‘The man who’s a dreamer and never takes leave
Who thinks of a world that is just make believe.
Will never know passion, will never know pain
Who sits by the window will one day see rain.’ 

‘The Greatest Adventure’, Glenn Yarbrough

The Hobbit, book and animation, have been in my thoughts lately.
They feel prophetic.

The thing I love about used books are the hidden artifacts of owners past.

Today Cigdem and I found a four-leaf clover, Lord knows we could use a little luck.
Returning home I went to find a book to press it into.In one of my last unpacked books is a Book Club Edition of ‘Dangerous Visions’, sans dust wrapper.
A book I saved from the final cull of the NG office and one I thought would make for a good reader on our journey beyond the pale.
I flipped randomly to a page and lo!
On page 179 someone had beat me to the punch.

A lucky book indeed.

The Neutral Good is packed, ready to go…

A healthy culling of the inventory had been in order for several years and what made it out of the Ammons office is a 6 1/2 x 5 1/2 x 4 1/2 sqf rectangle with it’s own gravitational field.

I’m not sure if I’m sad about leaving the office or not.
The building had a weird smell.
The window leaked when it rained.
The walls were paper thin.
The AC was on all the time.

The Chinese massage lady and the guy next door to me lived in their offices.
Both did there dishes and laundry in the bathrooms.

Ken, the other person next door to me was a bankrupt rancher from Kansas who had lost his farm, moved to Denver and became a small time money lender.
Ken was great, an avid reader.
He vacated his office during one of my long absences and I never saw him again.
He had had a heart attack or another cardiac event the year before and when I saw that his office had rented to someone else I just assumed the worst.
We had some good talks, he is missed.

I might miss The Lakewood Estates trailer park across the street, in particular one trailer.
A tired brown and white beauty I assumed was parked in the 70’s and never left.
There were times I would swing into the office early, before sunrise and see the warm yellow glow of an incandescent bulb pouring from the cantilevered window at the back of the trailer.
I found that to be comforting, not unlike finding an open Ben Franklin 5&10 in a small town.

The Lakewood Grill on the corner of Ammons and Colfax holds many found memories of Ed and I discussing Dungeons & Dragons and other random weird topics over a Colfax burger.
I hope that place is sparred the gleeful axe of gentrification and remains gritty.


Anyways…

Lights off, door locked, keys returned…onward. 
Always forward.

  Deaf Forever! \m/