For when the heart's a sinking stone
He said, I'm just out of hospital,
but I'm still flying.
—H.D., "R.A.F." (1941)
I had a lot of help—I was that sort of chap.
—Margery Allingham, The China Governess (1962)
Northbound and once again rear-facing for all the good that selecting my seat in advance did me, I watched the trees start to change beyond the gravel-span of the tracks from late southerly green to the occasional bright lick of Halloween leaves, as if the train were coming in to autumn.![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
spatch met me at the station with a roast beef sandwich. Hestia sniffed me all over intently and then licked my nose: I was acceptable despite a week in the company of other cat. I spent the rest of the night in a sort of liquescent state and reconstituted myself this afternoon just enough for a doctor's appointment, after which I promptly decohered for several hours again.
It was such a good trip. It was low-key, which was literally what the doctors ordered. I sat on a bench with my godchild and watched him sketch in his lesser notebook. I slept into the afternoon and no one cared that I often napped after just about any exertion from a walk around the block to dinner out at a Balkan market that served me a pljeskavica that it was doing its best to be bigger than my head and the first can of Schweppes Bitter Lemon I have seen in a store for years. I ate several species of fancy tinned fish. I did not manage to get to a museum withselkie, but all things considered it may have been even better that we spent so much time just hanging out, mostly on the couch where one night my godchild came down to impart weird medical facts before returning to bed. Because he's reading it in English class, I left the first two lines of the Odyssey written for him on the refrigerator in dry-erase marker and Homeric Greek. I took many fewer photos than usual, but have my favorite: my godson, the Star.
I did not get a picture somewhere in Connecticut of the old fender pier of a swing bridge so overgrown with trees and brush, it had become an oak-trussed island, like the prow of a ship burial, but it was the best thing I saw on the return train. Changes in circumstances still being assimilated, but at least I was somewhere loving when they hit.
but I'm still flying.
—H.D., "R.A.F." (1941)
I had a lot of help—I was that sort of chap.
—Margery Allingham, The China Governess (1962)
Northbound and once again rear-facing for all the good that selecting my seat in advance did me, I watched the trees start to change beyond the gravel-span of the tracks from late southerly green to the occasional bright lick of Halloween leaves, as if the train were coming in to autumn.
spatch met me at the station with a roast beef sandwich. Hestia sniffed me all over intently and then licked my nose: I was acceptable despite a week in the company of other cat. I spent the rest of the night in a sort of liquescent state and reconstituted myself this afternoon just enough for a doctor's appointment, after which I promptly decohered for several hours again.It was such a good trip. It was low-key, which was literally what the doctors ordered. I sat on a bench with my godchild and watched him sketch in his lesser notebook. I slept into the afternoon and no one cared that I often napped after just about any exertion from a walk around the block to dinner out at a Balkan market that served me a pljeskavica that it was doing its best to be bigger than my head and the first can of Schweppes Bitter Lemon I have seen in a store for years. I ate several species of fancy tinned fish. I did not manage to get to a museum with
selkie, but all things considered it may have been even better that we spent so much time just hanging out, mostly on the couch where one night my godchild came down to impart weird medical facts before returning to bed. Because he's reading it in English class, I left the first two lines of the Odyssey written for him on the refrigerator in dry-erase marker and Homeric Greek. I took many fewer photos than usual, but have my favorite: my godson, the Star.
I did not get a picture somewhere in Connecticut of the old fender pier of a swing bridge so overgrown with trees and brush, it had become an oak-trussed island, like the prow of a ship burial, but it was the best thing I saw on the return train. Changes in circumstances still being assimilated, but at least I was somewhere loving when they hit.
no subject
It is always brilliant to have you while we can, and we will always put the fancy fish.
Plus, that’s an amazing photo of a stellar kid.
no subject
He's a light. Remind him the Draconids are tonight.
*hugs*
no subject
no subject
Thank you.
*hugs*
no subject
no subject
It was! We'd planned it for months because of the yontif and then it wasn't at all clear that my health would hold up to the travel and it worked out.
no subject
no subject
Thank you! It was really important.
no subject
no subject
He's brilliant. I love him and he even seems not to be embarrassed by it the majority of the time, which since he's fifteen is a miracle.
no subject
(He is incredibly fifteen but, like, made S. a welcome basket with a toothbrush and little snacks, and when he is talking to other humans he says I'd make a good rabbi, etc.)
no subject
Only the very best science!
(He is incredibly fifteen but, like, made S. a welcome basket with a toothbrush and little snacks, and when he is talking to other humans he says I'd make a good rabbi, etc.)
(You raised him to be a person and an excellent person he is.)
no subject
no subject
That is a beautiful photo of your godchild, and I'm so glad you had a good trip. <3
no subject
Thank you!
*hugs*
no subject
no subject
It was an incredible trip for food. I woke up one afternoon to discover that N. and
Since your return, it sounds like you've cohered when called upon, and how much more can the universe ask for?
It would be more fun not to have to cohere for doctors and bureaucracy! But the rest of the time I am working on being pretty evanescent.
no subject
no subject
Thank you! It was so well worth the travel on either side.