The group

The Reaper

The Butter Spreader

The strange Journey roundabout version

So many years and it continues, so far, it's been a strange journey. My psychic 18 year old self  had no idea, he was so wrong...

It has been a strange journey these years, and yet as I keep thinking, maybe hoping that things will be vaguely normal, well, no, that is not to be. Things are getting stranger, the funny thing is what might shock me is not what I would think, it is the mundane completely normal to everyone else things that bother me and yet everyone else ignores them. Is there something wrong with me? Is there something missing/off with other people? I keep repeating myself so much lately, "I don't know." "I don't know."

I wake to the sky coalescing into a muddy blue gray, followed by the warming orange pink glow crossing the horizon, then it darkens again, sadly I believe that the day will be dark, despondent, dreary, and sad but then the pinks, oranges, reds, and yellow start their artwork across the sky, then, only then I am reminded that the strangeness, the wild, is okay. The day has started again, the sunlight warms me deep inside, waking the demon, readying for the strange to be encountered today.

Mrs Fluffernutter and the Foot

Mrs. Fluffernutter, Her Foot, and the little Girl

Once upon a time there was a Foot that lived in a book shaped house with her cat, Mrs. Fluffernutter.  Now the Foot lived with her cat a ways out by themselves and had no neighbors but people would drive by and stop and take pictures of the strange house the stranger foot and her cat. The Foot’s cat wasn’t named Mrs. Fluffernutter because she was a big fluffy cat; nope she had her name because she was a big stinky cat. The Foot couldn’t figure out why her cat smelled so bad. The Foot kept a very clean house and everyday made sure to wash her socks and her pillow, which got stinky from the cat sleeping on it every night. After doing the wash the Foot would go out into its backyard and hang up the socks it wore to stay toasty roasty warm and to hang up the stinky pillow that Mrs. Fluffernutter laid on. The Foot loved her cat even though she was a stinky cat, that didn’t matter to her, she loved the cat so much and just made sure to keep the stinkiness of the cat out of the house by lots of cleaning and washing.

Every day the Foot would get up stretch, put the cat out, do laundry, eat some food, feed the cat, and then go and sit on her front porch with the cat and watch as people came by and stopped and took pictures. For the Foot this was almost a perfect life, except for her stinky cat, if she could ever figure out how to make it so that the cat smelled better then it would be perfect. Days and days went by and the Foot and Mrs. Fluffernutter were quite content. One fine day a little girl came by to sell the Foot some cookies. The Foot was thrilled because of all the people that came by her book shaped house no one ever stopped to talk or say hi but this little girl did just that. The little girl was disappointed to find that the Foot didn’t eat cookies and neither did the cat but she promised to come back and visit with them the next day. And she did come back and visit every day.  Soon the little girl and the Foot were best friends. The little girl decided one day that she would help the foot find out why her cat was so stinky. That day the little girl asked the Foot, “What kind of cat food do you give Mrs. Fluffernutter?”  “Cat food?” replied the Foot, “I feed her beans, garlic, Sauer kraut, and cheese, she loves it all.” The little girl told the Foot, “I’ll bring some cat food for Mrs. Fluffernutter tomorrow and we’ll see if she likes it.”  And the next day she did as she said.

The little girl gave Mrs. Fluffernutter the cat food and she promptly gobbled it all up. The Foot was amazed, she said, “The cat never eats the food I give her that quickly.” Now the Foot started to notice some changes in her cat, Mrs. Fluffernutter actually did become fluffier, she acted better, and best of all she didn’t stink. Mrs. Fluffernutter was no longer a stinky kitty.  The Foot didn’t have to wash her pillow and hang it out every day to dry, nope, now she just had to wash her socks a few times a week. With all of this new time she had the Foot was able to spend more time relaxing on her front porch with Mrs. Fluffernutter, the little girl and all sorts of new friends because once the stinkiness was gone from the cat people actually wanted to come and visit with the Foot, the cat, and the little girl. Mrs. Fluffernutter, the Foot, and her best friend the little girl all lived long happy lives. The end.

Miller and Lucy

                Once upon a time there were two dogs that lived in a house in a very nice neighborhood; well actually they owned the house and if you’re wondering how two dogs owned a house, it’s not important, they just did, so accept it or go read another story (I suggest the story about the Clothes Dryer and some Popcorn) Miller was a strong and proud dog but just a bit drooly. Lucy was a small and very well manner little dog but occasionally barked at some of the newcomers to the neighborhood, but she always was very friendly once she got to know them and that was very quickly.  Now Miller and Lucy didn’t live with any people in their house but they lived with assorts of different people in their neighborhood. There was the dentist, the dreaded vacuum cleaner repair man (he was really nice, dogs just don’t like vacuums), the school teacher, the doctor, a veterinarian, and couple across the street with all of the kids, who knew all the right places dogs like to be scratched and pet.

                Miller and Lucy had the most manicured and prettiest yard in the whole neighborhood and everyone always told them so.  They also had a huge vegetable garden and grew the tastiest and best vegetables. And flowers, all kinds of wonderful and gorgeous flowers. Grapes, strawberries, apples, and even kiwis too! All in all they were excellent neighbors, everyone thought so and they said so. But when Miller and Lucy’s neighbors told their friends about them and how great they were and how nice their home and yard was everyone thought that Miller and Lucy were just some nice old couple that everyone wishes they had in their neighborhood. The kind that made pies and cookies, gave you flowers, sewed beautiful quilts and were all and all the neighbors you dream about but no Miller and Lucy were two dogs, exceptionally talented and smart dogs but dogs none the less.  

                For quite some time everyone was very happy in the neighborhood because Miller and Lucy were always there to help dig holes, chase away squirrels,  sniff around for lost toys, and bake the best apple pie around town. When someone new moved into the neighborhood it took them a little time to adjust to the fact that they were living with dogs but very shortly they wondered how they ever lived someplace else without Miller and Lucy. There was one thing that always bothered Miller however, door to door salesmen, especially the vacuum cleaner salesman, oh how many times did he have to chase that one off of his front porch, many more times than he could remember, but it was always good fun for Miller and Lucy, well she just sat in the doorway and shook her head and laughed. Of course usually the neighbors would warn the sales people about the house that is beautifully manicured and how the owners had dogs that didn’t like to be bothered and most took heed of the advice and stayed away but as always some people are not so bright and don’t listen. So what are you going to do? Because if there ever was a problem everyone in the neighborhood took care of Miller and Lucy in matters that dogs couldn’t handle which were very few.

And so Miller and Lucy and the rest of the neighbors all lived happy, fruitful, and fun filled long lives.  Just not so much for the squirrels in the neighborhood. The end.

Wood, soil, ferns

The chainsaw spits wood chips out onto my boots, piling up, scattering about, back to the earth falling to be swallowed up and consumed by the remaining trees.
The ferns lay down, not happy with the cold, or maybe it was from the rains in December flooding their home?
The soil is spongy from the rains, clinging to the underside of the tree that lays on the ground, no longer growing.
Its future is certain, split, stacked, dried, and finally, sadly, burned to heat the home.
The day drags on, the sky explodes into colors at the end, only to begin again in the morning, burning blue black, yellow, orange, red, and blue. Another day...

My own Private Asphalt

Down the road, a long way down the road. 14 hours and I'm going no where. Deep into the night I have my own private road, empty in front of me, empty behind me, nothing coming towards me. Loneliness on the highway but at least my own private road, 3 lanes of black asphalt, all mine. The lines fly by, they guide me home.

The full moon over the trees on the way south. The full moon above me on the way north. The sun rises as the hours have passed and the moon slips behind the trees to sleep as my journey to no where ends. Such a long way to ride, such a long way to drive. 

Once there was a Horse

A Horse, a Snail, and a Dolphin

There was a horse of course and that horse of course lived on a farm by the ocean, but of course. Now every day the horse would go down to the beach and run on the sand from one end of the beach to the other, back and forth time and time again spending most of her day down by the ocean.  When the horse was galloping across the sand she noticed things on the beach, such as some driftwood, a shell here and there, a scattering crab, and some sea gulls. One bright clear morning she was doing her running back and forth up and down the beach but this time she saw something that she had never seen before way off down the beach. The horse was charging at this small object on the beach rapidly approaching what appeared to her to be barely moving. She stopped in a great whoosh of sand and looked down to see what was moving so slowly on her beach. The horse had never seen anything like this before and she wondered aloud, “what could this be?” Then a small voice said, “You nearly ran me over, you should be more careful of your fellow beach goers.”  Amazed the horse asked, “Who are you?” The small voice said, “I could ask you the same thing but I am a sea snail. And who are you that nearly squashed me while I was on my way to go lay on the beach and in the sun?”  The horse’s astonished replied, “I am a horse of course and I’ve never seen a sea snail before and I didn’t know that they could talk.” Now the horse said, “I saw you from a long way off and I stopped. I never would have squashed you.”  So the horse and the sea snail talked and talked about many things.  Finally the horse asked the sea snail if he would like to ride on the top of her head and feel the speed of her gallop.

                The horse bent down and let the snail slowly climb up her long nose and then between her eyes and finally the snail perched between her ears. “Hold on “, said the horse as she took off at a leisurely walk.  “This is the fastest that I’ve ever been in my life”, said the snail.  The horse then picked up the pace to a nice trot and the excited snail exclaimed, “Oh my! How fast can you run?” With that the horse took off at her full speed down the beach stopping at the end and turning around and heading back to the other end. The sea snail had never been this fast before and was fully enjoying this ride. As the horse and the sea snail were galloping madly along the beach a dolphin jumped up out of the water and looked toward the beach and saw the strangest thing she had ever seen.  She kept leaping out of the water to see this horse with a sea snail on its head running back and forth up and down the beach. The dolphin jumped out of the water and then jumped back out again and again, and again. Suddenly the horse said to the snail, “Did you see that dolphin jumping out of the water over and over?” And the snail turned to look and did see the dolphin. The horse and the sea snail both decided the dolphin leaping out of the water was the most bizarre sight they had ever seen. The horse slowed down and finally came to a stop right by the water’s edge, seeing this as she leapt out of the water the dolphin swam over to the shore where the horse and sea snail were stopped.

                The horse was shocked to see this dolphin swimming towards them. And the dolphin was amazed that the horse was just standing there.  The dolphin swam right up to the horse and the sea snail and told them that in all of her years in the ocean never had she seen anything quite like them. And the sea snail said that he had never seen anything like the dolphin and her leaping out of the water. The horse was equally shocked at the dolphin’s abilities and also that she could talk to her. The sea snail asked to get down from the horse’s head and she let him down onto the sand gently. The sea snail said to the dolphin, “You are amazing, the way you leap, the way you swim, and the graceful way you move.”  The dolphin asked the sea snail if he would like to go for a swim with her. “Yes”, replied the sea snail. “Climb up my nose to my head and hold on tight,” said the dolphin.  And with that the dolphin swam off so fast that the sea snail could hardly believe how fast he was going. The dolphin leapt up into the air over and over, again and again. She swam deep under the ocean and then came swimming quickly right back up to the surface and jumped high into the air with the sea snail on her head.  Finally the dolphin took the sea snail back to the shore where the horse stood watching the whole spectacle. The sea snail climbed down the dolphin’s nose and back onto the shore. “That was the most amazing swim that I’ve ever had in my whole life,” exclaimed the sea snail. The sea snail thanked the dolphin for the swim and thanked the horse for the run and told them both, “Today was the best birthday ever!” 

The end