Weblog 242

September 26, 2010~ 12:00 am
After the debacle of being caught in the same spot in traffic for two hours on Monday morning, then deciding to make my U-turn and return home, the rest of the week was filled with cramming as much work into four days as I'd normally do in five. I'm exhausted. LOL!! The days went by like marching blurs, one smeared into the next.

I finished my James Lee Burke book, uncertain now as to whether Dave Robicheaux and Cletus Percel survived at its end; it's possibly the most poetic-- and the most ambiguous (but BRILLIANT) ending to a novel I can recall. (If they are indeed, 'gone'- having boarded the big boat that's coming 'round the bend for all of us -goodbye, my friends. I've loved every minute spent with you.)

Wednesday brought a DOOSEY of a storm to these parts, and left poor Wayne without power for nearly 3 days. (I was lucky. Mine went out for only an hour and a half.) We had sideways shearing winds of 70 mph.....we need houses like THIS!



That would be GREAT! Cozy as possible, and little fortresses. (Not a storm goes by like this last one, that I don't thank the Lord I got rid of the big pine in the back. I'd have been flattened if that thing had gone down. ) Lots of folks around here are still sawing limbs and carting off parts of theirs. Tons of damage, but not one injury, thank heaven. Amazing.

Saturday evening we rented 'Book Of Eli', which was a disappointment-- terribly derivative, and the damn cinematography was SO DARK I could barely make out what was happening on the screen! The dialogue too low in pitch -and mumbled so often, I kept saying 'What? What??' (The Hughes brothers must think greenish filtering and low light/high contrast is cool.) Every single damn apochalyptic-themed movie uses that trick- enough! -it's old now. Look at this well-known painting by Andrew Wyeth called 'Christina's World'.



If the Hughes brothers got their hands on it, it'd look like THIS



LOL! Even Gary Oldman couldn't pull this one out of the soup. Not even Denzel ...and the girl who becomes his sidekick... (did anyone else see a rip-off of the Lara Croft 'Tomb Raider' character, armed and dangerous at the end, standing in the greenish desolate landscape, armed for bear) -in a final scene that screamed 'SEQUEL- COMING SOON! "Book Of Eli, PART II: Avenging Angel". Even the puffy, pouty lips and well-defined philtrum ("vertical groove on the surface of the upper lip, below the septum of the nose") -were simply echoes of Jolie. (I'm sure they're hoping there'll be doll action figures and comic books, and MONEY, MONEY, MONEY!) Anyway, the movie spelled 'poor imitation of Mad Max via Deadwood, via Tomb Raider'-- all jammed into something that hasn't much flavor other than, 'I CAN'T SEE THIS F*CKING THING!' ROFL!!

Enough carping on that. I'm just ansty because our TRIP TO GETTYSBURG is happening this week! (Thus, my anxiety over getting as much work done as possible, since I'll be out Thursday, Friday and Monday as well) but .......whoopie!! Wayne and I signed up for a seminar back in May, and we've been patiently watching the months roll by, tickled that it's finally here.



Do you see the names of those presenters? Man o man. There are no better experts in the field...a field, by the way, created by William Frassanito with his seminal work in "Journey In Time", the book that gave birth to my fascination with Gettysburg and walking the ground. Everywhere you look- they once stood



--long gone witnesses to the elephant that is the monster of war.

Very, very soon, I will step back into a time and place almost a century and a half ago, and there's no place I like better. I'll be in my element - all ears, all eyes, heart wide open to it.

And in the fall! No sweeter place on earth with someone I love most. It's gonna be a gorgeous week, I just know it.




September 26, 2010~ 7:30pm
'Tis the season of devils and goblins and ghosts..... the fading year, the sere leaves scritch-scratching across pavements-- the 'wooooooo' of wind. The atmosphere becomes charged with things 'extranormal' (as opposed to paranormal - I don't think that's an actual word, but it suits.) I use it to refer to those things that are always there, but we don't see them. Kind of like this delightful old poster...



see those little devils hiding everywhere? LOL!! Bet there's ghosts too, just stolling along with this dapper dandy, sight unseen.

October's coming. These things are too, so keep your eyes peeled! (The child in me believes it.)

Oh.....and as to temptations and failings... as to the smoking



I have to confess, I still do. I just don't smoke as much- and the cost is less because I order loose tobacco online for 13.99 a POUND- and roll my own. LOL!!! 100 tube with filters (which is one carton) -- only $2.69. Couldn't resist. A carton costs less than 7 dollars this way. (As opposed to 76.00 a CARTON, no shit!) I'm a fool and a naughty girl, I know.......but I've been one since I was 16. Old habits are like petrified wood...cement and history. Asi es la vida.




September 30, 2010~ 12:00 am
Finally! Leaving for Gettysburg this morning!



After four months of waiting after signing up, Wayne and I are off to attend our three day Civil War seminar. Oh, Yippie Kai Yay!

No new blog for the upcoming week...I believe I'll let everything distill until the second week of October, then share some highlights with you. (It's been a rough week so far. Unexpected turn with a nasty bladder infection that came on Monday night that had me curled into a ball until I could see a doctor on Tuesday and get some antibiotics)- all is well now. Ready to tromp the fields and marvel at how deeply that place affects me. See y'all in a week!





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