I often hear giggling behind me and then discover it's Olive catching a tender moment.

I don't like scrubbing the dumper but I also don't hate it. A funny thing they had to tell me my first day as a bartender (back in the day) was "Don't scrub the toilette's Dingo, it's not your job." I had worked my way up from dishwasher. I done cleaned that restroom hundreds of times. Customer satisfaction is paramount to all our livings. If the bathroom was wrecked I had no problem getting my hands dirty. Apparently that wasn't the image they wanted their bartenders to have. It is however the image Olive likes to have. :)

far afield

 Well. I was looking for one of the big protests tonight and somehow got lost in a field. I think I'm ok with it.

facebook fatigue

 Reading some of the comments on FB (particularly news sites) make me wonder. "If these people are writing on FB who is there left to scrawl ignorant things on our bar and restaurant bathroom walls?" I guess the Covid works in mysterious ways. Nobody would be in those stalls anyway

Sorrowful day at camp O&D .

We knew it was coming. Our son packed his room up and today we took him to his Mom's. Because of Covid19 he can't return for a while.

We had 6 glorious months to be full time P's. Now, understandably he misses the other place. It's not just the change of address that has us bummed. Last night he ended his childhood with us as we cleaned his room. We found all his outgrown clothes, toys, bed, he can't even stand up in his attic room. He was confused that Olive and I were choking up and crying so much. I had to retreat to punk music to drown out that Beatles song "She's leaving home" and "lonesome town"playing in my head.

He doesn't remember the custody battle and the long stints that the coparent didn't share the kids. That is part of why we have shallow scars in that regard. The rest of our sorrow is good old sentimental sap. Our little guy is a big guy. He has to fly away in order to jell what he has learned from us. We said we would distance visit him every week but coP said not to hold our breath for that one. We dropped him off and silently rode back to our side of town.

It's hard walking by his room. It's littered with his little kid clothes and toys. I keep going in and smelling his old clothes and crying, just like I did when my daughter flew the coop. We sobbed a bunch together, congratulated one another for parenting so well, made a plan to never let go and then we took a shower.

At he beginning of our relationship Olive and I never had a fist kiss, we had a first shower. It's still the place were we have meetings, plan shows and do all the O&D stuff. This morning we ritually washed ourselves. We ceremonially cleansed eachother of the responsibility of taking agency over his daily life. Being hardwired to look after him is not going to unscrew easily but this is a good start. We had to accept that we are back to being his emotional and moral support.

We paid child support the whole time he lived with us. We got a little bit back. We will continue to do that of course. Good luck this Fall Bruce Angus!

Tough day. We also found out Covid has infected the house of close family and our biggest fan in the UK passed away as well. We may need another shower.

This was the soundtrack to my dreams lastnight.

 This was the soundtrack to my dreams lastnight.

https://youtu.be/Ldh04Olynrw

I dreamt Olive and I had to fill in as ER nurses while they had marimba band practice. Here are the top excuses why Olive ad Dingo sadly turned our patients away.

"Your wound is reminding me we haven't had lunch yet. Pizza?"

"I'm only qualified to remove bandages"

"That's Covid 14, update your stuff before you come in here Yo."

"Sorry, we are only taking Monopoly money today"

"We want to treat you but the sound effects guy didn't show up. Come back later."

"Eww that's gross...it's all sticky...I quit."

tbt my favorite stain.

Some folks know I have been a fan of a peculiar Portland landmark. A legend in my own mind. It is the spilled Ice cream Sunday in my favorite Mexican restaurant. It lasted from 2017-2020.

I saw it when it was fresh and followed it's journey of inertia as it slowly spread and dried out. Over the years it lost it's bling but still it persisted.

I checked in on it a lot and even ran interference once when I thought an employee was too near it with a wet rag. I had to draw them away without drawing attention to the stain. Good old fake seizure did the trick. Whew that was close.

The best part is that this place doesn't sell ice cream. It was a literal snowball in hell and I loved it. It's a survivor in an otherwise cleanish eatery just like me.

I'm sweet and all blown out too. :) Unfortunately when things go back to normal I do not want to see this stain.

If my old friend is there when I return I'm walking right back out. I'm only into mild health hazards.

"Eff Off Rotorwash!"

 Last night I was on the porch all kinds of irritated.

So many weeks of helicopters overhead all night is taking a toll. One was really bugging me last night. I couldn't understand why it had to be directly over our house.

All the nationbuilding is happening several clicks away from our position. "Eff Off Rotorwash!" Then as usual my wife made me feel much better.

She said some loving words. "Hey Bub, would a mind smoking your pot somewhere other than under our window?"

She pointed to the fan in the window just over my head. "Yer blowing all your nasty fun into our room."

I felt bad for offending my wife but felt great that for at least tonight the helicopter bugging my britches was just a good ol harmless box fan.

fellow rioters

We are a few blocks away from the fed bldg. This is Cesar the low drama lama. We were both doing the same thing, making people smile in tough times. We lost track of them. I was talking to some environmental services workers. Over a month of constant pepper spray has contaminated the river. The fish aren't laying eggs. I hear they are working on a lawsuit against the DHS. ODOT is fining them as well.

 

fan art by Jennifer Taft. :)

 

Trimming my little crop.

 

"Antifa in the suburbs"

 Yesterday I saw a video on a friend's page of protesters marching by Laurelhurst park (where Olive and I met)it said "Antifa in the suburbs" it wasn't antifa or the suburbs. 

Antifa is like a boogyman phrase for the rightwing to exploit. Anything to distract from the president's mishandling of covid and his dozens of corrupt moves. 

So big civil rights march labeled as terrorists. Nobody died. A man decided to get them antiffas by throwing three impotent pipebombs but that didn't go over so well. 

On the same day a large group of unmasked religious people had a music event in a park downtown. 

Unlike the civil rights march they are actually going to kill some people. Death by superstitious arrogance. 

We are living in times of mass disinformation. I feel like the real stories would better come out had the digital age not killed off the small newspapers. 

Now everyone gets the story from basically McDonalds and Wallmart style news orgs. 

Giant unaccountable monsters.

Humpty Dumpty was a cannon owned by England.

Humpty Dumpty was a cannon owned by England. 

It's job was blowing holes in troops also owned by England. 

The Brits were into civil war WAY before it was cool (1642-49) Cavaliers (Royalists) VS Roundheads (Parliamentarians). 

Humpty sat on a wall protecting a fortified town.

 For a month it reigned iron on the Roundheads until they targeted Humpty's foundations with their own cannon. 

Humpty fell, and soon after so did the royalist town of Colchester.

 The cannon became an egg because of a psychedelic author from the 70's (1870's) Lewis Carrol in his sequal to Alice in Wonderland called "Through the looking glass."

 Damn Victorian hippies coming into our country (their country) turning our cannon into eggs. Harumph!