"There on the street are so many possibilities to not be alone."

[greygirlbeast]

So, the rains never came. The rains for which we cancelled the trip to Maine. There might have been a shower one night. Every day, the past few days, has been a case of "tomorrow, it's going to rain." And we have sunny days and warm nights. I've wasted an Indian Summer sitting at this fucking machine. Then again, there's so much work to be done, taking the time off truly would have been disastrous ("ill-starred").

We are surrounded by an ocean of words, and virtually no one knows their meanings.

COMMENT, KITTENS!

Yesterday, I began what I hope is a new piece for Sirenia Digest #70 (subscribe!). Currently, it's called "Evensong," and today I'll go back over the 1,134 words I wrote yesterday and see if I can make them a little more melodic, and then try to conjure whether or not the vignette (which it actually is) is leading me anywhere I want to go.

The workload right now has even me amazed. The money's nice. No denying that. But I doubt I'll be able to take more than two or three days off (maybe) until sometime in December.

It's a good thing that, as a small child, I was inoculated against suicide, what with all that talk of hellfire and damnation.

Ah, but two fine gifts yesterday, and thank you, Steven Lubold!

Lee Moyer and I have talking about the cover art for Confessions of a Five-Chambered Heart. He had a great idea for an image from "Dancing with the Eight of Swords," and Bill Schafer has approved it.

There's a lot of shit I'd be blogging about, if I had half the requisite energy. For example, how mass media (televised and print) is largely ignoring the "occupation of Wall Street" and the instances of police brutality associated with it. Officer Tony Baloney, anyone? You know this tune! Sing along!

My bologna has a first name.
It's T O N and Y.
My Bologna has a second name.
It's P U S S Y.
Oh, I'd love to beat him every day,
For spraying girls inside a cage,
Cause we are now a police state from B O L O G N A ! — Anon.

You're a douchebag, Deputy Inspector Tony Baloney. Then again, maybe you give douchebags a bad rep. You're definitely giving the NYPD a bad rep.

I am currently battling a massive resurgence of time displacement. Taking my life back. I managed to get to sleep by three a.m. last night. I'm learning not to fight sleep. The pills are beating back Monsieur Insomnia; now I just have to let them. But yeah, asleep by three ayem, awake at ten ayem. In part, this improvement has followed from the strict adherence to my recently instituted and unflinchingly enforced NO BULLSHIT policy. If it is in my life, and if it turns to bullshit, I make it go away. It is proving an amazingly useful policy for the alleviation of stress of every sort. Three simple words: NOT MY PROBLEM.

And now! Photographs! The first is from Sunday, and the rest from our trip to West Cove on Monday:





Upon the occasion of having finished with the CEM of The Drowning Girl a Memoir.



On the road to Conanicut.



West Cove, upon our arrival. View to the southwest. Note plastic litter along the waterline.



One of many yachts we saw, with ring-billed gulls. View to the south.



Grounds-eye view across the cove, to the east.



A very young, and very deceased, crab.



Knotted wrack.



Northern rock barnacles and a periwinkle.



Aunt Beast stalks the cove! View to the north.



Passing boats. View to the south.



The egg casing of a whelk.



Another grounds-eye view, view to the south and the mouth of the cove.



Who is the Spooky Beast?! View to the northeast.



Evidence of a cult of lobster worshipers! Actually, this chunk of concrete is the inspiration for "Evensong."



All Beauty and Truth,
Aunt Beast

Comments

[kaz-mahoney.livejournal.com]

Love the photos, especially that last one.

Also: It's a good thing that, as a small child, I was inoculated against suicide, what with all that talk of hellfire and damnation.

Oh, me too. I still remember an actual conversation with my 'RE' teacher (also the headmistress of the school) when I was about six. Her words affected my view of religion/death/hell, etc. for my entire life.

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

We are held prisoners by Life and all its horrors. Thank you, God.

[pwtucker.livejournal.com]

Beautiful photographs. I love the subdued, slate and umber hues of West Cove. The grounds-eye view to the south and the mouth of the cove is my favorite with all its subtle, brooding menace. Something there seems imminent.

Question: have you ever read Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun?

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

Beautiful photographs. I love the subdued, slate and umber hues of West Cove. The grounds-eye view to the south and the mouth of the cove is my favorite with all its subtle, brooding menace. Something there seems imminent.

Thank you.

have you ever read Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun?

Nope.

[r-darkstorm.livejournal.com]

We are surrounded by an ocean of words, and virtually no one knows their meanings. That line just sort of struck me, and made me want to both read something new, and write something poetic, neither of which I've done in ages.

Evidence of a cult of lobster worshipers! Not the worst idea for a cult ever... I guess I'm going to have to subscribe to the digest now, so I can read the story that inspired.

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

That line just sort of struck me

I was looking at the word disaster, when it's obvious etymology suddenly occurred to me.

I guess I'm going to have to subscribe to the digest now, so I can read the story that inspired.

Subscribe!

[sovay]

Officer Tony Baloney, anyone?

I'd seen the footage. I hadn't heard the song. I'm hoping there are consequences.

Thank you for the knotted wrack and the whelk eggs.

Evidence of a cult of lobster worshipers! Actually, this chunk of concrete is the inspiration for "Evensong."

That's terrific.

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

I'm hoping there are consequences.

They're going to need a scapegoat. He seems to have the horns.

Thank you for the knotted wrack and the whelk eggs.

You're welcomed. Wish you'd been there.

[ardentdelirium.livejournal.com]

I always expect rock barnacles to blink at me.

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

Now there's a wonderful image. May I use it in "Evensong"?

[ardentdelirium.livejournal.com]

please do!

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[ardentdelirium.livejournal.com]

no problem! It's a nice ego stroke ;)

[blackestdarkness]

Wonderful photos. I love the grounds-eye views and your shadow in the Spooky Beast one.

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

I love the grounds-eye views

I'd love to do a coffee-table book of such views of the sea.

your shadow in the Spooky Beast one.

The Spooky Beast is elusive, and hard to photograph.

[sovay]

I'd love to do a coffee-table book of such views of the sea.

I bet you could Kickstart it.

[ashlyme.livejournal.com]

The whelk eggs are beautiful. It would be lovely if somebody could make glass replicas.

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

It would be lovely if somebody could make glass replicas.

Yes! It would.

[eluneth.livejournal.com]

Not quite what you were asking for, but your comment (which I wholly agree with) reminded me of this: http://wallout.com/files/images/glass_shell.jpg Hermit in a glass shell.

[humglum.livejournal.com]

Oh, that would be amazing...

[ashlyme.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I don't know if I'd want to wear them, or use them as chimes...

[miakodadreams.livejournal.com]

I need to re-sub to Sirenia before the next issue (huzzah for banking snafus). That comes out around the 5th, right?

My boyfriend has talked me into going to Maine with him in October. He wants to show me the fall leaves and the ocean -- being an Indiana girl who's traveled very little, Lake Michigan is the biggest body of water I've seen in person, thus far.

So, all of you excellent people, what advice do you have for an ocean virgin?

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

I need to re-sub to Sirenia before the next issue (huzzah for banking snafus). That comes out around the 5th, right?

Yep.

So, all of you excellent people, what advice do you have for an ocean virgin?

Unfortunately, I can't help, as I've never been to Maine.

[miakodadreams.livejournal.com]

Is the ocean that different in Maine than it is elsewhere in New England?

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

Is the ocean that different in Maine than it is elsewhere in New England?

As you move northwards, the shoreline grows rockier, beginning with Cape Ann, Mass.

[ashlyme.livejournal.com]

Enjoy the trip. I've never been outside Britain, and I've an impending visit to NJ/NY for my boyfriend's brother's wedding. I don't think I travel well, and frankly I'm shitting bricks.

[miakodadreams.livejournal.com]

Good luck to you! Somehow I've managed to approach the Age of the Cranky Bat with only one plane trip under my belt, and that was a puddle jumper affair last year. So I can't really say I'm looking forward to that part of the trip...

[eluneth.livejournal.com]

mass media (televised and print) is largely ignoring the "occupation of Wall Street"
Holy shit, I hadn't heard anything about this at all (go figure). Time to go news-digging.

Thanks for the seaside photos, as always. I spent a couple days by the shore earlier this summer, and didn't realize how much I missed it till there were a few days here in Cambridge when the wind was blowing the smell of the harbor (relatively) far inland - I walked outside to be met by a salty gust, and immediately wanted to see the ocean again.

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

Holy shit, I hadn't heard anything about this at all (go figure).

Exactly, which is how TPTB wish it to be.

I'd love to do a coffee-table book of such views of the sea.

[oldfossil59.livejournal.com]

That sounds like a Kickstarter project, and excellent reasons for a multitude of beach, and seaside excursions. (for business purposes no less)

Thanks for sharing such beautiful photos.

Re: I'd love to do a coffee-table book of such views of the sea.

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

That sounds like a Kickstarter project, and excellent reasons for a multitude of beach, and seaside excursions. (for business purposes no less)

I shudder to consider the expense.

Re: I'd love to do a coffee-table book of such views of the sea.

[ashlyme.livejournal.com]

It *is* a neat idea, though. How about a more text-focused natural history of RI?

[robyn-ma.livejournal.com]

I think you just inadvertently wrote a Tom Waits song.

so the rains never came
the rains for which we cancelled
the trip to maine

there might have been a shower one night
every day, the past few days, has been
a case of "tomorrow, it's going to rain"

and we have sunny days and warm nights

*accordion solo*

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

Yes! You rock!

[terriblyvexd.livejournal.com]

I just subscribed! Should have done it months ago...

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[whiskeychick.livejournal.com]

I'm horrified by Tony Baloney. His badge and gun should be removed, as well as the mace canister, without haste. What an asshat.

Your photos make me hunger for the sea. But, I have editing to do myself. Ugh.

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

I'm horrified by Tony Baloney. His badge and gun should be removed, as well as the mace canister, without haste. What an asshat.

I doubt he'll fail to suffer the consequences of these actions.

[birgitriddle.livejournal.com]

Just finally got around to subscribing to the Digest even though I've probably been meaning to for over a year (money issues and what not).

Also, part of me is wondering if all that rain that keeps getting predicted for New England is actually being kept in the Mid-Atlantic because it won't stop raining here. It rains at least once it day for the past couple of weeks.

[chris-walsh.livejournal.com]

Now I'm imagining a real inoculation against suicide. Added to the Dip/Tet, to make that the Suicide Vaccine. So then you have something coursing through your body that makes you go Suicide? Hell no! Hey, drugs can make you think all sorts of things... and I wish people would think less about hurting themselves.

(Hmm. Suicide Vaccine. Could be a '90s band name.)

P.S. Imagine that Monsieur Insomnia likes being beaten. Might make it easier to beat him.