Pretentious Much?

June 23, 2014May 6, 2021 / Ally Bean / 16 Comments

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HAVE YOU EVER HEARD yourself say something and think to yourself:

Did I really say that? Honestly, who am I?

Zen-Den and I, with some friends, were at an art show in a park that is along a river. We’ve been to this particular show many times together, and we each have our favorite artists who we want to checkout. It makes for a predictable, leisurely afternoon.

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Z-D AND I WENT into one particular artist’s tent to see what he had going on. For Z-D this guy is the highlight of the show, so he stopped to talk with the man. I looked around but didn’t see anything that I wanted so I went outside to stand with our friends who were waiting.

When Z-D caught up with us he hadn’t bought a thing. He turned to me and said: “what did you think of his stuff this year?” And then I said the most out-of-character statement that I may have ever said. I replied:

“Oh, his work is so derivative now that it’s passé.”

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THERE WAS A PAUSE while all of us looked at each other– and then we started laughing so hard that we had to stop looking at each other because of my absurd statement.

Accurate as it may be, I have no idea where that sentence came from. I’m not exactly an art critic [or a critic of anything, for that matter]. All I can think is that I’ve read too many scholarly articles on Arts & Letters Daily. Might be time for me to focus more on People magazine.

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I’M GOING TO FILE this charming little story, ridiculous as it is, under:

Do Not Take Yourself Too Seriously.

Derivative? Passé? Who says things like that? Not me, usually. That’s for sure.

Desperately Seeking Gladys Kravitz

June 20, 2014June 20, 2014 / Ally Bean / 34 Comments

Late Tuesday afternoon we received an email from the HOA. The message in the email told us that there had been 4 burglaries in the past 10 days in one part of our large subdivision.

Even though the break-ins are miles from where we live, the HOA asked that all residents turn on their outdoor lights at night. This is because the burglaries happened in the middle of night while families were at home, asleep upstairs.

[I’ll wait here while what I just wrote sinks into your brain. At home. Asleep. While having your house burgled. YIKES!]

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First of all let me tell you that we are a cooperative bunch of suburbanites when under attack. To wit, the last few nights our part of the subdivision has been so well-lit that pilots would feel comfortable landing their planes on our streets.

[So that’s a good thing. For us. And for Duke Energy, as well. *sigh*]

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And secondly, while I’m not thrilled with these latest developments, they do underscore the need for everyone who lives around here to be more aware of everyone & everything that goes on around here. That is to say, it’s time for you, my lovely neighbors, to look up from your smart phones and actually interact with your environment.

You know, like we did in the dark ages when phones with cords plugged into walls. And neighbors said “hello” to each other when they met on the street. And burglars knew that somewhere in every neighborhood was a nosy, noisy Gladys Kravitz who saw everything.

[Oddly enough, that’s who we need around here. Her prying eyes would be most helpful right about now, don’t you think?]

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BREAKING NEWS:

It’s 10:00 a.m. Friday morning and we just received this email update from our HOA:

“… we learned that there was another burglary attempt around 3am this morning at XXXX Drive. The police spotted the intruders before they were able to enter the home. The accomplice was caught, but the other burglar was able to get away.”

Now how long until the accomplice turns on the other burglar?

As Unlikely As This Sounds, We Visited A Midwestern Castle

June 19, 2014July 1, 2025 / Ally Bean / 17 Comments

ONCE UPON A TIME… a few weekends ago… Zen-Den and I finally visited a southern Ohio castle that I’ve heard about for decades.

The Castle and the surrounding gardens are officially named Chateau Laroche. They were built by an eccentric genius named Harry Andrews, who after serving in WWI decided to promote peace and build his own castle based on the ones he saw in Europe during the war.

First, he used his smarts to become a knight by creating his own order, The Knights of the Golden Trail. Then he built his castle using, among other things, the stones he found along the river. After he built most of the castle, he moved into it and lived out his days in the slightly modernized parts of Chateau Laroche.

The castle, which is open to the public on a limited basis, is one of the most unusual, almost dilapidated historical properties I’ve ever wandered through, over and around. Here are some photos.

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