The Daily {W}rite August 16, 2018 wk o3

Muscle Shoals Blues

LUTHER, Oklahoma—

A fourteen-year-old girl
stabbed multiple times
by a fourteen-year-old boy.
The girl was flown to

OU Medical Center
via medical helicopter.

The boy was taken

into custody by
local police authorities.

In other news—

Aretha Franklin died today.

Woodie o8.16.18

The newscaster woke me up to the news: Aretha Franklin has died this morning. The coffee I brewed right before I went to bed was still warm. I got a cup of it and listened to the details: She had succumbed   to her ongoing battle with pancreatic cancer, friends and relatives where with her when she died . . . 

La Puente, CA, 1967

I was what, still eighteen years old? Hadn't yet gone into the Marine Corps but I was close. Anyway, driving around La Puente by myself, saying good-bye to friends because in about a week later or so I'd be at MCRD San Diego going through boot camp. Anyway, riding along and this song comes on the radio, driving baseline, just cooler than shit. So, I pulled over into a Target parking lot, turned up the radio loud and listened to the most soulful voice I had ever heard:

You're a no-good heart breaker
You're a liar and you're a cheat

And I don't know why

I let you do these things to me

My friends keep telling me

That you ain't no good

But oh, they don't know

That I'd leave you if I could

I guess I'm uptight

And I'm stuck like glue

Cause I ain't never I ain't never,

I ain't never, no, no (loved a man)

(The way that I, I love you)

And that was my introduction to Aretha Franklin. 

FRIday, August 17, 2o18 1:47am 

I'm having a bit of a problem with the air-conditioner during this slow transfer from summer to autumn. I have it on at night but it gets too cold when I'm dressed (or undressed) and ready to sleep. So, I turn it off. But then after a few minutes it's way too warm and I must turn it back on again! I hate the seasonal transitions. Why can't summer be summer and then when it's autumn let it happen all at once. More colds are caused by the fickle nature of the seasons. 

4:15pm
Guess what? I got out for an hour or so on the bike! Yes, I know! Hoorah for me! But I didn't get far. The heat was really beating down on me hard. So, I stopped by the Greek House to have lunch. You know the Greek House. Great gyros samwiches! And a delicious yogurt sauce instead of mayo or mustard. Mmm.

I started to get off the bike at the Greek House and my left foot got stuck in the stirrup. My weight coming off the bike slammed me into a lamppost pretty hard. THUD! But fortunately, nothing got broken. Some guy in the Greek House saw me take a tumble. He was laughing and pointing out the window at me, telling all his friends to "Look! Look at the dummy who fell off his bike. Dumb fuck." Actually, I made up the dialogue. But he did look, laugh and point.

11:15pm

So, off to the dream factory pretty soon. Need to get up relatively early and bike down to Speeding Bullet Comics and  pick up a book from an author I met at SoonerCon. I meant to buy a copy of Freaks while I was at SoonerCon . . . but I'm old and I get tired pretty fast and I just wanted to go home . . . I forgot about the book. Anyway, the author J. O. Young will be signing copies of her book at the Bullet and I promised myself I'd get down the and pick up  a copy.

SATurday, August 18, 2o18
Got out for a few hours. Rode the bike down to Speeding Bullet to pick up a copy of the first book in the Freaks series. And it pretty much wrecked me. Damn. So hot outside. My lungs were on fire by the time I got there, and  I didn't have all that far to go. It was only about 1.6 miles . . . my legs ached, my back ached, My neck! What pain. Okay, I got two choices here. Either I just except that this body is just to old and worn-out to ride my bike anymore . . . or . . . I bite the bullet and just ride! Slow at first, not too far, maybe. Get my body back to a point where it's strong enough to ride my bicycle.

SUNday, August 19, 2o18

Well, meant to go out on the bike and buy a few groceries . . . but it rained most of the day, and when it finely stopped and the sun came out . . . I wasn't in the mood to go out. So, tomorrow for sure. No, really. I gotta get bread, apples and bananas. MUST have bananas to keep my hands and feet from cramping up.

I have a bad habit of saying things on Facebook that make people mad at me. One guy got mad when I commented "Legs, wings  . . . . I don't care as long as it's Popeye's." Well, me friend Lee ( a friend in my real past-life) commented back, "Dude, what's wrong with you. You're disrespecting the Queen of Soul! You need to delete this!" I found out that the post was meant to pay "respect" to Aretha Franklin. "Do you want a wing or a thigh?" It was Aretha's line in the movie The Blues Brothers. I didn't know it was a line from that movie. And I'm not sure anyway how saying what I said was "disrespecting" the Queen. So, I got pissed, deleted the comment and unfriended my real life friend.

MONday, August 2o, 2o18

5:46pm
I don't like writing so early in the afternoon. I don't know why but I feel more inspired to create something late, LATE at night . . . sometime after midnight and into the early morning. I pretty much stop at 6am and go to sleep or pass out. Yeah, I don't fall asleep like a new born baby does. I slam into the dreamland atmosphere like a HALO jumper.

WEDnesday, August 22, 2o18
Well, finishing this week's blog a bit late. My friend got back from his reunion in Berkley the day before yesterday. So, yesterday and today we sort of hung out a bit. I don't have much to say to end this wee. Maybe I don't need to say much. Hope that what I have written is somehow worth the time it takes you to read it. {smiles}