Laura Benedict's Blog, page 43

Close Encounter of the Buzzing Kind

You know I would never get this close to bees if I weren't a sucker for a good photo op. The lavender in my garden is blooming like crazy. The herbs--except for the basil--adore this hot, dry weather. Seems the bees like it, too. Better that they pollinate the lavender than drill holes in my porch. If anyone has ideas about how to discourage carpenter bees, let me know.

The Avengers: My Superhero-Size Confession

First, I must give a shout-out to my own young superhero, Bengal, who celebrated his last day of sixth grade today. He did a lot of growing up this year, and is still the smartest, funniest kid I know. I'm always proud and happy to be with him, and can't believe I deserve to have such a wonderful, challenging, handsome, silly, and generous child. Go, Bengal!
The last day of every school year is special at our house. We always try to do something fun to celebrate. Today, the plan was to go to J...

Furry Genius-Guy

Sometimes, you just need a picture of one of the best dogs in the world. This is our Scouty. He's fiercely protective of us, and barks up a storm, yet he doesn't have a mean bone in his oddly-assembled doggy body. Can't you tell?


Yesterday, I was Skyping with Opera Poodle who is away studying in Quebec. When Scout came into the office, wanting me to throw the ball (again), I had a brief exchange with him. Opera Poodle observed, quite fairly, I thought, that I have a more intense relationship w...

Farewell, House. Hello, Bliss.

Last night I did something I don't often do--I stopped everything I was doing to watch a television show. I put the boy to bed, poured a glass of wine, liberated a box of dark chocolate, raspberry cookies from the cupboard, settled on the couch, and watched the final two episodes of HOUSE.

I came to the show as a huge fan of Hugh Laurie, an English comedian, musician, and actor. For HOUSE, he transformed himself into a deeply emotionally crippled yet brilliant American doctor. There were sever...

It's not nighttime yet, but it's dark outside my window. ...

It's not nighttime yet, but it's dark outside my window. We haven't had any significant rain here in So Ill for well over a month. The trees are finally moving in the wind. They'd been standing still so long, I was wondering if they'd forgotten how. It's a good thunderstorm--a summer thunderstorm. Nothing like the violent things that plague us in the early spring.

I threw a shower today for a lovely young woman from church. Between motorcycle class, work, and general mom stuff, I had little ti...

Laura Goes to Motorcycle School--Day5: This Is How It Ends

I so wanted to come home today with A +++ on both my motorcycle skills and written tests. But it wasn't to be. While I missed only a single question out of fifty on the written test, I scored a 25 on the skills test--5 points over passing.
We spent our first hour doing stop and start, weaving, and swerving exercises, took a break, and were allowed another twenty minutes to practice various things we wanted to work on. I spent most of my time doing the Figure 8 U-turn in the tiny box. On my sec...

Laura Goes to Motorcycle School--Day Four: Asphalt Revisited

Bursting into tears is so embarrassing. I did it a lot as a kid, but later learned--in therapy, no less--that tears disconcert people, and maybe need to be reigned in from time to time. Today I saved my tears for a 10 minute break after my dismal performance on the Honda 250 that I was assigned around 8:00 a.m.

If the little Kawasaki 125 I rode yesterday and Tuesday was a spirited little pony, then the Honda 250 is a saddled dragon with a nasty temper. There were times today when the thing tri...

Laura Goes to Motorcycle Class: Day 3 -- "Hey, you're doing it!" he said.

Day 3. I figure it's time for you to meet my bike--well, not my bike, but the one supplied by the motorcycle safety course. It's a Kawasaki Eliminator 125 (EL 125). Wikipedia tells me it's an entry-level cruiser that's been in production for a few decades. Pretty, isn't it? The other bikes are Hondas or Suzukis that look much more like dirt bikes with street tires on them. I think I was assigned this one because it's not very tall, and neither am I. I'm convinced it weighs more than the...

Laura Goes to Motorcycle Class: Day Two--Injured Dignity

Here's a picture of me in my motorcycle gear on a happier day.





Today was not a particularly happy day--though it happened to be the day I first got to drive/ride a motorcycle all by myself. (Except for the time Clark Combs sent me careening down the street on his bike. I think I got about 100 ft before I laid it down. But that was in 1979.)

It started off reasonably well. We all got there early and suited up and stood in a line for review as though we were going off to battle. The bikes were al...

Laura Goes To Motorcycle Class: The First Day

Yes! Today was the day. I successfully attended Day One of a motorcycle safety class at our Local University. If I can keep it together the rest of the week, I'll have my motorcycle license this coming Friday.

Why would I want to do such a thing? Many people have asked me that question, and I'm still asking myself hourly. I desperately wanted to ride my own motorcycle when I was in my thirties. But my children were quite young, and while the desire was there, my mothering instinct overcame my...