Poem for Tuesday and Ballard Locks

The Fish Ladder 

By Timothy Donnelly 

To be the fish on the ladder

     and not know what it means. To feel the bronzes,

          the pearls, the greens, but in a context

               of pure combat. To fight the literal stream

we hurl ourselves into for no

     discernible purpose, other than some molecule

          says it will be worth it. To feel

               worthless enough to listen. To feel

something rather than nothing, the rungs of it

     a punishment, a goading

          into againstness, against the current. To come to know

               the concrete intimately. To come to know

what we want is. To come to know what we want is

     to be the fish on the ladder

          nonetheless. To feel the sun

               like a god we can discern. We hurl

our self into it, being for this purpose. To come to see

     what there is left to feel. To come to feel

          some other. To come to know

               what we want is. To be the fish on the ladder.

-------- 

Paul got up very early to be at Michael's Toyota when it opened so we could find out what was wrong with the van, which turned out to be a vapor leak because the gas cap seal needed to be fixed, so that was fortunately pretty small, easy to fix, and not horribly expensive. When he got back, we watched the US Olympic women's gymnastics team win the gold while I folded laundry, then we did assorted work while checking in on swimming and other sports (I rooted for the Israeli swim team but they finished last in their heat). 

We went for an early walk to the beach in gorgeous overcast weather before my Voyager group, which actually managed to watch an episode this week, the not-great but not-terrible "Critical Care" with its anti-socialized-medicine themes. Then we watched the end of the Orioles game over dinner before catching up on Orphan Black: Echoes, which made very little sense, and the first episode of Time Bandits, which was fun. No auroras, but we saw a beaver late tonight! Here are seals, salmon, seagulls, boats, and more at Ballard Locks:

Poem for Monday and Chihuly Glass

Ode to Enchanted Light 

By Pablo Neruda 

Translated by Ken Krabbenhoft 

Under the trees light

has dropped from the top of the sky,

light

like a green

latticework of branches,

shining

on every leaf,

drifting down like clean

white sand.

A cicada sends

its sawing song

high into the empty air.

The world is

a glass overflowing

with water.

-------- 

Because we can't take the van to Toyota to find out what's going on with it until tomorrow, my Monday was pretty unexciting -- multiple laundries, unpacking, figuring out where to put new Renfaire jewelry -- then a drive to downtown Redmond for my annual mammogram, to Kohl's to return a couple of Amazon items, to Target in an unsuccessful quest for a full length mirror, and to Safeway because (don't call the SPCA) we were almost out of cat treats. 

Otherwise, we watched most of the (great) first game of the Orioles double-header with the Blue Jays and some of the (not so great) second game, walked on the dock though most of the birds were hiding from the rain, and now we're finally watching the long-delayed final season of Snowpiercer (Layton! Melanie! Where is Wilford?). Some pictures from Chihuly Garden and Glass yesterday evening, when the light as well as the glass and flowers was gorgeous: 

Greetings from Downtown

We have deposited Cheryl at the airport after a long and delightful day: a morning walk at Green Lake and quick visit to Daniel; a stop at Ballard Locks to see boats, seals, and the salmon that are starting to return; lunch at MoPop, followed by tours of the many pop culture, sci-fi, and music galleries there; a walk to the International Fountain, then a walk back to the Space Needle, which we ascended so we could admire the whole city; and finally Chihuly Garden and Glass, where it was late enough that we had both the galleries and the gardens practically to ourselves! Unfortunately, our van engine light came on when we were en route to SeaTac, so we must deal with that in the morning!

Greetings from Silverton

Another quickie, now home from Oregon, after spending most of the day in Silverton at the Canterbury Renaissance Faire, where we met Cheryl's longtime friend Christine and her daughter, and saw jousting, musicians, crepes, the Queen, the Queen's emotional support cryptid, jewelry, dogs, D20s, shaved ice, lots of great garb, and the very naughty Spanish king, among other entertainments! Then we drove back by way of Tacoma, where we stopped for dinner at Elmer's, and visited Idylwood Beach before we came home, where we're watching IF since it's a Ryan Reynolds sort of a weekend!

Greetings from Salem

Quickie from Oregon with Paul and Cheryl, with whom I got to see lots of awesome things today including Mount St. Helens! Thomas Dambo's Portland-area troll at the Nordic Northwest campus! Dinner at Mod Pizza! Deadpool and Wolverine (which is satisfying in every way, hilarious, lots of awesome cameos, tons of Hugh and Ryan)! Tomorrow, the Renaissance faire!

Greetings from Redmond

Cheryl is here, visiting from Richmond! We picked her up in the evening after an unexpectedly hectic day during which Cahaya locked herself and one of their dogs out of the house, then realized that we had the only other key because Daniel had left it with us before going out of town last week, so we drove into the city to give it to her, then drove to Kirkland to put some things in our storage unit, drop donations at Goodwill, mail back my broken phone, and things like that. We have a busy day tomorrow too so I will be brief and leave these photos from Constellation Beach at Alki with Adam and Haley last weekend: 

Poem for Wednesday and Mountain Squirrel

The Ground Squirrel 

By Paul Hamilton Hayne 

Bless us, and save us! What's here?

Pop!

At a bound,

A tiny brown creature, grotesque in his grace,

Is sitting before us, and washing his face

With his little fat paws overlapping;

Where does he hail from? Where?

Why, there,

Underground,

From a nook just as cosy,

And tranquil, and dozy,

As e'er wooed to Sybarite napping

(But none ever caught him a-napping).

"Don't you see his soft burrow so quaint, lad! and queer?"

Gone! like the flash of a gun!

This oddest of chaps,

Mercurial,

Disappears

Head and ears!

Then, sly as a fox,

Swift as Jack in his box,

Pops up boldly again!

What does he mean by this frisking about,

Now up and now down, and now in and now out,

And all done quicker than winking?

What does it mean? Why, 'tis plain, fun!

Only fun! or, perhaps,

The pert little rascal's been drinking?

There's a cider press yonder all day on the run!

Capture him! no, we won't do it,

Or, be sure in due time we would rue it!

Such a piece of perpetual motion,

Full of bother

And pother,

Would make paralytic old Bridget

A fidget.

So you see (to my notion),

Better leave our downy

Diminutive browny

Alone near his "diggings";

Ever free to pursue,

Rush round, and renew

His loved vaulting

Unhalting,

His whirling,

And curling,

And twirling,

And swirling,

And his ways, on the whole,

So unsteady!

'Pon my soul,

Having gazed

Quite amazed,

On each wonderful antic

And summersault frantic,

For just a bare minute,

My head, it feels whizzing;

My eyesight's grown dizzy;

And both legs, unstable

As a ghost's tipping table,

Seem waltzing, already!

Capture him! no, we won't do it,

Or in less than no time, how we'd rue it!

-------- 

Much of my Wednesday involved complications getting my new phone, around chatting with two of my high school friends in the morning and watching the first half of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania with Kristen in the afternoon. For about the dozenth time since we've lived here, UPS had all our information and phone number to deliver an expedited package yet decided to report it undeliverable rather than, you know, contact us to tell us they couldn't find our apartment; I ran out and chased down the truck, whose driver at first denied that he had the package, then went in the back and found it. 

Most of my late afternoon and evening involved setting up the new phone, which required calling Verizon for activation and listening to multiple sales pitches as well as waiting for programs and data to transfer and getting rid of apps that don't work on the newer Galaxy models. The good news is that since they didn't have a replacement S22, they sent me the S24, so I have a much newer phone with a camera that gets ranked better. Now we're watching Deadpool 2 now so we'll be ready for Deadpool and Wolverine in two days. We got to watch this hungry ground squirrel on top of Crystal Mountain: