Where eagles fly, or not

By Susan G  Parcheta

(pub. April 15, 2011 at www.livingstontalk.com)

A writer's cuddly mascot

All I wanted was to see an eagle on our winter trip to Florida. Instead, I came home with a fuzzy picture of a Crested Caracara and a cuddly plush eagle I couldn’t pass up at a state park office in Georgia.

Some birder, I am. Last winter I thought for sure we’d see eagles on the Florida island where we were camping, since it was known for eagles. No sightings this winter, either; so I must be content with my up-close-and-personal, beyond- the-fence encounter last winter with Liberty, resident eagle at the Howell Conference and Nature Center.

The eagle quest continues. It became a real mission January 2010, when our neighbors spotted a pair in their yard and called me. Eagles aren’t usually around these parts. I’d been reflecting on eagles as a personal theme; and naturally I was intrigued. I wrote a blog about it all  for LivingstonTalk.com. When Editor Maria Stuart totally revamped the site a few months later, all former blogs disappeared. Below, I’m reprising that  blog:  “Where Eagle’s Fly”.

Opening Day: Baseball, a rite of spring

By Susan G Parcheta

 (published April 4, 2011 at www.livingstontalk.com)

“For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land.” Song of Solomon 2:11-12 (KJV)

Opening day – when the voice of the turtle is heard in the land  — reverberates through the heart of every Michigander who loves the game of baseball.

“Who’s your Tiger!” “Play Ball!” “Talkin’ Baseball!”

No matter how tuned in to the sport we are, or are not, most of us feel the thrill of the first game of Detroit Tiger Baseball season. The Tigers are in our blood; and baseball’s opening day  means that springtime has truly arrived in Michigan. It’s one of those wonderful Great Lakes State traditions.

The Tigers launched the season March 31 in a series of away games against the New York Yankees. Cold northern temperatures greeted them. While losing the first  two games, they managed to pull out a 10 to 7 win in the third, heading off to Baltimore before coming home April 8  to Comerica Park.

Tiger pitcher Max Scherzer

A few days before Opening Day, “For Love of the Game,” — the movie with Kevin Costner — was on TV.  I found myself enjoying it again,  absorbing it in a new way.  We’d just returned from a winter vacation in Florida; and  we’d taken in our first spring training game in Lakeland in early March.

Facebook vacation trepidation

Posted by Susan G. Parcheta

Gone a month on winter vacation, and discovery of discoveries: travelers on the internet highway can get along without me on it just fine. Another discovery? So can I. Well, almost. Get along without the internet, I mean.

"Prairie Flower" (my description of March 13, 2011 mandala by Henry Reed. We'd been exploring the vast terrain of Kissimee Prairie Preserve in Florida that day.

Yes, for my networking friends, it was  long-time-no-Sue-nami.  That’s my Internet nickname, bestowed upon me during Hurricane Katrina — referring to the tsunami effect of my emails, which tend to be long and overwhelming to some recipients. I love that reflection of me, imagining it as a positive wave effect; although I hesitate to mention it when most people are still coming to grips with the devastation  of the tsunami in Japan, which I missed except for brief news headlines, while we were gone.

For me, it was long-time-no-Internet. Because of all the networking I do via emailing and Facebook, plus this blog, it was with some trepidation that I went on vacation, wondering how I could exist internet-poor for four weeks. And how would I catch up once I returned?

Yesterday’s Coffee, Tomorrow’s Muse

Posted by Susan G. Parcheta
 

“I have measured out my life with coffee spoons.” – T.S. Eliot (From the Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock)

Yesterday’s Coffee, as a blog title, has been brewing on the back burner of my mind since last summer, when Maria Stuart of LivingstonTalk.com — the new online community for Michigan’s Livingston County – asked me to blog.  I did, but my blog didn’t have a title; it didn’t really need one at the time. However, that experience got me to wondering. What would I call my blog series, if I wanted to name it?

Last September my husband and I were camping in northern Michigan with his father.  One morning the men got out on the lake early to fish. Of course I’d slept in, so they returned to find only leftover coffee. Our camper has a microwave. We nuked the cold brew before making a new pot; and that’s when my father-in-law suddenly smiled, and came out with some saying about “Yesterday’s Coffee.”