Tuesday, December 29, 2020

let it snow, let it snow, let it stop!

weather said it would be snowing, but i didn´t believe it. then overnight it dumped!







it´s so beautiful at first... then... CABIN FEVER!!! i went to town to mail gifts i forgot to get in people´s hands. the post office was overrun with happy snow bunnies, cheering, whooping, laughing, slipping, throwing snowballs, sledding. it´s a nice phenomenon tho makes it hell using our local highway as the population of southern california converges here for a bit of snow play!

as you can see, i took penny out for a snow hike. i love the hush of snow, the crisp of boots crunching through it, the freezing nose. i took off my fogged-up glasses & my eyes burned with bright! then the lyrics of hoyt axton´s snowblind friend. then a gasp of tears. ¨he said he wanted heaven, but praying was too slow.¨ damn! hoy axton was a genius! he encapsulated the tragedy in 13 syllables! thoughts of those people who´ve died due to drugs flooded me; it was time to change thought stream or go down, down, down in misery.

that quickly, it was back to the moment, the beautiful moment! then home, now here, the next morn, dad at the surgeon, mom at home, james in the bed, pets sleeping, my old friend dan on the phone, talking sobriety, buddhism, life life life...

this is it.

Wednesday, December 23, 2020

whoosh! swoosh! smooch!

 the wind is gusting and whooshing outside & james & his friend jeff are bellowing & laughing away in the basement below my feet! itś a happy day so far. we just returned from trip to central coast w/mom, dad, angie, doug, & maddy niece. i just ate the remains of sourdough with clam chowder scraped out from days ago restaurant, which i don´t know was the best idea bc food poisoning would sure end the happy day!

he just came in announcing he & jeff will go to the post office. we should have a buttload of gifts coming that i need to wrap. i hope everything´s there!

today we´re supposed to play & record some holiday music to put online, but the way the day´s looking, i don´t know if it will happen, but that´s ok...

so the wind is whooshing & gusting & itś a good day & on vacation preacher doug, my dear bro-in-law who could be called ahmed the arab trader, got us a house with panoramic ocean view in trade for work he´d done. iḿ constantly impressed by his ability to swing a deal. and he does it in pursuit of good deeds, which is what makes it awesome. we mostly sat around & talked & cooked & ate, colored on a xmas table cloth angie bought, they did a puzzle, we watched movies, read some, i went for jogs up & down the steep, steep hill, swoosh!, including straight up this hill i´d spied earlier & said i wouldn´t jog on, but there i went! sister & i took one little jaunt to the top of the hill together, which was very nice. & we all went to thrift shops where i got quirky gifts, & mama told stories remembering visiting pismo with family in little bungalows that used to line the beach, $59 for the week, grandpa & mr goodman surfing, aunt rita & mrs goodman digging clams & eating them raw, mama & uncle ralphy exploring the caves, so it was a nice time. here's a pic i love. james said, ¨i look so happy!¨ i love that man so much. dad told james, ¨i´ve never seen my daughter so happy.¨ life is good, in spite of its troubles.

Saturday, December 12, 2020

blablablablablablablablabla

was sposed to go to bakersfield for momś sister´s 80th bd, but we are having 50mph gusts & i know that means itś likely the grapevine will go down due to chp closure or accident. the grapevine cyn, part of the I-5 artery, creates a massive wind tunnel vulnerable to fire & hazardous driving conditions. if i can´t get back, the animals will be alone since james is heading w/bro doug down to the border for mission tijuana toys. (i was gonna call doug about the wind, but nothing´ll stop him so there´s no point.) every yr doug brings a panel truck of toys to a tijuana church for distribution to local kids. james as co-pilot means they will have a great fun day of eating, bellowing, laughing, crying, caffeine consumption, smoking, & speeding that will lead straight into the late night. they will have a grand time but meantime someone´s gotta make sure penny & peewee pets aren´t left home all alone after hours. so iḿ staying here.

which is fine bc i´ve got plenty to do as well as extra allure of the storm sky show at the picture window here. it really captivates. 

called my aunt to tell her i wouldn´t be there & heard a crazy story. their dad, our grandpa, was a smart, depressed, grouchy, carob-skinned man of south american descent. i mostly remember him sitting glumly in his chair in the living room watching ball games & yelling at us kids as we stole sips from his ice tea glass. i always figured he was how he was bc he longed to be white, but my aunt said this: grandpa had been in the civilian conservation corp in early fdr days & was trapped in a forest fire in the sequoias. she said ¨they had an indian man who was helping them¨ and he told them all the only way they´d survive would be to strip off all clothes, including underwear & shoes, & run like hell through the flames to escape. only the guide, grandpa, & one other guy did it; the others stayed back & perished. all the hair on grandpa´s body was burned off & he spent weeks in a hospital near san francisco. so there might´ve been another reason our grandpa was so somber: trauma.

addendum: woke with a start in the middle of the night: our dear grandma, who put up with grandpa´s bad behavior for over 60 years, also was blunted by a horrifying tragedy. i think iḿ relating all of this because it helps support the idea that ¨if i knew all, i would forgive all.¨ ... or understand all. life is, after all, a path of uncovering, discovering, discarding, trudging, repeat...

there is little to forgive grandma for; we in the family joke that she was a saint to live with grandpa all those years. her family is native american, californianos due to their juaneno blood. as a young, beautiful girl, she & her sisters were outfitted in roaring 20s finery by a loving father. one day (was this in redondo beach? certainly not delano) she & her best sister margaret were out riding around in a truck with a boy when a jealous, spurned suitor of margaret´s, or maybe just a maniac someone who liked her but she didn´t like,  pulled up to the truck & fired into the window, killing margaret with one blast. our grandma was sitting in the truck right beside her sister when she was murdered.

so both of mama´s parents, i now know, were altered by trauma. that side of the family´s tradition of deep depression, anxiety, addictions, suicides now sadly makes a lot of sense. 

i made nyc take-out breakfast for james & i as the wind roared outside: everything bagel topped with cheddar & eggs. it was ultra-savory, a gut bomb, but that´s good bc won´t have to worry for some time about eating again.

well, i wanted to write to share the following recipe, but as usual a bunch of other stuff came out, so here finally is the recipe:

allergy & arthritis relief cocktail (i don´t really know if it works, but the individual ingredients are reported to, so all together should be even better, right?)

cup of cold tea for base (i used our homemade kombucha)

1/3 T turmeric + dash of pepper, which makes the turmeric bio-available

1/3 T ginger

dash of cayenne

dash of lemon

apple cider vinegar

one shot immediately clears my sinuses. i like to think it helps with reducing inflammation tho my neck still hurts like a mudderhumper.

ok, thatś all for now, be grateful, be well, remember to stretch & smile.

Wednesday, December 02, 2020

blablablablablablabla

 everything hurts! arthritis is caca. this morning my thumb kept popping painfully, but after i did a few sun salutations, it stopped. then i took my anti-inflammation cocktail & wrapped my foot with kt tape and felt a bit better overall, in the neck, shoulder, hands, ankles...

as mama says, everyone has their turn. itś my turn now. sister bee used to say we all have to take our lumps. 

james and i likely will both end up with arthritis due to the different ways we´ve roughed up our bodies over the yrs, so at least weĺl take our lumps together. it likely will force us to have to make better life choices, especially with moderating food & exercise...

oh! i feel so much better. my sponsor just called. i was wondering what happened to her bc we had a meeting & she didn´t make it. she is very honest & told me she simply had forgotten. i like that candor. it keeps things so much simpler, being honest.

well, thatś it for now... below are indigenous ppls turkey day pix