Not today. Probably not for many, many days and nights. But what he’s doing to his body isn’t good.
While I sat waiting for the light to change, I saw him shudder violently and then settle back.
Is this the end of a trip or the beginning? I don’t know enough about it to venture a guess.
Some drugs reach into a person’s soul and become inextricably tangled in the fissures.
I noticed yesterday how all of us at the coffee house sit down and spread our little talismans around us.
I claimed my space with: my cell phone, my notebook, my fountain pen, a cup of coffee, a stir stick, a copy of the book The Resiliant Writer and my camera.
What do you mark your territory with?
Hydra and I went out for another early evening hike.
It was good and head-clearing.
I went to a funeral earlier in the day. A writer friend’s mother passed away after she’d taken care of her for 7 years. Alzheimers.
The service was made up of people getting up and speaking about the deceased and her daughter. La Loca, as we’ll call her, was beautiful in a mohawk haircut that shows off her incredible bone structure. Her girlfriend and their six-year-old daughter got up and spoke of the things they loved about grandma. It was moving and quiet, and a good commemoration of a life.
My friend, the Elegant E, and I went together. It was more personally emotional than either of us expected.
This woman lives in my town. She is magic on horseback. She rides around barefoot, often riding like this, with one foot on the back of each horse.
She rides like this in the Acton 4th of July Parade. When we first moved out here and went to the parade, I heard some people talking about her. Saying that she’s good with horses, but not much else. And that she’s raising her son to be the same way, caring only about horses and not so much about school work. They said she was kind of crazy.
I think we can do with more of that kind of crazy in the world. And wouldn’t it be better to have a life that includes moments like these than to be, say, a really great auto parts store manager?
This looks to me like courage and strength and a direct connection to the universe.
Waiting for the train to take me to work. I have been driving lately because sometimes I can leave work early and that’s not an option with the train.
But yesterday’s car troubles drove me back into the arms of Metrolink.
I was talking to my mother on my cell phone when I took this photo. Hey, Mom, here’s what I was looking at when the whistle blew!
That's the front light on the train glowing there near the horizon line, under the street lights. I have other shots of the train closer, but the sunrise doesn't show as well in those.
So. Yesterday on my drive home I ran out of gas. This does not happen to me. My gas gauge read 1/4 of a tank and I was planning to get gasoline just two exits up the 14 at the place next to the grocery store.
But the car felt like it was failing, so I eased it over to the side of the freeway and way off the side. Phooey.
Called AAA, but I thought it was probably something other than being out of gas, because I don’t run out of gas. Long story short, Hydra (D’s new online nickname. Don’t ask, just smile), came and sat with me while I waited an hour for the AAA guy to show up with a can of gas. We took the car to the dealer for service…where they will charge us $82 just for diagnosing the problem if the repair isn’t under warrenty. And they wonder why I’m not there for my regular service. Grrr.
Anyway! Hydra and I were sitting beside the road with the passenger side door open to let some air in, and I began casting about for the day’s photo. He’s been watching his Buffy The Vampire Slayer DVDs for the past few weeks, and he noticed this handy vamp-spike lying just outside the car.
I felt so safe.
In other news, by the time I get my car back from the dealership it will, no doubt, cost me an additional 50 cents a gallon to commute. Sigh.
Why, no.
No, I don’t.
My officemate, the Divine Miss M, recently received this handy little item as a gift.
You get bonus points if you can guess what this lady’s purpose in life is.
Personally, I think she’s been much more valuable as “guess what this is” show and tell than she ever will be in her proper context.
If you really need to know: http://www.patemm.com/pdfs/RealDealsJanuary23.pdf
Sometimes I need a little help from the Monster to get through the commute with my eyes open.
7-11 is a world unto itself. I’ve stopped a couple of times in the past week, and there are all kinds of people who seem to go in on a regular basis and it’s kind of friendly. The parking lot is tricky, because everyone seems to zoom in and out of their spaces like they’re in their own little zone.
Worth the risk for the Monster.
(So the Monster tells me.)
Luna came to work with our office manager. This is one of the perks of working for a very small company. People can bring their kids and pets into the office occasionally.
Every so often Luna would come check on us all. I wouldn’t even hear her come into my office, but then I’d feel this little tongue on my ankle and turn and see her going on about her rounds. Hee hee.
I don’t know who she is, but she sits outside my front door.
She came from Cousin Lucy’s after Cousin Lucy passed away. Lucy had a wonderful green thumb and always had lots of potted plants around her door.
Those are credentials enough for me.
Morning inside the trailer.
This is taken from the little dinette in the kitchen. One of the women on the campout brought me a rose from her garden to thank me for organizing things at the last minute (the person who was going to do it lost his mother last week and flew to England for the memorial.)
It was a very sweet gesture and I hope she knew how much I appreciated it.
Below: Dodger looking a little rumpled, just about to give himself a good scratch while he looks out the diner window.
We camped in a different section of the campground than we usually do because the group we camped with was smaller than usual. It was nice and quiet, and we were so lucky with the weather. After weeks of 100+ temperatures, it dropped to the mid-eighties for our camp out. We win!
This truck was visible through the hedge around the campground when we came out the door of our camper trailer.
These pieces of quartz have been sitting on this slab of quartz for a couple of years. They all come from the Owens Valley.
The slab comes from the courtyard of an abandoned house along Highway 395. I am not entirely comfortable with having taken it, but I am always concerned that these old places will be bulldozed away and no one will have anything to remember them by.
I remember standing on this slab, looking into the house through the tattered remains of yellow cotton curtains. I could see straight through to the Eastern Sierra Madre mountains on the other side.
Someone slept and ate and probably raised kids there.
On this day, I noticed how little rings have formed around the stones sitting on the slab. These things are part of this place now.
Maybe someday a stranger will carry them away.
