26 August 2011

Notes - class: Homo Sapiens / Dusk

         A banana and skim milk for breakfast. You have just completed your shortened walk at Pine Hill (over across the earthen dam to the far end of the shelter where the two ponds meet and back). Just nine o’clock, the mid-morning marker. Lunch with Rich and Bud at eleven-thirty at the Chinese restaurant, which just re-opened from a fire in their kitchen a month ago; four local fire department were called for containment as there are several other restaurants and shops in the long building that houses them.

         You had a quick phone note from Laney yesterday saying all is well in her life and you told her she is living her dream. You are very happy for her but secretly you miss her.

         Laney was my work companion at Mason High. When we needed another British literature teacher she is the only one who volunteered. I’ll never forget that. To me that was the best position one could have in the department, the very best, because you taught the very best. That’s how I look at it still. I would have fallen in love with her (as a friend) for that alone. We had/have a secret indefinable chemistry. I miss seeing her every day as much as I miss the classroom interaction still. Alas, here I am talking about myself.

         I brought Laney up, orndorff. I lead this blog. You know this blog is about you as a member of the species, not you alone. That is the reason I insist you always share, first with friends, and now with friends and fellow members of the class Homo Sapiens. Shortly you will be off to lunch. Later. Post. – Amorella.


         You are early at the China City Buffett. First one in as it just opened at eleven.  

         The setting is similar but refreshed. A few new lanterns too along with six ten-foot tables full of scrumptious food. Shoot, I think I’m hungry. Rich’s wife, Angie, is coming also. The Weather Channel is on the screen – the focus on Irene. It could be bad following I-95 up the coast from the Carolinas to Maine. Sometimes it bothers me that the focus always is on possible disaster, but that’s the nature of the news. There is not much counterbalance to the news media other than the weekly magazines such as Time and Newsweek which, to me, are better summaries of the actual importance of what is truly newsworthy in the world. “Nearly a million people are subject to evacuation,” is the subtitle headline. Amazing. How do you move a million people? How do you move the population out of Manhattan and the Jersey shore? Five to ten inches of rain predicted along the I-95 corridor. It sounds scary. We have a great respect for Mother Nature at our house. Bad weather is never trivial.

         A good lunch was had by the four of you. Good conversation too. Too much food, orndorff, you need a nap. Relax. Later, dude. – Amorella.

         Unwelcome news anytime. Patti called to say Bob is in hospice as he declined further treatments. You would have done the same if not earlier. He has no regrets and is at peace with his decision. Knowing Bob as you do you completely understand, or as completely as any friend can understand. You hope to see him one last time when Patti calls with a day and time.

         We have been close friends for all our lives after high school. Shared memories, some of them important in both our lives. I am out of words but not private grief. – rho      
  
         Honest enough for most human beings to understand. Bob has his dignity in that he has made his choice. That alone gives him blessing as far as the books, blog and I, Amorella, am concerned. A special dedication to Thomas Robert Pringle in the front of book four when published, that’s how it will be. Post, as it is dusk and not yet night. – Amorella. 

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