DOOR TO DOOR

27Jan12 -
     It's 6:48 pm and I just erased the entire D-to-D posting.  I don't know how I did it and it's not the first time I've lost a day or so, but this is everything.
     I did a run on a talking knee and ended up trying to keep Lori from passing me on the slight uphill stretch from 93 to C. I had the details down, earlier (mere minutes ago)
     It's just after midnight, and I just got in from three hours of  Bart and John Cohn and Rupe at Hero's.   I had no business doing all that dancing on a bad knee, but the chicks were egging me on.  When Bart and John are jamming the end of a song, it is twang jazz. And Bart may be the best right-handed white man to play Jimi since Robin Trower.  I met the Randy who tuned my guitar for the first time, a year ago.  I told him about my 1:39 seconds of Bird on a Wire on facebook.  He sent a friend request from the bar.  How hip is that?

28Jan12 -
     Still grieving over the loss of all the rest of this post.  Did Google do it?  In that case, it should be somewhere...but that's way paranoid...which would mean that stuff about Gingrich being a house-pimp...nah, that's just re-phrasing the truth.
     Fact is, it was right on time, like everything else, lately.  My runs are 180-times a year on the same path, which is always a tweak different, but hardly worth documenting.  Besides it's the fine selection of running chicks which gets most of my attention and that should be kept to myself.  Except in poetry.

29Jan -
     Running day and it's a total high sky.  Just above freezing.  There's a cave in a rock outcropping on the east side of the island,   In front of the cave is a sturdy wooden bench.  On a day like today, with a bright rising sun and wind from the southwest, it would be a good seat to warm and watch from.  But the bridge is closed.  The two picnic tables on top seem to have been moved to the east ridge.  In the walk-in cooler corridor, I glance back to see someone jogging behind me.  I think its GG, but I don't slow to talk.  Instead, I split traffic headed north, at 93, to an empty southbound lane and pick up the pace to D.  He was only half-a-block back when I turned up.  Dude used to be strictly a walker.  Fightin' "sugar," as Polly used to say.

30Jan12 -
     It's on, the Leonard Cohen influence has taken over.  I've written two hit songs and am working on the big one, "I Feel Like America."  Original lyrics were done at Lahaina and those were the guts of the song, but they got handed away in a Sonoma County mag, I think.  The current ones seem as good, to me, but I love all of my writings.  In fact, I should spend some time and go back to other entrails and unwind them.  For now, however, it's getting three down on my flip.  Been roughing them in.  Probably need an hours worth to get 3x2-minutes.  But like Bart said, "You have all the time in the world."   Tell my right knee that.  Seems, by now, there should be a Velcro band to hold ice against a joint, so you wouldn't have to sit with it.  I know it helps, but the pack is a hassle.
     My knee is awake a lot.  Second turn before it went to sleep.  Had the same scene in Eureka; had to run to stay pain free.  Of course, I was doing major miles, every day, in a circle rotation of three, seven and ten miles.  And road racing.  Plus, I wasn't hip to lifting as an aid to running, back then.  I did my set, today, and could feel the knee trying to transfer the pressure to surrounding muscle.  Body talk, got to know what to listen for.
     Walked to the Family Dollar and saw Watch on the path between D and A, walking her bike because of all the broken glass.  She had racked her bicycle and was driving away when she stopped to talk.  The reason she didn't recognize my blog is because of the 20 post titles.  I told her I'd try to get the glass taken care of, but then realized she rides every day, and took a push broom down and swept the four blocks of asphalt.

31Jan12 -
     Statuesque lady walking like a girl scout with blue shorts and short sleeves coming towards me in the walk-in cooler corridor, just a ton-a legs.  I'm in a hawk shirt over sleeveless turtleneck and she pulled a bud to hear my suggestion that I must be overdressed.  "It's 62-degrees."
     Really kill-or-curing my knee.  By the end of the run, it wasn't aching, but it would hint at collapsing.  Told Lon to run a blade along the erosion over path, but he said he'd send down a backhoe.  I'm ready to crank that 031AV that Paleo brought to me.

1Feb12 -
     Biked my recyclables to the bins, then filled a box, twice, with path litter.  Stripped to skin from waist up and got some vitamin D, leaning back with a beer,on back stoop...in February.  Hit or miss, tomorrow, I'll take six more weeks of this, Mr. Woodchuck  Whistlepig.

2Feb12 -
     Damn, my cap is still behind that guardrail post.  And I just rode past it on my bike.   On my run, I noticed a styrofoam cup on a trash barrel post at Alma.  On my second turn, I checked it out and set it on the ground for later. When I remembered to return, the state park ranger was parked at the back entrance, so I pedaled quickly, boxed the cup, and he was gone when I came back by.  Six of the seven seedlings are transplanted, one didn't survive.

3Feb12 -
     When I was biking at the lake, yesterday, I stopped to talk to Nancy.  She was walking with her bro-in-law and she introduced him.  It was Bob Blue.  Man, I wouldn't have recognized you in a lineup of two.  He began explaining where he used to live.  I used to deliver your paper, when you were just this high, when you and your mom first moved in...she's 95, still alive.
      I never saw him play, but Bob was a terror on that championship team Joe coached, the headlines which made it to Kermit and me, in Biloxi, in '57.  He mentioned staying in touch with Evans, another total jock, who just had a bypass.   Makes me think of something I told Joe; I'm glad I didn't sacrifice 100% on the football field, after seeing these old cats deteriorating.  It just appears they have beaten their bodies up while in the best shape of their lives to the point of not being able to maintain conditioning, later on.  Guess they are too busy being successful in another endeavor.

4Feb12 -
     I was sitting directly in front of the singer and he mentioned my Christmas Leonard Cohen clip.  Have to admit it went over my flat top until my Seestor indicated he was talking to me...totally embarrassed, red face and all.  Told his brother, Tommy, I've written two "hit" songs.  He said they all are.
     Sprinkling in Cincinnati when I went out the door.  On the second turn, it hit the lake. By the time I did my banking at the end of the run, it was colder rain, but I beat the sleet back to my door.

5Feb12 -
     Put a flip of Bart on my face.'  I've got "You Know Who You Are" down good enough to put it up.  "Good Due Bee" is next.  Making videos of myself and the quality is layin' there.  Behind my last hit until xx-rays brings me a half-a-Superbowl.  Gonna Crank up Below The Salt and take this intensity upstairs and get under the iron. I believe Brady will get the bunch to gut it through to hold the mo.
     $80, I remember when that would get a half an elbo, but it goes good with this Manteca, CA Bota Box of 2010 Old Vine Zinfandel from SuMike's post-Christmas box.  I'm baking bread, but wanted something to eat prior to drinking wine.  Krogering put off to the enth-degree.  Drained the last of crock of blackeyed peas, lentils and brown rice.  Poured liquid into present pot of beans.  Stirred in a half can of tomato sauce and sprinkled couple tablespoons of whole wheat flour in while heating on a low flame in small iron skillet.  Added paprika, ginger, curry, basil, oregano and salt.  In that SuMike box was a jar of  Rowdy Kitty Rub, Mom's Gourmet, in Newbury, OH.  I sprinkled a layer over the heated contents and stirred it in.  I never got it transferred from the skillet.  The Rub stood its ground against all of that other, but didn't use a torch.  Stuff is just a heat blender blend, releases small hits of hot on tongue and gum.

8Feb12 -
     Picked up commodities on bike.  35-degrees, snowy, 35 lbs bungeed to carrier.  By the time I changed to run, the small accumulation was melting, but more was falling. On the second turn, it was finer and faster, but by the time I get home, it has stopped.  A winter unlike any I've run in, here.
     Walked Zimba to Kroger, yesterday.  Nancy suggested an oatmeal bath for the chronic skin mites.  She called it mange, which is old school for any hair loss.  Nothing worse than a mangy dog.  Those three running loose, that charged Zimba, must have had that opinion.  She cowers and tucks her tail when confronted by strange dogs.  I stopped and coaxed her through them to get closer to me.  Two of them charged her as soon as I turned around.  That's it!  Let's go Zimba, let's see how bad they want it.  I'm running with a full back-pack of groceries and Zimba is already leading the attack.  After half-a-block, they were a block away, so we turned and continued home.  Damn, that third one is in the yard, barking and advancing.  I took one step off the walk and said, "Fool, you want some?"  Zimba was all the way in the yard and that canine split like it was lit.  Should have had a video, street was deserted.
     Thing is, I know my dog.  She will never attack, but the second she is touched, she goes instant killer.  Of course, her most dangerous years are passed.  She still barks to be let out if there's man or beast on the grounds.  Good guard dog for old ears.  Be fun to talk to that old fox hound expert about my Rhodesian Ridgeback.  He dismissed the English method of riding to hounds, but he'd have appreciated having a pack chasing a lion for up to 35-miles. 
    But then, his hounds never caught a fox, never even saw one, and they usually holed up or tightroped places where there was no scent left.  It was all about staying out all night by a campfire, listening to the dogs and identifying each one, as well as its position in the pack and whether or not the terrain was flat or hilly.

9Feb12 -
     Posting "You Know Who You Are" to facebook.  Furthest thing from my mind when Bart put me on.  Song wasn't even written.  Hope flip keeps the voice in sync.

10Feb12 -
     My right knee asked, as soon as I ran ten steps, "Whattayadoin?"  Shut up, you had a day of rest and a good night's sleep, so take the short steps until you quit crying.  Rearrange the pain.
      Stopped three no-'bookers and sang the refrain with "you know who you are" lyrics.  Left 'em laughing.  Knee quiet by second turn.  Met Lori as I was leaving Alma, and within a few yards, met Gary G.  "That queen bee pass you?" (She was in yellow and black.)  "Yea," he answered, "How far ahead is she?"  "Way,"  I said, knowing he was kidding about even suggesting he could close the distance.
     Report says 2-4 inches of snow by tomorrow.

12Feb12 -
     4-degrees wind factor, bright sun, path mostly cleared of inch of snow, and water still running out of the lake.  No ice fishing and the bridge is closed.  Stocked trout grow bigger without stripping corn from hooks.
     Slowed to ask a chick if she ever unleashes her dog.  No, I'm afraid he won't come back.  He'll come back but the lesson of being hooked or unhooked comes slowly.  What is this dog?  I'm seeing a head similar to Brownie's (from another century).  Pitt-Lab.  Good watchdog.  Those eight Weimaraner-Lab combos are all adopted.  Virile Labs.  Reminds me of that van of Wellfleet dudes who travelled from MA to CA.  The dog who rode along was a Black Lab.  Seamus belonged to the girlfriend of the driver.  He had jumped the fence and knocked up a registered Collie, next door, so the owner told her "vagabond" boyfriend to take the "hoodlum" dog along.  By the time that trio of hardlegs made it to Eureka, the only one that got along with everybody was the dog.

14Feb12 -
     Began run in snowfall, tracking through half-inch.  At the end of first lake turn, I was ready to cut out the second and beat the change to rainfall.  But the knee quieted and I did it all.  MJ'd a semi at last location on path to be close enough.  Wettest winter with minimum snow I've ever seen.
     Fifty-one years ago, Valentine's Day and Wedding Day were the same day.  That first marriage lasted a year for each rose in a dozen.  The second one lasted fifteen.  The third "common (f)law" union took twenty years to dissolve.  BE MY VALENTINE, on facebook, was written during the third.

16Feb12 -
     Running day, warm, rain tapering off.  Juncos and cardinals picking over wintered-over Hawthorne berries.  One female slate back had a strip of white along the edge of a tail feather.  This is usually out of sight until they fly, but this was visible as the bird foraged on the ground.
     Had a dream in a scene with a roomful of  "relatives" who kept convincing me I recognized them, but I was concentrating on this one female who wore a belt of fur, which seemed to be the ultimate fashion accessory.  The dress was green.  The  "fur" was patterned in feline lines and spots.
     Sonny would have been 77, today...I Got You Babe. 
     Had a football coach who allowed the use of chewing tobacco.  The habit was in lieu of smoking, so Joe was cool with it.  Besides he was dealing with deep-set back country attitudes which some starters held.  Of course, nobody chewed while playing.  As well, athletes can't drink or drug while participating. But it would be easy to ingest close enough to game time to be effected.  And any coach not hip to the difference in a player's state, is not on top of his profession.  Only question is what is allowed, in lieu of  testing.  Marijuana should be taken out of the mix, in both cases.  Be much simpler if it was de-criminalized. Those TCU  cats are not the criminal element, it's just that they have to begin every deal with criminals.
     There is no Independent Party.  On any ballot.  A voter who says they are Independent is probably unregistered.  Or of the Ignorant Party; doesn't know the difference between Democrat and Republican. If you are a registered voter and undecided, don't say you are an "Independent."

17Feb12 -
     Took Obama 4-yrs. to work DC.  Cool intelligence.  Republicans have no match in a candidate or in combination with Tea-trippers in Congress.  Four more for Obama, for sure.

18Feb12 -
     Spring-like by ten o'clock, right knee was glad, simply because of all the contortions I put it through, last night, on the dance floor.  Ain't it great when ya have all the boards to yourself and a chick?   Plus, the band leader extends a song when ya wave for it?  When ya wanna live forever!
     Stopped for too long to rap to Bro Bob (began to cool) and he quoted me to define my dancing, as I did his years ago..."make James Brown look like a cripple."

19Feb12 -
     Lifts over.  Immersing myself in Leonard Cohen.  The guitar is so simple, or so it sounds, to me.  The Wise's only complaint about my flips is "Learn to play the fucking guitar."  Talking about Tower of Song.  Wasn't that long ago, I heard it as Tallyman's Song.  Now I don't know which to flip.  But LC's stuff can wait.  Think I'll clean up WRONG RIGHTS and flip it.

21Feb12 -
     Appears my original facebook is cloud history.  Feels like a weight lifted.  Facebook kept showing me pictures to id and they were mostly strangers...what the hell am I doing with friends I can't pick out of a lineup of two or three?   To prove it wasn't I who logged in from another source and shut the system down?  As LC said, "I told the truth, I didn't come to prove it."
     Workout very strong.  Been flippin' to emails.  Like verbalizing my blog stuff.  Have a new facebook page but it may just lie there.
     Trimming trees.  Really didn't want to cut the walnut back, since it furnished me with a year of nuts, but it needs to let more sun in for the garden.  Likewise the Hawthorne's, but they'll still bear the berries the birds prefer, even after shearing their tops.

23Feb12 -
     Put $20 in Paleo's van and had him take me on my Jackson shopping run; Bourbon/Blue Ribbon (fifth and case), dog food  (40lbs Nutro lamb meal and rice), apples (peck of melrose and 5 lbs. Winesap).   Ran yesterday and saw all four of the in-shape regulars at the lake.  Stopped for a few to rap to the biker, Watch, and met Lori and Taylor running towards me between the beaches.  Later, I saw the marathoner, twice.
     Josh sent Jan's ALL-AMERICAN COWBOY LEGEND to an Eastwood fan site and it ended up with an offer from Clint's site to record it.  They're sending her the complete library of his flicks.  I told her I should tune it and flip it and she said you better hurry.  I've had it on and off  this blog ever since she wrote it.

24Feb12 -
     8:00 am, I open all the drapes and blinds to let in the sun.  By 9:00, it was total cloudy (49-degrees) with stiff breezes bringing rain or snow.  Some gusts across the lake had me running in place.  Saw a white squirrel (not an albino) in the bottom land along the path, between D and 93.  There's a strain of them in town.  I've seen one hit by a car.  Further down the path, a Cooper's hawk glided across the path.  At the lake, I see a squirrel crossing the bridge from the island.
     A young beagle, standing just off the path near the water works, watched me running towards it from the scenic highway it.  As I went by, it began to shy, so I spoke to it and told it to come on and go along.  It followed to just before I entered the park, then began following a walker.  A vehicle pulled up on the dam and the lady asked about the dog, which was on her lap.  Said it had tags and she was going to look for the owner, in Vinton County.  I told her I'd gladly take it, and since have had calls from the lady and the dude who is keeping the dog for a friend.  I told her that if the dog was brought to me, I'd take it.  No word and no dog since.
     Fry-day.  Musician, has a KISS tribute band called SSIK.  Put the website up and played one of his solos, Strutter.  I never got into Kiss, but from what I've heard, these guys jam.  I know the drummer and the bass player.  They're doing a full--makeup gig at Hero's, next month. I put my flip songs up for him.  He said, You Know Who You Are is sad.  Later, Bart stopped, hours away from a gig at Hero's with Local Yokel.   These two cats used to have a band, when I first met them.  They are the Can-a-rama Band.  Even have a dedication on a disc, to Maxx and the Can-a-rama.  They were WE DON'T, back then.  Today, it's good they didn't visit me at the same time.

25Feb12 -
     This fucking blog is trying to make me doubt my mind!  25-fucking-Feb?  I posted to last night 3Mar12, and it's gone. 
     In any case, I missed Elinor's solo and ended up rapping with May-Con in the church kitchen.  I had 10:40 as starting time and she informed me it was 10:10.  I bagged my work-out but stayed too long for Below The Salt.  Bart wasn't in church, so I split before it let out.  She told me one of my songs was on YouTube.  I told her I'm planning three more for March.  Just this instant see the means to put a video on this blog.

5Mar12 -
     Re-played two lotto tickets two dollar bet. .  Laying the tickets on the counter, she said, "There's the old ones, there's the new, two."  "A poet," I say, while paying.  "And hope you don't lose."  "Keep it going."  "Thank you."  "You're welcome."

6Mar12 -
     Have to re-play same tickets on Wed.  Rapped to double G at Alma, yesterday.  He attended high school at Morro Bay, CA.  I recalled a high school in Loleta that overlooked the ocean.  He told me they had pt on the ocean beach.  I mentioned being there for an instant before going on to San Luis Obispo.  Oh, yeah, that's where we hung out.
    Then, he came back to West Virginia to visit his parents and ended up spending years in the coal mines. Scenarios couldn't be more different.
     Ditto Watch, who lived in Eureka and through the earthquake in San Francisco that shook down part of the bay bridge.  Now, she's biking 20-mile rides across the Jackson/Vinton county line.
    Plus, Holtzie says he has a relative who was postmistress in Marin County.
     On Saturday night, though, Sister/Cuz from Sunnyvale buys me dinner at the new Mexican restaurant in Wellstone.  I spoke to this meeting in the earlier post that disappeared.
     I told her that I nearly made it to her house one year ago, and that I had a list of questions I wanted to ask if I'd made it, in '11, as well as now. She still hasn't read Columbian High.  Dismissed my flipped songs, even though she hasn't seen them.  She smiled a mile when I asked, "Aren't you glad you're not a Republican anymore?"  It was great and I have an open invitation to knock on her door anytime.

7Mar12 -
     Shorts and t's, warm south breeze, 60's, short rap with Gizzard.  Long rap with Watch.  Wave from Mo,Char and Gear.  A hundred yards of spring peeper chorus along 349 at water works.  The wind seemed to carry the high notes to me far past where the frogs were singing individual songs of courtship which blended as one, except to the special one.

8Mar12 -
     I broke limbs and stepped through a tree that blew down across the path, for two runs.  Tuesday, I biked down with a small bow-saw and removed it.  Would have been more of a job if it hadn't had a larvae hollowed center.  Still had to put some major muscle into it, to move twenty-foot sections.
     Paleo carried in an 031 AV Stihl chainsaw with 14-inch bar, a couple months ago, and left it.  I was in shock for days, since it is exactly like the one I first bought in 1974 and used in five different states before it grew to old to replace parts.  I finished it off, de-stumping a space for the Duke of Earl.  It was spaying oil and smoking to the end.
     Since then, I have been using a battery-powered saw from DR Power.  When the battery still held a charge and the chain was new, I definitely got my $100 worth.  Today, they use a higher-tech battery and I was considering buying one. Just yesterday, I picked up the Stihl.  It had a tag on it from a dealer in Jackson, which had Paleo's last name and "No Fire" over a phone number.  Another message was "Check out."  I remember asking where it came from and if it would run.  Said he traded for it and it just came out of the shop, but he hadn't cranked it.
     It had gas and oil and a nearly new chain.  I stepped outside and within four or five pulls, it fired.  It sounded just like my first one.  I'm back to more weight and gas power.  As soon as I talk to May-Con, I'll be full-scale felling to expose more bike path.  Funner-than-heck!

9Mar12 -
     Black nylon shell pants Debbie gifted me with when I was in New Jersey.  Not on New Jersey, like now. And a green long-sleeved Wrangler Jeans top from Michael in Cincinnati.  Neck so tight, it fit like a mock turtleneck.  40's with an icy breeze, so I was just this side of under-dressed, but it was pain-free and fast, even with a Bro' Bob conversation.

10Mar12 -
     A week ago, I dined with Sis Cuz and took a short flip video.  Been pondering where to send it since her email address hasn't worked, recently, since I was using com instead of net.  I found out when she friended me on f-book, tonight.
     Took Zimba on a walk to lottery ticket (5th play-again numbers), Family Dollar and Kroger.
     Crissy and Taylor stopped by, earlier, and came in for a visit.  Been knowing Cristina through Paleo.  But Wednesday, she brought Taylor.  Today, I find out she is the daughter of a young cat I met about the time she was born, seventeen years ago.  She's tall, tanned, tattooed and tempting.  And, of course, way too young. Criss is ten years older, built like a teen, but has a big stud son in middle school.   I enjoy their non-text time attention and the lingering scents after they leave.


maxxn8r@aol.com
maxpheelips@gmail.com

740/710-0921