This is how every morning begins. A big cuppa Joe. I bought this mug, and five others like it, back in the '00s. I love the mug because it is thick, so it keeps the coffee hot longer. I like the throwback feel of its heft. It is big. It holds a lot of coffee.
Now why, you wonder, would he show us a picture of his coffee cup? But you can guess the answer. Isolation photography. I have a new camera and I want to use it. This was taken with the Velvet macro lens. It makes slight swirly patterns at the edges of the frame. Look at the glow on the handle. The lens is kind of fun.
After coffee and the papers and writing here, I take some exercise, as the Victorians used to say. On my walk around the 'hood, I see scenes such as this. I enjoy the "Leave It to Beaver" vibe of the place.
Here are the morning shadows on my own house, once again with the new camera and the swirly lens. When the sky is clear, the light has been magnificent this month. I get enamored with the shadows. As you can see, I don't own one of the neighborhood mansions. I live in a little bungalow in a pretty part of town. The neighbors, I'm sure, wonder why I am so dirt poor.
I have to fight the temptation to put all the pictures I took the past two days in this post or I will not have any for the days to come. I am wishing, however, to evidence the mundanity that I call my life. It is not a bad thing. I've had it worse. And many, many do. We all may before it is all over. The Time of Covid, I mean. Things could get a lot worse.
My travel/art buddy (I need to lend him a name), retired at the same time as I. We each had our travel plans, a plan for enjoying retirement and the small fruits of our labor. He has been walking ten and eleven miles a day. He sees even more than I. But that is the only travel we are getting now. I don't think we will be going anywhere for awhile. He might go before I. I've been more paranoid than he. I still haven't gone to a grocery store. I have my liquor delivered. I haven't even fueled the car for over a month. Neighborhood walks and social distancing happy hour with my mother are, in the common parlance, all I got.
Oh, what the hell, one more. This was Ili's potting place. See the watering can on the ground. That's where it has been for months. I'm afraid my place has become something of a museum. Things can stay in one place for years when I am on my own. I'll find bobbie pins in drawers that were someone's twenty years ago. I think some of the towels in the kitchen have been hanging there untouched since Christmas. I haven't been taking care of the potted plants very well. Gardening was her thing. I liked it and would help or do what I was told, but otherwise I don't think about it. Eventually, I will have to plant new plants. Part of the cycle of life, I guess.
Well, now. . . I reckon that is it. The sky is clear and the light is bright and the shadows are deep and the air is fair. I need to get out into it. These days won't last much longer. The humidity will grow and the air will become heavy and the skies will fill with clouds. And that is when the travel bug will really hit me. I planned on escaping the southern summer weather after retirement. It doesn't seem that is likely any time soon.
.*.*.*.
Holy shit. I forgot it's April Fool's Day.
.*.*.*
What?!? Wait again. I've lost a month somehow. I am truly in a fog. Is it May Day? May Pole and Unions and all of that? What?
You are looking all pastoral and Byronesque. I am thinking revolution and blood in the gutters. There is a disconnect.
ReplyDeleteMaypoles and Marx.
I like the velvety swirly lens pictures.
I watched a movie last night “Bad Education” that reminded me of many of my previous bosses.
This world does not require bosses any more than it requires any other parasite, but the world has them. Guinea and Filaria Worms are the bosses of the natural world. Natural selection doesn’t give a shit about any of us except as breeding ground for larvae.
And how does that peepin’ tom pervert know the panda sex was consensual? Where’s the goddamn outrage?
Okay, the ward nurse says I’ve used up all my time on the day room computer and have to go take me meds.
Keep the sunny side up and greasy side down
See you on the flip side.
ReplyDeleteAh. c.c. I'm glad they let you out to play every once in a while. :).
One of the books I brought up from one of the "Tom's Books" in the cellar was "Girls on the Run" - John Ashbery's poem story based off Henry Darger's fantasy world. I had never read it - bought it for him. He had an Ashbery phase. Of course he did. I remember he spent a lot of time with a poem about a water clock - I forget the ancient word for it now. Clepsydra.. hope I'm spelling it right.
Anyway - always scribing into the ether something worthwhile
The books first page:
A great plane flew across the sun,
and the girls ran along the ground.
The sun shone onMr. McPlaster's face, it was green like an elephant's.
Let's get out of here, Judy said.
They're getting closer, I can't stand it.
But you know, our fashions are in fashion
only briefly, then they go out
and stay that way for a long time. Then they come back in
for a while. Then, in maybe a million years, they go out of fashion
and stay there.
Laure and Tidbit agreed,
with the provisio that after that everyone would be fashion
again for a few hours. Write it now, Tidbit said,
before they get back. And quivering, I took the pen.
and I love the sound of this:
"Having to pee ruins my crinoline relentlessly,
because it comes only ecstatically."
But the wounded cow knew otherwise."
and THIS how timely:
"When it was over no one had the courage to come out into the daylight,
or knew there was any. I fell asleep
on a sandhill, and dreamed this, and gave it to you, and you thanked me, solemnly,
but we were not permitted to associate, only to correspond, and you came out
to me again, as we wished one another good afternoon, and then went away
into the fog-lit embrasure. Not that we didn’t have good reason
to do whatever we did, but the question never came up again.
one more for now:
"You see we all thought the ride would be lovely
and worth the trip, which it was, but now we cannot go anywhere
having already been everywhere. No, do you
understand how realistic it all is?"
Ah Sweet Poetry. Even if it is about darling little girls with penises. Bless Darger and Ashbery for looking in on the strange world of Mr. Darger's.
It is going to be a 60 degrees and sunny here today. I don't know quite what to do with myself.
Definitely take in some sun tho. Although I've got to watch my old lady self - I'm already a bit brown from all the outside time. Sunscreen was never my friend. I'm trying tho. And so far the good genes of my mother have prevented me from looking like a baseball mitt.
I did some "Intimacy" reading as well. But that has to be read under heavy sedation of a good indica leaning hybrid a 60/40. As to keep at bay the anxiety it was writ to bring about. Under the influence - it is just amazing to read for the language flow.
Okay. How about a Peaceful Revolution? :)
Carry on :)
ReplyDelete