I Was Walking With A Ghost
An ONTD post reminded me
that Tegan and Sara still exist
and are still making life a better place.
That was when I realized
I NEEDED to listen to
"Walking with A Ghost"
so I played it
inside my head but
I couldn't remember whether the lyrics were
"I said please,
please don't exist"
or
"please don't insist"
And there were two legitimately reliable memories
where I truly believed it was one
only to be amazed it was the other
and these two obviously conflicting memories
that couldn't both be true
but FELT like they were
is a snapshot of exactly why
I can't tell left from right
(at least not quickly)
or other fun facts
where two distinct
but inherently similar options are equally reasonable possibilities.
Do you plant tulips in fall or spring?
Is it spelled "hawthorn"
or "hawthorne"?
How are we supposed to remember such things?
But this was when I discovered
I did not OWN A COPY
of Tegan and Sara's feminal hit
at which point
I bought the original single
and 4 other T&S live variants
2 remixes, and 2 covers.
Damn all those insistent ghosts!
___________________________________________________________
We just got back from Texas yesterday
from chasing the eclipse.
A little history, if you're interested.
In 2016 I warned the denizens of MMSMMM
(a secret club 4 of us started in high school)
that we were all going to meet in Oregon
for the total eclipse of 2017.
I forced everyone's hand.
We rented a cabin in the wilderness
right in the middle path of totality,
I told them the time,
the date,
and billed them each for their 1/4th portion
because I was making about $9k/year at the time.
We were going to hang out,
and laugh ourselves silly
and enjoy the Cosmic Dance of Spheres
OR ELSE.
And we hung out
and laughed ourselves silly
and enjoyed the ephemeral nature of the cosmos
and its ineffable beauty.
I warned them last year,
I was going to do the same thing...
except accept input and plan with them more
rather than plan everything myself
and demand their eclipsing presence in my life.
Long story short:
It was just me and Sailor
in another oversized cabin
set in the backwoods
with lots of extra beds
this time in the Hill Country
of Texas.
Everyone had good reasons
all their own
why they couldn't come
but I was disappointed to find myself
in Texas
(OF ALL PLACES!!)
where we were
all on our own
with a cabin
and plans
(and a rented car)
that could accommodate everyone
but instead
it was just us.
Sailor,
being ever vigilant
was worried about The South
and how some people shout about how it will
Rise Again.
I admonished him
(usually this is a mistake on my part)
that we live 20 miles from
National Neo-Nazi HQ.
That WE already LIVE
(and were both raised)
in a sieg-heiling hellhole
full of swastika-tattooed skinheads
and their Republican congressmen hunting-buddies
trying to create a
White and Conservative State
by cutting out Eastern Washington
and turning it into an Aryan Homeland...
so even if Texas is bad...
I was fairly sure Texas
was much like Idaho,...
they just wear a bigger hat
(ten gallon or pointy/white)
when they violently hate
peace and/or natural human diversity.
Literally,
the sign that USED to say
"Welcome to Bonners Ferry, Idaho population 2,500"
has instead said:
"Welcome to Trump Country
Love God, Guns, Family, Freedom and your Neighbor
GO BADGERS"
since 2020!
I shit you not.
That is REAL.
That is where my mom lives.
SPOILER:
[SPOILER!!]
By the end of the trip Sailor admitted
he wasn't sure he'd seen any:
- Punisher skull bumper stickers
- Gun Family window decals
- Let's Go Brandon/Fuck Biden/Pro-Trump stickers
- Giant diesel trucks flying Giant American Flags
- Join or Die/Don't Tread on Me flags
or any of the usual shit we see EVERY DAY around home.
PLUS - we stayed within 2 hours of Austin so,...
It may not be an accurate place
to judge Texas from.
We stayed in a downtown Austin apartment
(right downtown for two nights).
At a remote goat farm run by happy retirees in Spring Branch for a night,
(who had peacocks, a screened porch that watches the whole house, a beautiful fresh breakfast,
and a coaxable baby highland cow)
In Henley for two nights,
(on 20 acres, miles from a paved road with a southview from a firepit or porch,
overlooking a knock-kneed low-tree valley
in a "cabin" the size of our house
with a pool table, dart board and a bed so tall I had to use a step-stool to climb into it)
Back in Austin for one night
before an early flight back out
to Reality
where the sun serves
it's sunny side up
all day - every day
rain AND shine
all of the time
just because its
a giant plasma fire in the sky
that gives us everything
we've EVER had
and asks nothing in return.
INSTEAD of the unreality
of enjoying 85 degree days in April
and watching the sun
just...
... wink out
but yet STILL be able to blind me
with it's beauty and power
just by touching us with it's shadow
instead of it's usual ultra-bright everything light.
The SUN!
Acted coy!
Seeming to be seen
smiling like the moon,
twice-over
(if you have NASA-approved eye-protection,
or some pin-hole projection to see)
through all... that... white sight!
I only planned three things.
(besides the stays themselves)
1. Visit an underground cave.
2. Watch Eclipse from Wildernessishness-like-place
that was actually wholly luxurious.
3. Visit home of Austin City Limits.
All three?
Easily done!
Hooray!
We also:
- Pet a bebe cow.
- Drank cocktails, ate food truck meals
and watched the sunset at the Tiniest Bar in Texas.
- Ate breakfast with a guy telling stories about
when he flew an F-18 under the Golden Gate Bridge
("I was ordered to! It was a great day!")
- Ate a transcendent pile of wagyu brisket with a side of fried okra.
- Got slobbered on by a samoyed.
- Played many games of pool, darts, Dungeon Mayhem, Sonic the Hedgehog (original SEGA), Jenga, ring-swing, and checkers,
- I lost every game of pool, darts, Dungeon Mayhem, and Sonic the Hedgehog,
and I only won one game of Jenga, ring-swing, and checkers, each.
Note to all: Sailor is not to be trifled with, he be powerfully fierce!
- Talked and talked and talked and talked with each other!
- Saw weather change from a clear and sunny, humid 85F
change to marble-sized hail and sideways rain riding 50mph gusts
in the time it took to eat a (small!) lemon-strawberry custard-stuffed croissant.
- Offended a saltmarsh caterpillar
- Stole some holey hill country rocks
- Bought a Mr. T book about dealing with bullies.
- Did I mention the TRANSCENDENT BBQ brisket?
- Ran through the heaviest rain I've ever experienced.
- Got seasick in a vortex
(Not my video but same sorta vortex/effect)
and yet kept going back in for more.
- Transcended time AND space via magic brisket.
- Attended a live taping (Kara Swisher on Overheard)
We did lots of other things, too...
but that was the most of it.
Caves and brisket and an eclipse and
a place called "Beefy's"
which we shouldn't have gone to
(obviously).
We saw cactus
and longhorns
and roadsigns that point out
that obeying roadsignage
is the law
and armadillo-themed purses.
It was wild, Texas.
Thanks for the memories.
that Tegan and Sara still exist
and are still making life a better place.
That was when I realized
I NEEDED to listen to
"Walking with A Ghost"
so I played it
inside my head but
I couldn't remember whether the lyrics were
"I said please,
please don't exist"
or
"please don't insist"
And there were two legitimately reliable memories
where I truly believed it was one
only to be amazed it was the other
and these two obviously conflicting memories
that couldn't both be true
but FELT like they were
is a snapshot of exactly why
I can't tell left from right
(at least not quickly)
or other fun facts
where two distinct
but inherently similar options are equally reasonable possibilities.
Do you plant tulips in fall or spring?
Is it spelled "hawthorn"
or "hawthorne"?
How are we supposed to remember such things?
But this was when I discovered
I did not OWN A COPY
of Tegan and Sara's feminal hit
at which point
I bought the original single
and 4 other T&S live variants
2 remixes, and 2 covers.
Damn all those insistent ghosts!
___________________________________________________________
We just got back from Texas yesterday
from chasing the eclipse.
A little history, if you're interested.
In 2016 I warned the denizens of MMSMMM
(a secret club 4 of us started in high school)
that we were all going to meet in Oregon
for the total eclipse of 2017.
I forced everyone's hand.
We rented a cabin in the wilderness
right in the middle path of totality,
I told them the time,
the date,
and billed them each for their 1/4th portion
because I was making about $9k/year at the time.
We were going to hang out,
and laugh ourselves silly
and enjoy the Cosmic Dance of Spheres
OR ELSE.
And we hung out
and laughed ourselves silly
and enjoyed the ephemeral nature of the cosmos
and its ineffable beauty.
I warned them last year,
I was going to do the same thing...
except accept input and plan with them more
rather than plan everything myself
and demand their eclipsing presence in my life.
Long story short:
It was just me and Sailor
in another oversized cabin
set in the backwoods
with lots of extra beds
this time in the Hill Country
of Texas.
Everyone had good reasons
all their own
why they couldn't come
but I was disappointed to find myself
in Texas
(OF ALL PLACES!!)
where we were
all on our own
with a cabin
and plans
(and a rented car)
that could accommodate everyone
but instead
it was just us.
Sailor,
being ever vigilant
was worried about The South
and how some people shout about how it will
Rise Again.
I admonished him
(usually this is a mistake on my part)
that we live 20 miles from
National Neo-Nazi HQ.
That WE already LIVE
(and were both raised)
in a sieg-heiling hellhole
full of swastika-tattooed skinheads
and their Republican congressmen hunting-buddies
trying to create a
White and Conservative State
by cutting out Eastern Washington
and turning it into an Aryan Homeland...
so even if Texas is bad...
I was fairly sure Texas
was much like Idaho,...
they just wear a bigger hat
(ten gallon or pointy/white)
when they violently hate
peace and/or natural human diversity.
Literally,
the sign that USED to say
"Welcome to Bonners Ferry, Idaho population 2,500"
has instead said:
"Welcome to Trump Country
Love God, Guns, Family, Freedom and your Neighbor
GO BADGERS"
since 2020!
I shit you not.
That is REAL.
That is where my mom lives.
SPOILER:
[SPOILER!!]
By the end of the trip Sailor admitted
he wasn't sure he'd seen any:
- Punisher skull bumper stickers
- Gun Family window decals
- Let's Go Brandon/Fuck Biden/Pro-Trump stickers
- Giant diesel trucks flying Giant American Flags
- Join or Die/Don't Tread on Me flags
or any of the usual shit we see EVERY DAY around home.
PLUS - we stayed within 2 hours of Austin so,...
It may not be an accurate place
to judge Texas from.
We stayed in a downtown Austin apartment
(right downtown for two nights).
At a remote goat farm run by happy retirees in Spring Branch for a night,
(who had peacocks, a screened porch that watches the whole house, a beautiful fresh breakfast,
and a coaxable baby highland cow)
In Henley for two nights,
(on 20 acres, miles from a paved road with a southview from a firepit or porch,
overlooking a knock-kneed low-tree valley
in a "cabin" the size of our house
with a pool table, dart board and a bed so tall I had to use a step-stool to climb into it)
Back in Austin for one night
before an early flight back out
to Reality
where the sun serves
it's sunny side up
all day - every day
rain AND shine
all of the time
just because its
a giant plasma fire in the sky
that gives us everything
we've EVER had
and asks nothing in return.
INSTEAD of the unreality
of enjoying 85 degree days in April
and watching the sun
just...
... wink out
but yet STILL be able to blind me
with it's beauty and power
just by touching us with it's shadow
instead of it's usual ultra-bright everything light.
The SUN!
Acted coy!
Seeming to be seen
smiling like the moon,
twice-over
(if you have NASA-approved eye-protection,
or some pin-hole projection to see)
through all... that... white sight!
I only planned three things.
(besides the stays themselves)
1. Visit an underground cave.
2. Watch Eclipse from Wildernessishness-like-place
that was actually wholly luxurious.
3. Visit home of Austin City Limits.
All three?
Easily done!
Hooray!
We also:
- Pet a bebe cow.
- Drank cocktails, ate food truck meals
and watched the sunset at the Tiniest Bar in Texas.
- Ate breakfast with a guy telling stories about
when he flew an F-18 under the Golden Gate Bridge
("I was ordered to! It was a great day!")
- Ate a transcendent pile of wagyu brisket with a side of fried okra.
- Got slobbered on by a samoyed.
- Played many games of pool, darts, Dungeon Mayhem, Sonic the Hedgehog (original SEGA), Jenga, ring-swing, and checkers,
- I lost every game of pool, darts, Dungeon Mayhem, and Sonic the Hedgehog,
and I only won one game of Jenga, ring-swing, and checkers, each.
Note to all: Sailor is not to be trifled with, he be powerfully fierce!
- Talked and talked and talked and talked with each other!
- Saw weather change from a clear and sunny, humid 85F
change to marble-sized hail and sideways rain riding 50mph gusts
in the time it took to eat a (small!) lemon-strawberry custard-stuffed croissant.
- Offended a saltmarsh caterpillar
- Stole some holey hill country rocks
- Bought a Mr. T book about dealing with bullies.
- Did I mention the TRANSCENDENT BBQ brisket?
- Ran through the heaviest rain I've ever experienced.
- Got seasick in a vortex
(Not my video but same sorta vortex/effect)
and yet kept going back in for more.
- Transcended time AND space via magic brisket.
- Attended a live taping (Kara Swisher on Overheard)
We did lots of other things, too...
but that was the most of it.
Caves and brisket and an eclipse and
a place called "Beefy's"
which we shouldn't have gone to
(obviously).
We saw cactus
and longhorns
and roadsigns that point out
that obeying roadsignage
is the law
and armadillo-themed purses.
It was wild, Texas.
Thanks for the memories.