year end 2007

Oy fucking vey. Has this year been Mr. Toad's Wild Ride or what? More "or what" than anything else. From leaving L.A. - wasn't that home? Hadn't I paid hundreds of thousands for what? No Equity of any kind? whatever. -- to arriving in Shingle Springs and living all double-wide with Steve and Mike... then... coming to the East Coast with high hopes and....

Arriving with high hopes. Staying with sister Charlotte and her husband Tom - offers of houses on Martha's Vineyard and Provincetown (am I repeating myself?) but giving it up for the chance of work with Badger Balm in Gilsum, NH -- NOW, I KNOW that I'm repeating myself, because if I haven't chirped about this here already, I must be dead.

I lived in bucolic rural Gilsum. I painted daily like my life depended on it. Well... it did. My rusty hinges of loosely hinged sanity.

"But there ain't no Sanity Claus." Thank you; now we know.

Split-second timing and the involvement of busy friends and not-so potential employers, I arrive in Bedford at Chez Schwerin - home of Peg Schwerin, home of her brood and her recently deceased husband, Charlie.

Having that same moniker (Merrimac?) gives a certain jeannie sasquatch to all this, as the French would say. Answering the phone as myself using my own name -- a voice of Charlie gives rise to some. Oh well. I doubt he'd answer the phone if alive.

As it is right now, the house has cleared after a few days of family doing that holiday thing. On Christmas day, I was with Charlotte's brood and all that at her daugfhter Lori's abode. First time with them since 1975. 32 years.

It will be at least that before I do it again. Seriously.

Tomorrow, New Years Eve, I have volunteered to work at the Hynes Auditorium for this occasion - a first time First Night for me. I got the 4-9 there. I will leave and proceed to partay wherever the party leads me.

I will spend the night/morning and (thanks to you, public transportation!) the next day too. That'll be fun. I spent Xmas eve there and we watched V for Vendetta. Me likey lots. Then Auntie Mame, yet again; one of those standard holiday movies for me.

It looks like snow. We've had our share already so far this year. Slippery icy nastiness. It's like Heaven. Just a wee little bit... if at all.