A Grave Interest: Leaving Stones on Graves

A Grave Interest: Leaving Stones on Graves: If you spend much time in a cemetery, you’re bound to see them - those stones left on graves.   I’ve noticed that they are usually left ...

October

stirring, stirring, and watching that the candy thermometer reaches 248 degrees, but the damm thermometer stays at 200 degrees. stirring, stirring, now praying, while the caramel evaporates from the pan . . .

Dad

I'm at Curtis Steel Co., located in Las Vegas sitting in the car as Dad pitches a sales call to a customer. His business card impressively reads "West Coast Sales Manager". On the drive to LV, I talk his ear off for I am nervous. After decades of working for the same company, I learn from Dad that he has been competing with younger salesman to attract business from customers like Curtis Steel Co.  It is time for him to hang up his hat.  Back at the "The Orleans Hotel", Dad's favorite hotel, we share a room.  I look at his hair brush (the same style he has always used), "Obsession" by CK, and Bayer aspirin. Trinkets of a salesman. I know he loves me because he will say "I love you", and send me cards that say "Love, Dad", but I want more proof. J

Not an Ordinary Thursday

Bounce in my step
Blood sugar purring
Lunch planned &
& packed. Already
feel loosened pants
Bounce in my step.

Suddenly an old man &
his dog. We lock eyes.
I see a lost friend & his dog.
Quiets me to
Telephone "How are you"?
Bounce in my step.

Here's my telephone number.

At World Market, looking for "Ritter" german chocolate, I stumbled upon a pop tent for Ilyas's birthday; grabbed "The Story About Ping" and "Blueberries for Sal", books for birthday number 3,
and remembered the wrapping paper.

"I came back for more of this chocolate", I remarked to the woman. She replied that cornflakes in chocolate tasted real good. Trusting, I shared about Ilyas's birthday and the accordion that I was contemplating, as a gift. The woman said, "Mom will not be happy with you",  and to go with the pop tent.  Feeling that we had hit it off, I wandered off to ponder the Indonesian day bed, and as fate would have it, met up with the woman at check-out.

She showed me her bottled beets and sauerkraut which she liked for their probiotic properties. Excited that she liked me, I told her that I brewed Kombucha, a fermented tea, and asked if she wanted my phone number to call me "about how to brew Kombucha".

I left the store thinking that I reached out to a new friend. Why not reach out to a guy in the same warm manner? Could I be warm and friendly to a guy, or would this be looked at as too forward? Looked at by whom? The guy, or me?  If I could volunteer my phone number to a woman, why not to a guy?

a Once Smoker

Since quitting the habit, I have saved over $600.00; the levels of carbon monoxide in my blood and my heart circulation, have returned to normal; however, optimum lung health will take many years.

Simile

I.

"A virginity clung to her like a sheet."  Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

II.

For years, thoughts will tumble in my mind and like dominoes falling into place, they will manifest.

III.

The roller coaster ride feels like tumbling under the current of a wave. 

Do you remember? Let's go again, then again, then again!