The Newly Departed

I suppose it’s a character flaw to imagine,

as I do,

that the newly departed are not fully absent.

 

I envision them hiding in plain sight

before transitioning to what we call “the other side.”

 

Surely, our lost loved ones can be found

silently stacking boxes in a cavernous warehouse,

or stationed along assembly lines

plugging wiring harnesses into appliances

as they belt through their stations.

 

I dreamed of my own mother

working in a store that sells nothing but black woodstoves.

I suspect my father can be found in a rundown bar somewhere

tipping back fresh glasses of draft beer.

 

How can death be absolute when nothing else is?

     

I am pretty certain one of the departed

was driving the sky-blue SUV

that wrongly lurched in front of me

at the four-way stop two blocks from my house.

 

—Mitchell Hegman

The Drum

My love—if not obsession—with listening to music extends to back when I was a toddler.  At the age of five you could find me playing my mother’s LP records.  I especially liked Johnny Horton, the Sons of the Pioneers, and Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture.

Today, I appreciate most music genres.  When I am driving or if I am home during the day, I have music on constantly.  At the cabin, I have music playing 24 hours a day.

About two months ago, something unaccountable occurred.  I don’t know why it happened, but for some reason, I began to focus almost entirely on the drummer in every song.  For some songs, this kind of focus completely changes the listening experience.

Posted is a song featuring one drum and one voice.  In this song you have no choice but the drum.

—Mitchell Hegman

Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpxMlG8boZ4

Two Deer, a Fox, and a Big Kitty with a Long Tail

I am posting four captures from the game camera at my cabin.  As I suspected, more than deer are wandering through the mountains there.

The first two images (of deer) are from where I placed the camera on a game trail on the mountain above my cabin.

The second two captures, a fox and a mountain lion, are from a placement of the camera immediately below my cabin.  The lion is within forty feet of my cabin.  If you look above the lion, you can see one of my cabin’s windows.

Whitetail Buck

Mule Deer Buck

Fox

Mountain Lion

—Mitchell Hegman

Morning Report: September 4, 2021

The time is 4:10 in the morning. I am sitting on planet Earth with twenty pounds of housecat sprawled beside me.  We are listening to Bob Dylan singing Hurricane.

A man can be wrongly convicted of a crime he did not commit on this planet but the sky is often pretty.

At present, stars are pivoting above me.  Smarter people have named the more prominent stars.  The names are difficult for me, so I make up my own.  Blinky, for example.

When I was younger, I imagined I would grow up to be a truck driver named Mack.  I guess sitting here with my cat is the second-best thing.

End of report.

—Mitchell Hegman

I Want Everything to be as Good as Possible

 Advice from a toddler:

Thanks to Desiree for sharing this first!

—Mitchell Hegman

Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y62veCinCvc

Studio Shots

I recently finished writing my third draft of a book about the functions and use of digital multimeters.  I am now taking photographs of multimeters and accessories for use in illustrations.

I own a couple dozen multimeters and several voltage testers from different manufacturers.  I enjoy tinkering with all of these test instruments.  And photographing them for illustrations is, as I like to say, “good stuff.”

If all goes well, Jug and I will have copies of the book for sale by the turn of next year.

While talking on the phone with Jug about issues with a few photographs, he stopped me at mid-sentence.  “Do you realize what you just said?” he asked.

“What?”

“You said you were ‘posing’ meters.”

“I did, didn’t I.  Well, it’s surprisingly sexy.”  I laughed.

“You may want to keep that kind of talk to yourself.”

 “Gotcha.”

Posted is a digital multimeter posing with an analog meter in my makeshift studio.

—Mitchell Hegman

Twisted in the Saying

If the shoe fits, find the other one.

• All is fair in love and getting out of doing the dishes.
• Knowing the speed limit is no reason to drive it.
• Don’t take rocks for granite.
• Having a good business idea is the first step in ruining the rest of our life.
• Look both ways before double-crossing someone.
• There is a time for everything, except herpes.
• If bacon or duct tape can’t fix it, it can’t be fixed.
• Anything worth doing is worth doing after you go fishing.

—Mitchell Hegman