the dead dog

listen i am going to put away the jester's scepter for a few minutes to tell you about what i saw in the south valley today.

on the afternoon before the election, i was thinking about what the big issues that supposedly affect us all might be (thanks to a discussion on the dcf forum that has now disappeared), and getting ready to take an afternoon nap. By the way, i happen to believe that the siesta is among the greatest inventions ever.

Anyway, just as I was opening the door to dreamland, the phone rang and it was SAS asking would I mind driving her down to a neighborhood called mountain view so she could do some research for a class she was taking and I said okay.

i figured that a drive would be a nice change of pace and besides it was sunny out and a half hour trip in the car would be pleasant enough, especially if i stopped for a carton of frajos on the rez and then wound my way back through the valley and into el vecino that she wanted to visit.

so there's a lot of old trailers down there, and homes that have been built up over the years with some parts looking new and others like they were built before they had put the carpenter's square into common use. they have a community center too but it looked deserted except for the two guys in leather jackets and sun glasses exchanging items in the parking lot. lots of dust and the neighborhood has railroad tracks that run through it and oil storage tanks and scrap yards filled with beat up cars and stranded boats and just about anything else mechanical and dilapidated that you can think on.

there weren't many campaign signs in the yards. some kids were running around here and there, but mostly they looked really tired and their clothes were tired too and you could tell they probably hadn't thrown what amounted to rags into the washing machine lately.

there were dogs everywhere. a lot of them were loose. a couple of dirty old poodles barked and shook themselves as we passed and a big rotweiler wandered up and down a side street. then i saw a dead dog in the road and it was a little chihuahua with a red collar and a blue leash and that dog was dead as hell. the wind was blowing and the radio was playing a song by elton john that went like this:

when are you going to come down?
when are you going to land?

i kept on driving and sas was writing madly in a spiral notebook and i just wanted to get out of there, but a train was coming about a quarter mile away and i could see its main light like a big white eye coming down the tracks and a sign said there was only 20 feet between the crossing guards and the highway. so i gunned it and jumped back onto second street.

we made it back to ridgecrest just fine and all the trees looked really beautiful. all golden and stuff. lots of folks were walking their dogs, as by now it was just after quitting time when most of the workers get home. we saw a dog in a sweater, then another that was following a couple as they glided down the street on a pair of shiny mountain bikes and then there was a little dog at the park chasing a tennis ball. folks on the median were jogging and smiling and parading around happily. and so forth and so on.

just then georgie one came blasting out of the speakers. this is what he was singing when we pulled into the driveway:

It gonna take time, a whole lot of precious time.
its gonna take patience and time to do it to do it
to do it right, child.

i got down from the car and pulled out the campaign signs from the front yard, since i figured that the campaigning was pretty much over. then, i went inside and had big glass of iced coffee.