I went on Safari yesterday. Big game hunting in Africa! Mostly Wildebeest, but really any animal foolish enough to wander by. I came equipped with a green plastic rifle that hardly seemed adequate for the task and a guide that kept yelling, "RELOAD! RELOAD!"
I was invited on this hunt by a friend that somehow managed to to kill, with the same green plastic rifle, I might add, 36 bulls to my 6 and... an assortment of zebras, elephants, hyenas, flamingos, lemurs and a variety of big cats, coconuts and shrunken heads.
In my defense, I probably would have done much better if the dumb stupid wildebeests hadn't been running around in circles and hiding behind trees and cows!
I suggested that perhaps next time she just give me 50¢ and I'd just bend over to let her kick my ass and spare me the humiliation, spare me the agony of defeat.
Anyhow, the result of this horrifying debacle was that I dreamed that there was an elephant in my back yard.
It wasn't a large elephant, by elephant standards, but every time I left the house it would get bigger and bigger and madder and madder, stomping its big elephant feet and trumpeting its big elephant nose. It soon became
quite frightening so my mother, who oddly enough was much younger than I, so we jumped into the struggle buggy and made our escape.
Saturday, December 24, 2011
Monday, November 7, 2011
Corazon Espinado
I wish this sounded better, but it is what I have. The guy mixing the sound seemed either incompetent or indifferent, perhaps both. This was recorded on my Sony HD8. The sound off the mixing board was even more unbalanced than this. Any other sub quality in the video, ei: off key singing or rushing, are my own.
Friday, October 28, 2011
Randy
October 2007
Current mood:melancholy
My best friend Randy and I tried to enlist in the Army in 1967. The recruiter said he didn't want either of us because we would probably just get in a lot of trouble.
He suggested instead we might volunteer for the draft, which we did, being in a highly suggestible state at the time. The draft board was more than happy to accept our applications and we were both drafted soon thereafter.
Our parents were pretty upset with us, what with the war in Viet Nam and all, but you know, we were eighteen years old and fairly invincible.
After a couple of months of Infantry training in the humidity that is Louisiana it started to dawn on me that I had made a horrible mistake. When the drill sergeant announced that there was an opening for trombone players in the the 60th Army Band I asked for and got an audition. After basic training I joined the band and remained in Louisiana until I was transferred to the 3d Infantry Division Band in Würzburg, Germany.
While I was there I got a letter from Randy. He had managed to get himself a job playing trumpet in the 24th Infantry Division Band in Augsburg. Man, this was reason enough to celebrate!
I went down to the company commander's desk and forged a three day pass and headed for Augsburg to visit Randy. As soon as his sergeant saw that Randy had a visitor he assigned him to KP duty.
Well we weren't about to let a little thing like that stop our reunion. Randy climbed out the mess hall window and we were soon on a train to Munich.
We had a great adventure in Munich evidenced by the fact that I don't remember much of it. The fact that that happened almost fourty years ago may have something to bear on my failure to recollect but as they say, "If you remember the sixties....."
I visited with Randy a couple of months ago at his home in Folsom. He told me he wanted his tapes back, tapes of one of our many rock bands that I had duplicated. I put them in my suitcase this week so I wouldn't forget them when I went to California this Christmas.
Randy's sister Marlene called me this morning.
Randy died yesterday.
I loved him with all my heart.
Current mood:melancholy
My best friend Randy and I tried to enlist in the Army in 1967. The recruiter said he didn't want either of us because we would probably just get in a lot of trouble.
He suggested instead we might volunteer for the draft, which we did, being in a highly suggestible state at the time. The draft board was more than happy to accept our applications and we were both drafted soon thereafter.
Our parents were pretty upset with us, what with the war in Viet Nam and all, but you know, we were eighteen years old and fairly invincible.
After a couple of months of Infantry training in the humidity that is Louisiana it started to dawn on me that I had made a horrible mistake. When the drill sergeant announced that there was an opening for trombone players in the the 60th Army Band I asked for and got an audition. After basic training I joined the band and remained in Louisiana until I was transferred to the 3d Infantry Division Band in Würzburg, Germany.
While I was there I got a letter from Randy. He had managed to get himself a job playing trumpet in the 24th Infantry Division Band in Augsburg. Man, this was reason enough to celebrate!
I went down to the company commander's desk and forged a three day pass and headed for Augsburg to visit Randy. As soon as his sergeant saw that Randy had a visitor he assigned him to KP duty.
Well we weren't about to let a little thing like that stop our reunion. Randy climbed out the mess hall window and we were soon on a train to Munich.
We had a great adventure in Munich evidenced by the fact that I don't remember much of it. The fact that that happened almost fourty years ago may have something to bear on my failure to recollect but as they say, "If you remember the sixties....."
I visited with Randy a couple of months ago at his home in Folsom. He told me he wanted his tapes back, tapes of one of our many rock bands that I had duplicated. I put them in my suitcase this week so I wouldn't forget them when I went to California this Christmas.
Randy's sister Marlene called me this morning.
Randy died yesterday.
I loved him with all my heart.
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Slip Sliding Away
Dec 30, 2006
Slip Sliding Away
Current mood:sick
1. A White Christmas
I arrived back in North Idaho the night of December 26. Apparently we had a white Christmas. I missed it. I drove down to California where it rained. While it was snowing here it was raining there. I drove a thousand miles to have lunch with my mother "then turned around and headed home again."
2. My Children
I have two daughters and a son. My oldest daughter from my 1st marriage is about 35 years old. I didn't think she would "give" me any grandchildren so I decided to have my own; a son, 18, and another daughter, 11.
Well I was wrong about her not having any children and so I do have a grandson. She invited me to spend Christmas with them, so I did and I am glad I did. It was our first Christmas together since she was sixteen or so.
We usually had Christmas with my parents at their house in Folsom, California.
After my other children were born I spent Christmas with their mother's family here in the Northwest.
Although we've been divorced six years I am often invited to spend holidays with them, most likely for our children's sake but possibly because the family may still like me. My former wife and I seem to "get along" as far as I can tell. We pretty much ignore each other at these functions; it's just like when were married except that now we come in separate cars.
3. The Motel
This Christmas I was fortunate enough to have five days off. That worked out well enough so that I could have Christmas with my daughter and grandson and see my mother too.
When I was younger I would have attempted this journey in one day. A journey of more than one day is by definition not a journey, is it? If the need arose I would sleep in a rest area or parking lot.
I don't do that anymore.
I left work about 4:30 PM and drove to Biggs, Oregon where I checked into a motel. I like motels. Instead of waking up cold and cramped I awoke in a bed and had a nice shower before continuing my drive.
When I was in a traveling band we lived in hotels and motels. We lived out of suitcases.
You get used to that. When my sister got married in the early nineties my (now ex) wife and son and I
stayed at my niece's house in southern California. My niece was married to a famous rock star at the time and they lived in a huge house with maybe nine or more bathrooms.
It was a huge house. I complained to my wife (because rather than being grateful I pretty much complained about everything in those days) that she always packed too many clothes for me. The result of my complaint was that I had to borrow a shirt from the rock star. He led me to their bedroom where despite having two full walk-in closets bigger than my own bedroom he pulled a shirt from a suitcase at the foot of his bed, "Is this OK?" You get used to living in hotels and motels.
4. The New Baby
After leaving the motel I drove to Oregon City where I stopped to use a pay phone. Remember pay phones? We had to search for those before the advent of cell phones. My cell phone works only in the local area so I searched for and found a pay phone. Well I do remember pay phones very well so I checked for catsup in the coin return and jelly on the receiver. Having found neither I called another niece there and told her that I wanted to see their new baby. She gave me some very good and easy direction but I got lost within a few minutes. Fortunately for me Oregon City is very small and by simply driving around I was able to meet their beautiful baby girl.
5. The Heart Attack
I drove next to Elkton, Oregon. I had called ahead to see if I could stay at the home of a lifelong friend. He told me that he had just had a heart attack. That's some serious news. As serious as ... well you know. I thought he looked pretty good for someone that just had a heart attack. They fixed him up without having to crack his chest. They went through his groin with something I imagine is similar to a toilet auger and he watched the whole thing on the big screen in the operatory. Rather than being bed ridden he and his wife went to a Christmas party which I crashed. It was a great party! The food was especially good and my friend's wife even allowed him to have some. I guess he has to change his diet.
6. Another Christmas Party.
I arrived the next afternoon at my brother's house in Sacramento, California. Neither he nor his wife were home so I drove over to Folsom to visit my former mother-in-law. I got there just in time to crash another Christmas party. It was another great party. I saw many people there that I have not seen in decades including someone that I nearly killed 35 years ago.
I know that it was 35 years ago because my daughter was only a few months old when the woman's father in law asked me to drive up to Truckee, California to tow his Jeep down off the mountain.
Had I known at the time that I was going to come close to wiping out his family and go to jail
I would have declined. But I didn't know that and got a tow bar and hitched up.
There were a lot of things working against us that day. The rental company gave me an undersize tow ball. The jeep was not a little Army Jeep but a Willys 4 wheel drive pick up stacked with enough camping gear to make the family in "The Grapes of Wrath" feel at home. It was much heavier than my little Studebaker half ton, even with four people in the cab and four in the camper. It didn't help that my Studebaker had a planetary overdrive which meant that there was no engine compression to slow us down when the Jeep started pushing it down hill. Maybe putting on the brakes was the wrong thing to do but at that point I think we were already in a disastrous situation. The tow bar came off the tow ball and the Jeep started to pass us. The safety chain flipped my truck over. Four of us rode the overturned truck and four of us rode the separated camper down the freeway.
When we stopped the only one seriously injured was under my truck. She and her husband kept the tow bar and hired a lawyer.
I asked the lawyer if he would write a letter to the rental company and explain what happened to the tow bar. He said "I suppose I could." I was naive enough then to believe that that meant "Yes."
I was arrested for grand theft. The case was dropped at the District Attorney's request, "In the interest of justice."
I'm pleased to think that the smile and the hug I got at the Christmas party means that she has forgiven me.
7. My Brother's Couch.
After the party I went back to my brother's house where he kindly offered me his couch for the night. Apparently that couch is also the cat's bed. The cat did not seem to mind sharing his bed but was not of a mind to relinquish it. I awoke the next morning in my clothes and covered with cat hair. Perhaps I need to stop imposing on my brother and rent one of those rooms of which I am so fond anyway.
8. Lunch
I drove to Elk Grove, south of Sacramento, where my mother lives in an assisted living home. She lives there because she has dementia due to Alzheimer's and two strokes. When my father died two and a half years ago my brother sold her house and used the proceeds to place her there.
My father told me that he bought the house in 1950 for $9000 at 4% interest. He had no idea how he was going to come up with the $26 a month mortgage but he did and the house sold for enough that it should pay for my mother's care for the rest of her life. I sure hope so.
It took a moment for my mother to remember who I am but then we had a good time. She is still enjoyable company. I took her to McDonald's mainly so we could eat out of hand; the use of knives and forks seem to sometimes escape her.
I took her back for the Christmas Eve party to which I was invited but did not attend. My brother and his wife did. He is a wonderful son and his wife a wonderful daughter in law. I admire them.
My attendance would have meant driving to Crescent City, California all night and I decided to leave after lunch.
I drove a thousand miles to have lunch with my mother and now I was going to have Christmas with my daughter and grandson.
9. Christmas Eve
The fastest way I know of to get from Sacramento to Crescent City is to go to Grant's Pass, Oregon and turn left. It's not the shortest way but I believe it is the fastest. Still it took the better part of eight hours driving. By the time I got to Grant's Pass there was a strong wind blowing. By the time I arrived in Crescent City it was raining hard. I got there about 9:00 PM Christmas Eve.
10. Christmas
My daughter has a place in Crescent City but most often she can be found at her mother's.
That is where we had our Christmas. And what a Christmas it was. There was far more food than the six of us there could eat in a week but we tried!
It took my grandson all day to open his presents. Not because he had so many but because he is peculiar that way. He knows how to make Christmas last! I suppose it was a fairly typical Christmas but it is one I will recall fondly for a long time.
11. Home
All that was left on the 26th was the daunting drive back to North Idaho. It took some eleven or twelve hours, the rain
had turned to snow, and I was glad when it was over.
Slip Sliding Away
Current mood:sick
1. A White Christmas
I arrived back in North Idaho the night of December 26. Apparently we had a white Christmas. I missed it. I drove down to California where it rained. While it was snowing here it was raining there. I drove a thousand miles to have lunch with my mother "then turned around and headed home again."
2. My Children
I have two daughters and a son. My oldest daughter from my 1st marriage is about 35 years old. I didn't think she would "give" me any grandchildren so I decided to have my own; a son, 18, and another daughter, 11.
Well I was wrong about her not having any children and so I do have a grandson. She invited me to spend Christmas with them, so I did and I am glad I did. It was our first Christmas together since she was sixteen or so.
We usually had Christmas with my parents at their house in Folsom, California.
After my other children were born I spent Christmas with their mother's family here in the Northwest.
Although we've been divorced six years I am often invited to spend holidays with them, most likely for our children's sake but possibly because the family may still like me. My former wife and I seem to "get along" as far as I can tell. We pretty much ignore each other at these functions; it's just like when were married except that now we come in separate cars.
3. The Motel
This Christmas I was fortunate enough to have five days off. That worked out well enough so that I could have Christmas with my daughter and grandson and see my mother too.
When I was younger I would have attempted this journey in one day. A journey of more than one day is by definition not a journey, is it? If the need arose I would sleep in a rest area or parking lot.
I don't do that anymore.
I left work about 4:30 PM and drove to Biggs, Oregon where I checked into a motel. I like motels. Instead of waking up cold and cramped I awoke in a bed and had a nice shower before continuing my drive.
When I was in a traveling band we lived in hotels and motels. We lived out of suitcases.
You get used to that. When my sister got married in the early nineties my (now ex) wife and son and I
stayed at my niece's house in southern California. My niece was married to a famous rock star at the time and they lived in a huge house with maybe nine or more bathrooms.
It was a huge house. I complained to my wife (because rather than being grateful I pretty much complained about everything in those days) that she always packed too many clothes for me. The result of my complaint was that I had to borrow a shirt from the rock star. He led me to their bedroom where despite having two full walk-in closets bigger than my own bedroom he pulled a shirt from a suitcase at the foot of his bed, "Is this OK?" You get used to living in hotels and motels.
4. The New Baby
After leaving the motel I drove to Oregon City where I stopped to use a pay phone. Remember pay phones? We had to search for those before the advent of cell phones. My cell phone works only in the local area so I searched for and found a pay phone. Well I do remember pay phones very well so I checked for catsup in the coin return and jelly on the receiver. Having found neither I called another niece there and told her that I wanted to see their new baby. She gave me some very good and easy direction but I got lost within a few minutes. Fortunately for me Oregon City is very small and by simply driving around I was able to meet their beautiful baby girl.
5. The Heart Attack
I drove next to Elkton, Oregon. I had called ahead to see if I could stay at the home of a lifelong friend. He told me that he had just had a heart attack. That's some serious news. As serious as ... well you know. I thought he looked pretty good for someone that just had a heart attack. They fixed him up without having to crack his chest. They went through his groin with something I imagine is similar to a toilet auger and he watched the whole thing on the big screen in the operatory. Rather than being bed ridden he and his wife went to a Christmas party which I crashed. It was a great party! The food was especially good and my friend's wife even allowed him to have some. I guess he has to change his diet.
6. Another Christmas Party.
I arrived the next afternoon at my brother's house in Sacramento, California. Neither he nor his wife were home so I drove over to Folsom to visit my former mother-in-law. I got there just in time to crash another Christmas party. It was another great party. I saw many people there that I have not seen in decades including someone that I nearly killed 35 years ago.
I know that it was 35 years ago because my daughter was only a few months old when the woman's father in law asked me to drive up to Truckee, California to tow his Jeep down off the mountain.
Had I known at the time that I was going to come close to wiping out his family and go to jail
I would have declined. But I didn't know that and got a tow bar and hitched up.
There were a lot of things working against us that day. The rental company gave me an undersize tow ball. The jeep was not a little Army Jeep but a Willys 4 wheel drive pick up stacked with enough camping gear to make the family in "The Grapes of Wrath" feel at home. It was much heavier than my little Studebaker half ton, even with four people in the cab and four in the camper. It didn't help that my Studebaker had a planetary overdrive which meant that there was no engine compression to slow us down when the Jeep started pushing it down hill. Maybe putting on the brakes was the wrong thing to do but at that point I think we were already in a disastrous situation. The tow bar came off the tow ball and the Jeep started to pass us. The safety chain flipped my truck over. Four of us rode the overturned truck and four of us rode the separated camper down the freeway.
When we stopped the only one seriously injured was under my truck. She and her husband kept the tow bar and hired a lawyer.
I asked the lawyer if he would write a letter to the rental company and explain what happened to the tow bar. He said "I suppose I could." I was naive enough then to believe that that meant "Yes."
I was arrested for grand theft. The case was dropped at the District Attorney's request, "In the interest of justice."
I'm pleased to think that the smile and the hug I got at the Christmas party means that she has forgiven me.
7. My Brother's Couch.
After the party I went back to my brother's house where he kindly offered me his couch for the night. Apparently that couch is also the cat's bed. The cat did not seem to mind sharing his bed but was not of a mind to relinquish it. I awoke the next morning in my clothes and covered with cat hair. Perhaps I need to stop imposing on my brother and rent one of those rooms of which I am so fond anyway.
8. Lunch
I drove to Elk Grove, south of Sacramento, where my mother lives in an assisted living home. She lives there because she has dementia due to Alzheimer's and two strokes. When my father died two and a half years ago my brother sold her house and used the proceeds to place her there.
My father told me that he bought the house in 1950 for $9000 at 4% interest. He had no idea how he was going to come up with the $26 a month mortgage but he did and the house sold for enough that it should pay for my mother's care for the rest of her life. I sure hope so.
It took a moment for my mother to remember who I am but then we had a good time. She is still enjoyable company. I took her to McDonald's mainly so we could eat out of hand; the use of knives and forks seem to sometimes escape her.
I took her back for the Christmas Eve party to which I was invited but did not attend. My brother and his wife did. He is a wonderful son and his wife a wonderful daughter in law. I admire them.
My attendance would have meant driving to Crescent City, California all night and I decided to leave after lunch.
I drove a thousand miles to have lunch with my mother and now I was going to have Christmas with my daughter and grandson.
9. Christmas Eve
The fastest way I know of to get from Sacramento to Crescent City is to go to Grant's Pass, Oregon and turn left. It's not the shortest way but I believe it is the fastest. Still it took the better part of eight hours driving. By the time I got to Grant's Pass there was a strong wind blowing. By the time I arrived in Crescent City it was raining hard. I got there about 9:00 PM Christmas Eve.
10. Christmas
My daughter has a place in Crescent City but most often she can be found at her mother's.
That is where we had our Christmas. And what a Christmas it was. There was far more food than the six of us there could eat in a week but we tried!
It took my grandson all day to open his presents. Not because he had so many but because he is peculiar that way. He knows how to make Christmas last! I suppose it was a fairly typical Christmas but it is one I will recall fondly for a long time.
11. Home
All that was left on the 26th was the daunting drive back to North Idaho. It took some eleven or twelve hours, the rain
had turned to snow, and I was glad when it was over.
Dr. Werner von Braun
Dr. Wernher von Braun
When i was a boy I wanted to be a rocket scientist.I don’t know exactly how I got so side tracked.
But when i was a boy I wrote to Dr. Wernher von Braun
and here is a copy of the reply I received
49 years ago:
Una Momenta en el Autopista
Jun 3, 2008
Yo vi a mi amigo
manejando en el autopista
Su madre estaba sentada al lado
en el asiento enfrente
Su esposa estaba sentada atras
atacando un enorme sandwich
con la ferocidad de un pit bull
en un poodle
La velocidad
con la que pasaron mi carro
contradijo la condicion deteriorada
de su vehîculo viejo
La pintura del carro
de un manera
se parecía vieja
y a la vez nueva
como que si alguien a via aplicado
una fresca mano de pintura negra brillante
sobre lo oxidado y sucio
eso cubrió al viejo Datsun
Y con las tapas de las llantas
que no hacien juego
dando vuelta con una furiosa velocidad
Ellos pronto desaparecieron
en medio del humo azul
desde un carro quema
dos cuartos de galón de aceite por dia
Una Momenta en el Autopista
Yo vi a mi amigo
manejando en el autopista
Su madre estaba sentada al lado
en el asiento enfrente
Su esposa estaba sentada atras
atacando un enorme sandwich
con la ferocidad de un pit bull
en un poodle
La velocidad
con la que pasaron mi carro
contradijo la condicion deteriorada
de su vehîculo viejo
La pintura del carro
de un manera
se parecía vieja
y a la vez nueva
como que si alguien a via aplicado
una fresca mano de pintura negra brillante
sobre lo oxidado y sucio
eso cubrió al viejo Datsun
Y con las tapas de las llantas
que no hacien juego
dando vuelta con una furiosa velocidad
Ellos pronto desaparecieron
en medio del humo azul
desde un carro quema
dos cuartos de galón de aceite por dia
Friday, September 23, 2011
That Fucking Girl
That Fucking Girl ~ p berry
"Look at that fucking sun!"
Low in a mid-summer sky
Says a silly fucking girl
To her contact high
They're out on the road
And they'll be gone for a while
Eating Yogurt in a Yurt
With a faraway smile
She walks along the beach
Searching side to side
Gathering up the gifts
Left by the tide
When she has the right sticks
and she's got enough feather
She will bind them to her back
With found twine and leather
Then she'll spread her home made wings
And leap into the sky
Right up to that Fucking Sun
And look him in the eye
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Peace Love
Peace Love ~ p berry
Somewhere on a western shore
Far from city light
Summer's daughter
Wind and water
Dance beneath a starry night
Barefoot on the sand she spins
Alone, unheard, unseen
Until at last
Away is cast
Her every frightful dream
A swirling silver mist makes way
For sunrise' soft caress
This Solstice Morn
A heart oft' torn
Sings Peace Love in her breast
Somewhere on a western shore
Far from city light
Summer's daughter
Wind and water
Dance beneath a starry night
Barefoot on the sand she spins
Alone, unheard, unseen
Until at last
Away is cast
Her every frightful dream
A swirling silver mist makes way
For sunrise' soft caress
This Solstice Morn
A heart oft' torn
Sings Peace Love in her breast
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)