Coffee with oracles

The neighbor's roof line, dark against a lightening sky, high streak cloud catching pink. I am on my second cup of coffee. The magpies are early this morning, accompanied by a noisy crow.

Happy Valentine's Day

Free Hug Guy gets pranked by #2 Deluxe Hug Guy proving once again what....? that people are idiots? or money can buy happiness? I dunno. Anyway, happy Valentine's Day or Single's Day or whatever. Don't be cynical. It's a day. Share it with somebody, even if it's just your dog. What the hell?

The examined life

Portland. I am here to take care of Baby Thea while my daughter and her husband move back into their home but the move has been delayed since Monday and we are yet uncertain if the floor is dry enough to put furniture on it. If anything can go wrong ... so we wait and, other than the fact that I can't indulge my coffee habit, it's not so bad. We are staying at his parents' house. They are very gracious people, mellow, smart, educated, animal lovers, gardeners ie. all around nice, easy to get along with. And it doesn't hurt that they have a very comfortable home. Unfortunately, the time I have to help is running out. I return to Nevada next Tuesday, but that is no reason to rush things. The newly refinished floors will be good for 50 years so a day or two delay is worth the wait. Plus, who wants to look at a gouge or claw mark on the floor forever thinking, "God! If we'd only waited another two days!"

And because of the delay, I got to spend a night at my friend judybluesky's house. That was a treat. I haven't done an overnight at a girl friend's house since I don't know when. We should plan a getaway weekend. They're great. Remind me.

Other than that, this has been a time of much inner reflection. It has been prompted as much by the season, internal winter, a time of reflection, a time to recalibrate, the dreaming seed preparing for the coming light, as it is a natural response to being at loose ends. I am reminded that an inventory of what is, and is not, working in my life is due. One can run on automatic only so long before an overhaul is required. But it's work. All the pieces are on the table for a closer look. Some things have to go. Some priorities need to be bumped up, re-grouped, re-listed, de-listed, some set aside for an even closer look. Not particularly fun but you know what they say about the unexamined life.

Cheap Wine & Poetry

"We should never have named what we buried. We know now it wasn't love." ~ Richard Hugo from Graves.

Last night I attended a reading at Seattle's Richard Hugo House, a Cheap Beer & Prose event hosted by Cheap Wine & Poetry, to quote their blog, "Seattle’s biggest, coolest, hippest reading series." There was a huge turnout. I went alone but met some really nice people who invited me to join them at their table. One had come to read poetry at the open mic following the main event. As it turned out, I read as well. It's wonderful reading to people who actually listen. By the way, the Hugo House is a great place. Next time you are in Seattle, check it out.

Chumming for the dog

Since Baby Thea discovered how much Owen and Uncle Sonny like tasty treats, in this case Baby Os, she has become their new best friend.

Local news at 5:15 PM

A gray white moment coming in the window from the bird park. Smooth snow pocked with claw prints. And mud reappearing covered in tiny black husks. This afternoon, under a bright blue Nevada sky hawk flashed by after a crying bird. Color fading now as inside the room around the monitor grows quietly dark.

Daily Dead Log

TEXAS

The extent of the cruelty and neglect PETA documented in this massive and filthy animal warehouse is mind-boggling. Tens of thousands of animals—including ring-tailed lemurs, wallabies, sloths, hedgehogs, hamsters, guinea pigs, prairie dogs, squirrels, ferrets, snakes, turtles, and tortoises—were dumped into severely crowded and filthy boxes, bins, troughs, and even soda bottles and left there, often without food and water, basic care, or minimal veterinary attention for their life-threatening injuries. The following are a handful of examples they documented of the daily, systemic mistreatment of animals:

• Scared hamsters were crammed by the thousands into litter pans, unable to move for fear of being attacked by other distressed hamsters. These cruel conditions resulted in rampant cannibalism, horrific wounds and infections, and a daily death toll. Faulty watering-system nozzles routinely flooded bins, drowning the animals trapped inside.
  
  
• Delicate green tree frogs were kept inside plastic soda bottles. Denied food and water, the frogs sometimes remained inside these bottles for weeks at a time until they were either sold or died—whichever came first.
  
  
• A young hedgehog (pictured here) who was one of hundreds of little "pocket pets" at the facility was denied basic medical attention after his front leg was nearly severed. Many animals—including a spotted squirrel whose neck was torn in half—were dumped into a chest freezer to die slowly.
  
  
• More than 12,000 baby turtles languished in cardboard boxes for weeks in the facility's warehouse and were deprived of food, water, space, humidity, heat, and ventilation. In just one day, 657 turtles were recorded in the facility's "daily dead log."

For more than seven months, a PETA investigator worked undercover inside U.S. Global Exotics (USGE), a major player in the pet trade. USGE buys and sells hundreds of thousands of mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and arachnids from all around the world, many of whom are eventually sold to large pet store chains PETCO and PetSmart—stores PETA has campaigned against and even won major concessions from over the years. This was the largest cruelty-related seizure of animals ever conducted. It has already affected the global pet trade, and with more hard work, it could change the industry forever.

If you'd like to join the fight against U.S. Global Exotics, and other traffickers in this barbaric trade, consider contributing. I tossed $5 into the can. How about you?

Storms and circuses

One of the many clowns at Reno's Circus Circus casino. I love/hate clowns. This guy in particular caught my attention the other day. The Circus Circus midway is a truly strange place. Macabre.

This little fellow, a midway prize, looked otherworldly amid the garish gloom. Reminds me of the Tarot's Hanged Man reversed which has some interesting meanings.

For instance, there is this interpretation:

Reversed: as the Hanged Man card usually involves sacrifice and insight, the inverse would be a refusal to surrender what needs to be surrendered, or a refusal to see things from a new perspective. In this regard, the reversed card is the assertion of the ego; stubbornness or selfishness. The querent is clinging to whom and what they are - all that they have - refusing to give it up even though the exchange could transform them and help others.

and this one:

The Hanged Man generally shows a life or situation at a crossroads - one with only two options e.g. in or out, up or down, yes or no. This is not a time to attempt to control people, outcomes or situations, it is a time to look critically at yourself and your options, and to be deliberate in your progress. If you don’t know what to do, at all, it’s often a clear signal to do nothing.

Well, much to think about but I am off to Reno today. Big storm coming. Stay warm wherever you are.

Local news at 10:09 AM

Today is the 31st anniversary of my mother's death. We share a tradition on this day, my sister, brother, and I; an email exchange and candles plus whatever goes on in our private thoughts. I included my brother's message below. Seems all three of us dream and redream our childhood home. It's like a haunting but that can be a good thing, I suppose. Or okay anyway.

Today in Seattle the weather was just like it was 31 years ago, that January day - cold with a dirty fog that closing in the city. We put mom in a wheelchair and pushed her around the hospital floor. Which one? The 7th? We stopped at the NW window looking out over 15th st. A very depressing, gray mist pushed up against the window. I distinctly remember feeling embarrassed showing her such things. I told her I loved her and that I would miss her dearly. She just looked out, saying nothing. Moving on, we went back to the room and I lifted her into bed. So light and frail.

The other night I had a dream of biking home to Beaux Arts. I was going up 106th street, the Akin's house to the left, the Wah's to the right, the road was cobble stone with emerald green moss growing and healthy between the stones. I was tired, it was a long ride from my office in Seattle, or wherever I had come from. In dreams you never really know, only the moment, the cobblestone path, and the thought that it was so so long a ride. Soon I would be home. But then I realized the family was not there and I would have to make it a home on my own. It was too far to ride.

One hell of a dream, eh?
Love to both of you.

I'll light a candle tonight.

I posted a new poem on my poetry blog today. I started it awhile ago, I don't know when. I found it in one of my old notebooks. Anyway, I finished it this morning.