Commonplace Book

A Commonplace Book. “Commonplace”, from the Latin 'locus communis', meaning “a theme or argument of general application.”  For me, it is a collection of thoughts, ideas, anecdotes, poems, observations, and quotes that stood out and caught my attention, some with comment, some without. Essentially a scrapbook, a repository of thoughts too good to just pass over and let go.

“This life’s hard, man, but it’s harder if you’re stupid”

(From the 1973 movie The Friends of Eddie Coyle, which was based on the 1970 novel by the same name, written by George V. Higgins. The line was spoken in the movie by character Jackie Brown, which was played by actor Steven Keats) 

“I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”

C. S. Lewis

“The only way to take sorrow out of death is to take love out of life.”

(Russell M Nelson, Doors of Death, April Conference 1992) 

“Problems beg us to remember God's promises.”

(Lysa TerKeurst, President of Proverbs 31 Ministries and the New York Times best-selling author) 

“I believe we are supposed to make the world as good as we can make it. We should not be like Jonah and sit on the mountain top waiting for Nineveh to go up in flames.”

(Neal A Maxwell, as quoted by Bruce C Hafen in A Disciple's Life, the Autobiography of Neal A Maxwell, Deseret Book 2002, 335) 

“There seems to be no end to the Savior’s desire to lead us to safety. And there is constancy in the way He shows us the path. He calls by more than one means so that it will reach those willing to accept it.”

(Henry B Eyring, Finding Safety in Council, April Conference 1997) 

“Sweet are the uses of adversity,

Which like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head.”

(Shakespeare, As You Like It, Act 2, scene 1, 12–17) 

“Everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end.”

(Author unknown) 

“Count your garden by the flowers,

never by the leaves that fall;
Count your days by golden hours
don’t remember clouds at all!
Count the night by stars, not shadows;
Count your life with smiles, not tears, and with joy
Count your age by friends, not years.”

(Dixie Willson, 1927)

To Provide You Better Service ...

The other day I brought in the mail and there was a note from the post office, a nasty-gram.  Apparently the postal inspector had been out and about and taken offense at our mailbox.

I guess they figured a poor looking mailbox just won't do to hold all that federally protected mail that gets delivered almost every day.  Yeah, my mailbox wasn't the most pristine of mail boxes.  But I've seen worse.  Its still functional.  Its true that winters are hard on mailboxes, particularly this last winter.  The plow goes by and a wall of snow and ice smack into the mailbox, giving it a good, solid jolt.  I came out one time and the mailbox was tilted up on a 45' angle, only hanging on to the post by the nails along one side, with a good, solid wedge of icy snow under it. So I cleared out the snow, bent the box back down, and it was good as new.  Anyway, I guess the box was showing some wear.

So we went to the store and got a new one, as well as some new numbers to put on the side of it.  Schwarzbeere, who was also there, was nice enough to install it for us.  That was really nice.

 So now we have a new mailbox, very nice looking.  While we were out there putting the new box on our neighbor came over to say they had left him a note, too.  They thought his mailbox was too low.  I got the easier complaint to fix.  Only a few screws and a few minutes to fix!  I like that!

And Still It Lingers ...

So, we thought we were all done with our Christmas decorations.  We were slow taking them down, but they finally came down, for the most part, in late January, except for a stake in our front yard that was frozen in the ground. That had to wait until it warmed up enough to be able to get it out of the ground. But finally, in March we were able to get the pipe out of the ground.  Then we thought we were done.  But then, as May arrived and it was time to start thinking about summer, we called to have the sprinkler system turned back on.  As part of that they always test the system and make any repairs that are needed.  We had two sprinkler heads that were serviced but there was another repair that had to be done, a little out of the ordinary.  Out in the front yard they had to replace a small piece of pipe, buried in the ground.  The repair ticket said, "Fixed leak in front yard that looks to have had a stake pounded through it."  Guess we didn't pick the best place to put the light up back in December when we were doing the decorating.  But now we have a better idea of where the line runs so with a little luck we can miss it from now on.  Such is life; live and learn.

I've Looked at Clouds from Both Sides

In the last few months I've had the occasion to fly to Detroit three times for work.  Its been a few years since I went anywhere by air. Just over five years, to be exact, when we flew to Texas to visit Moosebeere while he and his family were living there. In recent years, flying has become quite an adventure, much more complicated than it used to be. 

Flying is amazing, however, regardless of what you have to go through to get in the air.

I am always amazed by how fast the ground falls away once the plane gets off the ground.  Once the wheels leave the runway it is only a matter of minutes before everything looks small, everything begins to look just the satellite view from Google Maps.

Then you're up in the clouds.  Clouds are amazing, especially when you're right up in them.

When I was a kid at home I used to look up at the cumulonimbus clouds and image I had some way to get up and fly around them, dodging about, in and out of the nooks and crannies about them, staying always out of them but all around them at the edges.

When you fly you get to see the top side of the clouds sometimes.  In these flights back and forth between Detroit and here the plane cruises at about 5 miles up.  The clouds sometimes look like the piles of snow; fresh, clean, white snow.  Unless, of course, they're dark storm clouds.  Fortunately, we didn't have to deal with any serious storms on any of these trips I took.

And there was the eastern shore of Lake Michigan.  It's kind of hard to see in this picture, it was getting dark as we flew west into the sunset.  Its hard from the air to tell where you are; I couldn't guess where this was.

On this last trip, a little farther west out over the lake, the clouds flattened out.  It reminded me of quilting batting, all stretched out, ready to be sewn into a new blanket.  Like I've seen plenty of times as Brombeere, or my Mom, or my grandma have sewn quilts over the years. 

Flying is sometimes uncomfortable, I've never had the pleasure of flying first class, and getting through big airports, or through security in any airport, is a hassle now days.  But if you end up with a window seat and have a decent view outside, its really amazing.

What a Difference a Few Weeks Makes

Sometimes spring can be an amazing, a dangerous thing.  During winter the ground freezes hard and won't absorb water at all.  If spring warms up slow enough that's no problem at all.  If we get a warm spell and the snow melts fast, that can be a problem.  All that water from the melting snow, which would normally go down into our sandy soil, ends up going across our sandy soil.  If  you add heavy rain on top of a fast melt you can really have problems.  That's what happened this year and the result was the river that runs through town got very, very full.  Low laying areas got flooded.  That all began back in the middle of March.  Rain falling faster than the ice clogged waste water system could handle it.  By mid-April the ground was still frozen when we got some real heavy rain.  Water levels on the river got really high.  I went down by the river, along a route I occasionally take on my bike (in dryer weather) and took a look.

Before

After

My main interest was to see if the trails were drying out.  I had no idea the river was as high as it was.  A little bench on the river, that I sometimes stop at, was nearly in the water.

Before

After

In the "after" picture you can see two benches that are right down on the river.  In the "before" they were both completely under water and out of sight.

Before

The trail, where it comes out of the woods, was totally flooded and impassable.  You almost don't notice the gates in the "before" picture.

After

A little bridge on the old road wasn't submerged but the river was right up to the bridge.

Before

After

Another little bridge, almost just a sluice, really, was inundated with water.  Totally overwhelmed.  At this little bridge, the water was up over the bridge.

Before

After

People sometimes forget that when the ground gets this wet and waterlogged, it can take a little while to dry out.

Before

The road, which is always barricaded, was underwater.  It doesn't seem likes its ever a good idea to try to drive a vehicle around a barricade.  Especially when the ground is totally water soaked and soft.

After

Judging from the tracks, this was probably a truck that did manage to get out without being towed.  Then again, if it was winched out, that could be done without leaving tracks from the truck that did the winching.

In any case, its amazing to me to see the things that Mother Nature sometimes does.  And I'm glad that the trails have dried out and are passable again.  There's one spot on my favorite section of trail that is still being repaired.  It was submerged for a couple of weeks and because the water was fast moving, the trail sustained some damage.  The water has receded but the trial still needs to be repaired.  This isn't my photo, its from the folks that maintain the trail.  But it shows the damage.

This section of the trial still isn't open.  But once its open all the parts I use on a regular basis will be open again.  That will be a happy thing.  In the meantime, there's plenty of good trail open and available for use!

A stretch of trail high enough above the river that it didn't flood

Spring has sprung!