Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Do you cloud?



8.12.14

6:30am-The broken tooth on the upper left side makes it difficult to eat, a sharp edge drags the side of my mouth raw.  I don’t know what kind of dentists there are below us now, it’ll be a stab in the dark no matter what.  No pun intended.

Heavy rain and fog mix it up.  The man in room six is quiet.  That is good.  May he sleep in peace for at least the next 27 more hours.  Below is the sound of a big river.  No one is driving out there this morning.  It could be rain.  Horns and drums from the monastery cut through the fog.

The mistaken coincidence is carrying a child.  Will she keep it?  It is of no concern to me.  This certainly ends any speculation that the coincidence was meaningful.  A terrible misleading from mischievous spirits is finally put to rest, thankfully, an imaginative and completely erroneous series of events five years ago.

Let’s look at the positives here:  most of the world is not at war though the usual domestic and ethnic ones continue everywhere.  Wonderful birds of song flutter in the corn stalks.  The fog hasn’t dissipated a positive ion since I got up two hours ago.  We’re waiting for the sun, dude. 

Yesterday’s serious funk bothers me but not as much now considering there are a lot of bad things going on, it feels more than usual.  Turning off the tv helps, turning off the internet helps, but turn either on again and nothing changes.  Such negativity can be flushed out with no tooth pain and lots of nature.  I’ve always enjoyed the intrigue in mysterious fog.  You like fog?  Come to the Himalayas in August!

The man in room six begins drinking beer before ten am.  He pushes a dining room table right up to the windows with a cigarette that hasn’t left his hand in 58 years.  Leave him be.  This is a holiday for some. 

The frames without screens arrived this morning.  They are heavy and I don’t know how they are going to put them in without removing the metal frames.  And where are the screens?  You’re going to install a frame and then a screen?  Ah, I don’t understand. 

Fog recedes down the mountain, slowly the sun finds a thinning and you gotta have a good pair of sunglasses here.  The birds, why not be like a bird?  Never a worry of the past or future.  Build a nest, eat, avoid being eaten, sing.  The fog is coming from the Hamaj Valley and it’s pushing in bright white smoke and we’re up to our necks in it again.  Wait! Now’s it’s blowing in from Pame and tongues of glacial algae lick my room five door.

12.40pm

Ram is waiting for something to do, he stands over me watching me type and he laughs like he is on something strong but it is only Ram and only a burning incense stick will keep him at a distance.


This morning raga is pretty cool and may be the best morning drive song ever. 

Rendition of Raag Vibhas by Adhithi Ravichandran. Gat in Drut Laya set to Teen Taal (16 bts).

We wait for the men who built the frames to return.  There has been power for an hour.  My right eye itches either from fatigue, mold, and it’s tough to stay in the mood to write when I rely on music from the internet. 

I must eat carefully, jagged break thrusts into the flesh on the left and I don’t know what’s going on on the right side but that kind of hurts and it leaves only the teeth in the very front that don’t hurt to nibble a peanut butter cookie. 

Meanwhile fog from both valleys come out and meet and we are dark again.  It’s early afternoon.  A languid day.  And no sign of the framers.  And a steady rain falls.

6.20pm

The rain has stopped for now, ominous clouds and fog surround the mountain top.  Kiran is sitting here listening to morning raga and it is pretty cool.  Sometimes I get the feeling I’ve said the words cloud and fog too much and yet synonyms for these aren’t the right words to what I see every day.  Anyways, Suman played one of the hundred games installed by the Thai boys.  The framers, it appears, are not coming back.  The screeners perhaps will come tomorrow.  I think they’re too big but I’m guessing they know that too and they’ll bring the tools to squeeze them in. 

If it still hurts to eat tomorrow morning we’re going to the dentist.  I have the most time here besides the armpit and I will trust, I will try and trust any man or woman who puts their hands in my broken mouth to have compassion and smarts.

Man:  ‘Dees man no like me, he no want talk to me’
Man1:  ‘I have nothing to say to you.’
Man:  ‘Dees man no like Arabs but wait he work there.’
Man1:  ‘Am I obligated to speak to you?  Nothing personal’

But it was, it is personal.  And I don’t know him but he is symbolic of something far worse than a stale loaf of bread and I don’t believe there is anything I can say or do that would be appropriately constructive.  With this tourist in room six, that is.  Shhh…drink your beer we have nothing to discuss.

One day I am going to look up the difference between clouds and fog.  Fog can carry rain.  And this has been the wettest day in almost three weeks here.  There have been a few breaks but it ain’t over yet. 

10.20pm

In July of 2009 I recorded five straight days of rain and fog and could feel the walls closing in on me.  With a good umbrella and a bigger room this shouldn’t happen again.  The rain continues to fall hard. 

Six Tibetan women check into rooms two and three.  They work at the refugee camp on the other side of the city, where carpets are made.  They all looked comfy playing cards in room two. 

And don’t forget before you call it a day, wash your feet.

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