Tempus Fugit in Everyday Ramblings

This is right next to the Hawthorne Bridge on the beginning of the East bank Esplanade. There is a new fire house and rescue boat launch here but it is also a lively meeting place for skateboarders, older men that run together and residents of the homeless tent city that is relatively modest in size but always lively in terms of the population it attracts. There are covered public electrical outlets in the plaza amongst the various sized stone sculpture around the corner and there is always someone in a hoodie hunched over peering at a cell phone that is plugged in, usually with a Pit Bull mix dog loosely tethered somewhere near.

There is also a water fountain, a bubbler; although not one of the 20 original brass Benson 4 bowl fountains installed downtown in 1912 to keep the loggers out of the saloons at noon. We are famous for those here. I heard a podcast the other day about the history of water fountains in public places around the world that was just fascinating. I had no idea what a big deal they used to be.

When London unveiled their first one the city had a huge party.

Water fountains were a big part of the temperance movement. Folks used to drink alcohol because that is all there was to drink. The water was filthy.

This particular fountain gets a lot of use, as there are hundreds of runners that traverse this area everyday as well as the folks living rough.

Today when I was out walking the track in the low sun there was a man sitting asleep against a wall in direct line of the sun skimming the trees on the hill. He had a big jacket and a hood over his face and I couldn’t tell how old he was. He had a few belongings next to him. Every time I passed him, as I was listening To Fates and Furies (in which the characters celebrate holidays, which did not win the National Book Award and when I finish it I will read the bad review it apparently got in the New Yorker) I thought… somewhere this man has a family.

Here on our first winter holiday I am thankful for a year of healthy happy cats. Kes said that one of the differences she notices between her two boy cats and my two boy cats is that mine are in charge. They rule the roost, or whatever the roost would be if one were a feline.

I am thankful for hot water and good books and abundant food and a warm place to live. I am grateful for Kes and Most Honorable and all we do for each other. I appreciate my healthy body that can do a challenging yoga practice focusing on shoulder mobility and upper back strength in a safe and entertaining way. I value the fact that I don’t start this next round of painful dental procedures until after the 1st of the year.

My students literally keep me on my toes and make me laugh and I am thankful that they choose to come to my classes. In spite of the serious drawbacks to my current state of employment I am most thankful to have a job and to be able to live independently. I am thankful that there are so many folks out there with open hearts and a desire to treat others with respect and often surprising humor.

I could go on but you get the idea…

Today I am thankful too for each and every one of you. Someone wrote in sharpie on the top of the distorted full-length mirror in the bathroom where I work when I am in the office, “You are Beautiful”.

And corny as it sounds… (and Lakshmi will back me up on this), you are. :)

(Oh and Tempus Fugit is on an attic window in a house down a block that was built in 1898. Tad the history guy artist told me about it and I went and found it this afternoon.

Time, indeed, does fly.

Last updated November 26, 2017