Artistic Licence

One day last week, I was at work doing audits and such as I do everyday when a box of screws fell and splattered into a marvellous figure of a dolphin.  Seeing the dolphin in the jumble of screws, I studied it lying lying there on the frigid concrete floor.  A moment later my boss came over, and asked, “What are you doing?”

“Ah…well, I saw a figure of a dolphin in these screws….I’ll get them cleaned up, boss.”  I said whilst rearranging them again in my mind.

“Boy, you ain’t right”, he laughingly muttered, as he walked off.

Friday, we were getting off of work late.  I was in an atrocious mood that had been spiralling out of control all week.  We had been working from before dawn ‘til after dusk every night.  I’m not one to be around, if I don’t get my creative time in.  I must write, take photos and transform them, draw, or do something creative everyday.  It is imperative that I do these things to keep my sanity, just as some people must pop pills to make themselves feel happy.

An older gentleman that was working in the business where we were working asked me why I was in such a brooding mood.  I had not said a word to the man whilst entering data, but I guess he could tell.  My boss stepped in, and said, “Ah, he gets this way every time it rains.  The weather reminds him of Ireland.”

I spun around and yelled, “Don’t be telling people my worries, sir”.

“You from Ireland, lad?”  The old man asked, intrigued by the statement.

“No, I am from here, the states, but my ancestors, the majority, were from Ireland.”

“I grew up in Philadelphia, but my father was from Cork.”  The old man said with extreme excitement.

“Ask him about the woman he lost over there", my boss stated whilst snickering.

“Yes…yes…yes…Tell the whole world about my life.  Stick to your own, how about it.” 

“So, you’ve been to the Republic?”  The man asked, as he leaned over the desk.

We talked for a full hour about our families histories, Ireland, youth, art, books, writers, and the like.  I didn’t realise it at the time because I was so intertwined in the conversation, but we had an audience of workers listening to our stories about our adventures and our families adventures to the states.  One girl chimed in and said that she was Irish.  I asked her if she was born in Ireland clearly for my own amusement.  She dropped her head and said no.  I asked her what her maiden name was, and she said, “Yeats”.  I said, “Well, you could be related to W. B. Yeats”.

“Who is that?”  She earnestly asked.

The old man and myself busted into laughter. 

“He was a brilliant poet and writer that should not be overlooked.  Instead of reading one of those little pretentious novels with no substance, grab one of the classics once and a while.”  I said while trying not to humiliate her. 

I said my goodbyes and traded contacts with the auld fella.  I offered to try and help him find some missing people in his tree.  The boss came up to me as I was leaving, and said, “I’m sorry, JD”.

“For what?”

“It is obvious that you hold art, literature, history, and your family very close.  These things are a part of you, and I am sorry for trying to suppress them.  My God man, you lit up like a beacon, when you started talking about Ireland, art, and stuff.”

“Don’t worry about it, boss.  My dreams and ambitions may be suppressed at times but never are they gone, for if they die, I die along with them.”

“Like I said before, boy, you ain’t right”

We both laughed while exiting and ran through the torrent sheets of rain towards our cars. 

 

Reason for posting this nonsense?  My luck has been turning around lately.  There’s a brilliant dawning around the corner.  Wait and see.  :)

Daring Moonbeams

I lay in a deep slumber after a week of travelling and an arduous workload. 

buzz….Ring….buzz…Ring….Ring

I awake to a fuzzy and out of focus bedroom with moonlight still filtering through the curtains.  An eerie tune pierces my subconscious, as I glance over to find my mobile vibrating across the bedside table.  I go to grab it but my arms are not quite obeying my brain yet.  Finally, I make more effort and am able to grab it.  I gaze, vision still blurry, at the caller id and lay in shock for a moment.

It can’t be.  What’s she doing calling me after all of this time?

In disbelief, I answer the incoming call.

“Hello”, I mumble in disbelief.

“Hello stranger”, a quirky feminine voice says.

“What time is it?”  I demand while wiping sleepiness from my eyes.

“It’s time for you quit dreaming and talk to me.  It’s 9A.M. and brilliant out.”  She states in a chipper tone.

“Aaarrgghh….That means it is 4A.M. here”, I exclaim while trying to get my bearings.

“Early to bed, early to rise, right?”

“Auld Ben would be proud to know that his proverbs are still being reverberated around the globe”, I mutter whilst primping.

“I would hope so, yes.”

“I’m very glad to hear from you, but it’s early so what are you after?”

The silence and lulling buzz of thousands of miles of wires is deafening.

Don’t screw this up JD.  She called for something. 

“I’m sorry.  It’s just early and you know how I am before dawn”, I utter in an apologetic fashion hoping to hear her beauteous vocalisations again.

“I called because….”  Her voice broke while trying to tell me why she was calling.

“It’s alright.  You can tell me.”

“I…..   I had a dream about you last night.  I dreamt that I was walking alone in a moony ancient misty woodland.  instinctively, I walked between two rows of old oak trees.  I searched through the hauntingly thick fog to no avail.  I could only see the naked limbs of the trees stretching out and almost touching one another above my head.  I peered through the bare branches to discover a clear yet starless night sky.  Only a lone and focused moonbeam lit the path ahead of me….”

“Oh, this is getting good…”  Says i with a wee bit of a humorous tone.

“Don’t interrupt.  Anyway, as I was saying, I was following this moonbeam through an ancient woodland when a silhouette came into focus.  I couldn’t tell who it was but I felt that I had to reach that person, so I walked faster being guided by the brilliant moonlight.  The light stopped and shone on the person at the end of the forest.  Suddenly I realised that it was you standing at a fork in the path spreading out in four directions.  You motioned for me to come closer.  My heart was racing, as I jumped into your warm embrace.  You grabbed my hand and a brilliant white light flooded the dark forest with rays of a warm summers day.  In an instance, we were standing atop a mountain overlooking a valley covered in wildflowers….”

“Wow”, I yell in awe of her incredible story.

“Almost finished so zip it.  Anyhow, we ran through the wildflowers hand in hand laughing and….”

“What else did we do?”

“You took me to a clearing in the tall wildflowers where a cloth had been laid and food was waiting.  We talked and laid there for hours and you promised to never leave me.  We fell asleep in each others arms.  I awoke to find myself back in the misty woodland.  I searched and cried your name in that lonesome place for what seemed for an eternity.  I woke up this morning screaming your name.”  She cried, whilst trying to hold back her emotions.

“I bet yer husband didn’t like that?”  I laughingly enquire.

“We…We are separated.   I couldn’t care less what that gobshite thinks.”

“Are you serious?”

“Yes, I tried to make it work but we got married for all of the wrong reasons”, she answers, as her tears rush through the phone weakening my knees.

“I’m sorry.  I know….”

“Dammit, it’s yer fault”, she exclaims whilst squalling.

“How is it my fault”, I demand in a serious tone.

“Because…Because, I still love you, Jefferson Day-vees.”

A great chill ran down my spine as a lone tear ran down my sleepy countenance.  I had waited so long to hear those words from her. 

“I have never stopped loving you, my dear”, Says I, as a warm surge of life leapt back into my body. 

“Well then, come and see me, and let us see how it goes.  I can’t the weight of being without you any longer.”  She pleads whilst breaking down over the phone.

“I’ll be on the next plane out, so I should be there by tomorrow morning”, Says Iin a hurried manner.

“Call me back as soon as you get an arrival time and gate number.  I’ll be there to pick you up.  I love you.”

“I love you too.  I’ll see you soon.”

The next thing I knew, I was packed and on a plane crossing the Atlantic.  As the plane approached and crossed over the familiar rolling green hills, I couldn’t help but smile, knowing that she’d be in my arms in just under an hour.  While looking out at the cloudless horizon, which was rare for this area around this time of year, I discovered a bright orb approaching our position at an incredible speed.  It was flying towards the very window overlooking the left wing that I was facing. 

Suddenly, I was blinded by the incredible radiance emanating from the orb. 

I jumped from my seat screaming her name and realised seconds later that I was back in my bedroom alone.  It took several minutes of head scratching to realise that the entire episode was just a mere dream and that I was back in the real world. 

Exhausted and in disarray from such an eerie dream, I slowly looked out the window to see a bright and tepid Saturday morning.  So, I got ready and went for a walk in the sunshine to clear my head.

Sometimes I wonder why we have such whacky dreams.  Mind you, I had to fill in a few gaps where the woolgathering memory lapses.  I’ve never been able to understand why I and others can remember our dreams and others can’t recall anything from a dream.  I think our dreams are an effort of our subconscious  enacting what we truly want.  Some may dream of flying into space, while others may dream of changing something in their lives or hearing words they’ve wanted to hear but know they’ll never hear. 

Dreamland is a mysterious place to visit but not a place to stay.  :)

Mushroom Envelope

Bright and early Thursday morning I sped off to see a new doctor.  His office is almost an hour away but well worth the drive.  It’s a lovely drive down the Appalachian mountains to the plains of the south.  There’s everything from winding hills to old water sheds and decrepit cotton mills.  The ginormous interstate is much faster but I enjoy the scenery.

I got to the office early, so I nipped in a local eatery and had a cup of coffee and an omelette.  When I returned, they were ready for me to fill out two Poplar trees worth of paperwork.  I finished the stack of nondescript forms and waited along with several other people.  I picked up a year old magazine and pretended to read an article about Obama.

What is with that anyway?  Most folks, unless they are just desperate for attention, will pretend to be busy doing something while waiting for a doctor.  Are we afraid to talk to one another? 

One fellow wasn’t shy or spry.  He went into detail about what was wrong with him, and what type of medicine he was on.  He proceeded to tell me what was wrong with his wife, who was sitting next to him, grunting throughout the lengthy exchange.  I was entertained by this unidirectional discourse, so I asked where he and his wife were from.  His wife sighed and shifted in her seat as he rambled on.  I smiled.

After a long scowl faded from the wife’s face, I was ushered to the back.  I was met in the hallway by a damsel adorning a white lab coat.  At this point, I figured I had died of boredom and levitated to a heavenly angel with bright hazel eyes and flowing chestnut hair pulled into a ponytail. 

With a clipboard and a smile, she lead me back to a mocha coloured room with ochre painted trim.  We talked of my medical history for twenty minutes.  We discussed subjects that I would normally never discuss with a woman, much less a single woman.

She told me that I had to have an EKG for the doc, so I stripped down to my boxers and laid back in the chair.  As it turns out, I really didn’t need to strip (didn’t need that image in your head, did ya?) but she didn’t mind.  She, I’ll call her Becca, started putting frigid and sticky sensors on me chest, as I asked her where she went to school. 

The sensation was a bit ticklish, so I busted into laughter.  She tried to retain her composure yet fell under the spell of hilarity.  Every time Becca hooked a wire to a sensor, I busted into laughter followed by her.  I was finally able to stay calm long enough for her to take a reading. 

A smile overtook her face, as she ripped the sensors and half the hair off of my chest.  She gathered her things, and said, “The doctor will be with you in a few moments”.

“When can we do this again?”  I pleaded whilst redressing.

“You are one of a kind, Jefferson”, she uttered whilst chortling.

“Well, I know that, but when can you rip some more sensors off my chest?”

“We’ll see”, she laughingly muttered whilst leaving the room.

While awaiting the doctor, I tapped out a rhythmic beat on a brown envelope I brought with me.

He arrived and we talked about the same medical history that I had discussed with Becca.  I brought up football teams in his homeland.  He was very impressed that I knew such things.  He continued asking questions while I fiddled with the envelope.

“What do you have there?”  He pleaded while staring at the envelope.

“It’s my massive medical history crunched down to about fifty pages.”

My life put into numbers and nondescript medical terminology.  It’s odd, really, how scientist can turn one’s entire life into a bunch of numbers.  Of course, we are just binary beings these days, right?

“Can I have a look at it?”

“Yes sir, I brought it so you could make a copy for your own records.  I carry it, when I travel as well.”

“When you go out of state?”

“Yeah, but when I go out of the country as well”, I answered whilst grinning.

He laid down his pen and asked me where I’d been.  He lit up and we talked for a while about our travels.  We talked about all sorts of subjects before finally getting back to business.  After finishing up, I headed back down the hallway to find Becca talking to two nurses.  I offered to let her rip some more hair off my chest.  They laughed and I left on cloud nine. 

I knew there was something funny about those mushrooms in my omelette that morning.  Reckon they were laced with something or just bad?  :)

Wintry Cerulean Moonbeams

We were warned on Friday that we would get up to a foot of snow Sunday evening.  I laughed at the very thought of it.  Tis not very common for us, the southern US, to get snow in March.  However, I remember it snowing as late as Easter, when I was a lad.  In fact, I remember being snowed in, in the middle of March on my birthday.  Hint!  That year, we had a blizzard of epic proportions.  I vividly remember wading waist deep through it and disappearing into a sea of white fluff. 

truck (by JeffersonDavis)

The continuous pelting of raindrops over the past week turned my yard into a mud hole.  About 5:00PM yesterday, sleet began mixing in amongst the droplets of frigid rain.  Only minutes later, everything around me was covered in a light dusting of snow.  It started out as tiny bits of snow and ice mixed together and progressed into cascade of powdery flakes. 

Icy Needles (by JeffersonDavis)

There’s nothing I like better than a good blizzard.  It purifies the air and kills off all of the nasty critters that I can’t stand anyway.  I got out and played in the snow, capturing moments in time along the way.  I ended up at my Uncle’s house.  He was going on about not being able to watch the telly because of snow buildup on the roof.  Pardon the pun, Uncle.  :)

Heavy Limbs (by JeffersonDavis)

So, we wrapped up and headed out to knock the snowfall off the Dish.  The moment we got the signal back, the power went out.  I speedily called the utility company and was told that the power would promptly return at 5:00PM Monday.  This made me irate, so I told the kind lady that I had two grandmother’s that could not be without power due to the freezing temperatures.  She dutifully told me that my grandmothers and about a half million more would have to find somewhere to stay overnight. 

Winter's Breath (by JeffersonDavis)

I hastened the delivery of heaters to me nannas and then tried to figure out what to do about moi.  After all, I needed to stay warm as well.  My Uncle offered me a couch in his heated and powered RV, so I took him up on it. 

March (by JeffersonDavis)

We woke up at four this morning to find the power on.  Those poor fellas that get paid $75 an hour must have worked all night long.  Some neighbourhoods are still without power.  I’m very thankful to be sitting in this cozy house rambling about nothing.

About 4:30AM, I treaded across the snow laden range that separates our houses.  I’ve walked through that area at all times of the night and day and never had a worry except for the crack heads two streets over.  This morning it was eerie. 

The ever wise moon casted sombre cerulean moonbeams across the landscape leaving crisp lines in the icy abyss.  I, in my own abysmal cerebrations, glanced up to discover the moons half smirk and laughed.  Quietly, I walked across the plain leaving a stamp of myself behind.  As I approached the house, the snow ceased thus did I.  Perhaps it was nature itself trying to tell me to stop and look.  I heard frozen limbs creak as clumps of snow fell from the heavens. 

A wee squirrel leapt from a low limb onto the plush snow, twitched his head and tail in a synchronous motion back and forth.  He struggled across the snowy woodland behind my residence, and made his way to one of the evergreen trees and began hastily digging for treasure.  I knelt there for a few minutes and watched the gnawer dig with his little paws.  I finally gave up and went inside. 

Frost Morning (by JeffersonDavis)

A few minutes ago I went outside and he had dug a bunch of holes in the snowpack.  One extremely important principal we can learn from nature, is to never ever give up.  If you can’t find your treasure in one location, try somewhere else until you find it.  Squirrels are brilliant little critters, aren’t they?  :)

Monday Moan – Inconsiderate Buggers

This morning I had to go to the local home improvement supply store for about the hundredth time in the past month.  I picked up a few tubes of caulk, flirted with the paint lady, and talked amongst my new found friends.  Everyone loves you, when you consistently spend money at their place of business. 

Upon my return to the truck, a fierce wind arrived and a light pelting of rain splattered against the frigid tarmac.  I sped away and got on the six lane highway en route to my destination.  Just as I was about to turn off , a ‘67 Camaro came into my rippled view.

The hood was up and an older gentleman in denims and a glue and white flannel shirt was hovering over the engine.  I pulled over to the side of the road and walked over to offer any assistance.  Old cars are neat but are rarely reliable.

“Do you need any help, sir?”  I pleaded, as I pulled my jacket over my head.

“Batt’ry’s dead, u got any jump’ cables?”

“Sure, let me pull up to the side of your car”, I yelled as cars whizzed by without a thought.

I got out the jumper cables and we carefully hooked them up.  We stood there for a minute waiting for the battery to charge.  I asked him about the restoration of his car and he went on about restoring the motor.  I asked him to try and turn the motor over, so he proceeded to jump in the car and turn the key. 

As he turned the key, I moved to the side of the car to avoid being ran over.  You never know when an old car like that will jump out of gear.  The motor roared to life and he hopped out to help me collect me cables. 

I leaned over to help collect the mans tools, perhaps too far, and a black car came within inches of taking me out.  All I saw was a black blur whirring past my head.  The driver didn’t even bother to slow down.

The gentleman offered to pay me for the trouble, but I wouldn’t take it.  He followed by thanking me and we both sped away.

What has happened to the fabric of society worldwide.  People don’t give a rats arse about anyone except themselves anymore.  The common mentality these days is, “Me, Me, Me”.  What ever happened to “WE"”? 

Mind you, I am anything but perfect.  There are some people that I wouldn’t help, but even then, I’d offer to make a call for them. 

How was your Monday?

Paved City Centre (by JeffersonDavis)