Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Blah, Blah, Blah, Snap, Snap, Snap


I dreamed last night that I figured out how to use my camera. I pushed all the buttons until I learned how it all worked which came in handy as I was about to secretly photograph a Mafia secret religious ceremony at a beach-front hotel.

Oh yeah.

Well, I woke up this morning not knowing any-one-damn-thing more about my camera or how to use it and besides that, I wasn't at a beach-front motel and there were no Mafia in sight.

This squirrel was. I swear. I have the fattest squirrels in Jefferson County.


Here's some blue salvia that I don't even remember planting but I sure must have.


The two chairs where we like to sit now. When Owen sits back in one he looks over at me and says, "Nie!" He's right. They are nice.


Last night we could hear a nearby transformer pop and pop and the electricity waned and shone and then another pop and it was gone, baby, gone. Our neighbors from across the street came over and the men talked in the garden and the woman and I sat in the chairs and caught up on stuff. This is what happens when the electricity goes out. Times slows down.

Then I cooked dinner wearing one of those miner-lights. I am not even kidding you. Mr. Moon brought it in for me and said, "Do you want to wear this?" and I said, "I'd rather not," but it sure did work better than trying to hold a flashlight in one hand and cook with the other.

The electricity came back on and I got dinner ready to go on the table and it went out again and then we ate in the dark for awhile, or by lamplight, anyway, and then the electricity came back on for good and we washed the dishes and were able to sleep in the air conditioning.
I don't even know why Mr. Moon has those little miner-light things. He has TWO of them. At least. Well, he's a handy guy and he has a lot of stuff out there in that garage.

The oak leaf hydrangea is blooming.


I did not plant this but I'm glad someone did.

Jungle. Or at least a north Florida version of it.

Now this is wisteria vine. I am thinking it is a form of hurricane-proofing because if a storm comes, the trees it's wrapped around could uproot but that vine will keep them off my sleeping body which is in the room directly underneath.
Well. It's a plan. Not a very good one, I admit.


Kathleen gave me this rose.


It's in a pot and that flower is about as big as my thumbnail. Not quite that big.

Part of my front porch.


Well, I better get off my ass and go walk. Despite the fact that I live here in a sort of heaven, I am feeling all kinds of anxious and nasty stuff and my mind is making up all sorts of reasons for me to freak out and not a damn one of them is valid but hey! you know me!

I wish there was a Magic Eraser for the soul. I'd love to give mine a good polishing, wipe off all the guck and stuff keeping my light from shining through. If I were a younger woman, I might eat some mushrooms and see if I could reboot the alien computational material which is my brain but I am not a younger woman and so there you go. I can't even push all the buttons on my camera. Owen can, believe me.

Okay. One last picture. Zeke napping with Big Bear. Big Bear is always so damn cheerful.


And Zeke just stays out of the way and sleeps with me at night.

Yeah. It's okay. Let us proceed.

23 comments:

  1. looking at your pictures...listening to your words...
    my morning is just beginning out here in the great southwest.
    yes, shall we proceed...
    one foot before the other,
    walking on this firm earth.
    even as the wild things wax and wane within us.
    even while...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Breathe deep! I'll see you on Friday.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Zeke is SO DAMN CUTE.

    As to this:
    The two chairs where we like to sit now. When Owen sits back in one he looks over at me and says, "Nie!" He's right. They are nice.

    Kurt Vonnegut and his Uncle Alex would approve of Owen's wisdom.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I'm thinking that the miner lights will come in handy on May 21st, when the Rapture comes. I'm assuming that you won't be raptured up but will need to survive somehow until October 21st when the end of the world happens. Oy.

    That's what I'm thinking about today.

    But I sure do love that little bear photo at the end of your post. It's awesome.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Candlelight, headlight ....I say romantic....and handy indeed.

    Photo play..your neck of the woods so lush!

    I can't retain my lessons on the my camera. I screwed up on some Easter photos as I didn't have my glasses on to see what I did or did not do. I too need to sit down and practice to learn from my (not mistakes!) creativity.

    ReplyDelete
  6. rebecca- The transformers do pop and spark sometimes, don't they?
    Love you, dear.

    DTG- Breathe, walk, hang the clothes on the line. It's working for me.
    Love you so, my boy. Thank-you for always checking on me.

    Ms. Bastard-Beloved- Owen's vocabulary is not huge but he has most of the words for what he needs to say. I sort of like him like that. It's a little like hanging out with Yoda.

    Elizabeth- Boy oh boy. I just can't wait for the Rapture. Before the earth ends, it's going to be really nice with here on earth. Okay. I am going to hell.

    Ellen- A CD came with my camera. Pigs will fly before I sit down and watch that shit.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Madame King- That squirrel probably could. I swear- I'm going to eat those squirrels! Pan fried with gravy. Grits on the side.

    ReplyDelete
  8. HA - WV is "materoid" - like Mother on 'roids. You! (Not in the bad 'roid rage way, but in the Holy Cow what a MOTHER!)

    Ah, the headlamps are so wonderful. I used one for skiing and snowshoeing often when I lived in Alaska and was having only a couple of hours of sunshine a day. It's not that bad, the little sunshine, because you know the summer is the reverse, and you just make do and those headlamps help.

    And one of my favorite New Orleans memories was after Hurricane Gustav. The city was on mandatory evacuation, but I snuck back in early, and my friend who's an EMT stayed and our friend flew in with Red Cross and stayed with me. We would gather every evening as I cooked my way through the freezer. We had no electricity and things were going to die so I cooked up a storm, using that headlamp of mine. It drove EMT friend crazy because I'd shine it right in his eyes whenever I looked at him. But we had SO much fun sitting on my front stoop enjoying our mishmash dinners in an evacuated city we all loved so much.

    Thanks for triggering that memory! Glad you have headlamps as well!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Move over, Mary darling........we can share limbo together.

    While pondering on your last blog about "love" I realized that all the supposed good deeds I have done in my life were all for the wrong selfish reasons.

    Oy, Oy......Where do I go now? Do they still count as good deeds?

    ReplyDelete
  10. Zeke and the bear? Yes, cute. He could star in a children's book.

    ReplyDelete
  11. All of those lovely photos and not one of you in a miner's helmet? Come on!

    (Also Lo - I say yes, oh yes.)

    ReplyDelete
  12. Funny thing you said about taking drugs to reset you. I read something about that in O Magazine a while back. It was about a therapy in which people took a drug - I think it was LSD - in a "controlled" setting and they were being helped by someone, and it got rid of their anxieties or something.

    Ha! It wasn't LSD, it was ecstasy. I went to look it up for you and here's the link:
    http://www.oprah.com/health/PTSD-and-MDMA-Therapy-Medical-Uses-of-Ecstasy

    ReplyDelete
  13. NOLA- The headlamps are pretty awesome but that light-in-your-eyes thing is annoying. Glad I could give you your memory.

    Lo- If we do loving things how can they be for the wrong reasons? How?

    A- He is pretty darn cute.

    Lisa- Come on! It smushed my hair down and was so unattractive! Not that I didn't think about it...

    Mwa- I just read that article and it almost made me want to cry. I want to do that! I do! Maybe my instincts are good. Thank-you, baby.

    ReplyDelete
  14. aw, i love little zeke all curled up with smiling teddy.
    i love too the oak leaf hydrangea, funny, i was just asking at a nursery on monday if they had any.
    sorry i haven't been here.
    not feeling well either.
    magic erasure me too please mama.

    ReplyDelete
  15. that article was fascinating mwa, thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  16. I use a headlamp when I'm, uh, inspecting a perineum after a birth. Probably TMI but I look silly, going spelunking now...

    Your chicken at the top of your blog is BEAUTIFUL. I want chickens but what about when they stop laying forever? What then? A home for old chickens? Eat them after they drop dead? What's this vegetarian to do?

    ReplyDelete
  17. I enjoyed reading the article Mwa referenced---I'm always grateful to be reminded of the changes that can be wrought via those glimpses of high levels of perception. The mind is very amazing.

    wv: foundog (?)

    ReplyDelete
  18. Bethany- If I find one, be sure I'll send it your way. Maybe we just need to do some E and dance away our crazies. Who knows?

    Beth- Sounds like an excellent use of the head lamp to me. When a chicken becomes to old to lay, I suppose you just keep her around as a pet. No big deal. Why not?

    A- And such a cosmic mystery.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Dearest Mary, I'm laughing at Mr M producing the miner's light from his shed.

    Gorgeous pictures. I plan to do planting this Sunday. You have inspired me.

    And where the hell did Zeke spring from? I've not seen him before. He is sooo cute! Love you xx

    ReplyDelete
  20. It is possible to flush the toilet of the past. Believe me-- I have done it.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Glad you all liked the article. It certainly appealed to me as well.

    ReplyDelete
  22. The miner lights are necessary. In our hospice home we have them in every room just in case the electricity goes off.

    ReplyDelete

Tell me, sweeties. Tell me what you think.