running the coast (toronto)

` Running the Coast '


Breaks like day or hour, urban coast.
Between trickles of a gravel stomach,
panged steps, and breaths
that ripple along railings and a shore
of pebbled concrete. An unpainted mass.
Here a path with green and blue broken
lines, geese that acknowledge their own trails,
vomit, the ascended summits of small hills.
Vapours as permanent
as an afternoon grid, a long series of lights,
vehicles not moving. The twitter and curse
of a helicopter watching from above, reporting,
perhaps seeing my miles per hour
rise ever so slightly -- like a curve
of Nature that gleams amid a "mobile wind"
a sketch of breakwalls and sailboats. The setting
of bows beyond suns and an island
which the Natives wouldn't bridge or name.

Still the wind is a hurdle for those who remain
behind glass, behind land or sail, a configuration
we may never know: strength, temperature,
or era. Was it the shield of Achillees
or the fleeting skin of Zadopek? Achillees, I know,
has come and gone -- has grown, like a hamstring
stung by the hills of Troy. The achillees
comes and goes, entrusts itself to the mind,
to a cold-water recovery, a cross seperate and bare
from the rest of the body. The body saying,
"tomorrow I may not go!"
Tomorrow the forgotten moment
of dehyradation, limbo - both feet lingering
in the air... a raised white bridge where one
wants to turn around, feels the wind at their back
and another runner climbing the steps from below.

resuming the scenario --- of use and miscellaneous testing

.
I fling the fast and dying merchant a faint denomination,
ask that memory be kept like pavement
beside an rageless river --as though the yellowy lines
had buckled only once before. I pass the market
where statuesque rows linger well before dawn

i am damp and heavy and tilting towards...

...
a dry camera lens.
my head rises beyond the edge
of the film. a computer labours
behind me,
its screen is blank,
a kind of grey one
sees in a Southern swamp,
there is a bottle of water
near the keyboard,
half full with its label
peeled. i remember
high school and how my friend Erin said
that meant you were horny. i remember
the difference between then and then. we
never made it to a hotel room,
to one of our own beds

miscallenous percussions, symbols of reunion

`
`

with

so this is how we define ourselves,
with a world protected by harbours
redundant in the size of theiir shore. with
miraculous pebbles, and a conscience cleared
of all extinct currents.

this is our defense. a body of water that moves
like a crowd but doesn't nudge, that doesn't resist
the visible bottom -- or carry its hat
among the waves. there's nothing but
pleasure here,
the fortune of holidays
and weekend receipts,
hard work that once was.

this is our visiting breath,
a willingness as dry as the sight
of a neighbour in the yard, walking
slowly perhaps,
deciding which colour of siding
she'll use for her house...

the green is brighter than chlorophyll should allow *

those words are not mine, 'my title', mon bon joue!
they belong to JLo (he's a runner-poet & not the singer-cum-actor-ess).

how does two months go by with barely a thought for entering here?
I'm guessing I'm not remotely as obessessed about blogging as the people
in the article I read yesterday at maisonneuve.org. Maybe I was too
busy getting ready for the big race, big trip.

The plan was to blog from the various places that I visited,
to let the world know what I was doing, thinking, seeing.
But, the truth being what it is, I didn't even think about blogging
when I was at any of the internet cafes --- all I did was check
e-mail and stock prices :)

Perhaps it would have taken too long anyway
considering some of the charges they were asking.
The only real cheap / reasonably priced cafes I found were in Ljubljana,
Besancon, and Valenciennes.... the other ones seemed to be a bit
exhorbitant given the quality of their systems. Alas, I was able
to stay in touch and find out what I needed from over here...
not that I really cared that much,
I was on vacation after all,
and getting away is really
the whole point of being somewhere else.

from a plunging boat: body wash

.

soft breach, waves deafening their own momentum.
a bathtub that deserves a better name --- like Agamemnon
or Argos
or the bays near Pula
the amping blue Adriatic,
resistance and mist
stones garnering what's left of an empire
what hasn't been voted out.

automated fist.

.
AUTOMATED FIST
.

The mind of its own is permanent,
has tenure, stretches upward,  
an umbrella beneath a distant rain...
The mind of its own is permeable,
floats amid metallic spires,
dandles with the wind - like
a shrine's brightened extremities.

The mind of its own is pedantic,
covers itself with a simple skull,
with shadows and hymns,
and the roots of a city that once grew corn.
The mind of its own is motion,
clenching the horizon like a new moon,
like a fist admitting -- it cannot close...

a milestone... memories bereft?

It's been little more than a year now, since this breath of experimentation began, and the bark upon the brain seems a little less fixiated,  and the circles around the eyes (swim goggles, you say?)  aren't quite as clear either.  Yet I wonder (STILL I wonder), are you really planning a visit to a place called KISKUNFELEGYHAZA (sans accents, mais it sounds like --- le meme chose!)?

Input country guess here: __________________________.

I believe my first ever blog mentioned something about the Tour and that Lance was about win, well a year later and it's happened again.  Hurray, Boo!!!  No not really any of the former or the latter... to tell ya the truth the tour was a disappointing cake-walk, the cycling / action was good and I enjoyed watching most of it but the outcome was never in question.  How is it that one team is so much stronger than all of the others?  Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm....  there's always a question.  So now after another year of my own internal combustions, overhead cam-eras, this blog thingamajig hasn't quite progressed as planned... it's cool and I like but it hasn't become part of my daily agenda --- perhaps because I don't have as much time to spend on such inanimate objectives as I'd like to, and also because I guess I prefer to keep things (my life, for instance) as simultaneously simple and convuluted as possible.  How can that be?

I'd like it to be more pedantic, like this afternoon a gull flew against my window, the CN tower drowned (doused?) in fog, a shroud of noise from the building of buildings below, a crane, and a fast unscheduled walk through Queens Park (thoughtful monarchs avowed).  And yet I don't want to dull or devour the reader with quotidien simplicity, perhaps there is a balance amid mundaneness and my penchant for obscurity, oh yes the fever is rolling, the great awakening, the sonic concomitant (embodied by the weekend sun -- not weakening)...

Or maybe I just want to use this forum to explore my language, my relevant voices...  maybe something concrete like the building of buildings will cement its towering authority here.  Maybe I am not a single a pane of glass...

the long wind

.
A blast of contuded oxygen?
foreign flecked assault.
Rain and dust peppering
the border between assumptions
and retrieval. Perhaps none
of the followers in this grand redundancy
need fear the pricing of information,
the breeze that rises from tills
through holes in translucent windows.
Circles of undoubt?

Seeing the White Fence

There, passed by tractors and convertibles,
hands fluttering unbeknown to a naive eye,
flickering grains of refuge
left by the breeze of teenagers - their long skin
seeking those sands and suns of independence...

or he says, ego is self-contained,

renders the unamused.
Terrible lack of animosity,
here? Post-haste me your thoughts
my dearest betrothed... felled voluptious
tree,
innocuous branching of fate
that yearns like lengthwise pavement,
a heart (is that what I really meant?)
parallel to a grey de-summarized sky.
Only humanity could go more unnoticed.
Not really sky, I should think,
or light years away... not really
justice, he said.

They say it rains when it pours,
that ditches cannot feel pain,
and freshly cut shrubs don't need
the rich impediments of a newfound spring
that they will be warm and speckled
where-ever they land --- like whiteness
on an innocent wooden fence, like a gate,
unopened, or dichotomies... ever-present
torrential streams. Blue-boxes
at the edge of a gravel driveway.

I do not check the Recycle Bin anymore
but I still adore you... how does one say

au revoir without really meaning it?

GOODBYE.
GOODER-BYE.
DO-WID-ZENIA.
Effing OFF... for now.

. HEARTfelt MIKA.

x marXist the spot... Sopot? or Hel?

*
ELeCTION dAYLIgHT
*

pourquois les références vers la Pologne?
have you seen the zagging of epitaphs?
the Great Danzigian Bay, imperial wit?
yet they say, he is here to confound,
with inexplicable (yet understandable) French
inserted like a string of modified starches,
with 12-carat mischief clenched by a democratic hand.
There is always an abrasion to communication,
a diamond-held finger cutting the layers of a golden cake,
there is remant food (nourriture) housed in strange buffets,
and votes to be served... still? somewhere else,
maybe trailing a plane that circles a city skyline
it may be written, that words and pictures cannot be objectified,
yet here, plain, invalid here, I can pretend, I understand the message,
I can say, I have heard the people and their power.
*
I suppose the resulting anger was devoured by an inconstant fear,
by red lights ascending to the tips of bells and parliaments,
to benches stripped of their blue and green,
to orange juice squeezed from Caribbean Cafes
into glasses inured with feckless spots.
These are the times when the roomy tables of the New Proletariat
are infested by the ranting of political thieves, children smiling
in the background, daughters as pure as those lonely girls
on Bikini Beach (Wasaga not discounted), daughters as dour and aplomb
as the feelings for their one inherited brother,
the ones the reporters have named (gratitude Rich?)
the one that waltzes away, tabulates,
and spends each last pellucid moment of the everyday
scouring for safety.
*
Perhaps it's also true that their long, slim hairlines,
and slender mouths, have yet to spark riotous acts in suburban grottos,
have yet to tremble beneath the poor brinkmanship of indebted contractors,
have yet to waste their gorgeous (and stubbornly generous) ulcers
on small wooded ravines that tussle the roads straddling the city,
have yet to feel a day going by that couldn't be won...
*
Later in the evenings, whilst the elder Richard
ponders an inconstitutable sky, white yet puffy,
the clock passes the time of Szymborska's Universe,
and brandy becomes a flicker of pine-scented verandah,
and that daughter with bikini entrails,
with waxed poetic legs and polished germs --- seeks nothing
but the hypnosis of a good photograph, of the ridges that linger
on rouge'd pursed lips, that cleanse the teeth
of anything leafy or green. And in those ravines
where the city is safe, unusuable 2x4's are now discarded,
a discomfiture of metal and glass bubbles towards life,
escapes its 4x4 past, opens its mouth and gazes at the iridescent stake,
with tepid indulgence it sends a shiver of momentum onto the roadway...

sadly, the sun has turned around again!

Physics, they said. Ergonomic heavens, and salutations from a smiling (solarity)
re-drawn by children in the last hours of the school-year. Hurrah! Hurrah!
What happens to the universe when the faint strands of grassy fields need
moments of watering? What happens to -----saturated------ apologies! I've
summoned myself to a momentous cause, to making the sky feel less debilitating
at five in the morning...

Sadly, un-sporadically, the day has dawned for the sun to turn, return,
to take back what it once wished was given away [like a cave man (woman?)
who decides a hut of straw is better than a cave]... alas I loathe this
celestial timing almost as much as the seventh hour of the seventh day
after finishing a marathon. One thinks then, what's next, is this Recovery
all that I've waited for?

Contagious congratulations (con-graduations) to the true Pillars of this post.
Les enfants (not really enfants, are they?) who move forward into the next biggest
challenges of their lives... to our f****ite (careful, Uncle) niece who's roamed
thru Nice, who is very nice and kind (and loves her Frances). Congratulations on
your awards and accomplishments, and get ready for all the new challenges and
successes of high school: those next "best years" of your life (at least until
university or unitl your 35 anyway)...

To our f*****ite nephew who's climbed the hills in Vaduz, who once said, the last
step's a doozie!. Well, (to paraphrase Bob Cole) I can tell ya, the next step
IS a doozie! Have fun in London with school and athletics, and remember that from
here on it's not one's talents that are not so imperative: it's all about Hard Work
and Determination!!!

the resulting fire was conceded to the onrushing foam

Mon Etape,

où disparaît-il ?

ocean sphincter - say what? quoi? qui-vas-la?
okay juvenalia, sumpsimus retort, a bientot, "GO --- a-way!"

from AFM (EP, pg 138-9)

SONNET OF ESCAPE

Even the body's resistance transforms
a sky delivered without sight, eyes lean
with the weight of blood, gray-worn mountains,
or a Winter's breast disguised as motionless ice.
Sleep prepares for the pulse of dusk,
for clouds contoured like bells or parliaments,
like humanity bleached and absolute.
Even the heavy hollowness framing the body's
absence passes further than the protection
of a glacial shore. Beyond the valley melting
in its own distant remorse a solid singular stone
flickers with gravity, hue, and a fountain
of vacant colour straining to perceive...
Here, a narrow ray of flesh, a mineral
as grateful as any ore, unveiled, remaining
ever so briefly, like a spark
only those who've never been free - could feel.

track & field reality: happy, skippy, and a little bit jumpy...

~*~*~

Today then, with a little conjuring from the wind,
and a little disguising from an adjustment in attitude,
the brave issuers of joy
will prevail. Today, the stops
and starts of hammers and nails
will not cause the world to concede its pain.
The swishing of moisture that once was home
will subside like oil in a field of unused locomotives...
nature has its way of returning the grain, the miniature
grroves that seize the day. Never mind the arses in AVPs,
the cold filaments of their egos...

I've never met an emergency that couldn't wait.

And mon ami Pat, congratulations on your ninth place
jump. it may not seem so ascendant right now
but perhaps, in the middling years it will become
more inspirational (optimistic?).

Get this day over with.

Flush!! (a soldiers' armour in decline?)

+*+

FATIGUE and EQUILIBRIUM

for no-one in particular (again!)

*+*

At the sign beneath the airport
which says no smoking or firearms,
walking amid dust and reconciliation,
a mysterious gray passport draws no attention to itself.
From its eyes comes the conduct of a bland ocean, whispers,
while the limited carrying of foreign words ascend
like resolute ramps, like a conqueror whose downfall
from an endangered disease never felt more imminent...

Yet before the hero understands the ambiguous guard
staring at a stage made for a many-headed Paris,
the true face of dying light looks, not only of Athens
or Rome (or the views of an Empire
in decoration and narrative),
but of mysticism against those scenes through which
the blinds of another 'better life' seem transparent.

My favorite act in this perception
is a narcotic we've called enviroment,
as practical as a cannon
or a television screen: (easy to inflame).
Yet the one who engraves this flag-induced participation,
this cynical escape of gallantry, yields nothing more
than the staggering last stamp of a cause that resembles
a curse.

the making of...

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

this is the making of
(the making of)
this poem. watch me now,
hands wringing with the inserts of time,
inked feet smiling so smugly - as cool

as an unwashed phrase.
eyes tickled by the tap
tap-tap of the ocean,
the crossed beginning

of toes,

of triumphant teeth, a melange
du jour in the body's movement.
watch me now, as I was then,
in the making of, in the "ness"
of me -- tribulations

of veins and vesseled
ingredients. the tap
tap-tap

of camouflage,

uncoloured dreams -- this is
the making of (the making of),
who says you can't eat your own cake?

the no-lookers

^

had it been the just gods wearing sunglasses,
the baggy shorts that loom with shadows
covering their knees. had it been the repository
of sandals amidst the sand-splashed cross-walks...
imprints, laughter and the dogma or climate,
perhaps here the pavement would never be dry,
the glossa of insects would hang from the roadside,

a sudden turn of fashion.

it was the past that crept by, while we,
the peasant cloaks divided our words
with photos of descendants whose time
had yet to flee their hearts.

heatin' up in there.

at last summer, real warmth and sun.
enough to make the zig-man happy. Moi aussi, running
without tights, or a vest, imagine. Who'd ever thought
we fell such freedom.

good luck with your exams. Mika................

UWAGA!

For some reason this is my new favourite Polish word...
it means attention, ATTENTION en francais, I think it might also mean
"look-out", beware, or take notice --- but that's just my guesses.

If, (when), I start my own little publishing thing, it will be called
UWAGA Press, and it will go hand in shovel with my other as-yet
begun operation ------ GuiltyAsThin Productions.
This replaces my former favourite Polish word --- Przsyprazsam (sp)
and of course the belaboured Prszypraszam Press, which along with
meaning "Excuse Me!" has yet to find its beautifully translateble
self.


Okay, so how about I write a poem now, perhaps I'll call it...

Change Due

Belly Dancers wriggle into the background,
a man whom I know, or more correctly,
who is from my town - lets twenty dollars
drop from his lap, his fingers are stretched
and uneven.

Somewhere -- in a corner vestibule
there is only the cold silence of a newspaper...
there is waiting,

`~`

april is a cruller month

if, one goes by the institution of advertising, one might believe that Maple Crullers
will soon be available at our most infamous Canadian institution. perhaps, not
disproportionatley so, the bark that carries the thirst that is gradual and addictive,
has never been greater.


me --- you would think after a month of blog (Quebecois?) abstinence, I would
have something less innocuous to put here. Maybe tomorrow.

not working hard enough

~~

I guess it is sometimes difficult to asses what is meant by "hard enough"
and of course, one needs to know what one is referring to... in this case
it's all about The Novel, that which is titled --- The Line of Control.

Seems like I need an extra few hours a day in order to get anything done,
perhaps a bit more energy too --- since all of the training and extra time
at the office are making me prose-lazy. That being said I have finished the
poem below, here is the latest version:


Descent and Extinction


Sagacity, when aloft, exchanges oxygen for fate. Heat.
The wheels of a jumpy airplane, lowering. At some point
everyone wonders, what will happen when we land?

Perhaps it is these clouds that are colder than the stillness
of snow-lined fields (in suburbia) — colder than war
for the sake of war, without marked runways or rhetoric.

Sometimes, as a distinct entity, or even as a whole,
we are caught within the white and black of our own ammunition
and we wander from moment to opaque moment…

Up here, without the natural selection of wounds or respiration,
reason seems like the hostage of a latched door,
an aisle, a rounded plastic window — partially fogged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Welcome to March mes amis. It's warm and grey here
yet I managed to bike outside on the weekend (in February,
in Canada -- wow who'd have thought).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Cheers, MIKA!

confused? or inebriatedly fogged?

--

pourquoi,

home? for an ex-change...

............................................................................

altitude and extinction

Sagacity, though soft, exchanges oxygen for fate, sweat.
The jumpy wheels of an airplane, lowering. At some point,

everyone wonders --- what will happen when we land?
Perhaps Jupiters' clouds are colder than we could ever imagine,

like the stillness of copper green domes (in February),
like war for the sake of war, without marked runways or rhetoric.

Sometimes, as a distinct entity or a whole, we are caught
within the black and white of our own ammunition,

and we wander from each moment to another moment - without sight
or natural selection. Up here, solitude seems like a codicil of thought

and waste, like the envied hostage of a latched door,
an aisle, a rounded plastic window ---- partially fogged.


*****Okay, so it is not the most uplifting shit to begin the week.
Sunday evening. Evening out the time between hope and happiness.
I have returned to that so-called reality, to TO. Soon I suspect,
I will be on the road again, Spain, vacation, property, properly....

Madrid, part two!

Things are fine here. The siestas are welcome, though I'd rather exercise.
I've re-written the poem for X that was included before. Remarkable timing I must say...
I hope, mon ami, you understand Y, you say you remember but I have my doubts.


Past the Church, a Bridge

for no-one in particular — anymore…


The perception of steps beneath a steeple, us,
a rainy morning in August
and the doors are black and wet, closed.
God's will, you say, believing that everything happens,
(must happen), for a reason…

Yet the traffic beside us on Bloor Street
is another truth we cannot discuss,
is just cars passing exhaust
and silent directions. Right, right, then left,
then a yellow light and a chance for collision.

Everything here is defined by wide lanes,
by the yielding of stems and branches to the viaduct,
where, in the wind, we walk, pause,
with the jitters of subway trains going east and west,
with a way that reason cannot avoid.

...Madrid!

working at last, researching, after a few days of not knowing the reason I was here. It is hard to enjoy such a beautiful city when one is a little jet-lagged (four hours in London will do that) and hasn't heard from Ms. Whyte as to the planned order of business.

alas, I did settle down in the hotel / apartment room (?) where they've put me. Luckily I'm not that close to any of the museums and I could waste a few hours travelling there and back. Will write more once I believe I've found what I'm looking for, or when something interesting happens and I get my Spanish legs. I did go for a little run today but the traffic was a little hectic until I reached the park.

I didn't get lost either! Cheers, MIKA.

one of many corrections for X

X
X to the power of
X minus y
X squared

'deel' is spelled DEAL!!

I thought you had a better understanding of mathematics, derivatives, hope?

In light of understanding, or lack thereof, and in the presence of an equation that no longer makes sense... here, coincidentally, is a poem I wrote on the day of your... rescinding. X-it, if you must.



Below the Bridge Someone Holds a Sword

for no-one in particular — anymore…


The perception of a step beneath a steeple, us,
a rainy morning in August
and the door is black and wet, closed.
God's will, you say, believing that everything happens,
(must happen), for a reason…

But the traffic on Bloor Street is another truth we cannot discuss,
is just cars passing exhaust, and silent directions.
Right, right, then left,
then a yellow light and a chance for collision.
Everything here is defined by wide lanes,
by the yielding of grass and trees to the viaduct,
where I walk, pause, in the wind,
in the jitters of subway trains going east and west,
in a way that reason cannot avoid.

hooray for the USA?!

Well at last, Dubya MD, has requested an inquiry into the case of the missing WMD.

But that's not the reason for this title. Would you believe an American Journal (academic) has accepted some of my work... c'est vrai!!!! Au revoir.

MIKA

remaining grounded...

No shadows here, 718 am, another grey dawn accumulating in the western hue of the city. between the dusty blinds of this unofficial perch, 8th floor cublicle, blay and boored, or is it dazed and bored... the distance from here to that smokestack on Mimico Bay seems a little trite this morning, a little farther away than it ought to be. what would we all give for the exhaust of '...six weeks from now?' Warmth, sun, a break in spring, god willing the noise of melting will ascend from the pavement and the grasses, the trails that gather runners and dogs, a flight, an imagining of asymptotic mammals. The weekend that was has passed too quickly, too dimly, perhaps another moment of sun was needed, another hour, why is there always a limit to daylight...

On Saturday one of my many good friends from the Group, errr... Gang of Eight (in the no-longer-so-small Town) got married... a January wedding you say? How antidotical? antipodean? But yeah, with the recent plummetting of snow and temperature it was definitely crisp and white, and a wonderfully rambling event and amusing time. Details? Type-o's?

To begin, I'll avoid any mention of the 2hr 45 minute drive on friday night, snow, wind, slush, traffic! Horrendous conditions, they said, every ten minutes on the ones. I won't disclose my purple hair either (Thanks Jen!) or the person who called in sick, one and the same, he scoffed. For the second part, mon ami, you are absolved, short notice and all, it must have been (was) my fault. Reticence is terminal, so I won't mention anything sentimental or sappy either, love you!. I will tell you I picked up my new black suit the thursday before, looks good, looks well, looks "slimming", ha ha, nice tie too, one too many fashion shows or what? Go away. Not to worry, not to wear.

Love U!

Mrs. H telephoned (rang, I suppose), requesting a lift to the church, seems she was bumped in the rear by an officer of the local constabulary, slick roads, slight grade, slow cornering... a Minardi perhaps. I obliged of course, not waving good (du) bye at the bottom of the crescent, is this a new green car do-you-buy, you might say? I mean do-buy, doo-bee, you ask? Rolling on. Parked nicely, sidewalk view, a neighbour to the big dark ice-snow dump from the front tire of a F150 monster, blue, black, shadowy. Small steps. Now we're inside, much jocularity and hanging of coats, now we're seated, now we're not... must be going to the front row, alas I remember that my phone might ring again, perhaps in the middle of the cermeony of crowns... the vows, perhaps with the toddled march of the ring bearers (or as they call them in the city to the south of us --- BARRIERS!) Oh yeah, the phone is ringing... is that you my dear Jen? What? It's okay.... really... you can't make it, not feeling well... I understand, I'm sure the guys will go lightly, no razzing necessary. Empty palace, empty place... LOVE you, STILL!!!!

Alas I am putting the cart before the bride (just kidding Kel, you're a beauty, and always will be!), returned to my seat, escorted, cajoled, meekly sitting, at peace, Grrrrrr.... moments later nothing has happened, a few more moments later annnnnnddddddddddd nothing happens... waiting for the sky to clear, waiting, alors I think a ghost has appeared. Nope it's only the groom, paler than a white russian on Christmas Eve. There were grander entrances to follow...

finer en-chantments. No the priest is not singing entirely in Greek, servant Archie... servant Kelly... one, two, three, and plenty more children... or something like that. The ceremony was actually very nice - a few kids were a bit unruly, a few chuckles from the groomsmen but all and all very painless and very few tears since most people weren't sure what was happening. Besides it was all over in a matter of an hour, Not Bad at all.

If I have time I will bring you to the reception, (not a bad unintended pun, I must say).

needing a break? new black suit?

I believe you. I believe the word doldrums was created perfectly...

condensed, but uninterrupted.

Save the thinly-veiled domes at the end of grand European Avenues --- there are no machinations of beauty or despair which are hemmed or lengthened depending on the architect's eye, the rule - as it were, laying flat and level, is to construct the candidature of sight and function. A line here, rising, or perhaps a suspended jaunt, where does it go? where does it end?
Magic and majesty aren't always apropos!

up to.........coupon........................... date!

today, a veritable January ruse. minus 30, minus the wind. minus a blanket of fresh unfluctuating snow and of course that genuine smokestack steam floating south-west across the building-tops. as insoluable as fear or rest, and contrary to the consolation of last nights' workout, regime, and to a lesser degree (ha ha) the revelations from golden publishers.

If they ask, how curious these cold myths? this blatant information, chilled apostrophes' --- akin to the heat of instant implication... (Bracketed Aside: I have perused the wealth of facts and the wealth of figures, the bon mots, perked ears, and I've coerced the cristalized crossing of these macro-economized vacillations, and the issue of 4th quarter earnings, up $5, an analyst might say, their disclosure not premeditated. But no, not yet, I can't reveal all that I'm worth [I'm thinking of the bigger picture], the larger ebb and the higher flood...), I must retort to them, is 8 percent really enough? Indoors. I go...

Gladly, my achillees is improving. Yesterday a 4K warm-up.
2x1K, 2x800, and 4x600 (not too hard I thought, but according to Rachel's 'spinner timing' I was moving pretty good). 2K warm-down, stretching, weights and core strength exercises. Happiness. Relief. Until the next laps -- MIKA out.

scuba DUDE, too!

Returning to TO was a bit of a letdown as the tropical wisdom that sluiced within me seemed to postpone a lot of my Christmas spirit (even if I was humming Feliz Navidad, Caribbean-style), not only that but we had to say goodbye to Eveline of AT, a Chilean marvel, and to endure 4 hours of waiting at the airport in St. Martin ---- everything hot and closed since it was late in the evening and there were no breezes, clean empty benches, or beers to be found (unless you were seated near TC, that traveller of Wobbly Legs and Stuffed Carry-On Baggage fame). Air Transat, invariably late, invariably incommunicative, actually provided a nice plane, something a a lot newer and roomier than what we flew down on, although they did try to detain Herr Ziggy a few times on the way through the ticket line, boarding pass check, blah blah blah, how many times do you wish to see my identification? It's here somewhere... Now I know he is quite the ringer for a terrorist and I KNOW security is of vital importance to us all but anyone wary of the anti-cyclonic "Pops' probably needs a different modus operandi. Greetings Gustav of Gestapo --- red alert red ALERT!! Your papers. Code Orange! ummmm... excuse me Sir but you won't be allowed on this plane even though you've shown us your passport three times already and boarding pass twice! Bewildered Tiger, Uncomfortable Tiger? Draggin On... Pause. Pause. But Miss I'm with him, he says. And yes, that's been said many times, fingers pointing, eyes belaboured -- upon me, innocent me, nodding, and certainly it's almost always true --- they are with me, and I am innocent, but alors - perhaps this kerfuffle only added to the levity of such an exhausting farcical ad-venture (return?)... here we were already more than an hour late and now they were implicating "US" (Pops and me) in any further delay. [Note: we found the troublesome boarding pass moments after take-off, but by then they didn't care about it, want it, acknowledge it.]

Alas, the flight / ride home was decent despite the pluggedness developing within my ear. The roast beef hockey puck sandwich wasn't as bad as first feared, the cranberry juice was good. I slept for a bit and managed to awaken on descent - my inner ears a little turbulent, and painful, considering I couldn't equalize! Celine I'm trying my best, really. Please don't make that quizzically disappointed face.

Early morning (it was after 230 when we gated) was spent waiting for 'the luggage', carousel 8, then 7, do I hear 6? There's a problem with the... loudspeaker? But then, soon enough, we're driving to Midland in a fashionable late-night snowstorm, as tired as I have ever been. And the only time I've ever actually felt I might fall asleep at the wheel. Did I mention I had been out partying the night before with the cousin of my friend (the above mentioned TC) until about 3 in the morning and then had woken up at 630 and decided to go for a run in an attempt to cure my hangover. No nap the rest of the day either, although I did get to relaxing at the beach in the afternoon, horizontal, with The Girls. On the highway I managed okay, weaved a little, here, there, but didn't crash, and so we arrived "home" to white-glazed fanfare around 540 am. Sleep! Sleep!

That night we celebrated Our Girl's 13th birthday (nice gifts) and then it was back to work for a few fresh unpleasantries, neffing job. Inbetween I smiled of course, sanguine and toothily, and did enough shopping to pass through the festive occasions, and to make the receivers of said shopping a lot happier than they might have expected to be; apres ca it was 10 more days away, north again, to celebrate something, everything, the ear-thing, babysitting?... oh my doesn't it seem like eons ago that my vacation was born... Where's that confounding beach? Those mystifying girls? The sun, the breeze, gravity, Lauren --- Inspiration!

Au plaisir mes amis ------------------ MIKA*

a real SCUBA dude -------------- now!

Ahem! One of my few faithful readers (DawGmanStaR?) has politely questioned my whereabouts, so without being unseasonably affected (afflicted?) I reply with an update into my intriguing blissful observant life. Firstly, happily, I have been on holidays... away from the terminally unwell people at the coff-ice!

And so it goes - a week in the Caribbean with sunshine, sand, 3 lovely sisters from Scarboro, Murray, Martha and family, and an inventively scorching fellow nick-named Ziggy (aka POPS!). There was also a gaggle of older party-ers, one of whom, shockingly, was / is the cousin of a good friend from Midland. But now, not to be dismissive of all the above character, I must confess that the most shining moments of this trip belonged underwater with my French SCUBA instructor Celine, tres belle, red bikini, et tres patient... it being my first time made it all the more entertaining, pellucid, salient! SO what did I sea (ha ha ha) at the bottom of the reef? Well there was a shipwreck, rusty cannons and all, there were lots of little fishies, well-schooled and stripey, a funky spiky sponge that Celine stuck to my palm, and even an octopus crouching within a small crevasse. I tried to take a picture of said mollusk however I only caught a glimpse of Celine's arm, ummm, lovely instructor, isn't that a rip in your wetsuit? ----- well done. All in all, I suspect, I did pretty darn good down in the stuff of the deep, in the weightless foreverland... okay so it was only 40 feet and it wasn't that high-pressured, but I did receive a fancy certificate and a nasty ear-infection for my effort, which was probably my own fault since I knew I had a little sinus issue when I went. Live and learn I suppose, but still I recommend taking to the sea for anyone who has never done so (and is not afraid of open water).

Another exhilirating happening was a day cruising the island of SABA, the Unspoiled Queen of the Caribbean, although I suspect there may be private islands (like Richard Branson's of Virgin fame) where things are even less blemished. Returning to SABA ---- which is located just west of St. Eustasius and Nevis, and is home to about 1500 people -- it has one viable port, under re-construction, from which there is one main road and a seemingly endless narrow climb, the vehicle coming up has the right of way, they say, and once beyond that first hill there, still, isn't a flat spot in sight. And though a section of The road that couldn't be built, as they call it, is relatively smooth, the only true level area is at the oh so precipitous airport, where cliffs welcome both ends of the runway. Naturally this place is called Flat Point!

The tour of the island was quaint, elaborate, and somewhat meandering --- Vince was a decent friendly fellow, taxi driver / guide, a Saban (or is it a Saber?) all his life, seemed to enjoy talking about plants, this is breadfruit, and this a ***** tree, He also enojoyed picking up his wife, then dropping her, and the groceries, at home. It's too bad we never took a picture of him or Paula from Detroit (our touring companion), or that I didn't even think about it. Too bad we never got a picture of the Medical School either, or the Glassblower where certain splendid presents were bought. Now all that is either charming or cute but I'd have to say the best part of the whole day was hiking to the top of Scenic Mountain, approximately 890 m (over 3500 feet) and the highest point in the Kingdom of the Netherlands... they say there are only 10-15 days a year when the mountaintop is in clear view, but this day couldn't have been better. From the top I could easily see all the islands nearby, even St. Martin! Absolutely brilliant!!! It was supposed to take about 50 minutes from where I started to get to the peak, however I used it as a chance for a workout, it was humid and sunny and the rainforest became harsher the higher up I went but still I managed to run, dash, jump, to the peak in less than half an hour. Well Done SCUBA Dude!! On the way I passed a few people going up who had started the climb a little earlier, a couple from Germany (how much farther?), a pleasant steady climber from Ohio (Michelle, I think her name was), an even-keeled older fellow who wasn't sure how far up he should go? I said, it's probably only going to get harder...

Then again, I'd have to say coming down was the hardest part. Always is, allons-y. The taxi's leaving at 1330, and I wouldn't want to miss lunch. Win, win, wind, warm breeze, I remember.