Thought for the day (14 Oct 2005):

Hymn

I know if I find you I will have to leave the earth
and go on out
   over the sea marshes and the brant in bays
and over the hills of tall hickory
and over the crater lakes and canyons
and on up through the spheres of diminishing air
past the blackset noctilucent clouds
      where one wants to stop and look
way past all the light diffusions and bombardments
up farther than the loss of sight
   into the unseasonal undifferentiated empty stark

And I know if I find you I will have to stay with the earth
inspecting with thin tools and ground eyes
trusting the microvilli sporangia and simplest
   coelenterates
and praying for a nerve cell
with all the soul of my chemical reactions
and going right on down where the eye sees only traces

You are everywhere partial and entire
You are on the inside of everything and on the outside

I walk down the path down the hill where the sweetgum
has begun to ooze spring sap at the cut
and I see how the bark cracks and winds like no other bark
chasmal to my ant-soul running up and down
and if I find you I must go out deep into your
   far resolutions
and if I find you I must stay here with the separate leaves

--A.R. Ammons, The Selected Poems, Expanded Edition, 1986

Follow up:

Brought to eye/mind today: a moose changing course

Thank you, Lord, for...the moose's changing course.

Today's Log:

• Called daughter Julie to wish her happy birthday. She is unavailable still.
• Researched color profiles for my HP PhotoSmart 912C camera. Not much info--looks like I would need to make a custom profile. Tried again to update the camera's firmware, but HP's software can't connect with the internet. All other programs can and do. Also researched whether I should get an LCD or CRT monitor for digital graphics. All the references I found say CRT's have more color depth, better contrast, and better color quality and purity. So off to finding the best monitor for the job. Am seriously considering a ViewSonic G90F. (My current monitor is old and getting dimmer by the day.)
• Worked on the fence for ~3 hours. The temperature was hanging around 40°F. While I was working in the narrow corridor between my neighbor's fence and mine, the dog next door spooked a moose passing by and he/she bolted. I looked up to see the moose beginning to turn into this corridor. For a minute the world stopped. I looked at the moose, the moose saw me. And it swerved. Thank God.
• Measured and counted cedar slats. I'm 15 slats shy.
  Felt warm enough while working, but when I quit for the day and came into the house, I was cold to the core. Odd.
• Don't know why but I keep infringing on MLF's jobs. Maybe it's because he so caught up in his gaming, I don't know when or if he'll do them.