Daily Archives: October 28, 2013

Humor, Retirement, Third Phase

What Do You Do?

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Fall                                                                     Samhain Moon

At Barbette’s last week.  The usual question.  And what do you do?  As always, sorting through the possible responses leaves me with no idea where to start, so I say, “I’m retired.”  With my hairline long ago fully receded and my beard white it seems like the easiest way to deal with a question something like, “What’s your major?”

Still it leaves me unsatisfied.  As if I’m denying the fullness of my third phase self.  The problem is there’s no handy hook, “Anthropology.”  “Clergy.”  “Organizer.”  No terms like those for gardener, grandfather, writer, apprentice Latin scholar, eternal student.

And I don’t want there to be.  One of the facets of the third phase I enjoy so much is the freedom to move between and among activities without feeling defined by them.  Of course, I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to do that for the last 25 years or so, yes, but it feels different post-65.

No easy answer here, I guess.  It will probably emerge over the next few years.

Latin, Poetry, Translating Metamorphoses

Keeping On

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Fall                                                                       Samhain Moon

After a lackluster come back to Latin on the 17th of October, my confidence wavered. Kept at it though and today I finished my 60th verse since then.  That was my goal for the two week period.  Unless I’m way off, I’ve found my trireme legs again.  Far from easy, but very far, too, from being opaque, as Latin was to me for the first 63 years of my life.

In fact, with the time I’ve got left over this next three days I’m going to start on Lucrectius’ De Rerum Natura.  Some variety is helpful Greg says but Vergil and Caesar didn’t work for me.  Couldn’t hold my interest.  Lucretius will.

Started the last third of ModPo today with the Language poets.  I’ve only read one piece so far, Albany, by Ron Perleman.  It’s a 100 line autobiography in what he calls new sentences, each sentence personal and political.  And, not in sequence.

It sounds strange but I found reading it a pleasure.  A gestalt forms from the scraps of

More later on these contemporary poets working in an unusual way with poetry, memory, and story-telling.

Our Land and Home

Splitting the Logs

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Fall                                                             Samhain Moon

The dead tree I felled yesterday was an ironwood.  It’s the densest wood around here andironwood_bark_IMG_0206_rsz2 having a new chain on the chain saw was a good thing.  Splitting it this morning was a challenge.  On many of the logs the first action was the maul bouncing back into the air, perhaps a small dent only in the log’s surface.  After two, three, four whacks or so, it did split into satisfying semi-circular chunks.

Ironwood has a BTU rating of 24.7 per cord (4′ by 8′ by 16″), putting it in the top range of firewoods, along with black locust (of which we also have plenty), oaks (ditto) and beechnut (none), hard maple (none) and hickory (none).

Working directly with the wood, my power mediated only by the maul, feels good.  The immediate feedback, even the shudder up my arm, and the crack of the log splitting gives me a sense of connectedness to the tree and to the fire for which I will use it.  Even though the chore became onerous, I’m sure, a family that heated with wood and had no other options, would retain this personal, physical linkage with the forest and the heat for their home.

 

Garden, Latin, MOOCS, Our Land and Home, Poetry, Translating Metamorphoses, Writing

Changes Are Coming

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Fall                                                                     Samhain Moon

With Modern/Post Modern in its last week and Modpo with only three weeks to go, I feel like the end of the quarter or semester is in sight.  Since it will roughly co-ordinate with Samhain, this means a distinct change in my daily life.  The garden is almost put to bed and will be by the end of this week as well.  The bees, too, will get their cardboard outer sleeve, the moisture absorbing top board and corks in the lower two entrances, plus the entrance reducer.

This year part of that outdoor energy will get focused in the garage which can use a major cleaning, rearranging.  It’s gotten cluttered and we could use it for more if we eliminate a few things like the five stall dog crate and feeding platform.

Writing Loki’s Children and keeping up with the Latin will occupy the bulk of the time.  I’ll huddle downstairs with the green gas stove burning, my Zojirushi kicking out tea temperature water and visions of old Rome and Ragnarok.