Leaves

I looked out the window and saw Jon from across the street dragging a big trash barrel, some black trash bags, and a rake out of his garage. He’d had a heart attack last year shoveling his snow, and now here he was preparing to rake his leaves.

When I promised my friend Judy when she was close to dying that I’d look out for Jon after her death, I had no idea the man was such a stubborn fool. I know, you’re thinking a little exercise is good for heart patients, but Jon’s yard has 4 huge trees. His trees generate enough leaves to create a compost pile big enough for the entire city. . . .

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The Next War

The bumper sticker said “I’m against the next war, too.” I don’t normally go in for bumper stickers, but that one seems worth pasting on my car.

There is a line of thought that says that when society was based on matriarchy, there were no wars. If we put mothers in positions of power, would the possibility of the next war fade away? Mothers want to keep children safe, not send them off to be living bull’s eyes.

Are you a mother? Run for office. We need you.

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What fun!

A few days ago I wrote about seeing Alice Walker speak. I posted some photos here and at Flickr. Now my image is being used in the Wikipedia article about her.

She’s had such an influence on me. What fun to be part of what people learn about her when they read the article at Wikipedia.

In 1997, when she spoke at Houston Tillitson College in Austin, I also attended. I wrote an essay about it for the Austin Writers’ League newsletter. The essay won an award. I thought that was fun, and still have the award on my office wall. But this is way fun, too.

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Free

Back in the day, we used to say, “There’s no free lunch.” That was before Countrywide. Countrywide is a mortgage company that got itself into the current housing mess by granting adjustable rate loans to thousands of people who would not be able to make the payments when the “adjustable” part of the deal kicked in. Now Countrywide is planning to refinance and adjust all those loans. It may keep a lot of families from losing their homes. It may keep a lot of people from going bankrupt, including Countrywide. It seems to me . . .

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Tawanda

I wrote a post at BlogHer today that invokes the word “Tawanda” in support of Mona Shaw’s spree with a claw hammer in her local Comcast office. When Kathy Bates said, “Tawanda,” in Fried Green Tomatoes it was an iconic moment for a lot of women who were mad as hell and weren’t going to take it any more.

Mona Shaw, as outlaw, is a symbol of what a lot of us feel about the supposed “service” we get from service companies like Comcast. Outlaws and rebels carry the banner for . . .

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The Sunday Paper

I love the Sunday paper. It demands leisure. It demands slowing down, sipping your coffee and taking your time. It’s a lovely experience to read all those articles, op ed pieces, book reviews, and just stuff.

The daily papers don’t feel the same. For one thing, you’re in a hurry. The paper is much smaller and you prioritize what you want to read to get the most out of it in the few minutes you have to read it.

My favorite section is . . .

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Riverwalk

The riverwalk by the Genesee River is spacious. It wanders among the odd, eclectic architecture of downtown Rochester. Old buildings with inset decorations of Greece columns, arches, and little motif pieces sit brick-by-glass next to sleek high rise odes to modernism.

Earlier buildings are topped by interesting statues and artistic works. The Kodak building down the way works its way up to an ever narrowing top that lights up at night.

Logs clutter the water, which seems to me to call out for a boat or two . . .

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Apricot

Jessie brewed a cup of apricot tea. She sat crossed-legged on the worn sofa on the porch to drink it. She held the cup close to her nose and inhaled the wonderful fruity aroma of the tea. Calm down, she said to herself. Just drink this tea and pull yourself together.

Everything around her seemed more real than normal. The clacking of the cottonwood’s drying leaves rushed through the air. The slight chill on the shady porch made her skin tingle. Surely all this beauty was reality—nothing else but this. . . .

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Disgusting

Bobbi opened the door to the stairs and starting clattering down to the lobby from the 25th floor. The stair well was disgusting. Apparently the hotel never expected anyone to actually use it. The walls were filthy and flaking. The guard rails were pitted and black with grime.

It made Bobbi wonder what the kitchens looked like. If only the public rooms got attention and upkeep, the food preparation areas must be a disgusting mess as well. For $300 a night, it wasn’t an encouraging thought. She . . .

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Frost

A comment got me to thinking about Robert Frost. Or plain old frost. This time of year I think about frost doing in my last tomatoes. I have a frost free tomato plan. It involves cutting off the plant right at the dirt line and bring the little darlings in to finish ripening on a sunny window sill.

I don’t have a sunny window sill, but that is a problem I will surmount somehow. Then . . .

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