Lughnasa and the Michaelmas Moon
Tuesday gratefuls: Kitchen redesign. Jodi coming at 10. The cleaning crew. A clean house. Check arrived at CBE. Finally. Diane in the knotty pine bedroom formerly used by Uncle Riley and Aunt Virginia. Her meeting with the cousins today in Muncie, Indiana. Mary. Ruth, Jon, Gabe. Coming up. Soup.
Sparks of Joy and Awe: Freeze last night. 29 right now.
Tarot: Ten of Cups, Druid
On CBE’s schedule to take up chairs, clean up after the High Holidays. Luke did it. Got a call at 9:30 saying volunteers would not be needed. Did my full workout instead. I’d planned to use the CBE time to count as my workout.
The cleaners came and powered through the house. They’re good.
No medical appointments this week. That’s good. Little going on away from home. Also good.
Not feeling it right now. Gonna go down and have some breakfast.
Ah. Eggs. Bacon. Sourdough toast. Tomatoes. Coffee. Back.
China. Love it or loathe it. Or, both. As in my case. I consider myself at least 14% Taoist (or so). Song dynasty ceramics and painting are among my favorite art forms from any age. Romance of the Three Kingdoms has pages and plots and twists enough to keep the story interesting. For over 2,000 pages. Yes, I like Wushu and Kungfu movies. And modern ones like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
On my one visit to China it was still in the bicycle traffic-jams and charcoal briquette era for Beijing. Most buildings we visited had no heat. It was winter. Granted we visited historic buildings for the most part, but we did go to a cloisonne factory. No heat and little light where the cloisonne workers spent their time.
Obama pivoted our nation’s military toward Asia. Joseph now works in the Asia-Pacific command for the Air Force, stationed on Oahu at Hickam AFB. He manages air force relations with the Philippines. China looms over everything they do.
A buddy of his, whose house I visited, manages the Australia desk. Big changes there this week. Nuclear submarines, not diesels from France. Siding with the West. Seems obvious until you look at Australia’s trading ties with China.
Contemporary China puzzles me. It seems to mount the steep wall of the third millennium with the careful precision of an ice climber.
OK. Gonna leave this one unfinished, too. Not there today. Not sure why. Just not. Maybe later.
