Assemblage

One of the prizes I won the other night at a trivia night was a little Lego set. I hadn't touched Legos in years and years, so it seemed neat to get to play with them again for, as they say, old time's sake. I couldn't help myself, and opened up the package. It was a Star Trek-themed set, and I reflected on the sort of stuff I'd had when I was a kid. I don't remember having too many custom sets. I seemed to have very general legos with which I made things using my imagination. I even made Star Trek ships, but I had to improvise.

There was no improvising necessary with this kit, nor did improvising seem all that possible. In following the instructions pictorial, I watched myself assemble the thing from outside myself. I looked more like an aggrieved father making it for his child than the child I was when I last played with Legos. Let me stress that my father never got involved with those, though he did have a substantial role in making my model car and other projects.

Hang Fire

Years ago, when I was going to community college back home, I used to drive a car. It's been now something like seven or eight years since I regularly did so. I did very much like to stop at yard sales if I saw them, although I suppose that's something I can do now when riding my bicycle if not when I am on the bus. In any case, there was one yard sale where I found some very interesting things. I bought one of them, which was a set of spud shooters.

To explain, these are little plastic toy pistols whose barrel one embeds in a raw potato to create an organic pellet which can then be fired at any target without fear of real harm. I was just consumed with thoughts of the possibilities which owning those guns opened up for me, but they ultimately became one more thing I did not ever use, such as the 8 millimeter camera, projector and screen I bought at another yard sale.