As Little of 10% or the Day Users Bolt and Rarely do Overnighters

It was not as cold last night as the night before. When I work up the dog was asleep on my tights. Later the campground host came by and asked if I’d seen a motorcyclist leave. I had seen one leave about 15 minutes before. Him I know about, he said, but did you see a second one? No, he was the only one that I had noticed. And there was only the one when I came back from town last night. He said he rarely had problems with campers but that about 10% of the day users were reluctant to pay the fee. He said that there had been another one who had come in last night but that he had only seen the one leave. He told me that his wife (we) had a poodle about the same size but he was not as portly. Well, I explained, I feed him hot dogs – the are cheaper and probably more nutritious than dog food and they have the convenience of coming in a more proportion size – I give him a half a hot dog three to four times a day.

I lie in a room and I go to work and I plan a game called getting through the day while you wait for night. The night’s for me – just for me – and I can do anything with it I want. There used to be a lot of things to do with it, good things, but now there’s a bar and another bar and the same people in each bar. When I’ve had enough I go back to my room – Lillian Hellman – The Autumn Garden

Willie Nelson whines
The lady crosses her legs
This is not pretty, I say to myself
But it has its own fascination
It’s time I remind myself
To get back to reading my Ruskin


Some habits we dearly miss
Some we wish we could do without
This is what habits remind us of
     That some things will not go away


She is a professional
Her high heels clack
A secretary perhaps – no
      Excuse me – an administrative
      Assistant
      With carpel tunnel syndrome
She goes out – clack clack
And gets into a small blue Morris Minor
Such a small car for such a big woman

RONA: If you buy furs in spring, they’re reduced. It’s very wise, Herman, to buy furs in the spring. / HERMAN: Maybe. For those who can pay for them. / RONA: Those who can pay for them don’t need to bother – Lillian Hellman – My Mother, My Father and Me

33 million years ago occurred here an eruption over 1,000 times as great as Mt St Helens. Some guy in an VW camper van pulled in below be and the big rock behind me. It was after I had gone to bed. The dog started barking. “Who’s up there? Is there someone up there?” He didn’t get up until after ten the next morning and it was almost noon before he was about. “Sorry about last night,” he said. “I didn’t know there were campsites back here.” He and his spouse go hiking among the rocks. He has his camera with a big lens on a strap around his neck.

Till Rousseau’s time, there had been no “sentimental” love of nature; and until Soctt’s, no such apprehensive love of “all sorts and conditions of man,” not in the soul merely, but in the flesh – John Ruskin – The Genius of John Ruskin, 1963 p498

When it wants to be my pant legs. It is engaged in a competition, four you see, for there are three other male dogs at this campground. The geese (or maybe they are cranes) are feeding up and down the Rio Grande valley – flying up and down the river all day and yesterday too. Even the Tamaracks turn color – everything turns color – yellow then brown except for the cacti.

The essence of the masses is indifference; all differences are submerged and drowned in the masses – Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri – Multitudes: War and Democracy in the Age of Empire, 2004 p.xiv

The computer is kaput – it won’t boot up – the hard disk has crashed I am afraid – I dropped it out in the parking lot – out of communication (no telephone reception); no computer – voice mail (even if I got a signal) wanted me to provice it with a password which I didn't have. There are two Laundromats in town in fact, the barista tells me. I like Spin City. It has a pink roof. You can’t miss it. They require a card rather than coins but you can arrange to buy a pre-paid card, she says. Third light pass Wal-Mart just before the entrance to the freeway. Turn left and it is on your left. Can’t miss it.

If you do a foolish thing, you suffer… for it exactly the same, whether you do it piously or not – John Ruskin – The Genius of John Ruskin, 1963 p521

Honk, honk (it is actually more of a squawk squawk) geese ( later I decide that that they may be cranes) fly up river (the Rio Grande) and later down (the Rio Grande again, the return) – feeding, sleeping and flying in-between times – squawking along, one after another – moving in small flocks (irregular groups never in perfect vees – which is one reason I have determined that they may not be geese) – moving south – moving north – first in one direction, then in the other – but at any one time they all move in the same direction. It finally warms up enough for me to remove my Pendelton and I warm up and drink the last of the coffee in the morning’s pot.

Order is a human invention to account for what the senses perceive in sequence – R P Blackmur