The Idiot's Guide to Jastin

I went to see a friend whom I’ll call “Jastin.” I had already heard that Jastin was a big reader so I was not surprised when I saw that he had a large library. However, I was surprised that all of the books looked the same. They were all yellow and black paper back books. Upon closer examination I realized the books where all different, vastly different in some cases. A small selection of titles follows: French for Dummies, Photoshop for Dummies, “Shakespeare for Dummies,” “Sailing for Dummies.” Eventually I found in a less conspicuous bookshelf some different books. When I tell you some of the titles you will understand, as I did, why they weren’t out in the open. These books were orange and had titles such as “The Idiot’s Guide to Mathematics,” “The Idiots Guide to Relationships” and “The Idiot’s Guide to Puppetry.” Jastin was understandably embarrassed about these guides for idiots. I wonder if Jastin started with the idiot guides and worked his way up to the books for dummies. I had never realized until then what low self-esteem Jastin has.

short term birthday

My entire Albuquerque family picked me up at the airport this evening. All three of them. Robert’s wife and mother-in-law walked into the house first so when Robert and I walked in people were already home. Robert smiled and laughed and said, “ what a treat.” Very happy to see his wife after so many seconds, he gave her a hug and asked, “is it my birthday?”
Short term memory can be fun if you think its your birthday.

Back from Deutchland

We just got back from Germany and, regrettably, we had no Internet access so I was unable to write. For now I will mention that, while photographing a forest at night, I fell in a hole. There is reason to believe the hole was an airshaft for one of Hitler’s bunkers. It was dark though and the only evidence of the hole was the fact that I fell in it. My ribs met a log to break my fall. Due to a nagging cough I was reminded of my recently bruised ribs for the rest of the trip. I fear this reminder may last a few more days.

Chicago USA

Chicago: snowing. Me: sick. New Catalogue: flying to Munich tonight.
I like being able to refer to me, Luke, Ryan and Joel with a title. It’s like being in a gang.

Injustice at the bookstore

I was in a bookstore when I came across, of all things, a book. I picked it up and a woman about 15 feet away said, “Sir.” I thought she had mistaken me for an employee and was going to ask a question but when I looked her way she said, in a perturbed tone, “That’s mine.” I said, “I’m sorry,” and put the book down. She gave me a dirty look and an almost imperceptible nod. It was the kind of reaction I would have expected had I walked into her house and started browsing her personal library. I had to respond. I said, “You’ll want to be careful bringing books into a bookstore, you might loose them among the other books - sort of like bringing trees into a forest. Also, someone might think you stole it.” Then she tried to explain that she didn’t bring the book, she was going to buy it. I told her I knew what she meant and that I was just repaying her rudeness with smart-aleck remarks.

The fall-out from her rudeness was that it put me in a bad mood and ruined my bookstore experience. I wish I really had said that stuff instead of walking away, seething.

If I were French I'd be speaking in French

I will attempt to transcribe Robert’s monologue. Listen and read along:

"I have a different [?]. To working in exactly from the from the papers. That gets us now probably to a hundred hundred photos color for five hundred photos [not sure] uh if you were to do it that way it would be very long maybe miles and he deals he could go in and do the practice dress for hey any step I’ve been working on it goes a little like this you could get in there and he turns out to be this man – that’s right, two mens we had the most fun or the only fun having there for a long time I drop ya from the head of a – Well I can when I get my breathing and all those things go from there’s name for names and names of kinds of things that are happening, we wouldn’t know what they ‘re talking about but if I were French I’d be in speaking French on stage. Um, through the h-h-he keeps looking back to see how close he is to who? I don’t know who is. I tried all this morning to – remember when we were cutting the guts out of the magazine and reassembled it? It's-it's what I’m trying to do here with with this because I’m the kind of acoustics we were in that cabin, oh, see I can’t say I don’t know why I’m blaming myself but is like but but its damaging me I can’t get do the job my job’s [garbled] you look over here and these two [?] have been taken off."

I was not sure where to put punctuation. When in doubt I left it out. This is the kind of discussion we have sometimes when Robert has to go to the bathroom. It can be rather one-sided. When he refers to "he," he is referring to his reflection. Robert noticed that every time he looks at "him" "he" looks back at Robert. And I believe the "who" is my reflection.
P.S.
I just tried to listen and read along but I couldn't veiw the text and listen at the same time. One might open a new window and view on one window and listen on the other.

The contents of my pockets

pockets
Originally uploaded by Jonathansadler.

This is what was in my pockets by the end of the day. I could have made it look like more by emptying my wallet and coin purse. Next time you make fun of cargo pants think of this image.

Kangaroo Rat

kangaroorat
Originally uploaded by Jonathansadler.

Kangaroo rats

Yesterday I went to the Bosque del Apache to see the cranes. I was told they would be there through November yet they were still there December 4th. (Which only strengthens my assertion that Sand-hill cranes do not use the same calendar that we use). I also saw Ruby-crowned kinglets, Loggerhead shrikes, seven Bald eagles, and thousands of Snow geese.
On the way home I decided to try another route to see more of this great state. I took highway 60 west from Socorro to highway 167 through the Alamo Navajo Reservation. Soon after the Reservation the road turned to dirt. I thought about turning back but thought I could use a little adventure and decided to keep going. After maybe 45 minutes I reached patches of snow on the road. Soon after that it got dark. I drove and drove for hours. I passed one building, a barn, but saw no houses. Three trucks passed since hitting the dirt road but no cars. When the trucks passed I wondered if the driver thought I was crazy for driving a Ford Taurus on this road. Eventually I reached a fork in the road and chose the left or “wrong” fork. The road descended, yet for some reason the snow increased. I could see the lights of a town ahead and knew that I would soon hit pavement. I drove a few miles and the town never seemed to get any closer. But the road did get muddier. The mud was getting deeper and deeper and the Taurus was fishtailing. The car didn’t just fishtail a couple times, it continually fish-tailed. I figured I had better turn around but I was afraid if I stopped I would be stuck in the mud. Eventually I had to stop and I did get stuck. I rocked the care back and forth and was soon unstuck and heading back up the muddy, snowy hill. It started to rain, which is good for mud but bad for people driving two-wheel drive vehicles that don’t want to get stuck in mud. To my surprise, I saw headlights coming up behind me. I stopped when I reached the fork again and waited for the vehicle, which turned out to be another truck. The people in the truck, a man and woman on their way to the reservation, pointed me in the right direction. A few miles later I hit pavement, sort of. It was deffinately paved at some point. I had a choice to go left or right and again I chose the left or “wrong” direction. But, on the bright side, I saw several kangaroo rats. The rats made the whole trip worth while, as rats often do. I turned around and was soon on Intersate 40 heading back to Albuquerque.

Robert's "friend"

Robert, the rest of my extended New Mexico family, and I went to an art opening at the University of New Mexico. As usual, Robert had to attend to his bladder. On the way out of the bathroom he saw his reflection. He said, “There’s my friend.” I said good-bye to his “friend” and he did too. Then Robert asked me if I knew that guy. He told me that he’s the guy who holds up the big mirror. Funny that he knows it’s a mirror but doesn’t know that he is the guy in the mirror. He told me that he is a great guy and funny. Then he said, “He lives . . .he lives . . . I wonder how he got here?”

Taffy and friends

Taffy
Originally uploaded by Jonathansadler.

Here is Taffy with Photo in the forground and Pixel in the driveway.

Taffy

taffy2
Originally uploaded by Jonathansadler.

I have been getting thousands of requests to see Taffy. Pretty isn't she?

Cry baby

You know that feeling just before you start to cry? I do and that’s how I know when to fight it – make it go away. Do not suppose that I have been crying because of any sadness in my life. I mentioned a few days ago crying during the Ramones movie. Tonight I cried when Chas Tennenbaum said to Royal, "I’ve had a tough year.” And Royal said, “I know you have son.” I cried yesterday while listening to commentary on NPR about Bob Hope’s USO tours. The part that made me teary was when the commentator said that they ended every show with Silent Night. Silent Night is no mere Christmas carol. I couldn’t tell you what Silent Night is beyond a mere Christmas carol but I just tried to sing the first verse and started to tear up. The time that I cried the most tears recently was during an interview on the radio. The interviewee was a man who had made a film in which people read the last letter from their loved ones before dying in Iraq. The one that really got to me was a wife reading a “just in case” letter that her husband wrote before he died. It was a good-bye to his three-year-old son. I had to let the tears flow while listening to that or die too.
By now you may have noticed that all of my crying episodes are caused from Movies and Radio. So be it.

Getting paid

Robert gave me two dollars today. I feel a little ashamed but I already spent over half of it. When he handed me the money he asked, “will this be enough.” I told him it was just right.

Postage stamps

After sending something priority mail today, the clerk asked if I needed any stamps. I told her I was trying to see if there were any commemoratives that I liked. I asked, “What are the ones with the woman holding the baby.” She reached for very recognizable Christmas stamps of the Virgin Mary and the baby Jesus. I told her that I meant the other stamps with the mother holding the baby. The sheet I was looking at depicted an African American mother holding her baby. The stamps warned people to test early for sickle cell anemia. I can’t imagine referring to the Virgin Mary and the Baby Jesus as “that woman holding the baby.”