Hershey the Duck and me

I just had to share this photo of Hershey and me. I went to the FFA (Future Farmers of America) field day for fourth graders in Oconomowoc to take photos for the paper. One of the demonstrators must have caught me checking out the birds from a distance because he called me over and asked if I wanted to hold a duck. Hershey was so sweet, gentle and calm. It was therapeutic to hold him. I don't think that I have felt that good as when I was holding him in weeks. I really wanted to kidnap him and keep him as my own.



"The heart that loves is always young."

--Greek Proverb

Chinese Monks

These are three photos I took last month when I went to Chicago's Chinatown. It was the annual Buddhist fire ceremony. It was a very moving ceremony that was full of color, chants and ornate decorations.

Early signs of autumn

Here are some pictures that I took tonight, September 21. The first two were taken across the street near Crystal Lake and the last one was taken in my backyard of a bird of prey.

Waterfowl photos

A great blue heron stands in a pond at the future home of Arrowood subdivision off of Highway BB in Oconomowoc.


WHY DID THE DUCK CROSS THE ROAD?

TO GET TO THE BIRDFEEDER.

A few dozen ducks cross Lapham St. to get to a birdfeeder in someone's yard. The ducks cross a pond in Longmeadow subdivision to get to an older house.

Photos copyrighted by Enterprise Photos.

Community shows pride, patriotism

Photos copywrited by the Waukesha Freeman

Andy Maye reaches for the Marine Corps flag his grandmother, Carol Behrendt, of Waukesha (not pictured), holds Sunday during a tribute concert by the U.S. Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Band. His sister, Emily Maye, stands next to him. Both of Andy Maye's parents are Marines. The concert was held in North Prairie as part of the Harvest Fesitval.

Jeanette Horn, left, and Joelle Horn, both of Waukesha, dance and cheer

as the U.S. Marine Corps Center Band marches past them during Sunday's parade in North Prairie. Joelle Horn, a relative of band member Emma Whitmore, said she is very proud of her.

Excerpts from "Love Warps the Mind a Little"

Love Warps the Mind a Little is one of those novels that completely takes you in and holds you prisoner as its stories unfolds. It's one of those books that you're anxious to finish just so you can start to read it again.

From the chapter: A Many-Layered, Infolded Mystery

Love at first sight is irresistible and inexplicable. I want to say it's transmundane, but transmandane seems haughty, and love at first sight is not that. It arrives without warning and is earned without effort, leaving us startled and grateful. It is neither reasonable nor calculated. It is like ecstasy, like rapture, like standing outside yourself. It is apprehension not thought, gesture not word. Love at first sight elevates romance above the level of accident-the accident of geography or economics or occupation. It is, we may decide, destiny. Love at first sight is sudden, ineffable, profoundly emotional, and absolutely transfiguring. It's what we live for. It's the obliterating focus on the beloved and the eloquent shortness of breath. It is a stroke of lightning, as the French say, a blast of passion.




Love is anticipation and memory, uncertainty and longing. It's unreasonable, of course. Nothing begins with so much excitement and hope and pleasure as love, except maybe writing a story. And nothing fails as often, except writing stories. And like a story, love must be troubled to be interesting. We crave love, can't live without its intimacy, though it pains us. Judi told me that every person in therapy has a love disorder: never felt love, can't find love, trapped by love, unraveled by love, thinks love is lust or love is loss, fears love, loves too much, uses love for profit, jealous in love, lost in love, love affairs, unrequited love, love sick, doesn't love Mom, won't love Dad, can't love the kids, can't love the self, hopeless love, self-absorbed love, love as a crutch, love as a truncheon, love in ruins, crazy love, love that eats the heart, careless love, drowning in love, love that dares not speak its name, blind love, consuming love, obsessive love, conditional love, dangerous love, first love, last love, fickle love, love and marriage, love lost, secret love, love on the run, love that hates, dutiful love, borrowed love, thief of love, love in embers, love in vain, love in shackles, love maligned, love that warps the mind a little.