That Good Time Vacation Smell

As I was retrieving a tennis ball that I had just sailed into the woods this evening, I was instantly taken back to Interlochen, where we used to go on vacation in the summers. I don't know what it is, maybe it's because there's a lake not too far away, maybe it's because there isn't the pollution of the big city, but there's a certain kind of smell that you can only find in the woods in a vacation town. It reminded me of riding the trails in the state park on my bike on a summer evening. Good stuff. I don't think my tennis game has improved much since then, though.

As I was searching through a box for some tennis balls earlier in the day, I happened to find a couple of assignments from a creative writing class in college (don't ask me what the tennis balls & these papers were doing in the same box). Most of it was amateur goofy crap, the kind of stuff that makes professors slap their foreheads in disgust. I happen to like this little thing I wrote, even though it too, was amateur goofy crap. I think it was an assignment where you have to use a certain first word to start a line. Here it is, don't laugh (okay, laugh if you want to, I'll never know)...

i'm reading the new york times written in black,
hot, humid august bringing out the worst in me,
i'm longing to go home but i can't look back.
Buddy Holly's on the radio but I just can't see him,
I wish I could sing along & see his face,
I hope next year brings me somebody, someplace.

Five Favorite Songs of the Day

Tell Ol' Bill-Bob Dylan, North Country Soundtrack

Andy's Chest-Lou Reed, Transformer

Up to Me-Bob Dylan, Biograph

it frightens me, the awful truth, of how sweet life can be...

Waiting for the Miracle-Leonard Cohen, Wonderboys Soundtrack

At My Window Sad & Lonely-Billy Bragg & Wilco, Mermaid Ave (lyrics by Woody Guthrie)

What a treasure these old Woody Guthrie lyrics are, & I don't think anyone could've done a better job putting music to them.

Happy Monday, friends, I hope your week brings you all sorts of memories you never knew you had!

andrew