Movie Reviews and Palm Raises in Everyday Ramblings

I used this as a front photo for the recorded mat practice this week. It is from a few years back. Our tulips aren’t open yet but getting there. I think it expresses well that getting out there and getting ready to garden vibe.

We had a little break in the rain, if not the gloom yesterday and I went down to the community garden and put in the Helenium roots I ordered a couple of months ago and have been keeping in my bathroom, a cool dark place most of the time, with the outside wall missing.

I had no idea what I was doing. The instructions were a bit vague in terms of should I separate them, and which way was up. The insecurity is uncomfortable.

We get used to knowing things as we get older.

This gardening thing is a learning curve all the way down.

My next project is to get the pretty marigolds I got over the weekend in and to separate out the beautiful purple basil plants I couldn’t resist. I think it is too early to plant basil out yet. And the big thing… To get my sweet pea starts down there and tied into the bamboo expandable trellis thing that came yesterday.

I recently returned from the weekly coffee get together with the guys. It is just me and the guys. It has been a month at least since there was another woman there. People were sharing about being present at the loss of a loved one, and the birth of a child. The mystery therein. Staring into the eyes of someone who can no longer speak. We talked about the joy of doing nothing, of being a fire warden, about “The Beats” (they always come up with guys like this), poetry, Irish movies, jokes, and rule changes in baseball.

One of the guys had written a poem about baseball, which Walt got him to read out loud, it was a big hit. It is in the new Peace, Love, Happiness & Understanding newsletter you can read here.

I wrote a short piece for it on the movie Wings of Desire. When Walt asked, I thought, well I have been telling everyone that this is my favorite movie for years, I wonder of it still is. So, I looked, and it is streaming on HBO Max. On Sunday morning I watched it in my kitchen on my laptop on the counter. And Yes, it is my favorite movie. I love the way the angels smile at each other in the library as they hang out and listen to random people thinking in the library.

And who can resist Peter Falk?

There was a remake of it in English called City of Angels and I must have seen that too because an image I thought was in the original is actually in the remake.

I told the guys this morning about how I just started a new two-month handstand and pistol squat club yesterday. Telling them was a hoot. We were talking about the amazing skill that professional athletes have, and I mentioned that we were learning both strength and skill for handstands. Walt’s dad was a high school teacher in Montana, and he could do a handstand on top of a ladder in his 50’s. Whoa.

Here we are in the gallery room of this high-end coffee shop, and I had everybody doing palm raises on the table (these are for forearm strength). I leaned that there is a congenital thing some Norwegians get that creates this bump on the palm that makes it difficult to get their hand flat. You can look it up as Dupuytren’s disease as one of the fellows has it. A holdover from the Vikings, apparently

Anyway, the guys are getting used to me and I am feeling less like a fish out of water. Walt is very discerning. These are all nice people and fun to hang out with.

In a couple of weeks, we are having a woman from an organization that promotes peace, come talk to us about the war in Ukraine. She’ll give a short presentation (we are actually renting the gallery and can use the projector) and then we will have an open discussion afterwards.

I hope I am back from my displacement for that.

Last updated April 07, 2023