Travelogue for the Universe

Saturday Nachtmusik

2012-02-11T09:40:00.000-05:00

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Hugh Laurie link...perfection in musik.
have a great saturday...
mary

Interview with a Clone Chapter 3

2012-02-10T05:30:00.014-05:00

I really never intended to let out this whole story,
this history of the world's first clone
before it even happens.
Still, the story brewed within me for decades
and stories sometimes should come out.

Interview with a Clone Chapter 3

Alice woke up parched, cold and aching in every possible joint of her
perfect clone body. She thought it unfair that she should carry her mother's arthritic
flaws as well as her Goddess like physical attributes.
She stretched and slowly emerged from her down sleeping bag.
The hum of the generator meant her faithful assistant Georgia was up and
tending to business. They had power, furnaces,
running water to save their food supply
and livestock. They needed generators because the solar panels choked on the weak sunlight.
There was constant cloud cover for weeks at a time.
Bahama was an eerie snowy scene. The animals were more resilient
then the people. Many died initially, with the cataclysm.
Those who lived were stronger, they persevered.
Those left at this compound, her mother's dream lab,
and Alice weathered the storm
like her mother would have, with grace and power, tact and will,
never giving up, still taking help when she needed it.
The smell of bacon permeated the air, fresh biscuits drew her to the kitchen
where Georgia's daughter Katie was ready to serve up breakfast. Hot coffee
and the wood cook stove made Alice's joints more compliant. She closed
her eyes and sipped coffee.
"Good mornin' Ms. Karma, " Katie kept things formal, respectfully distant,
cool not from arrogance but from being a sub-person, a servant.

Alice nodded. She thought how she wanted to change whatever Katie
felt about feeling that Katie had to be here,
that Katie was owned by Alice. In so many ways, they were each a victim of this
island lab, their mothers' choices, the science that demanded perfection, discipline,
both of their mothers were slaves to the work, the work that created Alice. The work
that made a slave to Katie, even if only in her mind.

Georgia walked in, sweaty, tanned, looking more tired than usual.
"Good mornin' Ms. Karma," Georgia said in her familiar tone.
She was the one who brought Alice into the world. Georgia had been a midwife,
mechanic, housefrau, nurse, agent to Susan, Alice's mom.

Alice nodded respectfully to this woman who she loved as her mother.
Now, without her own mother, the most powerful force in Alice's life.
"Come closer to the stove," Georgia led Alice, "And warm up, darlin'".

Best Cats

2012-02-09T05:30:00.049-05:00

Best Cats

We have never gone

anywhere to

get a cat

or kitten.

Still we have had our share

of tending animals dropped off

or wiggling into our lives.

We started naming the ferals

by their colors.

This was Blacky,

another great cat,

even though she had a hunger for birds.

Blacky is gone now,

I found this old post photo.

We will remember her always

and wish she could have taken

that step to live inside.

Monkton Chronicles: For the record

2012-02-08T05:30:00.001-05:00

Monkton Chronicles

2.7.12

I am a Monkton citizen.

For the record, I have tried to participate in town matters

By reading the minutes, responding, writing the selectboard

Many times.

Many, many times.

Still, all I have ever seen recorded in minutes

Is one excerpt from a letter I sent last year that no one found until I told them it was sent?

For the record, I do not believe in Tax sales or the 8% late penalty, or having a delinquent tax collector.

I believe the town clerk should be able to make what few phone calls need to be made.

I do not believe in annual tax sales.

For the record, I believe town offices should be open all day every day via web based

Real time Information posting.

I believe the town minutes should reflect what was discussed, not “those who were present discussed among themselves”.

I find myself at work again, unable to get to meetings but willing to write my heart out,

Like I have done for several years.

Still the selectboard seems deaf to my rants.

For the record,

I will not stop.

Mary Gerdt

Preview of next movie

2012-02-07T05:30:00.001-05:00

Battle @ Crown Point, NY

French Indian Wars

8/11/2007

Have been looking for these pictures awhile.

This was a great re-enactment.

I started to make a movie

and

have hit a few snags.

So are some preview photos...

More milkweed

2012-02-06T05:30:00.001-05:00

More milkweed images I found on an old chip.

Fall Milkweed

Milkweed seed right in the middle of view

Milkweed in fall

Chickadee on lilac

Dormant weeds

2012-02-05T08:17:00.000-05:00

I took several photos of the open winter.
Then looked for some summer photos.
Dormant weeds,
actually a
sanctuary
for Goldenrod & Milkweed,
so essential for local
native honey & food & habitat for
Bees & Butterflies.
The summer archive photos:

Butterfly on Zinnia

Now they are Dormant,

Goldenrod Asleep

Milkweed Asleep

Since it is Sunday,
check out The Psalm Challenge, the weekly
primer on faith based thoughts, images, meanings.
It is a way of breaking down each verse into
understandable simplicity.
Great to see participants around the world
offer their interpretations.:

http://tagein-tagaus-athen.blogspot.com/

Save the Pigs

2012-02-04T08:23:00.000-05:00

Monkton Chronicles

Petition link below:

How we can advocate saving some serious money

or what we did not know did not hurt us until we knew, now we taxpayers pay more.

Just dab some paint and fix the spots.

Where is Woody Jackson when you need him?

Save the Vermont Pigs! Petition | GoPetition

Oh...in case you do not know the story,
here is a link to the Chicago Trib article

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ktla-vermont-pig-decal-police,0,2404634.story

What I really thought was ironic...
another news story from across Lake Champlain
Wild hogs
Link to Reuter's article
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/29/us-wildboar-newyork-idUSTRE76S3I220110729

So it would appear that this is the year of the wild, errant pig!

Rethink Town Meeting?

2012-02-02T20:34:00.000-05:00

Great article by Victoria Rose Perkins
It is time to re-think town meetings and the faux control aw shucks chicken, pies
and knitting. Oh yes, and the screaming minorities while others sit silent
like a large percentage of us will do
when in a room full of people.

http://www.helium.com/items/1318921-why-the-traditional-town-meeting-in-vermont-is-no-longer-appropriate-in-the-current-era

Woodchuck Day

2012-02-02T05:30:00.020-05:00

The Monkton Chronicles
documenting Woodchuck Day 2012
in
Vermont
as being on the milder side of winter,
without snow cover in the valley,
the ground is frozen mostly,
so woodchucks pretty much don't want to come out
in which case
it will be
6 more weeks of winter
or probably longer.
There has been a woodchuck up back
we see in summer, he
would keep his distance, blindly chewing
clover we happily mowed to keep him
occupied.
Happy Woodchuck Day,
Vermont 2012

Wednesday Movie

2012-02-01T05:30:00.022-05:00

A new tradition, perhaps?
Wednesday movie?
Why not, you must be exhausted from the political blah blah blah...
Why not enjoy a little history.
This movie is of Shard Villa, a care home in Salisbury, Vermont.
I took the photos all on one day 11/10/2009.
This was in the spirit of history.
Columbus Smith died 100 years earlier.
His story, his family story, a long one filled with gaps I cannot explain.
What I know, I have written about a few times and will again, later.
Enjoy for now, this simple movie of the Villa and some quirky issues with the dates
and one ceiling photo came out all black. That was the one
I wanted most-of the blonde woman. I will not explain in paranormal terms,
because I have no proof.
Maybe call it Random Wednesday movie?
see how this one goes...
Shard Villa 2009 by Mary E. Gerdt all rights reserved

Image from the Hubble

2012-01-31T05:30:00.020-05:00

Source: Hubblesite.org

Mystic Mountain Nebula
the view in infrared by the Hubble
It is what used to appear to astronomers
as a dark cloud or black hole.
Instead,
thanks to the Hubble,
we can see more clearly
a magical new mystery.

Low Rays of Winter

2012-01-30T05:30:00.002-05:00

A February archive photo

The Low Rays of Winter

offer all gradiations of gray to white and

blues made better by cold.

Still milder than normal

and windy, gusts at times.

We missed the Aurora Borealis last week

with cloud cover each of the possible nights.

Sunday Music Link

2012-01-29T08:36:00.000-05:00

Saw this posted on youtube

and have heard before on my CD's but nothing like this...

I am a Blogger, Don't Mind Me

2012-01-28T12:11:00.004-05:00

i am just a blogger, don't mind me, take your big newspaper and sell it, I am Free

You might hear
"those damn bloggers.

how dare they

have opinions or

voice them

what do they think?

that they can think? "

copyright 2012 mary e gerdt

in spite of that you may distribute ad lib

for non for profit reasons

[i am a blogger and support bloggers. When I heard Bob Schiefer
cry out Bloggers as if a dirty word, this poem came to me. Come on,
bloggers are expressing their right to self express. If you do not like the message,
turn it off. If you want to control my messages, then I believe we have a difference of opinion.
mary.e.gerdt 1.28.2012]

Interview with a Clone Chapter 2

2012-01-27T05:30:00.002-05:00

Alice looked out the window of the frosted beach house, huddled in a down filled sleeping bag and sipping schnapps as her solar powered lamp flickered and died. Tomorrow she would start the generator again, it was too late tonight and she was exhausted. Her cat snuggled near her neck as the wind howled and palm trees creaked and cast off pieces in the night winds.
Alice felt comforted here, reminded again that it was not so bad, winter in Bermuda, after enduring that horrible interview with Gigi Fairweather who is on Mars. Gigi and the Mars community have partially lost touch with Earth by losing the shuttle service. Gigi knew Alice's Clone Mom when she was Susan Wolf, before she was Dr. Wolf. They were in military training academy together.
Alice thought they might like to hear from Dr. Wolf's daughter who was cloned and now doing research at her mother's lab in Bermuda. Perhaps it would break up the sometimes monotonous life on Mars.
Still, she felt hostility from Gigi, or just an edge that cut Alice wrong.
Was she being overly sensitive?
It was just an interview.
Alice fell asleep fretting.
her mother used to do that too.

for chapter 1: http://traveloguefortheuniverse.blogspot.com/2011/11/interview-with-clone-first-draft.html

Best cats

2012-01-26T05:30:00.002-05:00

Buddy was one of our

Best Cats

He lived to be at least 23 years

and has been gone a few years.

Was looking for a picture to post

and

Suddenly...

Buddy

appeared.

Buddy was our old neighbor's cat

and when we moved down here and the neighbors moved away,

Buddy showed up one day and

walked right in

and we loved him

dearly,

as did Sean, our small black cat.

Best cats know how to mouse, keep clean,

not do stupid things,

sophisticated,

more intelligent,

wise eyes,

Buddy

Orion from the Hubble

2012-01-25T05:30:00.001-05:00

Orion's Curtain Structure from the Hubble

Source: Hubblesite.org

HGTV Dream House in Stowe for sale - WCAX.COM Local Vermont News, Weather and Sports-

2012-01-24T07:25:00.001-05:00

HGTV Dream House in Stowe for sale - WCAX.COM Local Vermont News, Weather and Sports-

I know, I rant all the time about Vermont Property tax reform
How about this story by WCAX TV.......

Archived Snow pic

2012-01-23T05:30:00.018-05:00

Reprint of Adirondack Morning

The Color of Pain

2012-01-22T08:19:00.000-05:00

Today before I even read the Psalm of the day on
Psalm Challenge
http://tagein-tagaus-athen.blogspot.com/
I wanted to post some Sunday thoughts about pain,
then see if they coincide at all.

Pain has many colors.
Black, red, blue,
ripped, torn, diseased,
hurt, yellow,
vicious, sharp, biting,
tearing,
then
the
dull,
deep, constant, persistent.

Some make you wish you were dead.

Pain ripped me out of bed in the wee hours again,
and standing on my leg re calibrated something,
my MS dance.

My mother's pain, invisible or hazy to some,
I perceive on full wavelengths,
as if I had the channel tuned in better.

I thought this morning,
how pain,
in all it's colors,
can be invisible to others.
We are all so different in how we perceive pain.

As a new nurse, over 30 solar years ago,
I decided to lay my hand on people in pain
and try to
ground it.

And if I was successful, it would make their life
better.

I was worried there would be damage done to me,
all that pain flowing to ground into the Earth, our Mother
(like on the old sin eater's version of twilight zone or one of those shows).
And I decided,
it could not hurt me,
it was channeling someone else's pain.

Do you feel how comforting a hand is on the shoulder?
Or the catharsis of letting a story go,
or just knowing someone
hears
how much you hurt?

Some cannot see the colors of pain I do,
and I guess that really is something I had
to learn and have to live with.

I do pray someone sees the colors of their pain and
puts a gentle hand on their shoulder
and lets it go.

Link to The Night Chicago Died...

2012-01-21T08:51:00.000-05:00

Link to the song w/lyrics.

This is a great one...by Paper Lace

Buy their music w/ your gift cards........

Electronic Freedom Speaks

2012-01-21T06:30:00.003-05:00

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/01/nternet-spoke-and-finally-congress-listened

Congress listened as millions spoke up about freedom of speech and freedom of internet.

Grief Resources in ASL

2012-01-20T05:30:00.015-05:00

A Friend blogger
http://wordsalads.blogspot.com/
posted some you tube videos.
Sherry's videos can help guide deaf persons
who use ASL to process grief and feel connected.
Here is one video in ASL although I could get some of the words
and expression comes out clearly. Please share far and wide.
Nice job Sherry!

Electronic Freedom Foundation

2012-01-19T05:30:00.001-05:00

Go tell them...
http://blacklist.eff.org/

What if We ~~could not have a voice? Would the story all change?~~
~~Would we be slaves to the media controller?~~ did nothing.