If this was a week's vacation instead of two, at the time I type this sentence (7:07 AM EST, Saturday July 23rd), if we left the house at 5AM, we'd be approaching the Maine - New Hampshire border on our 102 to 3 to 1A to 95 to 495 to 290 to 90 to 84 to 81 to 83 to 695 to 95 to 495 journey home. I do not miss work, I look forward to seven more days of hikes and sunsets w L, I do miss our house, cats, and I will not miss once home the sun breaching my bedroom's windows despite sturdy window blinds at five in the morning here, my clock is sideways
I have not touched my paints and have no plans to currently (and no plans NOT to currently). Tablet getting worked but disordered and scrambled, coherent but disconnected one paragraph from the next. When Biden dies of covid tomorrow who does Harris name as her VPOTUS and imagine the noise. I don't know how much is me now versus Maine now as compared to me then and Michigan then a month ago, but the percentage of white males' pick-up trucks in Maine that have Flag Punisher bumperstickers and decals far higher than Michigan, and the hate radiating from locals towards the tourists whose tax dollars float the local economy far more prevalent and open. One guy I disced with on Thursday said locals like to pass cars with out-of-state tags (especially Subarus) then slam on the brakes and crawl as a Fuck You! and I've had it done once though we're in L's Mazda. I had no plans to link-farm on vacation (and had - and have - no plans to NOT link-farm on vacation, I haven't yet and am not today). I currently have no plans to make any plans about anything this vacation (and no plans NOT to). Excellent but strangest vacation ever, I'm happier than sideways but more sideways than normal and not just because it sucks to be woken at 5AM. The evening light here though, this from last night's sunset too
This is a live post until I abandon it unless I've abandoned it already. I didn't forget - Brian May turned 75 on the 19th, this is the greatest Queen song ever, fight me
1/that's a photo of a beautiful place and time
ReplyDelete2/today, a representative place in maine - Day length: 15 hours, 3 minutes
2.5/today, a representative place in montgomery county, maryland - Day length: 14 hours, 30 minutes
2.75/ sunrise in the place in maine is an hour earlier - no doubt due to its more easterly location
3/and speaking of cars this week i spent $1100 on repairing my car - after doing so i wondered what it might be worth and it turns out carmax would give me $600 for it - i will probably keep it for now, maybe get a new one next year - i would like a fully loaded mazda cx-5 but recently have decided to get it in white instead of red - but time will tell if this comes to pass - as john lennon was not the first to note, life is what happens to us while we make other plans
https://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/05/06/other-plans/
4/while at the car place during the major repairs this week i read approximately the first half of a book blurbed like this:
"At thirty-six years old, Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche was a rising star within his generation of Tibetan masters and the respected abbot of three monasteries. Then one night, telling no one, he slipped out of his monastery in India with the intention of spending the next four years on a wandering retreat, following the ancient practice of holy mendicants. His goal was to throw off his titles and roles in order to explore the deepest aspects of his being.
He immediately discovered that a lifetime of Buddhist education and practice had not prepared him to deal with dirty fellow travelers or the screeching of a railway car. He found he was too attached to his identity as a monk to remove his robes right away or to sleep on the Varanasi station floor, and instead paid for a bed in a cheap hostel. But when he ran out of money, he began his life as an itinerant beggar in earnest. Soon he became deathly ill from food poisoning—and his journey took a startling turn. His meditation practice had prepared him to face death, and now he had the opportunity to test the strength of his training.
In this powerful and unusually candid account of the inner life of a Buddhist master, Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche offers us the invaluable lessons he learned from his near-death experience. By sharing with readers the meditation practices that sustain him, he shows us how we can transform our fear of dying into joyful living."
i haven't gotten to the food poisoning part yet
Beautiful
ReplyDeletei agree, anonymous - "all dead, all dead", written and sung by brian may, is indeed beautiful
Deleteas i am not familiar with all or even most of their oeuvre, i am not in a position to affirm or dispute our host's assertion that this is the greatest Queen song ever
i can point to an informative and perceptive discussion of the song, and of the record cover art
https://explodedqueen.wordpress.com/2016/04/19/all-dead-all-dead/