a magnanimous gesture

8.14.14

9.12am-Day three of the real monsoon batters the mountain.  Surely cabin fever isn’t real.  Surely there exists something below, forest, people, I hear voices somewhere in the fog.  How to stay sharp, how to remain mentally intact.  I think I’m going back to bed.

Surely there is a big task you can tackle, something you’ve been putting off for a while.  There is the dining room ceiling to be cleaned.  This morning one of the light sockets dripped.  Water stains appear in the rooms. 

12.09pm

The boys hammer and lathe away.  The thing about assembling and fine tuning frames on the spot is the mess.  And two rooms are booked for today.  Meanwhile, fog fills the room, windows and door open, and the rain continues with a new feature to add to the monsoon madness: wind.  Reports of landslides covering sections of the road to Pokhara.  That doesn’t stop anyone who walks, right? Can fog ever get foggier? 

We broke down and looked at the weather forecast for Pokhara though we know Sarangkot is ten degrees cooler and gets more rain.  The forecast for the next two days is the same.  Very bad weather will remain.

So, is there anything special you’d like to share, something you’d like to get off your chest, any rants, raves, you name it, it is open window day and while the three man boys with electrical toys fill the air and I sit in the middle of it occasionally checking on their progress, let’s talk.

I know I give God a hard time and don’t thank God enough for the magnanimous gesture our planet is, it’s hard to direct any kind words that way when so much bad goes on and the internet has raised our awareness to such extremes, ya gotta wonder, God sees the future and knew one day we would see the full extent of how bad it is, it’s like a cosmological secret is out and there was nothing God was going to do or could do (!!!) to stop our awakening.  He ain’t doing a good job.

And the omniscient only shrug his shoulders

I have to wear sunglasses inside

Three elderly fit French walk past.  All the rooms are a mess.  “Zee rooms are not ready.  Zee rooms are not done.”  The man is not happy.  “Zare are no hotels up here.”  Well, don’t trip on your way down Monsieur.  It’s only one o’clock.   

After the French stormed off we did clean the balcony of serious woodshavings and dust with straw brushes and buckets of water.  Three years ago I scrubbed the 102ft cement floor of all things algaeic and continued up the stone steps where the fog’s travellers gathered in shades of black and green and I told the driver whose name is Krishna that I did it with a toothbrush. 

On the other hand, Hindus and Buddhists never blame Om for daily universal carnage.  And they don’t accept it or do they.  Evil is expected.  Man cannot control his dual nature, evil is inevitable.  The original intentions of Hinduism, Buddhism and Christianity was to confront with internal tools the inevitability of evil and control it, subdue it, eliminate it. 

I hear the three: do not blame God, blame yourself even though you remain steadfast, unbending, and unequivocally faithful though you don’t know why.  It’s just never enough.

5.20pm

Rooms 2,3 and four are occupied.  A superlative installation and clean up.  Room six furniture was moved around and it is nice.  Almost nice enough to move into but I won’t.  Room five has been good and I think tourists like the corner room with the extra windows and sofa.

Clearance, distant ranges, clouds and fog separate, nothing below but above a sliver of blue sky far east.  Maya follows one of the boys as he repairs window trims and replaces hooks on frames.  Tomorrow she says we clean windows inside, outside, no rain ok.  I still haven’t gotten to the dining room ceiling and there are nine days left before I go down the mountain and return to the scrum. 

NPR.  Detroit and water.  I could learn to appreciate new technology and perhaps improve my simple quality of life.  There is Pokhara.  Can clouds look tired?  These do.  NPR.  Only 3% of San Francisco is vacant.  What would I do to live there?  Anything.  Is Steve Perry to blame? 

10.03pm

The family dances pre-Teej in the dining room.  Tomorrow Suraksha is in a performance at school.  Ooh can I come and take photos?  Not?

I returned to room five to find a gecko slowly moving in on a spider that was twice as big as he.  I don’t think geckos have good eyes, no?  Though they’re big maybe they act more as big sonar dishes, yes there was life detected but how am I going to kill this thing?  I gave up watching and shooshed the spider away and the gecko licked a chop.

Winds pick up bringing in some fog but thank goodness it hasn’t rained in four hours.  Ram ran away for a few hours, but not too far, he’s not happy here, and for whatever reasons it will be worked out.  A young man with no education, no home, does the lure of independence drive you away from the security of a place to sleep inside, food every day, lots of work.  I do not know.