Caleigh O'Shea's Blog, page 15

Father’s Day, 2022

But no matter what’s said, there’s something like a line of gold thread running through a man’s words when he talks to his daughter, and gradually over the years it gets to be long enough for you to pick up in your hands and weave into a cloth that feels like love itself. ~John Gregory Brown, American novelist

For those of us who’ve lost our dads, Father’s Day becomes “just another day.”

No special meal with your happy family gathered around the table. No decorated cake or grilled burgers. No Hallmark cards. No gifts of goofy ties, men’s cologne, or hand tools.

Just another day.

I suppose everyone who loses a father thinks it happened too soon.

Wishes we hadn’t been robbed of time that others can still enjoy.

And in our minds, we only envision happy times with Dad. Peaceful times. Loving times. Supportive times.

We refuse to admit that sometimes, we had differences of opinion. Squabbles and even angry words.

No relationships are perfect.

Perhaps the hardest thing about losing your dad is missing the person your dad was. Missing his smile, the lessons he imparted even without consciously trying, the pride in his eyes at your successes.

The very first poem I ever wrote — way back before I ever thought of myself as a writer, way back around the time I was 10 or so — was a rhyme I wrote about my dad.

When I shyly showed it to him, he was enthusiastic in his praise — something every writer craves.

And often, from then on, when asked what he wanted as a gift for a birthday, Christmas, or other occasion, he requested a poem. Or a letter. Something personal, he’d say. Something only I could write.

Daddy passed before my debut novel was published, but I can’t help feeling he’d have been real proud to hold a copy in his hands.

And to know that in some way, he’d given his daughter the courage to chase the star he insisted was out there shining just for me.

Note: Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there! Remember, you might think what you do isn’t significant, but trust me, it is. Molding future generations is critical for our human race to survive.

Giving Out Smiles

If you don’t have a smile, I’ll give you one of mine. ~Author unknown

I think a very caring young person at one of the houses Monkey and I pass on our long walks must be familiar with this quotation.

If not, perhaps they’re just blessed with a happy personality and derive a sense of joy from making others smile.

One day, we noticed a lengthy sidewalk filled with pictures and suggestions in colored chalk. Monkey seemed impervious to them, but he doesn’t read (yet!).

I found myself smiling when I read them. See if you agree.

Our first challenge is a game of Hopscotch. When you finish, there’s a “Good Job!” message to encourage you:

We also find “What sound does a dog make?”, accompanied by a drawing of a puppy face:

Now we’re instructed to “Walk the Plank.” I’m guessing the squiggles represent waves of water:

Here we find the outline of two (very small!) shoes and the instruction to “Jump here 10 times”:

Let’s “Skip in the Line.” Probably easier for kids than adults, don’t you think?:

Uh-oh, starting to get harder! Time to “Jump and Twist”:

At last, we reach the end of the walk and what do we find? “Walk on the line” and “Step on the Puffs”:

I’m not sure, but I’ll bet many walkers in this neighborhood got a smile out of these chalked exercises. And I can’t help wondering how many glanced around before giving them a try for themselves!

Diet Inconsistencies

Some people have a foolish way of not minding, or pretending not to mind, what they eat. For my part, I mind my belly very studiously, and very carefully; for I look upon it, that he who does not mind his belly will hardly mind anything else. ~Samuel Johnson, English writer

Call me strange, but I’ve spent decades minding what I eat.

Long before it became popular, my mom transitioned us to a heart-healthy menu that I continue to follow as an adult.

But over time, I’ve noticed there are several things I just can’t eat. Some upset my stomach; others I don’t care for for a variety of reasons.

Here are my five top problematic foods:

1) Strawberries

It’s summertime, and groceries everywhere are advertising strawberries.

This luscious, juicy red fruit is packed with antioxidants, fiber, and vitamins. It’s among the most popular berry worldwide, flavoring everything from breakfast cereals and jellies to lunchtime salads, Jell-o, and healthy snacks.

But I can’t eat them.

It’s not the taste of strawberry that turns me away; it’s the feel of one in my mouth.

Those tiny seeds remind me of a man’s beard-stubbled chin, an image I just can’t overcome!

2) Orange juice

I LOVE oranges and eat one most mornings (despite their expense).

Oranges are chock-full of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. They’re low in fat and promote heart health while protecting against diseases like cancer and diabetes.

Wouldn’t you think orange juice would be a suitable substitute? Especially on mornings when you’re running out of time?

Not for me.

It upsets my stomach every single time I drink it. I don’t know if it’s the pasteurization, the extra sugar, or something else, but rather than fight my gut, I’ll just stick with the real thing.

3) Bananas

Another commonly-found fruit is the cheerful, yellow banana.

Packed with vitamins and nutrients that might help with weight loss, heart health, and digestion, bananas can be added to breakfast cereals, eaten as a snack, and used as a sugar substitute in baking. They’re one of the first soft foods introduced to babies.

What’s not to like?

Well, when I was in high school, our biology class had a segment on fruit flies (something to do with genetics, I think). We prepared a mushy medium of well-aged bananas so the flies would grow; then we were supposed to examine their tiny red eyes and stuff. Every morning, smelling the odor of rotten bananas in that classroom turned my stomach.

I’m surprised I passed the course.

Still, bananas look interesting, and occasionally, I’ll give them another chance. I peel one, bite off a small piece, and try to swallow.

Nope. It lodges in my throat and back out it comes!

4) Oatmeal

Gluten-free oats are high in vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants, leading to healthy benefits like lower weight gain, blood sugar levels, and risk of heart disease.

My son Domer has been talking up oatmeal for a while, so despite my never desiring to switch to it from cold cereals, I decided to see what the buzz was about.

Yuck, still unconvinced. While the flavor was excellent, the consistency was unpalatable and gummy. When I want oats, I’ll reach for the Cheerios box.

5) Iced tea

Whether you call it “iced tea” or “ice tea,” this refreshing beverage is drunk world-wide and is practically the regional drink of the American South.

Every refrigerator holds a pitcher (the sweeter, the better); it’s served in most restaurants and convenience stores; and I imagine it’s healthier than carbonated soft drinks.

But while I can drink hot tea to my heart’s content, I dare not even sip the cold version.

Why? It doesn’t agree with me. And I hate fighting stomach issues.

So … am I alone here? Anybody else have a picky stomach?

Just Biding My Time

While I might find pleasure in your approval, your disapproval will not deter me. ~Muriel Strode, American poet

I Monkey here.

Guess what I found in my back yard?

A bunny’s nest!!

Mama, of course, had a fit. She says only a stupid Mother Bunny would put her nest in a fenced back yard where a dog lives.

Especially when we have neighbors without fences or dogs, where a nest might be safe.

But I say it’s like Gotcha Day, a chunk of pizza, and some animal crackers all rolled into one!

And who am I to argue with a Mother Bunny when she wants to gift me her kids??

This started the other day, when Mama sent me outside around dinnertime. I didn’t come back immediately, so she looked out the window and saw me staring intently:

What is that??

Then she tapped on the window to get my attention:

Oh hi, Mama. Wha’cha need?

Hmph.

Doesn’t Mama realize backyards are inherently safe. And that means boring.

Who’d fault a wee Monkey for doing whatever it takes to keep things interesting??

So I ignored Mama and crept closer for a better look. And every time she’d let me outside, I’d be staring down that nest:

Watching … and waiting

Do you see that icky white wire fence Mama’s rigged up? That was last year’s response to my persistent attempts to gnaw the trunk of her Redbud tree.

Dumb ole tree. Didn’t taste too good, but it was fun getting Mama’s attention, hee hee.

I’ve told you Mama’s a sneaky one, right? She must not sleep at night.

How’d she know what I was thinking — about playing with the wee ones?

And why would she care? It’s not like they’re her babies!

Anyway, she took a hammer outside and left me watching at the window while she wrapped green fencing around the wire fence.

And I overheard her on the phone telling somebody she didn’t want me to get the baby bunnies, but she had to make it easy for the mother to feed them.

Houston, we have a problem

You see the situation, don’t you? Mama’s more worried about those babies than she is about me. And she keeps telling me the Mother Bunny is watching her nest, making sure I don’t get her babies.

I don’t see her! And I don’t smell her!

That tells me she’s nowhere to be found. Probably dropped the kids off at Monkey’s Spring Camp for Critters and has no plans for returning.

That’s just fine with me. One of these days, those wee ones will be old enough to pop out of that nest and then, Katy bar the door!

Potential playmates?? Or a tasty snack??

Fighting Families

Family quarrels are bitter things. They don’t go by any rules. They’re not like aches or wounds; they’re more like splits in the skin that won’t heal because there’s not enough material. ~F. Scott Fitzgerald, American fiction writer

Silence just might be
Worse than angry words.
At least with angry words
One has communication.
Silence is so … quiet, so empty,
Like the vast wasteland
Decried decades ago.

Still, it’s angry words
That wound so bitterly.
Angry words that scar,
Leaving hurt feelings
And bitter memories.
That cause rifts in relationships
And once said, cannot be taken back.

Family isn’t the place
For this type of insidiousness.
Family is where love should prevail.
Support, encouragement, and loyalty triumph.
And peace predominate.
At least, that’s the way it’s supposed to be.
Sad that too often it doesn’t happen.

Loss Magnified

There are things that we don’t want to happen but have to accept, things we don’t want to know but have to learn, and people we can’t live without but have to let go. ~Author unknown

My mom went to the hospital a few weeks ago, suffering from unexplained dizziness.

That might not sound too serious, but when you’re as old as Mom, it could be, so they ran just about every test they could, yet they still have no diagnosis.

And that’s not the worst part.

While she was undergoing one of the tests, they removed her jewelry and placed it in a denture box for safekeeping.

Afterward, they returned her necklace … but not her wedding band. A plain gold band she’s rarely taken off in more than 60 years.

By today’s standards, it wasn’t worth much. No diamonds or other gemstones. No engraving even.

Yet who can place a monetary value on such a sentimental item?

She and Daddy married after the Big War, and they didn’t have a lot of money set aside for fancy jewelry.

So I can’t imagine anybody wanting to take the ring. And now that Daddy has been in Heaven these past nearly 14 years, all it offered was solace to a widow who still misses her best friend.

I’ve spoken with hospital security. No ring was turned in.

I’ve spoken with a former colleague who now has a high post at the hospital. She’s determined to get to the bottom of this, but hasn’t succeeded.

They’ve retraced their steps — from Mom’s arrival at the emergency room, through all the battery of tests they administered, to her admittance for observation.

No ring.

How she got the necklace back and not the ring makes no sense. Remember, they were in the same little box.

The staff has checked the laundry, the floor, the machines. Anyone who had contact with Mom has been interviewed.

No ring.

Mom seems resigned to the loss. Perhaps she just doesn’t want to fight any more battles.

Especially since the ring won’t bring Daddy back.

But my sister and I are heartbroken. That ring was something we’d hoped to keep, to remind us of our parents and the love they had for each other.

“Jewelry” can be replaced, but nothing new means what this old wedding band did.

I’ve read horror stories of the personal items others have had go missing after a hospital stay. Things like wallets, cell phones, hearing aids, and, of course, jewelry.

And I’ll never understand it.

Doesn’t it make sense for institutions like hospitals to make a concerted effort to take better care of the people — and their personal property — that’s entrusted to them?

Planetary Conjunction

Whatever else astronomy may or may not be who can doubt it to be the most beautiful of the sciences? ~Isaac Asimov, American writer and biochemistry professor

Venus (left) and Jupiter, early morning sky, May 1, 2022, looking east

I guess I’ve always been fascinated by outer space.

The stars and far away planets — and the possibility, slim though it might be, of life existing there — are the stuff of the science fiction books I immersed myself in as a youngster.

And while my reading preferences might have switched to mysteries, I still find myself looking up, up, up — daytime or night.

Imagine my delight when I read that our solar system’s two brightest planets (Venus and Jupiter) would appear exceptionally close together April 30-May 1 — something astronomers call a conjunction.

Despite their close appearance, the two actually are 430 million miles (692 million km) apart! Doesn’t that just boggle your mind??

My research tells me it’s been since August 2016 that Venus and Jupiter have looked this close together — six whole years! — despite the fact that they generally have one conjunction per year. Still, you’ll have to wait until March of next year to see them snuggling in the sky like this again.

So get outside and enjoy the show because it won’t last long. Eventually, Venus and Jupiter will gradually pull away from each other as they continue their orbits around the sun.

A Quiet Spring

…they are as sick that surfeit
with too much as they that starve with nothing.
~William Shakespeare (English playwright, poet, and actor), Merchant of Venice

Empty bird feeders

Urged until the end of May

Because of bird flu

 

Note: This is a Haiku. Here’s the rest of the story.

Dog Egg Hunt Rehash

I may not be there yet, but I’m closer than I was yesterday. ~Author unknown

Monkey here.

It’s a challenge when you’ve got a sneaky Mama.

I think she stays up late at night, trying to outsmart me. And you know, sometimes she succeeds — but don’t tell her that.

She’d be impossible to live with.

Take this Easter holiday, for example.

A week or so ago, she took some of my kibbles and hid them around the house. She said she was trying to “warm me up” for our annual Egg Hunt.

“Warming” was a pretty good idea, considering it’s been so cold. But I’m just a little Monkey, and I had no idea what an “annual egg hunt” was supposed to be.

Still, it sounded like food might be involved, and I’m pretty stoked by food, so I played along.

At first, I didn’t get the hang of it. But Mama called out “Warm” when I got close to the treat and “Cold” when I raced in the other direction.

Hmm, okay.

And she kept reminding me to use my nose.

Eventually, my tummy was happy because I found the treats.

Mama was happy, too — because I wasn’t aggravating her and was expending some of my boundless energy, heh heh!

Then came Easter Sunday. When Mama got back from some place called “church,” she announced it was Egg Hunt time.

But then she hid my treats inside plastic eggs.

Sneaky, I tell you.

Seriously, Mama? You’re hiding them in the middle of my fetching balls?

Well, I raced around and around, checking the doors and hoping I could peek where she was hiding them, but Mama refused until she was ready.

Sneaky.

Doggone it, I’m just a little Monkey. Hiding treats in plain sight is one thing; tucking them inside plastic eggs is sneaky.

All I smelled was plastic, and trust me, it’s not a yummy scent.

But Mama persevered with her encouragement, and after I’d found all my treats, the hunt was over.

Is this one, Mama? All I smell is plastic, moss, and basket.

I guess it was fun.

Maybe I’ll enjoy it more when I’m a bigger Monkey … and she hides something good instead of kibble. Huh.

What do you think?

Happy Easter, Happy Spring

The first day of spring is one thing, and the first spring day is another. The difference between them is sometimes as great as a month. ~Henry Van Dyke, American author, educator, and clergyman

I’ve been waiting for a pretty day to capture some of Central Illinois’s Spring beauty, but alas! By the time that rolls around, all the good blooms will be gone and it will be 90 degrees outside!

So I’ve decided a nice walk around town in search of blossoms, Easter/Spring decorations, and such will have to suffice.

Let’s get started.

Oh, look — somebody’s decorated their lamp post with glittery Easter eggs and garland:

Hey, Easter Bunny, be sure to stop here — don’t you love the carrot growing out of the blue pot:

Here are some wild Violets:

And some Daffodils:

And I believe this is an Azalea:

In the next photo, somebody obviously planted some bunnies and now has a nice, colorful crop:

The face isn’t very clear on the next one, but I think it’s a statue of St. Anthony. Not entirely sure what’s supposed to be lost in the planting though:

I call the next one the Humming Tree. When Monkey and I passed beneath it, we heard a LOUD humming, looked up, and there were bees. Hundreds of them … and they were eagerly feasting on these sweet white flowers:

And these are blooming all over town:

It occurred to me that you might prefer a closeup of the first tree in this post. It’s my Weeping Cherry:

And just look at this Pink Magnolia blossom:

Happy Easter to everyone!I’ll be in Church much of the rest of the week, but I’ll get to comments as soon as I can.