Saturday, September 1, 2012

Last Of The Breed

My boyfriend recently decided to part with a collection of Louis L'amour books.  Until they sell, I thought I'd read as many as I could. So I randomly grabbed one on top of the pile.  It's Last of the Breed. So if you don't want spoilers, fair warning. This one is ©1986. I've read a few of his books but that was years ago.

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Save Your Fives

I was watching a TV show called Deals and they interviewed a woman about saving your fives.  If you get in the habit of using cash instead of an ATM card, then every time you get a $5 bill in change, you sock it away for a rainy day. I desperately need to save money to get another used car. My 30+ year old truck gave up the ghost.  But I haven't been able to save anything. I sold the truck for $1000 and was supposed to save that and add to it, but I ended up spending $300 of it over time on other bills and necessities. I just used $110 of it to pay electricity.

So I'm hoping the 'save your fives' plan will help me build it back up to $1000 and then some.

Saturday, August 4, 2012

Stumpy

I walked to the Dairy Queen with journal and pen in hand.  But when I got there the pen was gone. I tried to borrow one from the cashier but she was down to her only pen. So I walked to the liquor store nearby. In their meager area of office supplies, they had unsharpened pencils but no pens. I asked for a pen and he ferreted through the shelves behind the counter and still no pen.

I asked if he had a pocketknife to sharpen a pencil if I bought one.  None of those either. So he scrounged around in his junk drawer and came up with this sad little stump with a caved in eraser sleeve. Pitiful! But it works. As the saying goes, a short pencil is better than a long memory.  I've dubbed it 'Stumpy."




Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Reflections on Ray Bradbury

I heard this morning that Ray had passed on. I always smile when I think of him.  One day he rode the train up to San Luis Obispo, CA to speak at the Earthling Bookstore (now long gone). I snuck in the back door and ended up in the front of the seating area.

I remember some of the things Ray said. One local man who was often seen wandering the streets was there and in front of everyone explained the plot of the book he was writing.  After that long winded speech, he asked Ray how he should end it. And in the immortal words of Ray Bradbury, he said, "How should I know. It's your book."

Ray talked about taking the train up because he saw some relatives decapitated in a car once.  That cured him of wanting to drive. He talked about the Hoover Dam and how he told them if they built it like they planned it would leak, and it does.

He talked about typing 90 WPM because he used to have to rent the manual typewriter at the library and pay per minute. If you've never used a manual typewriter, your fingers had to be super strong to push those keys down.

He talked about living in Venice Beach for many years and roaming the streets because of insomnia.  If was fine when the city was in good shape, but as gangs and drugs took over, he often got stopped by the police and when they asked who he was, he said, "I'm Ray Bradbury." And they'd say, "I bet you are."

Then he signed everyone's copy of his book.  I don't remember what book he was selling that day but I brought one from home.  When I told him my name was Fayme, he said he'd never heard it before.  I said, "It's French." He said, "Are you French." And I said no. I kept hoping my name would appear in one of his books some day, but if it did, I never heard about it.

It was a special day and he was a special man.