Earlier this afternoon

snow was spitting from
an almost totally blue sky.
such things happen,
I suppose,
just in the
nature of things.

I am constantly amazed
and amused
by the natural world.
there is a blue heron
that seems to live in the canal
down the hill from our house.
he seems oddly misplaced
to me,
but just to see him move
and watch the grace
he walks with
is worth a trip
down the hill
to the canal.

and on Route 9,
around Middletown and further south,
there are large birds circling,
that I imagine
to be hawks
and, from time to time,
chickens on the side of the road
around exits 10 and 9.
chickens, for goodness sake.

Someone from Killingworth
told me they'd seen them too--
the chickens.
we didn't talk about the hawks.

Math magic

OK, try this: take the two digits of your age--mine are 6 and 5--add them together and subtract them from your age...65-11=54. Five plus four is nine.

Try your age and do what I said and see if you come up with nine. Far as I can tell it works for anyone 10 (1+0=1 subtracted from 10 equals 9) From 10 on it works 99-18 equals 81. 8+1=9.

If you live beyond 99, I'm not sure if it works. But if you do, God bless you....

Somewhere I mentioned a poem...

In some blog or another I mentioned a poem that would explain whatever I was writing about better than I was doing. Right now, I don't remember much about what I was saying in that post, but I have found the poem!

(Which reminds me of what Robert Browning said to a woman at a party that asked him what a particular line in one of his poems meant: "When I wrote that, madam," he said, "only God and Robert Browning knew what it meant....Now, only God knows....)

So, for what it's worth, here's the poem I couldn't find that day when I was writing about what only God knows now....

SONG TO MY OTHER SELF

Over the years I have caught glimpses of you
in the mirror, wicked;
in a sudden stridency of my own voice, hav
heard you mock me;
in the tightening of my muscles, felt the pull
of your anger and the whine 
of your greed twist my countenance, felt your
indifference blank my face when pity was called for.
You are there, lurking under every kind act I do,
ready to defeat me.

Lately, rather than drop the lid of my shock
over your intrusion,
I have looked for you with new eyes
opened to your tricks, but more,
opened to your rootedness in life.
Come, I open my arms to you, once dread stranger.
Come, as a friend I would welcome you to stretch your apartments
within me from the cramped to comforting size.
Thus I would disarm you. For I have recently learned,
learned looking straight into your eyes:
The Holiness of God is everywhere.

--Elsie Landstrom 

Movies and other stuff

I don't get the problem everyone had with Seth what's-his-name at the Oscars. I thought he was funny. 'Course I do like adolescent kinds of humor....

I watched the whole Oscar show because I love movies. I told someone the other day I watched the whole thing in real time and they looked at me like I should be in a padded cell.

My three favorite movies of last year were, in order Silver Linings Playbook, Argo and Lincoln so I had a great time watching the Oscars. And though Seth what's-his-name was tasteless and vulgar, I thought he was funny. 'Course my granddaughters and I think farts and 'poopie' as an adjective (as in 'poopie face' or 'poopie mouth') are funny.

Today I saw what will surely make my top 5 movies of 2013--The Quartet directed by Dustin Hoffman and staring a whole bunch of British stars including Maggie Smith who should get a nomination. I can't say enough good about The Quartet so I'll just give you the categories I think it should get awards for: acting (Maggie and three or four others would make my list), sound track (it takes place in a Home for Retired Musicians so there is music throughout), directing, cinematography (incredible interior and exterior stuff), film editing (with all the music and different camera angles it must have been a nightmare for editing) and final credits (Oh, I know there's no award for the credits, but their should be and this movie should be nominated.) If you saw Argo you will remember the credits included pictures of the actors beside the real life person they played. In Quartet, it seems that many of the people in the home were, in fact, retired musicians so during the credits--when the Quartet is finally heard--there were pictures of the actors along side of pictures of them as young musicians....Just great....

So, if you see it, stay for the credits....

On another note: did you know you can major in Equine Management at Post University in Waterbury? I saw it on one of those highway billboards that changes--you know what I mean--different message every 15 seconds or so.

The billboard showed a show horse jumping. What the hell is Equine Management and why would you need a degree to do it?

And why aren't those signs that change against the law? I almost wreck when I pass one trying to see as many versions as possible....

And when I went to Plainville to see The Quartet (because it wasn't playing anywhere nearer) I noticed a Taco Bell/Long Johns Silver's across the road from where the Multiplex was. So tell me, who dreams up these fast food marriages? Does Taco Bell and Long John Silver's occur to you in the same thought--if they occur to you at all? I honestly didn't know that there was a Long John Silver's anywhere in godless New England. I'll have to go to Plainville again soon.

Finally, my poopie-face granddaughters could do a better job in Congress (they are 6, 6 and 3) than the people somebody out there elected. The 'sequester' is here, beloved. The drop-dead most stupid law ever passed--passed because it was so drop-dead stupid that even Morgan, Emma and Tegan would have done something to stop it from happening. The inmates are in charge of the asylum--which should be the name of the House and Senate....

I'M BACK....

I just emailed Molly James to tell her I love her mightily for somehow getting my blog back and wondering if it would happen again the next time I went to 'most visited' and clicked on my blog.

I just did it and IT DID!!!

So, maybe, just maybe. I can be writing here again on a more or less regular basis....

Whoever reads this stuff...thanks you so much....

Oh Lord, thank God for Molly James!

I've been locked off my blog page for almost a week.

Something weird happened. I was asked for a password and since my blog was set us by Sandy Carlson years ago, I didn't remember if I remembered it. I didn't and I was locked off my blog for three days.

After three days I was allowed to change my password and then was told I was still prohibited from seeing my blog page.

I had all this stuff I wanted to blog about, all of which I forgot because I was prohibited to view my page.

I asked Molly James, one of the priests who works with me in the Cluster, because she is a Tech Wonder, to help me. After several emails she got a email to me from Blogger to come and it failed to help me the first and second time. The third time, in ways I do not understand, I got here and am writing here.

I love to blog. I hate the technology that allows me to do that.

Odd, I know. I just hope that tomorrow, when I do what I do--go to 'most visited' on my icon list and click on Castor Oil Tree that I'll be able to write. We'll see, I imagine.

Oh, some of those things I wanted to blog about:

*A guy in Australia got killed by his pet. His pet was a python. 'nough said about choosing your pets wisely.

*Couldn't people leave Jennifer Lawrence alone? In Winter's Bone, The Hunger Games and Silver Lining Playbook she was amazing as three totally different characters. She might be an actress for our life-time, but not is she is hounded always by every one. Leave her alone. The next two books of the "Hunger Games" trilogy are in production. Leave her be. Let her act and make us joyous.

*Since 1776 has there been anything stupider, less needed and more destructive than the 'sequester' that starts in 19 minutes, since I'm writing at 11:41 pm? We need some kindergarten teachers to handle congress....

I just pray that tomorrow when I try to get on my blog, I can.

Molly is a wonder at this point. But tomorrow comes....

odd beyond passing

Blogspace, or whatever the carrier of my blog is called, has started giving me statistics about the views of my blog.

So, I now know that in the past months this has been the audience for Under the Castor Oil Tree:

United States--649 views
Russia--77 views
Ukraine--65 views
Poland--25 views
Sweden--15 views
UK--13 views
Romania--8 views
Belarus--6 views
South Korea--6 views

So, who the hell in Russia or Belarus or South Korea, for God's sake, is looking at my blog?

Anyone who looks at it is welcome to email me at Padrejgb@aol.com--but I'd really like to hear from Romania or Sweden....

This strikes me as odd beyond passing....