sat 03-09-02 I took some more pictures with the camera I bought yesterday. Some were completely washed out, as if the camera did not adjust to the light. Maybe I need the hold the button half down first.
Walked around the block for the fourth time, and the third day in a row. There is a positive side to leaving your job. And I hope to keep this journal up a little better.
bat house Also, put up the bat house Valerie bought a while ago, on the garage, across the yard from my bluebird house, that I put up last fall, on the telephone pole.

cedar and back of house sun 03-10 Drove to New York to hear Anne Sofie von Otter at Tully Hall. Managed to find the cross Bronx expressway this time. Songs by the Swedish composers Haquinius, Aulin, Rangstrom, and Nystroem, as well as Schubert, Chaminade, and Weill. The Weill was fantastic. Wandering around the lobby after, trying to figure out what to do with my parking voucher, a line formed. I asked what it was for, and was told autographs. So I joined. A little later she came out carrying the long red velvet dress she had worn during the concert, did a little bounce to acknowledge a smattering of applause, hung the dress on the back of a sign in front of one of the windows, and sat down at the table. I didn't tell Ms. von Otter that I had all her CDs and that one shelf didn't hold them, or that I was the one who created the Missing von Otter list on Amazon. It turned out I was able to see her even though I had been sitting in the next to last row.

sugar bush skunk cabbage mon 03-11 Went to Moose Hill with Valerie this afternoon. She leads groups there. She showed me the skunk cabbage, which are the first native flower to come out, and took me on the maple sugar tour. Saw the evaporator with its holding tank and float value, and buckets on trees. She took the cover off one, and I saw some gnats and a couple moths, one not yet dead, in a slightly thick colorless fluid that half filled the bucket. They filter the sap four times, besides boiling it forever.

tue 03-12 Bought a computer. The hospital wanted theirs back. It's over ten times bigger and faster than my last one and cost one quarter as much. Forgot to get a network card and had to go back. I asked about it, and it was on the list, but I forgot to look at the list. The new one doesn't have a DVD drive, so I should watch my new Carmen DVD at least once while I still can.

wood frogs dead farm machinery lake thu 03-14 Went into Borderland from Morse Street and walked the quarry loop with Valerie. She looked for the shoe her horse threw the other day. Wood frogs were making a lot of noise in the ponds. There were stone walls and dead farm machinery and strange lichens. Saw a pair of what might have been pintails on the lake.

crocus robin sun 03-17 Saw a robin in the front yard. Blossoms on the snowdrops are gone, but no crocuses yet.

snow window cedar
snow in fornt valerie and snow sunporch
mon 03-18 It's snowing this morning. Some pictures out the windows. And of the house and Valerie.
Created a Koechlin list on Amazon. If I say his music is interesting, half the people will think it's an insult, and if I call it pleasant or accessible, the other half will think so. It has enough ambiguity and enough direction. He was a student of Faure, and orchestrated his Pelleas et Melisande suite. I like his flute music especially, but of course the CD I want is out of print.

house cedar tue 03-19 Still snowing this morning. Yesterday the snow had been melting nearly as fast as it fell. Last night the snow got a little ahead, except under the trees.
Eight eighty-seven pound batteries for the the electric car were delivered. The large semi could not come up the driveway, so we backed the van down the to the road. The driver moved the pallet to the back of the truck, took off the packing, and set each battery on the edge. Valerie and he and I moved them to the van. After I sloshed the first one around, Valerie told me to be careful of the battery acid. I haven't seen any holes in my coat yet.
Left for tai chi early so I could look for Koechlin chamber music. Tower in Harvard square didn't have it, so I bought Legeti piano music and Zein oud music. Amazon had said the latter was not available. Found two books on meditation at Harvard books, Twilight Language by Bicknell, on hidden links between Buddhist symbolism and meditation practices, and Gesture of Balance, a classic that looks easy to read. Tower in Fenway had the Koechlin. Had said I wasn't going to buy any more CDs since I lost my job. Valerie was amused.
Bought hearth bread and dark chocolate at Trader Joe's in Coolidge corner. Also peanutbutter and chocolate chunk cookies, of which I ate half, along with roasted veggies and chickpea salad from the upscale salad bar at Whole foods. Managed to avoid meat today.
In tai chi class we started Part the wild horse's mane, at the beginning of the second half of the long form. Draw in, draw out, up, down, slice and step, down and up. Should be done by august.

cedar wed 03-20 The snow we had yesterday melted. More this afternoon. Went for a walk anyway. Took my umbrella.
Later the snow turned heavy and wet. The roads were bad by the time we left for prison fellowship.

water Judy thu 03-21 Found another computer in my closet to give back to the hospital.
Again, most of the snow gone by midday. Judy and Valerie took the canoe out while the lake was flat. Judy and I went out a little later, to the cove on the far side of the lake. There was a man with a dog. No boats in the water at the yacht club. Passed a man in a blue kayak fishing on the way back. He didn't have a guitar, or a violin.

Mottle water fri 03-22 Mottle on the hot tub, waiting to come in.
Wind and waves and ice Went out three times trying to get a picture of the whitecaps. Counldn't hear the camera click above the wind, my fingers were too numb to feel the shutter button, was shivering too much to hold the camera steady, there was ice at the bottom of the ramp, the wind lessened so the first picture turned out best, and all the best waves seemed to be on the far side of the lake.

sun 03-24 Drove downtown to one ten Arlington and found a parking place right across the street. A note taped to the door said if the door was locked to ring twice for prison book project. It was, so I did, and we went down to the basement. Someone paying rent was given part of their space, but they got a free renovation, paint and partitions. It took five weeks, and there was a large backlog to work on. The letters were opened, sorted with Massachusetts inmates and those in solitary given priority, and restrictions stated or known written on the front. The books we could send were on shelves around the walls of a not very large room. Most were used and the selection was not deep. They had a shelf of new, inexpensive dictionaries, since that is what was asked for most. I read their requests, tried to find something vaguely similar, wrote the date and list of books being sent on the back of the envelope received and on a printed post card, stamped the return address and wrote the prisoner's address on the post card and on a large envelope, taped the edges of the envelope, put in the books and a resource list, added an invoice if required, put more tape on the envelope where the corners of the books poked through, and put the package and card in a bin. The card said the books had been sent and to write if they weren't received.

shop cedar tue 03-26 Rain and bookstores. New England Comics didn't have Impulse. The used book Annex didn't have Krishnamurti.
More parting of wild horses' manes.

wed 03-27 Valerie and Ken to his sister's for seder. Drove Judy to the station to retrieve the van.

back back Howard thu 03-28 Howard picked up the computers and took them back for me.

leaves crocus fri 03-29 Found a crocus in back yesterday. There were some in the front last year.

dock dock fri 03-30 It's a dock. The first on the lake.

jul | home | apr