WEEKLY WRITER'S PATH #25
We live in a little valley on the southeast side of town, a gently sloping gully. When there is rain it comes right to us. And there’s been a bit of rain, lately. Every afternoon the clouds gather around us, from the north, the south and the east. Thunderheads with blue columns of ink pouring down; rainbows curving from horizon to horizon.
Yet we don’t always get the rain we see coming, and when we do we’re not always ready for it. We get lulled into thinking it’s going to blow away, and we end up with holes in our houseplants from hail because we gave them an afternoon of sun outside.
I watched one small brown bird clutching the edge of the swinging bird feeder, her beak into the wind, turning every once in a while to pick a seed from the tray. I haven’t filled it in a while, but she finds enough to snack on.
Can art feed us the way food can? is what I’ve been wondering this week. Holding a couple opera tickets have more than once made me stop and compute the number of tomatoes they would buy—60 pounds, organic, plus tax.
Money has suddenly begun to disappear from my life without my giving it away. I think that’s called being robbed. For instance, I lost $60 at the ATM machine about 4 weeks ago. I was withdrawing $100 and $60 of it slipped out of my hands and back into the ATM right below the arm that hands you the money. Sucked right back in. How clever! How much more efficient for removing money from the no-longer-can-be-called-middle-class than voting machines without a printed tape. Instant redirection of funds!
I swear it was like being in a movie. Frame 1: Sleepy woman grabs for money 2: Money slips between fingers 3: CU woman’s face—shock 4: Voice off-screen:
(Supplicating) Open the pod bay doors, Hal.
So of course I parked, went in, filled out a form and stressed because I really am poor, not just living in Santa Fe because poverty is fashionable, and a loss of $60 could mean volumes of NSF fees in a matter of minutes. It costs more to be poor.
I was told that when the guys who actually owned the ATM machines came to balance out, they would return my money if there was a discrepancy. Unbelievably the money was back in my account within 2 days, my faith in the world of cash flow restored.
About two weeks later, I got a letter from my credit union explaining that in fact they were going to be deducting $60 from my checking account because they found that “. . . the transaction was valid, and funds were dispensed and the ATM shows it was in balance and no errors were found. Therefore the provisional credit will be revoked on 7/26/06.”
(Unmoved) I don’t think so, Dave.
And last night we went to the opera, The Tempest. It was beautiful, amazing, gorgeous. One of those voices alone, without even an orchestra, singing for five minutes outside my window would thrill me for a year. An entire production is overwhelming. What do I do with 60 pounds of tomatoes dropped off in my kitchen all at once?
