Matching Tracksuits

fun in fours

ameryka

Graveyard Fields

Wednesday 30 May 2007

Memorial Day we took the Girl and the babcia for a hike at Graveyard Fields. A short, easy hike: probably less than 4.5 miles all told.

Babcia at Graveyard Fields

Along the way, new flora continually caught J’s eye. “What’s this?” and “What’s that?” and “Is this X? It must be!”

“Nie wiem” became the phrase of the day, renewing (for about the 100th time, at least) my desire/resolve to learn more about plants.

Babcia looks at the flora

L “met” a young lady named N who, despite being two months younger, was significantly smaller.

L, meet E...

And of course we took lots of pictures of the Girl.

Girl III

Blue Ridge Parkway

Tuesday 15 May 2007

Having J in America has meant re-visiting a lot of places: Biltmore, parks, etc.

This weekend we finally went out to the Blue Ridge Parkway, specifically Craggy Gardens…

And Mount Mitchell

It was, I believe, J’s first “true” picnic. The tradition in Poland is equally pleasant, but a little more “adult.” It involves a bonfire, some sausage, and a lot of vodka.

The last part is optional, but once you say “yes” to an offered drink, turning down a subsequent shot is virtually impossible.

And that’s why the thought of posting “No Alcoholic Beverages!” signs was somewhat odd for J.

Put your roots in the air like you just don’t care?

Monday 14 May 2007

This weekend, we took J to Biltmore. We were hoping the gardens would be more fully developed (i.e., more in bloom), but the frigid spell in April literally nipped everything in the bud.

While out in the garden, though, we saw a most unusually tree.

J had never seen anything like it, and I, not knowing a single thing about trees, was at even more of a loss.

Anyone have any idea what's going on here?

President Clinton’s Last Days in Office

Friday 11 May 2007

Say/think what you will about him, Clinton had quite a sense of humor. I never knew this video even existed...

Chimney Rock

Wednesday 02 May 2007

Sunday was the second time we'd been to Chimney Rock. The first time, we were sans L, sans camcorder, sans D70. That, of course, means lots of images of the Girl and a bit of video of the Girl.

L began the day in my custody:

But fussiness overwhelmed her about 2/3 of the way through the outing -- only K could comfort (what alliteration).

More pictures at Flickr; video coming soon.

Homestead

Tuesday 24 April 2007

Over the weekend, my folks and I took K and J on a quick tour of Bristol -- my hometown. As Steve Earle sing's, "Ain't nothin' brings ya down like your hometown." Talk about making someone feel old. The realization that what happened at that street corner or in that church building was not merely a couple of years ago but more like fifteen or twenty plants my feet solidly in my mid-thirties.

We began the weekend with a trip to Natural Tunnel.

Then it was off to Bristol, stopping at South Holston Dam first:

By the time we got to Bristol, we simply decided to stay in the car and show J downtown (such as it is -- though much more lively than when I lived there) and the old house.

Pictures at Flickr.

“Background Check? We don’t need no stinkin’ background check”

Friday 20 April 2007

Cho Seung-hui went through the mandatory background check before buying the guns he used in his rampage. No criminal record, no problem.

Yet...

  • He'd been admitted to a mental health care unit within the last eighteen months.
  • Teachers and students alike commented on his disturbing behavior.
  • Complaints had been made about his behavior.
  • A professor had raised concerns about the content of his writing.

But what kind of a background check could have discovered all this?

If if someone has recently received significant mental health care in the same state he's trying to buy a gun, it's conceivable that that information could be available. But since there's no national database of such information, all one would have to do is cross the state line.

Do we want a national database to record that kind of information? I don't think I do.

Do we want to have background checks that include interviews with former educators? Is that even feasible?

Just what kind of background check can stop someone like this from getting a gun? The only solutions I can think of involve national databases and inquiries into very personal information.

Irony

Friday 13 April 2007

A woman spends a fair amount of time at Ingles wiping off the handle of the shopping cart and anything near it, and then goes in and buys seemingly countless amounts of soda...

Souma yergon, sou nou yergon…

Thursday 08 March 2007

Throughout much of the world, March 8 is a day to celebrate "the economic, political and social achievements of women." It's International Women's Day, and though it was (according to Wikipedia) first celebrated in America, it's not widely known here. Perhaps the fact that the organization that initiated it was the Socialist Party of America. And most places that still celebrate it with any real vigor are (or were) communist or socialist. (In the minds of many Americans, those terms are equivocal, I know.)

Extra points for knowing the significance of the title without resorting to Google.

Poland is one such country. Though I lived there for seven years, Women's Day never worked its way into my unconscious cultural calendar. I took the cues from those around me and never really made an effort to remember it myself.

In retrospect, that was a very bad idea. That realization occurs most forcefully when you marry a Polish woman and then come home March 8 empty handed...

At the Tone

Tuesday 06 March 2007

J (K’s mother) has a new Polish friend (call her “M”) here in town: a retired doctor who just moved to the area. They met the “Welcome to America” party we threw J a couple of weeks after her arrival. They hit it off, and exchanged telephone numbers, with the promise of getting together again soon.

J called M a few days later. She didn’t get in touch with M, but left a message. J waited a few days, and, after hearing nothing, called M again. And again, no answer. J left another message and, after a few more days, began getting concerned.

Eventually, M returned the call. M, however, didn’t know she was returning a call, for the first thing she asked J was “Why didn’t you call?”

“I did call,” J said, explaining the messages she left on the answering machine.

“There were no messages from you,” M said. She suggested they hang up and J try to call and leave a message again.

J hung up, waited a couple of seconds, and called. She left a message, then waited. M called back in about ten minutes, asking why she hadn’t called.

“But I did call,” J confusedly protested.

M asked to talk to K, and asked K to do the same. “Maybe she’s doing something wrong?” M suggested.

K dialed. She left the message. M called back shortly and confirmed receipt of the message.

Then K had an idea. She had her mom dial the number, and it was all clear.

Though she was calling from a cell phone, J didn’t know that she had to put the area code in as well. M, in fact, didn’t include it on the piece of paper she’d given J.

“But what about the voice I heard?” J asked.

And so K explained what “Message JG-23…” means.