And I Lived in This Strange Culture

. . . I will explain to those in the next life that "I lived in this strange culture that believed that a giant rabbit sneaked through the world once a year on Easter morning and left edible colored eggs and candy in the shapes of eggs, rabbits, and baby chickens, especially to make little children happy, and the date of Easter was the first Sunday after the first Full Moon after the spring equinox, and they believed that this Jewish guy 2000 years ago who preached unconditional love was convicted of blasphemy and crucified and died horribly, but woke from the dead 3 days later and that was the reason for Easter, they really believed this, and that this guy had died to pay for everybody else's sins for all time, and the people who believed this were really pissed if you did not believe this and especially if you told them the word Easter was the name of the pagan goddess Ostra and it was originally her feast day and rabbits and chickens were her sacred animals. Once I actually saw the giant rabbit, at the gym where I was taking Senior Yoga class, and it was sitting on a white throne with giant eggs under it, and local mothers were bringing their children to the giant rabbit, I guess for its blessing."

Going to the Chapel

....the tin-roofed, open-air chapel at the Black Madonna Shrine not too far from here, and St. Joseph' head served as a perfect perch for a singing Barn Swallow, cheerful since I've been coming here rather often lately to discuss with God some painful things undergone by friends, family, and myself (pinched nerve, yow! making it impossible to sit and write, and grounding me for three weeks) and lighting eight-day votive candles for those, alas, whose candles are going out, like my mother and father, ages 83 and 98, both deathly ill. There is no death, though. It's an illusion. The bird said so.

All Play and No Work

Coming round a bend from walking in a park in town I saw this dramatic huge air balloon collapsing in the baseball field. Turns out a sudden course change required the captain to land somewhere open and flat, along with 8 passengers he referred to as "1800 pounds of passengers," and I ran over to ogle it like everybody else, especially tons of kids comin' outa nowhere. After the balloon drooped to the ground it still had air in it so the captain recruited the kids to roll on it end to end to press all the air out, and they sure enjoyed that and of course I have video (34 seconds) of kids rolling on it and screamin' with joy on a summer evening in Missouri. And the captain, in the red shirt, said it was much easier than just him doing it.
The travel basket looked very small for 8 people and a third of it was taken up by 4 tanks of propane fuel, 400 lbs each. After the kids deflated the balloon, two adults folded it and the captain called a truck to pick up the basket and passengers. Golly, all this excitement and novelty and it was only the second day of my annual "All Play and No Work" week. I'd just been fishing with my bff Carmel and then to a church ice-cream social with Ace and came to the park to walk it off, and now this.

Enticing Local Eats, Eureka, Mo.

Eat locally! These signs at two different eateries in Eureka are not 200 feet apart. I haven't tried either delicacy. Do you dare me? Or, better, drive to Eureka, Mo. and try them yourself.

Three Cheers for the Red

Crocheted tire cover photographed in the Wal-Mart parking lot in Eureka, MO. Don't that beat all. It's beautiful, too.