Return to the Tallulah Gorge
Elderberries
We dedicated today to our elderberries. I clipped the clusters from the bush in the late morning, and K spent a lot of time pulling the small black pearls from their clusters as I worked and after I finished when I joined her.
And when I say we dedicated today to the elderberries, I mean the whole day. As I type (and work on my safety videos for school), K is finishing up, filling jars with fresh elderberry preserves.
We ended up with something like who-knows-how-many kilos of berries (was it four? five? I can’t recall) which will make who-knows-how-many pints of preserves.
The other task for the evening was helping the Boy get his room straightened up, a Sisyphean task if ever there be one. We ended up throwing out quite a bit of stuff, an act that initially stressed and frustrated the Boy a great deal.
Surrendering even the smallest trinket is difficult for someone as sentimental as E. I can understand that, though I hope eventually to grow out of it myself.
More Lost Pictures
Signs 2
During our trips to Florida this summer, I noticed several interesting billboards. Many of them were theological; one was political:
Stolen elections have catastrophic consequences
This notion is perhaps the most loaded statement I’ve read in recent memory. It’s certainly the most terrifying.
From the perspective of those who financed the billboard it is a statement about the 2020 election and the ever-persistent myth that somehow the Democrats committed election fraud. The complete lack of evidence for this is no matter: those who hold this view simply acknowledge non-facts as evidence. Those of us firmly grounded in reality are simply and willfully ignorant.
But just what are those catastrophic consequences? Again, from their perspective, it’s multifaceted. First, there’s simply the idea that an unelected individual is currently holding the nation’s highest office. Were that true, it would be catastrophic. But there’s a second notion hiding in that statement: what are people who believe this — in their own eyes, good and God-fearing patriots, one and all — to do about it? A recent article in Newsweek points out that there are renewed calls from the far right for civil war:
[Trump’s post on Truth Social] warning that 2024 will be the new 1776 is in line with other threats of looming civil wars in the U.S. made by Trump supporters following the New York jury verdict on Thursday which found the former president guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business records in a criminal hush-money trial.
Newsweek
In Boston University’s BU Today, staff members write,
A recent Washington Post headline says: “In America, talk turns to something not spoken of for 150 years: Civil war.” The story references, among others, Stanford University historian Victor Davis Hanson, who asked in a National Review essay last summer: “How, when, and why has the United States now arrived at the brink of a veritable civil war?” Another Washington Post story reports how Iowa Republican Congressman Steve King recently posted a meme warning that red states have “8 trillion bullets” in the event of a civil war. And a poll conducted last June by Rasmussen Reports found that 31 percent of probable US voters surveyed believe “it’s likely that the United States will experience a second civil war sometime in the next five years.”
BU Today
The billboard, then, suggests to informed drivers that a civil war might be the necessary outcome of such Democratic duplicity.
The attempted assassination of Trump will only add to this.
What politicians need to be doing now is talking us back from this brink. Biden and the Democrats seem to be doing this. What will Trump do? Will he try to quell this anger or will he stoke it? I don’t think there’s any doubt about how the man will react.
Those of us who warned friends and family around us who supported Trump in 2016 that he is a dangerous man continually feel more vindicated, but right now, I’d rather be proved wrong.
Semi-Lost and Found
It was like finding cash in a coat pocket, but better: old pictures I’d never posted here. These are from 2014 when we spent the week at Deep Creek.
E is now twice the age L was during this vacation.
Tuesday
Our Children
Where did these kids go? How could the relationships between us grow so relatively complicated?
It’s my common theme, though I don’t always express here why I’m thinking about it…
Sunday
A beautiful morning
Gives way to a lovely afternoon with blueberry pierogi
Summer eating at its Polish best.
Return
The Boy is back from camp.
“What do you want to eat?” we ask.
“Anything — it’s all better than camp food.”
Especially K’s homemade blueberry preserves.
Jacksonville Meet, Day 2
The Girl finished third, qualifying for nationals.
Signs
We’ve been traveling back-and-forth to Florida quite a bit lately, which means we drive through almost the entirety of South Carolina each trip. Along the way, I’ve noticed yellow and red billboards along the highway with one of two messages. when simply says, “Jesus, save me.” That’s a fairly straightforward. Evangelical sentiment were used to seeing signs like that in the audiences of football games though many of them are simply the John 3.16 signs, which reference the Bible verse proclaiming that God sent his son to save us. there are certain logical issues I have with such a sentimental sense. God and the sun are supposed to be the same being thanks to the doctrine of the Trinity, and the person doing the condemning from which we need to be saved is God. This means that God sent himself to save us from a consequence that he himself was going to implement. In short, God sent himself to save us from himself, which makes absolutely no logical sense. But that’s not the most interesting sign. The most interesting sign is this one.
Critics of prayer often say that many prayers amount to nothing sentimentality: “Bless this food” does nothing to the food. It’s just a nice sentiment.
With Catholic prayers, some of them have a feeling of being nothing more than magic words. This is especially true of the prayers that the priest will say during communion, prayers which allegedly transform a bit of unsavory bread and overly sweet wine into the body and blood of Jesus, I used to think that price of prayers didn’t really have this magical word sense, but this sign makes me wonder.
Yet here with this particular formulation, we see real magic words. If this sign is to be relieved, all one has to do is say these words and salvation is a done deal.there’s nothing on the sign to indicate you actually have to mean it. There’s nothing on the sign that indicates that you have to hold this belief for any particular period of time. There’s nothing on this side that suggest you have to do anything or change anything. All you have to do is say the magic words.
No, I understand that the individuals who sponsored this sign don’t really think that it’s just a matter of saying these words. And the same font with the same color scheme there are science that simply say repent usually a few miles after the sign. Of course, repent in this case usually means For them to take a conservative point of view regarding LGBTQ issues, physical issues, death penalty abortion, and all the other right wing issues. Repent for them basically means become a republican, and a far right Republican and usually at that.
However, you can’t get all of that on a sign. What’s most important is to get them to say the words and maybe just maybe they’ll actually mean it. Or if they don’t mean it now perhaps mean it later.
There was an article in the Charleston Post and Courier about this which the AP picked up and carried. Apparently at least one of the individuals sponsoring the billboards spends 50% of his salary on them. He suggested it’s money well spent if it keeps even more in person out of hell. I find it strangely ironic though that Jesus in the Bible seems to suggest a different way ofspending one’s money: to sell all and give what give all the proceeds to the poor as he told the rich young man in one of the gospels.
Camp Visit
Jacksonville Meet, Day 1
Today, we were back in Florida, less than a week after we left it last. It was a quick trip, though: the Girl and I drove down yesterday afternoon (hence the nearly-non-post of yesterday), arriving at close to ten in the evening and going to bed shortly afterward. We were up at six to make it to the meet by a touch after seven for L’s first event: javelin.
Her total was simple: finish in the top eight to qualify for nationals at the beginning of next month. Sadly, she missed the mark, finishing ninth.
It was disappointing, but in some ways, not completely unexpected: she hasn’t thrown in three weeks, and she used her shoulder a lot on a daily basis a couple of weeks ago at volleyball nationals, so it was a bit sensitive today. By the time she was heading up for her second throw, she was already massaging that shoulder.
We head back to Jacksonville Thursday afternoon for her second event on Friday morning, the high jump. We’ll see how that goes, but she already went started preparing, heading out for jumping practice right after we got back from Jacksonville this afternoon.
Old Grave New
Camp Departure 2024
The Boy left for camp today. He’ll be gone until next Saturday. I’m not sure how I feel about that. Typical parental concerns: on the one hand, I love seeing him grow up, seeing him not only willing but excited about a week away from us. Not that he’s excited about being away from us, per se, but rather that he’s excited to be going to camp and the prospect of being away from us for a week doesn’t worry him or dampen that excitement.
On the other hand, I know how situations like that can stress him out. Or could stress him out. Perhaps he’s growing out of it, but I’m not: I’m still stressed about him being gone. Not about him being gone, but not being in the near vicinity to keep an eye on things.
“You can’t be there for them all the time. You have to let go.” That’s the common wisdom. The common parental expectation.
But that doesn’t always allay the worries…
Rainy Prep Day
Today we spent most of the day getting E ready for Scout Camp this week. Clothes, rain gear, miscellaneous supplies all packed into a big trunk. He went last year with a different troop because his uncle’s family was coming from Poland during the week his troop was scheduled to go. But this year, this year will be great, he assured us. Last year was great, too, but this year…
Once we were done and could do something fun, the rain started…
Returning Home
We drove over the Lions Bridge one last time today heading home. That’s the only picture from the day.
That and K’s cute obsession with taking pictures of backflow preventers that are so different from what she’s used to working with Greenville Water. “Why are they all out out of the ground?” was a common question. No one in the car could answer.
St. Augustine 2024 Day 2
We spent the morning at the beach again, but no photos. The kids and I spent the whole time in the water, boogie-boarding, floating, splashing, and just being generally full of ourselves. K, on the other hand, spent most of her time covered: a long-sleeve sun shirt, umbrella, and lots of sunscreen. She got burned yesterday and did not want to make it any worse.
In the evening, we headed downtown. We caught a short bit from a great street band:
And, of course, there were fireworks.
Previous Visit
St. Augustine 2024 Day 1
Morning
The shells on the beach just at the edge of the surf were visible for only a few moments before the white bubbles and turbulence hid them again.
In the brief time I could clearly see them in the shallow water, it was obvious most of the shells were only fragments, often smaller than the smallest coins, slivers well on their way to becoming grains of sand. Every now and then, a shard would catch my eye, and I would think, “I might try to grab that one” just before incoming wave hid them once again.
By then it was too late: once the water cleared up, the tide would have tkane the shard so far away from its original position that finding it was all but impossible. Another might catch my eye, but then the process would simply repeat itself.
To get a shell required calm and patience followed by a paradoxical ability to move quickly when needed. Hesitation meant the loss of the moment. In some ways, that’s a metaphor for live in general for many people. Everything is about getting the right moment, and when that fails, increased stress is the outcome.
Yet the older I get, the more I realize the error in living like that and the unnecessary stress it causes. Yes, I might not get that exact shell that I wanted, but there were plenty of other shells that were just as lovely, often more so.
Evening
In the evening, after we’d spent a few hours back at the Airbnb, after we’d spent some time downtown and had dinner, we headed back to the beach.
I took a few pictures:
and the Boy took a few pictures:
A short walk to end a lovely day.
And we got home, and I saw the fantastic news from the Tour de France: Mark Cavendish got his record-breaking 35th stage win, assuring him the historic title “The Greatest Sprinter of All Time!”
Almost as enjoyable as watching the win itself was seeing the other riders’ reaction to the amazing win.
Previous First Day
Tampa to St. Augustine via Gainesville
We left our lovely hotel room with an incredible view to head to St. Augustine for the second half of our Florida vacation. It’s the second time we’ve been to St. Augustine as a family, the third time for the kids and me. That is to say, we really like St. Augustine.
Along the way, we made perhaps the most important stop of the whole week: a few hours in Gainesville. What’s so special about Gainesville? Well, it has a fantastic Korean restaurant, as we discovered for lunch. And rocker Tom Petty is a Gainesville native. But neither of those was the real reason we went to Gainesville. Our primary motivation has to do with our daughter, who is going to college in about a year. Going to college in about a year. Her number one choice of colleges: University of Florida, which is located in — guess — Gainesville. She wants to study bio-engineering, and Florida University has one of the best programs in the nation for that.
So we stopped by for a tour of the university. I tried not to talk too much or take too many pictures. The Girl remained relatively quiet during the tour. But we came away with a positive impression: the parents are happy with some of the safety programs the university implements; the Girl is happy with the college as a whole, especially one of the enormous chemistry labs we got to take a peek at.
Afterward, we headed to St. Augustine and our lovely Airbnb spot: a bungalow in an absolutely beautiful part of town. Walk to the end of the street, and this is the street we see:
Yes, that’s a peacock taking a stroll down a Live-Oak-lined street. It’s positively bajkowy.
Lovely houses as well. And the peacock? They’re from Ponce de Leon’s Fountain of Youth Archaeological Park, an ethnographic museum literally at the end of our street.
We weren’t planning on visiting any real attractions while in St. Augustine, but since it’s just down the road, we’re thinking we might. We’ll definitely visit the Cuban coffee cafe down the street.
A games night rounded out our evening: our Airbnb has several entertainment options, including a ping pong table. Poor K gets knocked around in board games, card games, and our front-yard badminton games, but she really knows how to play ping pong.
“Don’t worry,” she assured us, “I’ll take it easy on you.” And proceeded to trounce us all one after another, beer in hand.