Entries from May 2008 ↓

There was a thunderstorm in Portland tonight – a very rare occurrence. The kids slept through it, even when the thunder made the house rattle. So much for animal instinct. How is it that they can sleep through a house-rattling boom but wake up when I creak by their door on tip toes?

I’ve always wanted to photograph lightning. Tonight I finally got a few pics – 4 with lightning in them, to be exact, out of the ~1100 photos I snapped.

I took them all from my front porch – not the most spectacular view of the sky, what with criss-crossing telephone wires, etc. There’s no award winning shots here, but I’m mighty proud all the same. Click to see these at a larger size.

This last picture is an in-progress shot of a Black Magic Insurance project I’m working on – yes, that’s a gbp machine gone ominous.

I’m busy as hell but I can’t help but mention my favorite birthday: May 18th, 1980.

On this date Mt. St. Helens thrust her upper half into the atmosphere, violently, and a crater/exploded volcano was born. It’s arguably one of the most important days of my life. I was 9 and a half years old and, living in Spokane, WA,  we were directly in the ash path. 

My mother was not big on media (I don’t believe we owned a tv at the time) and so we didn’t know about the volcano until a family friend bicycled to our house and pointed up to the edge of the sky where a legion of black pirate ships floated toward us. Awesome. An hour later the sky was raining ash! Holy crap! Completely in denial, I think we went on an errand – for what, gardening supplies or something? Our car shut down with its air filter completely clogged and we were driven home in a police car. 

For several weeks my brother and I were shut in, home from school with intense, brain rattling, parent hashing, floor scraping cabin fever. Ten days in or so (while we were still forbidden to go out) I distinctly remember my mother out mowing the lawn and ready to get on with the summer – a wicked tail of ash pluming up behind the push mower – while everyone else was in hazmat suits, etc. 

Later, it was my first real job as I gathered up ash to sell to the local potters’ community.

May 18th is also my half birthday. Mt. St. Helens seemed to be addressing me, or I thought so, at least in that way that a 9 year old believes that large cosmic events might manifest themselves for the explicit purpose of allowing one to get out of having to complete one’s report on Abraham Lincoln. I still wouldn’t rule it out. 

The mountain continues to fascinate me – Here’s a picture I took a few years back. If you haven’t dived into its crater via Google Earth yet, it’s worth a shot.

Happy Birthday, Mt. St Helens.

John Scalzi seems to have figured it out:

Glorious, Gynoparadisiacal West Virginia

I mean, Virgina, Virginia Slims – there’s something to it, that must be it. I can’t think of any other factors that might have come into play…

My friend Seth wrote to congratulate on getting the book up somewhere where people see it and added:

 ”P.S. – Is there any chance you can give me, you know, like a synopsis or something? Reading is so  time-consuming….”

Excellent question, Seth. Reading time is indeed a valuable commodity. Fortunately, there is an answer. Using the autosummarize feature of MS Word I can condense a 100,000 word novel down to just 98 words, which I have pasted here for your reading pleasure. I think it very accurately sums up the book:

Couch
by Benjamin Parzybok

“Thom!” said Erik. Thom sighed, “Erik?”
“Tree! Thom! “Erik,” Thom growled.
Thom nodded. Thom nodded.
Thom nodded. “Erik!” “Thom?” Thom smiled. “Thom, Tree and Erik. Thom
nodded. Thom smiled. “Thom. Thom nodded.
“Thom and Tree.”
“Erik,” Erik said.
“Tree,” said Thom.
“Tree! “Erik! “Thom!” said Erik.
“Tree?” “Tree! “Erik!”
“Tree! Thom,
Thom smiled. Thom,
“Thom.” “Erik? “Erik! Thom,
-Thom

# (<–I assume this is to signify part two – ed.)

“Erik!” “Thom! “Erik!” “Erik, Erik. “Tree! “Tree! “Erik!” “Tree? Thom?”
Thom nodded.
Thom

“Tree!” Thom nodded.
“Thom!” Thom nodded. “Tree? “Tree! “Tree?” “Thom – Thom! “Thom? “Erik.
“Thom!” “Tree!”
“Tree. Thom. “Erik!” “Erik!” “Erik,” Thom said.
Thom nodded. Thom!

I hope I haven’t given away too much plot.