Life at 78rpm

Stuff changes fast when you're moving fast.

Things with Sarah are now officially on extended hold... it's not over, but it's also not active. We talked, and decided that it's best to wait a little while and try things again after she does some things in her life and I do some other things in mine. All is not broken, because during some talking we did while I was at her house to retrieve things I had there, she showed a side of herself I hadn't know or even suspected was there. Or, maybe I did. The side was, "a willingness to admit she's still a work in progress." Maybe I spent too much time with Melody, with whom change was an unacceptable request, but I just figured that Sarah was what she was, and that was that, and if I didn't like it, I could leave.

Which I didn't, and I did.

But Sarah did an unexpected thing, which was to say, pretty clearly, that she wasn't entirely happy with the way she's been these last few years, either, and has meant to do something about it, but had needed some initiative, some motivation. I just wish she'd said this a week or two earlier.

The guy and his dogs in my barn is a bit trickier issue. He had repeatedly said that he'd be moving on. He'd said that he'd be gone by Saturday morning, and when Sunday morning rolled around, his stuff and most of his dogs were still in my barn, and he'd left a message (written, as usual, in pencil on cardboard) on the top of a fence post. He was "half moved," and apparently waiting for some friends who might or might not be showing up with a truck and trailer at some unspecified time to maybe move the rest of his dogs and stuff someplace.

Remember how I said that I don't have friends like this? This is why. See, now, instead of merely depending on Avery to follow up on what he said he'd do, now Avery can fob off some of the responsibility on unnamed friends, who (you know this is coming) invariably don't show up when they're supposed to -- since it's not like he's paying them, or anything -- and "it's not my fault."

Well, I went back in the house and wrote up and printed off a very direct note to him, and stuck it back under the rock on the fencepost. In it, I basically said, June 11th meant June 11th to me, and that there would be no more excuses or discussion, and that whatever was left at 8pm on Monday would be disposed of, and that both he and anyone associated with him would be considered trespassers after that hour.

I mean, he's a transient. How the hell long can it take to move the belongings of somebody who pretty much doesn't have anything?

Of course, even as I say this, I recall that it basically took two pickup truck loads to bring his stuff TO my barn in February, not counting two separate and needlessly-tedious trips for the dogs.

Anyway, karmic balance notwithstanding, I've done my good deed for this year, and I need my barn and my peace back. I've gotten incredibly tired of being barked at, at finding yet more places he's stashed stuff, at finding old discarded blankets out in the rain, at just having the sense I can't move freely in my own space without worrying about running into him or his stuff. It's time for him to go, and I am really intent that that time will be etched in stone.

At 8:00 tonight, I'm going home and calling whoever I need to to make sure my space is returned to me. Animal Control, Waste Management, or the sheriff if needed. This has gone on long enough.

I put up a third episode of the podcast. It's amusing but not as cohesive as the first two. I'm already planning the next one. Among other things, I've been exploring several boxes of 78s I've had for years... I'm working out a technique to record the 78s on a turntable that spins at 45rpm and then cranking the speed up in an audio editor, removing the surface noise... the first experiments have been on a 1956 Johnny Smith/Stan Getz 78 on Royal Roost records. "Tenderly" on one side, "Jaguar" on the back. Listening to these things at 45 makes you feel like you're on downers or something... it's refreshing when I can kick the speed up to 78 and hear it properly again!

I guess I kind of like life at 78rpm.