tethered

Posted: September 25, 2011 in Observations and Commentary
Tags: , ,
2

Remember when the car embodied total freedom, when its main purpose was not utilitarian, rather something far more exciting? Remember when hitting the road filled you with the absolute conviction that literally anything was possible? Anything! Man, I’d be twitching with anxiety, ready to hop in and just drive. Whether a few hours of local cruising or several days of long distance journeying, the very act of driving offered deliverance on promises barely explainable, yet brimming with profound meaning. Sometimes I’d seek out new places, exotic in their Read the rest of this entry »

news cycling

Posted: September 23, 2011 in Observations and Commentary
Tags: , , , , , , , ,
5

It’s a fun and busy time for the hard-pedaling news cyclists, filled with stories of great interest and import. Here’s a smattering of recent goodies which set the nation’s gums flapping.

Wendy’s Unveils “Dave’s Hot ‘N Juicy Burger”
The first Wendy’s opened in 1969. Now in 2011 they have come to the realization that “hot and juicy” is how we peoples loves our burgers. One must applaud Wendy’s (Applause!) for their blunt honesty, admitting they didn’t know something backyard grill-meisters have known since the advent of controlled outdoor cooking and mankind has known since taking its first bite of cooked meat. Wendy’s, bless their adorable naivety, basically said, Read the rest of this entry »

mob behavior

Posted: September 21, 2011 in Humorous Bits
Tags: ,
8

Hitchcock knew what he was doing. He was, after all, the Master of Suspense. He realized when you brought a large group of any living things together the results were terrifying. He happened to pick birds, menacing looking buggers. Add all that high-pitched squawking to their angry, prehistoric bone structure and you’ve got a recipe for top notch creepiness. Even without their henhouse cackling how disturbing was it watching them silently gather on wires, roofs and tree branches? Exactly.

It’s not just birds. Take any creature and put a bunch of them together and you’ve got yourself a bad scene. Like Sam Walton preached, it’s all about volume. If you were scuba diving would a single fish jolt you with terror? Of course not. (If it did, perhaps scuba diving isn’t the activity for you.) No, if you saw a single fish or maybe even a few similar fish you’d be full of ‘awwws’ saying stuff like, Read the rest of this entry »

no room at the inn

Posted: September 20, 2011 in Uncategorized
Tags: ,
8

Tonight my head feels like it cannot hold one more thought. Literally. If a single idea somehow managed to force its way in excess words would start shooting out of my ears like steam from an overheated radiator. My brain is filled with such a ridiculous amount of trivial gibberish, along with the occasional fully formed concept to spice things up, that I’ve run out of storage space. At least it feels that way.

I glaze over news stories with Teflon efficiency. I watch television shows requiring absolutely no effort, just the ability to react with a primal laugh when Read the rest of this entry »

fragments

Posted: September 19, 2011 in Photography
Tags: ,
6

I came across this photo in a box filled with old prints and negatives. I completely forgot it existed until I stumbled upon it. I don’t know the circumstances around it. I don’t know where or when it was shot, although I’m pretty confident it was sometime in the 1960’s. I don’t know who the man sitting in the chair is, but I do know the man leaning into the room. He was my dad’s friend, John. He had a long surname with lots of consonants. I only knew him as Read the rest of this entry »

14

Posted: September 18, 2011 in Traskland
Tags: , , , , , , ,
6

September 2011

Today is Red’s 14th birthday. While part of me finds this incomprehensible, another larger part pretty much takes it in stride. After all how different was she this morning from yesterday? From last week? How different will she be tomorrow? Hardly at all, yet the changes occurring in her all the time are profound and everlasting. As they are in all of us.

Change is a funny thing, isn’t it? Its movements are so stealth that we never notice them as they occur. When you looked in the mirror this morning you saw Read the rest of this entry »

they will never know

Posted: September 15, 2011 in Fiction
Tags: , , ,
4

I read minds. It is one of my more brilliant talents, but no one here in the square knows that. They notice me, but I’m a passing consideration, almost invisible. Young or old, makes no difference. They see an old man eating chips in the Durham Markets and this fleeting thought comes to them: “Poor sod. Spends his days watching the world pass by. How sad and pathetic.” For that brief instant the young can’t hide their mocking scorn as easily as the older ones mask their pity. A long forgotten man, probably worked the mills, set out to pasture. That’s what they Read the rest of this entry »

the nap trap

Posted: September 14, 2011 in Humorous Bits
Tags: , , ,
0

We’ve all experienced that moment when we’re so tired and our usual bedtime seems so impossibly out of reach that the only recourse is taking a nap. Nothing long, nothing extravagant. Just enough to revitalize and allow us to get through the remainder of the day convincingly enough that everyone actually thinks we’re interested in what’s happening around us. Maybe all you need is a Power Nap, 10-15 minutes of shuteye from which you explode as if Read the rest of this entry »

i never said i was smart

Posted: September 13, 2011 in Observations and Commentary
Tags: ,
2

Over the weekend Red and I made a quick run to the market to pick up a few essentials for the coming week. Milk, bread, lunch fixins. That sort of thing. Our market is famous for moving product around and it’s sometimes difficult to find what you need. What resided in aisle 7 last week may be sitting in aisle 4 this week. It’s a transparent ploy to make you look more closely at all the shelves in the hope Read the rest of this entry »

today

Posted: September 11, 2011 in Observations and Commentary
Tags: , , , ,
3

Church bells tolled throughout the morning.

For America this is a day of remembrance and solemn ceremony, a day swimming with emotion. Today these emotions clash, tumble and spill together with heightened potency and poignancy. Sadness mixed with anger mixed with grief mixed with frustration mixed with loss mixed with melancholy mixed with pain mixed with love.

Today is also much more. Today is today.

Today is a day to hold Read the rest of this entry »

Older Entries
Newer Entries