Under the Stars

Look folks, no wires! Ha ha!! Tonight Jeffrey and I sucessfully set up a wireless network. It was Jeffrey's birthday today, and I recently bought a laptop because I got a good deal on it through the employee purchase plan that my company has with Dell. Jeffrey's been wanting internet connectivity for the computer in his room, so I told him we'd get him a wireless card and router for his birthday. We went to Circuit City and I thought the boy was going to explode, he was so excited. We got the first two computers hooked up with no problem. His computer, however, was a challenge. After about an hour on the phone with tech support, we realized that the security settings that I used wouldn't work with the card we bought for him, so I reset them and voila! We were up and surfing the net. Luckily, the laptop was easier to reconfigure. The first thing we did on the laptop was to let Addison play a game on PBS kids. He likes the one with Sagwa, where you click on the fish in the pond. I decided that the next thing I would do would be to post to the blog. I thought since my very first post was about pooping, it would be most appropriate to do it in the bathroom. Relax, though, it's such a beautiful night that I changed my mind and I'm actually out on the deck with absolutely no wires and a "very good" internet signal. Amazing, isn't it?

I remember taking computer classes in Elementary school when you still programmed on punch cards on a computer the size of our living room. Now I have this tiny computer with no wires out on my deck in the middle of the night- and I can write this for people all over the country. I am sitting here with the cicadas and the stars and the faint white glow of the screen. Wow. It's amazing. How lucky am I? I wonder what Addison will have to work with when he is my age.

Tonight I just wanted to mention that I am thinking especially about Travis with his broken jaw, Nicole in Iraq, Heather going off to Germany, Sugar (the dog with neurological issues) and all of the family that is spread out all over the damned countryside and beyond. What an amazing and brief adventure life is. I hope this posting finds you all healthy and happy. Blessings,
Erika

The Great Butterfly Hunt

Below are some pictures of the house, some flowers and Saturday morning's impromptu butterfly hunt. I woke up and realized there were butterflies everywhere, so the kids and I went out to take some pictures. You can click on them and get a larger image. Enjoy!

Be VEEEWWWY quiet... 

we're hunting butterfwies 

Fierce tiger of the jungle... or rather, fierce tiger of the unmowed grass and weeping cherry tree 

Fierce tiger enjoying the sun, with chin in the air, and no idea the camera is clicking 

Some kind of orange butterfly 

Two butterflies near porch 

Another swallow tail 

Closeup of swallow tail 

Swallow Tails on Coneflowers 

House from the front 

Gerbera daisy in a pot on the deck 

Cactus dahlia (flower measures about 6 inches across) 

Follow Your Bliss

BILL MOYERS: Do you ever have the sense of... being helped by hidden hands?

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: All the time. It is miraculous. I even have a superstition that has grown on me as a result of invisible hands coming all the time - namely, that if you do follow your bliss you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. When you can see that, you begin to meet people who are in your field of bliss, and they open doors to you. I say, follow your bliss and don't be afraid, and doors will open where you didn't know they were going to be.

* * *My general formula for my students is "Follow your bliss." Find where it is, and don't be afraid to follow it.

~Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth, pp. 120, 149

Cedar Waxwing  

Waxwings

The other night, we were taking a walk near the stream that runs through Robesonia when a bird swooped out of the trees in front of me, snapped up a bug, and flew back into the trees. I noticed that it had some yellow on its tail, and didn't look like anything I'd seen before. I walked into the trees and was treated to the sight of a cedar waxwing, which is something I don't usually see in our area. As I watched him swoop over the stream for bugs, I was delighted to find that he had a mate with him. Further downstream were more waxwings. I don't know if they were young ones hanging around with their parents, or mating pairs, but there appeared to be more than 2 pairs. I was able to walk in a little closer and get a really good view of a couple of these beautiful birds as they performed bug-hunting acrobatics. Above is a picture of a cedar waxwing for those who may never have seen one (this is not the actual bird we saw in Robesonia, but a picture borrowed from another website).

Done!!

Well, I am finished with my MBA. At least, I think I am. I'll feel much better when I get the piece of paper that says I'm cleared for graduation. This last class (Finance) was exhausting. After the test, a few of us went out to Applebee's for a well-earned drink. They were having some kind of trivia game. They were asking questions like, "what is the object that measures wind speed?" The four of us looked at each other, bewildered. If it didn't have to do with Finance, it wasn't computing at that point. Then the guy started another question, "How do you calculate..." we all perked up. Calculate? We can calculate! "...the area of a circle" he finished. We all looked at each other, again. Circle? What the $#%!! is a circle?! Is that the round thing on the Financial calculator? It was at this point that we realized we'd been spending too much time on Finance, lately. It felt weird to do work around the house this weekend without worrying about getting it done quickly so I can study. It feels good to sit here and just know that I can play on the computer for a change, instead of work on it. At the same time, I feel a little sad and I wonder, "gee, what am I gonna do NOW?"

I spent some time with my flowers today. The coneflowers are blooming and it looks like the black-eyed susans are ready to go, too. I am trying those giant dahlias this year. I have several cactus dahlias that are already blooming. I have a red hibiscus that gets flowers the size of dinner plates, and I thought it died, but a couple of days ago, I noticed some new growth. It's really late this year, but it looks like it's surviving.

Jason got stung by a yellow-jacket last week and had a bad reaction to it. He told Addison he got stung. Addison looked serious and said matter-of-factly, "yeah, I got stung by a jacket before. I was sick for a week and had to go to the dentist."