20140907 NO POWER yet

20140907 NO POWER yet

            Sunday, Septmeber 9, 2014, 12:31 PM I am over at R'dale where we slept because we had no power at Moran for the second night.

            6:52 PM I am walking my first walk of the day.  Yesterday I only walked 15 minutes and the day before 22 and half minutes, so I am slacking, but we still have no power at Moran, or, we have brownout power, but it's not running the fridge, airconditioner, computers etc.  Lights are very dim. 

            Today hauled a bunch of food from The fridge and freezer at Moran to the fridge and freezer at R'dale.  I should have done it sooner.  A lot of freezer stuff was melted and lot of fridge stuff was warm and threw away a lot and may have to throw away more.

            So, after all that, and carrying heavy coolers and bins of food back and forth, two trips, it's getting late.  Keith wasn't there to help me because among the things not working are the washer and dryer.  He was over at his Mom's doing laundry. 

            Also, I hauled the air mattress down and opened the couch into a bed and put the air mattress on it, but now it's so tall that if we were to fall off, we'd get injured, seriously.  I am waiting for Keith to decide if he wants to fold the couch bck up and put the mattress on the floor in living room or study, or try sleeping on the couch bed.  I figured we could decide that when he gets back. 

            I had a conversation eith Rolandale Bon, who is looking lean and handsome at 50 years old.  He told me he has a new girlfri2nd from Thailand, not from Thailand, but in Thailand.  "Sh3e's droop dead gorgeous," he says.  He showed me pictures.  She is very pretty, and young,, and she wants kids and he's not sure he does because he's too old.  At 50.  She's in a remote part of Thailand and teaches English to 9-year-olds.  He's going thehre in December and again in April.

            Some young guy with batman Toshirt is mowing his lawn with a VERY loud lawnmower.

            I can't wait to get away from him.

            UGH.

            *            *            *            * EJ end journal

            *            *            *            * begin Cowbird story, The Body in the Refigerator

            It looks like there's a body in our refrigerator.  A mangled, bleeding body.  I should have taken a picture.  Instead, I cleaned it up.

            I spent the day moving food from our fridge and freezer at home to the studio's fridge and freezer.  The power is out at the house where we live.  Some berries, raspberries, I think, and frozen meat thawed out and leaked.  We should have moved the food sooner. 

            *            *            *            * end CBS 1

            *            *            *            * begin CBS 2, the hangnail from Hell, for Robert Verney

            Elsie was a rare golden-horned dragon who lived in the mountains of Bhutan.  She was a member of a species that was known by the biologists of the area as extinct, which really pissed her off when she read about it on her iPhone.  The iPhone had been dropped, as per instructions, from a hot air balloon manned by Hernando the Great, the 19-year old flamenco stunt man from Madrid.  Hernando's mother, Aleina, was a fortune teller and an adept at reading tea leaves, and when Hernando left his morning tea cup unwashed on the counter instead of rinsing it and putting it the dishwasher the way he's been told, Aleina peered in with a combination of annoyance and curiosity to see what her recalcitrant son was up to. 

The tealeaves clearly said to he was to fly over the mountains in Bhutan and drop a new cell phone programmed in Draco-Bhutanese.  Since Draco-Bhutanese was considered to be a dead language, Aleina had to splash tealeaves into the sink to learn how to program that language and then teach her son Hernando, who was a whiz at computers, cell phone, and apps.  He did as he was instructed, but his balloon lost altitude and crashed on the cliffs just beyond Elsie's aerie.  When he sent out an SOS, he didn't realize that his cell phone was still programmed in the Draco-Bhutanese he'd used to drop the one he'd dropped for Elsie, but Elsie got the message and flew to rescue him from where he was hanging on a branch that was inch by inch breaking and about to drop him a thousand feet to the sharp scree below. 

Elsie flew under him and he dropped on her back and she took him to her Aerie.  She wondered if he was a delicacy she might have for a snack, but he texted her in Draco-Bhutanese, using the text translation app he'd developed with the help of his Mom and carefully explained that he was not a snack.

            Elsie told Hernando that she was not extinct and not a dream and that she resented people saying she was extinct.  "I am not extinct yet," she said, "but I might be soon.  I have the hangnail from hell."

            "Hangnail?" Hernando said, and laughed.  "Hangnail!  Only wimps complain about hangnails!"

            "Oh yeah, take a look at this," Elsie said.  She held up her back claw with its long sharp talons, and there was a flaming hangnail with fire pouring out of it 

            "I might set my nest on fire." She sighed.  “And let me show you something else.  We golden horned dragons can project our feelings to other dragons, and even to humans, here try this."  She closed her eyes and pressed her forehead to Hernando's, carefully position it so his forehead fit between her golden horns.

            "Ouch!" Hernando shouted, leaping back so far he toppled out of the aerie. 

            Elsie made a grab for him, diving over the edge and catching him in her other claw.

            "Wow, that really hurts.  Here, maybe I can fix it.  I have some asbestos tape from my hot air balloon.  It is really nasty stuff.  But it might help.” 

            Hernando unwound the tape from his boots, where he stored it, and wrapped it round and round the hangnail from hell and gradually the flames subsided.

            "My Mom is a psychic and a healer," Hernando said.  “I am not the seventh son of a seventh son, but I seem to have inherited a little of her powers.”

            He leaned his forehead against Elsie's and intoned, in a deep musical voice, "heal, heeeal, heeeeeaall.""  He closed his eyes and imagined the hangnail from hell healing.

            Elsie gave a yelp and Hernando leaped back so fast he fell from the aerie again.  This time, Elsie caught him with her injured foot. 

"That was not a yelp of pain, " she said, “that was a yelp of joy.  You have healed me, dear human!”  And she gave him a kiss that left a scar like a brand on his face in the shape of a golden-horned dragon.  Hernando didn't know it yet, but he would wear that scar like a tattoo for the rest of his life.

            *            *            *            * End Hangnail from Hell EHNFH

For Robert Verney.  Bhutan is a country near Nepal that contains some of the Himalayas.  The dragon shown here is from the flag of Bhutan.  These dragons can fly without wings, just as we fly without wings in dreams.  Robert, you or anyone can use this illo, or any of my others, as long you credit me.

            It looked like there was a body in our refrigerator at home, a mangled, bleeding body.  I should have taken a picture.  Instead, I cleaned it up.

            I spent the day yesterday moving food from our fridge and freezer at home to the studio's fridge and freezer.  The power is out at the house where we live.  Some berries, raspberries, I think, and frozen meat thawed out and leaked onto the white floor like blood.  We should have moved the food sooner.

After I got it all moved, the power went at the studio.  We may lose out food!