munsillian

This is for someone I hardly knew, but would have liked to know better.

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Shine on, Glenn!

–

gritty old man
yes, you!
you with the hat of many colors
and knotted, gnarled
old lovers hands

you spent your life
pleasing others
and then
you found your path
again

~

yes, you!
you old gritty hatted lover-man
you showed us flowers
and, oh, how we saw you
shine!

yes, you!
you with the heart
of many colors

Ode to Sheetrock

Oh, sheetrock, how I hate thee!

Thee maketh a mockery of me, and thy recalcitrance hath imposed greatly upon mine patience, having united mine hammer with mine thumb, and mine eyes with thine sheddings.

Surely thine ill-mannered suckineth is born of thy source, for thou art child of dry and dusty lands, having in thy core, gypsum (surely a most sucky mineral) and sulphur (merely adding to thine stink).

I have watched in amaze as thee hast buckled from thy secure place and landed squarely upon the head of mine younger son (who perhaps could only benefit from that impact, but that said, it still was with ill intent).

I have watched thee suck the very water from spackle, and watched the spackle crack and fall, for the power of thy suckineth.

How much DO thee sucketh?

Thee sucketh in a manner that passeth understanding.

Thee sucketh more than the Infernal Revenue Service, who are as mere babes, compared to thee.

An thy suckineth were a rabbit, it would be an giant rabbit, sufficient to shed pellets over the entire land.

An thy suckineth were a woman, it would drain the Oilers dry. 

I wouldst fain compare thine suckineth to a black hole, but for fear of offending passersby.  It would be faint praise indeed, for surely thee sucketh more than the nether regions of politicians.

Lawyers have no more shame than thee. When thee passeth by, thy suckineth does unfix the hair.

Thee sucketh as does the black hole at the center of the gravity, bringing all to thine greedy grasping arms, even light that most slippery of substances.

And the sucketh most because I must use thee or suffer the ire of mine lovely wife whose butt is not as big as I made mistake to mention the other day. Surely it is a very fine butt and only makes for more comfortable sitting.

And surely I will now firmly shut mine mouth before mine fair wife finds yet another chore for me.

Jean Pierre: Dad?

Me: Yes, son?

Jean Pierre: Do you know where I keep my money?

Me: *wincing* Uh, no. Where?

Jean Pierre: In my shoe.

Me: Why?

Jean Pierre: Well, you know how bad my feet smell?

Me: *wincing again* Yes.

Jean Pierre: That’s why.

Me: What?

Jean Pierre: That’s why I keep my money there!

Me: Why?

Jean Pierre: *exasperated* ’cause they stink!

Me: I guess that makes sense.

Jean Pierre: No, Dad. See? If a robber, like, got into my shoes to steal my money…

Me: Yeah?

Jean Pierre: He’d like smell the money after he got it wouldn’t he?

Me: What?

Jean Pierre: Of course! You always smell your money.

Me: uh, huh.

Jean Pierre: And he’d go Yuckk! and put it back! See?

Me: *nodding gravely* Yes, I do see. I’d do the same thing, son.

Jean Pierre: Pablo’s feet don’t stink as much as mine do. So he keeps his money up his …

Me: That’s enough about money!

Jean Pierre: Just sayin’.

Story Garden 8 has accepted a creative-nonfiction piece “A Walk in the Park” for publication in their Best of 2008 issue. This is my second creative nonfiction publication by Story Garden; Stone Musings 1,2 and 3 came out in Story Garden 6.

Made a little progress, not much, on making a drum out of a section of palm trunk. I hollowed it out to about 3″ wall thickness, but it was a pain ’cause there was still so much water in it that chisels just bounced off and tore out sections rather than cutting.  So I let it dry outside in our 100 degree F heat for a month and now it is more workable. It is considerably lighter and marginally more workable.  It now even has a bit of a tone when you tap the side, whereas it did not, before. Might be able to make a drum out of it after all.

I guess this thing is going to resemble some kind of bastardized Dundun.

To do:

Get the wall thickness down to about 0.75″. It currently ranges from about 1-2″.  Then I’m going to use Gorilla Glue to stabilize the interior wall and start sanding down to about 0.5″. The Gorilla Glue will bind the fibers and also interact with any remaining moisture (if any). It dries hard and may improve the acoustics.

Sand and finish the exterior and ends.

Figure out how I’m going to skin the head(s) and if I’m going to use oxhide, goatskin and whether or not I’m going to skin both ends of the drum.

There’s a new challenge up for August at Liberty Hall. If you’re a genre novelist, you might be interested in joining in.

Last year Hurricane Ike donated a neighbor’s palm tree to my yard and I saved several sections. One section broke as it weathered, but the other did as I expected, which is to rot from the inside out.

So, I’m turning it into my next drum project.

Hah! Dunno where that title came from… Anyway, this is the first of a series of posts I will make on my progress in the MidSommer Madness Challenge.  I’ve decided to couple that with a review of yWriter4, free novel-writing project-management software. (Note that although I’m using v 4, that’s because 5 won’t work in Wine in Linux. Booh!) 

I’m not the only one doing this. As she has time, Michelle Marques has kindly agreed to do something similar with CELTX. 

Mwahaha! Little did she know…

Anyway, here we go.

(more…)

Got to brag here. The djembe plays extremely well and puts out a LOT of sound.  Strangely, my wife isn’t as much into it as I am, and doesn’t want me to play it while we’re watching the tube.

Wimmen!

Guess I’ll just have to use it instead of the alarm clock in the mornings.  That oughta be fun!

Is almost done!

Made the top from a planter, tube from a piece of PVC.  It has a goatskin drumhead and is tunable.  It started out to be a Djembe, but is shaped more like a Doumbek.  Even though the head is still wet, it has a discernible difference in tone between the ‘highs’ at the edge and the ‘bass’ in the center.  Gotta get lucky sometime!