June 22, 2010. Tuesday.
Situation: I wake up a little bit before nine, go to the bathroom, turn on the computer, pour coffee and water into the coffee dripper, go outside and let out the chickens (the peeps are already out, having been able to slip through the cage), put out some feed for them, see that they have water, and then, while the water is dripping and the computer is going through its start-up grinding, I take Mway for her morning walk, before going to work some time today. I notice while I’m wandering around the kitchen, a little turd drying on the rug in front of the door; it’s probably Mway’s, and I realize I didn’t do things quite to her schedule.
State of the Path: We walk straight down to the creek; no side paths. Again the dew is very light, the ground very hard, the dirt light in color, the grass in the path brown. I look a little at the raspberries, but I don’t bother to pick any. In bug land, I notice some purple flowers, but I don’t bother to look at them too closely. Coming up to the clearing, I pull off a leaf of the St. johnswort and hold it up, but the sky is cloudy, and I don’t see any translucent dots.
State of the Creek. Mway goes into the pool of water below the deer blind, which has shrunk a lot in the last couple days. I look down at the pool of water at the log jam; its murky and very dark. Up from the log jam, the creek is just a straight line of bare rocks to the tree stand. Underneath the big trees at the center of the path, the creek is completely dry, and the next pool of water is where the path narrows. It seems that all the water striders are crowded together on this one pool of water, so crowded together they have no room to move. Then just as I’m looking to see where the next pool of water begins, I hear a great crashing sound coming from the swale of bug land. I turn around just in time to catch the blurred sight of a white tail and some brown fur, the first deer this year that I’ve chased out of its resting spot while on a walk. I walk forward to the board that crosses the swale, and I see Mway standing there, dwarfed by the red willows surrounding her. She’s not moving, and while we stand there looking at each other, we can hear the deer gasping. It sounds to me like the deer is hurt, and I surmise that it must have tripped over something in the grasses of bug land. Mway and I move forward through the red willows into bug land, and I expect to find the deer floundering in the grasses, with a broken neck or something. But when I look around, I see no sign of it.
The Fetch: Up at the clearing, I stand in the trampled goldenrod and throw the “pro-quality” stick. Mway fetches it more times than I care to count, or rather, more times than I care to throw it today. I find today that I have a rough time bending down to pick up the stick; my muscles are sore, not so much from mowing the lawn yesterday, as from trying to restart the hot engine after emptying the basket and refilling it with gas.
Addendum: When I get home from work late in the afternoon, Moi is home doing some work and errands (after which she plans to go back to sit with Atlas). I take a nap, and about 5, take Mway for her afternoon walk. It rained for a brief while around noon today, and I’m curious to see how it might have affected the land. There are still some raindrops on the leaves, but by the time I reach the creek my pants are only a little splattered with water. The touch-me-nots have no more vigor than they had before, and the creek water seems no higher. I begin to count how many pools of water there are in the creek: one at the tree stand, another at the log jam, one beneath the black walnut tree, and a double one just beyond the high trees, which is divided by dry rocks. There’s no water in the feed channel, and I don’t bother to take the side path along the skating pond. Up at the clearing, Mway fetches the “pro-quality” stick with as much energy as she did this morning. After our fetch, she rams the back of my legs with the stick, while trying to pass me on the path.
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How about doing it again?
In “Inside the Human Body,” “when it was time to go, everyone got back on the bus.” In Disney’s “Gingerbread Man,” “when they got out into the river, the fox said, ‘Perhaps you should climb on my shoulder. It is higher there’.” In “Three Friends,” “when Sally’s cat had kittens,” Johnnie “asked Sally for two.” In “Doctor De Soto,” “when the doorbell rang, he and his wife would look out the window.” In “Cinderella,” “when at last the clock began to strike the hour of midnight, Cinderella scarcely heard it.” In “The Gold-Bug,” “when we had been at work perhaps an hour and a half, Wolf suddenly leaped into the hole, tearing up the ground frantically with his claws.” Webster’s Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary defines “perhaps” as “possibly but not certainly: MAYBE,” defines “maybe” as “PERHAPS,” defines “possibly” as “in a possible manner: PERHAPS,” defines “certain” as “FIXED, SETTLED, proved to be true, of a specific but unspecified character, particular, dependable, reliable, indisputable, inevitable, incapable of failing: DESTINED.” The “D” volume of “The World Book Encyclopedia” includes an article on “De Soto, dih SOH toh, Hernando (1500?-1542), a Spanish explorer, led the first European expedition to reach the Mississippi River. His group arrived at the river in 1541 during a search for gold.” In the article on “Dog” in “The World Book Encyclopedia,” a page captioned “Working dogs” shows photos of “Alaskan malamute,” “Newfoundland,” “Great Dane (WORLD BOOK photo by Isac Jo),” “Samoyed (WORLD BOOK photo by Ken Love),” “Boxer,” “Great Pyrenees,” “St. Bernard (WORLD BOOK photo by Brent Jones),” and “Mastiff.” In “The Gold-Bug,” “Jupiter went to open it, and a large dog rushed in. This was Wolf, Legrand’s Newfoundland, to whom I had given much attention on my earlier visits.” Webster’s Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary defines “attention” as “the act or state of attending esp. through applying the mind to an object of sense or thought,” defines “act” as “a thing done: DEED, something done by a person pursuant to his volition.” In Disney’s “Gingerbread Man,” “when the gingerbread man was done, the little old woman opened the oven to take him out.” In “Doctor De Soto,” the fox “wondered if it would be shabby of him to eat the De Sotos when the job was done.” In “Three Friends,” Mrs. Green said “’And I think that is a very good thing’.” In “The Butter Battle Book, grandfather said “’It’s high time that you knew of the terribly horrible thing that Zooks do’.” In “The Gold-Bug,” “’There—that’s it!’ exclaimed Jupiter. ‘He never complains of a thing.” Webster’s Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary defines “volition” as “the power of choosing or determining: WILL.” In “Three Friends,” Sam asks “’I will not have to stop and brush my teeth now, will I?’” In “Doctor De Soto,” Doctor De Soto said “’I think it will work’.” In “Cinderella,” the fairy said “’We will find everything we need right in the garden,’ and Cinderella said “’I will remember!’” In “Taxi Dog,” Jim said “’We’ll ride all over the town, We’ll see all the sights…We’ll go riding uptown and down’.” In “Teen Beat, October 1996,” “Will Smith” is “Hottest Hunk #19,” and it says “Where You’ll Find Him Summer Of ’96.” M.
Following is an abstract of a recurring event of most of 2010, which I refer to on January 22 but did not have or take the time to mention much in my journal. I include the abstract here, as a framing device, because the event has some sort of relation to the journal’s central action.
Court of Common Pleas
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania vs. Sisyphus A. Gregor
Conditions of Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition Program
Condition #8 “The defendant will report regularly to his Probation Officer, as directed. Your reporting date is the [22nd of the month].
Each month you will phone the CALL-TRACK number. When you call the automated system, you will be asked to enter your social security number, then state your name. The questions are answered by pressing the appropriate key to respond “yes” or “no.” If your answer requires clarification, you will be prompted to respond.
1. “Has your home address changed in the last 30 days? If your answer to this question is “no,” press 1! If your answer to this question is “yes,” press 2!” [Defendant presses 1.]
2. “Has your phone number changed in the last 30 days? If your answer to this question is “no,” press 1! If your answer to this question is “yes,” press 2!” [Defendant presses 1.]
3. “Has your employment status changed in the last 30 days? If your answer to this question is “no,” press 1! If your answer to this question is “yes,” press 2!” [Defendant presses 1.]
4. “Have you had any contact or been arrested by any law enforcement agency since your last call? If your answer to this question is “no,” press 1! If your answer to this question is “yes,” press 2!” [Defendant presses 1.]
5. “Have you made your required payment toward fines, costs of restitution since your last call? If your answer to this question is “yes,” press 1! If your answer to this question is “no,” press 2!” [Defendant presses 1.]
6. “Are you in compliance with your recommended counseling? If your answer to this question is “yes,” press 1! If your answer to this question is “no,” press 2!” [Defendant presses 2.]
“You have answered “no” to this question. At the tone, please state your current status within the program.” [“I have not been able to contact Jolene Bowersox to schedule my DUI driving class but I will schedule my DUI class as soon as possible.”]
7. “Please be advised that any information provided by you which is found to be false will be considered a violation of your Conditions of Supervision and may result in your return to this Court for this violation. Do you understand this requirement? If your answer to this question is “yes,” press 1! If your answer to this question is “no,” press 2!” [Defendant presses 1.]
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