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Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Halloween 2007
10:54 am
Monday, October 29, 2007
SleepI think I could sleep now except my mind will probably be thinking of all the other things I should
be doing.
And before I know it I'll be awake and rushing to get myself ready to have my passport photo re-taken.
I hope my hair will shine.
I hope it will curl in just the right places.
Sunday, October 28, 2007
It was June on the banks of the noisy but beautiful Chockpick. So perfect
in the shade. I'd just crushed a couple of fireants with my thumb, polished off a second
fried chicken breast with a mound of Doris' potato salad and was reclining under the ancient cypress with some fine cheap
white wine, when Mel cast his line particularly high and hard followed by screams from above. At
first I thought it was a squirrel fight. Then the tangle of bird, line and soft needles landed with a
whumpf on our red gingham tablecloth. The hook was dangling free and hadn't torn the bird but the line was
solidly wrapped around it's neck and try as Mel might, the pigeon wouldn't let him get close enough to free
it. It succumbed within a minute, it's legs twitching then going still, its little eyes frozen open.
Mel quit fishing forever that day and took up serving breakfast to the homeless until he was fired for giving
them free scotch. Then he took up needlepoint until his thumbs went numb. Then he took up bingo.
Thursday, October 25, 2007
ToenailsMy fifth husband Mel may not have had the best complexion or the smoothest elbows in the world. Or the
most symmetrical ears. But his ankle could've won beauty prizes.
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Bigmuchalot Cuteness
2:15 pm
Pumpkin Festival
9:35 am
Monday, October 22, 2007
PiazzaYes, it was the piazza! I remember the three pigeons now -- they pecked at my handbag just
before Flashcard Daddy floated out of the crowd and into the chair across from me in his pumpkin-colored shirt.
After he took my photos in front of the Cathedral and handed me the film, we lingered at the cafe without talking
until we inevitably spoke of Johnny and the war and both ended up crying. Then we were silent
for a long while with nothing to do but sip our cold coffees and our hide our scars in the stream
of strangers passing. I remember the eyes of one old man, the kind of crazy blue that catches you off
guard and pulls you in longer than is polite between strangers.
Then as quickly as he had appeared, Flash faded into the cloud of lavendar and something I couldn't
quite place, like strawberry with mint. Or patchouli. Or maybe lost youth.
I looked for him every day after that for the rest of the summer. And the summer after that.
But I never saw him again.
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Flashcard DaddyAcross a cobblestone piazza somewhere in Italy I first glimpsed Flashcard Daddy as an outburst of sunset in
the temporary sky. Or was it actually during the glorious inner peace of my solo South Pole trek
I met him? "Nobody wants to go to the moon anymore," he blurted as I slowly stirred the sugar in. "Probably 'cause
they're all too busy down-loading the stars" I joked. And that was that. Me and Flashcard Daddy with our
camera and film. Tiptoeing into misguided immortality.
Friday, October 19, 2007
7:27 pm
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
MicroscopeAs my fifth husband Mel and I were lying in bed listening to far-off coyotes and talking about chocolate
pudding and dust mites the night before his untimely death, he suddenly remembered he'd once seen dust mites in his chocolate
pudding through the microscope  his mother had given him the Christmas he was ten. (Like most kids with microscopes,
Mel liked magnifying all sorts of things like fingernail clippings, nose hairs, buttock skin flakes, flies wings,
bread crumbs, peppercorns, sugar and salt crystals, hot dog shavings, ketchup, mustard, pickles, pudding, etc.)
He'd longed for a microscope ever since his friend Johnny Patella got one for his birthday but after Mel's
daddy ran off with the donut waitress his mama could barely provide for necessities - let alone extras
like soda pop, socks and microscopes but she got a third job as a seamstress' helper where her fingers sometimes
bled from making pretty frocks for pretty people and a fourth job selling buffalo rugs door-to-door. She slaved
and saved for a year and a half to present Mel with that Tasco 950 SZ, complete with the shrimp hatchery, dissecting
kit and extra slides. He still had it of course, as he still had so many of his childhood treasures in his hobby
room, same shelf as his thimble collection. Flo apparently got $3 for the whole microscope she-bang at the yardsale.
Such a shame, I've seen them go for over fifty bucks on eBay.
Monday, October 15, 2007
Waffle Eyes
7:10 pm
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Watching Week
2:25 pm
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Lone Blogger Hit By LightningOnce on a high and windy hill a little lone blogger dressed in a fuzzy pink bathrobe and sneakers with no
laces stood beside her paternal grand-mother's stained-glass window pouring licorice tea into a tin cup when she
was zapped by lightning into a hole in the floor where she remained lodged for the next three days until
Sebastian the gardener returned from his holiday in Spain. So, that's why she missed a few days
blogging.
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Other Things I Should Be DoingDishes, laundry, sweeping, mopping, cooking, cutting the dog's hair and rough-sketching a Haunted House maze
for the Halloween Festival so..... I better get cracking!
Monday, October 8, 2007
Fall Camp-Out 2007
8:15 am
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Overheard #1It's not like I'm eaves-dropping but I can't help but overhear these snippets from people passing on
the Hike-N-Bike ... It's a song-writer's duty really, to be open to conversations around, right? And of course I've got
my little digital recorder with me so I can't help but jot these snippets down, can I ?
How do you think this overheard phrase continued?
1. "She thinks she's fooling people but everybody knows she's been..."
b. using fertilizer on them roses.
c. making her pies from a mix.
d. ducking into the broom closet with Bob.
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
After MidnightIt's after midnight now. Eric Clapton must be letting it all hang down.
Monday, October 1, 2007
30,000 Pounds Of BananasSo the whole thing about Harry Chapin lately - Kelly starts singing "All My Life's A Circle..." on the way
home from school a couple weeks ago and I join right in, majorly impressing her that her old mom could know the
same song she'd just been introduced to in school that day. The lyrics were pretty gauzey in my memory but after a while
I was able to piece together more and more of the song - not bad for having not heard it in over twenty years.
So of course, the next day I went right out and bought "Greatest Stories, Live" which I once played alternately with Carole King's "Tapestry," in the dorm for about 18 hours straight during my freshman
year during one particularly lovely post-exam champagne weekend. Point is, this time when I listened to Harry Chapin
I cried for the next 3 days and could probably cry again now if I listened to it. All those songs about what
could've been. Am I a sap? And what will become of the world? Do you know Harry was only 37 when he died?
God, I thought he was ancient when I was a kid. And so it goes.
Now.... I haven't listened to "Tapestry" in about 20 years either. You're so far away.
Doesn't anybody stay in one place anymore?
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