late night post

it's late. can't sleep. ulcer raging in my stomach.
everytime i lie down, the damn thing flares up. it feels like burning. very much like heartburn, but instead of a mild burning sensation it feels like a white-hot sword cauterizing the inside of my stomach.

i can't concentrate long enough to write, either. if it's not the pain, it's my mind wandering through the hundreds of things we still need to do, and still need to get fixed, or the myriad of problems that could go wrong.

i packed up most of my basement writing room earlier this evening. it was nice going through all the shit i had saved up. i went through everything i've had published, and it turns out i am missing something. if any of you have an extra copy of the small matchbook-sized broadside from 24th Street Irregular Press, titled fuck you, tom brokaw, would you be willing to part with it? i don't own one and would really like to. if you want to hold it ransom, we can talk trade.
anyway, it was nice looking through the heft stack of rejections, the various magazines and chapbooks and other poetry paraphrenalia i've accumulated over the last 12 years.

now, all that's left is for me to do is fall asleep. if this keeps up a nervous breakdown can't be too far away.

sweet jesus murphy

well, $89 is down the tubes. the fucking swamp cooler broke again. this time, it's kaput for good. and, to just rub it all in, our living room ceiling fan stopped working. what the fuck?! nothing breaks down in the three and a half years we live in the house, then two things break in the last two weeks we own the damn thing.
well, my wife is out purchasing a new ceiling fan, that i will be installing (somehow, as i've never installed one before) this weekend. the same guy who came out two days ago will be visiting our house again tomorrow to check out the swamp cooler. this one will probably cost us over $200. if the whole unit needs to be replaced we're looking at at least a grand. FUCK!

oh, and we called the damn home warranty company, again, and found out, again, that goddamn ceiling fans aren't covered, either. what the fuck?! what the hell is covered in this everloving home warranty? any and everything that doesn't break, apparently. once it breaks, it is no longer covered. that's just great!

i don't know if i can make it through this. i suppose i have no choice, but my god. i have three days left at work and, if the past week is any indication, they will be the busiest three days of my life. shit is going on the blink left and right, we aren't even fully packed, yet; and i'm still worried about moving all these heavy things out of our house. to top it all off, i start a new job in a week and a half. lord, this is way too much.

speaking of the heavy things, the thing i'm most worried about is a chest freezer we have in the basement. our basement is tiny, with five and a half foot high ceilings. i'm six and a half feet tall. we already have a problem. plus, this chest freezer is HEAVY! the two guys who moved it down to the basement for us (who delivered it from where we purchased it) were giant, mutant humans (they towered over me and were built like dump trucks). and they struggled mightily bringing it down the stairs. i have no idea how i (skinny, weak and built like a hand truck) and my friend (ditto) are going to haul this monstrosity up the stairs. i fear for our lives.

anyway, it's hotter than Hades in here right now and, without the benefit of any air circulation, it's stagnant and i'm beginning to give off a fetid stench. i need a shower and a new life.

let there be...cool air

well, we got the damn swamp cooler fixed. apparently, the stupid motor wasn't properly oiled (go figure, since i've never oiled it), and that was all that was needed. $89 just for that. christ! but, who cares. at least it's fixed and we've got that blessed cold air blowing through the house. finally, i'll be able to not sleep in comfort, once again.

i received two books in the last two days. the first is Nathan Graziano's latest chapbook from sunnyoutside, Honey, I'm Home. it's a great chapbook about domesticity: marriage, children and all the rest. a bit of a departure from Nate's other stuff, but his wry humor and biting wit is ever present.
the second book i received is David Barker's Too Much Me, published by Concrete Meat Press. David is a fabulous poet and a master of the short poem. this latest chapbook features only short poems. the usual Barker subjects abound: work, family, aging. and the best part is the dry wit that separates David from the rest of the pack.

both books are highly recommended.

back from Ely

well, we made it back in one piece. and, it's hotter than hell in this house. a guy's going to come out on Tuesday to check the swamp cooler, so in the meantime we just have to suffer. brutal!

the trip was very nice. much better than i anticipated. the drive there was long, and felt every bit of the four hours it took us. Ely is a small (very small) mining town in the middle of nowhere, at the junction of Highways 50 and 93 (incidentally, Highway 50 is also known as The Loneliest Road in the America). there's not much to do there, but that was just fine with us as we could use the break from doing too much.
we went to Garnet Hill, but didn't find anything worth a damn. we then went to the Liberty Pit overlook to see the largest open pit copper mine in Nevada. the damn thing is humongous. that was pretty cool. we stopped on the side of the road a few times, so i could take some pictures of the dilapidated and rotting buildings and mine adits that abound.
on both Friday and Saturday night, the wife and i played poker in the Hotel Nevada live gaming room (the only live gaming casino in Ely) and walked away as winners on both nights. wish we could play every night!
and, lest we forget the purpose of the trip, on Saturday evening we took the Nevada Northern Railway for their Wine Train excursion. the wine was fabulous, the food was superb and we met a great couple who shared our table and with whom we talked the night away. it was a great night. the sunset over the east mountains, igniting the low-lying clouds, capped the perfect evening.
all in all, it was a great trip. we even made the drive back in just under three and a half hours. it was much needed, especially with all the stress that's coming up: the closing date on the sale of this house, moving into an apartment, starting a new job.

also, as if all of this was enough, i had ideas for three new poems, and am excited to get some time to myself (maybe later this week) to work them out of their concrete enclosure. it's been a long time since i was relaxed enough to allow the muse time to do her work.