BRAINPAN LEAKAGE

Okay, I’ll stop there, because we all know what comes next…

So anyway, a comment on my last blog begged not only a response, but its own blog entry as well. Paula wanted to know if we got Puck into a warm, dry place. Obviously, she remembers the pics from the ice storm of late 2006 where the little beggar got turned into a snow capped Puckcicle.

For those of you unfamiliar with Puck, he is a mischievous nature spirit who takes many forms. One of the most common manifestations you will see represented within the Pagan community is that of a small Roman Satyr. To put it in more conventional terms, he’s half goat.

The Puck in question here, however, is a wonderful piece of garden statuary representing the little beggar…It is something we picked up several years ago and has graced our home ever since, albeit in various locations throughout (both inside and outside) over those years. Below is a picture from a website where one can be purchased, just to give you an idea of what he looks like without the ice and snow…

Quite obviously, you can get one at The Magick Moon…(very cool store, BTW… I have one of their “babe on a broomstick” T-shirts)…

But, anyway, here is the picture Paula remembers, and it will show you what Puck looked like back in 2006, when he was making his home on our back deck and the ice storm rolled in…

And finally, here is how he looked this morning…Well, kinda. I had to point him out in the picture. Just follow the arrow to the circle…

You see, Puck now resides in the rock garden at the back of our yard… Why? Well, it’s a long story, but let’s just say he likes it back there with the spirits of the many mischievous felines we’ve rescued over the years who have since grown old and gone on to the great yarn basket in the sky.

Oh, and before I forget. In the previous blog I mentioned something about the neighbors being too damn close. Well, that’s true (even though we actually have great neighbors) but I wanted to clarify something – that grey building off to the upper right of the picture is our shed, not one of our neighbors. We actually have a pretty sizeable back yard.

Okay, so there you go, Paula. Puck chose to remain out in the elements yet again. It’s probably for the best. When he lived inside the house he used to steal my socks… But never a pair… just singles. I wonder what that’s all about.

More to come…

Murv

In the 1986 Michael Mann film, Manhunter, based on Thomas Harris’ novel Red Dragon, there is a scene where a sting operation is being set up and one of the FBI agents says to Investigator Will Graham, “Let’s walk the route…” Basically, the idea was for them to walk the path Graham would be taking during the sting in order that he be familiar with it and hopefully not get himself killed.

Well, I walked the route last night… Not the route Will Graham (William Petersen) walked in the movie…No, I walked the route Special Agent Constance Mandalay walked in the last pages of The End Of Desire. I’ll try not to give away too much, as I know some readers of my blog have yet to get their hands on TEOD, and are hoping it will be in their Yule stocking (Good luck to you on that – I’m pulling for you!)… Suffice it to say, I “walked the route.”

The Saint Louis Zoo does in fact have a special light display every year at this time. It is called “Wild Lights”. And, each year as a family we go there, pay our modest admission, and wander around the zoo in the dark looking at all the wonderous displays. Hence, the reason (with some minor name changes) it was featured as part of the climax in The End Of Desire.

Anyway, last night was our annual pilgrimage, and it was the first time I had been back to the display since writing TEOD (naturally). So, I walked Mandalay’s route…There was a crowd of folks, as usual, enjoying hot chocolate and the various light displays…But, for me, it was like moving slowly through a dream. The fictional scene replayed in my head, projecting itself onto the canvas of reality before me. Non-existent players in this world were suddenly very tangible, if only to my eyes and no one else’s.

For a scant 30 minutes, fiction became reality in my own personal world.

It was, to say the least, an interesting experience… Of course, we know that my characters talk to me all the time, so I suppose I should have expected it.

Yeah, I’m pretty disturbed. But we already knew that, didn’t we? 

More to come…

Murv