Month: July 2011

Off to the Mountains

/ Tracy Abell / 8 Comments

      

Just wanted to say I’ll be scarce around these parts for the remainder of the week
as I’ll be in the wilds without internet access or cell phone service.

Send up a flare if you need to get in touch.

In the meanwhile, Agnes is facing her fear of the high dive . . .

AGNES by Tony Cochran

    

I can only hope I’ll have Agnes’s grace and presence of mind 

should I ever find myself dangling above a pool.

 
                

Name Those Phobias!

/ Tracy Abell / 2 Comments

              

AGNES by Tony Cochran

Okay, I’m hard-pressed to come up with a more original phobia than these,
but I will admit to being seriously creeped out whenever I think back to the video
I saw of a male frog giving birth through the skin on his back.
Not even a spork could make that more scary for me.

How about you?
Got PHOBIAS?

                

Friday Five: The Losing My Memory Edition

/ Tracy Abell / 9 Comments

                  

1)  For several years I’ve had to walk out of rooms and back into them
in order to remember why I walked in there in the first place. 
(A bothersome turn of events but not too scary, memory-wise.)

2)  More and more frequently, I feel as if I’m turn turning into my mother

who used to call out each of her five kids’ names before hitting on the right one.
(A somewhat humorous lapse in mental faculties that feels a bit scarier whenever 
I accidentally call my kid or husband by my dog or cat’s names.)
 
3)  A couple months ago, I drew a total and complete blank on a friend’s name 
for about five minutes.
(That memory void freaked me out, and freaked out Wildebeest even more 
when I confessed it to him.)
 
4)  Earlier this week, I was writing a check (something I don’t do all that regularly but
have done for thirty years), and temporarily forgot how to write out the cents part of the amount.
I really and truly could not remember how to do it.
(Ack!  That is all I can say about this episode.)
 
5)  I was thinking all these things were signs of aging and/or early onset dementia but then
I read Agnes today and realized the same happens to the very young:
 
AGNES by Tony Cochran
 
Have a great weekend, everyone!
May you create wonderful memories that stay with you forever and ever.
 
              

Missing Mr. Vonnegut

/ Tracy Abell / 2 Comments

                 

"Hello babies. Welcome to Earth. It’s hot in the summer and cold in the winter.
It’s round and wet and crowded. On the outside, babies, you’ve got a hundred years here.
There’s only one rule that I know of, babies-"God damn it, you’ve got to be kind."
                                                                                       
                                                      — Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater)


                                                                                                                   image from morguefiles.com
                                    

                        

Friday Five: The Street Running Edition

/ Tracy Abell / 8 Comments

                 

1)  The sun is shining and the sky is blue, blue, blue 

but as a result of the excessive number of thunderstorms and downpours this week

2) the trails are too wet and messy for running which makes me sad, sad, sad
so I ran back and forth on the gravel portion just to get my bunny, meadowlark, wildflower fix

3) before heading back onto the neighborhood streets where I ran, ran, ran

up and down streets past parked cars and moving cars and boring old suburban houses
 
4) checking my watch every few minutes because I needed to run, run, run
for forty minutes before I’d let myself stop for the day
 
5) and by the time I reached my goal I remembered street running isn’t all that bad, bad, bad
because there aren’t any rocks or knapweed or holes to trip you up.
 
Still.
I’m hoping the trails dry out soon so I can get back out there where my heart sings, sings, sings.   
 
Wishing everyone a joyful weekend!
 
          

Adele and Her Fan Base

/ Tracy Abell / 18 Comments

                

I’m not one to embrace what’s hot-hot-hot,
but do admit to loving Adele’s music.

And if I’m to believe what I’ve read in various places
I’m the typical fan.
Which is to say, I’m female.
Probably older than the average female fan but, still.  Female.
Conventional wisdom says Adele’s fan-base is nearly 100% women. 

This afternoon I chauffeured three fifteen-year-old boys
who were playing various rap songs from their iPods on the car stereo.

I’ve had Adele’s 21 in my car for the past couple months and 
jokingly whispered to Zebu, "Guess this means no Adele, huh?"
 
Moments later, "Rolling in the Deep" was playing (from one of the boy’s iPod!) 
and the boys were singing along.
Not only did they sing that song, one of the boys announced that his favorite Adele song is
"Someone Like You," arguably the most heart-wrenching song on an album filled with heartbreak.
 
We preceded to listen to that song, too,
and there was some discussion of the lyrics’ meaning.
Meaningful discussion.
 
Lest I get too carried away with all this, I should remember that after getting out of the car 
they most likely passed gas then made jokes about erections and/or breasts.
 
                

Today’s Word: Soggy

/ Tracy Abell / 21 Comments

               

Someone left the phone book out in the rain . . . 


                                                                                    image from morguefiles.com
     

Yo.  
Enough with the rain, already!

                

Solace in Bloom

/ Tracy Abell / 9 Comments




       


Flowers seem intended for the solace of ordinary humanity.  
                                                                                 ~John Ruskin

 

                                                            © Tracy Abell 2011

Wildebeest Scores!

/ Tracy Abell / 14 Comments

               

Aside from babysitting neighbor kids in our tiny rural Wisconsin community,
my first paying job was at the nearby canning factory.
I was a Visual Inspector.

Sounds fancy, doesn’t it?

From 6pm – 2am,

I stood alongside a moving conveyor belt
that was covered with peas.
Wielding a long suction hose to remove undesirables:
pebbles,
clumps of weeds,
little green pea-sized berries that were "poisonous."

 
Sometimes I sucked up bits of frog.
 
I also worked the corn pack which was slightly less monotonous
because I was the break person who relieved other workers.
Sometimes I worked at the roller belts carrying the ears of corn
where I grabbed the ones with rotted ends and inserted them into a grinder 
before throwing the newly spruced-up ear back onto the belt.
And sometimes I used a big paddle to shove ears of corn onto the
sorting belts.
 
Before you get all envious, please know that corn splatter isn’t great for the complexion.
 
I just got home from dropping Wildebeest off at his new job.
His very first job.
He’s an actor at Casa Bonita.
Saturday was his first day of training 
in which he learned to fire the guns 
and sword fight.
He has lines to memorize.
He gets to chase a gorilla with a big net.
Someday he might be a cliff diver.
 
The kid’s happy.
And his skin looks great.
 
                   

George Carlin – The American Dream

/ Tracy Abell / 16 Comments
               

I had a crazy day yesterday in which I unloaded lumber in a driving rain storm,
was temporarily trapped in the mountains because of a flooded-out road,
and then while driving home received a call from the neighbors saying our dogs had escaped and were roaming free.
After the final hour and a half drive in a constant downpour, we got home at about 11:30 last night.

That was the end of the day’s bad news, right?
Wrong.

Obama wants cuts to Medicare and Social Security.

I’ve been paying attention and knew that’s what he wanted, but hoped cooler/kinder heads would prevail.
 
Here’s George Carlin from 2005, explaining in his uniquely profane way (warning!) why this is happening:
 

If I don’t laugh, I’ll cry.

 
Have a good weekend, everyone.
Don’t forget to laugh.
 
               

Visualize, and It Will Come (Clean)

/ Tracy Abell / 7 Comments

              

Way back in 2007 I posted photos of my newly cleaned refrigerator.
I swear I’ve cleaned it several times since then, but am way overdue for another decontamination.

Oddly enough, I can’t summon the energy to get started. 


So for now, I’m basking in the memory of what once was.

Who knows?
If I think long and hard enough, my acute mental faculties just might loosen the grime and debris within.
 
I bet that cute Mentalist guy could do it.