my best girl

going to Starbucks this morning with my girlfriend. hope the wife doesn’t find out. ooops. she is my wife. another wonderful senior moment

A case of absolute wonder

Her name was Kim. (I won’t give her last name in case it might embarass her.) She was the prettiest girl in elementary school. And then high school. And college if she went on that far. She wasn’t just a pretty girl. Her looks were almost unnatural. And it wasn’t just her. Her sister was gorgeous. Her brother was the best looking guy in school (if my sister’s opinion is of any importance). Both her parents were gorgeous. Her mother had waist length blond hair. She turned heads in her fifties. The whole family were also wonderful people. The could have been a poster for the ideal American family (though they were Canadian). And they were modest. Is this in the genes? Was there a thread of these gorgeous people all the way down through history? Generation after generation. I bring this up not because I’m jealous. It’s just a case of absolute wonder.

The girl in the seat behind me

She sat behind me in class. Grade six. She shared her lunch with me. Even though I went home at noon for lunch. She brought me books to read. Gave me gifts. She was a quiet girl. Did not speak much. Struggled to laugh. Outside of the classroom we never spoke. She wanted me to stay in at recess and talk. I found her to be a nuisance. I wanted to play ball. Not sit around and talk. One day she did not show up at school. I found out later that she’d gotten pregnant. This was the 1950s. No one had sex. Didn’t know a thing about sex. But there it was. I wonder sometimes if my imagination made her up. If there had been no girl in the seat behind me.

Useless

The door of our old refrigerator (50+ years) has broken and I can’t fix it. (Its our back up beer fridge). And one of our faucets has broken. I can’t replace it because its gotten all rusted underneath and with the weird angle and wrench you have to us, it won’t budge. I am useless. Women like men who are handy.  Ask Red Green.

Getting older isn’t for sissies

As you get older, you become more absorbed in yourself. You have to. Parts of your body start showing rust. Start to breakdown. I’m finding myself becoming increasingly paranoid. About my health. Its boring and useless. But its hard to stop falling to the ground, when your knee gives out on you. Of course its fine if you’re in church. I think it was Bette Davis who said that getting older isn’t for sissies.

Can’t Remember Her Name

In the 1970s John Robert Columbo introduced what he called ‘found art’ or ‘found poetry’. What I have found is my own work. Old work. Some of which I have never put on a blog. Some of which I didn’t like at the time but with distant they now appeal to me. (The ones that still didn’t appeal I put back in the not-found-yet file. I think memories are like that too. Especially people. Especially the opposite sex (in my case). Maybe its getting just getting older. But I remember girls from my distant past. They are mere wisps of memory. A girl in Ottawa. That lived next door to my aunt and babysat her kids. While I was there. We talked. Must have been 14 or 15. We liked each other. And then my dad and I returned home. And she slipped back into the fog of time. Can’t remember her name. Or face. She had dark hair. May have been native. What I remember is that she was kind.  Found memories. Why do we have them?

feaces in a crowd

words in her bicycle spoke

The cutting edge of uselessness.

I’m at war with my internet/cable provider. You’d think that they’d be on the edge of efficiency. But they’re useless. In my case (Toronto, Canada) its Rogers Cable. I won’t go into the details. The unfortunate case here is that Rogers has a monopoly situation over my cable and basically calls the tune in internet as well. And I’m not alone. Everyone I talk to has a story about Rogers. And yet they broadcast themselves as some kind of Goodwill Industries, struggling along, hardly making a buck, always looking out for the customer. I keep reminding myself that its Christmas time and I’ve got to let it go. Humbug. Useless tits is what Rogers is.

Natalie Shau

Check out this young woman’s work. Wonderful stuff.

http://ledeluge.wordpress.com/2010/12/08/natalie-shau/

Natalie Shau