Hi, anybody out there?

  First goslings of 2011, about a mile from my house! click on the photo to enlarge – you can see the little guys much better…

seen at a drive thru in Fishkill, NY

“what would Scooby do?”

I love it!

Wonderfully sunny Sunday afternoon. I’m recovering from 10 rounds with a bout of food poisoning.  I have a couple of suspect sources but when there is more than one possibility you will never know for sure.

So I’m feeling stronger, eating crackers. Trying to be kind to my tummy.

I went to sleep about 11pm last night thinking the worst was over and woke ill again at about 1pm.  I decided not to go back to bed until I felt much better. I watched a bunch of tv on the computer: Daily Show, The Office, Glee and Supernatural. The sky began to lighten and I could hear the birds start to sing. I felt well enough to lie down.

I watched the day begin and listened to the birds. I soon realized it was a mockingbird: Trills and melody. I remembered walking my old german shepherd, Molly, at a riverfront park and hearing the beeping of a truck backing up in the tree above me. Another time I heard a cell phone ring in the same tree. This was back when cell phones all sounded pretty much the same.  Then there is the famous mockingbird that lived in the Bronx and could imitate a car alarm. Mockingbirds start to sing an hour or so before dawn. Those people in that neighborhood hated that bird, so much so that  it made the New York Times.

About two weeks ago my parked car got hit by a school bus and I gave myself quite a stomach ache about the repairs. The backend was making some terrible noises and the car is due for some new struts. I worked myself into a downright tizzy that the car was going to cost me a grand to fix because I never got the new struts. The appraiser would look at it and could tell I had been neglectful.

When will I ever learn not to imagine these grandiose worst-case scenarios that are entirely my fault. I give myself headaches, stomach aches, neck aches, blah blah blahditty blah.

The car just needed rear brakes. The damage from the school bus was all cosmetic. The school district took responsibility. I found a very good mechanic through people at work. I’ve got new brakes and I just have to get the tail light cover and the left rear quarter panel replaced and it will be good as new. No problems. At all.

I think spring is going to happen soon. Even though it snowed about an inch yesterday and we have a winter storm advisory and a flood advisory – from all of the melting snow, it can’t be far off. March starts this week; the rent has been paid.

So all is good in my world.

Hi.

I hope you are well. That the winter has not lingered too long. And your wish for spring does not overwhelm you.

It was about 30 degrees today, about 10 degrees below average. But sunny, beautifully sunny. And it is light out now when I get home from work. I love that.

Today was a glorious day. A dear friend crocheted for me a beautiful scarf. It is aqua, and purple and pink. It is so warm and comfy. It is schnuggley! It warmed not only my body but my soul too.

My coworkers and I found a stray dog on the street  running through the busy traffic. But to make a wonderfully long story short with the help of the Beacon City Police Department and the Dog Warden for Beacon, Archie, a big ole black lab found his way home in just a few hours. The latch came undone on the front door of his house and he decided to take an adventure. An adventure that led him about four blocks to us.

Well I must go to sleep now. Some half-brained baloneyhead made a 7:30 AM dentist appointment for me tomorrow morning in Westchester (about a 45 min drive). Wait til I find out who she is……..

Last Saturday was the Merchant family reunion.  It was in Oneonta, NY, long time – centuries – home to my family. About 30 people attended, my generation, my parents’ generation, our children’s generation. I was surpirsed at how warm I feel towards these people, some I hadn’t seen in 40 years. One aunt and two uncles and their spouses, I like them so much. My father is long gone and I didn’t know him that well (which is another blog entry entirely). But one of his sisters and two brothers were there, I genuinely care about them. My Dad’s cousin and her family were there. She is our motivator and reunion chair. She put this all together.

There is something magical (not sure that is the right word) (visceral, primitive?) about reconnecting with family. Most of the time I find I can talk to them – even if I’ve never met them before. There is no awkward getting-to-know-you beginning. You just start – catching up, reminiscing, connecting faces to names and facebook accounts. 

There are some serious bird watchers and even one finch breeder in my family. I love birds and so did my father. I didn’t learn that until his funeral. Quite a few serious photographers amongst the bunch. Boaters and swimmers – I love the water but don’t have much to do with it these days due to mobility issues and self consciousness. You could say that these are general interests and coincidences, but my family does not consist of sport jocks and fashion mavericks.

I’m so glad I went. I had been looking forward to going for six months but in the countdown days to the reunion I was thinking of all of the reasons I didn’t want to go. Classic old behavior. I ended up buying a couple dozen donut balls from Dunkin Donuts so as not to make “fixing food” a barrier to going. I have kitchen issues – whole ‘nother blog entry.

I went, had a good time, got lost going home. I do have this thing where in my head I live on the east coast so everywhere I go is west. Suffice it to say I got on a couple of roads headed for Ohio. I wonder if there is a geographic orientation gene?

The sun is hot, the air thick. I so look forward to Labor Day and the change of seasons. Having my windows open and listening to the night noises. Better than any sleeping pill, I’d put money on it.

Recently, I saw two first year Cooper’s Hawks on the overhead wires at Stoneykill Farm. I got my first 2010 penny just the other day. Haven’t seen a new quarter in forever. Been listening to Marvin Gaye and Smokey Robinson a lot lately, they are two fine artists.

Discovered videos of artists who have performed at the White House in the last year or so on YouTube. Which led me back to watching some of my favorite new poets in clips from Def Poetry Jam: Mayda del Valle, Staceyann Chin, Lemon, Rives. I’ll stop there because the list just grows. I’ll think of one more and one more. The list would be very long. So you might watch that series on Netflix. It is fantastic. Poetry just moves me. Not all of it but more than I thought would. It is such a visceral way of communicating. Some of these readings are performance peices which I never thought of before. Another way to broaden my horizons.

It is well after sunset and I see Mercury and Venus. Neighbors are strolling, walking their dogs, returning home and lights have been turned on in the apartments across the way. The heat of the late July day and the humidity  lingers. The lightening bugs are out.  Dogs bark, crickets chirp, and cicadas make cicada noises. I hear traffic, the train whistle and my air conditioner. Charlie is tensed up watching a cat saunter across the road silhouetted by the street lamp. Simon wants in. He goes in. Then he wants out. Then he bluffs that he wants in again and I fall for it.

I begin to feel content and relaxed. It is the beginning of another unstructured weekend and again I resolve to not sleep the 3 days away. I am in desparate need of structure.

Sunday is another Author Talk at work. This time it is a couple who wrote a book about trails for walking in a nearby county. I love to hear writers talk. Some of the books that are featured are historical and researched.

Writing is still involved but I need to do laundry which is a permanent condition. It is going to be hot. Shit, Sunday is the first of August. One more month or so of this (to me) intolerable weather. Then it will be the relief of shorter days.

What a wonderful Monday: mid eighties and humidity about 35%. A beautiful blue sky, light wind. Sun wasn’t too strong. Air smelled and felt good. I don’t mind Mondays but it does sometimes takes all day to get into a work groove. Especially now that I work a four day week. I go to work at nine and don’t even notice what kind of day it is. Waking up to sitting at my desk takes about 40 minutes and it takes longer than that for me to wake up. So I don’t even begin to notice what kind of day it is until midmorning. I have windows and a skylight at work. I see if the trees are moving with the wind. How fast clouds, if there are any, move. Are people carrying umbrellas, wearing jackets, or down to wear wearing only what is legally necessary, looking like they’d taken an unrefreshing shower. By five o’clock I just want to get home. The car is heated up from the blazing sun and I have the windows open and hot wind blowing on me.  But tonight it wasn’t so bad. Sitting out on the balconey was lovely: A real treat before the sun sets.

According to Google, the last day that my website recorded a third party malware was June 28, 2010. The website has to go 90 days without a recording of third party malware in order to become a safe site again.

Some of the things that I would that has been of interest to me during this blackout is a NYTimes Scientist at Work Blog that the curator of the frog exhibit, Dr. Chris Raxworthy, that I worked back in 2004 was a participant. The link is to the right.

The blooming of the corpse flower at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. I love stuff like this and think that this is what I find so cool about the internet. Bringing us the world.  That link is to the right.

Just wanted to keep you posted. Keep cool!