Literature

"Literature is the effort of man to indemnify himself

from the wrongs of his condition."

--Ralph Waldo Emerson

Misunderstood

"To be great is to be misunderstood."

--Ralph Waldo Emerson

Life

"Life consists of

what a man is thinking of all day."

--Ralph Waldo Emerson

Perhaps They Are Real

"Let us treat men and women well;

treat them as if they were real;

perhaps they are."

--Ralph Waldo Emerson

Passion

"Passion, though a bad regulator,

is a powerful spring."

--Ralph Waldo Emerson

Nothing Astonishes

"Nothing astonishes men so much as

common sense and plain dealing."

--Ralph Waldo Emerson

An Institution

"An institution is

the lengthened shadow of one man."

--Ralph Waldo Emerson

Every Reform

"Every reform was once

a private opinion."

--Ralph Waldo Emerson

The Highest Applause

"The silence that accepts merit

as the most natural thing in the world

is the highest applause."

--Ralph Waldo Emerson

Summer Begins

When I see the orange lilies blooming next to the wild red raspberry bushes, both serving as a border between civilization and nature, so to speak, I know that summer has arrived. I have yet to do anything with the raspberries; I prefer to leave them all for our wildlife visitors.

Happy Father's Day!

This photo of Jeb was taken approximately two weeks after the birth of Ginny's kittens. If you look closely, you can see that Quentin inherited his tail from his dad.

Giving of the Hand

"I hate the giving of the hand

unless the whole man accompanies it."

--Ralph Waldo Emerson

Society

"Society is a masked ball,

where every one hides his real character,

and reveals it in hiding."

--Ralph Waldo Emerson

In Threes

As the saying goes, bad luck comes in threes. It appears that annoyances come in threes as well.

Late this morning, right after I got up, I discovered we had no water. Before dialing the phone to report our state of waterlessness, I glanced with disdain at yesterday's dishes in the kitchen sink. The water problem was fixed in less than two hours' time, but the dishes are still awaiting my attention. They can wait.

Today's second annoyance occurred after Rebel and I drove to our mailbox, returned home, and I opened a credit card statement, informing me I had a $39 late charge in addition to my last unpaid payment along with the current payment due, which annoyed me because I had mailed them my last payment immediately upon receipt of their previous statement on May 14. So I phoned the credit card company and listened to a recording, which informed me they had received my payment on June 14, hence, the late charge. Excuse me, where had my check been for four weeks? Putting it nicely, I suspected a clerical error on the part of someone at the credit card company, since my check posting exactly one month after the date on my check appeared a bit too coincidental. What are the odds? And so I spoke to a credit card representative, who said it had been the fault of the post office that they'd received my check so late, and he removed the $39 late fee. (Granted, it is possible that my check had gotten temporarily lost by the post office. I once received a postcard from Bethlehem, PA, mailed years earlier, which finally arrived in my mailbox with a note saying that it had been stuck inside some postal machinery. I digress.) Next step: I asked the customer service rep the amount of my corrected payment, and when it didn't sound right to me because it was nearly double what I'm used to paying as the minimum, I questioned the rep again. If you haven't guessed, my interest rates had gone up because of my so-called late payment. While the rep talked with his supervisor, I was thinking to myself what an annoyance it would be to have to spend my afternoon, my time and energy, reporting the credit card company if they didn't return my account to its former interest rate. While the rep had me on hold, I decided I would go straight to the top, to the one responsible for credit card reform, meaning someone who works at the federal government level. But instead of doing that, here I am; after the rep talked with his superior, my credit card interest rate was dropped back to its former low rate. And Rebel and I drove to the mailbox this afternoon, before the arrival of the postal carrier, simply to mail my latest credit card payment, due on July 3. Oh, today's polite credit card rep assured me that payments get credited almost immediately or within 24 hours, or whatever it was he said, while in my mind I had a tape playing a conversation I'd had perhaps a couple of years ago with a nasty credit card rep from a different company, who told me it sometimes takes up to 10 days for payments to get posted and, hence, that accounted for the late charge I'd called about in that particular instance. But now we have credit card reform....

Annoyance number three concerns the interruption of my TV viewing. Instead of watching The View, I was on the phone with the credit card company. Fine, when I finished with that annoyance, I sat down to watch an encore presentation of The Bonnie Hunt Show, but much to my disappointment, the show has gone off the air.

Meek Young Men

"Meek young men grow up in libraries."

--Ralph Waldo Emerson

Bear

I have yet to take a good photo of a black bear on my property, in my neighborhood, or anywhere else. Rebel does let me know if there's one in the vicinity. But I do not go running outside with my camera in hopes of seeing a bear. I figure when the time is right, one day I shall finally take a good photo of a black bear. In the meantime, I amuse myself by finding an occasional bear pawprint in my yard.

Incidentally, two or three months ago, maybe it was right after hibernation season ended, my neighbor informed me that a black bear decided to grab a bag lunch out of the trash can on his deck and go for a picnic in the woods on my property. Apparently, the bear was a litterbug, because my neighbor had to clean up after him.

Shelter

I just happened to be walking past this white peony, when I noticed the flies emerging from their shelter after the early morning rain. I had gone outside to take some photos of my flowers, you see, never expecting to find two such volunteer models for my photo shoot.

Red, White, and Blue

Photo of Mud-Puddling Butterflies

"Just Me and My Shadow"

Favorite Coffee

When it comes to my favorite coffee, I cannot make up my mind, choosing the new flavor of the month, so to speak, over the last one. Okay, that's somewhat of an exaggeration, but I do like to try new coffee flavors. At the moment, my favorite coffee flavors are: rain forest nut, pecan, wild mountain blueberry, coconut, glazed chocolate donut, and cinnamon bun--not necessarily in that order. By the way, I have discovered that if I add some Trader Joe's Organic Maple Agave Syrup Blend to the pecan coffee, I am reminded of the taste of pecan pie.

Wolferman's Signature English Muffins

Over two decades ago, I was introduced to Wolferman's Signature English Muffins, and Cheddar Cheese became my favorite when they started carrying it at my local supermarket. Later on, my favorite became Honey and Oats. Okay, so it was a toss-up.

Time passed. I moved several times. I lost track of Wolferman's.

Two years ago a Wolferman's catalogue arrived in the mail, and I rediscovered their Signature English Muffins. Chocolate Chip became my favorite--that is, until my latest delivery. In addition to all the above-mentioned muffins, my latest favorite Wolferman's Signature English Muffins are Maple Honey & Almond and Sun Dried Tomato and Herb. By the way, I like the Maple Honey & Almond topped with (a little butter and) a little Trader Joe's Organic Maple Agave Syrup Blend. And the Sun Dried Tomato and Herb is delicious with some melted cheese. There's nothing like making life a little easier in the kitchen during the hot summer months or, for that matter, any time of the year.

You might like to check out their website: www.wolfermans.com. One more comment: I have found their customer service people to be especially nice.

Time

"The surest poison is time."

--Ralph Waldo Emerson

Getting Ready

"We are always getting ready to live,

but never living."

--Ralph Waldo Emerson

Darcy and Oprah

At the beginning of May, I selected photos of Oprah as a kitten, in chronological order, and chose a different proverb to post with each one. Then having forgotten my selections because I had scheduled them days or weeks in advance, I amused myself by reading them when they actually posted; it was like seeing them for the first time, as if someone else had posted them.

At any rate, this month I have decided to post quotations by Ralph Waldo Emerson along with photos of Darcy. I'm not planning on quoting Emerson every single day for the rest of this month--but that remains to be seen, I suppose.

Shakespeare Raccoon

This is a rather blurry photo, taken long-distance from inside my house. It was Rebel who made the discovery that Shakespeare likes to sleep under the deck, where the opossums used to sleep, where they had their babies every spring. This year, however, there were no sounds of infants. In fact, I haven't seen any opossums at all, but then they are nomadic. As for Shakespeare, I don't know whether it's Mr. or Ms. Shakespeare, but the raccoon is very cute. Shakespeare could have scratched Rebel's nose if the desire had been there. Instead, the raccoon just looked up at us through the floor boards. Actually, I had thought it was either a feral cat or an opossum, until I saw the black mask on the raccoon's face. And since I am aware that cute raccoons can turn very vicious when cornered or threatened, I resisted the impulse to touch the rascal. I recall, quite well, the ferocity of a captured raccoon who was being relocated years ago by Bubba, a brown Rottweiller-pit mix, if memory serves me correctly, and his owner. Bubba made a lasting impression on me from the moment we met--what a great dog! I used to have a photo of Bubba taped next to my old computer at my previous residence; I'll say it again, what a great dog!

Agave

I like sugar, any kind of sugar, be it white or brown, granulated or powdered, refined or raw, etcetera. I strongly dislike artificial sweeteners of any kind or anything which tastes like an artificial sweetener, even if it is not. But after I heard Alicia Silverstone and Whoopi Goldberg mention a natural sweetener called agave on television, I thought I would give it a try. So several months ago, I purchased my first bottle of agave at Trader Joe's along with Trader Joe's Organic Maple Agave Syrup Blend. Surprise, surprise, I liked both of them so much that I purchased more agave, which I found at both Walmart and Costco. I guess I'll have to go back to Trader Joe's for the maple agave syrup blend. Anyway, the natural sweetener is a low glycemic index sweetener, which is supposedly sweeter than sugar, and a serving size of 1 tablespoon contains 60 calories. I use the agave nectar as a sweetener for my coffee. I have also tried it in baking. Am I giving up sugar? Certainly not. But I like my agave, too.

Doxycycline for Rebel

Rebel has one more week to go on doxycycline; he's being treated for Lyme disease. Unfortunately, ticks abound in this area. However, Rebel's an excellent patient and doesn't give me a hard time when it comes to taking his medicine. Now if it were the cats--any one of the cats--forget it!

I suspect Rebel may have been bitten by a widow spider three weeks ago, since he exhibited some of the same symptoms Ponzo did last summer. It appeared that Rebel was on the verge of having a seizure; he lost coordination of his legs; and he started drooling from one side of his mouth, dripping steadily like a faucet. Unless he ate something outside which I was unaware of and was having an allergic reaction, I think he could have been bitten by a poisonous spider. Rebel looked fine a few hours later, other than he wasn't his normal barky self. Nevertheless, Rebel did test positive for Lyme, so it's better to be safe than sorry, which is why he's taking the antibiotics.

Encore Presentations

Summer is upon us, since television shows have already gone into hiatus. Unfortunately, some favorite shows won't be found in the fall line-up. Such is life.

Eight months ago, I started watching The Bonnie Hunt Show. Now I find myself watching encore presentations because, much to my disappointment, the show was cancelled last month. Thus far, the encore presentations have been repeats of shows I've already seen. But that's the time I usually sit down with my second mug of coffee. I know I shall miss the show when it goes off the air completely.

As for the cats, I cannot say that they are particularly fond of talk shows, even the ones which have four-legged guests. My guys and gals like to watch movies which feature four-legged actors, who have starring roles, supporting roles, or just play extras. They seem to find action movies the most entertaining, as long as there are birds, fish, reptiles, amphibians, or mammals besides humans in them.

I have also noticed that rarely do two of my cats watch a movie at the same time. The last time that happened, Quentin started watching a movie with me; Emma joined us for the middle of the movie; and then Quentin left, leaving Emma to watch the ending with me. It's usually a private cat viewing, if you don't count me as an additional movie viewer. But I'm only human and I try not to talk, so that they can enjoy the movie in silence.

Air Conditioning, or Lack Thereof

Before leaving for my appointments last Thursday, I noticed that my house seemed a little warm; so I lowered the thermostat. Returning home a couple of hours later, I noticed that it was cooler outside than inside my house. Making a long story short, we spent the hot, long holiday weekend without air conditioning. On the bright side, we breathed a lot of fresh air through all the open windows.

Apparently, many people around here seem to be having problems with their air conditioning, since we won't be seeing a repairman until this Friday. But between the open windows and the ceiling fans, we'll be okay, despite the heat. The only thing is, lights and open screened windows are not a good combination here at night, since there are assorted insects of all shapes and sizes on one side and cats on the other, literally on the screens. So amidst the disappointed looks, I insist on closing all the windows at bedtime, telling my feline family members, that we'll have to make do with just the ceiling fans. Personally speaking, I think it's tolerably comfortable, that is, if none of us are running around the house.

Darcy, Featured Cat of the Month

Darcy was born on April 17, 2008, at exactly 4:30 PM (EST). He was Ginny's second kitten and also the second largest. I had named the charcoal gray tuxedo kitten Emerson, but not quite a month later, on May 14, I changed his name to (Mr.) Darcy. At the time, I was watching movies based on Jane Austen's novels, which influenced my decision. Besides, neither Darcy nor the other kittens had been called by their names yet. So as far as Darcy or the others knew, Darcy had been his given name from birth.