Monday, June 20, 2005

tlc

Would you eat a whole box of TLC crackers just because you liked the name? I would.
my pals Posted by Hello

Bianchi and me, we're getting a little carried away with our passion for each other

Okay, I think I am getting too bold on the bike. I think I ought to wear a bike seatbelt or something. I think I should not be making left turns from busy six lane roads and darting between cars at full speed. Stop me from being a jackass on wheels!

I am a careful driver. So why this defiance, given that I now have two fewer wheels to support and sustain me? Why this feeling of power on the road when I should be cowering and trembling? There are some mean looking SUVs out there and I know they basically have one goal in life and that is to do me in right there on the road. So why am I these days not scared of them? Of traffic? Of life? Why do I feel a special bond and camaraderie with fellow cyclists, wanting to high-five them each time we obstruct traffic with our presence and make life miserable for those wanting to effortlessly speed home in their damn machines?

All those drivers, polluters, spoiled air conditioning addicts – they are suddenly them and the bikers and I, we are us, a fellowship of man woman and spinning wheels. Yeah!

Still, I am putting a little post-it on the handlebars as a little prod: fearlessness gets people in trouble. I should remember how much I hated cyclists like myself just two weeks ago. Road hogs, I used to mutter. Find a bike trail and leave me alone. Of course, that was then. Two weeks can make a new person out of you. Really. One small event -- a bike, a phone call and you're a different you. Pull over, cars, that right lane is now mine, damn it, mine!

the sweet smell of relief and vindication

There is this service out there (for every need, real or imagined, there is a service provider) that comes over and attends to things you’ve neglected in and around your house. As it was gently suggested to me last Friday that my yard and roof need some tlc, I called them and they came dashing over (the big thing about them is that they are like the Roto-Rooter Man – they come out immediately, like your life depended on it).

They walked, looked, poked, inspected. I sweated it out. You just feel so helpless: you start thinking that you truly are a worthless human being who rides Mr. B out west instead of attending to gutters and branches on a regular basis.

Finally, their verdict, delivered slowly but emphatically:

Ma’am (it’s better than miss, alright?) you don’t need the roof edging replaced. Just trimmed. Should take no time. As to the yard: leave it alone. The flowers are great. If someone doesn’t like your densely planted flowers, then they wont like them. But I wouldn’t touch a thing outside. Maybe trim a bush or two, that’s it.

God, I love service providers who tell you you don’t really need much of their service!

Just goes to show that one person’s jungle is another’s Eden, right? Admittedly, I did let things slide a little outside, but I am reassured that I’ve kept at it enough not to make eyes bulge as people drive by (I’m in the suburbs; people don’t walk much in the suburbs – too folksy, I guess).

Inspired, I went to the city park and loaded up on free mulch: your cuttings, pulverized to shredded garden garbage, to be applied now as dressing to my… sweet, dense jungle.
beautiful, right? Posted by Hello

Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine, With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine*

Which day in the calendar stands out for a northerner? Which one has “revel” written all over it? Which one has you in an apoplectic state toward the third week of December, because it seems So Very Far Away?

Obviously it’s tomorrow. Summer solstice (this year it happens on June 21st, early in the morning). When daylight (in Madison) will stretch luxuriously for 15 hours and 23 minutes (with visible light extending for 16 hours and 34 minutes).

Full moon tomorrow. A long hot day. Windows open. Breezes making their way through, from one end of the house to the other.

Midsummer. Dreamy, crazy midsummer.

*Shakespeare: Midsummer Night's Dream
this morning's rose: color so intense, it radiates Posted by Hello