tree
branches
sky

got truck to hospital this am, a few books back to library, with ninian's help. he's leaving for west va right now (banjo heaven). i'll be stuck here for awhile, and really don't mind the prospect. it will be too hot for me to survive outdoors. of course were the electricity to go off - and someday it will - i guess i would become "just another accident statistic".

[for those of you not in the know, that's a quote from mr dylan, the last LP i listened to by him before long hiatus. from slow train coming, his first christian album. around '79 i think, he was right then and he is right now.]

early morning , nicole's back yard in chatham county.

spent a few hours yesterday morning with ninian who was kind enough to help me run a bunch of errands, including scheduling truck for doc appt tomorrow. took a nap in the afternoon which more or less lasted until 6 this morning.

little "at sea" this morning, i always appreciated that phrase which could mean a lot of things but denotes for me that loose slipping and sliding the sense of reality undergoes from time to time.

i'll spend the day cleaning and unpacking material, mental and emotional baggage, maybe make it down to bele chere - i'm close enough to walk downtown - if the sun lays low.

ninian showed up late last night and we made grocery pharmacy run this morning which was a great help. talked to mechanic, will fix monday. the photosquiggle above is, i don't know, too much squiggle.

i'm going to check out news and weather and maybe walk down to bele chere, the largest mostest festival anywhere, cast of millions, the frenzy of the crowd, the polite onlookers, the who knows what or why. on the other hand why not.

heading up the mountain this morning. have had a pleasant visit. baby natalie is certainly worth getting to know, very placid and what a smile. lily and corbin continue to grow, very rapidly. my youngest son nathan is unavailable for visit - with anyone i guess. i wish him well and hope he comes out on the other side of whatever miasma he is in (this means: a difficult path is still a path, or can be). nicole is struggling, way too busy, i think she will soon adapt a strategy of giving herself more time. eli and melissa are doing well, healthy and navigating the family life well. never made it into chapel hill, wait i take that back did go to wellspring.

i've had a lot of fun with camera, tried some new things. also maybe am starting to get the hang of cadence changes on 5 string guitar in open "g".

ok i'm off catch you on the phlip side.
[but wait, there's more...]
now i'm there, you know, where i was going a paragraph ago. stopped at old fort and visited with louise at the museum. also filled tank up with new personal best, $40 plus. made it past the oteen turnoff and truck died. i think it was getting gas, but no spark. all wires present and accounted for. i think the whatchamacallit, charger, can't remember the name but the thing that goes to distributor. so i arrives via tow truck.

sure seems funny here with no miss kitty.

h i folks. i'm at jim's. reporting in. another day at the beach. dylan dvds missing. it's all good.

everything slow and hot in the piedmont. still haven't seen my son nathan which is too bad. doing laundry at eli's right now. i think nap time is soon.

i've decided travel takes more organization than i give it.

sitting at eli's on an overcast, almost gloomy morning. i fell out yesterday around 3 and napped until 6, never really woke up.

so i feel great this morning.

ran into raymond yesterday at wellspring, it was good to see him.

natalie is the smiliest little girl. she is happy.

to sum up: everything is summed up.

friday i was up and at'em, ready to drive to the piedmont. but miss kitty was not doing well at all. so saturday we went to the vet and miss kitty who was suffering more than a creature deserves, left the planet. the vet was very simpatico and i "held her in the light" as the quakers say. i drove her poor body to chapel hill and eli and i buried her sunday morning.

she was 17, and spent all but her first four years with me. a gentle spirit, her presence in the world of 10,000 things was beneficent and helpful to us all, whether we knew it or not.

tossed and turned all night, got up at 6. and constructed lookin point of the day above. my latest plan is to drive to the peidmont early tomorrow morning, say about 5. the rest of my day will be devoted to packing, puttering, and otherwise reconfiguring domicile to my traveling yurt. this is a consequence of no AC in truck and my own willingness to acknowledge personal limitations, such as the steamy weather makes me crazy so i will do my best to avoid it.

at last i am hearing on some of Big Media that a war between a nation state and an unknown group of people is a mismatch. the USA doesn't much like saddam, so as much as declares war against his victims. isreal has reason to defend itself against hezzbullah - i know, sp?, so devastates the nation of lebonon.

i think france will be next. our leaders - and much of the little people that serve it - doesn't much like france. there used to be an apophrical sign at calais saying "the wogs start here". besides, they talk funny.

this morning's gray room wall paper has little to endear itself so the less said the better.

going to go to bank and library in a minute and that's it for travel today. chatham county here i come. later.

before friday i hope.

mmmm... This morning's cyber-jumble got a little out of hand.

spent the last 3 days indoors, chained to G3 and an easel. i'm having way too much fun.

there is a shadow of guilt lurking around: should i be having so much fun when the world is having a breakdown?

when we are all dying?

just a shadow. it blurs things when i think of mental, dare i say "spiritual" health; the inner world (see picture above) and the outer world both must be included in being someone, i don't know why, i don't even care. so at long last i am finding a valid use for "discipline": it is useful when i go out and have fun, as opposed to when i stay in and have way too much fun.

hey, as the kids say, 'it's all good".

maybe this morning's cyberdoodle is the beginning of a set of new age greeting cards for the aville theme park. probably not.

i continue to be fascinated with the contortions language is going through when the talking heads describe the current "reality". yesterday i heard the air waves say quite destinctly "de-escaltion". i wonder if it means anything like "de-excavation" or "de-levitation".

i don't think i want to de-levitate, it sounds painful. of course i'm not much into levitation either, it could be - surprise - just as painful.

it seems like i am well on my way to becoming very slow. all i can say about it is on the imaginary bumper sticker i will sport some day:

DeFog the Brain Fog

a quickie. i've been getting into some of the less accessible regions of photoshop with varying amounts of surprise. it is, of course, endless.

is it a war yet? war has for a couple of centuries been strictly, or almost strictly, the domain of the nation state. as that institution slowly morphs to god knows what, war becomes something we do not have a clear idea of. are there uniformed armies? are there treaties and alliances? or are there gangs, thugs and criminals? some folks who live in the middle east are afraid to go out at night. ditto with some folks in nicaragua, detroit.

maybe the closest thing to what is happening that we have experienced in the past is times of the warlords. gang leaders.

maybe the closest thing to the perpetual war orwell wrote about is not a result of declarations and control by the nation state, but the result of an armed populace not included within the domain of "citizen" of this or that country.

it's bandits all the way down and all the way up.

digging around i found 3 new poems just now. heres one:


woke up this morning
got out of my head
wiggled my toes
and got out of bed

stumbled to the coffee pot
circled for a bit
mixed up the medicine
the light bulb was lit

remembered a dream
which i promptly forgot
later i'll eat
or maybe not.

right now i'm sitting
looking at my talk.
words here & there
key in the lock.

the door might be open
to one more day.
i think i'll walk out
and check out the play.

today's peculiargram tells me i'd better start looking for my walking shoes.

dropped in on "drinking liberally" last night and ran into old acquaitence don who was playing with his son and some of the "real" asheville folks. his son has taken up the mandolin and plays pretty darn good.

spent a good 9 hours yesterday working with flash, i now am accomplished enough to be dangerous. worked on oil painting at the same time. got book to publisher.

just talked to doug who is in marion on the road headed for yancey county. depending on something or another - don't know what that might be at present - i may head up to yancey county tomorrow and camp out at his spot. counting on driving to chatham county wednesday to see old friends and children, grandchildren who i haven't seen in too long.

looks like today's gizmo is ariadne's thread. found in a rat's nest of consequence, delivered to the black helicopters of the iron castle so they can scuttle the dream anchors of routine in time for the cookout.

on another note entirely, i just put up 3rd or 4th flash muzak doo-dad. give them a try, they are on muzak page.

this morning's jumble.

yesterday was a strange day. but then aren't they all?

no. but a lot are.

got a lot of this and that done in the morning. around three i lay down and read for a minute. when i got up it was 8:30 in the evening. i couldn't believe it.

phone was out all day yesterday. a young man with all kind of apparatus hanging from his belt knocked on the door this morning, came in and found problem in phone jack. this is the second time i have been perplexed by situation where i get DSL but no dial tone. both times i have felt sort of stupid for not snugging up cables - which i have many of on the floor going here and there - before calling for help.

more later ...

a few technical difficulties: life.

phone is out, it must have rained. picture above doesn't show, must be cut and run electrons around.

found out who is more or less responsible for the concept of memes: richard dawkins.

just got back from oil change and kat food run. miss kitty can only eat what appears to be kitty pudding.

put another flash mp3 up. it can be found on muzak page.

art brute, otherwise known as mess around before breakfast.

i got an automated call this morning telling me that UPS has a package that will be delivered today. no idea what it is, but it gives me an uneasy feeling.

finished i hope whistling in the dark, will upload file after this post. book should be available this week, i'll let you know the particulars when i know them.

today's list:

mop kitchen floor.

sunday painter.

focus on thoughts to see if there are any.

taken yesterday swannanoa river - i think - pleasant with tharpa and kim.

now what do i have to say this pleasantly slow sunday morning? gotta get a move on talking heads are about to appear. and i can pick up the big soccer game at one o'clock.