http://100scenes.blogspot.com/A semi-aleatory novel in progress. 10 characters, 100 permutations.ennoreply@blogger.com (Dave O'Meara)Thu, 21 Apr 2011 21:16:31 PDTBlogger http://www.blogger.com21125noreply@blogger.comnoA semi-aleatory novel in progress. 10 characters, 100 permutations.http://100scenes.blogspot.com/2009/04/leaving-speyer-technik-museum.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Dave O'Meara)Tue, 21 Apr 2009 04:21:45 PDTtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1432075540667475116.post-57890649970031491372009-04-21T06:21:45.103-05:00http://100scenes.blogspot.com/2009/03/microdream-1.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Dave O'Meara)Wed, 18 Mar 2009 16:09:13 PDTtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1432075540667475116.post-6699232894563493024Waiting for the stoplight, I looked down at my hand, resting there on the stick shift, and for a second I thought I was holding the lever that would open a gaping hole in the side of a mountain, a passageway to a secret cavern where creatures who no longer knew whether they were living or dead, human or animal, captive or free, bathed in the still quiet waters of an underground lake, and for that2009-03-18T18:09:13.697-05:00http://100scenes.blogspot.com/2009/03/microdream-2.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Dave O'Meara)Wed, 18 Mar 2009 16:08:42 PDTtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1432075540667475116.post-5812259979858546781 For a moment, I must admit, I let myself drift away as they were talking; my head floated like a weather balloon above the discussion, which, by this stage of the evening (actually, it must have been morning), seemed to have become a dispute, or a debate, or twin simultaneous performances of two irreconcilable manifestos.  I couldn't follow the arguments, although I did catch some words, some 2009-03-18T18:08:42.774-05:00http://100scenes.blogspot.com/2008/07/raymond-february-22-2008.htmlMelissaLisaRaymondDorothySamanthaGarynoreply@blogger.com (Dave O'Meara)Tue, 15 Jul 2008 18:25:52 PDTtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1432075540667475116.post-8435982686662322190Listen in MP3It's been difficult for me—more difficult than I've let on—to watch my granddaughter grow up in, shall we say, bohemian circumstances. Before she was born, I considered the prospect in all its distressing details, and resolved to do what I could to provide my granddaughter with some structures that would minimize the worst tendencies of her parents. And I must say that the results 2008-07-15T20:25:52.203-05:00http://100scenes.blogspot.com/2008/06/gary-february-20-2008.htmlBettyGarynoreply@blogger.com (Dave O'Meara)Wed, 25 Jun 2008 08:36:14 PDTtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1432075540667475116.post-6985885706181839986Listen in MP3So this cart, I told him, it's about 4 feet long—actually it's exactly 53 inches and three eighths but I didn't want to waste time with that kind of detail—so I just gestured to him, about like this big? You got me?I told him it's not like any of your carts here at El Centro, it's not metal, no es metal...My Spanish is worth shit, it's a total fucking joke that I'm trying to mount a 2008-06-25T10:36:14.302-05:00http://100scenes.blogspot.com/2008/01/dorothy-january-12-2008.htmlDorothySamanthaGarynoreply@blogger.com (Dave O'Meara)Thu, 10 Apr 2008 06:10:07 PDTtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1432075540667475116.post-654717916735952388Listen in MP3St. Stanislaus Parish, $1,820. They always send her a receipt, first thing every January, which is nice, but Dorothy takes out a calculator and adds it up anyway. $35 a week. You wouldn't think it would come to that total, the sevens turning into sixes, but somehow it does. Is it still the right amount? Dorothy reaches across the dining room table, and finds a hand-written sheet on 2008-04-10T08:10:07.548-05:00http://100scenes.blogspot.com/2007/12/melissa-december-17-2007.htmlJacobMelissaLisaRaymondSamanthaGarynoreply@blogger.com (Dave O'Meara)Tue, 01 Jan 2008 13:48:52 PSTtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1432075540667475116.post-363587514326153602Listen in MP3"This has nothing to do with Lisa," said Gary. "It's only because I pretty much fucking built the place."I nodded. "That’s... what I understand," I said."Not the electrical, of course. Or the plumbing. Or the concrete pours. Though I could've done a better job than those assholes the contractor hired.""It was very generous of you," I said. "I mean, it is, still—""Fuck that," said 2008-01-01T15:48:52.964-06:00http://100scenes.blogspot.com/2007/11/lisa-november-12-2007.htmlLisaRaymondDorothySamanthaGarynoreply@blogger.com (Dave O'Meara)Thu, 03 Jan 2008 04:31:49 PSTtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1432075540667475116.post-7495711100204249509Listen in MP3After lunch, we took a walk in the old German graveyard, and for the first time all day, Sam dropped her sullen act."Look Mom, this one died when she was a baby."She grabbed my hand and pointed to a gravestone.Margaretha Schwab. Born June 3, 1842. Died August 12, 1842."1842," I said. "This was practically the frontier back then. A lot of infant mortality.""That means babies dying, 2008-01-03T06:31:49.924-06:00http://100scenes.blogspot.com/2007/11/samantha-november-12-2007.htmlLisaSamanthanoreply@blogger.com (Dave O'Meara)Wed, 14 Nov 2007 05:32:35 PSTtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1432075540667475116.post-8437949143762727552Listen in MP3Parents can get so crazy, they don't even know what they're doing sometimes, they don't listen to anyone, if they don't have a job, that's the worst. Just think about it, I mean if you're a like a kid you've got school to go to, but if you're a Mom and you don't have a job and your last job paid you like a whole year's salary just to go away, then there's no place you have to go 2007-11-14T07:32:35.468-06:00http://100scenes.blogspot.com/2007/10/seeing-him-at-grocery-storeits.htmlBettyLisaRaymondnoreply@blogger.com (Dave O'Meara)Sun, 04 Nov 2007 10:15:56 PSTtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1432075540667475116.post-2081919767271032055Listen in MP3Seeing him at the grocery store—it's surprising, really, now that I look back, that there haven't been more awkward moments. We've been living here, in the same neighborhood, driving on the same streets, for twenty-five years now. Longer than that, of course, especially for him, but twenty-five years since. "Betty," he said. "How nice to see you." Our houses are less than a 2007-11-04T12:15:56.571-06:00http://100scenes.blogspot.com/2007/10/arthur-september-28-2007.htmlBettyLisaDorothySamanthaArthurnoreply@blogger.com (Dave O'Meara)Wed, 10 Oct 2007 18:43:42 PDTtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1432075540667475116.post-8635811899808162610Listen in MP3Dorothy needed someone to take her shift at the center, there was a funeral she had to go to, Louise's friend Marian or Marianne or something like that, I'd never met the woman, not much point in me going to the funeral, so I said, Sure, I'll take your shift. Volunteer Greeter, they call it, you just sit by the door and say hello to anyone who comes in, they want the center to be 2007-10-10T20:43:42.902-05:00http://100scenes.blogspot.com/2007/09/jacob-september-19-2007.htmlBettyJacobMelissaChristophernoreply@blogger.com (Dave O'Meara)Tue, 25 Sep 2007 04:44:21 PDTtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1432075540667475116.post-2128233956409405648Listen in MP3I'm okay... I just ran too hard... I told her... I don't need... to go to the... nurse's office.Yeah. It's... in my backpack.Okay. It's... it's... in here....No, I'm... okay. This isn't bad. I can... still play.Here it is... Okay.Hhheewwwww...But I only do it once. My dad says...Okay. Hhheewwwww...I used the nebulizer this morning. My mom makes me do it before breakfast. She makes me2007-09-25T06:44:21.653-05:00http://100scenes.blogspot.com/2007/09/samantha-september-9-2007.htmlLisaSamanthaArthurGarynoreply@blogger.com (Dave O'Meara)Wed, 10 Oct 2007 17:31:29 PDTtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1432075540667475116.post-18150963768997186Listen in MP3Where's your mother? said the old guy, he just came up to me and asked, I mean this was like a really, really old guy, way older than Grandpa, older even than the Prefect from the Class of 1827, the one who was haunting the boathouse on the secluded lake in the Tyrolean mountains, of course the Prefect had been young and handsome in 1827, that was the big question about the ghost, 2007-10-10T19:31:29.434-05:00http://100scenes.blogspot.com/2007/08/arthur-august-8-2007.htmlChristopherArthurnoreply@blogger.com (Dave O'Meara)Sat, 01 Sep 2007 19:58:23 PDTtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1432075540667475116.post-8305542903829497294Listen in MP3I've never had much use for people who leave notes on my door, there was this fellow in the Navy, not on the ship, mind you, you couldn’t get away with kind of nonsense at sea, he was a petty officer third class I believe, I was only a seaman at the time, this was in one of the stateside ports, Portsmouth probably, but this fellow, we were always finding notes from him on doors, 2007-09-01T21:58:23.621-05:00http://100scenes.blogspot.com/2007/07/raymond-june-23-2007.htmlMelissaRaymondSamanthaGarynoreply@blogger.com (Dave O'Meara)Mon, 05 Nov 2007 05:28:13 PSTtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1432075540667475116.post-5670567239657102122Listen in MP3It was on a Wednesday night, a couple of weeks ago. Melissa and I had had a brief meeting, a sidebar if you will, in preparation for the full board meeting the next day. I was escorting her out to her car, when suddenly her back stiffened in fright. A figure was stepping out of the shadows—a tattooed arm, a cordless drill—and speaking my name. Melissa cursed at the figure, who 2007-11-05T07:28:13.680-06:00http://100scenes.blogspot.com/2007/07/betty-june-30-2007.htmlBettyDorothyArthurnoreply@blogger.com (Dave O'Meara)Sat, 01 Sep 2007 20:06:14 PDTtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1432075540667475116.post-2113405596215098500Listen in MP3I was at Van Buren Hill—a nice place, my first choice among all the places I'd been looking at, not disgusting or depressing, but not full of Republicans either. I was doing quick calculations in my head—multiply dollars per month by twelve to get dollars per year, then add years—how many?—to eighty-nine, when the case worker asked for proof of residency."What do you mean?" I said.2007-09-01T22:06:14.544-05:00http://100scenes.blogspot.com/2007/06/gary-june-25-2007.htmlLisaSamanthaGarynoreply@blogger.com (Dave O'Meara)Wed, 22 Aug 2007 05:46:42 PDTtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1432075540667475116.post-2917759897584377863Listen in MP3I used to get calls at three in the morning all the time. Made 'em, too. Didn't think anything of it—3 a.m. was like fucking happy hour. Done with work, call up your friends, figure out what the fuck is going on. Or something like that. Rock 'n roll. Life on the road.One time I remember I called my buddy Gerry in Seattle. From Amsterdam. I didn't know what the fuck time it was in 2007-08-22T07:46:42.612-05:00http://100scenes.blogspot.com/2007/06/dorothy-june-19-2007.htmlMelissaLisaDorothynoreply@blogger.com (Dave O'Meara)Sat, 01 Sep 2007 20:11:31 PDTtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1432075540667475116.post-5703523497440126018Listen in MP3Yesterday, for the first day of class, Louise insisted on driving me. I told her that I had been driving every day, everywhere I wanted to go except those few places where she was also going, places that didn't seem to me much different at all from all my other destinations, to which she replied that I had obviously been driving much too much, and if I didn't want to have that cast 2007-09-01T22:11:31.794-05:00http://100scenes.blogspot.com/2007/06/lisa-june-15-2007.htmlLisaRaymondnoreply@blogger.com (Dave O'Meara)Wed, 22 Aug 2007 05:52:14 PDTtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1432075540667475116.post-8058913564421566050Listen in MP3I knew the first thing he was going to say."Never threaten to resign, dear, unless you really want to leave."I told him that it wasn't a threat; it was simply a contingency plan as to how I would respond if the board decided to act in certain ways, and that the future behavior of the board was far from a foregone conclusion.Did he smile when I said that? Did he acknowledge, even for2007-08-22T07:52:14.756-05:00http://100scenes.blogspot.com/2007/06/melissa-jacob-june-13-2007.htmlJacobMelissaLisanoreply@blogger.com (Dave O'Meara)Wed, 22 Aug 2007 05:49:23 PDTtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1432075540667475116.post-3603014174048299387Listen in MP3It's the little things, sometimes, that make you think your energies are going in the wrong direction.I really believe in living up to my commitments, and last year I made a commitment: to a three-year term on the board. It was an honor, sort of—at least something that I could put on my C.V.—the sort of third-tier community service that might give you a little extra insurance when 2007-08-22T07:49:23.793-05:00http://100scenes.blogspot.com/2007/06/christopher-samantha-june-4-2007.htmlJacobSamanthaChristophernoreply@blogger.com (Dave O'Meara)Wed, 22 Aug 2007 05:50:50 PDTtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1432075540667475116.post-4617155050290300417Listen in MP3Look, I'm not the kind of guy who has to win all the time. I hear about professional athletes, how they're all afflicted with competitive natures so intense that they turn every moment of their lives into a contest, a life or death contest about who has the best stuff, who got the best deal, whoever can say, "I'm the winner." I mean, I guess that's why we like to watch them on 2007-08-22T07:50:50.095-05:00nonadult