kmkat and her kneedles

Muttering through Mother's Day.

1. 537 :: is more than 400
2. Horizon :: line.
3. Episode :: seizure.
4. Character :: -driven.
5. Crossed :: town bus.
6. Shipping :: charges.
7. Jump :: Whoopee Goldberg.
8. Bowling :: Lebowski.
9. Grumpy :: Old Men.
10. Them :: Us.

 

I celebrated my own Mother's Day yesterday -- spent pretty much the entire day in my recliner reading, watching Netflix, drinking coffee/soda/wine (as the day progressed), and knitting. This is Smokey's weekend to work (always with the night shifts) so when he is home he is tucked up in his bed with two dogs and a cat and a box fan for white noise. Today I might be productive. Hard to say, really. 

 

Reading: 
A few weeks ago I read a piece in The Nation by Deborah Kopaken Kagan about her experiences as a woman author and how she was demeaned by the publishing industry. I was so inspired/enraged by her experience I clicked over to bn.com and bought all four of her books to read on my iPad. (I also clicked over to her website and sent her an email telling her what I did; she emailed back that it made her cry.) Anyhow, I want to recommend her books. She came from an ordinary middle-class background, graduated from Harvard, moved to Paris, worked as a photojournalist covering a lot of gritty stuff (ex., she went into Afghanistan alone during the Soviet-Afghan war), eventually married, had three kids, started to write. The woman has lived more in her 40-odd years than a dozen other other people put together. I highly recommend her books, especially Shutterbabe (memoir) and The Red Book (fiction). Her collection of essays, Hell Is Other Parents, is pretty damned good, too.

Yesterday's book was Odds Against Tomorrow by Nathaniel Rich. I had read the first 60+ pages in fits and starts and was not particularly engaged by it, but yesterday I decided to give it a chance to pull me in. Which it did, in spades. Protagonist is a quant who specializes in the odds of disasters; the 3-person consulting firm he works for makes him rich. Then a real mega-disaster hits New York City -- essentially Hurricane Sandy plus Katrina -- and his life changes. Some of the scenes were lifted straight out of the news stories of Katrina. Good book, four out of five stars.

Last night I startd NOS4A2 by Joe Hill. Creepy as hell, that one. I follow the author on Twitter. He is currently on tour for the book and every day posts photos of readers attempting to kill him in various ways.

 

Knitting:
I am enjoying having several projects to hand at all times. A hat, a pair of socks, the top-down set-in sleeve sweater, a scarf of the same yarn as the hat. They are strewn about my chair in various stages of doneness. When I sit down there is the delicious feeling of What shall I pick up this time? Project monogamy, begone!

Stuff:
Remember the humungous external hard drive? I have moved most of my data files over to it and gone into my most-often used programs to direct them to that drive for files. Two programs have me stumped, though: Excel and iPhoto. I can deal with the former, but iPhoto is being a bugger. I have searched through all its menus and preferences and cannot find a place to tell it where to store its files. My internal 160GB hard drive has 76GB of photos. It would be nice to get them all moved and backed up. All suggestions welcome. (I started to email Younger Son yesterday to ask him but got distracted, had to reboot, lost the email, yada yada. So I'm asking y'all.) 

No photos popped into my head to illustrate today's post. Here, in honor of Mother's Day, is a gratuitous one from 1984 of me being a mom to Elder Son.

42. It's another name for random.

Look at this message I found in my Ravelry inbox yesterday morning:

Is that awesome or is that awesome! I immediately sent her a reply that blathered on about how much I like that book.

* * * * *

Took the Jeopardy qualifying online test last night. 42 was not the answer.

* * * * *

I just looked out the window and DA YEEP IS WORKING! Smokey is currently plowing the driveway, which had not been plowed* since before Thanksgiving. Every time he went out to attempt to plow there was something else wrong with Da Yeep. (This is what happens when a 20-yo vehicle sits for six months. He was never able to get it really ready for winter because of his back surgery/recovery and all the other tasks that got postponed because of it.) But now the battery and the electrical cables and the accelerator cable and who remembers what else are apparently all functional.

As much as I love where I live, I (and we) curse certain parts of it every winter, mainly the hill that is the driveway.

* * * * *

Hip surgery has officially been postponed and is tentatively scheduled for Monday, April 22. Thanks for all your good wishes and kind thoughts and thoughtful opinions. The majority seemed to favor waiting until all the snow and ice are gone, which will make recovery and the required rehab exercise easier. (A good friend likened the surgery to having a baby. She said, "I had one baby in January and one in May, and the May one was waaayyy easier because we could get outside." Having had a December and a May baby myself, I found that thought to be absolutely true.) Those who are even slightly familiar with taxes also thought that skipping a tax season was not the best option.

If I could do whatever I wanted with no thought to consequences, I'd have the surgery ASAP. But I am being an adult about this. 

In the meantime, my PA put in an order for two cortisone injections to keep me relatively pain-free and mobile for the next three months. First one is next Tuesday.

* * * * *

Have I bored you yet? I am always a little surprised when bloggers talk about the details of their life being boring. I find such minutiae of others to be a way of connecting with their lives. We all experience some of the same things, but some stuff is unique to each of us. 

But if minutiae bores you, you probably stopped reading this blog a long time ago.

 

* The ever-helpful folks at Typepad suggest other Typepad blog posts that may be related to what one types in their post. Apparently my reference to plowing caught their attention. This is what they thought you might find interesting:

Related articles

The Art of Plowing

Crud and those who have it much worse and some other stuff.

Smokey backed my car into a hole next to the driveway a couple days ago (coulda happened to anyone). We spent a bit of time this afternoon getting it out. Da Yeep is broken, his 4WD Subaru tried but couldn't do it. A neighbor with a 4WD pickup happened by (what a delightful coincidence!) and pulled it out. As I was watching them I wished I had a camera -- blog fodder! Then I remembered I had my iPod in my pocket.

Here is what I tweeted.

It took a number of tries and an additional, longer tow rope to allow the pickup to be farther up the driverway on the flat part instead of on the hill. But my car is now free.

* * * * *

I have a cold. Later I will call the hospital and try to find out if this URI crud so bad that they will have to postpone the surgery. I do not have much hope that I will be able to get a definitive answer on a Sunday. So we will have to get up @ 4:30 am on Monday to get to the hospital by 6 am, the time I was told to be there. And perhaps end up driving back home.

Crap.

* * * * *

Read this blog post and the comments.

It is hard for me to believe there is so much hatred in the world, in this country, in high schools, on the internet, everywhere. My life is filled with love and it seems that the blogs I read reflect a similar condition in others' lives. How terrible not to have that love, only hatred.

Pondering.

* * * * *

Seen on Twitter (wait for it).  

Ramblings.

My hip replacement surgery is scheduled for Monday, January 7. There may be a slight tremor in The Force that day, but fear not, my friends. Tis only the mightiness of my new hip.

I may have neglected to mention that this was on the horizon. Back in May when I saw the ortho PA and she recommended, among other things, going gluten-free, the x-ray showed my hip was bone on bone. No wonder it hurt. My surgery had to wait until Smokey was recovered from his back surgery, then until after the October 15 tax season, then for a new x-ray and a CAT scan, then for surgeon to get it scheduled.

I am looking forward to this big-time. Surgery does not scare me at all, even though it probably should; this will be my ninth (2 C-sections, 2 polinidal cysts, twice for the broken ankle, a few other things) so I know much of what to expect. The aftermath may be painful but the eventual ability to walk easily should be worth it.

* * * * *

That massive blizzard that hit the Midwest yesterday mostly missed us. We got less than 1/4" of snow but lots of wind and cold. Temp this morning was 6˚F; 18˚ now.

We are not plowed out yet from the last snow dump that occurred almost two weeks ago. Smokey managed to make one plowing pass from the house to the road before Da Yeep broke. And broke again. And possibly again. We can drive from the road to the garage and pole barn that are 75 feet uphill from the house but must walk the rest of the way. Yep, these northern winters do make one hardy. 

Elder Son is supposed to be driving home from Ann Arbor yesterday and today. We have not heard anything from him. I hope he checked the weather before he left and waited a day. (He may be brillliant, but sometimes his common sense falters. Also, his phone appears to be off.) When he does get here I hope he does not attempt to drive down to the house. The two cars blocking the driveway may be enough of a hint.

* * * * *

I was reading blogs in my Google Reader this morning and saw this over at sneezingcow.com, Michael Perry's website:

Al is married to my good friend Colleen. That quote sounds just like him. Al, a retired English teacher, is also notable for having taught Neil Gaiman's son, Mike, at Menominie HS.

* * * * *

Our geothermal heat system has been giving us fits for several years. The major problem was that the installer's crew(s) knew not what they were doing back in the early aughts, not to mention that the unit we got seems to have been a lemon. After spending thousands (and thou$and$) of dollars having it fixed and replaced and fixed and fixed yet again, we hired a different contractor to replace it. He seems to have somehow missed that fact during the preliminary talks and bid that, while his unit needs 14 gallons/minute to work most efficiently and effectively, our well only produces 6 gallons/minute. So we will perhaps be relying on (expensive!) electric heat to supplement the geothermal. Rats.

* * * * *

On the (very slightly) bright side, the Christmas mittens for our teenage helper are turning out quite nicely. So nicely, in fact, that I am tempted to make a pair for myself in different colors. 

I'd really like to to show how they look, but a few days ago my computer/iPhoto announced that it could not find my iPhoto library of several thousand photographs. I have searched the hard drive myself to no avail. My Mac Mini had been acting unreliably this fall, so about six weeks ago I hooked up a backup drive and turned on Time Machine to back up my hard drive. Great, I thought, I'll just do a restore. So far repeated Restores have not helped, nor have they actually restored anything. Neither the Apple site nor Google have been particularly helpful so far, either; their tips on fixing iPhoto don't work for my problem.

So you won't be seeing any photos here for awhile...

* * * * *

Have I bummed you out sufficiently with all my (admittedly minor) complaints? Good, my work here is done.

Two-fer Tuesday.

Coupla things.

As horrible and devastating as SuperSandy was/is, it is good to remember how much worse it could have been.

• No major buildings collapsed. Nurses had to carry sick babies down nine flights of stairs while pumping air into their tiny lungs, but the building -- and 99.999% of the others -- stayed up. Thank you, building codes and inspectors.
   
• The majority of people heeded the days of warnings and stocked up or evaculated as they were instructed. Thank you, television and radio and internet and organized government, also thank you, common sense.  (A certain NJ mayor is excluded from this thanks.)
   
• Millions of people are without power, but millions more are not. Thank you, ConEd and other utilites for shutting down pre-emptively and for building some redundency into your systems.
  
  
• Those in harm's way were being rescued, even at the height of the storm, by dedicated police and firefighters and EMTs and other emergency personnel. Thank you, all you heroes. And thank you to those folks 150 years ago who decided that such services were needed and organized and funded them. 

Think of it: a 100-year storm hits the most densely populated area of the country, affecting 50 million people, and the death toll is (as of an hour ago) under 50. That is kind of miraculous right there.

And now, some humor found at blackbird's blog. She lives somewhere near NYC, close enough that she commutes to Manhattan by train every day.

 

 

One more thing. Did anyone else see this photo of the sandbags in from of Goldman Sachs Wall Street headquarters and think, Huh, they are protecting their building with bags of money.

Kat links.

A little challenge inspiration for you quilters.

Here is what has been making news in Wisconsin for the past year or so: frac sand mining. When thinking about the road wear, keep this in mind: one mile of road = ~$1 million dollars to replace.

Just in time for September: school bus demolition derby.

How much of a sriracha addict are you? Younger Son got an 84%, Elder got a 90%. I took the quiz imagining I was some combination of them and got a 90%. Had I taken it as myself I would have been somewhere south of 0%.

Make your own chalkboard paint. The advantages: it is (probably) cheaper, and you can make it whatever color you want.

And now for something completely different: how to photograph a former* Mob boss.

Found on Chris's Tumbr: war on religion? No.

 

* "Former"? How does one become a "former" Mob boss? I thought it was a lifetime position.

The Kat does linkety.

If all goes well, we are enjoying the sound of Lake Superior right now. More likely, we are still running around the house and garage(s) frantically trying to pull together everything to make our vacation enjoyable. But in  either case, here are a few links for you to peruse.

Why is [insert state] so...? Google autocomplete shows our stereotypes about states.

Which profession drinks the most coffee?

More on Google Doodles. You can see more all of them here.

Beware the Argentine ant.

An episode of Radiolab I will never forget: the open pit copper mine in Butte, Montana and the surprising findings about snow geese.

A few words from one of those people Paul Ryan thinks don't suffer enough.

 

Monday night bullets.

I have lots of little things to share. Tragically, many of them require photos, which I cannot upload because my camera cable is 75 miles away. Bullets will have to do.

• I have been back in Minneapolis at the salt mines* accounting job for four weeks now, which accounts for the shocking lack of real posts. 
   
• This situation will continue until some days after April 17. 
   
• Deal with it.
  
  
• My knitting has slumped to the purely mindless, a 31-stitch-wide Montego Bay scarf.
   
• That pattern gave me fits the first time I made it, but now it is just mindless enough. Really, how hard can a 2-stitch pattern be?
   
• Don't answer that.
   
• The yarn is the Alchemy Silk Purse that I thought was destined for something else.
   
• I realized since I wrote that post that I would get a lot more use out of a long skinny scarf than a triangular shawlette.
   
• Silk yarn is lovely to knit.
   
• Silk yarn is easily damaged by careless frogging or tinking.
   
• I don't care.
   
• Much.
   
• I have a nearly visceral urge to cast on some socks.
  
  
• Not gonna happen, though. I have forbidden myself to touch sock yarn until I finish this scarf.
   
• At the rate I am going that will take until sometime after April 17.
   
• Work is getting really busy. A week ago on Friday afternoon I ran out of work, so I put out an email to the managers I work for, alerting them to my availability.
   
• Guess what. I got more work.
   
• So much that I worked all this past weekend.
   
• And had to take off most of today because I had worked myself into a migraine.
   
• Silly kats never learn.
   
• The drain pipe between this house and the city sewer was blocked on Saturday.
   
• Ewww.
   
• Smokey and I spent Sunday evening roto-rootering it out.
   
• More ewww.
   
• It works now.
   
• :-)
   
• The house still smells.
   
• :-(
   
• The weather is nearly warm enough here for open windows.
   
• :-)
   
• Nearly.
   
• :-(
   
• On Sunday the only snow I could see in the city was a few scraps in places where 1, it had been piled up, and b, it was in the shade.
   
• Today even those had melted.
   
• :-)
   
• Nice weather is nice.
   
• Not for the farmers, though; we went into the winter in a drought condition and got only a fraction of the normal snowfall.
   
• Watch for food prices to rise.
   
• You heard it here first.

 Okay, enough for tonight. Morning always comes earlier than it should, imho.

* This is a joke and not at all fair to the job. I like what I do, my employer is one of the best, and, last but not least, they pay me almost as much as I think I am worth ;-) 

 

Happy 100th birthday, Charles Addams!

From Google.com.

Let's see how well-informed my readers are.

Take this quiz at the Pew Research Center site and report your results in the comments. There are only 13 questions and the whole thing will probably take you less than a minute.

From the email wherein I found this quiz:

"This is a terrific and reasonably  easy 13-question test. And it shows results in a number of ways. It clearly indicates that the majority of Americans don't have a clue about what's going on in the world. No wonder our politicians take such advantage of us. It's astonishing that so many people got less than half right. These results say that 80% of the (voting) public doesn't have a clue, and that's pretty scary.

"There are no tricks here - just a simple test to see if you are current on your information. This is quite good and the results are shocking.

"I believe it was Winston Churchill who opined that ' . . . the biggest argument against democracy is a 5-minute conversation with the average voter . . .' "

p.s. I got one wrong.

The first professional female pilot.

Sophie Blanchard, 1778 - 1819!!!!!

A filmmaker and animator, Jen Sachs, is making a movie about her. Read about it here. Contribute to help make it happen if you are so inclined.

Happy Wovember, people!

You have probably seen references (I first typed "reverences", which may be appropriate in this case) to Wovember. I cannot decide if this is a British thing or if it is world-wide, but really, who cares? It is a chance to celebrate a wonderful fiber*.

A few facts cheerfully stolen cheerfully lifted gleaned from Wovember.com:

• Unlike nylon, rayon and other man-made fibers, wool is a renewable and natural resource.
   
• There are 1,000,000,000,000 sheep in our world, or approximately 1 sheep for every 6 people.
   
• China and Australia are the top wool-producing countries in the world, tied at 302,000 tons each (that is 604 million pounds!).

One last factoid:

As far as their reputation for stupidity is concerned it turns out that sheep are not half so dumb as we have always assumed. Recent experiments have shown that sheep are really quite bright. They have the ability to recognise their shepherds and each other. Nor do sheep have a short attention span. It was proved that sheep could remember the faces of their shepherds and other sheep amongst whom they had lived for up to two years. Some sheep have also learned to roll across cattle grids on their backs and new measures may have to be taken in order to keep them penned in because it has also been shown that they can teach each other this naughty trick.

- Alan Butler, Sheep: the remarkable story of the humble animal that built the modern world

Do go to Wovember.com and look around. They have lots more information about wool and sheep, plus an abundance of sheepie photos.

.

* A fiber that, tragically, I have some trouble wearing. Unless it is very nice merino, it itches. And unless the indoor temperature is somewhere south of 66˚ F, one that is too warm for this post-menepausal woman. But I persevere in my knitting of it...

Addition to yesterday's snow post.

We got snow (see yesterday's post for the evidence). 

And on Tuesday Smokey went to check on the pontoon boat and motor he bought, sight unseen, a month or so ago. (Ours was partially but fatally sunk when one of the pontoons sprung an unreachable leak after spending last winter in the lake.)

What, doesn't everyone buy their boats in the fall?

 

A modest proposal.

First off, have you heard Marc Martel, the singer who can channel Freddie Mercury's voice?

Here he is with some backup singers in 2007.

 Cf the originals:

I have long felt that the death of Freddie Mercury was a tragic loss ot the world of rock 'n' roll and to music in general. He was so, so talented, even beyond the fact of his four-octave range. Queen's music remains some of favorite, as I am sure it is for many (including Wayne and Garth). I mourned the loss of Janis and Jim Morrison and Warren Zevon and Frank Zappa and Jerry Garcia when they died, but imnsho none of them were the monumental talent of Mercury.

This past week we lost another giant when Steve Jobs succumbed to pancreatic cancer. No matter his personal quirks and failings, he was an unparalleled visionary in the computer and electronics field. Quite simply, he changed our world, not once but over and over. The Mac. The iPod. The iPhone. The iPad. Apple can replace a CEO but can they replace his creativity?

Here is my idea. If Freddie Mercury's voice can be re-found in Marc Martel (I cannot speak to the latter's other musical talents, but they seem to be prodigious), how about Steve Job's imagination and dogged pursuit of simplicity and perfection? Let us have a world-wide audition and see what comes of it.

In the immortal words of Click & Clack, The Tappet Brothers, What can it hoit?

Random musings.

I am a charter member of the apostrophe police, and I currently trying to find out who I need to arrest for this egregious overuse of the little curvy devils.

 
* * * * *

This year's birthday was quite restrained, but Smokey and I did go out for dinner at a very picturesque location nearby. Tthe menu turned out to be unimaginative, but the food was excellent and the setting was lovely.

* * * * *

The shawl is slowly coming off the needles, which leads me to the all important question: what to cast on next? Should it be the sweater on the left but done with vertical stripes like the swatch on the right (please turn the swatch 90˚ clockwise in your mind), using the Noro yarns below?

 

 

Alex has requested a rugby-style doggie sweater for Percy, her and Matthew's rescued pit bull terrier, and has chosen yarn from my stash:

    

I am all excited about lace knitting and am considering using some Rowan Calmer I bought on closeout at Webs for a Cece (but I would make it longer and with 3/4 sleeves):

 

(I am not fond of the color of the Calmer -- color at right side of skein is truest -- and am thinking of overdyeing it. Tea, for a browner tone? Rit, if I wanted dusky blue? Anyone have experience?)

There are a number of other project swimming in my head but I'll stop here.

* * * * *

I picked these wild blackberries three feet outside my front door.

Small but tasty.

My buddy is a TV star!

My best friend from high school has a restaurant in the Restaurant Capital of the World -- Dorset, MN. Population 22, restaurants 4 (down from 7 at one time in the past). I blogged about her restaurant awhile back.

The Twin Cities media have discovered Taste of Dorset! Story here; if you wait, the video will appear at the top and you can see and hear my friend Kathy, sitting in La Pasta and talking about Dorset. 

She is older than I am. One day. Which I will never let her forget.

Huh.

 

See and read about it here.

Random.

My one comment on the royal wedding: did anyone else but me think that Kate needed a hand-knit cashmere/silk shawl around her shoulders during that open carriage ride? Every other female at the wedding (except that one granddaughter who sat next to Beatrice's unfortunate hat) had on a coat or jacket of some kind, the men were in wool uniforms and suits, and there She was in sheer lace and silk. The poor thing must have been freezing.

* * * * *

Thought(s) for the day:

* * * * *

There is the tiniest hint of spring in the woods. Taken last weekend:

Can you see them? Here, let me help you:

Round-lobed hepaticas, always the first to bloom. They range from white to deep purple and are a welcome sight every year.

More catching up. Some with pictures.

Another week down. Only about 50 hours this week -- not because the work load is slowing down, but because I am. Didn't get to work until 11 on Saturday, but worked until 9:30. There is a certain drafter whom I would like to sit down and explain a few things to -- his befuddled workpapers were the reason I couldn't leave at, say, 4pm, but neither of us has the time nor the will. Someone else will have to teach him. If he is even teachable; I have my doubts.

Eight more working days to go... 

* * * * *

Okay, some of this may be TMI but bear with me -- it is something I found very interesting and illuminating. (That last was a bit of a pun that may become clear later. Or not.)

It had been my habit at home for months and months to take my iPod with me whenever I use the bathroom. Whilst doing my business I play a hearty game or three of Word Warp. Some people read magazines or the newspaper. I play Word Warp. YMMV. When I went back to work I continued this practice, although I try to limit the amount of time I spend away from the desk. 

A month or so ago I noticed what seemed to be a vague pinkish color in the, er, receptacle before I flushed. I worried a little but let it go. Then I noticed that the pink stain was still there AFTER I flushed. Okay, I thought briefly, weird. Back to work.

Then I noticed this.

That's the floor of the handicapped stall (which I use because the others are bit claustrophobic. There are currently no handicapped women on our floor so I figure I am not inconveniencing anyone.) See that pinkish blob? That is my attempt to re-create what I saw.

Guesses?

.

.

.

.

Yeah, it's the afterimage of the iPod screen, which is intensely blue on the Word Warp game. Mystery solved.

And that is your science lesson for today, children. Please put away your science books and take out paper and pencil for a spelling quiz.

* * * * *

On Saturday I did something incredibly stoopid. I took my nighttime meds, which make me sleepy, in the morning before I went to work. I realized the mistake immediately, but I am not one who could stick her finger down her throat to bring them back up. 

I worried about this all the way to work. The day before I had had a fit of sleepy in the afternoon that required a second cup of coffee around 2 pm. Drug-induced sleepy at this stage of busy season would be deadly, so to speak.

To compensate I made myself three (3) shots of espresso once I got to the office (snazzy coffee machine there) and had a regular Coke with my lunch. It worked; I was sleepy for only a few minutes around 2 pm, when the meds were starting to take effect but the caffeine hadn't kicked in yet.

And, yes, I did sleep that night.

* * * * *

This is one our partner/principal/director/senior manager private offices (upper part of a cubicle in the foreground).

This is the office next to it.

  

Happy April Fool's Day!

When the occupant of that office came in the next day he was on his way to a client meeting and didn't have time to enjoy it. He had to fight his way in to find his dress shoes and fight his way out again.

Later that day we all heard a sound like popcorn as he delighted in popping all those balloons.

Random is the best I can do.

I keep a list of the books I read each year, and a few years ago also started keeping a list of the ones I started and gave up on. For the first time ever, my list of "Did Not Finish" is currently longer (10) than the ones I actually finished (9). As might be true of any such list, the DNF is more reflective of my mood when reading than it is of the quality of the books. Right now, while doing taxes and consequently brain-dead after 8 pm, I find that it is the rare book that I can actually read and comprehend. I have finished only one book, a thriller, since I started work on February 7. Apparently a job is the enemy of literacy -- in my case, anyway.

* * * * *

A friend emailed this to me, and it touched my heart. Googling revealed that it was first published here.

Things here in Sendai have been rather surreal. But I am very blessed to have wonderful friends who are helping me a lot. Since my shack is even more worthy of that name, I am now staying at a friend's home. We share supplies like water, food and a kerosene heater. We sleep lined up in one room, eat by candlelight, share stories. It is warm, friendly, and beautiful.

During the day we help each other clean up the mess in our homes. People sit in their cars, looking at news on their navigation screens, or line up to get drinking water when a source is open. If someone has water running in their home, they put out a sign so people can come to fill up their jugs and buckets.

It's utterly amazingly that where I am there has been no looting, no pushing in lines. People leave their front door open, as it is safer when an earthquake strikes. People keep saying, "Oh, this is how it used to be in the old days when everyone helped one another."

Quakes keep coming. Last night they struck about every 15 minutes. Sirens are constant and helicopters pass overhead often.

We got water for a few hours in our homes last night, and now it is for half a day. Electricity came on this afternoon. Gas has not yet come on. But all of this is by area. Some people have these things, others do not. No one has washed for several days. We feel grubby, but there are so much more important concerns than that for us now. I love this peeling away of non-essentials. Living fully on the level of instinct, of intuition, of caring, of what is needed for survival, not just of me, but of the entire group.

There are strange parallel universes happening. Houses a mess in some places, yet then a house with futons or laundry out drying in the sun. People lining up for water and food, and yet a few people out walking their dogs. All happening at the same time.

Other unexpected touches of beauty are first, the silence at night. No cars. No one out on the streets. And the heavens at night are scattered with stars. I usually can see about two, but now the whole sky is filled. The mountains are Sendai are solid and with the crisp air we can see them silhouetted against the sky magnificently.

And the Japanese themselves are so wonderful. I come back to my shack to check on it each day, now to send this e-mail since the electricity is on, and I find food and water left in my entranceway. I have no idea from whom, but it is there. Old men in green hats go from door to door checking to see if everyone is OK. People talk to complete strangers asking if they need help. I see no signs of fear. Resignation, yes, but fear or panic, no.

They tell us we can expect aftershocks, and even other major quakes, for another month or more. And we are getting constant tremors, rolls, shaking, rumbling. I am blessed in that I live in a part of Sendai that is a bit elevated, a bit more solid than other parts. So, so far this area is better off than others. Last night my friend's husband came in from the country, bringing food and water. Blessed again.

Somehow at this time I realize from direct experience that there is indeed an enormous Cosmic evolutionary step that is occurring all over the world right at this moment. And somehow as I experience the events happening now in Japan, I can feel my heart opening very wide. My brother asked me if I felt so small because of all that is happening. I don't. Rather, I feel as part of something happening that much larger than myself. This wave of birthing (worldwide) is hard, and yet magnificent.

Thank you again for your care and Love of me,

With Love in return, to you all,
Anne

* * * * *

You may have read / seen / heard about the gas main explosion in Minneapolis on Thursday. I missed it entirely, having been back in Wisconsin for meetings on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. If I been in Minneapolis I would most certainly have known about it; the site is about 1.5 miles from our house.

Caution: this video was made, apparently, by a young man with a limited vocabulary; his commentary is definitely NSFW. But it is the best video I found on YouTube. After the young man's initial comment, he spliced in some audio from a local radio station, which includes an announcer who doesn't know how to pronounce Nicollet (NICK-o-let, not Nick-o-LET).

If you don't want to watch the video, here are some choice screen shots of cars that were parked close to the site.

The melted stuff reminds me of that scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark when they open the Ark of the Covenant and the Nazis' faces melt.

To orient you, here is Google's shot of the area looking north toward downtown. The orange star marks the approximate site of the blast, the orange arrow points to the tree that is no more, and Cub Foods, a large supermarket, is outlined in red. Our house is somewhere off to the upper left. I think the man who took the video was standing on Nicollet Avenue, initially up between 58th and 59th Streets, and later, after the fire was out, near 60th.

 

The freeway at the right , I-35W, is one of the busiest in the country, and the explosion occurred near the end of the morning rush hour. It is amazing, considering the neighborhood, that no one was injured.