Same old, same old. Christmas evening. Presents opened, dogs have them half-chewed up, meal is finished and cleared out of the way. The weather has gradually worsened until a heavy surging rain is blowing horizontally in the wind. It is dark and quiet, except for the weather. Daylight faded completely at around three pm and there’s a long night ahead. Joy to the world.
One dog gift was a stuffed toy that looked like a carrot and was filled with catnip. Some dogs love it. Then doggie chewed through and there were suddenly drifts of the strange spice all over the house. How someone managed to get a shovel-load of that shit inside one tiny carrot-sized toy is amazing. It was fun while it lasted. A non-eventful week flew by and now it is New Year’s Day. I’m proud to report that I have no hangover and can launch myself into the new year with a clear head. There was a platoon of thugs who advanced down the street firing random rounds, or was that just a bunch of youngsters with loud fireworks? I don’t really give a toss except that you really upset my dogs and I hope that you get your ass bitten. “Tastes like chicken!”
So ended the year. Now almost another week has passed. There’s nothing accomplished yet. I’m still tinkering in my little trailer but mostly I just enjoy sitting there, warm and snug as the winter weather jostles it about. It feels a bit like being in a small boat. Today I connected the TV and the dvd player. They worked! Now I can get away from it all and bring it all with me. Actually, a good film is like a good book, worth looking at again and again with something new to be discovered each time.
There are still odd but happy dramas. In today’s morning headlines an Alaska Air 737 Max9 leaving Portland OR depressurized at 16,000′ when a door blew out. Everyone is fine. “I was having a nap when my blanket fell out of the airplane!” A mother holding her infant son almost lost him but all’s well that ends. Here we go again! The evening news assured us that all is well here in Canada. No Canadian airline owns one at the moment. Meanwhile, somewhere in Oregon, there is a chicken coop with an honking big airplane door jammed in its roof. No eggs today! Well they have now found it in someone’s back yard. Bob the teacher’s friends told him to go have a look and sho’ nuff, there it was. Everyone can come up for air now except for one TV reporter. She stood in front of the camera and declared that a fuselage had fallen off an airplane. OK?
Isn’t it interesting how non-descript things can catch your attention? I’m looking at the logo on a tube of Arm and Hammer toothpaste. It is a drawing of a blacksmith’s powerful right arm holding up a massive steel hammer. I marvelled to realize that is exactly the same illustration that I admired as a young boy so very long ago. For years I possessed a pair of arms like that, now they’re kind of withered and flabby. I used to have a hard time finding shirts that my arms fit, now it’s the belly. I wonder what happened to the rest of the blacksmith. I also use a arthritis cream called Voltaren. It and the toothpaste sit on the counter side by side and are both the same colour. I wonder if there’ll come a day when I discover the taste of Voltaren on my tooth brush. Ah, the reward of having all your own teeth!
There’s a reason we were out there all alone.
It was 5:30 pm when I came inside. It is a beautiful clear evening with Venus beaming brilliantly in the evening sky. There is still some daylight in the west. The second sign is that today, while trespassing in the halls of the Home Despot, the BBQs were out and for sale.
Soon the aroma of cut grass and burned meat will again waft through the burbs.
Winter is a reminder that life isn’t forever. Luke Parker