Category Archives for art

driven

driven

my car and i have seen too much, these days. the poor thing was just sitting at the pump, and i had just swiped my card, when a very large ryder truck didn’t clear quite fully around my right front bumper. there was a large crunch, and a steady escape of air from the outside left rear tire of the giant truck as it sat mangled together with my bumper.

i think this is the second bumper mangling and potential new bumper this year for my car, and although it couldn’t have come at a worse time, with work too busy to eat, stretch, or sleep properly, i have some vague hope that the insurance and repair process will work servicably and without too much additional damage.

ironically, i think the new screw is, at least, still in place, though that turn indicator seems much lower and more twisted than it should be. let’s see how it drives to work later today…

driving

driving

today, it was a pigeon that nearly broke my heart. i had just left peet’s headed up california street with a single latte, when i saw an object flopping across the road ahead of me on the busy street. i was in the right lane, a bus was coming around my left side, and cars were stacked up behind me as i slowed while approaching it. its little head looked up and i saw that it was a pigeon with a broken wing. it somehow – miraculously – managed to flop all the way from the center of the road into the middle of my right-hand lane. it just lifted its head and looked up at me as i stopped in front of it. i turned my signal on, and went to the left around it, but the car behind me just carried on straight ahead… i agonized, as it seems i do, about the poor thing. in my mind’s eye, i saw myself stopping the car dead in traffic, getting out and lifting the pigeon out of the road to safety as cars honked and people around me angrily swore in passing. yet i did no such thing. i also transposed the homeless person i just passed, about whom i also did nothing, moments before in front of peet’s, as i was cradling my latte and my bag of groceries.

perhaps i need to stop driving like this. i learned today that the odd patch of blotchy skin on the left side of my neck comes from the sun through the driver’s side window. all this time– all this driving– and the window without UV protection. i’ve driven all my life. my life seems to be showing its age. vegas and back. cross the country. vancouver to mexico. all this time. broken wing…

pumping arnold

pumping arnold

i’m temporarily ignoring my screw saga, having parked my car (in the fogstorm!) last night and taken my – newly pumped – bike today. in the spirit of innuendo, it’s worth noting that we went to see ‘pumping iron’ last night. dapper members of the french media were on the scene at the roxie, filming and interviewing audience goers, and they filmed me paying for my ticket and grumbling about not casting a vote for ‘arnold’ because i value my state too much. i’m sure people all over the world and particularly our french friends are watching me, famous me, today. little do they know about the loose screw…