Tuesday, November 28, 2006

My exhaustion is manifest. Two days until tour. And the roads are slabs of glass.

Thursday, November 23, 2006

My parents and grandparents are in Spearfish, South Dakota, eating turducken (that's a duck cooked inside a chicken cooked inside a turkey) with my aunts, uncles, and cousins. I couldn't afford to take time off from work to join them. After spending six hours at the Museum today, I watched Groundhog Day, starring Bill Murray and Andie McDowell.

I once literally bumped into Andie McDowell as she was exiting the Mammyth Bakery in Missoula, Montana. Our eyes locked fast, and I greeted her enthusiastically as if she were an old friend. To my consternation, however, I couldn't remember her name. She smiled as I rapidly tried to process my predicament. Her face seemed so familiar, and yet she didn't appear to know who I was either. I was so bewildered in fact that, without saying a word, I swiveled clumsily into the Bakery and let the closing wooden door seal our awkward farewell. Seconds later, while eating a bagel, I realized she was the actress from the movie I'd recently seen at the Crystal Theater: Sex, Lies and Videotapes.

P.S. My family didn't really eat turducken. Just turkey, probably.

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

The Big Dipper is hanging low in the north tonight on this Thanksgiving Day's Eve. It's positioned directly over the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation. My favorite radio deejay lives there: Shannon Hale. Every weekday morning from 7:00 until 10:00 he plays the best country and rock & roll songs. Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Loretta Lynn and Waylon Jennings are his favorites. Between songs he cracks off-the-cuff jokes and tells stories about his former "outlaw" days when he partied a lot and spent nights in prison. Earlier this year I dropped off my Good to Be Awake CD at the KMHA radio station. The song he chose as the hit was "Storage Unit 209," which he plays regularly. Unfortunately, now that I've moved to Dunn Center I don't get good reception anymore. Dad said he heard Mr. Hale express over the air that he hadn't heard from me in a while. He wondered if I'd moved away, and I guess I have. Seven miles east.

Two close Minnesota friends, Alex and Julia, just visited me on their way through to Olympia. These people are road warriors. On the way here they wore Depends diapers to limit the need for bathroom breaks. Alex said that his diaper leaked, though, and so he might not try that experiment again.

Sunday, November 19, 2006

Have you heard of John Tester? He's the new Montana Democratic Senator.

Friday, November 17, 2006

Random Sandman News: Cooked first pizza in my new oven tonight. Cupboards and fridge are stocked, washing machine hooked up. Bought an old oak desk for the living room yesterday. Grandpa brought over some aspen logs from Killdeer Mountain for for the wood stove; I'll chop them tomorrow. I'm reading Autobiography of a Yogi, by Yogananda Paramahansa.

My friend E just ordered three pillow cases and three Good to Be Awake CDs. Friend S ordered one Long Walk Home and one Live & Suspicious CD.

I leave for tour in thirteen days. Earlier this week I got my cowboy boots re-soled for $45.

Wrote a song tonight called "Corpse," about a frightened man who kills a pregnant wolf.

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

This is how they do it in Manitoba. It took 'em eleven minutes and eight seconds to harvest the wheat from this quarter-section (160 acres).



We had a ceremony at Dunn County Museum today for Dorothea Pelton, who won the 2006 North Dakota Excellence in Local History Award. About 25 years ago she and her husband, Les, became millionaires after discovering black gold on their remote Badlands ranch. They donated a good share of it to our Museum, and that's why I have a job. Les has passed on. Dorothea is in her mid-to-late nineties.


Mrs. Pelton with my Grandma in the log cabin earlier today.

Sunday, November 12, 2006

Check out the new Crunks Not Dead website: http://www.crunksnotdead.com/

That's the record label that earlier this year put out (return to) . . . the blackhole (of outerspace). This CD would be a good holiday purchase along with a Sandman pillow case. It has a song on it called "Pillow Cases," which explains why I silk screen my name onto pillow cases.

Saturday, November 11, 2006

A glass is good, and a lass is good,
And a pipe to smoke in cold weather;
The world is good, and the people are good,
And we 're all good fellows together.

John O'Keefe (1747-1833)

Thursday, November 09, 2006

Democrats have taken control of Congress. Here's to balance of power.

Meanwhile, legendary CBS journalist Ed Bradley has died of leukemia at age 65. I appreciated Mr. Bradley--he had that common touch and trademark earring. Too bad he couldn't have lived to possibly see Barack Obama be elected President in a couple few years.

In Dunn County news, my neighbor Emogene has given me a sweet little cook stove, which Dad installed earlier today. Emogene is a very generous soul (Grandpa calls her a walking, breathing angel), and I will be thinking about the best way to repay her.

In other Dunn County news, my galfriend Elle Newman will soon be arriving for a three-day visit. How you like them apples?

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

I spend a lot of time thinking about G_d and always have. G_d this. G_d that. G_d is Love. Let G_d. Thank G_d. Trust in G_d. G_d is the Answer. G_d will set you free.

(G_ddess.
Yahweh.
Elohim.
Jah.
Engai.
Vishnu.
Christ.
Mwari.
Shang Ti.
Allah.

Unity.
Higher Power.
Infinite Love.
Divine Breath.
The Light.)

How nice it would be to know G_d, unshackled from all propaganda and reactionary prejudice.

Monday, November 06, 2006

News stories like Saddam getting "outed" or Ted Haggard being sentenced to death by hanging are no longer interesting to me. I can't even keep people straight. Was it Floyd Mayweather who just won World Series MVP? Did Raul Castro call Borat a sulphorous smelling devil? It's confusing. I'm confused.

I will vote tomorrow.

Thursday, November 02, 2006

Food tastes better when one camps out, and camping is basically what I'm doing in my new home. A normal tomato, for instance, seems like a delicacy when sliced onto a hot buttered biscuit. I wake up at 6:30 a.m. and listen to news stories on National Public Radio before getting out of bed. Tea becomes more than tea; it warms your hands and gives inspiration. I might grow a beard. I think that a long-necked pipe for tobacco would suit my new lifestyle, too, as well as a penny whistle, bird feeder, and ceramic bowl filled with garlic and oranges.

P.S. Alice, of Alice's Restaurant, read yesterday's blog and felt sad for me that I was eating so many bugs. She invited me over for chili and rhubarb cake at noon today.

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

November. The eleventh monkey.

Last night, Halloween, I officially moved into my haunted, cozy home. I lit candles in each room and posted a bag of candy near the front door. Four tiny hobgoblins stopped by for treats, and later three much bigger ones came by for beer. Then we went downtown to the Ilo Bar for some more.

Sadie, the Japanese-born bartender/owner, was handing out Skull Pop suckers. Sadie's approximately 4'10" and hobbles like a small pirate, due to an old injury. She's lived in Dunn Center and run the bar for as long as I can remember. She'd like to sell it, she says, but no one's buying.

Alice's Restaurant is for sale, too. It's been a year since Alice closed its doors. Somebody busted out a few of its windows this summer.

Tomorrow I'll pick up the oven that my neighbor Emogene offered me. Then I can eat something besides spiders, flies, and cold cereal. I have an antique wood stove, too, which I'll tell you more about soon.