Sunday, October 30, 2011

Mking the best of it

This will be more of a picture post above yesterday's snow!

Now the snow is scary!


dancing in the snow
enough already

snowball fight
More snowballs!

Saturday, October 29, 2011

the stuff of parables

I grew up hearing many parables or tales from my dad - French or German - they seam to be common in the European arena and the Ox tail soup reminded me of a favorite - called "golden eyes".
According to my dad's story - a french king would visit his  subjects incognito, dressed as a simple hunter, often.
The story goes that he first visited one of his nobles, who did not recognize him and asked to stay the night.
The Noble puts him up in the stables with dirty hay for a bed and watered down soup for supper.
The next night he asks to stay at a peasant's house - who also does not recognize him, but gives him his own bed to sleep and for dinner, a rich and hearty soup, full of "golden eyes" or the fat from meat.
The story continues that when the king returned to his place, he calls the Noble and the peasant before him and tells the noble that the peasant treated him far better.  Then instructs the noble to give the peasant a gold coin for each golden eye that the peasant's soup had in punishment for being such a poor host to strangers.  Of course, there is a similar parable in the new testament - saying be kind to strangers for they may be angels.
Any way, tonight's soup did fit the definition of full of eyes!

baby its getting cold outside

No, i do NOT like it, but it gives me opertunity to start doing my indoor cooking thing again.
I love the grill and the smoker,
but some of lifes truely great food comes from a slow cooker.
today i am preparing black beans - these will not be ready till tomorrow,
but i can wait.
The blend of spices mellowed by the black beans takes time.
chilies, cumin, beer, tomatoes, onion, cilantro, lime!
And of course - blacl beans.
A bit spicy, a bit sweet, a bit of acid, a bit of salt (sorry, no real bitter - the beer adds sweet)
Hearty!
Oh, but for tonight - there will be Ox tail soup - something my mom would make!
Usd to be the "peasant meal" because the beef tails were discaredNot any more!
The tail is full of flavor and mixed with the right vegtables - wonderful!
Maybe i will get pictures before it is all gone!

the start of Ox tail soup(stew?)
beggining the black beans

Now i am hungry it is time for breakfast!

Friday, October 28, 2011

That mood

It is not the weather,
It is not the time.
There is more going on,
a sense of loss that seems to have aroused in my heart,
 devouring joy.
Yes, it is in these times my heart opens wides.
The analytical mind must take a rest.
Not all is to be understood,
not all is calculable.
There are things deep,
deep in a heart that stir that are not fathomable to the mere intellect.
I smile, the chemist is not stirring and restless because he can not understand.
Joe is quiet in the knowledge that there are many things unknowable and finds peace...

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Just helping

I was assisting a friend on a school assignment where she track the nutritional value of the food she ate.
She happens to be Asian Indian and uses a lot of spices.  I helped her track down the nutritional value of some of the spices she uses and was very amazed and interested.
I think the one that caught me most by surprise was cilantro: 300+% of the daily allowance of vitamin C in a cup.  Okay more cilantro in my diet...Now!

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

images

a shadow in the window
shade by the door
a glint on the side
movement that appears and the disappears.
Sunlight dancing, mokes me,
spilling off leaves and brances and an thing shiney.
I see,
i don't see.
Someone or thing just out of the corner of my eyes.
A ghost, a goblin or just an image created by the prisms that are now my eyes?
This makes the world so much more interesting than the clarity of my mind!

Monday, October 24, 2011

Ah, it is time for THAT anniversary

Okay 3 years ago, I was out of the hospital (after 2 months), but still with major head swelling from the operation that took the tumor out of my head.
I still had double vision (okay, i still do) and the doctor thought things might improve if he put a shunt in my body to relieve the swelling.
I was in and out of the hospital in one day for that portion, but of course, that began a new adventure because it was that operation that caused me to lose too much CSF (cerebral Spinal Fluid) and have my brain turn concave and for me to lose cognition for a month and memories for most of a year....
But i did survive!
and i came back even stronger than ever!
and i am still going!
No wonder my mood is a bit strange...

Still in my strange place

it is almost meloncoly,
i look and i see fall slowly approaching.
It is not coming with a bang, but with a crawl.
The mixture of fall and summer are every where!
And i still have impatients blooming!

(though not for long i am sure).

Sunday, October 23, 2011

The eye of a needle...

3 times,
not once,
not twice,


but three times i threaded this needle.
Yes it is a large one, but still...
The inspiration came from my mom,
who was still able to thread a needle,
even with "Bad" eyesight in her last year of life.
And what did i do with this needle and thread you may ask...
thread some very hot peppers to hand to dry!
Habenero peppers on the right, ghost peppers on the left.

Friday, October 21, 2011

too soon after...

This will be a kind of strange post – possibly to match my mood of yesterday.

For today I found out that our Health Director's Mother passed away on Tuesday

And I found myself hating death,
the separation that it causes;
the pain of loss.

Of course I remember this way too vividly,
for me this is still fresh.
I remember the numbness as my closest friends walked me through everything, truly holding my hand.

For those of you who have experienced this you know what it is.

You also know it gives way to good memories and fondness of a life well lived….

But everything takes time.

Thursday, October 20, 2011

strange day

it was a strange day,

some phone cals and walk ins of the unusual variety,
but that did not make it strange.
Finding paperwork, i thought was lost,
that did not make it strange.
Waking up too early, to sounds of machines and equipment down the street,
but that was not all that strange, just irritating.

It was me, i was in a strange mood, with my mind sometimes working too well,
sometimes not functioning at all.
There were many times i had lots of light heartness,
some times creeping up to a border of being outlandish.
Some one eating something smelling so good, wanting to pounch and take it away...
joking with another,
helpng someone else,
talking to strangers and friends in this light hearted manner.
Liking the weather, thinking that this 60 something weather is nice,
when i was complaining about it being too cold last week.
Enjoying a fall day and thinking:
"I should be at the addicks resivior, hunting dove with my dad."

it was that i was strange today...

Monday, October 17, 2011

The Butterfly


Returns yet again

Dancing in the wind.
Tumbling,
Soaring,

Flitting around in a frenzied dance,
A blur.
can you see him?
Just for a moment stopping for a drink.
and then off again into the wind.

Hurry,
hurry,
for it is getting cold
and you must be off to a warmer climate.
but today is perfect
and the wind lets you sail away.

Saturday, October 15, 2011

faithful visitor

Before the end of fall
ready for a long trip ...
South.

Every year they come to feast on nectoar.
I got a good picture this time.

The chili contest

i go to support the food bank.
I go to have fun.
I go to share my idea of good chili.


Again I did not win a prize, but everything above was true.

Thursday, October 13, 2011

A morning, not the best of mornings

This morning started poorly...
yes it was those facts and figures and graphs and such at work.
My eyes - they were bothering me,
but that was one issue that i could resolve - that meant they were still getting better.
But the frustration  while trying to use them!
Frustration - am i the only one looking at things?
Things were missing -
things that i probably would have missed because of my struggle during this long recovery.
Nevertheless, they were missing.
Then one visitor
and another
and still one more
- all work related, but each gave me a bit of relief.
one with information i did not have
another just encoraging me
another with samples, but with a friendly chat.
It made all the problems fade,
not to insignificance,
but they faded anyway!

I finished what i started on and it is now posted on the "other" blog.

It was a good day after all.

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

The message this week

It is a slow season at work
(always September and October, always)
and so to keep myself busy i analyze information i have
(this has kept me out of real trouble as i have been known to be mischevious when bored).
In the middle,
i find
i am content many times
not to know.

So while my analyical brain processes and figures
there is now a side that can sit back and say:
"I do not know, it happened and i have no explaination for it!"
This was very good for me after the operation,
(I never asked why i got the tumor, but i did ask why i lived.)

numbers
and figures
and graphs.

I am good at this,             
 but they do not really help living.
They do not help with compasion
they do not help with love.   
so i hear this message,
now
several times
this week
When you do not know
Whne you do not understand
File it in the "i don't know file".
God is bigger than all that we know.
I like that.
it gives me comfort
and joy
and a reason to live.

We have finished with 4 days of beautiful Indian summer, it is getting cooler now...

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

I might not win...

But i am going to have fun trying...

OCt 15th 1-3 PM Unitarian Church at Forest Street... Be there!
The start

Add

My first secret weapon!



First finish
Next!












Now it takes time and patience!

Sunday, October 9, 2011

And you thought you knew why...

Every one thinks that tomorrow is the holiday celebrating "Columbus Day", they are wrong.
Tomorrow is a special day because it is my 32nd anniversary with the City of Stamford as there investigative analytical chemist (that is the actual job, but the title is lab tech).
Those 32 years have been full in every way one can imagine.
I have learned much, i have done much, i have accomplished much.
In all of those years i have tried to do the impossible - of being totally non-political in my work,  maintaining a balance between knowledge, investigation, concern for others well being and compassion.
I have irked supervisors and mayors, the public, coworkers and the US EPA.
Mostly i have given the most honest and straight forward answers that i could.
I have been wrong on some occasions and not been helpful on others.
I have been misguided by supervisors and agencies "above" me. 
I have been continually challenged by the same.
Many, many more times than not, i have been vindicated in my perceptions and conclusions in the environmental field by time.
Many times those conclusions have been adopted as policy or recommendations locally, state wide and nationally.
I many times "ring the bell" when i see something come on the horizon.  Many times, i am ignored until it comes to fruition.
I do not say i told you so, but i do feel vindicated.
I have no problem changing my view, if evidence shows me something else.

So tomorrow, when there are "celebrations" about some old explorer many centuries before, know that this is really a celebration of me.
Thank you!
i am not too conceited!

Saturday, October 8, 2011

waiting

listless,
without direction or energy,
fall approaches.
Fall or Autumn haas wonterful memories for me, but this year ...
i am blah.
I dread the winter, the holidays, there is a foreboding that i can not describe.
It shrouds my feelings and perceptions this morning and last night.
To escape and yet i am bound.
Thee is no stout resolution that i can pretend to have,
just a quiet resignation.

This sounds mighty down, doesn't it?
It will leave soon....

Just as the leaves with the slightest hint of color, will also.

Now i bring in my special plants, the ones which will not even survive an Autumn night!


Out side
Now inside! soon to lose flowers and leaves!

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

The price of progress

There is a saying,
and i do not want to look it up right now,
that healing comes from pain.
So it is with my eyes,
not real pain, but discomfort.
What makes me feel good and see well,
is not what is best for my eyes.
What my docotor did with my glasses, seemed to cause discomfort...
they did not seem right or correct.
Something was wrong,
but that was not the case...
the progress was due to the "discomfort"
and progess comes at a price!

Monday, October 3, 2011

Out on Staurday night

It was a good Saturday to go out and so off to Fin II we went, where i have never been disappointed.  My friend ordered a "cooked" Special (as opposed to the sushie/sashimi i love) of Red Snapper and gave it a 2 tumbs up.
Then did a little recon around and was surprised to see a number of people at Riviera Maya.  Although when i was there, it was not bad, just not outstanding, others , who i trust, went there and found it to be very disappointing.  So i went in and had an drink and an appitizer.  it was not bad, but i think a bit pricey for taquitos.  My especial margarita was very good (jalepeno), but the person with me was disappoint in the Margarita they had (no liquor, to speak of).
It was chilly, but there is a night life in Stamford

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Every thing in a name

Talking on the phone at work regarding work things, i often find out different things.
The other day, someone trying to spell my last name, said it was German for art.
Since i did mostly the technical German in school, that was not a word i ran across, so i looked it up.
Well the last name is close - kunst - is the German for art - mine is just different - Kuntz.  Now my last name is Alsatian, which does match the ethnicity, so maybe a slight misspelling somewhere in history...
Fun!

Saturday, October 1, 2011

Signs of Fall aproaching

Yes, there is a mild crispness in the air, but that occurred in lat August as well.
The fruits in the store have changes, crisp apples and pears.
There was a tree i passes the other day and at first glance, i thought there were oranges,
but no those were orange leaves.
My favorite small tree, the Autumn scarlet, on the north side of the house is beginning to turn also.

The most tell sign, tho, are the frantic dances of the honey bees, drawing the last sweetness from everywhere, even my sweet coffee!