Poem for Wednesday and Nordic Northwest

Buying a Star 

By Jane Shore 

An ad on the radio says that you can buy a star.

Call the toll-free number, charge it

to your credit card, and they'll send you

a parchment certificate of authenticity

and constellation chart with your actual star circled,

mapping your province of gaseous darkness, fire and ice,

over which you can rule, like the Creator.

The summer we got married, remember the night

we wrapped ourselves in blankets

and lay on our backs on the hood of our Toyota,

watching the meteor shower?

For an hour, we lay so still--

a husband and wife side by side

atop the stone lid of a medieval sarcophagus.

Beneath us, the damp grass

shivered with crickets and, above,

quick as eye blinks,

meteors streaked across the sky.

Every few seconds we'd see one die.

There! there! in the upper-right-hand-corner--

no martgage, no upkeep, no perpetual care--

there we are! buried in darkness, flashing,

then out.

For Howard 

-------- 

Wednesday was, as often for me, quite social though entirely online. I talked to Linda, Hildy, and Kay in the morning, plus Linda's sister and father who were both visiting her -- I've known them all since I was 10 -- and Hildy's oldest daughter and Kay's younger son were at their houses, so I got to talk to them too. Then I ate lunch, did a couple of chores, and watched the second half of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania with Kristen and Laurie, whom I figured should "meet" since they live near each other and I met them in the same fandom. 

I watched some Olympics and most of the Orioles' triumphant win over the Blue Jays, including Jackson Holliday's first major league home run, which happened to be a grand slam! The Mariners did not fare as well against the Red Sox, and unfortunately the Yankees beat the Phillies. Solveig was posting photos of Indian food at her future in-laws' restaurant, which got me and Paul in the mood for Kanishka, so we ordered malai kofta, paneer mughlai, and other things that were excellent. Then we watched more Time Bandits. The Nordic Northwest campus in Oregon:

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: