Two Cats, Mexican Sage, overheard
"They'll read your work, and react, which tells them something about you."
"Even the fiction?"
"Especially the fiction."
"And their reaction, it tells you something about them?"
"Something like that."
I Know What He Means
Maybe I'm slightly inhuman . . . all I ever wanted to do
was to paint sunlight on the side of a house.
- Edward Hopper
Anchored
Once again, Pierre teaches me about writing ~
Edible Grace
Yesterday at the gym, my friend John from Traveller's Mailbag next door came onto the floor and brought me a package - the proof for my book Edible Grace, from KYSO Flash, coming out in September. Talk about a lift!
Ghost Dog
Our neighbor Eric’s spiritual practice is the wheelie. Riding on one wheel he finds that tipping point where he’s on the brink of falling back or plunging, forward that place of tension, strength, and balance. A place of stasis, equilibrium. When I first met Eric he was riding a unicycle down the dock and practicing in the parking lot. He was training to ride his road rocket motorcycle in slow, 3 mph circles while wheeling. An incredibly challenging feat. These days he takes his electric trials bike up in the hills at 2 am, and silently rides the trails as he wheelies. The coyotes watch him pass, no doubt thinking he’s some kind of god. Legendary.
photo taken by a stranger on Gate 5 Rd, & melded by photo magician Dennis Bayer with his marvelous shot of the nearly full moon over South Forty Pier.
Pierre, Paddle Boards, and The Neighbor's Pot Crop
Pierre knows how to get my attention. It’s a very clear and effective form of communication. One of the things he’ll do is walk along the narrow ledge on the roof deck of our houseboat. It’s three stories down to water if he slips. But apparently only one of us is nervous. Across the channel is what we call the Hacker’s boat. When I mentioned this to our new, younger neighbor three boats down he wondered how we knew about the hacking . . . then it occurred to us that our new neighbor was thinking computer, while we were thinking - - smoker! Generational differences. Hacker smokes and coughs with frequency and his houseboat is covered in tyvek and tarps in what I’d like to say is an unfinished state . . . but I’d say the hacker is pretty much finished. Last year the crop seen on the far left - was growing on the top of the piling - maybe an offering to soaring pothead seagulls?? This year the plants are in buckets that say sliced pickles, growing on his deck. Apparently seagulls do not like pickles. They seem to be keeping their distance.
