patrickjegan

October 31, 2015

Evening Reflections On The Fountain Of Youth

[Ponce de Leon seeks the Fountain] Tomorrow, October 31st , I’m going to post my Halloween blog. I’ve been saying it’s going to be scary. I hope it is. It is a description, mostly fiction, of my fear of graveyards and the hours after midnight when dreams go dark as ink and visions are bleak…

October 30, 2015

I Dreamed I Saw Saint Augustine

It was going to be a great day. I even had a ready-made title for this blog. I was going to life a song title by the one and only, Bob Dylan. We only had about 120 miles to drive from Brunswick to St. Augustine, FL. That’s not even enough to break a sweat–that would come…

October 29, 2015

Living With Humidity

This is going to be a brief post dealing with an issue that I have a feeling is only going to get worse. Yes, it will only get worse as we continue our road-trip deep into Florida. I’m talking about humidity. Remember last summer when you were sitting on your patio sipping a Bud Lite…

October 28, 2015

Walking Charleston In The Light And Dark / A Few Tales To Tell

Midnight in the Laundry Room. I’m writing this in a laundry room. Four washing machines are on my right and four dryers to my left. I’m here because the promised WiFi signal is very weak in the R-pod. Here the signal really smokes. Yes, it’s midnight in the laundry room, a spooky place where a…

October 26, 2015

Down And Out In Dillon / A Fictional Respite

Only the lonely (dum-dumb-dummy doo-wah) Know the way I feel tonight (ooh yay, yay, yay, yeah) Only the lonely (dum-dumb-dummy doo-wah) Know this feeling ain’t right (dum-dumb-dummy doo-wah) –Roy Orbison “Only The Lonely” The waitress at the Steak and BBQ joint had the eyes of a girl scout. They were fill with enough innocence to…

October 25, 2015

Traveling South/Going Native: Thoughts At 34.41° North Latitude

South n 1 : The compass direction directly opposite to the north. 2 : The direction to the right of one facing east. Realistically, however, south is more than one of the cardinal points on a compass. It is also a state of mind. When most Americans think of the south, many cultural references come…

October 23, 2015

I’m Sorry, Ava, But I’m Having Issues Of My Own

As I write this post, I’m seriously considering going into the r-Pod to get another layer to drape over my shoulders. The sun has just dipped below the tree-line at the far edge of the RV park. When we arrived, about two hours ago, I was sweating and hot and in a mood most foul.…

October 22, 2015

The Left Arm Sunburn

The highway is for gamblers, better use your sense. –Bob Dylan “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” Some things I want to remember. Other things I would rather forget. Right now, I’m remembering very clearly a certain morning twenty-five months ago when Mariam and I drove along Marin Blvd. in Jersey City. We saw a…

October 21, 2015

Never Draw Straws On The N Train

[The Raft of the Medusa, painted by Theodore Gericault. (Source: Google search.)] This afternoon, my wife and I actually left Manhattan and made a trip to one of the boroughs. On purpose. We rode out to Astoria, Queens (where my wife grew up) to visit my son, Brian and his girlfriend, Kristin. We had a…

October 17, 2015

Forever I’ve Dreamt Of Sailing Away

One day, several decades ago, I sat down with a book by Captain Joshua Slocum. It was titled “Sailing Alone Around the World”. Capt. Slocum published the book in 1900–it was a bestseller–and it made him a Superstar of the Seas. His boat was named Spray. Nearly ten years later, Slocum disappeared aboard the Spray.…