All Is One

I just blew my nose and a tiny purple piece of cabbage came out.  There was cabbage in my salad at lunch.  I guess everything in the universe really IS connected. 

Dreamtime: Refurbished Humans

I had a weird, kind of vivid dream. All I can recall is a series of vignettes.

I was leading an old woman home, to her home. It was nighttime, and the terrain was kind of rugged. We were at the last stretch, only had to climb this final set of stairs, but there was plywood nailed across to prevent our passage.

I tried to lead her around the side of the stairs, but suddenly lightening flashed, illuminating a giant figure directly in our path. Silent. Looming. The lightening glistened off his bald head. Probably eight feet tall at least.

In his workshop, at the top of a high tower, he performed modifications on captured humans and replaced their joints and muscles with little animatronic gears and that sort of thing. So he could control them, as his minions. The refurbished humans also somehow became kind of small. Like they could fit in the palm of your hand. It was a bit horrifying.

I didn’t know how I’d escape, or the old lady either.

The next scene in the dream, this Heroic Man had shown up, subdued the giant, and was performing the same procedure on him.  By 'subdued' I mean 'gave him lots of wine'.  The hero dude was using forceps to install plastic gears into the giant's shoulders.  He just lay there on the floor, giggling at how it tickled a little bit (apparently he was a very silly, cuddly drunk). I remember feeling slightly nauseated over the whole thing, torn over whether this was the right thing to do. Just because a giant man does something to other people doesn’t make it okay to do the same thing to him.

Especially when he was so sweet and easygoing once you got a couple drinks in him...

Nerds Care

The care package I am sending to my little brother may or may not contain printouts of some webcomics from xkcd.com...

Learning

A lot of life is about learning to listen, huh? 

October Mountain

Family campout weekend. This place was called October Mountain. Fitting, huh?

We went hiking on Saturday.

The noteworthy things which happened or which we saw included a sprained ankle, lots of 'poison ivy', a sick sister, a cell phone falling into the marsh (gone forever), four different people reaching around in the muddy water for the cell phone, fraudulent leech scare... another sister throwing up, some landscapes, another sister working on a grant application on her laptop, and some fungus/leaves/trees.  Beth somehow managed to look SASSY in all the pictures in which she appears. 

I came. I saw. I conquered.

Amber waves of grain.  

 

Fungus 1. 

Fungus 2. 

Pretty.

Sasseh. 

Birches. 

So intense.  So vivid. 

Sickie/sprained ankle pup. 

'Oh. My hair doesn't look that bad'. 

The roots from a fallen tree provided a lot of entertainment for us.

Their new album cover.  

Why hello there father o' mine. 

Time for walkies. 

Marshlands.  Formed by beavers.  We did not see the beavers. 

Beth carried little gimpy pup.  You know you're loved when...

Tinfoil dinners.  YUMMY. 

And milk.

Sad Muffin

Warning... kind of dumb post ahead.

Who would've known it would be so difficult to obtain a NOT non-stick muffin pan?  Apparently everybody wants non-stick.  I just think it's kind of crappy, because they get all scratched up if you're not super careful. 

So I found some online for a reasonable price. 

Except it arrived damaged. 

TWICE.

I returned it one time, very conveniently with this print-out postage label so you don't have to pay for postage.  But then the replacement came back damaged as well.  Ughhhh... 




As I write in the details of my 'reason for return' I JUST WANT TO MAKE MUFFINS... :(((((((

Plum Island

I awoke today, a special day, a bike ride day.  I packed some snacks, bundled up, and headed downstairs to find the following special autumn surprise in the basket of my bicycle.

We had several diversions along the way.  Inflating the tires, stopping for a sandwich/banana bread, etc. What we'd hoped would be a 10:00 am departure time became a 12:00 noon departure - OH WELL WORSE THINGS HAVE HAPPENED.

In the car, we talked about weighty matters, such as which colors of leaves were our favorites.  Orange was the clear winner.  At one point, were so engrossed in the leaf conversation that we completely missed our turn.  We continued down the little country road for a way in hopes that we hadn't, but it became clear that we were not in the vicinity of the nature reserve.

However, we did NOT miss the charming roadside farm stand selling pumpkins.

We chatted with the farmers, posed with the tractor, and each purchased a pumpkin. They threw in a couple of squash into the deal. After some directions from the friendly farmers, we were on our way again. 

Plum Island is a barrier island...

...with the Atlantic Ocean on the east...

...dunes and forests in the middle...

...and marshes along the protected channel to the west. 

 What do you see Kaci?

'This:'

All in all, a pretty fun day.  We stopped for french fries and fried clams on the way home and got back pretty late and exhausted.

More photos, for your enjoyment.

 Windblown pups.  

 Footprints, human and gull.  

Skinny! Legs! 

 

 Gone fishing. 

'All animals have a comfort zone.  If an animal moves away 

from you, you are too close'.  Good advice for humans too. 

 A lot of linear feet of boardwalk. 

 It was chilly by the water.

The 'plums' for which the island was named. 

Brisk

The air outside is brisk.  Today's bike ride warrants the wearing of the formerly ubiquitous rainbow vest, I think.