We tell ourselves stories in order to live.... We look for the sermon in the suicide, for the social or moral lesson in the murder of five. We interpret what we see, select the most workable of the multiple choices. We live entirely, especially if we are writers, by the imposition of a narrative line upon disparate images, by the "ideas" with which we have learned to freeze the shifting phantasmagoria which is our actual experience.
Jackson and I will be getting hitched sometime around the end of September or first part of October - We'd love to set a date, but everything depends on when her best friend, the Minister, can make it down from Oregon to do the honors. And that depends on... Well, mostly God, I reckon. (Complicated story. )
Ok Dave, let me word that a little differently - I try NOT to be a schmuck, but sometimes, I am. I know that. And I let her know that 'I' know that, sometimes, I am.
And thank you, Shell, but the lucky one here is me.
"Hi! You've reached the voicemail of the world's greatest psychic! Since I obviously already know who you are and what you want, at the sound of the tone - Just hang up!"
That's the one that's on my voicemail right now.
Some other favorites:
"Hello? ...Uh... Hello? I'm sorry, I can't hear you. Just a sec, let me try something - HellOooo? Nope, it's STILL not working - Guess you're just gonna' have to wait for the beep and leave a message!"
"Hi this Don - I can't get to the phone right now; I'm either out doing something or, more likely, somethin's outdoin' me. So at the sound of the tone, do your thing and I'll get back to you..."
(Impersonating my friend Baxter Black) "I'm not available, so leave a note! Was the voicemail message that I wrote. Yet several called and left no word And so there were no notes I heard!
SIX was the number of calls I missed And NOT ONE SINGLE MESSAGE! And I got ticked! In deep frustration, I began to shout - Then I rolled down the window and threw the damn phone out!
Now I'm walking down the ditch Trying to find the sonuva' ...gun! And if I have not called you back, you see It's because without a message - How the hell would I know if you called me?
So PLEASE! Leave your name and number at the tone... And I'll call you back... ...When I find my phone!"
There are many others I have used over the years and I try to change them out every couple of weeks just to keep friends and family members entertained...
Absolutely nothing is off limits here on CS. You may post as much as you like and it seems that all they ask is that you follow the posted rules.
We are all (well, ok, MOST of us, anyway!) adults here and the general consensus seems to be that if something offends you, you have the right to report it or simply not respond to it.
Most of us are friends, after a fashion, and some of us have become quite close friends. A lucky few of us have found our other halves on this site and stay around simply because we've made such close friends here.
See, that's the thing; I've ALWAYS had to explain that I'm not a real hippy. I'm a former cowboy and a mountain man and never had much to do with anything remotely "hippy-esque." But most everyone seems to think that I'm a hold over from the 60's or a punk rocker in disguise and I'm not - I'm just (to borrow a line from Charlie Daniels) a long-haired country boy.
Most folks know that I do a fair amount of living history - Primarily dealing with the fur trade era of 1800-1840 - and you didn't see too many Mountain men with "high & tights." So I wear my hair long and play the part and I've gotten to the point where I actually enjoy it and like the way I look with long hair. But inside, I'm still short-haired and fairly conservative. Just never could get into to the whole "old hippy" thing...
There's a race of men who won't fit in, A race that can't stay still. So they break the hearts of kith and kin And roam the world at will. They range the feild and they rove the flood And climb the mountain's crest; Theirs is the curse of the gypsy blood And they don't know how to rest!
If they just went straight, they might go far; They are strong and brave and true; But they're always tired of the things are, And they want the strange, and new. They say: "Could I find my proper groove, What a deep mark I would make!" So they chop and they change and each fresh move Is only a fresh mistake.
And each forgets as he strips and runs With a brilliant, fitful pace, It's the steady, quiet, plodding ones Who win in the lifelong race. And each forgets that his youth has fled, Forgets that his day is past 'Til he stands one day with a hope that's dead In the glare of the truth at last.
He has failed, he has failed! He has missed his chance, He has just done things by half. Life's been a jolly good joke on him And now is the time to laugh! Ha ha! He is one of the legion lost, He was never meant to win! He's a rolling stone and it's bred in the bone; He's a man who won't fit in.
Think I'll take Jackson blackberry picking again tomorrow, then maybe see if I can talk a buddy into floating the Clinch and doing a little more trout fishing on Sunday. In between times, I'll try to accomplish a few more honeydo's to sort of pay for the trout fishing...
Oh thank you, kind, wonderful sage! I am on my way to the basement right now...
Crap! What kind of advice giver are you? I don't even HAVE a basement!!! Mayhap, I could exchange the basement for a trout stream and plug the laptop into a current bush? And nix on the bell - My significant other says I'm dingy enough already!
Put another way; We are in love with the 'idea' of being in love and the other person in the relationship merely serves as a focal point. When the relationship ends, it is not the other person we miss, so much as the ideal - Which we never really had in the first place. Understanding that makes it easier to move on.
I'd wager that most all of us have been there at some point.
For myself, it was when I gave up on love - quit being in love with the idea - that true love snuck up and smacked me. ...Right in the heart!
Well then all I can say is, if that's what floats yer boat... I've got more productive ways to spend my time than inventing a new alias every day. ...Think I'll go fishin' again tomorrow...
Hmmm... Seems to me that unless you have a thousand different computers to use, you're still going to be sunk if they boot you. When I was a mod on an outdoor forum a few years back and someone became a problem (usually a PETA member or some such with multiple screen names) we simply blocked their computer ID addresses and effectively solved said problem.
Far be it from me to advise you, and I'd never in a million years preach to ANYONE, but if you like it here at all maybe it'd just be easier to abide by the rules?
I mean it could be worse - They could charge for this site, then hit us with a million annoying pop-ups.
Shhhh! Ali, you're going to blow my cover! I'd much rather have folks think me a fool - The looks on their faces when they discover otherwise is priceless!
CS is indeed a village and - before I'm nominated - I will happily volunteer to be it's idiot. (You can get away with alot more when folks think you're a fool!)
The_Kansan Forum Posts (3,395)
(Complicated story. 
)
The best "dating site" on the net!
RE: Poetry thread for July and August
We tell ourselves stories in order to live....We look for the sermon in the suicide, for the social or moral lesson in the murder of five. We interpret what we see, select the most workable of the multiple choices. We live entirely, especially if we are writers, by the imposition of a narrative line upon disparate images, by the "ideas" with which we have learned to freeze the shifting phantasmagoria which is our actual experience.
John Didion
"The White Album"