Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Dear Unknown Soldier #2

Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Dear Unknown Soldier,

Today is the day that I promised to write to you and I hope I have time to do it!  We have company.  I can't write right now as that would be rude to my company.  It's my Mother in law.  She is 87 years old and still driving.  I went shopping earlier and got 4 bottles of wine, 2 for cooking and two for drinking, mushrooms, spaghetti sauce, ground round. Fresh Michigan Peaches, lettuce and spinach and everything else my husband needs to make spaghetti, salad and I also got a baguette.  He just got home from work and has started cooking.  I ran up here to print a story I am working on for ML to read.  I made peach tarts and peach sauce for ice-cream for dessert.
    So Hello again.  How are you?  I hope you are well and healthy and safe.  I want to thank you again for the good work you are doing for our people.  THANK YOU.
    I know you can't write about what you are doing and I know you can't always write at all, but it's sort of hard to carry on a conversation when it is all one-sided.  I feel a little clumsy about this.  I don't know what else to do but to tell you about myself, which seems rather self-centered, but I can't talk about YOU.
    It is 8:08 PM, and dark.  I am walking alone through Detroit on a street named Canyon.  Detroit has the highest crime rate in the nation.  It makes me just a little nervous to walk alone at night, though I have encountered no personal difficulties yet, thank goodness.
    I am carrying a backpack that is so heavy it hurts my shoulder.  It is full of books, manuscripts and light bulbs.  The light bulbs, of course, are not heavy, but the books and manuscripts are.  I am taking the to the retreat house where I hope to get some work done on my children's novels before I'm too tired to work any more.
    The air is warm, slightly damp and humid, and full of cricket song.  I am writing on a small computer.  I am wearing a headlamp with red gel to help prevent my eyes from dedark adapting.  Of course, there are lights here and there, but I am walking along Balduck Park, which stretches many long blocks and is very dark and some of the few lights that are here are out.
    I am walking through a dark tunnel now formed by overhanging trees and grapevines.  There are dead birds here.  Mostly starlings.  I don't know why they are dead.  I hear the sound of running water, a fountain in someone's yard nearby. 
    There is a little nearly new moon covered by a haze of cloud.  I wonder what the weather is like where you are.  Can you talk about that?  If so, is it hot?  Dry, humid?  What sounds do you hear?
    I am writing a children's book about a military academy that has a children's camp in the summer, for "cadets" (young kids.)  They are too young to use guns yet (eleven) but they have marching and leadership training.  I am not really sure what leadership training for eleven years olds would be like, though.  I prefer to write about stuff I KNOW about, and I know NOTHING about this.  But my protagonist ended up here.  Her parents thought it might teach her some discipline.
    That's probably something you can't talk about, either.  Well, if you do know anything and would like to talk to me about it, it would be a big help to me, but it you don't or can't or don't have time to even write, that's OK too.
    It is sort of hard to write on the computer and walk in the dark at the same time, but if I don't do this, I will be unable to keep my commitment to you, since I was busy all day today and will be busy again tomorrow.
    There are a few stars visible through the hazy clouds.  I'm getting very warm from hiking with this pack.  You probably carry one much heavier.  I have before, though probably not as heavy as yours.  I once walked the Northville Placid trail in New York through the heart of the Adirondack Mountains and my pack when I started weighed more than eighty pounds.  And I'd gone ahead and made several food drops, so I didn't have as much to carry as I might have.  I did alone.  135 miles in nine days, hiking all day with a huge pack.  I ended up jettisoning a few things.  But not enough to make the pack actually light!!  I carried a tent, sleeping bag, pads, food, cookware, clothes, everything I needed for nine days.
    I'm sure you had to do much worse.
    My brother was in Nam.  Maybe I shouldn't walk about that either.  I had two brothers in Nam at the same time.  But never mind that.  They both lived.
    The hike to the retreat house takes me 35 minutes.  I'm not as fast a hiker as I used to be, by any means.
    I am walking past the woods now.  It's very dark.  Are there woods where you are?  What kind of trees?  Are they like ours or different?  Am I asking inappropriate questions.  I don't even know what appropriate.  If you can't say, that's okay.
    On my way to the retreat house, I have to cross 3 4-lane roads with busy traffic, hard to get across in the dark.
    I've arrived at the retreat house and I have to work now.  I will try to write to you again next Wednesday.  If you can write me anything at all, even a postcard, I could possibly write to you directly, if you prefer that.

Sincerely yours and thank you again for your service,
Stay safe, (Mary)

Wednesday, April 08, 2009

Dandelion Day Diary

Dandelion Day Diary

090404 J Saturday, April 4, 2009, 4:30 PM:  I have parked my car at North because I am supposed to pick up Graham at 5:00 from his Dolly rehearsal because K is busy painting the garage door panels.  As I was arriving, someone in a white Jeep Cherokee going the other way honked loudly.  I hope it wasn't Graham getting a ride with someone else.  I didn't see other kids, leaving though.
    I parked in the very first parking place but I ought to have parked facing out rather than facing in because when I get back there will be zillions of people coming and going and kids walking all over and it will be difficult to get out.
     My day has not been going as planned.  :-(
    The reason I am walking now is because I did not get to walk earlier.  Things tend to take longer than I expect.  I worked on a poem, which used to be called "Underrated" but I renamed "A Can of worms."  It was written in 1999, ten years ago, after a letter from Peter Schuschni, my first husband brought up a bunch of old business.
    I worked on an art piece to take to Brian Powers in our next session.
    I wanted to work on an art piece called "Talisman" but could not locate the images I wanted so saved some others.  I also have a digital smudge painting I started like a week ago of Donna that I wanted to make for4 the celebration, but have done almost nothing on it.  The only reason I bring it up now is because I saved it to a thumb drive thinking (ha ha) that when I took a break from planting the pansies I bought to plant at bother Moran and Rolandale, I might work on one or both of those images on Tabitha which I thought I'd take with me over to Rolandale.  Ha ha.  Never did, never planted the pansies either.
    I did buy bird food, we were all out, and filled the bird food container at Moran and put out food for the birds and brought some over to Rolandale and put some out there as well.  And I got a little watering pot for Moran but did not have time to water the plants.
    At least I am outside and it is sunny and the birds are singing quite volubly.  Mourning doves, cardinals, robins (there are robins everywhere), blackbirds, etc.  I'm in a very nice neighborhood I may never have been in before.  Actually, looking around, I think I've been here before.  One time, Keith and I went to Sam and Joan's and walked here from there, or if not exactly here, near here.
    I'm on Sunningdale.  There are houses that look like castles.  And yes I have been here--there's a country club and I remember it. 
    Various people from Dawn's poetry class are participating in NaPoMo-something or other, I've already forgotten.  It's a National Poetry moth challenge to write a poem a day for 30 days and they give you a prompt a day.  Yesterday I wrote a new poem based on a dream and today I worked on that poem, a heavy revision, "A Can of worms."  I don't seem to have all that much writing time and for me, writing a poem that pleases me takes a lot of time.  And I do not remember all the challenges (there are four now, since it's the fourth.)  One was to create a metaphor from two of five disparate things in front of you and another was "three in a row."  I wrote down 5 things on my desk, and none of them appealed to me and was busy with all sorts of other things.
    And Dawn wrote such a nice three in-a-row poem that I felt stymied. I kept thinking of her poem.  Three in a row sounds like a good topic for a Geraldine poem.  I brought the Geraldine Ms to Rolandale but never got to work on it.  Connie, Keith's old Compaq, wouldn't read the files I put on the thumb drive.  I put Frog Haven and Counting Fingers on a 4 gig thumb drive, the same thumb drive that also has the painting of Donna and the images for the painting Talisman.  I am ready to work, but I don't have a computer over there that I can work on.  I could work on Connie IF I was doing new work or if I could figure out a way to transfer the files to Connie--save them to CDs? For example?
    I just got a phone call and Graham is out and wondering where I am.  So now I'm on the double.
    Monday, April 6, 2009, 12:53 PM in seven minutes, I'm supposed to be getting my breast biopsy.  I am in the first waiting room and the receptionist at Ultrasound doesn't seem to know what do with me, in spite of the fact that I am on their schedule.  They gave me a wristband, which is a little scary, as they did NOT do that for my mammograms and ultrasounds.
    It is snowing outside.  There was snow on the ground this morning and it has been snowing all day, but rather than accumulating, it is shrinking and melting away at the edges.  I had to clean the car--several inches--when I drove Graham to school, but just needed the wipers when I left for Beaumont.
    I've been sad and depressed this morning.  All morning.  I worked on the summer calendar, drawing the lines for the days and months on a 22 x 28 piece of graph paper.  But the lines were so faint I would hardly see them and it all seemed like a bit of an ordeal.  Got as far as marking down by painting with deep cadmium yellow (or something) the GM shutdown days and putting a sticky note for June 20, the day of Donna's celebration, that is, the celebration of her life.
    It's 1:00 and I am still waiting in the waiting room.
    I wasted some time this morning looking for a book to read while I was waiting.  I had planned on reading Jill Murphy's The Worst Witch.  But I already finished that and am planning to write a quick review of it and give it to Rachel on Easter.  I could not find a book that I wanted (I do have a couple with me in my backpack, but I'm not in the mood for them.)
    I was VERY sad when I couldn't find a book--most of my books now are over at Rolandale and by the time I realized that, it was too late to go look there.  But I'm not sure how well I could concentrate anyway.  I'm a little bit nervous about this whole business.
    I was really upset with Graham last night.  When I'd been talking with Aunt Sandy on-line, Graham came in and said yes he's like to go see Aunt Sandy and no he didn't have any other plans.  But last night he told me he "already" had plans with Chloe and Emily--but he'd just made them.  Aunt Sandy was rearranging her whole schedule for him.  What an @$$!  :-(   I told him he needed to talk to her and my guess is he hasn't done that yet.  And won't until things are in crisis and it's too late to fix them.  He has no empathy or understanding of how his callousness affects other people and has a tendency to simply ignore dealing with problems he's created with his thoughtlessness.
    I have some of those flaws myself, though I can swing the other way and be overly empathetic.  It's hard in life to achieve a genuine balance.
    1:11 PM No Keith anywhere nearby (do you know where your sweetie is?  It's 1:11.)
    Tuesday, April 7, 2009, 11:42 AM:  I am in the waiting room of Brian Powers, psychotherapist where I have come on a referral from Muna Beeai for insomnia.  It's very dark in the waiting room; I can hardly see the screen of the Psion.
    I feel better today.  I was really out of it yesterday after the biopsy.  I felt a little dizzy, slightly disoriented, a little queasy, and very tired, and spent most of the rest of the afternoon in bed.  Today I feel almost normal.  The hole in my breast is much larger than the prick of a sewing needle--more like the prick of a fairly large knitting needle.  But it doesn't hurt much.  No more than a scratch or thorn hole, just a little burning and/or stinging sometimes, and or occasionally a bit more pain, but hardly anything to write home about.  On the one hand, it wasn't all that bad and on the other hand, it was all a bit traumatic.  A little of each.
    I start worrying when a doctor is late or someone that I am in the wrong place at the wrong time or it's the wrong day or something.  It's past 11:45 and no Brian Powers.
    He had mail under his door and I picked it up and then didn't know what to do with it.
    There is a heater running and a white noise generator (I guess so you can't hear what's going on in the next room.)
    OK, is something, wrong?  He's still not appearing.
    3:43 PM He appeared a little late, guess he was running late with the previous client/patient.  I was worried I'd get shorted, but we ran appropriately late, too.  Which means HE got shorted.
    I am now walking down Moran toward Mack on my way to Rolandale.  K is in the garage organizing to drive over there.  It's cold.  There is snow on the ground.  Not a complete snow cover, but big patches, and the air is cold enough that it's chilling my fingers when I try to write.  Not only is it cold and windy with on the ground, but also it is actively snowing now.
    4:05 PM:  The snow has dwindled at least temporarily to a few flakes coming down here and there.  Keith went by and oooo-ooohed me when I was more than halfway to Rolandale.  I'm a block and a half from Rolandale St. or Road, then about 2, 2.5 blocks down Rolandale to the house.  Depending on how you couldn't the blocks, as they are different on each side and Moross almost counts as a block by itself.
    I was thinking about the NaPoWriMo challenges, which I have done none of, too busy, and haven't even looked them all up yet.  One of them was "Three in a row."
*   *   *   *
Third's a Charm ("Three in a Row")
The first one beat her.  She was bad, because he beat her, because,
a dragon struggled to press his scales out through her
slimy skin.  Her breath was hot with dragon fire.  His beatings
squeezed the flames into a black hole of dynamite.
or maybe a neutron bomb.  Some heavy antimatter,
ready when she escaped the first to blow acid and fire
in the face of the second.  He hit once, and the rest of the time,
shrank her with words until she was smaller than the point
of a needle with the mass of the universe crammed in.
The third one's a charm.  If he can pry her out of her shells
of darkness, and get past the land mines, he might find
a beating heart held exposed in a soft palm, eyes green
with forest light, a swallow, swooping through the trees,
carrying like his cousin, an olive branch, a breath of air,
a hand to hold in his.
Mary Stebbins Taitt
for Keith and BP
090407-1630-1st
    *    *    *    *
*   *   *   *
Third's a Charm ("Three in a Row")

The first one beat her.  She was bad, because he beat her, because,
a dragon struggled to press his scales out through her
slimy skin.  Her breath was hot with dragon fire.  His beatings
squeezed the flames into a black hole crammed with dynamite
or maybe a neutron bomb.  Antimatter, heavy with shame and pain
prepared itself when she escaped the first to blow acid and fire
in the face of the second.  He hit once, hard, then shrank
her with seething words until she was smaller than the point
of a needle with the mass of the universe crammed in.
The third one's a charm.  If he can pry her out of her shells
of darkness, and get past the land mines and fire-breathing dragon,
he might find a beating heart held exposed in a soft palm, eyes green
with forest light, a swallow, swooping through the trees,
carrying like his cousin, an olive branch, a breath of roselight,
a hand to hold in his.
Mary Stebbins Taitt, 090407-1639-1b, for Keith and BP
*    *    *    *    *
Yay, I wrote a NaPoWriMo poem!  Woopeee, yahoo.  Three cheers.  And I revised it.  I won't know if it's "worthy" or "ambititious" for a while.
*   *   *   *
Third's a Charm ("Three in a Row")

The frst one beat her.  She was bad, because he beat her, because,
a dragon, born from an egg of flame incubated
in her heart in that pocket of inherited midnight, struggled
to press his scales out through her slimy skin. 
Her breath was hot with dragon fire.  His beatings
squeezed the flames into a crevice crammed with dynamite
or maybe a neutron bomb.  A bit of antimatter, heavy
with shame and pain prepared itself to blow acid and fire
in the face of the second when she finally escaped the first. 
The second hit once, hard, then shrank
her with seething words until she was smaller than the point
of a needle crammed with the mass of the universe.
The third one's a charm.  If he can pry her out of her shells
of darkness and fat, and get past the land mines and fire-breathing dragon,
he might find a beating heart held exposed in a soft palm, eyes green
with forest light, a swallow, swooping through the trees,
carrying like his cousin, an olive branch, a memory of roselight
and rainbows, a hand to hold in his.
Mary Stebbins Taitt, 090407-1651-1c, for Keith and BP
*    *    *    *    *
    The water meter reader and sewer people came and left us a note that we were supposed to have been here and that there will be a fee since we weren't and that we have to schedule a new reading.
    If we'd been here, it wouldn't have been free.
    Wahn.  I think they may have told us at the closing. (?)
    7:14:  I am out on my forced march, my 15-minute walk.  It took me 32 minutes to walk to Rolandle so I still had 15 more.
    Wednesday, April 8, 2009, 6:40 PM, I am out walking to Rolandale.  Earlier, I walked to the village market.  I spent a lot of time on the phone trying to reach the water and sewer department to straighten out the meter reading business for house transfer and as far as I am concerned, it's not straightened out yet.
    I never downloaded my new poem from yesterday.
    Today, at least, it is sunny, though not exactly warm, and not bitter either.
    My breast was hurting some this morning.
*   *   *   *
Third's a Charm ("Three in a Row")

The first one beat her.  She was bad, because he beat her, because,
a dragon, hatched from an egg of flame incubated
in her heart in that pocket of inherited midnight, struggled
to press his scales out through her slimy skin. 
Her breath was hot with dragon fire.  His beatings
squeezed the flames into a crevice crammed with dynamite
or maybe a neutron bomb.  A bit of antimatter, heavy
with shame and pain prepared itself to blow acid and fire
in the face of the second when she finally escaped the first. 
The second hit once, hard, then shrank
her with words and venom  until she was smaller than the point
of a needle and crammed with the impossible mass of the universe.
The third one's a charm.  If he can pry her out of her shells
of darkness and protective fat, and get past the land mines
and fire-breathing dragon, he might find a beating heart
held exposed in a soft palm, eyes green
with forest light, a swallow, swooping through the trees,
carrying like his cousin, an olive branch, a promise of roselight
and rainbows, kisses, a hand to hold in his.
Mary Stebbins Taitt, 090408-1850-2a, 090407-1651-1c, for PIUS, Keith and BP
*    *    *    *    *
    OK, well I did revise it walking along but had to stop multiple times to copy it etc.
    I am walking past the green house that I wanted to buy.  Much closer, but in worse condition and not for sale.
    Dandelion Day Diary!  I just saw my first dandelion.  Chris Burnett, 1970. He told me that you could really tell when spring has arrived when you see your first dandelion.
    At least it's a sunny day, and has been, all day, in spite of the hassles that leave me feeling overwhelmed.
    I'm approaching Canyon Bob's and after that, Balduck Park and Copper Canyon.  The road I am walking on is Canyon, and down by Balduck Park used to be where the police and firemen lived when they were required to live in Detroit.
    Canyon Bob is not in his yard.  OH, there he is, he came running out to tell me he saw our new house yesterday.  He kept scratching himself the whole time he was talking; hope he doesn't have lice cause he always comes out to shake my hand.  He wished me a happy Easter and to say hi to Keith--once he called him "Curtis" I think.
    I just passed the halfway tree.  15 more minutes to go.  I've been walking slowly, trying to work.
    I think today's challenge is to write "charming" haiku." Lottie wrote one that was really good.  When I see someone else's work that's really good, it has a dampening effect on my creativity, like, I can't do that.  Aiee.
    Speaking of really good, I'd posted my last two pieces in Jessie's mole which I did last night, stayed up late doing them and the G woke me up early for a ride to school, I posted them to The Moleskine Exchange site and Steve waxed exuberant about how much he liked them, amazingly so, and here I was thinking they were fairly mediocre.
    Aiee.  Well, I am certainly pleased that he liked them.  It brings into focus the whole issue of what is good art.  What IS good art and who makes that call?  The artist?  The critic, the curator, the buying public, other artists?  What is good art? I have the same problem with poetry.
    There is a dead animal on the sidewalk, curled on its side, grey and rat-sized and at first I think it's a rat, but I see it's a squirrel and I repeat the Zen mantra "I too will like that sometime." which always gives me a lurch.  I am not eager to die.
    The two new pieces I did were both done with gouache.  The painting is uneven and sort of messy.  I never was good at staying in the lines.
    I don't know why I keep trying to be an artist.  I need to go back to working on Sissy, Geraldine and my other books.  I need to get a computer over to Rolandale.  I could theoretically move Blue but first I need to get word for the Mac.  I need to make THAT a priority, assuming my biopsy results are OK.  If they are not Ok, I will have other things to worry about.

--
I am certain of nothing but the Heart's affections and the truth of the Imagination- John Keats
Mary

Thursday, April 02, 2009

The Rolandale Journals 090401

The Rolandale Journals

April 1, 2009, I am hiding out at Rolandale from April Fool's Day,
even though I feel like a fool! I am up in the room that will 1st be
my studio-study and maybe someday be my study of the studio moves to a
Florida room yet to be built. I am using K's old computer which is
greasy and sticky to the touch and feels very strange and different
than all my other computers. I also forgot to bring up my glasses,
but the timer is due to go off for the chicken baking in the oven, so
there is not point in going down to get them. I hope I remember to
bring them up when I come up to do some serious writing!

I had a bad night last night, I got all upset because K and I had
another misunderstanding—I was so upset that I couldn't sleep. Then
there were a series of other minor problems, none of which are with
writing about, but the pile of them delayed me and got me depressed
and upset. But I am here now. I feel hot and tired and sad. But I
am here and hope to do some writing. The first thing I want to tackle
is the timeline for the Geraldine Manuscript. I also need a full name
for it and to find the spots where it needs attention.

Other things I need to do:
· yardwork/exercise
· work on a mole
· the iceberg piece or pieces
· unpacking and organizing
· inventrory and put away paints

oops, there goes the timer for the chicken

2:52 PM Keith just pulled in as I was finishing my late lunch, still
need to take my vitamins.

Watercolor Paint inventory 090401:

· Windsor red, 5 ml, 14 ml,
· Windsor Red Deep, WN, 5 ml, more than half gone
· Quinacridone Red, 5 ml windsor Newton, 7.5 ml Utrech
· Indian Red, 5 ml HWC, 7.5 ml Grumbacher academy
· Alizarin Crimson, 8 ml cotman
· Cadmium orange, 5 ml Windsor Newton, 8 ml cottman
· Windsor yellow, 14 ml, 5 ml nearly empty (Windsor Newtorn)
· Windsor yellow deep, 5 ml nearly empty (Windsor Newtorn)
· Indian Yellow, windsor Newton 5 ml
· Golden Lake, Maimer Blu, 15 ml
· Thalo yellow-green, 7.5 ml Grumbacher academy
· Windsor Newton Green gold, 5 ml
· Sap Green, 5 ml HWC, 8 ml cotman,
· Permanent Sap Green, WN 5 ml
· Olive Green, Windsor Newton, 37 ml, 5 ml
· Terre verte yellow shade, WN 5 ml
· Windsor Blue, Red shade, WN 14 ml, 5 ml
· Windsor Blue, green shade, WN 14 ml, 5 ml
· Prussian Blue, Cotman, 7.5 ml
· Cobalt Blue, Cotman, 7.5 ml
· Ultramarine Deep, 15 ml, Maimer Blu
· Indigo, Cotman, 7.5 ml
· Pthalo Turquoise, WN, 5 ml
· Cerulean Blue Hue, Grumbacher academy, 7.5 mls
· Payme's grey, Cotman 7.5
· Cobalt violet, cotman, 7.5, 2
· Violet (Thalo purple), Grumbacher academy, 7.5 mls
· Ultramarine violet, WN, 5 ml, almost gone
· Verzino violet—nearly pink, 15 ml, Maimer blu
· Raw Umber, WN 14, GA 7.5 almost gone
· Burnt umber, GA, 7.5
· Raw Sienna, GA, 7.5 almost gone, CM 7.5
· Burnt Sienna, CM, 7.7
· Sepia, CM 7.5
· Yellow Ochre, WN 14

4:40 PM I just sat and made a sample page of every water color I own
by color and brand. It took me a long time. It was a lot harder
than it seems as if it should be, opening each tube, getting some out,
putting the top back washing the brush—some were hard to open or close
or both. Tiresome and kind of boring doing it, but the results are
interesting. Yellow ochre, golden lake and raw sienna look very
similar whereas two different brands of Quinacridone red look quite
different. Some paints like Pthalo turquoise get VERY dark whereas
others like cobalt violet and cerulean blue have very little variation
in color intensity. Some of them are dense and opaque like gouache
while others are nicely transparent or translucent. Some have a gummy
texture and don't mix well with water like olive green. I don't like
the dullness of the cerulean blue. The color is close to being
right, but it should not look dull!

5:41 PM, I walked and then I worked briefly in the garden—laid three
stepping stones, and then I swept the paint and plaster crumbs ip from
the floor in the study. We will be leaving at 6 and I have to pack up.
So I am going to turn off Connie the Compaq and pack it up to take
home.

Goodnight Connie,* goodnight, all. XOX mary

*Connie is the Compaq

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Journal

Knives?
090303 J Tuesday, March 3, 2009, 1:58 PM
I am in the examining room in Muna Beeai's office. My last
appointment was in April 08 and I was supposed to come back in six
weeks and it's been almost a year. My weight when I was here last
April was 148.6. And today it was 152 fully clothed and with shoes,
keys, camera etc (if I'd taken them off, it would have been very close
BUT I am disappointed that I came out with a higher number, I was
hoping for a lower one. My blood pressure was 124/72, which they said
was "good." I had a blood test (got stabbed twice and they took it
from my hand) and a urine test.
My assignment for poetry class, due Monday, a week from yesterday, is
"To write the poem you've always wanted to write." I hate that kind
of assignment. I'd rather have a theme (write about worms or farts or
macadam or just about anything) or a list of words to include (French
fries, pig pens, the Caribbean, Roy Rogers) or a technique (write a
sonnet or a haiku or a tanka or a limerick, although I'm not all that
crazy about that either), but write the poem I've always wanted to
write?
I could say that the poem I've always wanted to write is whatever I'm
writing now, which would be partly true, but not necessarily true to
the spirit of the assignment, more to the letter of it.
The poem I've al2ways wanted to write, huh? Some part of me of
course would like to write an award-winning poem, but although Natasha
Saje says every poem should ambitious, I don't think I should start
out writing with the hope of winning an award.
And anyway that's probably not really my deepest wish, which is to be
seen, heard and loved/accepted.
So what is the poem I have always wanted to writer? It would be
magical, resonant, "important" in the sense that it would say
something deep and meaningful. It would be the kind of poem you read
and say, "Oh my God," and want to read again multiple times. It would
be shaped in such a way that the reader would be successfully guided
into an EXPERIENCE that would elicit powerful emotions in the reader.
I would, in a way, like to write socially conscious poetry, but not so
much overtly so, necessarily, but more of the personal is political
variety. So where does that leave me?
Saturday, March 14, 2009, 2:32 PM I am out walking on Rolandale
toward Balduck Park. I have to cross Moross, a four-lane road, both
coming and going. I've been painting in my new studio. I'm painting
it white for maximum light. Keith made it clear that he does NOT like
white painted rooms, but too bad, it is my studio and I need light.
As I cross Moross, and ambulance is coming, but I run in front of it
because it was far enough away that I was able to safely do that.
Balduck Park is unexceptional. It is a smallish park with baseball
diamonds, a sledding hill and a small woods, which at the moment is
full of water, and a treed picnic area with swings. The tables and
swings are beat up. It took me 5 and a half walking minutes to get
here, not counting the time I spent waiting to cross Moross.
Dog walkers, many of whom drive here from the surrounding area and
many of whom allow their dogs to attack hapless strangers walking in
the park, inhabit the park.
Although it is sunny and warmer than it has been, all the huge
puddles under the trees are still have frozen and there us ice under
the leaves ("permafrost".) There are, as I suspected dogs, and lots
of mud, and I make a quick decision, turn around, and leave the park.
I take Canyon to Lannon and head south on Lannon. On this street,
like many others, there are houses for sale everywhere. I worry about
what is happening to the people who live or lived in them. They may
have lost their job; families may be at risk. Same with the house I
bought on Rolandale. The old owner, Nancy COULTER, paid $105,000 for
the house and then put a lot of time, work and money into it, fixing
it up. Then, the bottom fell out of the housing market. She couldn't
rent or sell it at a reasonable price and was going into foreclosure
and had to sell to us for a fraction of what she paid.
I hope we don't take the same kind of beating if we have to sell!
Meanwhile, Back at the ranch, Keith is taking off the back porch. It
was rotting and falling down and that was one of the things we have to
do in order to get a certificate of occupancy.
I am back across on the other side of Moross, walking along the
hospital to the sidewalk that cuts over to the street that goes back
toward the Rolandale house. I've walked around enough so that I am
beginning to know my way around. It's not that hard, but there are a
few unexpected pattern changed in the street layout due to the
hospital, the park and other obstructions.
Someone has a plastic owl hanging in a tree.
Most of the children outside playing are black. Bob, one of our new
next-door neighbors, is white.
Did I mention tulips? There are tulips coming up in the new
Rolandale front garden. Also weeds. I am back at the other house
(that is, the Rolandale House.) I walked 23 minutes, which is half my
total required walking time. It stinks of paint in here, but I think
I will try to set up temporary bookcases so that ML will have
something to do tomorrow when she comes over to help. G may be having
a concert at 3 tomorrow. I'd like to go work on the brush pile
outside for fresh air--maybe I will do that after a while. I have to
remember to ask the girls about the knives.
4:17 PM I worked in the yard for a while. Did a little trimming,
carried some stuff from the weed pile, and dug out two large heavy
cement blocks that were put there to keep the pit bulls at this house
and the lab next door from digging through to each other.
I found out something else. Nancy COULTER's partner's name is
Ernie--we already knew that--what we didn't know what that his son
used to live here--he's the one who raised pit bulls. He got raided
by a school bus full of cops one night and got hauled away and Bob
next door, who was telling us this, never saw him again.
Bob told us one of the pit bulls got loose one very cold winter night
and no one was around. It was after Ernie's son got busted but before
his friends took away the pit bulls. Bob caught the dog and put it
back in one of the pens. Everyone was amazed that Bob had the courage
to do that, but he confided in us that he'd made friends with the dogs
when they were pups.
I wanted to get the bookcases set up so that when ML came over
tomorrow, she could unpack books and I could put them on the shelves.
But there aren't that many shelves and I never got them set up--I need
clean bricks or something to put between them. I unburied those
cement blocks and K carried them to the basement and I washed them,
but I decided that they were too big. Not really what I need. But I
can use them in the basement.
I am very tired. I haven't been working all that hard--K is working
MUCH harder, physically, but I haven't been sleeping well and
suddenly, I'm just exhausted. I was on my feet painting and then
doing yard work, and now I want to sit, but it is already 4~30, maybe
I will go walk.
4:33 PM I am out for the second half of my walk. My hips and other
joints hurt, including my neck, and it is chilling off a little and a
thin cloud weakens the sunlight. I ran around the yard and even
peddled the stationary bike for a little while, but none of that
counts for anything, because I didn't time it.
I smell wretched dryer sheets, horrid, stinky perfumey dryer sheets
polluting the clean city air, LOL. Well, the air does smell better in
the parts where I can't the dryer sheets,
Mourning doves are cooing.
The red maples are in flower, though the stamens aren't fully
extended yet. I'm supposed to report that. To . . . I forget.
Somewhere on line where they are doing a phenology.
Other people are also out doing yard work, cleaning up the winter
mess. We need to do it at home on Moran, too.
I've walked into Grosse Pointe Woods and all the houses look very
much alike, not exactly, but close. Terrible. They are the same
height, same distance from the road, have the same number of windows,
etc. Only the colors are different. I am glad I don't live here,
Monday, March 16, 2009, 2:58 PM I am at the Rolandale House and I
would like to start painting but I don't know whether K will need me
or my car and I don't want to get paint all over things of I have to
suddenly leave.
8:52 Pm It was a beautiful, warm sunny day, warm for March, anyway,
but my fibromyalgia was so bad that I didn't enjoy the little walking
I did, which was walking to the store. Now I am out walking again. I
have to walk a half hour. It's cooled off considerably now that it's
dark.
Keith has gone to Kroger's and Graham is alone in his room. He's
supposed to be practicing now, but he probably will not.
Dogs are barking, many barking dogs, probably because a man and woman
are walking by with an armada of dogs and that has excited all the
stay-at-homes.
I am grateful for trees. Such grace and beauty.
I remember Dawn's assignment to write for 45 minutes about what's
around you and something will resonate for a poem. Sigh. Since we
got the house, we've been so busy working on it that I've done
essentially no writing.
But I will not be out for 45minutes. And I am not sure I want an
inspiration anyway, I have too much work to do.
The dark clear sky is speckled with stars, not as many visible in the
city as elsewhere.
When I am writing, I am a little bit distracted from the fibro pain
in my hips, but I can't walk as fast. Not that I walk fast when I'm
in pain, but U walk even slower when I write.
I have to walk for 2 and a half more minutes. When I'm in pain, I
just want to go home and sit down.
* * * *
The woman paints while she walks. She wears and easel strapped to
her belly, hanging from her shoulders, like the portable drink trays
at football games. Instead of drinks, she carries paints, brushes,
water, rags. She paints the trees marching past, crooked, swaying
with every step. She paints, the stars, blurred and bouncing in the
branches. In the trees, also, she paints a few crumpled leaves and
scattered seeds like ornaments. And birds, blowing past in the wind
like small bright untethered kites, the red cardinal and its
dry-blood-colored mate, the fat shiny blue grackles with their yellow
eyes looking like jewels. Sometimes, she paints at night and
sometimes in the sun. Sometimes, she stumbles on the uneven and
winter-heaved sidewalk blocks, catching herself and her work before it
spills, or tumbling among the paints and brushes, skinning her knees.
When it rains, the paints wash down the page in a blend of colors.
The neighbors call her crazy and whisper behind her back, but they
can't see how the rain merges her spirit with the souls of trees, with
their graceful limbs, with the wet birds and their miraculous flight
wobbling among the raindrops. 1st
Well, see, I wrote a new "poem". If you want to call it that.

Sunday, March 01, 2009

Psion Dump from 090228

090227J  Journal, Friday, February 27, 2009, 3:20 PM

                We are in the car on Moross in line to get onto I94 to go to Woodward Camera to pick up Elphie who is back from being repaired. 

                We stopped by Rolandale on the way because today we the day that the house was supposed to be inspected.  It was also the day we were supposed to close, but of course, we couldn't close because the house had not been inspected yet.  We hope there are no further glitches.  We went by to check if the lock box had been put on the door and it was there.  They don't leave it there because someone could bust it open, get the key, and go in and steal the furnace, water heater, copper pipes etc.  The lock box was there.

                Now we are on I94 and it's a dismal day, cloudy and raw.  It's above freezing but not by much.  And it feels bitter.  We are planning to get the camera and then walk at Cranbrook.  It won't be a good photo day because of the low flat light and brownness after days of rain.  But at least we'll be walking in a different place than in the neighborhood.

                * * *

                Fri, 2/27/09

                Dear Dawn,

                Hello, how are you, did you enjoy the reading? I hope you have a good weekend!

                I wrote TWO prose poems (and I have since written a third.)  Starting with a single idea, I went off in two different directions.  The first one I wrote was one in the series of poems I am working on concurrently with the Geraldine poems.  It is quite strange and gets progressively stranger.  The second one, which began with the identical set-up, is a Geraldine poem, and goes in an entirely different direction.  It's not as weird because the weirdness of the other poem doesn't really fit Geraldine.  THEN, I did with the Geraldine poem pretty much what I'd done with last week's poem, I kept adding to it and changing it.  The original poem is now part two of a four-part prose poem.  (The other new one we'll just ignore and leave out of the discussion.)

                OK, so here's the question and the reason I'm writing:  Would you prefer that I bring the weirder no Geraldine poem, the short version of the Geraldine prose poem, or the longer version of the Geraldine poem?  I'm leaving it up to YOU if you would like to direct the way the time is allotted and the course of the discussion.  Let me know if you have a preference.  Thanks, Mary  :-)  PS Looking forward to class, YAY!

* * *

OK, at 3:38 PM we have just gotten off I 96 and are headed north (?) on Woodward toward Woodward camera.

                Saturday, February 28,2009, 2:47 PM We are just back from buying Graham a new bike.  Tomorrow is his birthday.  We will have nothing else for him.  He wants to have an

          Check water (pipes etc)

          Sign ACR letter city county building

          Insurance

          Change utilities

          Cashiers check made out to ourselves after we get the amount

   *  *  *

                4:14 PM We are on our way to Belle Isle.  We have inspected the Rolandale house. There was some new water damage that we hadn't seen before--that wasn't there before.  And a few problems we hadn't noticed and I was re-impressed with how TINY the place is.  I had been thinking I could divide up the living room into a small living room and an office to 2nd guest room, but it is really small.  I was thinking maybe we could eat in the kitchen and use the dining room for a living room, but that ain't going to happen either.  Upstairs, on the second floor, there are two bedrooms and a bathroom.  One bedroom I was going to make into a studio and the other into a dedicated guest room, which would be NOT used for anything else.  Guests and me while I'm there working need to be able to eat, need a table to sit at for meals, need a comfy chair to relax into and chat.  Etc.  So, hmm, I may have to share office and studio space, which will compromise both.

                Detroit is mostly a horizontal city rather than a vertical city.

 

Friday, February 20, 2009

090208J with new poems

090208 J Sunday, February 8, 2009, 2:43 PM  We are headed out to Dodge park.  It's sunny and just above freezing and we're intending to walk but I am worrying that the trails will be all icy and bad for walking.  I'd like to be outside in the sun.  But where?

                *  *  *

Not a Dream

                A woman flies above the mountains, stares down at the wrinkled and folded topography, the little lakes and tiny trees like something from a model railroad.  She knows she's not dreaming because she hasn't has a flying dream in years.  And besides, this is too real.  The colors are saturated, like a maladjusted television.  Brilliant and multidimensional.  More real than real.  And she's  a awake.  Not sleeping, the way she does in dreams and in life, where everything seems dull as if layers of gauze covered her eyes.  Maybe she's dead.  She twitches her shoulders, feeling for wings.  What's keeping her from falling, she wonders.  Nothing.  She plummets toward the rocks, and since she's not dreaming, she can't wake herself up.

1st draft Sunday, February 8, 2009, 2:55 PM on the way to Dodge park.

                *  *  *

                *  *  *

Not a Dream

                A woman flies above the mountains, stares down at the wrinkled and folded topography, the little lakes and tiny trees like props from a model railroad.  She knows she's not dreaming because she hasn't had a flying dream in years.  And no dream-flying euphoria.  Besides, this is too real.  The colors are ultra saturated, like a maladjusted television.  Brilliant greens and browns and multidimensional.  More real than real.  And she's  a awake.  Not sleeping, the way she does in dreams and in life, where everything seems dull as if layers of gauze covered her eyes.  Maybe she's dead.  She twitches her shoulders, feeling for wings.  What's keeping her from falling, she wonders.  Nothing.  She plummets toward the rocks, and since she's not dreaming, she can't wake herself up in time to survive.

090208- 1b;  1st draft Sunday, February 8, 2009, 2:55 PM on the way to Dodge park.

                *  *  *

I'm tired after several very bad nights, bad insomnia.  And I am cranky and grouchy and grumpy and horrid.  I don't like being inside my own skin when I feel like this.

"There once was a girl

"who had a little curl

"right in the middle of her forehead

"and when she was good

"she was very very good

"and when she was bad

"she was horrid."

My mother used to say that to me.

                *  *  *

Not a Dream

                A woman flies above the mountains, stares down at the wrinkled and folded topography, the little lakes and tiny trees like props from a model railroad.  She knows she's not dreaming because she hasn't had a flying dream in years.  And no dream-flying euphoria.  Besides, this is too real.  The colors are ultra-saturated, like a maladjusted television.  Brilliant greens and browns and multidimensional.  More real than real.  And she's startlingly awake.  Not sleeping, the way she does in dreams and in life, where everything seems pale and dull as if layers of gauze covered her eyes.  Maybe she's dead.  She twitches her shoulders, feeling for wings.  What's keeping her from falling, she wonders.  Nothing.  She plummets toward the rocks, and since she's not dreaming, she can't wake herself up in time to survive.

090208-1507-1c; 1st draft Sunday, February 8, 2009, 2:55 PM on the way to Dodge park.

                * * *

                4:48 PM well, it's sunny and warmer than it mostly has been, but of course, there are puddles and slush and deep wet snow and ice.  Within less than five minutes, I'd sunk my foot into in ice and slush filled puddle way deeper than my jungle mocs.

                All the quote poetry unquote that I've been writing lately is pretty depessing and has unhappy endings.  Well, life has unhappy endings--we all die and there's nothing happy about that.

                I was thinking I'd try for another but am running out of ideas.

purple orange snokele fish stingray car song gulp seven eleven music truck spray splash bump crash  we're riding on a narrow 4 lane street and the lane we're in is full of puddles and holes.  UGH!

                A  man reaches into a puddle and pulls out a rusty model T Ford.  He oils it up, turns the crank and hops in.  As he drives, the car begins to morph, growing newer and newer until soon, it has become a 2009 Ram Charger with a camper cap that extends over the hood of the truck.  At sunset, he climbs into the camper and into the bed cubical over the truck cab.  The sheets are freshly laundered and smell of chlorine bleach and old-fashioned sunshine. They are stiff with starch.  But in the morning, he's on the ground again, and the nearest puddle contains only a horse.  He gives the horse some apples and gallops off down the highway, but gets pulled over and ticketed by the state police when the horse leaves horse puckies on the highway.

Mary stebbins Taitt, on the way home from Dodge park.  February 8, 2009.

                5:23 PM, We stopped at the Rolandale house and shoveled the walk and poked around the yard a little.  Someone had been here since the last time we checked,pulled all the way up inot the driveway, walked on the porch and in the yard (maybe more than one someone).  And I discovered dog kennels out back which we had not seen before.  And wondered if someone had kept a dog in there--recently.  Somepossible evidence, but hadn't seen any earlier evidence--but then, we also hadn't seen the dog kennels.

                It would makeit easier to have a dog.  I didn't want to have to have a dog.  Maybe someoneelse could keep a dog there.  BUT then if THEY were bad, they'd know I didn't have one of my own.

                Wednesday, February 18, 2009, 3:19 PM We are driving west on Moross about to hop onlto I94 and up to I 696 to get to Woodward camera to have my little new Camera, Elphie, repaired.  It's raining, lighter, harder, lighter, harder.  We may walk at Cranbrook if it isn't raining to hard.

                I am trying to think of a new topic for an ode.  Part of what makes is harder is I would like every poem I writeto be a Geraldine poem and not just any Geraldine poem, but one that fits into the manuascript and forwards it.

In Paise of Geraldine

                I was thinking of an ode in praise of Geraldine but all the things I thought of seemed like cliches.  I was imagining Gerald speaking to Ethel early on, or before we know she's damaged from the measels.  We need to hear from Gerald.  Who is he.

                Part of my problem is that I'm exhuasted from insomnia andpart of it is that I don't know who Gerald is.  I keep wanting to make him into a clone of my own father. That and me.  My father as seen through my eyes, adapted to the Geraldine setting and situation. 

                Who is Gerald?  What does he do?  What does he look like?  How does he smell?  What are his hobbies?  Does he fish?  Hunt?  paint?  Sing?  Tell stories?  What would he praise?  Does he love Ehel?  ea?  Geraldine?  Is he mute?  Is he smart of stupid?  Is he a redneck?

                Geraldine's real father was not very evident. (I saw him less often than the mother, who I didn't see all that often, either).  And they were reltively poor, or like my own parents, chose to live very simply.

                So, lets make up a Gerald.  We know this about him already, he's older than Ethel, and at least at one, point, loved her, that he apparently fathered two children, Bea and Geraldine.  I think he was somewhat short and stocky, but not fat.  Dark hair.  Maybe a little swarthy-complected.  He goes away to work early every morning.  A tradesman?  In a trade that doesn't pay terribly well?  An accountant?  The real father did not, as I recall, drive a tradesman truck, that is, nothing that said plumber or carpenter etc.   Let's say that he ran the heating plant for the local school and had a somewhat reasonable income, but was not at all well-to do, just enough to support his family with little extra. He was reasonbly intelligent, above average and knew a lot about his job.  He also supervised the janitorial staff.  He could praise cleanliness.  He's interested in astronomy (thus the aurora poem), likes to fish and camp, occasionally hunt.

Geraldine shrieks at the first grip of toes

and prick of tiny talons, setting the pigeons

to flight.  Shhh, whispera Aldy, inclining his head

toward Gerald in the wheelchair, shhh.  Your Dad

wants to feed them.  Geraldine arranges the torn bread

and seeds on her hand again, steels herself for the whirr

and beat of wings, the sudden clutch of pink toes

with their sharp nails.  The same one returns, the white one

with tan wings and a shiny pink head, gripping her fingers,

pecking at the seeds in her hand.  She giggles, softly,

and the pigeon looks up, cocking its head to the side

and peering at her through a single eye. 

 

                Oops, I got interrupted and lost my train of thought.  I was thinking of making a tryptyx with The Gerald pigeon poem, the Aldy piegeon poem, and a Geraldine one, but suddenly I can't think of anything else to say about pigeons that hasn't already been said in the two previous poems.  And it's not really an ode, its more like a story.  A narrative.

                AK!

                I'm so tired and there is so little avaialble time.  I have painting class tomorrow and then piano theory and then it's already Friday.  Ineed to wrte something so there is tiem for revisions.

                Besides pigeons, what might Gerald praise?  I was thinking about him praising cleanliness to a new young employee.

Let's make these potties shine, Gerald says,

spraying the toilets with 409 and wiping them

clean with his rag.  He polishes and polishes, until every surface

gleams.  In the next stall, Aaron gives a few half-hearted swimps.

The toilet doesn't even look dirty to him' it's cleaner than his

at home has probably every been.  No, no, Gerald says,

take pride in your work.  Aaron winces.  What, you think you

can't take pride in cleaning potties?  Take pride

in whatever you do, always do your best.  Cleanliness,

they say, is next to Godliness.  It's a kind of perfection.

Of course, youcan only strive toward it, you can never achieve it,

but look at the beauty and purity of it.

                Oh, fuck this shit.  How can I write an ode to something I don't really care about withouting a bunch of banal shit?

                Hopeless.  How can I write an ODE, a POEM of praise, when I'm so exhausted that not much seems very praseworthy.

                Maybe I should write a poem in priase of sleep or one in praise of insomnia  Or both.  But everything I think of seems full of cliches.  Oh sweet sleep, I beg you to visit me. 

 

 

Friday, February 06, 2009

Two new poems in journal matrix

Friday, February 6, 2009, 7:26 PM We are hurtling north on I94 approaching I96 headed for Twelve Oaks where we're goingto dump the kid with Sandy for the weekend.

                He stayed home sick today.  I do not belive he was actually sick, so I am annoyed about it.  I believe he was simply over tired because he stays up all hours IMing with Irina.  This is the second time he's taken a sick day to simply sleep.  Lost precious academic time to mooning over Irina.

Between the Stones

                A boy sleeps all day and misses school.  All night, he touches the screen of a tiny box saying yes, yes, mmm hmm to the girl who smiles at him in choir.  When he sings, he is an angel who wraps the wings of his voice around her. When she sings, she is a devil, tantalizing him with the soft roundness of her voice.  He sings bass and she walks down the deep stairs of his voice into a tiny midnight cellar, narrow, with mildewed stones.  His skinny shoulders barely fit between the walls. She wants a kiss.  But as she purses her lips and leans toward him and as he leans at last toward her, lips slightly parted, his mother unplugs the late-night internet one more time. In an instant, he disappears yet again from her life.

Mary Stebbins Taitt

1st, February 6, 2009,7:47 PM in car on Psion on way to take Graham to Aunt Sandy's

                8:09 PM  I have a cut onthe end of my thumb that makes typing a bit painful.

                We have dropped Graham off with Sandy at Denny's--turns out she's been sick for a few days.  So they can be sick together.  K says he's been feeling "kind of punk" all day.  I feel OK, in spite of a pretty bad night last night.  Well, I was up in the night painting.  Keith drives fast enough that it makes me nervous to ride with him.  I almost didn't come.

                I was hoping to write another poem on the way home but I am utterly uninspired.

Oh Shit

A man dodges in and out of traffic, driving fast.  He is eager to be somewhere other than here.  His wife holds the "oh-shit" handle, but the man scolds her.  He says the handle is only held on by sheet metal scews.  On the next turn, when the woman doesn't hold the "oh-shit" handle, she slides across the car into the man whose seatbelt fails.  He falls out the door into the road.  The car behind swerves to miss him and there is a twenty car pile-up on the highway.  The man rolls out of the road into the ditch where he is carried by a flash flood through a huge culvert into an alligator swamp.  His wife is sitting on the chassis of the upside car which had careened out of control into the swamp.  He climbs up beside her in the nick of time.  The alligators gather around, scrabbling at the sides of the car with their claws.  The man and his wife may not be going anywhere for a while.

Mary Stebbins Taitt

1st draft, 090206, 8:26 PM coming back from delivering Graham to Sandy

 

 



--
I am certain of nothing but the Heart's affections and the truth of the Imagination- John Keats
Mary

Saturday, January 31, 2009

Psion Dump with 4 new poems from 081207-090131

Sunday, 12-7-08, 10:20 AM
After many cloudy, snowy days, it's brilliantly sunny and the sky is
blue. I am out on my morning mini-constitutional/light dose, slogging
through snow in my Harley Davidson motorcycle boots, which I'm trying
to get broken in. Keith is home making breakfast, bacon and eggs and
grapefruit. Just before I left, Graham came home. He'd stayed out
all night, two nights in a row, but one without permission or letting
us know where he was. I used to worry, but he's done that several
times now, so I worry less. It's a "never-cry-wolf" situation--if he
ever is really in trouble, we won't worry or look for him or call the
cops until it's too late, possibly. I'm glad he's home though. He
has his piano holiday recital today at 1:30 and I was dreading the
ordeal of looking for him or not showing up. And causing a problem for
Mrs. Lindow and for Jay with whom he's playing a duet.
Graham walks in the door and the first thing he says is, "where were
you guys?" Well, we went out Christmas shopping and later we went
skiing, but we were actually HOME most of the day and all evening.
Keith yells, "What is this, a preemptive strike, don't try to blame us
for the fact that you forgot your key again!" He was furious.
Keith said Graham neglected to call and tell us where he was. Graham
said he called and there was no answer. We checked the phones, there
was NO message. He's lost or misplaced about 30 keys now. And of
course, he was not wearing a coat and there's a harsh wind blowing and
it's about 20 degrees out so the wind-chill is lower. No hat, no
coat, no gloves. Not even a hoodie. Mr. Cool, shivering and knocking
to be let in.
I've had these Harley boots for a year now, and they still aren't
broken in. Of course, I didn't wear them all summer. Now I wear them
every morning for my light dose constitutional in hopes they'll be
broken in to wear on the bikes for hiking, bike hiking. Motorcycles,
that is.
11:19 Breakfast is over and Keith is up on the couch drinking coffee
and reading the paper. I think he'd spend the whole day doing that,
if left to his own devices. Graham has disappeared. My guess is that
he's sleeping off an all-nighter. I can't complain about Keith
though, since he earns the money that pays our bills. I guess he can
vegetate on the couch if he wants to. The sad part of it is, it means
less time together, because he's gone all week, and he doesn't even
like me to speak to him when he's reading the paper, so it's best if I
stay in another room. And I can't do anything either--I have to wait
until he's ready.
1:20 PM We're at the recital. Graham is sitting with the kids; I'm
with Keith and ML. We had to take two cars because Graham wasn't
ready. Then he forgot his music. Mrs. Lindow had some for him,
though. He wanted to drive back and get his music, but that would
have made him late. Mrs. Lindow is running about being cheery. I
don't feel cheery. I am very tired. Did not sleep last night.
I drift inside the music, float downstream
in bubbles of sound. The piano trills and the birds
sing and whistle. The stream joins another
and a third, becoming a creek. Mountains
lift around me, and of course, an eagle soars
and circles overhead like a majestic cliché,
its white head and tail shining. It's only
a student recital, but the fingers fly
on the keys like birds and the music pour
into the chapel and swells it toward bursting.
Finally, I have found a home, a place to live,
contentment. I snuggle into the sound, flow
and ripple, rise and fall. I am amazed by Bach,
Chopin, Brug, and Mozart. Oh joy, oh love,
oh music, carry me home.
OK, well, that didn't come very well, too full of clichés, but maybe
I can find it later.
Monday, December 8, 2008, 10:40 AM; I am out in my Harley boots and
parka for my morning mini-constitutional and light dose--though there
isn't much light today. The sky is dark and threatening. It's
supposed to snow, flurries, then snow showers, then change to sleet
and freezing rain, then tomorrow, all rain.
I just fed the birds, as I do every morning and here's something I do
not understand--they seem to be eating LESS food now than they were in
the summer. True, I am out less to fill the feeder, but there is
still a LOT of food leftover from yesterday. They are eating less of
the corn in particular, and less of the round larger brown seeds.
Everything used to disappear fairly quickly in the summer.
My hands are getting cold typing while I walk.
Theoretically, I should go out for my light dose as soon as I get up,
but at least now I have that light therapy lamp. I always have so
much to do. I did my morning exercises, stripped the bad, gathered
and started a load of laundry, and worked on the ATC (Artist's trading
card) I started last night. I did a few other chores, started another
load of laundry--so now I have one in the washer and one in the dryer.
The first was the sheets and some other lights, the second some
darks, and the next load will be towels, jeans etc. Collecting and
running up and down with baskets full of laundry takes more time and
energy than it seems like it should.
I walk past a honey locust tree and remember yesterday when Keith and
I were walking together, we stopped and gathered a few of the many
fallen pods and looked up at the many still on the tree. We shook the
pods like rattles or maracas and banged on the ones on the tree. I
too a little movie. I like that we have fun like that together. :-)
I had a bad night and was very tired all day, and we still managed to
have some fun.
Wings Challenge update:
I only set two goals, because this is a difficult time for me. They
were to start a diet and try to lose weight and to try to clean up and
get rid of stuff and start by sorting boxes.
I started a diet, but since it's the holidays, I keep going off it,
and then back on. I lose a little, I gain a little, I lose it back, I
gain it back. But I guess that's better than what usually happens on
the holidays, where all I do is gain and gain and gain and gain.
I started sorting a HUGE box of stuff, and I've gotten more than
halfway through it, but I think I am going to pit it away until the
new year because I have so much holiday stuff to attend to.
OK, so, assuming I can locate a box that the remaining unsorted stuff
can fit into (the old box is HUGE!), I will store it until January or
later. So I need to set a new goal to go with continuing to diet.
I'd like to set a goal of having good cheer and a welcoming demeanor
for the holidays, but my moods seem to be beyond my control and
related to my ongoing lack of sleep. I'd like to set a goal of
sleeping better, but I don't know hat small steps to take to
accomplish that. I was sleeping quite a bit better for a time during
the summer when I was on my allergy diet, but I was so busy then that
I did not keep a record of what I was eating and now I forget!
I'd like to do that--get back on that diet. Maybe I can make aiming
for that a subcategory of my diet goal.
OK, I've got it: Here is my second goal: to work on ONE project at
a time and clean up and file or put away all portions of that project
before starting a new one. I have to be a little bit flexible about
that, and say, maybe, work on no more than 2-3 projects at a time,
because The block print Christmas cards need to dry spread out,
between application of paint (printing rounds), and the water color
gift cards need to dry, and I have to do assembly on the other gift
cards, which requires spreading them out. So what I am going to do is
this: clean up ASAP after each drying period, put away my Geraldine
MS since I don't have time to work on it right now and it's all spread
out on the floor, put away all art supplies that are about from
previous projects, and maybe take some to the basement until after
Christmas.
OK--those are my two goals, along with calling Dr. Beeai about my
meds, getting a flu shot, ordering gifts for BB, etc. And the
laundry, shopping, meals, holiday concerts, being a Mom and wife, and
doing that as well as possible, wrapping all the gifts we've already
acquired, decorating the tree.
I need to start by eating breakfast in a more timely manner. I've
been up for hours running around, but I didn't eat yet. Wanted to get
my light dose and constitutional first! And meanwhile, I did all
these silly things like fill the bran bin and change the bird water
and feed the birds and so on that could be done AFTER I eat.
11:36 AM HAH! I finally ate breakfast. I do need to be a little
relaxed and forgiving with myself, because I have ADHD and get easily
distracted. Getting angry at myself for something I don't seem to be
able to avoid is totally counter-productive and pointless. I need to
work on awareness, paying attention to what I am doing and saying, do
that after breakfast. But when I am over-tired, being aware and
paying attention becomes difficult.
I got the third load of laundry in the washer and am headed up to put
clean sheets on our bed and put away the first load. What I want to
do is work on Christmas cards, but this is all taking so LONG!
I tripped on my boots going down with a load of towels. I almost
fell down the stars. I put them there when I got back from my walk so
they wouldn't make puddles on the floor and people wouldn't complain
about getting their socks wet. Somehow it seems wet socks are less
bad than falling down the stairs and breaking your neck.
Now I am walking around in my undies because all my jeans are in the
laundry. Brr. I could sew a pair of jeans from the mending pile, BUT
I have so much to DO!
12:37 Clean sheets on the bed and the first load of laundry folded
and out away. Phew I am tired. I am going to break from working and
scan and post the ATC I made last night and this AM. I shouldn't be
making ATCs, but at least they are quick and offer a quick break from
work.
Tuesday, December 9, 2008, 5:39 PM We are riding in the car in the
rain and fog and darkness toward Laura Lindow's house for Graham's
piano lesson. I have a bag of art supplies crammed between my legs
including a table easel, drawing board (homemade from foam core and
packing tape, paints, brushes, paper etc and I am hoping to work on a
gift card while Graham has his lesson.
We are on Moran approaching the lake. In daylight, Ilove this part,
because, as we approach the lake, we never know what we'll see,
horizon, no horizon, waves, no waves, color, etc. Tonight it's so
dark we can't see anything at first. But lo and behold, the lake is
frozen.
And the decorations are up--the hodge-podge and the tree--the tree is
gorgeous, and lots of other holiday lights. Beautiful, better than
"Lights on the Lake" any day! The rich people go all out and the
results are splendid.
I was going to write about my dreams. I had a lot of "interesting"
dreams, but one in particular is worthy of attention, and not just
solely because I had it three times in one night.
Frogs and Toads abroad in Winter
1)There is a green frog inside the house. I don't want to release it
outdoors, because it is winter, and I'm afraid it will die, even
though there's a thaw at the moment. When I go outside, there is
another green frog, just like the one inside. I think about taking it
inside and keeping it until spring, but decide to leave it outside in
hopes that it will find shelter before the thaw ends.
2)Graham and I are outside. It's wintertime, but it has warmed up a
bit, above freezing. There are toads all around and I find some that
have feathery protrusions from their snouts. I call Graham to show
him. The toads are logy from cold and I start stacking them up to
bring them inside. But then we decide to leave them out and hope that
they get under the mud before the freeze hits again.
3)Several hours later, I dream the green frog dream again, almost
verbatim, almost like a movie played over again, with very minor
variations.
The major things to note about this series of dreams are: 1)it
repeated three time, so I need to pay attention, 2)Frogs and toads are
amphibians, able to go in and out of water, or travel between the
conscious and unconscious minds and bring messages. It is interesting
that I'd have such a dream right after I asked, again last night, for
clarification on my other dreams, asking: how am I getting in my own
way? and how can I unmessify? And what do the other dreams MEAN?
3)Amphibians notably metamorphose. They change form. 4)Amphibians
hibernate during the winter and die if they freeze. 5)I useto be a
master frog catcher as a child. I wrote a NOVEL about saving frogs
(called Frog Haven.)
Maybe the dream means I should get my Frog Haven Manuscript OUT THERE
again before "winter ends" (before I die of old age.) I think dreams
are multifaceted and can mean multiple things.
Right before the first frog dream, I dreamed that someone was
fighting a fighting stallion. I was very worried about him, because
he was seriously out
Friday, 12-12-08 10:34 AM I am out on my constitutional again. We
had an unexpected concert last night. Graham's holiday concert.
Graham knew about it, but didn't bother informing us. We did manage,
though, to get tickets and attend. I was exhausted and it was very
hot and I kept nodding out, but parts of the concert were very nice.
That was last night, Thursday night. Now picture this: Wednesday
night, late (about 11:00 PM), Keith had already gone to bed. I was
shutting down my computers and Graham was dorking around in his room.
He came in and asked me to cut his hair. I'm like, "Now? It's late.
I am tired. You need to be in bed.!" He said he had to look nice
tomorrow, which should have been my cue to ask why, but I was too
tired to pick up on it.
So we went in the bathroom, tired Mom and tired son, and I pulled up
the hair in random pieces and chopped about a half inch off, paying
particular attention to the front, ears, back. But I am sure it was a
half-done job. I might have used more care if I'd known he had a
concert! b It would have helped if 1)he told us about the concert and
2)he asked me to cut his hair earlier. I have to say, though, he
looked extremely cute in his tails, tuxedo shirt, white vest and white
tie--and new hair cut. Too bad he would not allow either me or Keith
to take his picture!
It is snowing as I write this. My fingers are getting cold. The
pavement has scary icy spots. I don't know how much light dose I'm
getting it the sky is dark grey and it is snowing and I am looking
down at the computer as I walk.
3:46 PM We are at La Salle Bank--not the closest one or the next
closest one, but the one at 8 mile road. Which is no longer LaSalle
Bank but Bank America, oops. We are here to close our GMAC account
and put the money into our joint savings, because today, the Senate
rejected the proposal to save the automakers. And GMAC is not FDIC
insured and will go out if GM goes out. If they go into bankruptcy,
he will lose his job AND we will lose our RETIREMENT that Keith worked
for all his life. :-(
Keith is really worried, agitated and depressed.
I got really angry at Keith last night and we both lay awake late
into the night, so we're both tired. But at least we're not fighting
any more.
Saturday, December 13, 2008, 10:05 AM Fresh snow on the sidewalks. I
am having the same issue I often have with the Psion: I've been so
busy that I haven't had time to download it or to work on the things I
wrote and never finished. The sun is shining this morning, thin, low
and yellow, but shining at least as we head for the shortest day of
the year.
I waited up and didn't get to bed until after 1 last night and then
didn't sleep well. Graham was out caroling. Then he had a party.
Keith had promised to pick him up, but he went to bed (with his
clothes on) and I said I'd stay up to listen for Graham's call, but I
had no idea it would be so late. I sat and worked on making cards for
Heidi for her birthday and for Christmas--her birthday's on Christmas,
and then I wrapped the presents and then I packaged them, wrapped and
addressed the package etc. So now it is sitting ready to be mailed.
I only walked about 15-20 minutes yesterday and never made it out for
the rest of my walking. :-(
We're going to see Carmina Burana tonight.
That is, if I don't break a leg on the snow-covered ice!
4:01 PM So we dorked around and dorked around and dorked around
making gifts, addressing Christmas card envelopes and finally drove to
the PO only to discover that it was closed. Then we drove to the
Shores PO and it was closed too--which means Heidi and Gail's gifts
won't be mailed until Monday at the earliest. Now we're on out way to
get our glasses.
9:16 PM It's intermission at the DSO. We heard Verdi and another
Soldier's tale. Next is Carmina Burana. We nearly struck out today,
went to two POs and both were closed--so we didn't get mail our
Christmas packages to Heidi and Gail--and then went to the glasses
store (Fraser optical) and it was closed so we obviously didn't get
our glasses. I really enjoyed the Verdi but wasn't very fond of
Another Soldier's tale. It was dissonant and noisy and had no
discernible melody line' it was jangly and disturbing to me. I guess
it was supposed to be that way, it was based on a story of the
composer's grandfather who lost an eye and was trying to save a
companion during world war II. It was written by a black composer who
talked a bit about his piece--it was the world premiere of the piece
and it seemed to be received quite well, but as I said, I didn't like
it. I wanted to like it, but I didn't. I like music to be musical.
10:49 PM Well, it's over, and Carmina Burana was great. Fabulous.
We gave them a standing ovation that lasted for 4-5 return bows etc
and they deserved it. (In my opinion.)
It was very hot in the theater. Hot, bright, swelled with song and
music. I kept thinking of Sara, Erin, Pam, Heidi, TRR etc who all,
according to NPR, have no power because of a massive ice storm that
swept across the North East. I hope they are all OK and warm enough
and safe. I felt sort of guilty and decadent enjoying the DSO
presentation of Carmina Burana while so many were suffering.
11:02 PM we were sitting in absolutely unmoving traffic trying just
to get out of the parking garage. Finally, we are moving.
Sunday, December 14, 2008, 12:34 AM Out of a late "morning" light
dose and constitutional, mini variety. Fed the birds. I've been
doing cards. Keith is in their now doing them without me. Earlier,
when I was doing them, he was on the couch reading the Times. Before
that, he made breakfast. Its rainy and above freezing and most of the
snow is melted except in rows along the edge of the sidewalk where it
was plowed up.
Graham has gone off with $25 of his $40 from Bill and Eileen to blow
it at Kerchival on the hill on sandwiches and coffee, supposedly. The
other $215 will go in the bank. He can't even wait until Christmas
to waste it. At least he did write a thank you note and clean his
room a little before he left.
There is still ice on the sidewalk in some places! It's raining
harder, so I'm putting this away.
Monday, December 15, 2008, 11:43 AM I am over at the Post Office
waiting in a very long line to mail ONE SMALL package to Heidi. If I
had packaged it in two separate packages, I would not have had to come
here and wait in line.
The line is very long. When I first got here, it curled around. Now
I have made it up as far as the central counter--not the one with
workers, the one where you can get supplies. There are now eleven
people ahead of me. AH, but two went at once so that may mean nine.
The first bell-ringer of the season is outside the post office, he
opened the door for me. I was a bit annoyed, I feel trapped--there's
no back door.
11:59 I paid $4.80 to mail the package because the cranky lady said
first class might not make it. I don't believe that but I didn't feel
like arguing. I paid in cash (dumb mistake) and gave the guy outside,
the bell-ringer, a handful of change.
I also got one more book of Christmas stamps.
I was wondering if I should have gone to the UPS store instead, as
there was no line there. I just watched a man and a woman unloading
boxes in front of the UPS store. The man, a short st9ocky (but not
fat) man wth black dreads handed two large boxes to a tall, thin
pretty blond woman. Then he took a small one and followed her. Her
boxes? She was staggering under them; they were big. Is he a
musician? He looked cranky and a bit miffed, but of course, anyone
could. He was pretty handsome, but his handsomeness was ruined by his
expression.
2:32 PM Keith got out of work early today and we are on our way BACK
to the glasses place again to try again to get our glasses.
It's been getting colder and colder. It was cloudy and rainy and
it's supposed to snow, but at the moment, the sun is shining. Ave
Maria is playing on the radio, slow and mournful strings. Keith is
narrating to me what people in other cars are doing.
4:41 So we are headed over to the glasses place for a THIRD time
because the glasses are not what I ordered. One is walking around
glasses and one is reading glasses and neither of them is what I
wanted. I ordered glasses for close inspection and for the computer.
Tuesday, December 16, 2008, 9:31 AM I am out again on my
constitutional (mini) and light dose. Headed for the store by walking
in the opposite direction (and then around the block, to make up 20
minutes. It's very cold this morning, the birdbaths and puddles are
frozen totally solid. I've got my Krina-fur scarf on. My hands won't
take too much writing.
This journal is not very representative of me or my days, as I mostly
only write in it when I am walking or riding in the car or waiting at
an appointment.
Last night, I had three dreams that I remember, or two, depending on
how you count them. Probably lots more in between. The first was as
I was falling asleep last night and the other one or two as I was
waking up. Well, just before I woke up.
Oh, no! I just realized, upon seeing yellow labeled bags, that today
was the day we were supposed to put out old clothes (unwanted
clothes), and Keith said he had some, but we didn't collect them. We
had that fiasco with the glasses yesterday and they admitted they were
wrong and said they'd fix them (2 more weeks), but it took a huge
chunk out of our day driving back and forth and then we had dinner and
some other stuff and we were tired. And forgot.
A boxer just came running out of a yard and scared me, but it was
very friendly. But the lady hit it and yelled at it for coming to see
me, upsetting.
9:54 My favorite teller was saying she wasn't ready for Christmas and
I said she'd better get to it and she said her father died--he was
81--he begged her to stay by his side while he was dying and begged
the sons to give her money so she wouldn't have to work--she's
crying--and she stayed with him til the minute he died--they were very
close and she saw him or talked to him every day. She can't get in
the holiday spirit, it doesn't seem like Christmas without him.
I hugged her--I was crying too, remembering my Mom's death, and my
father's. And feeling sad for her.
About my dreams, here's the first (from late last night):
Disintegrating floor
I am walking across a floor full of holes, large holes, holes of
various sizes--I can see right through it--it is a rusted metal floor
that is rotting and disintegrating and not safe. I am walking rapidly
across a narrow strip of reinforced metal, a thicker section of floor,
but still precarious. I am frightened, very scared. I wake up
scared.
The definition of a nightmare is a dream that wakes you up scared. I
seem to be having a lot of them lately. I think this one may relate
directly to the failure of the senate to bail out GM (though I
probably don't approve of it at one level), because if GM goes
bankrupt, not only will K lose his job, but also his retirement,
health benefits, everything.
There are other precarious things in my life, aging, my health,
Graham's situation at school, and so on.
Dream number two, early this morning: I am in a sewing group and
have agreed to be the treasurer. I say I will do it on a trial basis
and I am telling myself, don't agree to anything more, I'm already
overbooked. I have borrowed things because I do not have what I need.
Some I am returning now. Others I will take with me.
The dream continues, but I'm calling it a second dream, in a sense,
because it changes scene and theme.
After I leave the sewing group, collecting all my stuff, I get into
my red Ferrari and go home. I am living in a disintegrating
neighborhood. Things are falling apart. Some of my stuff has been
stolen. There is a large hole in the wooden fence in my backyard.
Someone walks down my driveway through my backyard and through the
hole in the fence. I wonder if he might be the thief. I yell, "Get
out of my yard" while he is still in the driveway, and as he
disappears through the fence, I yell, and don't come back.
Wednesday, December 17, 2008, 6:44 PM At the music store waiting for
Graham who is looking at music books hoping to find more popular music
he can learn. Not classical. We looked at keyboards, banjos, guitars,
ukuleles, harmonicas, but I am very tired because I did not sleep last
night, so now I am sitting and resting. Keith keeps offering to buy
me things: " want a piccolo?" I say, "I'd rather have a clarinet."
He says, I'll buy you one, $249 used like new." I'd have to have
lessons. It's been more than 40 years.
If I were to take up an instrument, it would be one I've played
before or a dulcimer or recorder. I've played clarinet, banjo,
guitar, harmonica, organ (sort of). I did play it, but never had
instruction. I did have instruction on clarinet, banjo, guitar.
So tired.
I sit at the Casio piano keyboard and play it for a while, and then
realize i stuck the computer in my pocket--yikes, dangerous, could
ruin it if it gets crushed or bent.
Saturday, December 20, 2008, 10;41 AM I am out on my mini
constitutional light dose walk and the sun is actually shining! YAY.
Yesterday, we had a snowstorm and I got my exercise and what little
light was available by shoveling for over two hours. I not only got
tired and sore, but I also got blisters, one of which has broken.
I am now walking between sunny snow banks crunching through cold
squeaky snow. The scene is peaceful and quiet.
I still have more shoveling to do because between the plow and the
man next door, there is more snow around my car. If I need to
somewhere I need to be able to get out and to get back in.
Blue sky and fine thin clouds.
I am wearing my boots to be broken in. I also wore them yesterday
while shoveling. I speak to a man shoveling snow. I walk through
bean boppers (honey locust pods). i am walking more slowly than usual
because I am stiff and sore, it's slippery, and I am wearing these
clumsy boots.
My mailman in his mail truck was stuck in deep snow at the curb,
rocking back and forth trying to get out. Just as he finally started
forward, a car coming out of the alley took a wide turn and almost hit
him head on. He retreated, but was able to make it out on the next
try.
I couldn't find the walnut oil. Sigh. Now I can't type any more
because I am carrying swaying bags.
Monday, December 22, 2008. It's officially winter. Calendar winter.
We had a pomegranate last night. Yum.
I had a dream this morning that I was walking along an ice-covered
steel ship, with rotted but slippery ice and holes and chutes in the
ship, walking along the precarious edge of the ship with the water far
below and the wall of the ship/cabin next to me--it was very narrow
and frightening.
Reminiscent of the precarious dream of walking across a rotted
floor--does that mean I should buy that house?
We're at the Coney.
I wasn't going to come because I can't get my food, safe food, but I did.
Keith has been laid off for the two days before Christmas that he was
scheduled to work--everyone at GM was, they shut the plant down. We
wrapped presents. But not all of them. Not by a long shot.
Yesterday we went x-c skiing at Belle Isle and it was One degree and
fiercely windy and we could barely make any headway against the wind.
It was unbearably cold and windy. We were planning to ski half an
hour or more but were so cold and windblown we barely skied for 15
minutes and my hand were terribly painful for the first 15 minutes of
the ride home.
I ate all my Coney food but was slightly gakked on the potatoes.
I need to stay home next time.
Trip to New York for Christmas Log, December 2008
Monday December 29, 2009, 1:25 PM
We are driving across Canada on our way to New York. The sun is
shining brilliantly, the roads are dry, and it is relatively warm.
All this after days of snow, rain, sleet, and high and gusty winds.
We had an early and cold winter and were afraid our trip might have to
be postponed or canceled and are happy to be on our way.
The scene is mostly grey brown with large swaths of leftover snow.
We have passed London and Woodstock. The Border crossing into Canada
was relatively quick. But there was a long line going into the USA so
the next border crossing might be slower. We picked up Graham from
Aunt Sandy at Denny's a few minutes early and he's sleeping in the
back. Keith is driving, Mary keeping the journal at the moment. Mary
has also been working on an art piece called Niche.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009, 12:22 PM I am out on my "morning" light
dose and constitutional walk to the store. It is cold so I may not be
able writ