Last night I went on Facebook for the first time in a long time and decided to take up a friend on one of those pleas to play a game. Normally, I just ignore those, and they pile up. I never had time before to think about it, and generally, it seemed like just a waste anyway, but there's a Scrabble type game and I decided to play it. I don't like to read instructions on those things, so at first, it took me a while to figure out what to do because obviously, it differs a little from board play and it isn't QUITE Scrabble. For example, I got the blank, and tried to play it in the way I would have a blank in a regular game. It didn't work, and no one would help me out, though I asked for help. So I just kept it till the end. I will read the instructions next time, or go on somewhere and ask more experienced players for help. Anyway, I blew away a passel of newbie players, getting nearly 600 on my score. It wasn't much of a challenge. I'm still on 80% to level 2! So I guess I will do that sometimes.
But I think I will also rejoin the Tikkun Olam committee at the synagogue now that I have more time. I'd rather be useful to someone who needs me than to sit playing games in front of the computer. I ought to be doing some writing too.
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Idle Hands
It's strange not to have half a dozen tasks I ought to be doing. I'm not used to it. In the past, there were too many things to get done in a day. Now I have to think hard to dredge up a couple. I guess I could always clean the house, huh?
What Determines The Price of A Flight?
Yesterday, I decided to go to Chicago after all--that is, if I could find a reasonable price for a flight. I know from past experience that the price of a flight is a mysterious thing that can change from one minute to another... not just a little, but by huge leaps.
It was slow... no, dead at the Center yesterday during my hours, so I started to poke around online, and found a round trip for $197. on American Airlines. I was so excited that I called Jeremy, who has his 20th birthday coming up on the 14th, and invited him to come with me. But I couldn't buy the tickets online at the Center, on a public computer. When I got home, I found no trace of the fare at all. The cheapest I could find was $279., a fare too high for me to take Jeremy with me. Besides, as R points out, Jeremy and I fight a lot. We do not have the same taste in activities at all. I would want to go to art museums and natural history museums and to visit relatives, maybe getting in a yoga class or two along the way. Jeremy would want to go to baseball games and concerts or who knows what. We would not enjoy ourselves together, most likely. But I didn't want to miss his birthday, and that's why I thought about taking him with me to begin with.
So I can't go on the 11th, or I'd miss his birthday, and on the 15th, the price goes up considerably, beyond my reach. So much for Chicago, at least for now.
It was slow... no, dead at the Center yesterday during my hours, so I started to poke around online, and found a round trip for $197. on American Airlines. I was so excited that I called Jeremy, who has his 20th birthday coming up on the 14th, and invited him to come with me. But I couldn't buy the tickets online at the Center, on a public computer. When I got home, I found no trace of the fare at all. The cheapest I could find was $279., a fare too high for me to take Jeremy with me. Besides, as R points out, Jeremy and I fight a lot. We do not have the same taste in activities at all. I would want to go to art museums and natural history museums and to visit relatives, maybe getting in a yoga class or two along the way. Jeremy would want to go to baseball games and concerts or who knows what. We would not enjoy ourselves together, most likely. But I didn't want to miss his birthday, and that's why I thought about taking him with me to begin with.
So I can't go on the 11th, or I'd miss his birthday, and on the 15th, the price goes up considerably, beyond my reach. So much for Chicago, at least for now.
Monday, August 2, 2010
Another Qarrtsiluni publication
Just wanted to tell you that "The World is a Sound" is finally up on Qarrtsiluni! Visit and send others!
http://qarrtsiluni.com/2010/08/02/the-world-is-a-sound-a-new-creation-myth/
http://qarrtsiluni.com/2010/08/02/the-world-is-a-sound-a-new-creation-myth/
Chicago
My dad's 2nd cousin (and mine), Bebe, is a fan of my writing. That started many years ago when I wrote a poem about her mother and aunt after their death. After that, she wanted to see all of my work. She got copies of my two creative writing theses, and I sent her my yoga chapbook. She loves it all. Though my parents never could make head or tails out of this stuff, she is a different kind of person altogether.
At eighty something, she is still working, and teaches Focusing, which I don't really know much about, but visualize as an approach to the psychological via the physical, kind of like rolfing. She goes to conferences all over the world in Focusing. This year, she will go both to San Francisco and Argentina.
When Jeremy was born, she didn't have any grandchildren, so she adopted him as her surrogate grandchild, and came to see him at least once a year till he was maybe 5, when her own grandchildren began to be born. She still calls and asks about him and about my work.
She called several times a week for at least a month after my parents died. So the other day when she called, she invited me to come stay with her in her Frank Lloyd Wright-designed apartment in Oak Park, in Chicago. I've stayed there before. It's a nice place. But I hardly know Chicago because I was only there for a day, when Jeremy was little, on my way to Virginia with Richard.
So I thought maybe I could take advantage of the week between when classes end and fall semester starts. But when I looked up the price of travel to Chicago, an airline hub, it was ridiculously high right now. Oh well.
At eighty something, she is still working, and teaches Focusing, which I don't really know much about, but visualize as an approach to the psychological via the physical, kind of like rolfing. She goes to conferences all over the world in Focusing. This year, she will go both to San Francisco and Argentina.
When Jeremy was born, she didn't have any grandchildren, so she adopted him as her surrogate grandchild, and came to see him at least once a year till he was maybe 5, when her own grandchildren began to be born. She still calls and asks about him and about my work.
She called several times a week for at least a month after my parents died. So the other day when she called, she invited me to come stay with her in her Frank Lloyd Wright-designed apartment in Oak Park, in Chicago. I've stayed there before. It's a nice place. But I hardly know Chicago because I was only there for a day, when Jeremy was little, on my way to Virginia with Richard.
So I thought maybe I could take advantage of the week between when classes end and fall semester starts. But when I looked up the price of travel to Chicago, an airline hub, it was ridiculously high right now. Oh well.
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Excavation
After yesterday's tribute, I felt fortified to start tackling my parents' belongings in the spare room. I didn't by any means get a significant amount done, but each bit of excavation required painstaking investigative examination. Here were checks my dad had gotten for his stocks, and never signed or given to me, letters from people I should inform of their deaths, belongings that I would find a use for. Each box brought fresh surprises, and the feeling that my dad, especially, was right there with me. It wasn't a sad feeling, not now, though it would have been a month ago. I'm glad I waited. I've got plenty more to go. Now I was able to throw out old sudoku books I couldn't have tossed a few weeks ago, and keep the truly valuable things, pictures, letters, etc. Another day, I will dip back into the pile and work at it again.
Fixing What Ails Me
Yesterday, Bob taught a class he presented as "the secrets of the yogis." They were not the spectacular or superficially impressive poses, but the grunt work, the plain, simple poses held and held and held. Thus, it was a painful class. By the middle of the hour and a half, I thought I felt something give, and decided it was either very good, meaning that the lack of alignment in my hips, which I have been trying to fix for years, was going to improve or even disappear, or very bad, meaning that I will have a hip replacement in my future. I decided it was good because it wasn't the latter sort of pain, but one that suggested that something rusty, long stiff and sore, was loosening again. Last night I slept wonderfully. The pain that generally wakes me was gone. I just want to keep it up, so it stays gone. I don't know how it happened to begin with. I think it has something to do with the large amounts of driving I used to do, taking my parents hither and yon. I won't be doing that much driving again. Maybe that will also help.
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