unbridled energy

8.23.14

5.20am—A crescent moon with a star to its left stands sharply amidst the hazy gray clouds and there are no mountains this morning.  I was hoping for one last viewing.  No matter, today, laundry?  Where’s the sun, Pokhara is calm. The milk tea with rum was very good last night and didn’t leave me retching this morning but I am oddly empty.  I smoked too much yesterday and probably will today.  Tomorrow it’s a six am departure for the bus station.  The skies lighten, there’s no opening for the sun to shine forth. 

A sliver of Lamjung.  Let’s go.

12.34pm

The clothes are drying, a mix of sun and clouds on a fine day.  I said my goodbyes with Balrum and his first wife and daughter who goes to Austria next month.  Laxman’s father came to the kitchen and we talked about milk and lassi and absently asked what comes first, the lassi, the milk, yogurt, curd, I don’t know.  Of course we start with milk. 

And we didn’t say goodbye. 

The creaky wheelbarrow is back in action filling the fields with stone.  I don’t have a lot of stuff and should have room for a few books from Dubai, coffee, work trousers are on the list and should I buy a size I am now, which is a little smaller than I was six weeks ago or a size up, a bummer to consider.

Five years ago Keith said I could do better when I sat before the woman standing right in front of me, blue jeans unbuttoned at the top, a triangled tongue of red silk lashed out.  That was five years ago and have I done any better? I tire of the game and know when I am outta here so will end the memories of this Jungian mistake.   

I gave Ram the last of the Singaporan nasal sniffers and let him take photos with the smart aleck phone and now I am his best friend.  He tried to drag me to lunch and I wasn’t hungry because of a three banana pancake two hours earlier and he laughs when I consider how to throw him over the balcony. 

I think my laundry is dry now.

Passing thundershowers, winds calm. A mix of triumphant clouds of orange and dark blue hang in the air.  Preliminary packing finished.  I don’t have much.  Years of doing this has let me see what I don’t need to bring on holidays thereby ensuring space on the return for whatever is needed.  Shall you look for GFSE in Jumeriah?  Why not.

9.41pm

I love rain at night, it drowns out the noises in a clean fresh green manner.  We ate rotisserie chicken with mushrooms, potatoes and rice. My chicken breast was the largest breast I’ve ever seen and ate.   And a Tuborg beer.  I gave Maya money for five weeks of food and beer I forgot to pay at the time of consumption and if any money is left, the rooms need a painting.  At this time next year a new building will be in front of the super view lodge.  Everything will change and I don’t think it will be for the best.  I am a pessimist and I wish I weren’t. 

So, is this it?  Your last blog on the mountain, ready to go down again into the scrums.  I will always miss the cool air and the rain but I won’t miss extended days of fog and rain. 

The rain forest gets louder and begins to roar, flashes of lightning but no thunder. It’s luring me to sleep but I want to step out and soak it in, no pun intended.  Where’s the thunder, shake and shock me baby. 

Postscript 8.24.14

The lightning and the thunder came and did it shake, yellow flashes, the familiar zing of electricity banging right outside room five.  On the bus to KTM I started to wonder if that tremendous show of unbridled energy could be a send off, a sign saying something I am supposed to understand.  Energy.  A lot of it.  I always need it.