"Never refuse to refuse" ~~ attribution

i am fascinated to receive a comment to an entry on October 17 / with a query on the origin of "Never Refuse to Refuse"

yes, my mentor, Priscilla, studied with Boyce Lundstrom / she also recommended his wonderful book which she described as the best book on glass fusing one cd possibly hope to find

the book is Kiln Firing Glass / Glass Fusing Book One by Boyce Lundstrom

i ordered the book over the internets

thanks so much also for sending the link to his page

LUNDSTROM

and check out the gallery at this page too

i am quite inspired ! and Oh / influenced too

Spoons

there are spoons for every kind of scooping up possibility

there are tea spoons
table spoons
coffee spoons
little demitasse spoons for little cups of espresso
soup spoons in several shapes / a round one is for clear soup / a more oval shape is for creamed soup / heh
a bigger spoon is for chile or stews or gumbos or chunky foods that are served in bowls

ladles / servers / a scoop for sugar / one for salt if the salt is in a little dish which prolly has a name too

iced tea spoons tall and thin / use for ice cream sodas too

specialty spoons like "slotted" or the spoon that accompanies the fork as a pair of salad servers

shall i include a coke spoon ?

no ?

okay / how about a spoon shaped and serrated at its point designed to scoop out a segment of grapefruit from between its membranes ?

as a bride my former mother in law (who is now 99) served warmed up half a grapefruit dressed with honey and a marschino cherry as an appetizer at an elegant dinner party she gave for her husband's bosses / this must have been in the 40's / i know of no other time that half a grapefruit was considered an elegant appetizer at a dinner party / smile

she wished to impress them that elegance was part of their every day lives

but when her husband tasted the grapefruit he suddenly exclaimed with astonishment : It's Hot"

she told me this story many years after it happened of course / she laughed at how mortified she had been

^^^^^^^^

spooning / spoonerisms / spoon fed

Spoon River Anthology !

Catching Up ~~~

~~~ by cheating / just changing the date to yesterday / i promised myself i would write at least one entry a day / so i am only cheating myself / but, see, when i print out the month for a paper record i wont remember what days i changed the date unless i make this announcement

is it possible ~~~

~~~there are places where it never rains or snows nor the wind blows ?

these are the places that have front yards and back yards and lawns and gardens and patios and hot tubs and barbecue grills and swimming pools wanted or unwanted ?

these are the places that get taken for a ride on the house and garden channel

they get made over

rearranged, redecorated, refurbished, refurnished

replanted, repainted, reseeded, resodded

and then it is all done and the client is thrilled with everything / and it looks like the kind of place that will never rain on the new parade

Really Really Really

how many really's do you need to make something Really Real ?

or are too many really's irrealevant (sic) ?

How many best friends can you have ?

well, lots !

to me a Best Friend is someone with whom you can completely be yourself / no role playing / no fakery / no pretense / and you can be tactfully honest / they will know all about you and your past and dont hold it against you / smile

someone with whom you have shared trials and tribulations and travails and travels

yes !

one of my best friends is arriving today for a visit / i will tidy up the house a little / but not too much / best friends are more comfortable visiting when they know they are so welcome that the only trouble you will go to is have some sensational menu ideas and sleeping accomodations will be utterly wonderful / yes, the accomodations will be accomodating !

La Shamana di Spontaniotto ~~~

~~~~wishes to have a little time to record some notes found on a tattered scrap~~~

"~~~~want to smoke all the dope tonite so i wont have any tomorrow so i can have a couple of dope free days before jury duty / i dont know what to wear as a juror.

Mary (17) says why would they want someone like YOU ?

i am in Apple Valley

it seems like a settlement of Groan Ups not like Topanga which is for me a Childhood Haunt (it's never too late to have a happy childhood) / Haunted by Children

sometimes i wonder if "always making the Best of Things" is such an advantage : you know, i mean Positive Attitudes ?

what is your Bent ? your inclination ? your Attitude ?

this way / that way / revolving prismatically (of course)

who is to say what is "Best" ?

i am sipping port smoking the last of the dope and typing with the Olivetti on my lap. Wally is sleeping on an old sheepskin coat. C'eC'e is on a folded up sleeping bag over a foam pad. Next time bring the dog beds.

the four white cats are outside in the moonlight"

(undated / est mid '80's)

&&&&&&&&&&


a little later and just in time for a new year's message to myself :

scrap torn from spiral notebook :

"~~~entering a new world / stepping off
on the verge of the great beyond
on the road without a map

swizzle swizzle

kick glide smile !"

(undated / est late '90's)

Kappy, the child, pops up

mom and dad are away

i gonna watch MTV

All Day

caterina cacciatore

while the child is glued to the tube the Italian Cousin (La Cugina della Cucina) is rustling up some grub and rattling those pots and pans

CATERINA

expects to catch up with recipeez sooner or later

merry christmas

The new coffee pot

i learned to drink Italian style coffee while living in Rome

Italian style is espresso (demitasse cups of strong black liquid with a twist of lemon) or cappuccino (espresso with equal amount of steamed and foamy milk) or maybe a cafe latte (coffee with milk) or a cafe machiado (coffee "stained" with a little milk) or latte machiado (milk "stained" with a little coffee)

you can have your coffee in a cup or in a glass / i quite favored "in bicchiere, por favore" / (in a glass) although at home i seldom do this

beans are always freshly ground / just enough coffee is made that will be drunk immediately / there are no pots of coffee simmering on the burner waiting to be drunk / there is an immediacy to eating and drinking in Italy / life is lived very much "in the moment"

now is now / later will be the "new" now

the coffee pot i use is a Bialetti Moka Express / it comes in different sizes / the most common sizes are 3 / 6 / 9

so you can make coffee for 3 or 6 or 9 and it will be fresh with none left over

i have a 1 cup (looks like a child-size) and a 2 cup as well as a 3 and 6 cup Bialetti (there are other brands as well)

the 2 cup is my favorite / it makes just the right amount for my Moab Valley Humane Society hand made cup / then i add a cup of hot milk / perfetto !

it soon will need a new gasket / i hop onto the internet / shucks / turns out the 2 cup size is quite rare and uncommon (Italians tend to favor odd numbers over even) / no 2 cup gaskets anywhere / spare gaskets (which need to be replaced else the coffee doesnt rise, just leaks out the side) are readily available in all the other sizes

i discover a new 2 cup coffee pot / also made by Bialetti with a different style name / comes with a spare gasket / price is considerably higher which is a puzzle / i order one anyway

well fooey man chooey

first of all the beans must not be espresso grind / there is a measure for the water so that although the pot looks a lot bigger than my ordinary 2 cup it holds less water

the valve through which the coffee emerges from the bottom part has an additional gadget called the "frother" / apparently this is designed to give a creaminess to the coffee and Oh / it takes at least three times to break it in before you get a good cup of coffee / put it on a small burner on high with the lid open / watch closely as it only takes 2-3 minutes for the coffee to literally burst through the frother

i tried it this morning / it is more like "regular" coffee than espresso / rather disappointing / poo poo na na / back in the box you go

ps / maybe i will give it two more tries / meanwhile i save the coffee it is making and will use it to make coffee ice cream / um yum

happy holidaze, everyone

Meanwhile as we crossed the vasty wastes

i told my daughter about the "braingasm" i had the other morning

with drops in my eyes from the eye doc i had come home / walked a bit in the sunshine and then gazed lovingly at my fused glass pieces just out of the kiln

then i "saw" a scythe-like shape across my left field of vision / it was a colourful arc that seemed to be a banner of flags and pennants in kaleidoscopic colours / eyes shut or open / one at a time or both / i continued to see this amazing figment

i wondered if it were something like a little stroke in the old bean

my daughter listens and then asks, Have you got a Living Will ?

er um

at the nursing home we had to update my mother's info on what to do if she stops breathing / you know this is pretty standard these days and absolutely essential to do / so we did

i got a form for me to fill out and so did kaki

so that takes care of that

oh btw / i sat quietly and studied the arc of colour / it was dazzling / pretty soon it went away

Inspiration / Influence

Inspiration comes from within / Influence comes from without

one is not more valuable or more important than the other / we can be influenced in ways that inspire our own inner spirit

here are two photo sites that have and still do influence me :

this

and this

(let me know if i got the links wrong / smile)

and so i decided to take my camera EveryWhere with me as they no doubt do

and so yesterday my daughter and i traveled the vast uninhabited wastes of south central Utah to visit my mother in another county / we have been traveling the Moore Road across the San Rafael desert for five years now / it is a 23 mile shortcut between Interstate 70 and state route 10 / it brings us to the small town where my mother is resident of a very fine nursing home

the Moore Road is dirt / sand / gravel / rough / but in the last year has undergone imrovement / no, not paved / thank goodness / but packed down / there was a small turnout and we pulled off to wee wee and there ! wow ! i saw a panel of ancient anazasi rock art on a big square boulder / what a thrill

i whipped out the camera and got a couple of good shots (if i do say so myself) / they are posted

here

i wont know if the links are right unless i publish this so here goes / wish me luck

the New Year starts here

i dedicate myself and my remaining years

~~those that will be seen in the remains / smile~~

to Realizing my unRealized Potential

so there

from Thomas Mallon

Thomas Mallon is my new literary crush/infatuation

from A Book of One's Own : People and Their Diaries ~~~~

"~~~~~~~diary writing is the poor man's art"

and

appropos of 'nothing' (smile) ~~~

"Ive learned, in fact, that nothing never happens."

and

oh so much more

Solstice Start Over

or maybe a ReStart

turn a Dead End into a Live Beginning

fresh ideas in the works
bubbling over with jazzy intentions

CockEyed and LopSided

first lesson : avoid major decisions until you can See Straight

Adjustments

adjusting the conflicting forces within

(a possible braingasm)

when the forces within are in conflict
the outward flow of energy is dissipated
or diminished /strategic timing is disrupted

suggested ~~~ stability with flair

for daily personal mainenance of the human form ~~~

pay attention to : gut level reactions
toe stub clarity
moment to moment timing

do what allows you to feel "integrated"

(dont ask why if reason you seek for the brain is awry and springing a leak

Hmmmmm

are you noticing all the things you dont know ?

~~~~~the power of an object depends on the company it keeps~~~~~~~~~

practice making a link

check out :


this

ah Skaterina what a boring little blogger you are

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/19/magazine/19PHENOM.html?8hpib

heh

more on doing nothing

the trouble with doing nothing
is you dont know when you are finished

Profile Views

there have been 157 profile views

who are these profile viewers ?

next blog wanderers ?

are they disappointed that there is nothing there about me ?

if i were to post anything it would be my resume :

~~sunset collector / view inspector

~~cloud surveyor / food purveyor

birthday gifts

whilst i was whipping up the green chile soup the daughter and son-out-law arrived bearing birthday gifts

roses from him and a rack of lamb from her

how sweet and how gourmet

menu for the rack of lamb forthcoming

Something for Nothing / an observation

the slower you do something the more it looks like nothing

it's true / i am eating soup out of cans

not directly out of the can / not yet

some campbells like tomato or double noodle / i use a can of milk for the tomato and a can of chicken broth from a box for the double noodle

today i had a treat / yesterday a young man i first knew when i lived on the mesa brought me a pound of deer burger and two packages of green chiles he had grown, roasted, and put by for the winter

i made green chile soup for my birthday

caterina cacciatore will give you the particulars over at her blog when she gets around to it and when she does i wil repost the url / i know you dont want to miss it

mmmmm

scraps from the dusty heap

"I dont think it is possible to live in california for any extended period of time and not get homesick for it once in a while even when you are giddy with relief over having escaped with your life !"

undated / plucked from the memory bank / oh yeah, now i remember ~~~~

~~~(i packed up my essentials / loom / spinning wheel / sewing machine / feather beds / dog / cats / i moved from southern california to a small rural village in vermont)~~~

and then :

giddy with relief
giddy with Real Life

the first few weeks i watched the opening credits of a soap opera called Santa Barbara because i so missed the Pacific Ocean and the beaches / i took to reading books set in california / like books by Kellerman / Grafton / Muller / Pronzini / Parker .... and so on

i got over it

my house in Topanga hovered over a branch of Topanga Creek so handy for refreshing wades and dunks and when in flood carried down to the sea all kinds of stuff you didnt want anymore / smile / oh that icky green chair

in Chelsea the first branch of the White River ran just behind the house / a furiously busy and sparkling brook burbled most of the year treating me to a rocky rapids exactly behind the yard

wasnt the kind of creek you'd toss your unwanted unliked furniture / oh no

there were the bagel races ~~~ so the memory scrap sez ~~

"Today's bagel race had a new and exciting participant & that blueberry muffin took off downstream and was out of sight in the rapids before the bagels could even jump out of the bag !"

# undated / some time later


& writing is based on a carefully planned and controlled use of the second attention &

how long does it take

how long does it take before doing nothing stops being fun ?

To Toronto to Skate

when i saw this photograph :

http://wvs.topleftpixel.com/

(go back to December 11)

i wanted to go there and skate for by birthday

so i left tomorrow and came back next week / smile

i flew up to Salt Lake City on the little plane from Moab / over the snowy mountains / from Salt Lake i flew over the Rockies to Denver / changed planes and thence to Toronto where i stayed in a charming little hotel

sigh / well not quite / but very soon / stayed tuned in

url for Caterina Cacciatore

http://caterinacacciatore.blogspot.com/

what i did and didnt do today

i didnt do all the things i usually do

instead i stayed in bed all day !

i had a first rate rest while the Italian cousin made a lemon pound cake with blueberries for the book signing tonight

i feel great !

Caterina will post the recipe for the cake (inspired by Basque cakes) when she gets around to it on her blog, the url of which i momentarily do not recall

I may be able to thread a needle ~

but without the cataracts i look ten years older

smile

bring back that gauzy blur

it's a good thing i am too vain to be vain

I threaded a needle ~

i threaded a needle with one hand tied behind my back

heh

just kidding

i threaded a needle WITHOUT MY GLASSES ON

that's how much improved my vision is since the cataract surgery

wow

Lessons

when outside input threatens to throw a pall over the proceedings ~

why, how appalling

smile

it must be time to reassume Potanga, the Improvaho nirvana

in which one is detached from attachment and attached to detachment

balance is being able to swing from side to side / like walking a tightrope or across a log over the creek

or not falling down from tripping over your skate blades

being able to sway ~

swivel pivot swing around ~~ !!

Circle Twist Revolve Rotate

~~~~~~~Pirouette~~~~~~~~

I have my skates on ~

oh i am sitting on the love seat by the fire and i have my skates on ~

this is one way of breaking in your skate boots which are stiff and hard when new / they need to be molded to your foot for your ultimate skating pleasure / the boot is the connecting link between you & your foot & the skate blade

the goal is the skate blade as an extension of your body via your foot

i didnt know about breaking in skate boots when i signed up for lessons / i bought my skates the day before the lessons started / this was in 1997 when i was back east / i was waiting there to be a witness in a trial and had six weeks to spend there / the day i got the subpoena was the same day i saw the ad for skating lessons in the local weekly rag

ever since my first Sonja Henie movie i have wanted to BE a figure skater or at least take real lessons

the young salesman told me about breaking in the boots / use thin socks (this is the rule for figure skates) / wet the socks and put them on and put on the boots / using the blade guards walk around on padded or carpeted floors / wear them when you eat or watch tv

i laid out a path of my woven cotton rag rugs and tramped around for hours that night

when i remembered this i got out my skates and put them by the heater / when i was working at the rink i warmed my boots up with the hand dryer in the bathroom

i am figuring out how to keep my boots warm on the way out to the lake / hmmm / warm them by the heater then wrap them in blankets with hot water bottles ! then keep them near the car heater on the way out / it's not all that far / i tell you putting on warm boots is way more better

i also like to have my feet bare in the boots / the first time i slipped them on sans socks i felt like i had entered the bliss zone / it is very like the first time you put them on after they are well broken in / there's this moment when you suddenly realize they really are broken in / they go on like slippers and are completely comfortable / this is when the blade begins to feel attached to your foot instead of your boot / it is a whole different relationship to the ice

ah, the ice !

more anon

what i mean by psychedelic in relation to cataract surgery

psychedelic means to me Consciousness Expanding

Balance through Contrast

this time i was awake

i slept through the first cataract surgery / it was like dying and not going anywhere interesting / and then wanting to sleep for three days or else i was snarky and snarly / that was the right eye / the one connected to the right side of the brain

for the left eye less pizzazz was put in the IV and ...um...

this time i was awake / it was psychedelic / i cd SEE the splash of fluid that swirled around my eye / colours / wowee zowee

oh the Xmas Light parade ~

Glazey Dazely

morning is cataract surgery now that i know what to expect i want to do it less

smile

but the left eye which once was the good eye and now is the bad eye since the bad eye got fixed and turned into the good eye

wants to get "fixed"

so there you have it

December

Dance with your demons !

it's now or never, kid

get in shape to skate or (gasp) hang up your skates

r u kidney me ?

with all these cute skating clothes ?

if i hang up my skates will i feel as bad about it as i still do about giving away my dolls 49 years ago ?

at least i wont have 49 more years to feel bad / i'll just feel stupid and wimpy today and tomorrow and the day after that . . . . . .

i got out my cold weather duds from Vermont / the lovely chenille scarf and hat made by Maggie the Weaver / my warm gloves from the skating rink / and then my old University of Virginia jacket that i found in a thrift shop about 15 years ago

this jacket is not an athletic jacket / when i went to the University of Virginia the "uniform" for men students was coat and tie / the official jacket is a kind of herringbone tweed with the colours of the school (navy and orange) gently woven in to the weave / The University was founded by Thomas Jefferson / it was an all male school and the men were expected to behave like Virginia gentlemen

(smile)

the liberal arts college for women was in another part of the state / a few women were at the University in nursing and education / there was one woman in the law school / it was the 50's

i took the dogs and went up to the Slick Rock / snowy high desert / a wandering stroll took me over the rocks and down to the sandy track / i went to visit "the button" : the baby cactus button i discovered several years ago in an area with several mature barrels / i had placed a rock next to her the last time / oh, she is covered with snow and ice / i carefully uncover her with a thin stick, wondering if maybe she needs the protection and i should leave her be

it is bright and sunny and cold / the temperature is 25' / when it the sun is out in the drop dead blue cloudless sky its doesnt feel all that cold

i wondered if i were having "symptoms" of "the silent killer" and would i drop dead on the ice this year

i remember hiking all over the Santa Monica Mountains in Topanga canyon when my grandson was a baby with him in my back pack and it would be one hundred degrees at high noon in July and the track would be sandy and hot and i would be barefoot and high on 'shrooms

i used to imagine falling over in a heap and dying on the track with the kid on my back

and now later this month i will rack up my 71st year / sure is a bummer that it takes 70 years to get to where you want to be

oh yeah ? where's that ?

oh Ice Skating on a beautiful lake in SE Utah wearing my snazzy black cashmere skating skirts

boom / splat

Eat Your Spinach

eat your spinach, said great aunt maudie, and you will grow up to be big and strong

i do love spinach / fresh, organic, baby spinach / so tender it steams in mere minutes

today for lunch i had cream of spinach soup and then, shoving La Cugina Romagna out of the way, made a ravioli filling of spinach and ricotta and eggs lightly flavored with salt and pepper and nutmeg

using egg roll wrappers i made a small selection of ravioli / i had two sizes of egg roll wrappers / one is big enough that you put dollops of filling in four places and then place a wrapper on top / cut them apart with a pizza wheel

the smaller square egg roll wrapper makes one square or fold it over for a triangle like a wonton

hmmm / well, not exactly what i wd call Cuscinetti di spinaci (spinach pillows) / they cdnt hold a candle to the ones i made last year with home made, hand rolled see through pasta

but i wanted to try it anyway / Giada di Laurentiis uses egg roll wrappers / of course, she lives in LA

i eat a lot of spinach / am i big and strong ?

smile

i fluffed up my feather comforter and gave my winter weight quilt a flick and a flip and a fling onto my bed

a year ago i cdnt do this due to the hysterectomy / i am pleased to note that i can do it now

so maybe i wil feel up to skating this winter after all

Indecision Permits Flexibility and Notes on Boredom

BOREDOM : uses of boredom

Boredom is a necessary element of an essential lull / it makes you think about what is important and what is not

Boredom is useful and valuable or else you would get real tired out from over enthusiasm

Bordeom keeps you from doing some stuff and gets you to do some other stuff instead

(the path you choose is the path that chooses you)

~~~~~~~~~~

Honor your reluctant moments / they comprise the phase knows as :

Indecision Permits Flexibility

Clarity comes at the end of a long walk

Honor your urges as well as your hesitations

~~~~~~~~~~

Some Times are : drop ~ spill ~ turn over ~ kick over ~ step in bucket

This is part of Indecision Permits Flexibility

There is plenty of time for introspection and contemplation while you pick up ~ wipe up ~ sweep up ~ mop up ~ and change your shoes

Also consider this :

Stuck Stumped Stupified Stymied ?

How do you get unstuck
without coming unglued ?

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sometimes what is happening is that you have lost your touch for customary affinities and havent discovered or made the acquaintance of the future as yer / of course / because you are always being in the NOW

Indecision also permits / promotes / encourages

QUICK WILD FANTASIES AND OTHER FEATS OF DERRING-DO

YAY

Today's Culinary Adventure and Other Activitease To Keep OneSelf Entertained

cheese crackers are success

easy to make / butter cheese flour / a little salt and cayenne

endless variations possible with different kinds of cheeses

the recipe makes a workable dough / chilling it in quarters gives potential for artistic expression

the picture in gourmet shows perfectly round crackers

i made little hearts / spontaneous squares / cheeZit size squares

i ate the left over squiggles dough / hmmmm / cheese butter

they are tasty

Leggings

the leggings came and they are perfect / i put them on right away with a skating skirt (mature lady length)

when the lake freezes i will be ready

i ordered them from Motherhood Maternity / no i am not preggers / i am almost 71 / smile

looking for leggings on line these seemed a likely possibilitea

they have a wide firm elastic waist (the better to hold in that pregger belly) and nice cuffs at the ankle

thank you thank you, shopping goddess

Instinct Results

Habitual disuse of Instinct causes loss as in What you dont Use, you Lose.

Habitual misuse of instinct causes abuse of spirit

By misuse of instinct i mean twisting your natural instinct in order to fit it in with or merge with outside INFLUENCE

In other words you recognize your natural instinct but realize that to follow such and BE TRUE TO YOURSELF puts you beyond the pale of ordinary human condition hence the Instinct is blurred and distorted and twisted into more acceptable shape

This is definitely misuse of your instincts and is almost as "BAD" as ignoring them altogether for a fake persona is created that is misleading to those around you

It is not easy to be true to yourself when you dont know who you are and it is not easy to follow your natural instincts when you NO who you are

(word play)(smile)

And it is not easy to be true to yourself when you are a multi-faceted kaleidoscopic prismatic visioned Earth Probe disguised as an ordinary human being

On the other hand, recognizing this "true-ism" is helpful in delineating choices that present themselves

Such as this :

It is not possible to involve oneself in "meaningless" endeavors

It is, however, necessary to involve oneself in activitease that challenge ones perception, stimulate ones imagination and stirs up ones creative juices

thusly : a quest for knowledge and information* . . . learn to differentiate between Information and Knowledge

but to continue :

Meaningless indicates behavior that is vapid, habitual, imitative, lacking in spirit, charm, or humor

Mostly it is repetitive in patterns that are predictably self-absorbing and soul destroying

Often it is necessary to practice meaningless behavior in order to discover what it is and what it is not

stayed tuned in for further abstract thought

Our Turkey Dinner

we took a tip from our Italian cousin, la cugina Romagna, and put into the main cavity of the turkey lemon, orange, apple, onion, and fresh herbs for a truly flavorful and juicy feast

in the neck cavity went some "stuffing" of cornbread, celery, apple, onion, tomatillos (we had a bumper crop this year) and walnuts

we are purists about turkey dinners

turkey dinners are all about mash taters whipped with cream cheese, half n half, and butter

taters so dense you can make a well in the center from which the gravy will not run !

turkey dinners are all about rich dark gravy the colour of chocolate filling up that well in the taters and oh put some more on the turkey breast and the stuffing

it is not possible to have too much gravy

to round out the food groups we will have some whole berry cranberrry sauce and something green / one of us wanted peas and another wanted edamame so we had both

that's it

no side dishes involving marshmallows or canned onion rings or molded salads / not even a nut or an olive on the table to nibble to interrupt the flow of turkey, taters, gravy to the gullet

today we will have a turkey sandwich or maybe a follow up lunch that duplicates in smaller portions the feast of yesterday

later this winter we will have turkey pot pies that have been assembled and put in the freezer

just no end to the fun

Tryptophan

tryptophan is an amino acid that acts as a sedative and is present in turkey

hence the query : Does Turkey Make You Drowsy ?

um / well i went to bed immediately after the turkey dinner and i am on my second cup of coffee this morning to rouse myself awake / smile

read about it here :

http://www.snopes.com/food/ingredient/turkey.htm

Undecided

whether to sign up at blogexplosion

do i care if anyone reads this ?

i think of cactus flowers blooming on the rim / just blooming for themselves and because that is what they are sposeta do / whether anyone sees them or not or admires them when they do come upon them unexpectedly is irrelevant to the barrel cactus

i think of how i was on an e-mail list for a long time and we knew we had "lurkers" / people who read our exchanges but did not announce their presence / this was bothersome to several of our listees but i remember thinking that when i was doing theatre in Rome i didnt have to know who was in the audience every night !

i expected someone to be in the audience / i wonder now / would we have performed had no one showed up ? yup / darn tooting ! we had so much fun then it didnt matter about the audience although it sure was terrific when we had a full house and heard the "bravi" at the end

so, yes, we were doing the theatre primarily for ourselves / for our amusement / for our personal growth / to "stretch our instruments" as a New York acting coach used to say / smile

okay i decided

Thanksgiving

Excerpted from the Iroquois, here's something of a prayer for the day:
Now the time has come!
Hear us, Lord of the Sky!
We are here to speak the truth,
for you do not hear lies,
We are your children, Lord of the Sky.

Now in the beginning of all things
You provided that we inherit your creation
You said: I shall make the earth
on which people shall live
And they shall look to the earth as their mother
And they shall say, "It is she who supports us."
You said that we should always be thankful
For our earth and for each other
So it is that we are gathered here
We are your children, Lord of the Sky.

Now again the smoke rises
And again we offer prayers
You said that food should be placed beside us
And it should be ours in exchange for our labor.
You thought that ours should be a world
where green grass of many kinds should grow
You said that some should be medicines
And that one should be Ona'o
the sacred food, our sister corn
You gave to her two clinging sisters
beautiful Oa'geta, our sister beans
and bountiful Nyo'sowane, our sister squash
The three sacred sisters; they who sustain us.

This is what you thought, Lord of the Sky.
Thus did you think to provide for us
And you ordered that when the warm season comes,
That we should see the return of life
And remember you, and be thankful,
and gather here by the sacred fire.
So now again the smoke arises
We the people offer our prayers
We speak to you through the rising smoke
We are thankful, Lord of the Sky.

Take this and, as you should with all prayers, place it in a bunch of contexts - in yours, in the nation's, in Iraq's, on and on, praying that we know how to be thankful, praying that we know how to be thankful anymore.



thanks to the Rude Pundit

blog explosion

so you can sign up here if you want more readers to your poor unread blog

http://www.blogexplosion.com/index.php

Flashback

now i remember why i gave up wine, mmmmph, and punditry

The Best Coconut Ice Cream

until i made this ice cream the best coconut ice cream i ever had was in Puerto Rico in the seaside town of Naguabo

here is the recipe :

6 egg yolks
1 cup of sugar
2 cups of heavy or whipping cream
16 oz can of coconut milk/cream
pinch of salt
tsp of vanilla
tsp of coconut flavoring

beat the egg yolks with the sugar until pale and thick

meanwhile scald the cream with the sugar until the sugar is dissolved

add a little of the hot cream to temper the egg yolks, then add all back in the cream pan

cook on moderate heat, stirring constantly, until the custard coats the back of a metal spoon

take off the heat / add the coconut milk / the pinch of salt / and the vanilla and coconut flavorings

cool to room temperature, then chill until cold enough to put in the freezer

during the time it is freezing stir it up once in a while

this is really good ice cream and we had it with a sour cream pound cake with a dash of almond flavor

happy birthday cake and ice cream

Breaking in the new Stove

it's a fancy one

if i understand all the instructions that come with it i will be able to fly a 747

it has touch screen buttons / i hope i dont inadvertently vote for Bush

first i made a cup of espresso / the pot spit on the gleaming glass surface / this must be wiped up immediately / this babe is very demanding

i made a sour cream pound cake too / some of it dribbled onto the oven bottom

never mind / it is self-cleaning

now it is roasting a duck in convection mode

hmmmm / a hummming fan and a little fan icon lights up on the control panel

the cake is for the son-out-laws birthday / it will be drowned in cherry/blueberry compote and demolished with whipped cream

welcome to your new kitchen home, darling new stove

oooops the smoke alarm in my bedroom also welcomes you with its piercing shriek

i see Jack Palance is still alive and is . . .

in a new movie

he was in a movie with my actor/husband when we lived abroad

they were shooting in Spain / somewhere outside Madrid

we had an apartment with a kitchen so actor/husband invited Jack Palance to dinner

i made spaghetti with meat sauce

he liked it

i told him how when we first lived in Rome the flour i bought had little bugs and worms in it / so i sifted them out

he thought that was cool and that his wife wdnt do that

smile

(memories are such treasures)

The Last BLT of the Season

there is one perfect Tomato that somehow escaped the final freeze

she waits expectantly on the counter as the last three slices of perfect bacon grizzle in the pan

there is some homemade mayonnaise

and there is A New Bread in Town : Simple Neo-Tuscan Boule

cant think why it is "Neo" / hmmmmmm

one of the grocery store Bakery Ladies slices the loaf for me with the handy-dandy slicer

so all the pieces are even

and it is very very fresh !

some mixed salad greens from the Youth Garden Project

what cd be a more delicious breakfast on a cold rainy November saturday morning ?

Blah

Blah blah blah blah blah blah Blahs

i googled Me and found this from when i was on DaveWorld

the survey

skaterina, 02:51h

the dw list has a survey

some answers ensue

Shoes / when i was younger i wore hussy shoes / high heels and strippy strippy straps / fm shoes / but now i am old lady and i wear sandals or laced up bootish kind of shoes deapending on the season / i favor Clarks of England and Easy Spirit for sensible more or less well made and comfortable shoes / and i always have a pair or two of Steger moccasins for wearing out in the beWilderness

okay that takes care of Shoes

jewelry / small bear token earring in left lobe / the heart attack lobe

beaded / turquoise chain thing to hang my glasses around my neck / five turquoise bears keep me in bounds

my best feature : i have no boundaries / i have know boundaries

okay what else is on the survey ?

meanwhile i had a very good day / being an old lady may possibly have its merits

i made ghee

vegetable broth

a perfect pizza with leeks and gruyere

my body type is harmoniously coordinated / light but strong skeletal structure / capable of impressive upper and lower body strength / id est / like how much weight can you pick up / carry / / and how far can you run / walk / etc / fast or slow

my coffee mug is from the first trip to ocean city maryland since i was in college and the first trip without murphy ally beloved companion protector / all round good dog

it is the Ocean City Mug and only I use it

my hair is silver / cut short in back / and Did I Mention i cut it myself / so it is always cut as cut can

i have brown eyes and the kind of skin that tans easily

oh if i had unlimited funds as in winning the lottery i woud fancy having a private railway car

and of course / tracks / to all the favorite playgrounds

scenic vistas

cool places to eat

say / where is the rink ?

~~~~~~~kickglidesmile~~~~~~~~~~

No Bones About It

i gave Dought one of the bones to take outside / the rest went into the large roasting pan / the oven was set at 400' / when the light went out the roasting pan went in on the upper rack / they will brown and later will be put in the stock pot to make broth

i lollygagged around for awhile then decided to take the dogs up to the Slick Rock for a walk / it was a clear crisp sunny morning / we parked at Cluster D / they took off to favorite spots and i strolled down the sandy road / i had brought my journal and a book to read and water so i cd hang out for awhile

there was no one around and no ranger at the entry booth / lovely silence

i remembered the bones in the oven !

oh dear oh dear / and where are the dogs ? i dashed back to the car parked at the far inner end of the camping cluster and drove back up on the Sand Flats Road looking for them

THERE !~ i see them / they are doing their favorite thing / digging furiously / i tramped over the desert, crushing the precious and fragile cryptobiotic soil apologizing to it with every step / Sorry, sorry, oh i am so sorry

i hollered : Dought ! Dot ! Come Right Now ! There are BONES at home !

they came right away all sandy muzzled / they do know what BONES means

hey and guess what ? the oven was cold / it has gone kaput / just like my printer !

well, i'll be darned / will there be one more thing ? like a set of three ?

Today's watch word is Precipitous

looking before one leaps

diving in head first

jumping off the cliff

into the abyss

plunging headlong into time

uncurbing all impulses

devil may care

stand back ~ get outa my way

who cares what tomorrow thinks

Aw, shucks

when Giada (Everyday Italian) buys clams from her "pescivendolo" (fishmonger) she asks him to "remove the bodies from the shells"

this is "shucking"

and it is why the clams in her dishes are not tough and chewy for when you bring them home in the shell and steam them and then add them later to the hot chowder (even at the last minute) or the garlic/wine/oliveoil/butter sauce for linguini they will be overcooked

i wonder if the gentleman in charge of the seafood section at the Shifty MarkUp wd be willing to shuck the clams for me

smile

hey, no harm in asking !

the children in europe are starving

and you must eat all your dinner, my mother told me

i grew up during World War II

i come to this blog to be silly and frivolous and insouciant

i will write about how my printer is kaput and how i put it outside and how nice to see more space on my desk

i think of how i will not be able to print stickers or magnets or labels or tags from the mouse drawings that i do on appleworks

unless i get another printer

but first i read Bagdad Burning

silly and frivolous and insouciant doesnt feel like much fun anymore


http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/

Contrarian

Daily Dose of Imagery is my new homepage / the photographer posts a new picture every day / the first day i read the comments and decided never to read them again

today i read the comments and added one of my own

i have several things to say about this :

~see what a consistent point of view will do for you

~~have the courage of your contradictions

~~~no more declarations of intent

wink

Notes of a Rule-busting Visionary

from The Fictional Archeologist :

"it's not easy maintaining your human disguise, sed Dwadwee

especially when the humans we were planted into are so WIERD

you must become a juggler of reality

each level of your awareness supports and is integrated with all your other realitease"


(this is the basis of kaleidoscopic vision)

Leftover Soup

soup made from leftovers
(not soup that is leftover)

the raw ground sirloin tip leftover from cannibal sandwiches
finely chopped raw sweet onion leftover from cannibal sammies
brown them a little in butter/olive oil
chopped roast vegetables leftover from lunch (they were glazed with brown sugar)
the mixed broths : some vegetable broth and some chicken broth
some fresh made tomato juice leftover from Virgin Mary's
some broth made from oxtails / jelly-like and rich
that which remains of the tomato/garlic jam

newly made basmati rice

what a wonderful colour this soup is !

a deep ruby red

tastes good too

wont be any Leftover

Memory

flames flicker
candle Dance
an
Auspicious Narcissus
winks at my Past

links

sites to which i refer in the previous post :

http://wvs.topleftpixel.com/

http://www.catherinejamieson.com/

http://www.mnftiu.cc/mnftiu.cc/home.html

you will have to copy and paste

Creeping Up On The New Moon

The Alarm Cat insisted i come out of a deep sleep / i was sleeping on my back so he sat on my chest / he is a big old heavy cat / i was in a war zone and glad to be up to my simple life where i started the day with my new home page / Daily Dose of Imagery on the marshmallow machine and Catherine Jamieson on the powerbook / i learned yesterday on Daily Dose not to read the comments / picky picky

what a big difference from seeing first CNN (corrupted nauseating negativity)

i went to a new site on the Bookmark Bar - David Rees of Get Your War On - there is more to his page than the clipart comic

This is definitely a New Start / New Moon tomorrow

Next it is coffee by the heater (gasfire behind glass) where the heater keeps my coffee warm while i put the drops in my eyes (three kinds of drops four times a day)

My new coffee mug was made to raise money for the local humane society by a local potter / it is shapely blue green with a picture of a dog and a cat / natch / Humane Society of the Moab Valley / i got it when i went to Arches Book Store to get one of their oversized mugs for the son-out-law

The Arches Book Store mug sez : "Oh, DONT GO IN THERE, THATS A BOOKSTORE!" (overheard Father to Son, Spring Break Moab 2003)

This is an excellent big mug for soup or tea when you want to make a double with two bags.

These mugs have superceded former mugs

In my life A Mug or Cup is a memorial or a trophy

For example / the Ocean City Mug is from the first trip i made after the Beloved Murphy died / i made a nostalgic trip to Ocean City, Maryland where i had not been since childhood visits and college/sorority blow outs

A majorly symbolic trip for not only was Murphy, the loyal ally and traveling companion, not there i had to drive All By Myself over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge which had replaced the old ferry boats / it is a long suspension bridge / about three miles over open bay / sometimes i have bridge fear and get the whim whams / i know there are people that will drive you over but i make myself guts it out / the Ocean City cup memorializes this adventure / because Murphy was not waiting for me outside or in the truck i was able to look at every damn cup in the store until i chose the one i wanted

I used that cup until this past year when i bought a hand made cup from a potter who had gone from acquaintance to friend / now i like her cup a lot / it is smaller and has a delicate handle / it is not "thrown" / she wraps clay around rocks and stuff like that to make wonderful shapes

i switched to the Humane Society mug because it is a jot larger / it will hold all of the contents of the One Cup (Italian sizing, not Starbucks) Bialetti espresso maker / and one cup of hot milk

If i make another small pot of coffee in the afternoon i use JoAnne's smaller cup

The book store mug is for cream of tomato (i still use campbells made with milk) soup and a handful of homemade croutons

i clicked Next Blog after Blog for America and got a complex page of graphics, a photo of a tomato plunging into water, and fancy little windows / dont ask the name / much of it was hard to read white font on black and Oh, before that one, something plainer but still not as plain as Skaterina

gosh, Skaterina is really spare in her simplicity / no About Me / no pix / no links / no lists of former entries / hmmmm / oh well

if Skaterina had to learn how to do all that she wouldnt have time for anything else

like experimenting with glass and making something w/o telling her mentor first
like setting up the keyboard and connecting it to garage band
like making fruit jellies
like taking walks again
like making spinach pillows with the newly made ricotta and EGG ROLL WRAPPERS

(will my italian sensibilitease and vivid memories of freshly made spinach pillows from the pasta makers down the street in Rome be able to transcend the egg roll wrapper ?)

Rhymin' Thymin'

two lines / eight syllables each

"I hope that I shall never see
anymore gasbag punditry"

Learning, Practicing

if you were learning to play golf or practicing to perfect your swing you would go to a range and buy a bucket of balls and then if you were still unsatisfied with your progress or improvement you would buy another bucket of balls / and another / and another .....

when i was learning to make bread or pizza dough the attempt would often be a flop but i would bake it anyway and we would try to eat it despite its unappetizing qualitease

i learned to learn / learning is learning How to learn

i learned to keep buying another bucket of balls

smile

i have the kiln cranked up tonight again / i puzzle over the finished, fused pieces, trying to recall exactly how i used each chip to achieve each result / just cant fathom it / just cant figure it out / i have entered that great realm of the Unknowable

i know that as soon as i *know* what i am doing i will *no* what i am doing

there is no end to the fun

well i'll be ding dong derned

Giada makes ravioli with *egg roll wrappers*

! mamma mia !

Today is Drastic, Zen Monastic

a periodic purge of relentlessly tedious routines

designed to refresh the spirit / restore humor / and relieve the boredom of automatic choices

no more twirling with the New York Times / a quick boogie with the Rude Pundit instead

no more fox-trotting with the thigh rubbing gasbag pundits on the televison cable networks

indeed, if it were not for Jon Stewart (The Daily Show) and Giada DeLaurentiis (Everyday Italian) i wd cancel the satellite)

Democracy Now (Amy Goodman) on KZMU is okay

unsubscribe from everything (newsletters, political magazines, non-profits, activist groups)

(er um / except for a couple of cooking mags)

(and it's okay to continue to be sustaining member of the Marijuana Policy Project working for legalization of medical marijuana and states' rights involved thereto)

set up an impenetrable barricade to prevent Any Catalogue from entering the sacred domain

the Last Cat will definitely be the last cat / it will be okay to donate to the Moab Humane Society but dont bring home anything warm and furry that needs to be fed and cuddled / sigh)

ALL books even those i havent read will be packed into boxes and put in the backroom pantry where they will be accessible but not take up so much room

(i never owned so many books ! i was always a library person but when i came to live in Moab and despite the really wonderful library here i began to accumulate books especially collections of old favorites like Italo Calvino / i worried that something might happen to the library and then what would i do ? smile)

book shelf space will be filled with yarns and fleeces that have been hiding out of sight out of mind in baskets in the closet / my Knitting Body yearns to see what she has to work with especially since the Glass Fusing Body has been making such nifty buttons

in fact, Knitting Body wishes just to knit button bands and buttonhold bands ! and maybe she will

~~~~~~~~~~~

okay this is a start

ongoing considerations re Dreams That Havent Come True Yet and whether they have a chance or not / stay tuned in

ps / it's okay to make as many glass doo dads as you want even before you stick them on the bracelets / like spinning fleece into many skeins of yarn you cant have too many possibilitease in either yarn or glass

love, skaterina

Sometime you just have to empty your dance card

more about this later / right now i am engrossed in the audio of Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

Boo Hoo I am a Big Baby

just now i was real snarky with the office staff of the local eye doctor who is sposeto see me a week after the surgery but she is making the appointment for the 15th instead of the 11th

she is prolly telling the rest of the staff what an asshole i am

i cry

daughter sez it's good to cry / tears will be good for healing my eye

yes / there is a toxin in the body that is only released through tears

the IV has left considerable toxic residue / i am robbed of my appetite and my pizazz

the twinkle in my eye is gone / my smile no longer dazzles / my hair is limp

poor poor me

the good news is my formerly "bad eye" is now my "good eye" and the formerly "good eye" nervously awaits its surgery in a few weeks

sigh BIG SIGH

Correction

the eye surgeon told me i did NOT have a general anesthesia, just something in the IV to Relax me and that i was awake and talking to him and not to worry he wont tell anyone what i said

smile

The Murky Blur

maybe because i told the nurse who made my pre-op appointment that although i know Cataract Surgery is the most common out-patient surgery and is a snap, a cinch and a breeze i was apprehensive and so she said Well, We Can Give You Something to Calm You Down

and so after dimly hearing the list of Risks ( you might lose your vision entirely and Oh, you might die) they taped my head down and then i expected the cement bags but, No, I was Out Like A Light

when i came to i discovered someone had put a fistful of sharply pointed gravel under my right eye lid / it felt like a word i cannot spell

no one else i talked to about this surgery had a general anesthesia !

my daughter hauled me home where i slept for 24 hours and gave up eating

the good news is i lost a pound

and Oh, i have these groovy Ray Charles dark glasses to wear when i go out

We are the ones we've been waiting for (HOPI)

HOPI ELDERS SPEAK

You have been telling people that this is the Eleventh Hour.
Now you must go back and tell the people that this is the Hour.
There are things to be considered.

Where are you living ?
What are you doing ?
What are your relationships ?
Are you in right relations ?
Where is your water ?
Where is your garden ?

It is time to speak your Truth.
Create your community.
Be good to each other.
Do not look outside yourself for the leader.

This could be a good time.

There is a river flowing now very fast.
It is so great and swift that there are those who will be afraid.
They will try to hold on to the shore.
They will feel they are being torn apart, and they will suffer greatly.

Know the river has its destination.
The Elders say we must let go of the shore, push off into the middle of the river, keep our eyes open, and our heads above the water.

See who is in there with you and celebrate.

At this time in history, we are to take nothing personally, least of all ourselves.

For the moment that we do, our spiritual growth and journey come to a halt.

The time of the Lone Wolf is over.
Gather yourselves.

Banish the word struggle from your attitude and vocabulary.

All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration.

We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.

The Elders
Oraibe, Arizona
Hope Nation
June 2004

The Eye is Gonna Have It

tomorrow morning is the Cataract Surgery

yes, i know cataract surgery is a snap a cinch and a breeze

it is the most common out-patient surgery performed over the whole Planet

it still gives me the creeps

today the nurse at the pre-op said they would give me anesthesia to keep me still and so i wont leap out of the chair but i will be lying down flat / ugh / she said she had been a nurse for thirty years and that they used to surround the patient's head with bags of cement to keep the head still / um / so i told her that our second president's (John Adams) daughter had a mastectomy without anesthesia

that shut us both up

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

did she really say "bags of cement" ?

Post Election Distress

i had a somach ache

my daughter said I cant stomach the results / smile

yerp

later i packed up all my political books aquired over the last four years

out of sight / out of mind

Moving On

Bisque Binge

the shrimp bisque was so good i made some more

sometimes when you try to duplicate perfection the attempt falls short

not this time !

it was just as good and tasty and loaded with tender shrimp as the first time

most of the shrimp bisque recipeez i looked up on the internets (sic) involved using bottled clam broth

the one i chose to follow made "fish" broth using the shrimp shells / in a TB of unsalted butter cook the shells from about 1 and 1/4 pound of shrimp until they are golden / then add 1/2 cup of Pernod (original recipe / i didnt have Pernod so i used some cheap brandy) and let it cook almost all gone then add 2 quarts of water / simmer uncovered for 20 minutes then strain and press on the shells / set aside for the rest of the recipe

concurrent with the shrimp bisque binge i was flirting madly with fresh little neck clams / isnt it a wonder to have fresh clams from Long Island, New York, in the middle of the south western desert wilderness ? i buy them without a second thought / smile / the first thought that comes to mind is a vision of a car on the side of the road on Topanga Canyon Boulevard with the trunk open and a vendor selling frozen lobsters / i could never bring myself to get one no matter how much i loved lobster

steaming the clams (about 18 of them) in 3/4 cup of water gives you a nice cup of clam "liquor" / this is used in making New England clam chowder but if you are making linguini with clam sauce you can put the clam liquor aside to use in your next go around with shrimp bisque / very tasty and so culinarily interdependent

When you call someone who has Call Waiting

and they are already talking with someone else i would just as soon get a busy signal

then you know they are too busy to talk right now and you can go on about your business

instead they answer and tell you that they will call right back

except "right back" sometimes takes a while

which means i am "call waiting"

Next Blog

if i ever have another blog i will name it Next Blog

have you ever clicked on the little button in the upper right hand corner that says Next Blog ?

take an amazing trip through diversity-land

~~~~~~~~~

WHEN A CHANGE OF DIRECTION IS INDICATED DON'T MISS YOUR CUBIC CENTIMETER OF CHANCE

~~~~~~~~~

a few notes left on the desk by The Fictional Archeologist :

Dwadwee Sez :

be who you are
be true to yourself

Being true to yourself is not necessarily a rigid adherence to principle

Being true to yourself is more like accepting who you are and recognizing your way is as valid as anyone else's - and, get this, need not be explained or justifiied or rationalized to all and sundry as well as to yourself / you can just BE without a whole lot of blabber

Being true to yourself also means you don't lose shape with each human encounter (or interruptions of the flow)

Being fluid fills every nook and cranny while retaining essential characteristics

Being true to yourself means you don't become everyone you meet (unless you wish to tune in by means of psychic absorption)

We are each Unique

once upon a time

topanga celebrations :

mushrooms
black russians
good pot
and
cocaine

music by cole porter

that was then and this is now

i have a celebratory 3.2 beer and a toast to voter turnout

popcorn with The Daily Show

what a wonderful day / no, the election hasnt been called yet / it was a wonderful day nonetheless

The Fictional Archeologist. . . . .

. . . . is pushing and shoving

go go go / she sez / all you care about is GOTV

Getting Out The Vote

dont come back unti wednesday

i will take over until then / smile

go ON

GO

SCRAM

So many topics / so little time

#1 On the topic of declutterflying : it's not the stuff that makes you whole / it's the hole that makes you stuff : what amma gonna do with all these books / cooking magazines ? / too many of muchness

#2 On the topic of Culinary Optionitis / oh so many things to do with shrimp / i make a Bisque for the first time / what amma gonna do with shrimp bisque for 8 people ?

#3 On the topic of poetry forms : my Tanka Pal sends me a Pantoum and a Villinelle / i respond :

"writing a pantoum (5)
creating a villenelle (7)
way more challenging (5)
than a tried and true tanka (7)
i will give them my best shot" (7)

(that's a tanka) (structure of pantoum and villenelle forthcoming / stay tuned in) (will also check on spelling)

(when i introduced the topic of poetry forms at lunch the son-out-law decided he had fire wood to cut)

#4 On the topic of Serendipity : a mild flirtation with roasting brussel sprouts last year caused me to buy some more and then i discovered a recipe for shredding them and dressing them with bacon and pecans / whoever thought of shredding a brussel sprout ? a two pound gift of nitrate/nitrite free bacon from running around pigs brought it all together / never mind

#5 On the topic of The Fictional Archeologist : she feels neglected / she is nagging me / she wants more blog space / i tell her to get her own blogspot / she sez she might do just that

#6 On the topic of La Mia Cugina Italiana / SHE wants more blog time too

sheesh

Tricks and Treats

the kids are coming and i have plenty of candy

i bought all the kinds my mother likes best and when i did i asked the ladies at Walker where i shopped if they thought it was okay to keep buying my 94 year old mother who is in a nursing home candy which is prolly not good for her and they said SURE / get her whatever she likes

okay

so i have plenty of little Hershey Bars / Peanut Butter Cups / Peppermint Patties / and KISSES in different coloured wrappers

in case there were no trick or treaters i can take the candy to my mother

but the kids are coming and i have plenty of candy !

daughter and son-out-law are making costumes for tonights halloweencostumeparty combination wake for The Motorcyle Man who died recently / she is going as a Mud Head and he as a Heyouka / these are native american icons

The Motorcyle Man first brought me to Utah / i fell so madly in love with him that i was willing to live in the middle of nowhere in the mountains with no water, no electricty, no clocks, mirrors

it was ......... sorry.........no words........ but plenty of Zeitgeist / smile

later i will pick up some chili cheese burgers from Milt's where we used to indulge ourselves once in a while coming down off the mountain to town

and i will take the chili cheese burgers as my "potluck" and go to the party/wake as Who I Was When I Met Him

~~~~~~~~~~

happy halloween

Politickles

i come here to be frivolous
to create a self-indulgent pastiche

to be giddy and mindless and insouciant

otherwise my head will explode

Hints ~ Rules ~ Suggestions

(from the Free At Last series)

you doan hafta do anything you doan wanna

if you think you awta / doan do it

when in doubt wear red

do it All ~ All Waze n Sometimes Never

no long distance calls while drunk

when in doubt lie down

ignore ants is bliss

when in the mind all is think pull the plug and drain the sink

balance through contrast / moderation by extremes

nothing exceeds like excess

be Quick but dont hurry


(a faithful transcription)

connect the dots / detach on the dotted line

dont ask why
if reason you seek
for the brain is awry
and springing a leak

.................................

Some Thoughts on Thinking

I think about thinking
i think about how i am thinking
i think about what my thinking is about
i think if the thinking makes me feel good or bad
is it good thinking or is it bad thinking ?
i think about what good thinking and bad thinking are

i am thinking about thinking

give it up

Today' Advice

When in the mind all is think
pull the plug and drain the sink

Transmission of Dialogue between Aeriseven and Dwadwee Wandrr

~ it begins with chronic melancholy
^ explain please
~ you are this superior being from Aeriseven and suddenly you wake up and you are this squalling human infant / shocked into chronic melancholy
^ i must remind you that you volunteered for this mission / indeed, it was your idea / you were curious about the earth planet and wanted to be a big shot explorer
~ i didnt know how difficult it would be to be a human being
^ you have a tendency to focus on the difficulties
~ of course, when i talk to you i focus on the difficulties to illuminate the problems / it is part of the mission, is it not ? to help clarify procedure and make improvements for the future explorers / remember i am an *Experimental Eggplant Explorer* designed to break new trails, show the way, make it "easier" for later Aeriseven visitors
^ so you feel somehow you are arriving shocked into a state born with regrets / a kind of consumate anger
~ simmering with bitter disappointments
^ oh my, poor you
~ yeah, poor me
^ let me remind you of the choices you made / of the choices you make / it was a brave and courageous act
~ i was bored and wanted a change of scene / sigh
^ oh, foo, you wanted an adventure / you were curious and you cared / you have done a fine job / maybe you have not received enough recognition but you know you have to gain from the process / you pioneered the program and now you must share the information / we are waiting for detailed reports / transcripts of dialogue / recommendations / evaluations / hints / clues / subtle suggestions / you know / c'mon / get with it
~ I am !

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

observation : you can always trust someone who is fussy about her food


(now i know why Joan Didion edits on gin)


(from the '80's)(most likely)

CARE packages

Sometimes when i think i am good at starting things / sometimes too good at starting things / without enough follow through i remember being in high school during the years right after World War 2 when the administration and students of Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, Maryland, decided to send CARE packages to war survivors in Europe

Here is some history and what CARE stands for :

"We've always been known by the acronym "CARE," but the meaning behind the letters has changed as our mission has broadened. When we were founded in 1945, CARE stood for "Cooperative for American Remittances to Europe." Today, with projects in more than 60 countries around the world, CARE stands for "Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere, Inc."

we decided that each homeroom in the school of three grades would send a package every month / i volunteered to be the CARE representative for my homeroom / this meant i collected 25cents from each student (usually about 30 in a homeroom) each month for the nine months of the school year

and i am proud to say that i did it / i did it / smile / all three years of high school

you would have to know me to understand what this means / i find it easy to change my mind / to put off continuing projects i have started / over time i have incorporated ME into my philosophy of life known as The Way of The Improvaho in which i never have to finish anything (or how would anything get done) and Indecision Permits Flexibility but more about that another time

I had pictures of food floating through my head this afternoon / i wasnt really hungry but i think of food anyway / at some point i will go in the kitchen, rummage through the ice box / come up with something tasty / and then i imagined what it must feel like to have those pictures of food floating through your head and not knowing where your next meal was coming from and i remembered sending CARE packages and now i wonder if i am doing as much as i can

there's a lot of hungry people out there in the world

for starters i am sending a donation to CARE and checking out what more i can do, give, or share

http://www.careusa.org/index.asp

maybe, you too ?

The Pleasures of Patience or Today in the Kitchen

I take great pleasure in the patience required for the sequence of steps leading up to firing the kiln

prepping the kiln shelf with kiln wash and a haik brush / a brush with exceedingly fine bristles / i googled to shop for these brushes, recommended in the glass fusing bible / and google asks Do You Mean Hair Brush? / i love google

the kiln wash must be applied in five coats across the shelf this way and then that way and diagonally / then it is dried in the kiln at 500 degrees with the lid propped open a few inches / unless the shelf is prepped properly the kiln wash will stick to the bottom of the glass thus adding another step for it will have to be removed

so far i have been a perfect kiln shelf prepper !

next

assembling and cutting the little bits of glass being careful not to cut my fingers / washing them in a bowl of soapy water / draining through a sieve / spreading out on a dishtowel and blotting them thoroughly dry

using a tweezer or the needlenose pliers (i like these better) to arrange the bits of glass on the shelf / put them in little stacks or whatever

so far so good / my second attention is fully engaged

then the heating up and monitoring the speed with which it reaches 1500 degrees / about an hour / and then controlling the rate of cooling

whew

an added bonus is the kiln is upstairs in the attic-studio

i am having a good work out running up and down the stairs as well as being particularly alert not to fall down them / there is no bannister / the stair well is narrow but there are railings along the opening at the top

i decide to hang some ropes from the railings to grab onto in case of dizziness

an elderly lady in the village where i lived in vermont had a big old house and she lived alone / as is true of many folks in vermont they are a hardy and independent lot and do a lot of heavy labor especially in the winter when it is necessary to brush snow off of roofs (rooves??)

her house had a large porch with windows overlooking it from the second story / inside the windows was a stair railing and on this was a coil of rope / she explained to me that she pulled the rope over to the windows / tied it around her waist and stepped out on the roof which of course was slanted to brush or shovel off the snow

whatta gal

i run out of patience waiting for the kiln to cool enough to remove the bits of glass / i busy myself in the kitchen making ghee and getting flours together to make some dough / yes / some dough / any kind of dough / i crave to make dough the same way i craved to make things out of clay when i was a child

i am making empanadas / more anon

Plumbing the Depths

some old notes :

the Search for Genuine Insouciance continues

(huh what's that?)

Light hearted Unconcern not to be mistaken for a Cold Indifference

Insouciance of the Most Genuine - sincere - and Authentic is aura'ed by affectionate understanding and a generous helping of compassion / smile

(the smile of Someone willing to be side-tracked because for her all paths have heart)

you know, Follow Your Path with Heart / that means whole-heartedly / not half-assed

%%%%%

The process unwinds like a ball of yarn, like opening up a road map
like finding the missing puzzle piece under the kitchen table

The process is a wander ~ an exploration ~ it is not designed to solve problems ~ but to appreciate the mysteries of existence

so there

Serpentine

a serpentine course grows naturally out of an open round, for the leader of the line may digress from the steady circling to describe meandering figure 8's, zig zags, spirals, or what have you

(chaos is not disorder but an invitation to the dance of life)

phase known as new skin for old (shed old skin / grow new tale)

the ecdysis process begins from 10 days to 3 weeks before the actual shedding and is indicated by the snake's loss of appetite (a bloated body might inhibit the process), a bluish cloud over the eyes, a few tears (maybe a lot), a dull cast to the skin, a pimple or two, and a marked negative turn in the snake's (subject's) disposition, indicating some discomfort

to each thing there is a season

i am giving up a whole bunch of stuff / turning a corner / and changing my tune

i'll never admit it weren't fun

~~~~~~~~~~


Remember your insights
Acknowledge your visions

You can't pretend
That you're not where you are

(from Long Pants by Michael Ontkean)

no i dont have permission to copy this and he doesnt even know i have a his book which he autographed and gave to a someone i know who didnt want it anymore / i loved this book so kept it / it was published in / oops / seems to be misplaced / was about 1970something / time to declutterfly my books

All Fired Up and Fully Fused

a successful first firing of my glass kiln !

so much more to learn and so much more fun to have !

"Someone" asked if I were happy

Happy is not the operative word (in this phase)

I am more like Released / Relieved / Relaxed / ReInventing Myself

Re-Creating and Restoring Power

Regurgitating (urp) the deadness of the past

(my pressure relief valve is functioning well)

there is no Rush

but plenty of Quick

as in Quick ! Alive ! and all that Jive !

A little memory from life in rural Vermont

one night last week the old lady who lived across the street died

today her family had the funeral and walked by my house on their way to the cemetary which is across the brook by way of a foot bridge directly behind my house

they buried her there and then came back by my house and across the street and had a lovely family party in their front yard / i have noticed that the folks in this village often have their outdoor parties in the front yard instead of the back / maybe so everyone in town can see what is going on

later i walked over to pay my respects at her grave / there was a pile of dirt remaining so i went home and got a bucket and shovel and brought dirt home to plant tuberous begonias in a big iron kettle

thanks, old lady

i now remember that one of her family placed little wooden tulips at her grave / i think one of the children made them in wood shop

(memory from sometime in the 90's Chelsea, Vermont)

Hocus Pocus Sharpen Your Focus

the way of the improvaho is the path of surprise

revisiting the past

topanga canyon diet :

a joint
a toot
a cuppa joe

sit in the sun
and have some mo'

(sometime in the seventease)

in the mail a clipping from the Topanga Messenger describing a house that cd only have been mine

Happy Trail Spider Works and Bubble Preserve

located at the end of the trail in the thicket of high resolve

'72 - '90

oh that time ! learned carpentry / tiling / how electricity works / plumbing / how to rebuild windows / how to start a restaurant on a shoestring / tune up my car / pour cement / grow pot / fix the roof / what kind of fire wood to use in each of the wood burning stoves / how to keep warm and those were the days when Tony Grant on the radio said if you are with a man to keep you warm at night you might as well have a dog / i created a lovely terraced garden / i shopped in the creek (water most of the year too) for rocks for the walls and walkways / and i shopped at the beach for driftwood and to run along the waters' edge at low tide / and in the house i had the tides phone number / gosh / i lovve that / calling up to check on low tide so i cd go down for a run in deep wet sand

&&&&

i had a lot of dogs / cats / ducks / chickens / angora rabbits

DreamBoat was my wheels

her license plate was the much envied and coveted POTANGA

people not dyslexic asked, what's POTANGA ?

the Improvaho nirvana, i replied

++++

*and when you get there, you say, Now What?"

that's right

??????????

meanwhile the little pieces of glass are in their little stacks sitting on the kiln shelf waiting for tomorrow / i took some pictures / i want to see if i can match the fused ones with the original stack / just for fun / i look forward to lowering the shelf into the kiln / there is barely finger room between how you hold the shelf and the kiln inner walls / there is a litle pyrometer jigger that sticks into the kiln so the shelf must be slightly tilted to pass this / so what / if the glass pieces rearrange themselves i can rearrange them back

priscilla, my glass fusing mentor. sez Never Refuse to Refuse / she sez its like when i was teaching her to knit and then advanced knitting and custom construction we were on the phone all the time and now it is pay back time / she is teaching me how to fuse glass and she reminds me that i told her if she got the knitting wrong the first time take it out and do it again / some people gasp at this suggestion / i think doing it over and over and over / eventually you get it the way you want it and the pleasure of the process is the raising of your skill level / practice makes improvement

what i want to do with the little glass pieces is pour them all onto the kiln shelf and then arrange them in clumps and clusters / oh i cant wait for the tweezers to arrive !

see after the glass is washed and dried touching them will leave organic residue / smile / you want them nice and free of impuritease / while i wait for the right tweezers to arrive (i didnt know there were so many kinds of tweezers !) i am using a pair of needle nose pliers / they work okay / i didnt need to order tweezers or have frank yama order tweezers or have Priscilla send me tweezers

and on that note. . . . . . . . . .

Con Fusion

the little bits of glass are laid out on a clean white dishcloth

they have been washed so they will be free of finger marks and other impurities

tomorrow they are going to be carefully stacked this way and that and placed on the kiln shelf

i will carefully lower the kiln shelf into the kiln so as not to jiggle them out of place

i will close the lid

turn on the heat

crank it up to 1600 degrees

the little bits of glass will melt and fuse together and bring me all kinds of surprises

and then i will carefully control the heat as the cooling off and annealing processes take place

i am so excited

this will be my first firing all by myself !

sizzle

Georgia Cracker Salad

now i've seen everything

Paula (of Paula's Home Cooking / sheez a Georgia gal) hand crushes a tube of saltines into a bowl / adds chopped fresh tomatoes / sliced green onions / and several big gobs of mayonnaise !

a little pepper / not too much salt cuz of the saltines

serve scoops of Cracker Salad on lettuce leaves

when fresh it is crunchy and when it is not fresh it is not crunchy but, Paula says, some people like it like that

well / hmmm

Ritz Cracker boxes at one time featured an "apple pie" recipe made with Ritz crackers instead of apples

i guess Cracker salad compares to Tuscan Bread Salad which is a way of using up stale leftover bread

Giada is Silvana's granddaughter

the lovely cook of Everyday Italian, Giada DiLaurentiis, is indeed, the granddaughter of Dino DiLaurentiis and therefore of Silvana Mangano, known as the sexy star of Bitter Rice in 1949 (when she was 19)

i was tickled to find out by googling / a commenter on a gotham food blog provided the info with expressions of love and admiration / "I love her big head" he wrote

i love her big smile and her liberal use of butter (burro in Italian)

today Giada made Florentine food / for the first time i wanted to make a cake known as Zucotto just like hers

slices of pound cake drenched in brandy (nearly all Italian desserts are soaked in booze) line a deep bowl, then filled with a chocolate/cream that coats the cake slices and then filled some more with whipped cream loaded with toasted almonds / put more brandied cake slices on top / cover with plastic

chill for hours or over night / then turn out onto a platter / sprinkle with cocoa and dig in / it is a dome of a cake / una duomo dolce or something like that

little cups of espresso will help it all go down

espresso with a twist of lemon is considered a digestivo in Italy

just a tiny little cup, that's all

which makes me wonder how Starbucks plunked down at Piazza di Spagna is doing with their giant Americani doses of coffee

can you smoke a Gauloise, for example, in Starbucks in Rome ?

hmmm

Presidential Debate #3

we are making popcorn for this one

Everyday Italian

Everyday Italian is my current favorite cooking show on the food network

La cuoca bella is Giada diLaurentiis / the pretty cook !

i wonder if she is a member of the Dino DiLaurentiis cinema family

one reason i wonder is because my former husband, The Actor, had a contract with the DiLaurentiis Studios back in the spaghetti western days / he was a Clint Eastwood look-a-like

the other reason i wonder is because the production values and camera work on Everyday Italian is far superior to many other cooking shows / some really talented people involved here

extreme close-ups of Giada's hands plucking a perfect bulb of garlic from the bowl / scooping up pinches of coarse salt / even turning off the water faucet / just lovely / and of course the food itself / so fresh and so colourful / so Italian / so many dishes the colours of the Italian flag

red ripe tomatoes / crisp green parsley and basil / creamy white mozzarella and parmigiano

the garlic (aglio) olive oil (olio) sale (sale) pepe (pepper)

this is like a kitchen chant : olio aglio sale pepe ! singing in the kitchen : cantare alla cucina

too darn yum and so much fun

what i learned when i lived in Italy was not how to cook so much as how to eat / how to shop and how to enjoy food and the pleasure of sharing meals with friends and family in liesurely ways / taking time / La Dolce Vita

i learned cooking too / when one is a foodie one is always learning to cook / there is no end to this most delightful process

for example i am trying out Elizabeth David's braised breast of lamb one more time / after the lamb breasts (riblets) are braised with onion and carrots and herbs in stock for three hours / it is cooled / the rib bones are gently removed and then another process is to take place involving slicing the meat / coating it with mustard and bread crumbs / letting it dry / and the grilling it

sigh / i never get that far / once the lamb breasts are braised and cooled enough to eat / well / shoot / i just cant resist gobbbling most of it down immediately

oh RATS / i got so involved in telling about the fn lamb breasts that my Everyday American dinner is kaput / the cream of tomato soup boiled all over the stove / the favorite saucepan bottom is burned and the grilled cheese sandwich is / well / too too toasted

shoot / phooey

not so bad though if you dont mind the taste of char

Today is the Day

Today is the day i would be prepping to go away
tomorrow if i were but we are not

i only mention it now because jeffrey gave me encouragement
by reminding me of similar apprehensions before the river trip

ah the river trip / smile

ah yes / cdnt miss the river trip

but now / the illness set me back and our plans set so far in advance clearly illustrate Life is what's happening while you are making plans

there is the garden to harvest and plant for winter / there is glass to fuse
and fleece to spin

there is lamb breast to braise and parmesan bread to bake / apples to sauce

'sides any decision based on stubbing your toe requires careful re-consideration

Not for the faint of heart / the squeamish / or the overly genteel

we are composting humanure

the son-out-law built some big bins / one is for the mixing of the compost / one is for the sawdust that is added to the humanure to cover it up and so it wont stink

my daughter and son-out-law are ever into alternate Stuff / they build houses and walls with bags of dirt

they told me i cd participate by pooping in a bucket / covering it up with sawdust / adding kitchen waste and there you go (after you went)

we use five gallon buckets that pickles come in / we get them from an Italian deli over in Grand Junction, CO / i am proud to say i can fill a bucket in a little less than a week / of course i do have a lot of vegetable scraps / smile

http://journeytoforever.org/compost_humanure.html

Earth Shoes

it has been more than 25 years since i wore earth shoes and now i have these :

http://snipurl.com/9o7s

they are really comfortable / soft leather uppers and linings and innersoles too

when i had earth shoes in the 70's i wore the sandals / they were thick slabs of wood with leather straps

i lived in new york city / the east village / earth shoes with their depressed heels were ideal for walking on cement / i could walk miles in comfort / they are kind of wierd when you walk on real earth which already goes down at the heels so after i moved to topanga in southern california i never wore them anymore

i kinda wish i had those sandals for old times sake / smile / they must look like hippie relics today

i dont walk all that much on cement here in the high desert / i havent worn these new ones outside yet / i am not ready to give up sandals and close in my feet for the winter / we are not even finished with autumn / i am breaking them in slowly by wearing them around the house in the morning instead of slippers which i dont have anyway

when i was younger it never occured to me to break in shoes slowly / on saturday we would go shoe shopping for high heeled party shoes to wear that night ! gad / what a painful experience that was / too bad it takes so long to get smart and then when you are you dont wear high heels anymore

well, not since the Rolfing

Amusings

fresh lima beans from the youth garden at the farmers' market / oh you have to shell them the young ladies tell me so i say i grew up shelling peas and beans / i bought them all / to have with boiled red potatoes

maybe next week they will have fava beans / i remember these from Italy / during fava bean season you can go to a ristorante or trattoria and order a big steamed pot of fava beans fragrant with olive oil and garlic and herbs and you shell them yourself / the waiter puts a bib around your neck

today there are apples from the mountains / these are the apples that are so crisp sweet and delicious you will never again eat an apple from new zealand / unless you are actually in new zealand during apple harvest / shine these apples and they glow like rubies or like ripe pomegranate berries / at home my daughter makes apple/pomegranate juice but i made celery carrot tomato juice / all local produce organically grown in our little oasis

high desert honey too

@@@@@@@@

whle recovering from fever i sat in bed with my laptop and watched a movie / this is notable on several counts / one is that i gave up going to the movies many years ago for reasons or non-reasons that may or may not be explained at some other time / i have not gone to the theatre in years / i chose to watch The Talented Mr Ripley because i read the Patricia Highsmith book when it was published in 1955 and i had read the following Ripley books and recently re-read them all / i am a Patricia Highsmilth fan

i was curious as to how this story was presented in the cinema

hmmm / quite a few more characters and embellishments / murders in your lap a bit too much to take / i like the dvd format / so much easier than fussing with the video machine so you end up not knowing how to switch back to the television set

@@@@@@@@@

i slightly overboiled the potatoes so i threw in some cream and butter and mashed them up a bit / i have to go now / i absolutely do not want to overboil the baby lima beans

ciao

What to do with Celery Hearts

what with being feverish and fasting and not having an appetite nor the desire to go on the hunt for interesting and diverting foodstuffs i concentrate on using up that which is in the refrigerator

there are several walla walla onions / a package of celery hearts the outer stalks of which have been forced through the juicer with the last of the carrots and the juliette tomatoes for a tasty glass of V-3

there are some nice crisp apples

several potential menu items come to mind

sweet onion / celery / apple salad dressed with the bottom most smear of mayonnaise left in the jar spritzed with a little homemade fruit wine vinegar (choices here at apricot and mulberry) / this will require a lot of chewing

celery and onion stir fry dressed with the last of the pad thai sauce / throw this on to the leftover rice or better still fry up the rice and throw a beaten egg on that !

hmmm / things are looking up / epicurious.com offers a number of exciting options like braised celery

cream of celery/onion soup with the rest of the chicken broth (there are two kinds : the homemade chicken jelly and that which is left in the purchased box of chicken broth / there is enough cream and/or half n half to make this quite sumptous and will need less chewing and has a higher comfort level

or

just stuff the celery with peanut butter and be done with it

Fast Fasting

well there's nothing like having a high fever and being unable to eat to drop off the five pounds you put on with the bacon and baked apples with creme fraiche
for breakfast menu

Pep Talk

i decided i wanted to do Something Completely Different

something i dont usually do / in fact, something i dont even have an interest in doing

my daughter is going to a Heal the Heart Foundation gathering for a three day camping out and vegetarian meals 3 X a day in California

when she first asked me if i would like to go i said no

then Toe Stub Clarity during a time of indecision / i stubbed my toe so badly stumbling around in the dark on a deliberately uneven rock path created by me that i saw stars and my life flashed before my eyes

i still have a Toe Rag tied around to keep the little rascal warm and hidden from view

yeah, so i decided to go along for the ride / get out of my space / change my pace

i got out my tent / the one i bought for the river trip / i ordered an air mattress and a traveling (battery powered) Water Pik so i can floss my teeth in my tent / i lined up a couple of motels in Watsonville, just in case so i wont miss the third Presidential Debate

sigh / i dont want to go anymore

Pep Talk time to convince myself that my decision to go is an honorable intention / when i visited my best friend in the spring time in northern California it all seemed different / different climate / different geography / i did the same things i always do in slightly altered ways / contrasting versions of the same / it was extraordinarily satisfying

practice putting up the tent / blowing up the air mattress


pep up / perk up / put up or shut up

Tomato Jam

the persimmon tomatoes are roasted / toasted / garlicked / gingered / and canned

what a glorious colour !

ready to eat with homemade cream cheese on focaccia

buon appetito

The Eyes Have It

I saw the eye doctor this morning and my eyes were blurry all day

He told me a cataract is the lens we are born with and with age it gets OLD

Some cataracts can be removed and replaced with an artificial lens

Cataract surgery is the most common out-patient medical treatment in the country

It is a simple procedure / yeah sure / but does require some sedation so you dont leap out of the chair

I googled up some alternatives / N-Acetyl Carnosine are drops for "senile cataracts" / put in your eyes several times a day for four months and if they dont work you can get your money back

There is also Ocuzyme which promises the same results

Ayurvedic treatments are a possibility / one therapy is to stare at the sun as it comes up in the morning / possibly every day for the rest of your life

This reminds me of a woman i met when i lived in Rome. She was a Christian Scientist and she was a very elderly lady. I read some Mary Baker Eddy because of her. She told me that she had gone to Capri for a visit and while there sat in the sun and let the sun warm and bathe her eyes and this completely restored her vision. I believed her.

If you are on LSD however, as i recall, staring at the sun is not recommended.

Secret Service

i've been watching campaign rallies on C-span

you know what is fascinating ? the Secret Service and how they follow the President and the Candidates when they plunge into the crowds and are surrounded by people reaching out to touch them / enveloping them and the Secret Service Men are always there / at first you dont notice them and then There They Are / they wear suits and sometimes sunglasses / suddenly they are the most interesting thing happening / how they look constantly in all directions and yet stay close to the person they are guarding

they are constantly in restrained and extraordinarily alert movement/attention

you can just think that they dont miss a trick

hope not, anyway

30 Days Hath September

i will wind up the month of September with a poem clipped from a newspaper some years ago / the poem is by a Brazilian poet whose name is Adelia Prado / i may be breaking copyright laws / who knows ? / oh well, here goes :

DYSRHYTHMIA

Old people spit with absolutely no finesse
and bicycles bully traffic on the sidewalk.
The unknown poet waits for criticism
and reads his verses three times a day
like a monk with his book of hours.
The brush got old and no longer brushes.
Right now what's important
is to untangle the hair.
We give birth between our legs
and go on talking about it until the end,
few of us understanding
it's the soul that's erotic.
If I want, I put on a Bach aria
so I can feel forgiving and calm.
What I understand of God is His wrath;
there's no other way to say it.
The ball thumping against the wall annoys me,
but the kids laugh, contented.
I've see hundreds of afternoons like today.
No agony, just an anxious impatience:
something is going to happen.
Destiny doesn't exist.
It's God we need, and fast.

~~~~~~~

from a collection of her work titled
The Alphabet in the Park : selected
poems of Adelia Prado

published by Wesleyan Press
translated by Ellen Watson
1990

~~~~~~~~

here is another :

DAY

The chickens open their beaks in alarm
and stop, with that knack they have,
immobile--I was going to say immoral--
wattles and coxcombs stark red,
only the arteries quivering in their necks.
A woman startled by sex,
but delighted.

~~~~~~~~~

i think i am sposeto ask permission to use this
so i looked up University Press of New England
who gave the newspaper permission so i am
going to imagine that as a reader of the news-
paper i have permission to share it as well

smile