Tag Archives: water

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Rock rasp

There is a raspy sound when the beach is pebbles and the waves wash in and they rasp together. It is a singing clicking rasp. Beautiful!

I walk Marrowstone Island early yesterday, since there is a very low tide in the morning and it was sunny and gorgeous. The clear agates light up.

This one is clear in the center. I have to dig it out of the mud flat with another rock.

Turn again.

There, isn’t it beautiful with the light shining through?

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: raspy.

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The DSM Stew

Pyschosis
Neurosis
Babeiosis
Psittacosis

Medicine shifts
out the old, in the new
neurosis is gone
from the DSM stew

https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/understanding-psychosis

https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/babesiosis/

https://www.cdc.gov/pneumonia/atypical/psittacosis/index.html

The DSM V is the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, volume V. The DSM III was published in 1980, DSM-IV in 1994 and the DSM-V in 2013. Some disorders are dropped or combined with others or the criteria are changed. In the DSM-V, tolerance and overuse (formerly addiction) were combined from two disorders into one spectrum.

Medicine is always changing and updating. Before h. pylori was recognized as a cause of stomach ulcers, there was much more ulcer surgery and ulcer bleeding deaths.

I don’t know what will come out of Covid-19, but the research on the immune system and Long Covid (now called PASC) is formidable.

The DSM-V and the ICD-10 are humans categorizing things, defining diseases. They will continue to change.

For a history of the DSM, read here: https://www.psychiatry.org/psychiatrists/practice/dsm/about-dsm/history-of-the-dsm.

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For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: neuroses.

The photograph is taken in September 2021, with my camera. Hypoxia and a fast heart rate makes me really anxious, but neither is considered a psychiatric disorder.

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In deep

Time to return
again

Human, pfaugh
I give up
I don’t want to be one
I can be anything I want to be
I want to be a mermaid
again

I sink into the sea
and down to the depths
scales and tail and breathe the sea
the water cools the burns
my charred burnt skin
and lungs

Such a fail again
every time I try
to be human
yes, legs, I can do that
it always makes my voice hurt
but those damn wings
come with the legs

It’s hard to hide the wings.

I don’t know how
but they sense them
even when I hide them

It really pisses me off.
It’s the broken ones that show up
though now I think maybe
they are all broken
they all wander around
pretending they are ok
using lies to try to appear nice
hating parts of themselves
calling those parts unclean spirits
and casting them out
DEMON! DEVIL!
over and over

I try to pretend they aren’t there
the cast out
and I am human too
but the demons kneel and lay their monstrous heads
in my lap
crying
cluster round me
begging for my help

I always fail.

I try to stay present
with the person and the cast out
but eventually I can’t stand it
and I say something wrong
and the stupid human thinks I am the demon
and casts me out too.

I wait and hope.

I wait and hope with the monsters
with the rough beasts.
“You have wings,” say the demons, “Help us!”
“I can’t.” I say, “The humans must help themselves.”
The monsters weep and wail.
Finally I am sick of it again.
I send them home
and I go home too.
I have failed again
and must endure falling through the atmosphere
my feathers and skin a burning star

I am sick of it.
I give up, Beloved.
I am a failure.
I can’t do this.
I must go to the sea again.

Here is the trench, the deepest part of the ocean
I stop swimming and let myself sink
Slowly the light disappears
I am in the ink black

Slowly the others appear
glowing
in the deep

_________________________

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: liquid.

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Welcome rain

We are having a little light rain this morning. It has been weeks. The grass is very brown, as you can see. I don’t water in the summer and my grass comes back and it has lots of weeds as well. I am encouraging herbs to take over. I have parsley, spicy oregano, pineapple sage and thyme all competing with the grass/weed ground cover.

The climate news has been fairly appalling. The sinkhole in Russia, people falling in Texas and ending up in the burn unit because the sidewalk and asphalt temperature reaches 130, and the northern Atlantic Ocean breaking temperature records. I have two friends who are moving from Portland, Oregon to New Mexico. They have health issues that do better in heat than rain, rain, rain, but I worry. My daughter wants me to travel with her and I would like a destination that is not on fire. We are negotiating.

I did water the roses yesterday. Most of my plants are used to there being a couple month dry spell in the summer. Perhaps they steal water from the morning mist. A rhododendron died this year. I think the temperature of over 100 was too much for it last summer.

Elwha in the dry grass.

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: climate.

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Boat for sale

Sun Tui is a 23 foot sloop, built in Hong Kong by American Marine in 1960. She is plywood sided and has a nearly full keel. The crane operators yesterday say that she weighs 5000 pounds: that keel makes her very very stable to sail. The tiller is a carved dragon with the world in its’ mouth and there is a carving of Kwan Yin inside.

My daughter and I used a 40lb trolling motor to drive her through the boatyard yesterday. That is equivalent to 1/2 horsepower, but the little motor could still move the boat. There was very little wind or waves. We got to the smaller of the two cranes. The crane operators measured Sun Tui and then looked at the trailer. Huge thanks to my friend R! He and I replaced the tail lights on the trailer two days ago and he brought it to the boatyard. I don’t have a truck.

Here my daughter and I are waiting until the crane is in place and the slings are lowered.

We motored slowly into the sling. The crane operators caught the boat and held it with boathooks while the operator slowly started lifting the slings. We rode up to the street level, they moved the boat towards the street, and we stepped off. The boat is raised until it can be carried through the boatyard.

Here she is pressure washed, to help prevent species from moving from one place to another.

Rolling. We have one huge crane and three smaller. This is one of the smaller ones.

They were very careful and thorough putting Sun Tui on the trailer.

On the trailer, but not home yet! The mast is too tall to go through town without hitting wires that cross streets! Next we go to Haven Boatworks, where a second crane removes the mast and the shipwright helps secure everything.

All packaged for transport!

Now Sun Tui is at my house, ready for further cleaning and work. I hope that we find her a new home and much love!

I sent my son the final photograph and he sent back “Congratulations!” Hooray!

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: congratulations.

For further information about owning this boat, email me.

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A-typical

My daughter and I went to Rialto Beach two days ago. We hiked the beach, returned and found our campsite. I bought my lifetime National Park Pass, but the park sites were full. We found a nearby private campsite that was just fine. My daughter gave it an A- for restrooms, a B for the sinks with hoses bringing cold water and a D for the regular not-bear-proof garbage cans.

After setting up the tent and dinner, we returned to Rialto for the sunset. Quite gorgeous, with the sun sinking in to the Pacific.

Earlier a ranger checked in when we were past Hole in the Wall. My daughter said, “Low tide at 3:45 and we will head back soon after that.” He grinned. Hole in the Wall is full of water when the tide is in. We could cross via a path over and behind the rock.

We wanted to see a whale, but mostly we saw rocks that were not whales. The tidepools are gorgeous.

There also were lots of brown pelicans. Wow, can they fly beautifully. My daughter points out that they look way more like airplanes than either eagles or great blue herons. It’s the wide body and the landing gear retracted and the really long glides.

They can stall and then dive.

We had a lovely trip. Meanwhile, I did not take my laptop. TYPING WITHDRAWAL! I had my journal, of course.

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For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: type.

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Rescue

A friend stops speaking to me. Nearly a year ago. I particularly mind because this person said, “We will always be friends, no matter what.” I am skeptical of always/never statements, but I want it to be true.

I run across him and he is in trouble. He has boxes, cases, six by four by six feet. Stuff he finds valuable, though it’s not anything I value. He is outside with the cases and is being threatened, told to hand them over.

It’s not a dramatic rescue. I just walk up and say “Hi,” to him. I am there, I am a witness, I look over my shoulder. There isn’t anyone else with me, but the implication is there. The threatening person leaves.

The former friend looks at me. “We’d better get the boxes inside,” I say, “Until you can move them.” We are by my house. “You can have upstairs and I’ll take the basement.” He looks uncomfortable, but he can’t leave his valuables on the street. “Or I will take upstairs and you the basement.” He still looks awkward. “Ok, or we can both be on the same floor, I don’t care.” He looks away. He says, “If we are on the same floor, I will want to kiss you.”

“Oh,” I say, and wake up. It’s a dream. It’s not him. It’s what my brain thinks he could/should be? Good luck with that.

Still, I decide that we should be on different floors. He has not spoken to me for a year and I don’t trust the friendship and certainly no kissing. I want him out of my house as soon as he can arrange transport for the four boxes. If he wants to renew the friendship then, he can contact me.

However, there is a shift in me. How odd that a dream can do that. I feel less upset about the whole thing. I like the version of him that my dream brought me, even though it isn’t real. It’s real in my dreams. Maybe that is enough. I feel more comfortable and happy.

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I took the photograph two days ago at Rialto Beach. The Hole in the Wall rock looks like a giant elephant. My daughter and I hiked the beach and camped for a night near by.

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: karma.

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Wet

I am Elwha.

I am small and my sister and I chase each other in and out of the house. In to all the rooms! One day I jump in the big white smooth receptacle and it is full of water! Warm! and I can’t touch bottom! I can’t get out! I HOWL!

Mother comes, fishes me out and puts me down. I run out of that room. She drops a big cloth over me and rubs me a little. I am drenched and I smell like flowers! It takes hours to clean up. My sister sniffs me and laughs.

I never jump in there without looking again.

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: drenched.