is the word 'diary' better than the word 'blog'? probably not.
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water birds.
gus and I were in maine for a family wedding last weekend (his family), and stayed at a holiday inn with a restaurant and bar bearing a ship theme (aye, matey). the locals like to go to the bar (the bounty, heh) and sing karaoke. one night there was a scowly tattooed guy there who looked homocidal. right before gus and I were heading back up to our room, he grabbed the karaoke song book, and we were sad that we wouldn't get to see what he would sing.
another day in maine, when we were driving down route 1 to go to the L.L.Bean outlet (gus insisted, I'm still not sure why), we saw some Things along the side of the road and Gus, swerving the car, was all, "what?... the Hell?... is THAT?". I looked up from my sidekick and said, "wild turkeys," and looked back down.
you remember, of course, that back when I was living in amherst I, too, almost drove off the road the first time I spotted, what?!, weird birdlike dinosaur things on the road. they were wild turkeys. they were everywhere. they lived in my backyard. they are strange-looking creatures. so it was funny that I could so calmly respond to gus' swerving: "wild turkeys."
later that day we saw lots of macho ducks doing water dances in a nature sanctuary. meanwhile I was living the impossibility of the mind/body split courtesy of some lobster-stew food poisoning. some nature walks should be renamed.
the next day we were getting ready for the wedding. gus put on a shirt, tie, and sweater vest and began fearing that he looked like an english professor. I reminded him that he IS an english professor. then he said that his outfit meant that, during the post-dinner toasting part of the evening, he could stand up and say (booming professorial voice), "I'm moved to say a few words from thomas carlyle...." ha. I told him that his outfit was super cute and fine by me as long as he rocked the diesel jeans and not some crazy wide-wale corduroys.
also, when I gave a speech at my sister's wedding reception, I began with a quote from jean-jacques rousseau.
speaking of prehistoric birds, a great blue heron (that's the official bird name, though he is, also, pretty darn great) has been hanging out at the haverford pond fairly often lately. for a while he would only show up on days when I forgot my camera, dagnabit. but then I got wise and he got predictable and I snapped the shit out of some photos of him. and he is a Great Blue Heron. He's like as tall as I am, with a crazy-long neck that puts itself in all kinds of funny positions, depending on his moods (ever-changing). I think I love him. this is the wood duck, part deux. he is always alone. and, unlike the ducks and geese, he is not so tame. if you try to get near him, he'll fly away. which is sad, sure, but also cool, because when he flies, his tiny midsection erupts with a wide wide wingspan which then flaps in slow motion and carries him comic-gracefully to some point in the middle of the pond. he has been there every day for a week now. so today I had it in my mind to film his flight. but I've also been testing our boundaries lately. I stand far away for a long time, then I move closer, wait, then closer, and so on. so today when I tried to move close to get a film of his flight, he just stood there. right near me. I almost could have hugged him, but that would have been weird and wrong.
just then, some geese came in for a subpar water landing, and I got that on film. not to diss these geese, but I've seen far better (longer-gliding) goose and duck water landings. I love how they sound as they ease into the water. i'll try to get a better version for you later, but here is today's, for now.....
10:24 p.m. - September 16, 2009
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