News in my world

Some of my newly planted flowers

For some reason, I have had a hard time making myself plant the flowers on my front porch. I have, in addition to these planters, a few others that I haven't finished yet. Usually by this time of the year, they have been growing enthusiastically and giving me lots of satisfaction by now, but I just couldn't rustle up the gumption to get my hands in the dirt. I bought some geranium plants more than a month ago, and when they didn't get replanted and properly watered, all their blooms withered and died. I've now got them into their planter and fed them, watered them vigorously, and hope that they will recover enough to flower sometime in the future.

Part of my lack of enthusiasm has been the almost unrelenting rain we've had, along with much cooler than normal temperatures. It's easy to get out and enjoy the outdoors in cool weather, but not when there is constant rain, even if it's a light one, with only a few days so far this year of brilliant sunshine. Some, just enough to make me want more. I will take this weather, however, much more happily than when it gets super-hot. Around here, we usually only have a few weeks of really warm weather, in July and/or August, but I still have my heavy comforter on my bed and am in no hurry to take it off. But then again, it's only mid-May.

In many ways, I am quite content with my life. My dear partner is doing pretty well, considering his ongoing illness is under control and shows little signs of progressing. He has permanent damage from the August 2020 stroke he suffered, but he's perfectly able to function, drive, cook, and take care of me in all the ways I've grown accustomed to. I am grateful.

Because we here in Washington state are in somewhat of a "hot spot" in terms of the virus, we still limit our exposure to others as much as possible. I wear an N95 mask on the bus (even though we are no longer required to wear any) and I am not alone. More than half of the people on the bus wear some sort of mask, and sometimes the driver is the only one not masked. Of course, most of the people on the buses are elderly or homeless, with a few students mixed in here and there. I have only been on a few rides where were more than a handful of passengers (six or so is pretty standard on a bus that seats 30).

Yesterday morning, the time of my usual walk with Melanie, we were joined by our friend Dianne and her wonderful dog Joe, and a special treat was finding that our friend Peggy, who usually walks with the faster ladies an hour earlier, was at Lake Padden with the hope of making the two-loop trip around the lake with us. I had not had a chance to visit with Peggy in years, so it was a delight to spend some time catching up. She's pretty much done hiking with the Senior Trailblazers; she stopped when her husband suffered a life-threatening injury more than three years ago. And then of course the pandemic intervened in many of our usual activities. Although the rain was supposed to stop by 8:00am, it managed to continue for most of our five-mile walk. The company helped me enjoy myself anyway.

This past week astronomers showed us an image of the black hole that exists in the center of our Milky Way galaxy. It was only the second time that we were able to see what a black hole looks like. In 2019, a telescope known as the EHT (Event Horizon Telescope) showed us an image of a black hole that looks like a massive donut, a ring with a dark center. This was taken from an area known as M87, 55 million light-years away from here. 

We were stunned by how well the size of the ring agreed with predictions from Einstein's Theory of General Relativity, said EHT project scientist Geoffrey Bower from the Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics.

It took a network of eight telescopes all linked together to get the picture of the black hole, which looks very similar to those of the M87. Although they look much the same, the black hole in the middle of our own galaxy is a thousand times smaller than the M87. I'm simply amazed at what we have been able to learn about these massive areas that consume everything around them. Even light cannot escape from a black hole. I sometimes fantasize what it would be like to stand on the event horizon and peer over the edge. Of course, that would be impossible, but thanks to our active imaginations we can do whatever we want inside our mental palaces.

And as the days and weeks fly by, I am closer and closer to understanding my own place in the universe. I am reading more about black holes and space-time every day, taking a pause now and then to come back to more mundane tasks. Maybe that's one reason I've been so slow to get my flowers going: I'm more comfortable with my head in the stars than having my hands in the dirt.

It's already Sunday again, which is why I'm sitting here in the dark once again writing on my laptop, and it seems like only yesterday I finished the last post, but here I am once more trying to find the proper words to commit the present moment to the page. I'm not doing very well, I fear, but then again it's my post, my endeavor and no one else's. As I've said before, sometimes the magic works, and sometimes it doesn't. Writing in the moment has its drawbacks. Dancing in the chaos of existence, sometimes I find myself with wings, and sometimes they just don't quite take me off the ground. 

Oh boy, now I'm getting myself into trouble. Maybe it's time to wind up this post and start the rest of my day. John will pick me up in an hour, and we'll head to Fairhaven for Sunday breakfast. SG still sleeps quietly next to me, and I feel myself ready to begin to emerge from the cocoon of dark silence that holds me here. I just checked the weather, and you know what? It's raining again, no surprise there. But I can revel in how much the plants will enjoy it, and my raincoat will keep me dry.

Until we meet again next week, when hopefully my post will make more sense, I do hope you will find many wonderful moments to enjoy with your loved ones. Be well and I wish you all good things, dear friends.