The wind

I am sick of the damn wind.

In my 22 years coming to NZ I do not remember such constant wind as we are experiencing!

Do not become confused by the word wind. In NZ, OZ AND GREAT BRITAIN, "WIND" IS: tummy GAS. Wind pain is like having gas pains in America. We take GAS X etc. over the counter pills for gas in America, here they take "Wind Be Gone" ... God, I wish I could fill my truck with human gas and the bugger would hum down the road... NOT, it would fart down the road. I am writing about "mother natures natural WIND!"

Yesterday I was walking into the center and so help me God, I was picked up by the wind and forced to "hang on baby" 'cause I thought at times I would be smashed into a light post or into a tree!

Wind causes my allergies to play up big time. The air is jammed with pollen, dirt, god only knows what and it finds it's way into my sinus passages and lungs.

The sound of wind drives me crazy. It is not music to my ears.

Rain without wind is heaven to my ears. Like gazillions of musical notes falling on the earth. A gentle rain can help me sleep.

I love watching rain drops tap and sigh against the windows as the notes slide into puddles and find peace within the earth.

My plants love gentle rain. It is as if they speak out, saying: "we want to take a rain bath... please!" The damn wind they hate.

The wind breaks their steams, (limbs) rips off their leaves and tears their gorgeous blossoms away from their very existence. The wind seems to be greedy.

I cannot live without mountains. They radiate a certain unexplainable energy that speaks to my very soul... but when one lives inside and around mountains one must understand inversions, and the wind currents which cleanse as well as travel through mountain ranges.

Living at the edge of the Grand Canyon of the Snake River in Wyoming I can almost set my clocks to the moments the winds will pass through the canyons... They do not last for hours, but they have a rapid tempo.

Here in Queenstown we are situated in the most gorgeous southern alps. A huge lake of ice cold water... Lake Wikatipu. Every afternoon around 4 or 5 O'clock the wind comes up then stops. This year the wind is confused. It simply blows when ever?

In the 70's I worked in Rock Springs WY. Evanston WY. and the wind was relentless. Suicides.

I mean the wind drove some people into insane depression and thus they went crazy. (Not such an amazing fact they built the State Mental Institution in Evanston Wy.)

Years ago, driving from Denver to Utah I spent three nights in Evanston because of snow drifts and endless blizzards driven by wind on the open plains. The day the sun shined I carefully drove out of pure white world.

I had a robin egg blue Volx Wagon Bug... that bug was nearly lifted off the highway many times because of wind. Thank god I used it not only as means of transportation, but a storage unit, place to sleep, eat and live inside. Small studio apartment with wheels. I kept it weighted down with STUFF. Thus it did not always shift around like other bugs.

Enough about the damn wind... it is still blowing.

I should probably go through my book case and dig out WIND IN THE WILLOWS.

I loved that book and read it every so many years. I will read it IF I am able to read without the wind grabbing it out of my two hands and giving it flight!

94 years...

The mother of my partner of nearly 30 years, turned 94 on the 25th of January 2012.

She has dementia, however can walk without a cane, she eats everything I put on her plate and is so kind. She knows the charming effects of the simple word, "THANK YOU!" She thanks everyone that helps her with any of her needs. She is nearly blind, hearing is nearly gone, but she looks fantastic and has a personality like a great actress. If I tell her someone is coming to visit and please act as if she remembers them... she pulls it off like a movie star!

I had planned a simple dinner on the patio for her celebration, but we have had all kinds of weather from 90 degrees summer heat to barely in the 40's. SNOW FOR THE 4th time this January! January 27 in NZ is like JULY 27 in the northern hemisphere. The mountains are still half way covered in white snow as I write.

For Anne's celebration I decided to take 7 of us to my favorite restaurant, "Solera vino".

a authentic French Restaurant. I met Philippe Berton, the owner in the old Body Worx gym 20 years ago. He told me he had a restaurant in town... I had dinner and never looked back!

I eat lunch at least two times a week at 'Solera vino'

I always have the same lunch. Rib eye steak cooked medium, green salad with French Dressing, and French Fries. The Fries are not like most French Fries, you can actually taste the earthy note of real potato and the top note of what it was fried in... Two glasses of Arum Pinot Noir wine, and then a strong espresso coffee. This lunch is flawless. The music and ambiance is magic.

I am fortunate to sit at the front open window, depending on the crowd. I never mind where they seat me. (there was a time I was known as a pianist in QT, now I wear BIG dark glasses, rather eccentric clothing, carry a backpack...) still, the young table attendants which are French, treat me so kindly and they KNOW I DO NOT REQUIRE A MENU...

When I am seated at my table, I can write in my journal, gaze out of the open window and watch the stream of people walking past... I love to make up stories about where they are going or coming from.

I picked the perfect place for Anne's 94Th.

Amazing beyond belief, she walked from the parking lot to the restaurant, enjoyed her Sole and rice, dinner, creme brullee then walked back to the car, chatted all the way home and we prepared her for bed. Lots of THANK YOUS!

My own mother taught me two precious words: PLEASE and THANK YOU.

Sorry, but some years in between now and when I was a little boy I forgot them? NO!

My love affair...

In New Zealand last year I purchased a wireless printer. It worked like magic!

I could down load sheet music on my computer inside my studio (which is outside of the main house.)

The printer sits in my bedroom. It chugged away and printed everything beautifully. This year? Everything seems in working order, I made it my default printer on my MacBook Pro but the printer simply refuses to work with me. SCREW IT!

I went on line searching for a place I could buy printed classical piano collections. FOUND A PLACE.

Nile.com great place. I ordered three wonderful editions of piano music.

Music I was longing to fall in love with again as well as my forever on going study of certain masterpieces which I doubt I will ever perform in this life time, however, they provide eternal exploration and adventure for my mind, body and spirit.

Last night I sat up in bed drinking a cup of green and melodic (get that, melodic!) berry tea. It is delicious. I read every night before falling asleep. In NZ this year I have been reading classics.

Last night I came to end of Wurthering Heights. God, what a convoluted love affair as well as the story takes place in a rather a dark place on earth... No problem. I slept like a dead man.

Awoke at 7 AM feeling great.

Made a pot of strong coffee... sat in the garden, meditating, ate a very light breakfast, then I took a forked tool and began loosening the soil around my amazing tomato plants and carrots, potatoes and herbs allowing the soil to breathe and absorb all the water, air, shade and most of sunlight during the day, starlight at night and love the rose bushes and pansies share with such nutritious plants.

Did the gym... I am like the book by Hemingway: "The Old Man and The Sea" only thing? I am the old man and the gym. After returning home the need for the piano became intense.

I indulged myself beyond imagination working out melodic phrases, harmonic structure of chords and hidden voices within the undercurrents of such works of art.

The new, virgin, un marked pages of musical manuscripts invited me to grab my RED PEN and begin marking places that demand my attention...

Debussy will forever haunt me. His box of multi colored tones of musical paint takes my mind to places where words do not exist. Chopin can express emotions I cannot explain and Beethoven simply reaches into the universe of eternity. The secret language of the spheres.

Experiencing any kind of creativity can eclipse the invention of "time".

After some time at the keyboard I wondered why my right shoulder was aching? Well? go figure? Walked out of my studio door into the sunshine and breathed a prayer of gratitude to the universe for giving me such a gift and the time to indulge myself with it's gorgeous influences. (when I am home in WY. I suffer guilt IF I am not working thus... I suffer)

I thank my lucky stars that I have friends that are artists of the first rank and they accept me and my quirks, limitations as well weaknesses. These angels are sculptures, painters, musicians, poets, writers, chefs, massage therapists, healers, clairvoyants, eccentrics and most of all passionate people.

I have had many love affairs in my life... (too many to write about?????)

but the one constant in my life has been my love affair with music and the written language by which we humans record it.

Horizontal lines, vertical lines, mathematics, written language... the formulas are endless. PHYSICS! I will never get over the love affair. I pray it never gets over me!!!

becoming older and older

I took a break from the gym during the holiday madness... Today I started back.

For ever 30 + years I have worked out faithfully. I believe that exercise keeps the body within a reasonable state of good health. I do know for a fact weight training can save one's emotional and spiritual being. If for no other reason it releases stress.

Years ago I would be so upset or crazy with anger I would simply lift the weights as if they were the neck of the person I wanted to choke to death.

It worked this way: most of the people are dead now because of their own actions or still alive because I took my anxiety out on IRON and MUSIC... (I should write a song Iron & Music)

I have been having inner conversations with my body and soul regarding my right leg.

I figured I needed another knee replacement! Today I changed my mind. Reason: I remember exactly the day I knelt down on my knees and it felt as though I had a thousand nails hammered into the knee cap of my left leg. I was in the QT GYM. I rolled on my side, grabbing my knee and screaming.

I was in denial, but I knew the knee was a problem. Well, today I realized it is the damn arthritis playing up in the right leg along with the sciatica joining in... my left knee never went numb... the pain in my left knee never radiated down the outside of my leg...

I had my left elbow "cleaned up" by a surgeon from Auckland about three years ago. It was pooling fluids and the pain... well, I had many, many injections of Cortisone in that elbow for years.

The drug killed the triceps muscle's. Every time I would go for advice in the states they avoided the issue and I know why: FOR FEAR THAT I WOULD LOOSE MY ABILITY TO PLAY PIANO... Well, I proved that theory wrong.

The surgeon from Auckland cleaned out all the "CRAP" from the arthritis and scar tissue. He told me I would play the piano fine... I would not be able to PRO NATE my left arm... like press it against a wall etc. He was 100% spot on. To this day I am pain free in that elbow. I am slowly re birthing my triceps muscle. I am finally able to straighten the arm out in front of me.

I wear long sleeved shirts because IF I DON'T people stare at me. My right arm is a well built arm. My left arm is tooth pick. It is growing. I still love my Left Arm, Hand and it is coming right!

Years and years ago... I recall older people telling telling me: "YOUR DAY WILL COME!"

Hell, they were right! I have known people that live on vegetarian diets, high protein diets, exercise... pray, meditate, live the WORD OF WISDOM to the MAX and still fall apart. I think death must be a very big part of our learning process and many of us no longer can accept the fact we will grow old and die! YIKES. ('cause nobody knows what death is unless they experience it... just like birth... do you remember the moment of your birth??? possibly death is a birth????)

Now I am over so many issues. I really do not care about a lot of "STUFF" that ruled my life for 40 years.

I am over mountains of GUILT, FEAR and LOATHING. I work hard. But when I am on holiday as now... well, I sleep when I want and I get up when I want... (Peter Pan?) I eat what I want and I walk where I want... I read all kinds of books, eat foods that my body tells me it needs and most of all I love.

I love my past even though it is no longer a part of my present life. I love people that are no longer with me in physical bodies, but forever with me in my heart and the spirit of love.

Possibly becoming older is a gift that only certain people ever enjoy. I live with a 94 year old woman that was a power beyond words years ago. She now suffers dementia beyond belief.

I wonder if it is Karmic or simply science?

OH BTW, SOPHIA RAN OFF. She is with her baby kittens. Story of my life: THEY RUN AWAY FROM ME...

SOPHIA

Last year we took in a cat named Sophia. I love the name Sophia.

Yesterday a young woman delivered a cat we can care for in the coming weeks. Well, her markings and green eyes are exactly like Sophia the cat from last year!!

She never stopped wailing and talking cat language. The birds that have been loving our gardens took off in hysterical flight. I do hope the Tui returns in the morning. No bird has such a song.

I also adore the song of the Bell Birds.

Sophie finally settled down. Found the bed in the guest room most adaptable to her needs. We had closed all windows and doors. Keeping her under lock & Key for about 3 days.

This morning I wake up and there no Sophia to be found anywhere in this house! Anne had awaken in the night to the cat's cry and let the damn cat out of the bag, as they say! Then Anne went straight back to bed!

Well, I simply resigned myself to the fact the cat did not love us and had run back to her previous habitat... as I was sipping my morning coffee I heard her wailing at the front door.

She is no fool this cat. She had spent the night marking her space around the property, sitting in the window sills and clawing at doors to find a way into the house. I opened the door and she JUMPED into my arms. (thank god, I did not at the moment have a cup of hot coffee in my hand).

She belongs at 11 Panorama Place. When I returned home after a long walk out to St. Omer Park she was on my bed. I nudged her aside for my much needed "lay down nap", she rolled into a cuddly ball on my tummy.

Thus, I just kissed my sweet allergy free sinuses goodbye. Back to the dripping nose. But the gift of "UNCONDITIONAL LOVE" is worth every moment. Fur People are the sacred messengers that carry love to all of crazy human beings. Stay tunned for more about Sophia.