Art and Culture, GeekWorld

Decipher Hunt

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Beltane                      Waning Dyan Moon

My e-mail accounts have slimmed down after post-vacation bloat.  It always takes me a while to delete and save e-mails after a time away from the main computer.  Done now and feels good.

The whole pre-Raph show work has begun to heat up and I plan to do some library time on the paintings I plan to feature on my tour.  Not sure yet, but I’m leaning toward:  Awakening Conscience,  Sheep,  Mary Virgin, La Dolce,  Afterglow, Finding the Savior, Light of the World and Lady of Shallot.  As to theme, not sure yet, but something to do with sight, like New Sight, Clear Sight seems possible or symbol, Decoding the PRB, or Decipher Hunt.

Right now I’m trying to kick my weather console and its data-logger (internet link) back into consciousness.  Gonna  try it again right now.  Looks like its back.  I missed its linking to the national weather observer network.  Now it will get back on in a bit.

I have finally learned my cell-phone number.  My sons will be so proud.

Family, Garden, permaculture

Growing

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Beltane                       Waning Dyan Moon

“Very simple ideas lie within the reach only of complex minds.” – Remy de Gourmont

Don’t you suspect Remy de Gourmont considered him(her)self a complex mind?  It’s the simplest explanation for this quote.

Our two puppies are six months old, so they’re past that OMG they’re cute! phase.  They still play like puppies though. Rigel ran circles around the cedar just off the deck while Vega lay in wait, pouncing on her sister as she made each circuit of the tree.  They slept outside in the garage, just as we had always intended the wolfhounds would.  Never happened.

We have a five stall doggy home in the garage custom built by Jon.  Each stall has a layer of insulation below its floor and an opening in the front where feeding bowls can be set.  We did feed the wolfhounds out there.  The doors lock.  Perfect for containing these big (68 pounds) puppies.

We’ve decided on Rigel and Vega as their call names, though which is which we have not decided.

Still gimping along with a less than stellar inner world, pressed down, slow to motivate.  The saving grace of these periods of melancholy, as my analyst pointed out, is that they are a prelude to a creative time.  I’ve been turning over ideas for a new novel and possible new, online, ways of marketing.

The garden continues to develop.  All the squash have emerged, ditto all the bush beans.  Carrots and beets have begun to show their presence, too.  The garlic is close to harvest.  The potatoes have really taken to this sandy loamy soil we have in the raised beds.  Strawberries, tomatoes, sugar snap peas, chard, mustard and collard greens, kale, cucumbers, asparagus and onions are all growing, especially now that we’ve had a little heat.

Time to hit the grocery store.  After that, I need to work on the computer set up which has some problems that need addressing.

Art and Culture, Family

New Dogs

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Beltane                      Waning Dyan Moon

Something hinky with the 1&1 servers today. (my web host)  Couldn’t get on until late.  Back now.

I spent the morning and late afternoon working on an America’s tour for a group of design students at the College for the Visual Arts.  The theme came with some difficulty, but I decided on Essential Designs.  The notion is that art of the Americas focused on matters essential to the culture that produced them:  myth, rank, the natural world as a source of sustenance, protection and ritual.  The tour should be fun with students already engaged in the world of art.

Midday Kate and I went back out to Junior Lehman’s and picked up Cleo and Blue, the Irish Wolfhound/Walker Coyote Hound mixed breed I wrote about last week.  The ride back was tough for these two who had never ridden in a vehicle before, but we cleaned that up.

The introduction of new dogs to a pack always has its moments and today was no exception, but nobody got hurt.  It will take a bit of time for all parties to adjust, but we’ve done it before and are confident we can make this work.  Having new dogs is like having new plants, grandkids.  They are alive, vital and have their own way in the world.  That’s what makes having them in our lives exciting and fulfilling.

Bees, Garden, permaculture

A Northern Summer Garden

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Beltane                        Waning Dyan Moon

The garden.  The squash and melons are up.  The beans have begun to put on second leaves, the peas have begun to climb the trellis and the cucumbers have their tendrils out for their trellis, too.  The garlic is not far from harvest and greens are in abundance.  Flowers are blooming and the bees are buzzing.  A garden that works.

Aging, Travel

Traveling Together. How?

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Beltane                         Waning Dyan Moon

Speaking too soon.  Right after I posted the last entry Kate got sick.  She lay on the couch in our deluxe room, sweating and feeling miserable.  This concerned me, both for her and for what it might mean for our travel together.

I felt we had established the train as a good means of transportation for the both of us, then this sudden onset.  Perhaps it was dietary, perhaps motion sickness (to which she is prone), whatever it was, it seems to rule out the train, too.

Traveling with Kate is so much more fun, more pleasurable in a lot of the big and small ways you might expect.  The shared burdens of travel:  watching luggage, listening to announcements, finding the right exit become easier.  The shared joys of travel:  people watching, running commentary, being together also multiply.  So, I wanted the train to work.

My reaction to her illness was complex.  Of course I felt concern for her and empathy, but, too, I experienced disappointment, upset, some anger.  Just when I thought we had the travel thing licked, here she was, sick again.  Not fair on my part, no.  But, it was what I felt.

Not a pleasant moment for either of us.  Our job now, today, is to work out new wrinkles, perhaps scopolamine patches or different dietary choices.

Here’s the overall problem.   A difficult and painful ride back from Turkey six years ago, in which Kate suffered agony from the long haul, tipped me over from a reluctant flier to an only if absolutely necessary flier.  The thousand small insults of air travel combined with Kate’s difficulties to make me say, enough.  That was when I resumed taking the train, a practice begun long ago and abandoned for a time in favor of air.

A trip to Denver last fall made it obvious that Kate can’t take long rides in vehicles, either, so that ruled out car, truck or RV as modes of travel.  Note that none of this is her fault, underlying health issues from degenerative disc disease to an intolerance for certain motion stimuli just cause problems.

It does however leave us with diminishing options for traveling together, something  we hope to do more when she retires.  We’ll just have to see where this goes.

Aging, Travel

Only 2 more hours

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Beltane                  Waning Dyan Moon

Empire Builder, Winona, Minnesota around 8:00 pm

We just ate dinner with a couple who retired 5 years ago from IBM. They’re headed for Glacier National Park, then onto a cruise up the Northwest Coast to Alaska, thence to Denali. All the retirees we’ve met have said how much they enjoy retirement. Positive news for us with Kate’s impending retirement.

This trip, a quick one, has only 2 more hours to run. It has however established the train as a means of transportation suited to Kate. We pulled out the beds and napped our way between Chicago and Milwaukee. Before supper Kate lay down, then while we ate we had the cabin steward restore the seats. There is a toilet and a shower in this unit. That would make a longer trip more fun.

The Mississippi flows just to our east with the ridges of southern Minnesota and Wisconsin lifted up from the river valley. We just passed the Billy Carneal, a barge tug (even though it pushes), with 9 barges in tow (even though they precede rather than follow the tug.) There were waiting on the tainter valves to drain a lock.

The eastern sky, toward Wisconsin, has a pink blush. This long summer day gives more time to see the river on the ride home. In the winter night has fallen by Winona and the river passes by in the dark.

Travel

Lounge Lizards

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Beltane           Waning Dyan Moon

Metropolitan Lounge, Chicago, Illinois

Once again in this pleasant wood lined lounge with comfortable chairs and internet access.  Here they check baggage until your train boards, have treats and drinks.  They also guide us out to the train by a back route before the boarding of coach passengers.  It is a civilized addition to train travel.  It is superior to the Acela Lounge in D.C. on the criteria of friendliness, user services and comfort.

Kate and I ate lunch up in the food court.  I had my necessary Italian beef  with hot peppers and extra juice.  In Indiana I also had three pieces of sugar cream pie, an indulgence only available commercially in the south.  It’s on my list of things I can cook, but I don’t make it often.

After lunch we went out on the plaza and watched traffic on the Chicago River, one of the least appealing water ways in the US.  Straight across the river from Union Station the Sears Tower rises 104 stories.  Once the tallest building in the world it has not held the record for quite some time.

Our train boards in the next 45 minutes or so.  Kate seems to be a convinced rail traveler now, so we might end up seeing more of the US and Canada by train.

Family, Travel

Went Down the Sunday Throat

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Beltane Waning Dyan Moon

Amtrak Cardinal north of Renessalear, Indiana 8 am

Kate and I woke up at 4:30 this morning, showered and finished packing. We headed around the corner to the train station. As we got there at 5:15 or so, the station master had just begun to announce boarding. We walked up the double staircase. The door to our car opened right at the top of the stairs. We went up three steps, went forward as the car attendant asked and sat down. Less than 10 minutes after leaving our hotel room, we were in our seats and ready togo. Try that at the airport.

We had a discussion of Hoosier phrases with Diane yesterday. When somebody chokes, we would say the food “went down the Sunday throat.” We also ate supper, not dinner. I referred to one of my aunts as being “a caution,” a phrase the others had not heard.

As the train now heads north, I find, as I always do, that I’m glad. The north refreshes me, invigorates. Mostly, it is home. Indiana is where I’m from and a place that holds the precious memories of childhood, but it is no longer home, except in the sense of that familiar place where I grew up.

We ate breakfast today with a former Marine corps A6 Intruder pilot and his wife, a librarian. He was not a person I would have chosen for conversation and that made this another wonderful moment. We found both him and his wife delightful company. He expressed a keen interest in the Kindle. They are on their way from Lynchburg, Virginia (they are Episcopalian) to California where his lt col son will hand over command to another officer.

The pace of the train, the sound of its whistle, plaintive and sometimes forlorn and the comfort of the seats combine with good company and friendy attendants to make the trip a joy.

Next stop, the Metropolitan Lounge in Union Station, Chicago.

Family, Travel

Being with Those We Love

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Beltane                    Waning Dyan Moon

Crowne Plaza Hotel, Indianapolis, Indiana

Family reunions.  First cousins, the forward edge of the baby boom, we hold each other in special regard.  We know the trajectory of each other’s lives.  Kenya lost her husband Ron three years ago, but now sees the world again.  Kathy, with her roots in the military, could not come today because she had a memorial for Hoosiers who’ve died in Iraq.  She’s had bariatric surgery as has Kate.

Diane, who picked us up, stood up for me at our wedding.  She’s lived in the Bay area since 1974.  A breakup with her long time partner, Jeff, still wounds her.  Richard, her brother, retired from Eli Lilly five years ago.  He has long hair, a sulky tattoo on his right upper arm and wore a Las Vegas t-shirt today.  Las Vegas, where we learn to forget.  He races harness horses.

There was little Jacob, wandering from picnic table bench to grass to his mom to Grandma Tanya.  When he tipped over forward, he found the grass as interesting as whatever he left behind in the upright world.

These are the people who know me from the long ago, those years before we learned to read, while we learned to drive and who stood with us as our parents died.

I love them; they love me.  And that is all I know on earth and all I need to know.

A train rumbles along the track outside and sounds like muffled thunder in our room.  We have been back from the reunion for a few hours.  We leave Indy tomorrow morning at 5:30 am.

Travel

Indianapolis

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Beltane          Waning Dyan Moon

Hotel, Downtown Indianapolis

We got in last night on time, about 5 to 12 EST.  The station echoed with emptiness, though the attached bus station buzzed with people coming and going.  We walked down a doubled staircase.

I wanted this to be like Inverness where we got off the train from Edinburgh and walked right over to the station hotel, but in this case, though physically attached to the station there is no internal connection, so we walked out into a humid Indiana night, around the block and into the hotel.

Kate has done her results over the remote Allina website, we’ve prepared a salad and my cousin Diane is on her way to pick us up.  Back home again in Indiana.