Another accident in the mines

I'm not a coal miner's daughter, but I was a coal miner's granddaughter and I'm pretty sure all my uncles worked the mines too, at one point or another. So news of the explosion at Upper Big Branch mine in West Virgina caused that sinking feeling I thought was long forgotten. Twenty-five dead and four missing. Just numbers to most of those hearing about the disaster, but to the families and community of Raleigh those numbers represent fathers, husbands, sons, friends.

They're saying it's the worst U.S. mining disaster in two decades. We're used to seeing news of mining accidents in other countries (China comes to mind) but not the United States. I would have hoped we had learned our lesson after the many explosions and cave-ins that occurred throughout the past century until stronger regulations and stiffer penalties went into effect. But regulations only work when there's compliance on the part of the mines.

We don't want to keep hearing about mine explosions that kill 25.
Or 29.
Or 38, as happened in my home town back in 1970.
We don't want to hear about even one more life being lost in the mines.

I just pray the missing men will be found alive.
And soon.

Monday Meanderings

Fall arrived over the weekend. A hard rain on Friday ushered in cooler temperatures that had me digging through my closet for warmer clothes. While it is supposed to get back up into the 70s this week, cooler nights will be the norm from here on out. Which suits me fine; I sleep much better when I can snuggle under the covers.

I took a walk this morning down by the lake. It's the highest I've ever seen it -- such a contrast to the dry lake bed of just a few months ago!

[Why does my cursor look like it's going back to the beginning of the paragraph I just wrote, rather than scrolling down to where it finally appears once I start typing a new paragraph?]

[As you can see, I'm feeling deeply philosophical this morning.]

On my walk this morning my mind was a jumble of thoughts. About things happening in our little body of believers. What color I'd like to paint the study and laundry room in Sta. Rosa once the roof is fixed. Thinking that I need to print out the next lesson on Romans that I'm doing through Women of the Harvest (they're on to another study now, but I preferred to go back and do Romans). Wondering what we can fix for lunch. And supper. Without having to go to the store. I need to ask Ivan when we can plant our winter garden. Trying to decide if it is safe to store away window fans.

[That weird cursor thing is very distracting.]

I've started my list for Cordoba since tomorrow is the day for our monthly marathon. We didn't have time to do much last month -- the day we went in, we spent 90% of it getting our D.N.I.s handled. I'm thinking we may need to lower our expectations because I don't see how we can get through everything on the list. Maybe focus on the things we need to do together and leave the rest for Ivan on another day.

We've settled on Wednesday afternoons for the English conversation group. Spanish is Tuesdays and Thursdays. By May I'd like to offer either a class on cooking or quilting, but I have to figure out where I can best fit it in. AND decide which it will be. Cooking would be easier and take less preparation, which is appealing at this point.

I'm reading A Circle of Quiet by Madeleine L'Engle in which she states that our children have a "passionate need for the dimension of transcendence", but that "the tendency of churches to be relevant and more-secular-than-thou" does not answer this need. Then she quotes George Tyrrell, a Jesuit priest (1861-1909) who I'd probably disagree with on most things but I think he's spot on with this statement:

If [man's] craving for the mysterious, the wonderful, the supernatural, be not fed on true religion, it will feed itself on the garbage of any superstition that is offered to it.

"the garbage of any superstition" We certainly see that here. What's funny (not haha funny, but weird funny) is that so many take a mix of New Age thought, throw in ideas from various 'religions' and cults and create a big pot of "stew" that forms their belief system. No matter what you say you believe, people will agree with you. But they'll also agree with half a dozen others with totally conflicting sets of ideas.

It reminded me of how a college student responded when our pastor in Michigan asked why they came all the way out to our country church, by-passing many other churches on the way. The student replied that our church preached the Word of God, unadorned and without pretense; there was no "fluff".

[Obviously that jumble of thoughts has continued long after my walk this morning.]

[But that's okay, because this is Monday "meanderings".]

[Now I'm going to meander to the washer and proceed to hang out a load of clothes.]

[And hopefully the cursor will behave itself the next time I want to post.]

Project 365, Week 14

Last weekend we went to Sta. Rosa to pick up Wally & Katie (we'd left them there for two weeks with a rental car and a dictionary -- and they did just fine!). Saturday evening we went to a new tea house in Belgrano that has wifi so I could upload photos for Project 365. While we were sitting on the veranda I snapped this photo that I just had to share this week.

The views of the mountains from this tea shop are just stunning.

Sunday we headed home to Carlos Paz but stopped several times so Katie and I could take photos. A little background: a few years ago they built a new road on the other side of Lago Los Molinos that's not as steep and winding as Route 5. I am SOOOOO thankful for it! There's still a section of Route 5 between Ciudad de las Americas (where the newer road starts) and Alta Gracia that always makes me a little nauseous from the many twists and hairpin turns but we can now avoid the worst of the old road to Sta. Rosa. Anyway, they finally finished the section that connects the newer road to Route 5 near Belgrano so you don't have to go through town; it's a straight shot as you can see here:

My mother-in-law would especially appreciate the new road and how much nicer the drive is into Cordoba (or Carlos Paz) now.

I failed to take any photos on Monday and Tuesday. Too busy having fun with Wally and Katie and TALKING. I even talked my way through a couple of almost disasters in the kitchen :-)  These are NOT soap suds!

It's milk that I was heating for the coffee and as it warmed I whipped it with a little battery-operated whisk I have -- but then I got side-tracked talking (!) and when I turned around the foam was about 6 inches above the pan. I turned off the burner and ran for the camera but it had already gone down several inches by the time I was able to snap this photo.

I completely and utterly failed to take any photos Tuesday night of the large group here to meet Wally and Katie and enjoy asado. 

Wednesday morning was a beautiful clear day so we took Wally and Katie up the chair lift to the top of the mountain so they could see out over the city. Had fun taking self portraits on the way up.

The last half of the week we were all a little tired of the excessive amounts of food we'd been consuming so for dinner began just munching on cheese and crackers or popcorn and apples or sliced cold roast beef and fontina cheese, along with tea or decaf coffee, as we kicked back and relaxed in the living room.

Our friends left today. It was very hard to say goodbye! I missed them before they even got past the glass doors.

It's been wonderful to have them here and we thoroughly enjoyed every minute of their visit. Now it's back to the same old, same old. *sigh*

Hope everyone has a blessed Easter tomorrow!

Flashback Friday - The (Frightful) Fashion Edition

Linda says a lot of us mentioned Easter outfits last Friday which inspired this week's Flashback Friday that's ALL about fashion:

What fashions were popular when you were growing up? (Any time from birth to high school graduation) What did you beg to wear? What style did you happily embrace that you now look back and think, "Ugh! Whatever possessed me to wear that? (Of course, pictures would be great - the more hideous embarrassing, the better!) Have any of these come back into style? What have you worn that you vowed you never would? (You can also include hairstyles in your walk down Memorial Fashions Lane!)

I have a feeling the answers to this one are going to be a hoot!

I don't remember much about the fashion of my childhood nor do I have a lot of photos from that time period. (And what photos we have we left in the states.) But one that sticks in my head is my sister and I standing on the road just below my Aunt Lizzie's house in Kentucky. We were probably 4 and 8 years old and had on dresses and big floppy hats and carried purses all made from the same floral material. The dresses were straight with little cap sleeves, hung to just above our knees,  and had no collars or ornamentation of any kind. The purses were tiny, had a really long chain strap and they snapped shut like most purses of that time period. I think we had different colors of the same floral print but the photo is in black and white and I really can't remember for sure.

[I only remember that one because a few years ago my sister and her girls and I went to visit Aunt Lizzie and we took a similar photo of my nieces in that same spot.]

I came of age in the 70s and remember well the bellbottoms, shirts with flared sleeves, platform shoes and crazy hair -- especially on the boys. We still lived in Michigan when I was in Junior High and I tried to be as fashionable as the other girls. I found this photo on flickr that brought back a flood of memories from that time period.

I wanted one of those long crocheted vests so much but I couldn't afford them. I really envied one friend whose mom was a talented knitter and crocheter and made her daughter several in different colors and patterns.

Everyone had a pair of bellbottom jeans...

(But I didn't fill my out nearly as well as this girl! LOL) I do remember having a nicer outfit with pink corduroy bellbottoms and a black ruffled V-neck sweater that flared at the waist and had ruffles at the neck and cuffs. I was so proud of that outfit! I also had a khaki pantsuit with bellbottoms and what I called a safari shirt, very similar to this:

My mom would not allow me to have platform shoes. That made me so mad! My friends had lovely shoes like these:

Later I thanked her for her foresight since those shoes were flat out dangerous! One of my friends literally fell off her extra high platforms at a school dance and broke her ankle in two places.

Just before I started 8th grade my mom took me coat shopping. But being a working mom, she had to just drop me off at the mall. I'd been saving my baby-sitting money and she had some to put toward the coat as well. I knew what I had to spend. I'll say that right up front. BUT mom made the mistake of dropping me off in front of the nicest department store in the mall. Having never gone shopping by myself I didn't have enough sense to know I couldn't afford to buy a pair of underwear in that store, to say nothing of a coat!

So I made my way to the coat section and found THE MOST BEAUTIFUL calf-length reddish brown suede coat with a REAL red fox fur collar. People, that coat was almost four times my budget. But I fell in love with it and HAD TO HAVE IT. I used all my money to put it on lay-away and then, smitten with remorse, spent the remainder of my time walking around the mall in a daze thinking, "What in the world have I done?!"

This was the style:

Now imagine it in rich red-brown suede with a lovely fox fur collar. In my defense, how could anyone resist? To say my mom was livid is putting it mildly. I took every baby-sitting job I could find, mom took on extra hours at work, and my step-dad (who was no longer even married to my mom) chipped in the last bit needed to get it out of lay-away before it got really cold. I think it was mid-December by the time I proudly (but sheepishly) carried it home from the store.

The really sad thing is, I only wore it two winters before I outgrew it :-(  Mom didn't let me go shopping alone for a LONG time!

We moved back to Kentucky in time for me to start high school and I adopted the comfortable "uniform" of jeans and t-shirts in warm weather and jeans and flannel shirts when it was cold. A lot of the girls dressed fashionably but I wasn't one of them. I discovered I much preferred comfort over fashion, and that hasn't changed in the intervening years.

Thanks Linda, for another fun walk down memory lane!