Another day of feeling jet-lagged, but without the travel. Time change and weather changes can play tricks on the brain. Classes and some paperwork were completed today, but there is so much more to do. I asked a co-worker if we were having fun yet and received the reply that it was just another day. <smile>. The day was far cooler than yesterday. Temperatures dropped over 10C overnight. Even with sunlight, the north wind made me wish I had an ear-band with me. Even my lightweight gloves seemed inadequate. It is fall weather for certain.
The mundane nature of the day was disrupted when we went out for dinner to celebrate the birthday of a friend's mother. It was a pleasant evening of conversation and food, trying some new items off the menu with great success. I walked out to the restaurant and found the brisk walk in cooler air cleared my head a bit -- though it felt quite vacant a few times during the day. The walks did help to get rid of some of the frustrations of the day.
This morning the song for the day came to mind when my colleague noted how she felt about the day. This is a song from the solo career of an iconic '60s singer/songwriter/bassist. Enjoy!
Things have felt a bit 'off' for the past two or three days. I can't quite pinpoint the cause, though I might blame it on time change. I've felt very tired over the weekend and seem not to know the actual time. Today I was surprised to find out it was only 3:30 in the afternoon and I thought I needed to get supper ready. I decided I'd wait until the new time arrived. My stomach was growling and I checked the time again. Now it was 6:00 PM. After supper I felt it was already time to begin to plan for the morning and get a bedtime snack together. One hour difference seems huge. Even the furry one seems not to know when to alert me that it is time to fill his bowl. <smile> I'm hoping things improve sooner rather than later.
This week will be known as grading week. A term paper from one class and a smaller assignment from another are due tomorrow. Another small assignment is due on Thursday and there is a second midterm exam held on Wednesday. This is way too much grading for a single week. The long weekend will still be filled with the hateful task of assigning grades to the student work. Times like this make me want to binge grade just to get it over, yet this tends to lack quality of decision making on my part, so I try to pace myself. It is a distinct possibility that by this time next week, my brain will have become nonfunctional mush. We'll see.
A song title fits my feeling for the past few days as well as the next 7 days. One line in particular made me smile -- "where people play games with the night" -- though I suspect the songwriter had something else in mind. The selection is part spoken word and part song -- an intriguing mix from this musician/singer/songwriter, well known from The Band. The video shared here begins with a great focus on strings. Enjoy!
Somewhere Down the Crazy River -- Robbie Robertson
After some housework and grading, I headed outside to clear up the planters. One was easy to dump at the side of the yard. The other was difficult -- a much larger plant pot. I tried to get the bulbs out of the pot, but finally had to carry the huge thing off the porch and out to dump it and then tear the dirt and roots apart from the bottom up. I found 14 of the 21 bulbs that had all sprouted. Obviously some of them stopped growing shortly after that. I have the bulbs laid out downstairs to dry a bit before I store them in an onion bag over the winter. I look forward to planting them all again next spring. The sun had disappeared by the time I headed outside. Even with gardening gloves, my fingers were very cold by the time I finished the cleanup.
My yard care person came by this week and moved the leaves from the front yard. I'm always sad when that happens as I love the sound and feel they make as I walk through ankle deep piles when heading to and from the car in the very long driveway. The backyard trees are turning slowly now and will drop in the next week or two. Then we can tackle the eaves so the rain will run to the down spout and not overflow all along the length. An irritation with leaf 'removal' is those using leaf blowers. While horrible noise polluters, I've seen the leaves blown off one property onto another -- few properties with fences in this area. That is just wrong. I have a feeling some of mine end up this way -- something I need to discuss perhaps <smile>.
My mind went to a strange song for today. The lyrics sound like they fit, but the metaphor of those lyrics is something entirely different. <smile> The singer has a distinctive voice that was at its peak in the video shared here. Enjoy!
Here we find ourselves on the cusp of a new time -- the movement to set clocks back overnight. I'm still not sure this is necessary in current times. We know it creates altered alertness with more accidents on the Monday following the change in the wee hours of Sunday. Adjusting to the hour change is difficult for brains to do. Does having a bit more light at the end of the day really make that much difference? Days do get shorter and will be dark before the work day ends within the next few weeks. Changing time also means waking in the dark right from the start, though.
So my tongue in cheek protest song for tonight when we turn back our clocks is sung by an iconic female singer. Enjoy!
Friday - another day filled with classes and meetings. Fatigue set in by the end of the day. Yet, I headed over to the auditorium with hopes of getting a seat for the speaking event. Buffy Sainte Marie spoke as part of the McKenna Leadership series. A documentary bio was shown first, after which she spoke about her social justice work over the decades. At 76, she displayed a passion for life and desire to move social issues forward. She spoke of protesting experiences and a sense of needing to uphold Mother Earth. The room was overfull with many indigenous and non-indigenous listeners.
I was taken by her approach to the guilt and bitterness resulting from the centuries of injustice from colonizers. She told a story of ancestors walking the plains and picking something up and placing it into baskets -- buffalo chips. She noted these dried pieces of manure were used to start fires, which can bring people together to talk or sing, provide light to read a book (or write a book), and provide warmth. Rather than using energy to hang on to the negative feelings, she recommended that we find a way to use that energy to gather together, support one another and channel that negative energy into a positive endeavour. Or we could scatter the chips as fertilizer and grow somethings new. I love this metaphor. From something that seems nasty and unusable, we can turn it into something beautriful and useful. She brought indigenous peoples to every household through her time on Sesame Street, where she and her husband and then their infant son portrayed a growing family. She breastfed her son during an episode, to normalize the process with Big Bird looking on. I enjoyed the thoughts she shared during the evening, many of which might have been uncomfortable, but they brought ideas into the open -- ideas that need to be pondered by all.
The musical part of her career was not ignored. The documentary included much of this history along with the advocacy aspects. She has written many songs that are well known. She won an Oscar for "Up Where We Belong" and also wrote "Until its time for you to go", which has been covered by many very well known singers. This blog featured her singing "Universal Soldier" a few weeks ago. She was from Saskatchewan, but was taken and adopted by a family in the eastern US. Later she returned to Saskatchewan and became part of the family of descendants of Chief Piapot. The pictures of the land along with stories and songs made me feel a bit homesick.
I share two of her songs here today. The first is a love song that became more mainstream than her protest songs. It was one that she was often asked to sing on talk shows, but only if she did not speak about her advocacy work. She turned them down <smile>. This was one of the first songs to use the bridge in the middle rather than only the repeating of verse and chorus. I chose a version from early in her career for this song. The second song is one that addresses her anti-war sentiments, with a more recent version chosen. Each song demonstrates her amazing vibrato styling. Enjoy!
Until its time for you to go -- Buffy Sainte Marie
Today marked the end of allhallowtide or hallowmas, the three days of all hallows eve (Halloween), All Saint's Day and All Soul's day. This group of Catholic holidays remembers those who have died. This three day period also marks Dia de los Muertos, the Mexican Day of the Dead -- a day of remembrance and connection with those who have passed away. At this time of year, the gaelic festival of Samhain (from a pagan celtic festival) occurs. This celebration deals with the end of summer and the onset of the long darkness of winter. Other cultures have similar days at this time of year. It is a time to think of the abundance of summer and welcome the change of season, both of which deal with death in nature. It seems reasonable that this should be a time to think of and honour family and friends who have died whether recently or long past.
I'll admit to thinking of many people with whom I can no longer chat on the phone or over a cup of tea. It isn't like wallowing in the sadness, which it there of course, but thinking of who I am because these people were in my life. There are moments of tears, but more of smiles and positive reflection. Thinking of a selection that could fit this brought me to many different songs. I settled on one that has lines that deal with a more recent loss, but also note some happy memories. It was written by the singer/songwriter after the death of musician friend. It is a beautiful glimpse into the ups and downs of grief from the viewpoint of the singer. Enjoy!
Imagine! Today was November 1st. How did that come around so quickly. The term is 2/3 completed and still so much left to do. Wasn't it just recently that we began this circus? September seems so close and yet so far in reality. Time can be a wonderful concept to ponder. I do want to read Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time, but that, too, must wait for time to pass. I fear that one won't occur until I retire and have time to read about and ponder the passage of time. <smile>
During the day, time seemed to pass quickly. I was sure I was going to be almost 10 minutes late for a meeting as I hurried down the street, having glanced at the clock tower on the way. When I arrived the clock showed I was only a minute or two past the appointed time. I was hungry before it was lunch time, but didn't eat until noon due to people dropping in during office hours. I went to get groceries at 5 PM and was starving by the time I got home at 6. I ate and am now feeling the need for a substantial bedtime snack to deal with the hunger that began long before actual bedtime. Internally, time seems confused. Externally, clocks everywhere tell me something different. It seems the best I can do is to check my watch, which keeps reasonable time, and ignore the many other time keepers in my surround, since they seem destined to give me an incorrect reading of the actual time. One would expect clocks in public spaces to be set to the correct time and checked regularly. Isn't that why these items are posted around us? Or is it to give us false sense of security if time pieces are slow or a sense of urgency when they are fast? Is the goal to mess with the inner time sense we all have? Hmm. Just wait until time change this weekend. That is sure to have everyone not knowing when it is.
A lovely song about the passage of time seemed appropriate today -- a song that brings with it some relaxation and a sense of calm in a world rushing by us. The vocalist is amazing -- her voice is perfect for the selection. Enjoy!
