They’ll Need a Resurrection. But, They Won’t Get One.

Spring         Waxing Seed Moon

For the first time since last Thursday, I feel like working out.  When I tried before, each step on the treadmill transmitted up to and resonated in my jaw.  I no longer look like a chipmunk although I can tell the infection is still there, though now it is like a folded section of cloth about 8 inches long as opposed to the walnuts in the cheek look of before.

The pain has throttled way back, too.  I hadn’t popped any Alleve today at all until about a half an hour ago, but I decided that before I went back on the treadmill I wanted a little cushion.

All this is because we went after the infection in the first place so this was the hard part of getting to a healthier state.  I look forward to that moment, though I’ve appreciated the intimacy with my bodies defenses that I’ve had over the last four days.   When my body and the penicillin worked hard on the infected bone, it took my attention away from the outer world.  I got sleepy and in fact slept a lot.  My energy level was low so I laid around, not exerting myself much.  It’s good to know my bodies still enough punch to fight back hard.  Even if it means some discomfort.

My thinking has been a little fuzzy too so if there’s anything strange in the last few posts chalk up to distraction by infection.

The legislature will go away on Easter break and will come back needing a resurrection.  They won’t get one.  The budget deficit will not go away and all the federal stimulus dollars don’t patch the holes in our revenue stream versus our expenses.  Something has to be done and the legislature and the governor are the ones we elected to do it.

The outlook for significant environmental legislation has gotten mushed up in all this fiscal dithering, but I think we’ll still see some important bills:  green jobs, sensible communities, maybe something on clean cars and atv’s.  It ain’t over till its over and that date is in May, not April.

Grandma Told Me So

Spring            Waxing Seed Moon

Kate is home.  As is our habit, I met her at the Loon Cafe after she took the LRT into downtown.  To park I went in a ramp, promptly scored the first parking spot, which allowed me later to just pull around a concrete pylon, turn left and give my money to the cashier.  Very cool.

The other amazing part was the rat in the maze experience.  Getting out of the ramp I exited onto a skyway, walked until I found Butler Square, went into Butler Square, wound through a few hallways, found the entrance, exited, then turned left and went one block to the Loon Cafe.  The truly amazing part was that after Kate and I had supper I reversed field and followed the path back to the truck without a misstep.

I’m glad to have her back.  This tooth business has been a hassle and I wanted to complain to somebody about it, but she wasn’t here and who else would listen?  I complained for about a minute over supper and that was enough.

Ruth is a prodigy, capable of astounding feats of linguistic and muscular agility.  I know this because Grandma told me so.

Gabe is the cutest, friendliest baby ever.  I know this because Grandma told me so.

Grandma loves being a grandma.  ditto.

More on Newspapers

“Gardening is an active participation in the deepest mysteries of the universe.”  Thomas Berry

I knew there was some reason I liked gardening.

My father edited a small-town daily for a long time.  It, like many of its kind, disappeared after the Canadian newsprint crisis in the early 1970’s.  I know what it means to lose a newspaper, for the jobs associated with it to leave town.

Citizens have much less information about government and business, the particular governments and businesses that affect their daily lives.  This lack of information makes democracy much more difficult.  It allows those who would abuse and misuse the public trust less likely to get caught.

I’m for any form of organization that meets the challenge, though I have reservations about L3C status, not for the Strib, but for the probability of its misuse.

I’d jettison the presses and the rolls of newsprint, phase out the circulation staff and go strictly online.  I’d charge for this service in a way that reflected those saved costs.

Disintermediation is only a problem if you’re not taking advantage of it yourself.

Let The Right One In

Spring          Waxing Seed Moon

Took mulch off this afternoon, off all the beds except the shade bed where some tender mosses lie.   Mulch taken off at this time of year has to remain close to the beds in case it has to go back on due to cold nights.  There are green shoots all round tulips, daylilies, daffodils.  Not much, just above the soil surface, but they are on their way.

A movie Saturday, too.  Last night and this afternoon I watched Let the Right One In, the Swedish vampire movie.  It differs from most vampire movies in its neo-realist style, careful cinematography yet natural compositions.  There is little vampire lore here and what there is seems to run against the grain of the traditional.  Eli, the vampire who is no longer a girl (her pubis has closed, whether sewed or fused is not clear) has remained 12, as she says, “a long time.”  Yet the movie presents her as a twelve year old girl emotionally, not the precocious maturity of young vampires as in Anne Rice’s work.  She has also gathered little in the way of riches or success from her state.

She and Oskar, the lead and also a 12 year old, become friends in an awkward courting ritual that has familiar missteps.  In the end Eli protects Oskar, then Oskar protects her.  A touching story in a gory, blood-dripping way.

Wonky Politics

Spring              Waxing Seed Moon

Kate left home to visit a snow storm.  4-6 inches falls in Denver right now.  Tomorrow will be a good day for a ski oriented family to have a birthday.

Though the southern part of the state has blizzard warnings, we look mild here.  Saturday does not look quite as good as I thought it would for outdoor work.

I popped two alleve and the throbbing went down toward manageable levels.  A vicodin will get me to sleep.  Bearable now.

A week plus of little commitments stretches out ahead of me, so I plan to school myself on Sierra Club issues, especially safe mining and building sensible communities.  Environmental politics has a wonky aspect once you get past tree-spiking and waving signs.  A lot of science and complex theory behind much of the work makes even entry level understanding a challenge.

How have I continued to work without a detailed knowledge of the issues?  Well, two things.  One, I have a good, broad grasp of the issues, just not a detailed one.  Second, the politics have been what interested me initially and politics I understand.   The Sierra Club folks understand the legislative process much better than I do, but in politics I’m a quick study and I was not as far behind in understanding as I was on the issues.

One Tooth

Spring         Waxing Seed Moon

I have become one tooth and I throb.  There is a beat where normally there is none.  My person, my attention absorbed not by pain, but by ache.  This will pass, yet right now it has come on strong.  Yikes.

“It’s a Blessing If You Need It.”

Spring  Waxing Seed Moon

Uh-oh.  On my way back from the Institute this morning I felt my left cheek.  Swollen.  Beginning to ache.  I have a funny feeling this may not be a pleasant couple of days.  I called Jeff Erickson, the root canaler.  His office has closed for the weekend.  Not to worry.  He gave me his cell.  Hmmm.  Had to leave a message.  He’ll call back, I’m sure, but hasn’t yet.

Tours this morning were good.  Very different.  The first, from excell academy in Brooklyn Park, had all 4th grade boys, some African and some African-American.

He just called back.  The anti-biotics I have will be enough to see if this goes down.  The pressure has begun to build.  He said if I still had trouble early next week he might go in and lance it.  I said, “That crossed my mind.  Unpleasantly.”  “Oh, no,” he said, “it’s a blessing if you need it.”   I’ll take his word for it.

Koran and Mohammed were two of the boys.  These were inquisitive, interested kids who’d never been to a museum before.  They wanted to look at everything.  They asked me we had anything by Leonardo Da Vinci.  No.  How about the Blue Boy?  No.  How about Georgia O’Keefe?  Yes.  We made a game out of figuring out which was O’Keefe’s painting.

It’s a cityscape at night, very different from what the boys had seen.  They loved the African masks.  One boy had been to Cameroon and seen his father dance a mask that we had.  They also asked to see illuminated manuscripts.  4th graders.  So we went into the Islamic gallery.  We ended with Chinese calligraphy.  A big hit.  They’d studied Chinese calligraphy and some of their work was in the school hall back at the academy.

Second tour, an Asmat tour, was a couple from Coon Rapids with their 9 or 10 year old daughter.  She had just had a birthday and asked to come to the MIA.  She showed her parents the Chihully in the lobby.  “We studied him in the first grade,” she said.  “Yeah,” her mother said, “she’s culturing us.”

We had a good tour of the Asmat show.  They asked questions, interacted and learned.  It was a fun, intimate family experience.

What Kate Leaves Behind On Her Trip To Denver (Grandkids)

Spring                Waxing Seed Moon

Weather guy in the Star-Tribune tried to cheer us with the news that at no time in April has the temperature fallen below zero since record keeping began.  Only in Minnesota would that be seen as a good thing, or maybe better, something you’d need to know.  April!

Today has a bright morning sun, clear blue skies and well below freezing weather.  This is the same kind of weather we had for a good long while back in February although the temperatures were colder.  The mulch in my garden still has ice, but the ground is clear.  Another cool week ahead of us.

Those of us in Anoka County might find the Rum overflowing this week, at least according to NOAA:

.DAY ONE…TODAY AND TONIGHT FLOODING IS OCCURRING OR EXPECTED ALONG MANY RIVERS AND STREAMS ACROSS CENTRAL AND WEST CENTRAL MINNESOTA…PARTICULARLY THE MINNESOTA AND MISSISSIPPI RIVERS AND THEIR TRIBUTARIES. REFER TO THE LATEST FLOOD WARNINGS…STATEMENTS AND OUTLOOKS FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION.

Here’s their weekend forecast, too:

Today: Mostly sunny, with a high near 43. North northwest wind between 6 and 8 mph.

Tonight: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 27. North northeast wind around 6 mph.

Saturday: Mostly cloudy, with a high near 43. Northeast wind between 5 and 9 mph.

Saturday Night: A 30 percent chance of snow, mainly after 1am. Cloudy, with a low around 29. North northeast wind between 10 and 15 mph.

Sunday: A 20 percent chance of snow. Cloudy, with a high near 34. Breezy, with a north northeast wind between 15 and 20 mph, with gusts as high as 30 mph.

Sunday Night: A 20 percent chance of snow. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 24.

Megrims Burn in Sun

Spring         Waxing Seed Moon

“Knowledge can be communicated but not wisdom. One can find it, live it, be fortified by it, do wonders through it, but one cannot communicate and teach it.” – Herman Hesse

Hesse was a key author in my youth.  I’ve revisited him since, as I am Dreiser right now.  They both hold up well, though Hesse can sometimes seem a bit feverish.  Still, his Steppenwolf had an adult anguish that I did not understand when I read it first at 20.  The Theatre for Madmen Only was a place we all could go if we understood the world in which we lived.  6 months ago, when I re-read Steppenwolf, I realized Harry Haller was mad in an existential way, that he had seen too much, walked too close to the flame.  At 20 he was my hero, today he is a cautionary tale.

The mental megrims of last week have receded, perhaps the sun today burned them out or the root canal gave me some concrete pain.  Whatever the reason, I feel once again whole and engaged.  These ups and downs, a neurotic cycle now much milder than in former years, do get tiresome, as I said a few posts ago, but they no longer paralyze me, stop me in my  tracks.  Thank Jung, John Desteian, age and Zoloft for that.

Tomorrow morning Kate flies off to Denver.  She will be in Grandma heaven.  I saw a license plate holder that said, Parents say no?   Dial 1-800-Grandma.  She’s a good grandma, more a doting grandma than a Jewish grandma, though she is both.