Rock was surprised to hear that streaming coverage of the Breeders' Cup World Championships was scheduled to begin in a few minutes. It wasn't quite 5 a.m., and as he debated whether or not to get up to watch the Dirt Mile, his cat Joe aggressively licked the back of his head.
The sound of heavy rainfall rung against his roof and metal awnings. Combined with Joe's behavior, it served to help Rock realize there was no way a horse race in southern California would start at three in the morning local time.
Wednesday, October 30, 2019
Monday, October 28, 2019
Football fatigue
It wasn't exactly unimaginable, but the design of the Super Bowl and its television coverage baffled Rock. The best he could understand, it had been put into place so the University of Alabama football coach Nick Saban could watch the game while college football was underway and without a requirement that he leave Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
Someone had designed the television frequency in such a way that it was carried across the country on the equivalent of the electronically-generated yellow stripe that television had employed for the previous thirty years as the yard line teams needed to reach for a first down. As far as Rock could tell, it made the Super Bowl omnipresent within the broad confines of a football season. He tried to watch it in the middle of a game between Kansas State and Oklahoma, but he was far too sleepy to concentrate on both a mid-season college game and the Super Bowl at the same time.
Someone had designed the television frequency in such a way that it was carried across the country on the equivalent of the electronically-generated yellow stripe that television had employed for the previous thirty years as the yard line teams needed to reach for a first down. As far as Rock could tell, it made the Super Bowl omnipresent within the broad confines of a football season. He tried to watch it in the middle of a game between Kansas State and Oklahoma, but he was far too sleepy to concentrate on both a mid-season college game and the Super Bowl at the same time.
Sunday, October 20, 2019
Impossibilities
Entry into whatever was at the end of Rock's long, arduous pursuit required he do something he suspected and indeed determined was impossible. Though he was alone, it was almost as if there was a gatekeeper in place to give Rock the rules.
Rock clearly understood that to enter he would have to press the palm of his right hand flat on his right shoulder blade. His attempt was, of course, futile, and it was hard for him to fathom why anyone or anything would have established a mandate that was nothing less than an anatomical impossibility.
Within seconds, he wondered if this was set up to eliminate the need for any sort of heaven. In fact, Rock knew a conversation was already underway among theological scholars. He could literally hear it coming from the hallway outside of his front bedroom.
Rock clearly understood that to enter he would have to press the palm of his right hand flat on his right shoulder blade. His attempt was, of course, futile, and it was hard for him to fathom why anyone or anything would have established a mandate that was nothing less than an anatomical impossibility.
Within seconds, he wondered if this was set up to eliminate the need for any sort of heaven. In fact, Rock knew a conversation was already underway among theological scholars. He could literally hear it coming from the hallway outside of his front bedroom.
The cutest thing
Rock's kitten Joe weighed about a half a pound and had climbed into a baseball cap with a baby rabbit and a puppy, both of which were no heavier than two or three ounces. As Joe slept, the bunny and tiny dog nestled together in the fluff of his midsection.
"You need to take picture of that," Rock's friend Tim Cooper said.
"No kidding," Rock said. "That's gotta be the cutest thing anyone's ever seen."
"You need to take picture of that," Rock's friend Tim Cooper said.
"No kidding," Rock said. "That's gotta be the cutest thing anyone's ever seen."
Tuesday, October 8, 2019
Nonsensical choices
Something was wrong with the remote. No matter how many times Rock tried to switch from one streaming channel to another, all he could find were nonsensical choices, including one that offered him certain suffocation in either his den or kitchen or the empty and dark chill of his front yard. There was an incessant alarm blaring somewhere in his house that did little more than accentuate the unlimited, meaningless storage sites for unreachable streaming television shows.
Rock had seen things like this before, but he could not remember anything so bereft of hope. There was nothing to breathe, even outside, where earlier he felt the energetic, pastel-colored, good-willed life of a mid-October afternoon.
Maybe something to eat would help, Rock thought, though he was doubtful of a solution so simple.
Rock had seen things like this before, but he could not remember anything so bereft of hope. There was nothing to breathe, even outside, where earlier he felt the energetic, pastel-colored, good-willed life of a mid-October afternoon.
Maybe something to eat would help, Rock thought, though he was doubtful of a solution so simple.
Sunday, October 6, 2019
Containment
The CBS network's weekday morning show hired a lesbian as one of its anchors, and several network affiliates across the south replaced the national show with local programming, including KTHV in Little Rock.
Rock was among many who seemed stunned by the reaction of these southern television stations. "I thought all those morning shows had at least one gay person on them," he said in a conversation with a longtime friend.
Protests of the station's homophobic choice spread over the Little Rock metro throughout the day. Rock joined it at a bus stop on McCain Boulevard in front of a North Little Rock Barnes & Noble bookstore. When he stepped out of an approximately twenty-square-foot area marked to contain the dissidents, several city police officers drew and pointed pistols, rifles, and one AK-47 directly at him.
The cops' response seemed perfectly appropriate, Rock thought. He was nevertheless somewhat panicked that he might soon die.
Rock was among many who seemed stunned by the reaction of these southern television stations. "I thought all those morning shows had at least one gay person on them," he said in a conversation with a longtime friend.
Protests of the station's homophobic choice spread over the Little Rock metro throughout the day. Rock joined it at a bus stop on McCain Boulevard in front of a North Little Rock Barnes & Noble bookstore. When he stepped out of an approximately twenty-square-foot area marked to contain the dissidents, several city police officers drew and pointed pistols, rifles, and one AK-47 directly at him.
The cops' response seemed perfectly appropriate, Rock thought. He was nevertheless somewhat panicked that he might soon die.
Tuesday, October 1, 2019
The descent
The police officer in the passenger seat seemed completely indifferent to Rock's Crown Vic rolling backward down Kavanaugh Boulevard from the Heights neighborhood in Little Rock. Rock was panicked, but he somehow managed to direct the mammoth car around Mount Saint Mary High School onto Van Buren Street toward War Memorial Park.
To begin, Rock had been parked on Kavanaugh in the Height's business district. He had just tossed an empty beer can onto the backseat floorboard when he heard the cop tap a knuckle on the passenger-side window. Very shortly thereafter, the officer was seated beside Rock, studying data of some sort on a smartphone when the Crown Vic's brakes failed.
As a result, Rock's car rolled backward, across Cantrell Boulevard and down and through an old, tree-ladened, fashionably quaint neighborhood of middle-class homes built by babyboomers seventy years earlier. The cop's inattention to this descent toward War Memorial Stadium and probable disaster baffled Rock, who had begun to wonder whether this was nothing but a dream.
Somehow, Rock managed to steer his car, still rolling in reverse, across Markham Street and around a sharp right turn between the stadium and the park's defunct golf course. Now on level ground, the car quickly decelerated and Rock was able to stop it against a chainlink fence stretched across the street.
The cop was gone. Indeed, Rock realized he had just awakened from a nightmare in which he was on the cusp of incarceration for driving while intoxicated. He knew it might take a while before he could drive his car again, so he pulled his golf clubs from the trunk and rolled them onto the closed golf course, where he began to look for the stretches of mowed grass scattered about.
To begin, Rock had been parked on Kavanaugh in the Height's business district. He had just tossed an empty beer can onto the backseat floorboard when he heard the cop tap a knuckle on the passenger-side window. Very shortly thereafter, the officer was seated beside Rock, studying data of some sort on a smartphone when the Crown Vic's brakes failed.
As a result, Rock's car rolled backward, across Cantrell Boulevard and down and through an old, tree-ladened, fashionably quaint neighborhood of middle-class homes built by babyboomers seventy years earlier. The cop's inattention to this descent toward War Memorial Stadium and probable disaster baffled Rock, who had begun to wonder whether this was nothing but a dream.
Somehow, Rock managed to steer his car, still rolling in reverse, across Markham Street and around a sharp right turn between the stadium and the park's defunct golf course. Now on level ground, the car quickly decelerated and Rock was able to stop it against a chainlink fence stretched across the street.
The cop was gone. Indeed, Rock realized he had just awakened from a nightmare in which he was on the cusp of incarceration for driving while intoxicated. He knew it might take a while before he could drive his car again, so he pulled his golf clubs from the trunk and rolled them onto the closed golf course, where he began to look for the stretches of mowed grass scattered about.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)