Back Open For Business (OR The Sun Also Rises)

The roses, bowing their heads in homage to the lilies...

So many things, so many things, blogfriends. Firstly, I presume I should tell you I got my computer back yesterday. (Quite a relief to some of you who might have been left feeling unsatisfied by my raw attempts of iphone blogging. (: )

I must give mention to the brief scare I encountered yesterday when upon having my computer back for ALL OF FIVE MINUTES, a moving truck driver miscalculated either the height of his truck or the height of the ELECTRICAL WIRES that he subsequently snapped as he was driving. My husband looked out the window to see the telephone pole in front of our house swaying, which isn't such an endearing quality in telephone poles, let me tell you. Then, a power surge went through our house, shutting off our electricity. I, who had not witnessed the swaying pole, called to the husband accordingly irritated, "Did you remember to pay the power bill?!!" He answered in the affirmative, and then told me about the pole, which I only half-heartedly believed until we went outside to find our WHOLE STREET in their front yards. I just saw the "STRANGEST THANG," (Southern accent implied) yelled a neighbor a few houses down. "The telephone pole was swayin' in front of my house!"

I won't lie, ya'll. My entire neighborhood came under the deranged suspicion that we'd just had an earthquake. Meanwhile, I checked my computer because everyone knows that power surges in computers that JUST ARRIVED BACK FROM THE SHOP aren't providential. There still wasn't any electricity, but I knew that the battery backup should've worked. It didn't. Dead computer. Again. Incensed and panicky, I was. "My computer...my computer," I lamented to the Husband at this point.

Okay, sidenote. Nothing brings neighbors together like swaying telephone poles and loss of electrical power. Everyone was all convivial, and a carnival-like atmosphere ensued. I ended up talking more to my neighbors than I have, well, EVER. I even found out from the lady next door that her father (also my neighbor) died a month ago, which she told me in a rather matter-of-fact voice that only being one-month-removed can provide. (Said to self, bring a cake over.) There was a lot of talk of insurance companies and the fried chicken she had been making when the power cut off. I said to the Husband later, "Can you IMAGINE? Frying chicken for one? That's the saddest thing I've ever heard."

I also discovered that the lady across the street has a son the same age as mine and goes to the SAME PRE-SCHOOL. Who knew? My son showed her son his new Spiderman lunchbox and they were fast friends.

It wasn't until the sheriff drove down the hill that we found out about the moving truck driver who had not only snapped a wire, but also brought down an entire pole. (We were frankly a little disappointed that it hadn't been an earthquake, which would've made for a much better story.) My son then showed the sheriff his Spiderman lunchbox, and they, too, were fast friends. For anyone interested, the sheriff's son has a Superman lunchbox.

So. My computer. Embarrassing as it was, we took my computer back to the store, saying nothing about the power surge/pseudo-earthquake/moving truck/Spiderman lunchbox. They plugged it in, and by Golly, it worked. It turned out to be a bad battery. And that brings you up to date.

P.S. To the new neighbors whose moving truck shut off the power of the entire street, welcome. (Jacka$$es.)

I rose at 5 a.m, made a pot of coffee, smoothed a freshly laundered tablecloth over the table on the back deck (thinking inwardly both "I think I like the smell of this detergent better" and "I'm smoothing out the wrinkes of this cloth as carefully as I would smooth out troubles in my life," and then walked my barefeet through the wet grass to fill the birdfeeders. Then I just took up with my coffee like a rekindled love affair, and watched (and listened to) the magic happen. Birds sung and squacked about the importance of being the "early ones," and the sky pinkened. "It's a girl," I imagined the Morning saying. "It's a girl."

As I was leaning against the fence to get that "last great shot" of the sunrise, I looked up to find my redbone coonhound (Super Sadie Sue- Belle) studying me in her quiet way. If you haven't noticed from my various photos, she doesn't leave my side much. P.S. Mind the wrinked tablecloth in the background. (:

Secondly (there should always be a secondly when there's a firstly), today is the anniversary of the day that Jack Kerouac's On the Road was first published. I've scoured the internet for the song "Hey Jack Kerouac" by Natalie Merchant for your hearing pleasure, but to no avail. So the best I can do is give you some of the lyrics:

"hey Jack

now for the tricky part

when you were the brightest star

who were the shadows?

of the San Francisco beat boys

you were the favorite

now they sit and rattle their bones

and think of their blood stoned days

you chose your words from mouths

of babes got lost in the woodthe hip flask slinging madman,

steaming cafe flirts

nights in Chinatown howling at night..."

Sing it, Natalie.