A Calcined Yellow Ocher

I woke up early this morning and stepped outside. The wind was going crazy, it was great. I spent a little time reading and looking through the old dictionary I bought in Antigua. I found a some phrases that I really like taken out of context, one of which is the title for this post.

lightsome
a continuous or intermittent signal for guiding navigators
a calcined yellow ocher
a sudden stroke of fortune
the existence of an ion or subatomic particle
the quality of being like

I went to breakfast and talked with Ramonita and Tat Lu for a bit, and then, because breakfast wasn't quite ready, took a shower (what else is there to do when breakfast isn't ready?). About halfway through, I realized that the songs I was singing kept morphing from one to the next all on their own. I started with Amos Lee "Keep it Loose, Keep it Tight," (actually woke up with that one in my head) and moved to Bob Marley. These two Bob Marley songs kept getting mixed together:

Rise up this mornin'; smiled with the risin' sun.
Three little birds perched by my doorstep
Singin' One Love! One Heart!
Let's get together and feel all right.

Then I caught myself singing "You're all I ever needed, oooo baby you're the one!"
And then, "That's why I'm eeeaaaaaeeeeaaaasyyyyyyyy. I'm easy like Sunday morning."

Singing Kalai in the shower is usually inevitable, but people are likely to think you a lunatic.

I had breakfast then, which was good and they gave me bread! I felt so good the whole morning. I actually had the feeling of being on the Oregon coast just beaming in me. Who knows why, but it felt great. I washed my hands at the pila and watched the light come through the peach tree leaves, noticing how light green they were, and thought (stating the obvious as usual), life is worth joy.

It was pretty cold this morning, and there was lots of wind. When I first put my hands in the water from the pila I was shocked by its iciness. It reminded me of wading Diamond Fork in Utah and dipping my hands in to gather pastel river stones. I remember once when we were hanging out on in the river at Zion Canyon, I reached down to lift a bigger stone while asking Andrea (her dad is an entomologist so I guess she's got bugs in the blood)if she thought there would be any nymphs in the river. Just as the last word was out of my mouth, I turned the stone over and heard Andrea shout, "wait!" There was a huge nymph on it called a helgamite, something like that, which is supposedly fairly rare, especially for that river. I love that river. Nice cool water running right through white desert sand, and sweet gnarled trees along the bank.

I also randomly remembered watching thunderstorms from our screen porch with a bowl of red grapes.

Snippets of ridiculous conversation
So I bought a thing of chocolate milk but the refrigerator it was in didn't seem to be on, and you can't ever trust the expiration date. But I gave it a go. I started opening it(it was a carton like the kind from the school cafteria):

Me: "I hope it's not warm and gross."
Andy: "Probably not warm, just gross."
(...)
Andy: "Bird crap!"
Me: "On your foot?"
Andy: "No my pants." Searches for the bird with his mouth slightly open.
Me: "Don't look up."

Then he starts throwing rocks straight up in the air to try and spook it off the pine branch but misses of course, and I end up getting showered with pebbles.

Later (Sometimes I mishear people. Or, often my brain will provide a quick list of all the words that are close to the sounds that were said, and I'll pick the most random one.):

Me: "Is there a water fountain in the Muni (equivalent of city hall)?"
Andy: "No."
Me: "There's a bathroom sink though, right(just joking of course)?"
Andy: "I actually did that in the ocean (mission) once."
Me: "You drank from a bathroom sink in the ocean once?"

Later:

Me: "I love the sky."
Andy: "You love this guy?"



I really do love the sky though. It was very impressive last night. The moon was almost full and the clouds made a meandering river of the sky. I want to write the sky. I like how Levis writes about the sky.