Sunday, January 11, 2009
Umm Qasr 01052009
Wow, what wonderful things life gives you when you least expect! I just finished watching “The Legend of 1900” with Tim Roth. This is a terrific movie. The existentialism reeks but if you listen and pay attention, it’s very cohesive. I don’t remember even seeing teasers for this movie. But if you find a way to get this into your DVD, do it.
I got this tonight because my money came back to me. Yes, I foolishly sent my pants to get washed and left all my money in the pocket. When I picked up my laundry, there was an envelope in the pocket with “Umm Qasr North, ticket 0171, 854$” on it. I’d be fussy and gripe that my money clip didn’t come back, but with all that money, I guess I can find myself another. But I digress- I took my returned money (I’d be flat broke without it) and visited the haji shop on base. Instead of five movies for $20, I got ten movies for $36. He said seven movies were $3 and three were $5. When I got to my hooch, I sifted through my pile of movie treasures and picked this one. What a great pick! This movie is great! When I leave here, this DVD will go with me. The soundtrack has a lot of original Jelly Roll Morton pieces. Now I may have to ask Richie to find more and send ‘em to me on a CD.
I spent a bit of time this afternoon working on the US Customs cargo processing stuff that Al asked about. But I feel like I’m stealing- I work in a comfy Ikea chair with my laptop, listening to Jimmy Buffet and the Beatles and Rhonda Vincent.
Tomorrow is a meeting that the military guys seem to pooh-pooh. Well, maybe something good will come of this meeting.
Today was also a bit productive for my blog. I put up something I wrote from Thanksgiving, something I wrote for Caitlin, Sue’s Granddaughter and for myself, a piece about a fictional conversation with my daughter. Well, it’s fictional in that the conversation never has happened but not-so-fictional in that I project a lot of my suspicions onto the characters, suspicions about what’s happened to Pense since my divorce from her mother. The story’s not done, not yet.
But things epistemological resonate. I see glimmers of another life yet. Something that hasn’t yet happened but will. Not too many glimmers, since I’m pushing 64, but a few. Some of them involve my big Richiesohn, some involve just me. I don’t mind if some of the glimmers feature Pense and Schaffe, too. And maybe some of the glimmers might be just me, continuing to work here. LOL, after tomorrow’s security meeting, the crystal ball gets pretty murky.
And to put a bit of emotional icing on my day, just now, the movie’s music video ended, so I minimized a few things to get to my iTunes on the desktop. And guess who was smiling at me from my desktop? Yep, my big happy Richiesohn. He’s looking straight into the camera, holding some tongs that he’s using to flip the pork roast in our smoker. He’s standing on our patio; behind him I can see the beige color of the back of our house, the wisteria and grapevines on the now-historical trellis, and our fence that I painted some redwood preservative on when I painted the house. My computer tells me it’s 11:02 for him because my computer is set to the time when I left California for Iraq. Maybe one day I’ll make my computer say the time it is in Iraq. But not now. Now my laptop is becoming a sort of icon, in the mystical sense. I’ve got Hayward time, with my big son on the desktop. Heck, it’s even the vehicle I just used to watch that “1900” movie. KK, better stop before Richie thinks I’m getting too metaphysical.
I got this tonight because my money came back to me. Yes, I foolishly sent my pants to get washed and left all my money in the pocket. When I picked up my laundry, there was an envelope in the pocket with “Umm Qasr North, ticket 0171, 854$” on it. I’d be fussy and gripe that my money clip didn’t come back, but with all that money, I guess I can find myself another. But I digress- I took my returned money (I’d be flat broke without it) and visited the haji shop on base. Instead of five movies for $20, I got ten movies for $36. He said seven movies were $3 and three were $5. When I got to my hooch, I sifted through my pile of movie treasures and picked this one. What a great pick! This movie is great! When I leave here, this DVD will go with me. The soundtrack has a lot of original Jelly Roll Morton pieces. Now I may have to ask Richie to find more and send ‘em to me on a CD.
I spent a bit of time this afternoon working on the US Customs cargo processing stuff that Al asked about. But I feel like I’m stealing- I work in a comfy Ikea chair with my laptop, listening to Jimmy Buffet and the Beatles and Rhonda Vincent.
Tomorrow is a meeting that the military guys seem to pooh-pooh. Well, maybe something good will come of this meeting.
Today was also a bit productive for my blog. I put up something I wrote from Thanksgiving, something I wrote for Caitlin, Sue’s Granddaughter and for myself, a piece about a fictional conversation with my daughter. Well, it’s fictional in that the conversation never has happened but not-so-fictional in that I project a lot of my suspicions onto the characters, suspicions about what’s happened to Pense since my divorce from her mother. The story’s not done, not yet.
But things epistemological resonate. I see glimmers of another life yet. Something that hasn’t yet happened but will. Not too many glimmers, since I’m pushing 64, but a few. Some of them involve my big Richiesohn, some involve just me. I don’t mind if some of the glimmers feature Pense and Schaffe, too. And maybe some of the glimmers might be just me, continuing to work here. LOL, after tomorrow’s security meeting, the crystal ball gets pretty murky.
And to put a bit of emotional icing on my day, just now, the movie’s music video ended, so I minimized a few things to get to my iTunes on the desktop. And guess who was smiling at me from my desktop? Yep, my big happy Richiesohn. He’s looking straight into the camera, holding some tongs that he’s using to flip the pork roast in our smoker. He’s standing on our patio; behind him I can see the beige color of the back of our house, the wisteria and grapevines on the now-historical trellis, and our fence that I painted some redwood preservative on when I painted the house. My computer tells me it’s 11:02 for him because my computer is set to the time when I left California for Iraq. Maybe one day I’ll make my computer say the time it is in Iraq. But not now. Now my laptop is becoming a sort of icon, in the mystical sense. I’ve got Hayward time, with my big son on the desktop. Heck, it’s even the vehicle I just used to watch that “1900” movie. KK, better stop before Richie thinks I’m getting too metaphysical.
# posted by rich @ 12:55 AM 
