Strange Pulse

She was one of a kind.

Cat and I went with Daniel to Seal Beach last weekend. We sat on the pier while Daniel went skimboarding. There were a couple cute boys just below us on boogieboards and I was amused at the stealth looks they kept throwing at Catherine.

When we were walking to the car later Cat said she liked it there and wouldn’t mind coming back again. I said “You’re hoping to see those boys again, aren’t you.” She said, “Yeah!”

Daniel said, “What boys?”

I said, “The boys who were checking her out the whole time we were on the pier.”

Catherine said, “Ahhhhh! Don’t say that! That’s horrible! Don’t put it that way!”

I said, “What, ‘checking you out?’ But that’s what they were doing.”

She said, “You guys might be the coolest parents ever, but sometimes you say things I just can’t deal with! Like…that!”

I still don’t get it.

But here’s a couple pictures Cat took of her dad skimboarding.

I’ve got some funny hits via search engines recently, the best being people searching for:

“middian”+”mike”+”Hair”
Strange, Susan 1988
songs about missing the boat
picture of son jumping in dad’s footprints
how many Pearl Jam members are married?
boys haircuts shaver
how to get a pulse on a cow
creepy clown dolls
cut eyelashes
“my brother ” + fro + “grew his”
dirty barefeet
fatso manchu
kuntz
is there a flushing toilet game called big john
talking-to-stone + Stone Gossard
why do author likes to write
what happens here, stays here
music to say I am sorry
“doom metal” videos
revolting rhymes excerpts
coolest thing I’ve ever seen
ingernt come back
Having a paranoid schizophrenic mother-in-law
Funny Things to Say in Class

Someone’s interested in Mike from Middian’s haircut. And someone wants to marry Pearl Jam. And someone wants to check a cow’s pulse.

For the record, here’s what Mike used to look like:

And what he looks like now:

Satisfied?

This is my great-great grandmother.

She was born in 1826, and married by the time she was 21. She was married to Benjamin, and they had 8 children, including Francis Marion, my great-grandfather.

There is some family lore that’s been passed down about her (I think) grandfather. I haven’t been able to verify the truthfulness of it. The story is that he was a British slavetrader, and he died in a shipwreck while transporting slaves. If I remember right (and it’s entirely possible I’m way off), her father then inherited a lot of money, but he was still a child. His mother had him sent to America to be educated here (I think she was an American) and she remarried. Her second husband cheated her son out of his inheritance somehow. Maybe she died and he made off with her fortune, I don’t remember.

Nice to know that the soap opera quality (or Jerry-Springer-ness, whichever you like) of my family goes back generations.

I find this portrait fascinating. I know they didn’t allow people to smile when being photographed back then, because of the long exposures required, and smiles are hard to hold still. But her expression looks so sour, it’s hard to imagine her smiling at all, ever. She doesn’t just look cranky or mean, though. She looks worn out and almost…defeated, in a way. I think life was just harder in general back then.

She lived to be 78. One of her children died at the age of 25, and another at the age of 30, when she was in her 50’s. How old do you think she is here?

It was pretty funny to have the Bishop, who judged, call out, “The pregnant nun!”

I realized after we got there we should’ve told our pregnant friend to also dress up as a nun, too. That would’ve been funnier.

People reacted well. I got a few weird looks but most people laughed. There were some great costumes too. I thought one guy was a very convincing cop until I realized he actually was a cop. That’s cheating. But the kids there loved trunk-or-treating from his patrol car.

Cat dressed up as a cat:

Nathaniel didn’t dress up, but I told people who asked he was supposed to be a videogame nerd:

Elijah didn’t dress up either. Here’s another shot of Daniel:

As you can see, both he and Cat have dyed their hair black. People will probably assume it was for Halloween, but it wasn’t—it was just for fun. His hair is so thick and poofy, he should’ve dressed up as Elvis.

Seal Beach is just up the road from us, and Daniel’s discovered it’s a cool spot for skimboarding. I like it because the pier is really old, and the town is tiny. A small secluded little beach community, it’s really awesome.

This is Daniel with his skimboard, taken from the pier:

This is Elijah:

Nathaniel on the pier:

Elijah from the pier (note the shirt!):

Me:

I’m wearing a Mastodon shirt, haha.

That’s me with my older brother. I can still feel the elastic against the back of my head, and the plastic getting all fogged up against my face from my breath. The Frankenstein mask had glow-in-the-dark circles on it.

We thought these costumes were the coolest.

What trips me out now is seeing our cat, Morris J. Kitters III—we called him Kitty, and the J. stood for Jiff, like the peanut butter—in the corner of the frame. I don’t think we have many pictures of him. I used to torture that poor cat, brushing his thick fur and putting perfume on him.

Aren’t we cute?

My brother just sent me this. I love Ultravox.

It was so cool to see guys we know way down on that giant stage, and broadcast on those giant screens above the stage–go Three Inches! Elijah was in heaven during Iron Maiden’s set, especially the last bit where they played old stuff. I was cold and huddled under blankets, and glad we brought some binoculars.

I’ll probably post a review over at Kulturblog.com, but not sure when.

We have lawn tickets, so we’ll be way in the back…but still! Daniel and I missed them at Ozzfest, which I still think of as Torturefest, since it was over 100 degrees out and we had sunstroke. And left early, missing all the headlining bands. But at least we got to see Mastodon. Anyway, never seen Maiden before, and to be able to see them with guys we know opening, wow! We’ll be so stoked.

Glen Hansard, singer for the Frames, is also playing tonight in LA, and I’m missing it to see Three Inches of Blood open for Maiden. It’s a bummer, he’s really incredible live, and I’ve never seen him do a solo show. I have bootlegs, though, and he’s always very intense. I’ll post a song from his recent solo album, “Leave,” which he co-wrote with Damien Rice. I saw him perform it with the Frames last time they were in town. And I’ll post some Maiden, too! \m/! And of course, some Three Inches of Blood.

Three Inches of Blood, here we come!