From the East Wing, With Early Birds, Lamb Cakes, The Winds of Time, Attack Dogs, The Nightlife of Springtime

Greetings to all, and welcome new friends to the East Wing.

As I look to the south from the East Wing Windows my Maple Trees is almost popping their branches to push the leaves out to the sunshine. This cool crisp air of early morning is filled with birds, both in the air and just walking ‘round on the grass. These birds were awake before me, so I don’t know it the early one got it or not. But I do see one Robin out there who seems to be smiling a big lot. If he didn’t get the worm, he for sure got something this morning. Happy bird, that Robin.

And so I start my day by saying a very Happy Easter to all! It seems that as long as I can remember I’ve been asked the same question by somebody every Easter season, the question being how come Easter comes on different days and Christmas comes on the same day every year. One time I told somebody that the reason was Christmas is a federal holiday and Easter’s not. They believed it till I told ‘em different. Easter is the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Vernal Equinox.

Easter is the very bedrock of Christianity itself. Easter is the most Holy of all Holy Days of the year in the Christian Faith. With that being said, what ‘bout the rabbit?

It turns out Easter is kinda two things served up as one like peas & carrots in the same can. The Christian side of Easter is in the bible. Now don’t crazy on who’s bible I’m talking about, there’re several different bibles and they all tell the same story ‘bout the crucifixion and resurrection.

It’s important that we Christians don’t get too critical of somebody using a different bible than we do, a little research into the origin of bibles may both enlighten, embarrass or even resurrect deep dark questions on the back roads of your memories. Bibles are Bibles. If ya really want to have a truly moving experience, read a different bible than the one you use at church. Another idea, read any bible of your choice published over 100 years ago, ya may not recognize it as the same story.

Yet another suggestion would be read the gospel of Judas. Yes the gospel of Judas, now that one didn’t get into the big book and as a result never made it to the New York Times Top 10 List, but the Gospel of Judas does exist and just as the first four chapters of the New Testament tell the same story for the point of view of four different people, the Gospel of Judas tells the story from yet another point of view. It’s a gospel that many Christians would find very disturbing, that Gospel of Judas.

It’s easy to see how the word Christmas is identified with Christianity, not so with Easter.

Easter got its name from Eastre or Eostre the Anglo-Saxon goddess of fertility and rebirth. Along time ago people celebrated the beginning of spring at the vernal equinox, when day and night are equal in length, by blessing seeds before planting them and at the same time placing colored eggs on an altar. They believed that this ceremony would bring them fertility for the upcoming year.

When the early Christian missionaries noticed that a pagan party took place around the time of the resurrection of Christ, they adopted Easter as a Christian holiday to help attract the pagans to Christianity. This may explain why some of the TV preachers are such crooks instead of Christians, such crooks may well end up in the seventh layer of hell. Now I don’t know if Jim and Tammy Baker are/were saints or sinners, but I sure wouldn’t want my final place by their side, just in case. But who knows, their final resting place may well be in the arms of Abraham. It’s not my job to judge, just to tell the story.

As Christians adopted Easter, they matched the festival of the springtime with a sermon. Following the tradition of dressing up for church, Easter Sunday became a special occasion to wear your very best clothes. In fact, many regarded Easter as the first time to wear that new dress and "Easter Bonnet". In the early 1900's families would to stroll to church and home again on Easter to show off their "Sunday best."

Out East, it seemed to be more of a big deal than here in the Midwest. Songs, stage plays and even movies were made of the this “Easter Parade” of new spring clothing. At Toto we simply called ‘em “Church Clothes” and they were seldom new, just clean. We only got new clothes to start the school year, and for sure it was never “Church Clothes”.

The Easter basket evolved from a Catholic tradition, where families brought a basket of food to mass on Easter Sunday to have it blessed for the evening meal. Later, children would use Easter baskets to gather colored eggs and candy.

Now the Easter Bunny is a whole different deal. I don’t know a single person that didn’t at one time believe in both Santa Clause and the Easter Bunny. I did. Still do, just a little different view now.

Where does a rabbit handing out eggs come from? Not from Toto Indiana that’s for sure. I believe I heard when I was a kid that the Easter Bunny originated from Germany around the mid 1500’s or so and came to our country in the 1600’s thru the Pennsylvania Dutch. I knew a Dutch guy one time, his name was Moray.

Did ya color Easter Eggs this year? Why not? I’ve colored Easter Eggs all my life and this year was no different. I colored eggs on Good Friday with two special friends of mine, adopted grandboys, Evan and Colon. We colored eggs at Grand Central Station. After the egg coloring we decorated a Lamb Cake. Now most everybody’s seen a Lamb Cake, but did ya ever put the stuff on it? We did. The three of us decorated and decorated and decorated. When we got done, a white wooly lamb was lying on a bed of green grass.

Frosting was Cream Cheese, eyes were jelly beans, nose was chocolate chip, wool was shredded coconut, grass was green dyed coconut. A more spectacular lamb has never graced the halls of Grand Central Station. Such an artistic creation offered up for human consumption in this thing we call “Easter Brunch”.

And so the Lamb Cake will come again, along with the coloring of eggs, the Vernal Equinox to start another spring, another Easter will come, another Easter question as to why not the same day, and life goes on, with or without us, life goes on. It’s kinda a humbling thought to think how little we will be missed when we pass. Yes life goes on.

I went outside the other day in the wind and got to thinking ‘bout the system of identifying the wind velocity. Don’t know if ya ever heard of it or not, but it’s called the Beaufort Force. Beaufort was an Sea Captain and he came up with this idea while sailing on the oceans. To this day, it’s used at sea as well as on the land.

Now the Beaufort Force is a description of what ya feel and see when the wind blows. We can’t see the wind, we feel the wind and can see things that are affected by the force of the blowing wind, but can’t see the wind. The Beaufort Force goes from 0 to 12. Most everyone has heard of the descriptive parts of the Beaufort Force, I’ll bet very few have seen it all laid out at the same time with the miles per hour attached to the action of the wind.

0 Calm Smoke goes straight, up less than 1mph
1 Light air. Wind direction is shown by smoke drift but not by wind vane. 1-3 mph
2 Light breeze. Wind is felt on the face; leaves rustle; wind vanes move. 4-7 mph
3 Gentle breeze. Leaves and small twigs move steadily; wind extends small flags straight out. 8-12 mph
4 Moderate breeze. Wind raises dust and loose paper; small branches move. 13-18 mph
5 Fresh breeze. Small trees sway; waves form on lakes. 19-24 mph
6 Strong breeze. Large branches move; wires whistle; umbrellas are difficult to use. 25-31mph
7 Moderate gale. Whole trees are in motion; walking against the wind is difficult. 32-38 mph
8 Fresh gale. Twigs break from trees; walking against the wind is very difficult. 39-46 mph
9 Strong gale. Buildings suffer minimal damage; roof shingles are removed. 47-54 mph
10 Whole gale. Trees are uprooted. 55-63 mph
11 Violent storm. Widespread damage. 64-72 mph
12 Hurricane, widespread destruction. 73 mph and above

I’ve always been interested in the weather. I had a Weather Rock in Toto I used to use for weather forecasting, but I’ll save that story for another day.

The warm spring weather has turned Sophia into the Great Calico Hunter of Birds. The yard is now full of birds selecting nesting material. Sophia is offering her assistance and expertise in those matters. Sophia is a tree climber of extraordinary skills. She runs to the top of Maple Trees with the same grace as setting on the back of my chair.

She’s posted on her Facebook Page that she’s available for house calls on nesting consultation, and they talk ‘bout the wolf guarding the hen house.

Last week the worm turned, so to speak, in the East Wing. After hearing the cat break bad on the President for some time, the 2girldogs took matters in their own paws and put the cat in the trick box. Sophia was given a lesson in Chicago Style Politics, dog eat dog, so to speak.

The 2girdogs marched into the cat house, backed Sophia into a corner and then the Gray Lady, the most gentle creature of the East Wing said “ I’ve got something to say to you, you Limbaugh loving, Glen Beck suck up, Sara Palin protector, Tea Party joiner, you miserable pathetic piece of cat flesh. It’s cats like you that make the President’s job hard. I’m sick and tired of hearing from you loser cats. And you have the guts to call the President a piece of crap, then you’re a piece of worthless cat carp yourself, so there!”

Whereupon Mustina, the Pup Baby, jumped into the fray, and with all the protection afforded her by the company of her mother in the face of hostility, and with a grin from ear to ear, said “YAH !”

The Pup Baby’s command of the dog language is not the most extraordinary to say the least. Nobody ever said Pup Baby’s a Rocket Scientist. But she can bark in both Spanish and Italian. She’s trying to learn to bark in Chinese, but hasn’t got the yang of it yet.

Nighttime has come to the East Wing, this Easter Evening, 2010. I set in the darkness with light only from the screen, with all the 2girldogs asleep on their couches. Sophia in her usual place on the back of my chair. All the doors are open and the sounds of the spring nighttime have come inside the East Wing. I’m enjoying sounds I’ve not heard for some twenty years. The magic of my new digital hearing aids. I’d forgotten how much alive the spring nighttime is with the sound of fellows looking for a date.

Just when I thought I was done for the night, Sophia whispered in my ear, “damn democrats, always try to kill the messenger and never address the message. I’ll get those 2girldogs, just wait and see”.

Stay safe in Iraq and Afghanistan

From the East Wing, Early Birds, Lamb Cakes, The Winds of Time, The Gray Lady Attacks, Pup Baby Learning Chinese, The Nightlife of Springtime

I wish you well,
BobbyRay