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"But as my flashlight caught glinting bits of quartz and flint amidst the limestone scree of the ridge trail, my only thought was, “It feels like spring.” A thought as comfortable as the air on my skin. Framed in and of the moment; neither with relief over winter's end, nor dread of an impending summer. In and of the moment." <3 May you shake off your blues soon. xx

from annanotbob2 :

Thanks for the note, appreciated

from orangepeeler :

2024-03-28: beautifully poignant. do record it!

from browndamask :

Happiest of birthdays! I'm so glad our paths have crossed and thankful for your many kind words. Btw, I love the idea of matryoshka-selves.

from orangepeeler :

Happy birthday, young man xx

from annanotbob2 :

I also read My Year of Meat by Ozeki which is fab, but that's just barging into your conversation with OP, I came to say Happy Birthday and now I have. Have a good day

from orangepeeler :

2024-03-03: Was this a dream?!

from orangepeeler :

I read A Tale for the Time Being many years ago... I was more inspired by a recent Great Women Artists podcast interview with Ozeki.

from browndamask :

I don’t mind indulging in or reading the occasional dream related post, especially when well written. (And I do enjoy your writing) I find it fascinating, all the subconcious mental detritus that dreams can unearth.

from orangepeeler :

The Magic Mountain <3 "I took a seat in one of these, and didn't want to move. Or think. I felt suddenly and simultaneously heavy, exhausted, and completely relaxed. As if, after years of conflict, I'd surrendered some object of contention...but couldn't recall what had made it so precious." I too would like to surrender, and I think I am preparing to do more of this as time passes, catching myself more and more on the floor of my sitting room, staring at the ceiling, not thinking, not wanting. And I feel so much more relaxed afterwards. My friend says that during such occasions of seemingly not thinking, the subconscious is actually re-ordering stray bits of information, images, and memories, "tidying up" and in effect allowing the mind to work better. So there is perhaps something to doing nothing.

from peggypenny :

I make a new years resolution because I 'have to' make a contract with myself to get it done. I like your writings. this year, practice piano. I started on a song called "Mouse Should Hide" it's about timing. 2024 Peggy Penny

from browndamask :

It came to me through Brandon Taylor's The Late Americans: “It was a lie that Timo had not loved piano enough. He had loved it very much, but in a way that was difficult to describe. It was apophatic—he could only describe it through its negation. He only understood how much he loved the piano after he had given it up.”

from browndamask :

I start a new note on my phone each year just for words I discover/rediscover and love. I think my favorite word of last year was "apophatic" - a word I worked into an entry that I haven't yet posted, but someday might.

from browndamask :

Both paracosm and umbworld are new-to-me words, and such good ones. This entry is making me want to retreat and unplug entirely for a few days. It's been far too long since I last did so.

from annanotbob2 :

Thanks for your kind note - I'm glad you were freed in the nick of time and had the necessary cash. On we go, innit? On we go x

from browndamask :

So very glad things worked out in your favor. Oh! And thank you for your kind note. I enjoy your writing as well. You have such a distinctive voice. Always happy to read your updates.

from browndamask :

So very glad things worked out in your favor. Oh! And thank you for your kind note. I enjoy your writing as well. You have such a distinctive voice. Always happy to read your updates.

from orangepeeler :

25/12: OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOF!!!

from annanotbob2 :

19/12 Interesting. Growing up in the 50s we didn't have all the happy ending bullshit of later Disney etc. I loved fairy tales and consumed them avidly, though as you point out, many of them predate what we consider to be the basics of structure (which I credit to Jane Austen, P&P striking me as the first novel in English to have a perfect structure - though I haven't read many early novels originally written in other languages, so what do I know?). I later considered fairy tales to be perfect tales for children, to show them how life was likely to be - brutish and unfair, but honesty was still the best policy even if there were no guarantees of happy ever after. Even Andersen's Little Mermaid comes to a bad end after making bad choices.

from browndamask :

It really is an obscene number of birds

from orangepeeler :

"intrinsically punitive" - ha! your caustic interpretation is a pleasure.

from annanotbob2 :

"my pawnshop" lol x

from orangepeeler :

Thanks for the footnote - whew! And thanks for the portrait of the poetically enigmatic Wanda.

from browndamask :

I learned to play on a classical guitar with nylon strings, a hand me down from a guy I briefly dated. Honestly, I hated it. I've got small hands and couldn't stand playing on nylon strings. It's been years and years now since I've played at all, save for helping Jo tune his guitar or showing him chords here and there.

from whitepigeon :

Keening to ker-plank-plonk my way through the opening notes of "Michelle" on that crummy, beloved guitar

from browndamask :

My youngest went through a phase of wanting to stop at all of the historical markers. That was a few years back, and I’m sad we got out of the habit of seeking these out. Maybe ought to pad our travel time next week to work in a few extra stops.

from orangepeeler :

2023-11-02: I always love your travel writing. This post made me yearn to go on a road trip across the US.

from browndamask :

Catching up on so many entries, and glad they didn’t dissapear before I got the chance to read them. The convo we had a couple of weeks back makes sense now - my ‘the thing’ is the art stuff and your ‘the thing’ is music. Would love to hear it if/when you put it out into the world. Also, regarding lyrics, I don’t usually read them before I listen to a new album but as I listen to it for the first time. And I’ve tried not to let streaming ruin how I listen to music - I do listen to albums beginning to end the first several times. So much intentional thought goes into track order, transitions, etc, and all of that is lost if you just listen to things at random on a streaming service.

from annanotbob2 :

Not so keen on Goodbye girl - Cool for Cats I'd have said but I just listened to it and it hasn't aged well.

from annanotbob2 :

Cheers, mate. I appreciate your support. I like lyrics - my faves at the moment are Johnny B Goode and Up the Junction by Squeeze - tiny, perfect stories.

from browndamask :

This was my first year to (sort of) grow them. I've got two that I am hoping will ripen before the weather gets too cool. What a bizarre allergy to have - how frustrating. So many tasty things are red. I grew yellow and orange tomatoes this year that were delicious, though I grew them for their low acid content, not for their color.

from browndamask :

You already know I dream about pneumatic systems :) But I do also visit the same dreamscapes frequently, most of them places I've never visited in real life or weird misconfigurations of places I've been. I always enjoy your writing and had several entries to catch up on today. Regarding the Ru entries: Glad there are people like you in this ridiculously conservative state. So sick of this bullshit.

from orangepeeler :

"Puzzle dreams" is a wonderful term.

from annanotbob2 :

I'm having a flaky time and your entry was long and complex but made me want to reply, though not sure what to say. We have to stand firm against the bullshit, the meanness, all this vile shit going on. We don't have the same thing with drag queens reading stories to kids but we have pantomine dames, and have had for decades, many decades, so I think we're safe from that line of attack. but such nasty shit about trans women and so much bullshit about there only being two genders, as if science hasn't known forever that some people don't fit neatly into either category and hasn't that been hard enough for them all their lives without all this. Anyway, my sense of who you are seems to ebb and flow with each post of yours I read which is kind of interesting.

from orangepeeler :

Raccoons!! That last image!! My one and thankfully only story re: these cheeky buggers: one summer in Berkeley, a family of them infiltrated the attic of a old rambling Victorian house I was squatting (not by choice). Every night I'd find a pair, or a few pairs (!) of red eyes glowing at me in the dark (by now, the electricity had been turned off) and every morning I'd discover paw prints smudged all around the toilet bowl. Oof. Of course I moved as soon as I could.

from browndamask :

I'll be sure to incorporate treats into my dream subway :)