The Tales I Tell

[This is a writing project that I've had has an idea for a while. I'm finally getting it down in bits and pieces. It will unlikely be a full story, but rather a collection of scenes and vignettes involving a central group of characters. The working title is "Dead Weight". Let me know your thoughts about it. Note - I know my grammar and spelling are bad. I'd love to hear about what you think of the characters, plot, and story elements. Enjoy!]   Calvin hated it when he lost himself. He stared at the space where he had stashed his crate near the other detritus of the alleyway for a few seconds before slowly closing his eyes. A couple of pigeons watching him took off as he started cursing. He jumped down the stairs and headed to the now bare spot where there had been a bunch of junk and a small, dense crate that belonged to him. He hadn’t heard of any city clean up efforts, but it appears that junkmen had come and collected the, well, junk.      He could see the trac...

{Preface - This is a series of posts from the book of faces that I wrote back in 2013 after a sprinkler project boiled over into interspecies hostilities. Every time I post a funny story on the said книга мордочек [ka-`knee-ga `more-da-chek] (book of {unflattering Russian slang for faces}) Angel's grandmother remarks that I should post this. So here it is. At the top are the original posts - copied and pasted with some grammatical edits. You can also find a summery of the initial experience on my blog Grandfather's Wish, along with a reminisces of various stings I've had here - https://grandfatherswish.blogspot.com/2013/09/remembering-sting.html , You can also check out the research I did on bee, wasp, and other venoms on my Musings of a Mixed Mind blog as a result of this encounter here - https://musingsofamixedmind.blogspot.com/2013/10/this-is-going-to-hurt-lot.html . Anyway, on to the show.} September 28 / 2013 I had just finished some sprinkler work this afternoon and w...

 What do you call a rock the size of a house? "Rock" and "stone" hardly seem fitting for such a massive feature. "Monolith" sounds good but is too solitary a word. It also lacks the girth needed to properly convey the magnitude of the natural object before you. "Cliff" sounds promising but draws images of mountain ridges or canyon walls whereas what is before you is a standalone geological event, absent of the dirt or inclined ground in which to be incorporated. Likewise, while "butte" calls forth images of lonely sentinels of the desert or forest, it is too large and too solitary to be accurate. Perhaps attempting to label the individual silicate structures in futile. It is not just that you are craning your neck looking up at an object eh size of an apartment block or gothic church made of large grained granite, but that there are dozens of these behemoths all around you, hemming you in. A single such object would be a curiosity, but ...