copacetic

Finished writing my Harry Potter song yesterday. 'Twas fun writing it, though it started out as a serious lyric. My songs tend to do that a lot...start out as one thing, and then start twisting themselves around. :-)


Jeff and I hiked to Rainbow Lake yesterday afternoon. Very pretty; I opted to snooze in the sun while Jeff went on an exploratory bushwhacking expedition to a nearby campsite. We got back to the cottage at around 5 pm, had a sauna, and I took a shower. Jeff installed a new showerhead on the same day that he activated the water system. Here's me enjoying the outdoor shower. Outdoor showers are wonderful, but at this time of year it's somewhat of an acrobatic act, especially if it's breezy -- you tend to jump around a bit to stay in the hot spray...it's COLD in the open air! :-)









I woke up at about 5 a.m. this morning, sat on the dock to watch the sunrise. UNBELIEVEABLE how noisy it is at that time of day. Well, perhaps "noise" isn't the right term. It sounded like a zillion lovesick loons were calling to each other across all the lakes in the park. A duck obviously felt he had to join in as well, and his call was a clearly defined "QUACK". It was sort of funny, actually, how much it really sounded like the word "QUACK", as if a very good duck hunter was giving the call (though I couldn't help feeling sorry for him, because no other ducks were answering). Other voices joining the morning cacaphony included owls, nuthatches, ruffed grouse, and an assortment of songbirds. I half-expected Jeff to stumble sleepily out of our cabin, complaining about the noise.


And then at precisely 5:12 a.m., almost as if on cue, the morning choir stopped. Or at least most of them did; the songbirds remained (sounded rather smug about the fact, too). Maybe the others found something else to do. I'm curious about whether this timing remains consistent every morning. The sun finally peeked over the trees at around 6 a.m.


One thing that I love about early morning is watching the light change. The light at 5 a.m. (moonlight edged by a hint of impending sunrise) makes everything look and feel much different than an hour later. It's amazing; everyone has to try it at least once in their life. Morning people have a slight edge over night people in this case. :-)







Today's Blatherpics:


- Snoozing at Rainbow Lake. I put my windbreaker over my head to keep the sun out of my eyes and the bugs out of my face.


-Jeff spotted this garter snake on the trail.


- These wet footprints were on the steps coming up from the dock at 5 a.m. My guess is a raccoon.


Poll:

Have you ever gotten up early specifically to watch the sunrise?

to the moon and back

LOTR updated

A wonderfully gloomy and drizzly day yesterday. Wonderful because the weather provided incentive for me to stay inside and work on my article...which is pretty much finished, yay!! Just need to proofread it before sending it off. Jeff and I both spent yesterday indoors, working and reading and eating and playing music. It was an "apart but together" sort of day, where both of us spent most of the day in the same room together but were absorbed in our own activities.


After I finished working on my article, I took out my guitar and did some practising. I've been going through "Chords & Progressions for Jazz and Popular Guitar" by Arnie Berle (Amsco Publications, 1986). I'm still working on barre chords, and have been going over and over a few exercises in the book involving several widely used chord progressions, going through all the major keys. The point of the exercise is to develop some facility in playing the chords all over the fingerboard and avoiding making jumps from chord to chord.


At first it was absolutely agonizing...it took me eons to figure out which of the two barre forms of each chord should be used (or if the regular open chord was more appropriate), and where they were. And it's -still- somewhat agonizing, but not as much. It only takes me days to figure out the barre chords now instead of eons. :-)


Pretty liberating feeling, though, not being restricted to the first three frets. For you non-guitar people, an analogy would be having a top-of-the-line computer and a DSL connection, but using it only for word processing. Fine for some, but others may want to check out the Internet. :-)















Hey, apparently there's a new version of Into My Mother's Arms (author Sharon Jennings, my sister was the illustrator) on bookshelves as part of a Mother's Day promotion. The book has been packaged with a Mother's Day card inside, and the card has one of Ruth's illustrations from the story (a mother brushing her daughter's hair). I WANT A COPY!!!


And finally, here's a recent Sara/Annie conversation overheard by my sister:



Sara and Annie are playing in Annie's room. Annie is listening to her music doll chime "You Are My Sunshine". It is making her sad, so Sara sings it to her in a cheery way.



Sara: "Is that better, Annie?"


Annie: "Sara, I love you to the moon....and back."


Sara: "I love you too, Annie."


Annie: "To the moon and back?"


Sara: "Forever, Annie."



Today's Blatherpics:

In the boathouse, doing some songwriting.

Emma Powell.

Jeff driving the boat.


Poll:

On average, do you spend more than 40 hours a week online?

bushwhacking

Comic updated yesterday

Allison reports that her Filk Forte column has been updated. "The new topic is literary filksongs. Has any book ever inspired you to write a song about it? Has any literary filksong inspired you to read the source book? What are your favorite literary filksongs? (and non-filksongs)."


Jeff and I have settled into a day-to-day routine at the cottage. Yesterday was a typical example:

6:30 am

Despite all attempts to sleep in, I wake up. Carefully get out of bed and get dressed, trying to be as quiet as possible so I don't wake up Jeff. Accidentally drop book or knock over insect repellent and wake Jeff. He grumbles a bit but then goes back to sleep.

6:35 am

Go down to boathouse. Start fire to warm up cabin. Boil water for tea. Have breakfast...sometimes eggs and peameal bacon, usually instant oatmeal and some fruit. Eat breakfast in front of the fire while reading some LOTR.

7:00 am

Clean up. Restock firewood in cabin if necessary. Work on Blatherings.

7:30 am

Get online and upload Blatherings. Pick up e-mail. Check fave sites.

8:00 am

Work on Writer's Digest article.

8:02 am

Make some more tea, put another log on the fire, fuss about in kitchen some more. Discover that a mouse has managed to infiltrate the mouse-proof storage cupboard. Clean up mess.

8:23 am

Work some more on Writer's Digest article.

8:27 am

Notice how absolutely gorgeous it is outside. Make another cup of tea and go outside to sit on the dock in the sunshine with copy of LOTR. End up dozing a bit in the deck chair.

9:45 am

Work some more on Writer's Digest article, this time putting on a CD, thinking that some background music will help concentration. Make the mistake of selecting Ookla The Mok's new album, "Smell No Evil". End up listening to the CD more than writing.

10:11 am

Get on online and send Rand some e-mail commenting on one of the tracks. Am distracted by Randall The Lone Seagull floating out in the lake near our dock, looking wistful. Go outside and throw some crusts of bread at Randall. Tell Randall that he needs to go find himself a lady seagull and make some babies. Jeff, who has just woken up and has come up behind me on the deck, asks me why I'm talking to a seagull. I tell him I'm doing some research for a children's book. He goes inside.

10:48 am

Am distracted by how absolutely gorgeous it is outside. Sit on the dock and watch the waves. Sound of water lapping against dock is very soothing.

11:21 am

Decide to go back to sleeping cabin and take a nap.

1:15 pm

Wake up from nap. Go down to boathouse, where Jeff is on the couch reading a book. Have lunch together, plan hiking route for that afternoon.

2:00 pm

Go for hike.

5:34 pm

Get back from hike. Have sauna, wash up.

5:55 pm

Take nap.

7:15 pm

Wake from nap. Jeff cooks dinner, I clean up.

9:20 pm

Add more logs to fire. Jeff reads on couch and does some e-mail. I do some practising on guitar, play on computer offline (either work on comic strip or play with Flash), resolve to do lots of work on article next day.

11:30 pm

Bedtime.

Today, however, it is cloudy and drizzly outside, so it won't be as hard to stay indoors. I am determined to do major work on my article today, no excuses. (!) Report on my progress tomorrow.


Jeff and I decided to hike to Drummer Lake yesterday. Unlike previous hikes, this one was completely off the beaten path and involved bushwhacking. A LOT of bushwhacking. Most of our route went through what used to be a logging area, which meant that most of the larger trees were gone, resulting in a thick undergrowth of young trees and plants flourishing in the open space. Hiking through this stuff was tedious; it reminded me of that scene in Walt Disney's animated Snow White movie, when the heroine was running through the forest, with branches catching at her clothes and hair at every step.


Plus it was very buggy. Swarms of blackflies followed us everywhere...even though they weren't biting yet, they were darned annoying. The combination of the insects and tedious bushwhacking were daunting, and we decided to turn back after two hours.


Jeff figured out where to go by means of a topological map and a compass. I was pretty impressed, not having been particularly good during orienteering lessons back in grade school. It would be SO easy to get lost in the woods, where everything pretty much looks the same. On a cloudy day (with no sun to use as a direction reference), this would be even more of a problem if you didn't have other navigational aids.


And then of course I had to wonder what I would do if Jeff suddenly keeled over from a heart attack, or broke his ankle, or was eaten by a bear, etc. How would I find my way back to find help? So I asked, and Jeff gave me a quickie orienteering lesson with map and compass. Basically, I'd head for the lake where our cottage is situated. Once I find the shore, then I could just follow it until I found help. Finding the lake would be important, else I'd risk wandering off into the park interior, and that would definitely Not Be A Good Thing.


I've rambled on long enough today, and it's time to put another log on the fire and get back to working on my article. After a short nap, maybe...?


Today's Blatherpics:

Map of our hiking route yesterday. (prepared by Jeff)

Example of the kind of underbrush we had to push our way through for most of the hike.




Poll:

On average, do you spend more than 15 hours a week online?

on display topic: "homesick"

*"Life In A Nutshell" comic updated*

This our seventh day at the cottage...time's going by way too fast. Still, we've had more time alone here this visit than we've had in a very long time (hey, when we came here for our honeymoon we only had three days by ourselves :-)). Jeff and I went for another hike yesterday, this time near Joe Lake. On the way to our starting point, we met our friends Willi and Shirley Powell, with their kids, Emma and Spencer. Emma was a newborn last time I saw her, so it was a bit of a jolt to see her helping paddle their canoe (granted, with a smaller paddle) and talking.


I've updated my Reading Lord of the Rings - A Final Attempt log, for those interested. Thanks to Cory Doctorow for mentioning my log in BoingBoing. And hey, a reporter for the Sunday Herald Sun (Melbourne, Australia, circ: 530,000) just interviewed me for an article about my LOTR project for this weekend's paper. He said he's finding it pretty entertaining and confesses he's had a lifelong aversion to LOTR himself. :-)









Today's entry is written for On Display, a group of online journalists who collaborate in writing projects. This month's theme is "moods", and we each had to pick a mood to write about. I chose homesickness, figuring I could write about what it was like in Philly, when I lived away from husband, family, and friends.


But then I realized that what I went through was nothing compared to homesickness experienced by some others, like my mother. It's her birthday today (she died over ten years ago, from cancer).


When I was very young, I remember asking Mom where she first met my Dad. Her answer confused me somewhat: "At the airport", but I figured that maybe they had run into each other while waiting for flights. It was only years later that I discovered that when Mom actually met my father in person at the airport, it was because she had flown to Canada from Japan to marry him. A missionary had introduced them as penpals, and they had talked many times on the phone as well as corresponding...but had never met in person.


Mom died before I thought to have any meaningful conversations with her about how she felt, leaving everything familiar behind her, to a country whose people spoke a different language, had different customs. How difficult it must have been to say good-bye to her family and friends, not knowing when she would see them again.


As our middle-income family grew larger, I suspect that flights to Japan fell low on the priority list. We went on family trips instead, driving across Canada to see the Rockies, down to Florida to visit Key West. They were wonderful vacations contributing to happy childhood memories, and I would like to believe the closeness our family shared helped Mom cope with how much she must have missed her own family.


Mom visited Japan only once after she moved here, and that was for her own mother's funeral. That must have been such a bittersweet homecoming.


We children were oblivious, of course (or at least I was). I don't remember anything about her going away except that she brought presents for us when she came home from Japan. Sigh.


As an adult, I appreciate much more what she must have gone through, and how much she must have loved my father to make the choice that she did.









Today's Blatherpics:

My mom with (from left to right) me, Jim, and Ruth.

Willi, Spencer, Emma, and Shirley.

Me, in the boat on the way back from our hike yesterday.


Poll:

Do you tend to put salt on your meal before tasting your food first?

reflection

Wow, pretty cold this morning; I can see my breath as I type this. Thermometer read -2 Celsius at 6:30 a.m. (!) The lake was gorgeous, mirror-smooth (see above photo), mist drifting across the surface. I just sat out there for a while, absorbing the quiet. When I got too cold, I went inside and lit a fire. And HEY, I managed to start a fire without any matches. Any guesses how?


Early mornings are my favourite time at the cottage. Peace and quiet are something I've come to greatly value these days. :-) As much as I love the city, it's a remarkable thing to be able to sit somewhere and not be able to hear traffic noises, people talking, doors slamming.


Jeff put in the water system yesterday. There was a minor crisis when he discovered a hole in the foot valve pump thingy, but then found an extra one in the storage room.









I worked on my article in the morning, and then we went on the Track and Tower hiking trail in the park. It was a 3.5 hr outing, and we walked about 8 km. Lots of rocky bits and climbs; 'twas a good workout. We're both trying to break in our new hiking boots in prep for out 10-day Killarney hiking trip with Alison and Jeff later this summer.


We ran into my cousin on the trail (!). He was out with his friend Rob, nephew Brendan, and Rob's nephew. It was somewhat surreal...we heard a "hi!" from ahead. I looked up and remember thinking, "Hey, that looks a lot like my cousin Andrew." Then, "Hey, that IS my cousin Andrew!" Another surprise on the trail was coming across patches of ice, still left from the winter.


Made pizza last night, using bread dough and some leftover spaghetti sauce.

Doing lots of guitar-playing, and even some songwriting :-) I miss my harp, though. :-(


The corporate world seems very far away. It's sort of weird...my whole time in Philadelphia seems like a lifetime ago. This time at the cottage is definitely helping to ground me again. I went for a long time feeling as if I was trying to walk on one of those trick floors made of panels that kept shifting around; every time I figured I had found my footing, it was pulled out from under me again.


It's good to be home. :-)












Today's Blatherpics:

My reflection in the lake this morning.

Jeff and me on the Track and Tower hiking trail.

Andrew, Rob, Brendan, Rob's nephew.


Poll:

Did you have a happy childhood?