Squall line shelf cloud, wannabe tornado (wall cloud) and a sunset rainbow

NEW! Salad spinner. Now we get full heads of green stuff for salads. Less stupid packaging...more taste!
BONUS! Basil. (goodness he's a thirsty li'l guy)

Through the Lens

Occluded Rainbow (Hope)

greeley, he's ridin' his catrike (hereafter interchangeably referred to as "the cat") to work these summer days, you know cause he has to drive in the winter and up here in minnesota during that season just drivin' around the corner can be like learnin' to skate, let alone drivin' fifteen miles across town so when it ain't winter you can bet greeley's pedalin' every single day he gets half a sideways chance so he can make up for all the tooth dust he ends up grindin' out during the snowy season.

so he's pedalin' his cat to work a few days ago on the midtown greenway trail, and not goin' too fast seein' as how he was findin' that perfect balance between exercise and lookin' at all the marvelous green things of summer, when he spies in his mirror some dude kinda catchin' up with him. after a piece the dude completely catches up and sits on greeley's ass for a bit. that's no problem. as the trail draws up to a particularly nasty intersection with a four lane road, the dude comes around greeley. that's not really a problem either; it's what the dude does next that pisses greeley off. see, the two near lanes of the road are clear, but in one the far lanes there's a car coming from the right. even low-to-the-ground greeley sees it plain as day...so he stops at the edge of the road, cause that's what you ought to do, especially if you think, like greeley does, that it's generally unwise to go around makin' enemies out of folks controllin' multiple ton metal objects.

but the dude...see he don't do that. instead of stoppin', the dude zips right out to the middle of the four lanes so as to make the approaching driver shit his pants and, for better or worse, stop real quick. i tell you what. and then the dude (hereafter interchangeably referred to as "the douchebag") just keeps on goin'. now greeley, meantime he's sittin' there thinkin' "way to make us all look bad, douchebag", and thinkin' bout how this boy needs to be told, and so as soon as he gets a break in the traffic, greeley crosses the road the right way and dials up his targeting computer on the douchebag. meantime, douchebag, who clearly thinks this is a race he's winnin', has put about a hundred and fifty yards on greeley. i tell you what. but not for long cause greeley kicks it in and catches mister tour de greenway in about thirty seconds. then he nuzzles his cat right in behind the dude so now it's greeley settin' on the douchebag's ass, see, and so greeley he sets back there, co-rollin' along at about 22 miles an hour... just long enough till (mirrorless) douchebag senses his ominous presence and turns his head twice (the WTF double-take) and finds greeley right there suckin' his wheel. perfect. so greeley kinda pulls out and real slow sidles up next to the legend in his own mind and just...sits there for long enough to give the dude one last, loving look before saying "way to make us all look bad, douchebag."

the dude ain't got nothin' to say and that ain't no surprise since he's breathin' pretty hard and looks kinda tired. but since he was clearly thinkin' this was a race, greeley obliges; slips his cat into some 53:13 shit and smokes him like a bong hit.

and that would be that, 'cept one more thing. after putting about a hundred yards on ol' d, greeley notices him disappear down one of them bike trail exit-ramp things. a few seconds later he hears the angry horn of an 18-wheeler blarin' -- right where douchebag woulda been when he met the road at the end of the ramp. now i'm only slightly ashamed to tell you the evil side of greeley's better angels was half-hopin' to hear a sound after that horn. the sound of a 20 ton truck converting a bicycle into a hood ornament woulda been about right. it never came, but i tell you what

some people don't lern too good.

When we're not well, we often unintentionally destroy the very thing we most need to get well -- and do so before said thing is able play its pivotal role in (wait for it) getting us well. Why? Because, duh, WE'RE NOT WELL. Ok, you might say,...but surely there's something to be gleaned from the knowledge of this destruction...a special ticket that'll entitle us - despite the tragedy of killing the very thing we most needed - to reboard the boat with newfound enlightenment. But too often there is no such ticket. Ashes don't give light, and the boat is loaded with fools.

I dunno. there was a time when I would have said it's ok; that killing something off only makes room for something else. But I've lost too much living that way. I'm not saying lead some sort of co-dependent dysfunctional life by clinging to everything. I'm just sayin'. If you're ever given the choice to kill something you probably need in order to live, my advice is DON'T DO IT.

(in reference to my previous post)...sometimes the illusion of not letting go is all we've got.

"...That's what happens when you have the illusion of not letting go. If the illusion of not letting go is good, stay with it. If not, then stop, bow, and say thank you."

Namaste

...and downhill is the easy part

On Versus Sports Channel all month. Check it out.

...but today we know better.

Safety First, of course.

My family homestead is way down south on a lazy red river in the middle of the Apalachicola national forest. It's empty now, has been for years...everyone scattered to the four winds. But it's still there...

I thought I'd have this forever, but so much has happened since then. With each passing year the energy of this holy place recedes further into the fog of memory. I need to reconnect. I'm thinking of taking a year off and moving back for the duration. Painting and swimming and making things grow. Taking in the tree frog chorus after summer afternoon thunderstorms. Re-infusing my soul with the song of bobwhites and owls a whippoorwills at night.

Maybe next Spring.

Trying to get back in the Greeley spirit, I've been reworking a few stories. Hope you enjoy this one.

****

Now one time when Greeley was in eighth grade, this senior friend showed him how to make potassium tri-iodide. Trust me homeland security is gonna hit the fan and this website now, cause potassium tri-iodide is some explosive shit. Actually it's a brown paste so it actually does  look kinda like it. But it's not, and you can tell cause when it dries out it blows up real good if you look at it sideways, which is a property not generally associated with shit and thank goodness, BUT THE THING IS that's 'cause potassium tri-iodide is naturally unstable; when it dries out, just the tiniest breeze, or even lookin' sideways at it, is enough to set it off.

So Greeley he'd mix up a batch and put a little dollop somewhere it wouldn't go off till it dried out which was generally about an hour later. It was like a super-long-delay fuse with the added element of surprise. And an hour was plenty of time for Greeley to walk around the corner and wait for some random rube to walk by and look at it sideways.

Every time, Greeley found himself delightfully haunted by the same question: Who Will it Be?

It didn't make a huge explosion cause Greeley only used a tiny bit but it was LOUD man, and real SHARP. Like a firecracker. Precisely the right amount to make someone jump like a cat which is what they did. Every time.

The best trick Greeley ever did with potassium tri-iodide was one morning he sneaked into the science office when there weren't nobody around and he put a tiny smidge on Mister Scott's wooden chair at the beginning of class. Now Mister Scott was the chemistry teacher so naturally Greeley thought it'd be fitting to use some of this "chemistry stuff" against him. And Greeley got that chance, cause sure enough after class Mister Scott comed back to his office and plopped down in his chair and BAM!

The main explosion blowed a tiny brown hole about the size of a raisin in (as it turned out) Mister Scott's favorite pair of white polyester double-knits. Thing is, when Mister Scott sat down that tiny little BOOM didn't have nowhere to go 'cept that tight lil' space between butt and the wooden chair. The fact that Mister Scott was a little on the tubby side further enhanced this "trapping effect" and was probably responsible for the striking pattern of unusually long brown streaks radiating away from the central hole.

Having failed to anticipate his encounter with potassium tri-iodide, Mister Scott neglected to bring a change of clothes that day. As a result of this oversight, he spent the rest of it walking around with a high-contrast reddish-brown Martian Crater on his butt. Mister Scott had a hard time laughin' it off but some other people thought it was pretty funny though.

Anyway Greeley wants to take this opportunity to thank Mister Scott for not killin' him, and also thank his friend for teachin' him how to make potassium tri-iodide.

When he goes to hell he'll do just that.

Driven by psychological energies as powerful and immutable as they are individual, in time each of us weaves (more often unwittingly than not) a tapestry; i.e., the integrated Self by which we'll be remembered. Or not remembered, as the case may be. Wherever one ends up, whatever one ends up doing, at the end of the day it's fair to say these energies and forces - together with a bit of fortune (the good and bad) and luck (the good and bad) - got him (or her) there.

Speaking personally, when it's my time - whatever I have done in this life - when the reaper comes to collect me, I shall at least be able to say that I Did It.

Can't be otherwise.

The following video deftly captures a certain, shall i say, disdain for authority that features prominently in my personal tapestry. In other words, should anyone ever wish to know more about How I  Did It, I should invite them to watch this. Partly as a cautionary tale, partly as a how-to guide, but mostly for a smile. Because I never could resist a smile. And I doubt that'll change on the other side - no matter what it looks like over there.

<3