#78 SUMMER, ET CETERA , ET CETERA

“I don't know if I'm ready for another vacation. I can't seem to get over the last one and it was only two days and one night long. Marty and I went over to the Lake Michigan/Holland/Saugatuck area on the July 4 weekend. We tried to pack everything into one day. We went to a state park where we had to walk three quarters of a mile up and down sand covered hills, through the woods and on and on. We were each carrying about fifty pounds with our new chairs, air mattresses, blankets, towels etc. But we made it and the water was warm with big waves. So much fun on the new air mattresses.”

“After a full day at the beach and a three hour car ride getting there, we went into Holland and got our room, went out for dinner and then tried to find another beach for sunset. It looked so obvious, but we drove and drove and drove and got lost and when we finally found it, it was way past sunset and there were at least one hundred sand covered stairs to climb to get to the top of the dune and the lookout. We were exhausted, but we hauled our asses up those one hundred stairs and back down again. Went back into town and walked around the campus until eleven thirty at which point we were utterly exhausted and damaged.”

“The next day we went to another beach all morning until two in the afternoon. It was ninety degrees with a wind, so it was like a convection oven with sand pelting your skin. It sounds bad, but it was actually good because we had warm water and big waves and a nice breeze so it didn't feel so hot. Then we thought we'd get something to eat in Saugatuck and head for home. The town was so full of tourists, we couldn't find a parking place anywhere. We drove around and around--it was awful. So we tried the nearby town of Douglas. There were three restaurants, two closed and one had a ninety-minute wait. So we headed out on the highway to a Steak & Shake.”

“Then we got caught in bumper to bumper traffic at a full stop because of a camper/boat/trailer incident. Luckily the wait wasn't too long because it was over ninety degrees and we had to stop in a cornfield and sit because the car didn’t have air conditioning. I really wonder if traveling is at all worth it. The hordes of people and traffic was just ridiculous. I guess you can't be a tourist on a holiday weekend, but that's when workers can go any place, so what do you do? Car travel is just the most hideous thing. I pissed and moaned the whole way back about why we can't have bullet trains that would take me from Ann Arbor to Holland in an hour or less. Anyway, I'm still not recuperated from the trip--my back and hips ache and I'm so tired that I can't even do my normal chores. Worn to a frazzle.”

“The Marquette trip will have to be easier--I'll just lie around on the beach and on the couch and not do anything much. Our only plans are to go to Au Train one day and eat lunch at Elizabeth's. I should be able to handle that much activity. Unfortunately the person we're renting from seems to be a fanatic about "no dogs" so it will be hard to have Dad over if he doesn't want to leave his dog home. I just hope someone is willing to cook for me. I don't mind spending the whole time either at the beach or reading.”

“The moral of the story of our one-day July 4 vacation is, we're too old now to just wing it and explore beaches, we have to limit ourselves to geezer beaches with parking lots right next to the lake and we can't go anywhere on a holiday weekend again.”

“It's been in the nineties around here, which makes me so sluggish and lazy that the thought of a week at the beach is sounding more and more appealing. But that ride up to the Upper Peninsula--I just dread it. Going there is okay, but that ride home is just dreadful with my car sickness.”

“Excessive heat is repulsive. I could never live in the south. I don't think Ma will like it that our car has no AC. Some people aren't used to crappy things and can't take it. I can just see her hair whipping around. Mine was just a dried out mess after one day.”

“I hope you plan on joining the family in Marquette. I know you have other things going on, like the job search and financial worries. Having to look for a job at our age is just repulsive, isn’t it? What is going to happen to us? Well, at least the weather is pleasant this summer. We’ll all have a good time if things go according to plan. But so much shit can happen now it’s a gamble just to leave your house. Hopefully, no one will have any problems. Especially with air travel,though I‘d rather fly than drive. I just can’t stand hot cars, especially with a smoker. But that’s what you get when you don’t drive yourself.”

“Let me know what your plans are; there won’t be any room for you in the car. We will be packed like sardines with Ma and two extra passengers and all the gear. It should be a good time and you should try to make it. Who knows how long everyone will live, it could be our last summer all together.”

#77 DREAMING

In a dream I called up Charles Bukowski.

I said, "Charles, my job is running me ragged, killing my strength for what's important, you know?"

He said, "Eat shit, baby."

I said, "You're not very nice, Mr. Bukowski."

He said, "Neither is life, sister, so get it straight."

#76 A MAN TROUBLE

Another six-sentence attempt. See sixsentence.blogspot.com


MAN TROUBLE
It never occurred to me he would be trouble. He seemed like a regular sort of guy in need of love and affection like the rest of us.

How was I to know that he had another side, one that tears everything apart before risking anything on it?

Did I suspect he was incapable of forming an attachment, did I realize he was shifting around the universe in a free-for-all game of accidental convivial evasion and at times, obliteration?

No, weak little heart that I am, I did not see the portent onslaught…or is it that I did not particularly care to see?…so gummed up in the works.

I thought that he was just a regular guy in need of love and affection like the rest of us.

# 75 THE GIRL IN THE RED ROBE

“It was a jolt,” he said. “You opened the door that morning wearing a red robe, your face flushed and alive. I said to myself, what a lucky bastard he is, he who slept with you, who did not deserve you, who was a dolt. I shuddered with an exquisite rush of gratitude, unable to say exactly for what except that you stood before me on a cold winter morning, barely daylight, for possibly less than a minute.”

“And what did I say? Was I snotty because of the early hour?”

“You looked at me intently with liquid blue eyes, innocent eyes with an openness that felt like summer and said, ‘He is not here, he's on the road.’”

“Then what?”

“I left, tingling, thinking, What a doll, what idiot would be somewhere other than waking up with this ravishing girl in the red robe? I vowed if it were at all possible, I would steal you away, and eventually I did. Now I never want to leave town, my career is all but washed up.”