We've had weeks of colder than normal weather, well months....as I recall it's been a big chill since November...December....big chill for us. Lots and lots of rain. Yesterday was the first day for these few months that have felt warm and dry, and hyperbolic amounts of sunlight that alternately have made me feel energized and exhausted. A little frantic in the garden, planting the first batches of nasturtiums and carrots and lettuce and watermelon and desert wildflowers. And more than little irritated that my hot tub motor/pump went out. According to Dave, my longtime loyal and cool friend/pool guy, the motor I need isn't even manufactured anymore. And I finally got my yard cleaned, first time in two years. A shock to see the ground, and no citrus rat nests this year under the machete'd off bougainvellia. The citrus trees aren't so wild-eyed. I've helped them birth, down to the last fruit, which lingered long in this season's european monastery; the greenery is lush and about to pop into flowers and hatchling more fruit, which will take almost a year to ripe.
Oh yeah, and I got a new gate put on today! An iron thing, iron bars painted black, the dogs puzzling over their new view of the outside world. The last version of my gate was nailed on by Jeff a year or two ago, a rather lopsided conconction that finally, weeks ago, popped out. The guys who built today's iron fence came by a week ago and nailed the old one shut, because the dogs almost nailed the mean neighbor across the street one day while I was at work. Note from the dog catcher to secure my dogs in the yard. Too much rain, swollen wood, dogs jumping on it. The original gate, a pretty, sculptured thing made of too-thin balsa or something, gave way when my stalker busted it down, just before he entered my yard and threw his pomeranian dog through the doggie gate in an effort to make me laugh and gain entry. I think Jeff was there that night, too. The gate in all its incarnation has many stories. And the wood that Jeff bought for his version and so neatly measured and trimmed with his skillsaw is now leaning against my stucco wall and I don't know what to do with it.
UCR Writer's Week desert book reading + panel discussion was a charm. It was wonderful. Malcolm met me for lunch at Relish deli in Riverside, and we strolled through Back to the Grind, and to the library, and were met from the door by friends of mine. Friends I didn't know were friends, but who now are, which makes me happy and also surprised. Michael Jayme of UCR and a terrific writer did a great job moderation; Deanne and Tod were awesome; Mario of Inlandia + Mike + my awesome friend Allison from Laguna Beach who came all the way to Riverside! - held it together and sold a lot of books, and I gave away my last copy of Phantom Seed issue 3. I read my desert poetry and got to espouse the finer points and sophisticated essence of the greater chapters of Puritan. We had fun at the Grind afterwards, along with another friend Mike, laughing and joking and eating grilled cheese and cheesecake....nice to say hi to Darren, who invited me back to do a poetry reading 'anytime I like." Laughing tonight as I read a funny pantoum written by one of my creative writing students where he pokes fun at being a Puritan in the desert.
I need to sew a large button back onto my new black trenchcoat....iron 13 shirts....look for socks....I took the handlebars of my mountain bike off with an allen wrench to try to adjust it for a higher ride and now my front tire is on crooked and I can't get it right...my cell phone has lost its capacity to text message and I'm now out of touch with a handful of new "text friends" I developed recently...I bought a beautiful cut of salmon at Ralphs and burned it when I left it cooking and got lost in English 1A online stuff....but the good stuff was salvageable and it has gone down nicely 2nite with organic skim milk + organic vegan chocolate chip cookies.
I've had a blazing migraine all day, and yesterday I took a very long bike ride to sand dunes and lay on my back and looked south to Point Happy, rocks still outstanding the Del Taco restaurant at this old Cahuilla Indian Village site - and also the shoreline of ancient Lake Cahuilla. I experienced my 2nd earthquake in one year in the Riverside library 2nd floor auditorium on Saturday - and my dad gave me a teddy bear for Valentine's Day. Chatting with my friend Cyrus this evening - he was just driving over the CA-Oregon border, en route home to Ashland from a weekend in Santa Cruz. A friend is visiting and he's watching a Quentin Tarantino movie in my living room while I type this.
Tarah's entire bedroom has been cleaned out, even the carpets, and by some miracle, the carpet guy got some unmentionable stains out of it (like where Tarah's cat died, and where Brindle had an accident, and where Tarah herself spilled glasses of red wine and a bowl of spaghetti and so forth, you know, those touchy adolescent years) and everything from the bedroom is sitting on my front porch until I figure out what to do with it. Except for her bed. I've dismantled the frame and am sleeping on her old mattress on my bedroom floor, on top of a slice of expensive and soothing memory foam I bought at Costco with my new membership (a long story on that one, since I've rebelled against getting a Costco card all my adult life, until now, and yeah, it involved a guy and the shock of finding myself at the checkout with a $900 bill for stuff I didn't realize I'd put in the cart...including 6 months of 2012/possible crash of the dollar any day now survival food, like 10 lbs of quinoa, 100 power bars, 42 cans of progresso chicken and wild rice soup, a 5 lb bag of dried mangos, 200 lbs of dog food, large bites for big dogs.....12 cases of perrier water in grapefruit, lemon, lime and orange flavorings.....a carton of organic omega three nut and fruit mix in nifty three hundred calorie, protein and good carb packets, say, for a designer lunch....2.5 lbs of organic lavender tinged flaxseed oil, and much more....thanks to the guy....he's looking out for me....but he'd kill me if I told you his name.)
I'm inundated by super white skinned (but with a flush of too much red atop, too much sun too quick and very, very bad for the skin cancer cause) always larger than size 12, pointedly not-botoxed by sometimes face lifted.... Canadians.... Seattleits.... Chicagoans....Oregonflights...etc...have all landed at Palm Springs airport together and I think they were all walking out at McCallum Grove this past weekend, swooning over creosote bushes and having heart palpitations at the wonder of a scraggly smoke tree in a not so dry wash....like they all arrived at once on February 1st or something. Avoid the stores until evening, avoid restaurants, avoid popular hikes, and try not to drive.
Bed. Never before 1 or 2 am. So, that gives me 8 minutes here. I'm so glad I have a job where I don't have to be there until 12 noon and only on Tuesday and Thursday. Tarah calls me when she's getting off work at 5 pm each day, and my day is only getting started....
blahhkdhkhsk!!!!
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