hodgepodge is a cool word...

my friend terri sent me a forwarded email with photos of 15 really cool & strange buildings. (i especially like this one) --> 

i looked it up on the interwebs and found what may be the original posting and...it has fifty (50!) of the wackiest constructions you can imagine.

believe it or not, there is only one barcelona building in the whole lot. (but several gaudi-esque ones.)

check them all out when you have the time.


one of the buildings shown in the above link is/was in houston, texas. it seems the city was going to demolish a house and a couple of artists seized the opportunity to create this awesome piece. as i have a little bit of personal experience with the black hole effect of condemned property, this one struck my fancy, too. (story link)



speaking of striking my fancy...i've been meaning to post this link for some time now. this is just one image of a most amazing personal library. this guy's displays include everything from a raptor skeleton to a nazi enigma code machine to a sputnik. and much much more. it is a veritable modern day cabinet of curiosities.



above:

Gadget Lab A brand-new One Laptop per Child XO, far left, sits next to a relatively ancient RadioShack TRS-80 Model 100. In back, a 1911 typewriting machine and a 1909 Kent radio. The large contraption at center is the Nazis' supposedly unbreakable Enigma code machine. The book to its left is a copy of Johannes Trithemius' 1518 Polygraphiae, a cryptographic landmark. On the right is an Apple II motherboard signed by Woz. An Edison kinetoscope sits beside an 1890 Edison phonograph (along with three of the wax cylinders it uses for recording). Nearby is a faithful copy of Edison's lightbulb. The gadget with the tubes is an IBM processor circa 1960. In front of it stands a truly ancient storage device, a Sumerian clay cone used to record surplus grain.

next is a juried art exhibit currently showing in dallas. artists from all over the u.s. and canada submitted work interpreting the theme of the show, Farewell Shoes for Mr. Bush.

some were funny, some sad. 

("One that brought tears was a simple pair of work boots below a printed tribute to a man who had been a good father and hard worker but who died without health insurance. The artist was his widow." - juror, jim schutze)

it was a fitting outlet for the disappointment and resentment and even outrage that many of us in dallas feel about mr. bush moving to our fair city. 

my favorite piece (pictured above), by rebecca sanchez of dallas, is made of plastic army-men and won an honorable mention. it's called, "Soles of our Soldiers." 

(for the complete story and a much better picture of that piece, go here. or if you happen to be reading this after president's day, 2009, here.)



ok, i've taken up enough of your time for one day, but i must leave you a Dog picture O.T.D.

this is awol's crazy-ass, french whore of a girlfriend, gigi. he's in Luuuuuv.



"woof woof!"

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V(ideo) O. T. D.

i haven't checked out the rest of it yet, but i have a feeling it's all pretty goddam cool and worth a look-see. click on "her morning elegance" after going to this website.

(thanks, chrissy).

...in other news, i found what i suspect are the rest of the cars needed for my *cartable* today. i'm pretty excited about that.

so far i've made 5 different *veggie-tables*, and once helped sean make a *fishtable.* (there may be pics somewhere in here. and then again, maybe not.)

-------------------------------------------

the cartable (pronounced with a short a in the table part) is going to add to the goodness of the coffee table world & the betterment of the world in general by leaps and bounds. i might even try to sell this one. i could use the bucks.

these are all mechanized and will go on the carved limestone legs of the table and will be easily accessed to play with on said glass top.

vroom, vroom, vrooooom!!!

and yes, that's a penguin. pretty cool, huh? i am so easily amused.

(please feel free to click to enlarge any of these pictures.)


these will be on the sandstone tabletop under a sheet of 3/8" or 1/2" glass, depending on the funds available.


oh, wait. the 2 airplanes on the left are also mechanical and will be on the legs...&...i found all of those today to add to my already formidable collection of potentially cartable cars!

.........................................................................

the following little numbers have all been collected over the past few months & are mostly roadkill:


these "mini machines" were my son's and salvaged from the house fire:


(these broken ones are all road kill & will probably not be incorporated into the cartable.)
i call it my "junkyard." complete w/ junkyard dog:


& finally...
the Dog picture Of The Day...

"keepin' watch at the window"

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guitar hero madness

how is this even possible?



same crazy story. total whack. proof that god exists. Read more!

road kill deluxe

found on my walk yesterday:

1 leather belt, 1 heavy tin angel candle holder, 2 rusty eight inch heart-shaped cake pans.

let's talk about the belt.
1st, i didn't have one & now i do. 2nd, i wanted one because i have to go to a wedding this month and, well, if you also don't have a suit or a sport coat or a tie, a belt is a kinda sorta necessary ingredient for pretending to get dressed up in order to be respectful, not to mention appearing to be respectable. 3rd, it not only fits me, but the most worn hole on the belt is an exact waistometer reading for me and my waist. what are the odds? 4thly, it's a cool belt with horses on it.

(i used to have several belts. and a suit. and a sport coat. and several ties, too, but they all burned up a while back. you may scoff in disbelief, but i can prove it.)

see? i told you.
that's me and the lovely josephine back in about 2004(?).

you may find this next part even more difficult to believe, but i swear it's true.

that photo was taken at a friend's wedding. for reasons still unknown, they asked me to officiate.

(i KNOW !...)

i wrote an awesome ceremony. that's what people told me, anyway. i even believed them afterwards when this asshole wedding photographer told me he'd been to 1000s of weddings and that was the most moving one he'd ever been to. it made me feel good. i was real nervous through the whole thing, shaking even, but i had faith in the words i'd written, so i just read it mostly. there were funny parts and poignant parts and parts where you had to think, and out of respect, even some bible parts for the parents. and people chuckled and laughed out loud when they were supposed to and they wept even louder when they were supposed to.

i didn't have to read the ending...i looked the couple in the eyes, one by one...then looked at the bride and paused dramatically and finally said, "sue. you may kiss your husband."

and the tears of the crowd turned to uproarious laughter.

ok...back to the deluxe road kill...

i don't bake and the pans are rusty, but i will use them for molds to make stepping stones. 8" stepping stones, you say? isn't that kind of small? no, not for the *secret garden* my sister made for her granddaughters. they are perfectly sized for the girls' tiny feet. PLUS! they're heart-shaped, and they'll like that.

plus, it's almost valentine's day and even though i don't really like that holiday very much, i have lots of red tile and various red found objects to imbed in the cement. (for instance, the red thing in the 1st photo is a broken-off part of a lawn mower i think. i found it a few weeks ago and intend to include it in the stepping stones.)

and the angel? well, my sister also likes angels. and even though i think the barbie leg i found (with ball joint intact) would look smashing in it...i think i'll keep that leg for some other project in the future.

(it almost looks like a surreal light saber, don't you think?)

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a mom update and some cool miscellaneous stuff...

mom's doing great. she never got sore or achy from the fall. isn't that weird? and her face bruises are healing nicely. she never once even remembered the fall or the hospital visit. that's normal. she claims to remember the ambulance ride, but i have my doubts. i think she remembers us talking about it. you know, like when you "remember" early childhood memories, but really you're remembering photos of them?

i took the camera over to get a shot of her and the dog together, but the battery was dead. doh! maybe tomorrow. in the meantime...

...here's a picture of awol and his girlfriend, gigi, on my bed.


more miscellaneous crap:

this video may not interest you all that much, but it appeals to me because i have actually used all but the 1st technique to manipulate large limestone blocks. (i've never moved a barn, though.)



and i think this is very, very cool. “You’ve done a great job with the dirt. But what about the water?”, dr. sylvia earle. (check out the video in the article. dr. earle rocks!)

after the camera battery charges i'll take some pics of some of the greatest road kill in months, but for now it's just more doggy-love.

both of 'em ready for the POUNCE!

"sheeit...who you think yer callin' a dick licker? dawg, have you even seen my girlfriend??? she is sooo Hot." (((pant, pant, pant.)))



update:
add this to the misc schitt (thanks, terri.)


i think i must live upstairs to some of their cousins... The Fuckin' Schitts.

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oh yeah...?

WELL, YOU SHOULD SEE THE OTHER GUY!

1st off, i need to tell you that she's a-ok. ok?

outline of the morning -

5:38 a.m.
(ring, ring, ring...)
"hell-o"
"blah blah blah your mom had a fall this morning. she's on her way to baylor hospital."

5:58 a.m.
(i walk over to mom all tubed and wired up in a hospital bed and take her hand...)
"hey good lookin'. how you feelin'?
"i'm ok." (smile)
"what happened?"
"i don't know."

6:00-7:00
"how'd you get here?"
"where?"
"the hospital."
(she cocks her head...) "i don't know..."
"did you get to ride in an ambulance?"
"...an ambulance...i did...clear across town in an ambulance. it took a long time."
she never did remember she'd fallen, but i heard about "goin' clear across town" a dozen times. (it's a 5 minute ride.)

........................................

"i was lying here in this bed looking out at that hallway yesterday. i remember being here yesterday."
"no, mom, this just happened this morning."
"i'm sorry you have to spend your day babysitting your mom again today..."
(again??)"no, ma'am. this just happened an hour or two ago."

(repeat the above a dozen times...)

"...going clear across town in an ambulance...someone in the ambulance mentioned alzheimer's..."(pause.)
then she asked me,"if you were told you had alzheimer's would it make you feel any different about things?"

(my mom has never been an analytical person. or a thinker, yet this is a profound question. particularly the word *feel* in that sentence.)

i thought for a while and said, "i don't know."
i thought for a while longer and finally asked the obvious, "how does it make you feel?"
"i don't know," she said.

................................................

8:00-9:00
at some point the subject of leaving the hospital came up and she asked, "where would we go?"
"back to Vickery Towers."
"hmmmm...i'm trying to think what that means to me...back to vickery towers...?...i don't really know what i'm thinking, if that makes any sense.

.................................................

9:00 a.m.
getting restless. pulling on and messing with all those hoses and wires and sticky things attached to her chest and arms and finger...kept sitting up and tugging on things. trying to get free. wanted her nightgown sleeves back on her arms. tugging on tubes and wires and sticky things...pulling on her sleeves...

all the while, i'm asking her/telling her to please lay down, please be patient just a few more minutes, the tests are all run, we'll be leaving soon, lay back down, the nurse will remove those pesky things real soon...eventually she decided if she couldn't get her arms in the sleeves the best thing she could do was to just take it off.

i pretty much got the full monty.

some day i guess i'll be the one to wash her ass and lift her saggy boobs to wash under them, but...but......

"come on, mom let's get this nightgown back on you. the doctor will be back soon to remove those hoses and stuff. we'll be leaving real soon. i promise."

..........................................................

bottom line:

1 full monty.
1 ekg, 1 head/neck ct scan, 1 hip x-ray. all results normal.
1 laceration over the eye. *stitched* with super glue or something.
1 bad-ass shiner.
1 bad-ass lady.

...........................................................

as cousin nance, who gave us a ride home, said,
"all that adventure and home by 10:00 a.m."


and mary anne smiled.

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mr. chi-city &... the Blog O' The Day (edited)

i found that video over at the 122 blog. stop by and have a look. (it's not all mr. chi-city)

[EDIT: i changed the above link to 122 to a specific post because aaron keeps posting chi-city stuff and the last one was lame. the 122 blog is a group of 16 or so, 20-something year old college buddies, some of whom have now graduated/are in grad school elsewhere. they started the blog after experiencing a very serious personal and communal tragedy. one we all should hope never to experience ourselves. 

as a consequence of their loss, this group of hyper-intelligent, caring, crazy mofos has an even stronger bond than before. 

because of their love for each other and their hilarious fucking senses of humor...may 122 live forever. amen.]

while i'm at it, check out this cool adventure...random news story otd.

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found & find

what is it?

give up, yet?




well, actually, it's just a couple of random plastic objects found on my walk and placed on the stove. the green thing is a felt-tip marker cap. the orange thing is...an orange thing.

on the stove top they look like an irish flag to me.

and i like it.



so that's the found.

and the find?

i-must-find-new-digs within walking distance of mom's.

soon.

i'm not bluffing this time. for the first time in years i find myself surrounded by people more fucked up than i am. (this can't be a good thing.) i'm so sick and tired of these crazy landlord people. (if that sounds like whining to you, think again. because that's another thing i'm sick to death of. whiners.)


gratuitous picture of "the dog with 1/2 white nails and 1/2 black nails" in a rare restful moment....

a *random* news story.

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lost and found

and lost again. and found again...

a friend found him in the middle of a busy street a few blocks away back in november. i adopted him the day or 2 before christmas. he's had several names since then: tabu, killah, wishbone, benjamin franklin, metro...

after i'd had him (as metro) for a couple of weeks he disappeared for 3 days. and he's obviously still awol from at least 1 somebody else, so that's his name. AWOL.

awol's a master paper shredder (witness him laying in his handiwork above). he's housebroken (usually) and he's a sniffer extraordinaire. i'd say he's mostly beagle with the eyes and ears of a chihuahua. it's the beagle in him that makes him go awol. 

he swears he's not doing it on purpose. says he's just 'following his nose.' doing his job as best he can.

which reminds me. he's also a a dick licker. (eew, shame on you. his, not mine.) a friend says he does it "because he can."

i think she's right.


here he is xmas day with the lovely josephine and her entourage.




his hand prints in the freshly laid cement scratchcoat of my in-progress shower floor. yes, i said *hand* prints. he likes to walk on his hind legs, so i figure my dog, unlike yours, has 2 legs and 2 arms.


it may be hard to see, but that's his beagle nose print in the same cement.


he's never without that dorky harness since he came back and always on leash when we go out. but i've spiffed it up with black marks-a-lot tiger stripes, and his name and phone # with a note saying, "for a good time, call me at..."

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M.O.T.D.

Metaphor Of The Day: 

[edit - see picture above and link below for a metaphor (this post), via the following Brilliant simile.]

"Building a fire is like playing jenga backwards." (jtb)

ok, so i haven't felt like posting much lately. 

i have a feeling that may change in the near future. i may even post pictures of my new dog. he's a pretty cool dude...mom kinda likes him.

she's always been a pretty hard sell for change. of any kind. 

(puns intended. and she's never been too fond of pets before now.)

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the dog song

thanks, terri. it's awesome. and pretty much right on... Read more!

who is your hero? [edited 1-20-09]

the first question that the Levite asked was, "If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?" But then the Good Samaritan came by. And he reversed the question: "If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?"

read the whole thing here.

what? you didn't read it. get back.

[edit: for a much more interesting and salient tribute, check this shit out from mr. bullet holes...] 

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i just learned that a blogger friend's mother died last night. i didn't know either one of them other than through this internet thing. but i can't stop crying.

the daughter is a true caregiver. she kept her mom in her home and cared for her until almost the very end; she washed her, fed her, was her companion and loving support.

the mom had alzheimer's.
i have mixed emotions. i feel for the daughter's indescribable loss and pain...i'm glad the mom is rid of hers.



when we 1st "met" i thought our moms sounded to be at pretty much the same stage of progression, but that wasn't so. my mom is still healthy - unbelievably so. she has lost more cognitive ability in the past month than in the past year, but she's still hanging in there and tries hard to catch a glimpse...she sleeps a whole lot more recently. i can see that weekly.

but she's still here. and for that i am grateful. i'm not ready for that. i guess i never will be?

peace to you and yours, Robyn.









my sister took us to walmart a few weeks ago and mom drove a go-cart for the first time ever. damn! she did good job maneuvering through the herds and strays of christmas shoppers.
and she didn't hit a single one. 

...or remember that she'd had such fun the next day. but she still likes hearing about it later.

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avocado salad and bachelor antipasta plate

are you tired of the same old peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for dinner night after night? would you like to have a nice bowl of cereal, but the milk is curdled? ...which brings me to the most difficult part of these recipes: gathering up the nerve to open the refrigerator.

(btw, where in the cornbread hell is the "d" in "refrigerator" and if that's the deal, lord, why does it unceremoniously show up in "fridge"? ??

that D should be more Tenacious.) 

did you listen to that? 

if not, do not even bother to read any further...

because this is just a tribute to the greatest refrigerator in the world!

AVOCADO SALAD for one:

the key here is to live where you can get a good avocado. (if you live in the hinterlands, substitute with toshiba apples or beef jerky.)

-slice your avocado in 2 and eat 1/2 of it with salt, pepper (and lime if you have it).
-place other 1/2 of avocado aside.
-open refrigerator and remove that mushy head of lettuce.
-remove mushy parts of lettuce.
-place unmushy parts on a plate.
-open fridge (again) and locate some old salad dressing. (the older the better. possibly the 'creamy cilantro' that wasn't as good as it sounded when you bought it, but it's better now, i promise.)
-pour a little* dressing on your lettuce** and mix with a fork.
open fridge again.
-find leftover parmesan cheese from your last pizza delivery and dump a little bit or a lot on.
-spoon out other 1/2 of avocado on top.
-add salt & lots of pepper.

and that's it. it's real good. if you happen to have carrots or onions in the refrigerator, don't add them to this particular salad. it's a total waste of time, but you can eat them while you cook.

and for you meat eaters, here's a great dish to go along with that one in case you didn't have enough unmushy lettuce for the salad to fill you up.

BACHELOR ANTIPASTA PLATE:

-open fridge (i know...i'm sorry!) and locate and remove any pizza less than 3 1/2 weeks old.
-while you're at it, locate and remove the container of sliced jalapenos that came with the pizza. and any old bologna that may be under the egg carton.
-(if there are eggs in the egg carton, extract them, too. because you can always add a fried or boiled egg to almost anything, especially salads and antipasta plates.)

-fry a slice or 2 of bologna. (or any available lunch meat or spare venison backstrap or sausage if you're real lucky.)
-scrape off the pizza toppings onto the fried bologna. (toss the crust. in the trash. it's too chewy when microwaved and it's most likely tasteless, anyway.)
-add jalapenos and nuke it all for a while. 

(tip: "a while" is sorta like "a dash" or "a pinch." i find 123 is a pretty universal microwave cooking time except for reheating cold coffee as it makes the cup too hot to hold.)

oh! & i almost forgot.

you're gonna have to open the fridge one more time to look for some more salad dressing. if you have any old italian dressing you're in luck big time. slosh some on top of your bachelor antipasta plate and you can call it, "deluxe.".

i have more great recipes to share. (but being the slacker that i am, i probably won't.)

or as the paraphrased french say... "enjoy, say la bone a pete."


* this is a tricky one. i can't really help you much, but suffice to say, too much dressing drenching is irreversible even if you have more stuff to add to the salad. if you get your lettuce too soggy, revert to the usual pb&j dinner.

** if you have some saltine crackers in little plastic packets that you got from a restaurant...crumble them up (before you open the packet) and pour them on the lettuce at this point of the preparation. (this "can" also work to "sort of" alleviate the above mentioned culinary snafu.)

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lost and found

found in the gutter on my midnight stroll.

left to right:

british coins*,
1- 1 pence
2- 2 pence
4- 5 pence
1- 10 pence
1- 20 pence

spanish euro coins,
1- 5 cent
1- 10 cent**

u.s. coins,
2- 1 cent

all are roughed up and scarred from being run over in the street. i wonder why and how long they might have been where i found them. i imagine some crazed spanish vagabond tossing them out the window of a fast moving vehicle and laughing maniacally. 

*- those english sure are proud of elizabethII. her profile is on all of them.

**- my favorite. it has a picture of the enigmatic cervantes on the obverse, national side.

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guess what i'm giving everyone for christmas...

The Day of Judgement

from the center panel of the

Memling Triptych in Gdańsk.

come judgement day, i'm pretty sure i'll be headed straight to hell for that one.  and for trying so dang hard to get out of christmas this year. only to be over ruled, i might add.

[phone call]

"are you serious? do you have a reason?"

"i've got half a dozen reasons."

"good."

before i even got to the 3rd one i was interrupted and the rest was never spoken.

as rodney daingerfield used to say, "i don't get no respect."

sometimes i hate being loved.

nothing personal, but...

bah fucking humbug.

------------------------------

this is unrelated, but it brought a much needed smile to my face. it's highly addictive, loads of fun...and very civilized, if you ask me.

and if you watch the 2nd video here you'll see my xmas offering at exactly the 2:57-2:58 mark.

(and if you watch the 1st video, tell me if you were as surprised as i was that there was no adolescent-boy-breast-poking involved.)

merry christmas, y'all

p.s.

Juste judex ultionis,
donum fac remissionis
ante diem rationis.

 

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cleaning out the closets

Here is the beginning of my post. And here is the rest of it. Read more!

cleaning out the camera

this is a view out my bedroom window. later that same evening i went out for a stroll (without the camera) and saw jupiter and venus very near that same crescent moon. it was a very cool thing to witness.

for a view of some of the other things i found on my walks last week...

i live a couple of blocks from a hopping night-life district. the bills and jewelry were found in the early morning hours. the bracelet (anklet?) was broken into many pieces and lying in the street near the single ear ring. i wonder what happened? a drunken lover's quarrel, perhaps?

the bills i imagine falling out of pockets while inebriated fools fish for car keys.

i found this interesting little goodie on my way to mom's the other day. it's plastic and slightly padded. there are 4 metallic contact points on the front.

this is the back of the cowboy hat. that's like a tiny speaker in the center and 4 tiny electrical contacts(?) at bottom left.

any idea what it used to say? or sing?


yes, i know... it's an odd thing that i do, but i almost never come home empty handed. it's usually less interesting stuff than last week's bumper crop of a haul (at least to most people), and rarely as lucrative. ($6.07 woot!)

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i posted on lily's virtual book club about the book we've been reading. the book is called "a short history of tractors in ukrainian." it's quite enjoyable and a surprisingly poignant, yet unsentimental, family drama. 


so far there only 4 of us in the clubhouse. won't you join us? there's plenty of room.  

...it was really cold here last night and this morning. cold for here, anyway. and windy. i went out walking at midnight. ice crunched underfoot and i came home with frost on my nose. this morning i walked over to see mom. it's funny how she has no idea if it's cold or hot or windy or still outside. she noticed my hands were cold and seemed to enjoy holding them to her face.

it's starting to get cold again now. (it warmed up to almost 40 this afternoon.) i don't know how you eskimos do it. 20 degrees and 20 mph wind is butt freeze cold to me. and here it only lasts a day or 2 at a time. i hope.

(((y'all stay warm.)))

and come visit our book club. it won't be nearly so lame (no offense lily, josephine and clippy) with you there. (maybe)
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of lemons and monkeys and a random Q.O.T.D.

when life gives you lemons...laugh your ass off at it.

Question Of The Day: wtf is pink lemonade, anyway?

according to carnival historian Joe Nickell, in his 2005 book Secrets of the Sideshows, a man named Pete Conklin who ran a circus lemonade and peanut concession actually was the one who invented the drink. One day in 1857, while Conklin was making regular lemonade, he ran out of water. In desperation, he used the pink water from a tub that one of the bareback riders had used to wash her red tights. Unfazed, Conklin added some lemon slices and sold the concoction as “strawberry lemonade,” promptly doubling his sales. And, as they say, when life gives you lemons …

isn't that fascinating?

although pink lemons do exist, today's pink lemonade isn't made from their juice. (hopefully, it's made of some artificial dye not derived from an athlete's tights. right?)

remind me to never drink pink lemonade again...

but trust me on this one... bicycle riding monkeys are REAL.

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2 things

when the kids were little we had this routine at supper time. each of us would tell a good thing and a bad thing that had happened that day. one evening, in her sweet, squeaky, little 4-year-old voice, josephine just said, "grammawgrampaw." the rest of us laughed and laughed. did she not understand the concept? or had nothing bad occurred? whatever the case, from then on our little ritual was no longer "good thing/bad thing," but simply, "2 things."

having read this blog post from josephine yesterday morning, let me just say, "josephinesean."

as a parent it is very gratifying to know they have such a close relationship. have each others back, so to speak. may you all be so lucky.  may you always be such good friends with your siblings...

ok. enough sap for today. check out this article about a recent breakthrough in alzheimer's research involving β-breakers. that's "beta-breakers" - not to be confused with the annual "bay-to-breakers" 12-k run in san francisco.

Few things to keep in mind when doing this historical and very San Francisco race:

-You can drink and party on the route during the race. Be prepared to see bars and kegs on wheels.
-There will be many runners and walkers in costumes. Elvis will be seen numerous times through out the day.
-Bring tortillas for the start of the race. You don’t want to be unprepared for the traditional “Tortilla Fight” starting line.
-This is the only day you can be nude in public and not get arrested...(nude costume)

you can read more about the silly race here.

(pictured above: vegan cornbread and avocado salsa.) Read more!

go star wars!

mom and i spent 2 relaxing days and nights at my sister's in stephenville. the food was great, the company even better. mom was disoriented most of the time. especially toward the end.

she enjoyed being with her grandson even though she didn't know his name. that's him flashing the *hook 'em horns* sign. we were playing go fish with his star wars cards. yes, we're a real intellectual group. (doesn't that look like a norman rockwell painting?)

more pics after the jump...

she interacted well while sitting at the table playing cards.



this is a 52 second slide show of the affair...




give me all your neimoidian acclamator-class hokey pokey okey dokey solar sailers...

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Louise and I had been hitchhiking for several months. I think we were returning from New Hampshire and points between when we arrived in Denton, Texas in the spring of '70. Denton is a college town just north of Dallas. We had several friends going to school there. We spent a few days sitting in on classes and sleeping on couches. Suddenly it was spring break and time to move on.

One of our new friends invited us to go with himself and a couple of others to Port Aransas for splash day. How could we refuse? This was a 19 year old kid's dream. A Texas beach full of crazy, partying, Boones Farm Apple Wine drinking college boys. And girls!

As if that weren't incentive enough, our host was a rich kid. No, a very rich kid. I kid you not...we flew to Port Aransas in his private airplane. Our opening act was to buzz the beach from about 60 feet overhead.

If you've ever been to spring break you have some idea of what goes on. There are literally 10,000 college kids, very little sleep happens, much less sobriety and 3 days later, everyone disappears. Everyone goes back to school. Back to their responsibilities. 

Only, Louise and I had no classes to return to and our responsibility at the time was to explore. So we waved goodbye and we stayed.

With only a few dollars in my pocket, I decided to find a job. Told there was usually work on shrimp boats over at Aransas Pass, just a few miles up shore,  off we went. We went from boat to boat to boat with no luck. With only one boat in the harbor we hadn't yet asked, things were looking pretty grim. The captain was a not so friendly 30-something Yugoslavian. He was setting out at 3am the next morning and could use a "header", but I couldn't bring my dog.

did I mention Louise was my dog?

Louise was a stubby, little, curly-haired mutt named after my favorite sculptor at the time, Louise Nevelson. Louise Nevelson was famous for her black, found-object constructions. My Louise was solid black. My Louise stayed with the captain's wife and kids in town while we went out 500 miles into the Gulf of Mexico. 

I can't say what Louise did for those 30 days, but I had an adventure on a 50 foot shrimp boat with 2 crazy men, one of whom enjoyed threatening to throw me overboard daily. I started out seasick and ended up climbing on outriggers to disentangle nets in violent storms. I ate fresh snapper and moray eel and worked 20 hours a day and saw the sun rise and set on the ocean's horizon. I once saw the full moon rise as the sun set with nothing but ocean and sky and our small craft to interupt the magnificence.  When I returned, Louise and I had bucks in our pockets and we hitched to Colorado where we ended up living on a mountainside for 3 months and working in a zinc mine.

well, *i* worked in the mine. Louise stayed at home protecting the tent.

(the photo is of Louise Nevelson, not Louise the dog.)

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