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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
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I have a certain mania for paper. I make notes to myself on scraps of paper, sketches, lists - things to buy, to do, occasions, addresses, I buy notebooks and try to organize myself with them, filling them with scraps, try to order my thoughts so that each thought finds it's related notebook, the notebooks pile up, I have now 5, 6, 7... boxes filled with notebooks and scraps of paper, post it notes, under my desk.
I hope to file them one day, go through them, move the ideas onto the computer where they won't fill the office, sort them into folders, briefcases, map them, notes for plays, books, poems, paid bills, rants...
Some are just the small notebooks, filled with things I should remember to buy next time I'm in Egypt, India, Japan...at first a small notebook for all the countries, later several small notebooks, one for each country. Then there are the coil-bound notebooks, song-cycles, poems, there are the gift notebooks, from people who wanted to encourage me to write, these are largely untouched, expensive hand-embossed Italian leather, I want to write in them as well, but they need a more finished product, they are expensive and so worthy only of the finest, distilled thoughts. There are scraps from sketch pads, watercolor, calligraphy paper, torn pieces of drawings I thought worth preserving, Ideas not completely worked out in final concept, these are stuffed randomly into other notebooks. There are address books, several, I've thought to marry them a few times, edit them to reflect my current realm of acquaintance, letters, old suitcases full of lapsed correspondences, memories, postage stamps and postcards, old photographs, there are the day timers, records of days and years past, how much I earned, spent, there are old passports, birth & baptismal certificates, print-offs from the computer, all piled together, jammed into boxes.
There are lists, shopping lists, movies to see, books to read, plays to attend, places to go, various failed attempts to prioritize my finances, old bills, envelopes, clippings from newspapers and catelogues....
I need a secretary.
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
- Hits: 2601
7:00 PM, wanted to take a nap but forestalled it, the inevitable trick-or-treaters would be arriving soon, and I'm not such a curmudgeon that I'd hide to avoid giving out candy. In fact I want to give it out, just looking at it is making me sick....
But not a single caller. The street is well lit, everywhere there are pumpkins, silhouettes of cats in windows, garbage bags stuffed with leaves and done up as pumpkins...but no trick-or-treaters.
Not yet, anyways. So time for a quick post, and hope they get here soon to save me from rotting teeth and indigestion...
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
- Hits: 2325
It's an old house, and it's filled with noise long after the workmen have left. The fridge and furnace intermittently kick in and out, there's the sound of magpies and crows on the roof as they hide their treasures and try to crack their nuts. A slow leaking faucet drips-drips-drips, and there are throaty gurgles as the drains all at once decide to swallow. Squirrels rattle in the drainpipes. There are other noises from the kitchen, sounds of objects being dropped or falling, but upon investigation nothing is ever out of place, there are rattles, I blame the mouse. In the bedroom at night I can hear it, he always sounds as if he's in the room with me, chewing, I haven't found what he's chewing.
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
- Hits: 2277
I'm being followed by a tiger. I'm in the "Bibles for Missions" thrift store, there's a low probability of treasure, but I'm searching nonetheless.
It's handy to my house.
And there's a little 5 year old boy, cute, he's found a tiger mask in the store and he's stalking me.
I showed fear, which you should never do with tigers, and when he lifts his mask I warn him of the tiger on the loose in the store.
He appears unconcerned.
I tell him the store has called a hunter, who will probably come and poach the tiger when he sees it, so if he, the little boy, sees the tiger he should warn him.
He grins broadly.
"No, it's serious" I tell him and wonder where his mom is. "You never see tigers any more, it's because the hunters have got them all. Go find the tiger and warn him".
He eventually toddles off to hide in an aisle and find another victim. Which is why you don't see tigers in the wild anymore, they don't listen to reason.
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
- Hits: 2351
I need a TV.
Perhaps need is not the right word, who, after all, really needs a TV? But, from time to time I'd like to rent and watch a movie. And having the children huddled around the laptop - well, it's not exactly the same. There is a problem, however, in that I'm a TV snob...much as some people pride themselves on their 52 inch HD Plasma home theatre systems, I pride myself on not owning one. There are other things we can do, walks, read books, conversation.
Still, sometimes it would be nice to watch a movie.
And so I oscillate, finding TV's, wondering if I should purchase them, not purchasing them and privately enjoying my superiority, until Friday night comes and I wish to rent a movie for the children...
I need a TV.