Haha. Remember how I said that Gladys Knight & the Pips' "The Nitty Gritty" was the best song ever? Well, maybe I was fooling*.
Cause it's "Make Me The Woman That You Go Home To".
For sure.
No lie.
I ain't lyin' baby.
Yeah.
* No, I'm kidding. "The Nitty Gritty" is still probably number one.
Maybe.
It was an intense coupling with a rapid and amicable parting.
Update: Before anyone gets any ideas, here's my train of thought.
Choo-choo!
"All aboard!"
See, our neighbors across the street have been Obama suppoters since like early last year, and I noticed today that they had taken the Obama sign out of their front window for the first time, like, ever. And I'm wondering if it's because of his about-face on the FISA bill. Or any of another centrist* moves he's made lately. And that reminds me of this email I got from an old boyfriend in Phoenix.
And that's where it comes in. See, this guy, this boyfriend (who falls at the very bottom of my qualifications for boyfriendhood - I'll tell you about that heirarchy some day), when we stopped "dating", we became friends. Not close friends or anything, just See Him Out In The Bars, Stop Snd Talk A While friends. And he has my email address because a couple of years ago, I was feeling nostalgic for Phoenix, and I googled all the people I knew there. And he's, like, the only person I found. But I've since found that he's a right-wing jackass. (I didn't notice in the Clinton years because he was pretty content then. Funny. It's only since the Bush years that he's managed to realize that the greatest threat to the country is the removal of "under God" from the pledge or the humanization of brown people crossing our southern border.)
So he sent me this email, and it was all about how Obama was the most liberal Senator or some shit. (Don't I wish!) But, then, it goes off at the end on how the antichrist speaks with a smooth voice and blah blah blah, and, Whoa!, you're saying that Obama's the fucking Antichrist? And, so I thought about replying but figured the Delete button was easier.
But, see, I was thinking of this whole thing, and then I thought of how I would describe our relationship if an imaginary Leslie Stahl was interviewing me on teevee. And that's what I came up with. That line. That coupling and parting line.
Though less pretty. Cause I've come back and changed it a few times already.
* And, of course, I don't need to go off on this "move to the center" nonsense, because everyone knows that we're already so far right of center that it's a losing fucking move. He only stands to lose votes by that shit. The people he may be hoping to capture will never, ever, ever, ever, ever vote for him. Because he is the fucking antichrist. Don't you forget it.
Peace.
On this Fourth of July.
And that and my old Aunt Heinie might have bought you a cup of joe in the 1950s if they were feeling particularly charitable.
Okay. It's fact. I totally didn't go to Pride. Just too damn hot to walk downtown from Ballard. Or to take a bus, I thought at the time. (I didn't know then that our new buses are air-conditioned!) Instead I sat in a shady part of the backside yard for most of the day watching the flowers grow and the birds bathe.
Whee.
All right. So who didn't go with me?
PS - I plan on re-joining the world at some point today.
PPS - Just a warning.
Okay. It's settled. I'm going to Pride this year. I haven't gone in I don't know how long. Since I lived on Capitol Hill. (Oh. Five years. I guess I do know how long.) But I haven't been to the parade since it's been downtown I think is what I'm saying. And I haven't been to the big to-do at the Seattle Center. So that will be fun. I've heard that 4th Ave makes a more spacious parade route than Broadway. What's the best spot though? Somewhere in Belltown?
And, OMG! Pasco native, Kristine W will be performing!
All right. Who wants to go?
Oh, no!
One of the voodoo lilies is blooming!
And we've got five plants with blooms this year. Yikes. I don't recall smelling the two that bloomed last year, but today I've been getting whiffs of voodoo. Smells like a dumpster. P.U. The other four will be popping open in the next couple of days. They shore are purty, but Lordy, I don't think I'll be able to enjoy the backside yard much if they're all stinking at once.
The rest of the garden is doing okay, thanks for asking. Starting to bloom. Not in full riotous growth like those of all you peoples who had spring this year. I kinda envy Bucko. Everything will be that much further along when he leaves next weekend, but when he gets back ten days (he says) to two weeks (I say) later, it'll be gorgeous.
Well, except for my pickled corpse he'll find out there propped in my green chair, a grimace on my rigor mortised face from the stench of voodoo.
Hey, what's everybody doing between, say, next weekend and the second week of July?
Bucko's going back to Ohio, and I'm going to need some occupation. Going to a party on the 5th of July, (It's okay. It's my old Tulsa family.), but otherwise, I'm free. Gay Pride? Independence Day? Any suggestions?
Democrats getting a pro-Obama message???
Why, th-th-that's crazy talk!
Oops. Sorry. Took a little vacation there. Not a real vacation. Just a vacation from society. Not feeling so sociable lately. The Fremont Solstice Parade is today. I'm not going. Though Bucko is. 'At's because I'm not feeling so sociable. See? How it all makes sense now?
Oh, yes. And summer is here. Yay! And, yikes, it's really summer! You know, last Sunday, I was all Spring is here, yay! but as Jeremy pointed out, spring was not, in fact here. Spring went away after Sunday, returning us to late winter for a few days. But summer is for really here now. At least, it was yesterday, and is supposed to be today. But I don't count on it staying for long.
Okay, but let's go back. Back to last Sunday, when spring was here.
We took a little trip up north to the Big Four Ice Caves, up on the Mountain Loop Road in the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest (a.k.a. The Land of Many Uses). We chose that location for to see some birds, of course. Because the Big Four Ice Caves area is chock-a-block with birds. Every square inch covered with birds.
But I exaggerate.
We parked in the Big Four pic-a-nic area lot instead of the Ice Caves parking lot a half mile further up the road. Good thing, because as we later discovered, the Ice Caves parking lot was closed due to the deep snow on the trail at that end. The Big Four pic-a-nic area is situated in the figurative shadow of Big Four Mountain, so-named because of its four discernible peaks.
We arrived just after a young family with a baby and a toddler. The baby was silent, but the toddler, being a toddler, was very loud. That would have been fine, because, yeah, it's expected. But the parents, I soon found, were also very loud. They insisted on using their outside voices to speak to one another even though they were mere feet apart. So instead of taking the boardwalk/trail toward the river, I chose the trail toward the Ice Caves parking lot. No foot traffic whatever. And no humans using their outside voices.
Right off the bat, I spotted a (WA Bird '08 Candidate) Rufous Hummingbird. He flew off before I could get a picture, but I continued on. Frogs (not sure what kind, but not bullfrogs) were singing very loudly (They can use their outside voices. That doesn't bother me.), but they stopped when I got midway across the short section of boardwalk. But I stood still and silent and soon they started up again. One was right beneath me, but try as I might, I couldn't spot the devil.
Further up the trail, I saw a Red-breasted Sapsucker.
After waiting and waiting for Bucko to join me, I gave up and turned back to the parking area. On the way, I spotted a female Yellow Warbler and then a sex-undetermined Hutton's Vireo. This was my second ever Hutton's, the first having been spotted at the same site just a year ago.
Near the parking area, I found Bucko talking to the ranger-guide-guy and watching a (WA Bird '08 frontrunner) Western Teenager. The ranger-guide-guy said that with the day heating up, there was bound to be an avalanche on the visible slopes that day. Alas, if there were, they didn't happen while we were there.
I saw a Pine Siskin at one of the pic-a-nic tables and a Spotted Sandpiper running around in the meadow near a small watercourse. Last year, we'd seen our first Vaux's Swifts on the riverward portion of boardwalk, but they weren't yet out this year. But we did see plenty more Yellow Warblers. And the siskins were kind enough to come in close for some photos.
The trail began to get crowded. This is really a popular destination. I beat it back to the empty trail, Bucko accompanying me this time, where we spotted some Black-headed Grosbeaks. We don't see those too often, though we (think we) hear them pretty frequently. (Drunken robins!)
And then, well, we wandered back and forth between trails, watching those same old birds, with the addition of a pack of Cedar Waxwings.
There was one bird perched in the top of a tall tree repeating a two-note call. I didn't recognize it and couldn't get a great look at it for the longest time, but when it moved to a shorter tree, I was at least able to tell that it looked like a flycatcher and from there, I was able to identify it by voice. A Willow Flycatcher. A life sighting! Woo-hoo!
The Vaux's Swifts (Cigars with Wings!) eventually came out, though not in as great numbers as the last time.
I was hoping to see a Three-toed Woodpecker, thought, in fact, that I had seen a couple of them flying away from me a time or two. Though She's been rebuffing me lately, I appealed to the Bird Goddess. "Bird Goddess, Bird Goddess, Bird Goddess, please won't you show me a Three-toed Woodpecker." As the day wore on, it became evident. I am dead to Her.
Well, maybe She's just putting me in my place. She did provide us with a better view of a sapsucker. Darting from branches very near me, catching flies.
See? It has little fly wings stuck all over its bill.
And that, for the most part, was our day. One fine spring day in the Land of Many Uses.
A beautiful day today.
Spring is finally here.
