Thanks for reading...

Thursday, August 19, 2010

I don’t know if you’ve figured this out yet…but I like to write. I know I’m a long way from being a writer, but I like to do it knowing that somewhere, someone is reading and maybe even being entertained. I mean if nothing else…I got that going for me.

I’m listening to a book written by Haruki Murakami titled ‘What I Talk About When I Talk About Running”. He’s an author who happens to run and the book is his effort to connect the aspects of his distance running with the scope of his writing. As a pure running book…it won’t get your juices flowing, but as a book about writing and running…well, can’t say as I’ve got anything to compare it to, but I like it. He made one point that applies to my own writing, which I’d like to share. He often makes speaking appearances in the U.S. and as one would expect, speaks English to his audiences. He says this is so much easier than using the Japanese language to make speeches or to write since, with his limited English vocabulary, he does not have as many choices when selecting words.

That’s me…the limited English vocabulary part…I don’t know any Japanese. I mean…when I’m trying to describe something like…oh…stars in the Adirondack sky let’s say…I figure everyone knows what a star looks like and so I just call them “stars in the Adirondack sky”. I was talking to John the other day and he used the word ‘doppelganger’ to which I replied “what’d you just say?”

“C’mon, John…don’t tell me you don’t know what ‘doppelganger’ means,” he said with exasperation. I admitted I didn’t and so he blah, blah, blahs about it and when he’s done…I still don’t know.

“It’s not a common word and using words like ‘doppelganger is the reason you used to get beat up as a kid,” I said.

Anyway, this my long-winded, not-so-fancy worded way of saying ‘thanks for reading and keep an eye out for my first novel’ thing…which will become required reading for the criminally insane, most forms of human riffraff, and all English speaking illiterates.

On another note…something I hate to report. Holly and I went to the Palace last night to watch the film ‘Back to the Future’. They’ve got this terrific summer movie program where they show great, older movies on their giant screen. The whole evening starts with a guy playing some kind of crazy organ/piano thing…like they used to do at the movies when the world was still black and white…you know…a LONG, LONG time ago…and then follow it with a really great cartoon, usually Bugs Bunny…before showing the movie. It’s $5 a person…lot’s more than I’ll usually pay for a movie (I like Cinemark in Willoughby Hills for $1 on Tuesday nights), but you can beat the ambiance (big ‘John’ word for ‘nice stuff all around the place’).

Anyway, we finished the movie and returned to the van, which was parked on E.17th street, just north of Chester Ave. We climbed back in the car when Holly noticed the glove box open and her GPS missing. “You left the car unlocked,” she said.

I was sure I hadn’t, but turned to look in the back seat when I noticed the rear side window was pulled open.

“They got in through the window,” I said with disgust and guilt since I knew that I’d left it open. If you know mini-vans, these windows only act as vents, with barely two inches of opening. I suppose the perp (fancy word for ‘assholes who take stuff that doesn’t belong to them) pulled it open, reached in to pop the lock on the sliding door and then climbed in to find how little we had in the vehicle. A bike patrol person was passing by and I flagged her down to report the incident. She called it in and in less than 5 minutes, we had two other bike patrollers and one Cleveland Police officer on the scene. They all apologized for the situation…as if they were to blame…and took our information. I know the district is trying to attract business to the area and they really take it personally when some knucklehead messes things up.

I really hate the invasion of our personal space, but what can you do? I told Holly that I only lost a GPS, but that there was some sorry individual out on the streets that needed stuff in my car so badly that they had turned to crime. Eventually, they would get caught and a life that was already in a shambles would get even worse. I work with folks who have spent time on the wrong side of the law and its hard for them to find work and straighten out their lives once they’ve made this kind of mistake. I pity them…and the life they’ve chosen.

I also didn’t do any exercise again. The hip is still rather inflamed, but tomorrow it’s back to the bike.