It's Saturday

 Muffin on her 12th birthday, and my 67th - she was born on my birthday so it was easy to remember! This was quite a few years ago...

Yep, I love cats! Prefer the in person cuddly purring kind but photos are good reminders.

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I don't play tennis, and didn't understand the joke, but the play on words is still funny.

Sharing with Sepia Saturday and Saturday's Critters!

You cannot buy the revolution.

You cannot make the revolution.

You can only be the revolution.

It is in your spirit or it is nowhere.

Ursula K. LeGuin, The Dispossessed

PS,  just saw this on FB

Let's find joy

 

Smiling Angel located on the left-hand side of the main portal of the Notre-Dame de Reims Cathedral in Reims, France and was carved between 1236 and 1245.

Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.

THICH NHAT HANH

In every joy which kindness triggers, flashes a flicker of that wild joy of limitless belonging.

BR. DAVID STEINDL-RAST

You can GROAN now!

Sharing with Saturday's Critters

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“Once upon a time, when women were birds, there was the simple understanding that to sing at dawn and to sing at dusk was to heal the world through joy.”

— Terry Tempest Williams

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I'm now listening to this book. It takes place in nearby Henderson County NC. It's read by a black woman, and is about a family through several generations (I think it's fiction.)

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Joy is gratefulness unbound.

JOE PRIMO

October is here!

 

Rabbit rabbit!

I was sitting at my desk at 11:02 am yesterday when I heard a sound that's been missing over a year. A train whistle at the nearby crossing of Blue Ridge Rd. Oh that will be such a nice thing to return to. But the tracks that were damaged going east over the Old Fort pass and continental divide will take a bit longer to repair, I imagine.

Orlando Basturo, Cuban artist

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How does the moon cut her hair?

She Eclipse It.

Just a brief recall

 

Sept 27 is the one year anniversary  of Hurricane Helene. Here the bridge in Swannanoa is shown in an aerial view soon after the storm - the highway is US 70 and had lots of sludge left all over it from the Swannanoa River flood. In the next weeks we found the dust it created was another problem to deal with.

An earlier view of the bridge and water still standing on the highway.

There are certainly more horrible things on the news these days. I bring this back up simply because this disaster impacted myself, and my neighbors so much. 

Cold December morning showed some people still living in tents and sheds.

Free food, water and supplies (cleaning, hygiene etc) were available at different  sites eventually.

Though the damage occurred on Friday, FEMA and other helpers didn't arrive until Monday. The rescue teams were looking for survivors from many mudslides and washed out buildings.

Imagine no cell service, no electricity, no water, not even ability to drive on the nearby interstates to leave the area!

Here at Black Mountain Town Square there was a daily meeting M-F, to discuss the status of water, sewer, cell service, available food and supplies. How the Public Workks people were trying to reestablish water lines was a big topic, as everyone was using "grey water" to flush with, and picking up bottled water for drinking. 

Blue Ridge apartment  residents gathered with small charcoal grills and cooked as much meat as they could, which was thawing from lack of electric power. They didn't have any water stocked up either.

It didn't become available the first 2 days. I remember going to the police station and telling them 70 some elders were at the apartments without any water, and being told everyone was in the same boat.

 The electricity was off for 13 days at my apartment, so I went to stay with a relative when highways were again open. I was able to watch these town meetings through Facebook posts. They were led initially by a young woman from the Forest Service, and she did a great job facilitating, then the town leaders took over. Eventually Asheville also had these kinds of public service meetings on line.

For months following my return to my apartment, there were still meals, water, laundry services, and showers available. Many people had lost their homes, and FEMA was really slow to provide trailers. They said they would need to be placed above flood-prone properties, but that's where people owned their lands.

It took me until March to obtain the funds to replace my lost food from FEMA.

I'm not angry about it, just realize the slow wheels of government agencies which were stretched to the limits.

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Memories Monday

As we approach the one year anniversary of the sudden floods, landslides and winds that impacted a mountain region of North Carolina, I am going to share a few things from my memories, and those of others who experienced this extraordinary event.

Here for You (After Hurricane Helene) by David LaMotte

This month people here in Black Mountain/Swannanoa/Asheville are celebrating/remembering the Hurricane Helene events of Sept. 27 2024. Here are some remembrances.

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More immediately, and close to home, I've had some kind of crud which is strange, 'cause I seldom have gut issues, but low back pain seems to be the main symptom. Of course I have my intermittent fever, night sweats, as well as the coughing that goes with Bronchiectasis/COPD. 

Now I'm so short of breath that I don't even feel I could walk to the car, let alone drive. Though sitting is something I'm quite comfortable doing. But it wasn't sudden, and no signs of circulatory problems, or I'd have called 911 by now. 

I may haul the old bod over to my local M.D. tomorrow (writing this Sunday night) if it doesn't have any improvement by then. I've hesitated because they usually just clap another course of antibiotics on me. That isn't really good for me, as they'll even agree. But it does kill bacterial infections. Just not viral ones. And so they'll test me for COVID too. OK. Need to do that anyway I guess.

This is just immediate care needs. I also have 3 referrals to chase down...one for PT is really my own  fault, because I was too anxious the night before the evaluation last Friday, at a new place at an early time...so I didn't sleep much at all and canceled it. So now I hope to be able to get started on PT sometime soon, but will need to chase down the opportunity myself.

The other two are based on the blood work at the neurologist last week, to a Rheumatologist and a Hematologist...for more testing probably. So I will patiently await a call for those appointments.

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10 AM update. Nurse practitioner at my GP doctor recommended having chest x-ray. So Helen is going to drive me to ER in Ashville. I’ll let you know.!

Two wet days

I'm posting some art from the Black Mountain Center for the Arts over at my blog Alchemy of Clay.

 

You can see where much of the colorful leaves have ended up. Two days of rain last weekend, so I did very little outside.

The plants on the balcony have been growing bigger all summer. Now I need to think where they'll live during the winter.

I wish I hadn't divided the violets, because these are all I really want to care for, rather than the other 4 children of theirs!

Today's quote:

"Whenever I touch a flower, I touch the sun and yet I don't get burned. When I touch the flower, I touch a cloud without flying to the sky. When I touch the flower, I touch my consciousness, your consciousness, and the great planet Earth at the same time.

The miracle is possible because of insight into the nature of interbeing. If you really touch one flower deeply, you touch the whole cosmos. The cosmos is neither one nor many. When you touch one, you touch many, and when you touch many, you touch one.."

~Thich Nhat Hanh 
Cultivating the Mind of Love

Group photos of women...

Somehow my photos I'd posted to the blog (older ones from a concert in 2012) disappeared before published. They still show in my edit screen, but the blog shows blank things. So I'll try again.

Below is Sahara Peace Choir. I used to be a member, and loved that the name was chosen to represent two groups, Jewish by Sarah, the mother of Isaac, and Muslim by Hagar, the mother of Ishmael. Linda has written many songs, and adapted many folk songs from many different cultures.

This year there was no concert, though it had been scheduled in March. So I sent a donation to the not-for-profit group that the concert was to have helped. HelpMate offers shelter to women in abusive domestic situations.

Another concert was held on the banks of the French Broad River.

A group of women (and one man) all of whom are middle aged or elders...and they are dressed up, women in long dresses with shawls! I'm matching the theme from Sepia Saturday this week!

The songs at these concerts are beautifully harmonized, focused on springtime, and inspiring for audience as well as singers. The women do dress in "jewel tone" clothing, and I think there are shawls and long skirts among them as well as tee shirts and slacks.

Myself and Annelinde Metzner, director of Sahara Peace Choir

Today's Quote:

"Whenever I touch a flower, I touch the sun and yet I don't get burned. When I touch the flower, I touch a cloud without flying to the sky. When I touch the flower, I touch my consciousness, your consciousness, and the great planet Earth at the same time.

The miracle is possible because of insight into the nature of interbeing. If you really touch one flower deeply, you touch the whole cosmos. The cosmos is neither one nor many. When you touch one, you touch many, and when you touch many, you touch one.."

~Thich Nhat Hanh
Cultivating the Mind of Love