Why all the stalking and sneaking?

Was there a fight?

The Unicorn

Eagle Harbor

Ghost of the Space Needle

Ferris

Man's search for meaning

"I'll buy you a drink if you wipe the blood off your mouth."

...which tastes the way the pool looks...

Painting by Eric Zener

When I left, Heather was lying on her stomach and whinging at me with her neck craned. Now she is supine, with the pool chair back slightly raised, one of her legs extended, one knee bent and angling upward, chin up. Relieved and cautiously hopeful I stand and unload the bags in the kitchen and from here I can see the pool and most of the yard and patio. The music is playing loudly enough that I can crinkle and clink without her hearing me.  I make two drinks, give my linen pants a tug so that they brush against the tops of my feet and don’t drag and pad my way in bare feet out to the patio.

She hears me now and leans her head over to face me. I cannot tell what her eyes are doing behind her sunglasses.

“Thanks,” she says, seeing the two drinks in my hand. Her voice is a little dreamy, either from the heat or because she got high while I was gone.

Which is it?  Why should I care?

“You’re welcome,” I say and sip from the cold gin martini in my hand, which tastes the way the pool looks in this heat. The lemon twist bobs in the drink and curls like a question mark.

--- Excerpt from my novel in progress, tentatively titled either What's Unessential or No Church in the Wild

Cloudbreak

Dave Wassel - Cloudbreak - 6-7-12 (photo courtesy of Volcom Fiji Pro)

Cannon Beach (in search of One Eyed Willie)

Road Trip

...nothing new under the sun.

Five people were killed in Seattle shootings this week, bringing the year-to-date homicides in our city even with the number of homicides in all of last year.  In Madison Park, a man who caused a lockdown of an elementary school reported that he was on a jog and only carrying a holstered pistol as protection, in light of all the recent shootings around the city. 

Liquor sales were transitioned from state facilities to public stores in Washington.  Divers in Penn Cove were having trouble recovering a 140-foot fishing boat that caught fire and sunk there and oyster beds were suffering.  US Forest Service officers were found to be discriminating against latinos in the Olympic Peninsula.

Las Cruces, New Mexico was experiencing a plague of animal bites.  In Galloway, Scotland, the owners of a falconry center were reported to have mysteriously disappeared.  In Florida, a naked man publicly chewed the face off another man before he was shot by police.  Rush Limbaugh announced: "This cannibal, this guy down in Florida, he's more in common with the Occupy movement than he does any other group in this country."

Wednesday night we eat Vietnamese food at the newly-opened Belltown location of Green Leaf, which serves great food and has no windows because it is in the basement of the Labor Temple on First Avenue.  The days are long and the weather is cloudy but warm.  We prepare to leave for Cannon Beach, to visit our third state in as many weekends.