but a dream

Barack Obama and I were engaged in a meeting about branding (as in creating the Obama brand, not as in dogies at the Triple C Ranch or your friendly local dungeon), when he decided he was tired of working and wanted to take a cruise. I drove the truck, and he just stared out the window into the darkness.
We took back roads, and soon I was lost. Finally I spotted a gas station, and Obama allowed as he needed to take a whiz while I got directions. But the place was closed. As I pulled out of the station, I forgot to turn my headlights on, and cut off a cop car. I looked into the rearview mirror to see the gumball turning and pulled over.
"Uh oh," I said to Obama. "It looks like you're going to be compared to the Kennedys again—and not in a good way."

look ma no poles!

20,000 and counting

This little site is pretty much a closed circle, which is why I don't get 20,000 hits a day but rather am totaling that now. That was not my plan initially, when I thought it would be a home-building site and hoped that the related commercial content would attract enough interest that I might actually earn a little money. (You know what I'm talkin' bout—you people haven't been doing your share.) As it proved, however, it's been a way for a handful of people to keep up with each other's doings. There's plenty of stuff I know that I don't talk about—divorces, diseases, affairs, arguments, deaths. So, yeah, it's kind of lightweight, but it does mean I don't have to repeat myself quite so often.
I could do the blind item thing. You know, "Why is a reporter for a major news organization avoiding the office?" Or, "What lesbian songstress appears to be having trouble at home?" Should I get more hard core or just stick with the lah-di-dah? Yes, I'm talkin' to you.

a brain on autism

This is an amazing video by Amanda Baggs, 27. In it, she shows her autistic rituals as a kind of conversation with objects around her and then explains them using a computer-generated voice. Apparently, she is the subject of an article in Wired. The name of the piece is "In My Language." I had to watch it twice.

my dream house

I hanker after a rural lifestyle that includes petunias in tractor tires painted white. The plan has long been that sometime (in the distant future) when I am decrepit, I will move my trailer onto a piece of Ozark woodland and convince all my friends to join me. We will have a central cookhouse (or cooktrailer)and hired help to cook in it and drive us to the doctors' in Springfield or Memphis. Or maybe we'll have a plane.
Never have I seen this dream so fully realized as in this picture sent to me by my West Plaines, Mo., correspondent. Of course, all those stairs with the canes and wheelchairs won't work, and there's the tornado problem. But wouldn't it be fun? I'm accepting checks for the land fund for those who want to reserve their little piece of paradise now. Plan ahead. I have seen a mailbox made out of a cowboy boot. I know where there are a bunch of cowboy boots. . .

bad electronic karma

I hope that Mercury or Mars or whatever is finally out of retrograde, because I have had it with my wireless electronics that all have to be plugged in to both an electrical socket and a phone line.
It started when I removed the cable for the cable TV. Perhaps the coaxial gods were angry? I have two remaining functional phone jacks after tripping over the one in my bedroom. The cable seems to have shared space with one of the other phone lines, the one in your bedroom, my friends.
So that's where I had the master wireless phone, wireless DSL router and yes, the wireless printer (And supposed fax machine that I have to return by tomorrow to get my money back since it doesn't feed the paper. Also the cable box has to be returned by tomorrow).
Well, with all systems down, I tried to trace the phone line in and out of walls to see where it might have been disturbed. However, it's one of those really old twisted ones that was likely installed before my birth and certainly before I moved into this apartment 30-some-odd years ago, so it's been painted over and is impossible to follow on its absolutely nonsensical rounds. Plus, I was afraid to mess with it much lest the last remaining phone jack go on the fritz.
Naturally, the last remaining phone jack is in the middle of the kitchen wall nowhere near an electrical outlet. Just shoot me.
So now there are are phone wires and extension cords garlanded all around the kitchen with no place to set up the "wireless" printer/fax, which is okay because I have to return it anyway.
I know, I know. More than you needed to know.

the adventurers

Some people like going out in the freezing cold, strapping slats to their feet, hurling themselves down precipices and attempting to stay upright. Those people always seem to want other people to try it too, just assuming that since they themselves are deeply into self punishment, everyone else will be as well.
CG is one of the faithful; HG is more the hot chocolate and roaring fire type.Do you think he'll get her up this hill? I notice she shot this pic from the bottom.

just one more

The great house party is over. At its height nine people shared quarters—a king, three fulls and a couch, to speak as a vacation rentals manager. There was barely room to walk between the beds. And then Dolores showed up. . .

cai guo qiang is a genius

I wasn't supposed to take this picture, but then neither was anyone else in the Guggenheim. And they were all doing it.

Another promo for E's house, aka Jo Dee Messina's childhood home. Check it out in the Globe. The gray box above is Jo dee singing Bye Bye.

hi chien chi!

Dear Chien Chi,
We visited your old stomping grounds. We ate dim sum at the restaurant you took us to once, the one with the shrimp and lobsters in tanks by the door. We saw the old men gambling in the park. We did not see your prostitutes and pimps. These men did not like it when I took their picture. We were sorry you were not here. Michele says hi. Love to Cheryl.
PS
In answer to your question, people get married lest they forget what shitheads they are.

faux cils

Maman et fille mettent les false eyelashes. Que belles!

just a memory

How evanescent are the snows of yesterday (or the day before)—just a memory of purity melted into a pool of grime. The self-styled French Invasion has returned to watch TV and visit the M & M store in Time Square. Ah, America, that thy cold commercial heart could melt like polar caps during global warming.

whose granddaughter is this?

Okay, who's voting?

why didn't i marry for money?

One wonders while overlooking Central Park with the old college ties.

neither rain nor snow nor sleet

. . . could keep the travelers from their rental cars.

street, obscured

Yay! Finally snow! Except that Michele et famille and Ed unt crew are trying to fly in today, and Keri is trying to drive to Vermont to take farm pictures for Horizon organic milk. All in all, not the best travel day.

moon, consumed

the artist's studio

PS Don't forget, a total eclipse of the moon tnight at 8:43, if it's clear enough.

february thaw

The view from Joe and Holly's house. I did not put the bananas in my backpack. I put them in the refrigerator. I doubt they're that good any more.