Over the hills we go.

We are getting ready to take my daughter to the airport so she can return home from her holiday stay with us. It was good to have her here, along with our lovely granddaughter. We didn't get to see our grandson - he went to be with other grandparents. Actually, we are taking her to our daughter's home that is near the airport, she will spend the night and leave very early in the morning. She will get to visit with another granddaughter and our brand new grandson.

It was a fun holiday. I got to talk to my brother, my aunt and my cousin. We had 4 generations of our family around the family. Lots of laughs and smiles, lots of food and stories, rooms full of love and warmth. That's the way real family is, and that is what the holidays bring. What a great time of year!

Whats in a word?

With every new child we face a new opportunity to teach. Very often the first lessons revolve around language.

"Ah ain't never seen nothin like that."

"It's 'I haven't ever seen anything like that'"

"You ain't either?"

"No, I mean ain't is not a word."

"It ain't?"

"It isn't"

"I never know'd that"

"Never knew that."

"You ain't?"

"I didn't"

"Me neither"

And life goes on.

In combat we called them "John Wayne Bars"

I made "Roman Army Flat Bread" for a snack during tomorrow's "eat-a-thon". You eat it with goat cheese and roasted red peppers. Instead of the oven, you cook it on the grill. It's made of spelt, a grain I ground into flour. You have to knead it by hand, it's so stiff it's easy to figure out why the Roman Army ate it...you need the arms of a centurion to move the stuff around. All in all, it came out pretty good...we'll see how it goes with American turkey tomorrow.

Would it be "ole turkey eye"?

There is a legend that Benjamin Franklin wanted our national bird to be the turkey. I don't know if there is any truth to it, but it seems that the turkey is a very smart bird and would represent us well.

OK. I wonder. Ever look into the face of a turkey? Would that be the look we want with the waving flag in the background? I dunno.

Also, if that HAD been the case, would we protect turkeys and instead eat eagles on Thanksiving? Would we say *when describing someone of questionable sensibility) "that guy is a real 'eagle'"....or, have a famous rock song "Fly like a turkey". Or, would we substitute eagle for beef in hot dogs when we wanted to eat healthy?

It's mind boggling. The list of possiblities is a real eagle shoot.

Pecking for dinner

I am sitting in a seat that overlooks our bird feeders. I have an assortment of feeders, designed to provide a variety of feeding methods and food. Its fun watching the birds arrive, as though they are waiting in the nearby trees for me to put out the food.

We have pretty regular visits from a couple of woodpecker varieties along with finches, wrens, and chickadees. Cardinals show up along with blue jays.

The woodpeckers own the suet. Sometimes a chickadee will have the audacity to peck away at it, but when the downy woodpecker show up, he jsut has to fly near the hanging package for the chickadee to move off.

It's hard to imagine life out there, 18 degrees at night. They don't have to worry about the market, the heat bill, or even the next grocery day. All they have to do is hope I see the feeder is getting low. And even if I do, somehow they find other sustinence until the next time I refill. Pretty amazing. A good thing to notice for this week of thanksgiving.

43 to 44

As our peaceful transition of government proceeds I stand in awe of how we do it. Even with the rancor and the blogs of insults, our leaders respect each others' roles in the process and do things in order. Each has their place, and the competition is what takes the sharp edges off the difficult task of governing this nation.

It isn't about democrats or republicans. It is about America. America the Beautiful. We always have a difficult task, we always have the seems-to-be-insurmountable problem at our feet. Whether the invasion of the British in our early days, the division of our nation in the middle, the imminent death of us all from the 50s to the 90s, we've faced the future with the sure knowledge that every 2 years at least part of our federal leadership must face their real employers - the voters - and nothing is a sure thing. And when they face the result, they take a quiet walk back home, no showdowns, no coups, it is about America.

Let us all look up to our flag and have that stir in our hearts. America the Beautiful, from sea to shining sea.

Are we really OK?

CNN has a story today about the "pregnant man". The headline of the story quotes his wife as saying "We are a normal couple". It reflects a Larry King interview where they described the pregnanacy and the process, etc.

So, here's the question. What is "normal"? The husband was born a female and has had alterations that include chest reconstruction and hormones. It has not included surgery "down there". The wife injected the male contribution (they had shipped to their house) into the female part of the husband, making conception possible. Wait a minute. The female part of the husband?

He is listed on the birth certificate first as father, then changed to mother, then back to father. Makes sense...because whatever he is she isn't and whatever he isn't she is. Normally.

In the end, they are listed as "parents". That's fair. It is too hard to decide, because the father is normally not the one giving birth nor is a female. So, in this case, neither fit the "normal" or "standard" definition.

What is normal? What differentiates a man from a woman?

Seems kind of basic, and a little obvious, that one of the distinguishing features of a woman over a man is the biological construction enabling childbirth.

And if we choose to make those changes to live the way we want, we are free to do so. But,

What is normal? Who decides?