PRACTICING with NIKON COOL-PIX

 November 21st 2019
Noon
  
Birthday Greeting to my Dear Brother
I mailed Jackson Brown song book for guitar

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SX-HFcSIoU
~*~


Thursday Evening
Riveted and exhausted by days of painful as well as inspiring testimony and in my heart of hearts I am about 99% sure the House will vote to impeach, but that's about all. It is their strongest censure and will be on the books. However, with Congress and the Supreme court Trump loaded and an Administration that is weighted to survive at any cost, plus given the destructive damage, National and International of the past two years, I'm sad to say I'm resigned that I won't be joyfully witnessing vastly significant repairs (even if we elect a different President) in my lifetime. Perhaps I'll be entertained by the 3500 lawsuits the President will be responding to, but I doubt it. So, I turned away to spend time with my friends at Tibet House.

 Gallery

Opening Reception

Wrapped within the calm surround of Paintings by

Hisako Kobayashi

(see more at the Link)

One critic (Donald Kuspit) referred to her work as
"the feminine sublime"

Shinko Hanaokas cello filled the space with exquisite sound...

...and there was a lovely table of food and libation.

https://tibethouse.us/exhibition-a-room-of-ones-own/
~*~


At Home

Alarming News in the Mail: The convenient branch I joined in 1970 three blocks away. Now the nearest branch is inconveniently farther away on 14th Street near Fifth Avenue. I first chose this bank when I was doing a monthly banking run for Raymonde Collette, one of the elder neighbors (long gone). It was her bank and later I found out it's the closest bank to a Credit Union in Manhattan. "Founded by a union nearly a century ago, we are the first union-owned bank in history to become a publicly-traded company."
https://www.amalgamatedbank.com/
~*~


Friday Morning


I spent the day  and night resting, eating and sleeping.

~*~


Saturday Surprise
A blast from the Past arrives by Post
(that's my favorite photo of beloved Delia Cunningham, the dog who came into my life as a foundling. It's the cover of the tape)

 1988 I made a mix tape of favorites for my friend and sent them.
 
Now she sends them back to me, saying she listened every November since then. That's 31 years! Amazing.
~*~

Television Tonight
"Gandhi"

‎Richard Attenborough

1982 epic historical drama film based on the life of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the leader of India's non-violent, non-cooperative independence movement against the United Kingdom's rule of the country during the 20th century. Three and a half hours . I also watched newsreel footage before the start of the film.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXzOaOJrKw8 

Meanwhile, it's raining in Manhattan and I'm grateful to be cozy three floors above the street.
<<<>>>

LEFTOVERS

Maybe because I was a world-war two baby, thoroughly programmed in "Waste-not-Want-not" and 
"Don't forget the starving children."

Maybe because I just skim the plus side of poverty every month and cross over into the minus ledger fairly regularly.

 I'm Thrifty
 
I've mastered the art of leftovers, 
able to turn anything in the larder into tasty nourishment.

Stuffing Casserole
Follow simple directions to mix with broth, spices and butter, add cubes of pre-cooked leftover meats if you have any and bake at 350 degrees for forty minutes. Serve with a variety of steamed greens.  


Spinach Souffle

two eggs, three tablespoons fine breadcrumbs, butter, one cup steamed spinach, squeezed dry, nutmeg and salt. Bake thirty minutes in preheated 350 degree oven. If you desire prettier. Melt some cheddar on top or just add a scoop of whipped mustard/mayo before serving. A few sprigs of parsley and you can call it cuisine.

Celeriac Soup
(recipes in link below)
Warning: you will need a really good knife. 

~*~

I almost always have what I need on hand.
When I don't, generous friends have stepped in to offer aid leaving me in a perpetual state of amazed gratitude.

I'm Rich

Perhaps an illusion, but what isn't?  Everything dissolves into molecules and air eventually. Meanwhile, friends, food, fun, grief, rage, pain, pleasure and god-almighty chance rules.
~*~

I discover again and again that my default setting is doom.
 Patience is my practice, kindness my goal.

I'm Fortunate

Wise beings were there throughout, tripping me like stones in the road, reminding me that there's more to life than meets the eye, more subtle senses than the basic six.

Most things I might desire, I can do without.

I shop in my closet. It's a museum store with

decades of fashions for all seasons and moods on permanent display and the price is always right.

~*~

LINK

Recipe
https://www.epicurious.com/expert-advice/15-best-celeriac-recipes-article

JUST THE FACTS

SUNDAY FACTS

From my neighborhood, within which there are many owned but hardly ever actually occupied condominiums, like this one where cleaners have been preparing for the owner or renter to return from Winter wandering leaving the proof as garbage at the curb.
 April 15th!

A friend on Face book said "When i lived in nyc trash was my friend, i was amazed at what people left on the side walk .if i could get it on the subway it was mine." I replied "Yes, in the days before so many tourists and constant rental short term folks, the days before bedbugs carried from suitcases of the wide worlds transient population, we furnished our apartments with rich folks cast away stuff and even got wonderful clothing items but no more. I've been in this apartment since 1969 but nothing, or near to nothing is even vaguely recognizable. Every day a new excavation, family business collapse and monster gigantic buildings of glass and steel rising 13 to fifty stories rise to the sky, blocking sun and wind. I'm only here out of economic necessity now, still protected by some elder tenant laws from being homeless like the oh so many others marginals."

MONDAY FACTS

'The Moving Pen' writing Group
6-8PM
Prompts

1. About a Favorite possession bequeathed

2. About a balloon

TUESDAY FACTS
I have a completely independent old LAND LINE but no telephone line this morning! Found out when I tried to phone the Super at 10:00 AM for him to come for a scheduled plumbing repair assessment. I keep an extra phone to plug directly into the Jack for checking if the problem is my Answer machine. Nope. I have no cell phone so knocked at the next door apartment and the cleaning lady let me use her cell to phone VERIZON who said there is no neighborhood problem listed. That means it's outside the apartment, either on the property or elsewhere in their system. They wanted to give me a Friday repair appointment until they realized I have disability status so they called around to their Manhattan repair guys but could only obtain an appointment tomorrow morning between 8AM and noon. There is nowhere they can phone me though because the cleaning lady will be gone. MODERN LIFE IN MANHATTAN on PLANET EARTH IS NOT NECESSARILY very MODERN or RELIABLE. The Spectrum/Time Warner cable hook up is working (at an enormous cost of $75.88 a month, which started at 29.99 for internet access alone and crept up with no additional services)--SO, I am not entirely without access to the wide wide world. But, I do no cash transactions on the web and continue to pay my bills by check walked to the local post office monthly. I am a kind of human dinosaur on the verge of extinction. Still smiling as I warm some soup for lunch :--> Smile is gone--2PM phoned again because the Super told me Verizon is in the buildings working on three other apartments without their phones...so they are now telling me they can't be here in the morning and the new appointment is 1 to 5PM! Had I not had one more use of the cleaning persons cell phone I wouldn't have known.
AURGH@!!@@@!@#!!!


WEDNESDAY FACTS
Telephone service restored
Super repaired shower
I was grateful twice

  Zendo in the evening; sitting, walking, chanting and snacks after.
I had a talk with Chododo Sensei and described my distress over lack of compassion for certain persons whose repetitive attitudinal scenarios rouse my anger. He smiled warmly and while making a circular gesture over his heart, said:
"Just try to make a little space for them." 

THURSDAY FACTS
Visited the Stein Senior Center
Got my membership renewed and made an appointment to discuss some housing issues with the Social Worker.
Bonus

 Noticed a pair of Sketchers at the Thrift Shop
Got them cheap

FRIDAY FACTS
Very nourishing visit with Barbara (recovering from knee surgery and her sister Maggi come to aid in her healing
Tea, snacks, talk and laughter

~*~
Walked home on Broadway
Grace Church

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_Church_(Manhattan)

RELEASE, RENEW, REVIVE

Wednesday 

Group Recitation and Sitting at the Zendo

119 West 23rd Street, New york City

The Heart Sutra

LISTEN 

https://bezen.wordpress.com/2008/11/10/the-heart-sutra-in-english/

~*~


Tibet House
22 West 15th Street
Then a walk down Sixth Avenue to say Hi to Krishna Das and other Dharma friends

(Reshma and The Dalai Lama)

 CD Release Launch
"Guru Chants & Mantras in the Tibetan Tradition"

https://youtu.be/LKwJbZXpp-Q

 Walk home with friend Wendy Daly
~*~

In Between
working on pieces for the series
"Leaf Letters"

Summer Fall Winter

Wear a Face

The Two of Us

More detail to be added +Three others to finish
Plan to print today or tomorrow


Thursday
Weather has turned Cool and the Wind is wonderful. Windows open, waking early. My fourteen year old Air Conditioner has been diagnosed and judged not worth saving, Instead, I'm saving for a new one same model which I may be able to install in January of February. I'm praising the corpse for lasting so long despite diminishing ability, offering gratitude for soldiering on and getting me through one more Summer.
R.I.P.

~*~

Evening
 New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care

 ...next to last of eight sessions.
http://zencare.org/writing-tool-healing/

 Quick trip to trader Joe after, Slow bus Home
All tuckered out.
 ~*~

Friday

This year both the Jewish New Year and the Islamic New Year fell on the same day. With both faiths beginning their days at sunset, the Islamic New Year began the evening of Thursday, September 21 and ended the evening of Friday, September 22 while Rosh Hashanah or the Jewish New Year began the evening of Wednesday, September 20 and ended the evening of Friday, September 22.
http://forward.com/scribe/383334/when-the-muslim-and-jewish-new-years-collide/
Yom Kippur 2017 begins in the evening of

Friday September 29 and ends in the evening of Saturday,

September 30

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yom_Kippur

 ~*~

PEACE FULL FRIDAY

Trip to Washington Square Park for the International day of Peace on a gorgeous Fall Day in New York City with my good friend and writing buddy, Barbara ('Bee') Hohoenberg

The 'Kiss'

Living Statue

 Facing the Arch

Rainbow
Tricks of Light

 Portrait

 She shoots me while I'm shooting her,
our nonviolence delights us both :-->

Home Again

 Thank you for the treats and the time together Bee
~*~