I spend the day your way

Call it morning driving through the sound...

Reminiscencia

Reminiscence:

I explore old waters
I search for the first fire.

Infancy,
that house filled with ghosts;
my grandmother’s courtyard,
the earth, the trees from which I’m made.

The guava smashing against the patio’s red tiles midafternoon,
afternoons where I watched life pass by from a sidewalk.

And I fooled myself believing my hands were made to narrate the world.

I write, that’s for sure,
there’s so much I want to name and that I can’t;
so much life slipping through my hands,
so much shadow ruffling my hair
so many words suspended in the air
—miniscule dust particles
lit by the light from the window—
that I must shake off
the way someone shakes off the last layer of skin.

And I lie
if I say that it’s stone, mountain, sea, river,
the birds taking flight, the corners of a house,
my grandmother’s face, her numerous ghosts
the ones who today
ask to be counted.

There is so much that I want to name and that I cannot.

I write, that’s for sure.
Death, from the other side,
is levitating.

Melissa Sauma.

Make It Not So

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to: Johns Hopkins Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center Fund https://t.co/luC5CdcWDy Alzheimer’s Foundation of America Caregiver Resources https://t.co/zvNptfyuNd Photo Credit: Tommy Garcia https://t.co/XNncEVq56X

— Patrick Stewart (@SirPatStew) October 29, 2026

We announce with great sorrow the passing of Sir Patrick Stewart yesterday at his home in Los Angeles, in the loving care of his beloved wife Sunny, following a brief and poignant journey with Alzheimer's Disease and Lewy Body Dementia. He has been held in the warm embrace of family and friends, surrounded by live music, prayer, tears, laughter, and the kind of profound emotion that only he could inspire after a lifetime of devotion to us all. We will forever cherish the peaceful ease and reflection on his face, an enduring reminder of his invincible grace. 

Man, I didn't even get a chance to mourn Walter Koenig properly yet.  I should probably watch Star Trek Generations, but my mind immediately went here:

I've been under the weather all this week, and was starting to feel better.  Then the Valks played like shit in Atlanta, and now this.  I'm going back to bed.

#throwbackthursday

When we first moved here we'd drive a lot around the island.  (2019)

 Ericka once had a llama named George. (2019)

You don't have to be rich to be my girl

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was the Prince Rogers Nelson of his time.

Serenity

Another Firefly:

In a turning instant, my head
Catches light of a leaping star
Over my left shoulder in a
Green region of space darkened
Into distance beyond distance,
A cold, green star, not rising like
Sons and empires, slow as breath,
In the way of stars, but as no
Darkened water could have mirrored
The partly glimpsed meteor in
Surging reversal of falling—
That sort of rising. They return
Bright rightings of our sinisters,
The mirrors; but this rise of light—
As if in summer nights at still
Moments a death could yet retract,
Or a dim candle gutter on—
Freshens the held air; far away,
Somewhere a breath has been taken.

John Hollander.

Ad astra

“We’ve never been in this vantage point in the history of humankind.” The Artemis II solar eclipse was a lot. In a good way. (54 minutes of totality! That's way longer than we get on Earth.) Explore more from the mission: https://t.co/VTUbJMrjIa https://t.co/TklYxWjjD0

— NASA Artemis (@NASAArtemis) October 28, 2026

What a magical time that was.  And lookie!

Stacked and ready for what's next. 🚀 The core stage of the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket for NASA's Artemis III mission has been joined with the twin solid rocket boosters at @NASAKennedy, bringing us one step closer to testing and flight. Read more: https://t.co/onOoFiy5Md https://t.co/pBikDDy5lL

— NASA Marshall (@NASA_Marshall) October 28, 2026

What magic will Artemis III conjure for us next year (sure hope the contractors have their test articles ready)?

Excelsior!

Tum podex carmen extulit horridulum

When I read Adso's dream, I imagine Hieronymus Bosch.

* Line crossed out in pencil.

The Almanac of Time:

The almanac of time hangs in the brain ;
The seasons numbered by the inward sun,
The winter years, move in the pit of man ;
His graph is measured as the page of pain
Shifts to the redwombed pen.

The calendar of age hangs in the heart,
A lover's thought tears down the dated sheet,
The inch of time's protracted to a foot
By youth and age, the mortal state and thought
Ageing both day and night.

The word of time lies on the chaptered bone,
The seed of time is sheltered in the loin :
The grains of life must seethe beneath the sun,
[The syllables be said and said again :]*
Time shall belong to man.

Dylan Thomas.

terribilis ut castrorum acies ordinata*

I listen to this soundtrack on the regular at night.

* There seems to be a typo in my copy of the book: castrorum = of the military camp; castorum = of the beavers (which, in context, is rather fitting, iykyk).

quasi liber et pictura

The Signals:

Twinwalled faces
and legs
and frontier dresses
tall limbs gazing
at border garrisons
of erotic women
as they fold themselves
in two
in four
at eighteen
and whisper
in the ears
of the northern wind
wonderful breast
I went to Skopelos to Skopia
to every shipyard
almost feverish
to the shop of love
to the library the grocer
the movies the lift
everywhere the signals
the written notes

of erotic conspiracy

Yiorgos Chouliaras.

Speaking of the Enterprise

Veteran astronauts Fred Haise and Gordon Fullerton completed the fifth and final glide test aboard Enterprise OTD in 1977. The Approach and Landing Tests (ALT) took place between February and October 1977 to test the Shuttle's flight characteristics prior to its first spaceflight in 1981.

— NASA History Office (@NASAhistory) October 26, 2026

Haise was the LMP on Apollo 13, and retired after the ALT phase was complete.  Fullerton was on the support crews for Apollo 14 through Apollo 17, and went on to pilot STS-3, then command STS-51-F.

Anyway, it was exciting times.  We were on the verge of a new era of routine spaceflight, or so I thought...

One Must Never Place a Phaser Set to Kill on the Stage if It Isn’t Going to Go Off

RIP Walter Koenig https://t.co/W7eEOG6mrp

— St. Olaf Stories (@StOlafStories) October 26, 2026

Guess I'll be watching some Trek and B5 this week (but not tonight, WNBA finals).  Warp speed, Mr Chekov.

PS - Walter did, in fact, write plays.

You're Throwing Your Whole Education Away

Can't embed this one due to its "sensitive nature", so I went with another favorite that also has a line that I utter (in myriad forms) surprisingly often.

PS - Watched M*A*S*H, Alien, and Top Gun this weekend in honor of Tom Skerrit (and lots of late, lamented costars).