cats and dogs Ecclesiasticus

Woke up this morning, the street full of cars, an estate sale on Woolen Mills Road. None of the neighbors had mentioned it to me, indeed, none of the neighbors were on hand, the notification went out via Internet.

Professional Personal Property Liquidation

What constitutes a life? Oh! Sadness beyond expression. I suppose it's the job of the Liquidator to drop a neutron bomb, separate out all the organic material and personal ephemera. Pack the living past in garbage bags for immediate disposal.
Leave behind the ashtrays, silver service, tools, furniture, Life magazines, all the collectible items that could have come from anywhere, from any old person's house.

What constitutes a life? We struggle to look back in time, to save shards of an era and a neighborhood that possessed a sense of community beyond anything we will know.
Blessedly the Liquidators missed a few items. One of them, a "certificate of longevity" issued to the beautiful Edna, three days after her 109th birthday, April 2, 1999.
The other, Louise's 1931 high school yearbook.

And some there be, which have no memorial;
who are perished, as though they
had never been; and are become as though
they had never been born;
and their children after them.

Sirach 44:9

boxing day

Mr. Aaron Hammond

disappointment

Yes, it was a baby, but not the one whose arrival they had long awaited.

Trinity

President Bush delivered his Kwanzaa Hanukkah Christmas messages a few days back. He covered a lot of bases, Virgin Birth, Light of Hope, Triumph over Tyranny, Those Lost in Freedom's Cause, Commitment to Compassion, Creativity, Collective Work.

The White House bows to diversity and simultaneously squeezes three takes on the Winter Solstice into the Bush Policy Bag. Impressive.

However the President failed to say words recognizing the Holiday of Commerce. Words for the Nutcracker, for Santa, for Frosty the Bleeping Snowman. Will his omission have a political cost?

Yesterday, Jose Luis Espinal of Washington Heights NY had his name changed in Manhattan Civil Court to Jesus Christ.

That, my friends, is Freedom.

sandy claws

Cricket the logorrheic doll

This Christmas promises to be a simple affair, two family meals combined with meditation and contemplation. Gifts of company, gifts of spirit.

In the past we had some fantastic Potlatch Xmases. Santa strode about the room supreme. In those years E&H reaped the bounty, but were paradoxically inoculated. They were gifted into anti-materialism.

The doll above was a present the twins received one Christmas. One of those presents you give to the children of your enemies, like a blanket covered with variola virus, or a 1000 piece puzzle with one piece removed.

Cricket contained batteries and made scary conversation like "lets be friends!"

Time passed. The mouthy Cricket fell out of favor, lost her clothes, was relegated to outside.

I remember her final afternoon above ground.

E&H took the doll. They dug a shallow grave. They placed her in the bottom. They covered her with sand.

They filled a 2 gallon watering can and painstakingly rained its contents on the doll hole.

Were they hoping Cricket would sprout or were they thoroughly destroying her electronics?

Whichever, I was proud.

apologies

I am sorry when I let you down, don't have worthwhile fresh fare here. Events are moving fast. I don't have medical permission to develop film. The threads that I pursue are tangled, scattered, some headed down the toilet. Must improvise, rescue, preserve, wake up, dance a jig.
The black and white blog suffers.

politics

In VA we have an ongoing gubernatorial race. No, those aren't the candidates above but might as well be. Last night there was a televised debate, let's be charitable and say that the debate was helpful, bottled up it would make a good emetic.

There is a third candidate running as an independent. He seems to be the straight talker of the three. Natch, he was excluded.