I think part of the issue is that I live in the middle of nowhere, but my strong craving for Korean convenience stores is real. One-dollar gimbap. A single three-dollar can of Japanese beer. A decent two-dollar sandwich.
Maybe it's just knowing that they're there, 24 hours a day without fail.
Snacking just isn't the same in America.
Reading James Ellroy's Perfidia and as usual I can't tell if he's one of the greatest American novelists ever, or a complete hack. I go back and forth while on the same damn page. The same damn sentence, if I'm being honest.
My working weekends are also going pretty well. Without saying too much, the mix of untreated mental health issues and drug use in America does not make for the easiest of times when dealing with people who are having health issues with their pet. If your animal is sick, you need to have enough cash on hand to take it to a vet. Taking on a pet is awesome, but also a responsibility like any other. Enough said.
Bellingham, Washington.
It's been dumping snow pretty hard out here lately, but hopefully some rain is coming in tomorrow to melt most of it before I have to go into work this weekend.
It's pretty! It's also annoying! Work-wise, people lose their damn minds when the weather turns bad.
Bellingham, Washington.
This is the view from my office when I get off of work these days -- nice and almost dark around 4 p.m. Bellingham certainly has its charms. Best wishes for 2022!
Sumac, "May You Be Held"
Maybe heavy experimental music doesn't scream Christmas. Maybe it does. But I walked at least 100 miles to this over the past year and saw many deer and raptors and wore out at least two perfectly good pairs of shoes.
I braved Costo so tomorrow for Christmas lunch me and my Dad are having some smoked ham, stuffing, gravy, and salad. My sister turned us both on to the ginormous apple pies they have too. My Dad has sheepishly been asking me if he can have a piece for breakfast, as if I'd ever say no to pie before lunch for me or anybody else. What am I, Hitler?
One year ago I was finishing my final teaching contract in South Korea, in lurvely Daegu, and preparing to move back here to America and sleepy Bellingham. I had no idea what this year held in store for me, what with moving in with my Dad as his full-time caretaker. I've been getting up at 6 a.m. every morning for almost a year now (which if you knew me in real life would probably shock you more than anything), reading a hell of a lot, writing short stories, and working part-time at the local Humane Society.
Living in the woods north of Bellingham is my life now -- for now -- for the foreseeable future. None of this was particularly easy, but I hope the worst fights and arguments are over. Nobody wants to get old, and nobody wants to admit they've grown old, and nobody ever gets too old to realize that they've become old.
That's all crystal clear, I'm sure.
I've got Christmas day off to enjoy the holiday with my Dad, and I'm filling in next week for my co-worker.
I'm not sure where any of this is headed, but I'm trying to make the most of it. I hope you and your family and your friends find yourself in a good place in 2022, and if that's too much to ask well, May You Be Held.
"Here, human beings had to remember that the universe was far wider than their little nest of stars -- that, in the universe at large, silence was always more than the noisiest shout of life. Humans explored and intruded against it, and built their stations and lived their lives, a biological contamination of the infinite, a local and temporary condition."
-- C. J. Cherryh, Foreigner
I was out and about downtown last night for the Humane Society Christmas party. It was fun, and rainy of course!
(The Bellingham Herald is the local newspaper, and that's their building.)
I've been pretty tight-lipped about the new job, maybe erring on the side of being a bit paranoid about it all. Not many folks read this here blog anyhow, but it is Bellingham and it is a fairly small town.
I'm a weekend dispatcher for the Animal Control branch of our county Humane Society. Unlike a lot of American counties, we contract to do Animal Control stuff and it doesn't go through the local police department (which might be what you're used to). Whatcom County is still highly agricultural, and in addition to cat and dog friends we deal with a lot of livestock issues.
Part of my training involved learning actual radio signals like "10-4" and "10-6" and "10-76" and "11-44." It's kind of cool, although not nearly as fun as you might think. The whole point of these codes is to keep talking to a minimum, and information levels high.
I also field calls -- probably the bulk of my job -- for the Animal Control phone line. There are a lot of reports of dead deer, which we are obligated to pick up, but also welfare checks and vicious dogs and happy but stray dogs and roaming gangs of chickens pooping on their neighbor's yard and causing no end of strife.
I work with some really friendly people and if you follow my Twitter, you'll know by now that pets are allowed at work.
I'm really enjoying it, and I hope this position allows me to keep a work-life-play balance while taking care of my Dad that I haven't really had since I moved back to America.
We shall see!
Life and Death
are attributes of the Soul
not of things. The Ego
is costumed as the road manager
of the soul, every time
the soul plays a date in another town
I goes ahead to set up
the bleechers, or book the hall
as they now have it,
the phenomenon is reported by the phrase
I got there ahead of myself
I got there ahead of my I
is the fact
which not a few anxious mortals
misread as intuition. The Tibetans
have a treatise on that subjection.
Yet the sad fact is I is
part of the thing
and can never leave it.
This alone constitutes
the reality of ghosts.
Therefore I is not dead.
-- Edward Dorn, Gunslinger
