Potatoes, A Shoehorn Saga
Indicative of my core nature as a non mingling social retard the waitresses at the Virginia diner don't, after 7 years, even know my name. Or if they do they don't call me by it. They are very nice and welcoming to me, like you would be to an old friend with whom you have nothing in common. After a certain point, if you don't get someone's name, you can't really go asking for it. That point would certainly fall before the 7 year mark. Been keeping busy? the one waitress asked me. If I were to suggest that depends on how you define busy it would only be the long version of just saying no. She saw me struggling with that one a little bit and said, been to New Orleans? I said no I had not (not any more recently than September) but hesitantly admitted I had been to the Middle East. That fell flat, like a pancake. We have blueberry pancakes the waitress said after the three beat. I often in the past would go for the pancake breakfast but not today. I'll just have the eggs and bacon and...homefries? the waitress filled in for me. Yes, that one. It has a name but I cannot remember it. It might be the farm breakfast. I have been away so long this time I had even forgotten how bad the homefries are. They do many things well at the diner but it honestly baffles me how consistently and uniquely bad the potatoes are. I hate to end on a bad note so I'll just resort to the old standard one word ending that in my experience always leaves them rolling in the isles. Shoehorn.
...more recent posts
Unpleasantly By The River
It is not the only thing I wonder about on a Spring-like day in New York but I wonder if there are dead bodies under any of these miles of unmelted snow banks around the city? I wonder if under the dogshit dotted, urine spotted, fast food bag and bottle littered black carbon tinted snow banks could be somebody long ceasing to exist waiting to be discovered? But no not the only thing I was thinking today while walking with light jacket unzipped and sun in my face after chewing and not sharing a bit of two to go pizza slices by the river surrounded by hungry, begging, rather aggressive rats. No, they were squirrels. Would it be inappropriate for me, and this is the thing I was thinking, would it be inappropriate for me to not think squirrels are cute or to think actually with tails high in the air backlit by the late winter low lying sun, showing the spine of that bushy tail to be in fact even more repellant than the slender tapering hairy worm of a rat's tail that they and by they let me remind you it is squirrels I talk about, who scurrying around me, three and four at a time, close and closer until I kick at them, showing their raw flesh where patches of fur or hair have fallen out and I feel wrong about it even wondering if maybe they are doing me a favor by preparing me for that post apocalyptic future where down in the vacant subway tunnels I must contend with actual rats crawling over me while I sleep meaning me no harm really just keeping tabs on me in case I might be if not yet then soon dead and eatable, but as I started to say is it inappropriate for me to think them not cute and equate them to rats, unfairly (unfair to the rats that is who hardly ever gang up on a person in public eating pizza), and wish them ill. Unpleasant thinking indeed. I did not invite those squirrels to lunch. It was not my idea.
It is not the only thing I wonder about on a Spring-like day in New York but I wonder if there are dead bodies under any of these miles of unmelted snow banks around the city? I wonder if under the dogshit dotted, urine spotted, fast food bag and bottle littered black carbon tinted snow banks could be somebody long ceasing to exist waiting to be discovered? But no not the only thing I was thinking today while walking with light jacket unzipped and sun in my face after chewing and not sharing a bit of two to go pizza slices by the river surrounded by hungry, begging, rather aggressive rats. No, they were squirrels. Would it be inappropriate for me, and this is the thing I was thinking, would it be inappropriate for me to not think squirrels are cute or to think actually with tails high in the air backlit by the late winter low lying sun, showing the spine of that bushy tail to be in fact even more repellant than the slender tapering hairy worm of a rat's tail that they and by they let me remind you it is squirrels I talk about, who scurrying around me, three and four at a time, close and closer until I kick at them, showing their raw flesh where patches of fur or hair have fallen out and I feel wrong about it even wondering if maybe they are doing me a favor by preparing me for that post apocalyptic future where down in the vacant subway tunnels I must contend with actual rats crawling over me while I sleep meaning me no harm really just keeping tabs on me in case I might be if not yet then soon dead and eatable, but as I started to say is it inappropriate for me to think them not cute and equate them to rats, unfairly (unfair to the rats that is who hardly ever gang up on a person in public eating pizza), and wish them ill. Unpleasant thinking indeed. I did not invite those squirrels to lunch. It was not my idea.
Syrian Desert
I have to say I was never sure where we were, but more archaeology, and some sheep, really in the middle of nowhere.
I have to say I was never sure where we were, but more archaeology, and some sheep, really in the middle of nowhere.
Palmyra
It was a bus ride neither from nor to hell but it was a bus ride
It was a bus ride neither from nor to hell but it was a bus ride
Damascus
Tyre, Lebanon
Only visited the old town and two archaelogy sites but liked it here.
Only visited the old town and two archaelogy sites but liked it here.
Beirut
I did not feel that comfortable taking photos of everything I saw here.
I did not feel that comfortable taking photos of everything I saw here.
Pamukkale
Initially a letdown, Pamukkale was pretty fine.
Initially a letdown, Pamukkale was pretty fine.
Efes
Efes is the beginning of more ruins that you can stand, and cats.
Efes is the beginning of more ruins that you can stand, and cats.
Cappadocia
We thought it would be cold but it wasn't that cold
We thought it would be cold but it wasn't that cold