Living at Sanatoga Lake in an old cottage without hot water is no picnic, but the rent is cheap and Jan and I learn to grab showers wherever we can and she keeps telling me that it helps to be in love.
Look, I blame myself for telling her all about this nice house Billy and me are working on and how the owners are gone during the day. We have enough to worry about up on ladders painting the eaves of this place when Jan shows up with her towels and lotions to take a shower. Well, Mister comes home early to find Jan upstairs drying her hair with the bathroom all fogged up and he fires us on the spot, all the time giving us this big lecture that we didn't need to hear while we're loading paint cans and tarps into the truck.
At first I feel sorry about what happened, but, within a few weeks, Billy hires on down at the scrap yard and then Jan moves in with him and soon none of it seems very important anymore.
I usually remember only one thing about the day we get kicked off the job, and that's how in the evening, after Jan and I run out for something to eat, we drive back to the cottage but I don't feel like going inside yet. I take the cushions off the porch furniture and put them in the bed of the pick-up truck and lie down back there and fall asleep, I guess. When I wake up, it's dark and I hear crickets and see the stars flicker overhead and I am thinking that she's right: it does help to be in love.
11.01.2007
6.20.2007
denver blues again
"They say they call me on the phone, they lay me off. No money, man!"
We heard all that talk in coffee shops with steamy windows, we seen it happen…..guys pouring ketchup over eggs and hash browns, waiting for the morning papers to hit the streets.
The word gets around: hey...they need carpenters in Phoenix!
Drywall finishers in Reno!
Railroad brakemen in Laramie!
And the next thing you know, you're loading tools and duffel bags into the back of a Chevy sedan and hitting the road.
Okay, if you travel with a woman, it might be easier:
See, you pay for the week in advance at a motel and now you're just about broke but the place has a kitchenette, she can put a meal together while you're out cruising for work and then maybe she gets a job real quick as a waitress in that diner down the street and even brings home leftovers at the end of her shift.
But you got to figure that something might happen, some words get said that can't be taken back, and you lie in bed one night watching headlights swing across the ceiling, guys just like you driving out into the western night to look for other towns and better times.
In the morning you stand at the front window for awhile just looking out at the traffic and smoking a cigarette.
Later drop her off at the Amtrak station and she will go back home and you'll drive on to Denver where you hear they are looking for roofers.
What next?
What follows.
We heard all that talk in coffee shops with steamy windows, we seen it happen…..guys pouring ketchup over eggs and hash browns, waiting for the morning papers to hit the streets.
The word gets around: hey...they need carpenters in Phoenix!
Drywall finishers in Reno!
Railroad brakemen in Laramie!
And the next thing you know, you're loading tools and duffel bags into the back of a Chevy sedan and hitting the road.
Okay, if you travel with a woman, it might be easier:
See, you pay for the week in advance at a motel and now you're just about broke but the place has a kitchenette, she can put a meal together while you're out cruising for work and then maybe she gets a job real quick as a waitress in that diner down the street and even brings home leftovers at the end of her shift.
But you got to figure that something might happen, some words get said that can't be taken back, and you lie in bed one night watching headlights swing across the ceiling, guys just like you driving out into the western night to look for other towns and better times.
In the morning you stand at the front window for awhile just looking out at the traffic and smoking a cigarette.
Later drop her off at the Amtrak station and she will go back home and you'll drive on to Denver where you hear they are looking for roofers.
What next?
What follows.
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