Blog-azic

As per usual, we headed to breakfast after church this morning, me, Dad, Grandma Tomazic, Father K. and a whole gaggle of old ladies from S.S. Cyril and Methodius, Slovenian , Roman Catholic (thank you very much) Church. The ladies were a-buzz with questions: "When are you going back to school?" Actually, I graduated almost two years ago. I'm headed to Puerto Rico a week from Tuesday with my grandpa. I'll be there till February. "Oh, the weather will be wonderful down there! How's your sister?" (they love Jessica because she graduated from the South Hudson Institute of Technology .) She's wonderful, ma'am. In Germany still. Dad's set to visit her next week. "Both of you gone for a trip then?! Wonderful! God bless you!" Let's hope, ma'am. Here's some pictures from a trip that Mom, Rosalie, Aunt Mona and girl cousin Christina took to Puerto Rico back in June. Grandpa's house. Behind a fence. Pink trim. Built in the m

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody, but especially youbody. Yeah, you (the one with the face ... THE FACE). OK. To celebrate, I went out to the woods and walked around for about an hour. Did lots of jumping: jumping over fences, jumping across streams, jumping for joy...............Example: I was stalking these deer, all happy and whatnot, trying to get close, but they spotted me and ran away. So I was like, "I don't even care because I'm gonna go get that dogbane over there. I don't give a flying monkey f*** about deer anyways (until it's butchering time)." AND LET ME TELL YOU. That dogbane. Was spectacular. Like, oh my Lord, the freakin' motherload. I've never seen dogbane get THAT BIG. It was taller than me! I figured you wouldn't believe me. I figured it, and I'm one step ahead of you. I TOOK A PICTURE. Put that in your pipe and smoke it! Curious... that astonished boy... his face... why it's: BEARDLESS!! Oh yes. Look at it again. DO IT YOU

I don't rightly remember. Maybe because I woke up earlier than usual: 7:00 a.m. Dad had to take his car down to be fixed. Air conditioner on the fritz, or something. I followed him down to the Chevy dealer, and he hopped into Old Blue . We were both itchin' to get to work. There was some windows 'round the house needin' paintin', and the air when we left the house this morning was almost balmy. What's that mean? Good day to paint!It was sweet! Primed and finished two windows. Finised three more. Even primed up the corners of the house. Pops took the aluminum corner caps off a couple years back, the time we repainted the house. Before he puts them back on, he wants the bare boards beneath primed and finished. Maybe for the insulation it will add? Who knows. That man has me do some wierd stuff sometimes. Like today he tells me he'd like to pack up all my stuff and put it away into storage in the attic on Sunday, so he can get a sense what it will all look like

My dad invited me to a concert at the college today, but I blew it off because I had the urge to see the woods again. Went out to a spot I visited a couple times last summer. Was there in late June (just as summer started). That time was real fun. Took the shoes off. Walked in the shale bottomed Black River*. Tried to catch fish with my hands, learned how to walk quietly through the river. All the while, this big buck was watching me on the other side of the river. I walked over there and saw him lounging in the shade. Next time, I took Derek out there in late August. The mosquitoes were so bad, I couldn't stand it. Derek and I cut through the woods and came up a hill and out by the highway. Today, the plants had mostly died back, except for the smallest ground covers: ivys, money wort, mustards, etc. I collected plants here and there. Got some of that money wort, stinging nettle, some mint, wood strawberries and dogbane. I also saw lots of a herron. It would fly onto a branch and

I live and work with my dad. Daddy Tomazic, Jimmy. He lives alone in the house I grew up in. An old, woody house. White aluminum siding. A lawn filled with gnarly, old silver maples. Three or four summers back, I returned from college with no job lined up, no prospects for a job and no desire to have one. I wanted to chill most hard. But, I ended up workin' with my dad. I'd wake up every morn, get over to his house by 8 or so, and work with him till the afternoon on various zanny projects. Hangin' gutters, painting the house, cleaning out the yard, trips to the dump, cuttin' up the trees. Took some pics of my dad's yard, house and space so you can get to know him a little better. He heats the house with kerosene heaters. Piles and piles of stuff in the attic. Anyways, check out my public box ( public.box.net/christomazic ) to click through the pics. The highlights are below. Dad's House He keeps the extension chord in the garbage can. Toasty warm. The man's

Oh boy! Athens was fine again. Like salami on rye. Like pastrami on wheat. Spent most of the time hangin' with Clare. Within an hour of me arriving we were headin' up the town for some buskin' . Well, first she had to adjust to my CLEAN SHAVEN FACE!! Ha! I love it! Don't no one see me no more wit'out my beard. Like, we're up on the street sittin' on the stoop and runnin' the old lists, right. So, who's walkin' by but all the people I know. And, I'm starin' 'em down 'cause, yeah, we do know each other. I'm not some strange-o boy with clean face and a banjo. Remember me? Saturday, got up to the farmers market before headin' out to MacArthur to help out Cory. He does AmeriCorps with Sojourners mentorin' youth. He brought out a bunch of singer-songwriters and we just jammed out with the kids. Played 'em some of my songs. They really dug this one I wrote about my fam. Like, this girl was like, "How about rhyming?

I've been on a vacation in Athens. My buddy, Cory, asked me to come down and lay a little music on him and his. I played banjo/guitar for a bunch of little-uns on Saturday afternoon. Ate some pre-Thanksgiving dinner. Chilled with the peeps. But, we'll talk all about it later. Right now I gotta focus on getting to sleep because by 2 p.m. tomorrow I need to be back in Lorain. And that means I need to hit the road by 10 a.m., and that's A to the freakin' M to the what the heck are you doing up that early in the morning? Go back to sleep, silly. What? You got a job suddenly? And, no I don't. But, I got a plane ticket. And it says: "Destination: Aguadilla, Puerto Rico; ETA: 23:56, 12/4/7." Word to ya motha'!

Today, I went down to the lake right about sunset. It was a windy day, but I was totally unprepared for just how windy it was. Standing on the beach of Century Park, I was almost blown away by a 30-40 mph wind steadily moving from the west. A slight drizzle pelted my now beardless face. I scurried over to a line of breaker rocks that seperate Century Park from the endless stretch of private beaches, which run almost unbroken from Lorain to Cleveland. I dodged onto the east side of the breakers to get out of the wind. The seagulls were hovering above me, flying into the wind but getting blown hither and thither in the process. Still, they looked like they were enjoying the free lift provided by the gale. The waves were 3-4 feet high, frothy white on a grey lake. The clouds raced east overhead. From crevice to crevice I crawled looking deep inside for treasures washed up in the surf. Drift wood. Rocks worn round and smooth from relentless waves. My mother would take my sister and I to th

If I'm not paying attention, I may find that I've dressed myself like an army man: green wool pants, brown sweater, green wool field shirt. Combine this with my long hair and raging beard, and you might think I bear a stricking resemblence to an anti-American dictator, just like what happened last Halloween. Well, last night I was paying attention to what I was wearing, but I ended up at Church Street Bar in Amherst, OH dressed like a dictator once again. I'd been out doing yard work with my dad the previous afternoon, and I went right from there to David's band practice, then straight to the bar. So, there I am playing pool with the new boys (David, Adam and Josh) when I look up at the bar and there's this couple (man and woman) who are all giggling and looking at me. And, they call me over and the girl says, "You're not from around here are you?" And I tell them, "I am from around here. I live in Lorain." And they're all like, "Wel