Taken by astronauts on the International Space Station  CREDIT: Roscosmos

 

I tried to spy out this Super Moon last night and early this morning but alas, we were cloud covered.  I could see where it was behind the fluffy gray and white clouds.  It did light up the sky.  Maybe it will clear enough tonight to get a peek at it on its second evening. 

 

I love the moonlight.  In the Oregon summers when I was about 12 I would sneak out of the house on full moon nights.  The path to the tree house in the woods was moon marked.  I'd climb up the tree and on to the house platform to lie on my back and watch the moon.  When I found this poem my adolescent imagination was charged by the thought of the moon pressing its face to mine.  When I was in college I painted an abstract of the view from the tree house with the moon overwhelming the woods and the eye of the viewer.  I still have it, it wasn't very good, but it meant something to me.  Maybe I should try again.

 

Some Kiss We Want - a poem by Rumi 1207-1273

 

There is some kiss we want with
Our whole lives, the touch of
Spirit on the body. Seawater
Begs the pearl to break its shell.
And the lily, how passionately
It needs some wild darling! At
Night, I open the window
and ask the moon to come and press its
Face against mine. Breathe into me.
Close the language-door and
Open the love-window. The moon
Won’t use the door, only the window.

Father's Day

On the left is my father with two of his friends and fellow fisheries biologists.  They'd just spent the summer in the woods of Alaska.   They are standing on an oil dock in Seward, Alaska in the late summer of 1941 six months before I was born. Later when I was in high school Dad was back spending his summers in the Bering Sea and returning home with that full red beard, the inheritance of his Viking afflicted Scotch and Irish ancestors. 

He was a committed fisherman, salmon and steelhead.  He rarely came home without his fish, returning over and over again to the rivers he fished as kid.  I was around 40 when Dad and I went for spring Chinook on the Cowlitz together.  I drove down from Seattle and he and his little flat bottom boat came up from Portland.  We fished to no avail and were ready to give up when just before we left I hooked a very nice fish.  I worked it for nearly and hour until finally it got close enough to net.  Just then it hurled itself straight up and out of the net and the hook fell out of its mouth.  It fell into the boat.  We laughed so hard we nearly fell out of the boat.  I really miss him.

In his mid-80's he had a heart attack caused by a stenotic valve and was told he would die without surgery.  He'd survived late life bouts with cancer, a couple with grueling recoveries.  He didn't want to do that again.  He told us he'd had a great life, that he loved us and that he was done.  He died that night.

He's been gone over 11 years now and so we have gotten on without him.  Some years after he died I had a dream about him.  He was living alone in a log cabin he had built himself somewhere in some woods.  He was carefully building a pond in front of it with river rocks he had gathered and brought home with him.  He looked happy.  I just wish I could pick up the phone and say "Hey Dad, how is it going? Need any help with those rocks?  I saw this weird, huge beetle on my porch and what do you think it is...I love you."

Adventures

I'm looking forward to a camping trip with my son and his family this summer.  It's been a very long time.  I found my egg crate sleeping pad but I wonder if I need to find some kind of cot as sleeping and getting back up off the ground is not so easy any longer.  And we're bringing a camp stove.  I haven't cooked over a fire since I was a kid camping with my folks and sharing the smoke bitten dish washing duty with my sister.  Eww!  By the time my kids and camped I had a backpacking gas stove that I could whip up meal for 4 in no time.  We opted for back packer gear since it was lighter and took up less space.  Later when we all took up sea-kayaking the same gear fit nicely into the kayak hatches.  Ages ago.  What I am looking forward to the most is seeing the stars at night without all the ambient light that hides the night sky here at home.

 Secret Camping Spot?

 

Ten days ago I had yet another large kidney stone sonically smashed, the third in eighteen months.  Too bad they aren't gold or silver, I seem to be the mother lode these days.  It's a simple procedure but not without risks and this last time I found myself compulsively telling my kids where my will, medical power of attorney, and all my passwords were.  Post procedure I woke up itching all over and with a headache.  They had changed the anesthetic used the last two times and added morphine, something I don't tolerate well.  I discussed this with the attending anesthesiologist beforehand and I'm angry and disappointed that he seems to have blown me off.  Just another old lady to ignore, such crap!  And I'm angry at my body for not holding up better.  I discussed it with the hospital last week and with my primary doctor when I saw her yesterday.  She made sure it was added to my medical records there.  The effects took several days to wear off, so I was sleeping when I was supposed to be walking around helping the stone bits to go away.  I did get the recommended 10-12 glasses of water down between naps.  That much water is better than an alarm clock, in an hour or so I'd be dreaming about water and waking up dashing for the bathroom.

Monday I am rejoining my old gym.  It's a 24 hour gym, not that I'll be showing up at midnight but it's nice to be able to go whenever I like.  It's clean, inexpensive as gyms go, and they have a variety of equipment so I can start out slow, probably on a recumbent bike.  I usually begin by going every day for a week and spending 10 minutes on a recumbent bike and taking a short breather and doing 10 on the treadmill.  After a winter of kidney stones, flu and asthma, and sitting like a stone in the road it might have to be only 15 minutes.  I've inspired by my friend Merry who has just started up going walking so she'll be able to enjoy her big trip this year.  It's supposed to take three weeks to form a new habit, she's half way there, and Monday I'll be beginning, I will show up for sign up in my old exercise clothes ready to go.