tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7195616894993495285.post4751280805714955194..comments2024-02-16T18:19:13.539-08:00Comments on Ramblings From Yet Another Stranger on the Bus: Spring Has Sprung and I Sprang Right Into It - Part 1Leslie Morganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15702472429383639709noreply@blogger.comBlogger19125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7195616894993495285.post-75876874888575762242010-04-12T08:18:20.993-07:002010-04-12T08:18:20.993-07:00@ Rachel ~ It's OK! You're among friends h...@ Rachel ~ It's OK! You're among friends here.Leslie Morganhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15702472429383639709noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7195616894993495285.post-39656011465425691692010-04-12T01:20:21.145-07:002010-04-12T01:20:21.145-07:00I was just rereading this post and thought, hey, I...I was just rereading this post and thought, hey, I have some photos you'd really love, of graves no less. Then, what do you know, here'a a comment from me saying exactly that - again! My memory really is duff!Rachel Fentonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10046917627054462214noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7195616894993495285.post-65483549582121843592010-03-24T16:05:03.427-07:002010-03-24T16:05:03.427-07:00@ Rachel ~ we're ALL bombarded with too much. ...@ Rachel ~ we're ALL bombarded with too much. Information, demands, expectations, hurts. It's no wonder some of us have to be obsessive note-takers to remember anything. <br /><br />One "holy" place that I love to visit is the crypt beneath St. Paul's Cathedral in London. There, underground, I commune with the celebrated departed: Florence Nightingale, Wellington, Lawrence of Arabia and Admiral Nelson. But the memorial I love most is that to Sir Christopher Wren, the architect of St. Paul's. His is a fine, life sized bronze likeness of the man in repose. If I remember correctly, his epitaph is presented in both Latin and English [it is, I just Googled it!] and is quite simple: "Reader, if you seek his monument, look around you." Meaning "really look around at this incredible structure that he designed in 1668. There are always fresh, single flowers placed across the hands of his effigy. The attendants remove them after an hour or so . . . to make room for the newly arrived ones. <br /><br />But you also know that I am charmed by little ersatz final resting places in the desert . . .Leslie Morganhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15702472429383639709noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7195616894993495285.post-40252276434999120362010-03-24T15:33:19.628-07:002010-03-24T15:33:19.628-07:00Thinking about cemeteries...I photographed an enti...Thinking about cemeteries...I photographed an entire one, as in every single grave and head stone, to research the families who lived in the town I'm writing about. funny thing is I'd forgotten all about the photographs until just now. Thank you. And I have written about a cemetery before. Gosh, I have a bad memory. If I don't have a reminder in front of me I forget a thing exists.<br /><br />I'm so glad you like "Yes"!Rachel Fentonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10046917627054462214noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7195616894993495285.post-82735213225945034052010-03-24T07:32:38.429-07:002010-03-24T07:32:38.429-07:00@ Elisabeth ~ "Meadow mayonnaise"! I'...@ Elisabeth ~ "Meadow mayonnaise"! I'd never heard that and it made me laugh out loud.<br /><br />I thought my meander through the cemetery might appeal to you. On my first trip to the UK, I was so drawn to the cemeteries, my dad, stepmother and husband thought I'd slipped a gear. They fascinated me! At least part of this was due to the times that the deceased had lived. Remember, I hail from a country less than 250 years in existence, which is nothing there.<br /><br />One of the most moving experiences of my life was standing in a tiny graveyard in Blaenau Ffestiniog in northern Wales. I was surrounded by many departed who bore my family name. It wasn't coincidental. These people were my ancestors. I have a corresponding spirit to your Lydia. Someone whose DNA came down to me. Her name was Violet and although I would never have considered giving my child that name in 1990, today I almost wish I'd named Amber that. [At least it's another color name, right?]<br /><br />I do something unusual (for me) in cemeteries. I am a person who does not care for numbers and math. I do not understand or like or trust numbers. I'm not good at math beyond the most basic level. I don't feel compelled to become better with numbers since I'm simply not interested in them. I can do what I need to do and that's good enough. But when I stand at a headstone, by mind snaps to attention and crunches numbers at an amazing speed. For some reason, I am strongly urged to quickly calculate how long the person lived.<br /><br />Walk through the deserts with me, Elisabeth, and I'll teach you all I know about it. I'm lucky to know it as well as I do!Leslie Morganhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15702472429383639709noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7195616894993495285.post-63040815587086703202010-03-24T04:08:29.821-07:002010-03-24T04:08:29.821-07:00Hey, Les, out of all the wonderful details in this...Hey, Les, out of all the wonderful details in this blog I shall focus on the cemetery. <br /><br />I love cemeteries, too. Perhaps because they remind me that I am still alive. I get a bitter sweet chill every time I try to imagine the lives of those buried there who have gone before me. <br /><br />One year, many years ago now, my husband and I took a long trip through Victoria into NSW and onto Bega, where several of my husband's ancestors are buried. His great great great grandfather, also a William H came as a convict to Bathurst in 1822. <br /><br />My children hated the journey and recall it often now, how they insisted on staying inside the car, windows wound up even in the heat, to keep out the flies, who had settled in their droves on the cow pats - meadow mayonnaise - in the fields that surrounded the gravestones. <br /><br />There in Kameruka cemetery I first came across little Lydia H, an ancestor from the late 1800s who died at two and a half years of age after a pot of boiling water fell on her head. <br /><br />I decided then that although I love the name, Lydia, I am glad I never passed this name onto any of my daughters. <br /><br />Thanks, Les, for a wonderful journey through the desert to places I have never seen and will most likely never see.Elisabethhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04015624747225433940noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7195616894993495285.post-7701518797104502672010-03-23T18:57:19.547-07:002010-03-23T18:57:19.547-07:00@TOB ~ OB, I'm on record on numerous blogs wit...@TOB ~ OB, I'm on record on numerous blogs with this: March ~ in like a lion, out like a tiger. Good to see you here! Good to see you blogging. Enjoy your well-deserved spring break. I'll just keep hoping for sustained spring.Leslie Morganhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15702472429383639709noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7195616894993495285.post-4268376210241632142010-03-23T18:51:01.708-07:002010-03-23T18:51:01.708-07:00We've got topsy turvy spring winter weather he...We've got topsy turvy spring winter weather here as well. Tough to live with!The Old Baghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08102309231670261719noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7195616894993495285.post-52653526156128575742010-03-23T16:40:46.979-07:002010-03-23T16:40:46.979-07:00@ Rachel ~ I just played the McAlmont and Butler ~...@ Rachel ~ I just played the McAlmont and Butler ~ I liked it! I'll go try the other recommendation now.Leslie Morganhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15702472429383639709noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7195616894993495285.post-57428502429519191742010-03-23T16:30:46.613-07:002010-03-23T16:30:46.613-07:00PS, that whole album is great, too, but if you wan...PS, that whole album is great, too, but if you want to linger in the Terrence mood - Antony and the Johnsons Hope there's Someone is my suggestion:<br />http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loNU4fVpO8ERachel Fentonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10046917627054462214noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7195616894993495285.post-60172257488870202652010-03-23T16:28:02.553-07:002010-03-23T16:28:02.553-07:00I love Terrence T D....many moody evenings have pa...I love Terrence T D....many moody evenings have passed to this theme...if you like him you might like McAlmont and Butler - this song can pull me right up out of a Terrence and leave me soaring in those "smudgy clouds":<br />http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lsd4nul0Is8Rachel Fentonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10046917627054462214noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7195616894993495285.post-79754766899036795722010-03-23T13:35:13.881-07:002010-03-23T13:35:13.881-07:00@ Tag ~ Oh, you show-offy weather guessing cloud w...@ Tag ~ Oh, you show-offy weather guessing cloud wiener, you've stolen my innocence! I didn't want to know the word "cirrostratus". I wanted forever to think of them as the "smeary clouds". I'm kidding! You know I like learning new things. Thank you. Clouds and weather did not grab me at school. I didn't learn them well. But now, knowing that something I internalized, "smeary clouds", is called cirrostratus, I'll likely retain it.<br /><br />You caught the spirit of the outing, Tag! Just get in the car and go somewhere. Take a camera. Take food that won't spoil and that's incredibly easy to eat from a bag. Take an open mind. Take a sense of humor. Plan to have lots of conversation with oneself. Appreciate beauty in all of its forms. <br /><br />"Got a good reason for taking the easy way out . . . "Leslie Morganhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15702472429383639709noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7195616894993495285.post-75261146400950471212010-03-23T13:16:27.143-07:002010-03-23T13:16:27.143-07:00@ Kirk ~ Area 51 is out at the Nevada Test Site an...@ Kirk ~ Area 51 is out at the Nevada Test Site and they did/do exactly what you suggest: test aircraft, etc. I've never been out there. One doesn't want to get too close! It's about 80 miles out of downtown Las Vegas and I imagine it glows in the dark from all the detonations over the decades. At that trashy Bonanza Gift Shop I love, they sell vintage postcards showing some of the mushroom clouds out at the test site, taken from downtown. It's pretty shocking to see the cloud and think, "That's 80 miles distant and look at the size of it."<br /><br />I've never seen anything odd in the sky while camping, but I did see something unusual one June in my own neighborhood here. Although I almost always was accompanied on my walks at the time, I was solo that night. It was dusk and I turned in from the main street to our community. Some neighbors were standing in their yard and we spoke. A very large object went streaking by, very fast, very low and very close - between home and Red Rock about 7 miles away. It had a lot of color to it, red and blue and some hint of flames, maybe afterburners. I was not impaired in any way. I was returning from miles of walking. My vision is well corrected with my glasses. I am not delusional. The neighbors saw it, too. The next day I contacted reporters at the newspaper and monitored the news. Never a mention of it. I asked in every way I knew how to ask, "What the hell streaked across the sky in Summerlin last night?" I never was able to learn a thing or even get an acknowledgement that an aircraft had flown past. But then, they also don't report about dead bodies found on the backs of office buildings here, either.Leslie Morganhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15702472429383639709noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7195616894993495285.post-55681464845548037472010-03-23T12:40:45.968-07:002010-03-23T12:40:45.968-07:00I don't see smeary, I see cirrostratus, the cl...I don't see smeary, I see cirrostratus, the cloud changing from pic to pic. Cloud Wiener, I am. I am reminded of the long Sunday afternoon drives of my childhood and my children's childhood, sadly missed in this economy of $2.50 gas. In my ear: Day tripper, yeah!Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00533184345345882921noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7195616894993495285.post-77497476932264912462010-03-23T12:16:27.951-07:002010-03-23T12:16:27.951-07:00Smeary looking clouds. I like that.
Speaking of a...Smeary looking clouds. I like that.<br /><br />Speaking of aliens, ever been to, or close by, Area 54? I believe that's in Nevada. Seriously. I don't believe they actually have UFOs there, but they could be testing advanced aircraft. Camping out there in the desert, you ever seen anything weird in the sky?Kirkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02155991693956178030noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7195616894993495285.post-26424888880730728342010-03-23T10:59:36.948-07:002010-03-23T10:59:36.948-07:00@ Kassie ~ I think the obliterated words are some ...@ Kassie ~ I think the obliterated words are some form of what you suggest there, but I'll be curious to look on my monitor at home to see what shows up.<br /><br />I was chastised (jokingly) on e-mail: "Les, you''re like a dog with a bone! But FUNNY." Now talk about mixed messages! Spank me and laugh at me in the same e-mail? How is a girl supposed to know what to do next?<br /><br />Tell me about your wiener dog! Did you know I never had a mammal for a pet as a child? Uh-uh. They weren't having it, although my Dad became a dog lovere after their divorce, so I think it was more my mother. Birds, fish, turtles - yes. No dog, no cat. Pets were a gift we gave Amber from the day of her birth. Children need pets. Real pets. Especially isolated, lonely children.Leslie Morganhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15702472429383639709noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7195616894993495285.post-2438855399579411572010-03-23T10:51:24.329-07:002010-03-23T10:51:24.329-07:00The picture-covered words are probably my computer...The picture-covered words are probably my computer resolution or the fact that you use html to tweak your posts. I've found that if I use anything other than blogger's exact template or 'compose,' it can mess up a bit.<br /><br />It hortts me just to think of your email friend's reaction.<br /><br />Did you know I had a wiener dog when I was a kid?Kasshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05233330248952156754noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7195616894993495285.post-17648726730125186902010-03-23T10:10:58.476-07:002010-03-23T10:10:58.476-07:00@ Kass ~ It was a beautiful day. It's given me...@ Kass ~ It was a beautiful day. It's given me a terrible case of spring fever now that I've returned to less favorable conditions.<br /><br />That's GOOD about Terence, Kass! Very good observation. I like how he uses language. His lyrics aren't presented like a long, straight line of words. He puts inflection on odd syllables and the lyrics undulate.<br /><br />We might be looking at monitors with different resolution, but I can't see that any of the photos are obliterating words. If I see it when I get home this evening, I'll have an anxiety attack, but I can't fix it now because I can't see it.<br /><br />You charmer! I detest being any kind of wiener. I'm not known to tolerate wienerness of any variety in myself or others. Spine up, dammit! No guts, no glory. "Smeary clouds" is a phrase I've used since I was a child. When the sky looks like someone put her hands in the white paint and smeared it all over the blue paper. Re: the Hortt headstone - yesterday I was playing another version of the WV game (god, I'm like a dog with a bone!). I attached that picture to an e-mail I was sending and said, "When Robert died, I hope it didn't hortt."Leslie Morganhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15702472429383639709noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7195616894993495285.post-68342646901781210342010-03-23T09:44:24.563-07:002010-03-23T09:44:24.563-07:00Leslie - Such a lovely outing. It sounds like you ...Leslie - Such a lovely outing. It sounds like you were alone. Terence Trent: a combination of Stevie Wonder and Prince? I like him. Never heard of him before. (your picture of the third gravestone covers up "unappreciative general")<br /><br />Things that charmed me: "wind wiener," Leslie making friends with horseys, "smeary clouds", misreading the first headstone so it read "hore it."Kasshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05233330248952156754noreply@blogger.com