Jan 31

Back on February 12, 2011. Hope to see you then.
Meanwhile, Rabbit Rabbit,
Happy Groundhog Day,
And Go Packers!

Jan 30

So on the errands of the day, a new box of martini glasses and silicone ice cube trays made it to the house. God forbid that aliens take over from ingested snow spores! (The alcohol would probably kill the beasts.)

I am going on Holiday for 2 weeks. This blog is going to rest. Tomorrow there will just be a picture of a clock, keeping time until my return.

Jan 29

At home, the ice maker is defunct. The martini has to be shaken not stirred using snow outside from atop the American yew bush. The last cut crystal martini glass broke years ago, probably thrown into a fireplace somewhere after a toast. The lengths one has to go to get a decent drink around here...

Jan 28

Clarity, certainty, contentment, compassion, and cash.

These were five c's from this morning, writing by candlelight. (Oh, another c for candlelight. But that's too many for this blog. Choose just enough points to count on one hand. Otherwise, you'll forget your points. Some days there must be just two fingers on one hand, for that's as good as the memory gets. Two out of three or three out of five.)

But the point is, there were 5 points this morning. It made me think of diamonds. So I retrieved my diamond from the jewelry box and wrote this wearing a diamond. Of the 5 c's of a diamond, I could remember only carat and clarity. How you doin'?

Jan 27

Why is this Buddha smiling? Winter storm Number 6 promises 4-8 inches and wind to follow. Buddha is doing his upper body strength training to get ready to carry his brother if need be.

Buddha has been lackadaisical about the approaching ski trip, not yet packed, casting goofy glances at the weight bench, scoffing at the treadmill. Maybe it's Buddha's turn to be carried this trip. Maybe Buddha better get his butt in gear instead and seal those boots, tote that pulk, lift that pack. NO PULKS ALLOWED, BUDDHA! Just exactly which one of you is the Buddha?

Buddha is in search of the red feather,
a book of poetry in the meditation closet.

Jan 26

This is my blog office today:

Accompanied by faithful dog.

Temperature too cold for words.

Jan 25

The sissy car rolled through an important milestone on the second trip to Kittery Trading Post. It was on the corner of highway 101 and Pinkernett Street, about 2 miles from KTP. I was returning shirts with too short of sleeves and forgot the receipt. So drove back 15 miles to get the receipt, back and forth, back and forth. Enough to get to 100K. Yay, 100 K!

Too cool for school.
One oooooh.

Jan 24

Gary Larson had a cartoon that depicted the Vat for the Unpleasant, and the Vat for Those Who Don't Brush Their Teeth. Imagine mingling with those vat inhabitants and finding that they are you. No, that imagining is not going to happen. Instead, make an action plan to xc ski. Ski away from the Vats and into the woods, then down the hill towards the pond and across the bridge to the clover field buried in snow.


Someone on a ski machine could not get away from one of the Vats, the Vat for the Insulated Slushy Water On Top of the Ice and Beneath the Snow.

How can there be water anywhere when it's -11 degrees Fahrenheit?

Aquarius

"When the moon is in the 7th house, and Jupiter aligns with Mars, then peace will guide the planet and love will rule the stars..."

Love and a stomach full of garlic. Which means throat, breath, and skin full of garlic. Garlic in the pores. Garlic toxicity from Dante's. One would assume that Aquarius, the water bearer, possesses enough water to douse the fire of garlic. It reminds me of a garlic story.

A few years ago I rode the train to Boston with 3 Italian girlfriends. They boarded 4o miles north and already had drunk 2 bloody Marys each by the time they reached my stop. I found them by following the exuding scent of garlic and the rowdy laughter.

There were no vampires within a whole train car of those women.

This is the dawning of the age of Aquarius.

Jan 22

Birthday dinner was postponed by Winter Storm Warning Number Four. There's 8 inches of new powder. The skis tunnel under the snow like moles in our yard in the spring, just below the visible surface, only with straighter furrows.

Before the wind starts to blow, the woods are "lovely, dark and deep".

Dante's tonight for hot pasta and a roaring fire.

To Dante's

This evening there is a birthday party scheduled at Dante's Italian restaurant, not just for any 12 year old, but for my namesake. The friendship bracelets are resurrected and the whole day remains to make two more, for a dozen. Maybe I should just buy her a dozen eggs. Or a dozen doughnuts. Or a copy of The Dirty Dozen.

Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha

HaPPY BIRTHDAY!

Namesakes do funny things to a person.

Jan 20

Where's the bird feeder?

Oops, on the ground below.

Wait! Is that fur at one end?

Eew, a stuck squirrel. Is it alive?

Sure enough it gets smaller when I tap on the side of the feeder.

Jim has to take the feeder apart at the base to free the squirrel.

Lucky squirrel!

Full Wolf Moon

Of note:

Minus 5 degrees.

Third winter storm watch.

Truck wouldn't start at gas station pump.

Starter has a "bad spot" on it.

Lost 6+ pounds so far as a member of Weight Watchers.

How?

By tracking everything that goes in the cake hole.

Not only do I track deer and porcupines, but wolves too.

Wolfing down food.

It must be time to sabotage and visit someplace special.

Happy Full Wolf Moon!

Jan 18

The deer have been following my ski tracks laid down yesterday. There is now a half mile route through the tree nursery with a little up and a little down. Enough up to raise a sweat and enough down to feel the wind on my Peruvian hat tassels.

These are the little shuffling wide-body tracks from the critter next to the apple stump, one set coming, and another going. Just like the porcupine with pigeon-toed, wide-bodied, shuffling gait, I make my way through the woods on skis.

Jan 17

I hope you recall the apples placed on the salt stump last week.

That was B.S. (Before Snow). This morning the investigation required skis.

I didn't have to brush anything off. There was one gnawed apple and one whole apple in the hollow of the stump.

A closer inspection reveals little rodent-y teeth. Or a little deer, I suppose, but no tracks. Just a big dog (Not T-Dog) passing by and a little shuffling creature, maybe a porcupine.

Jan 16

How 'bout them Packers?

Mt. Sneffels is wearing a friendship necklace,

a mala of 108 knots,

in honor of Green Bay.

It used to be "Our Favre, who art in Lambeau..."

Then followed, "We'll never forget you, Brent."

Now it's, "How 'bout them Packers?"

Jan 15

Twice in the night Daisy wanted to go outside.

Coat over pjs,

wool hat,

slip-on shoes with no socks,

out into the 1 degree night,
no wind,

Orion above,

the snow crunching like gunshots underfoot.

Both times she stands in the snow

and stares into the woods.

She forgets where she is.

She's cold.

She climbs back onto the porch wanting in.

She hasn't done what she set out to do.

Now she wants her night time treat.

So do I.

Ah, to do what you want to do, (go to bed)

To avoid doing what you do not wish to do, (harm Daisy)

To undo that which you have already done, (dressed for winter)

And a fourth tenet that I seem to have forgotten.

Jan 14

Shovel or ski?

Both.

Jimmy shovels and snow blows with Daisy.

Julie skis

This is where she's going.

This is where she's been.

Jan 13

Well, that was fun.

Where would you like to be snowed in?

We chose the lake, with the fireplace, rather than the home with the tractor.

Snow couldn't help but creep in through the cracks in the northeast corner. The weatherman said we didn't make it as a blizzard since the winds were sustained at 35 mph for only 2 hours, and it needs 3 for the definition. Horizontal snow. Daisy still went out frivolously and stared into the wind like a seagull.

Jan 12

Will it be finger pointing with a verbal gun noise, or benign disregard?

1/11/11

Two Vietnam verterans became legends in river rafting circles when they put in at Marsh Creek, a tributary that flowed into the Middle Fork of the Salmon River, and floated the whole Middle Fork to the Salmon River of No Return in Idaho. Their heaviest load was the alcohol they carried. In various states on intoxication, they identified Velvet Falls as they went over it, they ripped the raft hitting the cliffs at Pistol Creek where the river made a 90 degree turn, they survived a snow storm in wet sleeping bags by the grace and heat of the dog that slept between them, and they returned to tell their story. They had only one rule: You must be on the river by 11:11.

Oooh, 1/11/11 at 11:11.

Armistice Day WWI, Balance, Artistic and Inventive Genius,
A positive connection to the mysteries of the universe,
et al.

Jan 10

I played Hungarian and a Sonatina by Clementi. It's funny how the hands fight each other for dominance on the keys, the right stumbling over the fingering and the left ponderous in the bass range. My favorite are the trills. Like patting your stomach with your left hand and rubbing your head with your right.

Jan 9

These Macintosh apples have been languishing in the fruit and vegetable drawer since October. Maybe the deer would make better use of them. Daisy and I will check it out in a couple days to see if there are any remains.

Jan 8

108 Sun Salutations

That's what one yoga teacher was leading on the morning of New Year's Day. It seemed like a good idea. After just 5 sun salutations the sweat poured off my forehead, burning my eyes like sun gazing might do, if I'd ever done that.

One week into the new year and there are 28 sun salutations completed so far. Eighty more to go. Could be February by the time it's finished. But the results so far include an increase in minutes of daylight, strengthening of the shoulder girdle, an effort to keep the carpet vacuumed at the site of the asana, and an appreciation for someone even thinking they could do 108 repetitions at one time.

The Sun God chants, "Rah, Rah, Rah!"

Jan 7

The Day After Epiphany
Two Days After Twelfth Night
What if things were easier than you thought?
Pay attention!
I resolve to ______________________.

Twelfth Night marks the end of Christmas or winter carnival beginning on Halloween. It was considered in poor taste or unlucky to leave the Christmas wreaths hanging on display after Epiphany.

When living in Vermont and driving somewhere, I would use a pointer finger combined with a verbal gun noise, and shoot wreaths still hanging on houses or barns. It wasn't a drive just to shoot wreaths, but a drive to work or to the grocery store. It rose to the level of compulsion, like washing hands obsessively or avoiding stepping on sidewalk cracks.

All that has (mostly) passed, and you can be sure that there are no Christmas wreaths remaining on the doors or walls of this place.

This is a Valentine's Wreath.

Jan 6

The ice machine in the refrigerator's freezer groans when making ice cubes like it's being asked to do something beyond its capacity. Unlike the refrigerator's ice machine, the lake's ice maker dons its perfect gym suit in winter. Not a problem to boom, creak, shake the house at night, as it pushes against itself to make more room for its frozen bulging muscles.

The measurements of the ice runway average 9 inches with a range of 7.5 to 10 inches. Plenty, I'm told, to hold an airplane weighing almost a ton. But I am frozen to the sofa reading a book and drinking a cuppa, with a sense of ease here that is not felt in the airplane on skis on ice that's 9 inches thick. Maybe another day.

Jan 5

One of the characters, Bharavi, is a Fire Goddess in the Hindu realm. She really would like to go for an airplane ride, but smoke curls off her shoulders when she's stressed. And what if the flight attendants thought there was a fire on the aircraft? What then?

For Christmas, the novelist received this card holder that looks more like a cigarette holder. Maybe this was for Bharavi.

Jan 4

Last night was the first time at the gym for 2011. I stumbled upon pizza night, and the place was mobbed with ravenous, slavering people costumed in gym clothes. The tootsie rolls on the counter by the registers are bad enough. But pizza!
I resolve to think about eating pizza every week after playing piano. (See Jan 3)