Large beasts of weather and sky

[asakiyume]

I've decided to walk to work, even though I work at home.

On my walk today, I stepped in all the large potholes on my street. They are the footprints of some creature whose weight affects the asphalt the way mine affects wet sand. A winter-weather beast, a very large dinosaur or lumbering mastodon. Some kids once tried to charge admission to see them--the potholes, I mean--as a way of raising some quick money, but no one would pay because these dinosaurs and mastodons get everywhere. (No, I'm making that up; no kids ever did that, or at least not on my street, or at least not while I was paying attention.)

Up in the sky, wind has unearthed (... un-sky'd) the white vertebrae of an even larger beast that swims up there. Or maybe it's just that its sky is so thin that its bones are visible through it. I didn't catch it on film but you've seen skies like that--large backbones and sometimes ribs laid out across them.

But now I've arrived at work and should begin. Here's a skunk cabbage from last week, consuming its daily meal of sunlight.

Comments

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

Thank you for sharing your vision with us. :D

(Also, thank you, you know why. :D)

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

My pleasure! And hee, I'm glad you liked it!

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

I like the vision of dinosaurs and/or mastadons lumbering down your street.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I like the thought of the asphalt as soft as sand. I'm going to try to press harder now and then when I walk....

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

Maybe it is only that soft when a Warp washes over the land and the large beasts of land and sky find their way into our world before the next Warp carries them on to another time and place...

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

perfect icon :-)

yes, they surf those warp waves, I think!

[sovay]

(No, I'm making that up; no kids ever did that, or at least not on my street, or at least not while I was paying attention.)

Doesn't stop it from being a great story.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Probably in an alternate universe--maybe the one with the clever roomful of monkeys who typed out Shakespeare--they did.

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

I personally don't mind a bit of whimsy in your posts. Maybe there is a world where dinosaurs and mastodons are so rare that people would charge to see their footprints. What an odd world that must be.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

:-) I'm glad

I think as much as anything, I typed the disclaimer because sometimes I've said things like that, about the kids, and people have believed me, and then suddenly I'm in the position of fiction-writer-as liar. But I guess when that happens I can just explain...

[pameladean]

I love the way you see things. If kids never did that, they should have.

P.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

There is a very enterprising batch of kids in the neighborhood right now. One day (I blogged about it but I think it was before you and I were connected on LJ) they came up to me when I was outside and tried to sell me a red plastic ball that had been blowing around. Or maybe it was a stray soccer ball; we have a lot of those about, too. They probably thought of the potholes' potential and then gave up on the idea.

[oiktirmos.livejournal.com]

You reminded me of how the T-Rex got Rose of Sharon in Marissa’s Dinosaurs of the Southern Dust Bowl. Can’t trust those government time travel men.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I've missed this story--I have to read it! Is it online?

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

If I loved in that magical place, I would walk to work every day, too!

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I hear you ride your bike to work ;-)

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Well, my bike machine! (No more bike riding for the next eight months of summer, way too hot)

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

We'll get you oculus rift so that you can see whatever lovely scene you want while you bike. (I wonder how good that tech really is, though...)

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Heh! Well, the only way I can make myself get on that bike machine is to limit my TV time to when I'm grunting away. I also get a gigantic fan blowing on me, which is lovely.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

We got Apple TV recently! So suddenly I can see things that people have been talking about for years. On the recommendation of Julia Rios, we've been watching Jane the Virgin, which is a good-natured, cute homage to telenovelas (it's in English, though). Over-the-top plot, engaging narrator, and the characters are just so *fun* (and pleasant to look at!) Have you seen/ heard of it? I think you'd enjoy it.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes I've heard of it! I should see if it's shown up on Netflix yet. Thanks!

[yamamanama.livejournal.com]

I don't associate dinosaurs with winter weather, unless it's Fafnir.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Yeah, they conjure up more of a sultry, sweaty atmosphere. Must have been mastodons, then.

[puddleshark.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

I've long suspected that there might still be mastodons woolly mammoths roaming north Dorset & this would explain all the potholes in the road on the way to Winterborne Stickland the other day...

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I suspect that if you squint through the freezing fog and sleet, you may sometimes be able to make out their hulking shapes, across the centuries.