shave0411sama

@@@@@Freemantle, nice chuck!" 345 A couple with a sports car moved into the house just south of Big Pink, and the distressing strains of Toby Keith began to waft to me around the cocktail hourOn the whole, I might have preferred SlipknotThe quartet of young people from Toledo had a golf cart they raced up and down the beach when they weren't playing volleyball or off on fishing expeditions Wireman was more than busy; he was a dervish Luckily, he had helpOne day Jack lent him a hand unclogging the Mean Dog lawn-sprinklersA day or two later, I helped him push the Toledo visitors' golf cart out of a dune in which it had gotten stuck - those responsible had left it to go get a six-pack, and the tide was threatening to take it My hip and leg were still mending, but there was nothing wrong with my remaining arm Bad hip and leg or not, I took Great Beach Walks Some days - mostly when the fog came in during the late afternoon, first obliterating the Gulf with cold amnesia and then taking the houses, as well - I took pain pills from my diminishing stockWireman was rarely parked in his beach chair drinking green tea that February, but 346 Elizabeth Eastlake was always in her parlor, she almost always knew who I was, and she usually had a book of poetry near to handIt wasn't always Keillor's Good Poems, but that was the one she liked the bestMerwin and Sexton and Frost, oh-my I did plenty of reading myself that February and MarchI read more than I had in years - novels, short stories, three long nonfiction books about how we had stumbled into the Iraq mess (the short answer appeared to have W for a middle initial and a dick for a Vice President)But mostly what I did was paintEvery afternoon and evening I painted until I could barely lift my strengthening armBeachscapes, seascapes, still lifes, and sunsets, sunsets, sunsets But that fuse continued to smolderThe heat had been turned down but not offThe matter of Candy Brown wasn't the next thing, only the next obvious thingAnd that didn't come until Valentine's Day A hideous irony when you think of it iii 347 ifsogirl88 to EFree19 10:19 AM February 3 Dear Daddy, It was great to hear you got a "thumbs up" on your paintings! Hooray! And if they DO offer you a show, I'll catch the next plane and be there in my "little black dress" (I have one, believe it or not)Got to stay put for now and study my butt off because - here is a secret - I'm hoping to surprise Carson when Spring Break rolls around in Apr