Greetings from Snohomish

Saturday was a gorgeous day in the Seattle area -- perfect for people who were outside protesting the Trump administration outrages, as Daniel and Cahaya were doing in Seattle Center and my friend Chris was doing in Snohomish. We met her there after driving through the beautiful Snohomish Valley with a clear morning view of Mount Baker. We went to brunch at First and Union and walked on the Centennial Trail, where we saw lots of flowers and several horses. We also bought local honey at the Snohomish Bee Company before we came home.

 

I didn't think I was very into the Final Four since Maryland lost to Florida, but both games this evening were very exciting. I nominally rooted for Florida over Auburn since I'd rather have had my team lost to the ultimate winner, and I thought I favored Duke over Houston but Emanuel Sharp played so amazingly in the last minutes (and I'm not rooting against an Israeli athlete) that I was excited for the Cougars. Then we watched St. Trinians 2: The Legend of Fritton's Gold, which I was in the mood for for some reason, and now we're watching a bad seventh season House episode.

Greetings for Election Day

Quickie because I'm exhausted, though I had a quiet early day: with out of town, the cats demanded food early, and I did a bunch of computer work and chores like emptying the dishwasher and folding laundry, then took a walk to the beach (a five eagle day). My Voyager group was too distracted to sit through the show or even a movie, though we'd discussed and decided maybe we should watch Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, so we talked for an hour and a half. 

Then Daniel and Cahaya picked me up and we went to Kanishka for dinner, where I ate paneer makhni and veggie samosas. We came back to the awful news about the Senate, though I'm delighted that Alsobrooks won in Maryland, that McBride won in Delaware, and that Ferguson won the gubernatorial race here. I'm watching Christmas in Notting Hill because that's what I'm capable of paying attention to now. Whatever else happens, I'm so disappointed with half of Americans.

Poem for Tuesday and Exotic Fish

Coherence in Consequence 

By Claudia Rankine 

Imagine them in black, the morning heat losing within this day that floats. And always there is the being, and the not-seeing on their way to— 

The days they approach and their sharpest aches will wrap experience until knowledge is translucent, the frost on which they find themselves slipping. Never mind the loose mindless grip of their forms reflected in the eye-watering hues of the surface, these two will survive in their capacity to meet, to hold the other beneath the plummeting, in the depths below each step full of avoidance. What they create will be held up, will resume: the appetite is bigger than joy. indestructible. for never was it independent from who they are. who will be. 

Were we ever to arrive at knowing the other as the same pulsing compassion would break the most orthodox heart. 

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Tuesday was sunny when I woke up, then heavily overcast for the rest of the day, which apparently is weather that eagles like because they hung around the lake in the trees near us. My only excitement for the day was voting, which I have never done in the state of Washington before, so it was interesting to be in a place where two Democrats run against each other for mayor. Virginia and Ohio's voters made me smile in the evening. 

 My Voyager group watched "One Small Step" -- an episode I didn't remember except that I had thought it was good, and in fact it was like an original series episode with some enjoyable performances and fun fake space history. Afterward we had leftovers for dinner and a bunch of Suits episodes so we can finish the binge before For All Mankind returns! We have seen lots of amazing fish recently at the Amazon Spheres and in Redmond Town Center:

Greetings from Marymoor

On Sunday we had cooler, magnificent weather, so after a quiet morning during which I went through every box in the apartment looking for something I couldn't remember where I unpacked, we ate lunch and went to meet Daniel at Marymoor Park with the dogs (Cahaya was in L.A. for business, and now is meeting her sister to go to Disneyland). The herons have left the rookery, but we saw geese and ducks (more ducklings!) in the river and caught some Poliwags for Pokemon Community Day. 

We were thirsty when we left the park, so we took the dogs to Redmond Town Center and got bubble tea (well, Starbucks for Paul. Then Daniel went home to work on his house, since Cahaya is moving in officially next month, and we came home to feed the cats and eventually have dinner. Then because of Margot Robbie we watched Babylon, which is in some ways a better movie than I expected though in other ways is about a self-indulgent as most movies about Hollywood are even if they're dark. 

Poem for Friday and Bruce Munro at Longwood

Yolanda: A Typhoon
By Sarah Gambito

How much our hands are God's

to be running fingers over braille cities.

We are this hand pushed through our womb.

Weeping with each other’s blood in our eyes.

I dreamed that I slept with the light on.

I was asleep in my mother’s bed because my father was out to sea

and my claim on him was to feel the frets of my death sure to come.

Sweet, small fishing rod. Ears of wind rushing through many jellied trees.

We were on this cardboard earth with its puffing volcanoes

miniature baseball players and horrible winds

scored by musician's hands.

Stand in the strong ear of this love.

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I had a pretty good day until the Phillies did not succeed in coming from behind to beat the Astros, which probably means the latter are going to win the World Series. I'm declaring that okay, though, because I learned from the Cubs in 2016 that I would so much rather be disappointed from some stupid sports competition and happy on election night than vice versa, and we did vote today -- last day of early voting in Maryland, almost no wait, not enough people younger than us at the polls, please get out there if you're eligible. 

Other than a trip to the food store at the way home from voting (at my onetime elementary school turned community center where we had kids' birthday parties, so always fun to visit), it was a pretty quiet Thursday. I got some chores done, took a walk, caught up on Andor which has gotten really good, chatted on Zoom with my fannish friends, and we had veggie cheesesteaks for dinner in honor of the Phillies so that at least was nice. Speaking of Philly, from Longwood Gardens last weekend, here are some of the Bruce Munro light exhibits: 

Greetings from the Cat House

Tuesday: more reading, more coughing, more napping, finishing The Future Is Wild, and now the MLB All-Star Game. Daniel's girlfriend, in Fenwick Island with him, was feeling a little under the weather and tested positive, so that's all of us. Since they're already ensconced in an open-air motel there, they're staying put; if we're all feeling better, we may go join them for the weekend (CDC says it's safe to go out five days after positive test if no fever and everyone wears N95 masks). 

 I watched Voyager's "Mortal Coil" with my friends but was pretty out of it, though it seemed better than I remembered. Looks like Maryland's gubernatorial primary won't be decided until late. Adam is going to meet Katherine (socially distanced) tomorrow so he can retrieve their dog from her; I might go with him if I feel up to it. She sent a catnip toy treat for our cats, and today there was a lot of wrassling and envy between Katniss and Effie depending on who had it at any given moment: 

Poem for Wednesday and Enchanted Forest

Humpty Dumpty

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall,
All the king's horses and all the king's men,
Couldn't put Humpty together again.

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Adam is here! His flight landed right on time but Dulles had a huge backlog both on the tarmac and at baggage claim, so we hung out at the airport chatting with Katherine's father before they managed to get to the terminal and get Pepper walked. Pepper is staying with Katherine in Virginia for a few days, so we only got a brief visit with her but will see her this weekend. Adam is practicing my old guitar and setting up virtual work meetings! 

The rest of my day was mostly chores getting ready for Adam to arrive and a walk in the neighborhood because we didn't expect also to get a walk in the airport, ha. My Voyager group had two people absent but managed to watch "Concerning Flight" with John Rhys-Davies, which remains as enjoyable as ever! Now I'm trying to delete all the primary election emails I don't need since I already voted. Clark's Elioak Farm's Enchanted Forest: 

Poem for Tuesday and Homestead Farm Animals

The Weeping Sea Beast
By Naomi Replansky

Tentacled for food,
You range your underwater neighborhood.
 
To look, to like, to eat, to break your fast!
Before you move an inch an hour is past,
 
Your prey is past, a swarm of scales, an eye,
A round fish eye, a rude unblinking eye.
 
You close on nothing; slowly you untwine
Your many arms and trail them through the brine.
 
Now sailors at the surface hear you cry,
And from those heights they cannot fathom why.
 
For there are agile creatures all around
Who dart like flames through this rich hunting ground
 
And others who lie still and gaping wide
And make no move; but armies come inside.

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Adam is arriving Tuesday night (after an unexpected detour to Las Vegas, where one of his oldest friends was unexpectedly getting married and asked him to be the best man), so I spent Monday doing a bunch of chores and laundry and some shopping. Plus we went to vote early because we have plans much of the primary election day, and we took a walk and saw bunnies! 

 Our evening TV viewing involved the second half of Book of Love, which is pretty silly as rom-coms go but the actors have chemistry and I like the Mexican setting, then we watched The Sea Beast, which I wasn't sure I would like since it's based on Moby Dick, but it's actually an anti-whaling, anti-imperialist fable with tall ships and female protagonists! Homestead Farm animals: