January 14, 2010

Another grim day, wet, cold, heavy cloud cover, brrr...  Radio is talking about relief efforts in Haiti, which I haven't been following: an earthquake? 
Yesterday I attended a yoga session and did the mountain pose and the tree pose and a couple sitting on the floor exercises I would call variations on a wheelbarrow pose.  It felt good to stretch.  When I started out, my right arm felt as though it had been pulled from its socket.  By the time it was over, I felt rather limber.  There were about ten of us and the instructor, a pert lady who's in town for a couple of months.  We'll see where she goes after that.  This place grows on you, like moss on the roof.  You get it in your system and you never lose it.  I suppose that doing yoga is like that.  It's been recommended to me for quite a while now and like the other milestones of my life, I'm into it.  There was a comment by the instructor that we wouldn't need to contribute for the building rental, so the little money I had with me won't be needed after all.  It's consquently going in the ice cream fund.
Angel is here for wedding planning.  This is exciting to me because I haven't seen her since last May. We talk a lot on the phone, keeping up with our daily lives as best we can.  She's anxious about being married but the plans are working out smoothly and we'll see the site this weekend: Cedar Springs, in Gig Harbor.  I'm going to stay with her future in-laws, who just built a new house.  I could get ahold of my brother's family while I'm there but I don't know if I want to do that because I'm the relative that crashes on the couch now and again.  I'm bringing along a sleeping bag and pillow and will curl up in whatever corner in the new house that they provide me.  I might also run up to b'ham to get the canvasses Tony has been making me.  I'm about run through the Pollack series, even watched a movie on Jackson which I will discuss further a bit later on here.  I realized on a drive to Forks yesterday how deeply attached I am to my children.  I will absorb my time with Angel and use it to fortify myself for days like this one, where everything is dim and soggy and in need of attention at every turn.  I want to dress well for Angel's future relatives.  I've been sorting clothes since 6 am this morning, finding just the right things to wear for the time of year, as well as thinking of being comfortable on the road.  I plan to bring an apple pie we made Monday.  We've already had one of them and they were very good.  I hope they'll enjoy it.
I'm dressed in my bohemian beatnik gear this morning: Beatle boots, jeans (de rigeur), a huge horizontally striped loose-knit long-sleeve turtleneck sweater in rainbow stripes, a black beanie.  Last night I went to the Reef after yoga and worked on the last in the Pollack series.  It's still on the drawing board.  The rest of the pictures I hung around the house.  One actually got into a frame and is under glass.  I think it will go to the Sekiu Post Office.  I can't think of what the piece for the Clallam Bay Post Office will be.  I have a nice color pencil drawing of a movie scene I sketched: Feather River, featuring cowboys and saloon gals but I wanted to give that to John when he comes home the week after Angel.  So I'm still up in the air on that one.  I hadn't realized that we hang in both the Post Offices.  I don't recall ever putting a picture in the Sekiu Post Office before.  I was only at the Reef for less than an hour.  The radio played an oldies station due to the signal for the Canadian Public Broadcast station not having a strong enough signal out here to stay on the frequency.  I listened to Steely Dan, Motown and when it got to Burton Cummings, I switched it around a bit and came up with Rich Terfry, who has taken over from Jurgen Goth on Disk Drive, the commuters program, which was always a delight in the late afternoon.  Terfry is ok but Goth was a legend.  He came up with a quirky Sunday afternoon segment for a while in late 2009 and then he disappeared entirely.  He seemed a bit petulant, making comments that 'hope this is quirky enough for you', meaning that, I thought, his take on broadcasting didn't meet with the producers' vision and so they let him go.  He might have also just gotten too old for the radio biz and needed his retirement but I don't think so.  The 'quirky' music he played in the last shows he did was just as alive, vibrant, interesting and engaging as it had always been and I wouldn't be amiss in saying that Goth's shows did give the pathway that the station follows now as he wasn't just a classical music buff, although his Samuel Barber offerings were introduced with a kind of reverence I haven't heard anyone else pull off quite as well.  There's a guy on in the mornings now who sounds like my lawyer pal, Bucky Cotton.  His name is Bob Mackowitz and he gives the best of the Canadian folky types a good play and it's good music, though nothing in the league of Goth but still refreshing and one would like to skip through the kitchen while the pancakes simmer on the griddle. 
I couldn't get the fire going at the Reef but I tried.  There wasn't enough paper around to get the kindling going so we may go down later when Gabe wakes up and have a go at it again.  The dogs are still out in the garage waiting for little Gabe, the neighbor boy, to come to.  He's propped up on the couch under downy fleece blankets with Christmas motifs, still wearing his outside coat over his pajamas, silent as the tomb.  I've made breakfast for him: a little warm apple pie and biscuits with gravy.  He ate like a logger at lunch yesterday: turkey and gravy over Poulsbo bread.  I think I'll turn on the television and we'll watch a little tv while we eat.  See how long he sleeps.
The buzzer on the dryer just went off.  There was a load in the washing machine I hadn't realized was in there when I went to load it.  The new load was mostly sneakers and dirty boots so those were set behind the woodstove to dry out and I just ran the forgotten load.  Better go switch loads now, see if things are thoroughly dry and ready to be folded.