Tag Archives: flashback

I miss you, Dad.

Just got hit with a wave of sadness, at the grocery store. They were playing Cat’s in the Cradle by Harry Chapin, and it was all I could do not to bust out crying like a baby. I really haven’t thought much about my father being gone lately, but I was sort of blindsided by the tune and got caught up in a very sad state…not even over blowing off getting to see him, but because I won’t be able to. I can’t just pick up the phone and call him up to say hi. He really doesn’t exist anyplace now except in my heart and in scattered form over the Atlantic Ocean.

Whatever happened to the Burger King?

When I was a kid I remember seeing the Burger King in commercials. He was a real guy. He danced around performing magic and helping kids get Burger King meals. All that seems to be left of the Kings legacy is the paper replica of his crown that you can get for the little scamps.

and why do both ronald mcdonald and the burger king have red hair?

speaking of which, I’ve been to the very 1st bk lounge… it’s The first location is at 3090 NW 36th Street, should you care to visit.

*hungry

I want onion rings!

help.

this is stuck in my brain, and I can’t remember any more of the words…

Monchichi, Monchichi, oh so soft and cuddly. With a thumb in his mouth he’s really neat, fun to cuddle his little feet. Yeah, yeah yeah – Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Monchichi, Monchi MONCHICHI MONCHICHI

Classic Sesame Street (reprinted from my journal, a year ago today) even a pod can appreciate this.

Some of us have feathers
Some of us have fins
Some of us are furry
And some of us have skins
We swim and hop and slither
And leap and soar and run
And we all live together
On a planet of the sun

We are all earthlings
We are all earthlings
Spinning around together
On a planet of the sun

We live in the desert
We live inside a tree
We live high in the mountains
Or deep beneath the sea
We live in tents and cabins
In houses just for one
And we all live together
On a planet of the sun

We are all earthlings
We are all earthlings
Spinning around together
On a planet of the sun

Floating down a river
Swinging through the trees
Climbing up a mountain
Going with the breeze
All of us can have a happy healthy place to be
If we can float and swim and climb in earthling harmony

We are all earthlings
We are all earthlings
Spinning around together
On a planet of the sun

Spinning around together
On a planet of the sun

meeting tomorrow, I get to go in early to talk about health insurance and why my raise wasn’t on this week’s check. I’ll be there, instead of hanging out with my sweetie from 11 to noon.

I hope it lets out before the roach coach comes by. the soda machine is not taking bills again. besides, I want a big honking iced tea or two.

did I ever mention that it actually plays “la cucaracha” on the horn when it pulls up?

Bringing letters into work tomorrow to scan. Maybe I can write a griffin & sabine sort of story out of ’em?

Reflections –

Every time I go out and immerse myself in nature – camping, hiking, climbing (Ha! like I do any climbing – let’s say “meandering” instead. Yeah, that’s it. Meandering through nature.) – I am always struck by just how paltry my own imagination is compared to the majesty of the world’s real, living scenery.

And yet, I’m still sometimes, somehow disappointed that there are no goblins scuttering around in the underbrush, or that the half-buried boulders are not, in fact, the knucklebones of slumbering giants. (Or… are they?)

It’s been exactly one year today since I’ve seen a shark in Florida waters. (Last time I went surfing with my brother, too.)

A lot has happened in the last year…

I’ve met a wonderful girl, and have been seeing her steadily for nearly a year. (Folks who read my journal know this pretty well by now.)

It’s getting harder to see my brother, regularly, now that he works Sundays. (He doesn’t seem to want to get together often, either… guilty for my treating him all the time. Heck, I’m happy to share a popsicle in the park with him, as long as we can get together.)

My mom’s called to let me know she’s back from her trip to Brazil (She’s been there since I moved to this apartment…a whole season.) I have to ring her back with my new address, and a time for she, Derek and myself to get together for lunch.

I’m feeling a need to take tomorrow off from work. I wanted to skip Friday, but was needed too much. If I can pull it off, I will.

Am I evil for doing this? Can you hear the song in your mind? What memories does it recall?

Rhinestone Cowboy
Words & Music by Larry Weiss
Sung by Glen Campbell

I’ve been walkin’ these streets so long
Singin’ the same old song
I know every crack in these dirty sidewalks of Broadway
Where hustle’s the name of the game
And nice guys get washed away like the snow and the rain
There’s been a load of compromisin’
On the road to my horizon
But I’m gonna be where the lights are shinin’ on me

Like a rhinestone cowboy
Riding out on a horse in a star-spangled rodeo
Like a rhinestone cowboy
Getting cards and letters from people I don’t even know
And offers comin’ over the phone

Well, I really don’t mind the rain
And a smile can hide all the pain
But you’re down when you’re ridin’ the train that’s takin’ the long way
And I dream of the things I’ll do
With a subway token and a dollar tucked inside my shoe
There’ll be a load of compromisin’
On the road to my horizon
But I’m gonna be where the lights are shinin’ on me

Like a rhinestone cowboy
Riding out on a horse in a star-spangled rodeo
Rhinestone cowboy
Gettin’ cards and letters from people I don’t even know
And offers comin’ over the phone

Like a rhinestone cowboy
Riding out on a horse in a star-spangled rodeo

Rhinestone cowboy
Gettin’ cards and letters from people I don’t even know

I’m back from walkies, showered and shaved… it’s nice go step out in the morning, after (or during) a light rain, before the sun has come very far up and started dropping heat all over the place.

Saw something that I’d not seen for years… a 2-baby stroller… (being pushed by a mommy who was in amazing shape, all the baby feeding fat was gone…unless it wasn’t the mommy. the things I assume.) 2 twin babies, about 6 months old apiece having a great time being slowly rollerbladed around the mainway. A cooing baby will always bring a smile to my face. Things like that makes me wonder all the more about people who don’t like kids…isn’t fondness for tots sort of hardwired into our nervous system? Even me, a pod, and a male, thinks that babies are adorable. The “insult” of being called a breeder by those that choose to not have kids is kind of silly, I think.

Codex sampleI notice that in the community they’re making mention of the Codex Seraphinianus and I’m astounded that it’s selling for so much now. I own a book that sells for $1000! (and it’s not even written in a tongue one can understand) I got it back in the early-mid 80s, right when it first came out… one of the first things I bought with my library paycheck.[1] It’s a beautiful book, and I should bring it out, and read through it again. Nice illustrations, and a good head shaker. No book should cost a grand.[2] If I had a good scanner, and the willingness to destroy my copy, I’d make a pdf out of it, and post it on my website… I wonder how many copyright laws that’d infringe? The book’s out of print… I’d like for more people to see it. It does look best as a tome though… they’d have to print it out, and bind it on nice paper to get the full effect and feel. Some of the images would make lovely desktop wallpaper, too.

I wouldn’t put this as my favorite book of all time, but it certainly would make for a wonderful coffee table piece (now, all I have to do is get the coffee table. The downside is… do I want to leave a book that is so costly laying out where Newt or some brutal can get at it? This is one of the perils of owning something expensive, and fragile. Maybe I’ll just sell it on Ebay…But I like to think that it’ll make a nice addition to my library, one day, when I have one. How do they say it? Possessions own you, as well as you owning them.

Trying my hand at footnotes… I think I prefer parenthetical statements, but I didn’t want to disturb the flow of writing. easier to put a number there, and come back to it later. 🙂 Um, am I being ignorant, or am I right in wondering why anyone would use the html command CITE when the italic command is only one letter?

[1]

an extravagance, bought when I was still living under my folk’s roof. That same paycheck paid for my personal phone line, too…not for social calls,per se, but to connect to BBS’s and Fidonet at 110/300 baud. gah…so long ago… I can read faster than 300 baud. No graphics saved for ASCII. Note to self, do an entry about my old BBS, run on an Atari 800, 4 floppy drives, and a 1200 baud modem, later that year. The Name? The Halls of Gladsheim. compared to today, like writing on cave walls
[2]

Well, if you want a rare first edition, that’s fair…but what about folks that don’t want to collect.. just want to read the book? this is my big gripe about comic books too. I don’t collect books as an investment. I collect ’em, because I’ve enjoyed reading them, I’m a pack rat, and have invested some emotional worth in them. Books, never read, in a vault. that’s perverse.