#thisisironic

August 4, 2015 Charles Leave a comment

Lughnasa Recovery Moon

Yesterday finally got Herb, the ex-Minnesota, ex-Andover resident, ex-USAF guy to put in the gas line for our generator install and the gas stove we intend to buy for the kitchen. Under the #thisisironic hashtag our power went out that morning around 3 a.m. It was out all day, not coming back on until around 10 p.m. If we’d been able to get this done last week…

Something happened to a power pole. The problem was, a Colorado mountain problem, that the pole was located at some high, distant location. This means they had to bring helicopters and crews that work from them.

Over the course of the day we heard small town gossip that power was out until today at the earliest. Maybe Wednesday. Doesn’t sound like much, I know. But we’re on our own well, like our neighbors. No electricity, no water. This was the primary reason for our owning a generator in the first place. Of course, it’s also true, no electricity, no heat. And, in our current, pre-kitchen renovation state, no way to cook hot food. Electric stove.

Before surgery I could not eat and thought only of food, yesterday, when we had no electricity, we thought only of the things we were missing. No stove. No lights. No water. No news. No way to recharge cell phones. No internet. No TV. No garage door opener.

We live a life of great privilege. It’s easy to forget that until something basic gets taken away, even for a short while. In Maslow’s hierarchy the very bottom of the pyramid is taken by the Hullian needs: air, water, food, the essentials of survival. If you don’t have them, that’s where your attention is. Electricity, in our technology/appliance dependent culture, is only one step further up the pyramid.

The world is big and most of it doesn’t have dependable electricity, huge swaths of humanity don’t have enough food or water. Like meatless Fridays, an electricityless day now and then is good for the soul.

Cooking, Latin, Our Land and Home, Tea, Translating Metamorphoses, Writing

Around the Bulge

August 2, 2015 Charles Leave a comment

Lughnasa Recovery Moon

Yesterday and today I opened my Latin texts, continuing to translate the story of Medea in Book 7. Yesterday my eyes crossed and my brain froze. Too hard. Today, though, much better. I did 4 verses plus in an hour, then ran out of motivation. My goal is to get back to at least 5 verses a day or more, which was my pace b.c.

Soon, sometime soon, Superior Wolf will return, this were creature loose in the Arrowhead of northern Minnesota. He’s proven as elusive to me as the author as he will to the people who hunt him and his kind. Different versions of this novel, always fragmentary, are in my files from before this millennium.

The gas lines tomorrow. And my new crown. Oh, boy. The final IKEA delivery for now comes on Tuesday. Jon will be up sometime with the base for my art table. I hope he has time to assemble and join the two additional tall bookcases and the cabinet section for my tea and coffee accessories before he returns to work. The mini-fridge is in the garage.

Life has begun to ease around the bulge of April, May, June and July. We ate at an indifferent Italian restaurant last night before the theater (see below). No medical conversation. Memories though of our honeymoon, the Italian food against which we compare every Italian place. And they almost never match up. The Italians have something special with their food and their coffee. And their art. And history.

I told Kate last night over dinner that it felt like my summer had finally started.

Great Wheel, The West

Lughnasa 2015

August 1, 2015 Charles Leave a comment

Lughnasa The Blue Recovery Moon

The first of the three harvest seasons begins today. Lughnasa, the festival of first fruits, or Lammas, as the Catholic appropriation of this Celtic holy day came to be known. On Lammas peasants would bring loaves of bread made from the first of the corn (wheat) harvest and place them on the altar.

Here is an intriguing account of Lughnasa’s mythic origin from Kathleen Jenks’ website:

“Lugh dedicated this festival to his foster-mother, Tailtiu, the last queen of the Fir Bolg, who died from exhaustion after clearing a great forest so that the land could be cultivated. When the men of Ireland gathered at her death-bed, she told them to hold funeral games in her honor. As long as they were held, she prophesied Ireland would not be without song. Tailtiu’s name is from Old Celtic Talantiu, “The Great One of the Earth,” suggesting she may originally have been a personification of the land itself, like so many Irish goddesses. In fact, Lughnasadh has an older name, Brón Trogain, which refers to the painful labor of childbirth. For at this time of year, the earth gives birth to her first fruits so that her children might live….”

This year, my first Lughnasa in the west, I’m aware of the contrast between the humid and agriculturally focused Great Wheel holidays and the rocky, desert, arid region which I now call home. On Shadow Mountain we have no harvest, no fields retrieved from ancient forests. We have stony cliffs, lodgepole and ponderosa pine, aspen. At the base of Shadow Mountain in Shadow Creek Valley there is a stand of alfalfa that was cut last week and baled this week. But the rationale is more fire mitigation, reducing the fuel load, than an agricultural one, though I imagine some happy horses will get those bales.

This year Lughnasa still has that Midwest feel for me. The vegetable stands are full of produce, farmer’s markets tables groan with the increasing yield of gardens all round the region. In fact, the week-long market holiday that began at Lughnasa in the Celtic lands inspired our agriculturally focused county and state fairs. The Great Minnesota Get-Together starts later this month on August 27th. No better latter day Lughnasa festival.

Adapting the Great Wheel with a western inflection may take a couple of years. I have no clear idea, for example, how to talk about Lughnasa on Shadow Mountain. An intriguing piece of work that lies ahead.

Our Land and Home

Virtuous Cycle

July 30, 2015 Charles Leave a comment

Summer Recovery Moon

That most elusive of craftspersons here on the Front Range, the plumber, promises a rare sighting at our home this morning. Perhaps that generator will finally, finally get installed. Herb the plumber comes recommended by Ken the boiler guy. Ken is reliable and professional, so I expect the same will be true of Herb. The amount of home turnover and new construction up here has made it difficult to secure work on small projects like ours.

We have begun a virtuous cycle here with the loft moving forward, the boiler in, Herb coming this morning, Melanie cleaning. There’s still a ways to go, but we’ve only been here 7 months. Feels good to make progress.

The weather has contributed, too, with the daily drenching rains cutting back to the occasional, like last night, gentle rain. More sunshine boosts my mood.

Faith and Spirituality, Health, Third Phase

July 28, 2015 Charles Leave a comment

Summer Recovery Moon

As I walk into the loft now, I get a surge of energy. The bookshelves are nearing completion. The iron shelving for the bankers boxes will go up after that. Since December, walking in here has been half joy, half feeling a weight of work yet to be done. This surge of work has put that feeling behind me. Now I see completion ahead. As I said, my goal is before Labor Day.

The nights have been too warm the last few days, but the trend to cooler night time temps begins soon. The long slow change headed toward the Winter Solstice.

Medea and Aeson. Medea agrees to heal Jason’s (Golden Fleece, Argonaut’s Jason) father of old age. She takes to her spells and incantations, gathers ingredients from all over the peninsula and revivifies the old man. The unseen corrupter healed by unseen knives managed from afar fails to shorten a third phase. Magical. Alchemical. Marvelous. Awe-some. We live in the world of ancient greece though we pretend to sophistication, to advanced wisdom. The same troubles face us still and we turn, like Jason and Aeson, to those who control the magic of our time.

Colorado, Family, Great Work, Memories, Our Land and Home

Stained Fingers

July 28, 2015 Charles Leave a comment

Summer Recovery Moon

Jon and I went to Paxton Lumber Company yesterday, checking out exotic and not-so-exotic woods for material to extend the surface of the shorter shelving units. A couple of the ones I really liked were $20 and $19 a board foot, padauk and wenge. At those prices one board, thick, was in the $300 range. After looking at ash, white pine, and douglas fir, all of which I liked but were too close to the birch veneer on the bookshelves, we settled on black walnut.

Not only will the black walnut contrast with the birch veneer, black walnut trees were common in my hometown of Alexandria, Indiana. I have fond memories of stepping on the green acrid smelling husks of walnuts as they fell from those trees. We teased out the walnuts tucked inside and took them home, fingers stained with a greenish-yellow paste that had a bitter lemony taste. A part of my childhood. Also, black walnut trees were part of the old forest which dominated the landscape of the midwest prior to westward expansion. So those boards of the midwest will rest on birch veneer, redolent of the boreal forest in Minnesota. But the bookcases they constitute reside here on Shadow Mountain among lodgepole and ponderosa pines.

We ate lunch at Park Burger in the Hilltop neighborhood of Denver, a wealthy area with tear-down lots filled now with house reminiscent of Kenwood in Minneapolis. I had a Scarpone burger with pancetta, provolone and giardiniera. It was delicious.

Jon’s skills as a woodworker were evident as we selected the particular walnut boards. We matched their color, thickness and rejected some with too deep fissures or splits. He knows the woods and their characteristics. He also knows the places where exacting cuts can be made, straight. One place has a table saw as large as a small room.

Once again the joy of returning home from Denver’s 94 degrees to Shadow Mountain’s 77 with 23% humidity. The nights have been warm of late, making sleeping more difficult and pushing those ceiling fan purchases higher up on our priority list.

Family, Our Land and Home

Focused

July 27, 2015 Charles Leave a comment

Summer Recovery Moon

The early morning sun through a high eastern window here in the loft falls on books stacked high on the new bookshelves. They’re awaiting space as more shelving opens up. My focus, until labor day, is getting the loft organized so I can get back to work. I’m pretty sure it will all come together by then.

Yesterday, a Sunday, was a slow day. Into Evergreen for our money meeting at a cafe overlooking Evergreen lake. The lake is a focal point and source of pride though it would be unremarkable in Minnesota. A jewelry store owner told me there are tiger muskies in it. It’s fed by Bear Creek, so the water would be cold and fresh. Could be.

No matter where you go around here there are bicyclists climbing steep mountain roads, families getting out of their cars to hike on mountain trails, and, as in Evergreen yesterday, lot of runners. This place moves. It’s very encouraging for exercise.

Looking forward to Paxton Lumber today and picking out tabletop and countertop woods. Jon and I are going out for lunch afterwards.

World History

July 26, 2015 Charles Leave a comment

Summer Recovery Moon

Obama is in Africa.

Africa. In college I took a considerable number of courses related to Africa: geography of Africa, history and pre-history of pre-European contact Africa, physical anthropology courses including human evolution, ethnography of African peoples. Almost enough for a minor, but I already had two majors.

At the time Jomo Kenyatta , Patrice Lumumba, Kwame N’Krumah were active, Kenyatta in founding the modern state of Kenya and N’Krumah the modern state of Ghana. N’Krumah was a pan-Africanist and man of clear vision. Kenyatta, both strongman and visionary, did have the broad view of N’Krumah, but he did seek strong African nations and strong African economies. Lumumba led the fight to break the Congo away from its notoriously regressive Belgian colonial government. All three of these men inspired me and gave me hope, back in the late 1960’s, that Africa would soon shake off its colonizers and take its place as the mother continent, the literal cradle of humanity.

We know that didn’t happen. Numerous factors explain the dream delayed: boundaries drawn by European colonizers, ancient tribalism, all too frequent corruption, the competing demands of global competitive economics and the often socialist aspirations of these first generation post-colonial leaders.

Obama has been speaking to the dream delayed during his Africa trip. I hope he succeeds in shaking up the difficult political climate of the continent. Africa, a place I have not yet been, in addition to the specific places where the human species arose from its common ancestor with the primates, has great natural resources, among them flora and fauna found nowhere else in the world. Why must this huge continent spend any more time in the waiting room of nations?

Faith and Spirituality, Feelings, Friends, Our Land and Home

Again, Gratitude

July 26, 2015 Charles Leave a comment

Summer Recovery Moon

It no longer feels like I’m walking into a stiff headwind, head down and seeing only my feet. Now the sky is sunny, a gentle breeze blows at my back. Again, gratitude to all who held my hand during the last three months. I needed that.

Wow. And to Jon, who put together four more bookshelf units, connected three to the others already installed. I’ve got some shelving to do. We also ordered the last three units, one with shelves and doors for tea and coffee making. On Monday Jon and I will go to Paxton Lumber and pick out some exotic wood for the top to my work table and to use for making the short bookshelves tops wider.

After the final bookshelves are put together and connected, Jon will assemble the wire shelving. That will eliminate the pony wall of bankers boxes currently separating my workout space from the rest of the loft. When that’s done, the only major tasks left will be utilizing the art crates as functional island dividers, buying a small refrigerator and reconfiguring the workout space with the pull-up bar over the rubber mats.

Feelings, Health, Our Land and Home

Tomorrow Wall Down

July 25, 2015 Charles Leave a comment

Summer Recovery Moon

The tomorrow wall has come down. As Kate observed yesterday, “I could tell you were feeling more positive. You wanted to move things around, get a new rug, hang art. Talk about color.” Yes. More color. More art. Get back to home making, not things medical.

We have a new boiler. I’m continent less than a week after the catheter came out and about two and three-quarters months ahead of expectations. We ordered a 9×12 braided rug for the reading area in front of the fireplace. I have a new plumber, recommended by Ken, the Boiler Medic. Things have begun to happen.

Jon’s coming out today to do more bookshelf and handyman work. Jon’s skills make a big difference for both Kate and me. We’re lucky to have him.

Yesterday morning I moved empty bookshelves that we’re no longer going to use, four of them. I horsed the horizontal file cabinet more toward the center of the loft. That leaves a new expanse of wall where more tall birch veneer bookshelves can go.

Functional islands is the organizing scheme. Books and other storage against the wall, including a cabinet and shelf space for the tea-making, tea, and tea-ware, a slot for a small refrigerator and my exercise TV.

At the south end of the loft, positioned with a view of Black Mountain, is the reading area which includes a large rug and a Swedish recliner. Next, moving north, and away from the reading area, almost to the middle of the room away from the west wall, is the computer, desk and dictionary stand which holds my O.L.D., Oxford Latin Dictionary. I imagine the horizontal file cabinet will be part of this island, too.

In the same location, but out from the east wall and extending to the middle of the room will be a large table with three cabinets beneath it. It will be on wheels. The drafting table goes in this area, too. Here I can spread out books when doing research or work on other projects. I hope to get into some art making using this space. Collage work for right now.

Out from the north wall, on the same (eastern) side as the large table, is the treadmill, rubber mats, weights and weight bench. On the eastern wall in front of the treadmill is the TV I use as an incentive to exercise. There will be, too, a pull-up bar mounted to the ceiling.

On the same (western) side as the computer/desk island, will be wire shelving for my many bankers boxes filled with novel manuscripts, research, files related to other projects like art, religion, politics.

We plan to use the large wooden crates built to move our two large Jeremiah Miller paintings (brother-in-law) as dividers among the islands, cutting the larger crate in half to create three dividers. Jon has an idea for using piano hinges that will allow the crates to be used as art storage. They will have feet so they can stand on their own.

Once the bookshelves are all assembled, the wire shelving up, the large table finished and the tea-making/refrigerator area is in place I can get down to the serious work of giving my library its final shape. That’s a task, an important and fun task, that cannot be done with electronic books, at least not yet.

I’m hoping that all this work, if not the organizing of books and files and bankers boxes, will be done by Labor Day with the whole loft area ready for fall and winter.

This loft is a love letter from Kate since she chose this house because of the loft area for me and the enclosed two-car garage area for her. Finishing up both of our spaces—we have to re-assemble Kate’s long arm quilter and she needs to get a better organizing scheme—and the kitchen, the living room and the garage, lies ahead, but not too far ahead. Feels good.