everyday & the moon

I'm not feeling quite myself today
Recurrance of sinus problems (I must get to sea level!) and the inevitable antibiotics. Pressure from the ENT PA to have a C-scan because "maybe you need surgery". Which I actually scheduled yesterday (the scan) and cancelled this morning. It's a bit of overkill I think. It makes you wonder. But wondering doesn't get me anywhere and instead I took myself out to browse Pieces, the consignment shop, where it's easy to get mesmerized and waste a lot of time wading through an ever-shifting array of mundane and interesting objects. Like the Balinese mask above. Or this unidentifiable something-wheel (too crowded where it stood for me to get a wider shot).

I rarely buy secondhand or vintage clothing. Other people's clothes don't seem to do it for me - and I'm not being a snob. If it worked, I'd buy it. I have a sophisticated friend who dresses almost entirely in consignment shop clothes and always looks fabulous. She visits the shops every week and calls it hunting and gathering - a challenge. I do get tempted sometimes and have to ask myself: do you need it? how will you pay for it? where will you put it? (questions I learned to ask after reading the book on clutter - it works every time - I refrained from buying the 4 foot tall/wide Balinese mask). The phonograph caused a blip, but I remembered the one I refused to take from my parents house ages ago when it was offered (and wasn't old), and who has 78rpm records anymore? and where would I put it if I did? I escaped unencumbered.

snAPPshots
Then picked up the new book that arrived at the post office. A fun informative guide to taking great pictures with a smartphone. My iPhone, in the brief time I've had it, has opened up a whole new superficial world of photography to me. Making pictures with special effects, not taking them seriously, just having fun. This may be a passing fancy, but I'm enjoying it. It's not all everyday stuff though. Adam Bronkhorst, the author, writes about how in recent years, global events recorded on phones often provide the majority of "first-day news footage" - while professional news crews and photographers take longer to arrive on the scene. Highly recommended if you love your phone's camera.

one night of dreaming
with the summer moon
                  Basho
Last night's full moon filled every corner of our house of windows with bright silver light. Rainstorm came in, obliterated the moon for a time. But when I awakened at 1 a.m. unable to sleep, I sat at the kitchen table with lemongrass tea and clear light touched me. No candle or electricity needed. Some full moons cause agitation but not this one. It languidly rose over the mountain, a gold disc to inspire poets. My cameras can't capture the crispness of a full moon and always pick up the invisible (to my eyes) atmospheric disturbances - so you will have to imagine it - or look out your window tonight and see it for yourself, for I think that this moon is glorious wherever you are. I'm grateful that it's a quiet, perhaps sad and accepting moon. I don't need emotional agitation from celestial bodies when there's enough of it down here.

Wonderful coolness
Is packed intact
In the lumpish moon
Of a summer evening
                  Basho