Summer’s End

As the summer winds to a close once more (the school-centered summer, not the calendar one) it’s funny to think about how the year is such a state-of-mind, depending on your career and your leisure activities.  For instance, I won’t be taking my vacation for another month yet, heading into October, because that was the cheapest time to fly and also because it’s difficult to close the store at ANY time of year, so I just bit the bullet and picked one.

I had a one-day vacay a week back, a full day in Beach Haven at the Jersey shore.  Lovely, slightly overcast, and with plenty of breeze.  I even did something I haven’t done since I was a kid and wave-jumped!  Usually I just bundle myself up in a chair and read for hours —  but actually taking advantage of the ocean was just as much fun as I remember from childhood.  And I’ve got the sunburn to show for it.

There are fewer faces at the store these days, what with folks heading back to jobs and kids heading back to school.  It’s just been me and the Shop Cat, He-Who-Is-Not-Yet-Named (although he will be Sept. 4th!), holding down the fort and dusting off the books (me with a duster, he with his tail).  We’ve got some really great events coming up in September here on the Avenue, though, so that should bring the crowds back:

  • September 8th: Penn Avenue Sidewalk Sale, 11am-5pm
  • September 15th: West Reading’s 6th Annual Fall Festival on the Avenue, 12pm-9pm
  • Wise Owl Local Author Open Mic Night, with special guest author James Rahn, 6pm-8pm (with live celtic harp music from 5pm-6pm!)

So it’s a great start off to a new season as I say goodbye to the unbearable heat and sunny days of summer.

I’m back!!

Happy Thursday everyone! It’s been a while! I’m so glad to be back after some password difficulties. Hopefully no one has forgotten about me by now!

It’s been such a frustrating month thus far. I know we’re only a little over two weeks into August, but time is dragging for me. My drivers license is suspended for the entire month of August. Slightly inconvenient, to say the least, but it has been nice to be chauffeured everywhere. Just call me Miss Daisy! Hey September… please hurry up and get here. I have so many places to go!

I’m ÜBER excited about next Saturday. The TWSS ladies get to do something that I’ve always wanted to do and what’s even more exciting is that YOU will get to watch it on our next show because we’re filming it! Woot! I’m so psyched!

Time for me to get back to work. I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! See you next week! 🙂

Looking back on the last two weeks…

Haven’t posted for a while…partly because my typing wasn’t going smoothly due to having carpal tunnel surgery on my right hand. Two weeks later I can say that it was not the ordeal I had been warned of. The pain meds were the worst part; they made me woozie and dopey, so I chose to drink wine instead and avail myself of the healing benefits of the grape. There was little discomfort to get through. Therefore here I am, two weeks later, obeying the doctor’s order of taking it easy (no vacuuming, working in the garden, etc.) and feeling just grand (until I look at all of the cleaning and weeding awaiting me).
I’ve lived a long time and had never had a surgery. My only hospital stays were for baby deliveries. So I had no idea what to expect from this procedure. It’s funny what goes through your mind during that anticipatory stage: How does one opem a toothpaste tube or pill bottle one handed? How will I shave my left armpit while using only my left hand? When we go out for our anniversary dinner, do I just order soft foods or ask my husband of 44 years to cut my meat? Do I write and address all cards to be sent in early August ahead of time so that they are legible? Well, none of these really become issues. Even with a splint much right hand movement was possible. So if progress continues, I hope to be playing my violin again in another week or so…IF there is time for that while trying to tame the garden once more and get our house in order!

Ellen

Honestly, I CAN Write a Short Blog – Well, at Least “Shorter.”

In five hours the limo will arrive to take us to PHL to board our nonstop Virgin America flight to San Francisco. I’m not sure I’ve ever been more eager to (a) hug our kids, and (b) leave Berks County. The heat and humidity will definitely not be the weather we’ll be getting into along the north central coast of California. Hooray!! I’m tired of the drone of fans and air conditioners. Tired of opening windows to catch the early morning breezes, then closing them before noon to turn on the A/C.
All of our time will be spent in sight of the blue Pacific!
I’m packed and ready. The pupsters are happily boarded at the Bernville Pet Spa. The mail and papers have been cancelled. Best of all,. I”m using a smaller than usual suitcase. Hoping I’ve chosen wisely the closthes I’m planning to wear. We’re ready! Hooray!
I probably won’t be blogging next Wednesday, but in two weeks I’ll tell you about our trip.

A Lab Report

Really, two Labs are a hoot! Watching Bessie and Chooch become friends, playmates, and part of the family is lots of fun. Barry and I never lack for entertainment – even when all we want is a quiet evening to read! It seems as though Chooch has been with us for years! His transition from “stray” to much-loved-pet and Bessie’s-best-bud has been, as they way, “seamless.”
Labs just want to have fun! They play constantly, and it’s apparent that Bessie makes the rules. Chooch is not any taller, but much more massive than Bessie, but she’s faster and more wirey. When they have their mock battles, he barks and growls and does lots of macho stuff, and she flies around, runs under him, jumps over him – and makes not one sound! Dogs do smile and laugh! And the expressions on these pupsters’ faces while they’re playing are all smiles! Then, as quickly as the battle begins, it ends -time to get a drink of water! Or take nap! The only sign that there was a loud conflict is that there are now toys all over the living room floor – some of the toys have had their stuffing “surgically removed” by Drs. Chooch and Bessie, so the living room looks like a January snowstorm! Since she was a puppy, when Bessie gets really excited and is having lots and lots of fun, she dances in her water dish! Hasn’t done it for years, but since she has this great new playmate, our kitchen is occasionally flooded! Amazing what we put up with because we simply enjoy the company of Labs! This morning they had a huge battle on the front porch where we were eating breakfast. At one point, they simply got too rowdy, and Barry gave them a “time out.” Truly! They both lay down and gazed up at him with “Aren’t we just the best pups ever?” looks. Lasted abount five minutes until they realized Barry was back to reading the paper.
Now they’re both napping in one of their favorite spots. The next battle will occur around 2 PM, with the evening skirmish at 7. (I’ve become completely convinced after having many Labs that they can tell time!)
If you’ve never known a Lab, find one to befriend. They make life more fun and interesting – and the bending to pick up their toys and toy stuffing, and the mopping up of water when they dance in their water dishes is really good for the waistline!

Moving On

I am about to “turn the page” on all that’s been happening with the Penn State issue. But since many of you know that I do bleed blue and white, I thought I needed to comment so no one would be uncomfortable to mention the subject to me.
I believe Penn State got off very easy. Ending the football program for a year or two would not have seemed unfair to me. The players whose winning records have been erased still have the education they received at Penn State. They also have learned some sad, but serious life lessons. My Penn State education and experiences, and the friends I made there had nothing to do with the football program. The education I got that taught me teaching skills is still helping me teach other students who hope to become teachers. Penn State introduced me to literature I never knew existed, to theater and drama, and music, and sorority life – with all its nonsense – did teach me “to work a room,” gave me social confidence to overcome my serious shyness. (And that shyness is still there, believe it or not.) Student teaching and teaching as a grad student on main campus assured me that teaching was what I wanted to do with my life. I met wonderful, learned, delightful scholars and great teachers who were my advisors and supervisors. And not one of them had any connections to the football program.
I have been a big fan of Joe Paterno, but sadly, no more. He stayed too long at the fair. I believe that, finally, this humble man with strong ethics actually began to believe the myths that developed about him. How sad.
But beyond all, let’s think of the boys whose lives will never be quite the same since they met Jerry Sandulsky! THEY and their families are the true victims! For them I grieve, and for all of those who allowed the abuse to conitnue I have only disgust. (And that includes our esteemd governor who, as attorney general, took 10 years to investigate the case, and didn’t do anything about it until he was safely sworn in as governor. (Joe Paterno was a huge, financial backer of Republican candidates. Was our governor afraid to prosecute the case until after he was sure of being sworn it?)
I’m glad the Penn State coach has agreed to stay on. I wish him and his team the best of luck. I am Penn State.

Sport

Sports, often an escape from, or a training for, or an enhancement of what we call “real life”. With the advent of the 2012 summer Olympics, it will be a source of national pride and an introduction to many fabulous young athletes from nations all around this globe. But for many Pennsylvanians, right now sport has given them a blow below the belt. The proud alumni and students of Penn State, who likely chose the institution because of its academic strengths, are reeling from the NCAA’s penalization of the football program. And that action will tarnish the reputation and financially affect the university for many years to come. It’s a shocker.
I’ve just returned from a very different sport-related weekend. Chuck and I have attended the Baseball Hall of Fame induction ceremonies for 27 years. We do this over and over again because it is a sport that we love, but also because we have come to know so many wonderful people who gather in the beautiful village of Cooperstown, NY, for this event. For us it is often like old home week when we get together. I’d like to share some of those people moments from our baseball weekend.
On the large front porch of the Inn at Cooperstown, where the guests gather and rock and swap tales, this year we met Hal McCoy, a Hall of Fame honored sports writer from Ohio. He is the man who created the name of “The Big Red Machine” for the Cincinnati teams of the 1970s and covered the Pete Rose story and the Marge Schott years. But we now know him as a personable man who has been declared legally blind since 2003 (strokes of the optic nerves) but was told by the Reds players that they would not let him retire as a writer, and they would help him with whatever he needed to do to continue. Not too many sports writers get that kind of love in return from their teams. He was in Cooperstown to cover the induction of Cincinnati’s own Barry Larkin.
Barry Larkin. I knew him only as a nemesis to the team that I love. I now know him as a man who could live his childhood dream of being a star, a rather dazzling one, on his hometown team. That’s what he talked about in his acceptance speech…but he delivered some of his speech in Spanish for the benefit of many of his gathered fans and those Hall of Famers whose roots are in the Caribbean or Central America. I wondered where this University of Michigan graduate’s fluency in Spanish came from. Hal McCoy told us that Barry taught himself the language when so many of his teammates were Latino and he wanted to be able to talk with them.
One of the guests at the Inn, named Jennifer, is a writer for the NY Times. She and her son come annually so that he can meet many of the players he idolizes. Jennifer, always toting a few laptops, hoped to spend this weekend writing fluff stuff about fans. Instead she worked from dawn until almost midnight on Saturday communicating with families of the victims of the horrible shooting in Denver. Her mission was to write the stories of those who had lost their lives, a lasting gift to their loved ones. When she wrapped it up late on Saturday, we shared a couple of bottles on wine on the porch and tried to talk of happier things.
Cooperstown has a fabulous summer opera company, Glimmerglass, as well as the famous Hall. Over dinner on Sunday night we began chatting with a man at the next table and soon learned that he is the director of the opera that had just debuted that afternoon, Kurt Weill’s “Lost in the Stars”. His name is Tazewell Thompson. We had already heard that the opera had been received with many standing ovations from friends who had attended while we were at the induction ceremony. This very unassuming man had a very contented air about him, and we chatted about the benefits of the Metropolitan Opera’s live in HD series of operas (Tazewell is all for them),past operas we have enjoyed at Glimmerglass, his future projects…and the fact that we are both long-suffering New York Mets fans.
Sports–they can make us ebullient, and they can break our hearts and dash our spirits. And they are a common denominator, one that brings people together.

Hot Weather and Doing Nothing

Well I’m 0/3 with writing my blog post on Fridays.  A sterling record!

It’s been hard to do much in my free time these past few weeks: I was on a streak of reading a lot of new books and that was great and made me feel like I was being a good little bookshop owner, keeping up with the times.

Then, inevitably, I hit the Book Overload — that point at which I can’t take in any more new information (for the time being) and need to do something else until the feeling passes.  Usually I read a palate cleanser: a book I know and love and preferably have already read a dozen times.  Books like this require little concentration on my part — I’m re-reading for the experience, rather than the content.  So that’s what I’ve been doing the last week or so, re-reading some old standards.  Right now it’s ENDYMION by Dan Simmons, the third book in a sci-fic tetralogy that is one of my absolute favorites.  But the times when I actually feel like reading it are few and far between.

It’s so hard for me to function when it’s hot out.  It’s probably lucky, for the most part, that I spend the bulk of my days at the store, where working is not an option but a requirement and the air conditioner is quite effective.  (Side Note: did you know that, colloquially, the British use “quite” to mean “average” or “a little” whereas we use it for emphasis, or to show extra emotion?  Makes me worry about having accidentally used the word in passing to a Brit and not realizing my statement wasn’t accurate in their mind to my meaning!) But when I’m not at the store, I tend to laze about.  Whatever takes the least effort is usually the thing voted for: Netflix or a movie.  I’m getting a lot of titles checked of my “To Watch” list, which is nice, but it does make me feel rather unaccomplished.

But I will have something to do tonight!  It will be my first time actually participating in That’s What She Said on bctv, and I’m looking forward to the experience!

A Bit Early From Martha

It’s Tuesday afternoon, and I’m the “Wednesday Blogger.” However, tomorrow is a busy day for me, so I thought I’d write this now and hope everyone will understand. And, truly, I’ve not much to say today. (No smart remarks about that, please,) The heat and humidity has kept me indoors more than I care to be. It’s not the heat, it’s the humidity that make breathing less than easy for those of us with asthma, so I’ve found lots of time to read, knit, and clean out some of the basement.
We’ll be going to California next month to see “the kids.” Can hardly wait. It’s always cooler along the coast in Pacifia where Meg lives – actually cold and foggy and wonderful for beach walking. Matt lives in Venice Beach – also cool. But in August, it’s filled to the gills with tourists, so we’re staying in a beach house in Cambria, CA. that Matt and Melissa have rented for our stay. Looks heavenly! Barry and I are both looking forward to the trip with GREAT anticipation!
The pups will spend that time at the “Bernville Pet Spa” where we’ve always taken our dogs for boarding. It’s a grea place, and all of our dogs always seem very excited whent they realize that’s where they’re going.
Bessie has been teaching Chooch to play. The have been having huge mock battles. He’s growly and gruff and sturdier than she, but she’s wirey, quiet, and faster. And SHE makes the rules! It’s been a lot of fun to watch this whole process as Bessie turns Chooch into the playmate she’s been wishing for ever since Buster died!
Enough about dogs.
The Shoestring Production of “8” last Friday evening was excellent! Should have been seem by many,many more people! Powerful! Important!!!!
Hope everyone watches our show on BCTC, Wednesday, 18 July at 9 PM! Let us hear from you!

Let me tell you about our dog…

Two weeks late and two days early in blogging…my apologies for both. My excuses for lateness? Not sure that there are any that are acceptible.
We got a dog…but then so did Martha, and she still found time to blog.
I’ve been trying to keep my garden under control…picking, preserving, watering, weeding, deadheading, fertilizing, tieing up…but I wasn’t working in the garden 24/7. We had children and grandchildren visiting and made the most of every minute…but that was for just three wonderful days.
It’s been too hot…well, that seems to be a popular excuse and forgiveable for almost everything these days. I won’t bother with excuses for being early…afterall I didn’t catch you just getting out of the shower, and no one cares if you haven’t done your make-up yet. If it really bothers you, then please wait until Tuesday to read this.

Let me tell you about our dog. She’s an eight and a half year old Bernese Mountain Dog. Picture big, bearlike, lotsa curly fur, black with white and rust markings on her face and paws (and oh what paws).
Her name is Monah. We found her through a Berner rescue group in Maryland. We had had a Berner before, and they are truly gentle giants. When we had visited her in her previous home, we saw how attached she was to her people and place and so had some trepidations about how successful we would be in rehoming her. She had been a kind of celebrity in the town of Ellicott City, MD, since she was raised in a little shop and everyone in the town knew Monah. When her family found out that their son was allergic to her, it was difficult to find a new home because Berners just live an average of 7 to 9 years, and few people want to make the emotional and financial investment that an older dog requires given that time frame. But we fell in love with her, and I can say after our two weeks together that the feeling seems to be mutual. Whatever the time we will have with Monah, we will think of it as a fortuitious gift.

There’s a lot to be said for taking on an older dog: no puppy shenanigans, no chewing, no house breaking, no jumping up on visitors. Given her size, she cannot squeeze through our front gate or under the fence; she will not jump over the wall or need four-mile walks each day (pulling all the way) the way our last pup did. And old dogs seem to recognize when someone has opened a special place in their hearts for them. They give you unconditional love in return.