Strange Day

The phone is back. A note on the door from the phone guy, when I finally got home. I had to do my laundry, and I seem to have lost an electric bill, so I needed to make a call; got that done and stopped at the pub for a beer and a giant pretzel. Anthony was there, with the other instructor from the ceramic studio. He bought my beer and pretzel, then we were sitting outside so I could smoke, catching up; a friend of mine, Jacob, showed up and he and Anthony bantered like professionals, so we went back inside with him and had another beer. Back outside for another smoke and goodbyes, and Todd walks up with his model from the nude drawing class. Demands to buy us another beer. Another very attractive woman joins us. My favorite waitress, Steph, grins at me and shakes her head. I felt fine to drive, three beers over a four hour period, and I was fine, it was a nice drive, windows down and those parched and dusty smells of fall, whatever those pink fronds are, blackberry canes reaching 12 or 14 feet, curved like scimitars. I know it's not a joke, but I have to laugh. A Rabbi and a Fundamentalist Preacher go into a bar. You've heard this joke before. It's so good, to be back in contact. I had the thought that it might have been a complete construct; you and me and what I might have imagined. Delirium, from the verb delirare 'to swerve from the furrow', a delirus was a person who couldn't plough straight. Now I'm back on track. Into town, again, to have lunch with TR and the resident scholars. They're curious about my winter preparations and I tell them I have a list. Michael understands that it will actually be easier for me to just to stay at home, and I work on the list for the larder with that in mind. While it's on my mind, The Defenestration Of Prague, 1618, Catholic members of the Bohemian National Council were the dudes thrown out, but it was a castle, and there was a moat, they escaped with minor injuries. I always imagined them smashed on the pavement. This is why I read everything I can. There was another defenestration, 1630 or so, and now I have to find out where that one occurred. It was probably a badge of honor to be thrown out a window, as long as you knew you'd end up in a moat. Imagine the publicity. You're the guy they threw through out the window. The leaves are falling, and so are we; crocodiles don't have tongues so they can't actually speak, but they roar their displeasure through the hummocks. Roaring is just expelling some air through your mouth, what it means is subject to questioning. But I'll tell you this, when an alligator breathes his fetid breathe on you, only can't bite off your leg because he has a mouthful of rabbit, then you've come to know the real world. A rattlesnake on the driveway, small change, I stamp my feet and he goes away.