Do That

I have a long list of things to do, but I break it out into discreet units so I don't get overwhelmed. Tuesday I need to paint 144 linear feet of gallery ten feet high. That's 1,440 square feet, but mostly it's roller work and I can do that, not quite a piece of cake. Gallery White is a forgiving color. I top off all the containers with rain water, a month's supply, easy, when a bucket is empty, I'll start melting snow. The shape I'm in. Standing in the pouring rain, if it makes things right, the wall street side of town. Water to burn, change in your pocket, and a kind-hearted woman. Stubborn love, like a large rock tied to your leg when they throw you in the deep end of the pool. I'm no doctor, but that monkey might be real. I'm not particularly paranoid, but at first light I was walking to the outhouse and there were a couple of crows in a dead poplar, off to the side. They didn't even interrupt their conversation. They must have a kind of lanolin in their feathers, they look like shit but they shed water. First light, I'd taken out a New Yorker, because I wanted to read a book review, but I ended up just watching the crows bitch and moan about the weather. I'd ask them inside, but they always poop on the sofa. Crows are not good companions, they're always complaining. I'd rather be alone and listen to the drone of rain on the roof. I don't need an excuse. Funky, funky, but cheap. Now and then there's a fool such as I. Not that I'm an Elvis fan. I endured way too much of that with my Mom and sister. Warm day, shirtsleeves mid-January. The hill is slick with rain and I walk down very carefully. Needed to go to the library, stop at Kroger, but I first went to the pub for the noon beer I allow myself every once in a while. Barb, the owner, is there, Kori, and Christine. There's a light out, over the bar, and it's driving Barb crazy, so I go and get the step-ladder, change out the bulb, and get my beer for free. Kori doesn't quite understand my relationship with the pub. The owners always sit with me and buy me drinks. Everyone knows me by name. D and I hang difficult objects for them, it's a pub, for god's sake, and there are lots of interesting objects, some of them not designed to hang from the walls. What threw Kori off today, was I said to Barb, jeeze, I know where there ladder is, and she didn't. Maybe it's a guy thing. I always locate ladders and flashlights when I first enter a building. I actually carry a flashlight in a holster on my belt. How often do you want to be in the dark? I'm not really obsessive, but I lean in that direction. A goodly time at the library, because I was on my own schedule, I could read the blurbs and consider. I settled on some early Nabokov short stories, I hadn't read some of them, and a book about paper. Sometimes I lie awake and wonder where the years have gone, usually I just go to sleep. Stopped back by the museum to chat with TR. We talked about doing an opera, and I immediately thought about Sappho. I'd like to do an opera. Though I actually hate the combined arts, they always involve way too much compromise. But I'd welcome the chance to work with TR again.