Happy Freakin' Monday...

Sorry, it's been a while - the month kinda slipped away from me, but then, that's August all over. More on that later.

I found this today on one of my regulars (Ugliest Tattoos: A Gallery of Regrets). This is Rick, aka Zombie Boy. Now, before you get that look on your face... Well, okay, I know you already have that look on your face, but before you open your mouth and say anything, keep in mind, this is a lifestyle choice this guy has made. I wouldn't want my daughter to date him, but there you go, at least he's sincere. In the interview, he states that he's actually a happier person since having this done, because he gets a lot of positive attention. He also advocates NOT doing this to yourself unless it's really in you, echoing my own sentiments about tattoos, which should be spiritual, for any given definition of the word, and not because you saw someone with a ladybug and their name tattooed on their ankle, and now you want the same thing. To quote Rick, "I don’t want kids to go out there and ruin their lives because they think it’s cool – it’s got to be in you. You’ve got to know what you want. I sacrificed my whole future for this." (Taken from an interview in Bizarre Magazine, by Jack Ruby Murray, June 2008)

Which is about as serious and spiritual as you can get. Rock on, Zombie Boy.

Anyway, August. Back to August. I don't think much of August.

In June, sitting in the classroom looking out the windows at the spectacularly fine day, summer stretches ahead with all kinds of glorious promise. The mornings are cool and bright and you wear your shorts and your flip-flops and the whole world holds its breath for that last moment of that last class, when the bell rings like a starting gate and you bolt off out the door. Remember how you felt, in high school, climbing into your car, with everybody streaming out of the parking lot? You turned the key and the radio came on, you rolled down the windows, and took a deep breath...

Have you noticed how that feeling never really quite leaves, even when you're a grown-up? June at work is always a little weird, but happy, good weird. There's more standing around at cubicles laughing and joking about stuff. Things just get more casual. There's more time spent in the kitchen, getting a snack, making tea, talking with your buddies who show up to do the same. Wow. Yah...

Nothing, however, nothing at all magical happens in August, except that the summer dies a slow and nasty-tempered death, making us all suffer with it. With apologies to all those August-Born, August is hot, smoggy, lethargic, and if you're in school in any capacity, full of regrets. That happy June ripe with promise has turned into the gravid, exhausted, heavy-as-lead August. About the only good thing that happens, around here, in August, is that the air takes on a smell of garlic and onions. Okay, that's weird - there's a processing plant somewhere around the Pacheco Pass where they take in garlic and onions, and on cool afternoons in August, you can smell it, actually a lot more pleasant than it sounds, but maybe that's just me, because it reminds me that AUGUST IS ALMOST OVER. September is almost here. Fall is coming.

Okay, that's all. I'm done cappin' on August. Now it's September, and I LOVE September. I love the weather here in California in September - San Jose, Silicon Valley, Santa Clara. It starts to cool down again, and the breeze starts to pick up, so the smog clears out a bit. The light gets all soft and fuzzy and more golden - I can't rightly explain how that happens, but it does - and the wind starts to bring all kinds of brilliant new smells to your nose, the first woodsmoke and the first rain, cool and heady and glorious.

It's beautiful here today, 70's F. Elise has finished her school work, I'm eating a bagel snack, and then getting a shower, after which we're off to my friend Ellen's house just down the road to help her pack. They're renting a house in Los Banos to get out of the bay area proper, and it's going to save them a huge wad o' dough. They hope to be ready to buy in a few years.

Just to leave you with a nice taste in your mouth:


I love light and dark - if my art classes serve, this is called chiaroscuro. This picture is from the Flickr page of Aremac - please check out their other work... Very gorgeous stuff!

Toodles!