Slacker, or not

Listening to: Mary Gauthier Between Daylight and Dark

I love this artist - she is one of my all-time favorites. Her voice has a coarseness about it, but it fits perfectly with the lyrics, almost to the point of speaking but not. The first time I heard this album, "Last of the Hobo Kings" brought me to tears. Why? It's a song about Steamtrain Maury, a real hobo 'king.' The reason it got to me was because my grampa (Mom's side) rode the rails as a young man. My sisters and I would listen with rapt attention as he told stories of the things he'd done, the people he met, and the places he traveled, and he never lost that wanderlust, even when he could only do it through books. ".. so here's to you Steam Train Maury, hold that Westbound tight as you ride off into history, the last hobo, the last ride... "

So on to the good stuff. A couple of weeks ago, I drove my youngest sis and her daughter to Belleville to a wedding shower for my bro Will's fiance. So much fun! I usually hate silly games at showers (and avoid those events whenever possible) but maybe I'm getting more tolerant as I get older - one would hope anyway. I figured this way... the shower isn't for me. If I don't go because I don't like the little games, then I am being selfish and petty. Anyway, the sis-in-law-to-be is just a beautiful gal, smart and driven with a hefty dose of common sense. Oh, and she likes hot pink, so that ups her a couple notches in my book. Heh.




This last weekend was nice - the weather was gorgeous (mid 80s/low humidity/sunny), so we did some outside stuff. Daniel handled the tractor while Ron guided the walk-behind plow to turn up the potatoes. We didn't get many from the first two rows... lots of ant nests (not sure if that had anything to do with it), little nibble holes, some rot and mold on the potatoes, and very few large ones. In the pic, you can see the lovely volunteer sunflowers - HUGE and loaded with blossoms. I think they must be an unholy union between the Mammoths (single flower, tall) and the shorter bushy types. Whatever, they look so cheerful, and I've already watched goldfinches hanging off some of the old flower pecking out seeds.

And here is Daniel's mock American Gothic (he is 6 ft tall, for comparison)... I'm hearing the Green Acres theme song for some odd reason!