idiocratical

""I thoroughly disapprove of duels. If a man should challenge me, I would take him kindly and forgivingly by the hand and lead him to a quiet place and kill him." Mark Twain.

well today was one of those days where i set out to wreak maximum chaos and mayhem, inflict extreme prejudice in the execution of frontier justice as i see it and ended up with way more than i could have bought even if i could have afforded it. having gotten to the point of no return in my tolerance of stray horses i headed into lockhart to inquire about suing my idiot neighbor for damages her horses are causing. so i'm sitting there getting info from a clerk about speaking at a commissioner's court next month challenging some obscure law about caldwell county being a "free-range" county and whether my yard and septic field is considered free-range as well when in walks the judge hisself heading back to chambers from the men's room. after brief introductions all around, a 30 second spot pleading my case to the actual judge right there in the front office and giving my phone number to the clerk, the judge says he will speak to the animal control deputy about this free-range nonsense and takes his leave being the old cattleman himself and knowing a fucked up law when he smells one. so i'm standing there and the clerk says way to go and me, i'm out the door to lunch. damn i's good. no point in calling the minions for help, just go straight to the top i always say.now whether anything will happen in the next few weeks remains to be seen but i have rattled around the hall of justice and pulled the string of a judge w/o the benefit of an appointment before his bench or the accompaniment of an armed guard. i walk with angels and bad dogs. do not piss off the wrong guy. some people should learn these things. i am the wrong guy.
as usual."

I wrote the above Thursday afternoon in an email to an old friend after I got home and it sums up my general attitude this year towards irresponsible assholes that fuck with me but Mr. Clemens said it best and so i'll leave it at that.

galloping idiocracy

Well shitfire, I'm back. Been away for a month getting the new roof done and chasing the fucking neighbor's horses around my property and not getting anywhere with the sheriff's department probably going to have to submit everything in writing and hire a lawyer to sue a person who has no money. What are the percentages in that I ask ya. Dammit.
Retirement is agreeing with me but the neighbor is pissing me off and generally making herself very unliked around here not that it makes a bit of difference. Sometimes I just want to throw a burning bag of shit at her house. All of this makes me very tired.
I think I will take a nap...

shiney side up

Hooha day 2 of a re-roofing job on the domicile man this is a good thing. Double-lock standing seam 24 gauge metal roof would float if turned upside down. Front porch roof re-built, rain harvesting system incorporated to keep the plants happy with natural water crew of 3 working hard and fast like they know what they're doing. No rain in the forecast sky clear and @ high 70's manomanomano...

paper or plastic?

...and to think I almost forgot what today is. Why it's the one month anniversary of my retirement...that much ballyhooed event that launched me off the books.

lancing a blister in the dark

It's just simply amazing to me that anybody thinks the way they do. I mean really. "What the fuck?" you may ask and I would tell you in great detail if I knew the answers to that and other burning questions but I don't and I can only speculate and cringe and rage at the Stupids with their little Pinheads. I don't have any idea what it is I'm talking about and I'm trying to keep it that way but one thing is for sure, killing for peace is like fucking for virginity. They are both mutually exclusive and the cost of this adventure we are currently engaged in has already been discussed in far greater circles than the average browser will discuss here and nobody is sacrificing for the effort except the families of the dead now rotting and all they can do is weep so let's keep it that way.
There was no threat. There is no plot to invade America. There was only Katrina and her sister Rita and the boys over in the Corps of Engineers whose funding was cut off because there aint no percentages in the weather and George. Poor inarticulate George. Explosions and their body counts are far more predictable so lets practice elsewhere shall we?
Heat and auditory weapons that could be deployed and end the fighting overnight are kept back because why? Because it puts too much policy out of a job. Warfare is human nature as is profiteering from the vast expanse of destruction.

the old mousefart on a cotton ball trick

... so as i was sayin' yeah yeah i'll get used to this aural trespassing and carry on like i own de' place right, know what i'm sayin? just like livin under the Union Pacific trestle next to I-10 holmz no biggie right? get used to it. but...... i mean i still protest it aint what i signed on for says right here and it's a pisser know what i mean? and it aint asking too much to ask you to please shut the fuck up but what the hell you gonna do about it anyway? i ask ya. it's just a fucking pisser and that's just the way it fucking is anymore. fucking pisser...
shit! whaacher gonna do...

...but living out here immaculate in East Jesus de Cortez By the Bay has it's moments that eventually add up to it's worth all this for all that as long as all that don't kill us and more. but then it wouldn't matter anyway would it seeins how we'd be all dead 'n all so it must be worth it for the moment anyway right? that's all i'm sayin's all.

forest for the tree

So I'm sitting here thinking, man we bought this place, this little 10 acre slice of paradise 21 years ago and blew the doors off the pumpkins, glowed in the dark, laid down the law and broke it and generally hurt our 2 brain cells for years until the public started encroaching and we downsized our appreciation for Nature's Bounty so as not to embarrass ourselves and besides all that, we were getting older and wiser and it was time to slow down anyway and we wanted to not offend anybody. Well, why is it nobody else respects their neighbors and let's their animals and children careen out of control without a thought to the consequences? I am feeling cramped and crowded and aurally trespassed upon and there's nothing I can do about it except move but with all the blood sweat and tears that I poured into this place, I cannot and now I'm trapped in my own device. This wasn't how retirement was supposed to play out.
But in spite of all that...

The Gospel according to Moondog

...perchance to dream a Dream of a Thousand Castles in the Bold Aire, each with a Thousand Windows, opened by unseen hands and illuminating Satan's Wretched Creatures of the Dawn sprawled across the lawn spawned in Pathos and doomed to loathsome bedevilment Begone begone thy foul and wretched excess, thy wanton and vile excrement is upon thine heart, why doth thou torment so?

...make fast thyself to the Wings of Light and cast away thy Earthly bonds, to soar upon the Solar Breeze, breathless and coy...

...we are Prisoners of our own Design, reigning over a desolate landscape of broken Dreams and pitiful Aspirations. We plunder our childhood and awaken at Death's Door wondering of the Child we were and beholding a frail and gaunt form that can no longer see the Innocence and Beauty. It is but a short journey from the forceps to the stone, fraught with Horror and unspeakable Terror. Why then must we be left to such impotent devices floundering like carp?

...ah yes, to slumber and dream the Dream of the Dead. To awaken renewed, at one with the ties that bind as The Heart is to the Hunter, home from the hill home from the sea...

...so verily I say unto thee Grasshopper, so thy may know and see thy Path. Go forth into the Sweet Night and tread softly upon it's still waters. Open thine eyes and thy will see what thy need is all around thee and what thy want thy cannot have. If thy sow Ice, thy shall harvest Wind. Strive to shed thy Morbid Concerns and thy will find thyself Righteous and Wholesome.

Verily...

painted in place

it's done. the 28th has come and gone. i am outa work. by choice. to keep from going crazy. preventing a meltdown. retired.

are you fucking crazy quitting yer job at 56 after only 20 years doing the same fucking thing day after day all day long day in day out? oh exceedingly so yes but of course.

to keep from going crazy being the key operative. and to the question mostly no. trouble being the smartest moron in the room is being in the room.

feverish forward... always forward feverish

Yeps it's coming. 12 days to gusto and waiting hard like a midnight watch in the rain. Oh yeah man a birthday's full enrichment, freedomed and spiced like alrighty now. The hunch paying off and oh big time, gonna miss that bloodbath thank intuitive plumbing's reaches.

What kills me is the "in the long run" theory of perpetually insured against the day because in the long run, in a dustless cold wind or dimly lit vacuum and twisting quite putrid dead, we're all gonna be heaving those holy clappers of hell's bells themselves just to stay warm in our recollections insured perpetually or not. To trans-counter blithely away, consider the 'ppfff' of certainty as required.

Moving on moving on, on to the foggy found be bound. O' to the buckled knuckled helli delight, bringing sweet winging light for the light.

is no big deal...

The paper work is signed, witnessed, notarized and acknowledged by the monoliths. The boss informed and the countdown in progress. I am retiring in September. The daily grind is smoother and I feel less stress than I have ever felt in my working career. My humor has returned. They tell me I'm smiling more.
I quit smoking 3 months ago and feel like a different person. After 40 years I should think so. Coupled with alcohol cessation 14 months ago and now my pending retirement, I'm on the cusp. It's scary proceeding into middle age now with a certain anxiety about the future but somehow I'm not as apprehensive as I thought I'd be. This is what I been working for half my life so I'm taking my old position of letting the future take care of itself now. It got me through the folly of my youth but these days I got better plans see. I'm smarter. Going on 57 is about where I would like to start slowing down and reconsider the scenery while there's still time. Eliminating 3 major stressors and taking more naps will help with that transition to a sharper focus.

The moms is growing ever more dotty in her old age and other than dropping in on her now and then, there's no more I can do for her. She's taken care of. Major Operation that one but it was done right. Soon, and I say soon rather than later, more hard decisions are going to be made and the fight begins anew until she slips away, robbed of her senses. It's a hard thing to watch.

So here I am trying to downplay this retirement thing at work because it's only been a 20 year run and not all together that much fun and not like some of these guys that stick around 35 years or more and me I just want to fade and I don't think I'm getting out of there without notice because everybody wants to remind me and I told 'em no fanfare but after working there for so long I know the drill.

lamentation

The future is lurking and I see it spying on me, whispering "now what?" through the salt fog and crusty moon spits before me.

Have you what it takes to forge on without the net it wonders, wonders in my mind at night when the jazz is slow and low as the light.

I see the future bending and shaping under the graceful gaze of the past, undulating, modulating hungry, waiting and fast.

bad hat, Harry

I done good.
I'm retiring from my job in a couple of months. The wife knows now. I broke it to her. She didn't flinch. I have good reason to feel all full of myself and relax and banish the dread to a place in the past and move forward into a new phase of life. I can congratulate myself for not falling victim to institutionalization as some of my long time co-workers have done past their point of diminishing returns only to be even more miserable than me.
Living the dream now.

rebirth

A new era is beginning and I feel that "ants in the pants" I used to get before going to the swimming pool as a kid. I have announced my intentions at my job and I have 2 and a half months left to dwell on a 21 year history of working in the same place every day in the same miserable cube on the same miserable bouncing, overloaded and dusty second floor of the same miserable 2nd rate office building downtown for the same miserable government entity every fucking miserable day. I'm free to pursue other avenues. I'm free from a job I've learned to walk away from without looking back. I'm free at last.

picking and dreaming

Man these health kicks are killing me. Besides abandoning alcohol and it's evil destruction, I have ceased inhaling hot poisonous gas. Will I live longer as a result of these life shattering changes? Probably not and who would want to in this fucked up world? The days are brighter however and the soul's daily forays are less despondent so on the bright side, it feels like living longer whether it is or not. So I must be doing something right. I guess I must be squeezing more sensation into the moment now that I'm no longer numb to the moment. That's a good thing since the oppression of the Cube World is a major counter point to my supposed well being and thus keeping my balance in a flux most of the time not to mention my poor sainted mother's affliction that bleeds my tolerance dry. All I can do is nod knowingly and await the next crisis to rear it's ugly head.

what would Bob do?

Today has been a banner kind of a day. I communicated with a soldier I know whose in combat, brought a smile to his face and a civilian friend in the same part of the world, making him smile. After scolding another old friend in Texas about his drunkenness, he wrote me that he is going to get sober. Saw the error in his wicked ways and wants to change. That made me smile. Three other people's lives I touched today and for the better. My karma, or dharma, I get 'em mixed up, is running hot. If I can keep this up maybe I can save the world from itself. Not likely but if my affection for this mess continues I may have a chance to save myself. It's true what they say; you get out of it what you put into it.

And after a certain amount of anxiety for the last few months, I located my wife's birth certificate, my birth certificate, my DD214 from the Navy and both of our Social Security cards. All of which I needed to proceed with retirement paper work. Getting ants in the pants now.

room with a view

I have seen the damage and I have learned my lessons. My heroics are paying their way now through this sleight of hand we call mass culture. I can talk about it with humor and grace and sympathy and I understand the need and desire and willingness to let go and immerse in the stream of numbing chemical reactions that produce the hilarity and exhilaration before dumping the rider back into the rutted gallery of abuse and depressive twitch and numbing grief. A curious thing being surrounded by those that still require escape from bedevilment that really never goes away that control and send into scalding repetitions of self-destructive narratives of the soul, the cycles that can only be broken by shear system failure or by the inner strength found under the ice in 20 feet of water reaching for a life line as the air runs out. I find strength in the presence of broken spirits and my urge is to heal. If only they had ears to hear above the din of intoxication.

My visitor last night is an old friend and co-conspirator. We have reconstructed the world many times over through the years. It was a sad spectacle watching him hover in drunkenness over the deep hole in his soul. A bottle of rum does many things to a broken heart. One thing it won't do is fix it. It never will nor has been known to fix a fucking thing. Telling a foaming drunk that his life is fucked for good unless he unfuck it while still able is a perfect example of bleak futility. It takes courage. It takes a faith to change. Not a faith in something higher, for that just means resigning one's responsibilities to a third party but a faith in yourself. I could not give my self up to chance now. I survive on purpose through my own free will. My old visitor last night will wallow with his demons in the ruins he has made of his life by choices he made under the spell of alcohol. I have lost friends in the past to this rat shit and I seem to be losing another. The sad thing is he knows better but allows it to engulf and smother and seduce and kill him softly.

casting an orb about

Trickling along babbling like a brook important things in the air like a watermelon thump and 4x4's in the mud. Antibiotics need not apply. Beyond medicinal aid this perception of wilderness as therapy. Visitor from the metro tombs due to arrive with reams of research into lifestyle your mother warned you about. Sad baggage review over midnight oil pending. Meanwhile forest vibrating and glistening and alive as usual. Menacing weather moving elsewhere to wreak havoc on some other's day. Not mine today. Today is teeming and with Italian on the menu.

Others not so lucky: http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/061607A.shtml

The fix is in and the funeral plans should be laid by now. The families should try to face the reality of the situation and begin the healing. Fathers should not have to bury their sons. It should be the other way around in a perfect world. Why do we fight I ask myself every day I breathe and wonder at the stupid affliction know as Belief and Faith among the pious as if the degree of faith will edge you over the next guy in line. I think not.

it's in the light

... done. I finished Pynchon's portfolio. I had to. What a genius that guy just wore me out giving me the weirdest dreams keeping me up nights absorbed in another world. Few writers can transport me out of the mundane like this fucking maniac. What a flight.
I should add that re-reading "Against the Day", his latest, precluded any further exploration of other authors. Everything went on hold until I was sure. I think this will be a hard act to follow.

background wave lengths

gaahh...

Fortunes of war took it's toll and all but now I remain as ever.

Trusty confuser went down in flames like a faithful Spad. Between antibiotics and corrupted code I have been otherwise sitting on an event horizon. Disconnected from the web is a home based reality show. Have to reach back and find what I did before e-life in this modern world. Not surprising the more traditional activity prevailed; things like reading books and going to bed early. Almost finished with the second reading of AtD like a I threatened to do a while back. It's a real jewel. Being sick and then offline for a few weeks allowed some overall down time and a new set of long wind chimes humming along out in the yard. I want to get a variety of large chimes to hang around. Plenty of trees. A brasso profundo chime would be cool on a gentle day. Nice to read by.

I must be feeling better although the day job keeps me dumbed down. The wheel is grinding down though, I can feel it, the timing when it's right. I hear the scrape down slope and I hope the segue be seamless as if retiring into a new activity could be. Next stop, middle age plumbing supplies, watch yer step.

At least I hope to get out of there alive and upright. There's still time on the clock to play this out in my second childhood, get a new puppy to raise. Sunny is a frame of mind. Time I got a little practice in with the Future just around the corner.