not doing much here

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time and time again

I am at the beach near Corpus Christi, Texas. Today is Nov. 12. My blog effort has moved to the aeclectic tarot forum. You can find directions to that site on the previous post.

back from a long summer sleeping

The blog slowly wakes up. I spend more time writing posts at the Aeclectic Tarot Forum, which is at www.tarotforum.net.

Scroll down to Chat, then locate a thread called "The Island," written primarily by someone named Pocono Platypus -- that's me.

The Evening

Now it is the evening. The sun has gone down. It is dark. I am not afraid.

I write to you from Floresville, a small town near San Antonio, Texas. I am at the coffeehouse in the strip-mall, as we call it. This part of town is infested with Grackles. For those of you elsewhere on the planet, I will explain. One Grackle is fine. But they come in flocks, huge flocks, tens of thousands. Their call is an unpleasant sound -- hence, "grackle." And of course their scat piles up odoriferously.

Grackles are a manifestation of ecological imbalance -- there are simply too many of them, whilst other bird species are in decline.

It is popular to blame all this on mankind, which is probably correct, but why don't we blame the Grackles too, and some of the other species? If we are not the supreme species, then we cannot be the only ones responsible for the foul winds blowing on the planet.

I talk to the animals. I didn't used to, this is a new thing for me, which began in the last year or so -- a desire to understand and communicate with animals. The real change came a few months ago, when a cricket flew into my aprtment and I befriended it, keeping it as a pet for six weeks, and we had many conversations. Mainly I used to sing to the little fellow, and he would look up at me, and we both wondered what was going on.

back to the blog

Resuming the blog

slow blog, no blog

Waverly Fitzgerald is hot for her new blog, but this one is about dead. Go to her blog with a new flower every day and breath inspiration. God bless.

http://livinginseason.blogspot.com/

Lizard Life

Hot here, 98 degrees. Lizard Life. Slow. Slow walk, slow talk, slow think, no think.

Horse in a pasture, just standing there. Or cows, cow-eyed, big, beautiful empty brown cow eyes. That was this morning, and I bought home-grown tomatoes at the farmstand -- fabulous juicy taste.

I took photos of the old refinery out by the Wilson County line, rusty pipes and cracking towers, weeds, broken gates. Lazarus Energy (real name) bought the old refinery and plans to fire it up -- news story. I wrote it.

Now I'm at the coffee shop in San Antonio, on the black couch, It's quiet here. Ceiling fan. Two damsels on their black couches with their laptops.

I can't tell that story

I just deleted a post I wrote about a friend of mine -- an old man who lives in the Veteran's Home near here -- I visit him now and then, but he's not fully competent, which means I can't tell his story even though I know he would like it if I did. I would have to ask his son. Since the story involves a conflict between the old man and his son, this could be dicey -- but I will ask. If the son says no, then I can't tell the story.

My ex-wife

My ex-wife was really mad at me for writing something about her two months ago. She called me up and cursed at me. I didn't hear from her for several weeks, but then she called again, very nicely, and said don't write anything about her anymore.

I have two responses to that. One, is that I can hardly tell my story without her being in it, and two -- the thing I wrote about her is by far the single thing that would most embarrass her -- so the worst is over. What I wrote about was the one secret of hers that I still kept, and I felt like I didn't need to keep it anymore. Nothing else I know about her is a secret, so I think it's okay.

However, a pseudonym might be a good thing at this point. The best one is the "African Woman," or else "Betty" or "Elizabeth."

I miss her a lot. People, including myself, thought I was crazy to marry her. She ruined my life, cost me all my money -- but she was so incredibly beautiful, so very, very beautiful, I just couldn't help it -- she could talk me into anything.

I love you

Words uttered at the Museum of Fine Art in Boston in October, 1990, sitting with her on a bench, facing a very large painting by Renoir, of a European woman swirling in a Japanese kimono -- I think that was the painting. It would be nice to be in love again -- which doesn't happen that often, as Aurielle reminds me.

Okay, then how about a fling?

this cafe

I keep coming to this cafe, at the corner of Beauregard and South Alamo. It's a little bit precious, but there is the one seat by the front window and under the ceiling fan -- that's my seat. Except she -- the sweet young thing -- is occupying it, so tonight I have the second best seat. Speaking of sweet young things, Holly left the newspaper today, going someplace else -- pretty darn near the most beautiful woman in Texas, nice too, fun. I'm glad she left -- she was frustrated and bored.

Last night I talked with Joe Lopez, the artist who operates La Gallista gallery. Joe calls himself "el puro gallo" -- number one rooster, cock of the walk. Maybe he was a tough guy long back. not now. I took his photo for the newspaper, and photos of his paintings -- and photos of a painting by Celestine Hinojosa, who I spoke to on the phone. I loved talking to her -- she is very beautiful. Her painting was called "nicho de la cruz azul." This is an Hispanic gallery. Maybe I can meet Celestina, such a nice name. Joe is my friend now. He has told me a lot of things about his life, his family, and where he grew up. His gallery is ten blocks from here, on South Flores Street -- in a different neighborbood.

This neighborhood -- a little too precious, fey, yuppie, hip -- but not expensive, nothing in San Antonio is expensive, and it was easy to park, and the soft evening breeze and light music, sweet gardens, slow walkers, fragrance.

Joe's neighborhood is five block past the edge of gentrification, in the vast all- Mexican south side of San Antonio. Vato Loco!

at the ball game

Humongous jets flying over -- dark gray jets, giantic -- taking off from Kelly Air Force Base, near the ball bark. Quiet skies, cool breezes, 4,773 fans, Missions are losing 1-3 to the Tulsa Drillers, which will bring their season record to 20-31 -- and a firm grip on last place.

These are the San Antonio Missions. Fernando Valenzuela played here in 1980. Brooks Robinson played here in the 1950s. Joe Morgan too.

It's a nice park. I like this seat in the press box, looking over my laptop on to home plate.

It rained today. My brother called me from California. He's trying to teach summer school this year, but I told him I hope he gets the summer off. I pointed out all the wonderful things he could do all summer long, since he is now living at my sister's house only ten minutes walk to the beach in Venice. That would be sweet -- a summer on the beach. Although being here all summer at the ball game a couple of times each week -- that's pretty good.

More rain

It rained twice this week. The rain today was sweet and gentle. It lasted for hours. This is so much better. I have been tending the roses in the courthouse square and they have begun to bloom.

I'm in San Antonio, back at this cafe where I can write this blog. I'm going to the baseball game in five minutes.

Scientists discovered news species of animals in an undergound cave in Israel which had been sealed off from any moisture or nutrients coming from above the ground -- sealed off for millions of years..... The scientists found a black, warm cave universe -- Whatever creatures live there -- maybe we should tell them about religion and technology and war -- sort of a share thing.

Mad Hatters

I just mailed Frog Hospital, No. 190, titled "Making Corrections. I am sitting in a coffee shop in San Antonio called Mad Hatters, in the artsy area called Southtown, lots of gay people here.

Things are getting better for me. I have the cowboys to write about, then I do garden work in the Courthouse Square. It's a volunteer project, but I keep track of my hours. Evenings I have my press pass to the minor league baseball game -- the San Antonio Missions in the Texas League -- it's totally cool.

Or, I can go to Southtown -- no cowboys here. Or maybe the gay cowboys come here, but I haven't seen them.

Anyway, I got choices. Except for the weather. It's hot. It will be hot until October. I have been adjusting to the heat, but I see the natives walking around like they don't even notice it -- I am a long way from that. I wonder if they sweat as much as I do. Maybe if you ignore it, it will go away -- the heat, I mean.

"God Must Hate Me," Oil Can Boyd

Pete Rose & Capital Punishment
This is not a serious baseball story.
It’s not about Pete Rose, and
it’s not about capital punishment.
although for the first few paragraphs
it might seem so.

BOSTON, MASS., 1992. I always hated Pete Rose, right from the beginning back in the early seventies. I used to watch the World Series, and when they showed him on third base I would start screaming and gnashing my teeth. He didn’t care a damn about anybody except to play his game and win. Baseball isn’t supposed to be like that. Football is for hard-ass people -- but baseball players should have enough sense to get in out of the rain. Not Pete Rose, he would have played with Vince Lombardi in Green Bay when it was twenty below zero. I always hated him.

So when he got caught for gambling I wasn’t surprised -- he’s a very compulsive man. Something serious had to be done about it -- he has banned from baseball for life. That didn’t make me feel any better because I still can’t stand him. Maybe they wanted to make an example out of him, but Pete Rose is truly one of a kind, or maybe two of a kind if you count Ty Cobb.

Banned for life -- and if baseball is your life than this amounts to a death sentence, which means the man has absolutely no incentive to change his behavior. What could he get out of it if he changed? He would still be a non-person.
Following this line of thought a little further, we can begin to understand why the Red Sox have waited so long to win the World Series. The curse of the Bambino -- you know about that -- it’s because they traded Babe Ruth to the Yankees in 1921. The curse is real, but Babe didn’t put it on the Red Sox, if you think about it. Why would a pleasure-loving man like the Babe put a curse on somebody? The curse was self-imposed. The morbid Calvinistic temperament in New England fosters a belief in punishment. First they did something awful and stupid when they sold the greatest player the game ever had. Then, to compound the injury, the cursed themselves -- the Red Sox would forever come close, but never win the big one. Eternal Damnation. Cotton Mather would have approved.

Of course I’m new around here. For the past twenty years I’ve been out on the West Coast where people have no sense of history -- they can hardly remember what happened yesterday. And the idea of a missing out on a good time because of some unfortunate mistake is considered absurd.

This curse thing is definitely East Coast, and I’m wondering if it will ever end? It would help if the baseball rulers would cut Pete Rose some slack be reinstating him in baseball on condition that he mend his ways -- that would motivate him. “Banned for life” to Pete Rose and “cursed forever” to the Red Sox -- they go together. I know this sounds kind of pie in the sky. I’m not suggesting anything really fantastic like the Red Sox should start running and stealing bases or build a bigger stadium out in the suburbs -- just some straightforward new age thinking. The team that cursed themselves can let go of that burden. Forgiveness begins at home, it is a sublime human attribute.

Attitudes change, although in New England you always need a crowbar and jackhammer to get anything to move, because people here are so set in their ways. The Red Sox can win the World Series if they want to -- if they only let go and start to have fun. Next Year.

I really think this is true, and that my reasoning is as sound as anybody’s, but let me tell you about the game we saw.

It was July 30, an overcast day and so not too hot, when this gang of underemployed lawyers, real estate developers and civil servants came up from New York on the shuttle to watch the Red Sox play the Texas Rangers. They were out for a good time. Some of the guys made phone calls between innings but that was just for effect and out of habit --
“Anything going on at the office?”
“No, nothing going on here.”
“Fine, well, I’ll get back to you later.”

I know Jim Gardella really well. Jim and his cadre of cronies got ousted in a political coup last year when Mayor Dinkins took over the city government. He still occupies his office at Brooklyn City Hall, be he fills his melancholy days doing crossword puzzles and waiting for the phone to ring. It never does. He eats lunch in empty restaurants. “Where did everybody go?” he says to the maitre’d, who smiles back at him politely.

But at least he has time for baseball. Jim told me that the group was coming up to Boston for the game, and he mailed me a ticket so I could meet him at the Park. We had seats in the centerfield bleachers. It was an afternoon game on a Tuesday, and the house was packed --children, idlers, the unemployed, and the usual riffraff.
The Red Sox were a disaster in July, they were in fourth place, nine games behind Toronto. I was very pessimistic.

I hated Jack Clark. He had 89 strikeouts so far this year. The pitcher threw the ball -- I looked, Jack Clark looked -- only I couldn’t swing because I didn’t have a bat. But I thought, reasonably enough, that since Jack Clark did have a bat, his job required more than mere observation. The bum! I wanted to take his gold chain and choke him.

I sat next to Jim at the game and he introduced me to his friends. Shelley, the lawyer, had arranged to buy the tickets, so everybody was giving him a hard time about being in the bleachers. They said, “Next year let’s make it a rule that we get seats in the same city that they’re playing the game in.”

But the women in the group liked the bleacher seats because it gave them a view of nine sets of powerful athletic buns. On a serious note, the bleacher seat are good because it’s like being on the field, being a part of the defense. It gives a wide view of the whole field, not the details, but the sweep of the play. And it gives the pleasure of being a common man, no better or worse than his fellows. Privilege is exhilarating, but the humbler seats can be more relaxing.

Ed Burke came in during the third inning. He said the seats were lousy but so were the Red Sox and they weren’t worth more than $6 to see anyway. Ed’s a funny guy -- he was wearing a white cap, and he had a gum massager sticking out of his shirt pocket. Ed’s a State Senator; he’s been representing Framingham for twenty years. Then he did his political thing, updating his file by asking Jim and me about our families, children, schools, wives, etc. He left a few innings later. Jim asked me how come Ed doesn’t have any clout? How come he couldn’t get us better seats?

The Red Sox won the game 11 to 6. They sent 14 batters to the plate in the third inning and scored 10 runs. Six of those runs were from the hot bat of Carlos Quintana, my favorite player. He got a grand slam for four runs, and a double for two. That’s my man. Carlos is a different kind of guy than Jack Clark. The proper psychology with a guy like Clark is to heap abuse on him when he’s playing badly. He likes the attention and it gets him mad. Eventually he will take out his aggression on the ball and hit it over the fence, which happened the very next day.

But the “Q” is a gentler soul, a man who responds better to approval and kindness. He had been playing badly because he had been treated badly by Joe Morgan, the Red Sox manager. Carlos’ feelings were hurt. He had been playing first base well and hitting over .300 when Mo Vaughan got called up from Pawtucket. Mo was the new hero that everybody was excited about. They made T-shirts about him, they splashed him all over the sports page. He was black and would be a credit to his race in Boston. (They hadn’t advanced much further than this in the Old Towne.)

Morgan put Vaughan on first base and sent Quintana to right field. Quintana immediately went into a hitting slump and made careless errors in the field. It was Morgan’s mistake, not mine. My policy of abuse towards Clark and affection towards Quintana would pay off in the following two games, as the Red Sox came out of their torpor and began to play like a team.

The next day the Red Sox faced the Athletics and did what they hadn’t been able to do for six weeks -- come from behind and win. I’ll quote Nick Cafardo, a sportswriter for the Boston Globe.

“Maligned as a free-agent bust throughout his tempestuous first season in Boston, Jack Clark gave Red Sox fans a glimpse of why the teams acquired him. Actually three glimpses.
“Three monumental glimpses.
“Clark drove in six runs as he cracked three homers, including a net shot off Steve Chitren in the bottom of the 14th inning that lifted the Red Sox to a palpitating 11-10 victory over the Oakland A’s...”

It was a wonderful game, the lead kept changing hands. It was a slugger’s feast, vintage Red Sox style. I watched it on TV.

Before, when they had been playing badly, it wasn’t just that they were losing, but that they would give up in the third inning and lose two to nothing.

So the team turned it around and gave us a season. They are still “in it”, and today, Labor Day, the Red Sox are five games in back of the Blue Jays. I feel satisfied.

“God Must Hate Me”
Before leaving the game and joining the New York gang for dinner, we need to talk about Oil Can Boyd. He was pitching for the Rangers. You know a lot of these guys up from New York are Mets fans -- may they all burn in hell, may their toast get soggy every morning. Mets fans are the worst people in the world. You remember 1986 as well as I do, when Oil Can was pitching for the Red Sox and they lost the Series to the Mets. You remember where you were that day like you remember Kennedy’s assassination.
The Can is one of the games truly existential players, a man with a mind as well as a heart, a human being of tragic proportions. He’s the “Natural”, the one they wrote the book about.

Michael Madden, another Globe reporter, wrote about Boyd’s loss to the Sox on the day we were there in the bleachers:
Other men might have lied and said it was just another day. Just another game. Other men might have tried to put the best face, the phony face, on a bad situation gone worse. But not the Can, because the Can knows how to speak only from his heart:
“For me to be traded to the Rangers, and for me to pitch my first two games against the Boston Red Sox means that God must hate me.

“It’s the worst game I ever pitched in my life. And for a lot of reasons. First of all, I never wanted to pitch in Fenway Park again.....I’ve never walked the bases full before, and I’ve never given up a grand slam homer, and it all happened in one day, shit, it all happened in one inning. I just look at it and say it was meant to be.

“I don’t have anything to cherish about Boston. You talk about the ‘86 World Series, but I don’t care about any of that. That year a lot of things happened to me that probably will go to the grave with me, and still don’t let me get no peace of mind. So I don’t have anything to feel good about at all and especially today. Today just poured gas on it. Just made the flame bigger.”

We stayed until the end of the game because it was nice in the Park. Many of the New Yorkers had never seen Fenway Park before. It was a treat for them, and they could even make charitable comments about it.

We piled into three taxis and headed for Anthony’s Pier Four Restaurant. There was a lot of hoo-hooing in our car about going to Anthony’s. Shelley said, “They fill that place with old ladies on tour buses, why don’t we go to a real restaurant?” Shelley lived in Boston once, on Beacon Street -- he showed us the apartment when we drove by. He made some cryptic remarks about Boston being a cold town, a mean town. He didn’t say what kind of trouble he had, but I bet it was some kind of bad luck with a woman.

Anthony Athanas owns Pier Four and the surrounding 36 acres of very valuable waterfront property. He’s Albanian. He’s an old man and very well connected. He had just sold the property surrounding the restaurant to the federal government for a fabulous profit. The feds will build a courthouse on the land. The guys in our group would have killed to get in on this deal, but they don’t really know anybody. I could tell that, because they were with me. It’s like Grouch Marx’s rule about clubs, the ones he wouldn’t join if they were willing to accept him as a member. Power brokers don’t have dinner with me unless they’re on the skids.

Still we were a merry crew. They gave us a table for twelve outside on the deck, and we made a lot of noise. Now I was bluffing just like the rest of these guys do on a real estate deal. I had twenty dollars in my pocket and an overdrawn checking account. Naturally I flourished a ten spot and paid for the cab ride when we got there. That didn’t leave me with money for dinner, but I was hoping for the Greater Fool -- that one of these guys was so desperate to put on a show and he would pick up the tab -- and I could get off with pretending I wanted to pay.

I hedged my bets -- I ordered way down the menu, choosing the striped bass special for $9.95. Jim Gardella ordered it too, mainly because he’s a cheapskate. The others guys were going for the gold -- three pound lobsters, steamer clams for appetizers, nice wine from the list and Grand Marnier after dinner. The wine was good. Jim -- the other Jim, the one who looks like the Great Gatsby -- ordered the wine. He wore his blazer and tie all through the meal and never unbuttoned his collar. Then he had this sophisticated conversation with the wine steward, and, for God’s sakes, the rest of the table took him seriously. They say New Yorkers are street smart, but they fell for this game.

Jim -- the real Jim -- was making a complete fool of himself over Amy, the 30-year-old beauty who was making her first trip with this group. He kept hitting on her and wanted to sit next to her at dinner. She asked me if I would please sit between Jim and her, which I did. Jim was being no worse than usual. You have to remember that his friends go with him to out of town ball games because they know they won’t be seen.

The bill came to $600 including tip, to be divided up 12 ways. I guess my bluff didn’t work because nobody wanted to make a $600 impression and pick up the tab. I was forced to ask Jim for a loan of fifty to pay my share, and I wrote him a hot check to cover it.

Boy, it was a lot of fun. Now the sun was going down, and some of us walked to the railing and looked at the water and the boats going by. Jim and I talked quietly for a little bit. Jim’s a good guy, and I really like him. These New Yorkers have a sense of humor and style. Boston is a good town, but it can get a little too serious here without some outside help.

Limited Access

I have a ton of things to write about -- but my Internet access has been limited lately and I have not been able to post. Please be patient. I will get back here as soon as I can.

Beer

I got off the couch and drove down to the Longbranch for a beer. The Longbranch is safe on Saturday night -- nobody goes there. It was quiet there, but not quiet enough. I got a Budweiser for $2.50. It tasted really good. I drank it quickly and came back here. I took a warm bath. I continued reading Saul Bellow's book about his trip to Jerusalem in 1976. It's 10:30. I found more beer in the refrigerator, a Japanese brew called Kirin Ichiban. It has a good, bitter taste -- and thirst-quenching as well. I sweated a lot today working in the garden.

The Couch

I can lie on the couch. I can't do anything else. The daughter has encouraged me to step out on the town -- impossible. I could watch a DVD, but I would have to go get one -- impossible. I can't be around people, even nice people -- too stressful.

I was thinking of going back to landscaping, but now I'm thinking of doing farm work instead. Maybe I could work for Alan Messman at his dairy farm -- long hours and quiet. I could probably do that. I wouldn't have to talk to people. I would talk to people when I wanted to, but only when I wanted to.

I could spend time with the cows. They are easy to get along with, although there is lots of work to take care of them. If I did that for a few months, I would probably be all right.

Got the fever

Power tools can give you the fever -- get you pumped up, and you end up working harder, faster, and longer than you should. I just finished weedeating the front yard. It took me one hour. I stopped to rest. I was going to go right ahead and do the back yard, but then I remembered the fever. And I remembered that I had not eaten dinner. So I put the tools away and sat on a chair for a while to see how good it looks -- The fact is that it doesn't look much better. The yard is really rough, and I just made it a little less rough -- it's just going to take a while.

Clementine's

I'm sitting on the red couch at Clementine's coffee shop. The place is full. Looking around, I'm the only one here over 30 years old. It's a little noisy.

I'm reading a non-fiction book by Saul Bellow, "To Jerusalem and Back," which he wrote in 1976. Thirty years ago. And none of these kids were born, and there were no laptops or cell phones either.

But Israel was in great danger, and still is. Nothing has gotten better in the Middle East