Summer 2013 September 8

74/76 degrees this morning, coolish morning.  Still comfortable on the patio, but on the edge

4th day after dental surgery.  I have to say I am not feeling as well as I expected to by now.  Now sure what it is, it isn't the teeth extraction as much as it is the jaw area they took the bone graft from.  Feeling like I can't open my mouth much and like part of my jaw is still numb.  Overall, a feeling of tiredness and listlessness that I almost never feel.  Hard to get started even though I have a  wealth of items to do and catch up on.  Hard to eat, although that isn't really a problem.  At first I though maybe it was caffeine  withdrawal, since I haven't drink near as much coffee as I normally do.  Could just be the side effects of surgery.  Mouth and jaw area where the bone was grafted is very sore.

Other than that, yesterday and this morning were good days.  I take my nap with an icepack on my face and I have to be careful of yawning or my mouth hurts.  I am  concerned about opening the scab so the cut area starts bleeding again.

Just walked this morning, didn't cycle since I didn't want to hurt my mouth any.  Listening to "The Willpower Instinct" during walk.  Really good thoughts about how we assume our "future selves" will have more time and energy in the future etc.  Also, mentioned what I all the "broken window" theory, in that small crimes encourage bigger crimes.  The theory in "The Willpower Instinct" is that small breaches of willpower, rules etc is catching.  For example, she notes that if someone chains their bicycle to a "no bicycle sign", people are not only more likely to chain their bicycles in violation of the sign, they also are more likely to litter, trespass etc.  She also mentioned that motorist speeding could "give us permission" to eat badly, not quit smoking etc!  It is really a great book.

My poem today from the "World Without End is Ending" is actually a  poem written to a specific form, the "Haiku", so that is it's title.  It is about my favorite subject, the seasons and how fast they pass.

HAIKU

 Spring dissolves into

dusty dry red pictures

of ordinary death

 winter arrives as

a glittering and guilty

victim of summer

 patterns of green lurk

in trees, visual systems

of an early spring

 birds, brightly colored

trill songs, desperate homage

to slumbering sun

Summer 2013 September 7, 2013

71/73 degrees this morning.  Relatively cool.  Third day after dental surgery (for implant). Jaw still feels somewhat numb, oddly enough.  Most uncomfortable where the bone was grafted from for the tooth to be implanted (or teeth, since there are two of them).  I am surprised at how many people I know that have had or going through the implant procedure.  I have quit taking any pain medicine, but am still taking antibiotics.  Still have difficulty eating, especially anything but "soft" food, but that is ok for right now.

E-mails really piled up while I was out of the office, in spite of the fact I tried to keep up at home.  I don't think I ever fully realize just how much time it takes to read and respond to an e-mail.  

Birds are noisily this morning for some reason.  Maybe they are seeing the snake I saw the other morning, or maybe it is a cat playing with them.  The birds are making a "cawing" noise, a lot of them. 

The poem today, from "The World Without End is Ending" is "My Day of Gray".  This is probably one of my more favorite of the poems.  While it illustrates a day at the office, when I read it, I am reminded of when I was in the first to fourth grade in a Country, old fashioned one-room school that actually had one teacher (Miss Porterfield) who taught all eight grades.  I remember looking out the windows of the school onto a beautiful scene day after day of trees and grass.  It was wonderful.  I'm not sure where the idea for the "blue buffalo" came.

MY DAY OF GRAY

Blue Buffalo scatter in the green grass

Outside my window

 Brightening an otherwise cloudy gray day

 While I,

 Hearing the sound of duty

 Eventually

 Return to

 Reading the dry reports

 Yellowing on my desk