Oklahoma Dreaming: Tidbits

by Donna Schoenkopf

last time: I just want to be a good person!

Here are some stream of consciousness thoughts of the day:

My house is "IN THE DRY." All walls up, roof up, insulation in, doors and windows in, plumbing half in, wiring up to the door, trenching for septic half in. Woo Hoooooo!!!

My house is warm and comfy on cold days, just because it faces south and is a rather long, skinny rectangle with south-facing sliding glass doors. Kind of like a greenhouse.

My house is also cool and sweet because of my south-facing long, skinny rectangle with six sliding glass doors. Lovely breezes.

Builder guys are really cute. They know how to do things. And they're manly.

My friend, Susan, is in intensive care. She is mortally ill. I am very worried. She is in Bellingham, Washington. After my son Jesse died, she came to live with me and took care of my son John and me. She stayed for three years. She said she needed to be needed. She had a martini waiting for me when I came home from work. She made me laugh and got me mad. She taught me many, many things like having hors d'oeuvres on a regular weekday. Send her your healing vibrations. She'd do the same for you. Seriously.

The weather has gotten brisk. High, cold winds. My pond swirls in every direction. It has little wavelets. There are almost no leaves on the trees. It's GREAT having weather after 42 years.

The framers for putting in the framing for the drywall did the whole house in a couple of hours. One of the guys was named Amigo. He was short and wiry with a ponytail and a cigarillo clamped between his teeth. They hardly talked. They ran, not walked to get things. They read each other's minds. I was scared they'd saw off a finger with their power saw because they whipped that sucker around like nothing at all.

Peewee said the house looks good.

I changed my mind about where to put the stove. This has been about the fourth time I've changed my mind on things. It drives Peewee crazy, but he's gentleman enough to just go with it.

I was given virtually no choice in plywood at Lowe's. They have lauan, which is hardwood cut from forests in the Phillipines. They have formaldehyde-treated crap that will give me and all my guests cancer. And virtually nothing else. Write them a letter, folks. Tell them to get with a good program of wood. Trees are man's best friend, in my opinion.

I have contacted the U.S. Forestry Service about planting evergreens of some sort between me and my neighbor so we can both have our privacy. Each tree will cost about 65 cents. They will be ready in January. They give them out then because they should be planted when dormant.

I am reconnecting with my old high school buddies. They are magnificent. It's as though time has stood still and we're picking up the conversation where we last left off. (They LOVE my house! Especially Blasdel, who has given me fabulous suggestions! He says my house is everyone's dream. And he has GREAT taste. Trust me.)

I am gonna give Peewee a big bonus.

I still feel like an alien, but I really like it here.

Ex-husband Jerry and brother Bob are both recuperating nicely. Jerry has been making jokes. Bobby is awake, alert and on the mend.

My son John found a pitbull mix puppy in New Mexico on his way to California from Florida last week. Her name is Mabel. John let Lisi, his girlfriend, name her. She had a scar across her forehead. A guy told John that it was from a pitbull-fighting muzzle.

I sat in my house today at my white plastic lawn table and ate a terrible Subway sandwich. It was my first meal in my house. It was very quiet and cozy. It was wonderful. Except for the sandwich. I felt like I lived there.

Peewee once suggested I bring a little barbeque hibachi to Chigger Lake. He said I could make myself a little something to eat. I said, "Wow! I could do that, couldn't I?" And he said, "Yeah. You could act like you own the place!"

Peewee said I might get buyer's remorse a couple of times out there in the country, being all alone and all, but he said it will pass.

I don't think that will happen.

I might be in the house as early as December 1. But no later than Christmas.

Two teacher friends, Lourdes and Violeta, are coming December 16th. By train. Can't wait. I am thinking of things to do with them. We all taught at 61st Street School. Our school had the highest scores of any school in the inner city of Los Angeles because we ROCK! And we all loved each other. Every morning Lourdes would have coffee for us in her classroom before school started. We talked about EVERYTHING. Then we collected our kids and marched them off to class, wired on caffeine ... the ONLY way to start the morning with 20 little eight-year-olds. Ya gotta get on THEIR level.

I wish my own kids were here. With THEIR kids.

I am going to get a shotgun called a "Snake Charmer". It's little. You carry the cartridges in the handle of the gun. It's really loud. I am going to kill copperheads and pygmy rattlers with it. Clint (the metal building guy) brought one over for me to look at and let me shoot it. It was very cool. And really loud.

Whatever snake I don't shoot will be eaten by guinea hens which will come to live in my chicken coop next spring. Guinea hens are funny looking ... sort of like a cross between a turkey and a quail. They are intelligent and brave and curious. They eat ticks, snakes and other unpleasant varmints. The chicks die if they get the slightest bit wet. Peewee is making the chicken coop.

Louanne, a woman I met at the evangelical church my high school buddy, Brian, was married in (and which I helped decorate for the wedding), called and asked if I still wanted a rat terrier puppy. She has a male, four months old. Her parents couldn't deal with it. I said yes. We'll meet up this week so I can check him out. I'll take him when I move into my house. He's gonna kill snakes, too.

My pond is leaking. I know this because the water line has dropped a good two feet since I've been here. Gonna throw bentonite in it. Bentonite is very fine clay that settles into the pond and drifts to the leak and seals it. I'm going to need between six to ten bags. It's $7.99 a bag. My friend, Nancy, said I'll need a johnny boat to spread it. A johnny boat is a little metal boat that you can just push around with a long stick stuck in the water. Sort of like Huck Finn's raft. Then you can throw the bentonite all over the surface of the pond.

Speaking of ponds, my hyacinths grow! They love it there. The taro is looking pathetic, the irises are hunkering down for the winter, but the hyacinths keep on growing.

Peewee says if I throw a dead rabbit into my septic tank the bacteria will eat up the poo. Then he said it would be better if I just flushed a packet of brewer's yeast down the toilet on New Year's Day, every year.

Got my new insurance agent today, Chris Rick. I can't believe how nice he and his assistant Kasey were. They were way better than the other agent, who shall remain nameless. Cheaper, too. Thanks, Peewee (again).

I miss Air America radio with Randi Rhodes. Do I really have to buy a Sirius radio system to get it?

My cell phone is hit or miss out at Chigger Lake. Dammit. I want to just have one phone. Am I going to have to dig another long trench to put in a land line? (Just called son Eric, the genius, and he said you can make or buy cellphone antennas which boost reception. Now you know, too.

The library computer is swell. Federal money at work. Well spent, I might add.

I bought new boots at Kmart yesterday. $14.99. Warm and comfy. My first boots. Time to throw away the flip flops.

Okay, that's it from Chigger Lake.

Love ALL y'all.

next time: gallstones & weather