The Long and Short Of It

Special Handling-a short short story

2009-07-15T20:05:00.000-07:00

SPECIAL HANDLING

Several years ago, I was returning to San Francisco from Edmonton, Canada. I was travelling, as usual, with my 1964, 0018 Martin guitar which I had had in my possession for 18 years. I had arranged for what they termed, "Special Handling", confident that that meant I could rest assured that it would show up at the airport when I did. When my Delta flight arrived in SF, I went to the "Special Handling" baggage claim to get my guitar. I waited the better part of an hour, having been assured by the woman at the desk that it took extra time to get "Special Handling" baggage from the planes to this section of the terminal. That made sense and I waited...and waited, eventually being informed that there was no guitar anywhere and they had no record of one expected. I had the "Special Handling" baggage claim clutched in my fist! How could this be! Becoming increasingly anxious, I asked to speak to someone in charge. A new person was brought to the desk, "Well, we'll send someone out to look again." he says. Send someone out? Where? Out where? What the hell!

I waited for another eternity, anxiety rapidly changing to outright anger. By now it had been close to three hours since my flight had arrived. I started to really lose it. I became apoplectic, shouting, demanding to speak to the Airport Manager NOW! This outburst resulted in some big shot in a suit (not a uniform) showing up. Attempting to placate me, he implied that I would be reimbursed for the guitar, after I filled out a sheaf of forms and mailed them to the Delta Airline headquarters in Dallas. I was freaking. There's no way they could replace my priceless little Martin. I snatched the forms and left the office, realization of my loss beginning to set in.

I figured it was probably time to go home. I went down to the entrance of the terminal where the big doors slide open to rows of taxi cabs and bustling travellers. I sat down in one of those horrid molded plastic chairs, riveted in ugly rows under the nasty bright fluorescents. I was devastated. There seemed only one direction for my head to go and that was to total acceptance. I sat there for no more than 20 minutes, telling myself that after all, it was only a chunk of wood and steel. Was not a person, I could get another guitar, I had to let this go. I actually did. I let it go. I really let it completely go.

I gathered my suitcase and my handbag, stood up to exit the airport and there, about 15 feet directly in front of me, leaning up against the side of the exit doors, was my guitar. All by itself, no one near it, just the doors opening and closing, people coming and going. There it was. I was sure I had lost my mind. Couldn't be. My perception slowed down to absolute slo-mo. In that slow motion dream I went to the guitar and when I clasped my hand around the handle I knew it was actually real. I took it back to my chair and just sat there with my arms wrapped around the case, so stunned in disbelief that I could not move.

I will never know how this came to be. Maybe someone tried to steal it and changed their mind at the last minute and left it by the door. That's the only explanation I've ever been able to come up with.

I never took that guitar on a commercial flight again. Everything else has come and gone, lovers, husbands, children & friends, houses, furniture, cars and pets but that sweet little Martin which always stays in tune, is right here beside me as I write this story, 45 years after I bought it.

Special Handling indeed!

THE END

god myth

2009-06-06T01:17:00.000-07:00

Come on people, wise up. Just because millions of people on this planet choose to believe in a supreme being, a god as it were, doesn't mean it is so.

There was a time when the majority believed that the earth was flat. Science eventually disproved that nonsense. The same will eventually be shown regarding the concept of god. It's time to take personal responsibility. There is no great all knowing being who is going to "forgive" your fuck ups. You have to forgive yourself and move on. You have to be moral because that's the intelligent way to live, not because you think some future punishment will befall you. Be good for goodness sake! Get it?

We are born, we live for a time and then we die. You want to know why?

You tell me! That's the mystery. Work on it.

Madoff/Greed

2009-03-13T20:22:00.000-07:00

Is it apparent to anyone but me that the people who invested with Madoff were wealthy to begin with and their greed for even more got them into this deep water. I'm not in any way excusing his swindle, but isn't $3,000,000 enough for you to live? Must you make it become more? Why? GREED GREED GREED. Greed has broken our general economy and greed broke these people. Oops.

Quote for the Day

2009-03-07T19:16:00.001-08:00

"A positive attitude may not solve all of your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort."

--Herb Albright (1876-1944)

Quote for the Day

2009-03-05T16:24:00.000-08:00

"As anyone who has tried to quite smoking knows, dependence is hardest to overcome during difficult or stressful times. That must be why, when the government helps drug abusers quit, they arrest them and take away their job, possessions and children."

--Pete Guither--

Facebook

2009-02-06T18:23:00.000-08:00

I can't figure out why people want to connect with dozens of people they barely know when they barely connect with people they already know. I may have stumbled upon a major flaw in modern society. This super highway all access everybody is everybody's friend has become a substitute for deep friendships developed over years requiring real shared experiences.

By internet standards, I may be considered anti-social. But in my experience being alone is preferable to crowds of babble.

I dabbled in Facebook for the voyeurist aspect of it. I liked to glance at you and him and her but don't particularly want anyone glancing at me.

I don't know. Gonna go surfing now. I'll let you know if I find anything relevant to my existence today. I'm sure I will but not on Facebook.

I'm Back

2008-12-09T22:15:00.000-08:00

Well friends, sorry I've been away so long. I've been focusing my concentration on my sweet friend Michelle. She faced the devil and he backed off!

Having survived a horrendous surgery, Michelle is home and recovering well. She still has a hard row to hoe. Michelle is going to have to endure radiation AND chemo-therapy. Those are the big obvious things. There are niggling everyday things involved with the recovery from cancer that the rest of us barely consider. Michelle lost her nose; the surgery required to save her life, removed the middle of her face! Think about that!!!

It is so difficult for me to write about it. Imagine how difficult it is to have it happening to you.

To be continued...

Sweet Michelle vs Evil Cancer

2008-11-21T21:08:00.000-08:00

Well folks, the second surgery went well and they are confidant that they got all of the cancer out. So this is GOOD NEWS. Michelle is finally out from under the knife and that f------ disease has been cut out. She phoned me this evening from the ICU and it was an unmitigated joy to hear her voice, I must say. (To borrow from Ed Grimley). Her spirits are just what you would imagine. She is quite the trooper. (I want her on my side forever.)

Thank you everyone for your prayers and thoughts and...well...vibes.

Now comes the follow up..she should be home in 5 days. She finally gets to be back in her own bed with her little doggie Kukla for company. Then comes six weeks of healing before the radiation begins.

I will pass along your greetings.

Evil Cancer

2008-11-15T20:52:00.000-08:00

My excellent friend Michelle was diagnosed with cancer last month. She was told that she had 6 months to live or submit to a possibly radical facial surgery. Being the courageous trooper that she is, she of course opted for the surgery. "I want to BE here!" she said to me.

Yesterday our Mizshely underwent a horrendous surgery that removed her nose, her maxillary and ethmoid sinuses, part of her upper lip and a minute part of her hard palate. Unbelievably awful. While they were operating they discovered more cancer just at the edge of her skull, behind her eyebrows.

Now there is more to come as they will have to also take skin and blood vessels from another part of her body to aid in reconstruction of this brow area. The reconstuction of the entire middle of her face is a whole other ball game.

If there is actually anyone out there in cyberspace who reads my blog, PLEASE think of Michelle now and then and send her all your best thoughts. I believe that energy sent en masse actually can affect outcomes. If you call it prayer, then pray just once today for all you're worth, for my Michelle. She has spent her lifetime doing for others. Now it's our turn to do for her. Peace and Thank You a thousand times.

Not All About Me

2008-10-08T17:54:00.000-07:00

Something else rotten happened last month but I didn't want to lump it into my little diatribe of what really amounts to just an unusual concentration of life's little foibles.

My good friend Michelle was diagnosed with cancer and is having to face the consequences of that. Sometimes, life just sucks.

Bad Luck

2008-10-08T17:32:00.000-07:00

Never believed in bad luck per se...still don't really but what would you call it if...

All in the space of a month, though not in this particular order, my blood pressure monitor broke, my microwave oven went kaput, my dial up modem went belly up and my car radiator had to be replaced. The car I had to borrow while mine was in the shop also had a radiator leak causing me to have to add coolant every morning and several times a day while running errands. Oh by the way, the borrowed car is a freakin' 1992 Chevy Suburban with oh...I'm guessing about 15 miles to the gallon. Meanwhile, six months of dental work and $5000 (already paid!) was supposed to culminate in a shining new mouth of teeth, caps, crowns and implants and for the first time ever in a long history of dental experience, the lab screwed up and the crowns for my new implant were made wrong making me have to wait another three weeks!! More...I work as a housekeeper. During the past three days, TWO vacuum cleaners went on the fritz. One actually had it's motor blow up and the other one is screwed up although I believe it's repairable. Today, the very day my employer is coming home after being gone for a month, the toilet in one of her bathrooms sprung a water leak and completely soaked the carpet outside the bathroom. I think there was something else also, but it escapes me at the moment.

Abortion

2008-08-29T20:34:00.000-07:00

The absolutely heinous ritual of aborting helpless little barely formed human beings could be largely eliminated by raising the consciousness of the right wing religious nut jobs who refuse to acknowledge the reality of sexual desire. In other words, when young humans feel that sexual urge, they are going to respond to it. Period.

When your daughters begin menstruation, start them on the pill. Period. Don't babble your religious babble, just PREVENT PREGNANCY.

How horrid that you would rather take the chance of someone killing a teeny little being rather than accept the undeniable sexual aspect of the human animal. That is untenable to me. I'm sick to death of hearing about "The Abortion Issue". You all accept a pill to give men a freakin' erection..at the same time denying your daughters a pill to prevent murder!!!

Protection

2008-08-17T21:55:00.000-07:00

When you wear really stupid hats, you also have to wear a hockey mask to protect your goofy face from the things people are certain to throw at you. I wish I had that mask today!!!

Whatever happened to...

2008-08-17T21:22:00.000-07:00

...Eddy Washington. He worked for Hal Kant for awhile in Reno. I visited him there in 1991 on my way to Montana. I think he was working on becoming a lawyer. He was living in my home town, Edmonton, Alberta when I was there in 1989 taking care of my very ill parents and was a good friend and huge support at the time. Can't find him on Google...anyone know where he might be?

Procrastination

2008-08-13T21:23:00.000-07:00

I'm supposed to be writing. I mean, I imagined myself writing a book. What arrogance. Now I'm realizing that if I could produce even one coherent sentence a day I'd be thrilled. I get online and just tool around the internet wasting time. Now I'm here blogging for gosh sakes. I guess I actually have produced 7 coherent sentences. Wow what a writer! Oh my there's 9!!!

The World's Ugliest Candle

2008-08-09T22:31:00.000-07:00

I own it! And I have another just like it!!!

Quote of the Day

2008-08-01T22:03:00.000-07:00

"Be careful of your tongue; it's kept in a wet place and could easily slip."

-Unknown-

Quote of the Day

2008-07-26T00:07:00.000-07:00

"I signed up with a temp agency and much to my dismay they actually found me a job. It had been a couple of years since I'd worked in an office, so I thought I should prepare for it. I went to the YMCA with a friend and had him tie me up in a burlap sack and sink me to the bottom of the pool. Just as I was about to suffocate, he yanked me up and gave me a lunch break."

Martha Kelly

Past Flash

2008-07-25T22:24:00.000-07:00

Thought I'd get the jump on Mizshely before she posts this. I lost a lot of memorabilia from "Ramrod". I have a few photos and I just found this old thing. Bay Area Legend indeed!!! Firstly the song is titled "Hello Mary Lou", secondly, if my memory serves me, we did not perform that song...anyway I guess those details are really not important in the light of time. Ah memories!

You know what to do if you want to read the article, just click on the thing.

My Peonies

2008-07-04T21:55:00.000-07:00

My giant exquisite perfumed Peonies!!

Takes four years after transplanting peonies for them to bloom again. This year I finally have my beauties back!!!

Happy Fourth everyone!!!

Do Anything Just Do Something!

2008-07-04T21:17:00.000-07:00

This is a great way to do something for someone else and yourself at the same time. Check out this website:

http://www.freerice.com/index.php

Life in Eden

2008-06-27T19:12:00.000-07:00

This evening, for the first time in my life, I deliberately killed a living creature. It was laying there bold as life in the middle of my neighbor's driveway. The only weapon I had, and a handy one it was indeed, was my car. I had to drive over it 10 times before I was finally satisfied that it was dead. I felt GREAT satisfaction. That is one MF rattlesnake that will not crawl into my yard this summer!!!

Connections

2008-06-22T18:20:00.000-07:00

Re-connected with an old friend this week. I just LOVE when that happens. It makes you re-examine yourself. Her name is Sandy and she lives in a wonderful little town in Oregon...she's got the mountains AND the ocean. While trying to tell her in less than an hour why I came to Montana, I got bogged down in the details of HOW I came to be here. I neglected to mention the most important reason. I was born a country girl in Alberta. Of course I was drawn to the city. Couldn't wait to leave the damn prairies. Youth always requires what it doesn't have. I spent 35 years in urbania, living an exciting life meeting incredible people, traveling to exotic places, making music with some of the best, but there was always that pull back to the country. I'm really Ferdinand in the flowers. THAT's really why I'm here. I am intensely delighted when that doe in the pasture behind my house finally lets me get a glimpse of her new fawn. The lilacs around my house perfume the evenings and when they're gone, I wait impatiently for my peonies to bloom. They're opening as we speak! The mountain snows melting have turned the normal lazy turns of the Bitterroot River into a rushing swishing singing torrent. That's what excites me now.

"Love to throw yourself on the earth and kiss it. Kiss the earth and love it with an unceasing, consuming love."

Feodor Dostoyevsky

I wish I could learn to love myself the way I love the earth that spawned me.

Comfort Zones

2008-06-20T22:38:00.000-07:00

So...Catherine tells me I should move out of my comfort zone. Makes me think of just what a comfort zone is. Must be a comfortable place eh?...and so it is. So, why, after I have developed such a peaceful place, should I leave it?

Think I'll stay here.

Quote for the day:

"To be enlightened is to lighten up."

Mike Meyers

Quote for the Day2

2008-06-11T19:24:00.000-07:00

"Be careful what you dream

Soon your dreams will be dreamin' you"

Willie Nelson

Quote for the Day

2008-06-11T17:38:00.000-07:00

"Reality is for people who can't face drugs."

Laurence J. Peter- author of the Peter Principle which is, for those few who don't know,

"In A Hierarchy Every Employee Tends to Rise to the Level of His Incompetence."

(Thanks to Bob. W. for the reminder.)

Quote for the Day2

2008-06-08T21:57:00.000-07:00

"The word god is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish."

Albert Einstein

Quote for the Day

2008-06-08T18:10:00.000-07:00

"The thing that astonished him was that cats should have two holes cut in their coat exactly at the place where their eyes are."

G.C. Lichtenberg

A good day...

2008-06-07T10:13:00.000-07:00

Up at S's this morning to take care of the pets, Dylan's Jack of Hearts on the radio. Crossing the ditch bank I notice a dead rattler in the water. Good place for a rattler. Maybe drowned in the recent high water. Behind the barn I saw my second Western Tanager of the season. Some years ya don't see any and then wow! Up at the house there was an eagle riding the thermals over the meadow with a flock of cowbirds twittering away nervously in the bushes below. Must have nests there. Back in the car, Jack of Hearts just winding down...all in all a good start to my Saturday.

Singing

2008-06-06T19:05:00.000-07:00

Seems that these days, I only sing enough of a song to remember how it goes, refresh the chords in my memory and to prove to myself that I could sing it if I wanted to. Then I lose interest. May be 'cause when there ain't ears to hear, the tree falling in the forest may just as well be silent.

Mizshelly

2008-05-29T18:34:00.000-07:00

Good thoughts to my good friend Michelle who became gravely ill last week. I shall leave it up to her to divulge the details in her own blog as she does that so well. Suffice it to say that she is home from the hospital and I await further word.

Memorial Day 2008

2008-05-25T19:29:00.000-07:00

I would like to take this opportunity to remember in no particular order, family, friends and special people who touched my life and passed on.

My mother, Marie Schommer (nee Lange), my father, Joseph Schommer, my sister Gwen, my Aunt Hilda, my sister-in-law Louise Schommer (nee Goudie) Dan McInerney, Jerry Garcia, Bill Graham, John Lennon & George Harrison, my wonderful dog, Buddy, David Torbert, Frankie Weir, Ramrod and his wife Frances, John Hagen, Sandy Barton, Don Pearson, Spencer Dryden,

Chester & Connie Holmquist, Keith Godchaux, Ron (Pigpen) McKernan, John Cippolina, Janis Joplin & Waylon Jennings.

Greeting

2008-05-11T21:46:00.000-07:00

Happy Mother's Day to all you mothers out there. (You know who you are.)

Bill Graham

2008-05-11T21:41:00.000-07:00

Just read Bill Graham's book, "My Life In Rock and Out". It is a must read. What a saga!

Thought for the Day

2008-05-06T21:23:00.000-07:00

Doing the right thing is not always the right thing to do.

Eight Belles

2008-05-04T18:26:00.000-07:00

What an awful thing happened to the filly Eight Belles at the Kentucky Derby.

If anything positive can be said about the incident it is that millions witnessed it and maybe people will begin to question the criminal carelessness practiced by these people who make big money, using these animals to death. Horses give whatever is asked by us. Every time I watch a high stakes horse race I am on the edge of my seat, not that my favorite wins or loses, but rather, praying that each of those magnificent horses gets to return to it's stable safe and sound. Sound is a key word as you will read at the following site..

peta

Quote

2008-04-13T21:41:00.000-07:00

"Since the house is on fire, let us warm ourselves."

Italian Proverb

a bushel of Peach

2008-04-05T20:37:00.001-07:00

In the interests of putting it on the record that I think cats are...well...just the cats meouw, may I introduce you to Peaches.

Experience

2008-03-28T22:38:00.000-07:00

Short

2008-03-20T20:27:00.000-07:00

"Never raise your hand to your children...it leaves your midsection unprotected."

Robert Orben

Short

2008-03-15T00:49:00.000-07:00

"People say you have to travel to see the world. Sometimes I think that if you just stay in one place and keep your eyes open, you're going to see just about all that you can handle."

Paul Auster

Baggage

2008-03-01T13:14:00.000-08:00

All these years of dragging around the suitcase of "someday"...I finally realize that someday is here and I can set down the baggage and travel light. There is disappointment in the missed goals and lost chances yet, je ne regret rien. Boy have I had a ride!!! Write about it? Okay...I'll try.

Misconceptions

2008-02-22T21:38:00.000-08:00

Apparently there is an insidious email going around regarding Canada's role in the Iraq conflict. Canadians do not have the great urge to brag or beat their chests the way Americans do.

Please click on this link to clarify a few things.

Canada in Iraq

Responsibility re Pets

2008-02-22T19:30:00.000-08:00

Here are Peaches and Huckleberry...contented, cared for, spoiled beyond reason..lucky campers. But there are so many others. Please read on:

Last Friday evening, a sweet little orange 9-10 week old kitten showed up at my kitchen window. He was so friendly and didn't seem to be in too much physical distress so I didn't feed him hoping he was just visiting and would return to his home if I didn't respond. He was back again on Saturday evening with a little long haired black female, emaciated and terribly dull-eyed, obviously in bad shape. I couldn't help it...I put out some kibble for them which of course they gobbled up in minutes! Sunday I fed and watered them again planning to take them to the shelter after work on Monday...which I did. I had no sooner arrived back home when I heard a series of plaintive mews and here comes another out from under my barn. I snatched her up and raced back to the shelter before it closed. The next morning a neighbor who knows I have two cats of my own, phoned to ask about them as she had found a little orange kitten, dead, hit by a car, in the ditch between our houses.
So...apparently someone dumped four kittens. In our sparsley populated neighborhood, these people could be pretty sure of doing their dirty deed without being observed.
This is not a new story, just another awful example of how badly people disrespect the little animals who expect care and consideration from us.
To those people, I wish to say this. Obviously you had some issues with yourselves as animal caretakers or else you would have stepped up to the plate and taken responsibility for the litter of kittens you did not want. Please, people, don't treat our amazing little animal friends like garbage. Whatever the reason is that you ended up with four little critturs that you didn't want or couldn't afford...whatever the reason, all you had to do was take them to the shelter. That's what it's there for. That's what they do. Although they certainly see first hand the inhumanity to animals they do not judge.The people at the Humane Association shelters are kindly caring people. They would have just taken these little guys off your hands and tended to their needs.
A message to every other animal lover in the county, drop off a five dollar bill now and then or a sack of kitty kibble or dog chow at your local animal shelter. Truly a good deed.
Every time you pet your kitty or hug your dog, remember that there are little critturs out there abandoned and in need.

Misconceptions

2008-02-22T17:03:00.000-08:00

There is a nasty email going around concerning Canada's role in the Iraq conflict. Being a Canadian I find it personally disturbing. Please check out the following link....thank you. Please cut and paste. Thank you.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8110

Fame

2008-02-15T21:16:00.000-08:00

Quote:
"Don't confuse fame with success. Madonna is one; Helen Keller is the other."
Erma Bombeck 1927-1966

Short

2008-01-20T00:45:00.000-08:00

If George W can do it...
How hard can it be?

Kinky Freedman

Highly recommended

2008-01-12T21:25:00.000-08:00

There is an excellent magazine that I believe every thinking/feeling person should be aware of. Check out their website. They also offer a great opportunity to submit your own writing. Check it out.

http://www.thesunmagazine.org/

Short

2007-12-30T22:56:00.000-08:00

"Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first."
-Mark Twain

"Don't worry about avoiding temptation. As you grow older, it will avoid you."
-Winston Churchill

Merry Christmas

2007-12-19T22:39:00.000-08:00

Christmas is real close. A few days away. I'll drink more and more as the day approaches and on December 25th I will drink really sweet fancy things like brandy Alexanders and Hairy Navels and Egg Nog with Brandy. I am also going to cook a three rib prime roast, bake two sweet potatoes and put together a from scratch delectable Caesar Salad. I will make a couple of incredibly good desserts that my Mom used to make. Something she called a Matrimonial Cake that takes about 2 lbs. of dates, and Lemon squares that I consider a health dessert (Haha). I will set a beautiful table with a linen table cloth and napkins. I will light candles and open a good bottle of wine.This will be enough food to keep me nourished for about two weeks. This I will do all by myself. I do all this because I have to or else. I also do this because hope springs eternal and maybe someone will come to my house to share. Merry Christmas.

Short

2007-12-08T18:28:00.000-08:00

"There is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened."

Douglas Adams

Going Green

2007-12-05T17:43:00.000-08:00

I was out feeding my horses the other day. In the interest of contributing to the greening of the planet I was wearing a coconut fibre shirt, soybean pants and a fashionable puce bamboo-based sweat shirt.

Surprize!!

The horses ate my clothes.

Short

2007-12-05T17:28:00.000-08:00

"Go to heaven for the climate...hell for the company."

Mark Twain

Photographs of Me

2007-12-02T20:06:00.000-08:00

I have photographs of me
And paragraphs in yellowed journals
Someone I thought I'd be
That's all that's left of me
The girlhood gonna be
A woman still surprized
Just to be alive

...the goose is getting fat

2007-12-02T19:38:00.000-08:00

..please put a penny in the old man's hat.
Winter has struck the BItterroot Valley. Finally! We're having a real Montana winter. Maybe it will stay and we'll have a real spring and summer again. My lilacs will bloom again and there will be apples on my trees. There will be no forest fires ruining the summer with choking smoke and frayed nerves.
Tonight there is a blowing blizzard outside my warm little house. I have the lights on my Christmas tree and my kitties are safe inside with me.
Life is good for it's simple things.
Tomorrow morning I will be clearing my way throught the snowdrifts to my car..maybe. Maybe I'll just take the day off.

A bit of the short of it

2007-11-21T21:13:00.000-08:00

The NRPS are playing at the GAMH tonight. It would be great fun to be there but the effort required to do that was just too much.
There's a fella boarding a couple of horses here. This is the first time I ever wintered horses here. Sandy used to graze her horses here during the summer but we always shut down the outside water for the winter and left the pasture empty. The man heat wrapped the water pipes but after the bad cold spell we've had for the past three days, no water is coming out of the spigot. I don't think the pipes are frozen, I think the spigot has broken!! I have the milk house heater going down in the well pump pit but I don't think that is the problem. The horse owner of course is gone for the weekend although the bad weather hit before he left and my opinion is that if you have animals that may need extra attention you don't go out of town for a freakin' party! The water is low in the stock tank and tomorrow (Thanksgiving Day) I may be hauling water from my house two gallons at a time as that is all I can carry with my bad arm.

Todays Opinions

2007-11-15T19:22:00.000-08:00

Victoria's secret is that she is borderline anorexic.
Being married with children is not all it's cracked up to be...staying single is not promoted half enough.
Good wine is better than mediocre sex.
Cats are not smarter than dogs, they just don't care as much.
Dogs are not smarter than cats, they just care too much.
If you doubt that global warming is a fact, ask the polar bears.
And...as ever and always..QUESTION AUTHORITY!

It's Good to Feel Bad

2007-10-14T16:09:00.000-07:00

Been hearing a lot about depression the past few years, since everybody and their brother is an amateur psychologist, thanks to the proliferation of self-help books. Meanwhile, health professionals and pharmaceutical companies are raking in the dough manufacturing and selling anti-depressants, some of which have actually made people seriously ill! Depression has become a big business. The line between actual debilitating suicidal depression and the good old-fashioned blues has become seriously blurred. No one wants to feel bad even for a few minutes.
If you never feel bad, how do you know when you feel good?

Short

2007-09-29T22:16:00.000-07:00

"Generosity is a part of my character, and I therefore hasten to assure this government that I will never make an allegation of dishonesty against it where a simple explanation of stupidity will suffice."
Leslie Lever

Short

2007-09-29T17:00:00.000-07:00

For my dear friend of many years, Dan-o who I know will never read this anyway but...

"I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain."
James Baldwin

Short

2007-09-01T00:06:00.000-07:00

"It would be nice if the poor were to get even half of the money that is spent on studying them."
Bill Vaughn

Drinkin' 'n' Smokin'

2007-08-31T23:51:00.000-07:00

To hell with it. Thought I would ever stop? It's one in the morning on a Saturday, I worked all week cleaning and organizing the environs of a lazy rich woman and if anyone imagines that I would not stretch out tonight...well!
HOWEVER...these days I rest my ashtray on the center of a room air purifier 'cause I find the odour of cigarette smoke singularly offensive.
I should be in the Bay Area this weekend with David and Buddy and MARMADUKE!! The New Riders are riding together this weekend and I'm not there. (Ah well...they were mean to me anyway.)

Wildlife

2007-08-31T20:34:00.000-07:00

The dogs treed a baby bear at The Hot Springs yesterday. Cute little guy, well not SO little, could chew your hand off at the wrist if you got close enough...nonethless, we've been seeing signs of him for a few weeks now but finally got a good look. He's kind of dark silver colored with black paws and head... I watched as he slid down the tree, hit the ground running and tailed it straight up the side of the canyon and handily eluded the dogs. They never had a chance.
Also had a mama racoon and two babies in my front yard last night. I love it here!!!

Short

2007-08-26T21:14:00.001-07:00

"You can't keep blaming yourself. Just blame yourself once, then move on." Homer Simpson

Quotations

2007-08-26T21:12:00.000-07:00

"If it's true that our species is alone in the universe, then I'd have to say that the universe aimed rather low and settled for very little." George Carlin

Poem 1968

2007-08-26T20:08:00.000-07:00

Stumbling and lost in simple data
Embryonic soul awash with guilt
For countless uncommitted sins
A human being.

A Dead Memory 1971/72

2007-08-26T19:03:00.000-07:00

Frankie was burned out on my jeans and T-Shirt habit. New Year's Eve at 6pm she was altering a gown of hers to fit me. It was a lovely pale aqua, cut on the bias with tiny covered buttons from cleavage to floor. To illustrate her determination, she moved every button and let out a half inch or so to make the gown fit. I have to say, it fit like the proverbially glove. She had a professional at the house to do our hair and make-up. Frankie took my glasses and I didn't see them again until the next morning. (Hell...without my glasses I didn't see much of anything until the next morning!) I had to admit that I probably looked pretty good by the way people were staring at me with mouths agape but I couldn't tell you who they were. This was the New Years at Winterland when some crazed Deadhead climbed through the skylight in the roof and was reelin' and a rockin' on the catwalk a hundred feet or so above the very center of the stage. Actually, had he fallen he would have pretty much wiped out Kreutzman's drum set. The audience went eerily quiet as they began to realize what was happening, every face an upturned moon watching the man on the catwalk. Backstage,I'm poking people beside me. "What's happening?! What's happening?!"
The band prudently vacated the stage as Bill Graham, in his inimitable fashion, talked the man down. They lowered this nutso on a rope to the stage where security could snatch him, remove him and the show went on.
Also, it's important to know that that night, no one was allowed onstage/backstage unless you let Rex drop you a dose. So, besides my standard myopia I was hallucinating like crazy.
I looked good though. Everyone said so. For the first and last time in my life I truly was a RAVING beauty!
The next morning we all ended up back at Weirs (including Graham), Frankie gave me back my blue jeans, my T-Shirt and my glasses and we all went to Muir beach to play volleyball until sunset.

The Fires Come

2007-08-01T19:30:00.000-07:00

Fire has again encompassed a major portion of my beloved State of Montana. The heat has been unbearable and now we get the interminable smoke...day in and day out. I try to keep in mind that there are men and women out there on the firelines in intense heat and danger keeping the fires from the homes of the people who insist on building right on or in the edges of the National Forests.
Also have noticed that there is a dearth of fawns this year. I usually have at least 5 or 6 does with one or two fawns apiece cavorting around the apple and pear trees from June throughout the summer.
What global warming?

Oh Gawd! The heat! The heat!

2007-07-24T19:26:00.000-07:00

Still labouring under this oppressive heat wave..(what global warming?) Montana is the new Arizona. I guess this could be yet another advance for population control. All the elderly who moved to Arizona for a "comfortable" climate will soon be dropping dead from the heat, leaving Arizona to become the new Sahara. Oh lighten up! Death happens. duh

TANGIER 1967

2007-07-07T20:57:00.000-07:00

Have just done some hashish. Feel very good. Just have time to have a little high and come down in time to get drunk enough to go to work for bread to buy more hashish and come down a bit. Swim in sea at 10:30 and sun-tanning in tangerine bikini then some kif to cool the hashish tingle and come down in time to go to work. Swallow eight amphetamines and start the vodka and orange juice fresh squeezed and play with Max...and Peter keep your hands off my legs. And then to sing rock-folk-blues finally groove. Anything goes. Scarlet, orange, pink and black jumpsuit no back in it sexy, oozy dig it! Take drummer's hands off back (tomorrow bongoes) Japanese organist really awful but I groove so much anything swings now, mind in a rocker with pendulum motion feel heartbeat, breathe, breathe. Sing deep go low, low, high is shrill go low groove, growl, scream low and purr the notes descending. Down, down punctuate with ascensions and you have the permission to sing she told her so sing. New note, new beat, new groove, real groove, honest work first time Tangier good head, work hard smile! Hard hearted Hannah and sing about butter melting in mouth and give little sister a set or two to sing. Can't stop free association, first time, very groove. Blind owls can only see in the dark. Vitamin sun and sandy hair, flowers, scent, donkey bray, braw, brawl. Storms. Losing altitude. More hashish to maintain level. Must close, mind degeneration, no more swings hear bells taste tin. Return home. Do not pass go. Do not collect 200 saints in the making.

Someone's Coming

2007-07-07T20:47:00.000-07:00

Put me on a desert island
Leave me well supplied and go
If I should stay for 50 years
And never see a soul
I'd still live every day expecting someone

2007-07-04T21:06:00.000-07:00

Paul Simon

2007-06-27T19:49:00.000-07:00

I live in a fairly tech-free spot on the planet. I compute with dial-up, any local high speed companies do not service my area, cable does not reach this far out of town and I don't want to subscribe to a dish. I live high enough above the Bitterroot valley so that I receive over the air. ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and two PBS channels. Plenty of television for me! And it's all free! As a result, I watch a lot of PBS and tonight was treated to a two hour special of Paul Simon receiving the newly formed Library of Congress George Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. The line-up of musical guests is WOW!!!! Show began with Stevie Wonder and Paul Simon and just went uphill. All you cable and satellite TV freaks, please try to not be distracted from PBS by all the other available "entertainments". Did you know that Roy Rogers and Dale Evans sang "Bridge Over Troubled Water". Not the best rendition but a part of music history nontheless. Mark Anthony blew me away with a rendition of "I'd Rather Be A Hammer Than A Nail". If there's a repeat airing of this show...DON'T MISS IT!!!

A Weather Change in Montana

2007-06-24T19:57:00.000-07:00

The heat has finally blown away in front of a sweet cool breeze across the Bitterroots and I think I will cheer up. All year, small herds of deer pass through my property every evening.This time of year the herds separate and become one doe who exhibits the behaviour that shows she has a fawn hidden in my pasture. Any day now, she will allow the little thing to follow her and I will get to see sweet baby life in the summer in the mountains.

Things that happen to me

2007-06-06T19:14:00.000-07:00

When he asked me to go to Morocco with him, I leapt at the chance. Flew on Lufthansa Airlines to Luxembourg; bussed to Paris where we spent a couple of days while J did some obscure drug business. While I was waiting in a little corner bistro where J had parked me with our luggage, I met Mississippi Slim who was playing at that very cafe!
We arrived in Tangier a couple of weeks later and I discovered that J had brought along an 8x10 sheet of blotting paper dosed with LSD. I subsequently discovered that you can only reach a good psychedelic peak every three days or it just turns into a racing speed trip. After a few weeks of three day increments, I reached my goal. I went psychotic and developed an LSD induced schizophrenia. More later...

The Blissful Idiot

2007-05-31T22:08:00.000-07:00

The blissful idiot walks up (and down) the road
Two, three, sometimes four times a day.
It's all he knows to do.
Everyone thinks he doesn't matter,
'Cause we all think he doesn't care.
I think he must be lonely but I'm like everybody else.
Imagine if we open to him we'll discover he needs more
Than what we have to give
Just like all of us.
And just like all of us
He's so lonesome that
One soul responding to him
Would be owned forever

Things that happen to me

2007-05-31T18:38:00.000-07:00

It was 1965. I met a crazy man in Toronto. He was incredibly dark handsome with black/brown burning eyes and a rapid mind. He had gone crazy in Turkey, was scooped off the streets in rags with no id, no money and put into a Turkish prison. His identity was finally established and his parents brought him back to Toronto where he was hospitalized, detoxed and ultimately released. I met him mere days later. I was fascinated by the thought of insanity. How far could you go "out of your mind" and still come back? Here was someone who had gone over to the other side of mental function and returned. I wanted to do that too. More to come...

Welcome to my World

2007-05-23T21:34:00.000-07:00

We each perceive the whole in an entirely unique way. It's always been a wonder to me that any of us communicate at all. I have been labouring under the delusion that one day I would write a book about my travels, my experiences, my life. It's not easy and as it turns out, not all that important to anyone but myself and a "small circle of friends". Who first said that? Then here in the wonder world of Internet there comes to be a place where I can tell my story . If anyone hears (reads) it or not remains to be seen. This blogging thing is brand new to me so bear with me as I leap word first into the fray. Welcome to my world as I see it.