C.B. Potts's Blog, page 18

Friday Morning

Yesterday, we bought a new sump pump, which rather cut into Harmony's plans of having all the money to accompany her on this evening's class trip to Montreal - they're going to see some Cubans dance the tango - and she said "Why did you have to buy the new pump now?"

Then we went by the river. There's still a lot of snow on the ground and the river is already swollen to the top of the banks. The wee retaining wall that keeps the parking lot of the corner store by the school from becoming one...

Thursday Morning

It's still morning, vaguely. The other day, Sue Burke had a post about how life is different in Europe, and that the Spaniards have morning until roughly 2 in the afternoon, which frankly sounds lovely to me. I could use more mornings: I could use more time. The days have been sliding by on greased rails and I find myself not doing what I need to do, much less what I want to do, and all of a sudden, it's ten years later and what have I accomplished?

Yeah. I am having a bout of being middle age...

Tuesday Morning

You ever have a dog that wanted out, out, out all the time? And you've got to hassle and fuss to keep him in? And he's a shitty little dog that tears up the furniture and stinks and is generally unpleasant, but you've got to keep him in, because that is what you're supposed to do? And then one morning, when the sun's coming up and it's so god damn cold and you know that when you go outside the cold is going to go right through your clothes and through your skin and into your bones and make yo...

Monday Morning

A foot of snow fell yesterday, which is one of those things that sounds like it should be a joke, but isn't. The girls and I shoveled the driveway twice. Just now the plow's gone by. It was really beautiful while it was snowing - it was a sort of confectioner's sugar sort of snow - but now to look out the window and see every random shape bearing its own fresh muffin top of snow, piled and wind-sculpted into shapes that would have made Wright go "Oh my!" I'm just about Completely Over Winter....

Friday Morning

I have been very clever this morning. When I woke up at 4:30 I got right to work and knocked out 12 articles between then and now. This means that even if it does ice up and the power goes out, I've already done a good deal of what I needed to do today. I think it might be fixing to storm furiously. There are dozens of blue jays at the feeder, even though it's mostly empty, making sure they don't mix a single seed. They don't act like that when it's going to be nice all day.

Yesterday was the...

Thursday Morning

I want to talk about the importance of quiet. We don't talk about this a lot in our world, mostly because we're busy being noisy talking about everything else. But I'm beginning to think that quiet is essential to our well-being, personal development, and creativity.

We live in a very noisy world. How many hours a day are we exposed to other people's voices, their thoughts, their message, their aesthetic choices? It's almost continuous, especially when the internet makes it easy to be in commu...

Wednesday Morning Late

We are marvelous creatures who can create wonders that change lives. What more do we need from this world? Mercy, she may not come. Fortune turns away from us. Love comes and goes. Eternity is inaccessible. We have only now, my beloveds. Let us give praise that that is enough. More than enough.

Today's Thought

Why am I not stronger? Why can I not just put things in a box to deal with later? You know breakthrough pain, where despite all the meds they pour into your system there will come a point where all of a sudden it still hurts? I am having breakthrough upset and my will is insufficient to keep shit under control.

Of course it may be that control is an illusion and the pursuit thereof is futile. Which IS NOT HELPING when I need to write about jewelry and all that comes out is AAAARGH.

Tuesday Morning, Thus Far

On the table this morning, there is a plate covered with a note that says "Whoops! Accidentally baked too many cookies last night!" Which is the best sort of accident if you ask me.

The beautiful bright star you can see on the horizon at just about 5:30 am is Venus. I found that out last night while Nadia and I were listening to the radio. By later in the summer, when I'm more of a star gazer, Venus lives in a different place in the sky, so this was surprising to discover. But proof that somet...

A Wild & Windy Monday

When you stand at the front door and look West, hanging low and to the right of the apple tree is a very bright star. It's so cold. My early morning eyes couldn't quite see the thermometer, but the Weather Channel says it's a balmy 0 out there, and they tend to be optimistic. Now, too, the Weather Channel has a Traffic & Commuter Forecast for my neighborhood - who knew? We have no traffic, we have no commuters, but we have a forecast! Perhaps from the barn and back counts as a commute.

So here...