I'm glad you and your family are fine. I'm glad your son's friend and his mom cancelled their plans. And I can only imagine how scary this was to live through. In the end, all you can do is not let fear control you and keep croaking your song like the frogs.
So glad you missed the shots around the world. That’s scary. The frogs were a nice touch. Just ribbiting and doing their thing.
We lived down the street from the Boston bombing. My daughter was going to meet friends at the finish line but they got lazy. Staying home is underrated.
It's a weird feeling. You wonder, because you've been close to a horrible event like that, if you're in the clear. Reminds me of that scene in The World According to Garp when they're shopping for a new house and an airplane crashes into the roof. Robin Williams' characters immediately makes an offer on the house, reasoning that the odds of such a thing happening again in the same spot are astronomical. Of course, as I type this, I'm knocking on all the wood in my home.
Staying home is underrated? Yeah, we should have t-shirts made.
This is so kind and generous of you. I appreciate it. Sincerely. I don't have a tip jar, though-- I just have the optional paid subscriptions. Either way, thank you a million times for reading. I'm nothing but grateful to have an engaged audience. :)
A week or so ago, I was at Walgreen's back in the pharmacy section to pick up an Rx. I heard a thump, as if someone fell at the front of the store. Then I heard continuous loud moaning..."Oh God, Oh My God" with each breath. I thought maybe an elderly woman fell and got injured. Clerks started running back towards the Rx booth and pulled the window down where I was waiting to check out. I then walked cautiously to the front of the store to check out where the sound was coming from to the check-out line. a couple of people were in front of me. People had stricken looks on their faces, some were crying. I gulped trying not to get teary eyed. A man lay curled up on the floor holding his knees in his arms groaning and swearing with each breath. I won't share his words here. What happened, I asked the woman next to me. He just got shot. Her face was pale and she was shaking. OMG! I'm thinking, is the shooter in the store? Then she said he just fell into the store after getting shot in the leg outside...right outside where I was about to leave the store after paying for my bill. A couple of minutes sooner and I would have been standing by the door where he got shot. As it turned out, he was an innocent citizen who had just tried to leave Walgreens when he took a shot to the leg from across the street and turned and fell inside. The shot was a stray bullet from across the street at a Popeyes where there was a targeted shooting of two men in the parking lot that were murdered there in their car. He shot about 20 times at his victims with an AR, facing the Walgreen's store. We all had to stay inside, of course for quite a few harrowing minutes. Now that I felt safe, as the police swarmed in and the ambulance came to take this man out, I was worried about my car, Sky Blue. The police told the witnesses to stay inside and everyone else to leave. I gave some money to the cashier and walked out. My car was in the lot. I imagined her full of bullet holes melting into the pavement on flat tires. As I left, I was shaken. My knees felt weak. I couldn't get to my car fast enough to get out of there. I can still summon up that empty feeling of the fear that permeates your body at a time like this...it's a lonely feeling and the world around you doesn't feel real anymore. It's no longer your world....No frogs to bring me back to a safe place...just my hands strongly gripping my steering wheel while I felt weak inside....
To be clear, I liked this comment as an expression of solidarity. "...that empty feeling of the fear that permeates your body..." Well said. I can summon that feeling as well. Weird how it sort of haunts our hearts and bodies that way. Grateful you're on the other side of it.
What an engaging way of showing how or senses are heightened in the face of tragedy, when we're faced with dangers, seen and unseen. By the way, when I lived in OC, I used to stop by Cook's Corner semi-regularly on my bike. Only this bike was a skinny-tire road bike and I was in lycra, not leather. Nobody ever bothered me. Not even the high-octane frogs.
I'm glad you and your family are fine. I'm glad your son's friend and his mom cancelled their plans. And I can only imagine how scary this was to live through. In the end, all you can do is not let fear control you and keep croaking your song like the frogs.
Yeah, nothing but grateful. Gratitude keeps the fear at arm's length so that you can use your hands to conduct the frog orchestra.
So glad you missed the shots around the world. That’s scary. The frogs were a nice touch. Just ribbiting and doing their thing.
We lived down the street from the Boston bombing. My daughter was going to meet friends at the finish line but they got lazy. Staying home is underrated.
It's a weird feeling. You wonder, because you've been close to a horrible event like that, if you're in the clear. Reminds me of that scene in The World According to Garp when they're shopping for a new house and an airplane crashes into the roof. Robin Williams' characters immediately makes an offer on the house, reasoning that the odds of such a thing happening again in the same spot are astronomical. Of course, as I type this, I'm knocking on all the wood in my home.
Staying home is underrated? Yeah, we should have t-shirts made.
Love that scene!
I have some great T-shirt reading ideas. Time to look into Cafe Press. I love Substack but I’m earning less than when I was an actor.
You should combine--write yourself a one-woman show and hustle t-shirts in the lobby. ;)
Haha. Been there…
I could hustle t shirts on my stack. Lots of writers offer links to shopping sites.
I've been looking for your tip jar. Do you have one?
This is so kind and generous of you. I appreciate it. Sincerely. I don't have a tip jar, though-- I just have the optional paid subscriptions. Either way, thank you a million times for reading. I'm nothing but grateful to have an engaged audience. :)
To take nothing away from all the poignancy of this post, this line spoke to me the clearest:
"His songs feel like life and all of its contradictions—beautiful and haunting, tragic and comic, soulful and corrupt."
Yeah, I get the same feeling watching David Lynch or Coen Brothers movies and reading Flannery O'Connor or George Saunders.
A week or so ago, I was at Walgreen's back in the pharmacy section to pick up an Rx. I heard a thump, as if someone fell at the front of the store. Then I heard continuous loud moaning..."Oh God, Oh My God" with each breath. I thought maybe an elderly woman fell and got injured. Clerks started running back towards the Rx booth and pulled the window down where I was waiting to check out. I then walked cautiously to the front of the store to check out where the sound was coming from to the check-out line. a couple of people were in front of me. People had stricken looks on their faces, some were crying. I gulped trying not to get teary eyed. A man lay curled up on the floor holding his knees in his arms groaning and swearing with each breath. I won't share his words here. What happened, I asked the woman next to me. He just got shot. Her face was pale and she was shaking. OMG! I'm thinking, is the shooter in the store? Then she said he just fell into the store after getting shot in the leg outside...right outside where I was about to leave the store after paying for my bill. A couple of minutes sooner and I would have been standing by the door where he got shot. As it turned out, he was an innocent citizen who had just tried to leave Walgreens when he took a shot to the leg from across the street and turned and fell inside. The shot was a stray bullet from across the street at a Popeyes where there was a targeted shooting of two men in the parking lot that were murdered there in their car. He shot about 20 times at his victims with an AR, facing the Walgreen's store. We all had to stay inside, of course for quite a few harrowing minutes. Now that I felt safe, as the police swarmed in and the ambulance came to take this man out, I was worried about my car, Sky Blue. The police told the witnesses to stay inside and everyone else to leave. I gave some money to the cashier and walked out. My car was in the lot. I imagined her full of bullet holes melting into the pavement on flat tires. As I left, I was shaken. My knees felt weak. I couldn't get to my car fast enough to get out of there. I can still summon up that empty feeling of the fear that permeates your body at a time like this...it's a lonely feeling and the world around you doesn't feel real anymore. It's no longer your world....No frogs to bring me back to a safe place...just my hands strongly gripping my steering wheel while I felt weak inside....
To be clear, I liked this comment as an expression of solidarity. "...that empty feeling of the fear that permeates your body..." Well said. I can summon that feeling as well. Weird how it sort of haunts our hearts and bodies that way. Grateful you're on the other side of it.
What an engaging way of showing how or senses are heightened in the face of tragedy, when we're faced with dangers, seen and unseen. By the way, when I lived in OC, I used to stop by Cook's Corner semi-regularly on my bike. Only this bike was a skinny-tire road bike and I was in lycra, not leather. Nobody ever bothered me. Not even the high-octane frogs.
Yeah, the cyclists are a mainstay in the canyon. Glad you survived it. That canyon road is a deathtrap too often. Did you ever do the luge?
No, I'm not sure what the luge is. It sounds like a killer downhill (without croaking frogs).
Yeah, that's exactly what it is--though I imagine the croaking frogs make a cameo every now and again.