taking a detour

It's one of those discombobulated days. Running here and there for groceries, prescriptions, reading (always interrupted), writing (ditto), eating too many chocolate biscotti. Connecting with an old friend on facebook who looks much happier since her elderly husband passed on. Trying to write an essay on photography I get bogged down, use other people's words, delete them. About that bird: a Lorikeet or Lorie or Lorini or Loriinae. Somehow I feel a connection with all these colorful Lori's -- although I feel much less than colorful these days. In the case of the bird, they are tropical, the one on my head is actually quite conservative in color -- these birds look tie-dyed -- black stripes on red breasts, yellow polka dots on green thighs. When I tried to take a picture, they landed on my camera. They were quite amazing and can be seen at the Maritime Center Aviary in Norwalk , CT. In winter they are shipped to southern Florida. They sure couldn't survive a New England winter! Nor could I anymore which is why I moved to the Southwest. Didn't know that winters can be very harsh in northern New Mexico at 7500 feet -- but there is more sun and it's dry, and that's what counts. Spare me from S.A.D. syndrome. Oh yeah, and then there are the ducks. My daughter is a rubber ducky collector. She saw these in  Cape Cod shop window.

I'm going to blow the whistle now and show part of the collection in her home! She will probably kill me for this, but.....

One of my favorite books is Moby Duck by Donovan Hohn. Not fiction, but the true story of a freighter filled with tons of rubber ducks that fell overboard in the North Atlantic during a storm, years ago. The ducks turned up in the most unlikely places many years later and Hohn followed the trail. He's a fine writer, and it's pretty frightening to read about the trash and trash "islands" in the oceans of our fragile planet. Check it out.

Countdown to surgery is less than 48 hours and I'll be in nursey mode for several more days.  Doesn't fit my personality (I'm kinda selfish), but when something has to be done it has to be done - and I'm trying to do it with compassion and a good attitude. I do want to make him as comfortable as possible and I know he appreciates it.

In the hot kitchen
A feather drags its shadow
Over steaming rice.
        Richard Wright