The Any Day, Now Club.

I'll get to the stone stuff in a minute. 

Last week, a post over at American Digest got me thinking about the "Rainbow Bridge" story.  (Short version, and spoiler: our pets go to heaven, and they are the very first ones to greet us when we arrive there.)

 

Never leave your pets unattended!

It’s a sappy, and sentimental little story that never fails to put a lump in your throat.
But the little story does touch on something profound. We cannot really conceive of heaven except in terms of life here on earth. The thought of being re-united with those we’ve lost gets more and more poignant as we begin to feel the hard truth of our own mortality. And the heaven we conceive is always something less than earth. It’s always : “Just like this, only without _____.”

It's always too easy to make a long, long list of "withouts". And this last year we’ve all seen the end of the world as we knew it. As the slow shipwreck of Western Civilization continues, the list of "withouts" continues to grow. The spirit of this age seems hell bent on un-making the Good the True, and the Beautiful. How do you fight it? As Dylan once wrote, "I wake up then in the early morning, blindly punching at the blind..." 

At the very least, we can tune out the torrent of lies, propaganda, and bullshit from the media. For me, it just means keeping my focus as close to home as I can.

I almost feel guilty saying this, but once I shut down all the media feed, except for a few sites on-line, it caused me to focus on the world as it exists within the confines of my property lines- one more tract home in suburban So Cal. That world is abundant with beauty and love. The hedge we put in, and the gazebo in the back, make the yard a little sanctuary. The creative burn is back. I am working the stone, hanging out with my cats, and my days are full. I have been blessed with as close to a perfect marriage as a man could ask for. Twenty one years, and I’m still stupid in love with my wife. 

Our bicycle gang has become extended family. For a few, it’s close to the only family they have. I love these guys. 

 

This last Saturday our club got together with The Pedalwhips, for a beach ride and barbecue. We had a great turnout, and everyone brought out the show bikes. We've been doing these group rides for ten years, now, and when the stretch bikes roll out it's a hell of a show. Everyone stops and stares. Heaven only knows how many home videos we've starred in. The party was a big enough occasion that one of the riders brought a "sound bike", a big electric cruiser towing a trailer with  a DJ level music system. Most of the custom bike scene is Gen-X, with a few of us old bastard  boomers. So we had classic rock, and 80's tunes. We had cool temps, a light breeze, a gorgeous sun-soaked day by the seaside. Smoking a few bowls, rolling down the bike path in a big pack, with all your pals, a good buzz, and Steppenwolf at full volume. Life is good.
It’s all so very precious. I wonder that heaven could be better. 

And yet.
I’m like the little cartoon dog in the burning cafe. “This is fine.”

We’ve recently lost family friends. Others are, well, let’s just say, close. The cats are old, and Mary and I are both slowing down.
When we’re in our prime, we talk about death in the same way a pre-pubescent kid laughs too loud at a dirty joke. The kid laughs, but he really doesn’t get it. We’re past the puberty of Death. Now we get the joke, and it’s serious.
Welcome to the “Any Day Now Club.”
Cherish each one.

But back to the stone.

 

This week I finished the through-cutting on the upper bowl. This officially puts the rock on the home stretch to completion. There's a little more excavation to do in the big lower bowl, and after that, it's down to the final shaping. 

Still a long ways to go, though...