Welcome to my weekly offering in the guise of a Street Prophets Group Coffee Hour open thread. Post what's on your mind, promote your projects and causes, share photos ... the door's open, c'mon in!
I've got a few things and thoughts of my own to share this week. A photographic peek at what I was up to 20 years ago and how things look now, a few call-backs to last week's Fuzzy Friday, and my usual blithering commentary. Nothing in the rules sez you have to pay any attention to the yowling cat ...
On a related note: one thought I'd like to share, before I hop over the hairball and start posting photos from my week, struck me when I read the intro to BeninSC's most recent Top Comments diary.
I wanted to write a bit tonight about something I encountered in the comment threads of a diary within the past few weeks. The diary’s author had experienced a terrible loss. For the most part, the community rallied around with compassion and sympathy.
One of the ‘guests’ in the comment threads wasn’t so sympathetic at all. The person was comparatively new to Daily Kos, and felt that time spent ‘indulging’ in such sentiments was contrary to the purpose of the site, and that our political adversaries would take comfort in our sentimentality and lack of focus.
Ah, the purity of purpose troll. I would welcome their extinction.
Those of us who live on Prophecy Street understand that communities are like quilts. The mission statement is just the backing. We're all the colorful bits strutting our stuff up front-- and the strength of a quilt is in how tightly the bits are sewn to each other-- all that stitching through the batting fluff that binds the bits to the backing is perhaps stronger in some bits than others, not really necessary in some places. This is one of those places. But please, add stitches as you see fit.
Beyond the ginger hairball I've coughed up below I'd like to share a bit of personal history, a few photos from my wedding which took place 20 years ago, June 17th, 1993. It has been a week of milestones ... it might get a bit mushy.
Back in the summer of 1989, the year after I'd graduated from college, I traveled around Europe on my own and with friends for a month before meeting my father and step-family in Frankfurt and driving with them to Czechoslovakia where I spent two weeks visiting my step-mother's family. Before I'd even left for Europe I'd been teased by my dad that all the women in this family were extraordinarily beautiful and that a certain step-cousin, about my age, had just broken up with her boyfriend. Perhaps true-- but hey, at that time I was deep into a fresh relationship of my own and we'd made a promise to continue to see each other when I got back from my trip. A promise broken; I was unceremoniously dumped just two weeks before I left. Little did I know that there was some teasing going on in Prague as well. The highly abridged version is about 5 days of mixed signals and language barriers followed by a brief episode of hand holding crowned with a kiss upon parting. Of course, I also received a mustachioed smooch from her father when I later said goodbye to him so it was all rather confusing. I left her a note, she wrote me a letter, I wrote a reply, she wrote a reply, and so on until we just began writing a seemingly endless stream of letters. Then her visit to the US in 1990 for a month-- only occasionally chaperoned. More letters, I visited her twice in 1991 and propose to her before sitting down to dinner with her family on Christmas Eve. The dear grandmother who teased her about the impending visit from a "young, handsome American" (her words , merely translated, dear reader) back in '89 took delight in picking on me for not asking her, as the matriarch of the family, for her permission to wed her granddaughter. In '92 I moved to Prague and the following year, we were married.
The building we were married in was at one time a fort surrounded by a water filled moat that was built in the 13th century and then thoroughly rebuilt in the renaissance style in 1565. Damaged in the 30 Year War the fort was again rebuilt after 1639, practically destroyed in 1775 it was again rebuilt with many changes to the renaissance design. That link is pretty ironic. It's announcing the grand reopening of the building after extensive restoration-- dated, October 12th of last year. And it was closed for reconstruction when, after 20 years, we went back to visit last Sunday. So we didn't get to peek inside but here's a view from outside:
Missing from that view is the bell tower that is peeking from across the inner courtyard in the next picture:
And here we are at the restaurant where the reception dinner and party were held:
A few dinner guests:
And here's the view of the restaurant as we found it on Sunday:
After the dinner and before the party started we stepped out to say goodbye to some guests and have our photo taken in front of the mill pond across the road from the restaurant:
That red roofed building in the background, on the far side of the pond, didn't fare any better than the restaurant:
Well, I guess the chimney is still standing. That's something isn't it? Wow, even the pond has been drained. A lot can happen in 20 years. We had a baby, bought an apartment, had another baby, bought a car ... the stepping stones on the path to middle age. We've survived in somewhat better shape than some of the landmarks of our wedding day. But, looking at this final photo might make one think that it's time for a bit of reconstruction:
Not quite the slim, innocents we once were but something at least, hasn't changed.
I won't be around for much diary sitting this week because of another milestone in our lives. Yesterday, I taught my #1 son how to tie a tie. Tonight is his graduation ball. He's finishing 9th grade and will be attending a new school in the fall. The Czech school system doesn't quite align with the system in the USA. My lad has another 4 years of basic education ahead of him before he makes the anticipated next step to a college or university. So, I'm off to the ball tonight. I hope I'll have a chance to dance. Perhaps there will be a photo or two to share with you next week.
On our actual anniversary, on Monday, we all went on a bike ride with some friends and rode out to the bluffs overlooking the Vltava (Moldau) river as it flows into Prague. I'll try to steal a bit of time in the morning and reformat some photos to share with you in the comments before we head out for a busy weekend. I'll try to drop in from time to time all weekend and post replies as and if needed.
Thanks for stopping by to scroll through my mush. For an additional helping of stale mush from my anniversary announcement in Cheers & Jeers on Monday you can click on this link.
This is an open thread.