Hit by lightning. Again. I feel like the frail off-screen distant relative of some major TV character. You know the one. Every weekly episode has a new throw-away one-liner. “You remember Elaine — Maude’s uncle’s wife’s cousin? She just had her gall bladder removed.” “She just got hit by a car.” “An albatross knocked her…
If one wishes to crush the spirit of the soul that longs for spring, perhaps the best way is to plant magnolia trees north of the Mason-Dixon line. Plump, pink buds adorned the trees lining the road into town last week. The little star magnolia trees along the thoroughfare had already started to bloom, and…
Nothing says “Spring” more than the sounds of a world freshly waking up. Birds are starting to sing songs to which the birdie lyrics go something like: “This is my territory. I’ve posted the No Trespassing signs. Go find your own plot of land.” Neighbors are starting up lawnmowers in a still-too-early attempt to outdo…
We who choose to surround ourselves with lives even more temporary than our own, live within a fragile circle; easily and often breached. Unable to accept its awful gaps, we would still live no other way. We cherish memory as the only certain immortality, never fully understanding the necessary plan….— Irving Townsend —“The Once Again…
Memories from March 21, 1997 are simultaneously vivid and surrealistic. Time has perhaps fuzzed the edges a bit, but the impact of what I hesitate to call a near death experience has not lessened. It has colored nearly all my significant choices over the the last near-quarter century in both good and not so good…
Those furrows you see dug into the ground coming from the old site and leading to here? Those are my heels, digging in and being dragged through the ether-field, showing the last of my remaining resistance in being brought over to the new site. My Salamander background is gone. My formatting is gone, and weird…
One of my neighborâs car alarms has been going off intermittently for the last half hour. It doesnât last that long, perhaps fifteen seconds or less each time. But itâs so damned insistent â a false sense of urgency that keeps coming back, like that itch in the middle of your back that you canât…
Those of you who are still left … I’ve missed you all!
That “beautiful cat” was Lyta (Lee-ta) Alexander. I adopted her back in 2004. She was brought to the rescue I was volunteering for then at about one-year of age and very pregnant. One of the other volunteers fostered her until the kittens were ready for adoption. They named her Faline, after Bambi’s girlfriend, and her…
Goddamn but I miss the comments section. Major congratulations. It’s been a tough haul for you I know, and I hope there’s a big pot of happiness at the end of this rainbow for you.