BEEN THINKIN’ ABOUT… BRICKS IN TIME. I’m doing my best to stay awake, leaning back in the overstuffed couch as the clock ticks toward midnight. I’m catching up on my favorite science fiction series, a series now only a mere 30 years old. On the screen, the captain is, uncharacteristically, scrubbing clams, leaning back against…
BEEN THINKIN’ ABOUT… WORDS, ARTS, CRAFTS & TOMATOES. “It always comes back to the words,” I type on my comfortable old laptop this balmy late-April afternoon as the dogs drape themselves over the furniture, dozing, awaiting their walk. The StateoftheOzarks season hasn’t opened, not quite. But the clock is ticking. Five days. The StateoftheOzarks (formerly…
BEEN THINKIN’ ABOUT… TELEVISIONS FOREVER. The florescent light was bright in the old store, all cheap wood paneling and thin green carpet. The Friday evening was chilly and damp and I, following my parents, tread lightly, threading my way past aging television sets in various stages of disrepair. The shopkeeper was talking about TVs, naturally,…
BEEN THINKIN’ ABOUT… A CUP OF PEACH TEA. Last week’s floods and storms and my chest cold are now memory, history washing away. Rest has been a healing boon recently, rest being something I say little about. First, much of my schedule doesn’t allow such things. Second, if I do talk about resting, I am…
BEEN THINKIN’ ABOUT… THE SHIRT ON THE SINK. I stumble to the bathroom and pick up my olive green “Freedom Is Not Free” t-shirt from the sink where it has been lying crumpled for the past three days. The shirt is wrinkled but that doesn’t matter. The dogs certainly won’t care as I take them…
BEEN THINKING ABOUT… THE PEAR TREE. The pear tree in the yard has leafed, shade dappled beneath an increasingly hot sun. Mist rose in the holler last night, turning the sunset red. Red sky in morning, sailors take warning. The grass beneath the pear is already thick and raucous, overgrown where the lawn had once…
BEEN THINKIN’ ABOUT… COLD SPRING DAYS. Cold spring days are special things. Too soon the air will be hot and ragged as summertime seems to arrive earlier each year and so I remain thankful for the chill of early spring. There is subtle beauty in the overcast, the clouds changing, gray and severe, the hanging-on…
BEEN THINKIN’ ABOUT… THE DIVINE HAG. The Ozarks are beautiful in springtime, but springtime is not yet here. I stand atop my own meadow mountain, wind gusts hitting something like 50 miles an hour, and squint into the gale, into the dust, briefly losing my footing and catching myself from falling as the wind intensifies.…
BEEN THINKIN’ ABOUT… THE BITTER MARCH WIND. The bitter March wind stirs the red oak leaves on the hillside, leaf litter heavy in the late afternoon. The sky has cleared, temperature dropping quickly. Thankfully, the cab of my F-150 is warm as I navigate the going-home traffic. I turn the wheel north, north through the…
BEEN THINKIN’ ABOUT… UNDERWORLD GAINS. It’s late. I’m tired. I’m hungry. At least the gym is playing Hozier on the speakers. I shrug. It is the end of the month, the last chance for any personal records in February. I’m already sore. The six plates of iron loaded on the bar are not going anywhere.…