DC Nonzense for 2/26/05

Ech. Worked for a couple of hours editing an interview for the site, really wanting to get a new interview up, but I gotta call the person - FK if you happen to be someone who remembers her. Great interview but there's a part she doesn't want included that I am going to try to change her mind on. And there were a couple of clarifications I wanted. This is like seven in a row that I can't put on yet. I'll try to find something Zen to put up here ASAP. If I have time. Others I'm looking at - Paul Disco, Katherine Thanas, Don Deangelo (Donnie Crockin), Jack Van Allen, Ken Sawyer, Bob Watkins - all of them are in conference or consultation or I need to contact the person to ask a question or two or they are working on it subtracting embarrassing admissions, adding daring deeds.

Cause I'm really honing in on new water system. I want to add something besides what I'm putting in Current Events and another letter from Eric Arnow or was going to put because now I'm too tired after writing this page so I'll do that tomorrow.

So I'll tell about the water tank and whatever else occurs to me. If you're someone looking for something Zen you can stop reading this now and check out other parts of this web site. Anyway, it's really the water tank or, more accuarately, the new water system that I think of as I go to sleep, looking over the accomplishments of the day with mind's eye, visualizing the progress of tomorrow. So, (taken from email to a nicely cuddly friend after reading her response to my response to the Course in Miracles section she'd earlier sent) the water system progress report.

Clay did final vacuum of tank today to remove last of plastic shavings from drilling holes in it. It puzzles him how a closed tank like that (5400 gal) can accumulate several gallons of water on the floor in a week. No problem for the shop vac even though it doesn't comprehend condensation. Actually, I can't either. Dennis gonna try to connect the electricity to pump tomorrow - 220 from the main box and shut-off switch line from the tank - for when it gets too low. I'm on the last pipe fittings at the pump and pressure tank - the pressure valve and shut off and connection to the outgoing line to go, the unions and faucet done. Maybe tomorrow will get the incoming line hooked up and start filling the tank. Suspense mounts.

On another front but with same font

Had to get a $20 advance on payment to Clay for his nine hours painting the shed next door - so that he and friend could have 5 each at Reggae Pink Floyd at the Raven Theater in Healdsburg and I could get gas to drive them. The 30 for their tickets came from returning unused wire, conduit, and fittings. That left me with seven, three of which I spent on Assam tea and rugelach (which they call cinnamon twists) plus 50 cent tip at Aroma Roasters, imbibed while listening to talented folk singer accompanied by lead guitar. I remember he sang Trailer Park Girl.  Cool place. I love coffee shops, especially this one. Bars are a drag. Usually.

The $4 plus 45 cents change from the car's secret change hideaway went toward cheapest non organic half gal. of 2% milk at Safeway and jumbo Captain Crunch cereal (which the kids demand). The remaining 88 cents came from my Washington Mutual ATM card. I think that leaves something less than a dollar there. Add that to the dollar and a half or so in the Bank of the West account and there's enough for some orange juice the next time I'm out. So many choices. Ah, wealth - my thimble overflows.

Thoughts for today:

Interview Michael Phillips, Dennis and other non predictable-anti-Bushites (like me - I mean I'm a predictable anti-Bushite) for the Current Events section of cuke.com.

Interview myself for cuke.com - on ZC, Suzuki memories, on trip to Asia, on everything. I feel more like interviewing than writing these days. And I feel like talking TO someone, not just into a microphone to myself. So get someone to interview me. That sounds strange. How would I phrase it? Hi. Say would you interview me? Sounds like someone desperately in need of feeling more important.

Fundraising its ugly head. When broke, think big - up the budget. I don't just need to get by, I need an assistant. At least for a while. There are so many stacks of things I want to do that they fall over on me and I need someone to help get me out from under the pile. Also, the stacks are so high I get disoriented up there. It's not lonely at the top, it's unstable.

Write about the Aluminati for cuke.com readers which is... well, wait till I write about it. Not a misspelling.

Sumser comes tomorrow for Tarrant's koan seminar. In his usual generous manner he has offered his vehicle to me during the day cause there's something nervous-making wrong with mine. Hope I don't need it - maybe a parent will come pick up the kids so I don't hafta drive em to Sebastopol. Need the gas and time. I like them but if they want to be with me they can stay here. After the seminar I'll clean the mud off me and Sumser and me will go out for dinner. Remember the cup of tea I bought him last Monday night, generously refusing his offer to pay? Tomorrow night it's his turn. Next, I'll catch the gum.

That's enough of that for today.

Except to say see ya Monday and thank god, no make that thank you and others who bring and make food Monday night for all the leftovers, the last of which, some brown rice, I'll finish tomorrow.

d

End of the email. Now wasn't that exciting? See what a scrounge I am. I told Dennis today, after he came and fixed the toilet and said he'd be back tomorrow to do that electrical work, that the giri (Japanese for moral obligation) is mounting so fast that the best I can do to pay it back is to get all the people who are good to me to be good to each other - for now anyway.

Oh - I just had a great idea. Not a new one. I get it now and then. Especially when I'm thinking of what I'm willing to do for money which isn't much. How about writing a short book that has product placement that I'd sell? There are some products that I think are great and I'd be happy to advertise them, actually for free, but what about making a trip out of it and really pushing them in story? Let's imagine:

Herbert leaned on the Acme Blast Furnace which had been functioning at peak performance for ten years without a single malfunction.

Actually, Acme Blast Furnaces are not an actual example of a real product I'd like to place but they are an example of an imaginary product I'd like to place. I remember them from Mad Magazine of my boyhood days. Now I remember how Mad used it. It was in an article or whatever you call them that had silly personal endorsements. It was Mickey Mantle, as I remember it, endorsing Acme Blast Furnaces. I remember in Japan seeing billboards with a super-smarmy giant face of Sylvester Stallone selling canned ham I think and I'd think of Mickey and Acme and chuckle. But I think my own personal product placement in a story idea should be followed up. I'll start a list: GuruNet. No PC user should be without it. Works great with Google. Here, let me dash off a line or two:

Considering that Eunice was a distant cousin, Herbert knitted his brow in worry and wondered if he would spell Hermione Gingold's name correctly in his wandering missive, wondered that is, until he remembered that GuruNet, formerly known as Atomica, GuruNet which must be the largest and most comprehensive dictionary in the world, included proper as well as common nouns. Confidently he placed his cursor over the first name spelled as he had guessed it to be spelled and hit Alt Left Click. Instantly a box opened and the famous lady's name came not only with correct spelling, but web links. GuruNet had saved the day again and Herbert continued spilling out his thinly veiled amorous intentions to that cherubic clerk from the crafts store.