Local Door-to-Door Scam

In the past several weeks we've had two scam artists come to the door. Nicely dressed young men claim to be trying to better themselves in one way or the other, and they have to get points from people. Of course, this involves buying books or magazines. If you don't have children, you can just donate these books to the local hospital or somewhere.

They claim to have talked to our neighbors, etc. Or maybe they are the son of a neighbor you've never heard of.

Well, last night when one of them came to our door, H was listening to the long-winded pitch, and pretty soon a policeman drove down the street and called to the young man, thus ending the conversation. Thank you, real neighbor, for alerting the authorities and taking care of this particular scam-guy.

Cloud Nine

Soon I am going to be leading a poetry-writing workshop for a group of church women. I have done these types of activities with my daughters and their friends when they were in jr high and high school, so it will be interesting and fun to see what it's like with adults of all ages.

We will be writing our drafts on regular lined paper, but I wanted to have some nice paper for our final draft, and it occurred to me that Claremont has not only Stamp Your Heart Out for scrapbooking, but also this upscale paper store in the Village. I decided to look into Cloud Nine on 2nd Street, and I came away with exactly what I was looking for. Small pages of a variety of colors (I hope no one fights over what color they get!) from pastels to rich hues.

 This Queen of Hearts in the window display has kind of a scary look in her eyes...

Reflections on Inaugural Arts

Four years ago, I was enchanted by the quartet of Air and Simple Gifts performed at Obama's first inauguration. The small kerfuffle about the musicians air-playing to their own prerecorded performance did not bother me (how can one play instruments in such freezing cold weather?). It certainly didn't hurt that I already enjoy the music of Itzhak Perlman, Yo-Yo Ma and John Williams, as well as the Shaker hymn on which this piece was arranged.

This year I was taken with the poem (only the fifth inaugural poem in history). I did not know the poet, Richard Blanco (aside from the NPR piece on him I heard earlier this month), but the poem reminded me of Walt Whitman, a poet whose work I've known most of my life. Hector Tobar (author of recently mentioned The Barbarian Nurseries) wrote his reflections on the poem and poet for the LA Times here.

Giving the arts a prominent role in such events heightens the importance of any such occasion, and helps justify what I already firmly believe - the arts are not fluffy extras in education, but are part of the core.

Remembering the Ends of Books

This afternoon I am preparing for book club at our house tonight. This involves not only cleaning and making sure I have the food I want, but also rereading parts of the book.

Do you find that you remember a book you've read, but forgot the ending? I certainly do. Tonight we will be discussing The Barbarian Nurseries by Hector Tobar which I read a few months ago. I remember much of the plot, but when one of the book club members emailed me to say that she wanted me to discuss the ending, I realized I needed to remember what exactly happened. I remember that I was satisfied by the outcome, but could not recall anything specific.

I have also chosen this book for my other book club which when we meet in March, so I have hopes that with two discussions, I will have a good and complete memory of this great read.

Drill, Part 2

With my folks visiting for the long weekend, I thought they might like to see the third day of the shooter drill yesterday for a something a little different. We walked over to a different vantage point (in front of Honnold), so my photos are a little better than the previous days'. I also knew to expect the rappellers, so I was ready to photograph them.

I found out that the reason the drill lasted for three days was that the various agencies have different shifts of responders, and they wanted to train each group of people. 

Training Drill

Today is the middle day of three for rescue workers to practice drills for shooters on campus. "Expect a lot of police and fire dept. activity around campus this week. ... At least three helicopters will hover above campus. And the drill will involved the sounds of gunshots and screaming victims."

While my friend Judy avoided checking out this drill, I took my camera and long lens and went to Garrison Theater. I was not the only one with a camera. The most exciting thing was to watch two men rappell from a helicopter. You can see one of them near the top of the trees in the second photo on the left wire. That happened so quickly I almost missed getting a shot.

These people watched from Honnold.

Bossypants

Written comedy, spoken comedy. Not the same. Garrison Keillor on the radio way better than Garrison Keillor in a book. Tina Fey - really funny on 30 Rock (until we got bored of the show after 4 seasons and stopped watching...) and as a Sarah Palin impersonator.

I won this book in our book club book exchange (I haven't seemed to find a synonym for book in this sentence) last month, even though I am on the library waiting list for the audio version. So I read it.

Some was very funny, some not so much. I know she is actually a writer, but maybe not for parts of a memoir. I don't know.

I do know that I really liked the part of the book where she related about her first job out of college - at the Evanston, Illinois YMCA. Maybe the writing at that point is really good, but I also know that Y pretty well. The year we were on sabbatical in Evanston, I went to that Y 4-5 times every week. I could just imagine everything she was saying from the lycra moms to the preschool children who come in for their swim lessons.

I don't think I'll take my hold off of the audio version from the library queue. Tina Fey reading her own words may bring a new appreciation for the book. It may make a long car ride seem shorter.

Winter Garden

In Southern California, most of the vegetables grow in the winter months. The heat is best for tomatoes, squash and peppers. Right now we have lettuce, broccoli, snap peas, brussels sprouts and cucumbers in our little garden.

The broccoli is doing well.

The cucumbers succumbed to the night freezes. Poor things.

We've never before grown brussels sprouts, and we are rather excited by what we see!

Flu Shots

Today we went to get flu shots. Normally I do not get one. My doctor does not particularly recommend it, and I do not remember the last time I got one. However, I have been watching the news, and last night I talked to my friend, Susan, who is a nurse practitioner, and she recommends that everyone get one. She has seen a number of cases in the ER already, even though California is not on the list as a state with a severe outbreak (like Massachusetts).

I am working hard to remember to wash my hands frequently, especially after working with my students, and to try to keep my hands away from my face (hard to do!).

H called our pharmacy yesterday, and they were out of the vaccine. Today he called the CVS on Foothill and Towne, and they said they were out. Wait, no, they had two more, if we could come in right now. We came in "right now." After a long wait, and some paperwork, and lines of people for other things, etc., we came away with two shots. FYI, if you are local, CVS thinks they will have more of the vaccine on Wednesday.

I know that I might feel some reaction to the shot, but it would just be my immune system reacting to the virus. Also, I know that the vaccine is 60% effective. So, I will continue to be vigilant with the hand-washing and trying to keep the hands away from the face.

Good luck to us all!

Cable Airport Air Show

As we headed out this morning on errands, we saw some biplanes over Upland, and we figured it was time for another Cable Airport Air Show. We've never been to one, but we like to look up in the sky to see planes doing tricks, planes flying in formation and parachutes. This time we grabbed my camera, stuck on the long telephoto lens and headed up Benson Ave. We didn't really want to watch the whole show, so we thought we'd park across the street somewhere to watch for 10 minutes.

We were not alone. Many people had brought lawn chairs or were just standing in the field south of the Theater Company parking lot, on the east side of Benson. I took about 100 photos, some of which are posted here.