east west

miscellany

this is the way my thoughts have been recently, but i'll put it in outline form for clarity of thought.

1) two of my favourite spelling errors:
a. when "brian" becomes "brain"
b. when "below" becomes "bellow"

i think that will be it for my spelling spiel this time around.

2) portland has been nice this spring. thus far, it's actually felt like a spring - with flowers and birds and sunshine and such. i'm finding that everything i told my friends (in hopes that they would move to oregon) have proven false. for example:

a. "it never snows"
b. "they start mowing the grass in february!"
c. "the rain's only like a mist - you never even feel it"

so apparently i'm a complete liar and jerk. at least they believed me and moved here.

3) i heard someone comment on the new river recently, and it made me think about my grandfather. he's 84. he's been fishing the same hole in the new river for approximately the last 79 years. about three years ago, his health would no longer allow him to make it down the embankment to the spot - and if he "can't fish there he ain't gonna fish no where at all". since then, whenever we talk, he always tells me how long it's been since he's been down to the river..."over a year"...."oh now, round about two years i guess"...."i reckon it's been three years since i got down there"....peter suggested that we float him to the spot on a canoe for christmas - give him something to talk about.

4) that sort of thing makes me sad, because i already don't have that kind of consistency in my life, by virtue of moving. apparently there's something to be said for living in an area for so long that its rivers flow in your veins and you know the temperament of the land. i imagine my grandpa could walk that slope to the new river with his eyes closed, he knows it so well.

posted by jessica @ 7:43 PM