"Twins" :-)

Happy Birthday to my "twins" out there:
Nethe, Keith and Lawerence!!
Have a good one!

A Mother's Therapy (Part 1)

I am up late even though I have to get up super early . . . but sending one's first-born 2000 miles away to his freshman year in college can cause one to be unable to sleep, and that is the situation in which I find myself. So, in an attempt to reconcile myself to how the years have passed I pulled out picture albums -- and found about a hundred thousand pictures I want to scan and post -- if for no one other than myself! I am tired, though and ran out of steam once I hit "First Day of Kindergarten!" So I'm putting up what I've got so far with more to come. I can't believe I'll be saying "good-bye" to this guy at 4:15 tomorrow morning. Where DID the years go?!

Daddy loved it when Anthony "melted" on him.
Look at those baby blues!!

An early outing to one of our favorite places, Knight's Ferry.

We taught our kids many things early on. Here Anthony is learning to skip stones.

David and Anthony at another of our favorite places, Capitola.

Getting acquainted with the ocean.

A first trip to Yosemite -- seems happy about it!

The classic one year picture.


Back at Knight's Ferry -- a pensive moment.

Always good to have Dad to lean on!


Anthony in his "suit-coat" -- his favorite church attire back then.

-- helping Dad mow the lawn.


In the backyard by Mom's daffodills.


Back at Knight's Ferry and finding an interesting sight.


Like I said, we teach 'em young, and what's more important than card games?


Ah yes, the long ago Duplo days -- always building -- later it was K'nex.


BROTHERS!


First day of kindergarten . . .

. . . and now off to bed for this mom or she won't be able to get up at 4 to see him off!

Fast Food Math

I was pleasantly surprised at seeing Wendy's promoting mathematics on their french fry packaging. SO, how many ingredients ARE there on a Wendy's hamburger?

According to the Quiz . . .

I am Blue/White
Take The Magic Dual Colour Test - Beta today!
Created with Rum and Monkey's Personality Test Generator.

I'm both orderly and rational. I value control, information, and order. I love structure and hierarchy, and will actively use whatever power or knowledge I have to maintain it. At best, I am lawful and insightful; at worst, I am bureaucratic and tyrannical.

Checkmate

If you're in the area and looking for something to do this Friday, you might want to consider the movie premier of Checkmate. It's showing at the State Theater (1307 J St.) at 7:00pm. I'm especially excited to see it, as it is the feature-length movie debut of my cousin Arvin Berner who produced and directed it and wrote the screen play. :-)

Modesto, it's where George Lucas got his start, you know!


Berner Films site:
http://www.bernerfilm.com/page6.html

Local newspaper ad:
http://www.modbee.com/2010/08/12/1292064/modestan-set-to-debut-his-feature.html

Blog review:
http://filmstewdotcom.blogspot.com/2010/08/staring-at-imdb-checkmate.html

An Anniversary (10)

What we have been becomes
The country where we are.
Spring goes, summer comes,
And in the heat, as one year
Or a thousand years before,
The fields and woods prepare
The burden of their seed
Out of time's wound, the old
Richness of the fall. Their deed
Is renewal. In the household
Of the woods the past
Is always healing in the light,
The high shiftings of the air.
It stands upon its yield
And thrives. Nothing is lost.
What yields, though in despair,
Opens and rises in the night.
Love binds us to this term
With its yes that is crying
In our marrow to confirm
Life that only lives by dying.
Lovers live by the moon
Whose dark and light are one,
Changing without rest.
The root struts from the seed
In the earth's dark -- harvest
And feast at the edge of sleep.
Darkened, we are carried
Out of need, deep
In the country we have married.

Wendell Berry 5/29/72

If I Weep

The Dream

Love, if I weep it will not matter,
And if you laugh I shall not care;
Foolish am I to think about it,
But it is good to feel you there.

Love, in my sleep I dreamed of waking,—
White and awful the moonlight reached
Over the floor, and somewhere, somewhere,
There was a shutter loose,—it screeched!

Swung in the wind,—and no wind blowing!—
I was afraid, and turned to you,
Put out my hand to you for comfort,—
And you were gone! Cold, cold as dew,

Under my hand the moonlight lay!
Love, if you laugh I shall not care,
But if I weep it will not matter,—
Ah, it is good to feel you there!

Edna St. Vincent Millay (1917)

Proverb

Like a madman shooting firebrands or deadly arrows is a man who deceives his neighbor and says, "I was only joking!"

Proverbs 26:18-19

The Cold Pane

Between the living world
and the world of death
is a clear, cold pane;
a man who looks too close
must fog it with his breath,
or hold his breath too long.

Wendell Berry (b. 1934)