Tuesday, November 16, 2010

16. Baldy Nov 16 Tue

(2:12 pm Tue Nov 16, 2010)

[ Sun Nov 14, 2010 - early am ]

*** Radio ***

Radio. Waves. Electromagnetic fluctuations. Longer than infrared. That's what I said. Too right said Fred. Maxwell. Hertz. Marconi. Macaroni. Radidio. AM. FM. Single side-band. VHF. Marine. Two-way. Broadcast. Car.

Radio. Disc Jockey. DJ. Music baby music. Funky music. Rock music. Island music. Driving music. Dancing music.

They traveled for a good long while until the passage forked. They followed the left had branch for another good way dead ended. They doubled back and followed the other branch until that too ended in a blank wall.

"This cannot be," said Baldy. "There has to be a way out of one of these tunnels. Maybe there is a secret way to open a doorway like in the shop. Start looking and pressing guys."

They all tried. Nothing worked.

"OK, well maybe this one is a decoy and the other passage has the hidden doorway. Let's go try that one," said Baldy.

So they doubled back again and went back down the left hand fork. They searched and poked and prodded but there was not door that they could find.

They all sat down and slumped or leaned despondently against the rough walls. "It's no use," said Baldy.

"Come on, that's no way to talk," scolded Buster. "Mary would not give up on you, would she?"

"No. No she wouldn't!" said Baldy, "But what more can we do? The shop keeper is not in the store. He came down into these tunnels. He is not in here now, but there is no way out of them except the way we came in. It does not make any sense."

"It is not the situation that doesn't make any sense," said Buster, "it is what you are saying about the situation that doesn't make any sense. Of course there has to be a way out besides the way we came in. We just haven't been able to find it yet."

"So, how are we going to find it then?" asked Baldy.

"You're the one with the nose, tell me, which passage has a stronger or fresher scent of the shop keeper?" said Buster.

"Why didn't I think of that?" replied Baldy, heading off with his nose to the ground. A short while later he returned, a puzzled look on his face.

"What did you find?" asked Buster.

"Not so fast gully. Stan, do me a favour and put your nose to work and try and answer the gull's question for us will you," asked Baldy.

"Sure thing," replied Stan. He too headed off with his nose to the ground. He too came back a short while later with a puzzled look on his face. "I see what you mean Baldy, that is strange."

"What is strange?" asked Buster.

"Well," said Baldy, "what my nose is telling me is that this passage has a much stronger shopkeeper smell than the other one but neither is a strong as the main passage. OK, that makes a little sense because he would have come along the main passage every time but would have divided those trips between the two forks. Fine. But what is strange is that the scents in the two branches are nowhere near as fresh as the scent in the main passage. Is that how you read it Stan?"

"That's just how I read it," answered Stan.

(3:22 pm Tue Nov 16, 2010)

*** TV ***

TV. Television. Tele - Distant. Television - Distant Vision. TV. Radio with vision added. radio with moving pictures added. Could we then call radio teleaudio instead?

TV. Childhood Saturday morning cartoons.

TV. Another temporal black hole. At least for those like me gentle reader. How about you?

(3:38 pm Tue Nov 16, 2010)

"So what does that mean?" asked Buster.

"It means," said Stan, "that the other end of the tunnel is not down one of these passages, they are both dead ends, the other end is at the fork somewhere. That's how I read it."

"Bingo," said Baldy, "let's go find it."

It took a while and a lot of pressing and what not but eventually the wall opened up and before them were stairs leading upward.

The stairs ended at a doorway. A doorway with nowhere to go. It was about fifteen feet up the wall of a large warehouse. The only light was coming from windows and translucent panels in the metal roof overhead. Luckily the sun was rising in the east and it was not to difficult to see. There were stacks of pallets stacked along the wall making a series of steps down to the ground but it looked like a dangerous jump to get to the first stack. Directly under the doorway was a fifteen foot drop. At the end of a row of shelves was another stack of pallets that would complete the stacks and make a complete set of steps down from the door. A forklift sat beside the stack.

(4:05 pm Tue Nov 16, 2010)

Baldy did not hesitate. He took a daring leap to the top of the first stack of pallets. It wobbled and he almost toppled over as well as he almost fell off as a result of his momentum. When he regained his balance he took the remaining stack to the ground and ran over to the forklift. He jumped in and started it. Inched forward and picked up the stack and maneuvered it over to the waiting spot below the door and set it down.

"OK, everyone, down you come!"

The rest of the crew made it down safely. A short while after the last dog stepped out of the doorway onto the stack, the wall slid back and the doorway disappeared.

(4:13 pm Tue Nov 16, 2010)

[ Sun Nov 14, 2010 - sunrise ]

(4:34 pm Tue Nov 16, 2010)

So BEC is trying to get a little No Voltage Blues action going on my right now gentle reader but this year I have a way of fighting back. The method will have to remain nameless though so that they will not get any bright ideas for counter moves.

*** Drum ***

Drum. Bang it. Bass drum. kettle drum. Snare drum. Floor tom. Mounted tom. Timpani. Bongo. Conga. Cajón. Djembe. Timbales. Steelpans.

Drum line.

Drum - a barrel. For instance and oil drum.

Drum. Brake drum. Helps you stop your car or other vehicle. Well, perhaps not if your vehicle is a boat.

Drum it up. You know what I am talking about.

Drum. Insert by pounding. As in: I am going to have to drum this into your head.

Well, I spoke too soon gentle reader. BEC must have heard me and are taking counter measures. I have to shut down now until they decided to stop playing games with me.

(4:50 pm Tue Nov 16, 2010)

(6:23 pm Tue Nov 16, 2010)

I don't want to talk about it.

No Voltage Blues indeed.

"Not good!" said Baldy. "Stan, pick someone and see if you can find a way out of here. The rest of you, let's search this place for signs of another hidden passage and more importantly for any signs of Mary. Buster, why don't you see if a birds eye view will help us see something we might be missing from down here."

Stan found an exit in short order but they spent the rest of the day going through the place with a fine tooth comb. Oh they found a lot of stuff. And a lot of the stuff they found was stuff that should not have been there. Stuff that should not even have been in the country. But they did not find another passage. They did find one small scrap of Mary's head scarf on the ground under a row of shelving by a back wall but that was all. Nothing that was of much use or help in their search. It was better than nothing. If anything, it did show that Mary had not left the store by the same door she had entered. She had not left properly. Something odd was going on. Something wrong.

(6:37 pm Tue Nov 16, 2010)

(7:02 pm Tue Nov 16, 2010)

So finally they left the warehouse to discover that they were at one of the docks of one of the local shipping companies located on Bay Street in downtown Nassau. They returned home on the jitney.

[ Sun Nov 14, 2010 - night ]

They held a brief meeting on the front porch at Mary's house to lay out their plans for the next day.

Well gentle reader, things are slowing down now. At least it feels that way. I have not worked out the words per minute for each of the different sections.

So let me ramble a bit. Add a bit of padding. See if I can reach the end of this quarter and if the momentum changes in the fourth quarter. Perhaps I can pull of a flea flicker to get things rolling in the last quarter.

*** Nail ***

Nail. Brad. Screw. Glue. Tack. Hook. Peg. Pin. Twine.

Nail. A think piece of metal used to join things together.

Nail. To get right. I nailed that essay question.

Nail. Whap. He nailed a booming home run.

Nail. Catch. The police nailed that thief in the act.

Nail. Complete with ease. I nailed that physics course.

Nail. The horny bits at the end of your fingers and toes. Hopefully.

(7:33 pm Tue Nov 16, 2010)

So far no bright ideas to get some momentum going gentle reader.

No bright ideas at all. When it gets like this it is time to just churn out whatever I can. Just keep plugging along. One word. Another word. Then another still. And do the count slowly increases.

One two three four and we can keep going more and more.
Five six seven eight, hurry now it's getting late.
Nine ten push it now and push again.

Yeah baby. Today just turned green. That always feels great even in the midst of a dark struggle.

Still getting side tracked. Getting up and wandering aimlessly around the house before coming back and trying to get something going again.

[ Mon Nov 15, 2010 - morning ]

Baldy and Buster woke up to a quiet and lonely house. The plan was to wait for night and stake out the warehouse on the docks as well as the corner store and to try and follow the shop keeper to see where he went and what they could learn from that. Baldy had already decided that if they didn't find Mary as a result of their efforts tonight that he would ask Killer to help him capture the shop keeper and make him tell them what was going on.

RMR LOL. Woot.

They spent most of the morning in the dilly tree and finally came down to get a light breakfast at about eleven. After breakfast they hung out on the front porch with Stan playing tonk. Baldy could not catch a break. He lost every game. Buster, on the other hand cleaned up. He didn't win every hand, Stan did win a few, but he won most, many with tonks and he was the only one to win with a tonk before play of the hand started.

They ordered some cracked conch snacks for lunch from the old milk stand and played tonk for the rest of the afternoon.

[ Mon Nov 15, 2010 - afternoon ]

Well, not quite the whole rest of the afternoon. At about four o'clock, Baldy left to round up a team to stake out the docks, leaving Stan and Buster on the porch playing war and waiting for a while longer to get the team together to stake out the corner store.

[ Mon Nov 15, 2010 - night ]

And that is about enough to hit the daily quota of words for the day gentle reader. My eyes have been hurting a bit since earlier in the afternoon so I think I will pack it in now. Until tomorrow gentle reader.

(8:46 pm Tue Nov 16, 2010) 36300

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