Wednesday, March 06, 2019

I removed myself from big city living nearly fifteen years ago by moving to a small community in Oregon’s heart. Coming from a metropolitan area, with hundreds of square miles and millions of people, to a small town in the middle of nowhere, seemed like transitioning to a tiny berg. I planned to make time to participate in community oriented activities, like book clubs, crafting ventures, meetings with new friends for coffees and lunches, and even launching my dream of writing a novel.

Life happens, doesn’t it. After finding a place on the east side of town, I learned that this small city has two distinctive sides. Its west, nearer the Cascade Mountains, has a major river running through, it has mature Ponderosa and Spruce trees. The west-side’s centerpiece is a former major lumber mill, now turned into a shopping and entertainment mecca. Its east side, away from the river, is desert-like with stringy Juniper trees that have managed to take root and survive in soil of sand and lava rock. To be fair about Junipers, many are hundreds of years old and with twisting bark, they’re beautiful and inspire imagination.

I came to prefer living beyond the city limits and rarely crossed to the town’s opposite side. I stayed aware of local diversity and growth through my part-time job serving samples in Central Oregon’s only Costco where everybody living in or visiting Central Oregon shops. I identified west-siders by their clothing, speech, and food sample choices for their kids. The east-siders, distinctive in country-like clothing and beaten-up cowboy boots, clearly preferred meat and potatoes. Over time, such distinctions have faded, as more folks new to the city are settling on its east side, as shoppers increasingly read labels and are more selective about foods and household items.

It’s often felt somewhat like my old life, in California, when the San Fernando Valley seemed light years away from West L.A., with folks entrenched in their areas. In Bend, I’ve become a country person, having maintained a few rocky acres, caring for horses, bringing from Costco some earnings and supplies, and visiting feed stores for other needs. What’s not horse-related, like book clubs, teas, and social groups, has escaped the picture.

Yet, my sense of this city has been changing. Maybe because of Costco’s customer mix, and increasingly, that people seem less identifiable to areas. Maybe because of shake-ups in local leadership, with a few new members on the City Council and a newly-elected City Mayor. What’s helping is that managers of the local newspaper have decided to re-publish fewer articles from national publications, and instead, focus on locally-reported and -written stories, creating a more interesting newspaper that helps the area seem less like separate pieces.

Small communities struggle because old timers don’t want many changes and newbies want lots of them. This conflict of perceptions has caused stumbles in Bend’s baby steps. Now, as a “new old-timer”, I feel protective of “my east side” and hope it keeps consisting of small acreages, allowing farm animals, appreciating personal independence, and fostering neighborly cooperation.

Dear Readers, It’s worthwhile to pause and reflect on a sense of community. Diana

Tuesday, March 05, 2019

This month is breaking a century (since 1901) of record-keeping, with colder temperatures and more snow. Unfortunately, neither cold nor snow are letting up. I enjoy witnessing history but not in these worst winter months ever recorded. These days have become strings of being stuck in the house, watching television, dozing off, and fighting attacks of cabin fever.

My faithful dogs doze with me while keeping a paw in reality. The instant I think about going outside to do something with the horses, all dogs are on their feet and noisy to go. I’d invite them more often, but my property isn’t completely fenced and I don’t want a dog wandering near a busy road or a neighbor’s property.

Miles in many ways seems very contained, but in reality, he’s a fellow with a very strong herding instinct who lobbies noisily to go with me. He wants to help move horses into the barn for hay, and after they’ve eaten, help move them out.

Osix has high energy and a mind of her own. She’s fun and funny, springs up eager to go anywhere. Outside, she runs back and forth for reassurance that I’m coming along, too.

Louie’s herding instincts focus on retrieving balls. He loves a ball and insists that I repeatedly throw it for him. I watch to be sure he’s not stealing balls that belong to our neighbor’s dog.

My other “dogs” aren’t typical, but in some ways a little like canines.

Peaches’ cage is in the living room between ceiling-high picture windows. He can see west to the horses and north to the driveway. He spots all movements outside and barks at intruders. The more intensely Peaches’ screams, the more it’s certain he sees an unknown human, deer, or a stray dog.

Max was an outside-only boy, but over the years that’s changed, and now, he’s inside lots, and totally during this freezing weather while I’m feeding birds. Max watches them intently from windows, and having him inside keeps another species safe in this rough-weather, for wild bunnies are caring for babies.

Gill is a former racing pigeon, a rescue who lives with me, and among my house buddies, the sweetest, least demanding, and most quiet. He’s totally alert to all going on, he’s taught me to appreciate the wild pigeons that I used to take for granted.

Winters that confine like this one are easier to get through with pets to keep company and brighten days.

Dear Readers, Have a lovely day. Diana

Monday, March 04, 2019

Two weeks in and it’s still snowing. Okay, light snowing without much accumulating. The problem is nothing’s melting. All that which landed on the ground early remains and is deep. I’m still having to shovel snow.

Yesterday, I couldn’t get near enough to a faucet that lets water flow into the horses’ heated water troughs. The horses had kicked only one path through the snow, to a single spot far from the faucet where all three take turns to stand and drink. Curious, that they didn’t trample more paths up to and around the troughs. Maybe like me, they don’t enjoy pushing themselves through three or four feet of crusty snow.

Since refilling tanks isn’t a one-time job, I found a shovel, went to work and created a walkable path. I filled the water tanks and looked around, noticing a path I’d hurriedly dug earlier in order to lead horses into the barn. It was very narrow and that if something excited them, the horses might crowd me too much. I shrugged, there’s no telling when a melt might start, so repositioned my shovel and began digging.

Last night, a few more inches of snow accumulated here on the town’s “desert side”, and as is typical, maybe even more new inches landed on the town’s west side. So today, the beat goes on.

Dear Readers, With harsh weather almost everywhere, do take care. Diana

These days are cold and dim. A layer of stagnant air hovers above a couple feet of crunchy snow with intermittent, falling light snow. Our temperatures start in the high teens and don’t rise quite to freezing.

Some past winters have been colder and more bitter. We’ve known stretches of days that clung to single-digit temperatures with wind chills of way below zero. That much cold forces one to keep a blazing stove, stay wrapped in wool, and quickly-as-possible handle outside critical chores.

If horses are healthy and eating well, and have a nice layer of fat amassed on ribs, it’s not worrisome to see them covered in frost with icicles hanging off coats, manes, and tails. Healthy, fuzzy horses generate adequate body heat against most cold weather. They do need shelter against very high winds and heavy rains, elements challenging to all living beings.

This dawn, our outside temperature is 18 degrees F. I’m sipping hot coffee, having managed to pull myself from under heated blankets and away from the sleeping cat warming my feet. Very soon, I must go outside to feed large animals and refill bird feeders.

I’m firing up a pellet stove so that it’ll heat my return. Next, I’ll put a long woolen coat over my pajamas, add heavy head and neck gear, and step outside into the freezing garage. I’ll pull on knee-high Muck Boots with anti-slip cleats, and then head outside, into an icy morning.

It’ll be just another day of small ranch living.

Dear Readers, hoping your today offers loveliness and joy. Diana

Saturday, March 02, 2019

Over three days, we received snow up to two feet, and even deeper where high winds blew falling snow and created drifts. Outside, a person found plenty to do, like snow-blowing, removing snow from buried vehicles, and checking outside structures for damages from snow and ice. By the fifth snowy day, I began noticing feelings of being trapped. That actually, I wasn’t trapped didn’t curb my anxiety.

I trusted my discomforts were from feeling trapped “inside the house” and not something more like “inside myself”. But why care? My slightly on edge feelings were urging me to climb into my car and get away, to find someplace else, talk with people and see anything but snow. My first inclination was Home Depot with people, sights, and talking. Besides, it’s fun to see what’s new and gather ideas for projects and home improvements.

So, guess where I went. How about Costco! It has everything, people, food, furnishings, tools. Besides, it’s sort of a second home since I’m a part-time worker there. If what seemed most pressing was a need to talk with others, my buddy co-workers would be there.

So, I wandered around, saying hello to servers, talking about the weather, our dogs, and of course, customers and samples. I left there with a giant box of bird feed and an oversize bird feeder, and felt happy about being able to accommodate more birds. In these snowy days, the littlest–Juncos and house finches–are clustering at the feeders.

Best of all, the edgy feelings that drove me out into the larger world had disappeared. Now, I happily filled my new feeder, brought the dogs inside, and watched television. Good old Costco.

Last year, I wondered if Amazon could continue beating the socks off most brick and mortar retailers. Costco seemed to have fallen behind, but the store has begun catching up. It is increasing varieties of merchandise, beefing up internet sales, and of course, keeping it super easy to return unwanted merchandise.

Roaming aisles and eating free samples dissipates cabin fever as online stores can’t. At least partly, maybe that’s why Amazon is planning to start opening new food stores throughout the country.

Dear Readers, Hoping you don’t feel uncomfortably snowed-in! Diana

Friday, March 01, 2019

Andre Previn has died, at 89, after a lifetime of musical fame. He was multi-talented, a composer and jazz artist. He won four Oscars for his movie scores, conducted major orchestras worldwide, and collaborated with lyricists to create Broadway musicals. Previn became as recognizable as his elder contemporary Leonard Bernstein. He was youngish, appealing, often casual-looking in a turtleneck sweater and double-breasted jacket.

I loved Bernstein’s weekly television programs designed for young people. In each, he explained how a piece of well-known classical music had been developed, illustrated its major and minor themes, and demonstrated what made its composer highlight specific instruments. Bernstein was more famous and arguably a greater talent, but like Bernstein, Previn could do “it all”.

Previn had a long musical career and from his early teens became well-known. He also married four times. He and his second wife and music collaborator, Dory, received Oscar nominations for several of their movie scores. After Previn became romantically involved with one of Dory’s friends, Mia Farrow, he in a scandalous move abandoned Dory. That sudden liasion nearly crushed Dory, a fragile person, who subsequently spent time in a mental hospital.

I first learned about Dory Previn as she was recovering and writing in a manner that expressed ongoing anger and helplessness. A magazine (perhaps “Time”) carried an article about and quoting her: “I can’t go on; I can’t go on; I mean, I can’t go on; so I guess I’ll get up and go on.”

It hit me, her sadness, despondency, and yet, resilience. Her mood reflected mine at a time when I faced unusually difficult family problems. Her words, “get up and go on” became my mantra. After her divorce and recovery, Dory made four albums of songs about duplicity in friendship and faithlessness in marriage, mixed with her own fears and stresses. Her honesty awed my voiceless self.

Years later, I worked in a major aerospace company as a pricing analyst, a terrible role for one who barely can add numbers. When I got a new boss, numbers-oriented and younger than me, I thought, “Uh oh, he’ll be the end of me.” I read it right. We didn’t communicate well, nor mesh, and couldn’t hit it off. I worried constantly that he’d find a way to fire me. After all, his department was responsible for preparing negotiating positions. We had to gather information and analyze businesses by assessing their actual costs for labor, materials, manufacturing, and overhead. I couldn’t tell an overhead from an underhead.

The endgame began when he gave me the difficult task of preparing a negotiating position with a company that was manufacturing a complex wing for our new fighter jet. I had to grasp the manufacturing process and learn how that company was pricing the wing. I knew I must succeed (“I must go on!”). I spent days at the manufacturer’s, asking thousands of questions, jotting all responses, and then, spent days trying to unravel my notes. Afterwards, my boss took me into a conference room where we spent two long weeks collaborating. He managed to make sense of the numbers while the descriptive narrative I created far exceeded his expectations. We emerged, at last friendlier.

One day as we traveled between facilities, something on the car radio reminded me of a lyric by Dory. When I mentioned this, he looked surprised, “You know Dory Previn?” He grinned, “I love her!” He asked if I’d heard thus and such by her, and I asked him about other thuses and suches. We were mutually appreciative and my job felt safer. Dory sealed it!

What keeps this alive for me is that the fellow, whom I liked less than anybody I knew, wound up becoming my friend, someone I trusted. It’s been many years since I saw or heard anything of him; but since yesterday morning and while thinking about the Previns, he’s been on my mind.

So, we keep getting up and going on.

Dear Readers, Have a great day with an open ear for cool music. Diana

February 28, 2019

I’ve rattled on long enough about snow and won’t go into details about my Jeep stuck in a berm from a county snow plow at the end of my driveway, nor my subsequent rescue by neighbors as snow fell heavily. I won’t wax about another day spent behind snowblowers renewing paths so walkers can move safely. I won’t describe my aching back, shoulders, and sheer weariness. None of that this morning.

The outside temperature is 9 degrees, so another cold one. Soon after feeding the animals, I’ll refocus, by picking up a book I’ve wanted to read. It’s been on standby, a nonfiction work by one of my favorite authors, Jane Lepore, The Secret History of Wonder Woman.

Lepore is an historian on Harvard’s faculty who also writes for “The New Yorker”. She’s a diligent researcher, a fine writer who gets inside her topics. Now, Lepore traces the impetus of William Marston to create Wonder Woman and his character’s genesis, her impact on social development alongside an evolving self-awareness among women of their expanding social roles. (BTW, Marston also invented the lie detector.)

This is a tantalizing read as there’s the possibility of a renewal of an ERA amendment. An ERA is more possible after last week when a federal district judge in Houston declared that the male-only draft registration system violates a constitutional requirement for the government to treat men and women equally. (https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/28/opinion/rbg-supreme-court.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage&section=Opinion) Eliminating the longtime ban on drafting women would remove a last significant argument against equal rights.

In the early 1940’s, the Wonder Woman character emerged as a collection of sexual fantasies, perhaps why the character stayed alive. She grew, however, alongside changes in women’s social roles, maybe especially, the real-life experience, growth, and influence of America’s venerated Justice, Ruth Bader Ginsberg.

Politics today often leave me cold, and when so I’d rather be out in the actual cold running a snowblower. My greater interests are in the social development people have experienced or at least witnessed since the Great Depression. I like the idea of starting with Lepore’s book about a cartoon character from the 1940s that gradually drifts into a significant social symbol. And today, America’s recent national election that drew more women and people of color into national politics. Diversity will continue to influence social change.

Dear Readers, Have a great day, read a good book. Diana

Wednesday, February 27, 2019

As I coped with already deep snow, yesterday afternoon new snow fell. It partially re-filled the walking channels that I’d blown earlier so I could move safely around the property. This morning, more snow-blowing will renew those channels, and also, create walking paths in the horses’ dry lot. There, snow is very deep and unsafe for hauling hay out, for horses mill eagerly, sometimes crowding a bit.

Since a picture is worth (to me, more than) 1,000 words, this quick view of accumulating snow over a few days shows the furnishings on my deck losing their identities.

Prior to yesterday’s newest snow shower, I went outside with a camera to capture some incredible scenery, like junipers so heavily ladened that snow has their limbs drooping almost to the ground.

My property looks different from any prior time, and so, I wandered while daydreaming and taking photos. Suddenly, I saw my next door neighbor, Annette, walking toward me.

She was coming to offer help for clearing snow and enjoyed finding that I had snow-blown needed pathways. We trekked together on one and discovered this standalone, delicately frosted beauty.

All that happened before new snow fell for hours late yesterday. This morning, I’ll again crank up the blowers.

Dear Readers, The sun’s out now, and also, hopefully shines on you. Diana

Tuesday, February 26, 2019

Yesterday morning, I considered blissfully the snow that had fallen for 24 hours and would continue for 12 hours more. When snowing began on the east side of town where I live, its drops resembled “heavy rain”, snowlike but not sticking. On the opposite side of town near the Cascade Mountains snow accumulated and by mid-afternoon folks saw lots of white stuff. On my “desert side” of town, in late afternoon the heavy-looking rain finally became real snow and fell all night. Early in the morning when I awakened and began writing, the pretty world through windows looked inviting.

Friends in farther north communities described how their places were snowed-in, and snow two- or three-feet deep forced them to find ways to escape their houses and shovel away before they could force open a door. Well, they were miles up the road and way north, maybe not a highly unusual situation.

Well, I found on sauntering outside snow very deep, nearly reaching my knees, difficult to wade through, and still falling heavily. I re-entered the house, pulled on tallest boots (reaching my knees) and strapped on cleats. I began walking downhill to the barn, carrying boom-sticks as walking aids. Wading through deep accumulations brings a sense of losing balance.

Mostly that day, I snow-fought as heavy snowing continued so that flattening the existing two feet seemed endless. I figured that if two feet more fell, this effort beat waiting and then having to work through four feet. These long winter months, with little physical exercise, I now was moving a heavy snowblower through deep snow, up and down a long driveway. That was the beginning, for I also needed a walkable uphill-downhill path from house-to-barn.

Snowing continued until late afternoon when for a moment the sun even came out. Finally, I could walk through snow, only ankle-deep, to feed the large animals. On returning to the house and thankful my labors were done, I found myself locked out! The shed with a spare key has a combination lock, it was frozen shut. A neighbor with a key to my house was home! My boomsticks helped me down the now-easier driveway, balanced me while wading the roadway’s deep snow before reaching my neighbor’s cleared driveway, and finally, supported my trip home with a key to my warm house.

In reality, I didn’t consider beauty, peacefulness, privacy, or reading and listening to music while sitting beside a window. The realities were my horses–hungry, frosty, covered in icicles, and my cat–now grounded!–who captured an unlucky bird. And so much hard work! At day’s end little of me remained except going to bed. Falling asleep, I wondered what on earth ever made me decide to leave Southern California.

According to the local newspaper, yesterday’s snowfall set an area record. It predicts that that tomorrow will bring new snow, it’ll fall another two days.

Dear Readers, Stay warm & cozy, March will be a cold story, too. Diana

Monday, February 25, 2019

We’re in the midst of a lulu snowstorm. Early yesterday snow began, and on my side of town, it seemed funny–almost like a “warm snow”, falling constantly but not sticking to the ground. During the day, friends with homes on the opposite side of town reported experiencing very deep snow. On this side our situation didn’t change, until around 5 p.m., when snow became heavier and began to accumulate on the ground.

We had been warned to expect a foot or more of snow. Most of yesterday, I laughed, thinking that the moisture falling on us east-siders would continue on more like rain. Now early this morning, after snow has continued to fall, everywhere there’s at least a foot of white stuff–and it’s still falling!

Later, after kicking my way through big drifts, I’ll be in the barn feeding the larger animals. Fortunately, two snowblowers are ready–one to make it safer to navigate around the barn and to create an uphill path to my house; the other to clear the garage area and long driveway stretching to the street.

It’s our first “really big” snow since the one several years ago that introduced this newbie to one of Oregon’s really tough winters. It taught me to prepare ahead for heavy snows. Back then for weeks, snow fell steadily, daily bringing several new feet over an icy base. This seemed to last forever, and by the time I grasped the gravity, there wasn’t a snow blower left for sale in Central Oregon. Thankfully, my generous neighbor had a snowblower and cleared my driveway. So now, though this snow seems daunting, two blowing devices make me feel less challenged.

One also keeps looking for extraordinary problems–like the weight of snow and ice that becomes clumped in rain gutters and on the rooftop. And, heaven forbid, leaking skylights and ceilings. Looking up and around may spot problems, but maybe they aren’t easily fixable. In this relatively small community, even in emergencies, inclement weather makes it as difficult to obtain professional help as trying several years ago to find a snowblower.

Let’s not forget though, that there’s a big upside because new snow draws us out of doors. It makes the world look more beautiful and cleaner. It feeds our wishes for some peace and privacy.

To photographers, Nature offers endless possibilities. In snow, unusual colors and altered terrains allow for capturing unique images, and life itself! Beautiful horses cantering, bucking, kicking up snow. Kids sledding and building snow people. Dogs racing, cavorting, and exploring “the underneath”.

This weather also allows time and gives permission to stay indoors, maybe before a warm fire and with a book one wants to read. Add a cup of tea, and unless it’s distracting some background music. And finally, settle in to enjoy a lovely stretch of vegging.

Dear Readers, For the “hungry littles”, keep your bird feeders full. Diana