Friday’s Theme Music
It’s snowing again! That’s pretty unusual for us in Ashland. This whole situation is unusual. We generally don’t receive so much snow. When we do, we all remember it. And, usually when snow is received like this, the sun bursts out of cover and melts it all away. That the snow has lingered, that it’s snowed multiple days, that the temperatures are staying on the cold side, are all departures from the norm.
Today is Friday, the final day of 2021, December 31. The temperature is 33 degrees so the snow isn’t staying. Just landing on top of old stuff, covering the street, then melting away, even as more snow falls. I guess this is technically snow flurries or snow showers.
Sunrise was a gray affair at 7:40 AM. We’ll lose our graylight at 4:49 PM.
A 1980 Judas Priest song, “Living After Midnight”, is playing in the morning mental music stream. This was a gift from the cats. One decided to imitate Paul Revere’s midnight ride and gallop around the house. The other cats were instantly concerned about this energetic burst. Checking the time, I saw it was just after one AM. That triggered the line, “I took the city ’bout one a.m. Loaded. Loaded.” The lines were changed to reflect the moment: “I took the house ’bout one a.m. Meowing. Meowing. The weird thing about this song is it never sounds like Judas Priest to me. Seems too pop. But it’s a good song for New Year’s Eve, innit? Yes! Happy New Year’s. See you after midnight. See who’s still rocking besides the cats.
Stay positive, test negative. Wear a mask as needed, avoid cruise ships, and get the jabs and coffee when you can. I got my jabs. Now I’m gonna get my coffee. Cheers from the snowside.
The Sister Dream
Wasn’t sure what to call this dream but the sister aspect spoke to me more in reflection.
First, it was me as a younger man with a car I once owned, a silver 1985 Mazda RX-7 SE that I bought used in California in 1991. I had parked it at a familiar convenience store in West Virginia, where I was visiting. Dream perspective changed: I looked at the parking lot with the car parked and me walking away from it, toward the store, as it could be viewed from the store’s security camera.
Another car drove up and parked on top of my car. This car was an old maroon Datsun sedan. Beater was an apt description. A young woman drove with another young woman as passenger. Both were white. They were laughing, laughing at her parking effort, laughing at being on top of my car, laughing at wrecking my car.
I stormed over there and shouted at her in my coldest, angriest voice. I told her that I owned her. I would see her in jail. Contempt crackled through every syllable. The driver sat in the car, holding the steering wheel, and crying. Her friend tried to talk me into being more compassionate, but I remained relentless. I called the police.
Scene change. I was driving the same car. A young white man drove an old white car into the side of my car.
I was livid and incredulous, thinking, the same car has been hit twice. I stalked to the offending white car, yelling at the driver. My brother-in-law showed up. He told me he’d take care of it because the driver was his son.
I was stunned. That was his son? I didn’t recognize him. My BIL went on, “Your sister just inherited some money. It should cover the damage. I’ll sign the check over to you.” He took out yellowed parchment paper and showed me the check. It was for $950. “Will that cover it?” he asked. Yes, I replied.
My BIL signed the check and then used scissor and cut it away from the rest of the document. As this happened, I wondered, who die? Who did my sister inherit this from? I saw that the document was an itemized list of household objects in large letters.
I took the check and began crying. I stood in my dream crying my eyes out. Then I decided to go see my sister.
I found my sister at home. She told me she needed a ride to get somewhere. I told her that I would give her the ride. I took her someplace. A party seemed to be going on. After dropping her off, I returned home. I awoke later in a panic because I thought I’d overslept and needed to pick up my sister and bring her home. As I rushed about, scrambling to leave, another sister asked where I was going. I told her I was going to pick up S. She replied, “She’s already home. Someone else gave her a ride.” I went to find my sister and confirm she was there. On the way, I stopped and peed in the bathroom. Then I looked in a bedroom and saw my sister asleep in a bed.
Prefloofpitation
Prefloofpitation (floofinition) – Moisture thrown off by an animal.
In use: “Coming in from outside with a snow covered back, the dog shook, filling the room with prefloofpitation.”
The Novel Update
Typed the final words to the novel in progress, The Constant, this morning. Was as satisfying as a cosmic orgasm or a cold beer on a blazing summer day.
For the record, this was the seventh draft. I started it in April of 2020. Just under one hundred five thousand words of speculative fiction. I wanted to finish it before 2022 but I was doubtful that would happen back around Thanksgiving. I shrugged off the hope and kept writing.
The elevator pitch goes, “This novel is about a television gunfighter in a dystopian civilization on another planet. Or maybe not.”
Feels odd to not need to write like crazy for the moment, though. Of course, other novel ideas are queueing up, eager for their computer screen time. Guess I’ll suck on some coffee and contemplate it all.
Cheers
The Cougar Dream
My wife and I were in an austere but large, yet old, cement apartment. The walls were deep pink. So was the ceiling and furniture but the floor was burnt gold. Furniture was scant – bed, table, one stick chair. The ceiling was low and the lumens from the few lights weren’t high.
It was night. Awakening and turning on the lights, I discovered a huge cougar prowling the room. The animal’s presence shocked and terrified me. The cougar was closer to me than my wife. I told her, “Go open the doors so it can get out.” Meanwhile, I made myself big to keep the animal from attacking me, raising my arms over my head. Extending that thinking, I climbed backwards up on the bed. Picking up the pillows, I held them over my head.
The cougar watched all of this with quizzical interest. It was an enormous, healthy, beautiful animal. Meanwhile, my wife was walking around and talking. I kept telling her, “Open the door, let the lion out,” but she seemed more interested in trying to make friends with it. The animal moved away from me. With its back to me, I jumped down and shooed it toward a door. Just as I got it out, two men opened the door and let it back in. They were joking about letting my cat out while I told them, “No, no, no, we were trying to get it out.”
I then left. Outside was bright and sunny. I was on a narrow, sandy beach. Turquoise water lapped gently to my right. Nobody else was around. I walked a while, enjoying the breeze, sounds, and sunlight, before stepping into the warm, tranquil water and bathing myself.
I shared this dream with my wife. She noted the cougar never threatened anyone. I agreed; I saw it as a threat, but it never threatened anyone. She said that bathing myself was a sign of cleansing myself. I told her, after encountering that cougar, I needed to clean myself off.
A Short Tale
He sipped his beer, a locally brewed IPA, and then set the mug down. “I came to Ashland for love in 1972. I’d met this woman in Ohio. She lived here. So I followed her here.”
“Did you marry her?”
“No. We were together for ten years. Then she moved out and we moved on. She lives in Tacoma now. Married, with children.” He smiled toward the wall. “We remain on good terms. We talk to one another on the phone. Once in a while.”
Floofsurp
Floofsurp (floofinition) – for an animal to seize and hold objections, locations, or food in possession by force or without right.
In use: “Thowing a hissy fit, the fierce little cat floofsurped the big St. Bernard’s bed, leaving the huge canine floofmmoxed.”
