from sidearm pete's sleep

Last week
I was tearing the roof off an old building/shed
It wasn't my building or shed,
so I kept looking over my shoulder.
then
for some reason
Dad is sliding off the roof
and
I grab him by the ankle
I was able to hold him
and lift him to safety
just
like he did for me
So many times before.

Something I always appreciated and think about still

We grew up pretty poor I think. My mother was a creative and pretty awesome cook, but compared to how we live now, our meals were pretty basic. But every so often my dad would splurge on something exotic, a pineapple, a coconut... and bring it home to us. It was a big deal, we would watch him cut it open and everyone would share it. And you just knew in that moment that that was something special he wanted you to have, to experience, to remember him by.

In the beginning, it will be the summers

the summers are fantastic in Hermosa, we will go on field trips, agate hunting, fossil hunting, watercolors, swimming hole, rock climbing...there will be work too, long hard days of weeding and harvesting, making art and singing songs...and don't forget about the basketball games....

and you knew it was too early to think these thoughts

but you could not help it, the smell of earth was in the air. The snow would melt, and there was no way to keep the mud out of the house. There they were in the south window, more seedlings than you thought you could keep alive. Some of them were getting a little leggy, reaching for more light...it hurt to look at them. There would be the days when you just knew spring would come early, and it did, for a day or two.
The time would change soon, and then it would be as if this painful waiting had never happened. That extra hour, it would mean everything
Before long The Garden would be planted, another summer of long days and beet greens, and roses and basil....

can't remember the year...but it was Halloween, and i felt moved to dress up

and i created Miss Hermosa, complete with sunflower, turkey feather, and barbed wire trimmed cowboy hat.

It is basketball season here at the HIA

and a fierce rivalry has developed between the Pufferfishes and the Jackals, but everyone knows that the Lady Star Wranglers are always the team to beat.