The lights are on at the House on Pooh Corner!
Daylight pictures of the display
The pumpkin patch
Halloween 2020
Category: Uncategorized
peppermint harmonies
by Lynn O
Allium sativum
Garlic to us proles
Good to cure infections
And for your hypertension
But allium sativum
Will not help your voice
Sweeter song will not result
In fact your breath just might insult
Boswellia Serrata
Arthritis it will ease
For the aching in your ankle
and hurting knees that rankle
Boswellia Serrata
Will not help your voice
You do not sing with knees or wrists
the muscles make the voice exist
Mentha piperita
Peppermint to us
For colic, indigestion
And intestinal infection
Mentha piperita
vital for the throat
clears the mild obstruction
and sweetens every note
harmonies are sweeter
with mentha piperita
wind chimes
by Lynn O
she told me the wind
was passing souls
in winter
those souls
of whom Dickens spoke
abroad on Christmas Eve
wearing the chains they
forged in life
in summer
her soul
and maybe the soul
of her middle child
float In warm air
gently nudging the
windchimes
a greeting for
her eldest child
Political Television
With all the specialized television channels out there now, you would think there would be one that was a totally politics-free zone.
No political ads, no campaign speeches thinly disguised as “talk show guests”…nothing.
I would tune my tv to that channel and leave it there — possibly forever.
Bismarck Belles N’ Beaux
Dance schedule 2020-2021
The Eagles Club agreed to allow the Bismarck Belles N’ Beaux to use the dance floor on select days of the month. We elected to dance on the first Monday and third Thursday of Sept, Oct, Nov,Dec 2020 and Mar, Apr, May 2021, excluding Labor Day Monday and Easter Monday.
The Eagles invite all of the dancers to dine and drink at the Eagles club. Even if you are not an Eagles Club member, the dancers are welcome to enjoy the meal before the dance and socialize over a drink after the dance.
We still have to be very careful. Until this virus is eliminated, all of the tables and chairs will need to be sanitized before and after the dance and we will have to bring our own drinking water. Bringing a personal water bottle that closes is probably the best idea to avoid spreading germs.
Several dancers have underlying health conditions, so we will be in contact before each dance. If the caller is uncomfortable with calling or if we do not have enough dancers, the dance will be cancelled. If you are not feeling well or have a temperature, do not come to the dance.
It is impossible to be socially distant when Square Dancing, so we will have to use hand sanitizer after each dance tip. Don’t be offended when the caller and other members do not shake hands.
This is the new Belles N’ Beaux 2020-2021 dance schedule.
September 17 Plus Dance Larry Pfennig Eagles Club 7-9 PM
October 5 Mainstream Larry Pfennig Eagles Club 7-9 PM
October 15 Plus Dance Larry Pfennig Eagles Club 7-9 PM
November 2 Mainstream Larry Pfennig Eagles Club 7-9 PM
November 19 Plus Dance Larry Pfennig Eagles Club 7-9 PM
December 7 Mainstream Larry Pfennig Eagles Club 7-9 PM
December 17 Plus Dance Larry Pfennig Eagles Club 7-9 PM
March 18 2021 Plus Dance Larry Pfennig Eagles Club 7-9 PM
April 5 Mainstream Larry Pfennig Eagles Club 7-9 PM
April 15 Annual meeting, time and place to be announced
April 15 Plus Dance Larry Pfennig Eagles Club 7-9 PM
May 3 Mainstream Larry Pfennig Eagles Club 7-9 PM
May 20 Plus Dance Larry Pfennig Eagles Club 7-9 PM
Blast from the past – June 2005
Went to use my camera last night, and discovered the batteries had not been in the charger. Instead they were simply laying next to the camera. So put them into the charger, turned it on–somehow the charger had been unplugged–and today I should be good to go.
- Sewing project of the day was a dress to wear for the Shakespeare in the Park Festival
Today is dress day here. Realized there are only two weeks before I wear my goofy getup, so it better get some progress made or I am going to look pretty darn silly wearing just pinned-on pattern tissue in the park! Luckily I am the cinematographer, so at least the cameraman would be sympathetic!
However, the mosquitoes would have a field day. As it is, every time I step outside, every skeeter in seven counties seems to converge upon me screaming “dinner!”
Skeeters are dreadful this year. Spring rains, the alignment of the planets, whatever…they are documented as worse than ever. I need to go mow my lawn, but I cringe at the thought of stirring them up. Wednesday night, we were out in the pool, but could not even last for an hour. The skeeters were thick and it was a constant battle to keep them from attacking like the birds in Hitchcock’s thriller. We gave up.
However, while we were out there, we had a very unique thing happen. Bounding past my yard went a little deer. Cute little thing. He went bouncing along up the street, where he simply stopped in the middle of the street and then he just stood there for a bit. For all I know he was checking his GPS or something…I have no idea where he went from here. Our normal wildlife we see in the yard/area/neighborhood is squirrels, birds and a few bunnies. A few years back there was a nasty flock of wild turkeys…those things are as bad as a pack of feral dogs! We had an elk walk through the neighborhood once, and a moose strolled through one time, but this was our first deer sighting.
2020 Election
Need answers to these questions, and more information, before I make any endorsements…
Minot city election 2020
I have not heard answers to these questions from the current candidates yet:
Questions for the City Council Candidates
Q: What are your thoughts on breed-specific legislation and vicious dog ordinances?
Q: Especially now that we are encountering shortages in the food supply chain, will you vote to allow people to keep chickens in the city limits of Minot?
Q: Hire from within — instead of trying to bring in a new supreme ruler ** from elsewhere over the head of the city employees, promote one of the current department heads to the city manager position.
(** 1st we had the parking garage boondoggle; 2nd we had an abusive management style. We **CAN** be taught — we do NOT need a third strike)
Question for the School Board Candidates:
Q: What is your vision for the current Central Campus building?
(If your answer is “turn it into a middle school” I will not only vote AGAINST you, I will contribute a dollar to your opponent that has a better idea)
Yes — this is not new stuff…
These questions are pretty much a rerun of my questions from the previous election, because the things that matter to me have not changed.
Even though my own children are graduated, there is still plenty of school stuff that matters to me. There are some declared candidates running for the Minot School Board, and I have some points that need to be considered by the school board candidates.
Minot Public School System needs school busses
The Minot Public School system needs to provide school bussing for students that live too far away from the schools to safely walk to school.
Originally, the MPS was designed around a “neighborhood school” system. The intent was for all children to be able to walk to the neighborhood elementary school, and that school was located within one mile of the child’s house. Currently, as I understand the plan, the school system is dreaming of switching toward fewer larger schools, with each school then having four sections (classes, most of us ordinary people would call them) for each grade.
If the schools are not going to be located in neighborhoods where children can walk to school, then the school system needs to provide bussing to get the children to the school safely.
Building a New Middle School
The MPS has been pushing for a new middle school, but the bond issue to put it in the current Central Campus building has been voted down. Twice.
Why?
Central Campus is actually in walking distance of Jim Hill Middle School. A long walk, but reasonable distance for middle school students. This means the same neighborhood children could walk to either school. A far more intelligent location for the new middle school would be to locate it on the land the school district owns near the new John Hoeven Elementary School. Then Minot would have one middle school located on the south edge, one in central Minot, and one on the north edge of town.
Minot’s New High School
A new high school should be located on the land the district owns near Erik Ramstad Middle School, or else we could probably save on construction costs by building it in the south near John Hoeven while building the new middle school there. If Minot continues growing, eventually there will need to be one built in both of these locations.
Masks and questions
A friend of mine was sent a request for fabric face masks for the Rollette County first responders. She does not sew, so she passed it on to our wider group to see if any of us could help them. While I’m not sure exactly what they will use the homemade masks for, I was willing to try.
As the curator of a large private textile collection, plenty of supplies are available. LOL — this is the time for all good (hoarders) seamstresses to take our rightful place!
Since all the confusion over the Covid-19 virus began, I have collected several “in the hoop” mask patterns for the embroidery machine. I didn’t have a “need” for them at the time. Originally, our local hospital did not want homemade masks, but I am saved the patterns anyway. As a beginner to the embroidery machine, I am building up my pattern collection by collecting the “freebie patterns” that designers make available.
This seemed like the right time to try using those patterns. While making the masks in the hoop sounded like a good idea, it was not as easy as it sounded. I finally gave up on that idea and am now using the regular sewing machine. The patterns and instructions were not user friendly at my skill level. As it turned out, the majority of construction of these “in the hoop” patterns is done on the ironing board anyway!
I searched out patterns for the regular sewing machine. Was not excited about any of those either. What I ended up doing was bastardizing several patterns to make one design that seems to work out reasonably well. Hopefully they will be what the end users are looking for!
I did, of course, find yet **another** “free” in the hoop pattern last night, so I will have to try that one out. Hope springs eternal..
Monkey Business on the Mouse River
Roosevelt neighborhood takings
At a meeting at the Moose Lodge several years ago, a spokesman for the city of Minot commented about one intention of the resilience grant was to keep people from being financially ruined by the city’s taking of their property.
This is an established neighborhood of moderate means. People have worked very hard and paid for their houses, and they cannot afford to start making mortgage payments because somebody in another part of the city wants to profit off the backs of those of us in a less expensive neighborhood.
One intention of this resilience grant was to permit the city to make up the cost difference, because if you have a paid off, three bedroom, 1500 square foot house that is being taken by the city, you should be able to move into another paid off, three bedroom, 1500 square foot house without being driven to financial ruin in the process.
Nice Girls
Nice Girls Don’t…
In the world where I grew up, I was taught from infancy, “Nice girls get fully dressed before leaving their bedroom.”
Fully dressed includes all clothing, socks, and enclosed shoes.
It was never acceptable to walk around the house wearing stockings without shoes. Socks are an undergarment, not outerwear.
Nice girls would no more go out in public with bare feet than with a bare bottom.
At the pool or the beach, you could wear thongs or sandals, but they were not considered appropriate for street wear in public.
A few years ago, people started wearing shower shoes in public and calling them “flip flops.” About that same time, some people started asking guests in their house to remove their shoes. In my brain, that is a slightly disreputable request. I always expect the next comment to be, “Pssst…Take off your pants, and we can look at some naughty pictures.”