Sleepy Head

I

have a presentation on haiku today, and with the start of school and all, I didn't reallyhave that much time to prepare--we won't mention the fact that i had all summer. In any event, I was up until 4AM getting ready and I am beat. Hopefully, a nice brick shower will wake me up before I go-go.

As for being sluggish--Sammy, Goober--I too like the cooler weather, but I get sluggish because a 50-year-old body does not respond well to a sudden change in temperature. The cool brsk autumn air feels great on the face, but the chill causes other portionsof the body to function a little slower, much like a cold engine. It takes just a little bit longer to warm up. My internal parts are hot and ready to rumble like you youngins.

Speaking of sluggish: I teach literature and fancy myself an expert on words, so this is a bit embarrassing, but as I stared at the word, "sluggish" just now through these sleep-deprived eyes, it just struck me. Sluggish = having or manifesting the characteristics of a slug... I am like one of those slimey things that leave a shiney trail in its wake. *shiver*

Okay, that woke me up... Have a great weekend guys.

And, Go Bruins!

Albeit embarrassing...

S

ome readers have said they wanted to see the video.

The video in question is from a month ago--no, Gokingsgo, I am not on TV a lot, just the one time. It is about the sexual assault in the area around the Vienna train station, away from which I live a brisk seven minute walk. As said in the previous post, after seeing the brief interview, I realized that I need to work on my speech--pronuncation, clarity... gawd, even grammar. I occasionally criticize others for not articulating, or not completing their sentences, but placed on the spot with a microphone pointed at me and a camera in my face--literally--I performed no better. And if that wasn't bad enough, I need to get a new hair stylist. *sigh*

So here it is folks. Watch it at your own risk. The O-man takes no responsibility for health issues arising from viewing this news piece. You should be in good health. Pregnant women and those who have had recent surgery or injury; those with high blood pressure, heart conditions, neck or back problems; and those with any impairment or condition that would prevent normal viewing, should not watch. Of course, you must be at least 48" tall.

Update: Apparently I can't show a Xanga video on Blogger. Oh well. If you wanna see it, you're gonna have to open a site on Xanga... :-(

If you gotta go, just go

I

was reading how msbLiss's little girl is almost potty trained. She mentioned that sometimes she'll ask her daughter if she needs to pee, but even though she says no, she ends up peeing. Well, ALL kids say they don't have to go to the potty if you ask them directly. Poop and pee are "bad" things so they will deny it everytime. Even I'll deny it.

Drinking at our local wateringhole
M: You've had four beers already. Don't you have to use the restroom?
Me: Of course not! I'm a man. I can hold it.
M: But you've had four beers!
Me: I'm sitting down, so it hasn't gravitated yet...

But of course, when we stand up to leave, it all rushes downstream and I HAVE to go before we leave the building. I can't even hold for the 7 minute drive home.

On TV

I was on TV because of bad news in our area. But my brother was interviewed as one of the artists contributing to an exhibit celebrating LA's birthday. Being the ham that he is--it runs in the family--he posted it on Youtube. If you can't tell, he's not the female and he's not the black guy being interviewed. He's standing in front of his "work of art", a low-rider rickshaw, a piece that fuses an abstract, distant Asian image with a concrete, close-at-hand Latino reality. Check it out if you have the time...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvunjGlQIN0

The Flow of the Advancing River...

I

can't believe it's been a month since I ve' written something. I mean, it's been so long that I didn't realize that the edit box have completely change! It looks so unfamiliar to me. And what's videos? I can now add video's? Hmmmm. Should I put up the video of our moment on channel 4? Just kidding. I'm too embarrassed to put it up, even though I did download it for myself. :)

Well, much has happened since the end of august. The grandkids went Back to Japan and the new semester started. I had no time to catch my breath, going from a couple of ten-year-olds to a bunch of twenty-or-sos. Often something occurs and I think, "Gee, that would make an interesting Xanga entry", then I go back to work or watch another drama... and it disappears into the recesses of my mind, unfortunately. Oh well.

Unfortunately, something not so welcome occurred this weekend--My grandfather passed on. I hadn't seen him in a few years, but I had heard he was doing well and was quite active. But this summer he apparently suffered an attack of pneumonia and that is the kiss of death for many of the elderly, and my grandfather was 84. He is, I'm sure, in a better place, since my grandmother passed three years ago. I wish I had stayed in contact with him more regularly--not just by Christmas cards--but it seems that these thoughts always come too late for me.

Fifteen seconds of fame

A

ndy Warhol once said that we all have fifteen minutes of fame. I'm not sure if this means 15 minutes at once or 15 minutes in total, but I figure it is the latter rather than the former. I once spent 4 of my allotted 15 minutes when I won a singing contest and got a free trip to Japan. I spent another two minutes of it reciting and talking about Basho haiku on National Public Radio (NPR). I spent 15 more seconds yesterday.

The grand kids--being more kids than grand--have been dying to sleep on our queen-size bed. M finally relented and they both slept spread eagle on it two nights ago. M slept on the sofa as I slept next to her on the floor. Actually, I was lying on the floor watching TV and ended up falling asleep. Well, neither of us slept very well and we were up by 7 AM, which was for the best since I had an 8 AM appointment to have new brake pads put on my car. I took the bus home.

Around 9 AM there was a knock on the door and on the other side of the storm door stood a Fairfax policeman. Apparently, just after 7 AM, two women were assaulted in the neighborhood. One was grabbed by the arm not 50 yards from our front door. The other had her short pants tugged on near the entrance of Nottoway Park, the very park entrance that M enters when she goes running everyday. Unfortunately, even though I was awake at the time--y'know, those grand kids--I neither heard nor saw anything. But fortunately, the perpetrator fled when both women screamed, and neither were harmed seriously.

In any case, I was very alarmed and M had second thoughts about her daily run. At around 3 PM, M and I headed out to the bus stop to go pick up the car when Julie Carey of NBC 4 stopped me on the corner to ask me about what happened earlier this morning. I told her about M's daily runs and how we are concerned about how our daily routines may change. I have talked to reporter for TV and newspapers before, but not once have I ever been quoted, so I didn't expect anything this time either. But on News at 5, they played a segment about the assaults and lo and behold, both M and I were on TV.

Very few people I know watch local news anymore--with the Internet and 24 hour news on cable, most people I know don't bother with local stations. So I figure I'm the only one I know who saw it. Even M was in the shower when it was broadcast and I didn't tape it--although she saw it later on the station's Internet site.

But it's just as well no one I know saw our 15 seconds of fame. The report was serious business for residents in our community but all I could think about was how I should focus on speaking more clearly, articulating my words and maybe losing another 15 pounds or so....