Music and Dogs

Yesterday, I went reluctantly to town. I needed to run a couple of errands that could not wait, and I had to get the missing pie ingredient.

I started at my favorite flea market digging through the massive record bins in the back.  I'm going to try a project I saw on Etsy which will require colorful vintage album covers.  It was about three hundred degrees in there, but I took my time flipping through the albums looking for covers with interesting patterns or color combinations.  It was an odd journey through music history.  There were artists I knew, groups I'd never heard of, and of course there was the ever-changing panoply of fashion.  I found that I wanted to leave the groups I knew best, unwilling to bring those home and cut them up.  I kept thinking, "Somebody might want that one to listen to or put up on a wall somewhere."  I know that was sort of a silly feeling, probably, worrying about some anonymous person somewhere who might possibly want an album at some undefined date in the future, but there you have it.  I left the Elvises, the Tchaikovskys, and the KC and the Sunshine Bands alone.

After the junktique and a couple of other errands, I stopped by the local OfficeThing in an attempt to replace the powered USB hub Roux chewed up the other night, zapping her lip but nothing more serious than that, fortunately.  She got one of her bored gnawing spells when I was out of the house, and for some reason, the USB hub seemed tasty....  OfficeThing, of course, had NONE!  They did, however, have a good sale on USB 2.0 external hard drives.  I need a big one, 1 TB or larger, so I was looking at theirs.  I dithered, decided to wait a bit longer for back-to-school sales and maybe a coupon, and left, buying only a pencil case shaped like a purple Converse Chuck Taylor high top.  Do Not Judge Me.

I came home and got my pies made just about the time the daily massive thunderstorm came through.  I got them put in the freezer to chill and solidify since this easy key lime recipe needs that, and I fiddled around on the computer and read, listening to music while the thunderstorm boomed.  My little yellow dog, Yelldo, followed me around while I was putting together the pies so much I thought I was going to trip over him.  He hates storms.  When I sat down on the couch, he huddled behind my knees.  He's so afraid of everything.  

After all the storms cleared, the air was sweet and cool, and even though it was getting dark, I decided to go outside.  I took my hammock out, hung it, put out my new citronella candle, and read for awhile.  I remembered to bring a booklight this time, too.  It was full dark out before I decided to go in, and the new little glass-topped solar globes I've stuck here and there in the edges of the yard glowed like fairy lights.  I'm enjoying that outdoor space more and more.  I just wish I had somebody to share it with.  It would be a wonderful space to sit and talk as the day slides away.

As for the music part of my post, I've become a little obsessed with Calexico over the last couple of days, especially with three of their songs.  My favorite by far is "Inspiracion."  It just gets stuck in my mind, and I want to hear it again and again.  Coming in a close second and from the same album is "Fractured Air."  The lyrics in that one caught my attention.  More angels and devils there.  It seems like everything I listen to or read lately has angels and devils in it, and most of them aren't acting in their normal roles.  I don't know what's going on with that.  There's a shirt on Etsy I think I'm going to get, though, that has one on each shoulder, psychomachia in print....  Anyway, the last song is one I just found last night, "Missing."  It's very different from the other two, but again, the lyrics drew me in.  The very different sound of the three songs is one of the things I like about Calexico.  You just never know what's going to come out of them.

Today, I mostly read.  I'm deep into Atlas Shrugged now, and I can't seem to put it down.  I literally read out the battery on my Kindle.  I'm waiting for it to recharge, and then I'll read some more.  It's fantastic.  

I need to be making plans to see Windsor.  My time is running low.  Soon I'll be back in my classroom for the endless cycle of meetings and whatnot that precedes the school year.  I really want to see Windsor this summer.  Maybe I can go sometime in the next few days.  I wish I could get somebody to go with me.  It would be more fun with somebody to enjoy it with, somebody who would think it was interesting, too.  I think everybody is pretty much tied up with kids and obligations, though.  

The rain is still falling, a new wave pattering heavily on the metal roof in the back just now, so there will be no nighttime hammocking for me tonight.  Perhaps that's just as well.  It will give some of these mosquito bites a chance to heal up.  It seems the citronella wasn't a perfect solution.  Sigh.  Oh well.  More music and dogs, I suppose.