Spit curls

This is Fanny Searle in 1854. I copied this photo from old family papers when I was in the UK. She has a beauty spot and a spit curl. I have been in the bathroom trying to make a spit curl. I had to use someone's pomade instead of spit. It looks more like a worm migrating under my raddled and ancient skin. Fanny is older than me by about a hundred years or so, but she lives on to look out cynically but youthfully at her future world. The dog looks tinted but she doesn't. I think her buttons were touched up with gold. I have a letter written by my father during WW1 where he says he visited old Aunt Fanny in London when he was on leave and she was as irrascible as ever. I think she has a story in her. I will make one up.
I got a serious look from a man friend the other day. I was stunned. My immediate reaction was as always run for cover and I certainly will, because he is problematically married. All that silly, pointless and painful stuff is long past for me. I like my quiet life. Still it was a surprise and to be honest not unpleasant.... Also learned today that a friend has a particularly nasty form of cancer. Hey! I have this great idea! Lets put the defence budget into cleaning up the environment and rehabilitating all those injured chromosomes!

Travel Advice

I took this photo from the top of a number 48 bus on our way to Bethnel Green. Home sweet home!

Got back from a week in Britain with a killer cold - hell maybe flu. I did have a temperature for four days and felt like living excrement as the saying goes. This affliction struck at Gatwick Airport on my way home, where I seemed to attract the attention of every security guard, Man in Blue Suit and body searcher in sight. This wasn't just Gatwick. Try El Paso and Atlanta too. Here is my advice for not attracting unwelcome attention from goons. (1) Don't travel alone. (2) Take a piece of check in luggage whether you need it or not. (3) Do not wear a long black coat or a quilted anything. (4) Watch movement patterns of other travelers and do not step away from the herd (5) Do not carry a black Sierra Club ruck sack. For some reason my black cotton Chinese MaryJane shoes were the object of deep concern, Because they were fleece lined? They were nice and warm and easy to dry in a dryer if they got wet. (6) Do not be old. I personally believe that goons seeking to fill their requisite quota of passenger harrassments prey on the meek for obvious reasons. (7) NEVER leave the loading pen once you have entered it!!! I decided to go to the bathroom right before I got on the plane so I wouldn't have to bother people more than once (window seat). They ran after me screaming for my passport and when I returned I was dragged off into a corner and searched and interrogated. Would any nefareous person be that obvious? Oh well never mind....
Once I got on the plane we found the video and audio system did not work in our section. Fortunately I was sitting next to a nice person from BBC One who was going to SXSW in Austin. I don't think I talked too much as I didn't feel too good. I did tell him about my niece's partner's up and coming band. He seemed to make a note of it!
I spent a day walking the tow paths of the industrial rivers and canals in the Bow area of London. They are already flattening old bomb debris and preparing to prepare for the new construction for the 2012 Olympics. I talked to an old Cockney man who told me he had lived in the area all his life. He said they will find a lot of unexploded bombs. He told me he lives on a disability pension of 400 pounds - $700? a month. Considering it takes 3 pounds to take a single ride in the Underground that doesn't sound very good.... I had a guide I printed out before I left, and it was fairly good for the first few miles, but a lot of the tow paths etc have been closed off or just gone since it was updated. I therefore got very lost and ended up at a tiny cafe in an industrial building. It was full of men from the Middle East. They told me how to find the Tube station, but in the end I took a bus and ended up in a different Zone, so I should have bought another ticket, but a kind person let me in on my invalid ticket, no doubt seeing I was a confused tourist.
Goodnight.

Sacred Water

Went to the candidates forum at the community center. Judge, trustees and mayoral candidates. All with soft Hispanic voices and most born and raised here and with sons and daughters in Iraq (clap clap clap). The over riding concern of everyone seemed to be water. I'm sure all these people are well meaning and not stupid but what a complex situation! There's the ditch water and the Ditch Committee then the town water system, some of the water being bought from the Ditch. Then there are the possible developers who say they will dig their own wells and use grey water on the proposed golf course. A golf course seems the height of insanity to me. This isn't Phoenix. Then there's the frustration of seeing the millions of gallons of water that roar down from the mountains (never since I've been here) that people would love to capture before it sinks into the desert without trace. Flash flood water would probably destroy the acequia if the water master didn't sprint up the hill to close all the gates. J talks of wetlands. The candidates look at her blankly. There is no money for sophisticated management and I'm told the Ditch doesn't qualify for some grants and loans because it is so out of compliance. Catch 22 or what?
Meanwhile tomorrow J and I will collect water from the springs in the hills that nurture this place. Some people think Cabeza de Vaca followed these springs in his wanderings around 1530. He didn't carve his name anywhere. J is accompanying a group of Hopis who are running from their home to Mexico City bringing water from the sacred springs to the water conference that is about to start. It would be nice if the mystic and spiritual and the scientific and pragmatic could get together. The how can we make money out of water men I have no hope for. Air will be next. Want to take a breath? That will be a dime. Debit or credit?