Fall City Rain

It's finally raining, the temperature is above freezing, snow is melting and all's right with my little world. Once again, I can give some thought to spring planting with yet another (possibly vain) hope that we might actually have a summer this year. Last summer never happened. It was cool and very wet. From the thirty or forty tomato plants, I managed to get about three tomatoes. The potatoes were okay at first but the rested rotted in the saturated ground. Bring Spring!

Time is a relentless foe

When I was so much younger than I am now, when I could move without pain, when I felt a sparkle of hope in my eye...Those were wondrous years but I was not aware. Time was eroding my body and my mind, relentlessly, and I was not aware. Even now, I don't presume to be fully aware. I do recall, in my youth, writing a little (childish) poem in which I described that youthful period as the time I died. Part of it..."I can't remember who I was, where I went, what I did, I died..." Perhaps I was more aware of the ravages of time, eating away at me, than I knew. Relentless, is the work of time. A foe, indeed. A relentless foe. I could be a Time Traveler. In fact, I am. I travel forward on the straight line or the spiraling arc of time. I can, of course, travel in the opposite direction. Traveling into the past is studying history and lending credence to memories. Otherwise, my time travels go in only one direction. Even though my own time is so limited, without me, it keeps plodding onward and I continue to shed my youth and my self with each passing moment. What is to be done about this? While I have always claimed it's best to leave no trace, I have left traces...sons, grandchildren, stains on the furniture, occasional friends who may remember me...but the traces of my mind, the dreams, the unique experiences of my existence, my real self...those are all encapsulated, never to be available to the rest of humanity, in the clutches of time. I think, as such, it's inevitable that we repeat history and learn so little from its lessons. It's another cold day in Fall City, where the river level is dropping, new snow is falling and the pond is again, mostly frozen over.

Cold

It's still cold here in Fall City. The snow is evaporating but not melting and there's more on the way, anyway. Where is Spring? When can I start planting the garden? This all that matters here and now. We have no ruthless dictator stealing our money, no mercenary army killing and raping the populace, no pirates sailing up and down the river. It's just cold. That's all. 

Today, there's a birthday party designed to celebrate four separate birthdays but it's being held at an elevation of about 1400'. That means far more snow will be there. If I go, I'll probably end up stuck in a snowdrift...again.

More snow

Holy crap! Another 6" of snow fell overnight. This is the fourth time this winter that snow prevented the freeking garbage man from coming!

While I sit here in my sheltered little corner of the world and worry about whether I can make it to the store, an entire other reality continues to play out, elsewhere. What a cushy life I've had! Sometimes, I try to transport my consciousness to other places...where people are crushed by power and money grabbing dictators...where people have little (or no) food or water...where life is a real challenge. Sometimes, I feel I can feel it...but it's just not the same. So...I content myself with my own reality. This is a cushy existence, mine. I apologize to all those, less fortunate.

Gadhafi

If Gadhafi really did order the Lockerbie bombing...isn't that an act of war? Where's the American and British outrage? Where's the retaliation? We seem to have such different standards in so many areas of the world. We turn our heads on the brutality of some while we bomb the living daylights out of others. These shitball countries are all the same. They exploit their own citizens and crush the life right out of women. What of Saudi Arabia? Where is American outrage there? What of Israel crushing anyone who looks cross-eyed at them? We have different standards, depending on what's in it for us (by that, I mean our own politicians and business interests). Let's just maintain an even keel for once and see where that leads us, eh? Besides, doesn't anyone remember the United States Marine hymn? "...to the shores of Tripoli..." Where are all the American Marines now? 

Fall City Snow

Snow and cold. Cold and snow. Even though this little town is at a low elevation and receives far less snow than other areas nearby, it's still coming down and is expected to continue for several more days. I've had it up to here and I'm not going to take it anymore. I think I might get a bonfire going in the yard. That may warm up the lowlands and turn the blasted white stuff into harmless rain. Of course, there's nothing else going on around here except...I was watching two cormorants swimming in the pond across the street. Just a few weeks a go, there were three but one of my neighbors shot the third, less than 150' from where I sat on my deck. Cormorants may or may not be protected from hunters. I don't know. I've read the state hunting regulations and searched through the internet. It just isn't clear if people are allowed to kill cormorants. Most recently, I sent an email to the state wildlife agency, asking about this. (I haven't received a reply yet.) However, I do know that firing off a couple of shotgun blasts within 150' of my house just must be wrong, eh?

Fall City solitude

It's so very difficult to grasp what real life is all about out there...in the real world. Here, the concern is whether or not there might be a flood...or snowstorm...or massive windstorm. These things are rare. Once, every year or so, something like that happens and the little neighborhood huddles together to weather the trying times. What must it be like to face the unending challenges of war, political upheaval, religious persecution, rape, food and water shortages...? So many trials go on each day elsewhere in the world as I sit on the porch, basking in the light of the lamp and contemplate how I'll deal with the snow flurries in the forecast. Life is so fickle. My being as a human might easily have existed in the body of a waif in the Gaza Strip. I may have been a warrior in a distant African tribe attacking and fending off interlopers. I may have been raised in an Orthodox Jewish family, or Mormon, or as a poor Mexican trying to find a better, yet illegal, life in the grand USA. I may have been so many things and yet...I wonder if any of the snow flurries might stick to the road. I wonder if I'll be able to drive to the store for fresh cigarettes...and wine. I don't know what to do or say about all this. However, I do know that my own existence as it is...is all I know. I am truly sorry to have reaped the rewards of a life, free of life-and-death challenges...a life, sheltered from the real world. Indeed, I am sorry to have traveled along a path of soft sod with roses along the side for my pleasure...while so many others suffer. What's to be done? What's to be thought as I look outward and upward, and the flakes of snow fall gently upon my knees? I suppose I can only hope I used my wondrous time with ample appreciation...and maybe give something of value back to those in need and those less fortunate. That's what's happening today in Fall City.