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 |   Enga mellom fjella: where from across the meadow, poems sing from mountains and molehills. |
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Enga mellom Fjella  Sentinel Marked as if you own me I bow before the Bitterroots and just like you my rocky soil, my withered grass lays prey to the empty sky. © Kåre Enga 2007 "Sentinel"   Reader's Choice of Poems: "Sentinel" "Where grows the compost heap" "In search of Iris" "Speak soft my name" "Willowsong" Reader's Choice of blog entries from my old blog "L'aura del Campo" :"Death of Jeannie New Moon" "Doing and don'ting. A scene in 2nd person." "When is it proper to tell someone you love them?" "A Thanksgiving Dinner poem and the WDC Zoo" "Poems inspired by maps. Remember 1963?" FACES     PLACES            Kåre  Enga~ until everything was rainbow, rainbow, rainbow! And I let the fish go. ~ Elizabeth Bishop The Fish |
| ...dreary. Me: I asked Dawn where the sun was...  ...none in sight until Friday ...maybe. She thinks we'll get a warm week sometime in October. Would be nice. We went from 10 degrees over average to ten below. Highs are a damp 50s. Lows hovering near freezing. At least my rooms cooled off! Better sleeping weather for me. I don't do hot. And the rain... last September it was smoky the entire month and not one measurable drop of precipitation, nada. This September we'll be over normal. Still over 3 inches below for an average year. It's been bone dry. There's snow on the peaks. A good sign. Me? Hanging in there. Not well. Yes, I took my meds. Yes, I've been out of my place. Posted photos, had coffee twice, some reading. Still... bored and concerned about health. Reading about Fiji and Portugal. Can get autumn flight to Lisbon for less than $1,000. More like $1,161 if I want to avoid Newark and go through Paris-Salt Lake City/Seattle or Amsterdam-Minneapolis. Long flights. About 18 hours. Risky. Ride on the bus was risky too though. Medellin, Colombia: 15/16 hours ...but through Houston (ack). Cost? $753. Bogota is about the same price but 10/13 hours is possible and there are Delta flights through SLC and ATL. Costa Rica? October is a lousy time to visit, but $638 on Delta 12/15 hours similar to last time. I soooooo want to go. More expensive to fly to Liberia, CR (longer and crappy connections as well). Manchester, England? About $1,050 and 16/17 on KLM/Air France. So... warmer places? Kona, Hawai'i: $693 or just over $700 for 13/14. $984 for 10/10 hours. Fiji: Nadi $1,200 21/21 hours. $1,328 but 23/24 to Suva (goes through Nadi). Using ITA Matrix... takes a few seconds but it's worth the wait. So many places to dream about. Better than getting more depressed than I already am! Unfortunately... cost... Nothing's cheap! |
| ...as in a rut. ME: There are good ruts and bad ruts. Taking meds on time is a good rut, being bored is a bad one. So I had a good lunch complete with apple pie. Cost me $3 as always. Ate with Joyce; spoke to others. Feeling okay. Bought two queen size sheets for $6. I'm remembering to do what I need to do... kinda. So, yeah, need to work on goals again and get into the rut. Traveling can be wonderful but it does havoc with routines. That said, need to start seriously planning the next trip. My new meds may harsh my mellow (shorter trips or only domestic trips or...) so I need to get my brain wrapped around that issue. Put photos on line from Eutin, Germany and Cape Flattery, Washington. That's a small but important accomplishment. It's taking forever... Day-by-day... they say. |
| ...Cape Flattery. ME: Visited the farthest NW point of the continental US on Tuesday. I visited Key West in the SE long ago. The rock, surf, birds and caves are impressive. The trail went through huge cedars and part of the half-timber path was elevated over bog. It sounded like walking on a marimba. Other than that... Lost my notepad.  Called... still lost; but, found out where my brother-in-law left his glasses.  Long day on Tuesday followed by a longer day on the bus on Wednesday. Took as long to get home as a flight from Costa Rica. Got in at midnight. Summer is a memory in Montana. We have snow on the mountain peaks; possible frost tonight. Time to get out the blankets. |
| ...family. me: My mother wanted to talk today. She mentioned Uncle Sylvester and Aunt Tillie. I dont remember her mentioning them before. Uncle Sylvester I knew about but he still doesn't exist as a person. Odd what my mother will and won't talk about. So, I didnt get to town. Felt trapped so I walked to the beach. Tide was in. Saw gulls and a rabbit. Dinner was liver, one of my favorites, but Im restricted. Ate a little. Im depressed. Quiet. |
| ME: A better day. Spent 6 hours or more in town. Learned some history ...bordellos and China Town burning down. And today's news ...abducted rabbits and banning bambi from town. Major issues... There's a film festival with some free showings. Didn't go to any yet though. Went to the farmer's market and ate crab cakes. Had some Italian ice (chocolate and black currant). Later ate half of a turkey-bacon-avocado crepe. The rest ws dinner. Legs didn't like the standing on my feet. Not so good a day for them. Have shown my mother some of my pictures. She wants to see England but she'll have to wait until I can access them on my sister's computer. I'm here six says total so there's time. One thing about my mother ....she does NOT seem 91. A bit wizened but I've seen 70 year olds look and act much older. |
| Me: In Washington. Pretty. Warm yesterday. Cloudier at moment in Port Townsend. Trip went well. Bus wasn't crowded so plenty of leg room. Young people were a bit rowdy but not mean. I read and took some photos. Family showed me the town. They live a few miles out in a colony by the bay. Too isolated for me. Everyone's okay including my 91 year old mother. She snoozes a lot but also goes walking. I picked up my pills on Tuesday, traveled Wednesday, started on coumadin yesterday. We'll see... Different eating schedule. I'm hungry with no stores nearby. Adjusting? |
| ...yet. (see last entry) me: I am looking forward to cooler weather. The other night I took a late shower and lay down on the damp towel without totally drying myself off. I have a window fan but it's been very warm (about 10 degrees above normal). That will change. The more autumnal temps move in by Wednesday when I'll be on the bus going west. When I come back I suspect there'll be no more 90 degree days and few if any over 80. 40s at night. My rooms will cool off and stay cool. Jaw not aching like it was, whenever it was. Could actually sleep! Compression socks are keeping any swelling in my right leg to a minimum. I take them off at night and when I wake up the leg looks almost normal. I'm not totally fooled by apparent improvement, but I do feel better about the whole situation than I did on Friday. Reading poetry daily, will take a couple books on my trip. I already have some clothes set aside and should finish packing tonight. That's if I'm smart. I have no idea whether I'll have internet at my sister's place near Port Townsend, Washington. I'm back late on the 25th, so I should post something soon after I get back if not before. |
| Me, Myself: DVT = deep vein thrombosis. So, I"ve got blood clots (confirmed by radiology). The doctor has prescribed coumadin but I'm waiting for a couple days (clots are old). There are diet issues, aspirin issues, travel issues and previous head injury issues. I was put on paxil years ago instead of Welbutin because of head injuries and the concern over bleeding. So... l need to do research this weekend. (Paxil worked for me until it didn't and left me suicidal.) At least: it wouldn't interfere with my hypertension pills; I already have hair loss. I need to take a deep breath and figure out what to do. The blood clots are real. The only question is what the best treatment or management may be. Even small things like buying the proper anti-swelling socks (got two pair). Exercise? Good idea or bad? That's my news from yesterday. It does depress me a little.  Just finished "Words like fate and pain" by Karen Fiser. This set of poems were written when she was seriously ill. Interesting choice considering my state of mind. |
| ...can be cost-saving. ME? Today, when I'm done typing this, I'll go downstairs to the Wunderground Second-hand Store in the basement of the Senior Center. May stuff a bag full of men's clothes. Go through the pants... On Sunday I stuffed a bag full of books. 40 books worth over $581. 29 of them dealing with poetry worth over $386. I'd say I did well. However, I need book shelves. Plus, it's time to cull some books and take to the library free-cycle. Same with underwear. I had 4 pair set aside that I added to my rotation; but, overall there are 2 or 3 that need to be cut into rags. In with the slightly used; out with the worn and weary. Before I went traveling I started to go through boxes of "who-knows-what". Need to start again. Other things need to go as well. Most of my "life" is second hand. I acquired a double mattress over a week ago and it's working out fine. And I never did get the rooms rearranged to my satisfaction after sub-letting to a friend. That was back in 2012. So, call me a bag man all you want. It's cheaper than WalMart. And saving allows me to travel. 42,966 |
| Sunday was fun for lots of folks. 1. Street Fair. Higgins, the main street was blocked off. A few vendors, a drum circle. I bought a $5 bag of books. 2. German Fest. Our sister city, Neckargemünd, is near Heidelberg in the north of Baden-Wurttemberg. I had bratwurst and cheese cake. 3. Hip-Strip party including fashion show. Tamara from Bernice's Bakery rocked it. I took lots of photos but doubt that many turned out. me: Not much new. Blah, blah, blah. I picked up over 20 poetry books so added to what I scavenged at the library this summer I have enough reading for winter. I ran into Arif at Butterfly Herbs and had a nice chat about Serbo-Croatian. He's fluent. Bloodline comes from Montenegro (Crna Gora). Worse insult? Say someone's mother is a Turk. (Personally, I like Turks.) Small events every day that don't matter much but accumulate. Like sorting out underwear (I think two are ready to be rags) or picking up a red luggage carry-on to replace the black one that died last year (duck tape can only go so far). Even the routines are okay when I punctuate them with something different. Like going on another trip. It does help. |
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