Storm Poem

It's not much, but better than nothing:

Storm upsets the cedar
dark branches frantic
but down the street the palm
dances, waving jazz hands

I've been walking around with the palm fronds as jazz hand image for a while. It's good to get it out there.

Other random things:

As you may have guessed, it's been raining. A lot, way more than usual. It's good, I know, but I'm ready for a break. It's been especially good for the settling peach trees, I'm sure. As you can see from the photo, they're not dead! They have shifted a bit, so don't seem quite straight--M and I will try to stake them differently, once the weather lets up. I think we lost the vines, however. It's possible that I've been successful in rooting shoots from the Mr. Lincoln rootstock, so we might have roses to replace them with in the fall--that rootstock is very vigorous and when I haven't had the heart to cut them back right away, it's produced sprays of lovely small red blooms.

I leave for a show in San Francisco tomorrow morning, returning on Thursday. I'll also be doing a lot of traveling the last two weeks of April: twice to Santa Clara for conferences, plus Wilbur, Portland, and maybe a trip up to Manchester if Kamala comes. M's mom is also coming for a quick visit during that time. I'm looking forward to most of the travel, but I'll be happy exactly a month from now when I'll get to be home for a bit, hopefully in drier weather. Oh, and M's having the screws removed from a previous knee surgery on April 11. This is in preparation for a total replacement in a year or two. So much going on.

There are other things too. Part of my life is conspiring to keep a low level of anger simmering constantly, and I'm just going to have deal with it for a while longer. On the bright side, I'm letting off its steam in indirect ways that could be construed as constructive. I was not just a silent unhappy customer in Best Buy last weekend, I actually expressed myself, something I rarely do--though it didn't get me anywhere. And in Zumba class on Monday, rather than stewing yet again about the person who ignores the posted sign and interrupts our cool-down by coming into class and moving out equipment for another class she's leading--and not just a couple of things, but a stationary bike, bozu balls, etc.--I actually asked her (nicely) to please stop and she sort of did.

Stewing, simmering--I must be hungry. M is making me a pancake, so must ring off. (Did I mention he picked up a crockpot at the thrift store a couple of weeks ago and we're exploring the culinary world of slow cooking? Tonight we'll try scalloped potatoes.)