Well, it's March first, and I feel as if I'm finally emerging from a very long, dark winter. We've just had two weeks of unseasonably sunny, warm and highly optimistic weather, coupled with the second total lunar eclipse in a year (and a leap year, at that!) ...it's truly the looniest end-of-winter blues I've experienced in a good long while.

My head's been cloudy with the flu for the last week. Oh, yeah-I thought that drinking Emergen-C (powdered vitamin C and B supplements that usually pack quite an antioxidant wallop) three times a day would ward off the nasty bug that seems to have hit everyone in the last couple of months. No such luck...although maybe it would have hit me harder without the extra vitamins. Who knows? I'm just grateful the worst of it seems to be over.

It's taken me all day to write the previous two paragraphs, so I guess I am still under the weather. I did make it outside to walk the dogs this morning, and had an early afternoon burst of energy, enabling me to plant a few flowers and clean up the accumulated dog poo in the yard. Yay. Now I'm (pardon the pun) pooped out again, ready for a nice cup of tea and maybe a Girl Scout cookie. Hey, at least I got to wear my groovy new gardening boots for a few minutes.

Aha!

Last night, as I was leaving the ER up at the VA Hospital (the second time in a week), I emerged from the parking garage into a full-on lunar eclipse. I'm certainly no metaphysicist, but I do wonder if this is why everyone (myself definitely included) has been so...so...freakin' crazy for the last week?!

Ordinarily, I'm known for my mellow demeanor and tendency to remain calm under pressure, but the last week I've uncharacteristically deviated from that description, veering toward the "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it any more!" category. Granted, most of this anger is appropriate, given the circumstances. The Veterans Administration, like most government agencies is so broken and has been so thoroughly mismanaged that I'm not sure it can ever be fixed without being completely dismantled and replaced. The suffocating layers of bureaucracy that have to be waded through in order to even get anyone's attention are simply too much for most of these vets to bear.
They are people who volunteered and (at times) were ordered to fight, kill, and risk their lives for their country, and most of them have suffered the rest of their lives because of it. They deserve not just our sympathy, but our unconditional support and help. The support of the country they were asked to serve in just such an unconditional way.

I know it's not just the VA that needs fixing. The whole system that so many right wing politicians love to refer to as "the welfare state" is broken. This is not a system of entitlements, as anyone who has ever had cause to apply for them can tell you. Food Stamps, or Welfare, or any one of a myriad other programs sprang from the idea that when people (our people) are down and out, it's our responsibility to help them get back up on their feet. This is how we pay it forward: the people we help will in turn, help others and so on down the line. Try it. Watch it happen in those close to you. You may be encouraged to listen to your heart and do the right thing, instead of just changing the channel.
Go ahead: pay it forward.

no, the light at the end of the tunnel is not an oncoming train...

Wow! What a beautiful day today was! I woke up this morning to the birds singing and the sun shining, and the smell of spring in the air. Keep it up, Mother Nature...there are just some days in the dead of winter we need one or two reassurances that spring is indeed, just around the corner. Today was just the ticket. Thanks!

Love,

Petunia

The dark of winter

Whew. It's blowing sideways out there at the moment. The wind is howling, whipping the power lines like snapping rubber bands, the rain pounding the side of the house and rattling the windows trying to get in. The dogs are barking, sounding the weather alert. ("Rain, rain, go away...?") That said, we're cozy and warm with cats in our laps, and the blue glow of the TV to distract us. I keep repeating my mantra: " this, too, shall pass." Spring will be here before we know it, right?

David Coyle, 1945-2007

Today my family is hosting a memorial of sorts for David Coyle. He was my sister's ex-husband, father to Mercedes and Seamus, surrogate father to Sean, and a perpetual thorn in all of our sides from time to time over the thirty-plus years I've known him. His energy and strength was legendary, and, when used for good works, were awesome gifts. If anyone had car trouble or appliances that refused to behave properly, he was your go-to guy. A natural clown, I remember him entertaining the kids with his goofy demeanor and Howdy Doody-like countenance, encouraging them to be daring and silly with him. He smoked too much, had a fondness for meat and potatoes in all forms, and had too close a relationship with drugs and alcohol than was good for him. It was a relationship that fueled an explosive and sometimes unpredictable temper. At the same time, there existed in him a tenderness for animals, kids, and the old or downtrodden.
Dave was a paradox; a guy who could fix practically anything that was broken, but ultimately couldn't deal with the demons that plagued him his whole life. All those contradictions aside, we'll miss him. He was, in the end, a good guy who enriched our lives in ways some of us didn't really understand until it was too late to let him know.

living green

Well, all the visitors have gone, and the sun is out once again (for a little while, at least). The sunlight brings out the bright colors that normally go almost unnoticed in the dreary and dim daylight of a northwest winter. Mosses and lichens and ferns are covering everything: lovely, soft, bright green pillows of moss cover a curving river rock wall, the sidewalk, the stairs, the trunks of the huge old trees that line the streets. Ferns are growing in the crooks of tree limbs above the sidewalks. It's like a little rainforest microclimate.

Speaking of trees, the tree trimmers are here as I'm writing this. Our huge old and beloved walnut tree is getting a pretty drastic, much needed shaping. A few weeks ago I noticed two huge limbs were split through...the next ice storm would almost surely cause them to come down on the porch roof or an unsuspecting pedestrian. I'm hoping the family of squirrels that lives in the tree aren't too freaked out. I know I would be if some crazy human attacked my nest with a chain saw.
Walking out on the porch to talk to the tree guy, I thought that the soft white stuff coming down was sawdust...then I realized that nobody was cutting anything. It's snowing!

happy holidaze

A belated Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and New Year to everyone! It's a typical cold, windy, wet Oregon winter night, where it seems as if the wind and rain are blowing straight in through the window glass. (It doesn't help that my computer is next to the window with the air conditioner still in it from the summer. The stupid thing is too heavy for Dave and I to lift, and pretty much too big to store any where in the house at the moment.) So I'm sitting here with a glass of red, wearing my favorite Christmas present, handknit by my niece Mercedes...fingerless gloves are the best! Even the kitties are snuggled up together in the big chair next to the Christmas tree.
It's been busy couple of months here at Camp Cactus. First the run up and the preparation for the best holiday sale in the studio ever, then quite a few of the extended Russell clan made their way up to Portland for the holidays. Matt flew in from San Mateo a few days before Christmas, followed by my big sister Patty and niece Mercedes, who drove up from the Bay Area. It was really fun having them here. Mercedes is a mad knitting fool and gave Caitie and I some impromptu knitting lessons. We're managing to make a couple of easy scarves so far, but are not yet ready to make gloves - fingerless, or mittens!
On Christmas Eve we had a gathering of all the usual suspects for a traditional buffet of corn chowder, clam chowder, salmon cakes, clam cakes (an old Russell family fave), and tons of other munchies.