May 17, 2008

Following Circles down a lonely road

Somebody's always watching you.

My father once said those words to me, back when I was a kid. I had stolen something from a friend, a bright red rabbit's foot. Her mother called my parents that night and I went before the firing squad. Of course, I denied, denied, denied. My parents were furious. At school the next day, my friend told everyone and, despite my continued denials, I ended up ostracized by the entire sixth grade. After several days, I cracked under the pressure. I left for school one morning with the rabbit's foot in my pocket and headed far enough up the road that I figured my parents were no longer watching from the door. Then I doubled back, to the little cul-de-sac at the turn in the road, and pitched the rabbit's foot as far as I could into the woods.

Unfortunately, my father was standing by the front window at the time. He confronted me in a rage when he came home from work that night, before sending me down into the woods with a flashlight to find that damned foot. "Remember this," he told me, "Somebody's always watching you."

But who's watching in the lonely places?

The light sucked and the camera somewhat sucks, therefore these photos are not terrific.




















This portion of road was driven, not walked. And my little Honda Civic handled it like a champ.


So, as I mentioned in this morning's post, I did go to Shaharazade's this afternoon. They were empty when I got there, but while I was eating, several groups of out-of-towners (presumably in town for their offsping's graduations from Shepherd U) came in to look around. I also heard the waitresses discussing the reservations for that evening (a 10-top and a couple of 4-tops). So business seems to be good. The owner popped his head out of the kitchen at one point. I probably should have spoken with him, but I was enjoying my meal and my book too much to shift into business mode. Plus, I'm feeling a bit peeved with him. Especially after one of the out-of-towners asked the waitress if "this is the place that's up for sale" and she responded in the affirmative.

But life just keeps spiraling through its never-ending circles...

Circles

You saw me lost and treading water
I looked pathetic
I looked as helpless as a stinger without a bee
But underneath my presentation, yeah
I knew the walls were coming down
And the stones that fell were aiming away from me

Hey, what would it mean to you?
To know that it'll come back around again
Hey, whatever it means to you
Know that everything moves in circles

I saw you standing in my headlights (blink, blink, blink)
I thought I'd run you down for the weight you left on me
Instead I pushed rewind, reversed and drove away
Seeing you disappear in my rearview
Brought to me the word reciprocity

Hey, what would it mean to you?
To know that it'll come back around again
Hey, whatever it means to you
Know that everything moves in circles

Round and round we go
Who could've known it'd end so well
We fall on and we fall off
Existential carousel
Spin!


4 comments:

  1. I love the story about you and the rabbit's foot. They were quite the commodity back in the day! Somehow I can picture you tossing it into the woods too.

    Now I see the road you were telling me about yesterday, looks like a very cool place to go.

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  2. It's a great spot. What makes it even cooler, and what those photos don't show, is the river right smack alongside the road and the massive 3-4 inch deep puddles that have to be maneuvered.

    And thanks for reminding me that there was a benefit to all that rain we had yesterday-- It washed off all the mud my car picked up while splashing through those puddles!

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  3. OMG I love those photos! Sometimes I forget that places that wild and lonely still do exist on the mainland of the USA, and it's good to remember.

    The river sounds wonderful!

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  4. There are still pockets of solitary spots like that here and there around the DC metropolitan area. That particular place is probably 40-50 miles upstream from the city. The Potomac runs for over 200 miles from it's source in western Md down to DC, and I've explored a lot of those miles. Maybe a description of the river and it's surrounding parkland, etc, should be the topic for a future blog.

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