Rainey Blogs on Some Days

I am spending my birthday this year getting an oil change. I do not need a TV in the waiting room at the Chrysler dealership while I am waiting for my car to be serviced. I would prefer silence with all of us just sitting here looking at each other every now and then, imagining what the other person's life is like. For example, a woman is sitting across from me who looks like a young Woody Allen and I'm just thinking to myself, “What are the chances on my birthday of seeing a woman who looks like Woody Allen?” Just when I was having doubts about getting an oil change and tire rotation on my birthday, this unexpected gift comes to me. I also do not need the psycho reality TV shows yelling and screaming in the background. I can sit and read a book or write a few paragraphs on my steno pad while I wait. Same thing for the airport. I don't need a TV or laptop or iPad to babysit for me while my flight is delayed. I can use the time to think, to ponder the meaning of li...

After over a decade of living in this community often referred to as an “artists' colony,” I finally attended Leonia Reads , an annual event of the The Players Guild of Leonia  held  at the Civil War Drill Hall Theater,  where Leonia writers read pieces they have written. I have often thought of attending several times leading up to the previous 13 readings—even envisioned getting up and reading one of my pieces myself—but I thought there was probably some sort of “writer's etiquette” that says you don't just show up your first time to a reading and expect to read yourself (although I learned from my friend Ann Piccirrillo , who also read one of her writings, that she has only been two times and has done readings both times. But she grew up on the East Coast and has hutzpah while I'm a shy Midwesterner ). Besides, I had this fear that I would get up and read something and people would think, “How did he get in here? Don't they check on these people?” So I drove ...

My first video, a montage posted on You Tube.

I cannot believe my life has come to this: The thing I enjoy more than anything else in the world right now is my afternoon break. I did not dream of this while I was growing up, yet I get excited come time to get my $1.34 medium cup of coffee with two sugars and half-and-half. On Fridays, I splurge and let myself live large and have three sugars! I find a secluded table all by myself, take out my steno pad, and sit quietly and wait for words to come like the lame man in the Bible who went to the pool of Bethesda each day and waited for the healing waters to stir. Finally, thoughts of something I had seen a few days earlier appear: a Rastafarian driving a silver Chrysler PT Cruiser on Route 4 going toward New York City. This was the only thing I got: the image of a wild eyed, dreadlock drenched Jamaican driving a Chrysler PT Cruiser. This unlikely image—a ganja guy in a retro remake vehicle—languishes in my head, a heavy, illogical thought. I look out on the manicured lawn of t...

On a recent trip to my hometown in Mount Vernon, Illinois , I saw this sign and remembered one of the nice things about living in the country was the acceptance of guns and the availability of ad hoc target practice locations. Why go to the trouble of driving all the way to a shooting range somewhere (like the one I drive by on the way to work every morning) and paying money when, as you can see, it is not uncommon to pull over beside the road, whip out the old six-shooter, and take target practice against a random, roadside sign when you get the urge? As far as I know, no one has been injured doing this, and the holes actually make the sign less likely to blow away in a windstorm or tornado. 

My first book,  Touching Other Worlds: A Collection of Poems , has now been published. This collection of poems was primarily inspired by my visits to Flat Rock Brook Nature Center in Englewood, New Jersey and a two-month special assignment for UPS commuting to New York City. (You can get a lot of writing done while riding a bus to and from New York City.) It is available online through Amazon and Barnes and Noble.  Click here to print version of Touching Other Worlds on Amazon Click here to Amazon Kindle version of Touching Other Worlds on Amazon Click here to see Touching Other Worlds at Barnes and Noble Click here to LIKE Touching Other Worlds on Facebook

This is a picture of the sign in front of the Walgreens in my hometown in Mount Vernon, Illinois . What strikes me is that they are selling bacon at a pharmacy. However, this is consistent with the Midwestern view that bacon is underrated and is actually good for you. Besides, eating bacon also benefits the local economy and the hog farmers appreciate it.  So get yourself a pound of bacon, fry it up in a pan, and experience the healing properties of bacon!