Here We Go in Everyday Ramblings

The Steel Bridge over the Willamette River from the train the other day. Love the big sky. Today, New Year’s Day, it is misty and gray, and I am spending the better part of it indoors.

Because I took that week off from teaching back in late summer and the few days last month with the trip to be with my niece I have kept my teaching schedule intact through these holidays except for Christmas morning. I am so disoriented, having Christmas and New Year’s land on Wednesday this cycle. I have had students for all my classes (except my afternoon class last week) so it has been worth it. Small classes but intimate and lively. Rewarding.

When I was displaced last year Most Honorable took an old computer of mine to recycle and before he did, he copied off the files. This is the computer I had say from 1997 to 2005 or so. The most active time when Mr. Finch and I were doing our total poetry immersion lifestyle. When Mr. Finch was sick later, I made hard copies of all of his poems and most of mine. They are in a box somewhere, those hard copies. Probably more than one. I saw them last year.

Most Honorable gave me a flash drive on Sunday with all the Word files on it. What a gift this was! I don’t have to go through the boxes and find the pages and copy them into my current computer. They are still compatible.

Walt just sent me a request for a poem to round out his current Newsletter… the one he is sending out tomorrow. I was able to choose an unpublished poem from 2004, make some minor edits and send it to him. Ta Da.

Talk about chuffed. I am chuffed I could do that.

It is so nice to have this to focus on in addition to all the League things, which are big time anxiety triggers. Oh, I need to do this thing? I have no idea how to do this thing. A Workers Comp insurance audit by February 4th that includes information from the taxes that aren’t done yet? Um. Okay.

The train trip, the whole travel experience this last weekend was remarkably uneventful. The train down and the bus back were on time and in both cases arrived early. When we came back into town, we took a different route through downtown, and it was very festive and cheerful, and I only had to wait 4 minutes for the lovely Lyft driver who was an upbeat woman in a clean fragrance-free vehicle on the way home. I was home and feeding Carlo by the time we were actually due in. That never happens.

The one blotch on the picture of these enjoyable holidays (other than my niece’s cancer treatments) was a letter I received Monday announcing a $120 a month rent increase. Ugh. Just Ugh. It seems totally random and remarkably high.

I am looking at where I can cut back. But I think I will be fine. There are some subscriptions that need to go. One, a premium subscription to a Yoga site for $47 a month I canceled yesterday. Thing is, I was planning on canceling that one anyway.

It strikes me that a lot of folks are going to be facing these sorts of challenges in the year or years to come. I feel like I need to buckle up. And I know a lot of us are feeling a deep sense of dread.

My current management strategy, completing small useful tasks. Today it was using the hair dryer to soften up the labels on empty pill bottles so I can remove them and recycle the bottles. Who knows what delights along these lines I will cue up for tomorrow. That and finding things to feel chuffed about.

One foot in front of the other. Here we go.