Letter to my father written on July 10, 2011. It is early in the morning. I'm sitting on a hard concrete picnic table bench. There are fire ants are on my feet and I'm drinking coffee from a Styrofoam cup, which I hate)
Dear Dad,
Perhaps I’m here at Chalk Bluff (yet again for yet another in-law annual family reunion) this year so to "fast", (as in not supply nourishment to) my senses prior the feast I’ll be served up in Alaska. This eternally lovely spot where the Comanche loved to fish and hunt and hone flint chips into weapons and tools, is OOS, (or Out Of Service as we say in fire department lingo). Just like when an engine, tanker or brush truck goes OOS there may still be many well-functioning parts. Here at Chalk Bluff, for example, the birds are still singing*, the majestic bluff still towers and casts its shadow blessings as the very highly-functioning sun travels overhead; and the whitish-gray river rocks pursist in their solid, smooth and seemingly unchanging beauty.
But equipment can OOS for the smallest of reasons like a flat tire or a dead battery. So I could say that Chalk Bluff. and it’s Rio Nueces, is completely OOS because their water pump is broke. (Not “broken” as is grammatically called for, because around the Dripping Springs Volunteer Fire Department they aren’t big sticklers on English refinements, and folks around here near Uvalde, Texas. barely the U.S. of A. don’t care a flip about past participles.)
Truth be told, it’s really just too bad that the damn river isn’t just totally dry because the filthy, swampish, algae-infested, stagnant, non-flowing, pockets of nonpotable/nonswimmable “water” are more depressing and health hazardy than nothing at all would be. Spanning the area there is little green to be seen, (but the algae); no grass on the cracked dry, earth.** The mesquites are doing okay (of course), but the pecans are stressed out! Dust and wind. Drought and misery. Poor river. Poor Texas. If there were any wishing wells they wouldn’t be full enough to hear a penny kerplunk.
Alaska will make me sick to my stomach after this. I’m starving for visual beauty, variation in natural color. I’m going to gorge!
Love,
Ellen
* mockingbirds, killdeer, vultures, etc.
**does make it easier to hunt arrowheads (more often flint chips)
Dear Dad,
Perhaps I’m here at Chalk Bluff (yet again for yet another in-law annual family reunion) this year so to "fast", (as in not supply nourishment to) my senses prior the feast I’ll be served up in Alaska. This eternally lovely spot where the Comanche loved to fish and hunt and hone flint chips into weapons and tools, is OOS, (or Out Of Service as we say in fire department lingo). Just like when an engine, tanker or brush truck goes OOS there may still be many well-functioning parts. Here at Chalk Bluff, for example, the birds are still singing*, the majestic bluff still towers and casts its shadow blessings as the very highly-functioning sun travels overhead; and the whitish-gray river rocks pursist in their solid, smooth and seemingly unchanging beauty.
But equipment can OOS for the smallest of reasons like a flat tire or a dead battery. So I could say that Chalk Bluff. and it’s Rio Nueces, is completely OOS because their water pump is broke. (Not “broken” as is grammatically called for, because around the Dripping Springs Volunteer Fire Department they aren’t big sticklers on English refinements, and folks around here near Uvalde, Texas. barely the U.S. of A. don’t care a flip about past participles.)
Truth be told, it’s really just too bad that the damn river isn’t just totally dry because the filthy, swampish, algae-infested, stagnant, non-flowing, pockets of nonpotable/nonswimmable “water” are more depressing and health hazardy than nothing at all would be. Spanning the area there is little green to be seen, (but the algae); no grass on the cracked dry, earth.** The mesquites are doing okay (of course), but the pecans are stressed out! Dust and wind. Drought and misery. Poor river. Poor Texas. If there were any wishing wells they wouldn’t be full enough to hear a penny kerplunk.
Alaska will make me sick to my stomach after this. I’m starving for visual beauty, variation in natural color. I’m going to gorge!
Love,
Ellen
* mockingbirds, killdeer, vultures, etc.
**does make it easier to hunt arrowheads (more often flint chips)
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