Slackjaw's Forum

Sweetie and I really hit the trailer hard this weekend. We’d been given a list of improvements to make from our real estate agents, so this weekend we set about trying to see how many we could get done. Unfortunately it was very scattered effort. Usually I’m quite good at focusing on a single task and beating it to death until completion. For instance, the trailer has a number of corrugated fiberglass panels on the back porch, put there by the previous owner to close everything in. I’ve never really cared for them and a few years back when we painted the singlewide, I just had them painted over to match the rest of the house. We mostly just use the back porch for our recycling containers, paper bags, and miscellany anyway. The agents thought it made things too dark back there and asked if we could replace the panels with something a little more see-through. Easy enough I thought, so Saturday morning I headed out to the hardware store and picked up the pieces to what I thought would be...

Well we’re starting to put into motion the first steps that are going to lead us out of this trailer park and into a new home. This afternoon we meet with the real estate agent so that she can put a price on the singlewide and we can give her a better idea of what we’re gonna be in the market for. Moving seems like an impossible mountain to climb right now. In some small way, I imagine it feeling like what the pioneer families must have felt, when, at the end of the long journey through the great planes, they at last came upon the Rocky Mountains. I can completely understand how there were some who just parked their wagons in Bozeman and said "To hell with that – I’m done." But being done is not really an option for us. I know deep down, like all those other pioneers crossing this country knew deep down, that if you want to reap the benefits of the Puyallup river valley’s rich soil and winter rains, you are gonna have to put that first foot down on a snow covered mountain p...

I have in the past on this site, railed against Christians and the Religious right. As a non-believer in either god or the bible, I have been, this past week, writing diatribes in my head blaming the church for all the hatred and divisiveness in this country. Blaming narrow mindedness for allowing this country to be consumed in bigotry and moralistic fear the like of which has not been seen since the days of Joe McCarthy and his witch-hunts. I was angry. Angry at these elections for what they say about America and for the direction my fellow countrymen have chosen to allow this country to go in. I was all set to take that anger and put it out into the world and then I received this email from a good friend of mine that took it all away, leaving me with a feeling of something else entirely…not exactly hope I guess…something a little more hard to define. Promise, maybe? How This Liberal Christian Will Respond to Bush's Re-Election I've calmed down, and now I can think rati...

In my dream last night, I was looking through the living room window out into a cold wet morning, and saw two people who I thought were the Silvey brothers. I didn’t know them all that well in college, but well enough to say hello and to find out what they’ve been up too. When I opened the door to the singlewide to say hello and get the paper they were gone, but crowded up on my front porch was a pressing group of other friends. There stood Craig and Shelly who had brought a friend named Less for a tour our house, and right behind them some other friends, Grace and Tom, who had just managed to show up at the same time, and who had, for some reason, brought a grown up version of Sweetie’s niece. We all chatted for a minute on the cold porch shaking hands and giving out hugs, and then I invited everyone in for breakfast. I’ve convinced myself this morning that this dream is all about the election, but I have no idea why I think that. If any of you have any insights as to wh...