impressions

Just a collection of random impressions, thoughts.

...I was walking on a sidewalk near Chinatown, and noticed that faintly sharp scent which I have come to associate with pigeons. The sidewalk I was on had, in fact, been lambasted (sp?) repeatedly by birdshit, in countless white splatters. As I stared at the birdshit, I noticed subtle patterns. The "pointilist" pigeons had relieved themselves from, of course, the branches of the trees above. It was difficult, but if I concentrated, I could almost match the shifting shadows of the branches with the forms of the birdshit that had dropped from them...

...Lynn mentioned that, when we were dancing (like when was that???), she wished that she could stand on my feet. It made her feel like we were more connected. "Holding hands is nice," she said (I'm paraphrasing), "but if I stand on your feet, it's like we're 'holding feet.'" (Hmm... that sort of came out wrong, sounds pretty disgusting, but you get the idea). Then, when she tried, she realized that it wasn't quite so nice; because of the sharpness of my talon-like toenails, and the raised and uneven ridges of my extensor tendons (on the tops of my feet), she felt like she was standing on eggshells, from eggs made of warped rubber and rock fragments...

...poor Algernon is either dead or free (maybe both). I had just bought a SAM cage (Small Animal M... Module?), this plastic "house" with all of these detachable fittings, like one that was an exercise wheel, and another that was a ringed tunnel... Trouble was, despite the new cage, his shit and pee still stank something awful, like a blast of ammonia in the face. So, for Willow's b-day party, we put Algernon and his cage outside, in our backyard (he had stayed out for many months previously, but in a glass fishtank with a screen top). The stupid feral cats that roam the valley behind our house crept into our backyard and, after feasting themselves on the garbage (which they pulled out of our garbage can), they figured out a way to "detach" one of the modules (the ringed tunnel) and soon afterwards, probably figured out a way to "detach" Algernon's cute mouse-head from his long scaly tail. I didn't tell Willow or Aiden Algernon's likely fate- I lied and said that Algernon was a very smart mouse who figured out how to get out of the cage, and that he was likely out in the valley behind our house with some other mice he'd made friends with... The kids were fine with that; they agreed that Algernon had been a smart mouse, and yes, he was probably better off playing with other mice his own age. Being a parent involves such terrible deceit, always delivered with such deadpan expressions...