September 11 one decade later

Where were you? The words have been repeated today, over and over. I am sure we all remember. It is as indellible as the image of the towers falling.



That morning, as usual I had walked my second grader and my 6th grader to the corner where they crossed to walk to school. My daughter's friend's mother and I decided to walk around the block. We kept revelling in the beauty of the day. The sky was a deep autumn blue. THe air was clear and crisp. It was stunningly a beautiful day. We ended up after the walk at my house to drink some coffee.


We were talking about something and my husband called. He said, are you watching Today?

I said no, been out on a walk. He said a plane has flown into the World Trade Center. And I think the second had just hit when he called me.

We turned on the TV. It was mayhem.

In the jumble of the morning it all seemed so inconceivable. But we knew it was a terror attack. I know that some of us didn't want to jump and point fingers. We remembered Oklahoma City. But, having lived overseas in the midst of the Dar es Salaam and Nairobi that the unthinkable was possible. And we knew the name that was behind it.

Soon there was report of a smoking trail near the Pentagon, perhaps an explosion.

I remember watching the tv and seeing before the people commenting as we all watched, that Tower 1 had fallen. There was a shimmering as the dust gathered and blue sky was behind the smoke and dust. I gasped. It's gone, it fell.

So much has happened in the ten years since.

My thoughts and prayers with all those who lost loved ones on this day, for all who helped in the searches, for all those who serve their country in the wake of this event.

We all choose ways to remember and serve.

We will never forget.
Never forgotten.
Forever grateful... for our freedoms, liberty and lives.

Last new school year

My baby is heading off to celebrate her last night of summer. Tomorrow is Labor Day. Summer ends in a smoky, steamy, summer eve in an arcane human ritual known as the bonfire.
I didn't even attempt to say no. Her father did... however, it wasn't strong and we make choices.
Fire brought us to where we are and it is part of those rituals of passing.

I kind of wish we were in Finland... talk about bonfires. But, yeah, they were on midsummer!

Transcribing Ancient Greek

A friend alerted me to an NPR program using volunteers with no training to transcribe ancient Greek on papyrus. The story is quite incredible and true! I have already been dabbling in ancient text identification. This could be more addictive than word twist!
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2018848/Oxford-University-appeals-help-transcribing-200-000-ancient-Greek-letters.html?ITO=1490

http://ancientlives.org

You get to learn about the actual project, where the papyrus comes from and help with the project. Their method is pretty impressive, and the feel of getting to help is wonderful!!!

The Deathly Hallows 2

Twelve hours. It has been twelve hours since I finished viewing HP DH2 and most of that I slept.
I read two articles this morning... and the one which grabbed me was Ralph Fiennes interview in Newsweek. Lord Voldemort responds..and it won't past the link. Hmmm...

Who is more evil? Is it that those who followed are as they made a choice? Was Tom less as he had not been loved? But had he? Dumbledore brought him to Hogwarts where he could be loved and could have a home, as many others had. What makes the difference? How much is choice?
And yes, at that point, Tom made choices. Many if not all, were evil.

Lots to think about. Thank you Jo.

Last Shuttle flight

I am in denial. I am a child of the space age. I remember watching on tv, live the launches of multiple Apollo missions and probably some earlier ones too. I remember getting up in the middle of the night (to my mind) in 1969 to watch Neil Armstrong walk on the moon. I remember them landing hours earlier... and that may have been the middle of the night... not the walk. We lived on the left coast side of the country at the time. Some of my earliest memories are of my father pulling us out of bed and out into the night air to watch the persieds and the Leonid meteor showers. I know I have spelled some of these wrong. I am listening as I write to the live countdown for Atlantis.

My heart aches. I know this seems strange... but we cheered and supported space research.
We were in college when the shuttle first launched and landed. In fact, my college linguistics professor Bill Little came in in the middle of our Linguistics final to tell us that YES, the first shuttle had landed safely on that May afternoon.

I as a parent pulled my small children out to watch the shuttle and the space station glide swiftly by above us in the night sky.... To see Mars as a large light, to look at the rings of Saturn,
See the comet in 1999-2000 in Finland.
To see the moon close and rising.


I saw Challenger's last landing...
my darling worked on the first shuttle imaging radar....
and here we watch Atlantis take off t minus 1 minute....
more later.....

Pic Skate

Long ago, when we knew we were going to Greece, we checked into ice skating rinks. We had a budding young ice skater who loved above all else to skate. This of course, was after we bid on and got Greece. We found to our sadness, no ice rink, while the web said, yes of course! The rink had closed perhaps two years earlier.

As a result, we knew not what to do. However, our wonderful ice rink shop manager, Jimmy, put us onto the idea of Pic Skates. My mind is now murky as to the details as this was 5 years and two cities ago. He had the frames and he had boots and we wed the two.

Funny enough, one of the coaches at the rink, who she had watched giving lessons had created the Pic Skate. Nick Perna had created the skate as a way for ice skaters to practice off the ice.
My daughter also took a Delta level class from his wife, Michelle.

So we sallied forth to Greece in August of 2006 with Pic Skates in the suitcase. If they weren't in the suitcase, then they were in the airfreight!!

Well, finding smooth places to pic skate in Greece was difficult. First of all it was hot and dusty.
Then, of course, we were still on the young ones need to be in bed at a reasonable hour. We ate at the normal western times, as we didn't want to be in bed on a full stomach. Not only did we not understand how the Greeks ate, large meal at noon, we didn't have the opportunity with our work and school schedules to do such.

We found a local school with an asphalt and concrete yard which was open to go to on the weekend afternoons and a few evenings. Being alone on skates didn't make it much fun, however she worked a bit some moves and skated.


While in Greece I found a link to some Inline competition in Italy perhaps a year or so before. However, I could never find a person to email or ask questions about an inline community.

A friend in our community went with her to skate where we had found a nice smooth spot. It was the pad built for the 2004 Olympics for parking. I believe it was built for the press parking nice and flat for satellite link equipment and trucks. It sat right to the northwest of the new Olympic Stadium.

Little did we know that 5 years later, she would once again be on Pics even when she was skating on ice.

more soon....

Everything Old is new Again

I can't believe I let this go. I need to write. I doubt anyone reads it, so what does it matter?
Writing is a form of creation, where ideas become fleshed in type, morphed into form and laid to dry. Then they either fly or crumble into dust. Ideas, dreams, fears, hopes all started in the mind's eye.

Yesterday my baby turned 21. Easter birthday that happened only twice in 250 years!
She graced my bell choir's performance at church and wrapped her graceful soul into my heart once again. She has grown in grace and humility in ways I can not fathom.

We celebrated early with a lunch party on the 23rd. Our family, her friend and her boyfriend and his parents. Seriousness of it was wonderful, but also cute. Her little sister, who towers over her, helped me to prepare. I am thankful for two wonderful daughters.