A quote that says it all.

"'Farewell!' was the cry of my heart as I left him. Despair added, 'Farewell, for ever!'"--Jane Eyre, Vol. III.

We leave tomorrow.

We're Okay

I don't know if I have any regular readers anymore, but if I do, you probably are aware that we're in Southwest China's Yunnan province. You've also probably heard of the quake. Well, we felt it, and it woke us up, but Pu'er (a.k.a. Simao) is 200 km away from here, so we're okay. We've had folks who are worried about us, but we're okay. 3 dead though, in Pu'er, and many more injured. It tortures the mind to think about it.

Sorry!

I haven't posted in ages because I've been busy and there's really nothing to write about. Okay, I was looking up 9/11 on World Book and the most striking picture was that of the Statue of Liberty holding her torch over a couple of smokestacks that used to be skyscrapers. But that's hardly anything you want to know.

Things are winding down here. Two more weeks of school after today, then two weeks of packing and saying goodbye, then it's time to go...home.

Home? What is home? I was faced with that question while listening to a tape with my favorite songs on it. One made me think about Qi Shan so much that my heart ached, but two songs after that was the uncomparable Atwater-Donnnelly singing "Song of the Cowboys". Immediately, I was back in Seattle on a winter evening, often late on a Wednesday during Lent. Both songs brought tears to my eyes from associations. I don't have associations of a place--just an event--with a song unless there's some homelike aspect to it. Oh, I don't know! It's just surreal. And last year I was half-wishing that something would come up and we couldn't come back.

Poking with Pictures:

Honest! I didn't do nothing with this picture but add "clouds" to the background. Why is a completely different story...

Oog.

Things are winding down. I'm tempted to quit this before June. Not because I'm sick of blogging, just because...oh, I don't know. I don't really know my own mind right now. I think it's because of leaving here. I'm being pretty honest with you, here. Life's been a bit of a bummer right about now. Not too bad, of course. But...ah, who knows? I wish I could just speed over the goodbyes and rewind life back to one of the two golden ages of our time here...

Drawing to a Close

Less'n a month, now, and I'll bid you farewell. Yes, it's May already, and in June it'll be about a month before. I started this blog back in January 2006, and it's been a long way. And even that is less time than I've been here; I've been here since August, 2005.

2005! Two years! So long ago, I thought that two years was forever. And now it just seems long, for it's an age in my life...ah, phooey, why am I talking about all this now? It's a whole month, yet.

So, although it's "21:01:11" by my computer's clock, I'll "wish you a' a good morning" because who knows what time you'll read this?

"maurn"?

I spent about fifteen minutes last night hunting for a Scots word that doesn't exist. It was a typo. I finally found the word; it's "maun". Which means, I think, "must". Let me think, just how does that make sense...?

"Though poor and poorer we must be"?

Actually, I think it does make sense. Never mind.

Universal Willie

"Willie" is this universal name in folk music, it seems. Willie is everybody from this handsome guy that every lady in the whole castle loves to the fellow who kills pretty Polly. And everything in-between, though I suppose Willie O' Winsbury would fit in the first category. Anyhow, it's like the name "Johnny", only Johnny is mostly a soldier (Johnnie Cope? No exception! The guy was a general! He was also a real person). What's with it? If only the most universal name for women in folk music wasn't Mary. I don't care for that name at all, really...