Good morning. Wow, what a freaky night. We kept waking, that sort of half-waking where you mumble, "Whatta?" and go back to sleep before you finish asking, "What was that?"

Well, we woke up to disover "that" was a neighbor chopping down a tree with an axe in the middle of the night. Wait, what?! Not criticizing his courtesy by avoiding chainsaw use at 3 AM, but... tree-chopping by starlight? Apparently, the tree allowed squirrels access to his attic. He had one too many nights of Skippy and Slappy scrambling around overhead, and that was that for the tree. Lovely little dogwood no more.

What he did not yet realize is that squirrels use drainpipes. Also, the cure might be to keep his attic sealed against intruders, rather than killing a tree. But, hey, to each his own axe. If he'd rather chop down a tree at 3 AM than set a couple humane traps up in his attic after fixing that gap in the eaves.... Not my house, not my squirrels.

There's a reason that guy is single. Just sayin'.

***

I note for those who aren't acquainted with the acoustics of my neighborhood: We lvie on the slope of a hollow, and the echoes around here are *insane*. We have a couple of "dead" zones where nothing is heard or heard from, and the rest? Like a high school auditorium, really. One person drops a pen, everyone jumps. Thus, I don't have to live very near someone to have the pleasure of their audio company. Got real interesting when we had neighbors who never shut the bedroom window during their lovemaking. Yikes!

***

Oklahoma today became the 46th state in the USA, back in 1907.

Etymology of the word is allegedly a Choctaw (Native AMerican) word for "red people". The Choctaw, btw, were native to the US Southeast, not the southern Great Plains, which is where Oklahoma is located. I'll further note that Chickasaw people get cranky if you decide they're Choctaw. They're not. The languages are close, but it's like Russian and Polish. Same family, sound a lot alike, but no, not identical. (Or, if you prefer, German and Dutch. Whatever.)

Thanks to migrations force dby whites, Oklahoma is home to trivbes that originally had no place whatsoever in that region, including the Cherokee. The western Cherokee did the Trail of Tears. The eastern nation, which is found in part of the original Cherokee nation lands, got to stay b/c they compromised with whites. As a result, the two dialects of Cherokee are extremely different, to the point where some argue that they're no longer both Cherokee. I've picked up a few words of the eastern dialect, which is considered th eonly living southern Iroquoian dialect that resembles the original. Cherokee is also one of the "healthiest" of the Native tongues, with its own alphabet, etc., and extensive efforts to preserve it. The eastern tribe teaches it in school, for example, to help preserve it. SOmetimes, that whole "compromise" thing can be verrrrry sneaky subversive good for someone. In part, thank George  Guess/Gist/Guest, a silversmith of the southern Appalachians. He created the Cherokee syllabary and by so doing, kept the tribe more literate than the average white settlers of the region and time (c. 1820). Sequoyah, as he's also known, lived all over the US Southeast, includnig modern Alabama, the old Arkansas Territory, and even traveled to what is now Oklahoma (see! connected!) in an effort to find an dunite all the scattered Cherokee peoples. He settled in Oklahoma for a time, and died in 1843 in Mexico, seeking Cherokee who had gone there after the tribe's removal from the ancestral territories in the east. (The removal was around 1802, so Sequoyah would've been about 30 when it happened, and opposed the assimilation compromise of the eastern nation, but also opposed tribal disunity, so... Rock, hard place.)

BTW, Oklahoma back then was next ot what was Arkansaw Territory, and was where the whites relocated Seminoles, Creek, Choctaw, Cherokee and Chickasaw from the southern Appalachians, Florida and what is more or less today's state of Mississippi. In fact, Oklahoma was part of the then-Arkansaw Territory, but post-relocation, was "Indian Territory".  And no, the whites did not consult the trivbes already frequenting the region, like the Apache, Kiowa, Osage, and similar.

In 1915 on this date, btw, Coca-Cola had its curvy bottle patented. THe logic given? "Easier to hold". The real reason? The shape strongly suggested/resembled a woman's curves in the corseted style of the era. Tell me this doesn't resemble the original curved cola bottle... http://image.glamourdaze.com/2013/09/1910-Corset-made-by-Jen-Thompson-Festive-Attire.jpg

***

OK, I am off to do two loads of laundry, see the bone-manipulating doc who works on all that scarred up stuff in my pelvis/back (five years later, still going... but ehy, I walk, so that's a good thing)...

May you have a soft, blessed day!

Leo