Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Well, November sucks! And I have cabin fever. Too crappy to go out. Too grumpy to stay in.

No news on the news channels. That leaves two TV options. Regular programming and PPV.

Regular programming’s Deep Carpet Cleaning, Marvin the Tap Dancing Horse or Juicing With Jack just don’t seem to work for me today. I guess I’m just too hard to please intellectually.

If only I wasn’t too stingy for PPV. I could watch Drag Me To Hell, Land of the Lost or Single Secretaries: Naughty Home Videos. Anyway, I used to be a single secretary and my home videos would not have made good watching.

The mail was disappointing. Two more offers for long-term care insurance and an invitation to buy a new car. Something tells me these people are not working off the same mailing list. I did get a charming little catalogue that sold really important items that you can’t find anywhere else. Like Snuggies for dogs and little plastic things to fit over your toes to keep them apart while you sleep. Personally, I don’t care what my toes do after I go to sleep but other people may not be that careless about things like that.

I could cook but I cooked yesterday. I could clean my closet but I did that LAST November. The only thing left is to turn this into a list day.

Every once in awhile I spend a lot of time making lists. This doesn’t serve any particular purpose except to appear to have a purpose. I list all the things I need to do. I list all the things I might do. I list all my bills and all the money I expect to acquire in a given time (this list is always depressing.) I make a three-page grocery list of all the groceries we will probably eat in the next 12 months. I list all the books I have heard mentioned that I want to get at the library. This list is always very short because I can’t remember the titles.

Well, it’s a crappy day!

Monday, November 16, 2009

I don't have much to say about November in North Missouri other than that it's better than January but not near as good as some other months. Today it is cold, wet, gloomy and threatening snow. I am not fond of November. I prefer to remember other months, say August, in North Missouri.

AUGUST IN NORTH MISSOURI

In praise of morning, that unfolding of the day, August in North Missouri
has no equal. It is a grateful gasp...an indrawn breath..our second wind..that marks the end of summer’s excess and whispers of autumn.

Some heavenly goddess, in draperies of gauze, has taken pity on us and
covered the sun with the skirt of her sheer garment, and the sun is less harsh. The
night is clear and still.

Fence corners and porch rails are held in place by the embroidered
structures of the spider people. Their artistry captures the night mist and turns it into jeweled beads to greet the morning sun.

It is a month of rest. What is to be born has been born. What is to be grown has grown.

With the serenity of a beloved grandparent the days of August guide us
toward change... and the beauty of autumn is conceived.

Whatever the harvest is.... or will be...it is done.. Forgone in the fire and rains of summer....
and August is its epitaph.