A year? What happened?

Yikes. It’s been a year and 12 days since I last posted here. As I attempt to figure that out I can’t come up with a reason. I’ve been writing in fits and spurts, finished a poem, a couple of songs, have been performing (not as much as in the past—see the previous blog entry). Here it is September 16, in the year of our lard 2010. This has been the fastest year on record for me. When I realized that a year had passed since the last blog bit, I was stunned. I remember the night I went through what I wrote about like it was yesterday. And perhaps it was. Time is such a strange invention. It’s like color in that if there is no brain to perceive it, it really doesn’t exist.

This is shaping up to be a very interesting mid-term election year. The Nut Job party is making news. Apparently, people are jumping on the “Masturbation is a Sin” bandwagon. New York will probably ban smoking in Times Square, Central Park, and all the heavily-used public outside areas. I’m just a little confused about that. I quit smoking cigarettes nearly five years ago, but have no beef with people that are still addicted. That’s their business. I just don’t get the ban on smoking outside. Second hand smoke is dangerous, says the Mayor and his council. Say what? Outside? I thought this was a free country. But then I realize that masturbating in public is illegal. I guess smoking is a sin as well. And the Nut Jobs continue, so maybe it is still a free country. It's just getting really weird and I don't mean that in a good Portland way.

Here in Portland it’s raining. “Oh surprise,” you say. I’ve heard a lot of people complaining that we didn’t have a summer this year. Poppycock, I say. We’ve had a lovely summer. It just never showed up until mid-July. We had a few days in the 90s and two, I think, days where it cracked 100. This is the second rainy week we’ve had since July. I think that’s pretty darn good. Maybe people are whining because everything has gone by at such a breakneck pace.

My parents arrive today for a visit. My mom will be 90 in November and my dad turned 93 last month. It will be great to have them here. This trip is part of my mom’s “bucket list,” something she wanted to do “one more time.” She wanted to come to Oregon and see all of the friends we have here. It’s been great helping to make this happen. There are also mystery guests who have come from as far away as Connecticut and Texas to see her. She will be very surprised and pleased, I think. For this event we also went out and got a big-screen HD-capable TV so my dad would have something to do. I’ll get him out to the Flight Museum in McMinnville on one of the days they’re here. He hasn’t seen the space side yet and I’ve only seen it once, so that will be a treat.

A year? Wow. I’ve been quite the slacker. I’m hopeful that I can step it up a little. Check back next week and see if I’m still awake.