Friday, August 12, 2022

Like many other Americans, I wonder why there’s a shortage of people willing to seek jobs. Most folks I ask are quick to blame a lack of willing workers on generous benefits people are receiving from the Federal Government. That’s not a satisfactory explanation for today.

I keep wondering about this, as one in the front line, so to speak. In my grocery checker job, numerous customers buy groceries with Food Stamps, including young people who appear strong enough to work. Many Food Stamp customers purchase alcohol, too, using debit cards to pay for it.

Online research reveals that a critical cause of today’s worker shortage is an average of four million people retiring monthly. Retirees now have savings and assets and are in a good stock market environment. Many aren’t interested in returning anytime soon to work.

A population overweight in aging citizens seems a reasonable explanation. Added is the burnout factor caused by Covid, affecting workers in medical, service, and travel professions.

I get it, as an elder who doesn’t need to work. Nonetheless, I must. Working offers a way to be out there, to mix, mingle, feel current, and be involved.

Numerous permissive and non-permissive factors go into decisions about whether to keep working. Attitudes toward yea or nay are related to individual lives. Alongside whatever availability of assets, there are essential factors of differences in family ethos and living conditions.

Many aging customers appear at my check-stand and ask why I am still working. It’s been curious, the questioning. While I may be viewed as a statistical outlier from the outside, from my perspective, those not working might be socially deficient.

I think of how such differences are playing out politically. The national turmoils around voting rights often are driven by social attitudes about having versus not having.

Dear Friends: It’s about a sense of how working relates to social awareness. Diana

Thursday, August 11, 2022

This photo from last summer is of Sunni, pulling my friend, Dave Gilbert, and me. The event marked that season’s first time with Sunni in harness. She’s a superb driving horse.

Dave was our guide in a neighborhood east of the city. There he and Julie live with their horses, Ducky and Lynx. A very short distance from their front door are riding trails, which the couple frequents and loves. I’ve joined them, riding horseback on my Sunni or on my Rosie, while feeling a mix of pleasure and envy for the Gilberts’ proximity to great trails.

Their neighborhood has relatively quiet streets with slow-moving vehicles if any. The area is perfect for driving a horse on pavement. Sunni is good-natured, amiable, and performs with ease. She’s a breeze to drive.

We toured several local streets and Dave pointed out the area’s “Little Libraries.” He offered to build one for the street that fronts my house. It’s a questionable idea. My book titles which don’t necessarily match what’s popular, wouldn’t draw much interest.

The delightful header image was captured by Julie Gilbert. Following Dave’s ride, she joined me in the cart to travel a different neighborhood road network. Julie and I are “horse folks” and particularly admired the properties sporting paddocks with horses. We made plans to ride horseback again soon.

The Gilberts and I love Sunni. In fact, everybody who’s been a guest in the cart, or ridden Sunni on horseback, loves her.

Dear Friends: A Foundation Morgan, Sunni’s lineage goes to Justin Morgan’s Morgan. Diana

Wednesday, August 10, 2022

Central Oregon’s accessible irrigation canals also are cooling spots for humans and dogs. Flowing water maintains surrounding trees, grass, and shade in otherwise hot sandy areas. While hiking with my dogs, I may tote a lightweight folding seat. If a pretty spot makes me feel like pausing, I will take the time to observe satisfying water tripping over rocks in Lilly-lined channels. My pups play, drink, and swim.

My home is near several irrigation channels that my dogs and I enjoy. I reflect that this area, becoming ever more populated, is changing. Some significant visible irrigation flows are already being piped, intended to flow underground. Long term, all significant open flowings will be piped and hidden. The little canals dotting our neighborhood that my dogs and I love will begin disappearing, too, as farmlands become transformed into housing tracts.

My neighborhood, until recently, seemed rural. These days it seems almost cosmopolitan with housing tracts and the biggest shock of all, apartment buildings.

Mental note to myself: Get out ever more often to open flows. Take that portable seat, a camera, and the dogs. Keep ahead of change by recording what’s natural and available. The images eventually will become worth thousands of words.

Dear Friends: Get outside, find the cool, and have a great day.

Tuesday, August 09, 2022

All this week, I must leave early for work. This will be short.

I want to write about accidentally discovering an early 20th Century singer Gladys Bentley, an African-American who became popular during the “Harlem Renaissance” era. She was a character, an off-beat, gutsy entertainer. She had a fabulous piano-playing style and an outstanding singing voice.

Bentley defined herself as a gay person. During her heyday in the Roaring Twenties, she emphasized her gender preferences, appearing on stage as a cross-dresser, always outfitted perfectly in a white tuxedo with tophat and tails. Her sense of self, over-the-top exhibitionism during those times, and her popularity, are fascinating from a sociological perspective.

Maybe, but what’s “the catcher” is her total musicality.

Here’s a clip of Bentley, in her fifties, appearing on Groucho Marx’s television show. They chat for a bit before he asks her to sing. She is gracious, sits at a piano, and brings it alive. The piano roars, and she sings in a voice outstanding for all time. How wonderful it would be to hear “what might have been” if her talent had been assisted by a modern skilled music producer.

Anyway, meet Bentley yourself in this two-minute clip. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-LTJNasTMc

Dear Friends: Have a wonderful day. Diana

Monday, August 08, 2022

Hot days are watermelon days! Chickens and turkeys love melons, horses, too, and of course, goats. Chickens eat watermelon clean to a skinny green strip. Horses and goats loving every morsel consume entire rhines.

It’s hard work to schlep heavy pieces down to the barn. There’s bound to be an easier way of getting watermelon to the critters. They love this treat; I will figure out a more convenient way of keeping it going for them.

I have streamed two old movies directed by Blake Edwards and starring Julie Andrews. One is “Victor-Victoria” and the other is “It’s Life.” I remembered both, sort of. “Victor-Victoria” has a particularly terrific performance by Leslie Ann Warren as a jealous girlfriend. As for the movie itself, it works and is entertaining, but takes effort to reimagine Julie Andrews as masculine in her role as a cross-dresser. She just ain’t and that’s all.

In another of their joint ventures, “It’s Life,” the Edwards-Andrews team perfectly hit the ball out of the park. Her co-star, Jack Lemon, at his top, is an attention deficit husband and father. Andrews, too, is at her top, as a wife, mother, and professional singer, keeping to herself a diagnosed threat of potential throat cancer, and having a great fear of the possibility.

This picture was filmed in the couple’s home, which is gorgeous and on the beach in Los Angeles. Their adult children, played by actors unfamiliar to me, are terrific in their roles. I am familiar with Sally Kellerman, who is superb as an emotionally unpredictable neighbor.

Above all, the film is pure Julie Andrews. She’s kind, reassuring, multi-tasking, in control, and authentically emotional. Lovely as herself, and as most of us would suspect, or imagine her to be, in real life.

Dear Friends: This is a modern “summer take” on watermelon and movies. Diana

Sunday, August 07, 2022

The header photo is of my friend, Julie, overseeing the rough playing of those two, almost obliterated in their billowing dust.

We were meeting up for a long-planned puppy playday. Julie brought her Border Collie, Nick, and her Border Terrier, Petey. I was with Chase, my six-month-old lookalike to a standard Manchester Terrier, and Little Mitzvah, my Jack Russell-Poodle mix.

We are long-time friends meeting again to catch up with one another. We strolled, dodging the ever-busy, clumsy Chase, and watching dogs interact as we chatted. Julie and I have much in common. Our world views are compatible, and while many of our life experiences differ, we similarly process information. We two experience events deeply and often reassure one another. This outing was no exception.

We are making plans to meet again soon. We are consummate readers. Pre-pandemic, we’d meet up occasionally for coffee. We’d bring books we were reading or had read that felt important. We would share and discuss what might have made specific works stand out and seem worthwhile. These days for various reasons, we neither frequent restaurants. Instead, we talked about re-starting our occasional book meet-ups at pretty parks over picnic tables.

Meanwhile, we weren’t sure from moment to moment what Chase next might do. He’s active in mid-puppyhood, feeling new strengths and testing boundaries. He insisted on playing rough with tough little Terrier, Petey, who held his own.

Border Terriers are small, unique packages. In my Kansas City days, one of my friends had a Border Terrier. She trained him for Search and Rescue, and he became an active and excellent rescue team member.

Here and again, they’re at it.

Dear Friends: Here’s to the wonder of lasting friendships, despite life’s diversions. Diana

Saturday, August 06, 2022

That’s me in the supermarket where I work; I’ve just got off work and am holding a beautiful Bearded Dragon. She was riding on the shoulder of a lady shopper and calm as a cucumber before her person passed her to me. The critter immediately knew that my shoulder was the wrong one. She became a wriggling handful to escape. The lady laughed and reassured me that a Bearded Dragon, sleepy as it might appear, is highly aware of its surroundings and what’s happening. This pet was convincing; she needed to return to her mom.

That inspired me to learn more about animals with which I’m less familiar. I’ve begun exploring introductory online courses like biology, zoology, and anthropology. The amount of learning accessible and often free is impressive. I’ll find a program offered by a capable university and sign up to expand my understanding of the larger social world.

I’ve only recently become interested in learning about reptiles. The area never drew me before talking with folks who keep as pets snakes and lizards. It appears that a reptile’s appeal as a pet isn’t as intellectual as I had imagined but also has a huge emotional component. They feel close to and enjoy them.

Dear Friends: Now, off to feed the ordinaries, my horses, chicks, and dogs. Diana

Friday, August 05, 2022

Here’s a terrific image of Louie. He’s caught while urging me to throw his ball. Every bit of his face is in action. His beautiful marble eyes are alert, his mouth opening for action, and his body is about to take off. Louie loves anticipating and chasing balls more than anything else on Earth (except for his food bowl).

Louie is thirteen years old. For nearly all those years, he ran with my horses on trails and now has arthritis as an aftereffect. He understands that trails have become too much. When he’s with the horses and me at a trailhead, he chooses not to follow but to await our return. He hangs out in the shade under my trailer.

At first, leaving him at the TH while I rode was worrisome. Louie is a beautiful merle, and he’s cute. People often reach out to him. But he doesn’t cotton to strangers. Louie has an effective stink eye that can frighten away most would-be petters. I find him fresh and happy whenever my traveling group returns.

Despite his arthritis, I wouldn’t change a moment of our time together on the trails. I’ll bet that Louie, too, wouldn’t alter a moment or reduce our miles. He was an excellent trail buddy, strong, loyal, and always nearby.

Dear Friends: After an early life as a little couch potato, he proved brave and able. Diana

Thursday, August 04, 2022

Managers at the supermarket where I work asked if I’d work late the last couple of nights. The store lacked a cashier to cover a shift ending at eleven p.m. I agreed, anticipating the late evenings to be dull dead zones, and I was wrong.

I live in a small city that overflows at the height of every summer season with visitors and tourists. At nighttime, the streets usually are quiet with very little traffic. This whole area seems to have shut down, and inhabitants are asleep.

I discovered neither quiet nor lack of action in the supermarket. Both nights throughout my shift, the place was alive. My register was busy with people lined up to buy milk, bread, booze, and candy. Some were after only a few items, others stocking up on enough food and supplies for weeks.

I have wondered why folks shop late at night for candy and sodas. That seemed silly, a waste of time. However, now I understand more and realize that some people do a little shopping after working late. I’m newly aware of sleepless and restless people seeking an energy outlet in a safe destination.

Dear Friends: An early bird discovers late nights with personality, unique and fun. Diana

Wednesday, August 03, 2022

Yesterday morning, my Lil’ Blue received a pen buddy after I happened to capture “White Cloud,” a young and gentle Delaware hen. Cloud and Blue previously were together in a transition pen. White Cloud is accustomed to Lil’ Blue’s strangely-tilted head, and their reunion was uneventful.

Lil’ Blue has one eye. She’s separated from the flock for safety. On her own, she behaves nervously and is thrilled to gain a pen mate. Immediately, she stayed beside Cloud, following Cloud’s lead, drinking well, and vigorously seeking scattered grains and veggies.

Blue’s working eye is on the right side of her head. When all alone, she tilts her head sideways for maximum vision. Alongside Cloud, her face stayed balanced and forward. That seeing buddy eases Blue’s struggle. She’s a happy bird.

Delaware is a docile breed easy to get along with. I was drawn to its beauty and sweetness. Cloud has the fluffiest and softest imaginable white feathers, trimmed with black. Her teaming with Lil’ Blue is a happy event.

Dear Friends: I didn’t plan to write today about Blue, but I share her excitement for the matchup. Diana