big and bigger.

alien science?

nope.
that's an air fern.
uh-huh.
no roots, 'uckas.
just air.
it looks pretty cool, yeah?
like an avocado-seed pine-cone with tentacles.
we're plant people up here.
even when the plants are more like space invader poops.
that's just the kind of appreciators we are, y'all.
***********
what does a busy holiday weekend's first friday
in scenic, beautiful intervale, new hampshire entail?
how about a double-dose of doubled-down dirt heaps?
c'mon, kids.
it's also all about brick stacks;
potted perennials;
shovels;
duct tape;
spray paint;
wrapping paper;
triiiiibal nutzack tatzaps...
had enough, yet?
your day doesn't have all of that,
does it?
i sure F*n' hope not.
that's heartfelt, my ninjas.
you don't want what i've got.
hard-styles.
fourth of july in the mountains has that 'itis-
and it includes flue-like symptoms.
yes.
new chimneys are, in fact, getting erected.
getting laid, brick by brick, even.
and kids,
that may be the only bright sparklespot over here.
terrific tiers of terra-flippin'-cotta, an' all that noise.
if i can climb up there,
you'll get the close-ups.
new old-looking chimneys.
yet another 'nother other reason why my great big sexy
Folk Life & Liberty Fortress wins.
...man.
never before has an under-rewarding activity
been such a late-onset super-hottness situation.
chimneys. (like i said.)
with perfectly matched solid-slab bricks,
flawlessly flush construction,
four-corner flue towers,
and red mortar.
(they go ALL the way to eleven, duders.)
chimneys.
chimneys?
yeah, mutha-b!tches, chimneys.
fuming stacks of burning business.
we have got some uber-sexy ones on this hot metal roof now.
lucky us.
***********
there's a kind of permanent heartbreak up here.
i mean it.
almost nobody is from here,
and each year's new 'steaders bring less valuable traits with 'em.
not all settlers are new and better trailblazers-
some just settle for less.
settling down to immobility.
not as much putting in their roots, as getting overgrown.
deeper and deeper into the same old sh!t-salad.
i'm just sayin',
achievers are usually also leavers, y'know?
the good ones move away,
looking for that next step, farther and farther from where they started-
the bad ones and the sad ones stay forever.
the same as it ever was.
'no investment in improvement' is the order of the day.
instead, success is measured in
chain restaurants, mesh shorts, car races, light beer, pop music-
that stuff is everywhere, for sure,
but in other spots,
there's also other stuff.
not that it ceases to exist within the county lines,
it just isn't embraced. ever.
not here.
xenophobia is the unspellable, therefore unwritten rule.
if it's different, or challenging, or engaging AT ALL,
it can't hang out with the indigenous doo-doo.
five or under on a 1-10 scale is just right...
but not for us, though.
we want that new hottness, yeah?
we want bold fortunes,
worthy adversaries,
active participation,
gratitude and generosity,
all that virtuous viking-type stuff.
and if we don't fit in,
it's 'cause we're too large for narrow minds and limited perceptions.
that's not a sore thumb sticking out,
hitch-hiking away from the woodsly goodness,
it's a thumbs-up to Folk Life flavor.
the harder way is the smarter way.
and unless we're talking about girlfriends,
if it's easy, it just isn't that dope.
new hottness is what's up
even when it's just the old ways.
forgotten, maybe, but not gone;
never quiet, never soft.....