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Because I can't bear to eulogize Doug - 2008-08-19
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11:40 a.m. - 2004-06-22
The bright side of a rainy day. It’s raining this morning. A light rain nearly invisible through the screens on the windows. I can hear it well enough. A soft chorus of plips and ticks as the wee raindrops land. The birds are happy with this rain, the earthworms come nearer the surface and the clever sharp-eared birds are feasting. Sunday we took Mike to Best Buy to pick out a stereo for his work van. Alex thought of it. I’m always stumped what to buy Mike. He makes his own jewelry. He has so many clothes he’s filled the biggest dresser and has taken two drawers in mine. He works all the time and I’m tired of buying him toys and hobby things he never uses. So hooray for Alex for coming up with something his father actually needed. While the guys were debating the merits of the various stereos I wandered over into the music section. Inspired by Colz’s recent outing to see Tom Jones in concert, I picked out comfort music. Artists my parents and grandparents listened to. For all that they aren’t ‘my’ songs, not the raucous rock-n-roll anthems and nascent electronica of disco from my teenage years, this music is still belongs to me. Songs which are part of the soundtrack of my life. I had some cds from the Standards and Classics already, most of the artists I bought have been in my collection all along. But I sieved out some nice compilation cds. I bought Etta James, Frank Sinatra, Rosemary Clooney, Tony Bennett, and Duke Ellington. I debated a Perry Como, but wasn’t quite ready to go there yet. When I was a kid we called him ‘Perry Coma’. That guy’s singing is the musical equivalent of general anesthesia. Listening to Perry Como moan his way through I’m Always Chasing Rainbows will put me out like a light. Yesterday was busy. School lets out for the summer tomorrow and Wolf’s birthday is Friday. Room 13 is celebrating all the summer birthdays this week and yesterday was Wolf’s day to be the Birthday Boy. Alex drove me over to the school. I was toting cupcakes and goody bags. Poor Wolf isn’t having a birthday party this year. I didn’t plan the darn thing early enough (like back in February) and all his friends are booked right through til school takes up in the fall. I won’t go ranting again about how skewed priorities are that little kids are so overloaded with activities they don’t have a spare 3 hours to come over for a birthday party without 4 months’ advance warning. I’m sad for my boy though. Next year I’ll include his birthday party invitations with the damn Christmas cards. After the class party we came home and got the house picked up. Alex hadn’t been able to get the router to work properly and Mike was bringing a computer whiz acquaintence to look at it. This meant the whiz was going to be poking into places like under my desk and Alex’s rat’s nest bedroom. I set my boy to shoveling his bedroom and I raced around polishing and sweeping. Saturday I’d been caught out, I’d been so busy in the garden all week that the house was pretty gloppy and messy. And here came Mike with his good friend Ken. They were going to work on our central air and I was embarrassed half to death to have company see my house in a shambles. 8 months of cleaning like a mad thing and here Mike brings someone over on the one day my house looks like shit. His smirking was unbearable and I was determined not to have him get me again. By the time Mike showed with Chris yesterday this house glittered. The upshot is today I am a free woman. I don’t really want to garden in the rain and the house is spotless. I have nothing I have to do and it feels wonderful. Gonna load the stereo with my new old music, make myself a pot of my favorite tea, and kick back and relax. Ahhhhh…~LA Today’s Pick: “Solitude” by Duke Ellington
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