• Tag Archives Ruth

  • Jon, Jen, Ruth and Gabe

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    Winter                   First Moon of the New Year

    Sunny and 54 here in Denver today.  Heading out to the zoo with grandson Gabe and daughter-in-law Jen.

    Ruth and Jon drove into the mountains to A-basin at 5:30 this morning.  Ruth has an all day ski lesson while Jon will try to find runs not crowded with newbies.  Not much snow here so the existing runs have become clogged.

    Jon moved out here ten years ago and has taken full advantage of the location.  He skis as often as he can, which means weekly at least in most cases.  He climbs mountains and skies down rugged terrain.

    He’s no youngster, either, at 43. He’s stayed in good shape and manages his chronic illnesses with grace.  He has diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis and addison’s disease.  Any one of these would give most folks an excuse to sit in the easy chair, but not Jon.

    He’s an artist, a teacher, a father, an athlete and a home renovator. Pretty impressive.


    📂This entry was posted in Family Travel 📎and tagged

  • Socialized Medicine, Here I Come

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    Samain                      Moon of the Winter Solstice

    The end of the day.  Sunday.  Used to go to sleep on Sunday night with Monday whirring away, chattering and buzzing, cutting a channel through my attempts to sleep.  Now I go to sleep on Sunday night.  That’s all.

    Granddaughter Ruth has the makings of a cook.  Maybe.  Her recipe for cooking a turkey:  put it in the oven at 10 degrees, cook it for half an hour.  Put it on a big plate and put green beans and potatoes beside it.  Sounds like my first attempts at cooking a turkey.

    Speaking of retirement.  Didn’t somebody bring that up?  I go to sign up for Medicare tomorrow.  I have my Medicare card already and now have to choose a plan.  Kathryn Giegler will help me as she did Kate.  This is a rite of passage, analogous to getting a driver’s license or that first Social Security check.

    When I went on a quest tonight to solve a computer problem, I ended up in Best Buy where Christmas music played over the loudspeakers.  I found myself cheered by it, rather than annoyed.  It felt familiar, comfortable, mine.  This surprised me.  A Grinch I’m not, but I’ve often found the commercial side of the holiday season a large, unwelcome mosquito that won’t quit buzzing into my awareness no matter how often I try to swat it away.

    Instead I found myself thinking of roasting chestnuts, singing carols, making a roaring fire and having hot chocolate.  Geez.


    📂This entry was posted in Aging Commentary on Religion Faith and Spirituality Family Holidays Retirement 📎and tagged

  • The Road

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    Beltane                                                     Waxing Garlic Moon

    The dog delivered, I’m moving more slowly today.  I’ve selected a route home, up I-29 to I-90, then to the Jeffer’s Petroglyphs.  I’ll plan to stay around there tonight, then finish up the drive home tomorrow.

    Saw granddaughter Ruth’s new teeth.  Little white spikes emerging between her baby teeth in the front.  Ruth is not sure what to make of Grandpa.  I don’t mind.  I’m in the relationship for the long haul and I know we’ll connect.

    Sollie looked at me from the car.  I opened the Subaru’s trunk latch and gave him a hug.  We became pals.  I am, however, not sorry to see him go.  I think the home dogs will calm down.  I hope.

    Jon and Jen have their sleeves rolled up, busy with two young kids, renovation and a dog.  At least they have the summer.

    Now, I’m going to hit the road and wander a bit, a joy I picked up from my dad, who loved a road trip now matter how small.


    📂This entry was posted in Dogs Family Travel 📎and tagged

  • Driving to Nebraska. Again.

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    Beltane                                                                   Waxing Garlic Moon

    Motel 6 with Sollie, Lincoln Nebraska

    At 8:35 am Sollie and I took off in the truck.  We drove straight through to this little piece of heaven.

    Driving between Andover and Lincoln, a frequent trip, goes through some of the less visually interesting parts of the United States.

    Sollie is now in the bathroom blessedly quiet.  He’s a bit much to handle, a lot like a 3 year old.

    Kate called with an extreme emergency.  The powers out and the generator did not kick in.  Time and a half to take care of it, but Kate’s there and she’s hot.  Kate hot is not something you want to see.  So Allied Generator has an evening call to rescue my sweet heart.

    Ruth is with Jon and they’re on their way.


    📂This entry was posted in Dogs 📎and tagged

  • Impish and Knowing

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    Spring                                                               Waning Bee Hiving Moon

    Talked to the grandkids on Skype.  Gabe’s linguistics have made a jump and Ruthie seems to have rocketed past the early years of childhood and landed in an elementary school body.  2011-04-01_0742

    Jen went to crossfit this morning.  If you’re not familiar with this gonzo approach to fitness, click on the link.  She’s gonna be tired.

    Skype has increased the quality of long distance communication with kids by a geometric factor.  We tickled Gabe, watched Ruth move gracefully through the house.  We saw the expression on Ruth’s face as she dumped out a box of soft building blocks.  It was impish and knowing.  We saw Gabe do his mad face and his happy face.  Wonderful.

    I decided the other day that the only way I’m going to get good at Tai Chi is to practice, practice, practice.  I go through the form several times, all the way through the single whip, the last and most complicated move we’ve learned.  Doing it in the morning, as a moving meditation and a general loosening up of the body for the day is where I’m headed.  Right now, though, I’m doing it before I do my aerobics.

    The daffodils outside have finally begun to approach the image I had in my head all those years ago when I began to plant bulbs.  My first and most memorable bulb planting event was on Edgcumbe Road in St. Paul.  I began putting them in sometime in the mid-to-late afternoon, just as the snow began to fall.  This turned out to be the Halloween snow storm which eventually dumped 2 feet of snow on the Twin Cities.  I got the message.

    Kate made me a quilted piece with a bee and the words Artemis Hives on the side.  I’m going to staple it up in the shed where I store the bee equipment.


    📂This entry was posted in Asia Family Garden 📎and tagged

  • Habitus

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    Spring                                                                   New Bee Hiving Moon

    The dogs, that is, Sollie and Rigel, still have energy for the fight.  Damn it.  I’ve not yet figured out a foolproof strategy for keeping them away from flashpoints.  I will.

    Kate called and she says both Ruth and Gabe have had a change in habitus.  That’s pediatric speak for body change.  Gabe is taller and thinner.

    Ruth’s face has begun to elongate, moving from pre-school to school age.  This means, Kate says, that Ruth will hit puberty early.  Uh-oh.  She’s already lost a tooth.  This is stuff that usually happens around 6 and she was still 4, turning 5 on Monday.  Ruth is bright, athletic, blond and blue-eyed.  Can you imagine that combination in junior high?

    Meanwhile I have a quiet weekend to devote to the novel and to Latin.  Novel first, then Latin.  Probably a trip to the grocery store and definitely another go at seed starting.  I still have some tricks.

    A conference call at 5:00 pm about making a Sierra Club endorsement in a special election, the seat, Senate District 66, vacated by Ellen Anderson when she took a position on the Public Utility Commission.


    📂This entry was posted in Aging Dogs Humanities Politics Writing 📎and tagged

  • Family Celebrations

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    Imbolc                                                                Waxing Bridgit Moon

    No aurora so far.  A big solar flare yesterday, but nothing much going on right now.

    I had a truly senior birthday dinner experience.  At 4:10 I went into see my physician, Tom Davis, to get my blood drawn for a thyroid level check.  Then, Kate and I walked down Nicollet to the Dakota and had a very private meal in a room separated from the main floor where the Dakota crew was getting set for a show, War.  After all these years, there is still no one I’d rather share an intimate meal with than Kate.  She’s my valentine.

    Next month we celebrate our 22nd wedding anniversary.  22 years.  A long time.  But not long enough.  A lot of celebrating since April holds birthdays for Ruth and Gabe.  A nice string.


    📂This entry was posted in Family 📎and tagged

  • The Truth from Ruth

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    Imbolc                                                                New (Bridgit) Moon

    A couple of things I’ve been intending to write here.  First, granddaughter Ruth.  At gymnastics she was given a bracelet with a word on it.  She removed one cube with a particular 6702011-01-15_0625letter and showed it to her mother.  “Look, mommy, I got a bracelet with my name on it.”  Sure enough the bracelet read Ruth.  It was only later that her mom discovered it had been handed by a Christian woman to this Jewish young girl.  The bracelet originally read, Truth.

    Another Ruth story.  In a store with her mother, Jen, and Tennessee Grandmother, Barb, a clerk complimented Ruth on her color sense.  “Oh,” Ruth said, “I’m an artist.”

    Something else I enjoy are authentic obituaries, where the usual formula of passing on, entering heaven, being received by Jesus or into God’s arms get replaced with something it’s obvious someone said.   A recent favorite from a 50-year old man, “Good-bye and bite me.”  Says a lot.  Good epitaph material.  The classic for me was, “We thank Jesus for this fine Norwegian.”  Another one this week, which I don’t remember all together, went, “He liked his Camels, his whiskey, and ?I think it was, his women.”  Give me honesty or give me death.  Or both.


    📂This entry was posted in Aging Family 📎and tagged

  • Family Time

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    Winter                                     Waxing Moon of the Cold Month

    Kate sees this trip as vacation; I don’t.  Family related travel, the bulk of what I do, has a different purpose and feel.  It’s about relationships and the hard work necessary to maintain them.  It has the flavor of duty, but duty in a positive, not an obligatory sense.   The hard work has its pleasures, yes, lifting Ruth up in the air as she giggles, helping Gabe push his toys around on the floor, but it also has its rough edges.  A relationship with a sister, troubled since birth, breaks bad in a new, more intense way after she becomes pregnant.

    The parents of young children face a plethora of challenges, too, noise and activity levels after a hard day at work, insistent demands for attention, keeping the kids safe indoors and out, little time for themselves separately or together.   None of this is new, this is the ancientrail of child-rearing, but it is one meant to happen in an extended family.  In our case, as in so many, many others, children and grandchildren live in one state, grandparents, uncles and aunts live in another.

    Continue reading → Post ID 12731


    📂This entry was posted in Aging Family Humanities Travel 📎and tagged