each other or chase balls or frisbees.  Or we chat while someone grills something for supper.  And so we all got to know each other.  Most American...

The State of Illinois is billions of dollars in debt, which means that money promised to the University of Illinois ,where I work, hasn't been sent. Clearly the University's primary missions are education and research so the institution is agonizing over how to meet this vast short fall in funds without endangering those missions. So, furlough days, or, if you'd prefer, a short term cut in pay. A furlough day is a mandatory day off without pay where you are absolutely not allowed to work. Generally not a problem for the kind of work I'm involved in where we can cover for each other most of the time. However, lots of people on the commuter bus to the train station (who talk while I unintentionally eavesdrop) are involved in research or patient care and they would rather keep working for less pay. The pay cut was not offered as an option at first. I have a feeling people like my bus mates made the case for it. The University thought these options were more fair than firin...

Laura, the woman I bought Navaroan from and who now has him back, and I have been spending a lot of time on the phone. After he unloaded she put him out in the pasture. We weren't sure if he just needed to relax and decompress for a while or what. She said he ran around and around the pasture , kicking and bucking, and just having a grand old time. She had put him out with her other horses and he started chasing them around (which he'd never done before)so she put him in a pasture by himself. When she led him back to the barn, he was doing exactly the same thing he did here, which was to ignore her. She kept having to do things to get his attention back. And by the way, look at those sad eyes. I knew he was unhappy, but looking at these pictures really brings it home. She rode him on Wednesday and was surprised, I think, not that she didn't believe what I'd been saying, just that it didn't sound like the horse who'd left her 6 or 7 months back. He spooked, h...

I'm not sure why, but all of a sudden I'm getting Martha Stewart Living Magazine. I almost threw it away without opening it, but stuck it in my train bag instead. And it's great! I could hardly believe it. And I think it hit me just at the right time, right before the winter doldrums had me totally immobilized. I felt like Julie (of Julie and Julia - wonderful movie, by the way)when she committed to 532 recipes in 365 days. I'm energized! And it's the most unexpected things that really caught my fancy. One of my favorite things is Martha's calendar at the very beginning of the magazine. Besides all the usual stuff - yoga 3 times a week, workouts 2 times a week, there are things like "Vacuum refrigerator coils " and "Clean and oil saddles." Having it there - just that one thing for that day - makes it seem so doable . When I think of things like that, I think, OMG, the house is such a wreck, where can I start and I immediately com...

Yup, that's what we have here. Did you know there are many different kinds of frost? Sort of like Inuits having many different words for snow. But hoarfrost, also called soft rime, is formed when the air is warmer than objects in the environment - like trees, for example. It's really pretty - see the crystalization on this one. Or this one.

Darn it!  Connie called while I was on the train tonight to say that someone else has taken Meg.  I'm so disappointed!  And, now I have nothing to distract me from how much I'm going to miss Navi.  I talked with Tammie, the horse transporter and she thinks she'll be at Sunflower midday on Monday.  It's Martin Luther King Day, a work holiday for me, but I don't know yet whether I can be there or not. I've also been thinking about, Stealth,  the other horse I would have bought if I hadn't bought Navaroan.  He's still for sale.  Since I'm not getting any money back from Navaroan, I wonder if I could work out some kind of lease deal for him for a while.  Hmmm.  He's a Georgian Grand, a relatively new breed which is a Friesian crossed with something.  Stealth is a saddlebred, Friesian combo.  He certainly seemed like a sweet, sweet guy.  Maybe I'll try to go see him this weekend.

I actually got the last seat tonight on the 5:00 commuter bus that goes from UIC to Union Station. Certainly ridership goes up when it's cold, but this is the first time I've ever seen people having to stand. The real reason, I think, is that there have been 3 strong-arm robberies on the West Side of campus already this week including 1 right outside the building where I work at 6:00 pm. Took away our illusions that these only happen on the East Side of campus and later at night. So I figure that all of the folks who would normally hang around a bit don't want to risk walking to the bus or waiting by themselves. I'm sure that winter garb - hoods and scarves and hats - makes people less able to be aware of what's going on. I've decided to be wary but not afraid. Fear is responsible for so much undesirable behavior in our world. We're afraid of people who are different from us in any way, we're afraid we might lose our high standard of living, we're af...