rantum scoot

Spooky

2008-10-17T16:33:00.003-04:00

Gorgeous Hike, But in The End a Sad Tail

2008-10-13T21:40:00.005-04:00

I've been sick on and off for far too long, and was totally having stomach ailments all weekend. However, I got some time to tromp around totally alone in big stretches of forest on the Maine coast and during those walks I didn't think about how I felt sick, I just examined old stone walls and poked a milk snake with a stick and photographed mushrooms.

I bushwhacked through brush and saw a squirrel fall down from a tree on a broken branch. I kept to the gorgeous shoreline on one side and never worried about being lost.

There was much evidence of deer and rabbits and that odd, wonderful presence of the woods. There were tons of birds singing everywhere and it seemed like every tree next to me had several chickadee, at least one busy little nuthatch and a junco or else a solo Downey woodpecker hopping about. I flushed what I expected to be a grouse but had a big beak like a rail? (in the woods by the ocean?) and crows croaked to each other above me.

Things seemed magical and suspended.

I saw this perfect hiding tree -- it was hollow like a dug out canoe. And it had a long slit you could watch the water from.

While examining it, I saw I was not alone. A sleeping raccoon!

But alas, as I took a good look through the camera at the angle of that paw, and after the fifth acorn I threw actually hit him and he didn't move, I realized this sleeping beauty was never going to find her masked prince. And when I couldn't think of any other likely way for a raccoon to have died in a spot like that besides being shot by a hunter and then not falling down as expected, well I noticed how sick I was feeling again, and very tiredly slogged my way back.

Worth the Wait

2008-10-06T22:31:00.003-04:00

What a nice night to hang around by myself on a deserted street with an expensive camera.

Holy cow, what's that I see?

Heffalumps! On Memorial Drive

On their way from the circus train in Cambridge to the Fleet Center for the circus.

Poor elephants.

Idea for You

2008-10-06T15:26:00.003-04:00

Take this idea and make some money: Dance Dance Revolution for toddlers. Does this exist? I've never seen it. I mean they have Dance with Elmo type videos, but where's the interactive part?

PS: Even if you get rich with this idea, my kid will waste yours at "If You're Happy and You Know It."

Babes in the Woods

2008-10-03T20:41:00.002-04:00

There is nothing cuter than watching wee people in the forest.

The VP Debate

2008-10-03T10:28:00.005-04:00

So I drew during the debate again. Palin was so distracting with her dopey way of speaking that I ended up scribbling quotes all over the page next to her and writing a lot less next to Biden. In the end I wrote SUBSTANCE under Biden and FIGHT under Palin.
I was angry that I'd left my smaller sketchpad at my studio so I had to start my really nice large new one with a picture of Palin.

The only positive thing I have to say about Sarah Palin is I hope a lot of smart young women and girls are watching her and are just incredulous, their mouths open, eyes narrowed, faces slightly turned as though waiting to hear it's all a joke, thinking "Holy Crap, if that ludicrous woman can be in the White House, certainly I can."

Meanwhile remember they're just the leader. Yeah, I said "just" the leader. Of a whole LOT of people who do much of the actual work. Change can be brought about by you and me. Did you even go to vote for your local politicians? You know those "little elections" that get these people on their way to govern our lives? Have you made your life greener lately? If you're fed up watching the black hole of our economy, the barely hanging on planet, and more, what can you do today? Be the answer.

My friend Tamar explained to one of her sons that the fact that Sarah Palin thinks we can fix global warming without knowing (i.e. admitting) what causes it was like if she kept hitting him in the head with a hammer saying, "I don't know what's causing your headache, but I'll try to fix it." This made a difference. My friend Pete who runs www.ifkidscouldvote.com upped the percentage of his profits going to the Obama campaign. Me, for now, I'm taking my 1.5 year old into the woods to play and explore and get in touch with the earth more than she can in my concrete neighborhood, and I'm making plans for how to more efficiently heat my home this winter.

Foreign Policy Debate

2008-09-26T23:11:00.004-04:00

It will likely be called a draw, this presidential debate we witnessed this evening. And draw is what I do while digesting debates. I study their faces and draw until I get one good likeness of each (admittedly McCain's ears are a bit large but I drew them while he kept saying the word "earmark"). My drawings made Obama the winner.

My sketchbook ended up with two baseball cards. I began adding words as I sketched. For instance, McCain said "I know" defiantly numerous times while Obama tends to mumble the conversational "y'know" before saying anti-McCain things, and these ended up on their cards.

However, as they kept talking I found myself writing above McCain "I'm your dad. I supported you. And now I will act like I can tell you what to do forever." (For the record, my dad does not have that attitude...that is another sort of dad McCain sounded like.) I wrote the word "pork barrel" on his chest, I couldn't help it after he said it so many times. Across the top of his card I wrote what seemed to be his saying for the evening "You just don't understand." Or more accurately, "Senator Obama" (as though he wasn't standing right there) "just doesn't understand."

I wrote "I am earnest and responsible" across Obama's chest. I wrote "I am your professor, and I will work very, very hard," above his head. I wrote "I just want to make this point" across the top of his card.

I listened as McCain said his personal anecdotes and squinted at his notes. I saw him nearly derail talking about veterans. I heard Obama say sharp things like "take them out" and "kill him." I noted that McCain made anti-other country remarks numerous times and that Obama was polite to the moderator and his opponent. I thought McCain is better at speaking to Joe Citizen in less contrived way than George W but that he wasn't winning in Normal vs. Smart Guy mode the way Bush could bumble around and still come out ahead against earnest smart guy Gore in a debate. I think it's because McCain is too enmeshed in his world and when he referenced obscure things or people or deals, Obama then explained them.

In summary, looking at the top of each card I wrote my analysis. Above "You just don't understand" I wrote "REACT." Above "I just want to make this point," I wrote ACT. I believe in choosing a president, ACT would win over REACT. So I felt Obama did a bit better in the debate.

However, I was startled by the ineffective discussions about energy. I have been able to list the names of various kinds of alternative energy since I was about 12. I'm glad they can to. Could we be more useful in our discussions? And truly: I don't understand how in this day and perilous position we are in as a planet a discussion of foreign policy did not include how we will work with the global community to work on global warming. (And I was confused by how someone could be for nuclear power with safe disposal of the waste. We don't have safe disposal of nuclear waste.) And what the hell was McCain thinking referencing Reagan's ludicrous Star Wars plan in the talks about missiles. That didn't seem very wise.

Oh I drew a third, worse picture. It's is of our dear moderator. It simply says, "I look pained by my position." They should use him on Excedrin commercials.

Judging a Neighborhood by its Playground

2008-09-24T20:47:00.004-04:00

I have spent a lot of time exploring the playgrounds in my city with my daughter this year. Some rules seem to apply to all of these: nannies talk to other nannies more than to parents, ethnic subgroups of nannies talk to each other before other nannies, babysitters are more likely to talk to parents than nannies, men are often looked at with suspicion by everyone (even other men), and based on things I see you should Always wash your kids hands before they eat or leave any of these parks.

However, the cultural differences at the parks seem to really well illustrate the nature of the neighborhood the park is in. While many of these you might guess by the cost of houses in the neighborhood, some are surprising. In one direction from me people almost never speak to each other at the park. In another they even apologize if their kid touches yours. In another the sandbox is like a giant ashtray full of cigarette butts. In another the donated toys are all broken beyond use and there are never other kids there. In another, the toys are so nice that its hard to believe they don't get stolen, and it's clear they get used regularly. In another it is always so busy that Lyra is just too little to hold her own. In another the young kids are there without their parents and yet give me (often sound) parenting advice and want to hold Lyra (I try to avoid this...she's 20 lbs of quicksilver).

Anyway, it occurred to me that today that whether you have kids or not you should consider spending some time closely observing the environment at the closest playground to any house you're considering buying to get some idea of some of the nuances of the neighborhood culture.

Op-Trav-Po

2008-09-24T20:17:00.004-04:00

This is a funny, and yet scary article. I love the combination of column, travel and political writing. It's Steve Lopez from the LA Times. He visited Wasilla, to get a better sense of Sarah Palin's background.

Lyra, Dancing Queen

2008-09-23T19:40:00.004-04:00

Easily one of my favorite moments from our vacation to Copenhagen and Tallinn was at an art museum in Copenhagen on our last day. Lyra had been spazzing around the museum looking at sculptures and keeping a running commentary. She was a bit over-tired and extra silly. We passed by a cordoned-off area where a curtain separated us from a classical music concert and tried to hurry Lyra along so she didn't choose that location to start shrieking. Instead, she stopped, tipped her head and listened to the music for a moment and then started doing a wild interpretive dance that drew several appreciative onlookers. It's hard to happen to have a video camera in your hand the moments she dances, so here's just a little example. It does capture one of her habits of noticing some part of her is dancing (her hand at one point) and then going with it.

Danish Heritage

2008-09-11T09:18:00.003-04:00

Lyra has a bit of Danish heritage. Her late grandmother was a Nye, and she is an Ericson as well, and fit in rather well in Scandinavia, to the point that tourists took her pictures about six times while we were in Copenhagen, sometimes holding their cameras at arm's length to take themselves in the picture with her. I think all of these times were while I had her on the bike. (I did own up to not being native when the tourists spoke English, but they still seemed equally charmed by her. As well they should.)

hi from denmark

2008-09-04T10:59:00.003-04:00

hi from copenhagen. having a little trouble with the keyboard differences, so lets just ignore the typos, shall we? i can easily type æøå however...can you?

we're all well. lyra is not eating much - refusing much besides cheerios i brought and bananas. she finally ate a bunch of felafel last night and yogurt this morning but then no lunch. i think she's on a different time schedule still for eating. she did great on the flight. stayed awake longer than expected since Air France served dinner at midnight just after we got into the air, but she gets punchy and silly mostly so did okay. the kids meal she got was about twice the food of the adult dinners. i might order myself one next time, lol.

we have had a major hindrance care of air france. they lost our stroller. they got it here but then their courier service keeps screwing up getting it to us. glenn has made 8 phone calls and we've been promised our stroller 4 times. last time it was to be an urgent delivery at 10am. now it's promised between 5 and 9pm. if we call them again they are not hearing from my very nice husband. they are getting the full wrath of an angry mother. we luckily also brought our ergo carrier so we can get around, but it means we're always either carrying a backpack full of our gear or a 20lb baby. it gets a bit heavy after awhile.

we spent today eating open faced sandwiches, the danish specialty. gorgeous selections of various types of herring and salmon, and caviar and cured meats and raw meats and pates and smoked potato. delicious, though lyra was not happy to be sitting there. tomorrow or the next day we'll rent bikes and visit Christiania since I imagine it will be disbanded before long. I also want to go see some of the ancient viking stuff at the national museum. we're having an nice time exploring. i love the bike culture. And i have never seen so many blonde people at once. the crowds of kids coming into the youth hostel from denmark and sweden (i think) with all the sleek long haired girls and spikey gelled blonde boys are so fun to watch. the fashions are looking very eighties with pants tucked into high top sneakers, laced halfway. i appear naked here without a scarf. they are worn by both genders all the time. and danish people have such way better rain coats with wonderful patterns. maybe i should be out shopping now. :)

if we manage to be online again, we'll check in.

Hear Me on NPR- This weekend

2008-08-08T09:36:00.004-04:00

My NPR piece was rescheduled to this weekend:

Listen to me tell the tale of my brother exploring his emotional topography through mud balls this weekend on National Public Radio's show "Living on Earth." You can find when the show is on in your area, or listen to/read it online here.

Do Your Part

2008-07-17T22:48:00.002-04:00

I hope everyone read or heard Gore's speech today. We're running out of time.

If Kids Could Vote

2008-07-11T22:54:00.006-04:00

I was thinking a lot the other day about the big bold organizing I did while in high school, the effective protesting, the change I could make happen, the things I thought might be possible. I shook things up in my tiny world. I made waves. And so do so many young people. And then so much gets beaten out of you by life. I'm really trying to fight that lately. I dislike adult inertia and lazy role playing. So I am very pleased to recommend to you some T-shirts my dear friend Pete is bringing to the world. They're for kids. They say things like "I Can't Vote, Don't Blow It." Take a look: www.ifkidscouldvote.com.

The Camp

2008-07-11T22:00:00.011-04:00

The most constant place in my life is about to go away and I have some questions.

It’s camp. Like many New Englanders I grew up “going up to the camp” – a cabin my grandfather built on a lake in New Hampshire in the 40s when all around were woods and the lake was full of fish and loons. My grandmother washed out her pots on the edge of the lake. My uncle, a little kid at the time, signed the cement cornerstone with a stick.

My dad grew up going there and playing with the people next door. I grew up going there and playing with the next generation next door. I just had a kid and she will do many wonderful things in her life, but probably won’t know the camp or the wonderfully creative and smart kids of the next generation swimming next door.

Our camp is a two bedroom camping cabin with a gas tank and electricity. It pumps water in from the lake and has a dubious septic system now, though I grew up trekking to an outhouse there. It has very little land. From the lake it looks a bit shabby next to many of the updated homes. But you can see it so well because it is right on the lake. And as a result of this fact alone it has been assessed at a price similar to say, an entire real house in a fairly wealthy suburb of Boston. I own in Cambridge and my house is worth less. My taxes are also a third of the ones on the camp. In the CITY. In Taxachusetts.

None of us can really afford or even justify this. I could take my kid swimming around the world yearly for the taxes on the camp alone. Basically, because not all the owners are involved financially or otherwise (I am not one), it just can’t easily be kept. It’s looking like someone who wants to build their McMansion on the lake will end up with our camp.

And maybe that’s better than someone just moving into our camp in some ways. I mean how could there be a stranger in OUR CAMP? Would they know my Grammie’s ghost is still there drinking tea out of a stained blue tea cup, chuckling and doing crossword puzzles? Will they know all the places to row a boat and swim or to find bird’s nests or blueberries? Would they know every rock between there and the next door camp and have names for them? Would they know how to time it right to get stuck next door playing cards during a big storm? Would their kids learn to swim, to spit watermelon seeds, canoe, kayak, sail, windsurf, chase beavers, imitate loons, rescue baby birds, find pet rocks, bike into town there?

Will they have any nostalgia for the stationery and gift store that once sold penny candy? Will they know that the restaurant on the way into town or on the dock is NOT Bailey's? Will their kid have a favorite flavor of ice cream from Not Bailey’s? Will they remember when the old town railroad station was a movie theater? Will they know what it meant to take Grammie there to see On Golden Pond? Will they have to get drinking water in town and will their dad know every single free spigot in ten miles because he refuses to pay for water?

Will their dog fall in the water barking at ducks or off the prow of the canoe? Will they have a “you catch it, you clean it” rule for fish? Will they know the legend of Sandy Claws? Will Sharky read them stories in the cove? Will they always swamp the canoe on purpose and paddle it around partially submerged or underneath it bellowing “Yellow Submarine”? Will they get to know their cousin by meeting up there for silliness and snacks? Will they have huge treasure hunts or water fights with the family next door? Do they know the secrets to seeing the fireworks on the 4th without being stuck in crowds? Will their dad present firework shows on the dock?

Will they come back as a young adult with boyfriends? Will they climb the tiny mountain at the top of the road? Will they bike all around the woods and hills and keep a map charting the trails biked and where they go on a topo map on the wall? Will they come up alone and write poetry and sing and put a gas lantern on the dock while they canoe out to the middle of the lake and watch the tree shadows rush toward them as the moon is eclipsed? Will they come as an adult and stay by the lake and write a sample chapter of a book about cabins that causes it to get published?

Sort of. I guess, like Lyra they’ll have their own version of all of this, even if it involves ATVs, JetSkis, and some place where they can’t really afford to park their Romney-stickered SUVs. But no matter what…they’d better be pretty incredibly cool to the neighbors. They’ve been my friends since before I could talk. The heads of that family sat with me at my wedding. This is going to alter their camp too.

Live Free or Die is the NH motto. I guess that covers taxing your house to death since it sure ain't free. I used to dream about moving to the Yukon, having a kid who played in the elements. Meanwhile most of my fun adventure friends moved away, my hiking friends died and moved away or got busy, my kayaking has been curtailed by having a kid, the camp is going away.

Even though I didn't make it up there much in recent years I wish it wouldn't have to go. It's just pointing out even more to me that it isn't the place it was when I was a kid. People have built houses along the dirt road and discovered the public access at the cove. The road actually has a street sign now. It's been Google-mapped. People have too many boats on the lake. And it's also somehow pointing out that here at home there are no woods within 20 minutes of my house, no clean beaches for more, and though I tricked out my mt. bike as a city street, baby-carrying machine I keep being afraid to take her on the crazy streets here.

Sometimes this all just hits me and I feel like I just woke up blinking to find I’m standing around with my kid on a cement slab while my husband works in a cubicle a few blocks away and my mom and a number of my friends are dead or gone. This isn’t how I pictured things, and so it is such extra work to make things change.

POSTPONED Hear Me on NPR

2008-06-18T20:18:00.004-04:00

update 6/19: This week's broadcast was reorganized and my piece will be on in the near future instead. Stay tuned. :)

Listen to me tell the tale of my brother exploring his emotional topography through mud balls this weekend on National Public Radio's show "Living on Earth." You can find when the show is on in your area, or listen to me online (it will be posted later this week I think) at www.loe.org

Hail to the Strawberry!

2008-06-17T19:59:00.003-04:00

Our hot sun/rain/sun weather lately has my garden in a happy frenzy of bloom. I thought I'd post a few pics. I would also just like to take a moment to celebrate the lone strawberry that I grew and ate this morning. Yay for haphazard urban gardening!

Seven Songs

2008-06-12T10:25:00.001-04:00

By request:

"List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they're not any good, but they must be songs you're really enjoying now, shaping your spring. Post these instructions in your blog along with your 7 songs. Then tag 7 other people to see what they're listening to."

The tags: W.Coast Bethany, Pete, Ken, Cate, Jeff, Grace, Chris

The songs:

I’d like to write descriptions for each but I’m in a rush -- maybe I'll add them later. I mainly listen to music in my jewelry studio or when I’m singing it to Lyra. Here are some:

Don’t Tell Me To Do the Math(s) – Los Campesinos!

Right Hand on My Heart – The Whigs

That Summer I Had Become the Invisible Boy – Twilight Sad

Our Life is Not a Movie or Maybe – Okkervil River

Head Rolls Off – Frightened Rabbit

Barfly – Ray LaMontagne

Eyes – Rogue Wave

Seven Lives Left

2008-06-08T10:17:00.008-04:00

We do not have child safety gear on our windows. It's not that we don't know that kids fall through them, it's that our kid is not tall enough, mobile enough, or unsupervised enough to have dealt with it yet. Our cats, however, are like toddlers who can jump and yet get left to their own devices all day.

This morning we couldn't find Moki anywhere. Moki is not a subtle roommate. He's a very big, galumphing, doofball of a tiger kitty who follows me around and plays with Lyra all day. Moki wasn't anywhere. Finally I dared yell "Are the screens intact??!" No. I went running into the backyard in a flash of adrenaline. I saw no sign of him. Suddenly there was a yowling.

I'd heard this yowl only one time before. Moki slipped past me once and I closed the front door without knowing it and he was faced with OUTSIDE. He backed into the stoop and yowled in terror until I heard him and opened the door.

This morning he was crouched against the corner of our house behind our grill, about five feet from where he must have landed. Once back inside he was strutting about, eating, drinking, pawing at things he's not allowed to have, letting Lyra clumsily pet him, staring at the backyard through the door, trying to catch a fly in the house, and busting open the bathroom door to use his litter box upstairs. He fell a story and a half and was fine.

Over breakfast we realized that both of us had noticed our other cat, Luna, in the window Moki fell from both times we'd passed by looking for Moki. Was she sitting there looking down at him sticking her tongue out? Was he down there telling her to just jump, it's not so bad?

We ticked one of the nine allotted lives off both cats for whatever they survived between before and during the shelter where we got them at three months old. Moki fell at least fifteen feet and landed on small rocks. He's lost another life. It's also worth wondering if besides being able to deliver my kayaking boots up four stories of stairs, play in the shower, play happily with a human baby, open latches, and other funny tricks...he can fly?

Don't try this at home. I think he and we got very, very, very lucky.

Can't Touch This

2008-06-06T22:33:00.003-04:00

Since the question comes up every single summer, here's a reminder. This is poison ivy.

Get a Hamster for $200

2008-06-06T22:27:00.004-04:00

Beacon Hill is an expensive neighborhood, but geez...

I won! I won!

2008-05-19T23:32:00.003-04:00

I thought I was going out with a friend from CA tonight, but plans changed. So, I went out anyway to the big annual bike benefit at Redbones (BBQ joint near us with free bike valet!). I people-watched the bike geeks and bike punks, and various gangs of riders amazed that I didn't see anyone I knew. I then realized I'm a lot older than half the people I was watching. I bought myself six raffle tickets for $10. I won myself a set of Velocity 700c bike wheels with snappy black spokes that must be worth a few hundred dollars. I ended up out in a pub with a friend and got given free cake. It was a pretty good night.

So, biker friends...these wheels. Can I put them on basically anything that takes skinny tires? Like can I make myself some spiffy bike with just some old ten speed frame now? Or do these wheels deserve better? I could always sell them. . . but we only just met!

Boston Globe Article

2008-05-18T21:24:00.004-04:00

Today I had an article in The Boston Sunday Globe. I have written for a bunch of magazines, a gazillion web sites, published a column for years, written for TV, radio, catalogs, and published a book. This, however, was the newspaper I grew up knowing as THE paper. As a kid it was the Globe that I lay open on the gold shag rug in the living room to read "the funnies" side by side with my brother and dog. And, this is the first thing I've published since Lyra was born.

So, I was excited. This morning I decided it would give me a thrill to take a paper out of a city newspaper box and open it to see my byline. Glenn, and I each held one of Lyra's hands and we toddled a couple of blocks away on a gorgeous spring day to the nearest box. I put in the quarters, glenn pulled out a camera. I pulled and pulled. I put in more quarters. I got the quarters back and tried again. No dice. That damn box would not open no matter what we did. At least it gave me back the quarters.

Anyway, here it is online, where no quarters are necessary.

If you like, you can add on the funny last line I originally wrote for the article that was cut: "And visiting the Athenaeum was always morally acceptable."

(And yeah, I got some print copies later from the drug store. Had to read the funnies, after all.)

Carnivorous!

2008-05-16T17:23:00.003-04:00

Noticed some pitcher plants in the woods today. I love plants and trees with such obvious adaptations.

If you're not familiar with these plants, they grow in boggy areas and attract insects who then slip slide into the tube and are eaten. Yum!