the good, the bad, and the ugly

or rather: the ugly, the bad, and the good, in reverse order.

i had my purse stolen yesterday. at least i assume it was stolen. i cannot for the life of me figure out how, but i cannot imagine that it fell out of my backpack either. i had it at the bakery, two stops from home, and when i wanted to pay for my raspberries across the street from my place, it was not longer there, and my backpack's zipper was about 15cm open. i know who was next to me on the underground train, and no, i did not have the backpack on my back, but on my side, and i really have no idea how anybody could have got the purse, because it was at the bottom of the bag. it had to have happened between the first two stops, because after that, there wasn't anybody around me, and i did not stand on the elevator up either, but walked.

i was in shock at first, and then, at home (after the nice lady where i always buy my berries had practically forced the box of raspberries on me), i had a bit of a crisis. (and yes, that is understatement.) all my credit cards, train card, vienna travel card, driver's license, atm card, and of course 70 euro in cash (WHY WHY WHY did i have to go to the atm the previous evening?) - gone. apart from the hassle, it means financial loss, which is hardly what i need this year. sepp was kind enough to come over and lend me some cash to tide me over. now, of course, i am worried sick that somebody will come and break into my flat. i *know* it is not likely, but. but.

i'm really tired. whichever way you look at it, this has not been a good year. and that is putting it mildly. i am in "i wonder what will go wrong next?" mode again, like back in february.

* * * * *
our recent heatwave brought about a bad, bad storm last thursday evening. i had to leave work to go to my english class around the time it hit vienna, and i have never seen anything like it. the sky went black within minutes, and i could barely see anything on the way to the train station, what with a huge dust cloud coming my way. i had sand between my teeth even hours later. branches snapped off trees, and i *was* a bit scared. i got caught in the pouring rain on the way to the english class, and was pretty sure nobody would turn up anyway, but i had to wait a while. i was right. and then i was stuck. no trains, no underground, so the tram was the only other option to get into the city centre. it stopped twice though, because the power went out: once we waited 15 minutes, once about 25 minutes! then i decided to take a taxi the rest of the way. even so, it took me 90 mins or so to get home, instead of the usual half hour! i was shocked to see so many trees damaged on the way, some had just snapped in half, and i am talking big trees; there were branches practically everywhere. at home i found out that three people had been killed: a crane operator died when the crane toppled over, a woman was killed by a falling tree, and outside vienna, a tree killed a man in his car. such things are rare here. the whole thing did not actually last long, maybe an hour, but it was spooky.

rain and hailstorms on friday evening, more wind, but not as bad as on thursday. the weather has been mad.

* * * * *
austrian singer/songwriter georg danzer died at the age of 60 last thursday; he was in the business for 40 years, extremely prolific (35 studio albums and dozens of songs for other singers - in german and viennese dialect), a poet, and someone i quite liked. made me dig up some of his songs again; good thing, too.

* * * * *
the good news is:

my poem Promethium (Pm) - The day I fell in love with a thief is now up in the kaleidowhirl summer issue.

lily magazine has accepted a piece for their july issue.

and i found out that i can tie a knot in a cherry stem with my tongue.

song of the day: ruaf mi ned an by georg danzer.