tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-168674112024-03-17T19:43:50.485-05:00T Webster Armstrongtwebsterarmstronghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14341721506092130476noreply@blogger.comBlogger1181125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16867411.post-59816542273310314782024-03-17T19:14:00.001-05:002024-03-17T19:22:30.913-05:00Toe-dipping In my blog post titled A New Chapter, I mentioned my eagerness to dip our toes in all things urban, once we moved to Cleveland. This month has seen us pop in & out of the Cleveland city limits, juggling the end of our Kansas Chapter, all the while starting anew, up here on the Lake Erie shore of Ohio.This afternoon, we are in Cleveland, and I mentioned to that Spouse o' Mine that,twebsterarmstronghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14341721506092130476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16867411.post-65880453268711555802024-01-10T16:34:00.001-06:002024-02-08T06:25:00.304-06:00A New ChapterThe hottest summers, the coldest winters. The most amazing, clearest star-gazing anyone will ever experience. The warmest cycling community. Twenty years with our church family at First Lutheran. So many books read with Wabaunsee Book Club! Coffee at The Shamrock Cafe. Experiencing real Americana at the Kniebel/Downey Ranches' annual bull sales. twebsterarmstronghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14341721506092130476noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16867411.post-35874574436657539622024-01-03T19:22:00.000-06:002024-01-03T19:22:28.593-06:00Blind Teddy It seems a lifetime ago. We had said goodbye to our Bouvier dog, Biserka, whom we had brought home and loved after her years at what, in retrospect, was probably a breeding bitch for a puppy mill. She was not an easy keeper, she was neurotic, she was beautiful, and we worked with all her manic insecurities. We loved her. Most of the time. &twebsterarmstronghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14341721506092130476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16867411.post-32917086864683751652023-05-22T20:00:00.002-05:002023-05-22T20:00:20.894-05:00Commencement!Commencement. Commencing?Commencin'All the same. A big deal, in a large gymnasium or football field, to embrace and then send off the graduates. Those young adults are commencin' to become! High school graduation holds hopes for students looking at their immediate future in their community, be it college life, or retail, mechanical, electrical, agricultural. twebsterarmstronghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14341721506092130476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16867411.post-68771740876637545212023-01-26T08:36:00.000-06:002023-01-26T08:36:16.796-06:00January Morning My winter morning involves an outdoor temperature well below the frozen mark, and a fuchsia sky of pre-dawn. A smattering of snow. So nice.The cacophony of snow geese on the Kansas River can be heard in the dark. After sunrise, they will rise up in a swirling vortex, to dip and land and rise up again, from one cornfield to another, for most of the day. Hundreds, if twebsterarmstronghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14341721506092130476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16867411.post-5171089071818429782022-08-16T19:29:00.000-05:002022-08-16T19:29:29.797-05:00Mid-August, and Bearable What a terrific mid-August day it has been: sort-of-coolish, misty-moisty and overcast. I observed that my Bird of Paradise plants are thriving today. I haven't seen them look so "relaxed" all summer. I guess this is my clue to bring them indoors until the triple digits and high-90s abate. (Who knew??)I went to a neighbor's for coffee this morning. (Neighbor: 5twebsterarmstronghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14341721506092130476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16867411.post-87380046359344350312022-07-26T22:13:00.006-05:002022-07-26T22:35:09.274-05:00Everything's Up-to-DateTuesday, and I am back from Kansas City.Everything's Up to Date in Kansas CityI just love the choreography in this clip of 1955's Rogers & Hammerstein's Oklahoma. Gene Nelson as Will Parker was terrific, and omigoodness: Charlotte Greenwood as Aunt Eller was THE BEST. Her acting cannot be improved upon, in my opinion.This R & H musical, Oklahoma, was based on the play Green twebsterarmstronghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14341721506092130476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16867411.post-91307113001903990882022-07-24T18:31:00.000-05:002022-07-24T18:31:05.999-05:00Resumption: August 2022. Here it is, the last week of 2022's July. I have chided myself on the lack of discipline on writing. As have some of you, to my face. Or to my email. It's been difficult to write the past few years. As I mentioned some time ago, when I started this blog, it was sort of a note home. News and fun. And, somehow, the past five years have streamlined twebsterarmstronghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14341721506092130476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16867411.post-52590397288616635432022-04-01T20:46:00.019-05:002022-04-03T10:54:25.340-05:00Our Friend Margaret Some years ago, I became acquainted with a fellow cyclist. Today, I cannot recall the circumstances. But she and I enjoyed a friendship based on conversational rides, fun and funny life stories, and our enthusiasm for cycling. Have mercy, I cannot count the times I would hear our dog bark her one bark: "There's a friend at the gate." It was Margaret. twebsterarmstronghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14341721506092130476noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16867411.post-51793960028467012572021-08-20T19:31:00.003-05:002021-08-23T19:27:05.078-05:00Ball Game! Weeks and weeks ago, back when we were all fully-vaccinated and life was good, our son and daughter-in-law came to visit. SUCH A JOY TO BEHOLD. Such a joy.At some point, our son went out to our hay pasture/meadow, (we call it pasture, our hay man calls it our hay meadow, which sounds so much more poetic and peaceable.), and he mowed us a tee box.I was not privy to what a twebsterarmstronghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14341721506092130476noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16867411.post-35859308786173422612021-08-05T20:28:00.000-05:002021-08-05T20:28:42.684-05:00Civics and the Far-Flung Importance of Such: On this long-shadowed evening, waiting for that Spouse o' Mine to return from his group ride (cycling), I have settled onto the floral linen loveseat, lines of summer sunset striping my thoughts through the plantation shades. Through the magic of Messenger, this evening I have communicated with a former English teacher. Her huz was my former Civics and History teacher, way back when.Itwebsterarmstronghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14341721506092130476noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16867411.post-87638209557874100202021-07-06T19:00:00.002-05:002021-07-06T19:00:44.294-05:00Acoustics and AnikaHere's a cute little wee one:This is Granddaughter Anika. She is a petite ball of spice. Loved by all.Her development has her making fun and funny expressions, and fun and funny sounds. She is exploring her ability to make sounds, and she is observing all those who make expressions and sounds around her. Fast-forward to her mother and I taking Anika into an art museum thistwebsterarmstronghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14341721506092130476noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16867411.post-27847514015486290172021-07-06T18:29:00.007-05:002021-07-12T19:34:40.984-05:00Sunday is the Golden Clasp (written in March)"Sunday is the golden clasp that binds together the volume of the week.", said Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. These words ring true just now, this late afternoon of a rainy day, whose later hours are showing golden hues just before dusk.The golden clasp? We two have accomplishments for the past week and the coming. YESsssss! We have both been Covid-vaccinated once.  twebsterarmstronghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14341721506092130476noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16867411.post-10635421436888169652021-03-14T19:55:00.001-05:002021-03-14T19:55:15.088-05:00Possum Chronicles I went out to gather chicken eggs this afternoon - hopefully eleven eggs, because our dozenth chicken succumbed to something in the cold winter temps last month. So: eleven chooks, and presumably eleven eggs.What I did not anticipate was a furry body in the dark corner of the hen house, burrowed down in hay.Dang, I thought. What is it? Coon? Skunk? Dead duck, twebsterarmstronghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14341721506092130476noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16867411.post-24093959964333331362021-02-15T20:40:00.000-06:002021-02-15T20:40:11.036-06:00Thank you, God, for our day. It was really cold. The end of my day was a sunset, -2*, but! only a small breeze, not a wind. Lucy German Shepherd and I got in a 2K walk in the snow (no running in this temp.) That Spouse o' Mine has got his call that he is on deck to get his Covid-19 Vaccination! It's been quite a good day. twebsterarmstronghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14341721506092130476noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16867411.post-43251735691991903072021-02-04T19:06:00.003-06:002021-02-04T19:06:17.652-06:00Hygge Memories, Decades Old I follow something somewhere that touts Hygge- "a quality of coziness and comfortable conviviality that engenders a feeling of contentment or well-being (regarded as a defining characteristic of Danish culture)."I think all cultures have it - be it a cozy fireplace, or candles placed in amazing spots, or that scent of fresh-baked something coming from the kitchen.The photo shown was twebsterarmstronghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14341721506092130476noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16867411.post-13039461937009954842020-11-13T19:44:00.003-06:002020-11-13T19:44:59.425-06:00Money Makes the World go AroundThat Spouse o' Mine and I were driving on a turnpike a couple of weeks ago. The end was near, and he turned to me and asked, "Do you have any change?"Did I have any change? I haven't carried change or any cash to peak of, in many, many months.Some years ago, - but less than a decade ago, I was talking to my mother-in-law Louise, over tea in her kitchen in Australia. She was twebsterarmstronghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14341721506092130476noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16867411.post-86492972160390853202020-11-10T19:21:00.000-06:002020-11-10T19:21:35.730-06:00November Grey. And White-Headed. White-Tailed, as Well. Here it is, mid-November. Grey, with leaves raining down. I love this season. The deer are wreaking havoc on our roads. With rutting season and all, the bucks are fearless in their chase of that perfect doe. That, and fearful of that bow and rifle. All the plants I've hopes to over-winter are now indoors somewhere. I love that so many rooms in the twebsterarmstronghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14341721506092130476noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16867411.post-83882423731331079412020-08-30T19:22:00.002-05:002020-08-30T19:22:56.396-05:00Summer is Signing Off We're nearing the end of August. This is a mark in my calendar which traditionally sees me going for my last, lovely, Twilight Swims at the public pool. What fun they are! I swim laps, occasionally looking up to watch kids and not-kids diving off the low dive and high dive. I catch my breath on the edge of the pool, and eavesdrop on grade school chums playing their twebsterarmstronghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14341721506092130476noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16867411.post-78853179107157670622020-07-24T20:00:00.001-05:002020-07-24T20:00:48.943-05:00Covid Adjustments Now in month whatever of COVID-19, it still sees me haunting one grocery store every 10-14 days, and my fave, the Asian Mart MHK (who deliver curbside, if that's a want.) So I was running low on rubber bands. I sought and and found a bag at my local grocer. I put that on the grocery list. I was running low-to-none. (Wow. Seriously?). Today I reached in totwebsterarmstronghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14341721506092130476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16867411.post-80134106628376124712020-06-08T19:52:00.000-05:002020-06-08T19:52:10.519-05:002020 Patchwork:Talk about a patchwork quilt. 2020 has been stark.Where can one begin? Our daughter calling us on Christmas Day, six days before 2020. She is with child! Pregnant! Preggers! We did not have this blessing on our radar, at all, at all. Forward to whatever: January, February? Pandemic, moving towards us. Take cover, hunker down, socially distance,twebsterarmstronghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14341721506092130476noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16867411.post-28597879189919076052020-05-12T20:21:00.002-05:002020-05-12T20:21:47.747-05:00March of the Iristwebsterarmstronghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14341721506092130476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16867411.post-16447343101515633682020-04-08T19:16:00.001-05:002020-05-12T20:24:37.276-05:00Rituals, Prayers, and Coping
Here we are, in Holy week. Our regular annual
routine of Holy Week, Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and
Easter are not happening as we annually plan.
And I think that's OK.
Tradition in church and family is so powerful and wonderful. But,
too, I think that sometimes when a routine is set and becomes tradition,
complacency treads in, like Carl Sandberg's Fogtwebsterarmstronghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14341721506092130476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16867411.post-36914419815635197072019-06-18T20:38:00.001-05:002019-06-18T20:38:57.994-05:00A Fun New Chapter!
A few years ago, our son came home - I think at Christmas, and he told me about a girl he met through his collegiate track team. Graham and I have talked about many a thing along the years, about life, politics, philosophy, laundry, and yes, even girls and dates and whatnot. But this time, my ears perked up. I sensed there was something more in that voice of his.
We love twebsterarmstronghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14341721506092130476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16867411.post-20350278320530003572019-04-28T20:20:00.000-05:002019-04-28T20:20:54.887-05:00So Many ThingsWhere should I start? Where should I go?The President is an idiot and our city's Farmer's Market was selling bananas this weekend. I ogled a Tesla in Denver this week, only to find out that a Tesla had been parked in our yard this week, as well. (What?! Parking a car in my green space?!!)I did a Southwest road trip last week and the week before: Denver, Santa Fe, twebsterarmstronghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14341721506092130476noreply@blogger.com0