Winter Pleasures

JWise Life

Caroline Wise wearing her ruana in Phoenix, Arizona

Here we are in January, the height of winter in Phoenix, Arizona. Clothes appropriate for the season have been unpacked and brought back into the rotation of daily attire. Early morning walks demand the full complement of heavy clothing for the near-freezing temperatures (gloves, beanies, fleece sweaters, scarves, wool base layer), and on the coldest days, even our shells are donned before we leave the house. This being the desert, we know that the day will warm to something quite comfortable, so a modified winter attire is required for the rest of the day. For Caroline, this winter has afforded her the opportunity to wear a ruana she just bought this past summer. A ruana is a poncho-style wrap and translates to “Land of Blankets.” This ruana is a special article for Caroline as it was expensive compared to what she’s accustomed to spending on textiles, but as it was made by Centro de Textiles Tradicionales del Cusco or CTTC, the same group of Peruvian women who made the purse she’s been carrying for years. Woven in very similar colors, she had an affinity for the ruana at first sight. The Centro de Textiles Tradicionales del Cusco was formed by Nilda Callañaupa, who was also on hand at the Santa Fe Folk Art Market when (with some encouragement from me) Caroline admitted that she’d love to own a ruana.

Like so many things, we wonder, am I buying this because I’ll actually use it, or am I suffering from buy-stuff fever? The ruana was actually brought out in December, but it wasn’t until Caroline had worn it about a dozen times before she voiced how happy she was that she let the impulse to buy it play through. The scarf she’s wearing is a hand-painted affair from Russia, and the pendant was a gift from her mom.

As for me and my winter attire? A Smart Wool medium-weight base layer shirt in black that I wear under the same shirts I wear during the rest of the year and long black jeans that replace the shorts I wear for the other 8 or 9 months.

Happy Silvester

JWise Life

Frankfurt, Germany on New Years

It’s 4:00 p.m. in Phoenix, Arizona, Happy New Year! In Germany, New Year’s Eve is known as Silvester (because December 31st is the feast day of St. Silvester, who was the pope credited with converting Emperor Constantine in the 4th century), and for Caroline and me, 4:00 p.m. is when we celebrate the new year. You see, Frankfurt, all of Germany for that matter, comes alive as revelers endure the cold out on the street until the bells start to ring for midnight and the crowds lose themselves in a riot of fireworks and noise. For the next 30 minutes, the fireworks will continue to sound out across the country. This tradition goes all the way back to pre-Christian times when there was a fear that Wotan and his demons could cause trouble during the dark days between December 25th and January 5th. This was called the “Wild Hunt,” and making lots of fire and noise was thought to keep the wild ones at bay. In years past, we’d call my mother-in-law Jutta just before midnight her time so she could open a window and share the sound of the city with us, along with a running commentary about the colors and height of the displays; this was our tradition for nearly a quarter century. While Caroline talked with her mom again this New Year’s Eve (same procedure as every year), there’s no getting her to move over to the window, phone in hand, anymore. No matter, we will forever celebrate Silvester at 4:00 p.m. and remember how often we’d enjoy the excitement of Caroline’s mom describing what she was seeing as we listened to the explosions, whistles, and church bells ringing. Happy Silvester, everyone!

Stages

JWise Life

John Wise in Phoenix, Arizona

Cartoons, Playing, Snow, Toys

Cartoons, Bicycles, Reading, Sitcoms

Edgar Allen Poe, Joe Namath, MASH, Kiss

Punk, Stephen King, Farrah Fawcett, Girlfriend, Car

William Burroughs, Industrial Music, Photography

Drugs, Nihilism, Rage

Computers, God, Desert

U.S. Army, Prostitution, Europe

German Philosophy, EBM, Art, Video, Bukowski

Marriage, Fatherhood, Defeat

Transgressive writers, NY Underground Film, Serial Killers, Guitar music

Romance, Chinese Culture, Sharing, Love

Techno, Terrence McKenna, Computer Graphics, Chaos

Heartbreak, Death Metal, Despair, Rebirth

Baudrillard, Minimalism, Socialism

Operating Systems, Technology, Networks, Information Distribution

Aliens, Quantum Physics, Time, Drum and Bass, Complexity

Travel, Cooking, Multi-Culturalism, World Music, Writing

Farming, Adventure Travel, Origins/Science

French Philosophy, Environment, Education, Anger

Beauty, Love, Aging, Stupidity, Decay

I first composed this list back in September with the idea that it was going to become a basis for something or other, and instead, it has lingered as a draft. It was time to do something with it or delete it, and so after reviewing this for the last time I’ve decided to just post it and allow it to represent what it will.

Love, Beauty, Travel, Writing, Reading, Discovery, Growing Older.

Travel Break

JWise Life

Caroline Wise x-ray of right foot in Phoenix, Arizona

Caroline opted in for a second bunion surgery this year, in part due to insurance reasons, but the main reason was comfort. Back in August, we took a month of travel off while she was off her feet for a few weeks, allowing her left foot to heal. Here we are in December, and now the right foot has been repaired, and we’ll be giving it the same consideration.

Voting Gave Me Covid

JWise Life

Caroline Wise voting in Phoenix, Arizona

I didn’t even get out of the car, didn’t touch a thing; all I know is that after we voted, we both came down with Covid. The obvious conclusion here is that voting causes COVID-19. It was early Friday, after our eye examinations, that we drove down to an Official Ballot Drop Box to deposit our mail-in ballots, enjoyed lunch at Otro, probably infecting everyone, and then went about our day innocent to the plague we were now carrying.

For Caroline, it started with a hint of something going wrong on Thursday (November 3rd), while for me, I thought I was having psychosomatic moments on Friday when I imagined I experienced a moment of quickly passing discomfort in my throat. By Saturday, I knew I had this cold as well. Caroline had been working from home Friday, although her Covid tests on Thursday and Friday were negative. Well, with me fully into the feelings of yuck on Sunday and Caroline having a seriously difficult time sleeping, we picked up some fresh test kits, and on Monday, November 7th, she tested positive. That could only mean that I was in the same boat.

Monday, November 7th: On Friday, I fetched ginger and lemon to make us ginger, lemon, and honey tea, which, while it might only be a placebo effect, seemed to make both of us feel better. By today, we’re on our 4th lemon, and while we have a bit of an annoying cough, sometimes seriously rough for Caroline, we still manage to eat well, go for walks, and get things done. Obviously, I’m hoping we are on the 5-day infection plan that tomorrow Caroline will be well on the way back to normal, and that by Wednesday, I see light at the end of the tunnel. My temperature is reading about 100, and my blood oxygen is 94; this moves around from normal temperature, while blood oxygen is often 97.

While Caroline tested negative, we went out as usual to the grocery store, a small breakfast joint, and me to Costco and Starbucks. Now, with the confirmation of COVID-19, we masked up on our outing to Walgreens for some Mucinex DM that we understand might help with Caroline’s cough. I’ll be taking it tonight as a pre-emptive measure just in case I start showing some of her bad symptoms. Oh, I almost forgot to mention, we are both experiencing some low-grade headache tension, but other than those things, all seems to be going along no worse than a cold. Here’s hoping our vaccinations and boosters deliver a relatively mild case of this virus.

Positive Covid tests

Tuesday update: I felt like meh all day, though somehow I found the energy and mind space to write all day updating old blog posts, nearly maniacally. I had a 40-minute nap, went shopping for a couple of things, and even got to my 10,000-step daily minimum for the first time in a couple of days.

Wednesday: Woke up at a more normal time, blood oxygen 99, temperature also 99. And then, around 7:30 this morning, my sense of smell took a hit. I tried smelling dried shrimp, which normally almost immediately triggers a gag reflex, and found that I can breathe it in all I want, the same goes for fish sauce. It’s 8:30 pm now; I could go to sleep, as a matter of fact, I likely will, minutes from now. I’m about to start my third box of Kleenex, and we’ve used more ginger and lemons in the past five days than we can believe. On the good news side of things, I’ve updated no less than 25 old blog posts that needed a refresh of photos and some more details regarding trips we took between 2004 and 2006. On the bad news side of things, I’ve only made it to 9,300 steps today, and the remaining 700 is just too much to ask.

Thursday: is that a hint of scents? Sporadic and randomly, I catch glimpses of smells with my tongue responding to spicy and sour. My nose is a faucet, while Caroline’s cough is mostly sidelined.

Friday: Meh. To our surprise, Caroline’s boss delivered a care package in the afternoon, complete with a big batch of homemade menudo (courtesy of a coworker and her mom), fruit, more soup and crackers, and cough drops.

Saturday (November 12): The dried shrimp smells of ammonia to both of us now. We both can smell cider vinegar, though not at full strength. I asked Caroline to put on some of her Joop perfume; I can pick that up, and the first bite of banana has hints of its flavor. We’ve stopped the constant run of the nose; temperatures are absolutely back to normal. Updating old posts and photos has continued at a blinding speed. Yesterday, I reworked all 170 photos that accompanied our 8-day January 2010 Yellowstone vacation as I apparently took some shortcuts prepping those out of the 4,202 that I shot over those days. Caroline is on a Skype call with her father, Hanns, and I’m about to get working on old blog posts marked as partials where I need to update photos, text, or both as part of making our index of trips complete.

Whoa, a burger from Five Guys punched right through my reawakening sense of taste while the potatoes cooking in oil was the first thing that made it through our masks after we walked thru the door. Is it possible that life is returning to normal?

Sunday: Seems that there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Monday: Caroline tested negative twice between yesterday and this morning, and with that, we are going to try to throw ourselves back into normal life.

My final conclusion, I believe we started getting sick before October 28th, just prior to our trip to Duncan, Arizona. This is based upon data from our Fitbits and what I believe is one of the main reasons why Google bought the company. On that day, our resting heart rates both started going up from their norm in the mid-60s up to reaching 80 resting beats per minute when we were in the worst part of COVID-19. Once that peaked and our symptoms started to subside, our resting heart rates began their return to normal. I suspect that in the next 48 hours, I’ll be back around 64 beats per minute. The thing is, we didn’t know we were getting sick until November 3rd and 4th, while it appears our fitness tracker was showing us that our bodies were responding to infection, though we couldn’t have known precisely what until our Covid tests alit with a positive reading. I don’t like the idea that Google knows we’re getting sick way before we do.

Neighborhood Update

JWise Life

Phoenix, Arizona

Caroline and I walk a lot through our neighborhood, so much so it’s now a routine. If we are in town and it’s Monday through Friday, our route typically covers between 2.5 and 3 miles. On weekends, we can get lazy and opt for a short 1-mile walk to get things going. No matter the initial distance, we always aim for about 5 miles a day, more when we are traveling. But this post is not about distance or travel; it’s about the place where we walk.

It’s easy to take for granted the nature of our hoofing here and there, but frequently, we are greeted with skies that stop us in our tracks, often right here with the palm trees helping set the scene and have us snap a photo. The idea is that someday, we might need reminders of what sunrise looked like if we were no longer able to go out and see them for ourselves. Yes, this is the thinking of people growing older.

As we bolt across one particular wide and noisy street to enter a quiet neighborhood, we first encounter a home that plays host to anywhere from a half-dozen to a few more than a dozen cats. Those felines use parked cars for shelter or for the warmth of their hoods to keep toasty. On roofs, they gain an overview where maybe they signal to other cats the coordinates of prey. Every so often, kittens show up.

There’s a small park the cats often visit, but so do some coyotes. Just the other day, we had a great encounter with three coyotes scouring the park for furry morsels. As they saw us, they took off save for one that didn’t seem to like the idea of running away from a meal but reluctantly followed his mates. We continued our walk, and they continued moving away until that male decided there was enough room between him and the side of the street we were on, and he slipped through to return to his hopeful breakfast plate.

One day this past week or so, we encountered four hawks. Hawks on their own or even paired is not uncommon, but four of them took us by surprise. There are many birds out here, such as the woodpeckers drumming on metal things on nearby homes; pigeons, quail, parrots, and mockingbirds also call the area home. The other day, we saw our first flock of geese flying south. And I shouldn’t forget to mention the raucous grackles, the cactus-loving wrens, sparrows, and the delightful hummingbirds.

There are more than a few ant colonies we pay attention to, various rabbits, lizards, and, at certain times of the year, bats. Along the way, we pass “White Dog,” Penny, Bella, and Lexie, guarding their respective yards. In a previous post, I already wrote of Lucy the Donkey whom we see daily.

Continuing our walk, we are confronted by those people who, not wanting to stink up their own homes, smoke outside and stink up the outside world. Speaking of stench, during these summer months, we pass sewers that have a constant flow of effluvia that can make us wince when we stumble in and out of the cloud. Also of note, we are noticing “Open House” signs for homes on the market again. We’ve not seen those in years, as homes were snapped up before the “For Sale” signs ever went up; something’s afoot.

In one particular home, we are certain, live drug dealers. They are not connected to the electricity grid and have a gas-powered generator to run their operation (a mobile home). The infernal racket just grinds at the ears as we pass, but still, it’s better than being on one of the main thoroughfares where idiots in loud vehicles start the day with the growl of their douchey cars, trucks, and motorcycles. I’ll include this right here as it feels appropriate: we also walk by a lot of dog poop.

There’s always the weather to mostly enjoy. Today was the first time the temperature dipped into the 70s since summer began. It’s a rare day we see rain, but this monsoon season seems to be one of the wettest that either of us can remember. While the humidity and mosquitos irk us, it seems like a small price to pay for what feels close to 365 days of perfect weather.

Finally, there are other people out here. There’s the guy who sets up the “school zone” signs and raises the flag at the grade school, a guy walking around with a golf club (for snakes, he says, but we think it is there for intimidation against the homeless who criss-cross our neighborhood and live in various hidden pockets near a greenbelt that runs through here), and another guy who seems uncomfortable passing others and will always move to the other side of the street and even change his course. We often encounter two Korean ladies out for an early morning walk, and sometimes, they are joined by two other people. There’s the friendly lady carrying a rosary and working it who many times stops to talk to dog walkers (or chat with us), the kids waiting at a couple of school bus stops, the trash truck drivers and various others moving through near the break of dawn.

Drifting Consciousness

JWise Life

Dried Gecko

This homeless man in front of me sits in a coffee shop, twitching, but he’s fully asleep. He’s dreaming, but his hands and feet never stop moving. As he drifts into deeper sleep, his head tries to find a comfortable resting spot, but the need to appear awake to avoid being asked to leave signals his body to look alive.

His sleepy eyes pop open and survey the landscape, but he’s fighting the exhaustion of being on streets where not remaining alert means the little he may have can be taken from him. Through the narrowing lids, I can see his eyes rolling as they lose focus and work hard at bringing this man to rest, but he’s fighting it.

He, like so many others who pass through here while I sit comfortably writing after a great night of sleep, sipping a coffee, experiencing the luxury of free time that allows me to interpret those around me instead of just trying to have a few moments of shelter, rest, and use of toilet facilities.

At what point he became aware of my attention to him is of no importance as in his situation, he is used to and aware of being observed, and maybe in his world, that means he would soon need to move on. That’s just what he did.