introspective periscope : peeking inside since Y2K

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it wasn't supposed to be about my dad sniping

8:41 p.m. - 14 july, 2005

"but in the meantime, i've got it hard. second floor living without a yard. it may be years until the day my dreams will match up with my pay."~feist

i went over to my parent's house and had salads for dinner. today is thursday and my father is crankiest on thursdays because he's had little sleep but feels a certain obligation to make it known that 1) he is home and that the house is his home regardless of the frequency in which he sleeps there and 2) that he has been driving while we have all been sleeping and here we are, now, all awake and how many hours did you sleep last night? and finally, 3)can you suppose who will be getting back up in a few meager hours to do it all again? and as i've gotten older and made the drive across southern ohio myself a few times around, i understand how someone might want to die after doing it twice a week for the last three or five years.

after the incident with the police and the hollow points and the dead chipmunks and squirrels (i didn't write about it here, but i probably should've...a good story about my father, the sniper), my father has taken to improvised death for the rodents that eat at his precious strawberries and scavange his bird feeders.

the rodents are generally furry creatures with fuzzy tails and big eyes...chipmunks, baby rabbits small enough to fit on one of my hands, squirrels. little flea-ridden creatures who somehow know that my father has been rendered helpless to protect his fruits and vegetables and flowers and feeders. the first step was to run up and down the stairs to the basement door and scat at them, shooing them away for them only to grow bold and return to what they were doing on his arriving back upstairs. fruitless labor.
"that's the point. if they eat everything, then why bother laboring over the strawberries and roses?"
and now the next attempt involves some nameless brand of peanut butter smeared on old fashioned wooden mouse traps placed near (but not too near) the feeder.
my father must've decided that today was the day to give it a try. he stood in the bay window of the kitchen while i talked with my mother from the living room, she preparing salads with chicken and cheese for dinner. we conversed over the things we'd already emailed about throughout the day, my conversation really aimed at my father who watched...studied...over the chipmunk rollicking in the back yard.
"he must've been in a tangle with someone before," noted my father, pointint at the mere stump of a tail that bobbed on the bottom of the chipmunk.
i sighed and gave up trying to talk to him. and then, the chipmunk decided to give the peanut butter with no brand name a tasting. perhaps the thing with which this same chipmunk had previously tangled was a mouse trap very much like this old-fashioned wooden one that my father had set out for him. the chipmunk definitely seemed to know his way around a mouse trap. with one foot on the spring and a front paw scooping at the sticky peanuty spread, the chipmunk had his way with my father. my father shouted in disbelief as the chipmunk catapulted gracefully from the trap, springing it once it's bait had been cleaned out. my father rushed downstairs to rethink the project, thinking out loud as to how what we'd all wittnessed was at all possible.

my mother put the plates on the table. begrudingly, my father joined us, still muttering. we sat down to eat, my mother and i across the table from each other, my father sitting at his seat by the bay window.
he'd take a bite and turn around, glaring at the mouse trap, willing the wiley little chipmunk into it's jaws.
i ate and talked with my mother about not much of anything as we both watched my father fixated like a child on a little mouse trap.

after dinner, he went down and brought the trap in, saying that if it caught anything while he was gone, it would smell and rot and so what was the point?

after dinner, i loaded their dishwasher while they covered up the pool before the rain. i got in my car shortly after and headed home.

tonight, it didn't seem as humid and uncomfortable as it has this week and so i leashed up the dogs and took them for a walk. they were suprisingly behaved and we walked longer than we normally do.

i returned home and turned on the air in the bedroom...it is still not cool enough to sleep without the conditioned air.

i work the next few nights at my second job and then, it will be sunday. on saturday, i'm getting my hair cut but i haven't decided whether or not i want to just cut it all off, shortening the tresses that are as long as they've been in my life...braidable long...touchable behind my back long. i miss my short hair the most in the summer...miss it's ease and lightweight.

on sunday, toby will return from nashville. we've two weeks together that i intend to relax and enjoy.

today was a good day.

(to think i meant to actually write something about my undependable friends!)

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.what came before. - .what happened next.

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