A Piece of the Next Level

 
A writing friend posted a meme on Facebook a few days ago that says "Every next level of your life will demand a new version of you."

That sort of spoke to me since I've been somewhat in transition to what I'm defining as level/version five, and I don't know exactly what it looks like yet. But, oddly, saying goodbye to a small mundane piece of level four was more emotional than I expected. You will chuckle at me. Go ahead. I had no idea myself that it would feel so sad until I tossed the item in the trash. So I hauled it out to take a picture and document this passing.

Here's the item I'm saying goodbye to.



Yup, it's just a small notebook. But I kept all my calendars, personal records, to-do lists-- all that stuff-- in there through level four which included grad school and being totally self-employed.

I've tried to use electronic calendars. It's not that I'm a technophobe (not at all, you know), it's just that my life and the way I work doesn't fit into ordinary calendars. I'm a project person. I've devised a personalized project planner over the years, and it doesn't work like a calendar.

Anyway, I did find one on-line calendar that was working pretty well for me, but every time my browser updated it would dump all the data, and I'd have to go recover it. At first this was just annoying. Then I missed an important meeting, and also A SPEAKING ENGAGEMENT because of that fatal flaw.

That did it... back to paper for at least that part of my life. But the little gray notebook, which I love, has reached the end of its life. It's only fake leather and the finish flakes off on my hands whenever I pick it up (feels nasty). The binder rings still work, but the spine is broken.

I started looking for a replacement months ago, but the company I got it from only makes one style and color now, neither of which I like. A few days ago I decided to see what I could find on eBay. Score! It had to fit all the blank notepages I already have (and I have the hole punch to make any kind I want). It had to have some pockets in the cover. It had to be at least fake leather, because the cheap vinyl covers just don't last and they don't hold as many pages. It had to not be black (ick). OK, it's red, which is pretty low on my list, but it's not bright red; I'm thinking of it as cordovan. Humor me. It's used, but in great shape and even with shipping was under $20. Lots less than the new one I didn't like. Also fake leather, but it looks and feels pretty nice.





Both notebooks photographed on my newly cleaned-off desk- part of the big sorting project I've been doing this week.

Now if I could just get all the rest of level/version five to come into focus...

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Xanthoria

 
OK, here's where I go out on a limb again trying to learn a few lichen. Pretty sure this is the correct genus, which really just means "yellow thing." This log is covered with it.



So that let me rule out the one that mostly grows on stone.

It may be Xanthoria fallax, orange tree-trunk lichen. Don't you love technical names? Some of the lobes are large and flabby.



Some have curled up edges. If I've IDed it correctly the soredia (granules of an algae body wrapped in a fungal filament ready to start a new growth) appear under those curled edges.

It's white on the underside like it's supposed to be.



The book says that apothecia (structures that produce spores) are rare, so I'm not sure if these are just a different kind of lobe, or maybe in this great wet fall, it grew some.



At any rate, it's beauteous!

	See Looking at Lichen
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North Country Color Wheel

 
Had a chance to take a quick 6-mile walk on the North Country Trail today. Everyone is posting pictures of mushrooms because it's been so wet those are this year's flowers. Me too! Here you go.

Red- I'm not going out of my way to ID any of these but these are red Russula sp. Past their prime, but still very red.



For orange you get these cuties.



Yellow fingers- an apt name.



Green- a stump turned into a terrarium with moss and mushrooms.



Blue- sorry, no blue fungus, but a blue blaze to mark "my" trail.



And a nice light purple polypore. (Not violet-toothed because it doesn't have teeth)



It was a great day for a walk in the woods- in the sixties, most of the bugs are gone.

I'm way behind on the NCT 100-Mile Challenge, but this gets me up to 48 miles.

	See Flower Show Color Wheel
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Caught Both Wood Ducks!

 
These pictures won't win any awards, but if I had a longer lens the duckweed on the pond makes a nice backdrop to show off the ducks. As it is, I have to go out on digital zoom to catch ducks on this pond, and it reduces the quality a lot.

Here's a pair of wood ducks. There were actually three pairs all together.



This is the first I've been able to catch a picture of a male. You can't really see his slicked-back crest, but the throat patch and bill are correct with the long square tail, so I'm sure that's what it is.



Here's the Mrs. This picture isn't too bad.



I really want to go back in the woods behind the pond and sit quietly. I'll be much closer then, and might be lucky enough to get some good pictures.

	See Wood Duck Babies
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On Mom's Dresser

 
I've been sorting. Don't even ask how it's going. The house looks like a disaster area (more than usual), but the hope is that when it's put back together there will be a little less junk, and a few more things that go together will be located together. That's a never-ending task.

Anyway. Today I found three of the four men who were always on my mom's dresser. Not sure why the fourth picture wasn't with these three. The missing one is of her dad. Perhaps it will surface eventually.

The very same dresser was also handy, now residing in my dining room. Just for you, I cleared part of the top and put the pictures back where they belong. Lots of reflections, but I wanted to put them in their "proper" context just for one minute.



It looks to me as if all the pictures were taken when the men were about the same ages, but not the same years, because they are from different generations.

The picture on the far left is my dad, Ray F. Leary. It looks to me as if he might have been college age (he went to Cornell but did not graduate). That would make it about 1922, and probably the oldest of the pictures.


In the middle is dad's son, John S. Leary. As a child looking at that picture he always looked to me like a grownup. Looking at the picture now, he seems more like a high school student. That places the year around 1944, the newest of the pictures.


On the far right is Mom's brother, Merrill F. Rowe, "Jacques." He was killed in 1933 at age 26. I'm guessing college age as well for this shot. That would put it around 1929.


Of course none of these pictures is labeled. At least I'm going to get that done before they are relegated back to a box. Two of the three would need new frames to display them (hanger/stander broken) and it seems wrong somehow to change the frames they've been in for my entire lifetime.

Another interesting mystery was also uncovered. Tucked in the frame of Jacques' picture was a cancelled check written by his father (the missing picture) Howard M. Rowe, to him in May of 1933 for $350.00 Pretty big bucks for back then. Wonder what it was for!

	See Who's Important See Passages See Ray F. Leary
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