November 27, Brooksville, Kentucky.
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Kentucky days.
November 27, Covington, Kentucky (410 miles.)
We're at Matt's, it's getting cold, I get up before everybody to be alone with a book, or two, it's getting colder, driving around Kentucky then, steep little hills and a home on each of them like a nipple, bare trees, the navigation system says take the ferry but we go the opposite way along the Ohio river, gentler countryside, cool towns, we hurry home to Matt and fixing the world over a beer (for the guys.)
We're at Matt's, it's getting cold, I get up before everybody to be alone with a book, or two, it's getting colder, driving around Kentucky then, steep little hills and a home on each of them like a nipple, bare trees, the navigation system says take the ferry but we go the opposite way along the Ohio river, gentler countryside, cool towns, we hurry home to Matt and fixing the world over a beer (for the guys.)
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Poems, free.
November 25, Columbia, Missouri (340 miles.)
A few hours of being kids-free, back in Columbia, waking early to slip out of the house when they sleep, walking the streets of my graduate school days, reading E.E. Cummings at the Ragtag Café, chance-meeting Sally's friend April there, and her partner, Sam, reminds me of a lost love, or is it an actor who looked like my long-lost love, it's cold and the coffee is strong and warms me, the poems are essential, but I'm just reading, enjoying, being.
In the house now, and I hear steps upstairs, in a second they'll rush down.
We're on our way to Florida by way of my past and maybe our future.
Next stop Kentucky.
A few hours of being kids-free, back in Columbia, waking early to slip out of the house when they sleep, walking the streets of my graduate school days, reading E.E. Cummings at the Ragtag Café, chance-meeting Sally's friend April there, and her partner, Sam, reminds me of a lost love, or is it an actor who looked like my long-lost love, it's cold and the coffee is strong and warms me, the poems are essential, but I'm just reading, enjoying, being.
In the house now, and I hear steps upstairs, in a second they'll rush down.
We're on our way to Florida by way of my past and maybe our future.
Next stop Kentucky.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Extra.
November 16, Hugo.
We celebrated again at night with Marcos, Castro and the third cake.
More candles.
Still four (but not for long already.)
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Dylan turns four.
November 15, Hugo.
Yesterday was Dylan's birthday and we threw him a circus party with all the folks who are wintering here. The Rosales were here, and Dee Dee and Sam, Tavana and her family, and the Cainans, and of course our circus trailer park neighbors, the Moss family and Lucky Eddie and Vickie. Sheyla also came up from Dallas and cooked a Peruvian dish, the same Fridman had cooked the day Dylan was born, arroz con pollo. There were three cakes and plenty of presents, and Oscar had let us set up the bouncy bounce in front of the trailer too.
Dylan turned four, a little boy.
Wild time.
November 12, Hugo.
The kids and I spent a few days in Columbia, where I used to live, visiting my friends Greg and Sally. Dylan and Nicolas did a lot of singing and bouncing on beds, and Dylan a lot of painting, encouraged by wonderful wildly gentle creative Sally. The house is full of books, and elusive cats.
I miss Columbia but mostly Sally's joy and Greg's bear hugs.
Tuesday, November 03, 2009
Circus cemetery.
November 2, Hugo.
Yesterday John Moss and his family took Courtney, the kids and I to see the Hugo cemetery, where there is a section, marked "circus" on a small white and red cemetery sign, devoted to circus people.
From circus owners to performers and down to animal handlers, the genealogy of Hugo the self-proclaimed "circus city" is there, and the tomb markers are often surprising.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Rain drops.
October 26, Hugo, Oklahoma (112 miles, winter quarters.)
Four hours of boring highway driving and we're back in Hugo.
It rained all along; it's still raining here.
Things forgotten along the year, not so important maybe, how people would pass our slow trailers across a double yellow line on blind country roads, over and over again, risking their lives for a minute; how even though Fridman quit driving the tire truck some time in September and thus got onto the lot a lot earlier Chris would keep parking us all the way out, like pariahs; how some people would rush out of the lot in the morning ahead of call time protocol, as there were a race going on for first spot onto the next lot; how all this and all that; how the mud show gets under your skin even as it wears you down and I'm not raising the tent every day seven days a week.
The route slip gave thanks to all for a record-breaking year and I wonder what records were broken.
Rain drops count, most likely.
Four hours of boring highway driving and we're back in Hugo.
It rained all along; it's still raining here.
Things forgotten along the year, not so important maybe, how people would pass our slow trailers across a double yellow line on blind country roads, over and over again, risking their lives for a minute; how even though Fridman quit driving the tire truck some time in September and thus got onto the lot a lot earlier Chris would keep parking us all the way out, like pariahs; how some people would rush out of the lot in the morning ahead of call time protocol, as there were a race going on for first spot onto the next lot; how all this and all that; how the mud show gets under your skin even as it wears you down and I'm not raising the tent every day seven days a week.
The route slip gave thanks to all for a record-breaking year and I wonder what records were broken.
Rain drops count, most likely.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
A party for some.
October 25, Fort Smith.
The night was old and the Halloween party over - I had shuttled back and forth to try and take some pictures while watching the kids - when I routinely checked them for signs of temperature and found Dylan with a sudden peak of more than a hundred and four again and breathing rapidly. Maybe I didn't wait long enough for the drug to act but when he was at the same point moments later I was near hysterics and we decided to run to the nearest hospital and so we did, only to find out when we got there that the fever had all but subsided and he would probably be fine. The three hour ER wait sealed our immediate return home.
The party must have been fun for everybody else judging from the grins.
This week doesn't seem to end.
The night was old and the Halloween party over - I had shuttled back and forth to try and take some pictures while watching the kids - when I routinely checked them for signs of temperature and found Dylan with a sudden peak of more than a hundred and four again and breathing rapidly. Maybe I didn't wait long enough for the drug to act but when he was at the same point moments later I was near hysterics and we decided to run to the nearest hospital and so we did, only to find out when we got there that the fever had all but subsided and he would probably be fine. The three hour ER wait sealed our immediate return home.
The party must have been fun for everybody else judging from the grins.
This week doesn't seem to end.
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Trick or treat.
October 24, Fort Smith.
The kids did Trick or Treat today between shows, but Dylan and Nicolas skipped.
Nicolas we've been watching closely and think he has the flu, the new one or the old one it doesn't matter, he's had a high fever although he seemed better today, and Dylan was doing great, hadn't run a fever since that first night, and all of a sudden, right after the trick-or-treaters came by, he started running one again. We went out today, it was finally warmer, but he must have gotten a chill, and now I'm panicking, dreading a return to yet another urgent care clinic (what else is going to be open on a Sunday?) dreading the accumulating bills (two hundred dollars just to walk into the clinic the other day, and now I know the system, that doesn't include neither the doctor nor the extra exams, those will be surprises in the mail - trick or treat.)
They'll skip the Halloween party tonight under the big top too, no way they were going out in the cold at night even if they both had been doing better.
It's been a hard week.
Friday, October 23, 2009
Late news.
October 23, Fort Smith.
Things forgotten among the children's illnesses and gloomy weather: last week the Rosales joined us again til the end of the season, followed on Monday by the Fusco family. Today another Perez brother arrived too.
Things forgotten among the children's illnesses and gloomy weather: last week the Rosales joined us again til the end of the season, followed on Monday by the Fusco family. Today another Perez brother arrived too.
More worries.
October 23, Fort Smith.
This I will not miss.
It was Nicolas' time to suddenly run a high fever yesterday (something about waking up from naps) but since we were in the middle of nowhere I simply gave him some children's painkillers and hoped for the best. Dylan's cough also picked up, on cue, to add to my stress level. Then as we were getting ready to leave around five thirty this morning Nicolas threw up all over the place, his skin clammy, hot.
Having to rush to the nearest clinic, around the corner or many miles away, not being able to rely on a familiar doctor (but in America in 2009 would you even call your family doctor at any hour and hope to talk to him?) you're running blind on a traveling circus, and on most days it's exhilarating but when your children are sick it's unbearable.
This I will not miss, as the season is almost over and we head to our transient homes.
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