TMi

Spending a couple of weeks in historic Lexington VA was supposed to be like an art residency. I went with the idea that   I would help paint a mural in a university gallery, and perhaps focus on making some art of my own. None of this happened.   In a tiny town where there is nothing much to do, my person chose to prioritize healing. My body had been quietly collapsing into itself the whole during my sickness so while I had this time, I wrestled with my joints and bones; fought the muscles, tendons, and that blasted thing called fascia. My back hurt often, but I know I am even stronger for the effort. I do stand up straighter. (My kyphosis laughs as I type that.) I could not focus enough to really create anything. My mind was also busy doing its own messy, inexplicable healing just for being in the rural east again- almost like being home. Some crying happened.   I saw a lot of deer and met some lovely human people. I reunited with my brother Mike....

  It began with cold war Number Stations.  Because I have an interest in a wide array of things in life, I learned about number stations once upon a time.  Number stations are spots on the radio dial where operators send out information encrypted with a one-time pad cipher (or whatever) over the airwaves to be received and decoded by unknown parties for purposes unknown. This method of not-so-secret / secret communication has been going on from as far back as WW1. And is still going on.  I had this relatively useless information squirreled away in my head and I didn't think about it again until the end of 2023. Randomly, I discovered a Netherlands uni website that's set up to let you listen to all kinds of radio transmissions. And it's been amusing ever since.  Voices from around the World. Without any radio equipment of my own, I've been able to tune into voices connecting to each other from all over the globe.  CQ CQ calling CQ this is... Besides the h...

san miguel adventure fun time part three of six- festival de cine  The major take-aways: talk to strangers sometimes if you still have your hearing, always keep earplugs handy partying is difficult for 20% of the population a good thunderstorm should never be ignored Onto the film festival! The Guanajuato International Film Festival - GIFF is essentially three film festivals happening back to back in three different locations in Guanajuato. Films are shown first in Leon, then San Miguel De Allende and finally Irapuato. Theoretically, we could have driven out and seen our film in the three different locations, but that would have been, shall we say, over-doing it. In San Miguel, our film was showing on a Monday evening in this building that had a few lives before becoming a cultural center named after a fellow with the nickname “El Nigromante.” As a writer, poet, journalist, lawyer, and politician Juan Ignacio Paulino Ramírez Calzada was an important voice in the shaping of Mexico...

Happy Halloween, biz-nich-izzles! Photo by  Karolina Grabowska  from  Pexels It's May. It's spring!  It's time to celebrate Lemuralia! Wut?  Is that a kind of lemur party? Well, no, not quite.  Before the Catholic Christians messed around with the dates- as they always seemed to do- the month of May was the time when some ancient Europeans would turn their thoughts to lemures  or the dead- the scary, unhappy dead. And how to make sure they weren't a bother to the living.  Romans, in particular, held observance for lemures on May 9th, 11th, and 13th.  May 11th just happens to be my birthday and it's an "unlucky" day according to the Romans. Which would explain so much about me? They warn against people getting married in May, but what of those born in the month? Are we screwed? For me, yes. I've been sufficiently, quietly screwed right over in so many ways through the years. Given the list of things that are wrong with my existence, I'...

Before I came down with a cold for my birthday, I took a day trip- no, this was  definitely a road trip- out to Mexicali. Why? I hadn't been there! And I had a chance to go. Simple enough.  What I knew about this city was hearsay: the only thing you can do in Mexicali is be hot, drink beer to not be so hot, but end up just being drunk and hot. And eat famously good Chinese food. Stopping at a Starbucks in the city to use the toilet and the wifi,  (my dudes, that is all Starbucks actually exist for in this dimention)  I did notice a distinct spike in the number Chinese/Chinese-Mexican people in the coffee shop. There had better be amazing Chinese food around here then, right? And did I even try any comida china? HA! Of course not! Why, would I EVER do that?!  I opted for a vegan place . (It was Asian fusion food, ok?!) The atmosphere was a little weird because they were in the middle of moving locations, but the food w...

It happened! Before I got all my stitches removed, I hauled my butt over to- even more warm weather, sunshine, palm trees, ocean, and Spanish.  I took my DFSP adventure time all the way to Miami, Fla.  We time traveled twice over: moving three hours ahead plus an hour for daylight savings time.  So during that first week, I was simply feeling magical ! -as said with a great amount of sarcasm. I didn't know how quickly I would feel ready for doing anything. Before this trip, I was barely recovered of the vampiric drain on my life force from two weeks of- oh hey, I have an open hole in my chest!  (None of you are ready to see those pictures.)  It took so long to get closed up because I don't live close to decent labs. They needed time to ship samples out and run detailed tests. And I had to get cut twice. In the first procedure they made a 6x7cm hole.  In the second procedure they took out everything down to the muscle. Just to be certa...

Yeah, yeah the independence day parade got me all excited. I was not planning to take pictures whatsoever, but then I found myself fumbling for my camera as the trumpets started blaring. Who would be able to concentrate on anything else will all that racket any way? I bounded out the door like a five year old. To try and capture the larger scope of the event is generally stupid, so I worked more with the zoom function to see what smaller moments I could catch. Lucky for me, I didn't need a tripod when I had a metal gate to steady my little camera. Stuck behind that gate, I chose to work with that limited perspective. It yields interesting results when you don't muscle your way in to get that 'perfect' shot. I tried being quick about taking shots but the camera was not as fast as the action. And I would have lost time finding the right settings. This was another limitation I had to work with. All in all, I feel happy with the results. It was good to take ...

A simple bus ride north of the capital city can be a dangerous thing in Mexico. Not because of bandits, but bad drivers. On the way to our destination, we witnessed a flipped car and a person pinned beneath it- perhaps dead. How did the car flip? We could barely guess. Probable death notwithstanding, we arrived at  Teotihuacan  without problem. It is still a working archeological dig site. Real Indiana Joneses in sombreros sift dirt under tarp shades as the tourists mill around trying to avoid the aggressive trinket sellers. The whole site echos with the sounds of the flute doodlings and jaguar calls to entice people to buy. Bright red summer tanagers eyed us like little guards on duty, and seemed to give us their leave to come and go. Ants, not aliens may have build everything. A puppy certainly rules the city now. No sprained foot, no burning sunshine was going to keep me from BEING there. The light is relentless even on a hazy day and I did not complain a...

{ bright the eye } This week was a lost one. So much time went to dealing with Mexican Independence Day celebrations during a  heatwave. It was like early July all over again. Except more uncomfortable.  I lost writings because the electronics couldn't deal with the temperatures in the house. My work laptop kept overheating. I tried to go with it; make the most of the whole experience. I mean, 'magic' is supposed to happen when you are forced out of your comfort zone... meh. My thoughts get a little ahead of circumstance now that the heat has had it's run. I roll my eyes at the prospect of  wearing gloves and winter coat inside... I might officially hate this house... So some of this writing that I lost was another version this very blog post. It was going to be all about the parade. Oh the parade- let me start again about the parade. Preparations started well before the start of it. I mean there were these kiddy hit squads that got together right out front an...

 it's soft. and it cuts jagged-like.

Just when I am almost getting used to the varied automotive sounds of the boulevard out front; the sound of music and advertising 'festively' blasting; the sounds of the house falling apart; the sounds of guard dogs barking at anything; the sounds dog packs fighting at any hour... I was awoken to the sound of a horse screaming. Have you ever heard a horse scream?! Gods! Talk about a night mare! The considerate owners left a sorrel horse on a long lead to graze in the lot next door. I thought they would have collected the animal at some point, but by the sound of the screaming in the wee hours, the fools had left it there and something happened to it. My Human's mom suspected that it must have wandering around in the dark and wrapped the lead about it's neck and it began to strangle. It happened once before... This time, no horse body was found in the morning so it survived whatever terror caused the ruckus.  Or the aliens took it ...