fivecats | Entries tagged with 28 in 28

Gazebo
February 2010 Outside Raleighwood, NC
____________________________________

Day 17 → If you had to eat the same meal every Friday, what would it be?

Certainly one of the more odd questions, but I give

keirf credit for not reusing something cliched.

A quick and simple answer: Fish.

I wasn't raised Catholic, but Bonn was and "Fish for Friday" was something that was engrained in her being early on in life. Even after the Catholic church decided it was no longer a sin to eat meat on Friday, many Catholics kept it up. More out of habit, I suppose. (No, those were the nuns! Get it?! yeah...)

We don't do fish every Friday, but we mention it enough that doing so wouldn't take much effort.

...

Current Music: I Am The Mercury: Jimmie Spheeris: Isle Of View

Shadow and Fence
February 2010 Outside Raleighwood, NC
____________________________________

Day 16 → A confession.

I Was an Elementary School Librarian for Five and a Half Years and I HATE Dr. Seuss Books.

In fact, I refused to read them to any of my classes at two libraries for all that time.

Why? ( Click on through to the other side... )

...

Current Music: Cleaning My Gun: Mark Knopfler: Get Lucky

Stormy Skies
February 2010 Outside Raleighwood, NC
____________________________________

Day 14 → A post about the seventies.

I turned nine in 1970. I was in fourth grade and convinced my life was Normal-with-a-capital-n. Everyone lived outside of Washington, DC, everyone walked to their elementary school and had parents that worked. That's just how the world was. Wasn't it?

Random thoughts follow. For them, ( click on through to the other side... )

...

Current Music: We Have Forgotten: Sixpence None The Richer: Sixpence None The Richer

Art*O*Mat
February 2010 Outside Raleighwood, NC
____________________________________

Day 13 → A post about the eighties.

The eighties stretched across most of my twenties and, as such, included my first full time job (@ The Kite Site), an aborted two-month move to MadCity, WI, night shift @ The Kite Site while I did community college and the Univ of MD, a marriage, a move to Connecticut, the falling apart of that marriage and moving back to DC to become The Final KiteSiteer.

But, when I hear the 80s being mentioned, I think of all the great music. British New Wave, Punk, and that great Jangly Guitar sound. When I worked The Kite Site, WHFS was the soundtrack to the store, and my first year working full time was like getting paid (minimum wage) to get an entire musical education of Alternative music. When I switched to nights, Darkwave was just coming into its own in the US and I loved that, too.

To name some bands from across the decade, in no particular order and undoubtedly leaving many, many out:

REM, Marshall Crenshaw, Tommy Keene, Elvis Costello, Nick Lowe, The Smiths, Talking Heads, Ramones, The Cure, The English Beat, Psych Furs, Blondie, OMD (pre-Breakfast Club), The Clash,Holly & the Italians, The Smithereens, Cyndi Lauper, Joe Jackson, Depeche Mode, Echo and the Bunnymen, The Police, Tears for Fears, Suzanne Vega...

...

Current Music: Bob Mould - Sunspots

Moon Thru Trees
February 2010 Outside Raleighwood, NC
____________________________________

Day 10 → On not knowing something you should have known.

What? Do you mean like when I was about eight and I should known that sharpening popsicle sticks with my new cub scout knife wasn't a good idea, especially when i wasn't paying attention to what I was doing and sliced the top of my thumb open and gushed blood all over the place? Or like when I ran into the house, my thumb gushing blood, and answered my mother's question of, "Where are you going" with, "To wash my hands" thinking that I would fool her into thinking nothing was wrong but of course she did?

Or how about like when I graduated from college and realized that my four years worth of studying and my four years worth of student loan debt hadn't brought me any closer to a better job, much less a career than I had been before I started school. Or how about when I realized I had done the exact same thing when I graduated with my first Master's Degree?

I'm not sure I have any stories like those.

Nope, I don't think so.

...

Current Music: Hearts of Space - 872 - Amazing Grace

Cambridge Doorway
December 2007 Cambridge, England
____________________________________

Day 09 → A doorway.

It's my favorite doorway image that I've taken myself. If my memory is correct, if you're facing the entrance to St. Mary's Church in Cambridge in the central walkway, this building is to the left of the church, probably right across the street from the Cambridge University Press retail shop.

If my memory isn't correct, then it's somewhere in Cambridge. Perhaps one of my friends here with far more Cambridge experience than I would please assist with a Where This Is and What Is Behind Those Doors? (please?)

__________________________________________________

In other news, in the early morning hours I was less than 2 miles from home when my car died. Long story short, the alternator appears to have suddenly expired, leaving me carless. With Bonn coming down with what I'm still getting over, that meant I'm also

toddpage-less. (Thanks for being understanding, though, Todd)

My Volvo's engine has a dual overhead cam, which while sounding pretty cool, has made finding an in-stock alternator next to impossible. Our Trusted Mechanic said the soonest he could get one in would be tomorrow, so I decided to try calling around. I was told "tomorrow" by one and "three" and "seven to ten" days by those few who either carried them or had them listed in the larger, company-wide inventory.

This means tomorrow I get to test out getting to werk completely by bus. There's a stop a ways down the road that will take me to Downtown Raleighwood a block or so away from where another bus will whisk me off to Chapel Thrill. With luck, I should get from bus pick-up to my office in about 90 minutes. Without luck, 2 hours.

Either way, it sure beats walking.

...

Current Music: 861 - Night Light [A Nordic Winter's Journey] ®: Hearts Of Space: Hearts Of Space - Radio Progr

Rocking Pelican
February 2010 Outside Raleighwood, NC
____________________________________

Day 08 → Money or the lack of it

That would be The Lack Thereof, for my part.

Oh, you want details? For that, you'll have to ( click on through to the other side... )
____________________________________

A point of note:

Today, for the first time ever, I introduced myself over the phone as firstname "fivecats" lastname, as if my LJ name had become my cool, sports nickname.

I did this (and felt very self-conscious in doing so) because I was calling

toddpage and had never actually spoken with him before and I wasn't entirely sure how familiar he would be with my real name.

Todd was doing something very, very wise: he was in the take-out line at the Cafe du Monde getting a double-order of beignets for his eminent return to the road. I was calling because I wasn't sure he'd been following the news regarding his planned travel route after passing through Raleighwood tomorrow -- a route that goes from Raleighwood to DC to NYC. A route that is currently still mightily covered in snow and is only supposed to get more snow starting tomorrow night.

Yes, I'd like to see him in person. Even more, however, I'd like him to not think he can just drive from Raleighwood to DC (and then on to NYC the next day) like he's driving through Massachusetts. New England is prepared for they type of conditions that is making up the current Snowpocalypse DC 2010, both mechanically and psychologically. My hometown of DC? Not a chance.

Kids these days. You think they'd listen. But, noooooo...

...

Current Music: 863 - Consonance [Medieval, Baroque and Now] ®: Hearts Of Space: Hearts Of Space - Radio Progra

Death of a Snowman
February 2010 Outside Raleighwood, NC
____________________________________

Day 07 → Your view of the United States.

Anyone who has been reading for, oh, say the past week or two, is likely to remember a rant I posted recently. If you're interested in more rantings, ( click on through to the other side... )

...

Current Music: 863 - Consonance [Medieval, Baroque and Now] ®: Hearts Of Space: Hearts Of Space - Radio Progra

Snow on Branch
2009 Chapel Thrill, NC
____________________________________

6. Technology.

Since I'm mighty sick today with a kick-in-the-headcold and movement, must less actual thought is difficult, I'll simply respond with a quote I heard at a conference a few years ago:

"Technology is what happens after you were born."

I think that sums it up very nicely.

...

Current Music: 897 - Perigee-Hearts of Space-Hearts of Space Radio Programme

Soren Sleeping
2009 Outside Raleighwood, NC
____________________________________

28 in 28: 5. Someone you admire.

Someone? Someone? Tell you what -- I'll give you EIGHT.

If you take a look at my LJ profile page you'll see the following:

Heroes in Life
Edward R. Murrow
Linda Ellerbee
Alton Brown
Fred Rogers
Cal Ripken
Sibel Edmonds
Keith Olbermann
Stephen Colbert

If you're interested A one line Why for each, ( click on through to the other side... )

...

Current Music: TOP FM AMBIENT (via iTunes Radio)

"C'mere I Wanna Take Yer Pitcha"
January 2010 Raleighwood, NC
____________________________________

I suppose the illness that stands out most for me happened just days after we moved from Maryland to NC. We moved to rescue Bonn's then-five year old son from her psychotically deranged ex-husband. We went to the coastal NC city where said psychotically deranged ex-husband lived to visit some of Bonn's long-time friends for Thanksgiving. The details are somewhat sketchy in my mind (I'm sure Bonn remembers it far better than I do) but while they were all eating turkey I had brought down some leftover fish from a few days before.

Need I really continue? If so, ( click on through to the other side... )

...

Current Music: The Host of Seraphim - Dead Can Dance - Serpent's Egg

Mikey
2009 Outside Raleighwood
____________________________________

3. Unrequited love.

This is a strange one, one I wouldn't have thought to put on a list of writing topics. I think it's because Unrequited Love is something I associate with being a schoolboy, my imagination going overtime about some unobtainable girl who either didn't know I existed or, worse, didn't care I existed.

After I was somewhere around 17 and fell into a crowd in NW DC, I was spending my weekends up there and I learned how to actually talk to girls. That simple idea resolved a lot of the Unrequitedness in my life. Instead of being oh-so-miserable-and-alone, I had friends, and there were girls who actually liked me for me.

____________________________________

Tonight on the way home I rounded the curve by our library and saw a cat lying still in the road. I turned the car around, parked a the nearest intersection and walked over to it. It hadn't been dead long, and it probably didn't even know it had been hit. I picked it up and moved it onto the grass by the sidewalk, in case someone came looking for their missing pet. I asked Tony, Tigg and Hader to welcome him into The Crab Shack.

After just losing Tony, the sight of a loved, cared for cat stupidly hit and killed was -- and still is -- hard to deal with.

Give all of your furry friends an extra hug. Our time together is so brief.

...

Gate After Gate
December 2006 Cambridge, UK
____________________________________

2. An interesting country you have visited.

My father grew up with parents who loved to travel. They drove all over the US – well before the Eisenhower Administration decided they had better do something to get themselves re-elected and started the US Interstate Highway project. And I think the year he graduated from high school the family drove cross-country. Growing up, we went over to my grandparents’ house in NE DC most Sundays for dinner. Over the years, I heard stories about their travels, what they’d seen, where they’d stayed and the routes they’d taken.

Those stories gave me a sense of Travel as Different, Travel as Adventure. Travel was something I wanted to try for myself.

Unfortunately, my mother had no interest in travel. Those few times we traveled somewhere it was either on our yearly vacation to Ocean City, NJ or, every few years, back to the Pittsburgh area to visit my mother’s parents. Eventually, her idea of “roughing it” became staying somewhere without an air conditioner.

More? ( Click on through to the other side… )

…