dead skunk

This is my paternal grandmother, Elsie Saum. Some of you may not be surprised that I am the direct descendant of a woman who would hold a firearm and a dead skunk in a photograph. (At least I hope the skunk is dead. It looks like it might be on tip-toe and they're shaking hands.) This picture was taken in North Dakota in the early 1900s. Imagine this landscape in the winter.

I feel like my nerves are sticking outside of my skin tonight. I don't know why.

I saw a guy with a computer today that was about as big as a file folder. Then on the Daily Show, we saw the kindle2. Amazing. It's like an iPod for books. I love books aesthetically but the idea of having 1500 books on a thing the size of a small magazine is just amazing. I appreciate technology but still don't get twitter.

I have a gift card for Barnes and Noble from my sweet husband. It's quite a routine to decide how to spend it as I have rules: it all must be spent at once, I have to have a list, and I always buy one hardcover book of poetry. Do you know how hard it is to make a living as a poet these days? I might buy Olive Kitteridge even though I've already read it. The writing is so beautiful and I'd like to read it again with post-it tabs. I've started the list but I have about five book sections from the trib to go through first. I wonder if you can put tabs in the kindle. I suppose.

We forgot to take our damn garbage dumpster down to the curb today. Crap. This gets easier once the snow melts, too. You aren't supposed to put it on the street or in the driveway. What the hell. Suspend it from a tree?