Deeper into the Fall

Art doesn't just happen; you gotta' hire some clown to make it.

 

 

We just crossed the middle of November, and we're about a week away  from Thanksgiving. Time doesn't march on, it sprints. Nonetheless, I always end up posting about stuff that happened almost ten days ago. It's Tuesday the 16th as I'm typing out the first thoughts of the week, and I'm reflecting on the events of last Saturday, the 13th. But this won't go on line until next Monday the 22nd. Just trying to keep it as confusing as I can.

But yeah, last Saturday, I missed the So Cal RatRod Ride for (I think) only the second time since I founded the event in 2012. I didn't want to miss the ride, but I have just so much energy for a day, and forty miles of driving, and four hours of bike ride was too much to do before hosting a party. I was kind of apprehensive about the day, but, like I said last week, the family reunion gathering went down as one of the best events we've ever held in the Gazebo. Mary's decision to overhaul the yard led to John Hill and I building the little structure. What we got for our time, cash, and labor is priceless.

What we got. What we have. Where we are. What's to come? It's late in the game for all of us. My brothers? The three of us couldn't be more different if we made an effort. I doubt we'd agree on much of anything regarding politics, religion, or current events. But like Confucius says: You can pick your nose, but you can't pick your family. We were all of us very very glad to be able to get together once more. Controversial stuff never made it to the table. The day was wonderful, but it's doubtful if I'll ever see the whole family together  like this again, and that makes me sad. Ross, and his partner, Pacho are back in New York. Don, his kids,  and ex-wife will be joining us for Thanksgiving dinner Thursday, but then Don will head back to Thailand. 

Ross has  the trapeze school, the theater, writing, the daily high voltage life in Manhattan. And his partner. Pacho is a great guy. He's a character straight out of a TV sitcom, clicking all the boxes: Bright, funny, charming, personable to a fault, and hugely talented in a zillion different ways.

I understand why  Don, my other brother, is going back to Thailand.  Our California is long gone, paved over, and crowded out. He is living his dream as well, the slow life in a tropical paradise where it's always warm, green, and beautiful. Good surfing nearby, and no crowds ever.

And I am right here at home, living with my beloved wife, Mary. We're in the house that my mother and grandmother bought when my mother divorced my dad in '72. I am within walking distance from where the first house once stood that my family rented when we moved to California, back in December of 1963. I haven't gone far, and I do not regret that.  I am a typical Boomer, I guess,  living out the remnant of a middle-class suburban lifestyle that is rapidly fading off into the past.

 
I love the simple life I have been gifted. Despite the awfulness of the current day and time, life, for Mary and me, has gone on with little interruption compared to what so  many have suffered. I am acutely aware of the many blessings we have in our lives, and profoundly grateful for them. Don and Ross are both happy, and I am happy for them. Life has been good to all of us, each to our own way.

Even so.

I wrote last week that this whole episode has left me in a deep melancholy. I feel the years; time and days are old and thin. 

 

 

So anyway, here is the progress on the stone for the week. An accurately drilled hole through the base made the excavation easy. I've reached a stage of the artistic 'burn' where all I really want to do is work. 

 

"Hey, you want to go ride the bike? Want to go out?" 

"No. I Leave me alone. I just want to work." 

It's Sunday night as I sit typing this. After carving all morning I took the bike out for about an hour. Except for a small errand yesterday, this was the first time I've left the grounds in many days.  I gotta' get out more.

But I also need to drill...