Weather today in the Tries (Richland, Kennewick, Pasco WA):
The weather person has scheduled a high of 59F. At 5am it was at 50, with 23mph winds and should be partly sunny later one, with SW breezes at 24-28mph and gusts as high as 28mph. A far cry from the past week of below freezing.
Speaking of weather, I was introduced to a great weather app for my phone: WTF Weather . There are controls so you can control the language content, and the voice. But it’s fun. Check it out. And so far, it seems to be in sync with NOAA, just funnier.
Storm in Texasland and Elsewhere:
Like you, I have friends and family not only in Texas and the surrounding area, but throughout the South and the East Coast. Fortunately, they are all safe, though the ones in Texas got more than their share of cold. I hope Texas is now going to update and winterize their grids systems, and I hope the rest of the states will pay attention and do what updating they need to do to theirs to keep them going at optimum capacity. The absolute coldest winters I’ve ever spent were in the South, Texas, Alabama, Georgia. This wasn’t that much of an anomoly.
Friends in Portland OR lost power for three hours during the storm, but it came in the middle of the night, and they didn’t know until they got up the next morning and the clocks were blinking. Now, if you must lose power, do it right, do it while you’re sleeping and have it come back on while you’re still asleep.
Happy Ever After (HEA):
I’m no expert on publishing, but I’m pretty sure that stories/essays/et ceteras are accepted for publication weeks, if not months, prior to actual publication. As you may remember, I subscribe to Emergence Magazine (free) at https://emergencemagazine.org/explore/ and I heartily recommend it. One of the essays in the latest issue is Thirteen to One New Stories for an Age of Disaster by Marie Mutsuki Mocket.
Ms. Mocket had the foresight to be born to a Japanese mother and American father. She grew up bi-lingual. And in this essay, tells about Onamazu, the giant catfish who lives under the Japanese islands and is held in place by the Shinto god Takemikazuch. When the god dozes off, or drinks too much saki, or gets distracted, Onamazu moves, creating earthquakes.
While I found her essay and the story of Onamazu, riveting, the part that reached out and grabbed me was when she told of her mother reading her a nursery story that did not have a happy ending (Gon the Fox), and how she cried. She was raised in a culture that insisted she should aim for happy endings all the time. I’m one of those people, I want HEA in the stories I read. Especially fiction. I read enough nonfiction to take care of the sad endings. And I’m pretty sure I raised my kids like that, too. Did I do a disservice to them? Did I just take the easy way out?
This is a direct quote from the article: “Sometimes when I talk to audiences about the differences between Japanese and Western fairy tales, someone—usually a mother—will ask me, “How do you keep your child from being scared?” I always think back to my mother and her rage at Gon the dead fox, and for a long time, I wasn’t truly sure how to answer the question. Now I say, “You don’t.” Because I am now very clear: disaster is endemic to the structure of the world in which we live.
Things should scare us.”
I’m too old to raise my kids again, and besides, I don’t think they’d appreciate my trying, but it is something to think about. A lot of ‘literary’ fiction has bummer endings, which are probably more true-to-life than my HEA stories, but at my age I’m going to pretty much stick to my HEA books. I get enough sadness in the nonfiction and poetry I read; I don’t need any more.
Addendum to Last Week’s Addendum: I’m now being offered $50.00 to delete my bad review. Do I hear $60? Do I hear $70? The offer is still coming from Belinda, so apparently, she didn’t get fired.
Entertainment:
No tv to speak of, barely even news. Was busy working on my stuff. Did spend a lot of time listening to Rocabilly on Pandora.
Books: Please go to Rainy Day Reads for more complete reviews.
I did get some books read, or perhaps I should say finished.
Occoquan —by Gary Worth Moody, historical poetry that takes place along, or in, the Occoquan river.
Gone Astray —by Terry Korth Fischer. I actually read this a while back but had to wait until it was available to readers to post my review. A marvelous mystery!
the lost spells —by Robert MacFarlane and Jacki Morris. Loved this book! One of those books I deliberately read slowly, parsing out the poems and the art.
Other Stuff:
Had hoped to give you an update on my second jab, but the freeze and snow delayed it from Saturday to Wednesday, so stay tuned for a follow-up on that one.
In the meantime, Auntie Lenora and Sammy Brave Dog wish you to stay safe, stay well, and stay socially distanced even though you’re wearing your mask and have had your shots. You can still spread it, even if you won’t catch it.