STORM

Monday

8.3.2020

11:30 p.m.

The sky is yellow tinged and there is a feeling of 'impending' in the thin breeze tonight. I am prepared with Battery radio and a crank up weather unit, flashlights, batteries, candles in glass, water and food. My old land line can plug into the jack directly if the answer machine fails. I will miss the internet and TV if we lose power. 

Manhattan Window View

 Tuesday
8.4.
6 a.m.

No rain yet, but it is rolling in and I'm hyper-vigilant with anticipation. Still unwell and feeling weak. Gifts arrived from Jude Hill, so I can make cream of rice which will be soothing. Caring friends are also soothing and two others offered to send supplies as well. I think the relative isolation of the past months has worked its way into my psyche reactivating old fears.
10:30 a.m.
Had a most comforting and entertaining phone conversation with Sensei, Robert Chodo Campbell and that feeling of loneliness evaporated.

Outside the trees are dancing and the warm wind feels good. The storm is due to break after noon. We're 6 long blocks from the East River, so even if it floods, it's most unlikely to reach us. I'm content.

Equanimity
https://tricycle.org/magazine/perfect-balance/?fbclid=IwAR35-EdqmrjW7ROww063dkyy_IlQLNCIOKLDZtCfWHsnMMpENjrnt5Iq3fo

Storm Report

https://abc7ny.com/weather/hurricane-isaias-headed-toward-nyc-warnings-issued/6338560/?fbclid=IwAR2AhCH1nUvObRIzthBKs51muOoR1mKuRRke47d8rQFl30e8lOdz-I8JewM

*

FEIRCE FEBRUARY FINISHES

Last Hyacinth Bloom

~*~

Library

Two New Audio Books

~*~

The Almost Everything Local Store

~*~

Overnight
Winds rattled, rose high and fell hard until they blew away all the soot and sadness.
Or, so it seemed when I opened my window on our world.

Monday Mail
Arrived from California...
.
...a precious bear,  a telephone answering machine and two videos

 Blessed be my good fortune in Friendship

Evening
Taking Refuge at the Zendo
a
Home Again


Tuesday Morning

"The wind has settled, the blossoms have fallen;
Birds sing, the mountains grow dark --
This is the wondrous power of Buddhism."
-Taigu Ryokan-

Thought

*
"GREEN BOOK"
Thanks to AMC $5 Tuesdays Club, I saw it with a neighbor late afternoon, and loved it. Some critics dismiss it as just predictable Cliches. Sure, but in 1962 those 'cliches' were actually  facts of life. Two quite brilliant actors deliver nuanced performances I found admirable, and the sound track was right out of my high school years when a classmate and i sometimes sneaked out of our separate ground floor apartments through back windows late at night when our respective mothers, both working widows, had fallen asleep, We walked to the local 'hang out' a block away where we played the Jukebox, sipped egg creams and flirted with older boys.

Bare Bones Plot
Dr. Don Shirley is a world-class African-American pianist about to embark on a concert tour in the Deep South in 1962. In need of a driver and protection, Shirley recruits Tony Lip, a tough-talking bouncer from an Italian-American neighborhood in the Bronx. Despite their differences, the two men soon develop an unexpected bond while confronting racism and danger in an era of blatant segregation.

 https://youtu.be/QkZxoko_HC0

Then we
VOTED
New York Public Advocate will govern till the end of this term.
Then there will be another election with the front runners who remain, but the final decision will depend on who the major parties elect to run in November and who we vote for then.

~*~

Bleak Wednesday Morning
The Sun Obscured on Day One of our Congressional Circus Broadcast with it's dogged reaffirmation of intractable divisions fully operational.

The BEST Headline

*
"The Examiner"
by W. H. Auden
Read by Tom O'Bedlam

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FH1_mbZfvCo&fbclid=IwAR3sYAa6k1RB2ILbU78LoD3c-bsrq-plHQetRsw_H8fCm2e8Xdqv6wYNhwk
 ~*~

Thursday Morning
Last day of February

 World Wildlife Fund
Anxious to abandon a difficult February, I turn a calendar page and know I'll miss this tiger gazing at me from just behind the laptop...

However, I'm prepared to subsist on my own smile when I see these Blue footed boobies, who subsist on fish from the Pacific Ocean. 

In the Mail:
A sweet note from Jude Hill
Nourishing and Encouraging

~*~

March First
It snowed again...

...just a little more.

(((more to come)))

NEW YEAR'S EVERY MOMENT

Manhattan

Lovely ritual at the Zendo, safe from drenching rain

and most streets deserted in the East twenties

 The big bowl was struck once by each being, vibrating silent intentions for an hour or more and the Four Vows were chanted three times:

Sentient beings are numberless

I vow to save them

Delusions are inexhaustible

I vow to put an end to them

The Dharmas are boundless

I vow to master them

The Buddha way is unattainable

I vow to attain it

 ~*~

There were snacks and sweets

Hugs and laughter

 

and, so much more

~*~

When I got back home there were gifts in my mailbox!

Super Swell Surprises

from Jude Hill, Valerianna Claff, Peggy Vonburg, and my high school friends the Barons card acknowledging a teddy-bear I sent their Granddaughter

\

Wow

Valeriannas beautiful 2019 Photograph Calendar

plus three of her haunting note cards

 

Peggy sent the 2019 Lunar Phases Calendar

Judes Card is another Valerianna Image

...and the party below me (three new young women just moved in with their adorable little dog) was festive but not overbearing, and they all left for elsewhere at 10:30 so quiet, except for a light echo of boom boom base line and party squeals far off on another floor. Got a call from a long time neighbor wishing well and I'm pleasantly exhausted.

 ~*~

Posted at my Face Book page

WELCOME 2019

(The place flag of Grace Forest, New Mexico)

~*~

May you be sufficiently contented and well dear Friends.

*

THINK SPRING

https://youtu.be/FMtCh0VuoKg

Aaron Copland (1900-1990) , USA - 'Appalachian Spring', Variation on a Shaker Melody: "Simple Gifts" New York Philharmonic Leonard Bernstein

 ><

DUMB LUCK, HAPPY CHANCE and GIVING THANKS

I'd been following fires, wars and elections.
She sings the way I was feeling.

https://youtu.be/2rd8VktT8xY

Surprise from Jude Hill
The mail arrived reminding me of generous friendship
and I decided everything would be Okay.

~*~

Serendipity
Ran into Joanne, my long time Yogi friend.
Hadn't seen each other for a year!

Happy chance

We walked to her place nearby so I could meet
"Milton", a real sweetie.

"Soon" we say.

~*~

Monday dawned at Noon.
.
 ~*~

Preparation for a Feast
Tri-colored Quinoi, Sweet Onion, Sweet eating pumpkins, Cashews, Fennel and Nutmeg...

*
add Blue Agave

*
Add Sweet Butter, and

*
there's green string beans too.
~*~

Accidental Event
One of the four 90 minute tapes broke.
Wish I hadn't given away my splicer.

~*~
  
UNITED
by
Naomi Shihab Nye

When sleepless, it’s helpful to meditate on mottoes of the states.
South Carolina, “While I breathe I hope.” Perhaps this could be
the new flag on the empty flagpole.
Or “I Direct” from Maine—why?
Because Maine gets the first sunrise? How bossy, Maine!
Kansas, “To the Stars through Difficulties”—
clackety wagon wheels, long, long land
and the droning press of heat—cool stars, relief.
In Arkansas, “The People Rule”—lucky you.
Idaho, “Let It Be Perpetual”—now this is strange.
Idaho, what is your “it”?
Who chose these lines?
How many contenders?
What would my motto be tonight, in tangled sheets?
Texas—“Friendship”—now boasts the Open Carry law.
Wisconsin, where my mother’s parents are buried,
chose “Forward.”
New Mexico, “It Grows As It Goes”—now this is scary.
Two dangling its. This does not represent that glorious place.
West Virginia, “Mountaineers Are Always Free”—really?
Washington, you’re wise.
What could be better than “By and By”?
Oklahoma must be tired—“Labor Conquers all Things.”
Oklahoma, get together with Nevada, who chose only
“Industry” as motto. I think of Nevada as a playground
or mostly empty. How wrong we are about one another.
For Alaska to pick “North to the Future”
seems odd. Where else are they going?
 
 ~*~

Stumbled Upon This
I subscribed to the site. Many Episodes.
I watched them all.

https://youtu.be/hEDWHQr2W jw
 ~*~

Next
Rain for California Fires
An end to all Wars
Planet Healing
Universal Kindness 
~*~ 

EVERY DAY'S A NEW DAY

 Constitutional
After Midnight this perfect bouquet
Gleaned from the garbage near Lexington Hotel

At a low point for the week when mail arrived with a lovely gold leaf missive and sweet note from Patricia Wallace Jones

Also, this interesting memoir from Nancy Erisman  The author, "using mostly short entries organized fro A to Z, captures the moments, observations and emotions that comprise (her) contemporary life."

Then, this beauty from Jude Hill!

I relaxed.
How could I remain locked into darkness when such friends are looking out for me? Caring is the natural cure for many little ailments.

Saturday
Tonight I will be watching (for the third or fourth time) a film that is so well crafted and compelling it bears repetition-"Remains of the Day"

 https://youtu.be/L1aCp1Z1gAo

 7PM
I have compartmentalized my brain in order to bear up under the onslaught of Local, National and International important political news. Yes, I do pay attention, then I switch channels for sanity and regularly do a walking meditation, calling it a constitutional. Double meaning intentional. This is the least important fact learned today.

However
Here's ten images of it and ten interesting facts about its history:
http://www.boweryboyshistory.com/2015/03/ten-images-of-bowling-green-and-ten-facts-about-its-marvelous-history.html
~*~

Sunday
7 PM Heat and humidity escalating with a hot week forecast. I spent the afternoon and part of this evening on 6th Street between Avenue D and 1st Avenue, observing locations, chatting with people I know, as well as strangers.

Curious about the Name
This is one famous building
Habitat for Humanity helped tenants rehabilitate it.
http://thevillager.com/2013/10/17/jimmy-and-roslyn-carter-mark-30th-anniversary-of-e-6th-st-habitat-rehab-project/
 *

Community Center


 http://www.sixthstreetcenter.org/
 *
Just for the Signage

Smaller 6BC Botanical Garden

 ~*~

 Avenue B and 6th Steet Garden
Drawing


*

*

 *

 *

Cloudy Skies behind an apple laden tree

 ~*~

Tompkins Square


Vendors selling wares.

The annual Charlie Parker concert going strong.
 I have two drawings of his from when He was at Washington Square
He's been at it for Decades

 Colorful Clothes

~*~

 Rest Stop
Catholic Church 414 East 14th Street

Home
8PM
download photographs and scare up some supper.

Here Monday