sleep, news & experiments

the grasses and the sky at bull canyon on the way to bella coola – july 2005

news this morning upon checking the friend-blogs… ryefield is responding, albeit struggling to – but eyes fluttering and attempting to respond to voice and touch. i’ve been visualizing him as a small-being wandering around inside his own head… using this coma-state to figure out some of the “big questions”. if anyone is the type of person to do that, it’s him. of course, nothing else is known yet, but i know the people closest to him right now are more hopeful he will come out of it okay – seems there will be a long healing road in any case.

and there is talk of a general strike in vancouver – or at least – walk out of some unions tomorrow which my union is apparently not participating in (we aren’t in a “real” general strike situation yet, and the bcfed is trying to keep a lid on protest by keeping most workers at work except those directly affected by provincial bargaining) – but if transit wildcats (which they might if a picket line goes up at the transit yard), then i would hazard to guess we’ll get a one-day strike anyways. it’s pretty variable, but i’m staying in the city tonight for a union meeting, so whatever happens i’ll be somewhere for it.

i pieced out and pinned the hems for curtains and a tablecloth last night, and managed to get a good night’s sleep – so between the two things i’m feeling much better today – plus the news this morning on two fronts has been good, which is helping to lift the oppressive weight from my shoulders. my optimism in both cases is guarded, but it is still there amid the fortress that is the legacy of disappointments.

i also have decided to try a bit of a blog-writing experiment that i have seen elsewhere as a way of working on more than just diary-style writing… which is to randomly pick a dictionary word everyday and blogpost about it. i am giving myself permission to have that take any form – essay, fiction, poem, or even photograph – but with a minimum number of 250 words. the purpose being to extend my writing skills and kick this almost-daily writing habit up a notch or two. this doesn’t mean the end of my regular posts, but would be in addition to other writing and photographs already on this site. please let me know what you think as this little project progresses!

my word for the day (out of the French-English dictionary on my desk) is second-class. more on that later.