Celeste's Short Story

Here's one of Celeste's writing assignments, done with very little assistance (maybe 1%) from Allie. Read it, pretty darn good for a ten year old - and waaaay better than I could ever muster from the dusty corners of my forty year-old brain.

I sniffed my pencil. It smelled woody and sweaty. In other words, it smelled much like any pencil that has been used all day. “Blah blah blah.” That was all the teacher was saying. “Blah blah blah.” Come on, teacher, I already know how to use quotation marks! I mean, really, can I at least write a story with them? School is boring. Super boring. I rocked back and forth in my chair casually; staring at the average classroom with average desks made of average wood, an average dull teacher wearing average clothes, average kids with average pencils, writing very average things.

Maybe I shouldn’t rock back in my chair, I thought. I could fall and really hurt myself. Well, I guess it’s okay if I’m really careful. I am holding onto my desk. I took a sip of my not-anymore-cold water. It felt nice as it went down. It made my stomach feel heavy, and it seemed to massage my belly. Ahh, I thought. That feels much better. I put my foot under the leg of my chair. Actually, I just put my shoe under it. Then I was able to easily rock myself back and forth. It felt nice being partially elevated, too.

I sighed. Now what to do? I mean, other than listen to the teacher tell us about stuff I learned in 2^nd grade! Hmm… maybe if I break my pencil, I can be excused from this horrible boringness for at least a second. Okay, I’ll give it a try. I raised my hand and broke my pencil.

“Yes, Celeste?”

“Can I sharpen my pencil?”

“Of course you can!” the teacher exclaimed. As I walked over to the pencil sharpener, relief coursed through my body. Before I had been overwhelmed with monotony, but now I was as happy as a dog that was about to eat a big, juicy steak, topped with another big, juicy steak. Whzzzz… went the pencil sharpener, drowning out the dreary teacher’s dreary speech. Hey-dog, I thought. It would be cool if we could bring our pets to school. I remembered my pets: Juno, a yellow Labrador retriever, and Alpha, a betta fish who was scared of everything. Hey-fish. It would be cool if we had fish tanks on our desks, or even cooler, fish tanks built into our desks. Hey-tanks. It would be the coolest if we could have terrariums and aquariums surrounding our desks. They would have snakes, frogs, fish, bugs, lizards, and salamanders in them.

My train of thought disappeared as I walked back to my seat, and I started to rock back and forth in my chair, forgetting what I had thought earlier about rocking back in my chair being dangerous. Then I rocked too hard. I tried to stop my fall with my arms, but I couldn’t. I remembered when I had been like this before. I was at a party and I tripped on a gift. I couldn’t stop myself, because falling is a quick event, but to the person falling it’s as slow as a snail crossing your driveway, giving the person the illusion that he or she has all the time in the world to catch his or her fall. While, in reality, he or she doesn’t even have enough time to move their arms forward. In addition, that party had delicious ice cream. I could almost taste it. Mmmm… Suddenly, I was on the ground, and my classmates were staring at me. My friend asked if I was okay.

“I’m okay,” I replied. My head and back stung from the fall, but overall I was fine. I checked my watch. 10:30. Wow. It was the same time as it was when I was making my point (in my head) about how boring school was. Am I a snail crossing a driveway or what?

Winsome Water Weighted Web

Outside mi casa this morning. He/she has had this web strung up for over a week now, impeding my ability to trim the hedge. I don't want to destroy it as it's far too cool to look at every morning.

*A friend just informed me that it's a crab spider.

More Volvo Goodness

Why oh why does this fine chunk of Swedish iron have to be 1) local, 2) desirable and 3) affordable?

I think I deserve it. Click here for more info.

Børk børk børk!

Favorite Songs of All Time: "Halleljuah" by Jeff Buckley

The late Jeff Buckley's haunting version of Leonard Cohen's magnificent "Hallelujah" (1994), it's one of the rare exceptions where the cover version is vastly superior to the original. Which is saying a lot, as I love Leonard's original version as well, but Jeff transformed this song.

The studio version is by far my favorite, bittersweet and brooding. Just his angelic voice and a melancholic electric guitar. Listen here:


And one more, live in studio. Great to watch him perform, but it's not quite up to the same level as the album version posted above.


"Hallelujah" has been covered many times by many musicians since and will be covered again, but I don't see how anyone could top Jeff's perfect version. And if you don't have his album Grace, buy it now.

Rustic Potato Bread

Fresh outta the oven, the kitchen smells fantastic. A pound and a half of potatoes between these two loaves. Thanks again for the recipe Darren!

Down On The Street

I came across this ruby red gem while walking the dog this morning. Parked just a few doors down from our home, it's one of the cars I'll own before I'm dead.

"Regular" P1800s are pretty cool too, but they don't have the super-cool shooting brake form. And being the "long-roof" wagon/van dork that I am, I greatly prefer the ES.
Just check out the length of the hood - proportionally anyway.
Hard for me to find a bad angle on this rig. About the only thing I'm not a fan of are the US-spec bumpers, protruding too far off the front.
If it was my car, I'd see about replacing with some Euro-style brackets to snug the bumper nice and tight with the body work. Oh, and I'd put a set of silver Minilites on it too.
Such a simple and clean front end.
The back is not too shabby either. In fact, the rear window on Volvo's current C30 coupe borrows heavily from the window design.

It also has one of the coolest hood ornaments:
As well as vestigial tail fins.
Not all too surprising considering that the body was styled in the late-1950s.

On a side note, the Volvo "Amazon" I posted back in July is still parked a mile or so from the home, still for sale. I'd love to have a Swedish brick in the garage. Hmm...

Fog Froth Flocks Fork