Unburdened at last!

I have a secret: when I was still a young girl, I had a crush on William F. Buckley, Jr.

Back then there were plenty of comedians mimicking him, and after finally seeing the real thing live, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that he was nothing like those parodies. He was simply intelligent and erudite in his speech. That was before I even knew what erudite meant: he epitomized the word.

Later, whenever he appeared on television or in the news, he still fascinated me, although life and its many other cares took me away to other interests. Buckley, of course, remained the same all his life.

Unlike many other celebrities, Buckley never became an exaggeration of his younger self, never a caricature. The comedians lost interest, but I didn't. Whenever he appeared on screen or in print, I paid attention. He never disappointed, not once.

He passed on Wednesday, February 27, 2008, quietly and with great dignity, while working. He died with his boots on, as they say.

Elegance, grace, and erudition, a good portion of each, anyway, has left the mainstream media, the Internet, and the world.

A good portion of my consciousness is in deep mourning.

William F. Buckley was 82.

Welcome, readers of SISU

You may not know that Sissy is my Everloving Blogmother.

For your doggie enjoyment, go here for Ellie, the HuggaMutt CuddleBum.

And here in her special girlie sweater.

RiverDogging, and almost all my visits to the Chemung River, are dedicated to her.

Thanks, Sissy.

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Little Pond

Hurts my Heart

Husband RJ's not feeling great after out little brush with the flu two weeks ago. Luckily, we both had shots, so it was merely a brush, with us feeling fluish and tired. Must be I'm used to fatigue, but he is not; it's left him tired and depressed.

We have not had HuggaMutt around, because she makes too many demands on him.

Well, I miss her. To counteract that, I've gone on excursions alone. It makes me feel better, and keeps me healthy. But I still miss her.

Tuesday I went back to the Newtown Creek for some sunny winter pictures, that I will post to RiverHag. There is one more set of photos I want to include before then, also from a trip without little CuddleBum. All will be available by the weekend.

The area was visibly frosty and pretty, and chock full of canes and reeds. Newtown Creek is a deserted area, so the weeds remain at least waist high.

Not so deserted! While plowing my way through the thickets, I ran into this. You'll need to click on the image to see what I mean.

Someone's deserted fishing camp. Or so I thought.

It was tight as a drum. Eventually I found the entrance and opened a compartment.

There was a newspaper from last week, some clothes and other stuff. It was a homeless person's camp.

I reclosed the flap, made a hasty exit, and hoped the occasional snowsquall would cover my tracks. Didn't want to distress the owner.

That person is now in my prayers. Not much else I can do for someone who wants to live so far away from other people.

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Little Pond

Never let it be said that I am not romantic.

Husband RJ and I exchange cards. For that matter, we send cards to our children, too.

But for real romance, you need to look in on Josey and Vincent. They're making up after a nasty fight and a short separation.

That's my contribution this year. Happy Valentine's Day.

pb

Little Pond

Lentan reflection on Pope Benedict XVI

I dug way back to 2005 to get my reaction to the elevation of Cardinal Ratzinger to the papacy.

That reaction was not good.

But it is 2008, and my feelings are now quite different. Benedict the Pope has indeed become a very different public persona than was the Cardinal.

Isn't it interesting, now that we have a personable, benevolent, scholarly Pope, people feel they must dig into his past to smear him?

If we look into the past of any great saint, there was once a great sinner. But inside the sinner was the seed of the saint. Ratzinger the Hatchetman has evolved, and surely was evolving all along, into the wonderful world leader we see today.

Just keep that in mind while you are reading the muck that's been raked by silly people who don't seem to understand that our Pope has been in the public eye for decades. Much of that stuff has been known every step along the way, especially by the College of Cardinals, who likely knew all that and perhaps more.

They still elected him to rule the Worldwide Church. Maybe Rough and Ready is what we need right now.

Obviously, that is what the Holy Spirit thought, back in 2005.

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Little Pond

Dog tricks.

This is adorable!

It especially helps if you've seen Grease a millions times.

Ellie would not stoop to such stuff...

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Little Pond