WELCOME TO AUTUMN

 I took this photo last autumn when I first moved here, at the Sgt. York State Historical Site

First full day of autumn! My favorite season. Superb time of year, perfect weather. Golden sunshine and temperature in the 70's. The trees look weary and withered, shrugging listlessly in gentle breezes and slowly shedding leaves. The foliage hasn't yet assumed brilliant autumn colors, but the green has faded - replaced by pale yellow.

A favorite time of year for insects of all denominations. Fields and forest are busy havens for bees & butterflies, wasps, dragonflies, & spiders. Spider webs are everywhere in unexpected places. I had a very rude encounter with one today.

Let's preface this by saying that vanity inspires me to wear contact lenses much of the time, but when I'm home alone I sometimes wear my glasses. Heck, there's nobody around to see me but my cats, the 'possum who resides under my porch, and the coyotes. And possibly Bigfoot.

Today I'm outside, stumbling through the unlevel terrain, wearing my glasses. In a vulnerable moment, while I'm squinting from the sun, I collide with an alarmingly large spider web. As I'm desperately trying to disengage myself from its unwholesome snare, I suddenly notice that my vision is obstructed.

My eyes instinctively cross to see what's on my face. It's a spider on the bridge of my glasses, straddling my nose!

Holy Geezuz!!

I yank the glasses from my face, frantically shaking them with such force that the spider launches into space like a Frisbee and crash-lands somewhere in the weeds.

I'm trembling like a pansy in a zephyr. When I regain my senses I realize it could have been worse. If I wasn't wearing my glasses the damn spider would have probably gone into my mouth. 

Pansy? Zephyr??
Hey, I thought it was quite poetic. 

I'm still trying to fix my lawnmower, which has no desire to start. It's nearly new. I only used it one time in Texas before I moved. Methinks something went awry during the transit to Tennessee. The movers delivered it without a handle!! I kid you not. Some bastard removed the handle and didn't replace it. I had to order a new one.

The weeds on my property are now about 20 feet high and I can only hope that an early freeze will eradicate them. I can't afford to buy a new mower. And I sure as hell don't have a scythe.

I'll never buy another Briggs & Stratton.
Ironically, my father had a Briggs & Stratton mower that lasted for twenty years. Mine lasted two days.

Drastic change of subject

So tell us, Jon - 
why the heck did you write your previous blog post ? Venice, gondoliers, unrequited love, ambiguous sexuality,.....what's the deal with excavating ancient history?

My present image is that of a being an old rural hick in Tennessee. Every now and again I like to establish the fact that I was once a young city hick in Hollywood (*smile*)


I've had an unusually colorful past and - - to be uncharacteristically brash and blunt - - I occasionally like to brag about it. What I reveal in my blog is merely a condensation, a paltry fraction.

Perhaps I yearn for the past simply because I've fallen so far from it.

I was once young and desirable - my life brimmed with adventure and fascinating things that most people have never experienced.

Now I'm a dilapidated country hermit, stumbling through weeds with spiders on my nose.

Life's ironies are a bitch.






My photo blog:

http://cabinetofcurioustreasures.blogspot.com