Loose Leaf Notes

1. Written on an old scrap that I just dug out from a pile of papers: You don’t have to inject patience, just withdraw the irritation. The patience is there naturally.

2. Some things I don’t have much patience for, including when my fourth grade flip flopped on a picture taking day: HERE.

3. A recent story in The Local Quarterly about Floyd and the Crooked Road mentions unincorporated communities that the road passes through with names inspired by moonshining, like Lick Skillet, Boom Furnace, and Busthead, which, according to legend, ‘refers to local moonshiners’ homemade hooch, which won pre-Prohibition notoriety for being strong enough to “bust your head.”’ It reminded me of the road nearby, which is said to also have a name related to the moonshine days, called Shooting Creek.

4. I don’t go into Downtown Floyd shops nearly as much as I would like to but they’re always there ready and waiting, the way my freezer keeps everything cold in case I want an ice cube or how my water heater keeps running just in case I want a hot bath, which all seems really decadent.

5. I think I’d pass out if I saw even one of THESE, and I’m not the least interested in square watermelon, no matter how easy it is to stack in fridge.

6. I call Floyd’s own Tom Ryan a satirist, but he refers to himself as a porch monkey. He’s been up to more Tom Foolery with the November issue of the Floyd Enquirer. Tom is a bartender at Floyd’s Pine Tavern. One of his latest Enquirer headlines reads “The Buddhism of Bartending: How May I Serve You?” He invites readers to the Tavern to hear the “live broadcast” and suggests they subscribe to The Floyd Enquirer because he has eyebrows better than Garrison Keillor. – excerpt from Tomfoolery, written after the sudden death of Floyd’s iconic owner of The Republic of Floyd Emporium.

7. Tom’s store was reopened recently by friends and family with a motto prominently hung on the wall that begins: “Never forget why we are doing this. Don’t try to be Tom. It cannot be done!” Read more about the grand re-opening at Blue Ridge Muse HERE.

8. In the same way I know a coyote is coy (because his name tells me so), I know the planet is for plants and the forest is for rest.

9. Language is a kind of math. One letter added or taken away can dramatically change an equation. Writing is a like a scientific experiment with millions of theories to test, millions of combinations to figure with millions of results. A finished poem is like a tested theory, a solved problem, one with a common denominator and an unknown x factor to consider.

10. For me, the gauge of a good song is if it makes me want to either dance or write poetry.

11. There is a third option and I was reminded it last week while covering Floyd’s 11 day inaugural classical music concert, where the high quality of music triggered little movies scenes in my head and had me relaxed and on the edge of my seat at the same time.

12. It turns out that our chickens like popcorn almost as much as oatmeal. Watch Liam defend his bowlful of popped corn HERE.

13. Last night’s dream: A dark-haired woman with really long painted fingernails came up behind me on a bicycle. She sort of hugged me and said, ‘Only good things happen to good people.’ I said, ‘No, good and bad things happened to good and bad people.’ She quickly brushed me off, as if she didn’t want to spend any time with that idea or me, and rode off. Later, I was walking around downtown (sort of) Floyd looking for my car because I forgot where I parked it. I ran into a friend I know and told him what the woman said. He said, ‘That’s bullshit.’

________________Thirteen Thursday