Shoring up...our shoreline

The erosion along the shore of Lake Erie has been considerable over the last few years. With the rising water level and the storms and high winds that are inevitable throughout the year, all property owners along the whole length of Lake Erie lose a lot of beach and cliff wall annually. We have been talking for the last year or so about options for our primary lake access area and this week our conservative, yet people-friendly plans became a reality. 

Thanks to our multi-talented building maintenance guys, we replaced the old broken and bent wire fencing with a natural wood 5' high fence, including new wiring on one side of it. Earlier we had new cement steps put in to replace the eroding ones--all the way down to the beach area. It's nothing fancy or overdone, just  a simple way to continue to enjoy the great blessing we have of beach and lake--for us and for our guests. 

COVID in everyday life

At St. Benedict Child Development Center they may not always have success
getting their one and two year olds to wear a mask,
but they surely model it for them--
both on the staff and on the "paper children" in the halls!
These are so cute.

Our local library branch is back in full swing--thank goodness.
That's my car, the blue one on the right. After I parked and got out
I got laughing right out loud as I noticed that the drivers
 of the red car and the white car and I had (subconsciously??) 
practiced social distancing in our parking practices!

Social butterflies' migration

This week I'm like a (COVID-19) social butterfly. We had to celebrate a special occasion, so we chose the new Courtyard Marriott right on Presque Isle Bay. Here are two indoor shots of Erie's latest bayfront ediface:

But, of course, we were outside on the beautiful deck 20' from the bay itself, in 80 degree weather, with a lovely breeze off the water. The prices were reasonable, the sandwich platters (which we all chose) were delicious and even with social distancing and masks when appropriate, the evening was great. That fluttering you hear is my social butterfly-ness floating by!

Discovery!

This weekend we discovered Lake Erie Community Park...a new place to us. It's located about 20 miles west of us, right on the lake, outside of the little borough of Lake City. The land along the lake is on cliffs out there and the people of the little towns there have a real gem of a community recreation area. Here are a few photos to give you an idea of this lovely place. It makes me wonder, how many other places, especially along the lake, are there that I've never visited or even known about?

In one area they have a playground. Here are some photos of playground equipment I never saw before. My favorite? the curved teeter-totter!

Snob

I have become a snob. Yes, it's true, embarrassing, yet honest. In the last 2 weeks I have started three books and put them down, taken them back to the library after a chapter or two. I have become a book snob. I only want to read books where the plot doesn't sound vaguely familiar and gets more familiar as it goes on; nor ones that never use a word that I don't know (e.g. I have to read Martha Grimes with a dictionary or my phone nearby to look up a word per chapter: "antimacassar"); nor ones that aren't excellently written--as in, "I'm no artist, but I know what I like." I'm not a great writer but I know good writing....and it spoils you terribly. I cannot tolerate drivel anymore. Give me Anne Tyler and Margaret Atwood and John Hart, for example.

Now, being a science and math major in both undergraduate and graduate school, I never read many classics, so the whole area of the classic English language books (are they really that good?) is unknown to me. But I don't feel a strong pull, a longing to read them now. There are great writers among us today and I am on a mission to find them!

BTW, it's a small cloth placed over the backs or arms of chairs, or the head or cushions of a sofa, to prevent soiling of the permanent fabric underneath. Congrats if you knew that. I didn't.

P. S. Clever joke writers, especially of word play, count in my snobbery, too.

Click to enlarge.

Native Americans

The 14th is the feast of Kateri Tekakwitha, the 17th c. Native American saint of the Iroquois tribe. Her story is one of the blending of her Indian heritage with her adopted Christianity. The awareness of her feast this week made me want to tell you of the Netflix series I've been watching lately.The title is Longmire and you might call it a contemporary Western. It has similarities with the Westerns I watched on TV as a child, but it has put down the Hollywood parts, the simulations and stereotyping, and picked up what is the reality, so they say, of life in a small rather cowboy-like town in Wyoming today. Here they blend the use of cell phones with rodeos and ranchers, which leads to the weekly crime adventure as Walt Longmire is the county sheriff. But the reason I like the show is twofold: First, the sheriff is a wounded hero, grieving the murder of his wife while trying to be a good man in a world of crime and flawed humanity; Secondly, a Cheyenne reservation is located right beside the town and every storyline includes interactions between the white world and the world of the Cheyenne people of the area. Lots of Native American philosophy and history are interwoven in the scripts. In this time of "Black Lives Matter" it fits in well.

Memories of Montserrat

The president of our Federation is here for the upcoming weekend and this evening she shared "home movies" of her visit to 12 monasteries of Benedictine women in Spain. Some of her scenes brought back fond memories of the year I attended the AIM International meeting at Montserrat, the world-famous Benedictine abbey of men about 40 miles outside of Barcelona. Built on a large cliff in the mountains, their primary ministry is to be of service to pilgrims visiting their Black Madonna. Thousands and thousands of people a year drive, ride the train or come up via cable car to spend the day visiting the beautiful church, go to confession (part of the pilgrimage requirements), hear the boys' choir and see the Black Madonna statue.

We also spent a day in Barcelona, staying in the guest house of a small group of Benedictine sisters. Nearly all of the communities are small (5-15 members) but very welcoming and wanting to hear all about the monasteries in the USA. We had to share the same information 10 years ago when we visited. Another memory of Barcelona that just came back to me is the remembrance that it was Thanksgiving Day when we were there, and we "celebrated" by going to McDonald's along a waterway and enjoying eating American!

If you go to southeastern Spain, the Barcelona area, I highly encourage you to look into a side trip to Montserrat! Incredible.

The lure of a playground

When Joan C. wrote the book Two Dogs and a Parrot she sent it out to a dozen or so "readers" before the final edit was due to the publishers. She asked not so much for their copy editing but more for their general reactions and suggestions as a "typical reader." I still remember one man's response which was, in fact, the exact type of thing authors want. He said, "I was never a animal lover or owner of a pet, nor could I understand why people go crazy over their dogs and cats, but after reading this book I now understand why people feel so much affection and are influenced so strongly by their pets. Your stories were entertaining and yet the lessons learned through their interactions with their animals were simple, deep and powerful."

On that note, here is my morning animal sitting subject once again, engaging in the pure play that animals seem to revel in. I must take a lesson! For full effect, click Full Screen.

Watch the tram car, please

We have a number of "temperature" stations, but here's my favorite. It's right inside the front door of our former motherhouse where I work, but which is also the home of a marvelous child development center. Thus explaining all the procedures and processes that have recently appeared. Here's the best:

It looks like an ipad attached atop a 4 foot pole--I guess that's because that is what it is! Many of us come in that way and are now using it to take our daily temp. You step up to it and immediately a female mechanical voice with absolutely no inflections begins with, "Please adjust your position for temperature screening" at which you move an inch or two forward or back. Only to hear, "Please adjust your position for temperature screening." Now back if you had moved forward or forward if you had moved back. And again, "Please adjust..." If you've ever been to the Jersey shore boardwalks and heard that automated voice that comes from the boardwalk trams, something like, "Watch the tram car please, Watch the tram car" or "Mind the gap" or whatever they say. It's the same gal, the same voice. The first time I kinda' panicked and move four or five times before it finally showed "Measuring." Which is followed by showing your temperature and another voice message, "Normal normal, normal."

We are having such fun!

I tried to take a photo of the working screen, but ended up taking a temperature measuring selfie!