Bring Me That Horizon

Welcome to jennyweber dot com

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Home of Jenny the Pirate

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Our four children

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Our eight grandchildren

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This will go better if you

check your expectations at the door.

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We're not big on logic

but there's no shortage of irony.

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 Nice is different than good.

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Oh and ...

I flunked charm school.

So what.

Can't write anything.

> Jennifer <

Causing considerable consternation
to many fine folk since 1957

Pepper and me ... Seattle 1962

  

Hoist The Colors

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Insist on yourself; never imitate.

Your own gift you can present

every moment

with the cumulative force

of a whole life’s cultivation;

but of the adopted talent of another

you have only an extemporaneous

half possession.

That which each can do best,

none but his Maker can teach him.

> Ralph Waldo Emerson <

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Represent:

The Black Velvet Coat

Belay That!

This blog does not contain and its author will not condone profanity, crude language, or verbal abuse. Commenters, you are welcome to speak your mind but do not cuss or I will delete either the word or your entire comment, depending on my mood. Continued use of bad words or inappropriate sentiments will result in the offending individual being banned, after which they'll be obliged to walk the plank. Thankee for your understanding and compliance.

> Jenny the Pirate <

In The Market, As It Were

 

 

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Contributor to

American Cemetery

published by Kates-Boylston

A Pistol With One Shot

Ecstatically shooting everything in sight using my beloved Nikon D3100 with AF-S DX Nikkor 18-55mm 1:3.5-5.6G VR kit lens and AF-S Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 G prime lens.

Also capturing outrageous beauty left and right with my Nikon D7000 blissfully married to my Nikkor 85mm f/1.4D AF prime glass. Don't be jeal.

And then there was the Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-200mm f:3.5-5.6G ED VR II zoom. We're done here.

Dying Is A Day Worth Living For

I am a taphophile

Word. Photo Jennifer Weber 2010

Great things are happening at

Find A Grave

If you don't believe me, click the pics.

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Dying is a wild night

and a new road.

Emily Dickinson

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REMEMBRANCE

When I am gone

Please remember me

 As a heartfelt laugh,

 As a tenderness.

 Hold fast to the image of me

When my soul was on fire,

The light of love shining

Through my eyes.

Remember me when I was singing

And seemed to know my way.

Remember always

When we were together

And time stood still.

Remember most not what I did,

Or who I was;

Oh please remember me

For what I always desired to be:

A smile on the face of God.

David Robert Brooks

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 Do not regret growing older. It is a privilege denied to many.

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Keep To The Code

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You Want To Find This
The Promise Of Redemption

Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not;

But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God.

But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost:

In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake.

For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.

We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;

Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;

Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.

For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.

So then death worketh in us, but life in you.

We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I BELIEVED, AND THEREFORE HAVE I SPOKEN; we also believe, and therefore speak;

Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you.

For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.

For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.

For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;

While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

II Corinthians 4

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THE DREAMERS

In the dawn of the day of ages,
 In the youth of a wondrous race,
 'Twas the dreamer who saw the marvel,
 'Twas the dreamer who saw God's face.


On the mountains and in the valleys,
By the banks of the crystal stream,
He wandered whose eyes grew heavy
With the grandeur of his dream.

The seer whose grave none knoweth,
The leader who rent the sea,
The lover of men who, smiling,
Walked safe on Galilee --

All dreamed their dreams and whispered
To the weary and worn and sad
Of a vision that passeth knowledge.
They said to the world: "Be glad!

"Be glad for the words we utter,
Be glad for the dreams we dream;
Be glad, for the shadows fleeing
Shall let God's sunlight beam."

But the dreams and the dreamers vanish,
The world with its cares grows old;
The night, with the stars that gem it,
Is passing fair, but cold.

What light in the heavens shining
Shall the eye of the dreamer see?
Was the glory of old a phantom,
The wraith of a mockery?

Oh, man, with your soul that crieth
In gloom for a guiding gleam,
To you are the voices speaking
Of those who dream their dream.

If their vision be false and fleeting,
If its glory delude their sight --
Ah, well, 'tis a dream shall brighten
The long, dark hours of night.

> Edward Sims Van Zile <

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Freedom is a fragile thing and is never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation, for it comes only once to a people. Those who have known freedom and then lost it, have never known it again.

~ Ronald Reagan

Photo Jennifer Weber 2010

Not Without My Effects

My Compass Works Fine

The Courage Of Our Hearts

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Daft Like Jack

 "I can name fingers and point names ..."

And We'll Sing It All The Time
  • Elements Series: Fire
    Elements Series: Fire
    by Peter Kater
  • Danny Wright Healer of Hearts
    Danny Wright Healer of Hearts
    by Danny Wright
  • Grace
    Grace
    Old World Records
  • The Hymns Collection (2 Disc Set)
    The Hymns Collection (2 Disc Set)
    Stone Angel Music, Inc.
  • Always Near - A Romantic Collection
    Always Near - A Romantic Collection
    Real Music
  • Copia
    Copia
    Temporary Residence Ltd.
  • The Poet: Romances for Cello
    The Poet: Romances for Cello
    Spring Hill Music
  • Nightfall
    Nightfall
    Narada Productions, Inc.
  • Rachmaninoff plays Rachmaninoff
    Rachmaninoff plays Rachmaninoff
    RCA
  • The Pity Party: A Mean-Spirited Diatribe Against Liberal Compassion
    The Pity Party: A Mean-Spirited Diatribe Against Liberal Compassion
    by William Voegeli
  • The Art of Memoir
    The Art of Memoir
    by Mary Karr
  • The Gorgeous Nothings: Emily Dickinson's Envelope Poems
    The Gorgeous Nothings: Emily Dickinson's Envelope Poems
    by Emily Dickinson
  • Among The Dead: My Years in The Port Mortuary
    Among The Dead: My Years in The Port Mortuary
    by John W. Harper
  • On Writing Well, 30th Anniversary Edition: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction
    On Writing Well, 30th Anniversary Edition: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction
    by William Zinsser
  • Green Hell: How Environmentalists Plan to Control Your Life and What You Can Do to Stop Them
    Green Hell: How Environmentalists Plan to Control Your Life and What You Can Do to Stop Them
    by Steven Milloy
  • The Amateur
    The Amateur
    by Edward Klein
  • Hating Jesus: The American Left's War on Christianity
    Hating Jesus: The American Left's War on Christianity
    by Matt Barber, Paul Hair
  • In Praise of Stay-at-Home Moms
    In Praise of Stay-at-Home Moms
    by Dr. Laura Schlessinger
  • Where Are They Buried (Revised and Updated): How Did They Die? Fitting Ends and Final Resting Places of the Famous, Infamous, and Noteworthy
    Where Are They Buried (Revised and Updated): How Did They Die? Fitting Ends and Final Resting Places of the Famous, Infamous, and Noteworthy
    by Tod Benoit
  • Bird Brains: The Intelligence of Crows, Ravens, Magpies, and Jays
    Bird Brains: The Intelligence of Crows, Ravens, Magpies, and Jays
    by Candace Savage
  • Gifts of the Crow: How Perception, Emotion, and Thought Allow Smart Birds to Behave Like Humans
    Gifts of the Crow: How Perception, Emotion, and Thought Allow Smart Birds to Behave Like Humans
    by John Marzluff Ph.D., Tony Angell
  • Righteous Indignation: Excuse Me While I Save the World!
    Righteous Indignation: Excuse Me While I Save the World!
    by Andrew Breitbart
  • 11 Principles of a Reagan Conservative
    11 Principles of a Reagan Conservative
    by Paul Kengor
  • Mind of the Raven: Investigations and Adventures with Wolf-Birds
    Mind of the Raven: Investigations and Adventures with Wolf-Birds
    by Bernd Heinrich
  • Talking Heads: The Vent Haven Portraits
    Talking Heads: The Vent Haven Portraits
    by Matthew Rolston
  • Mortuary Confidential: Undertakers Spill the Dirt
    Mortuary Confidential: Undertakers Spill the Dirt
    by Todd Harra, Ken McKenzie
  • America's Steadfast Dream
    America's Steadfast Dream
    by E. Merrill Root
  • Good Dog, Carl : A Classic Board Book
    Good Dog, Carl : A Classic Board Book
    by Alexandra Day
  • Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation
    Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation
    by Lynne Truss
  • The American Way of Death Revisited
    The American Way of Death Revisited
    by Jessica Mitford
  • In Six Days : Why Fifty Scientists Choose to Believe in Creation
    In Six Days : Why Fifty Scientists Choose to Believe in Creation
    Master Books
  • Architects of Ruin: How big government liberals wrecked the global economy---and how they will do it again if no one stops them
    Architects of Ruin: How big government liberals wrecked the global economy---and how they will do it again if no one stops them
    by Peter Schweizer
  • Grave Influence: 21 Radicals and Their Worldviews That Rule America From the Grave
    Grave Influence: 21 Radicals and Their Worldviews That Rule America From the Grave
    by Brannon Howse
  • Lyrics of Sunshine and Shadow: The Tragic Courtship and Marriage of Paul Laurence Dunbar and Alice Ruth Moore
    Lyrics of Sunshine and Shadow: The Tragic Courtship and Marriage of Paul Laurence Dunbar and Alice Ruth Moore
    by Eleanor Alexander
Easy On The Goods
  • Waiting for
    Waiting for "Superman"
    starring Geoffrey Canada, Michelle Rhee
  • The Catered Affair (Remastered)
    The Catered Affair (Remastered)
    starring Bette Davis, Ernest Borgnine, Debbie Reynolds, Barry Fitzgerald, Rod Taylor
  • Bernie
    Bernie
    starring Jack Black, Shirley MacLaine, Matthew McConaughey
  • Remember the Night
    Remember the Night
    starring Barbara Stanwyck, Fred MacMurray, Beulah Bondi, Elizabeth Patterson, Sterling Holloway
  • The Ox-Bow Incident
    The Ox-Bow Incident
    starring Henry Fonda, Dana Andrews, Mary Beth Hughes, Anthony Quinn, William Eythe
  • The Bad Seed
    The Bad Seed
    starring Nancy Kelly, Patty McCormack, Henry Jones, Eileen Heckart, Evelyn Varden
  • Shadow of a Doubt
    Shadow of a Doubt
    starring Teresa Wright, Joseph Cotten, Macdonald Carey, Patricia Collinge, Henry Travers
  • The More The Merrier
    The More The Merrier
    starring Jean Arthur, Joel McCrea, Charles Coburn, Bruce Bennett, Ann Savage
  • Act of Valor
    Act of Valor
    starring Alex Veadov, Roselyn Sanchez, Nestor Serrano
  • Deep Water
    Deep Water
    starring Tilda Swinton, Donald Crowhurst, Jean Badin, Clare Crowhurst, Simon Crowhurst
  • Sunset Boulevard
    Sunset Boulevard
    starring William Holden, Gloria Swanson, Erich Von Stroheim, Nancy Olson, Fred Clark
  • Penny Serenade
    Penny Serenade
    starring Cary Grant, Irene Dunne, Edgar Buchanan, Beulah Bondi
  • Double Indemnity
    Double Indemnity
    starring Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson, Porter Hall, Jean Heather
  • Ayn Rand and the Prophecy of Atlas Shrugged
    Ayn Rand and the Prophecy of Atlas Shrugged
    starring Gary Anthony Williams
  • Fat Sick & Nearly Dead
    Fat Sick & Nearly Dead
    Passion River
  • It Happened One Night (Remastered Black & White)
    It Happened One Night (Remastered Black & White)
    starring Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert
  • Stella Dallas
    Stella Dallas
    starring Barbara Stanwyck, John Boles, Anne Shirley, Barbara O'Neil, Alan Hale
  • The Iron Lady
    The Iron Lady
    starring Meryl Streep, Jim Broadbent, Harry Lloyd, Anthony Head, Alexandra Roach
  • Wallace & Gromit: The Complete Collection (4 Disc Set)
    Wallace & Gromit: The Complete Collection (4 Disc Set)
    starring Peter Sallis, Anne Reid, Sally Lindsay, Melissa Collier, Sarah Laborde
  • The Red Balloon (Released by Janus Films, in association with the Criterion Collection)
    The Red Balloon (Released by Janus Films, in association with the Criterion Collection)
    starring Red Balloon
  • Stalag 17 (Special Collector's Edition)
    Stalag 17 (Special Collector's Edition)
    starring William Holden, Don Taylor, Otto Preminger, Robert Strauss, Harvey Lembeck
  • The Major and the Minor (Universal Cinema Classics)
    The Major and the Minor (Universal Cinema Classics)
    starring Ginger Rogers, Ray Milland
  • My Dog Skip
    My Dog Skip
    starring Frankie Muniz, Diane Lane, Luke Wilson, Kevin Bacon
  • Sabrina
    Sabrina
    starring Humphrey Bogart, Audrey Hepburn, William Holden, Walter Hampden, John Williams
  • The Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer
    The Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer
    starring Cary Grant, Myrna Loy, Shirley Temple, Rudy Vallee, Ray Collins
  • Pirates of the Caribbean - The Curse of the Black Pearl (Two-Disc Collector's Edition)
    Pirates of the Caribbean - The Curse of the Black Pearl (Two-Disc Collector's Edition)
    starring Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush, Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley, Jack Davenport
  • Now, Voyager (Keepcase)
    Now, Voyager (Keepcase)
    starring Bette Davis, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Gladys Cooper, John Loder
  • The Trip To Bountiful
    The Trip To Bountiful
  • Hold Back the Dawn [DVD] Charles Boyer; Olivia de Havilland; Paulette Goddard
    Hold Back the Dawn [DVD] Charles Boyer; Olivia de Havilland; Paulette Goddard
That Dog Is Never Going To Move

~ RIP JAVIER ~

1999 - 2016

Columbia's Finest Chihuahua

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~ RIP SHILOH ~

2017 - 2021

My Tar Heel Granddog

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~ RIP RAMBO ~

2008 - 2022

Andrew's Beloved Pet

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Friday
Apr302010

Watch the birdie

What housing market? Photo Jennifer Weber 2010Yesterday while checking the mail, Boo nearly fell out into the street in front of our house.

As she opened the mailbox embedded in a brick column, something flew out of the paper box embedded beneath it.

We don't take the paper and even if we did, it's not flypaper.

Hey! Stop throwing virtual tomatoes! What exactly do you expect for free?

Last night after our walk, we investigated. 

A Carolina wren -- the South Carolina state bird, FYI -- has set up shop in our heretofore vacant paper box.

I went inside for my camera. The wren consented to be photographed while peering at me from deep within her nest of sticks, leaves, pine needles, and assorted paper shreds.

She may have muttered something about paparazzi but I cannot be sure.

As I headed back inside I had a lump in my throat for her courage. May I trust God for my needs as much as she is bound to do.

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In other avian news, there is a mockingbird in the neighborhood. Mockingbirds sing through gloom of night, sweetening the warm air with the re-created songs of other birds.

I go to bed well after midnight and most nights the mockingbird is offering its entire repertoire as I drift into sleep.

It can be clearly heard even though the windows are closed and the AC is running.

Sometimes the bleat of a diesel engine horn interrupts the birdsong, making me dream of faraway things as well as of things near.

The nest best thing. Photo Jennifer Weber 2010Another April is gone; another May has arrived. Soon enough the rasp of cicadas will pierce the hot sky and our days will be consumed with summer's unique celebrations.

I hope wherever I go from here -- wherever life takes me -- there will be mockingbirds in trees and trains on tracks … and brave little wrens nesting in unexpected places.

(I know that He whose mercies are new every morning will be there … for He is everywhere.)

And I hope there will be kindness and love and forbearance, without which our nests are cold and our nights devoid of song.

Wednesday
Apr282010

Out of focus

Ready ... set ... shop. Photo Jennifer Weber 2007Last night I and about two dozen other ladies were paid $100 apiece to take part in a focus group.

We were also fed a light and tasty dinner in pleasant surroundings.

It was fantastic; I wish I could do it every day.

Receive money in exchange for eating and talking? Top that.

The topic was shopping … and to say I am qualified to hold forth on that subject is an understatement of epic proportions.

The client's $100 was well spent in my case … and if the passionate responses of my co-conspirators were any indication, it was well spent in their cases too.

This just in: women love to shop! They know what they want and they know where they like to buy it.

The major southeastern retailer -- the identity of which was revealed late in the evening -- who ordered the study happens to be a store where, once upon a time, I enjoyed shopping. 

Some of them may even have lied.

Now I go there only for cosmetics … and that's because I am very fond of the lady who works at the Chanel counter. As such she works for Chanel rather than the retailer.

The retailer could learn something from this lady about how to treat a customer.

The upshot is that, ironically, the last place I'll spend my $100 is at the store whose powers-that-be paid me to clue them in as to why I don't shop there.

You see, a couple of years ago I reported nearly forty depositions in a single lawsuit … a case in which this particular retailer was the defendant.

In my opinion -- based on hundreds of hours spent listening to and transcribing sworn testimony by employees of this retailer -- is that they care even less about their customers than does, say, Wal-Mart.

And that's saying something.

Of course I cannot share details of the case. Let's just say that the intentional irresponsibility of this retail quasi-giant played a significant part in causing terrible injury to a small child.

And let's add that, from security personnel to counter clerks to section administrators to store managers to corporate executives, the many employees of this retailer who were placed under oath and deposed in the case were … how shall I put it ... less than remorseful.

My impression of the company's leadership was that they were superficial, greedy, disingenuous, callous, and arrogant. They seemed shockingly indifferent to the welfare of those who favor them with their patronage.

Some of them may even have lied. 

Horrors! Lied under oath? You mean, people really do that?

Yep.

I ask you: can you remember the days and hours you worked last week?

At least two of these employees claimed they couldn't. Plausible? Not to me.

I work in different law firms and courthouses and towns and cities every week, and even I could tell you where I was last week

I might have to think for a few moments … I might even have to recline and put a cool cloth on my forehead and space out to Il Divo for ten minutes … but I do believe that eventually I could dredge up that arcane information from my archival memory bank.

Trust is a terrible thing to lose.

So anyway, the subject retailer is apparently interested in updating their traditional-to-stodgy image and overhauling their shabby-stuffy stores and even rethinking their outmoded logo, in hopes of luring even more parents of small children through their doors and to the cash registers.

They won't get me back.

Once certain ties -- however tenuous to begin with -- are broken, they are difficult if downright impossible to mend.

Especially when I pass by a half-dozen places I would rather shop en route to one of the few places I would rather not spend either my time or my money.

Life's just like that. You get a chance to prove you've got what it takes. If you do well in the first round, you may advance. You may wobble, bobble, or hobble, yet still be given the benefit of the doubt one, two, three, four times.

But if you persist in your nonsense and refuse to acknowledge where you've been wrong, inevitably the cords that would have continued putting money into your pocket become irreparably frayed … then break altogether.

if a retailer -- or anyone else whose mission it is to draw individuals into their circle of influence and/or profit -- seeks to engender loyalty, they must first consider the needs, desires, and sensibilities of the ones whose fealty they wish to secure.

It behooves them to place others' safety, comfort, and peace of mind before their own, even -- or perhaps more so -- when it may not pay off in cold, hard cash.

In addition, when faced with a situation in which they have dismally failed, they must avoid that lethal mix of condescension and contempt often demonstrated by those who -- if their own actions and reactions are to be taken at face value -- count themselves among that special few to whom the rules do not apply.

Trust is a terrible thing to lose. Loss of trust costs you something.

Forget it at your peril.

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If you'd like to take part in a focus group and be paid to eat and talk, go here and fill out the form! Good luck!

Saturday
Apr242010

I hoped for change and got it

Change. Photo Jennifer Weber 2010On a recent Thursday, all morning I was consumed with getting out of town. I was due in Lenoir, North Carolina, in time to prepare dinner for our second granddaughter's second birthday party. 

Predictably for me, it took three hours to get presentable and pack for an extended weekend. I then had to schlepp all my stuff out to the car.

It was a process.

Then I was obliged to run several errands downtown: retrieve case-related materials from a law firm, drop off exhibits at the court reporting agency, and swing by a local computer repair shop.

(The four-month-old iMac -- a Christmas gift from my children -- has been acting up.)

The computer store is situated in the 600 block of Lady Street, in a newish row of brick establishments. The parking spaces are angled all along the sidewalk leading to the storefronts ... and they're punctuated by two-headed parking meters.

(You know the kind ... you drive up, get out, fish for change, and have to concentrate for a few minutes before you're sure you're feeding the meter that pertains to your car and not the car -- or empty space -- beside you.)

A wheelbarrow waited beside her and she looked gardening-ish.

Well ... you may not have to. But I do.

Only I didn't even get that far, because as I started my fishing expedition for spare change to stuff the slot, a picture flashed into my mind: an image of me, the last time I was in Lenoir, emptying my brick-heavy wallet of about four bucks in change and giving all of it to our five-year-old granddaughter, Melanie. 

For her piggy bank.

And that meant when I opened the change-purse section of my wallet, it contained exactly two pennies.

Not exactly what the meter wanted.

I looked up, squinting in the bright sun, with what I am sure was an expression of frustration and dismay. What now? 

That was my thought, word for word: "What now?"

And then I saw that I was being watched by a gentleman who stood outside the door of one of the stores. Actually I think it was a barber shop, and looking back I do believe he was a barber.

"Do you need change for a dollar?" he asked.

"I don't even have a dollar," I mourned as I riffled through the business cards and ticket stubs and discount coupons and receipts and other memorabilia that populate the part of my wallet where currency would usually go.

(I'm a dyed-in-the-wool member of the debit card generation. Who needs cash or coin?)

Remembering a tiny well in the console of my car, I ducked in to see what it held. Two dimes! I had two dimes! I waved them at the barber. My wonderful dimes winked in the sun.

"How much time do you think twenty cents will get me?" I asked him as I pushed those puppies into the meter's slender mouth.

Just then a female voice piped up and I whipped my head around to see where it was coming from. A few feet from the nice man's barber shop is a beautiful wrought-iron gate. A lady was standing behind it, peering anxiously at me.

Clearly she had been gardening because a wheelbarrow waited beside her and she looked gardening-ish.

"Do you need some change?" she inquired, her concern for me writ large on her face. "Because I can get you some! Just wait!" 

And she trotted away before I could respond that I had found two dimes and thought I might be in good shape.

I arrived in plenty of time to fix supper.

By then the nice gentleman was approaching with his palm outstretched, offering quarters.

I pointed to the meter and reminded him that I'd inserted two dimes. I now had sixteen minutes to spend at L2 Technologies.

He looked, then grinned. "Yeah, but you fed the other meter," he said.

And I had. In my haste to give Thing One and/or Thing Two what it/they wanted, I had tossed my meager treasure into the wrong metal tummy.

My knight in armor more bright than those dimes chuckled.

"Here," he said. "Here are two quarters. Let's see what that will do." 

And he put fifty cents into the (correct) meter, giving me forty minutes ... twice as much time as I needed.

I was so relieved that all I could do was point to him with a dazzling smile and say, "You are a good man."

And he is. I think maybe I owe him a loaf of my banana bread.

I never saw the nice gardening lady again. Whoever you are, sweet woman, thank you for being so willing to help me.

The trip to North Carolina went as planned and I arrived in plenty of time to fix supper. The baby's birthday party came off without a hitch.

Also there was shopping.

And several times throughout the weekend I told the story of the kindness of "strangers" whose generosity and gallantry made them seem more like long-lost friends.

Wednesday
Apr212010

A grave discovery

Oak ruins. Photo Jennifer Weber 2010Several weeks ago two of my daughters accompanied me to Camden ... a sleepy southern town settled in 1730. It has the distinction of being the oldest inland city in South Carolina.

Camden has a rich Revolutionary War history. George Washington is known to have stood, for example, beneath what is now known as the "Camden Oak."

Or what's left of it.

Across a little paved street from the oak is a small cemetery with perhaps thirty graves. Alongside it is a monument of sorts to Revolutionary War heroes, consisting of about twenty more graves.

Agnes of Glasgow is buried there, her grave decorated with a sign telling of her pursuit of her lover from Scotland to South Carolina. Agnes became ill and died at the age of twenty.

Sparrow and Turner.

Lore has it that her ghost roams the still fields of Camden at night (natch), searching for her beloved.

Within the cemetery is an interesting oblong-shaped concrete and wrought-iron structure labeled the Southwest Redoubt. The sign leads the reader to believe that the redoubt was a fortification of sorts for the protection of Camden.

Helpful signage. Photo Jennifer Weber 2010

The place is serene, as cemeteries tend to be.

At two edges of the graveyard and surrounding ground is a thick, lush stand of bamboo.

The bamboo is an unexpected sight. One expects to see magnolia trees, wisteria, confederate jasmine, flowering cherry and dogwood ... not bamboo.

Redoubt detail. Photo Jennifer Weber 2010

And yet there it is ... tall, graceful, the most tender shade of green. The stalks rustle as they sway in breezes gentle as a mother's caress, bringing to mind the long-ago swish of petticoats.

At the end of the street is the beautiful Quaker Cemetery.

I could wander the lanes for hours, just reading the names.

The burying ground is bursting with wrought-iron enclosures and ornate gates opening onto carefully-kept plots and cool granite headstones.

Although I have been to the Quaker Cemetery several times, this was the first time I remembered to take my camera along.

And although I'm sure I've seen these two graves before, this was the first time I noticed them.

Sparrow and Turner.

Pirates remain? Photo Jennifer Weber 2010

Captain Jack Sparrow? Will Turner? 

I don't know, because I didn't investigate the fronts of the grave markers.

What say you?

Saturday
Apr102010

Eh?

Can you hear me now? Photo Jennifer Weber 2010Today TG and the Boo spent a considerable chunk of time outside, denuding our yard of enough weeds to choke about 427 horses. 

I helped! Yes I did!

A little.

I do not regret the weeds' departure ... more are due to arrive momentarily ... but a less fortunate victim of our efforts to tidy up the estate was the rabbit sentinel.

As in, he will never be the same. 

Boo claimed she simply "touched" his head and his ears fell off.

Eh?

TG said he'd get me a new one.

You'll just have to wait and see.

The rabbit came with the house -- well, yard -- and one ear was always iffy and Audge has remarked several times that he creeps her out, so I told TG to make replacing him a low priority.

He did not reply so I'll have to assume his ears are worthless too, or else he was simply happy to forget about it and felt no need to yell HUA!*

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In other news, I have decided to begin taking pictures of everything I eat, right before I eat it.

I've heard it's a new trend.

I may or may not post the pictures. You'll just have to wait and see.

That is all.

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*Heard, Understood, Acknowledged. It's an Air Force thing.