Aug 2004

the cusp

2004 Aug 31

"September's reminding July, it's time to be saying good-bye, Summer is gone, Our love will remain, Like old broken bicycles out in the rain."

it's still in the 90's around here, but august is history. back in memphis august is the hottest month, and one that i don't miss. especially since the heat will go on into the beginning of october there. i figure here, any day now, this heatwave will end, and working outside will become more pleasant.

've been in a robert johnson kinda mood. guess it's driving down all these dirt roads past cows that does it to me. the mountains are nothing like driving through the cottonfields of mississippi but the loneliness sounds the same. i get to thinking sometimes about how different things are in the south. it's a way of life that's hard to appreciate, but it spawned an awful lot of music some of which is still with us. and i've got a vicious hankering for some okra pickles. wish i could have brought some with me, because i can't get okra here at all.

you can take the girl out da south, but you can't take the south out da girl...

2004 Aug 30

yesterday i started racking and bottling our first batch of homemade wine. the pump thing we bought in san fransisco sure helped because the siphon tube flows so fast that i ended up making a huge mess. the pump is slower but you don't end up spilling wine everywhere. the blackberry wine tastes great, even though it's still a young wine. we drank a little yesterday and discovered it has a pretty high alcohol content, so a little goes a long way. doing this reminds me of jessica, and i wish i could send her some of my wine. it's pretty good.

i'm having a lot of trouble with my water plants. the lily has been under attack by snails who've managed to eat an awful lot of it before i noticed they were there. i don't know if it's gonna make it. the snails also got the water hyacinth. it's a goner. and the fish eat anything you put in with them. didin't know they were so inclined towards vegetarianism. i put some arachnis in with them because it's easy to come by and i don't care if they eat it all...i can always get more. the only thing that seems to be tolerant of low light is water lettuce and lucky bamboo. i'm trying that out to see how it goes. i figure it's the one thing the fish won't be able to eat.

24 hours in San Fransisco

2004 Aug 29

i got a little crazy and decided i needed to go to san fransisco, even though i only had 24 hours to spend there. it sounded simple enough though.

a 5 1/2 hour drive, no biggee. what mapquest doesn't tell you though, is that there's usually a huge nasty traffic horror on the 5 between sacramento and richmond, ca. so that adds easily a whole extra hour or so to the trip. whew. somebody should warn ya about this sort of thing. i guess the part that sucks the most is the fact that there's no apparent reason for the standstill on the freeway...it's like people get to that point and decide moving along just isn't worth it anymore, so they just don't. so you see the parking lot in effect without any obvious cause. (it's stuff like this that makes me think that it must be madness to live in CA)

one of the things that surprised me about driving down was how incredibly hot it gets in the valley. i vaguely remember this from last year, and i hear the weather forecast every day for points south of shasta, but you know, it's still mind boggling how hot it really is. these are things the weather channel doesn't clue you in to when you see the national weather map. oy. so it's dry as hell, and over a hundred degrees, so we saw all these fires going on everywhere. crazy. i'm still getting used to the fire thing as it is, but man i've never seen so many in my life as just driving through northern california.

so anyway, we finally get past richmond, discover a park and ride and abandon the driving experience and head into town on the bart.

somehow or another it always seems like i end up staying in the mission. it's a bit out of the way sometimes, but it's a pretty happening neighborhood. (a good blend, if you will) there was a falooda stand just across the street, and i can't tell you the last time i had a falooda. they actually had the full spectrum of indian desserts, and it was freakishly hot anyway (i can't recall san fransisco ever being in the high 90's) so we hit that first thing, then walked over to rainbow.

after that we took the bus over to Japantown then headed over to Mark and Emily's new place in north berkeley. Emily's looking pretty good for a mother of twins. I know she's had a rough time of it, but she looks pretty healthy, and that's a good sign. Hung out with them for the rest of the evening, and it was almost midnight by the time we got back to san fransisco. as embarrasing as it sounds, that's mighty late for my farmworkin' self to be up. i can't even remember the last time i saw the witching hour...

saturday night in the mission is pretty hype. i don't remember there being this much stuff going on, but then again i've seen more weekdays than weekends in this city. i was starting to feel like i was in the lower east side meets el mariachi. kinda interesting actually. and let me tell you, hoes in the mission are the ugliest hoes i've ever seen (and i've seen pictures of yer mom!!!) ;) noticed on the way back in that we were also right next to good vibrations. hey now.

it seems like nobody gets up at 8 am on a sunday except the homeless. i couldn't find the panaderia so we ended up going to a chinese bakery around the corner from the chinese dollar store. i love these joints, and aparently so does the whole neighborhood because this place was hoppin'. we only had a few hours left before we had to drive north, so we went to chinatown and bought all the stuff you can't get here, then it was time to head for the hills.

the drive home sucked. it was super hot (i don't have working ac), we must've ate 10 gallons of icecream at the olive pit, and until you get to red bluff the scenery is totally uninspiring. it sure was nice to be back in the shasta/trinity/siskiyou ranges again. the moon started rising over the mountains and the heat gave way near the border, and damn it's good to be back home.

nothing like going to a big city in california to make me appreciate ashland more. i sure am glad to be back where you have some peace and quiet, trees instead of concrete, no traffic ever, and far fewer crazy california drivers. and i'll admit i've gotten a bit spoiled by the lack of sales taxes and not having to pump my own gas. and well, we have way better scenery too. ;) all nice things to come home to. ah joy.

an ordinary day? not!

2004 Aug 19

today was a pretty ordinary day. not much happened...got up. went to work. did stuff. came home. did stuff. ate. did more stuff. went to sleep. etc.

but yesterday...hooo boy. yesterday...

yesterday my mom called me to tell me that my bro bought himself a firstclass ticket on the fatherhood train. WOW! No shit! After I picked my jaw and started breathing again, i found out that it's the same girl that came to get the dog from him. apparently they hooked up after that. it's official, i guess we can call it "puppy love".

although it's totally weird, i think it's actually kinda cool if they're both on the same page and think they're ready for this sort of thing. (granted, nobody really has any idea what theyr'e getting themselves into, but just a basic desire to have one is a major plus) secretly i'm a little excited about being an aunty...not a mama, no thanks, but an aunty. i'm all about spoiling other people's kids. it's weird since he's so not the type you'd expect to even have a girlfriend, but life sure is mysterious.

it's so weird though...just the other day I found out one of our mutual friends from high school died, and now there's a baby on the horizon. I just don't know if I'm ready for all this birth and death all at once. i'm still digesting the news of the death. but i'm glad it's not two deaths...THAT would suck.

it's pretty crazy to think that my little brother is having a kid. i still can't believe it, even though i just wrote two paragraphs about it. i guess this sort of thing happens all the time though, and i really shouldn't freak out...but this seems to be catching. everybody i've ever heard of is having one these days. you better believe i'm gonna be boiling the water from now on...wearing industrial gloves, welding masks, whatever it takes. i'm sleeping with mace under my pillow...no babies for me, not now, thank you, that's for sure. i have nothing to offer a kid...i don't have my own shit together. who wants to start off life at the local DHS office, raise your hand high. i would just LOVE to qualify for families first...no really. it's sooo much fun.

okay enough sarcasm. just because i'd be terrified of having a kid right now doesn't mean i'm not happy for everybody else. i think it's kinda cool that i've got all these babies to love on. sweet.

well back to my normal day. hopefully nothing too exciting will happen before i go to bed.

allz quiet on the western front

2004 Aug 10

like a lot of y'all, i'm gonna start this entry off with a tried but true...haven't posted in awhile. blah blah excuses blah blah. no seriously, my life really hasn't been all that exciting lately. well at least not in the traditional sense: nobody's following me in black helicopters (although maybe those guys really aren't from the forest service after all), my bike sits unlocked out in front of my apartment and nobody seems to want to steal it (would YOU want to steal a bike with a big pink snail on the handlebars, and a frog on the rear basket...i doubt it), and i haven't gone anywhere in ages that wasn't the co-op or work.

don't get me wrong, i'm not complaining. i'm pretty content with working outdoors all day and seeing hawks and horses, and snakes in the fishpond attempting to catch the goldfish, and deer sticking their heads out of unused barns, and flocks of shy quail that run like hell when i go by on the mule. but i suspect these things are only of interest to me...and maybe folks who like to read stuff like Walden. but i get a kick out of listening to woodpeckers fuss me out, squirrels rustling round in the bushes, monarchs touching down on thistle, and rabbits caught in the act of eating the bulbs in the garden. yep, these things are not a bad way to spend the day. believe it or not, though, i do an awful lot of work too, but nothing that is gonna kill me. for most of the day i see no one, and for all practical purposes feel like some kind of solitary soul out in the wilderness. and for a hoodrat who's lived in the city for most of her life, this is actually pretty satifsying.

i'm still at that stage where the moving's over, but you still find yourself using all your spare time for doing unexciting things like unpacking yet another box, or hanging yet another item on the wall, or going to goodwill because for the first time in your life, you have to buy your own trashcan. all of this makes me really appreciate having lived with other people all my life and not having to buy my own housewares because by golly they were always just THERE. especially at declerye where so many people have moved and left their things behind, that you never need any furniture or dishes or any of that shit. fortunately i haven't had to buy hardly anything retail...a lovely combination of freebox scores, goodwill yard deals, and yard sales has provided much of the stuff i didn't have.

i still would rather be doing other things with my time though...a little project we've been up to is installing an indoor fountain. god my mother would be proud...she's only got 3 or 4 herself. i think the appeal began when we moved here, where it never rains in the summer, and by god you miss having a little water around. or maybe it was frank's fish. or maybe it was my job, where i maintain 2 or 3 ponds...who knows. but that's been fun trying to figure out the logistics. but it's soooo soothing to walk in the front door after being out in the hot dry sun and hearing water. ahhhhh.

still though, i would like to get out a bit more. but it's hard to get motivated when your car's sketchy, your wallet's light, and it's almost 100 degrees outside. all compelling factors to stay home, yes.