A peek at the REAL Thumbster

"Four Inches Away"

Entry #13...Lucky 13

"Four Inches Away" was going to be the title of the first "serious" poem that I would have written since coming to this site. I happened to mentioned to a friend...(Hi Flower)...that judging by a map I was looking at, that she was four inches away from where I live. That phrase struck me as a great title for a poem...(I think Flower thinks she thought of it first...but I think I did...If she lived closer, we'd have to settle this with a "tickle fight")...I started to write it but I've gotten rusty it seems...I used to write a couple of poems in an afternoon...I only got as far as the second verse. Maybe it was because of the day I was having...

My "shitty little car" has just started acting up. It completely died on me in the middle of a busy road yesterday. I got it going again and later checked everything out. I couldn't find anything wrong. It was fine last night but today it did the same friggin' thing. So it was time to let the experts do their magic...and today was one of the few "good hair days" that I've had in awhile...I got to spend it with my head under a hood or waiting in a service station.

Only $33.52....to tell me that they can't find anything wrong with it. $33.52 CDN is like only $6.15 US but it's still $33.52 up here.

Now I get to play "shitty little car roulette" every time I drive it. I get to imagine before hand all of the worst possible situations where it can die...and wait and see which one comes true.

I hate playing "shitty little car roulette".

I love nature...I'm a wildlife artist. I used to take long rambling hikes into the woods around my house with my binoculars, camera and field guide(s). One day I left all that stuff at home and headed out into the forest...not to study, explore or photograph...but just to think. I've never meditated before...couldn't see the point. That day I sat down on the pine needle covered ground...far from people, rat races and stress...and just sat cross legged...perfectly still. I lost all track of time. I didn't make a sound...just listened to the noise of nature all around me. A male Ruff Grouse walked within inches of me and didn't even notice me...I was just another thing in the forest to him that day...(for you city slickers...a Ruff Grouse is this huge black hairy creature with poisonous fangs and a barbed tail...Okay...picking on "city folks" is too easy...a Ruff Grouse is a bird...beautifully camouflaged to blend into the forest floor...it's about the size of a chicken.) After that day I never saw the forest or nature the same way again. I'd often go out...sometimes late on moonless nights...(it was kinda spooky...so I whimped out and would sit in trees at first)...all by myself...Animals don't expect to find humans sitting on the forest floor after dark. They feel much more relaxed...like it's their home after sundown. I got so I could tell just by the sounds being made what type of animal was getting closer...(just so you'll know...we don't have any poisonous animals where I live...except for Shrews...small tiny mammals...and of course...huge black hairy Ruff Grouse).

I really wanted to watch a TV show last night...The Amazing Race...It's one of only a few that I try and watch...It normally starts at 10 PM but last night it was on at 9 PM so I only got to see the last 10 minutes instead of the full hour...(or 44 minutes without commericals).

It's funny what you'll find when you let life get close to you...like say...four inches away...close.

Catchya later

Gary