Hello my darling tree frog, have you hopped back across the pond? I am sitting here in my amphibian altogether, having stripped off my jeans & cotton blouse after a bout of weeding and mulching in the north garden. I knelt in the dirt and the weeds came up fairly easily by hand, and I disturbed numerous earthworms that rose to the surface indignantly writhing and churning. Once I got myself psyched to do it, the weeding wasn't so bad, and I enjoyed the new perspective that put me in mind of E.D., a perspective of examining the earth so close up, not unlike a telescoped Alice, scrunched on all fours, poring. A quiet day, not very eventful, D brought home falafel sandwiches for lunch, which were delicious, and reminded me of Brooklyn, there was a cart on Atlantic Avenue that we used to treat ourselves to, with the most delicious pita concoctions with shredded lettuce, and tomato, and yogurt and tahini. D recalled an Israeli guy he once knew who had opined that Yemenis make the best falafels. Maybe that's the key to peace in the Middle East, settling once and for all who makes the best falafels...

What else today, I've been in an unusually amorous mood, can't seem to get enough, can't seem to quite - oh, aargh, I did once, and then more weakly a second time, and the third try just now I struck out despite all sorts of abstracted impressions of you. Am I turning into an addict like one of "Walter's" amours? No, but making up for lost time maybe. I know very well that I won't go blind, but will I get carpal tunnel syndrome in my right hand from all that vibrating? That is a tad worrisome - it would be hard to explain, because no one would ever believe that it resulted from an excess of weeding.

Oh baby, I hope your golf swing has improved and whatever online degrees you decide to pursue are fine with me. Although I can be a bit opinionated on that score. A Friend of mine recently decided (on a dime, it seemed) to go an archane scholarly route and pursue heavyduty early Christian theological studies (not to the view of joining a ministry though, I don't think), and it's utterly his decision of course, but he has such an artistic gift, in both writing & artmaking, that it seems to me a waste not to cultivate that. But what do I know? And is it any of my business? Not at all. And so I keep my opinion to myself (he doesn't read my blog), and - well, I just hope he isn't burying himself and his gifts, pursuing this path... I think of a world bereft of all the potential art he might have created if he had chosen to devote himself to that - and I'm sad for the world. Does the world need another theological scholar? I'm skeptical.

Sorry to sound like such an opinionated hardass about someone else's life decisions. Anyway, darling tree frog, I'm glad you've landed safely on the other side, or so I imagine - how exactly, I don't know, patterns of page hits I guess - what else could it be?

I was musing too, today, about how I'd like to read 1.0's new book, but it doesn't seem that the regional library system is going to order it, and as much as I would love to purchase it (thereby doing the gracious thing) it's around $50, and I simply can't justify it. D has really been extending himself and being incredibly nice about getting me a new camera to replace the one I accidentally ruined, so that's an expense - I do need a camera, and I think this next one is going to be better, at least I hope so, I wasn't thrilled with the framing quality of the previous one, not that it was a Freudian slip that I laundered it, not at all. I try to be as fiscally responsible as an unemployed latterday Emma Bovary can possibly be, and certainly not seek to subterfuge or undermine. All that said, I am also dying to go down to the city to catch that Picasso Marie-Thérèse gallery exhibit before it ends in mid-July, and I'm starting to look at Amtrak schedules with an eye towards going down one Saturday. And maybe I'll stop by the NYPL or a large chain bookstore and see if I can peruse 1.0's book. Well, that's not so adequate either is it, and besides I might arrive at the Barnes & Noble and find that it's shrinkwrapped. Well, at some point I'll get my hands on it somehow, even if it's a while from now, and I'll be glad to read it. Ironic, or something. I write & write & write, give away this blog for free (who would pay for it - no one, not til the 22nd century, maybe not even then), and I know that I have 4 official followers and two (I believe) other devoted readers, beloved by me. And I'd like to read that book, but I haven't got $50, and plus I (that is, D) absolutely has to contribute at least a few dollars to the DSCC and our favorite elected officials before their June 30 campaign fundraising deadline, especially given the dire prospect of failure to defend a Democratic-controlled Senate due to insufficient grassroots monetary support, what with the de facto Civil War we're in, corporatists with their unlimited cash, versus humans...

Darling, I would love after other explorations, to simply lie with you and compare notes, tell you about my theories, the way I make sense of the world, how it appears to me. And I want to hear yours too - I suspect that you're - well - a man of faith - and also a man of reason - both. Of course you have firm beliefs, and core values - but not ideological, not zealotrous, not mindlessly keyed in to talking points (except when need be for cover - or so I imagine).

Sorry darling, I really didn't mean to go off in this direction (seriously I am sitting here typing, in the beautiful mild afternoon temperature and light, without a stitch of clothes on) - and

an email just came in, with the announcement of the upcoming nuptials of two women of my acquaintance, a few years ago I worked with them for a spell, who have been a committed couple for 35 years and have always dreamed of their wedding day and now it's here, in a few weeks, now that they have the civil right to wed in the state of NY

does that threaten me or my marriage in any way?
no, not at all

wow, they lasted longer together, without mentally straying evidently, than I manage to have

and I'm okay too, I believe - normal - human

I wish them well, and will send them my wellwishes and congratulations

What's that line from Bob Schneider's "Let the Light In".. something about love, it's always been that way, forever and ever - amen.

let the light in, let the light in...
it's all right

love you darling
sweet dreams, sleep tight
very very many kisses