Some Glare and a Chortle in Everyday Ramblings

I took this last week across the street at the track. It is Ceanothus ‘Victoria’ and a super bee attractor. It is quite fragrant even to us mere humans with our limited ability to differentiate scents. The sky looks like that out there now. Layers upon layers of changeable clouds with a sun burst now and then.

After exactly a month the contractor came by yesterday and changed the locks on our mailboxes and the post office delivered the mail! Oh happy happy day, I was slated to hike over to the post office after work and I didn’t have to go. Talk about luxury…

I spent some time walking around the track in the glare filled gloom listening to the Gene book. Dr. Mukherjee had fun writing this book. He puts the history of science in context and adds personal details about the scientists and the process of discovery that make the story quite engaging.

I have this skin condition, that since it was diagnosed when I was in my mid twenties I have been thinking of as a genetic defect. With this book and the general perspective on genetics and heredity these days I have been thinking of it lately not as a defect but as an anomaly. I am a mutant.

Having had a cancer diagnosis also makes one think about having mutant cells at work in one’s body and I am framing this these days in a different way… That I am contributing to bio-diversity. :)

I was talking to a lovely couple doing a walking tour of the neighborhood last Sunday about the history, (I sort of accosted them in a good natured way to share a bunch more detail than the book they were holding) and in the course of the conversation they shared that they had a 37 year old son with schizophrenia. He is living in a great supportive place and is doing well.

We were talking about the services available these days. They told me that they sold the house they had lived in for over 30 years and moved into a much smaller loft space so that he wouldn’t move back in with them. What a heart-wrenching choice.

How we make space for those not like us is I think such an indicator of the health of a community.

That said, what is up with these young men wearing hoodies and bandanas over their faces? This whole sort of Guy Fawkes thing? It totally creeps me out. It usually seems to be slight young men, on the small side with lots of tattoos and they favor those small bikes with the high handlebars. I was watching one on the bus the other day. He was listening to music off in his own little world. He was wearing new fairly expensive clothes and my guess would be there are, umm, parents in the picture. He had sunglasses over his bandana.

Someone at work gave me a couple of premium movie tickets as a thank you yesterday. Not in my department of course. I was thinking I might take Kes to a movie sometime in June if she is up for it. Or I could go wild and go to two movies on my own. What a huge time drain, but it might be fun.

Maybe some stitches out today, maybe not, hopefully my Periodontist will at least tinker around with the dressings to make it a bit easier to eat. And I will get an idea of when we are going to schedule the next round of work.

After that I am going to walk out front with a light heart, insert the key into my mailbox and chortle as I take my mail in.

(did you know that Lewis Carroll invented the word chortle?)

Happy long weekend to those of you that have one on the way.

Last updated May 28, 2016