This tree is a guest tree. My mother took some pictures of trees and sent them to me for days when I failed to collect my own tree picture. So my mother told me this is a lemon scented gum tree.
[daily log: walking, 3km]
Author: Jared Way
Caveat: Poem #1220
we drove to Portland we saw the doctors lurking we waited a lot
– a pseudo-haiku
Caveat: Tree #334
This is a tree up at the tree farm.
Today, we went to the VA hospital again with Arthur. This time, it was a one-year follow-up with the polytrauma team. They lauded his recovery, but expressed concern about the possibility of ongoing “mini strokes” as some post-accident MRI’s seem to indicate – but VA internal documentation doesn’t seem well enough organized for them to be sure what’s going on (problems in communication between “Alaska division” and “Portland division”, etc.). Arthur remains quite resistant to even the idea of the initial stroke, much less the idea of mini-strokes that don’t necessarily feel like or seem like what we normally think of as a stroke. So it all seems like just talk, at some level, if it’s not going to impact behavior or self-concept.
For dinner I went to my cousin’s son’s pub in Forest Grove and talked with my cousin and her husband for a few hours – mostly about what it means when one’s elders become senescent and you have to deal with that.
[daily log: walking, 2km]
Caveat: Poem #1219
Words are not like maps; you can lose your way with words; they show no way out.
– a pseudo-haiku
Caveat: Tree #333
Today’s tree felt chilly.
Caveat: 눈왔다
오늘 오전 12 월 1 일 눈이 왔습니다.
Caveat: Poem #1218
as the sky got light I saw the ground wearing snow it crunched underfoot
– a pseudo-haiku
Caveat: Tree #332
This is a willow tree with a beetle sneaking behind (that’s Keith’s).
[daily log: walking, 1km]
Caveat: Grinch
When I was a child, Arthur used to pretend to be Mr Grinch. He liked the schtick, and it suited his personality.
Keith’s family is very musical. So they come and perform music. Here is Keith’s sister, Michelle, her husband Tim, and Ky (sp?), who is Keith’s nephew (but not Michelle and Tim’s son). They are performing the song, Mr Grinch.
“Mr. Grinch,” written by Theodor Geisel (Dr Seuss).
Lyrics.
You’re a mean one, Mr. Grinch
You really are a heel,
You’re as cuddly as a cactus, you’re as charming as an eel, Mr. Grinch,
You’re a bad banana with a greasy black peel!
You’re a monster, Mr. Grinch,
Your heart’s an empty hole,
Your brain is full of spiders, you have garlic in your soul, Mr. Grinch,
I wouldn’t touch you with a thirty-nine-and-a-half foot pole!
You’re a foul one, Mr. Grinch,
You have termites in your smile,
You have all the tender sweetness of a seasick crocodile, Mr. Grinch,
Given a choice between the two of you’d take the seasick crocodile!
You’re a rotter, Mr. Grinch,
You’re the king of sinful sots,
Your heart’s a dead tomato splotched with moldy purple spots, Mr. Grinch,
You’re a three decker sauerkraut and toadstool sandwich with arsenic sauce!
You nauseate me, Mr. Grinch,
With a nauseous super “naus”!,
You’re a crooked dirty jockey and you drive a crooked hoss, Mr. Grinch,
Your soul is an appalling dump heap overflowing with the most disgraceful
assortment of rubbish imaginable mangled up in tangled up knots!
You’re a foul one, Mr. Grinch,
You’re a nasty wasty skunk,
Your heart is full of unwashed socks, your soul is full of gunk, Mr. Grinch,
The three words that best describe you are as follows, and I quote,
“Stink, stank, stunk”!
Caveat: Poem #1217
The viruses came, rearranged to their liking, settled in to stay.
– a pseudo-haiku
Caveat: Tree #331
Oh de(a|e)r, a tree.
[daily log: walking, 1km]
Caveat: Poem #1216
Six deer were outside, moving cautiously, like ghosts, grazing trees and grass.
– a pseudo-haiku
Caveat: Tree #330
This tree is not feeling successful at meeting life’s challenges, but seems to be just barely hanging in there against all odds.
[daily log: walking, 5km]
Caveat: Thanks Given
Our Thanksgiving Thursday was very low-key. Our main, feasting-focused, celebratory event will be on Saturday – that works out better for people’s travel schedules to get here, etc.
So we just had dinner, the four of us: Juli, Keith, Arthur and I.
I am not in the best of sorts, lately. Between the lingering head-cold and the stunning, frustrating and discombobulating news that I am not considered an Alaska Resident by the University of Alaska, I have been feeling physically and emotionally wrecked.
So I was struggling to feel much thankfulness today. Anyway, thanks for reading this, I guess.
Caveat: Poem #1215
The day: thanksgiving... the Native American said "Thanks for nothing!"
– a pseudo-haiku
Caveat: Tree #329
We drove into the Portland VA this morning for a specialist appointment for Arthur. It was like “old times,” when Juli and I drove in there so regularly last summer.
Here is a tree.
[daily log: walking, 4km]
Caveat: Poem #1214
I am suspended in a chill soup made of time and bits of clear air
– a pseudo-haiku
Caveat: Tree #328
A tree was seen against a dark sky.
[daily log: walking, 4.5km]
Caveat: Poem #1213
I'm stumbling, planless - hindered by the bureaucrats - contemplating fate.
– a pseudo-haiku
Caveat: Tree #327
This tree has horses.
[daily log: walking, 4km]