Creative Endeavors, The Home of BoxcarOkie.com

Sitting on the porch with my cup of Joe, meditating. The eastern sky is turning crimson and dawn is cracking in the Heartland. The ear plugs are already necessary, what little peace you do receive around here, is often, short lived. The city is waking up to machinery noise, traffic and now, sirens. Living within one-half mile of a fire station provides a certain feeling of security and aggravation from time to time; this is a busy place on some days.

I am getting somewhat better at this stuff, haven’t exactly mastered it, but I am making inroads into my peace-of-mind exercises. The ear protectors (ear muffs and occasionally the ear plugs used in conjunction) are effective at blocking out most of the noise, 98% of the time, and that is proving to be a good thing. The other day I saw some of these new Bose earphones advertised, noise canceling very high-tech stuff and supposed to be the Cat’s Meow when it comes to sound suppression.

They ought to be, Bose said that there were just “12” easy payments on my credit card. I got news for Bose, and the rest of ‘em, there is no such thing as an “easy payment on a credit card.” I will trust in the Okie Equivalent, two cotton balls and a smile … that should get me thru the day. Home grown Heartland noise suppression.. no payments.

Sitting on the front stoop, no plans, no ambitions, shut down. Really would like to be in California or Oregon this day, it would be a great day to be just about anywhere — anywhere but here. To be where ear plugs were not necessary and the view never seemed redundant or stale.

My mind quickly travels back in time, to grade school and my youth, and how I used to spend an inordinate amount of time at the pencil sharper, grinding away, staring out the window at the nice day and dreaming of better things. Some sixty years later, I am back at that proverbial spot (in my mind) and I am still the impossible dreamer, the hopeless romantic.

I like the country
Can’t stand all this city strife
Guess I want to be on the boulevard … rollin’
Rollin’ all my life.

Open the east gate of Yellowstone and let me in!
Thinking about Bear Tooth Pass,
Cooke City, Red Lodge Montana
Second cup of coffee for the day, my “last cup of coffee for the day.”

Crater Lake,
Junction City,
Tahoe,
Clear water streams
What a hopeless romantic,
a man of many dreams.

No adventure in my life,
No more icing on the cake,
Ho hugs, soft kisses, warm hello’s,
No backrubs, or calls on the telephone,
No important dates for me to make,
My coffee cup has developed a pinhole leak on the bottom,
My first problem of the day.

Sunday Morning, sitting in my chair on the stoop, draggin’ my heart around. I put on my earphones to silence the racket of man (lawnmowers, weed-whackers) and I can hear the low muffled sound of my own heart beating. It disturbs me, a distressing reminder of my own mortality. A slow steady drum beat of how fragile life really can be, and I stop to consider the fact that we seldom realize the frailty of it all.

Today, this day, my thoughts should be concentrated on other things, not so much on leaving, getting out of here. But rather, just making it thru another Oklahoma day. The weekend is dying … Two quick short days in heaven, often just isn’t enough.

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