Alert the fashion police...I've gone rogue!

I really was planning to get a haircut yesterday.  But I stopped and asked myself the question...WHY? Why do I want to subject myself to something I've always hated?

No offense to all of you with the cute, fashionable, shiny do's, expertly crafted, trimmed, colored, shaded, highlighted, curled or straightened, and maintained with gallons of salon products. You look great, I'm sure you're worth it, and you're helping to keep a whole industry afloat.

But WHY?  What really shapes our images of who we want to be, what (or whom) we want to look like, and for whom are we really putting ourselves through this?

And all those "products" we're absorbing through our scalp...better living through chemistry, or is it? I cringe when I think of all the perms inflicted upon me in the 80's and 90's, and I'm glad that, except for a few youthful experiments, I never got into the whole coloring thing.

My hair has gotten long. Some would say, TOO long for a woman of a certain age. Where did that notion come from anyway?  By letting my hair "go natural," more or less, I save myself a lot of time and trouble (and money) on maintenance, no trims, no "roots" to worry about, very little time fussing in front of the mirror. Clean, reasonably neat (just brush, or pull up into a clip when having it hanging interferes with an activity or otherwise annoys me), comfortable.  Not that I was ever a slavish follower of fashion trends, but those are the principles I have come to apply to clothing, too.

Freedom from the shoulds and musts of others' expectations gives us so much more head space to simply BE, and to explore other things that intrigue us and perhaps actually matter in the bigger picture. Life is short and we fritter it away on trends.

I trimmed my own hair.

Happy days are here again...

It doesn't take much. Give me a little sunshine, moderate warmth, and apple blossoms, and I'm a happy camper.

It took several days, but the new paint job on the picket fence is done. The wire fence is up around the vegetable garden, and the beds are ready for planting. WARNING: it's still only the second week in May. If you jumped the gun and planted frost-sensitive annuals anyway, COVER THEM UP THIS WEEKEND. The temperatures are going to take a temporary dip again, and yes, it's likely we will have overnight FREEZING temperatures Sunday-Monday.

I hope this doesn't mean another year of no apples for us.

It may be a little damp on Saturday, but it's Spring Cleanup and Recycling Day at our UU Congregation on Prendergast. Although Hands On Jamestown isn't until next weekend, this day was already on our calendar, and we have submitted our team and our project (which will include picking up litter in the neighborhood) to let the organizers know we're on board and doing our part in the community.

It's also the USPS's Stamp Out Hunger food drive day, so be sure to leave a bag of nonperishable foods by your mailbox for collection by your carrier. Locally, these donations will be used to help stock the food pantries of the Salvation Army and Joint Neighborhood Project. You can also make a financial contribution by leaving a check, with "Stamp Out Hunger" written on the memo line, in an envelope for your letter carrier to collect. Let's get in touch with our humanity and show some kindness to those who, for whatever reason (it doesn't really matter), are having trouble providing for themselves and their families. Our communities are stronger when everyone has enough.

After our cleanup chores on Saturday, some of us will be heading over to the newly restored Gateway Train Station to celebrate National Train Day.  In addition to the festivities and displays, the station will be open for tours, and those of us who missed the ribbon cutting back in October will have a chance to inspect those renovations we've heard so much about. Currently, the building serves as a hub for  the Chautauqua Area Regional Transit System (CARTS) junction, bus transfer station, a visitor information center and (supposedly) a site for occasional excursion train rides. To help support the station, the concourse is also available to host special events such as weddings, reunions and concerts. There are those who envision all kinds of future development, which of course remains to be seen, and then there are those who hope that someday passenger train service will be restored! 

Silver Linings Playbook is playing at the Reg this weekend.

There's Friday Night Comedy at the JSB Arena throughout this month. The Ironmen are in the playoffs, and while the games are away this weekend, they will be shown live at the Arena this weekend.

There is live music at multiple venues and art shows and a craft fair at the Fairgrounds in Dunkirk on Saturday and nature and something for everybody all the time. So don't stay at home in front of the TV and complain that there's nothing to do. This is your life. It's not a dress rehearsal. You have to be your own director. Don't wait around for someone else to do it for you.

LIVE! Love! Puppies!

May Day!

Gentlemen, start your engines. The perpetual droning of the lawnmowers has begun. It's one of those stupid things we humans do.

I keep chipping away at my lawn, little by little, and replacing it with more useful and interesting things. We have two new beds in the vegetable garden this year (one exclusively for herbs). The weather finally warmed enough for me to plant some seeds (cool weather things: snow peas, kale, chard). Now we have to get the wire fencing back in place before those seeds sprout. The rabbits are already queuing up with their little cafeteria trays. And the deer...well, let's just say that the dozen or so tulips I planted outside the picket fence last fall are unlikely to get to the blooming stage. Reminder to self: stick with daffodils. They hate those.

There was a small disruption in the force for the perennial garden last week, because our well head sits in one corner of it, and we were having some issues over the winter. The water pump was turning on too frequently, and we had the well guy out here a couple of times to install new valves. But it was only when the snow melted and the ground thawed, and we were able to see water seeping out of the ground and puddling in the driveway, that the source of the leak announced itself. Surprise!  So last Monday the backhoe came and dug up that corner of the yard (I took some plants out ahead of time to try to save them), and the pipe joint causing all the trouble was replaced. The guy tried to be considerate and not dig up more than he had to, though I'm just amazed at the number (and size) of rocks he managed to unearth in that little spot. So I'm having to rework the soil, which is okay, because I wanted to rework the design in that corner a little bit this year anyway.

It turned out to be kind of an expensive week, because the washing machine in our (now rental) house in Cleveland bit the dust. Since we rented the house with all appliances, it was only fair to keep them working, so we bought our tenant a new washer.   The joys of being a landlord!

This is always a busy time of year, and this year is no exception. There has been the film series at the college, and Tom and I did the Earth Day service on "The Importance of Less" at church, with some great musical contributions by Ylsa Guiffre.  Last Wednesday, Tom and I both had tables at JCC's Earthfest (he for the office of sustainability and I for the food buying club) and it was a lot of fun. BRENDAN: THEY HAD BABY GOATS THERE!!!

This week, Tom is taking the Cornell Cooperative Extension's Master Food Preserver course, so we'll have an expert in the family. If you need help with canning, pickling, freezing, or jelly making, let us know!  Master Gardeners and Food Preservers need to share their expertise with others in their communities.

Yesterday, our grandson, Logan, turned FIVE!  We were not able to be there in person this year, but we bought our own cupcakes from Wegman's and celebrated with him over the phone as he opened the presents we sent. We have not seen the kids since Christmas, which is too long, but that's reality when they live 500 miles away! We do plan to see them later this month, and the baby will probably be walking by then.

It was really unnerving having family in the Boston area during the bombing episode. They were not downtown that day, and in fact live about 30 miles outside of the city, but it was still too close, especially since there were so many unknowns right up until the time the second suspect was captured.  This was a dramatic series of events, and way over-exploited by the so-called news media. But, taken with the constant drip, drip, drip of other incidents (school shootings, including the in-class attempted gunshot suicide in Cincinnati; a grisly home invasion double homicide here in our quiet town; a murdered transgender woman dumped in a pond very near our former home in Cleveland; and the constant acrimonious shoutfest that makes up our public discourse), I can't help feeling that the wheels are starting to come off of our so-called civilization.  I know some people think we should barricade ourselves in bunkers and arm ourselves to the teeth to fend off the outside world, but I'm not that paranoid.  As always, I think it's good to acquire the skills and knowledge that will prepare you for any eventuality, and the security that comes from knowing you can handle whatever comes at you.  And you just keep moving ahead with your life, taking the reality checks in stride. The government isn't the enemy. Other people are not the enemy. Being unprepared and helpless is the enemy. And each of us should know how to fix that.

It's warm and sunny here this week, so I'm going to get the new stain on the picket fence before the plants start growing up on it. The dog likes to lay in the grass and just watch.  It's a tough life.