theburningpyramid

[theburningpyramid]

The Desert Foxed

The desert was quiet. Not silent, not the void of space, nor the strange absence of sound he had sometimes experienced in the midst of the kinetic chaos of combat. There was the wind, of course, thin air navigating over and through the rocks and scrub brush. Fauna was sparse here, mostly of the very small and insect variety, but he’d had an occasional visit from something that padded around on…

[theburningpyramid]

A Bitter Place

(Ed. note: this is a work of fiction… fiction! My wife is alive and well, have no worries about that.) On the morning of the third day after, without much preparation or thought, he pushed himself out of bed, put on his boots (still damp from walking in the rain the day before) and headed down to the river. This was the Occuquan. At the end of the water, that was what the Doegs called it, long…

[theburningpyramid]

Meet Me in the Rooms of Time

Meet Me in the Rooms of Time

Y’all come as you goThrough an opportune windowOr a kismet door and sometimesNothing more than a drearyCave mouth on a dim and dismal day. Y’all enter my life andOccupy these interior spacesMeasured and marked by time,Tiny rooms of mere secondsOr grand mansions of cascading years. Friend, I call you, some of the time;Acquaintance, rival, foe, lover,Family, partner, or nothing more than…

[theburningpyramid]

New School... Who Dis?

New School… Who Dis?

The germ of this one came from a poem by one of my cousins. Growing up with a strange name (I go by Sebastian these days but as a kid I went by my middle name, Saajex… which is how most of my family and oldest friends know me) was quite interesting. It did garner me some friends, and yet there were some issues at the same time. Every two years since First Grade:A new school.Why do we have to…

[theburningpyramid]

We Will Survive

May 1, 2020

Day… something-something… of the quarantine…

Oh wow, I spelled quarantine without MS Word correcting me.

We made it through the month of April (and half of March) and… we’re still here! For those of you who have stumbled on this blog post, years from now, captured in some cache of Internet crap, this was the early days of the Pandemic Years. We were stupid. We thought… stupid stuff.…

[theburningpyramid]

"Today was a good day" - Ice Cube

“Today was a good day” – Ice Cube

It wasn’t just winning a couple of games of softball. It wasn’t just having a nice time at the Occuquan Craft Fair. It wasn’t just waking up late and eating cinnamon rolls while the kitties ran around and acted crazy, or coming home and eating a lovely dinner, drinking a great beer and giving my wife a copy of Bukowski’s Post Office to read; it was all of those things and something else, an…

[theburningpyramid]

The Old Ballgame

“What’s that?” the young boy asks As he points to a scar long and wide Just below my knee.

“Memories,” I reply, “of sliding hard On infield dirt so dry and rough That our skin looked like grated cheese.”

“Your finger is crooked,” says he As he takes my hand and we cross The street while the light is still green.

“That time,” says I, “that I misplayed a Ball smoked up the middle on a day In July so…

[theburningpyramid]

A Fish Dinner in Woodbridge

A Fish Dinner in Woodbridge

Good news, everybody! We’ve become Pescatarians.

I know, it sounds like it should be a cult. Maybe it is – I haven’t decided yet. But hold off on calling for an intervention.

Two weeks ago – more or less – we decided to modify our diet a bit. You can safely assume that the usual reason is applicable: a desperate need to generate that feeling of smug superiority so lacking in our day to day life…

[theburningpyramid]

Enjoy the Go!

I was in the grocery store this afternoon picking up a few things for dinner when internal alarms started to go off, indicating that I had possibly forgotten something I was supposed to get at the store.

As a dedicated hausmensch (Homo sapiens domus) I have become increasingly familiar with the interior of the local foodstuff and drygoods dispensary, perhaps more so now than at anytime in my…

[theburningpyramid]

Softball Report Summer 2018

Softball Report Summer 2018

Now that fall is officially here, even if it’s still more like summer in Virginia, I can reflect back on the summer softball season with a reasoned and only vaguely prejudiced point of view. It was the best of times, it was… oh, somebody already used that one? Damn it, Mr. Dickens!

And yet… expectation is a tricky, slippery beast. Especially great expectations. Did I set my goals to high? Again,…

[theburningpyramid]

Afternoon Baseball in Woodbridge

Afternoon Baseball in Woodbridge

It’s a toasty 91 degrees here at the Pfitz (or more grandly and gracefully: Northwest Federal Field at Pfitzner Stadium) for the 63rd home game when the first pitch kicks us off just after noon local time. Starting pitcher for the Nats is Joe Ross, on rehab assignment from the big club after Tommy John surgery. The Potomac Nats in their home whites jump to an early two run lead in the bottom of…

[theburningpyramid]

The Grand Design

(I ran across this on a flashdrive. I think I wrote this 2009, when I was still working for Unisys – contracted to GSA/PBS Property Disposal. Maybe meant to be lyrics for a song that never quite happened? Maybe. Strong influence from the mighty David Foster Wallace.)

Cruising on the neon river Reach out and touch the skyline Back again for more my friend Never heard such commotion

Streets…

[theburningpyramid]

To Raise the Cup of Stanley, To Drink the Sweet Nectar of Victory At Long Last

To Raise the Cup of Stanley, To Drink the Sweet Nectar of Victory At Long Last

(This was an email reply to my dad but it also works well as an essay on my odd relationship with hockey. #ALLCAPS #WEGOTTHECUP)

Hockey… the sport of kings. Or at least, the sport of those with winter bound hides who revel in any opportunity to smash into each other at high speed while on ice skates while chasing after a hardened piece of rubber known affectionately as the “biscuit”. Growing up…

[theburningpyramid]

It Was Fifty Years Ago Today...

It Was Fifty Years Ago Today…

…Dr. Satan told the band to slay They’ve walked down the Green Mile Still sharp as a crocodile’s smile So may I introduce to the world A band you’ve known for years Seabass and His Clan of Merry Misfits!

The first person to wish me many happy returns on the day this morning was my lovely wife Debbie, who sang Happy Birthday as I crawled out of a dream about flying around in a car above the…

[theburningpyramid]

For Metal Fans Only

For Metal Fans Only

O Father Befouled, We beseech thee to hear the Incantation of this Nihilist Who has Unleashed troo Mayhem And Pestilence upon those Who would seek to Dismember the Entombed!

Slayer of the Haunted, Be not Illdisposed toward the Circle of Dead Children who open The Paths of Possession to bring forth the Morbid Angel who will Swallow the Sun And Master the Rotten Sound.

Drown the Human Remains in the

[theburningpyramid]

The Comic Shop Conundrum

The Comic Shop Conundrum

Don Simpson’s Yarn Man. This is where my sense of humor resides. I’m weird.

As I browsed the latest and greatest news articles that the mysterious Google algorithms had deduced were what I wanted to see, I ran across this story on Gizmodo.

I’m not going to quibble with the author, a Mr. Charles Pulliam-Moore. And by that I mean, I am going to quibble, but I’m not going to try not to be a jackass…

[theburningpyramid]

Black Sabbath - The Eponymous First Album - Review

Black Sabbath – The Eponymous First Album – Review

This came out 48 years ago today and in honor of this momentous occasion, I’ve resurrected a review I wrote way back in the early days of the 21st century.

“The cataract of darkness form fully, the long black night begins, yet still, by the lake a young girl waits, unseeing she believes herself unseen, she smiles, faintly at the distant tolling bell, and the still falling rain.” – Part of a poem…