Today was a good day. I’ve been struggling with nearly daily migraine headaches and so I’ve been taking two medications every day to try and help prevent them. Today, they worked. Hooray!
I drove into the City for two doctor appointments having to do with these headaches, and I never cease to be awed by the beauty of the Golden Gate Bridge. Here you can see the fog hanging in the distance.
First I visited my cardiologist, Charlie Morris at California Pacific. He’s a terrific doctor and an amazing human being. He’s been traveling to Haiti since the earthquake, working to prevent pregnant women from dying from preeclampsia in a small rural clinic. He had photos on the walls of the examination room from his most recent trip, and a poem that he wrote about his experience:
Haitian Highway
Driving down the river of road,
dark legs populate predawn darkness
trudging toward work of survival,
erectly head-bearing
sacks of flour, red plastic buckets,
even flats of fresh baked bread;
hard working hardness everywhere
baked by Haitian sun.
Roads unmask rain revealed stones
harsh as the language of honks
talking at the shoulder walkers.
Goats skitter from the steel faced predators,
schoolgirls cluster
sway
and swarm aside like swallows,
overloaded motorbikes weave in constant pre-fall.
Pothole cratered river of commerce
paused by speed bump panhandling
from the reckless acceleration toward progress
overcrowding everything that moves
past half completed
or decayed
cinderblock dreams
crowned by the unfinished optimism
of second story rebar,
past areas cordoned off by contained emptiness
of feral vegetation,
jumbled stew of development decay.
Motocross taxis buzz like gnats waved away
in clouds of trucks on diesel life support,
abandoned car wrecks, night’s road reefs,
lie bleaching frustration
at the everyday slowness of everything.
These eyes observed
in the rear view mirror
can never grow accustomed
to the flies on the faces of children
too malnourished to make the effort,
can never not see
the lone father walking this black tarred faith
to hoe a field of rocks. ~~ 9/3/13
I feel so profoundly fortunate to have this guy treating me, and to remember that people like him are in the world doing good science, writing poetry and working to make the world a better place.
Off then to dermatologist to get botox shots all over my head in an effort to minimize the migraines. He had these phalaenopsis orchids in his lobby. What beauty.
Then a trip to Tiburon, where I rented for seven years, to deliver our wine to Paradise Food. A nice trip down memory lane, and another view of the bridge.
I got home just in time for us to lock up the chickens, feed the dog and head down to Sonoma’s Square for the Plein Air Art Festival’s Quick Draw. The Festival is an annual week long event that celebrates outdoor painting. The juried group of artists come from around the country to paint in and around the Sonoma Valley all week and then from 10 – 4 on Saturday, they display the fruits of their labor for sale. Tonight, the artists were given 90 minutes to paint a scene from the Square and prepare it for display and sale. It was fun watching the artists select and paint the scenes that called to them, and then see the finished paintings shortly thereafter.
For the past two Art Festivals, we’ve housed the talented artist Michele Usibelli. She’s back again with us this year, and this was her Quick Draw painting for tonight. She did a beautiful job capturing an afternoon scene in front of Basque Cafe.
Last stop – the Farmer’s Market.
What a nice day.
Goodnight all.
XO