Solitude

Dave's out of town, I'm sick, and the damn cats are taking advantage. I forget how much we divide their attention-with only one of us here, I've got this whole clowder to contend with.

That's OK, livens up my otherwise quiet day, and gives me an excuse to speak...otherwise I'm just talking to myself, and that's crazy.

Nice days, days off. In the morning, the living room fills with soft white light. In the afternoon, my bedroom's golden and gleaming as the sun sets. High crisp skies and the breeze down my avenue. Neighbors I barely know and the man down the street who cries as he paints his brand new white picket fence. Three thanksgivings worth of leftovers courtesy of my community. Not bad, even ill.

At long last.

Christ, the world just keeps topping itself. Best thing all week.

Criticality

Triticali. Cross indeed. All in the middle of everyone else's variegated crazy...and the mists, night and morning and the incandescent halos of the streetlights and the sun. The river in the air, again.

Tonight, I am very sad.

For your consideration this week.

Eustress

I haven't been sleeping. Been wandering the streets of the Whitaker at night, getting to know my neighborhood again for the umpteenth time. Lots of nooks and crannys, lots of sights and smells.

There's been periods-a few months at a time, maybe-when I've felt as though my life was sort of...meh. Bland and uninteresting. Whatever the opposite of novel is-I've had those days and weeks and months. And that's OK, it is.

But lately (and I'm going to abandon my usual cryptic nonsense here for this post...which is in itself, perhaps, cryptic and nonsensical. Ourouboran, I am.) each day tops the last, and my hours and minutes and moments are just crammed with the extraordinary. There's a double rainbow in the western sky when I come to work in the morning. My coworker and I talk about Daisy Bell with a customer who knows all the words, teaches it to us...and then the three of us sing it among the lettuce and the radishes. I have no fewer than three people cry on my shoulder and my couch in the space of a few hours.

It's not for me, you understand. But I get to be there to see it, get to appreciate the significance of all these events that are everyday, but not the least bit quotidian*. I lead a charmed and magical life, and I wouldn't have it any other way. Even at the cost of a few hours of sleep. It's cheap at any price.

So I'm well, tired, troubled and pleased. I have a big heavy plate at the moment. And I will bring the best of myself to bear.



*I'll be straightforward, but I'll be damned if I'm going to give up my $10 words. You can pry them from my cold, dead Broca's area.

Allfather

I should have lost my eye, should be blind in the right. I'd trade it to that fiery fountain, for wisdom and hope. Thought and Memory are drifting in and out of my house right now, and I'll call the third one Sleipnir. I'm pedestrian enough for eight legs, that's for sure. And all the rest, all the lost sleep and tears and casting my own weird shadows in the corner of my untaken unbroken eye. I know so many valkyries at this point-I'd be slain, and chosen. My own Dick Cheney, my own psychopomp.

Obfuscation

Moon's behind the clouds, behind the mists. Like a big shiny gorilla in the sky. The sun did shake and the pale moon quake. Tonight I'll go a-murdering the man in the moon to a powder.

I'm still here-still drawing breath, still have suffering to take. Still warm, the blood that courses through my veins. My bones are made of iron, and my heart is made of gold. Once a week, I cleave open my golden heart and pour out sweet and puissant guacamole.

Recent Events.

Things that happened last night...

My new neighbor, who is puissant and awesome, rode a unicycle up and down my street in the rain-slick darkness.

The fireworks I so half-assedly tried to light off in celebration shot me in the face (I'm fine-I'm invulnerable)

I was brought a host of home-made jams and jellies that they were getting rid of because they'd been made by someone who turned out to be a pedophile.

And Barack Obama was elected President of the United States. Thanks to all the fine and remarkable people who spent the election with me-I had a marvelous time sharing an historic moment, and I'm glad to have played host to so many great folks. Yes, we did.

Settle down, Ron Howard

See more Ron Howard videos at Funny or Die

See more funny videos at Funny or Die

The first Tuesday after the first Monday in November

It's been 20 months. Hours and hours of news. Twists and turns and issue after issue after issue. Like the man says, there are children who were born, learned to walk and talk while this election's been going. And it's all going to be over tomorrow. And we're going to win.

This is the most important election in my lifetime. It's the most exciting election of my lifetime. It's going to be worth celebrating. I'll be home all day tomorrow-you should drop by, watch it happen.

Mundane

I feel as though I can navigate, can accomplish tasks with a high degree of Real difficulty. This is my metric. One of them.

Chronicle

Again, with the poor choices. This is tops, I think. First and foremost. Which is not to say, I couldn't do worse.