Sunday night, on the way to the PAMF (Palo Alto Medical Foundation) Sleep Disorders Clinic in Sunnyvale CA (for a night sleeping in a forest of electrodes and other monitoring devices), an absolutely gigantic moon, slightly short of full, hanging low in the sky. Sunday (the 23rd) was the Autumn Equinox and tonight (the 24th) the moon is full, so we are now experiencing a harvest moon — which means today is the Mid-Autumn Festival in China and other East Asian countries (and elsewhere), so it’s the prime day for mooncakes / moon-cakes / moon cakes, paper lanterns, and family reunions. It’s also the beginning of the holiday of Sukkot in the Jewish calendar (this year, sunset on the 23rd through sunset on the 30th), so it’s a harvest festival there too, also a solemn religious holiday and a family festival.
Meanwhile, my days have been physically / medically dreadful and emotionally disastrous, so I haven’t been able to assemble all the text for a proper posting. But here’s a photo gallery for a posting to come.
“Shine On, Harvest Moon”. 1908 sheet music for the song:
(#1)
The Sleep Disorders Center; CPAP machines and masks.
(#2)
(#3)
The Mid-Autumn Festival, mooncakes and tea, festival fruits:
(#4) The Google doodle for the occasion
(#5) Mooncakes and tea
(#6) Persimmons
(#7) Starfruit / Star Fruit
(#8) Pomelos
(#9) Asian pears of the variety ‘Housui’
The four species for Sukkot. Citron fruit, date palm frond, myrtle tree bough, willow branch:
(#10)
September 25, 2018 at 3:35 am |
11 years ago I would fall asleep in the middle of a conversation. It began with Cathe – she in Michigan me in NYC – on the phone. And after a while there would be sudden silence. She would hang up and do it again the next night. I walked home for about 10 blocks wearing an elephant’s trunk device the sleep clinic attached in order to complete their tests. The embarrassment waned when I remembered where I was and how weird everyone else was too. The machine arrived – unacceptably large and heavy, noisy and ugly I dutifully wore it, and gradually… it worked. Now I’m on my umpteenth machine – they’re smaller, lighter, less noisy and still ugly. But for 11 years now I’ve slept and have energy every day…
September 25, 2018 at 4:10 am |
ps: sleep deprivation when used in the course of working on something has always been a source of creativity for me…