Tuesday, 16 March 1999
The Jewish Vampire Cowboy
Al of Nova Notes was discussing fiction on the web in his March 14 entry. It reminded me of the Story Hour sig that I had on my BBS, Godiva's Place. Story Hour was originally an area for my users to post their short stories, essays, whatever. (I had a separate poetry sig). It evolved into a continuing story area where someone would start a story and then other users would continue it. One of the best ever, in my opinion, was the one we called, The Jewish Cave-Dwelling Vampire Cowboy.It was certainly the epitome of diversity among my users. It started out to be a romantic western type story. The main character was a misunderstood cowboy. He lived in a cave with his horse and pet wildcat. Later, when he was shot in some gunplay with some horse stealing thugs, it became known that he was among the immortals. Through a conflict involving his lady love and the sherriff, he evolved from a seemingly good guy to a notorius bad guy who was nearly impossible to kill. The whole town puzzled over the fact that he seemed impervious to the standard vampire repellent, waving a cross. Eventually, an intuitive roving rabbi was able to catch him offguard by feeding him some matzo ball soup laced with bacon and fended him off with a Star of David while the town's people shot him with a gold (not silver) bullet.
I remembered to fill the birdfeeders today. When we first got them, I was extremely disappointed that the neighborhood birds ignored them completely. Now, it is almost like an Alfred Hitchcock movie out there -- birds everywhere. 
They seem to descend all at once, like a flapping cloud. When Cricket startles them, they all ascend in a mass retreat and take a perch on the fence or in the little trees until they have a chance to survey the situation. Then, the cloud descends once again. I wonder who gives the signal to rise and fall. Is there a leader bird? Usually, the mourning doves ignore whatever signal there is. After all the other birds are gone, the doves complacently go on pecking at the seed.
I've become obsessed with my hit counter/stats thingie. I was really excited this morning when I saw a hit from the UK. As far as I know, it was the first European hit to my site. It appears that it came from the Illumine ~ Lives Illuminted queue. I applied for membership in their journaling community and my site has to be reviewed by their members and voted on for admission. I decided instead of just getting on any old journaling webring that I would apply to some that I really like.
Today, I'm excited because the Cypress tree is actually showing GREEN. The buds on the tres arboles have been swelling, quite pregnant with new growth. I've been expecting them to give birth for days now. Finally, it is happening. The red climbing roses in the front have buds on them. They came with the house. Yesterday, I thinned the poppys and whatever the other flower seeds I started in flats are. The tomatoes are thriving and I have three pepper sprouts. Still no carrots. The crocus in the front flower bed are blooming finally . .lavender, as I suspected.
I think I'm going to start some canterberry bells in the front garden. I still need to seed the morning glories at the mailbox and the birdfeeder. I also need to seed the baby's breath and red poppys around the new rose bushes in the back. I have some nasturtium to seed in the mum bed and I still need to start the herb garden.
Going to work sure is going to change my lifestyle.
