July 31, 2009

I trimmed most of the hedges after work today, and did a little more fine tuning of the bushes around the house. As our backyard has become the defacto lounge for the neighborhood's rabbit population for we are the only house in the neighborhood sans dogs, it was cute to see them sitting in the lawn across from the house while I was trimming the one border hedge where they feed and frolic in our backyard; they showed up later once I was done.

I picked up some Gordon from Oskar Blues Brewery. Funny thought occurred to me as I was drinking these tasty little, but potent beers housed in their aluminum alloy cans; one Gordon is 8.7% ABV. I drank two, and they are just as rich as potent. Now, I think the average session beer, say Pabst or Hamm's, is probably about 4% ABV at most. So by having these two Gordon's, I had drank an equivalent of 4 PBRs - well, the idea struck me as interesting as I built my beer buzz.

With my chores all done for the night and Gordon's in my bloodstream, I found myself listening to Richard and Linda Thompson's Shoot Out the Lights, and it dawned upon me that nearly 20 years ago, I bought the CD. I recall coming to Madison from Port Washington just before the move date of August 15, 1989, to move my stuff from 410 S Mills to 1029 Emerald St in preparation for my 'senior' year at the UW. After this was done, I purchased the CD at B-Side records. My friend who helped me move my stuff purchased a CD that would also have a serious impact on me, although at a later time, and that was the Big Star #1 Record/Radio City double album CD.

I then thought of how much fun it was to live at 1029 for the Fall of 1989 through August 1990, and the good times with such good housemates. I thought of my room in the attic that I loved, and how I slept on a simple futon I bought at Shakti and had the futon on the bare floor; for a moment I could almost detect the scent of the room - that wooden smell with a hint of patchouli from the incense I burned in it. I thought of 'Henry' the house's resident Cicada I brought in from a bad rainstorm. And then I thought of someone whom I was badly smitten with, how we watched a movie at the house for one of our dates, and of her house at St. James Court, but such thoughts really don't amount to anything, but dead-end dreams.