Tag: Winter

Lightly Child, Lightly.

Live & Learn8 Comments

I want to look out a window at something bright and wide, and at that point accept my nature and understand my intended use and have a clean shirt and clean hands and feel similar to a small planet. I want to be in a fine wooden house by the sea and to have a big sweater.

— Jenny Slate, Little Weirds (Little Brown & Company, November 5, 2019)

Notes:

  • Post Title & Inspiration: Aldous Huxley: “It’s dark because you are trying too hard. Lightly child, lightly. Learn to do everything lightly. Yes, feel lightly even though you’re feeling deeply. Just lightly let things happen and lightly cope with them.

Rhapsody in Blue

Live & Learn18 Comments

“All this sniping and yapping at music! ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ could be the soundtrack to one of the most romantic moments in your life, too, if you let it sweep you away.

It was a freezing cold night in January. Big fat snowflakes whipped through the air while the skyline surrounding Central Park stood in silent vigil as Gershwin’s music pierced that inky darkness, emanating from the speakers that ringed Wollman Rink.

My new boyfriend and I rented skates and joined the throng, at first tentatively circling, then with more vigor as the music propelled us. It felt as if we were flying — beneath the snowflakes and the stars — and look!

Over there’s Venus.

And over there, Mars.

Whenever I hear that glorious music, I’m instantly transported to that moment in time when his gloved hand held my gloved hand and the world was full of possibilities.

What I wouldn’t give for the chance to circle just once more, in the cold and the dark … enveloped by ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ …”

— Christine Lavin, in “Letters to the Editor” in response to Ethan Iverson’s “The Worst Masterpiece: ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ at 100“. A jazz musician considers the legacy and unfulfilled promise of George Gershwin’s catchy — or you could say corny — repertory staple.

Here Comes The Sun…

Live & Learn18 Comments

Here Comes the Sun. 32° F feels like 22° F, wind gusts up to 25 mph. 7:18 to 7:25 am. January 14, 2024. Cove Island Park, Stamford, CT.

Here Comes the Sun. 32° F feels like 22° F, wind gusts up to 25 mph. 7:18 to 7:28 am. January 14, 2024. Cove Island Park, Stamford, CT. Don’t miss the 10 minutes of sunrise magic here.

Monday Afternoon Wake-Up Call

Live & Learn9 Comments

I’m an incorrigible heat seeker, and the phrase “wintry mix” fills me with despair. But even so, the lack of cold and ice in 2023 felt unsettling…I was thinking about this while standing outside a science museum a couple of days ago with a friend. We were talking about the weather but not the kind of small talk when you have nothing else to say. “I’m not sure our grandkids will even know what snow is,” she said, with a wry “I’m kidding, but I’m not” laugh…

This past June, Brooklyn was covered in a blanket of smoke from Canadian wildfires. The sky was a muted burnt sienna and the air smelled like a barbecue gone severely wrong. I reassured my son, who had many questions, that the neighborhood was not on fire.

It is my job to make my child feel safe, so I answer questions about scary, calamitous things when he asks, but carefully…he still experiences extreme weather as a novelty and not a threat. I hope he’s much older before he notices a drastic temperature change or more smoke in the air or the fact that it’s New Year’s Eve and there’s no snow on the ground at home. I believe humans can reverse some of the harm we’ve caused to the environment — we’ve done it before — so I’m not a total pessimist. But I am worried.

It finally snowed a bit in Omaha, on Christmas Day, no less — a bit of temporary relief. I’m not worried that my grandchildren, if they ever materialize, will grow up not knowing what snow is, as my friend suggested. But I wonder if, somewhere down the line, one of my descendants will build the last snowman in Omaha.

—  Elizabeth Spiers, from “The End of Snow” (NY Times, January 2, 2024)

Notes:

  1. No snow for Christmas (and no snow yet this winter). I get it Elizabeth.
  2. Photo above. Mine. Feb 28 2023. Seems like eons ago. Cove Island Park. 6:17 am.  If you want to get reminded of what snow looks like, as it’s been so long, here some additional shots from that day.

Wally’s Great Adventures (20)

Live & Learn19 Comments

 

hello peeps, wally here. Laila, love her name, suggested that we re-name my handle to “Wally The Adventure Doggo.” i like it, a lot, and this is coming from a PhD student who reads Dostoevsky and Woolf in her spare time, and is way smarter than dad, so i pay attention, i’m noodling it.

anyhoo, re: video. volume up and stick to the end. mom said that its holiday baking time, so i helped her bake oatmeal cookies…she said that i must keep my little tongue in my mouth as i cant drool in the mixing bowl. dad said i cant talk about mom in my posts because she’s banned from limiting free speech.

oh, there’s more. rachel says i look like a large baked potato. name calling like that, that’s just not right. dad said she keeps it up, she’ll be on the banned list too.

i helped dad unwrap, yes, you heard it right, unwrap eric’s xmas present, because dad couldn’t wait, yes, dad couldn’t wait to open eric’s xmas present. mom yelled at dad calling him a man-child. oops, now dad is yelling at me because mom is banned from mention on this site.

finally, i am very good at finding sunlight on the floor and then taking naps in it. that last shot is of me laying in what eric calls the sunbox. I love the sunbox, it is warm like mom. oops, there i go mentioning mom again, need to be careful or i could be banned too. it’s nap time. good night everyone. Wally.