Red Cedar
More apocalypse, less angst
A rambly update.
On Wednesday I’m hitting the road to Prince George, Terrace and Prince Rupert for a whirlwind northern ratification tour and hopefully a visit with some friends. Really, I’m a bit of a wreck today – not terribly so – but angsty and restless. Lots of work, realtor appointment tonight, fingers crossed about some recent developments, more bags to be packed. I’m feeling light at the moment, but not unburdened. Like floating away in a balloon suddenly untethered. Not a breath out, but rather a sharp one in.
I am copying files at the moment. Web server to hard drive. That way I can take this audit of scientific holdings on the road, hole myself up with the secret document caches people think they’ve got away with. I’ve got to sweep it all out before I can beging the process of converting it into our new site format and architecture. A good project for dark northern nights, for the lull between christmas and new years.
Since last week I’ve been immersed back into this murk of creative organization, from which will emerge a new and better information hierarchy, a cleaner and faster-loading approach. What importance we place on finding what we want right now! When little more than a decade ago it was all libraries and microfilm. Remember the dizziness of sitting in the dark corner, speeding the film along in search of the article, the reference you were looking for? Sometimes I had to close my eyes, and it was always then that I skipped right over what I wanted, never realizing it until the end came up to catch in the spindle.
I didn’t even know such a wonder existed until I went to college – never having had occasion to research news articles, old government reports, magazine advertisements from the thirties before then. All those words and images and publications accessible to anyone who wanted to come in for a look. I miss the private wonder of that sometimes, though not the fact copies of the material cost a quarter and rarely came out light enough to read. The web is not quite such a wonder to me, I suppose because the fact of it grew with me, I’ve worked with it since it came into being.
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The weekend was good, I had a party for a friend that was very successful – we ate Saint Honore cake and danced in the living room until my downstairs neighbours banged on the ceiling at midnight. I split my time between party and quiet, took photos of Brian’s house to show friends of ours who might want to buy it, and drew a picture of the future in stick figure and scrawl which pleased me greatly. It’s not every day I give into the fantasy things are going to turn out alright after all.
Darren is home and settled in which makes me feel good, not only for him, but for the fact my house is not empty for a week at a time when I stay at Brian’s or hit the road. We had a bit of a plumbing emergency last week and I discovered that my upstairs neighbours really are as flaky as I thought they were – despite pipes that rattled like a generator for at least twelve hours straight, they never once bothered to call the landlady until their showerhead blew off. I had called, but somehow she never got the message. The weekend before, we had no hot water for four days – and again, not once did my neighbours call the landlady. Can a house of 4 people really go that many days and not notice?
I suppose they can.
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I worked on a poem this morning, questioning once again if I have to put a lot of effort into a poem will it really be any good? I mean, the ones that just come out as if inspired are always my favourites – I’m still not convinced how this one will be – but I’m trying my hand at writing a series of poems for submission. Two series actually. Two totally different themes. Which means I can’t just sit around waiting to be inspired enough to write or it could take me years to get 5 pieces out of thin air.
I look at the computer and realize that if I don’t leave now I won’t be home in time for the realtor. Damn. That was fast.
One Comment on “A rambly update.”
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Red Cedar 
prince rupert. wow – gerry & i lived there for about 6 months many many moons ago (even peter came for a few months). we worked at this greasy spoon called the moby dick inn. if you have spare time (which might not fit into your described “whirlwind”), could i trouble you to take a photo of it? it’s on one of the two main streets. not sure you could miss it if you have time to wander. thanks.