Following the devastating fires on Maui, both Upcountry and in Lahaina, there has been much coverage in the local press about the clean up process. For me, one thing that it has brought to light is the number of toxic materials that surround us on a daily basis. This article on the disposing process for lithium-ion batteries found in Lahaina is just one example. According to the article there are between 4,000 and 7,000 AA sized lithium-ion batteries in a Tesla, depending on the model.
Well we lived to tell the tale. My wife and I spent five days looking after our grandkids while the parents were on the mainland. Sleeping with them - and being kicked out of bed - going to a birthday party, soccer game, getting them out of the house for school, functioning on little sleep. Today we are catching our breath. It’s amazing how two young children, more than fifty years our junior, can run us so ragged…or maybe because of that age difference.
Occasionally, through something that I see or hear, I am reminded of a line inserted in the middle of the lyrics to the 1984 single Two Tribes, by the English band Frankie Goes to Hollywood,
Just think, war breaks out and no one shows up
I don’t know what to do with that, but I do think about it.
😩 Jet lag sucks. Needing to sleep. Trying to stay up so that I don't wake up in the middle of the night...which I inevitably do anyway. Trying to function, get things done, but not really. Finally surrendering and just going to sleep, to wake up whenever the body feels it's ready to....only to feel wiped out again in the middle of the day!
😩 Jet lag sucks. Needing to sleep. Trying to stay up so that I don't wake up in the middle of the night...which I inevitably do anyway. Trying to function, get things done, but not really. Finally surrendering and just going to sleep, to wake up whenever the body feels it's ready to....only to feel wiped out again in the middle of the day!
This piece started to take shape towards the end of the summer. It is now the last day of October. I was just coming out of recovering from pneumonia, which I had contracted in Portugal though at the time I did not know what I had, and wanted to document for myself what had happened to me over the space of a few months over the spring and summer. Why? Because the experience had been so…so many things to me…debilitating, frightening, humbling, helpless.
I was in a coffee shop in Lisbon and I noticed that there was a young woman reading a book. Maybe nothing unusual about that, except she was totally engrossed in the book. She didn’t look up as others came and went, as there were noises of activity around her. I am so used these days to seeing people on their phones or computers in a coffee shop (looks at himself), that this was a very refreshing sight.
I understand people’s annoyance at the clocks going backwards and forwards twice a year. However, I do like that time once a year when the day feels that little bit longer, or at least the morning does.
Though it normally takes me a week to get over the clocks jumping forward in the spring!
I think that I’ll look to have a notebook beside my bed to record the dreams that I have. I seem to forget them so quickly and easily once I am awake. Last night I had a dream about my late dad that I wanted to tell my mother about. I can’t do that now. The dream has vanished into the ether.
