June 30, 2001
everything about his
life was different
---------------------

What a beautiful
day! The month of June ends on a perfect note. We have a
nice breeze out of the northeast and the temperatures are in the
70's.
This is a picture of the
entrance to our rec center. We have several new video games
this year along with our 25¢ pool table and 25¢ air hockey
game. We still have our collection of books for guests to
borrow and read.
--------------------
What's J.P.
talking about, anyway? He's saying how when he was twelve
years old he fell into a well in the vicinity of the farm he grew up
on. It was a dry well, lucky for him. "Or
unlucky," he says, looking around him and shaking his
head. He says how late that afternoon, after he'd been
located, his dad hauled him out with a rope. J.P. had wet his
pants down there. He'd suffered all kinds of terror in that
well, hollering for help, waiting, and then hollering some
more. He hollered himself hoarse before it was over. But
he told me that being at the bottom of that well had made a lasting
impression. He'd sat there and looked up at the well
mouth. Way up at the top, he could see a circle of blue
sky. Every once in a while a white cloud passed over. A
flock of birds flew across, and it seemed to J.P. their wingbeats
set up this odd commotion. He heard other things. He
heard tiny rustlings above him in the well, which made him wonder if
things might fall down into his hair. He was thinking of
insects. He heard wind blow over the well mouth, and that
sound made an impression on him, too. In short, everything
about his life was different for him at the bottom of that
well. But nothing fell on him and nothing closed off that
little circle of blue. Then his dad came along with the rope,
and it wasn't long before J.P. was back in the world he'd always
lived in.
- from the short story "Where I'm Calling From"
by Raymond Carver


--------------------