From Both Sides

This post is part of my 2022 Word Project. You can read what that’s about here.

Tuesday, March 1, 2022
6:38pm

I’m so angry!! With myself, for doing what I said I was not going to do. And for… everything, all the nameless, inanimate, abstract things that thwart me.

Before I get you involved in my first world problems again, I’ll freely admit that what I am about to say is stupid and embarrassing. But if you’ve been following along, it’s only fair that I keep you in the loop on these things.

Instead of throwing out the chocolate chip cookie recipe, I tried it again.

ARGH!!

Why did I do that, why.

I’ll tell you why. Because I was going to throw it out, and then today was stressful. And Ralph started eating the last batch that I made, and it started dwindling, and he started wishing for Oreos, to which I said, how about I just try those cookies again?

Plus I had an idea.

The batter was soft last time and the cookies oozed everywhere when they baked. So I thought I was being very smart today when I softened the butter less than last time, and the batter was much stiffer, like the kind you get out of a roll of cookie dough in the supermarket refrigerator section.

I was so pleased with myself.

Except they managed to come out even WORSE, like worse worse. Instead of tissue paper cookies, I now have cookies that look like lace doilies with blobs of melted chocolate.

Look at this thing!

I mean, what IS that? Even the cookie looks angry. Tell me you don’t see a frowning face in there.

But that’s not what I came here to tell you about today. Consider that your bonus content.

What I came here to tell you about today is clouds. Because in the spirit of having more fun with this project and doing things that are less like homework and more like… well, fun… I sifted through a bunch of photos and found some cool cloud photos. So that’s my word for today, quite possibly with fewer words and more photos.

I guess it’s also an appropriate metaphor, because when you’re angry, you talk about “storm clouds gathering”. There were storm clouds in my kitchen tonight.

There were not, however, any clouds in the sky today. I was going to take a photo of today’s clouds to headline this page, but nary a one floated by.

So I picked one that I took from the window of an airplane a few years ago. I dislike flying immensely, mostly because an airplane just feels like a slightly larger elevator, except it’s suspended in midair and racing through the sky at killer speeds.

But the one thing that is very cool about flying is that you get to be above the clouds and see the tops of them instead of the bottoms.

It brings to mind the Joni Mitchell song, which, by the way, Neil Diamond does my favorite rendition of. I have, quite literally, looked at clouds from both sides now.

I really don’t know clouds at all.

So let’s get acquainted with a few.

There’s the big puffy kind that float around looking charming and comfortable, like a beanbag you could sink into and drift around with them and your dreamy thoughts for a while. We see these a lot at the park where we walk, and I take pictures of them every time. There is something about the topography of where we are, sort of at the top of a hill in the middle of a bowl, that results in some of the puffiest, most comfortable looking clouds I have ever seen.

Ralph said recently, Boy, you have a lot of pictures of clouds.

Yes, yes I do.

These clouds are sitting over Crater Lake in Oregon, looking like the mountains are sending up smoke signals. There isn’t a picture on the planet that can do justice to what it’s like to look out over this lake. It’s the deepest lake in the United States, and one of the cleanest in the world. It is so gorgeously blue, so stunningly outlined in ponderosa pines, that even the clouds look deferential, more like they know they are just an accessory and not the main event.

But sometimes they are the main event, exploding across the sky and demanding that you pay attention. This cloud show happened in California, a bit north of Los Angeles. We were driving down the highway at the time, right into this ridiculous sunset. This is what you mean when you say the best things in life are free.

Clouds are playful, like this one pretending to be a big fish eating a littler fish.

And sometimes lazy, or maybe just so tired from all the showing off that they sink down to the ground to sleep.

When we stayed at the Salish lodge in Snoqualmie, Washington, we would have breakfast most mornings in a room overlooking the waterfall and mountains. It was a stunning view, not least of which because the clouds liked to sit in the little valley right outside the window. They often escorted rainbows.

I usually get a pretty good cloud show from my balcony. This little guy just sprung up from behind the trees one night, all glowing and eager. It looks a little bit like a bunny cloud that maybe noticed the street lamp had gone on and stuck its head up to say Oh, you think you can light? Watch THIS!