Rude · 4 days ago by Julie
Lucky was a one-man cat. She fell in love with Tycho when they were both kittens. They had many adventures together, most of them involving either blankets or shrubbery. After Tycho left, she moved into a position of ill-tempered dominance, slashing at any human or cat who dared look at her funny. When Tycho came back to visit, she was able to relax, once so much so that she trotted up to him and threw up. It was a touching thing to see.
Lucky had one whangy eye, soft white fur, and an ear-shatteringly piteous yowl that she deployed whenever she wanted to find somebody or complain about the quality of service. In return, she fed us rats and sat next to us wherever we might be.
In her last year, when she began to lose weight, we fed two or three cans of moist food a day, much to the indignation of the other cats. The dog would guard her, watching carefully to make sure the other cats didn’t filch from her bowl, and telling on them if they tried. Lucky seemed to feel that having an armed guard was just about the level of service she deserved. She would sit on the rug facing away from the dog, purring and growling in about equal measure.
We will miss her.
Polite · 6 days ago by Julie
Java’s social life is dominated by Snowy, a half-grown shepherd who has as much energy as she does. They’ve stopped crashing into people and furniture but rambunctious is still the word.
A typical session will begin with them tearing at each other and colliding. Then they run around the house a few times. Java finds one of her toys and gives it to Snowy, who grabs it and runs away, closely pursued by Java. Finally, Snowy stops and gives the toy to Java, who grabs it and runs away. They alternate until finally, one of them flops down, panting and puts their paw on the toy. The other one comes over and stares at the toy. Now, the one who has the toy can either growl or remove their foot, and the other one responds.
Java taught Snowy to play tug by flopping a toy in his face until he caught it, then bracing her feet and waiting. After about ten tries, he got it and now it’s a favorite game.
They spend a lot of time with their jaws held open like crocodiles, mouthing each other’s neck, legs, and face. The etiquette, as with the chase game, demands that they alternate who is on their back and who straddles the other one.
It’s rare to see human children play so even-handedly.
Ocean Love · 18 days ago by Julie
This is intended to be sung against the drone of an outboard, but in a pinch, you may sing it when you like. We performed it yesterday evening (see the Aug 10 post here):
In a full moon storm when the tide pulls at the shores,
Then my love is the strength of the sea.
As the waves are torn by the wind’s unyielding force
The familiar is washed away.
I look for you when the waters are still
Like a mirror to the heart of the sky,
Listen for you in the whalesong and the krill
The familiar is washed away
As the waters rise anew and the glaciers bleed out ice
And villages founder and drown
I call for you in the fleeting schools of fish
The familiar is washed away.
You’ll have a thousand pearls and find there’s always more
We hold all the treasures of the sea,
My love spans the world, and it laps at every shore,
The familiar is washed away.
I'm a Fan! · 19 days ago by Julie
Captain Horrible is my hero.Magpies · 24 days ago by Julie
Over breakfast, Bob (not his real name) said, “I grew up in Eastern Washington. My dad used to shoot magpies out his bedroom window.”
“Why would he do that?”
“They were noisy. So, we kids would be sleeping and then BOOOM, there would go Dad.”
“Because they were noisy? And this man had children?”
“One time they were over by the chickens, and Dad started shooting them. Then he realized that he was shooting the windows out of the chicken house.”
“In Japan,” said Yuki (not her real name), “there are all kinds of magpie stories. They like water. One time, there were two lovers, who were of a different social class, so their parents forbade the marriage.”
“No, Mom, it was because they were lazy,” said her daughter.
“I think it was because they were necking all the time. Anyway, they became stars and were only allowed to see each other on the seventh day of the seventh month. The magpies made a bridge for them to cross. And we celebrate that, it’s like Valentine’s Day, or like Christmas. We make garlands and tie wishes to them, and then after the day is over, we throw them into the river.
When I first came to Los Angeles, I wanted to do that and your sister said, ‘let’s find a river,’ but it was August in L.A. So we went up to Griffith Park and found a little creek and threw it in there.”
“Did you get your wish?” I asked.
“I don’t remember.”
Bones · 25 days ago by Julie
I gave a houseguest a tour of my bones. Not the squishy, capillary-veined ones that hold me up, but the dry ones on my windowsills and bookshelf tops; including ducks, cows, sheep, goats, and miscellanea.
What I could not show her was the nutria skeleton that I almost salvaged from the side of the road at Jackson Bottoms Wetlands near Portland. The road was really narrow, with no turnouts, and I would have had to go to a hardware store to get a sufficiently large cooler and then muscle it back along about a mile of road to the car.
Also, I could not show her the porcupine skeleton from a Montana highway, or the pheasant from Idaho, or the deer from Orcas Island. I don’t really remember much detail from my life, but those roadkills are clear in memory.
A lot of people I know are drawn to skeletons. They’re the essential underpinnings of our lives, plus they’re beautiful.
And, as the dog has remarked, that fresh skeleton Vruba found and the dessicated rabbit my neighbor brought us are fascinatingly pungent.
The Inter-Web · 27 days ago by Julie
We now have a faster connection to the world. Will this lead to Good?
My Clattering Tongue · 33 days ago by Julie
I used to get really irritated when my mom guided my eyes through our trips together. She told me where to look and what to think about it. Arrgh!
Then I started doing it (more).
I’m turning into Mom in a lot of ways, and very occasionally it’s scarey. In this case, I finally figured out how it really is okay. Really.
See, I tend to have to talk my way into my thoughts. I do think without chattering on occasion, but usually I’ve got to run things by an interested ear first. I suppose it’s a way to test for intellectual honesty.
Anyway, I now understand that Mom wasn’t trying to manage my thinking. She was simply thinking.
Music · 36 days ago by Julie
This guy taught me how to do glissandos on the clarinet. I already sort of knew, but I needed somebody to tell me before I felt ready to try it myself.
It used to be that I’d berate myself for not learning things in particular ways. I ought to be loose enough to have learned glissandos by simply noodling around on the clarinet a lot. I ought to be logical enough to figure it out by sorting through what I already know about the production of sound on that instrument. I ought to be studious enough to carefully read the book I have on clarinet technique. And most toxic of all, I ought to be musical enough to be able to intuit how to do it.
Whether I teach kids, adults, or myself, I keep seeing this. At some level, everyone knows how they learn best. Most people fight it.
Who? · 46 days ago by Julie
None of us here are the same people we were ten years ago. None of our houseguests are, either.
In the course of re-acquainting one another, we surprise ourselves.