We’re waiting for a big rain event that is supposed to start this weekend. Meteorologists predict an atmospheric river, which is more common out West than in the Southeast. More than 3 inches are predicted, and maybe up to 10 inches in some places.
The frogs and insects who live in the swamp seem to believe a deluge is on the way, judging by their excited croaking and trilling. So I guess I believe it too.
We sure do need it. After Hurricanes Helene and Milton combined to flood this river last fall, the heavens clammed right up and barely deigned to yield a drop for months, plunging us into the worst drought in seven years. (I have noticed the biblical implications.)
The river is so low that our little Jon boat, pulled up to its customary berth on the shore of the lagoon below the porch, is stranded yards from the shrunken path of the river. Yesterday, I noticed some tracks in the mud from the water’s edge to the stern of the boat.
It’s kind of hard to make out in the photo, but there are claw marks on either side of a smooth track made by the creature’s belly dragging through the mud, which I figured were made by either an alligator or a very large turtle.
The creature came right up to the stern, and a closer look at the handprint-like tracks there tell me it was an alligator, not a turtle. So, it’s entirely possible a gator tried to make off with our outboard!
***
Tomorrow, my adorable mother-in-law is coming over for brunch. She lives fairly close by, and Bill will pick her up so she doesn’t have to drive in the rain or navigate the treacherous dirt road into the swamp.
I’m making some croissant-like ham and cheese pastries using frozen puff pastry sheets, some Buffalo wings, a lettuce-based salad, a fruit salad and cheesecake. Coca-Cola will be served.
I know this sounds like an odd combination of things, but these are her favorites. I am also making a Mother’s Day card for her — will probably draw a bird of some type on the cover since we are both fond of birds and birds are something I know how to draw.
I almost never buy greeting cards anymore. Can never find one that doesn’t make me cringe, either from the artwork or treacly sentiment within. Besides, cards can be such an afterthought!
One time my brother gave our mom a Mother’s Day card that was in Spanish. We don’t speak Spanish. He hadn’t noticed, even though he scribbled his name within. She never let him live it down!
So, this is what I’m up to this weekend. I will try to unplug from the outrage machine. (But talk about whatever you want.) What are y’all doing?
Open thread!
sab
How did you grow up in Florida and not learn Spanish?
Happy Mother’s Day.
Baud
“Te di a luz y no puedes encontrar una tarjeta de felicitación en inglés para mi!”
Betty Cracker
@sab: I have picked up enough Spanish to communicate the basics, but I’m nowhere close to fluent.
Happy Mother’s Day to you too! :-)
@Baud: Haha! (Had to use Google translate!)
MagdaInBlack
@Baud: Ouch.
MagdaInBlack
@Betty Cracker: Me too, on Google translate.
I am the only Anglo in my office, so Spanish is swirling around me all day. I am immersed, and it still ain’t sinking in beyond the very basic. My favorite parts driver is delighted when I say adios correctly. ” See! You’re learning !”
pluky
Lunch/Brunch sounds yummy! Except for the Coca Cola. I’m probably the only person born South of the Mason/Dixon line who doesn’t like cola flavored sodas.
They Call Me Noni
Oldest daughter and I are going to see Sinners today. Later this month when she has her next nail appointment she is treating me to a pedicure. My oldest grandson is taking me out to lunch tomorrow. We have always been very close and I learn so much from him and he says the same about me. So we swap knowledge. I teach him old things like how to handle your finances and he teaches me young stuff like how to navigate my new computer!
Your menu sounds divine and you are a very thoughtful DIL. I am certain the homemade card will be lovely and treasured.
Happy Mother’s Day.
lowtechcyclist
I’m terrible with languages. I survived three years of high school French, but that’s about it. Good thing I have other redeeming qualities, huh? ;-)
I’ll be headed down to the local farmers’ market in a few, to see what looks good. After that, who knows? It’s looking like a good day for a bike ride – sunny, high in the low 70s, low humidity.
Betty Cracker
@pluky: In my part of the South, we call all sodas “cokes,” as a generic term. My mother-in-law calls soda “pop,” but she specifically enjoys Cokes. ;-)
I also like Cokes, especially with a twist of lime and shot of rum. Cuba Libre!
SiubhanDuinne
Once when I was a little girl, I insisted vociferously that I wanted to choose and “buy” my own Mother’s Day card for my mom. My aunt took me to a well-stocked shop and I spent a long time inspecting the inventory and selecting the perfect card. Emblazoned across the front in elaborate script was the greeting: “Happy Birthday to My Darling Wife.” The incident became a family legend, and my mother kept that card all her life.
lowtechcyclist
@pluky:
I don’t dislike them per se, but I’ve just plain gotten bored with them over the years, like a song on ‘classic rock’ radio that you’ve heard a few hundred too many times. If I’m going to do a soft drink, I’ll go with root beer or Dr. Pepper.
Betty Cracker
@They Call Me Noni: Aww, that’s so sweet. I don’t think grandchildren are in the cards for us, but I do love learning from the young folks in my life. Happy Mother’s Day!
@SiubhanDuinne: Haha! I love that story!
BretH
Just told my wife if I forget tomorrow then “Happy Mother’s Day” in advance . We both detest Mother’s Day, Father’s Day and Valentine’s Day.
Gloria DryGarden
When I went for a visit to florida, I was warned, they spoke 3 languages, English, spanish, and Cuban. Because Cuban is different enough to be quite difficult to comprehend. And the Puerto Rican spanish I’ve been exposed to has been hard to follow, also, because they speak very fast, and have some odd pronunciations; a coworker explained it to me, as well as telling me the nice words I was using were not very nice, in her dialect.
all that to say, the spanish you might have learned in Florida is not the easiest version to learn.
Have a wonderful time with your mother in law. Hope she adores your art work, and your meal together.
Baud
@SiubhanDuinne:
Your aunt did you dirty.
narya
@lowtechcyclist: I’ve been doing Duolingo Spanish for almost two years . . . I find that I understand a whole lot more than I can speak (and not a lot of either, mind you), not least because I do not have a handle on verb tenses. Every now and then some German slips into my brain, because I took several years in high school and then had a to pass a language exam for my Ph.D. and picked German because I figured I could take an intro undergraduate class and get enough back to pass the exam. It’s weird to be looking for a word in Spanish and have it pop up in German in my brain
ETA: I tell my mother the one thing I won’t forgive her for is not teaching me Italian. She grew up speaking it, but of course that was a generation that wanted to Americanize. Her name was already foreign-sounding.
Gloria DryGarden
@SiubhanDuinne: that is hilarious! Laughing so hard…
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@Betty Cracker: I always thought “pop” was an exclusively Midwestern term. That’s what everyone is Michigan and Ohio called them anyway. When I got to my small liberal arts college and started mixing with the kids from New England I was introduced to the great “soda” vs. “pop” debate.
We argued that we’re in Ohio so the local colloquialism should hold sway but you know New Englanders, especially prep school New Englanders, they think their sophisticated ways are superior to everywhere else.
Suzanne
Mr. Suzanne is a fluent Spanish speaker, which is good, since that’s his job. ;) I can understand it pretty well (receptive) but I struggle with speaking it back (expressive).
Theres a lot of smart people here and I could use some advice…… anyone know of an effective weed killer that isn’t Roundup or otherwise terrible? I tried the salt-vinegar-dish soap thing twice, and the weeds laughed in the face of danger.
BretH
It’s weird, I took Spanish in high school and French much later (passable French for working in West Africa). But Spanish words come more quickly to my memory even though I never really learned it thoroughly. The only explanation I have is I was born in Peru (dad was in the foreign service) and my infant ears probably heard a lot of Spanish from my Ama and others.
drdavechemist
@Suzanne:
Flame! Our gardener uses a little propane or butane torch and just burns them out from cracks in the pavement and bricks. Not sure if that would be recommended for the middle of a lawn, but should be fine in a space where plants are well separated.
Harrison Wesley
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: That’s the Pennsylvania split: soda in Philly, pop in Pittsburgh.
oldgold
Today I am traveling to see my mom for Mother’s Day. She is a feisty 96.
Although she lives in a sea of red, she only refers to Trump as “That SOB.” I tell her to cool it, but she persists. The worst or the best, depending on your perspective, is when she recently spouted this to a MAGA friend – “You’d be living under a bridge if it wasn’t for the Democrats.”
She is a depression baby, who reveres FDR and apparently dislikes Lincoln, given she has pinched every penny for decades.
Baud
@oldgold:
What a fabulous mother.
AM in NC
@Suzanne: A couple of options: 1. Horticultural vinegar (much higher acid concentration than regular white vinegar) 2. Burnout commercial weed-killer (hort. vinegar plus clove oil). Both work best sprayed on a hot sunny day. 3. Boiling water in a spray rig, but that’s a pretty industrial-level solution (for Parks and Rec-type situations usually).
The vinegar and Burnout should be available at good garden centers. Although I hear Burnout may be hard to get recently.
mrmoshpotato
Mmmmmmmmm. I could dig a thunderstorm, but that’s always true.
Harrison Wesley
A friend texted me a news item about Trump denouncing expansion of broadband service in rural areas as ‘racist.’ And I see the House passed a bill renaming the Gulf of Mexico. Just another day in Paradise.
Suzanne
@drdavechemist: Hmmmm that’s an idea. The area I’m struggling with is on the side of my house, and the land slopes because it’s PGH, and so it’s covered in river rock. I don’t want to use anything nasty because there’s nice plants further down the slope. But flame might be a good approach.
raven
Packing for another Outer Banks trip. We have a charter Tuesday and the weather looks sketchy but I’ve got to do it while I still can. My wife has been out picking flowers for an event to teach kids how to make Mother’s Day bouquets!
MagdaInBlack
@Suzanne: Thank you for those two words. Like you, I understand the gist of the conversation. My coworkers mainly switch to Spanish when it will express their meaning better, and then explain to me what they said and why. I love them for that. All 3 are 1st generation born here, so they were the ones that translated for their parents
We have a lot of Latino customers, so that’s where I get to hear the long conversations.
Gloria DryGarden
@narya: when I learned spanish, I studied the verb conjugation charts in my excellent paperback U of Chicago spanish English dictionary. It has a great grammar and verb section in the middle. I used that daily, applying it to things I needed to say.
But also, I think it would be hard to really get up to speed in any language without daily practice, or actual immersion. My high school French teacher taught us to practice 15 minutes a day, and I made a game of it, using code switch, meaning a mix of L1, and the new language. I spoke w myself in French/ franglais during chores everyday, and somehow that stuff retained, and I could dig it out later, but I never learned to hear it. (High school German disappeared as I was away learning spanish. That German has some grammar I didn’t enjoy, 12 + words for “the.”)
Spanish though, came in after two months of solid immersion, refusing, except when necessary, to practice English with anyone, taking classes every day, and trying to speak in terrible broken sentences with a horrible accent. Which got better. Without immersion, or a lot of practice, plus intensive classes, I think it would be very difficult to get very far.
mrmoshpotato
Oh boy – outboard alligator zooming up and down the river.
Righteous! Righteous!
Suzanne
@AM in NC: Thanks for the suggestion! I have a good garden place a couple of miles down the road…. I’ll check it out. I don’t have a blowtorch, LOL. I could buy one!
Suzanne
@MagdaInBlack: I lived in the Southwest for so long that I basically got functional. Mr. Suzanne’s students are largely first-generation. Did you know it’s possible, if one is multilingual, to have speech or language problems in one language but not the other? The human brain is mindblowing.
NeenerNeener
@SiubhanDuinne: That reminds me of a birthday card my younger sister picked out for my father when she was a kid. The front said “Up Yours” and the inside had some comment that since another year had passed it was time for Dad to increase his age…”Up Yours”. My mother laughed about that for years.
narya
@Gloria DryGarden: A friend spent a year in grad school in Germany. He was already pretty fluent, but he also noted that the worst thing was a long, complicated sentence, with the verb at the end . . . and someone coughed over that verb. I’ve contemplated taking a class at one of the City colleges to force that immersion you’re talking about; 15 minutes a day of Duolingo isn’t enough. And thanks for the hint about the dictionary! I have one around somewhere, and I bet it has what I need in there somewhere.
They Call Me Noni
@oldgold: Your Mom rocks!
I wore my “Fuck Trump” sweatshirt a couple of weeks ago out and about running errands. It’s spelled out in flowers against a background of flowers so very subtle. One person did notice it and told me she found it offensive. I asked her which word offended her and she said “the first one” and I replied “well I find Trump offensive, but I’m fine with fuck”.
Gvg
@Suzanne: roundup is not terrible. It’s actually pretty safe. There were some lawsuits that should have been more about employers exposing workers to 1000 times the recommended amounts due to terrible safety practices according to my sister the doctor super liberal environmentalist with an undergraduate chemistry degree.
That said, nothing works on everything. As a plant nerd, I have found out that you have to start by identifying the specific weeds, then you decide how to get rid of them one by one. The weed killers that promise to fix everything easily are snake oil, of course. It’s advertising. People want easy and they are busy and don’t want to learn about weeds. I didn’t.
Next, are we talking about weeds in the lawn or weeds in flower beds, or tangled horrible thorny brambles or just stuff that has grown up somewhere and needs to be taken out? Different kinds of weed removal and techniques needed.
Also remind us where you are, and if it’s a lawn, what kind you have. For roundup, the climate and soil matter. Roundup persists more in colder climates with clay soil. In hot climates with sandy soil, it’s almost instantly neutralized by soil contact. Something about more microbes due to longer growing season….forgive me but I read the studies quite a few years ago. Most weed killers are worse than roundup which is why it’s used so much. But I think the widespread use has made people suspicious just because it’s widespread.
Geminid
I was looking up the sarcastic Israeli commentator Iris Boker’s twitter account and she had just reposted Trump and Marco Rubio saying that Rubio and JD Vance had brokered a ceasefire between India and Pakistan. Boker said she will wait to hear from India’s and Pakistan’s leaders before she believes it.
eclare
@Betty Cracker:
Yep, all sodas are Cokes. “What kind of Coke do you want?” is a real question.
The menu and card sound perfect.
Happy Mother’s Day to all.
SiubhanDuinne
@Baud:
Not at all. She paid me the great honour of acknowledging that even at age, what? four, maybe? I had agency to make certain kinds of choices. It was a very pretty card, I knew my mother would love it, she did, the end.
CaseyL
I took Spanish in high school, but never used it and never got beyond a basic level, even though I lived in South Florida for many years, which you think would cover the “immersive” part!
Decades later, on a trip in the Galapagos, I tried practicing Spanish speaking to the crew of the ship I was on. They were very sweet about it, encouraging me. And it was amazing how much came back, after nearly 40 years!
If I’d stuck around – jumped ship and sought asylum among the blue footed boobies – I might be fluent by now, who knows?
But I did not, and am not.
HinTN
@Harrison Wesley:
The SOB (I like that, yes I do!) wouldn’t know a rural area if it bit him on his big plush tush. This here part if the world could really use fiber broadband like they’ve got over there in Gig City and we’re mostly lily white folks.
RE: The pop / soda fandango, an old farmer, now looking deceased, told me 50 years ago that when he was young they’d go to the soda fountain and say, “Gimme a dope.”
eclare
@oldgold:
Go mom!
Harrison Wesley
@Geminid: The Guardian reports that Pakistani foreign minister says ceasefire is real.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
Flying to LAX this morning to meet a cousin and then one of her cousins (other side of the family) for a baseball trip. Seeing the hapless Angels on Sunday, then the Fucking Yankees of the West Coast™, mainly just to go to Dodgers Stadium, on Tuesday, then down to San Diego on Wed.
They’re going onto Phoenix for two games while I’m heading home because I’m not a “go to every ballpark” type of fan as the hapless Rockies will be there and I can go see real teams play them here in Denver with nothing more than a short bike ride to the ballpark.
eclare
Today’s photo, awwww! Dogs get so much pleasure out of simple things, like sticks.
Geminid
@raven: I hope it’s a good trip. Are you going out of Murrels Inlet again?
MagdaInBlack
@Suzanne: My estimator sometimes talks about how hard it was for her, as a child, to do that…the switching back and forth and getting it right. I can see how that might create some speech or language problems. Maybe? Mr Suzanne is the expert, I’m just tossing out a thought.
Gloria DryGarden
@AM in NC: do you think clove essential oil could be added to horticultural vinegar at home? I’ve tried the horticulture vinegar, and the perennial weed comes right back. We deal with bindweed out here, and have many discussions over it. Some use a flame thrower, others horticultural vinegar, others lay down cardboard with mulch on top, to take a break, and when the weed sprouts through, dig it out. I mostly dig mine out, which is labor intensive, and I collect the seeds to throw out.
Removal depends on which plant it is.
I hate to admit, but when I have used round up, or kilzal, or finale, all the same glyphosate main ingredient, I mix it triple strength from concentrate, and paint it on leaves, or carefully squirt it on, with newspaper all around , or I put a mass of the stems a and leaves into a clear plastic bag, and put the poison in there w the uppers, massage it, leave it for a few days. It’s a huge careful undertaking, wearing gloves, and long sleeves, horrible, and only for Canada thistle, and bindweed. ( buys a lot of time, and, well, it was a desperate invasion, and this was before we knew how bad it was.) Everything else can be pulled or dug out, including Malva, and dandelions. Some people only dig their bindweed out, and say it takes three years to finally get it.
with vinegar, you might buy a little time, probably have to redo it every few weeks. I don’t know about how the clove oil helps. Curious.
I don’t put rock down as mulch, because I know I’ll need to be digging…
Suzanne, I’ll be interested to learn what works for you.
JML
Gonna have sushi with friends today. Probably going to be bummed out on sunday; first Mother’s Day since we lost Mom. Sigh.
zhena gogolia
@eclare: Yes, it’s a great photo.
zhena gogolia
Okay, I was about to write off Hacks, but episode 6 got me back again! In tears.
Spanky
@Suzanne: There are torches specifically for weed killing, but I’ve found them to be pretty inefficient and not worth the storage space they take up (even though they’re not large, really). I’d give Roundup another look. If you’re not using it daily on a farm scale and use rubber/nitrile gloves and mind the wind, it’ll be safe.
Gin & Tonic
@Suzanne: I grew up bilingual and raised my kids bilingual, but am really looking forward to observing my new grand-daughter navigating tri-lingually.
sab
@Spanky: Safe for her, but not necessarily safe for the plants she likes down hill.
MagdaInBlack
@Gin & Tonic: What a fortunate child to grow up with 3 languages, and what a fortunate grandfather to be able to see it happen =-)
Gloria DryGarden
@narya: in spanish, there are three verb forms. The er and ir verbs conjugate the same, the ar verbs are only slightly different. And all those irregular verbs, are the ones you use all the time, so it becomes known with practice, much like a fingering exercise on a musical instrument. You really need the u if Chicago (eng-sp, sp- eng) dictionary. It’s the best one, of the paperbacks, or it was at that time. I learned so much from that. It didn’t have words for pumpkin, or bassoon, or blueberries ( there Is no word in spanish for them) but nearly everything else you might want to say, it’s in there.
yeah, German. 2, or three of those big compound verbs at the end. Der die Das. And the trouble of plurals in so many different irregular ways, and getting the adjectives to agree.. yikes. I git used to some of it in class, but lost it all the next year while I was forgetting English, and laying in spanish.
Betty Cracker
@zhena gogolia: (not for @zhena) SPOILER ALERT for those who haven’t seen ep 6… Read no further! You’ve been warned!
(for @zhena) I was so relieved they didn’t kill off a corgi! They’ve been telegraphing a coyote attack for weeks, and I dreaded it! Lol!
NotMax
Weekend oddball diversionary listen from the grab bag of Old Time Radio. All told these ten collected episodes run over four and a half hours; suitable for dipping in and out at leisure.
First broadcast in 1951 and 1952, The Lives of Harry Lime — a series of “prequels” to 1949’s The Third Man, set hither, zither and yon. Orson Welles doesn’t miss a beat as a crackerjack voice actor.
(The later episodes in this random compilation aren’t as cringe-y chauvinistic as is the first, but those were the times.)
BellyCat
@SiubhanDuinne: I love this in so many ways!
Gloria DryGarden
@Spanky: and if you turn the sprayer to a narrow stream, and create ways for it not to all over the place, and you bring pruners with you, so if any gets on a nearby plant you can cut off the part that got some, before it absorbs.
and wear a bandana over your mouth, and don’t get it on your skin.
saying all that, there are times I still might use it again, but triple strength. And oh so carefully.
unless it’s a plant you can dig.
out in utah, they struggle with tamarisk. The teams use flame throwers, but it’s not simple, there’s more to it.
frosty
@narya: I took four years of French in high school and Ms F and I are now starting our third year of Spanish over Zoom and out of nowhere French appears. We’ve had a running joke. He asks me what day it is and “vendredi” pops out then I have to dig for “viernes.”
@BretH: That’s a good theory but it doesn’t apply to me. Maybe it’s that the first foreign language you learn is the one that sticks.
New Deal democrat
@BretH:
This is probably exactly correct. Infants have the ability to sponge up all vocal sounds. After a year or two, that ability atrophies and the toddler can only sense those sounds it has already heard.
it is why Japanese, for example, lose the ability to differentiate between the sounds of “l” and “r” after several years, unless they are re-exposed to the sounds before the window closes at puberty.
Gloria DryGarden
@sab: that’s the thing. You don’t want other stuff to get damaged.
last time I used my triple roundup, I covered the ground, ( cardboard) laid the weed stuff on top, got it wet in chemicals, then in a week, I dug it all out, dead roots and all, to not leave the chemicals in the ground. I still had to leave it fallow a year, stuff grew there, but not very well. The package says can’t grow tomatoes there for 30 days, but I think it was an understatement.
Gloria DryGarden
@frosty: I’ve had that crossover between French and spanish, too. Sometimes it’s funny, other times a cognate doesn’t work, but there are many words almost the same…
frosty
@Gloria DryGarden: I got tired of flipping through our workbook to look up the conjugations for irregular verbs so I made a cheat sheet.
Set up a spreadsheet, laid out the pronouns in rows and in the columns put present, preterite* and future. I fit 21 verbs on a single-sided sheet of paper. It’s a running joke in class when I pull out the cheat sheet, but it’s working! Next step is to study them and quiz myself until they’re memorized.
*Really? They couldn’t just call it past tense?
New Deal democrat
@narya:
Japanese has the same issue with verbs at the end. Now, Japanese *writing* is an abomination of a mixture of Chinese characters (with three or four totally different pronunciations), two systems of Japanese syllables, plus some use of the Roman alphabet, plus both Chinese and Arabic numerals.
But Japanese spoken grammar is easy, if you just remember that after the subject you completely reverse the word order from English. So, “Johnny went to the store” becomes “Johnny store to went.”
With the added twist that negatives come at the very end of the verb. Which leads to some Japanese humor about salarymen nodding along and smiling as the manager at a company meeting explains that processes are running well and goals are being met . . . Followed by NOT!
On the brain being strange, I found that spoken Japanese was too fast for me usually, but then I would hear a perfectly understandable version in my brain, like an afterimage, several seconds later!
eclare
@JML:
That is tough, I’m sorry.
Nukular Biskits
Good mornin, y’all.
That big rain event passed through here yesterday. While we did need the rain, we didn’t need THAT much.
eclare
@zhena gogolia:
Good to hear! I’m waiting til I can binge them all to start season four. BTW according to the show’s creators, season five will be the last season.
eclare
@Betty Cracker:
Thanks for the spoiler alert, I read no further!
eclare
@New Deal democrat:
I’m from the south, sometimes spoken English is too fast for me!
sab
@frosty: When my family moved to Ohio from Florida I was twelve, and had had Spanish classes all through elementary school. In Ohio they switched me to French.
Fortunately my first French teacher was Madame Garcia, who was trilingual. She would ask me a question in French, I would respond in Spanish, and she and the class would laugh.
geg6
@lowtechcyclist:
Same. But I also took two semesters of French in college. I still can’t speak it. LOL!
Suzanne
@sab: Yeah, that’s the issue….. I’m worried about my downhill stuff. I planted roses and a Japanese maple tree and an arborvitae and lilac. I’ve been pulling the weeds manually, but it’s difficult to get in between the river rock to get the small ones.
Quiltingfool
I studied French in high school and I enjoyed it. My teacher said I had the “ear” meaning I could speak French without sounding American, I guess?
I took a Spanish class in college. When I had to do recitations in class, I noticed the instructor and another student (who was 1st generation Mexican) looking a bit puzzled; instructor asked me if I had studied another language. I told her I studied French, and she and the other student smiled and nodded. See, I was speaking Spanish with a French accent!
I also took one year of German in high school. I could not get a handle on grammar. Reminded me of a “Pennsylvania Dutch” joke: “Throw father down the stairs his pants.”
Nukular Biskits
@eclare:
LOL! I resemble that remark!
Betty Cracker
@JML: Condolences for your loss.
For me, the first few years were hard, but with time, the joy of good memories outweighed the aching sense of loss. I hope you find that equilibrium too.
Currants
Thanks for this, Betty Cracker. I especially love your writing about your environment. You evoke such clear images there’s no photo necessary, but your photos always add to the tale. What a pleasure!
Quiltingfool
@eclare:
Tell me about it. My friend dated a guy from Long Island. Took me a month to understand him, he talked so fast.
Suzanne
@Gin & Tonic: That’s awesome. My nephews and nieces are growing up hearing their mom speak Lithuanian to them! I love it.
Suzanne
@Quiltingfool: Hey, I resemble that remark. LOL.
Nukular Biskits
I took only one year of Spanish in high school but, for some odd reason, it stuck with me, although I had no one to converse with until my first business trip to San Diego years after school.
And, during trips to Japan, I managed to pick up some a few Japanese word and phrases, although I’d never call myself fluent by any means. I did have a Japanese woman tell me once, in perfect English, that my Japanese was pretty good. LOL.
The really amazing thing to me is that truly multilingual people can switch between languages without even thinking about it. My high school Spanish teacher was Portuguese and, when we callous yutes got on her nerves, she’d start yelling at us in a mix of Spanish, English and Portuguese, all interwoven.
One more thing: I’ve found the brain (or, more specifically, mine) goes to a “default” language setting if you’re immersed. After a long trip to Japan where I really tried to speak Japanese, I spent several weeks in San Diego, where I always try to brush up on my Spanish. I found myself answering in Japanese questions that were asked in Spanish … but not English. WTF, brain? LOL.
They Call Me Noni
@eclare: I just finished binging all four seasons. Took about a week and now I am anxiously awaiting season 5.
Quiltingfool
I’ve been working on a commission quilt. Lots of appliqué, (cats and flowers mostly) which means lots of cutting out bits of fabric, fusing them, and now — sewing them down!
Quilt will be a combination of pieced blocks and appliqué blocks.
I just hope it won’t look like a hot mess. I have had high hopes for a quilt, and when it’s done, I don’t like it. Those are donated, and the recipient seems to like it, thank goodness.
Denali5
I have been making some progress with Duolingo in Hungarian. It does take daily practice. I figure that even though my granddaughters have learned to speak English from their father and from videos, it is only fair that l learn at least basic Hungarian. Most of the words are not remotely similar to English, as it has roots from Asia rather than Latin. So, a challenge at my advanced age.
eclare
@Quiltingfool:
I am sure it will be a piece of art, like all of your other quilts.
geg6
@Suzanne:
My sister got some kind of pet/people friendly weed killer and she was pleased with it. I don’t remember the name but I am seeing her later today. I’ll try to catch up with you later and give you the info.
geg6
@Harrison Wesley:
Exactly.
Quiltingfool
@Suzanne: Honestly, I was intrigued with regional accents. Growing up in western Missouri you didn’t hear other accents, well, except for the Northern Arkansas accents of my mother’s relatives.
What I found interesting is that folks from the St. Louis area have a different accent than in the western Missouri area. They have what I call an eastern accent.
Also, not all Southern accents are the same, they are very regional. A convenience store clerk was talking to me, and I asked her if she was from Kentucky. She looked surprised and asked me how I knew that. Told her she had a Kentucky accent.
BeautifulPlumage
Up early to go donate platelets then off to the local Tesla Takedown. No mom day for me, but Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms here!
lowtechcyclist
@They Call Me Noni:
I listened to all four seasons just the other evening. But given how long Vivaldi’s been dead, I’m not expecting a season 5. ;-)
Quiltingfool
@eclare: Thank you! I wish I had the ability to draw my own appliqués instead of using other people’s work, but I know my limitations!
What fascinates me is all the quilt patterns for sale that are, of course, copyrighted, but are patterns that have been around for decades. I bought a quilt encyclopedia so I could look up the patterns and learn the original names. Lots of my quilt patterns are from the 1920’s – 1940’s.
Almost Retired
On our way back to LA after visiting my Trump-loathing 91 year old mother. We arranged for some in-home help and managed to convince her it was her idea.
She has lived in a barely purple city in a very red state for thirty years. She’s buried three husbands (alibis supplied upon request). She has no intention of leaving her friends and coming back to California to “live in some over-priced shithole assisted living elder gulag” (she has rather strong opinions about assisted living).
So we’re doing what we can to keep her there. Plus her vote counts for more in Kansas.
geg6
@Quiltingfool:
Ha! My high school French teacher was from Italy. When I got to my college French class, the professor asked me why my French sounded Italian. Was I from Italy? So I had to explain how that happened. My French professor was from Belgium. She worked hard to correct my accent. Unfortunately, she apparently changed it to Belgian. The French people I met later in life basically told me to quit trying to speak French since the mix of accents made me unintelligible.
YY_Sima Qian
@Geminid:
@Harrison Wesley:
It’s official, much to the relief of the world:
& no, neither Rubio or Vance had much to do w/ it:
Let’s see if it holds.
eclare
@Almost Retired:
Good for you and your mom! Yes, that is a strong opinion, to put it mildly.
Gretchen
My grandson goes to a French Immersion charter school. They recruit native French speakers from former French colonies in Africa to teach there. He’s in first grade and has a perfect accent – he gets impatient with the rest of us when we try to speak to him in our clumsy American accents. All his little first grade papers – colors, numbers, shapes – are in French. They have one English class a day. I wonder how the new visa regime is going to affect all the African teachers.
Gretchen
@Quiltingfool: What’s the name of your Etsy shop? I can never remember when I go to look for it.
Baud
@YY_Sima Qian:
Stop trying to deny Trump his Peace Prize.
Betty Cracker
@Currants: You’re kind to say so!
I’ve been thinking of starting a side project, on Substack or a similar platform, exclusively for memoir-type content, stories about the swamp, my nutty relatives, etc.
If I do, I wouldn’t stop posting that type of stuff here, but I’m thinking a separate site like that might be a good place to assemble the type of stories that could be of interest to my family someday. (Without all the contemporaneous political ranting, which of course I will probably be compelled to do as long as I’m able.)
It will probably never happen because I’m super lazy, but if so, I will share a link with you guys. You’re family too. :)
New Deal democrat
@YY_Sima Qian:
When I heard that a deal had been reached, that is what I suspected. Without Big Brother USA to step in, the two countries both got cold feet and decided they had to work out a deal directly. Only afterward did they inform T—-p and Rubio. And of course T—-p nonetheless took credit.
BTW, I saw your response last night, and it was appreciated.
—
Totally OT for this, but I am curious if Chinese characters are typically spoken with only one pronunciation in any dialect (e.g., Mandarin, Fujianese), or whether like Japanese they have totally different pronunciations depending on what word they are used in.
YY_Sima Qian
Meanwhile, more drama from Seoul:
The conservative & increasingly reactionary PPP is imploding, mere weeks before the election to replace Yoon. While the Left in South Korea has its own issues, I strongly prefer it to the reactionaries.
Jean
Awesome plan. I love the menu especially my favorite Coca-Cola. Have a wonderful day. I so enjoy your commentary. Happy Mother’s Day.
eclare
@Betty Cracker:
I would love to see Tales From the Swamp! The Halloween pest dress up story is a classic.
Chat Noir
@Betty Cracker:
Oh, me too! When Deborah listened to her voice mail from Josefina and she said, “Don’t forget to lock the doggy door,” I cringed because I figured something bad was going to happen. I love that Deborah’s corgis are named Cara and Barry!
And looks like we get more DJ in next week’s episode!
raven
@Geminid: No, we’re going out of Oregon Inlet!
karen gail
Roundup is a poison! It damages the soil; yes, it depends on what your soil contains.
If you apply roundup to a garden your crops will no longer be considered organic; it doesn’t matter for most people but you can’t sell food crops as organic nor can a farmer who specializes in organic sell or be certified.
I don’t use the stuff, but then I can’t safely walk down the aisle that contains herbicide and pesticides without getting ill.
One thing about the farmers who use Roundup; in order to have a good crop after using herbicide they have to plant GMO crops that are tailored to tolerate Roundup. I have also seen what those fields are like when extreme moisture or drought prevents crops from either being planted or growing. Nothing grows, no weeds that first year but no ground cover. As grandfather said, “you don’t plant food where weeds don’t grow.”
suzanne
@geg6: I would appreciate it — THANK YOU!!!
karen gail
I took high school German, enough stuck that I could mostly understand ex’s family when they spoke German to each other. One of the Aunt planned a family trip to Germany and was warned that the German spoken in Wisconsin wasn’t close to German spoken overseas; so she took classes.
What I really wanted was in the Latin class, but that was boys only; who knows why the teacher insisted that girls couldn’t learn Latin or Greek since he also taught that. I have no idea if I could have done better but since have problems with hearing sounds in English that has prevented me from coming close to understanding Spanish or any of the “romantic” languages.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@Harrison Wesley: Makes sense, Western PA is basically where the “East Coast” becomes the upper Midwest.
I’ve lived in the DC area now for more than 20 years and have made my peace with soda, though I’m still more likely to use the full name – soda pop – to get that pop in there.
YY_Sima Qian
@New Deal democrat: The vast majority of Chinese characters have single pronunciations, regardless of the dialect (or Sinetic language, if one must). However, there are characters that have different pronunciations carrying different meanings depending on context, & that is also true across dialects/Sinetic languages. This is a legacy of the millennia of evolution of spoken Chinese dialects & languages, rise & fall of regional prominence, foreign introductions, & cross-pollinations between literary/classical Chinese & the vernaculars. In literary Chinese, there is also the tendency of using a less obscure character to represent a more obscure character of similar (at the time) pronunciation &/or similar written form, for aesthetic effect, until over time the substitute character had replaced the more obscure original, while taking on the additional pronunciation, too.
If it was not for the common ideographic script largely independent of pronunciation, as well as the continuity of the literary/classical Chinese language being lingua franca for the elite, I think Chinese would have splintered much in the same way as Romance, Germanic, Slavic, Indo-Aryan & Dravidian language families, which is inevitable for languages w/ phonetic scripts. Indeed, that is how the spoken Sinetic language family had evolved & splintered over the centuries.
Sure Lurkalot
I took 5 years of French in middle/high school and was well immersed but dropped it. Always a regret. I relearned to read it well enough to pass an exam my graduate degree required.
I was a classics major so learned Ancient Greek and Latin in college. I was fairly proficient (reading, they’re “dead”) but switched to a business career. I remember much less than I’d like to admit but I know a boatload of finance terms and calculations.
My mother has been gone for many years now. I know she loved “us kids” but she was also selfish so it didn’t come through very well. We were never very close. My MIL didn’t like me as a mate for her favorite son, until she was near death. Maybe this is why when I wasn’t able to have children, I was OK with it. But I do envy people who have/had great relationships with their moms.
Gin & Tonic
@Denali5: Hungarians are from Mars.
rikyrah
@JML:
The first everything without them is hard🥺
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone 😊 😊 😊
Geminid
@YY_Sima Qian: Iris Boker reposted Trump’s ceasefire statement as breaking news, but she is a very cynical person and does not take anything Trump says as true just because he says it. It’s more the opposite.
Boker’s analysis of Trump’s upcoming visit to the Gulf States demonstrates her cynical point of view well. It’s long (15 tweets), but here is an excerpt:
Geminid
@rikyrah: Good morning! I hope your weather in Chicago is as nice as it is in Virginia. It’s a pretty day here.
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
YY_Sima Qian
@Geminid: Saw claims on X that Trump is planning to recognize the Palestinian State. Not sure what to make of it. Trump is just unconventional enough to do something like that, but that Palestinian State he recognizes probably does not include Gaza, & even in the West Bank is probably not in a form to be viable a state, & he is not going to defend that state against predation by Israel. Just an empty concession to secure a deal w/ the Gulf States & get is Nobel Peace Prize?
On another topic, saw a headline earlier that the PKK in Türkiye is about to lay down its arms & disband. That is genuine progress!
Harrison Wesley
@YY_Sima Qian: Whatever their flaws, both countries have saner and more intelligent leadership than Merka.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
A trade observation:
The light rail to the Denver airport goes thru proverbial “light industrial” areas. One of these stretches is a shipping container lot where they come in on trailers. Normally there’s not a lot of containers in there, normal amount reflecting the ebb and flow of…shipping.
Not this morning. It was packed to the gills. I’ve never seen it like that before although I don’t remember what it looked like during The Plague Times when nothing was going nowhere.
Given the reports we see from the West Coast, it’s interesting to see how it manifests itself elsewhere.
Harrison Wesley
@Betty Cracker: Are you interested in playwriting? That and short stories are where I make my pathetic attempts at art. Alas, the world doesn’t recognize my genius….
Geminid
@YY_Sima Qian: We’re just gonna have to see what this purported recognition actually means. But someone recently posted a map of a proposal attributed to Trump during his first term, when he was working on the “Deal of the Century.” It included Gaza.
One thing about the Gulf States though: they know the Israel/Palestinian problem much better than you, me and Trump put together, and they have much more at stake. Trump’s not going to be able to shine them off with an unrealistic plan.
Glidwrith
@Suzanne: I’ve learned to use a small spade to loosen the dirt and move the rocks aside and the other hand to gather the weeds.
YY_Sima Qian
@Geminid: No, no one in the region is going to accept a Palestinian State that does not include Gaza.
YY_Sima Qian
@YY_Sima Qian: Whaddaya know, the South Korean PPP party members voted down the coup attempt by party leader to replace the presidential candidate elected by the party members:
Radio Dave, Lurker
Ha! Love this thread, here’s my share: Mrs. Radio and I are going to catch a quasi-chamber performance of Turandot at our favorite hangout here in our small Central FL town. The opera will be performed in English by a cast of 3 singers and a pianoforte. This is the first opera for both us, we are looking very forward to seeing it. Bonus: local food trucks offering up varied fare prior to the show. I’m hoping the ice cream truck that serves spumoni is there!
They Call Me Noni
@lowtechcyclist: 😂 Very witty
New Deal democrat
@YY_Sima Qian: Thanks for the explanation.
As you probably already know, the Chinese characters borrowed in Japan typically have a “Chinese” and a “Japanese” reading that are entirely different.
For example, ⻝ , the character for “food/eat” is pronounced either “shouku” or “tabe” depending on what word it forms a part of.
And let’s not even talk about the character for sun or day, 日 , which has at least *8* totally different pronunciations, depending!
Thanks again.
Jeffro
@They Call Me Noni: you’re gonna LOVE “Sinners” – amazing stuff
Ruckus
@lowtechcyclist:
Here in SoCal it is supposed to be 96 today.
It’s 81 at 9:15 AM. Humidity is 46% One will go UP, one will go down.
I do believe that it will achieve the expected temp. And expected humidity.
frosty
@Betty Cracker: My mom took a class in writing an autobiography when she retired, with chapters by topics instead of chronology. Your substack sounds like one or two of the chapters she would have written. I need to do something similar. I’ve started one thing – the On The Road posts are pictures and texts of my travels.
TerryC
I loved Spanish when I took it in college the second time I went to college, after flunking out the first time and then Vietnam. I could pronounce it quite well but not quickly. Could hardly understand spoken Spanish at all, but read the entire, original, unexpurgated Spanish text of Don Quixote de La Mancha with full comprehension.
Couldn’t do it now but I remember my amazement at how much funnier many of the scenes were in Spanish as opposed to translated into Ingles.
NotMax
Quiltingfool
“‘Yes, but not in the South,’ with slight adjustments, will do for any argument about any place, if not about any person.”
– Richard Usborne
(Phraseology suggested for debates quipped by its coiner as “a formula that lets me off the boredom of finding out facts and retaining knowledge.”)
NotMax
Oh drat. Fix.
@Quiltingfool
“‘Yes, but not in the South,’” with slight adjustments, will do for any argument about any place, if not about any person.”
– Richard Usborne
(Phraseology suggested for debates quipped by its coiner as “a formula that lets me off the boredom of finding out facts and retaining knowledge.”)
Kayla Rudbek
@Suzanne: diluted bleach, maybe?
Ruckus
@Gloria DryGarden:
Most of us learn one language as a child and take some sort of class learning it reasonably correct. I had a neighbor who was retired but had worked for Standard Oil and made trips around the world. He was late 80s early 90s over 60 years ago so this was an amazing person to sit and talk to. I really at the time didn’t understand all he told me about his work but it was very interesting to him and his wife talk about their lives when they were younger. This man spoke, if I remember correctly, 5 languages and all of them fluently. I tried to learn some Chinese from my ex, who was born here but her parents english was either very minimal or non existent. My heritage is partially Italian and I’ve taken Spanish and Latin – long story – not worth listening to – but the concept of learning different languages can be extremely difficult for some – like me. It takes a lot of effort to store the concept of any language and the vocabulary. And I believe for it to work well you have to have a segment of your brain for each one. And teach your brain how to store each word within reach of the other languages. IOW connections from your major language to each other. Some seem to do this effortlessly, others not so much. I believe it depends on how our brains are structured and how we operate them. Things many do very well and others almost not at all.
Ruckus
@Nukular Biskits:
Is it ever the right amount?
To me it’s either not enough or far, far too much. But then I live in SoCal so take that into account for most of my concept of weather. I have lived in snow country and while it is pretty and all, I prefer the water to stay in it’s place. Or at least within reason.
Anonymous at Work
Any alligator that can crank start an outboard and work the throttle has earned that outboard.
Origuy
I took Spanish in school a long time ago and I’ve been doing Duolingo for over a year to refresh it. I’m up to level 7 of 8, which gets into things like the subjunctive tenses and lots of idioms. It’s mostly Mexican Spanish, though, and I’m going to Spain in August. So I’m also doing the Pimsleur Castilian Spanish, which gives a lot of listening practice and includes the Castilian “lisp” and some of the different vocabulary.
I’m also doing some videos in LIngopie, which is a site that lets you watch videos in different languages and click on the close captioning to get definitions. Some of the videos come from Netflix. I watched a documentary about a Spanish cult from the 70s and 80s called Edelweiss. It was pretty ugly; some of the leaders are still in prison.
NotMax
@Anonymous at Work
Obligatory
.
:)