Fat heads, the angel of death and other strange phenomena

I had two people walk up to me and ask me if I was dying yesterday. One I knew, the other was a stranger. Apparently that is the word going around on the street. I told them that I felt fine, been fighting the bronchial thing lately, there seems to be a vicious respiratory bug going around but nothing fatal. Avelox busted it up pretty good. Don't know how these things get started in a small town. Kind of strange to get two such enquiries about my demise in one day.

I have been seeing a pulmonary specialist at Scripps. My childhood asthma has apparently come back. All stems from allergies. I got a cat scan the other day and my total whiteout acute sinusitis is now only chronic sinusitis. Yippee.

Anyway I say my chart on the wall and snapped a pic with my phone before the doctor walked in. It is sort of neat to see your skull inside what is certainly your head. Only one thing troubled me. That roll of fat behind my head. When in the hell did I get that and why didn't anyone tell me? A human never has a really good fix on what the back of their head looks like. Or what their voice actually sounds like. Ever jump at the sound of your voice on an answering machine? Because our own auditory equipment is somehow overwhelmed when it comes to hearing our own voices. Back to Heisenberg again.

Anyhow, I present my skull. No ten penny nails, no shrapnel, no strange paisley areas left over from my wayward LSD experimentations.

***

I submitted one of my short stories, A Cup of Joe , to a local writers group called Coyotes Howl a few months ago. Joe is the story of a chance meeting with the Angel of Death. They published an online anthology and may do a hard bound book of the whole collection. There are some pretty hard core writers in the group, poets, intellectuals, Pushcart Prize winners. I get a bit intimidated by intellectuals and mostly stay clear of readings and literary workshops. But last night, the group got together at Cafe Des' Artistes and did a reading. I read my story and it went reasonably well. Reading dialogue and trying to make two voices speak individually ain't really easy. I think next time I will do a bit better. I learned to make eye contact during the read and was as physical as I could be while still trying to read off my sheaf of papers.

There were a couple actors there and I watched how more proficient speakers set a rhythm in their speech. So I think that I learned something last night. And it was fun.

The reading had high school kids in attendance. The moderator asked that if anyone had anything to read that was erotic in nature that they wait until the young people left. The next speaker launched right in to a somewhat graphic lesbian tale of sapphic nestling and licking and the teacher and students boogied right out of the room. I don't know if people choose not to listen or just want to be in your face all the time?

A couple people with poems about Jesus. The christian poets are really into rhyming, heavy on the iambic pentameter. Tended to be very linear stuff. Takes all kinds.

I look forward to reading a few more of my pieces. People were non judgmental and appreciative. Want to get back to writing more short works of fiction.

***

Verizon is such a ripoff organization. I pay for three phones and they get over $250 a month from me. I went in the other day and found out that they have been charging me over eight bucks a month for insurance for the last two years when the fact is that I declined coverage. They admit I declined but say it was incumbent on me to check my bills and will only rebate me two months. Like oil drillers in the gulf who blame the government because they allowed them to spill the oil in the first place. My fault for pretending that they had ethics.

***

Ever write someone an email and then see little ads on your screen that seem to respond to something that you have written. I believe that I have. We know that google or gmail reads every word we write. They know your habits better than you do. And they can sic the perfect advertisers on you. Is there an ethical question or a right to privacy that is being broken here?

***

Are you ever tempted to ask the people with the NOTW "not of this world" t-shirts and bumper stickers what world they are really from?

***

Speaking of other worlds, I had an interesting lunch with a very rational friend the other day and an interesting topic was broached. I mentioned that I have had strong physical "other worldly" events occur at critical junctures of my life. The kind of stuff that you don't really talk about with people lest they lump you in with the Roswell or Sedona crowd. It is almost embarrassing to divulge but here goes:

The night that I got together with my first wife, we we running through the hills on a late night jog, along with our friend Alex. In fact we were both courting my ex wife. This was "showdown" night. Relatively clear heads, if I remember correctly.  Anyhow, we are running through the mountains near my old home in Rainbow when a energy ball of fire appeared about three feet off the ground. The thing was about 12' in diameter. Hovering about two hundred feet away. We all looked at each other with a "this can't be happening" sense of disbelief. Immediately the thing shot away about 1000'. We actually collectively willed the thing back. Then it disappeared. It is hard to try to explain something so aberrant, but yet so real. I would say ball lightning but for the fact that it seemed sympathetic to our states of acceptance and consciousness. We went to the ex's and talked about our shared vision. Alex went home and I never left. Well for ten years anyway.

A few years later, I was reading a historical field guide for these mountains and saw that the same lightning ball events had been recorded in the late 19th century. The mountain range on the other side of Gavilan Mountain was even called the lights, De Luz. H-m-m-m.

My friend then recounted her story. Somewhat similar in it's otherworldly nature. She is very straight and won't even read fiction. She was married to F and J was working on her home. They were sitting next to each other when actual sparks flew off their collective bodies at each other. Very powerful. It was their signal and they were together after that. And I don't disbelieve it for a second.

I had another powerful experience when I met Leslie that I can not divulge but which seemed contrary to multiple laws of physics and laws of nature. But the strongest physical event of my life, and completely sober to boot.

And finally, when I was quite young I had an interaction with a hungarian sort of holy man who just had me look in his eyes and not blink. The resultant transmission was so powerful that it practically put me on the therapist's couch for a couple years. But the physical nature of the eyebeam event was very tangible and something that I once even repeated with A, my first girlfriend. Rays of light and a figure eight wrapping around their eyes.

I consider myself a fairly rational being. I weigh things with logic. Yet these episodes of power and heightened awareness were so real if you will, so tangible, and curiously seemed to happen during momentous times in my life, presaging important relationships. Could there be something else at work here? At this point a notion of a linear universe is like a flat earth. I now see the life experience more as a giant round of swiss cheese like wormholes. Too many miracles and synchronicity's blurring the lines of reality for me to reform. The kids today don't really seem as active in interstellar travel as my group. Wonder if there will be another great magic fungal revolution soon. Old guys like me will tell all of our war stories about the good old days.

Anybody ever experience anything similar? Or too ashamed to talk about it?