vignettes from break- our most extended one, almost a month.
-skipping stones with r-jammer, nephew man, first at campus lake and then at the mississipp (see picture below)- a good kid. one who can skip a stone, will go far in life.
-painting the truck camper, on th., before the rain, then pulling it under the trees for the rain that has lasted almost four days- i don't care for this 'warmest winter ever' business- but the cold is supposed to be coming in. the truck will be happy under the pines- until i make a parade float out of it.
-winning the bog, with boys, with bruce, sometimes alone with bruce, or sometimes with boys not bruce. alone i don't win- i'm too tired, it's too late, i'm not all that great at it. in fact it's a time sink. but, it's vacation. even with piles of stuff to do, i figure i have to do exactly zero, all three & a half weeks, just to average out at 45 hr. weeks. resolutely refuse, sometimes, to even get started on tesol.
-watching old westerns, back to the future III twice, bowls of popcorn, eating eel & hearing zztop with sheyo (sheesho), home from college...
-mostly, a lot of time with corey & eli...corey, hell-bent for trouble, into everything, talking, cuter'n'a button, trying to do somersaults (i-fip), stepping in my coffee, helping to feed the dogs- eli, making a motor speedway out of cardboard and paints, piston cup, with lightning's tent & tex possibly coming, a very good boy, follows the rules, watches carefully, and loves his brother in spite of that frustration with the young fella acting out.
-stewing over my work, still hopelessly divided by genre (music, poetry, stories, plays) - not even counting graphics (calendar not finished even yet) or novel (the one i want, but haven't had the consistent stick-to-it to stick to it)...the stories need work. i'm breaking the rule of don't put anything in there unless there's a reason. they need to be filled out & purposeful. on the one hand i enjoy the loose ends of life, the possibilities that the reader is allowed to entertain. on the other hand, why? to torture him/her? leave a vague sense of unease? i can do better. fill out the characters & make them more three-dimensional, vague only if necessary. would like to write a series of wal-mart stories...
-but instead, adding slowly to the haiku epic, now at 161, but hopefully going over 400. will tell a story, have dimensions, be filled out. right now it's anemic, inconsistent, poorly linked. it's a slow and painful process, think i mighta gone a whole year without adding to it. not to mention boxcars, intended to be a web-design, kind of hometown tribute. it's even more sadly neglected, even more brutally incomplete.

i used to sew a quilt when watching small children...that too is out in the garage, with the train-tracks-to nowhere, the tools-in-a-pile, the license-plates-waiting-to-be-displayed, somewhere beneath. and it's still raining. happy king day, don't forget about justice, fight the war, next time make them learn history before they put our young in harm's way. stop voting for these morons. but don't stop voting, somebody's got to do the right thing...