Monday, June 9, 2008

Days 94- 99

Day 99
Saturday June 7th

I woke up down in the river bottom to the sun gently warming me. I started a good fire early on and went back to sleep for a tad. Lazily I pulled myself away from my comfy sleeping bag to stoke the fire and add a few more logs. I made up some coffee which absolutely hit the spot. Then I started in on breakfast. I tossed everything together-- bacon & eggs, meatballs with asiago cheese and sun-dried tomatoes with an orange infusion, and oatmeal-- and placed it all in the red hot coals. Then I grabbed my stuff and headed down to the river. I lounged around floating here and there rather dreamily for a bit, and by a bit I mean until my fingers looked like prunes and my tummy was growling with abandon. I quickly toweled off and headed back to camp. I got back to the fire just in time, breakfast was perfectly cooked. I brought everything back to the ummm "kitchen" table and dug in. Man talk about hitting the spot! It was grand!


Ahhhhh breakfast, most important meal of the day. And what a grand way to start the day! It sure is a heck of a lot better then under-cooked rattlesnake! http://daywhen.blogspot.com/2008/03/days-7-8-9.html






After a lazy morning on the river, nothing says lovin' like a day at the track-- horse track that is. I have never gambled on the ponies, never really had the opportunity or the interest. But with all the hype surrounding Big Brown and the Triple Crown I decided to give it a go. I hooked up with Isabella and off we went to the Derby Club. Derby Club, it sounds fancy right. WRONG! What a crap whole, seriously the place was a dump but having just come from the river bottom I felt right at home. Isabella gave me the lowdown on what all the terminology meant and the basics on placing bets. For the first time in a very very long time I was totally lost, out of my element. It was so bad I could not even BS my way around. Me? Unable to BS, incroyable mon dieu! I placed my bets and it was cool. My very last bet I decided to go with the three horses with the worst odds in the field. Wouldn't you know it, they placed first and tied for third. Rad right! I walked away up $107.49. Not bad for a newbie!

Come on baby, run you damn nag or its off to the glue factory for you...!




Day 98
Friday June 6th

Hung out down in the river bottom again tonight. As the sun set these crazy swallows came out for dinner. Huge flocks of these tiny birds were flying all over the place. It was crazy some of the moves these critters pulled. I sat down and watched in awe. Then I busted out the trusty old notepad and wrote a poem (it is really just plain silliness):

Swallow Tales

Duck, duck, goose bumps bombs
Dive, tuck, bob, weave
Dive, slam, twirl, duck
Dive, twist, tumble, spin
Dive dive dive dive!
Swallow....

Duck, duck, goose bumps bombs
Not goose-- swallow: dive ! Gulp!
Swallow....

Duck, duck, goose bumps bombs
Not goose-- swallow: dive ! Gulp!
Swallow, dive!
Dive bombs gulp!
Swallow...


Poetry in motion, writing about the crazy swallows flying every which way at sunset, some barely missing my head. It was super rad to be a spectator for their aerial escapades.




Day 97
Thursday June 5th

Celtics win game 1, three more to go! Beat LA!!! Got to sleep on the futon in the Surf Shack, it was the first time since last Tuesday I slept in doors. First time too since then I had me a real for real shower. A Celtics win, sleep on a couch AND a shower-- dang life is GOOD!




Day 96
Wednesday June 4th


So I check out my horoscope first thing this morn and got a good chuckle. There are hundreds of thousands of Taurus's all around the world that are reading that thinking "shit I live in the city, aint eva gonna see me no big foot in the concrete jungle." Then they crumple up the morning paper and toss it in the garbage bin never to give it another thought. For me though the way things are right now, being hoodwinked by a lady bigfoot in heat would not be outta the ordinary! My horoscope:

"Woodsman Claims: 'Lady Bigfoot Kept Me as Her Love Slave!'" That was the headline of a report in the Weekly World News. In addition to providing fascinating details about the man's captivity, the article also had a helpful section on the jobs most likely to get someone kidnapped by a female sasquatch. They included lumberjack, surveyor, landscape artist, and ornithologist. In my astrological opinion, that list should be amended, at least for the next few weeks, to note that Taurus lumberjacks, surveyors, landscape artists, and ornithologists are especially susceptible. Why do I say that? Because according to my projections, many of you Tauruses will be swept up in or profoundly influenced by powerful feminine energy."

I looked every where to see if the most likely list included toothless hippies living out of their car. Thankfully we were down well towards the bottom on the probability chart! Good thing I haven't painted in a few months, that would be two strikes against me: landscape artist & toothless hippy. The lady sasquatches could probably smell me a million miles away...



Scouting out the river bottom for potential film locations, ahhh yes hard at work as a film maker!


Filming some ninny shuffling around one pile of rocks to another.




Day 95

Tuesday June 3rd

Today I did a little more scouting of locations, this time focusing on the river bottom. I am getting a little tired of using the same spots over and over again to hang out in. Honestly I am starting to worry a little too using the same spots over and over again. I want to do everything to avoid suspicion when I settle in a spot for the night so no one screws with me. I found the best way to avoid suspicion is to keep my presence at each spot to a minimum. So I am off to scout out new locals, preferably spots I don't have to sleep in the car. I am getting a little cramped after three months of doing so!

After cruising around town I met up w/ Duffy & Cybok for a quick pint. Cybok's brother was in town and Cybok himself is planning on taking off in the spring to hike the AT. It was a pretty relaxing evening smoking and joking. After the bar closed I was a little too tired to try and make it to a camp site for the night. Instead I plopped my sleeping bag down behind a bush above the parking lot. It ended up being one bloody comfortable night, though honestly I only got about 3 hours of sleep.


Forget living in a van down by the river, how about the bushes behind the bar?




Day 94
Monday June 2nd

I did some scouting out of different spots today to find a few more suitable spots to camp. After Sunday's 5-0 scare I want to diversify a little if you will. I also wanted to procrastinate one more day from having to actually start filming.


Instructions to turn on camera (in 17 different languages): push green button to left three clicks, then hold red button in until you hear a beeping sound to initialize lens, then put your left hand on top of your head and with your right hand rub your belly four times while mumbling heybijjee-geebee, heybijjee-geebee, heybijjee-geebee. To think I used to be a technical whiz-kid, not anymore.