A Miscellany of Observations

[akirlu]

O, it's hard to touch type with a cat in your arms. That should be a folk song, surely? At least a filk. Something about all the various incompatibilities of being a fan. O, it's hard to collate in a Darth Vader suit. But you can be fannish, if you've a mind to...

Sarah and I drove over to the Evil Empire's Sammamish complex to pick up libertango for lunch, and after a nice pomodoro with Italian sausage with the caro sposo, I took the mutt for a short walk along the creek behind the Sammamish complex. I would have made it longer, but for the fact that I was wearing Topsiders.

For some reason, deck shoes on damp, grassy slopes are a fatal combination. You'd think Topsiders, being designed to give traction on the damp, slippery, and often sloping decks of sail boats would do very well on damp, slippery grass slopes. You'd be so wrong, though. I didn't fall, actually, only had a couple of scary skids and wobbles. But Hal had been wearing Topsiders on a grass slope when he had the fall that broke his leg, and a few weeks back I had a series of humiliating pratfalls down a grassy slope at Point Defiance zoo which left me with a big smear of mud on my ass for the rest of the day, so after the day's first skid, I felt hyper-cautious. The more so because the trail was empty, and my cell phone was still at home in the charger.

Still, a nice walk. We saw a trio of mallards floating along on the current, like so many lost bath toys. The last blackberries shone, ripening, amid the mad welter of canes that grow like kudzu over anything in their path, and trail down out of trees like jungle vines. Here and there in the long grasses, the odd late-blooming buttercup winked and nodded. Frogs chirruped down at the water's edge. A lone heron startled out of the trees, rose like some mythic thing, and glided away out toward the lake. It is good to live in this place that feels like home. I should take that walk more often.

Comments

[replyhazy.livejournal.com]

Oh, thanks ever so much, now I've got Roger Miller tunes spinning in my head.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a job for ELO!

[replyhazy.livejournal.com]

"Twiiiiiiiliiiight... twiiiiiliiiiight...."

Maybe I should stick with "EngAland swings like a pendulum do."

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Sometimes it's best to just stick with the classics. And, speaking of classics, this line of discussion sent me off on an Amazon walkabout wherein I discovered a way to get a copy of "The Martian Hop" on CD, so it's been quite a fruitful discussion for me. The precise route by which one reaches "The Martian Hop" from "You Can't Rollerskate in a Buffalo Herd" shall be left as an exercise to the reader, though I can tell you that Jim Stafford and The Frantics were stops along the way...

The Preppy Fairy

[amy-thomson.livejournal.com]

gives you permission to leave your topsiders at home when walking the dog!

Besides, this is the Great Northwet. We wear vibram-soled hiking boots, not wimpy, effete Topsiders!

Re: The Preppy Fairy

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

It isn't prep, you know. Not what I'll call fashion prep, anyhow. No, I got my first topsiders while I was taking sailing classes, because they really are sovereign for keeping your footing in a sloshing, undersized dinghy. I bought a pair of men's topsiders, in a pretty ghastly shade of pier-slime green, on the cheap at Marshall's because I didn't want to spend a lot on a pair of shoes that were "just for sailing". And promptly fell in love. They're so damned comfortable, you see. I wore that first pair almost constantly until I wore through the soles, and would have had them re-soled had I not also worn through the leather on one shoe. I reckon I will be looking for something in a vibram sole soon, but it's hard to pry me out of my topsiders, most days.