where none, or few, do hang

[fflo]

 
A beautiful Sunday. When? That time of year, dear ones.






I did virtually nothing on the imaginary list today. Instead: some sitting around, recovering from a late night of karaoke after bowling (easily the funnest karaoke I've been to, and some of the best bowling too), and then lots of yard.

Small run-in with neighbor, growing out of my persistent failure to (a) take her ostensibly helpful suggestion; (b) be swayed by her multiple rhetorical points to explain its advantages as I continued to say "No" oh so politely; or (c) accept her offers of help in doing the work she suggested, as I, yes, continued to say "No," eventually a few shades less politely. The encounter later involved my blowing off her bringing city literature over and pointing at the part she was reading to me as she did so, numerous other bits of tedium I spare you here, and my refraining from telling her of the suggestion for living whose wisdom is more often contemplated in its figurative meaning---the one about taking care of your own side of the street.


So, speaking of loving that well that thou must leave 'ere long, my moments with the kitties, Frito & Fredo Fess, have had an in-the-moment pleasure these past many days, as I anticipate messing up our good thing. They've been a little skittish at times, still lingering I think from my two trips away this fall, and the recent vet visits. They've also been more physically affectionate, as they get when the weather turns chillier. And they've been more like each other's buds. Just the way they are in a room together. Coming to get hello pets and bellyrubs from me at the same time, a little more lying around with parts of them touching each other, etc. homovegetarian's Kitty Wells died after a sudden illness yesterday. I still call Humph "Junior Wells" sometimes, as he came along shortly after Wells did.

Thank you, Universe, for the weekend, and for me being pretty much over the cold in time for it. And thank you, Mysterious Powers That Be, for the hunks of happiness today. So good to feel such a thing, whatever it is.

Now I'll close with paperkingdoms's questions. If you'd like me to ask you five questions to answer in your blog, comment to that effect & I'll gladly pony up. My replies :


1. Do you have a favorite food to prepare? What do you like about it?

It's a special occasion (and rare for me) to bake bread, or make my mother's cinnamon rolls, or the beef stew she taught me (or veggie version of it). She didn't teach me how to cook much, but those I made a point of finding out about, and I'm glad I did. But on an everyday basis, I like warm flour tortillas a lot, so I like to make large quantities of stuff you can have in a tortilla, and then heat some up through the week. Onions are almost always in there, often with refried beans, sometimes in more of a fajita kind of mix, lately portabella slices. Green peppers, salsa. I like chipotle ---not too hot, and smoky. Smoky is good. And then some grated cheese. This past 2 weeks I've even had sour cream in the house.

I like the way those foods taste, and I know stuff to do with them, and I can have leftovers that work well.

I also like casseroles, and things like lasagna that take a long time to get together in the one big dish that goes in the oven and then you dish it out with a big spoon and eat it with a fork.


2. Where do your cats like to hang out?

In sills by open windows, if they're available. Otherwise on the bed, or in the latest hiding place (box in closet, towel cabinet, wherever). Humphrey likes the bathtub.


3. Do you have any favorite books from when you were little?

Dr. Seuss. The Digginest Dog. One particular Berenstain Bears---The Bike Lesson. Then Scott Corbett books (The Lemonade Trick, The Limerick Trick) and books about genius inventor type kids. And Beverly Cleary---Ribsy, Henry Higgins. There was one kid novel called The Catcher With the Glass Arm by which I was notably moved; I went out to the kitchen after a spell of reading on it and asked my mother, "Did you ever like a book so much you didn't want it to be over?" Where The Wild Things Are, yes.

I got a small stack of those Scholastic Books whenever I could. That was a good thing, that program. I bet it's not 35¢ and 95¢ and such for those any more.


4. What music are you feeling these days?

Today it was "Nessun Dorma," thinking of a possible dog name. But this fall I just keep coming back to this one cut by Bennie Maupin I heard at the Detroit Jazz Fest this fall: "Message to Prez." Prez was what people called Lester Young. There's a live track of the song that's got --- I --- I could spend the rest of the night trying to tell you about it, but it's gotta be experienced. I'd plop it up for you right now, but I have it as a file I can't (or don't yet know how to) share.

I have yet to tire of it. Just grabs me, in its meanderings, its falling into a groove, its syncopations and rhythmic counterpoint/tensions/play. The tone(s) outta that bass clarinet; the movement of it, of the whole cluster, clustering. It feels like its parts are falling into association with each other in some spontaneously molecular swirling flirtation and affiliation and little walk along the path together, and when it bounces it bounces in such a peaceful, relaxed way.

But maybe I should also mention the marvelous "You Don't Have To Be A Star (To Be In My Show)," half of which I sang last night in the bowling alley bar.


5. Is there a walk that you really enjoy? Where does it go?

There's a beautiful hilly, woodsy park in this town I found out about from a woman I was dating, but then she seemed to want to go there every time we'd be seeing each other, and that got old (to the point that bigfinedaddy & I would joke about it). I haven't been back in months, but I'll be going there again. I do loops out from my place most often. But maybe my favorite is traipsing about Gallup Park, a public park with lots of trees that runs on both sides of the Huron River, not too far from here.


Thanks for the imaginative questions, E. It was fun answering those.