I've ranted before about the horrifying effect the nineteen large-screen video displays sometimes have on my peace of mind when I visit my 'health club'/gym. In my world, there is nothing more useless than pro sports of any kind, and it just makes my skin crawl when I hear the commentator and athlete talking heads blather their nonsense from the sports-channel monitors in the locker room as I arrive and change out of my street clothes.

Then, out in the workout area, the seventeen additional large-screen monitors covering every vantage point are at least mecifully silent (unless one chooses to tune in with an FM audio local-cast), but there are usually at least several pro sports events running, as well as a selection from a Chinese menu of vile TV cable and broadcast swill. Choose from among the following: an assortment of violent movies or TV dramas, sleazy game and reality shows, infomercials for questionable kitchen/workshop/cleaning/'beauty'/'health'/fat products, animal torture (hunting and fishing - crossbow is a favorite) and snuff shows, financial and political panels, lurid children's animation, vapid local news, and an explosive diarrhea of repulsive local and national advertising.

To fill the gap of no-audio this diverse sewer of visual stimulation leaves, the gym usually blares tracks of nauseating vintage screamer-rock, although everyone these days who requires a little personal soundtrack for their workout already sprouts earbuds from their head. God forbid anyone should want to work out in silence - it might be possible to avert one's eyes now and then, but unless you wear earplugs you are going to experience the background music to complete the audio-visual Hell they offer you with the free weights and pulley-machines. I guess if I'm going to a gym to manage my blood pressure I am wasting my time...

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I stopped by an estate sale in my neighborhood this weekend. These events can be rather heart-rending, as you paw through the detrius of someone's life, surrounded (if not elbowed) by numerous co-pawers. As I have observed at previous estate sales encountered while bicycling around, everything from the distintegrated life seems to be out for disposal - from furnishings and major appliances to OTC medications and remedies and paraphanelia for various afflictions that most folks would rather be kept private.

I went through something similar when my Dad died a few years ago, but we elected not to have a bunch of bargain-crazed sale enthusiasts wandering around his former home handling his things. I had an auction company come and take the best stuff, then donated the salable remainder, and finally created the huge pile below for the dump pick-up guy. We might have extracted a few hundred bucks more at best by opening up the place with a two-day sale, but the afront to Dad's and my dignity was simply not worth it. Not to mention that I was out of town on a per-diem at the estate's expense, which would eat up much of the profits for the heirs...


The sad remains of a loved one's time on the planet.

In today's estate sale kitchen, there was a cabinet labeled "$1". I found in it a Joy of Cooking 1946 edition (I was tempted, by restrained myself). Also there, curiously, were a bunch of canned items dated 'best by' about seven years ago, and an unopened sack of flour dated 2003. There were many little vials of genuine lemon extract. I almost bought a RevereWare pot, but realized I already have one almost identical.

I bough some washcloths for a quarter each to toss in my rag bin, an acylic scarf and knit hat for the cursed approaching winter, and a set of orange linen napkins (although it seems I will never be entertaining folks on that level again, so joyless and unworthy of sharing is my current life).

Before I left the sale condo, I overheard a woman about my age telling someone that her 94 year old mother, apparently the former resident, had not died, but had been relocated (unwillingly I gathered) into a nursing or 'assisted living' home. So this massive liquidation was to free or separate her of that which would be of no use in that environment. Which, form the looks of it, was about the same as if she had left the planet - not just her condo.

Rest/live in peace old lady - I will think of you this winter when I wear your scarf and cap, and conptemplate my own dwindling years as I brave the howling arctic winds and treacherous icy sidewalks to and from the nearby market we shared in recent years, but which you will probably never visit again...

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I'm supposed to fly back to New England to visit my aunt and spend a week or so touring around amidst the fall foliage, but wish I could avoid the whole experience right now. Although I know I can look forward to a relaxing air travel experience similar to the scene above, the leaving of the house for a week, trip to and through the airports, and extensve driving around while there all leave me wishing I had never proposed the idea.



Fall is well underway here, and I recall that last year we had a pretty good snow before the end of October. If I do go back east for that third week of the month, I guess I had better make arrangements for both leaf AND snow removal prior to my return. Planning to spend the winter here, possibly broken up by some travel to the West coast. I'm going to try and not repeat my past assertions that only fools would choose to live in a climate like this when other options were available. Half the year it's great (at least the climate), but winter are a serious dead zone in several respects. I'll sure be grateful for my sunny kitchen and little gas castiron hearth at one end of it.


At least the sun shines a lot during the winter.

I had originally planned to soend some time in Mexico this winter, but recently I find myself wishing I could have a dog to spend time with, and this is not really compatible with extended stays out of the country. I suppose it might be possible to travel by car down there, but it imposes some serious limitations. The original purpose of this blog was to document the move South, but at this point I might like to simply find a base in the U.S., and get comfortable with a simple life that includes a dog. One possible solution that might allow me to have some quality dog time and still get away to Mexico would be to provide a limited-duration foster home for one or more (sequentially) dogs, then get away during the bleakest months. I'm currently signed up as a foster home for four shelters or rescue places, but haven't had a foster dog here for some time. I did attempt to adopt a very nice little dog recently, but tragically (for me - she was re-adopted into a good new home and is presumably doing fine) this did not work out as it might have.


Little Bailey, a very nice young dog toward the end of her brief stay here. I miss her.

Mexico might still hold some promise for a future life, but after too much change in too short a time, I seem to need a break right now. Of course, if things go downhill fast and far economically and politically for the country here, Mexico relocation may become a practical alternative worth considering more quickly.

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