Martin serving Oggy

Martin showed up and was beside himself when he saw my moped putting up the hill. His wife who he said was "Getting along in years." doesn't have a license and thus bicycles around York. He thought the Moped would be a good answer. Getting along in years is a mild understatement considering her birth certificate is probably written in Sanskrit. They have to be 80 years old. I don't want to ask him until we meet a few more times.
I have my doubts about the moped but only because I'm driving the worst moped that I've ever seen and until recently I was the only one who could even start it and keep it rolling. A nice moped would work for the lady.
Martin and I met up for our daily tennis match now that the rain has stopped. He works at Hannafords and at Irving Oil. "That's enough for me," he said and I felt like a complete loser for not having a job.
I told him about the gig in Dover and he said, "That's not far." And coming from his mouth I accepted it. I really don't see Martin steering me wrong. The tennis game is coming along but the wind at the courts is the worst.

Four Redux

I'm tired of only having my Charlie Manson look up on youtube. My public deserves better.




Here's the original attempt at this way back in '07 or '08. I guess I was begging for Jesus and Manson comments with the beard and such. But damn, the elevator music comparison does hurt my feelings. I see their point but in a million years you are not going to be in an elevator and hear an amateur guitar improv on Four by Miles Davis. If it were...Take my Breath Away, by Berlin, then I'd understand. But not Four. No.

Dentist Visit

I was overdue to say the least. But I've tried to eliminate sugar from my diet and I do floss and brush regularly since I was told my breath smells like spoiled milk. So Dr. Herold over on Islington went over my choppers and didn't tsk tsk me too much. In fact, I felt in good hands. He was professional and told me things he's said a thousand times but he really told them to me like I was the first person who had ever been to a dentist. He actually said, "Tooth decay is caused by bacteria on your teeth that take the sugar you eat and turn it into plaque which can eat a hole in the tooth."
I nodded gravely.
"I'm going to check your gums now. The gums are the fleshy tissue that surround the bone. Open wide....I'm going to check the depth of your gum connectivity. 1-3 is normal. 4 indicates recession of the flesh and can lead to periodontal disease. 5 and above indicate disease. Open wide."
I had some #4s and the Caribbean seascape on the ceiling had the inspirational sayings like, "Dance at home - when you're alone." or "Live today." and "Do what you love."
OK.
Then the doctor showed me a picture of teeth and gums and bone.
"In this day and age, there is no reason you should lose a tooth. If your gums are healthy then we can save all your teeth."
I thanked him for telling me good information. I listened this time. I want to keep my teeth or should I say I don't want to lose my teeth because losing teeth is a nightmare of painful chewing and crowns and dentures and bridges. My buddy George was always supergluing his bridge back together. He swallowed part of it in a nap. Root canal surgery. It's awful and I don't want it. The dentist also talked about mouth cancer. Is there something I can do about that? No smoking or chewing tobacco.
There are so many things out there trying to kill me. I don't really worry about these things like you would think based on my obsessive concern for water and wolves and tennis. In fact, I translate a sudden bump in my chest to something external. Like, I'm having a mild heart attack BECAUSE America hasn't declared war on anyone in the 60 years of war with everyone. Like this country is all a big fraud...ERGO my heart valves are malfunctioning.
I heard a health insurance company sends its associates to golf school so they can play better golf when they have golf meetings. And people wonder why I don't have insurance. My theory is that if someone is going to be playing golf then it's going to be me. I'm not paying for anyone to take putting lessons.

I'm going to go play tennis now and get this out of my mind.

What does your web history say about you?

Mine tells a sad story, a story I don't think I'll have time to fully develop. I was taking a piss in the woods today and thinking about John Updike. Not many people deserve to live forever but I think he did. I really believe that Updike had a gift of observation that deserved to last forever. Maybe there are other people out there with the same gift but they don't get a chance to write. They just observe. Then I wonder if it makes any difference at all. I decided to listen to conservative talk radio instead of NPR. I'm tired of caring. I want Rush Limbaugh to tell me everything is fine, that we've got nothing to worry about.

I did hear an interesting comment that the human population is supposed to peak at 9 or 10 billion. We're at 7 right now. But there need not be a cataclysm for 5 or 6 billion to die. It all comes down to 1.4 babies per woman. In something like a few years it would go from 9 billion to 2 billion without any great plague, just natural die off. Those 2 billion are going to live SO WELL because of the 300 trillion who died before them and slaved building the infrastructure they will enjoy. Or maybe they will curse us like you curse a previous tenant who leaves cat shit in the closet and roaches under the kitchen sink.

If you've never seen a leatherback turtle then I don't see how they will miss them. Biodiversity is relative to the decline you've witnessed. So a baby born in 2100 will only know what is and not what was. Does anyone miss the dodo bird? No, but I grieve for the wolf, noble and rugged living honestly without wifi or earth friendly toilet paper. But the kid who only knows the wolf as an animal in a Jack London book won't miss it. We already idealize these animals since they're so rare. The idealization will be complete in a few decades.

So I did some looking into heart disease to find out when I can expect to be a part of that die off. I don't have shortness of breath but something isn't working right in the plumbing department. Clean up on aisle 4. Hell, even gallows humor doesn't make me laugh anymore.

Speaking of Rush, here's a transcript from the very town I'm writing about. Santa Cruz. How serendipitous~I don't want to edit if for space but here's a sample...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Cat in Santa Cruz, California, great to have you on the Rush Limbaugh program. Hi. CALLER: Hi. First of all, mega dittos, Rush. What an honor. I'm a 20-year-listener calling you from the sea of crazy radical liberals. (chuckles) I've got a brief story I thought you'd enjoy. My son -- a Republican, a conservative like his dad and I -- got a job here in Santa Cruz in a very popular local health food store. He had a button he wore on his work shirt every day that said, "I'm a Republican, bless America." Well, he was told by his supervisor he could not wear the button to work. Well, he continued to wear it. All the other employees there have pierced noses, lips, eyebrows, dreadlock down the back, tie-dyed shirts, whatever so he kind of stood out. Well, he continued to wear his button, proudly, and he got fired. And I refuse to leave Santa Cruz because I love the local area. It's a gorgeous town. But the hate for right-wingers in this town is unbelievable. Please don't ever stop. Don't ever stop and don't forget us out here in Santa Cruz. RUSH: (laughing) CALLER: We need you desperately, desperately. Everybody's in tie-dyed clothing. Oh! RUSH: Don't worry, you will never be the forgotten. "The forgotten in Santa Cruz "will never be a phrase uttered here, you will never be forgotten. Let me ask. These long-haired, maggot-infested, dope-smoking types that work at the health food store. CALLER: (laughs) RUSH: Do they wear pro-Obama or pro-left-wing cause buttons? CALLER: You know, I am not really sure about that, but to just look at them, you know, they might as well. RUSH: Now, da-da-da-da-da-da! You're profiling out there. The regime doesn't like that. CALLER: Yeah. I don't like the regime, so we're even.

"...long-haired, maggot-infested, dope-smoking types..." I think I'll borrow that for my book. What a great thinker this man is.
I know that health food store on River Street. It was across the street from the Food Not Bombs Saturday meal location, the community garden that I'm writing about, the sunflower garden where Jar went to hide from the non-vegans. Or maybe there's a Whole Foods that moved in since I fled back in 1995.

Blue Hills

Bonnie has me on a short leash. She will allow me to take 4 hours to do errands before she shits on the carpet. I took her for a long walk at 11pm and she was in my face at 6:15. These other dog owners must have some kind of system worked out because I'm the only person walking their dog in the predawn and near midnight. If you are fond of sleeping then steer clear of the King James Spaniel. At this point I'm going to steer clear of dogs in general.

I did manage to slip out to be the camera operator on a no budget horror film called The Blue Hills. Advance buzz is that it's headed for Sundance.
Here's a behind the scene picture on Little Harbor Road. The one man crew, Kurt, is applying fake blood to Kevin's knee. Damon the director is in the helmet.

This was taken before the heavens unloaded on us. The final shot was filmed in a complete downpour with me riding through puddles chasing Kevin on his bike with the camera mounted on the handlebars. I said we couldn't have paid a rain truck to do a better job.