Today I said goodbye to a dear friend. My Mom and Dad’s sweet old dog passed away peacefully in my arms this morning. I hope - and believe - that he had a good and happy life. And I am thankful that I could be with him to say goodbye, and maybe comfort him a little as he left us. Death is so many things: Sad, strange, scary, and at the same time, oddly beautiful.
Rest in peace, sweet Jim. 1992(?)-2008.
A photo from Christmas 2001:
Show’s over. Much fun. Crappy sales. Fun more important than sales. This time at least. More when I get home.
Really nice day at the show today. I love my art show friends. And a great dinner at Corky & Lenny’s Deli. Life is good.
Next to my booth:
Beachwood, Ohio
1. In Ohio for the Cain Park Arts Festival this weekend. I’ve done this show five or six times - it’s a two-and-a-half day event - a fun and quality show. The public is nice, the town is nice, and the show treats us like royalty. I’m excited about being here.
2. I don’t understand car radiators. Sometimes I seem to lose coolant like I was pouring it out the window, other times it doesn’t seem to leak at all. Anyway, the Beige Bullet had a lovely and trouble-free trip. On a relatively cool summer day. Which makes my lack of air conditioning more tolerable.
3. Today’s favorite road-trip iPod song:
Well I could have been a famous singer
If I had someone else’s voice
But failure’s always sounded better
Lets fuck it up boys, make some noise…
-Bright Eyes, “Rode To Joy”
4. After not driving today’s route for a couple of years, it’s oddly reassuring to find that, in spite of constant construction over at least the last 26 years that I’ve been driving it, the Pennsylvania Turnpike continues to make that state the laughingstock of the nation. They spend years (and millions) digging and detouring and blasting and paving whichever small section, managing to upgrade it from death-trap to merely inadequate.
5. Pennsylvania Turnpike. Today.
I’m not going to tell you what. Or why. Or how. Not for a long time.
But I am onto something.
—–
A photograph.
I live in a dark room. I’ve lived there as long as I can remember. I used to be scared of that darkness, dreading the time I had to spend there. I spent years looking for the light switch, trying to turn on a light to brighten the darkness.
Lately I’ve been liking my dark room. I go there and hide. Hide in my beautiful sadness. It’s nice.
1. Happy Fourth of July. I’d be more happy about it myself if my president and his entourage weren’t buzzing my house in their big black helicopters even as I type this. Get outta my town.
2. Ran the 4th of July 5k this morning - my knee is still a little bothersome, but at least I can run and race and not do too badly.
3. My softball season finished last night with a rare and unexpected win. The team has one more game next week but I’ll be in Cleveland, and I’m not playing in the fall league, so I’m done for the year.
4. From the never-ending “right-wing nut-job news” department, via George Loper, “christian” news reports about sprinter Tyson Homosexual.
5. I might have already posted this - I feel like I’ve seen it before anyway? - but even so, it bears another look: From stuffonmycat.com, Cats that look like Wilford Brimley.
6. Your obligatory independence day Jesse-the-dog photo. Strike a pose.
And then, after I’ve fallen, I notice the warm, red blood on my knees. I don’t seem to be bleeding badly; I’m not in pain. I almost laugh. I roll onto my side, then my back, and all I know is the hunger of last night in my belly, and the warmth of today on my face.
I remember reading an interview that Bob Dylan gave back in the 80’s or early 90’s. When asked what songwriters he admired, Dylan mentioned Gordon Lightfoot. That surprised the hell out of me, because I had always taken Lightfoot to be a silly, pop-oriented guy. Of course, Bob was right.
“When you reach the part where the heartaches come
The hero would be me
But heroes often fail
And you wont read that book again
Because the ending’s just too hard to take”
-Gordon Lightfoot, “If You Could Read My Mind”
“So hear my words with faith and passion
For what I say to you is true
And when you find the one you might become
Remember part of me is you”
-Lyle Lovett, “Simple Song”
