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May 1, 2007
Desk Set
It is, perhaps, a sad state of affairs when I am reduced to describing my environment at work, and yet it is a sort of paean. In a matter of days I shall relocate in my building and not take all of this marvelous stuff. More than that, it amuses me to do so this morning, and there is the side benefit that I am writing.
I have the walls of my office environment plastered with imagery of some of my favorite things. But right now, I'm going to focus attention on the wall I most often see, let's call it "the calendar" wall. On it there are four different calendars, two showing dates, two outdated, but with favorite imagery, so hung so that the date does not show. Between these phalanxes of calendars is a reproduction of an 18th century map of St. Augustine.
The two calendars nearest me are "live." And I actually wrote this for the one I will describe in a moment. The second calendar in line is my annual "Surfing" or "Waves" calendar. It is surfing this year, and since surfing involves waves, the focus is, of course the water. The month of May shows a huge wave, looks bigger than pipeline, smaller than Waimea, with a surfer "in flight" out of the curl behind him. Gorgeous.
The first calendar, the jewel in the crown, was a Christmas gift from Samuel. It's called "Nuns Having Fun" and features black and white pictures of Nuns in recreational activities. Last month had nuns in traditional habits with those sort of large "winged" hats--six of them--crammed into a small car traveling somewhere with the caption--"Okay, so who forgot the St. Christopher statue." This month is equally delightful, a young nun on a rope and wood plank swing at the forward height of arc. It's caption, of course, "Nearer, my God, to Thee."
There is something innocent, charming, and ultimately elevating about these simple pictures. When I'm feeling a little down at work, I look at this calendar and it is an immediate perk-up.
The other two calendars are from favorite venues. One is a Mount Vernon calendar, this month showing a view of the windows in the great hall--banquet/guest area. The other is a calendar of views from Williamsburg showing a small house with brick chimney and some gorgeous flowers in the front garden.
Which, in this rambling, stream of consciousness post, reminds me that were it not for the need for focusing on Samuel's dance classes, we would be traveling shortly to Jamestown for the four-hundredth anniversary of the landing of the Susan B. Constant on what was to become known as Jamestown Island. This even occurs on Samuel's Birthday and the Queen shall be there to celebrate. All of which is made so much more meaningful to me by the fact that I have been able to find three ancestors in that original colony (actually probably from the secondary landings, I've been too lazy to really research it), one of those ancestors was the famous John Rolfe himself.
Ah well, have rambled enough. Hope I can ramble my way into something sensible next time.
Posted by Steven Riddle at 8:26 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
May 2, 2007
A Dream
that needs recording.
I am in a large field with some friends, most of them in Edwardian gowns (yes, they're female). I tell Sam that we need some water. He goes off and comes back and says that he dug in the ground and some water came out, and he has about half a bucket full. I tell him to dig a channel toward us and the water will flow out and he won't have to carry it in buckets. He does so with a hoe-like implement with a triangular head. As he does it, we see the water forming a river, literally tumbling and pouring out.
As we approach the source of the spring, there is suddenly a white pavillion and pool. The pool is shaped like two eights crossed at the center, to give a kind of circular cruciform appearance.
I remember voluminous weeping in awe and wonder.
As I tend to pay attention to dreams--they say something at least about what's going on inside one's head, this one seemed notable and interesting.
Posted by Steven Riddle at 8:07 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Goodform
Please e-mail me. The address I have on file does not work any more.
Thanks.
Posted by Steven Riddle at 8:27 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack