fall fires

there is something primal about fire that draws people together. last year i discovered my neighbor across the street had a fire pit made from the rim of a big tractor. i admired it so much that he found me one which i promptly put at the edge of our business manager's garden (he has gardens everywhere on campus) and between several of the houses. it was made clear that the fire pit was communal property. so whenever the weather is nice and sometimes when it isn't, one of the neighbor's starts a fire and everyone in the close neighborhood comes over. then the food starts coming over -- little bits and pieces from everyone's house to share. usually there are marshmellows and predictably some catch on fire. i dragged an old workbench out of one of the empty garages and washed it with 409, bleach, and then murphy's oil to put stuff on. my neighbor went to the gym and snagged about 2 dozen old wooden fold up campmeeting chairs and brought them over. when it gets dark enough that we can't see the food on the table, i turn on the back porch light. i need to get a camp lantern though--porch light just sort of ruins the atmosphere.

simple politics = oxymoron

changing job descriptions is turning out to be a little more stressful than i thought. i was on one side, now i am in the middle--a place i do not like to be. i have the same boss, but now the people i was working with, are now working me. things that seem innocent turn out to bite my ankles. if i am not careful, i will have nothing to stand on.

red & blue x 2

i have been taking my iron pills for 2 months now so i could give blood when the blood mobile came around to school. there are quite a few students who are old enough to give and do give which is neat. when i went in with my camera for yearbook pictures, i found one of the older givers laying flat on the floor with an ice bag on the back of her neck and her feet propped up on a chair. they already had the windows open so it was a bit chill in there. i didn't take her picture, i wanted to remain friends, but took one of the students giving blood and he was okay. i think he gave just to get food. he tons of sandwiches and cookies and hung out for more than an hour. they were pretty good sandwiches. i ate 3 -----one for breakfast i missed and 2 for lunch---it was 10:30. the hardest part was the needle prick, but it didn't take very long. i think i am supposed to get a t-shirt.

so then that evening i went to vote. i took off my 'i gave blood' sticker, ---but maybe i should have left it on. there wasn't a line, which was good. but my name wasn't on the regular voter list but was on another list. so i did a provisional vote. i thought i registered when i got my driver's license. anyway they let me vote. i remember where i first voted....an absentee ballot at the bank in Enterprise, Kansas, but i don't remember who i voted for. it probably was goldwater. that's probably why i can't remember on purpose.

to the bone

i just wore a sweater over a shell, after all i spent time in colorado and a little chill is nothing. by noon the prairie wind cut right through the sweater on my two trips to the art building and one to home for lunch. decided to were my lined rain coat back to school. by five it was really chilly, rainy, dark, and depressing. really un-colorado. on the last leg of my walk home i look out across a very flat harvested field of corn. it is really flat because they cut the corn right down to the roots for cattle food. looking out forever through grey air over brown ground made me wonder how any pioneer person survived. no tv, radio, music, sound (other than a spouse and probably complaining children). if you were lucky you had books and could read the classics around a fire. the evenings could be okay, but those days with not one house close by, no interchange of ideas, no running to town, and if your house was not really air tight, probably you were wearing the same clothes day after day. who would want to take a bath with the wind whistling through the house. my windows are not even attached at the bottom in some rooms so they sort of breath with the wind. on days like today with the wind blowing, i come home to find my front door blown open and even when it is closed it is signifigantly colder around the door entrance. in winter i put quilts over the railing around the entrance to stop the chill from invading the living area. i have plastic over my windows. when i take a shower the cold air from the bedroom windows pull at the shower curtian creating a chill. needless to say showers are not long. i could shut the door, but then my cat would scratch at the door to get in if he was outside and to get out if he was in. it may sound old fashioned but i have long underwear which i use when it is cold. so i layer and wrap up in throws and drink hot coffee. i know it was at least ten time worse years ago. how did they ever survive. no wonder willa cather wrote the story about the lady who once she went to new york to straighten out an inheritance, did not want to return to the prairie. if your house is tight and cosy and you can walk from your kitchen to your garage into a heated car in which to drive to heated workplace, well, you just don't realize how fortunate you are. especially if you sit around a fire in the evening with your family. now i have to go out again for supervision at the cafeteria and am trying to decide whether to walk or not. i need the exercise. maybe another layer will do it. then i can look like the kids in snowsuits.