National Lighthouse Day 2020

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Today is National Lighthouse Day and Snoopy knows how to celebrate as evidenced in the image of a Peanuts comic strip atop this entry).

I'm familiar with receiving that stare from birds visiting my garden when I have yet to fill my bird feeders or share my fruit with them (via plates placed atop an urban hedge (shelving) as well as a table.

Most likely anyone who has been around any animal knows "the lighthouse stare" as does anyone who has ever waited tables.

On another note, re lighthouses themselves, I love visiting them and two of the ones that I've taken pictures of can be seen are featured in the next set of images.

THE FIRE ISLAND LIGHTHOUSE VIEW ONE

THE FIRE ISLAND LIGHTHOUSE VIEW TWO

THE LITTLE RED LIGHTHOUSE

The Little Red Lighthouse is located in NYC under the George Washington Bridge, a bridge which is referenced in volume one of my three volume book series, Words In Our Beak.

MY BOOK SERIES

A Very Different Westside Story These Days (History in the Making)

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The copy of a PEANUTS comic strip atop this blog entry is from the 5/31/2020 post on the Facebook Page for the Charles M. Schultz Museum. The strip is from 1978 but was posted on the thirty-first  of May (a few days ago) to commemorate Christo, the artist Snoopy is speaking about here and included the FB entry include this explanation:

Charles M. Schulz met Christo in 1975 when the environmental artist, along with his wife Jeanne-Claude, were in Sonoma County working on the preparation for their installation art piece, “Running Fence,” a 23-mile, 18-foot high white nylon curtain that zig-zagged over the Sonoma County hills before plunging into the ocean at the Marin-Sonoma county line. Schulz attended town hall meetings to support the “Running Fence” concept during the planning stages and this began a friendship based on mutual respect and admiration that lasted a quarter of a century.
On November 20, 1978, Schulz memorialized Christo’s work in this Peanuts comic strip. Twenty-five years later, in October 2003, Christo and Jeanne-Claude gifted “Wrapped Snoopy House” [seen in the next image] to Jean Schulz, sharing that it was Christo’s conception of Snoopy’s imaginary doghouse. The work is on permanent display in the Schulz Museum.

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I first became acquainted with Christo's work when he and his wife put up their art installation known as "The Gates" in Central Park a number of years ago.

Sunday's Scenario: To be the Teflon OR to not be the Teflon? That is the question!

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Snoopy's got this, PARTIALLY.... and it is definitely how I felt this past Sunday when I was verbally attacked for my having Neurofibromatosis AKA NF.

BUT I do realize I don't have to "suffer these indignities," I most likely will have to be subjected to them over and over again...

And I will remind Snoopy, we don't have to "suffer these indignities," THAT part (suffering them) is in our control; as a friend of mine said to me upon hearing about my unpleasant encounter this past Sunday, "BE THE TEFLON."

With today being the last day of this month of May (which is the month set aside for NF awareness month) perhaps the wisdom of being the Teflon is truly noteworthy (at least for me).

Throwback Thursday: Thanksgiving 2019's Circumstances Compared to Now (April 2020)

THE MACYS PARADE SINCLAIR DINOSAUR 

What a difference a day or evening makes! Just a little over six months (on the 11-27-2020 which was the Eve of Thanksgiving) ago on the UWS in NYC, a number of folks were looking out their windows to cheer and applaud the balloons being blown up for the 2020 Macys Thanksgiving  Parade (an example can be seen in the image atop this post.

Thousands of people crowded the area to get an up close view of the annual Thanksgiving Eve event. At that time the biggest concern NYC seemed to have was whether or not the balloons would be able to fly because of the prevailing high winds.

Last night many NYC residents (like myself) looked out their windows or stood on their terraces (some can be seen in the next series of pictures) to participate in the nightly #ClapBecauseWeCare tribute.

A #ClapBecauseWeCare Participant

JULIE, THE WOMAN WHO TOOK PHOTO-OP S OF MY GARDEN
SEE THEM BY CLICKING HERE AND HERE 

A #ClapBecauseWeCare Participant

A #ClapBecauseWeCare Participant

GIUSEPPE AND TERESA
(He has taken a video of a session from his window.)

In doing so our concerns were much greater than that of would or wouldn't a Macy's ballon be allowed to "fly"?

Christmas is one week from today!

In one week's time, it will be Christmas Day and thanks to my gardening partner in crime (Juan V), unlike Snoopy, I didn't have to unplug anything to get my Christmas tree to be lit!

AND also thanks to David Denny (DD) for taking aerial shots of my garden!

It was very late at night (Saturday 12/14) or very early Sunday morning (12/15) when DD, his entourage and I did "The Drifters" thing and went "up on the roof..."

By the way, if you look closely at these images you will see that I was able to winterize my garden by wrapping every container.

Sunday's Sequel: Answering the Question, "How low can you go?"

In my Thanksgiving Eve entry here on  Blogger, I mentioned warnings that unusually high winds could prevail on Thanksgiving, causing the grounding of balloons who were set to "march" (fly) in the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Parade.

And as I said in my subsequent entry which I published on the day after the official holiday (where I featured the Macy's balloon who is rendered in the likeness of Chase from Paw Print), "Indeed, there were VERY high winds, but the balloons were allowed to participate..."

I concluded my aforementioned entry by stating, "THE QUESTION OF THE DAY WAS: 'How low can you go?' Stay tuned for photo-ops (in subsequent entries) re the answer to this question!"

Now, two days after I published that entry, I'm still not sure how low a Macy's ballon can go, but I am able to give you a pictorial accounting of what happened in the case of several of them.

In the first picture atop this entry, Sinclair's Dinosaur, can be seen heading south down CPW during this year's parade.

My Blogging Schedule Update

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It's the last day of September for this year of 2019 and I'd like to take this opportunity to announce a change in when I will be publishing entries here on Blogger from October 1, 2019 through the end of the year, December 31, 2019.

December 31, 2019 will mark my ten year anniversary of publishing this blog. I published my first entry on December 31, 2009.

My blog has gone in different directions since that time and on August 1, 2019, I announced in my blog entry the following: "Time continues to march ahead rather I do or not! I had planed to have submissions out as well as have videos posted by June 21! Now, today, is August 1st and neither are ready, although they are both mighty close.

Therefore before any more time passes or I enter the state of denial... that I can do everything, I need to accept that I can only do so much in a day, especially if I want to do it well. In accepting this fact, I realize I need to free up some time. The only way I see to that at this juncture is to adjust my blogging schedule.

As you may have noticed dear reader, for the past several months, I've published posts on a daily basis. However, during this time of my now being fully committed to the process of completing Imperfect Strangers as well as Steidl's proposal, I have decided to post every other day, except for Tuesdays (on that day I'll always post to keep up the momentum of my Tuesday's Truths series).

I will stick to this schedule (with the exception of an occasional extra posting on a non-scheduled day)  until the end of the month of September (2019)."

Now, on this last day of the month of September in the year 2019, I am thankful to report my pulling back on my posting allowed me to accomplish my goal of finishing my book, Imperfect Strangers (and sending it to a publisher who requested it) as well as posting a video update about the book which can be viewed within my Vimeo and/or You Tube Channels.

That schedule adjustment also permitted me to finish a book of my photography (working title It's The Little Things) and submit it to a publisher.

Beginning tomorrow, and until at least until the end of the year December 31, 2019 (at which time I will reevaluate my blogging schedule), I plan to return to the schedule I've been using in order to meet the deadlines of projects related to my books.

However, because the time period of October 1, 2019 through December 31, 2019, coincides with many occasions and events that I've written about in bygone years, I may publish posts on non-scheduled  days. At minimum, I will meet my commitment to the schedule of postings I laid out in August 2019: Every other day, except for Tuesdays (on that day I'll always post to keep up the momentum of my Tuesday's Truths series).

Thanks again for reading and please tuned!

In Honor of D Day...

... I've posted a strip by Charles Schultz atop this entry. There are few words for any anniversary of D-Day but Frances J. Turner found some and expressed them in a poem ("The Hour is Go") which is included in my in memory of D-Day post for 2017.

Wednesday in the 2019 Octave of Easter

Today is Wednesday in the Octave of Easter. And it is also Wednesday of Earth Week (since Earth Day was celebrated this past Monday. I've written about the event in prior entries here on Blogger.

This year, I'm honoring the official holiday a couple of days later with this poignant Peanuts Comic Strip featuring Woodstock doing the right thing. There is nothing I can add to Schulz's strip except refer you to bit of history re it, which may be found by clicking here.

Draw A Bird Day 2019

Today is Draw A Bird Day, a longstanding holiday which was created in honor of the dearly departed, Dorie Cooper, who died when she was a child. In bygone years, I have written about little girl and her "role" in the  creation of the holiday. 

Within some of the aforementioned entries, I've included a a copy the photograph atop this post that features one of the ways I was taught to draw a bird by using my hand as a model. In any event, it seems birds learn to draw humans in a similar manner, as evidenced in the cartoon directly below.

That being said, in terms of humans drawing birds, Charles Schultz often comes to my mind.

It's beginning to look a lot like Spring in my garden. (Tuesday's Truths WK 118)

For Snoopy, it is Woodstock returning from the other side of the doghouse that causes him to think Spring must be near, for me its the fact that my crocuses are poking their heads out from under their mulch that makes me think the season is truly upon us.

Birds & Baseball

According to the FB Home Page for the Charles M. Schulz Museum, where the PEANUTS comic strip atop this entry is from, Spring Training (for baseball) began yesterday. I confess I don't follow the sport now since Julia V has died in 2002 (seven years before my first post here on Blogger) Julia was a homebound woman who lived on the UWS and I visited her on a regular basis through a program sponsored by The Church of the Blessed Sacrament.

Julia was a baseball fan (understatement), therefore, in order to have something to talk about a topic she would enjoy I listened to coverage of the sport on the radio, followed the newspaper headlines and watch a few games with her. I didn't keep with the the sport after she passed, but, I do know that a few teams have a bird as their mascot.

56 Yr Old Peanuts Strip Speaks to me Today!

CONFESSION: I'm a hunt and peck typist which slowed me down in writing my three volume book series, Words In Our Beak.  If only I'd known Snoopy could type (as evidenced by the PEANUTS comic strip which is included with this posting and was published on this day of December 2nd in 1962); I might've asked him!