Waiting for Spring Storm Day

Yesterday was Airport Day.

Jim took the skis off the airplane. Yay, I say. They clack and clatter on the pavement, wracking the nerves. Even our little airplane's nose has a mitten.

We met up with some friends. One of them had an attractive backpack. Maybe it contained headsets, maybe tools.

It was a good thing we flew when we did. The wind came up, moved across the runway, and made for a gusty sideways Whoa kind of landing. Today I reached 10,000 pictures on the little camera. The most recent ones moved to the head of the line since the camera brain doesn't recognize anything beyond 9999. That should be the Mayan Calender.

Mar 30

Three things today:

First, there was a synchronistic telephone call from someone I'd been thinking about relating to travel and study.

Second, while rushing about at WalMart looking for colored pencils, I happened by a book display, immediately slowed down and took a look.

And third, how simple life can be with a good book, no motors, easy travel, and the wind.

Coincidence

Today we are to believe in synchronicity. Someone you've been thinking about calls, the perfect book arrives unexpectedly, money mysteriously shows up to finance a project.

April approaches and so soon begins another writing kind of month. In the next few days the plot should arrive before the writing begins. I believe in synchronicity because I'm supposed to.

What has happened in a year? Three languishing novellas, ten fewer pounds, one hundred more gray hairs, one thousand great ideas, one million ways to find something else to do.

Focus.

Mar 28

Today would be a good day to ride a divine bamboo vespa through the mud in the woods, before the peepers and tadpoles arrive in the melted snow puddles and ponds.

Vroom vroom.

Dream

At the edge of the filmy veil of the divine plane, I stepped through some facet of a jewel. I saw the earth planted as a seed in my heart. Within the earth all of us sparkled like a disco ball at a New Year's Eve party.

Through what facet had I stepped to get back on earth? Whatever was going to blossom out of me was starting to open right at the heart. The earth was blooming, and I was blooming on the earth, and jewels were everywhere, reflecting a beautiful light.

Social Climber

First there was the young woman ahead of me, in line to board the airplane, who carried a small backpack labeled "Everest".


Then there was the article in a magazine about a mother with one month to train for climbing to Everest base camp with her daughter who set the treadmill on "incline" and began.

The pieces to this puzzle have already been placed. There's only one way they go, and that's together.

Christmas in March

This is what my brain is saying.

"Feed a cold, feed a fever."

Another Travel Day

Enough visiting!

April approaches with another 50K words to write.

This blog's days may be numbered.

I like the idea of an old fashioned parlor where tea is served and everyone is properly polite. But I don't like tea, I don't especially like being polite, and I'm done visiting.

Mar 23

Wednesday at the gym.

A sign along the wall of the indoor track is below.

In New Hampshire, the application for carrying a concealed weapon requires three references and money. No class required. Massachusetts has more strict rules. And even if you took the class, you couldn't carry in this gym. Carriers of concealed weapons probably don't attend gyms anyway.

Late Mar 22

Jogged yesterday on the golf course since it's still too cold to golf. Waa waa.

The geese were pairing up beyond the eleventh hole, like the eleventh hour. You'd think there would be pictures of geese instead of a clock. Love that unexpected turn in the story.

Mar 21

Driving along yesterday, minding our own business, we spotted a Jelly Belly truck. Imagine what a melee it would be if this truck overturned and spilled all its contents on the interstate highway!

Yum yum.

It was such an intriguing thought that I let the truck pull by so I could get another view. I had hoped to see parade queens throwing candy off the back.

First Day of Spring!

Celebrating spring with a 91st birthday.

Cake included

Auntie is just a spring chicken.

Full Worm Moon

Closer and closer to spring! Yesterday sunrise was at the same numerical time as sunset, 12 hours apart. Sounds equinoxical to me.

Mar 18

The Sandhill cranes' spring flyway necks down through Nebraska between about 100 miles of river. We drove by this stretch yesterday and stopped at the Rowe Sanctuary, a place that Melinda designed and had built with straw bales.

Some romanticists say the birds have a call like, "Curlew, curlew."

I think it sounds more like, "Gak, gak."

Today we are heading to the middle of Iowa, where Auntie turns 91 on the 19th. A palindrome of numbers. We are sure to have beef, corn, potatoes, gravy and birthday cake. :D

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Another parking lot. A glass of green beer, corned beef and cabbage, and Riverdancing awaits. Where do the Irish hide the key to the wine cellar?

Old and New

On the Colorado side of the border with Nebraska, windmills proliferate on both sides of the highway. I love the engineering and ingenuity of the old windmills. What must that rancher been thinking? Was he in survival mode on the great plains with a huge aquifer beneath his feet, and animals depending on him? Or was it the merchandising of cattle that led to the method of watering livestock? Or was it the little woman who needed water for her garden?

Today I passed up mini M&Ms at the grocery store, sweated on the ski machine while it blinked red and told me how many calories burned off in 30 minutes, and drove around getting postage stamps, newspapers, prescriptions, new license plates, and T-bone steaks, all while the wind turned the windfarm blades into electricity that lit up the Hot Spot in Peetz, Colorado.

Ides of March

Beware the Ides!

Et tu Brute?

See you soon.

Another Travel Day.

Mar 14

Daisy is 16 years old today in people years. That's 112 in dog years according to some lore. Today she gets as many walks as she asks for, and double the treats.

Bow Wow!

Okay, quadruple the treats.

Daylight Saving Time

Spring Melt

One thing about writing is there is always something to write about. Today it's logy and then Loki. Logy, because that's how I briefly felt after getting off the bathroom scale, heavy and dull. And Loki because of looking up logy in the dictionary and seeing the Norse god of discord and mischief in the same vicinity.

Our driveway culvert

But enough about le mot juste. Today reminds me of DOD, Tommy's father in law, who used to self combust when anyone said Daylight Savings instead of Daylight Saving. He would be sitting in the rocking chair on the porch, having his whisky, and there would be this incendiary explosion from the chair if someone said it wrong. Some unnamed people would purposely provoke him just to see the flames. Loki.

Mar 12

I have been chewing on a problem lately involving money. But of course the problem was not money. It was really the feelings around the money problem including scarcity, dishonor, mistrust, disrespect, dirt, and disease. It was a thorn under my skin and I didn't know if the problem was going to be dug out, allowed to fester, or just wall up and granulate over.

So I put everything "out there" and surrendered it. And now, according to The Course in Miracles, "The hush of heaven holds my heart today. ...how still today! How quietly do all things fall in place!" And the thorn becomes a daffodil and is reminding me it's close to spring.

Mar 11

Rainy, misty, foggy.

It could be a reflective and contemplative sort of day. It could be a scrabble kind of day with words such as loofahs or oaten. It could be a day for slow cooking in the crock pot of a corned beef and cabbage dinner or chicken pot pie with kohlrabi.

So instead of all that, I'm doodling, watching comedies, and making plans.

Before and After

Mar 10

Our own Khumbu Icefall greets us in the morning without the ice avalances or thin air.



Hauling wood down the icefall is challenging, but the yak traks help. It gets complicated when Daisy decides she must also help.

Ash Wednesday

Giving up old burdens and heavy loads for Lent.

A forty day practice.

Fat Tuesday

It is actual Fat Tuesday today and in its honor, I baked chocolate cupcakes with confetti sprinkles. I thought of my friend David who, sadly, has given up chocolate. Not for Lent, because it was awhile ago that he signed off. He will only be able to look at pictures of chocolate cupcakes.

I am saving the idea of $10 when he gets to his fighting weight. He is saving the idea of gooey chocolate oozing over the sides of cupcake papers too filled with batter to stay in the cups.

Sounds like Mardi Gras.

Show me your cupcakes.

Mar 7

It is time to sow poppy seeds in the snow.

http://www.onestoppoppyshoppe.com/

Rain, estimated at 2-3 inches, fell all night, filling the tributary to Love Brook. The rivulets ran under the ice in the driveway, melting, melting.

The dogwood is budding even though the tree trunk is still under a foot of snow.

Yay, I say.

Mar 6

For a continuation from yesterday of the remaining 4 siddhis :

5. Prapti - reaching the sun and moon

6. Prakamya - invisibility

7. Vashitvam - taming wild animals and storms

8. Ishitvam - power of divine

Sure, why not?

Meanwhile, Buddha begins to emerge, the snow fleas are visible on the melting ice, and it's weigh-in day. Eeeks.