Sunday, June 24, 2001
I bought a washer today. It wasn't what i planned to do, but when i got home from taking the cat to the vet for her shots the floor was wet from the washer leaking. This is a sign that i have been truly house-broken. I suppose it may seem rash, but the last time i called the repair guy to fix it he told me to buy a new one the next time it broke rather than calling him. Considering that was two years ago the beast has done pretty well. In addition to not leaking, the new machine will clean clothes without leaving bits of plastic from the agitator in them as well. I'm sure there is a laundromat somewhere in this town, but after spending a couple hours each week in laundromats across the country i want my clothes to almost wash themselves. They have machines that almost do that, but i settled for one with just the same features as my old one. Okay, okay, i admit it, the salesmen got me on one little new gizmo. He showed me a machine with auto-temperature control. Now why in the heck would a person ever need that you may ask. Well, come by around late December time and try to do a cold wash bright reds and greens. Either a) the cycle will finish and you'll find your clothes are nearly frozen and covered in soap or b) you'll have green blotches on your reds (similarly you will either freeze or nearly burn in the shower). But, presto magic, with the new machine the cold wash will be warmed up to a level where it will wash your clothes instead of freeze them without letting them get too warm. Still he only got me for $30 more than i had planned to spend on the machine when i walked in the store, so i don't feel too taken by the whole thing. I'm glad i had pre-shopped online so that i wasn't even tempted by the $700 machine he showed me at first. Saturday, June 23, 2001 hmmm....i'm thinking. Now that i'm officially home, maybe i should start a new blog for the home page. You know, a fresh start. I certainly don't feel like "road ravings" fits when i'm not on the road. Needs a title though. I guess i'll start the new one as soon as i figure out the title.~w
A post-post for Friday. It's late and i'm going to be asleep before my roommate gets off the phone, so you'll be reading this sometime tomorrow after i get it posted to the internet. Sorry it's not fresh, but it's been a long day. I learned how to run payroll this morning. Then i spent the afternoon in traffic trying to return our car to the airport when all the roads that lead to and from the airport were ravaged by a thunderstorm and flash floods. Nothing like what Houston got, but enough to keep me sitting in the car for 2-1/2 hours for what should have been a 30-40 minute drive. Tonight the first group of residency folks performed their poetry alive show amid poetry set to music by Thomas Rainfeather and The Dead Poets. Some of us ran screaming from the first band after 40 minutes of their "30 minute" set. The Dead Poets however had us literally dancing in the aisles to Langston Hughes, William Wordsworth, Emily Dickinson et al. William Blake's Tiger Tiger even inspired a conga line. Strange? Probably. But we had fun. It was the first time we'd seen some of our friends since december so it was a good homecoming. Tomorrow the cat goes to the vet for shots and other mundane stuff like that. I'm hoping once i settle into a regular routine that my creative side will kick in again to keep me entertained. I might even start writing poems again.~w Friday, June 22, 2001 I'm home. I'm not sure if my brain has made it yet though. I seem to be missing my folder with all my business stuff. I think i left it at our last workshop since i was distracted by them giving us a copy of Casey at the Bat when we left. I'm almost unpacked, but i need to do some serious spring cleaning before everything is truely put away. Thursday, June 21, 2001 We made it to Mobile, AL tonight. We're reading Neil Gaiman's new book American Gods for this last trek. It's off to a moody start, but it seemed to go with the flashes of stormy weather and traffic we ran into today. It's also a traveling kind of story that fits with our long cross country drives. We stopped in New Orleans and were dismayed to discover that our favorite restaurant in the Quarter, the Acme Oyster House, is closed for remodeling. Fortunately they have another location which we found out on Lakeshore drive. It wasn't quite the same, but the sun setting next to an isolated thunderstorm across the lake was an amazing bit of scenery to watch. It was peaceful and tempestuous all at the same time. Kinda like a last drive across the south, kinda like the book we're reading.
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words, poems, & other scribblings made while traveling the United States performing poetry for students with Poetry Alive!
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