Page a day: Ikkyu

Sweet Pea in her new water vest.
(A humorous take on Ikkyu)

I'm alive! right? don't we say that?
we don't see the bones we walk on
--Ikkyu

Going on a trip

Have you ever noticed that when you are planning to go on a trip, things start piling up? Just like today. I am applying for a residency. I have to print out several documents and in the middle of things, I ran out of black ink and don't have a replacement.

And Allen took something out of the library that is now overdue, except we can't find it and he has no idea what it is: It has "seagull" in the title, the library says. Seagull?

And Buddha and Sweet Pea got their shots at the vet, but now we find out that Sweet Pea must get a booster shot on the road in four weeks.

Have I mentioned that we are going West? That I hope to continue my writing practice on the road?

Haiku #98

Outside--
Dog prints in the snow!
How lucky.

Provincetown 23

Walking Buddha and Sweet Pea on the Beach at P-Town

This is just a quick video of me walking Buddha and Sweet Pea on the Beach here in P-Town. The video was shot in the early evening. Of course the pups went home with Allen at the end of the first week.

5/50

1. It feels strange to say that the first week of Spring semester is over and a new week is about to begin.
2. After a lot of talking and looking, Allen and I have bought a music keyboard. We had to drive up to Ann Arbor to get the one we wanted.*
3. I haven't had music lessons in over 40 years. Rusty isn't the word for where I am right now. But I got some refresher-books and have been practicing a little each day.
4. I am interested in how the two stories "Hills Like White Elephants" and "The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World" shed light on each other.
5. It's going to get very cold and snow this week.
6. Allen is going to take Sweet Pea to the vet in the morning. We are having her spayed. I hate to think about how alone and afraid she is going to feel. I will be glad when she is home and safe.

*We got a Yamaha keyboard. It is YPG 625. (Yamaha Portable Grand, model 625.) It has a full keyboard with weighted keys. It came with a stand and bench.

Being a mattress

Allen said that last night he dreamed he was an old mattress with broken springs and that the dogs were jumping on him and he couldn't move or do anything about it.

I said, "You did not!"

He said, "I did, too!"

So apparently he did dream it.

My Yard, Three Views. View #3

Buddha (L) and Sweet Pea (R) on the swinging bench where Allen and I have our coffee in the mornings and look out over my flower garden.

Dogs. My parents and brothers had an unexplained disgust for dogs. They never had one, and whenever they saw one they grimaced and said unpleasant things. So I grew up at a distance from these animals, distrusting and fearing them. Allen and I got Buddha in 2005. Allen loves Boston Terriers, he'd had one when he was child. I was content to sit back and watch Allen and Buddha bond, not wanting to get that close. I didn't know how to act around a dog, how to approach a dog, play with a dog. When Sweet Pea came to us in May I had no intentions of things turning out any differently. I grew up with cats, and I love their independence. Allen says I have the temperament of cat: private, possessive, solitary. But when Allen had to go away for a week and I was left to tend Buddha and Sweet Pea, something happened. Sweet Pea bonded with me. She follows me everywhere and cries when I leave. She wants to sit at my feet, lie with me when I rest. This situation has caused me to think deeply about bonding and communication. I love quiet and I love being alone. Sweet Pea's demands on me have caused me to readjust my thinking. When I'm away from her, I find myself thinking about her and looking forward to our reunion. I think wistfully of her face, the black patch over one eye, white patch over the other, how her cheeks puff with air. I think of her pink belly, which is so soft and makes me think of a human baby.