Daffodil Parade, tomorrow!

There is snow up north and in the mountain passes, the Daffodil Parade is tomorrow and the weather should be perfect, although my friend Hal said where he grew up seventy degrees was put on the coat weather, it won't get to sixty here until Monday, maybe - shorts and t-shirts.

Time for the week's end...

Okay, if I don't forget I will be married about thirty-seven years tomorrow, okay, exactly thirty-seven years. I only became aware of the date tomorrow as I picked up a card in the mail box from my sister and her husband, saved! I still remember sadly the day my son came up and got my attention after dinner and a long day and said "Dad, Mom says happy anniversary." how small could I get, don't know but I wasn't a very big guy in my mind that day.

I was riding my motorcycle through the freezing cold this morning and smiling and thinking and knowing that I have achieved real status in the world, I am steampunked! Wearing a leather coat, heavy harness ring boots, Duck Bib Overalls, gauntlets, Infantry Blue knit scarf (knitted by my girl friend), wrist compass, flashlight, Zippo, couple knives, riding the Trusty Triumph and faithfully following Victorian mores - I am steampunk. Then I found out that only I understood it and everyone else was just fine with me being Earl. Ah, well it was a thought and like most art one has to understand it to get it and be got. The girl friend is gone, I married her and have to remember where to get the flowers, card and time to spend with her. It isn't on this Internet...

Isn't it nice not to shoot anyone today (or want to)?

One of only two humans on the planet Earth that I would shoot to death without question has raised his ugly head again. No one is giving me the shot and so I don't take it, but someone should, actually if I feel those two deserve my best shot, then they should have been taken out a long time ago - normally one doesn't know the name nor the history of the people one kills in war - doesn't that fact make it all so much more proper. You didn't really know who you just killed, only that it was okay at the time in the place.

These evil people aren't forces of nature, but certainly when compared to the worst natural disaster they have longer lasting effect, why don't enlightened civilizations destroy them before they become such? Well, they will die of their mortality, but never soon enough and you don't need their names - if they died suddenly you might have been part of a conspiracy and there are better things to do with our lives - give love a chance.

Shhss!!! Library at work...

Yesterday the Chain came in, new inmates from other institutions, rotating because of... custody level, security or preference -- they get to move. Shackled in chains, on a bus that rattles with its own ills as well as those chains, with tiny windows that you can't pop out in an emergency nor look out as you are locked in until you arrive somewhere new and less confined. Rumor among the inmates is that there are two of the vehicles, the regular one to your next facility and the special that never unloads -- the really bad guys get on it and it only stops for refueling along the way and to load another guy somewhere else (no one ever gets off and they are never heard from again!).

When the Chain comes in and unlocks and unloads the institution is at peril, periods of transition are always the best time for attack, escape or insurrection and so security must be higher. After processing and the departure of the Chain bus things will go back to normal, well, a prison normal. In the library suddenly five to ten extra men will show up outside of the movement period and from the wrong units, their explanation: I wanted to get something to read.

Male voices are loud, deep and carry well - some of the inmates have trouble making anyone believe them unless the volume is overwhelming. So inmates from the chain are quickly establishing their rights, priviliges and collecting debts or establishing threat levels they can survive with (pecking order). Old buddies from county lockup two years ago, old buddies from criminal enterprises, old school buddies and of course the old drinking buddies.... re-establishing the connections, telling the stories and asking the questions. The noise level builds as the TRUTH is always LOUDER than fiction... unfortunately, I have good inmate library clerks, which along with their other duties show off their positive customer service skills by getting just as loud or better and shouting across the library to get information to that table in the corner. Lovely and lively here, sigh.

I am a guy, I understand and I listen for the mellow in the bass booming broadly by... situtation normal, no threats nor fears funded here, the Library is at work and the beeps of the computers scanning barcodes count the time. Still the noisiest Library in the planet, have to be first at something.