Miscellaneous Notes #4

On Tuesday, I rode bike to New Iberia, which is prettier now than I recalled, and larger, more spread out. I went to two branches of the parish library, the labor department office (very nice--it used to be a bank), and the office of motor vehicles, and a movie theater (there was no bike rack at the theater and no good films I had not seen already, so I didn't stay). It was a long ride, about an hour both ways, to and from New Iberia. Today, I again rode to New Iberia and it took half the time, about thirty minutes--but, not that far from home, on a curve, I heard a car break behind me, turned and saw a truck moving toward me and a car near it. I turned off the road, toward a ditch, and the momentum of the bike and the angle of the land carried me forward--and I somersaulted over the handlebar, landed, stood, and picked up the bike and walked back onto the road. (The good thing seems to be that I didn't fight the fall, throwing my hands and arms wildly about, tensing my body. I moved smoothly. I did not land on my feet but I also didn't land on my head or ribs. My black leather bag was on my back and I seemed to have partly landed on it.) The truck had moved ahead and beyond me, careless, and the woman in the car stopped to see if I was all right (she asked several times). I said, I'm fine, and that I wasn't sure what was happening behind me and that I just wanted to get off the road. I felt okay after and I feel okay now--I don't feel yet as if anything is sprained...

Yesterday, one of my mother's sisters drew the attention of outsiders after, apparently, she made some public statements: among other things, she thinks people, presumably her neighbors, have broken into her house and damaged her property...

...There was a television news report late yesterday about a Louisiana public officicial who has proposed the sterilization of poor women as a way to fight poverty, the second time in several days that I have heard this disturbing report. The worst thing was that 58% of the people polled agreed with the politician. (Birth control should be an option for people who cannot afford children. Sterilization is a step beyond that choice.)...(Last night, I saw comic Craig Ferguson's late night show on television. I think he's very very funny, with a spikey appeal--there's something a bit anarchic about him.)...

My mother, who has taken photographs of the local geography that I like very much, is constantly busy, puttering around her own house and yard; and yesterday I helped her trim some shrubbery and today I tried to help her with something, putting foundation stones under the outside water heater (it's in a shed), but that didn't work out. (I think she works best alone. Also, she had something housed in the shed that I didn't think should be there--and I told her, "You people spend so much time alone, you no longer know what crazy is." She smiled.)

...Money is the meaning of much (the reason, the cause, the motivator; and the lack of money is devastating in its effects)...It is why I'm riding a bicycle rather than driving a car. Why my aunt is worried about the destruction of her property, why she feels besieged, betrayed. Why my mother is doing so much of the repair work herself...