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Ridin’ a Train to Alabama

Submitted entry: I started this morning reading Carl’s Masquerade to Paul while the coffee brewed and I can tell you I am so not fond of these books. The basic premise is that a mom and dad leave for somewhere (in this case a masquerade party) and tell the DOG “Do a good job watching the baby”. Then they leave and the dog carries the baby around on adventures arriving home just in time for the parents to tell the dog what a good job he did watching the baby. Paul likes the pictures and so we look at them but I find it annoying and perhaps a bit scary from a toddler’s perspective. This one is particularly annoying since the dog takes the baby to the party her parents are at and they’re never noticed. If I could draw I think a parody of the book called Carl Unmasked would be in order where the dog takes the kid to the party where the parents go “Isn’t that our dog and child over there?” and realize what fools they are.

In other news our check arrived yesterday finally. We drove to Springfield in the afternoon and went to the library then over to Barnes and Noble to see this month’s Yahoo Internet Life magazine. I’d been told there was a small review of this journal in it. And lo and behold there was in fact a very sweet review (Thanks to the reviewer if he is reading). However there was so little else appealing in the magazine to us in our lives and how we use the net that no matter how vain I felt I couldn’t justify buying it.

Sage is off for a meeting with the president of Emerald City Shelters today. We’ve done some free work for them in the past and plan on doing more as well. Sage also has some ideas for design and marketing of the site. We still haven’t got a design that we’re pleased with mostly because they insist on the animated gems and other design elements that we just don’t like. Hopefully Sage gets her way some today *grin*.

And this morning she sent the paypal payment for the laptop so that should be here in a week or so depending on how fast they send it and how they send it (next day, etc.). It’s been a nice vacation for me from computer work. The timing was great as I’m still waiting for materials from my client before my big crunch comes. My hope is that the materials arrive a little before the laptop so that I can do most of the work here instead of at the house. I’ll get far more time in that way. My hope is to finish it up in a few weeks so we can have a good cache of money for trips and living expenses.

Oh - strange moment yesterday at the library. We’re only allowed to have 100 books out at a time (I know crazy but true we have that many out!). On Saturday we gave a friend all our books (like 70 I estimate) to return but she hadn’t made it to the library before we did. So when the librarian told me that I could only take out four books I told her the story - that we “Beat our friend here” and she said something like “Oh really - that’s too bad.” Then I explained to her that we thought she’d be in town before we did. And she said (ironically I think as she checked out a book by the Dalai Lama for me) “I thought that you meant that you physically beat him.” How funny - I don’t think I look the type (one of these days I will post a picture for the curious) but apparently she did though she backpedaled furiously as soon as she could.

I think my metabolism is changing - probably due to the taking of vitamins for about a month - I think I really needed them. Lately I’ve only been able to comfortably drink a single cup of coffee per day. Any more and I feel really anxious for hours after. How I ever got by drinking a cup before leaving for work, a cup on the way, a cup upon arrival, a soda with lunch, a cup in midafternoon and often another cup or soda on the way home is beyond me. If I did that today I’d be a quivering ball of jelly.

That’s going to have to be it for now - Sage wants to leave early so she can get to the little library in town before her meeting to get an audio book to listen to on the 45 minute drive there and back.

Same day - 5:30 or so

It’s later as you’ve probably guessed if you were paying attention. Paul is asleep outside. We had quite a day together.

It started out not so great with me feeling tired and Paul feeling mischievous and me just wanting to read a book to him (or preferably to myself). Finally I saw where this was going (nowhere fast) and got up off the couch, put on my shoes and his and we started walking off in search of persimmons.

When I first found out about persimmons about this time last year I was convinced that we had none on the land. After all, I’d never found yummy pinkish-orange fruit lying about the forest floor. But finally late in the season I found a tree with two persimmons on it. The last two of the year as it turned out. Doing walks with Paul and doing wood have made me better at identifying the trees and today I checked about every one I knew of and we came up with a total of one for each of us. Then it felt as if I got my eyes and trees were visible everywhere - probably five in total. Most were bare, some dead but one turned out to be perfect. On the ground around it were about 8 ripe fruits. Paul and I gobbled those up then I shook the tree and got a bunch more. Probably all told we each ate a half a pound of them and then I borrowed Paul’s hat and put about a dozen in there. Paul got disenchanted with persimmon eating and gathering and went to play on and in a nearby hollow log while I continued to shake the tree and fill the hat. Then when the tree had given all it was going to give (whatever you do, don’t pick and eat the unripe fruit - there’s nothing more astringent) and so we walked on through the woods, checking a few more trees, and ending up at the house where we checked mail, looked at Africam and The Owl Pages for a while before heading home. In other windows and while he played in the room I looked up friends on some of the high school alumni directories - no luck finding anyone unlike Sage who keeps finding more and more of her class. But then I’m from Vermont and she lived in Silicon Valley so who would be more likely to find their friends online.

Then we went to the yurt and made a big batch of pasta and ate and played. He’s getting really into pretending now - for a while he was pretending he was various animals - cat, dog, baby bird while I fed him. Then we pretended together to be riding a train (the broom) to Alabama (ask him where he’s going whenever he plays a game and that’s where he’ll tell you he’s going) and after a long train ride with two stops for gas and a stop for food at a train station we wound up in Alabama at the beach. There he chased seagulls and sandpipers, catching them in his treasured yellow bucket until Sage got home from her meeting.

I’ve been fighting the urge to have a second cup of coffee all afternoon. I’ve been dozy since after eating and could hardly meditate without frequently nearly nodding off. Then I figured out why. All the sugar from the persimmons combined with the huge ton of pasta I ate has given me a sugar crash.

Tomorrow has to be a town trip - we haven’t much left over from this check (hopefully more coming soon) but are getting a bunch of staples - beans, rice, tofu, peanut butter and bread among other things. We’re probably picking Kitey up tomorrow too, Oops, Paul just had an early wake-up from his nap so I’ll end it here.