Look Out, Dad!!

My father is the purple dot above the blue weather station. He's juuust outside Milton's evacuation zone.

Well!

My brother and I just sat through Helene with our dad in Florida. We didn't plan our trip that way - we had booked it months in advance as our mother passed away in February. We wanted to go back to check up on the old guy. So Dad got to direct us to all the restaurants in the Tampa Bay Area he wanted to visit. I mean, what else do you do before a hurricane if you already have batteries? And have food portions tripled since I have stopped going out to eat? I think so. I also got to ride around town in a golf cart to visit his high school buddy and his wife who have retired nearby.

Helene was devastating in some areas of Florida and Georgia, but it was nothing much in the particular area of Tampa where my dad lives. The airport was closed and some of the bridges were closed for a bit. We weren't sure if I would be able to catch my flight back to Missouri, or if my flight would even exist. But nothing life-threatening was going on where we were. 

This time it's a little worrying - hopefully Milton doesn't hit my father too badly, but he is hunkered down and hoping for the best. When you think about it, where would he go? Pretty much anywhere you go, everyone is already there OR it is already wiped out and devastated. Going north is going to be crowded and congested and the highways will be full. There is already so much devastation and wreckage north. Go south, and who says Milton won't come and cause hurricane damage there anyway? 

My brother tried to convince him just to jump on one of the last planes, just go to Alaska or whatever random flight is available and see what happens! Dad is going to stay put and see what happens. I'll keep ya posted, hopefully I will hear from him that everything was not a big deal just like last time.

Spongebob's House Went to a Rave...

This summer, I've been doing a lot of highway driving back and forth, going to Worlds of Fun where Woodjie worked this summer. One big benefit: he got a total of eight tickets and we've brought family members here and there throughout the summer. What you see pictured here is my souvenir. It's a men's medium shirt if you can believe that. I think it looks like Spongebob's house went to a rave. But I bought it with a matching pair of swimshorts because I am just that groovy.

I daresay I improved my crochetwork and learnt to do a granny square! I sorta cheated and used YouTube. The thing with YouTube is that you can pause it, slow it down, and go over over over OVERRRR the same 1.2 seconds about 500 times and skip the stupid ads. You just can't ask any questions.

I had to have something to do while waiting in the parking lot for Woodjie...

Emperor, Elf and Patrick have settled into an apartment nearby and sometimes I see them, pretty much just in passing. Their stuff is mostly gone and my house is surprisingly full for having only four people. I look back and wonder how we held so many folks here before. 

Woodjie's First Job!

 

School just got out a bit ago here. Woodjie is working as a line cook at a restaurant in the big city this summer. His uniform also comes with a little beanie. He'll be a senior next school year.

Bringing Garbage Home

Some people up the street were throwing this table away. It was in pretty bad shape and one of the legs was off. I've glued the leg back on, stripped it, sanded it, and stained it. It is still not any sort of heirloom quality but free is free... and I have several "children" here at home who are (hopefully) thinking of leaving the nest one by one again soon.  So this will work as one of several pieces of first furniture.

Ignore the trash on the floor. Right now the table is dry enough to be taken out of the high traffic areas of the house, but not dry enough to put things on just yet.  I still have all my sanding/ stripping supplies nearby too.

 

What A MESS.

Maybe my bloggy friend Virginia has seen a six and a half-foot tall curly-top kid driving about in a grey car with Missouri license plates since last November, because Emperor and Elf now live in the suburbs of Firebird City.  Patrick joined them in April.  I'm going through the stuff they left (everything but one suitcase each, thanks guys) and boxing it up.  And finding graffiti from ages past.

This is what I am left with.  You would think packing up all the stuff they had would mean I had MORE room but apparently not!  Packing things into boxes makes the items inside expand by about 60 percent.  Scientific fact.

 

Not sure why I am trying to paint a room full of boxes, but since I no longer do laundry and flip the dishes about in the dishwasher so much I don't have much else to do... Well, there is the poison ivy in the rock garden but I am pretending not to notice that... the house seems veryyy empty with only two children in it.

 

Polish Festival in Weston, Missouri!

I went with a friend last weekend to the festival in Weston, Missouri.  There was a band playing Polish music, lots of Polish food for sale, Polish outfits and almost every sort of trinket from Poland you could imagine.  These bunnies are Polish pottery cookie jars.

Honey pots with little drizzlers.

Um... can you tell that Kansas City has a bit of an unhealthy obsession with Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs?

One of the shops downtown had works from several metalworking artists as well as some stained glass. 

Here's what I bought.  A giant bowl with bunnies. I love bunnies!

And my mug.  It was a great day!

 

First Same-Sex Marriage in US, 1834

Published in the 5 April 1834 Christian Intelligencer.

It took me a few readings before I realized that the other "man" who was dressed as a "woman" was actually woman all along! She had run away from home because her father didn't approve of the marriage.  This marriage would have been performed in the Dutch Reformed Church, hardly a bastion of liberal crazy ideas. Would you like to read about how to preach a sermon in that denomination around that time?  So happens my fifth great-grandfather James Spencer Cannon (1776-1852) wrote an entire book on the subject for your edification.  

He was a professor of Metaphysics at Rutgers College and a professor of Theology and Ecclesiastical History at their seminary.  He was born on a ship in Curacoa, Dutch West Indies, because his dad was a ship captain who brought his family on his adventures.  I am sure Dad was transporting nothing but Bible tracts in that cargo hold because that is exactly what people usually did in the Golden Triangle during that era.  It paid enough for him to send several children to private school and maintain a home in New York City.

But James was orphaned at a young age, and some wealthy fella named Elias Brevoort would have met him at the school and supported him after his inheritance ran out (hence the fancy degrees and job).  Later he married Elias's daughter Catherine but there was some sort of disagreement between them.  Elias specifically wrote that James was not to touch a penny of his money in his will; his daughters were capable of managing his estate and handling their own money, thanks.

And here is a photo of James Spencer Cannon, complete with his little top hat and signature in the corner.  Snazzy.