Bud Grossmann’s Words of the Week for the Week of May 19, 2013 Previously unpublished fiction. © 2013 by Bud Grossmann. All Rights Reserved.   Friday Fish Fry, 2013 © 2013 by Bud Grossmann PLANTING SEASON Monday, May 13, 2013 Received your note when I returned. Your potential home sounds wonderful! Well, possibly a tad too suburban for my own small-town inclinations, or a bit, um, what’s that guy’s name, who, until he died, painted cottages with lights on inside, a tad too Thomas Somebody?-esque. I’ll Google him. Ha, ha! Love it! When I Googled painter thomas, Google suggested painter thomas cole, painter thomas hill, and painter thomas kinkade. Yes, that’s what I meant, Kinkade-esque. Same with my pier photo. A great shot, thank you very much, I’ll agree, but slightly too “sweet.” Contrast it with my “Friday Fish Fry,” another study in illumination from within and without. Thank you, Claire, for being such a responsive fan of my photography! And thank you for your cooperative photographic modeling, on the bluff overlooking Lester Burnham’s town. What’s new, you ask, what’s new with me? Gosh, I guess not much. I am planning to plant a gravestone in my yard, but I’m not expecting it to grow. I’m planning to prune my trumpet vines. First thing I did when Dad and I got home late last Tuesday afternoon was shoot pictures of my tulips, daffodils, hyacinths, and dandelions blooming since we departed. I found 7,476 dandelions in the front yard alone, an area only sixty-five feet by twenty. I must have told you about the four college boys in a 1929 Model A Ford on Hwy 99 in Fresno, Calif., at four o’clock in the morning on March 28, 1969, who got clobbered by a double-trailer semi, and the one of the four who was killed? Well, did I tell you about my visit to Sunset View Cemetery in 1998 or how my friend’s ashes ended up in Rosecrans National Cemetery and his original black granite marker in Plant City, Fla., and do you want to hear why that stone is now in Fjord, Wisconsin? Don’t let me leave out the part of the story where I got locked out of my brother-the-locksmith’s Buick Park Avenue on the first day of May with one spare key hidden under the dashboard and the next nearest spare key one hundred forty-eight miles away. I suspect you will exercise more caution, dear Claire, if ever again you may be tempted to ask what’s new. I’m glad to be home, pleased to have heard from you. Love, Dave P.S. Wiki has informed me “Thomas Kinkade ... was claimed to be 'America's most-collected living artist' before his death[5] with an estimated 1 in every 20 American homes owning a copy of one of his paintings.[6]” I wish to assure you, Claire, that I will ever adore you even if you confess to me yours is in the five percent of American households with a Kinkade providing illumination and serenity. ♦         ARCHIVES         Click for a list of other Words of the Week I would welcome your thoughts on this page (or any of my others).  Write to me at the following address.  Please be sure to spell Grossmann with two n’s and mention what page you are writing about. Thanks!  BUD GROSSMANN Top of this page | HOME | Fine Photography | Picture of the Day | Writings | | Words of the Week | Mom & Pop Prop. Mgt. | FAQ |

This page was updated Sat, May 18, 2013, 5:20PM CDT.