Fluid Dynamics

I claim the window seat. Shotgun. Black Dell is unhappy, it was 86 degrees inside when I got home and I had to run the AC for two hours before I could write. A minor problem, but the most recent issue of The New Yorker was in the mail box, so not a big deal. Seasonal change to my rhythms. Any change manifests itself equally along the spectrum. I find myself staring at the river, but I'm not watching the river, I'm thinking about dependent clauses and where I'd put the commas. I was, then, I mean. It was several days ago, now, and I had just gone down for a smoke; two strings of barges were passing, going up and down, in the wide curve, west of town, below where the Scioto flows in and forms a sand bank. There's a protocol, for river boats and barges. I don't know the language, but I recognize the sign. It's like that, mostly. Sometimes you can figure it out. A string of barges, called a 'tow', though they are pushed, going upstream, pulls to the left, from their point of view, to allow the tow going downstream the right of way. I've got this. I've watched it many times. There must be a certain slip to steering a tow downstream, a drift, because the tows going upstream grant them a lot of leave-way. Also, the tow going downstream is really booking and the tow going upstream is laboring against the current, so there's a logic involved with whom gives way to whom. There generally is, a logic involved, otherwise we'd all be stopped dead in our tracks. Now people want to visit me, but I fear they'd be disappointed, I'm just an old drunk in a tree-tip pit. Counsel argued that I might be a historic landmark. It was an interesting day in court, the judge actually agreed with my parsing. I love it when that happens. Maybe we could meet on some neutral ground, the soccer field at the high school, or the pub. The pub would be perfect, we could drink Irish Whiskey and close the place down. Nagging at me, Glenn said I left almost everything out, and I wondered about that, what was left out. There was a guy in Janitor College, Sven, he was a numbskull, a total loser, but we loved him for his Mohawk and the fact that he played the banjo. He thought everything was pre-ordained. I didn't bother arguing with him. When you consider the great sweep of things. Every intention of going to work, but my truck wouldn't start. Nothing for it but to call Pegi and have her apologize to Sara. First day accepting work for "Cream Of The Crop". Over 90 degrees, and the power goes out, then the phone. B is off the ridge and I feel positively marooned. Do what I always do in situations like that, read. A New Yorker came yesterday, so I read it cover to cover, then back to the article on the Bernoulli family. A bunch of geniuses, and they didn't all get along, arguing over whose solution to a difficult problem was the more elegant. I had to run the AC for a couple of hours to get the temp down to 79 degrees. Thorny problem with the parents. They've decided that they can't live with my sister, the one place they can be physically comfortable, and are going to move to a small, ground-level apartment. This is completely crazy, as they are ancient, frail, blind, and can't get around. But they're adamant about it. I'm staying out of the argument, because I'm here, and all the rest of the family is there. They did sell their house, for less than 50% of what it would have sold for in 2008, so, after, bills, they may have a few thousand, plus whatever retirement and Social Security. Enough money, maybe, but someone has to take them to doctor appointments (once or twice a week for one or both of them), and bring in all their supplies, and Mom can't see to cook anymore. To their credit, maybe they can make it work, for a while, and maybe that's all they want, a chance to go out in their own nest. I can't get down there before mid-June, and I've got to get a vehicle, and I've got a line of credit I can use. D will find something, he's always looking at vehicles for sale. One develops a proclivity, a nuisance, at first, but then you get used to it. That clatter in your brain. 'Wow, that CRV is a good buy.' Also, how having a title might influence things. "Fluid Dynamics" is a good one, because it actually directs the flow. Suddenly everything is plastic. Che Guevara quoting french poets, I mean, really. A joke, right? the way things flow.