The mockingbird was here again Saturday afternoon, and since I got up around noon I had a lot of time to listen. It's now getting close to two o'clock in the morning, at which time it will become one o'clock in the morning, so there's an extra hour of night in the middle of the night, and then morning will come an hour early, and the extra hour of night will be revealed as an illusion. A night sandwich with nothing in it. Crap, why did I say that? Now I want a sandwich and I've run out of bread. Maybe I'll have some peanut butter on crackers.
From the narrow backyard I can look up through the leaves and branches of the overgrown bush tonight and see that full moon, which is a bit over half way through its journey across the sky. The chilly air is so fresh that you'd never know there are still so many fires burning in the region. We'll probably be smelling smoke again soon enough, as the weather conditions are bound to change again, and several fires will be burning well into November and maybe beyond. There is always a chance of new fires burgeoning, as well. 31 got started Saturday, but all were quickly contained. Maybe our luck (such as it is) will hold for the rest of the season.
But chilly days are definitely on the way now. The forecast is for warm days through November 5th, which is predicted to be 82, and then on the 6th it suddenly drops to a high of 64 and a low of 39, with a 50% chance of showers in the morning. If the forecast proves correct it's going to be almost like one of those cartoon scenes where summer instantly turns to autumn and all the leaves drop to the ground in an instant. After that the highs are in the sixties or fifties for the remainder of the long range forecast. Fall at last! I'm so glad that summer is finally going to be over that I don't even mind that the 6th was the day I was hoping to go to the bank and the stores, and now it's going to be rainy. Well, maybe it will be over by afternoon. If not I can go some other day, and either way I get to wear my heavy coat. I've missed it a lot.
Sunday Verse
I Went into the Maverick Bar
by Gary Snyder
I went into the Maverick Bar
In Farmington, New Mexico.
And drank double shots of bourbon
backed with beer.
My long hair was tucked up under a cap
I’d left the earring in the car.
Two cowboys did horseplay
by the pool tables,
A waitress asked us
where are you from?
a country-and-western band began to play
“We don’t smoke Marijuana in Muskokie”
And with the next song,
a couple began to dance.
They held each other like in High School dances
in the fifties;
I recalled when I worked in the woods
and the bars of Madras, Oregon.
That short-haired joy and roughness—
America—your stupidity.
I could almost love you again.
We left—onto the freeway shoulders—
under the tough old stars—
In the shadow of bluffs
I came back to myself,
To the real work, to
“What is to be done.”