Vowel movements

Semitic languages are written with the vowels as diacritical marks, if at all, because the word stem is the consonants and the vowels shift in more-or-less regular patterns as the word is declined. That's okay.

But in the Western and Southern Slavic languages they just do without vowels a lot of the time, replacing them with liquids -- mostly variations on r. I am reminded of this because Frank sent me a file titled "prurez krkem," which does, of course have three vowels for four syllables, not bad for Czech. I am not sure how to pronounce "krkem" without interpolating a schwa into that first syllable. That's because my gut sense of what's possible to say was trained by mimicking English speakers. And my poor lips and tongue have discarded a vast thicket of pruned-out sounds that have no place in English. And, actually, quite a lot of the sounds that are spoken by other speakers of English. I think we California natives have fewer different vowels than people from elsewhere.

Anyway, he's doing okay, he has electricity, he's getting health insurance, he can eat . . . the file in question was a schematic cross section of the neck which he sent me because it annoys him. It's sort of a crude drawing and he has to memorize it because it's what's on the test.

The grass at Lighthouse Field is well over my ankles in places, and the nice fellow is making promises to the dog about hiding in the grass someday . . .

Before the rain

I guess I get out in the yard to actually do something maybe once a week. This will soon be not enough. We have entered into the season of appalling biomass. I mean, turn your back for three minutes and twenty seconds, and you've got oxalis up to your eyeballs and that hairy thing that's sort of like tomatillos will have draped ten-meter vines all over the pomegranate tree so you can't see the root suckers you have to keep clipping.

Seriously, I don't know what's going on out there. It's hardly ever rained this year, and it didn't rain enough last year, but the foliage is going nuts. Oh wait, I do know. It's the removal of the avocado tree from the other side of the back fence. Doofuses who built there built right on top of the poor dear's roots and they gave it a slow, lingering death (it's illegal to cut down good-sized trees without a permit in this town, but if the tree is dying because you just ignored its presence when you slapped a load of concrete down there, well . .. who can prove a thing?). They claimed to be heartbroken when they had to cut it down, and who knows? maybe they did care because they have planted a new baby avocado tree ten feet further where it will shade even more of my yard some day. So I guess I better enjoy the sun while it lasts.

I was kind of supposed to spray the trees today but by the time I got out there and piled branches around and swept up redwood trash and transplanted stuff it started raining. Just sprinkles for now but that's enough to not spray.

The dog loves it when I go out there. We have this deal where I throw stuff for her and she doesn't chew up my flowers. Mostly. I have a hard time keeping her from digging inappropriately because what's appropriate digging for a dog in a small yard? But this one spot where she wants to dig is really a terrible idea. It's sort of among the roots of the apricot tree and also right next to the path you have to take to get to the compost heap, with the result that she has managed to threaten human and vegetative life . ..

On a related front, I have also cooked a lot of stuff this weekend, hoping that having appropriate food readily available will help me not eat stupid things. I made cauliflower cheese-and-peas: meatloaf with tomato chutney: roasted roots: and I'm about to finish off a vegetarian moussaka (I've been having approach-avoidance with the souffle part). The tomato sauce I made for the moussaka is somewhat bitter and I'm not sure why. I'm hoping that the bland fluffy richness of the souffle part will balance it nicely enough.