MSU 40 - University of Indiana 31

Paula got us all tickets for the MSU Homecoming Game.  We set off after lunch, walking past student parties on the lawns of rental houses to campus.  We were aiming for the tailgating party at the College of Arts and Letters.  We got to the appointed location and saw only one small group of about 8 people.  Where was the party?  We went over and asked the folks there and they had no idea.  These folks win the “nice Michigander” prize.  They invited us to join them, insisted Bob have a beer and chatted with us as Paula tried to figure out where the party was.  Let me describe their set-up.  They had three tables set up cover with food and drinks.  They were from Dearborn.  One man was particularly friendly:  he met his wife at MSU, they were married in the Chapel, their three sons attended MSU.  They come to tailgate with their son who currently is a student at MSU.  He said they never go to the football game, they just come to party.  He had the neatest (and only) portable propane pizza oven I’ve ever seen.  “It goes up to 600 degrees” he proudly told us.  Paul arrived and looked at Paula’s invitation to the party and noticed it happened on Friday.  I think it worked out wonderfully.  I loved meeting this friendly family from Dearborn.  We left them and walked on towards the Stadium through throngs of tailgating parties, some set up with big flat screen TVs and lounge chairs.  All with beer.  Once in our seats, the action began on the field.  The Marching Band was out on the field doing what they do best — march around with amazing precision.   Soon they formed two lines on either side of the entrance.  With flames of fire shooting up and clouds of smoke and dramatic music, out ran the super-sized mascot, Sparty, followed by the team dressed in their green and white uniforms.  Everyone was standing and cheering.  It was very exciting.  After all the folderol was over the opposition team just walked out with no notice.  The band played the National Anthem and then we all sat down and waited for kick-off.  Once the game began there was plenty of action to watch on the field and on the sidelines.  The noise in the stadium, with 71,048 attendees, was very loud.  I loved hearing the band which was sitting right on our right and watching the students do hand motions cheering all in unison.  At halftime , the biggest marching band took to the field when all the alumni band members joined the current ones just for this Homecoming game.  There were more than 1200 in this biggest ever band.  I loved watching the baton twirlers juggling three twirling batons and seeing the frisbee dog leap high in the air to catch the frisbees.  The second half was exciting football.  MSU won the game in the last seconds with a field goal and then a touchdown on a fumble.  People in Michigan love MSU football through and through and we all enjoyed our game day total experience.

Basketry in Michigan

Sunday at church, I was introduced to a lovely lady named Marguerite.  Chatting with her, I learned she made baskets.  I’ve been interested in baskets for years and collected them until we moved to California, where I had no place to put any more.  I’ve even made a basket or two.  I guess because I was interested, she invited me over to see her baskets.  This afternoon I went to her house, only a 5 minute drive from where we live, to see her baskets.  I was surprised and overwhelmed with her many many baskets, mostly made by her.  She showed them all to me, one by one, and told me what materials she used and little stories about many of them.  I’ve never seen so many different kinds of baskets.  She said, “You can make a basket out of anything.”  And she had.  Aside from expected natural materials like pine needles and split canes of different woods, there were surprising materials, like a basket made of palm and philodendron leaves and others made of gourds.  There was even a basket made of different colored telephone wires, several crocheted out of thin copper wire and still others woven out of water colored paper strips and some made with colored waxed threads, silk or linen.  All the baskets were so very beautiful.  I especially liked the ones made of natural materials.  Her work is very fine and all perfect.  She is a true artist!  I also learned about basketry in Michigan.  For a time, in the 1990’s, there were more basket makers here than in any other state.  The basketry conventions here had more than a thousand people attending.  There used to be two stores carrying basketry supplies in E. Lansing and there was a big and very active guild.  Now it seems to have all died back.  She was so very kind and generous.  She even gave me a small pine needle basket she had made.  It is interesting to learn someone’s story and see what they love to do.  I am awed by this generous basketry

artist from Edgewood Church in E. Lansing.

Birding at Woldumar

This morning Bob and I went to one of our favorite places, Woldumar, to go birding.  Bob wanted to use his new spotting scope.  Woldumar is a local Nature Center in nearby Lansing.  In the mid-60’s, Gladys Olds Anderson (daughter of the automotive pioneer and maker of Oldsmobiles) donated half of her dairy farm (180 acres) to a Conservation Education Group.  Today, there are 5 miles of trails through forests and prairie and riparian habitats and it’s a good place to look for a variety of birds.  Since arriving in Michigan, we’ve been struck by the lack of birds, so we hoped we’d find some at Woldumar.  The grass was wet with dew as we walked out into the autumnal prairie where native grasses were tall and there was lots of goldenrod and asters.  The bright sun made the morning air warm, but it was silent.  Bob’s first spotting was a Monarch butterfly on a blue aster.  He made a great first photo digi-scoping.  There hasn’t been much rain here this summer and the pond was a mud puddle.  We headed down a forested lane toward the river when we heard a bird party.  We heard, then spotted a group of American robins, their rusty breasts pretty in the morning light.  My favorite bird was a red-headed woodpecker who had, like it’s name suggests, a very red head and no markings on it’s black and white body.  Down by the Grand River, we spotted a Great Blue Heron and watched it fishing quite successfully from it’s perch on a fallen tree in the river.  The forest floor was rich with mushrooms and once I’d spotted one, I began to see them everywhere.  The musty forest smelled like mushrooms cooking.  I began to think about creatures living in a 3 dimensional world - like birds do, flying up and down and all around and fungus too in the soil.  It seems so restricted to just be able to walk on the surface of the earth.  It was a pleasant morning spent at Woldumar, spotting birds and studying Nature here in Michigan.

Climate March

Greta Thunberg, the 16 year old Swedish environmentalist, impresses the pants off me.  Her passion, clarity of message and urgent call to all the school children (and adults) on earth to protest the lack of the adult response to the Climate Crisis all ring totally true.  She tells it like it is and I think her urgency is not misplaced.  The nations, especially the US, have got to get policies in place to reduce our CO2 output.  I’ve begun to think about the CO2 cost of my driving, flying or       eating meat and cheese.  I am trying to lower my Carbon footprint.  Changing our collective ways will be hard but the consequences of not doing anything will be harder to bear.  I’m proud the State of California is doing so much and mad as I can be that the Trump administration is trying to block our low car emission standards!  I felt hopeful when I heard about all the creative solutions being invented and applied in California at a recent talk at church.  But the earth is already changing and the climate is warming faster than predicted.  The temperature of the earth has already risen enough to melt the glaciers and raise the temperature of the sea enough to massively harm coral reefs.  This week a study came out in Science magazine reporting a 30% drop in the number of birds in Canada and US over the last 50 years.  Who knows how many fewer insects and amphibians there are?  It’s all hooked together and plant species too are going extinct at a rapid rate.  Now Environmental Grief is recognized.  Because of all this, I was especially proud and excited that our oldest granddaughter was cutting school on Friday to march in the local Lansing Student March against Climate Change.  She has always been articulate and has always stood up for doing the right thing.  Here was another example.  But when I asked her, she just shrugged and said “It was ok.”  But she did share her photos with me when I asked.  I love it that she stopped and took a photo of a dragon fly on a cardboard sign.  That’s what it’s all about, Nature.  There were only 300 or 400 students plus parents there and it sounded low key.  They marched a few blocks by the Capitol and then heard a few speeches.  It wasn’t like the tens of thousands in Australia or Berlin or even New York.  Nevertheless, I think it is wonderful that she chose to go and make her statement.  It would have been fun to have taken the passionate Elsa to a local march in her town.

The Apple Tree

“The apples are ready on the apple tree,” I told Arne this week.  “Can you bring the kids over to pick them?”   We agreed they’d come on Sunday, but Elsa wanted to come sooner, so they came on Saturday afternoon.  At once, Elsa and Liam were up in the tree picking apples.  They love to climb the tree and I think look forward to picking the apples.  This is the first year I’ve seen them cooperate as they worked.  They handed apples down to each other (and me) and shared the higher branches taking turns to go up there.  I thought it was great they did that by themselves.  They picked every apple they could reach and soon the piles in the bucket and the big shopping bag grew.  It make me very happy that the kids love to come and pick the apples each year.  After a good half hour, they had enough and looked around for other things to do.  Liam got us all to play a game that is his current favorite.  Arne made delicious guacamole for us to eat.  Elsa wanted to make something with some of the apples.  There wasn’t enough time to make an apple pie or an apple cake, so we decided to make cooked apples.  We sautéed the apples in butter with brown sugar and cinnamon.  It made a great dessert with ice cream.  In the preparation process, it was fun to have them peel the apples while I chopped the apples into slices.  There was lots of negotiation over who got to use the better apple peeler.  Again they shared without any direction to do so.  I was impressed.  Elsa was diligent stirring the apples and it reminded me of when I used to cook with my mother.  Each time I am with them I learn something more about them that I didn’t know.  This time Elsa blew me away with her observations of different insects in her school yard in Palo Alto.  She told me that there are lots of dragon flies this time of year and she described their colors and sizes and how they zipped around.  Earlier the late Spring there are butterflies, lots of butterflies all around.  And in the summer there are bees.  I asked her why that could be that she noticed different insects at different times and we considered some reasons.  She said the bees come when there are flowers in the yard and the grass.  I love to learn about her observations and interact with her about nature.  Liam loves nature too and is very interested and a good observer.  How much fun it is to have them visit.  I am so grateful to be able to know them and have them know who I am.

The Solano Stroll

I went to the Solano Stroll this afternoon.  It was a lovely day, in the mid-70’s with occasional breezes and a blue blue sky.  Solano is the major East-West street in Albany, running from North Berkeley several miles to the Bay and once a year all traffic is stopped and it is made into a walking street.  Booths line the Avenue and masses of people come to stroll up and down and linger with friends.   There were lots of families with kids and many strollers and many many people brought their dogs.  The dogs didn’t look like they were enjoying the warm day or the crowds very much.  I went to see what was happening and just to enjoy the ambiance.  The Palo Alto Art Festival it was not.  Most of the booths with things for sale were ticky-tacky.  But there also were civic organizations, businesses, churches including a large block booths of Jewish temples and organizations, and lots and lots of food booths.  The thing to do was to get food and stroll munching away on your fish tacos or ice cream or corn dog.  There was a bake sale for a surfing club at Berkeley High.  There was lots of music.  Berkeley High School Jazz band had girls playing the saxophone and string bass.  I liked that.  Albany Jazz Band had more members and sounded better!  They had a row of trombones that mellowed their sound as they played old time songs.  There were many small rock bands, with all sorts of singers and lots of loud electric guitars filling the Avenue with their raucous energy.  There was even a drumming band with a lively guitarist adding variety to their sound.  There were many activities for children—a two story slide, a two story zip-line, a bounce house and clowns and face painters.  And there were the political organizations—-it is Berkeley.  A woman stopped me and asked if I’d heard of Pt. Molate?  “No,” I answered and was informed how the City of Richmond is planning on selling this lovely Bay-front park to an evil S. California developer for big bucks.  Truly, there was something for everyone.  It was a wonderful event, massive in scale and a wonderful opportunity to share in the richness of culture and people in the Bay Area.

Going to a Funeral

This morning Bob and I went to a Memorial Service for our friend who died a few weeks ago.  It was foggy and overcast when we arrived at St. Patrick Church in Larkspur.  Bob spotted Chas right away and we went over to speak to him.  I’ve never seen a face that reflected such absolute stark grief as his, yet he was still thinking of others.  He pulled a brand new white folded cloth handkerchief out of his pocket and handed it to me saying, “You might need this.”  I was overcome with such kindness and consideration for me in the midst of his grief.  Small actions point to one’s character.  We went into the church and as we waited for the Mass to begin the church filled up.  Everyone was very sad.  It was a formal Catholic Funeral Mass, complete with smells and bells.  Mass has at its central part Communion, this one in honor of Sharon.  As the Communion part began, the Priest took the thurible (the incense holder)  and swung it widely as he walked around the altar several times, spreading the billowing pungent smoke all around.  As I watched it float upwards, I thought it a beautiful symbol of Sharon’s spirit wafting off to Heaven.  I love the sacredness with which Catholics approach Communion.  For those who have faith in Resurrection, the somber service must have been comforting.  Nothing like a Funeral to get one thinking about one’s own mortality.  At lunch, I asked Bob what he wanted at his Memorial Service.  He hemmed and hawed and said he’d have to think about it.  I think a Memorial Service is really for the survivors, but it needs to reflect the values, beliefs and wishes of the person who died.  Life is the greatest gift we’re given. When I think about the whole universe and get those images of the exploding stars and colliding galaxies in my head, I think of what an amazing thing it is to be alive, a warm-blooded sentient being in an enormous cold universe.  Life is too short to spend any precious time worrying or being angry or stressed.  Oh, there’s much work to be done, but I’ve done my part.  Now, I want to use the time I have left living with joy, peace, love and gratitude.  Let me be a blessing, shining what light I have out into our hurting world.

Walking On

Labor Day weekend has just passed.  It was for us, quiet and mostly peaceful.  The minister at the lovely new church I’ve started attending asked me if I was going to do anything special on the holiday weekend.  I said, “No,” but thought, “Every day is like a holiday when you’re retired.”  At breakfast, on Monday Bob mentioned how peaceful everything seemed.  Well, it was peaceful for a little while until we got ourselves all worked up about irritating problems around the house.  Bob was frustrated with the persistent gophers that just won’t go away.  We live beside a “gopher highway” from Tilden Park into the neighborhood.  I was frustrated with persistent bug bites on my legs.  The problems seemed over-whelming to us.  Then add the problems created by PGE’s threat of shutting off power whenever there are fire conditions - high temperatures and high winds.  They say they could shut down the whole Bay Area.  We started to imagine how life would be changed by having no electricity:  no lights, no internet, no power for the refrigerator, no water (electric pumps pump water to our house would be shut down), no traffic lights, no power for pumping gas or using the ATMs.  Good grief, everything would halt.  So Bob is researching buying a generator.  It’s all potentially so overwhelming.  I felt paralyzed, no longer peaceful.  What did I do?  I just did little ordinary things.  I went to the garden and harvested tomatoes.  We went to the gym and exercised.  We put one foot in front of the other and walked on in our lives and slowly little by little balance and peace returned.  I thought about how that’s what one does.  Just walk on, dealing with things one can and letting the rest lie.  Bob caught a scrawny gopher.  I think I solved the bug bite problem.  Peace returned.