Reznjun

it was nice to sleep in my own bed last nite. i camped out over the weekend. when i was younger i slept on the ground, that didnt bother me.  now i use an air mattress. i dont quite rough it all the way. i had a good 4th of  july getaway.

had a few things to do before i left.  i finally got both of my garden plots weeded. that was some work. i picked and fixed my first batch of tobacco. i had been watering it. i had two snapping turtles to clean. that is no real chore since i have done so many. i got these two from a tribal worker. he is  a real cowboy. he must have stored them in an oil barrel. it took me longer to clean the tubs out than to clean them shi kehs. they were real oily. they looked like exxon valdez survivors. i havent seen that much grease since my nephews went to the prom. they had their hair slicked back like 50s characters.

when i was cleaning the turtles i checked out the still beating heart of one. i remember an old injun saying that if you swallow the beating heart you will have a long life. i have done that a number of times over the years. i hadnt done that in awhile so i swallowed one of the  hearts. gotta hedge my bets.

i past thru where i went to boarding school on the way up. it no longer sends a chill thru my spine. i asked around about any body that went to school there. seemed not many lived around there anymore. one older guy knew of a few but they lived elsewhere. i talked to a lady that had a garage sale. she said she was gonna suggest a reunion. she invited me back for their pow wow.

i stopped at a mall  to eat. i walked around and noticed a massage place. the lady there was a real salesperson. i wanted a 15 minute chair massage. she said a table one was more comfortable. so i was game. she said i had tension in my shoulders so i should go for the half hour one. so i said yeah. i told her about my arthritis. she worked my body over. i about fell asleep on the table. my body felt real good. if my wife wasnt there i would have asked the lady to marry me. it was that good.

finally got to the pow wow. i never drive straight to anywhere. i like the little side trips. that is what makes traveling fun. the first night of the pow wow was a little slow. i thought it wasnt as big as what i heard. i checked out the stands. bought some injun decals for my riding mower. and bought a new hat for 5 bucks. i found some red willow bark.  i use it as a smoking mixture in my pipe. i dont like to smoke alot of tobacco in it.

i didnt pack anything to cook with, so i ate at the food stands. my arteries probably hardened up from all the fried food i had. i had a real good indian taco. then over the course of the weekend i had soup and fried bread. menudo and fried bread. a sioux dog, which is a hot dog cooked in fried bread. a spam burger, which is yeah spam with fried bread. then i had breakfast both days there at the stands. fried potatoes and eggs. it will take all week for my cholesterol to go back down. good thing i went on the 2 and a half mile walk they had. i scored a t shirt for that.

saturday the place was packed. it was a big pow wow. i taped some singing and lots of dancing. i noticed many people that reminded me of someone. may be something to that all indians  look alike saying. it was late before i headed back to the tent. i got tired of the specials. i want to see pow wow. i wish all pow wows would do away with specials. it was a real fine pow wow. people would greet us or nod. they were friendly people. i enjoyed them. it was nice to see some riding horses.

while in the dakotas i had to check out the casinos. i got 4 new players cards to add to my collection. one place gave me and my wife 20 bucks for signing up for a new card and another 20 bucks for having an email address. so we had 80 bucks worth of free play. thats righteous. we walked out of there with 150 bucks without having to spend a dime of our money. we caught the fireworks at one casino. made me reminiscent bout the good ol days when we did that.

i bought my gas at rez gas stations. it was alot cheaper. one rez gave all skins a discount. the other gave a 40% discount to their tribal members, so i had one pay for our gas. that saved me 9 bucks for a tankful. i dont know why our tribe cant do that, especially since the bulk of our business is from non tribal members. we arent suppose to question anything here. just get with the program.

when i got home i noticed my garden grew more in the few days i was gone. the beans and gourds climbed to the top of their trellises. some of my corn is tasseling. i have to pick cucumbers and zuchinni. my tomatoes have fruit. lots like a good year. even heard we had a good rain while i was away. both my rain barrels are full again. and i emptied one into anther container before i left. so i have alot of rain water to use. now back to the routine….

gotta dust off my pow wow outfit and hit the road. i have been busy going to ceremonies and working in my garden for the past week and a half.  having to be a good guy that long means i need a break. i aint even gambled any. so i am heading to the sisseton pow wow. that should be a big one. they got like 125 thou in prize money. that kind of money will draw good singers and dancers. i will do some taping for sure. some of our homeboys are singing with one of the host drums. some of our people are heading up that way. i have a sister in law that lives there. i probably will meet someone i know. this injun has been off the farm a few times. i will camp out since i love to camp.

they will have fireworks there too. back when we were poor ass injuns we always had fireworks and eats. even when the entire tribal operations fit in a tin shed. now the tribe is worth millions and we aint got the money for such frivolous things. gotta save our money for trips. its like yeah its your money but you cant have any of it. we saving it so we can tell your grand kids they cant have any of it either.

on the way up there i will pass where i went to parochial boarding school in nebraska. shudder… i criss crossed this country many times and always avoided that place. once my mother was with me on a trip. we went to where she went to boarding school in south dakota. we headed south and she said to go see the place. i said aint no way in hell. she gave me a look that mothers have when you know you aint winning this argument. so we went. which was a good thing i suppose. i laid a few demons to rest. had to be there in a place i hated.  i seen it was just a place. i got over some things, but i will never forget how the priests and nuns beat us for nothing. ended up that i finally wrote that chapter in my book. for a long time i didnt want to relive that part of my life.

i looked the place up on the net. it has a website. it has a category for alumni. i checked it out since i havent run across very many i went to school with.  i met a few doing time while i was a spiritual advisor to several prisons. when i was on the first longest walk i heard there were a coupla there also but i didnt meet them. i heard others met  violent deaths. the website have a questionaire. one question asked if your experience was “positive, neutral or negative”. damn…..i had to write an entire chapter on my experience. wasnt just one word for it.

i am still picking vegetables. when i went after mail, i brought back an armful of cucumbers and zuchinni. will take the cukes on my trip. yesterday i pulled a few carrots. they are still young and tender. the hard work i put into that garden is paying off. the weather guy said it may rain tonite. that will make everything have a burst of growth. my rain barrels should fill up. i will water my plants with that.

tonight i am going to an auction. like i dont have enough junk. i probably need to have a garage sale to get rid of some of that stuff. then i can have room for more junk. auctions are a better deal than garage sales. you can actually get something of value at a reasonable price. might have to buy a box full of junk thought to get it. and there is a certain amount of sport in auctions. real drama in whether or not you get the bid. i cuss myself sometimes for not bidding and seeing something i wanted go real cheap. i have bought entire boxes for a buck.

gotta get busy. been jacking around on computer. things need to get done before i hit da road…..