no soldier no lover
no father no mother
not a lonely child
in the up and in the bedroom
a black and white of the bride and the groom
will bring me to my knees
with the colorized bad dream
that takes its place on
ash wednesday

white noise and love
will be my only drug
on this day nine
suns away
from that sad sad saturday
when fire my friend
fire my villian
you take away yesterday
to give to me today
when nothing’s free no now it’s
ash wednesday

so each day is ash wednesday
all this life is ash wednesday

all the doors are shut
and the windows barely opened up
the fires all around
it’s the ending of the drought
and we are ready now
for tear gas clouds
on my mind
come on fill the house
finally and weep
for it’s king and queen sleep
both now
in the arms of
ash wednesday
ash wednesday

Choosing Holyoke as a place to make our home has been a wonderful decision so far. And it’s a decision made even more wonderful when friends buy houses within walking distance. Jennifer and Scott celebrated their recent purchase with a housewarming yesterday — it included delicious pancakes and the music of The Primate Fiasco. Photos here.

Check out my flickr profile here.

Last night, our neighborhood watch group took a tour around the ward. Much of it seemed like a photo opportunity for the sheriff and chief of police, but it was also a good chance for us to finally mingle with some of our neighbors. I posted photos of the Ward 4 walk at MassLive.com.

P.S. Here’s a better link: Gallery view

As a result of the vet visit, Molly is now allowed to go into the yard, which we think she has been doing for a while anyhow. Her usual route to the yard is to hop from the second-floor balcony to the first-floor balcony railing and down into the yard. She gets back up by crawling up to the second-floor balcony using her front claws. She is the Spidey Cat of Holyoke.

Of course, now I’m reading this alarmist story about how people are poisoning cats with anti-freeze.

Tuesday night, we intended to go see John Hodgman at the too-cool-for-school Rendezvous in Turners Falls, MA (or “the Voo” if you want to abbrev). The place was way too packed, but we did manage to see John Hodgman signing autographs before his reading. We left “The Voo” and bumped into our friends Mary and Greg who happened to be having some catastrophic car problems. A rotting wheel rod. Yeah.

On that same night, I was just falling asleep after a long day (and so far stressful week), when we heard the sound of glass shattering. Our storefront had been smashed by two hoodlums. So we had to call the police and deal with that.

We’ve nicknamed bad things happening as the Hodgman Effect. Clearly, that guy is bad luck.

Things have settled down since then, although work is crazy. We’re overhauling the entire site bit by bit, flattening it essentially, so that it’s a more pleasant experience for the user.

Seriously, the smell was that bad. At first I thought it was cat fart. But when the smell was still in the room when we came back from a wedding Sunday, we knew that SOMETHING was wrong. It kind of smelled like a cross between faint skunk smell and garbage. And garlic.

Just to make sure we weren’t crazy, we turned on the purified all day today while we were at work, but the smell was there when we got home. So, tonight, while we were having dinner at Matt’s mom’s house, we put it in the den. Sure enough, when we got home tonight, the smell was in the den!

In the meantime, we had stripped the sheets and pillowcases, and there is now a rule that no cats can be in the bedroom, on account of my breathing. So, that room is really a sanctuary now. So although I still get dried out from the A/C, it’s not as bad. And the air purifier probably did some kind of purifying during its short stay in our bedroom

Long story for a boring topic.

Anyone have a good recommendation for air cleaners?