First Frost
frozen sparkles gleam
breath smokes in the morning sun
first frost of the year
Accidently, Erratically, Reportedly
I tell you, a person can’t even go for a late walk in town without incident.
We were out walking about, taking the crisp night air, and heard a pick-em-up truck come chugging up the road. It was an old beater- you could tell by the sound of the engine. They barrelled through the intersection we were coming up to at about 45mph, blew down the street, and right into the street sign. You see, the street they were going down ends abruptly and makes a curve to the left: Something you wouldn’t expect unless you lived here or have visited that particular street enough to remember. I had said to Eloric, previously to gaining the intersection ourselves, that “Wouldn’t it be funny if we heard Crash! Boom! Crunch!?” And we laughed and he said that he would high-five me should that be the truth of things.
We gained the intersection and, sure enough, there was this beater pick-up backing out of the grass there at the curve, the street sign at a 15 degree angle, having been lucky enough to miss the sturdy wood fence right before the rail road ditch. We were still almost a block away, they backed ‘er up and sped off. They should have sped away and out of town but they were stupid gits. They continue to speed around town even now as I write this, waiting for the State Police to come to town. It is in vain, thinking that the SP will catch their sorry arses at the deed, because the police in this area are notorious for only catching major accidents and perhaps trains blocking intersections for hours at a time. In other words- they will get off scot-free. Per usual.
We walked home quickly, using some grown-over alleys because we feared they were looking to do more mischief than batter their truck and road signs. They caroomed past us twice and went to check the damage they had done to the sign. Heaven knows what they are up to or whether the truck is stolen. We wouldn’t have done anything, if they had just left town but they are still here, driving around like water-skippers on meth.
I’m tired of the younger generation vandalising my home town: Destroying the historic buildings without a second thought, breaking other people’s property, tearing up public land, and no one does anything about it. Not only do people ignore it, some of them encourage it. I’m tired of this crap. It isn’t kids being kids, it isn’t teenage hormones, it’s people being shitty people and there’s no excuse you can present to me to make me think that that sort of behaviour is acceptable or at least excusable. None. And what’s worse, if people report these gits (some of them are adults), it is the people who report the unlawful/dangerous behaviour who are blamed and hated, not the people endangering others’ lives or destroying other’s property. This place is screwed up. I hate living in this redneck Mecca. It used to be calm and peaceful here. Now it’s a temple of aberrant behaviour held up to be exemplary. It is a travesty.
This deserves its own haiku:
Erratic Driving
rusty old pick-up
screaming down the ill-lit street
a street sign’s ill-luck
And, in other news: Thurien went to the vet today to have his wallies removed. I felt sorry for him but really, he doesn’t need them for anything except for aesthetics, perhaps. I’m sure Doodle will love him just the same. And we’ll have the bonus of never catching Thury spraying as we do Neddy, who got chopped too late.
Against the Proposed Coffee Bar
I went to the library again to day to help Mother look up the obits of yet more dead relatives. Whatever makes her happy, I guess. I mean, it’s better than a lot of things she could be doing. I can’t think of what those things might be but I’m sure it’s better than some of them… whatever they are. They’re building on to the library next year. The library is already huge but, as I’ve mentioned before, the town it’s in has an over-inflated opinion of itself, so it doesn’t surprise me that they think they need a 2 storey addition.
So. This addition: They are thinking of putting a coffee bar in it. Now everyone who has read me knows that I like coffee. Everyone knows I love books. Coffee+books is generally a good idea BUT I don’t think coffee in a library is one of the brightest ideas I’ve heard of in the past few weeks. I’ve heard book store employees complain of the customers who spill coffee-like beverage all over the stock or on the floor or wherever. Now, let’s consider coffee in the Public Library. *My brain already hurts* OK. Who pays for those books? The tax payers and the people who make charitable contributions to the Library Foundation. I pay for those books and I don’t want them coffee-stained… and don’t say that they won’t wind up that way should this inane idea of a coffee bar be implemented.
Furthermore, a coffee bar would create even more noise in the library. No one really keeps quiet in the library any more, which is one of the reasons I no longer hang out there. In the past, the library was considered entirely LAME and no one thought about hanging out there except our little nerd pack. Crap. Everyone goes there now to use the Internet (the use thereof is no longer strictly-regulated to educational purposes as it was waaaay back in 1994) and to hang out. Because it’s free. They run about like wildebeests on crank, shout and squeal, and vandalise the restrooms. This would be exacerbated by this coffee bar because there will be people going there strictly to hang out and have coffee without even the pretence of education or internet. And I don’t think they could enforce coffee in the coffee bar only because I’m cynical that way.
I hope that the coffee bar there is disallowed. It isn’t that I don’t go for the idea. I do, actually BUT I know how the people of this area act and I know that it would degenerate and damage the books. People would feel entitled to bring food and drink into the library, since it is in the same building, and how dare you tell them not to dirty books that they paid taxes for it. *eye roll* I think a better idea would be some sort of private library/lending library/used book store+coffee where either the quality of the books wouldn’t be such an issue or one had to pay membership dues, and I’m not talking taxes, since one must pay them anyway.
And in other news: The neighbour kids have a new thing: They’re starting to jump out of their yard when they see a car coming and to dodge in front of that car into the yard across the street. I saw a pair of them do it last night. The car had to jam on the breaks or they most certainly would have run the little bleeder over. It was intentional and then they laughed after they’d done it. God, I want to move to the woods.
How NOT to TP the Neighbors
I finally got off my butt and updated A-T. Woo. *snort*
The neighborhood little-hellish-shit brigade is out TP-ing someone in the neighborhood. I’m trying to keep it from being us. There was this hoochie walking back and forth in front of the neighbor’s house very conspicuously… you know… trying to appear as if she wasn’t a lookout for the other junior achievers. C’mon. If you say “Hi” to us, we know you’re up to no good. No one says “Hi” to us. We’re pariahs. You don’t live here, do you, honey? Big mistake. Second: It would behoove you not to be so fscking consipcuous. This end of town is full of old people not future pole-dancers pacing up and down the street loudly talking on cellphones. Third: dark clothes! DARK CLOTHES! For the love of Pete- wear dark clothes and don’t sprint across well-lit areas.
I think it is unavoidable. Last time I called the cops and reported some kids who were apparently locked out of their house *evil grin* no one came and we got papered anyway. Had the paper up by 7am though, so they didn’t get to jizz themselves with the sight of it. I really wish these wastes of consumable resources would find some other way to amuse themselves other than trespassing and vandalization. I’m debating stringing up fishing line. Of course, then they’d get hurt and it would be our fault for stringing up the line instead of theirs for trespassing. The world favors f$cktards.
Before the Storm
the clouds clash dark grey
leaden above the parched earth
anticipation
Now I’m Awakeish
Yanno EC’ll make you tired. But it’s better than the alternative. Lucky I got put on Avaine. But that’s all I really have to say about it. Hope I never have to do it again.
I slept most of today (yesterday) but now that I am awake, I’m re-doing my header for the Layout Marathon next month, surfing, looking for nice pictures of Sam, and re-doing my collective layout. Rather in that order. Sort of.
Hrm… Elerah didn’t realise that Sam is only two years younger than her father. Hrm… Oh well. *giggle* Sean Connery’s older, I’m sure. I can’t be bothered to look him up right now.
I moved all of my fanlistings over to Enth. If I had known how easy it was going to be, I would have done it sooner. I’m sure the collective will be fairly easy. Then I’ll consider moving the joined listings over as well.
I’m pretty beat still, so I’m just going to upload the one new texture and go to bed.
A Feeling of Accomplishment
OMFG. I just managed to convert one of my fanlistings to Enthusiast. I’ve only been wanting to change over to Enth for a year and a half. I can’t believe that I finally managed to understand what I was supposed to do. Soooo. Over the next few days I shall be converting all of my fan-listings to Enth. And hoping that it goes smoothly. 
Speaking of fan-listings: Guess who gets to make the tfl.org Sam Waterston fl? *bwahahahaspazdroolfaint* That dropped right into my greedy little hands right out of heaven, it did. *hee* It’s been one of my greatest too-kill-fors for quite some time. Must start on it this evening.
We went to the huge craft store last night. I was *sick*, having forgotten to eat for most of the day and rather out of it. We decided to go look at the beads as I have a thing for glass beads and beads of semi-precious gemstones. Well, there was this mother and her little hellions in the aisle, two young boys, and they were running amok. I knew something was going to happen but I was too out of it to care. Well, one boy was taunting the other one and they were both shrieking something about pick-up trucks and then the eldest (age 5, I’d imagine) hit me with the shopping cart he was pushing around like a water-skipper on crack. I looked down at him and said: “Please watch where you’re going,” and… the mother grabbed him up and whisked him away. Wow. I was surprised. I heard her yelling at him that he was behaving horridly, he then began to wail, and I even heard her say: “And you should go and apologise to that lady.” No apology but I didn’t care. There are still some parents about who actually try to raise their kids right. Who would have thought?
Nanners has to go to the vet on Friday because we think he is having an allergic reaction to flea bites again… though we haven’t any fleas this year. Well, we probably have just a sprinkle and haven’t seen them on the cats to know for sure. Anyhoo, he’s started pulling out his hair again- his bum is going bald and he has some scabs on his back. Poor thing. We thought at first it was Thurien’s claws that were causing the hair loss but I’ve been trimming them short for a week and Nanners hasn’t gotten better. And, speaking of Thurien, he gets to have his testicles snipped away next week. Can’t have him learning how to spray like Neddy did. Sometimes Neddy is a bad boy and marks the cat food bag. Bad Neddy!
I’m still torn on my NaNo subject but I’m sort of leaning to the new, fresh approach. I just have to decide how the dang thing ends. *sigh* Details, details. Of course, it doesn’t mean that I am going to actually finish the novel, mind- it means I’ll have an idea of where it’ll be after I get my 50,000 words written. If I manage to maintain the enthusiasm and the drive to end the cussed thing.
Witches Weekly, Sep 18
Do you belong to any sort of groups of worship or regularly participate in any organizations? If so, provide links.
There was something like a local coven/Pagan group that I helped organize but we fell apart due to idealogical differences and petty bickering between members. I hear that there are groups to the north of me but after all of the wankst involved in the last group, I prefer to be solitary. Sometimes I wish my husband was Pagan so we could work together or that I could get together with one of my Pagan friends. Belonging to an Earth-based religion or really, any religion that is not mainstream Christianity around here sets you up for a lot of crapola and it’s common sense not to advertise unless you’re very strong and can deal with the unending bulldrek people dish out to you when they figure out you may not worship in the manner they believe you should.
However, I am a member of Ord Brighideach but the group has changed so much since I’ve been to their site, I can’t get into the member’s area. We keep the Flame of Brighid. I’m in Cill Beith. Or I was, at any rate
What is the pagan community like in your area? Is it large or small, open or pretty hidden?
There are a few Wiccans in the county seat that I know of and a Celtic Pagan or two. We’re pretty hidden here because the prejudice and persecution is outrageous. People who claimed to be Christian left dead animals on the stoop of the occult store when it was in town and broke out several of their windows. They would come in all of the time either on dares or to mock us. Being “out” can make life very difficult- I know, my sister-in-law outted me (long story) and people I didn’t even know knew I was Pagan at work and they were not shy to harass me. I used to be in touch with a number of Pagans, say four or five years ago, here in the county before I went multifaith.
Do you attend any regular events in your area?
There are no such things as “regular events” or even “events” in my locality. There is a women’s drumming circle that used to meet weekly an hour away but I’ve never gone. I think the UU Pagans (also an hour away) do things but word of them never comes this far south. The closest thing to “events” here are when I do my own rituals, tending the Flame of Brighid or some other ceremony. Of course, no one is invited since I’m solitary, so I guess it would be misleading to call such times “events”. :/ But the cats like them and it brings me closer to the gods. 
cats, 
