November 10, 2009
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Falling Down
Back in the day of swashbuckling, gold panning, wooden ships and
wooden legs an embankment of cannons protected the San Francisco bay
along with an army of evil dolphins who carried
harpoons and small laser rifles. That reminds me that I once knew a man with a wooden leg named Smith.What was the name of his other leg?
As
always, no blog is complete without a Mary Poppins reference. If you visit the Golden Gate
bridge today there are foots paths that lead you by the old canon placements,
and you can see scorch marks from the lasers. A few weeks back we took a walk along the footpaths and down a steep gravel-covered path to a spot with a picnic table. As we descended the path I
knew that someone would slip.As I reached the last step of the path, I took my sunglasses off, slipped in an avalanche of loose gravel, landed on the ground, and destroyed my sunglasses. Oh, the universe has such exquisite timing. It could only have been better if Michael Douglas came in to view right as I fell (bonus points for anyone who gets that reference). And then it occurred to me that I couldn’t
recall the last time I’d slipped and bumbled to the ground.The weird thing is I enjoyed it in a childlike way. I think because my body had forgotten what it was like to fall down, in the same way it has forgotten what Playdo tastes like or what falling off monkey bars feels like. I bet falling down every once in a while is a good thing. It helps your body remember how to fall down. And then I started to think about other things I haven’t done in a while.
And then I realized I don’t know where the nearest swing set to my apartment is. That makes me sad. The next time I have a backyard, I’m putting in a Pope-sized swing set, damn it. The swing will have a cup holder so I can enjoy a beer while I swing, because when you’re an adult you can do stuff like that.
Oh yea, I bought a dry-erase board the other day and weird things have been happening around the apartment now.
And for those of you who are curious, on my desk are…
- One book of 16temporary Geek tattoos (to be featured in their own posting later)
- A World of Warcraft Druid action figure
- 3 empty bottles of beer (Full Sailt LTD Recipe 3, Big Sky’s Powder Hound, and Snow Cap’s Seasonal Ale)
- 2 spiral notebooks of writing for open-mic nights
- 1 moleskin notebook
- 1 Pope coin
- 5 pens, one of which is an awesome Mont Blanc pen my sister and her husband gave me when I graduated college
- An external USB drive
- 180 ruled index cards
- 4 USB keychains
- Around 30 movie ticket stubs
- And “Hebrew for Dummies” because it was easier to buy the book than take photos with my cellphone of the pages I was interested in
Comments (8)
On the subject of Mary Poppins, I recently found a spanish Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.
@KuyaD - That is amazing. You just made my day. Holy crap.
come to my house, we have 3 playgrounds within a 5 minute walk. its awesome! we often get drunk and go swing at night
(swing on the set…not with other couples…well sometimes with other people…. im not talking about sex.)
I was having a bad morning, but watching your video cheered me up significantly
Had to laugh at the “what was the name of his other leg” quip! How about Wesson? lol
Love that video!!…..Is the Michael Douglas movie reference “Romancing The Stone”?
@tumbling_dice - Oh, that would have been good because of the gravel. But I was thinking more of his 1993 movie “Falling Down”.
I hit the snare rim-shot after your wooden-leg line, then again for TD’s ‘Wesson’. But seriously folks, this is a deeply sweet/sweetly deep muse. My classic is remembering how I used to jump out of bed in the morning and run the half-mile back to my fav black-oak tree… just for the Joy of Running. Now, it’s ‘how’d I get through that childhood without a beer?’
Oh, and I’m 11 for 10 on the refs here: (Add one for noting the “Canon placements” on the shore: tripod imprints? You sly-guy.
@kirlynz - Glad the video cheered you up!