On The Road With Al and Ivy: Blog

He traverses familiar,  As one should come to town  And tell you all your dreams were true;  He lived where dreams were sown. - Emily Dickinson  "Do you suppose I give a damn about life now? Why, you bone-head, I haven't got a single damned lying hope or pipe dream left!" "By God, there's no hope! I'll never be a success in the grandstand--or anywhere else! Life is too much for me! I'll be a weak fool looking with pity at the two sides of everything till the day I die!" - Eugene O'Neill (The Iceman Cometh)  I've first saw O'Neill's play, "The Iceman Cometh" in high school. My English & Literature class watched the movie version that starred Lee Marvin and Robert Ryan on PBS. I won't go into all of the deep meaning, as there's cliff notes and Google for that, but what seems relevant today was the importance of dreams, which are part of a reality, even if delusional. The play'...

  "Like all men in this land, he had been a wanderer, an exile on the immortal earth. Like all of us, he had no home. Wherever great wheels carried him was home." - Thomas Wolfe (Of Time And The River) ...the new kid in town... ...a new face, possibly Middle Eastern, which is rare around here...I recognized myself in him him because he was acting like I did a few months ago, he had found a spot, a haven, possibly after some aimless wandering about to avoid being seen by those he knew. The first stage of homelessness is the worst...everything looks big, every problem crushing you and what was your life is now gone...it's a rebirth but it doesn't feel that way because it feels more like death. In the tarot, the death card is actually a symbol of rebirth...which I knew due to being a tarot card reader on the early internet when it called the usenet and mainly consisted of discussion groups and ftp sites. I went by the name of Magus Fool, and...

  "And the afternoon, the evening, sleeps so peacefully! Smoothed by long fingers, Asleep...tired...or it malingers" "I am no prophet-and here's no great matter; I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker, And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker, And in short, I was afraid." -T.S. Eliot (The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock) ...freeloaders and other terms... One of the biggest arguments against the homeless is that they're a bunch of freeloaders. Secondary argument that's sometimes applied to them is that they "don't pay taxes," and live off society. The argument that they don't pay taxes is generally based on whether they pay state or federal income tax. The fact is around 50% of the population doesn't pay federal income tax or live off of some sort of government assistance...not to mention that virtually all tax cheats are from the non-homeless population. The hom...

"I'm gonna tell you so you'll know That old Blue's gone where the good dogs go Singing ya-ho Blue, you good dog you" - Traditional "When I get to Heaven first thing I'll do is grab my horn and call for Blue Bye bye, Blue You good dog, you" - Roger McGuinn (Old Blue) "Me and old Bugler, we'd run wild  Blue tick hound and redneck child We thought we were birds of a feather Bugler's voice like Gabriel's horn Up in the cypress all down through the corn Golden sounds, yes to treasure Bugler, Bugler bless your hide Jesus gonna take you for a chariot ride Say goodbye, say goodbye..." - Larry Murray (Bugler) Ivy passed away suddenly on March 17, 2017. This is my obituary on my best friend who was with me for so long and through so many tough times. I adopted Ivy in late October of 2008. The big recession was starting to hit the solar industry, where I worked as a drafter. ...