By Steve Kovit
Where the swollen Monongahela
washes the Alleghenies
wind perfumes the air with fine pollen
& butterflies flicker among the vines
& birds
abandoning all modesty
sing of paradise
in the cool branches.
Here young girls
whirl about on the hillside,
their summer dresses
billowing out
like colorful petals.
Shortly, young men will join them
& they will shriek with delight
& chase each other
& dance
& couple
by couple vanish
into the swaying field
where honey-bees feast
on the bells
of delicate flowers.
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I overslept on Monday after being awake for an hour at 2 a.m. when our power came back on (meaning that the hall light, the television, and various other things that we'd forgotten to switch off when the power went out in the first place all came to life). Then I nagged older son to apply for a credit card online, only to discover that he isn't eligible until he turns 18 whether or not he's starting college in two weeks. This made it more urgent to get him a debit card for his bank account, but Capital One told us that the Young Saver account he had couldn't be accessed via debit card, so we ended up spending an hour at the bank setting up checking and savings accounts (and getting Paul to come over because they needed his signature so he can move money from our checking account to son's even though they had it on the old one).
By then we were very hungry, so I took older son out to lunch, since younger son had been at track since very early in the morning and had eaten already. After eating (cheese crepe for me, chicken sandwich for him), we came home so he could chat with friends online and I could get some chores done. My neighbor whose kitten Cidercupcakes adopted stopped by with presents for us and the cats -- we got wine and chocolate covered peanuts, they got catnip and toy mice which have kept them occupied all evening pouncing and leaping all over the house. We watched this week's utterly hilarious Warehouse 13, which was just picked up for a fourth season (YAY) and which has really picked up its game this season; I've always enjoyed the characters and been mildly amused by the stories, but now it's never-miss TV and often leaves me in hysterics.
Spoilers: This week, for instance, while Artie and Steve are chasing a cursed Van Gogh painting with Evil Agent Woman and discussing Dark Side of the Moon and Laser Floyd, a naughty Beatrix Potter sketchbook (Peter Rabbit getting caned! "That was not on Reading Rainbow!") turns a Eureka-made Warehouse 13 video game dark so Claudia (as an elf) and Pete (as Gerard Butler) must enter the game. There is hilarious gender-based sarcasm -- Myka, who is monitoring from outside, asks, "Why are all men emotionally stunted?" but ultimately enters the game kicking ass, to which Pete says, "You went with dominatrix? Good choice!" and mrrows -- plus glorious gags like the Decapodian National Anthem a.k.a. the music from "Amok Time" and one of the characters shouting, "You shall not pass!" as he wields his staff. But there's also a serious flashback to Claudia as she was when we met her, borrowing from the storyline in which Buffy found herself in a mental institution being told that she had to let go of her monsters, and a storyline involving a woman who wants romance who does NOT get ridiculed for it. It's really all good.
Rosie and Daisy competed for one of the new toy mice.
Cinnamon cornered a mouse of her own.
Eventually Rosie figured out that there were three mice so each cat could have one.
And here is one more photo of Zoe -- whose name is now Tonks -- while she was visiting us, before she went home with Cidercupcakes (photo by Blepfo).
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