Illustration Friday: small

small
Originally uploaded by Olias444.

Sometimes it's easy to feel like a small fish in a big ocean....
in an even bigger ocean.

Asleep in the Dishwasher

I mentioned on that long list awhile back that the sound of flowing water and the droning white-noise sounds of machines has always had a soothing effect on me. Like those loud heater/cooler units in motel rooms, nothing lulls me to sleep better than that sound.
I remember going to the car wash with my dad when I was a kid, the kind where you get out and wait in a lounge area while the car goes down a conveyor line and gets washed. There was also an area where you could stand outside and watch the cars go down the line, and at the end there was sunken area where guys would wash the wheels. I would stare mesmerized at the guys down there, amid the noise of the washing and drying machines and the spray and mist of the water, it was like a magical world.
When I worked at the hospital, in the kitchen, part of the job was to load the dirty trays onto racks, which were then loaded into a huge industrial type washing machine. the racks traveled in a large circle and came out the other end. This was my favorite part of the job, because I was fascinated by the giant washing machine. One time the machine broke down and a repairman had to come in and fix it. He crawled underneath and inside the thing, somewhere in the middle as the machine turned on and ran while he was still in there somewhere. He finally crawled out having fixed it. From then on I wondered what it was like in there, and would imagine a wonderful little lair with a cot to take a nap in, surrounded by the flowing water and endless machine noise.
Where I live now, there's a wall heater that makes that kind of noise, and at night I always look forward to the thing clicking on, then the fan starts. When I can't sleep, that's always a sure-fire way to fall asleep. I imagine myself on an airplane or a submarine, and that's the engine noise, or behind a waterfall, or in a rain forest.
Sometimes, I imagine that I'm inside that giant dishwasher, in my own private hiding place where I can drift off to dreamland.

Illustration Friday: Broken

femur
Originally uploaded by Olias444.

In 1988, I fell off a fire escape and broke my femur. It looked something like this. But the doctor fixed it up with a clamp and screws. After a year he took the hardware out and now it's as good as new.

Combat!

When I was a kid, one of my favorite shows was Combat! with Sgt. Saunders, Doc, Littlejohn, Caje, and all those characters. In fact, I've recently bought the dvd box set, and I'm enjoying the shows all over again.
The kids in the neighborhood I grew up in used to play Combat all the time. Bobby Novack and Chip Olson had all the best toy guns. That was was back in the day when toy machine guns and pistols were no big deal. I always wanted to be "Doc" so I could use my army surplus first-aid kit.
We would split up into teams and other kids would be the 'Germans'. We would try to sneak up on each other and carried out well planned missions to capture the enemy's fort. Our 'battles' usually took place in empty lots or the nearby orchard (back when San Jose actually HAD orchards).
Last night was Halloween, so instead of giving out candy, my friend Shawn and I decided to head over to a Halloween gathering on McDonald Avenue. But before we could go, we had to make sure none of the trick or treaters would see us. We had to hide behind the truck at one point, which was quite silly and fun. Suddenly I realized this was how we always played Combat!
So for a brief moment, we were playing it again...."Kirby, Littlejohn, you stay here...Caje, you follow me..."
It's always so much fun to be a kid again.