don't have to be a weatherman

Are you sick of me talking about the weather yet?  The rain this morning is torrential. Seems like a safer subject than talking about the anniversary of my mother's death right before what would have been her 92nd birthday. Or friends' blown deadlines or financial problems. Or the damn Supreme Court. Or that time I was raped. Or the frat parties I've been to. Or what it means to know that almost any man is stronger than you are. So, about that weather. Supposed to be windy and nice tomorrow.

like it never happened

Today the sets are lining up nicely. It is hot and humid, like yesterday never happened. There was tropical rain this morning—maybe an inch and a half—and then the sun came out. Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes. Going out to sit in the sun!

fierce nature

The wind is coming due east at about 20 mph. That is straight onshore, where I live, with the full-moon tides at their highest. The waves are crashing on the rocks put in to hold back the sea after Sandy, and sand is drifting across the road in places. The afternoon ferries are "questionable" I rather like this weather as long as the storm doors are closed and the propane fireplace is on. And as long as it doesn't go on too long.

the amazing skies

Find the bird.

Striped sunset for the record books

Town of New Shoreham under harvest moon last night. Tonight is full.

It was the hippiest dippiest holiday I had ever celebrated. Taiwan, 1971, the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival. As it grew dark, Ping and her family took me to a temple high above Taipei. We spread out blankets and a feast and listened to other citydwellers doing the same in the nightwoods. Playing music. The guzheng, the pipa, flutes. Laughing, drinking, eating and bathing in the  bright moonlight. I think of it every year at this time. I don't have any mooncakes here in Block Island, but if the moon is out, I will be too.

outside/in stormy

This is what it looks like in front of the house today.

This is what it looks like from inside at daybreak.

son and father

 Simon likes his new room on the mainland. Finally, after growing up on Block Island, he has fast Internet. He saved up his own money to buy a gaming chair with back support, swivel arms and other features he's happy to demo. For the first time, he is going to school with more than a handful of students in a class. For the first time he has homework. His parents too have uprooted to Providence, though his mom comes to the island for work, and his dad for such things as yesterday's anticipated flooding rain. Didn't really happen.

the birthday party

Still playing catchup from the weekend.
   The Pokemon cake Hannah made from scratch was a triumph. Camilla, now eight, blew out the candles on the first try. For the first time in my life I heard kids refuse cake because they said they'd had too much sugar already. They preferred eating candy from the Pokemon pinata. Crazed, they wrapped Hannah's cousin in crepe paper until she was mummified and ran around the house playing war. Camilla said the war was her favorite part. There were many relatives including Hannah's brother Simon, now taller than she, and newly moved to Providence for school. It was a tough day for dogs and little brothers.

Ruca is terrified of balloons, making birthdays a nightmare for her. After being released from the bedroom, she tore around the yard for a while and sank, exhausted into bed.

Isaac was a pretty good sport, but it was tough having his sister be the center of attention. And  his own birthday two weeks before seems to have given him a taste for opening presents. The day after the party, everyone was exhausted and coming down with colds.

ping at home

Ping came home from her road trip to Graceland to find a fully-stocked refrigerator, thanks to her boys. She also found that a downstairs neighbor's smoke had permeated her apartment to the degree that she has not been sleeping there very often. I arrived to deliver an iron frying pan she craved, a plastic box for lures from Walmart that she had wished for to store her earrings, and a pound of Zabar's espresso. I got to Belmont, Mass.,  at 3 pm and left at 9 am for Providence and my granddaughter's eighth birthday. In that period of time, she served me three multicourse meals comprised of foods she knows I particularly like and a case of Stella Artois. I could not eat or drink it all, but I assume the boys will help.

A light snack: Dragon eyes (like lychees), blueberries, clementines, plums, apple, boiled peanuts, soybeans.

Dinner: Dry tofu, shin of beef, beef tendon, pickled vegetables, French beans on a bed of blue corn chips, more peanuts and soybeans.

Breakfast: Congee (my fave!) with pickled vegetables, some weird powdered fish and seaweed stuff that I don't know what it's called but I like it, green beans, wild-caught salmon, tofu with anise and soybeans.

Ping walks it off at the rate of at least 6,000 steps a day. Me, not so much.

backyard birthday

Camilla at eight.

downtown with donna

Spent a couple days smashing the patriarchy. Sadly, we haven't finished yet. But I'm off to Providence.

9/11 again

I don't have any more to say than that. Going down to the World Trade with my partner in news and mischief then and now, Donna Ferrato. Pix TK.

things they throw out in new york

Seems like this rocking horse would make some child very happy. But it's in the trash. This person was once a child and might have been very happy. Prosperity and poverty. Welcome to New York, where it's all out in the open. The city is such a shock to my system.

home again

Baby Sam's and Heidi's baby, Abigail Phoebe—and Debby's grandbaby—is home from Mass General where she was born.

And I am back home in New York.

Have a sweet New Year!

off to the boat

visit to edie's

Have always loved the roof lines and gardens at Edie's old Block Island house.

As we pulled into Edie's, there were thousands of barn swallows—so many at first I thought they were starlings.

It's been so hot the American flag is smoking.

deserted island

Relatives

 What a week! The predicted rain did not develop. And on Monday everybody left the island but us kittens. Gold sun, blue sea—the whole thing. The people on island can once again drive to the dump without fear of killing. The Internet has sped up significantly. And now the season of visiting begins.

Day trippers

Homies

first day of school

They got up at 5:45 and donned matching outfits. They were too excited to eat breakfast, and kept asking if it was time to go yet. Finally it was, and they marched into their classrooms without looking back.