The Silent Menagerie

10:25P

I get up this day and try to wake up. I am still sleepy. I sit on the couch amongst all my animals, cozy inside. It is cold and overcast today, a grey grey day, no shadows I can see, even under the patio beam at the wall or under the patio table, an even grey grey all over. The lion fountain is mum, his water being turned off for the night. The goldfish and mosquito eater fish in the pool are invisible from the couch.

Inside, Victor the sculptured greyhound is looking outside through his glass eyes waiting patiently without barking for the sun to come out, one foot raised and bent in anticipation.

The twin bronze hares from Thailand are staring at me in tandem, their big ears straight up as if to say accusingly but wordlessly about the grim day, "You did this."

The six-inch unmoving turtle is looking outside through the glass door, ready to move when there's something to move about but definitely not talkative.

The concrete-casted coyote pup waits by the sliding door looking out, face raised to howl soundlessly or to see when the overcast will succumb to the sun, ready to make his move.

The brightly painted Mexican papier-mache parrot with his beautiful tail and folded wings is on his perch with an American flag, looking over his shoulder at me with a beady eye, claws gripping his bar as if to say inaudibly, "Why not now?"

The white furry kitty with pink ribbon around her neck is close behind my right shoulder on the couch, looking questioningly at me when I turn to look at her.

The wooden cat on the small table between the two barrel chairs crouches in a sphinx-like position facing me says speechlessly, "What now, boss?"

A metal serpent on top of the Korean chest by itself silently winds its way around a candle stick in perpetuity.

The carved walrus from Alaska is sitting on four CD's by Roy's chair surveying the situation mutely.

The Steuben frog on the shelf above the walrus is hunkered down as he has been for years and years, voiceless.

The papier-mache yellow bird on top of the keyboard/bookshelves is overlooking the whole room with unsung songs from his papier-mache vocal cords.

I live with a silent menagerie, just bursting to communicate!

Me, or them?

I'm awake now after this little amusing exercise. It's still overcast, though.

Miss Peach

Miss Enn Checks In

09:25P

The following comprises a true-to-life email discourse back-and-forth with a client/friend during the past two-three days. She is nagging me to get off the dime and finish up her "stuff." She makes me laugh. The names have been changed to protect our innocence, in a sense. (See June 30, 2010 blog) Or maybe it is supposed to be, protect the innocents...


Wed, Jun 30, 2010 at 6:22 PM
Hey, Miss Peach!!

Did you get those payment thingies done yet? And my tax stuff returned? Are you lost in the blogosphere???

Miss Enn



Thu, Jul 1, 2010 at 1:34 AM
Thursday July 1, 2010 JULY 1!!! 01:10A Santa Monica time
Hi, Miss Enn

In re the payment thingies and tax stuff: Well, I'm working on them! I have all the copies printed and sorted out in little piles, all I have to do is spend another hour stapling and organizing and putting your original stuff in a Fedex box, so I have not forgotten you, had all the computer work finished a week ago at least. It's hard to be semi-retired or to only work part-time, since I don't need a flexible schedule when I have WORK TO DO!

But it is July already so I do want to finish up and put your stuff to bed off of the counter and desk, and I know one perfect way to do that. I still have an old New Yorker cartoon on the side of my desk, two people in a hall at an office, and one says to the other, "Sometimes it's important to stop whatever break you're taking and just do the work."

I think I'm at that point.

I hope you have a happy 4th of July holiday, my very favorite holiday all my life. We are having the Baptist Church picnic on the 4th after church, potluck, barbeque, at a park on Palms at Sawtelle where they've had the picnic for thirty years, I think. I've only been once before. I'm taking brownies. I'll be playing the handbells with seven others for Sunday morning church service, a patriotic America, America, which I barely recognize since I'm in the middle, not playing the melody, and can't hear either end of the ringers. But it's fun. I think a person could be totally deaf and still ring bells. If it's short enough, I'll put it on the blog.

June 30 blog was fun to do, but I don't know how long I'll carry this on. I can see why blogs get started and bloggers only post three or four times a year. Or once! I've done better than that, but it is sort of pointless. Fun, but I'd be better off to be making quilts for my nephew/wife's impending twins in November.

See? I could have put these last two paragraphs in a blog. Oh, well. You got 'em!

Miss Peach



Thu, Jul 1, 2010 at 6:25 AM
Thanks, Miss Peach ~

I just realized how glad I am that I have your email address: that way I can write and get an opportunity to enjoy your writing in return. Bonus!

As for those two paragraphs you could have blogged, just copy and paste them, maybe tweak a little, and voila! a blog post. I'll never tell it was recycled.

Your 4th sounds grand! Do enjoy! Take care, have fun,

Miss Enn



Fri, Jul 2, 2010 at 7:19 PM
Friday 070210 06:40P Santa Monica time
Hi, Miss Enn

I'm taking up your suggestion to do the blog today from our email exchanges, yours being anonymous, starting with the one where you ask me about the payment "thingies" through the one suggesting I blog the last couple of paragraphs on mine. There is nothing personal about our emails to identify us, and yours trigger my amusement. Mine's not funny without yours. Shall you require royalties? Smile... I shall call you Miss Enn unless you have a better aka that I can use like my Miss Peach. Everybody knows who Miss Peach is since I'm sure I've never had a reader that I hadn't told about the blog, but Miss Enn (or whoever) no one will know.

Miss Peach



Fri, Jul 2, 2010 at 8:41 PM
ooo ooo ooo! I love getting your messages, Miss Peach!

Miss Enn


Respectfully submitted,
Miss Peach

Innocence in a Sense

11:40P

I've started a little list
of things to blog about,
but nothing is quite right
to blog about tonight.
One phrase amuses me:
"innocence in a sense."
"The hand with which I write"
explains the phrase airtight.

Is "innocence in a sense"
an oxymoron? In a sense.
Innocence either is or isn't,
in my view.
My explanation's
in a sense a pun.
The phrase and explanation is
a double pun or two!


Oh, I think I'm so clever.
Ha ha ha...
But it was fun to write.
Miss Peach


Some really good ones in here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxymoron
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pun

Our Cats and Life July 02 1991 Archive

12:50A Santa Monica time

I was keeping my diary in rhyme in 1991, a stressful year when Roy had a heart valve replaced in January (a St. Jude 23 mechanical model). St. Jude had a reputation for quality and NO failures which we were happy to accept, although we followed the Wall Street Journal faithfully to see if St. Jude was ever mentioned. Roy died at 80 of other maladies in 2008, the St. Jude still clicking away to the end, a unpaid testimony for St. Jude!

My Diary on July 02, 1991:

Maria tucks her head beneath her paw,
Domingo stretches out, quite self-possessed.
Juanita cleans her fur, she's at her best;
Evita's on the chair. She needs her rest.

Roy's tucked between his covers once again,
He's snoring just a bit, but that's okay.
He went to cardiac rehab today.
Life's looking better now, I'm glad to say.

My covers have two cats. There is no law
That says one can't have cats upon the bed
Or that cats have to eat what they are fed
Or that they have to go where they are led.

Sometimes I think how dull life would have been
If things had not occurred the way they did,
For just one cat starts fun to pyramid,
Now we have four, no more, may God forbid.

Miss Peach