The Poetry Bus - The Boundless Sea

This week's bus driver is JoAnne of Titus the Dog. Titus, er, JoAnne is an excellent driver and poet. She has asked us to write about one of the following animals (for her own sneaky reasons - go here to see why): 1) The Dolphin; 2) The Gecko; 3) The Panther; 4) The Bushbaby; 5) The Archerfish; 6) The Kingfisher; 7) The Harrier; or 8) The Ring-tailed Lemur. 


I chose the Kingfisher, specifically the Sacred Kingfisher, because of what I read about it on Wikipedia.

Image from Wikipedia

The Boundless Sea


I don’t do water.
It’s alien and alive
with evil intention.
Really it is and so
thank you, but I
will just stand here
on the shore and watch
the brilliant Kingfisher
make its capricious
pronouncement
about who lives and dies
in the boundless sea.

Thankful Thursday

Let's look on the bright side of life for a minute:

·         Dr. M's mom had surgery on her hip & is already going back to the nursing home tomorrow. We're glad that the surgery went well - and we're hopeful for a quick recovery.

·         I finished the last book in the Millennium series today (The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest). I thoroughly enjoyed all the books - it's really too bad that Stieg Larsson died before they were published & that there aren't going to be any more novels by him.

·         I am thankful for today's snow. Well, that might be a stretch (see yesterday's post). And it wasn't much of a snow - but I'm hopeful that in the middle of the summer remembering it will keep me from complaining about the heat. If I were you I wouldn't place any bets on that happening. The not complaining I mean. But feel free to remind me of this date come mid-summer. 

This is the look on my face after I saw the first snowflake this morning

·         Tomorrow is baseball's opening day!! I'm so excited - we have been in baseball withdrawal for quite some time now. There's always a bit of a honeymoon period at the end of the season where I'm glad that it's done, but it doesn't really last very long. It's like how I'm glad to spend some time alone at home - and then after about an hour and a half I'm bored with myself & wishing for Dr. M.

·         And speaking of Dr. M, I'm glad he's on his way home from his late class. And now I need to go fix his dinner!

It’s your turn! What are you thankful for today?

Winter’s Last Assault

Winter’s Last Assault

I looked into the face of spring

and laid bare my yearning.

Enigmatic as always

she gave nothing away.

The gray sky is a backdrop

to my melancholy.

The buds on the trees,

the greening of grass,

and the surprise of flowers

tremble at winter’s last assault.

Hands in the pockets

of my winter coat

I look into the face of spring

and sigh.

This is a Magpie Tale and a One Shot Wednesday. Please check out those sites to read more.

Monday Miscellany

“What is life, but a collection of miscellaneous events that make up a blog post?” The Bug


• Dr. M’s mom fell and broke her hip over the weekend. Despite her other problems, she has actually been in fairly good physical shape for the last while so we’re hopeful that she’ll be able to recover from this quickly. The problem will be getting her to understand that she can’t move the hip.

• I was glad to get my car back last week. I might think I want a new car, and I did enjoy the rental, but I’m a creature of habit and I am quite comfortable with my Saturn. I know where all the buttons are. I like the drink holder situation (very important!). I can listen to my audio books without problems. So here’s hoping I can put another 115,000 miles on it! Maybe I should give it a name. Any ideas?

• I went to downtown Columbus for the first time on Saturday. Although I have been many places for the first time by myself (college, Zambia, Ohio Department of Jobs & Family Services) I don’t really like it. But I made it to the restaurant to meet a friend after only two wrong turns, so it wasn’t too bad. I enjoyed poking around a vintage store (um, filled with stuff from my childhood – plus they had the Olivia Newton John Physical album for heaven’s sake – that’s not vintage. Is it?). And I enjoyed the Texas Chair Project quite a lot. So the takeaway is that it’s good to venture out of your comfort zone every now & then.

• I just glanced out the window of my office & I see that there is ICE on the water in the pool in front of my building. Ice! What. The. Hell. Sigh.

• I put my NCAA Basketball Tournament Bracket form in the recycling yesterday. Kansas was the only team I had left & now they’re gone. But I’m pretty excited about Virginia Commonwealth & Butler making the final four – and VCU had to play a play-in game so the fact that they made it this far is pretty amazing. Or maybe the selection committee has issues (which I think we would all agree with since they sent eleven big east teams to the tournament & now only one remains, which, you know, actually makes sense since there are only four teams left. But still.).

OK, that’s enough miscellany for now. Have a great day!

Weekly Wordzzle

It’s Wordzzle time! I was trying really hard to write a dramatic piece for my dad, but I just couldn’t do it. It started out dramatically, but then it drifted on over into melodrama, or comedy. Sorry Daddy – I don’t think I’m going to be able to do it.

Since I was working on a longer piece I used all the words together instead of doing separate stories. Please go to Raven’s Nest to check out the other stories!

Words for the week: sharp as a tack, paper towels, sage, boiling water, mystery, salivate, news worthy, try it on for size, pardon, ambulance, misery, saga, flat as a pancake, pearls, octagon

Looking back, I see that there is a mystery to this “memory.” Perhaps what I thought was newsworthy then hasn’t stood the test of time. Don’t get me wrong, I still think it’s quite a saga, if only of interest to me. So why am I casting these personal pearls before you? Perhaps in the vain hope that sharing my misery will lessen its sting.

In 1964 I was working on my father’s dairy farm. My young bride was about to give birth to our first child. I had been up since dawn being a dairyman and now I was expecting to deliver this child. I had an intense desire to bring new life into the world with my own hands.

My wife was not amused by my intention, muttering, “You’re going to try to be a doctor! Try it on for size! I’ll try you on for size! WW, I am not too sure about this at all. I know you think you’re sharp as a tack, but begging your pardon, I haven’t really known you all that long. Have you ever delivered anything other than a calf?”

“Now CJ,” I admonished, “I’ve got the pot ready for boiling water, the paper towels to clean up the mess, and the sage to put under your pillow to keep you grounded.” I could understand her concern, but she didn’t know how the thought of delivering my own child made me salivate. My plan had eight points, an octagon of a plan, if you will. But I never had the chance to implement even one of the points. While I was gathering my supplies, CJ was calling the ambulance.

In the hospital several hours later, my dream flat as a pancake, I fell asleep in the waiting room.

A few years ago I talked to CJ about that day. She remembered me falling asleep, but not that I wanted to deliver the baby at home. I wonder now, was this dream deferred really just a dream I had napping in the hospital? Perhaps I’ve spent my life regretting the loss of an experience that I only dreamed I wanted. Perhaps. On the other hand, I have a pregnant niece – I wonder if she would let me deliver her baby?

2011 Project 365 – Week Thirteen

This is the two year anniversary of my blog. If you’d like to read my first post, go here. It’s about Lent. At the time I had assumed that I’d come up with a “voice” for my blog eventually, and I guess I have – it’s my voice, in all its scattered glory.

What a crazy week this has been. Dr. M has worked late most nights & only took two of the pictures below (I know! It’s usually the other way around). I’m very proud of him – he was named Advisor of the Year at school for the great work he’s done with the history club. Go Dr. M!

Sunday, March 20^th      

Here’s the weekly squirrel. Just getting him out of the way early this week.

Here’s my terribly cute rental car – a Ford Focus. It looks right at home there beside the Bugly.

There’s a moon in the sky! It’s called, the moon!

Monday, March 21^st  

My poor beleaguered car getting towed to the Chevy dealership. This tow guy wasn’t as cute the one from Saturday – and he was one of those infuriating people who thought he knew what was wrong with the car from looking at it & obviously didn’t need to hear what “the little lady” had to say about it. Grrr.

Tuesday, March 22^nd

OK, so I think the Tax Time Pig is a girl now. Or a transvestite. It’s just so hard to tell with a pig! I guess she’s ready for spring with her grass skirt thing going on.

Here’s the State of the Bug. I thought I was terribly clever with my red lips & red shirt matching the red car, but then I looked at the picture & YOWZA! My hair sure clashes with all that red something FIERCE. {Shudder}

Wednesday, March 23^rd

It was a Simpson’s sky on Wednesday – gorgeous!

I finally remembered to start my tomato seeds. First of all, Dr. M had gotten me this starter kit.

Then I totally drowned it in water & the little pod things got really unruly.

Here they are after I corralled them & planted the seeds. Mostly tomatoes & a little basil. Um – last year we ended up with four really healthy tomato plants & had almost more tomatoes than we could manage. I think that perhaps I didn’t really need to plant seeds in ALL the pods. Oh well, with any luck I can run a little tomato stand in the front yard come June or July.

Thursday, March 24^th      

We got the car back on Tuesday, but I was still driving the rental (we got a cheaper rate for a week). I loved the instrument panel. I felt all James Bond when I drove it. And I LOVE that it told me how many miles I had to go before I ran out of gas (it started at 50 miles to go).

Doesn’t this look like an apocalyptic sky? Especially, if you click on the picture to make it larger, you can see a jet tail in there – makes me think of a missile or something.

Friday, March 25^th

I stopped to check out the sheep & donkeys on my way home. I love this picture best for some reason.

Dr. M had a late gig at school, for the third night in a row, and I decided that I’d had enough fast food. So I actually prepared a meal for myself – teriyaki chicken, pierogies & my dad’s green beans. I know that looks like a lot of pierogies for one person – but that’s all I really wanted to eat – the chicken & green beans are just the beard* to make it look like a real meal. Except I ate them too. Glutton!

Saturday, March 26^th

Today I went to Columbus to have lunch with a friend & then check out the Ohio Craft Museum because it’s the last weekend of the Texas Chair Project – which contains a chair made by Ellen Abbott & her husband Marc Leva. The whole exhibit was really cool & Ellen & Marc’s chair is pretty fabulous. I took a picture with it to prove I was there, but my arm isn’t really long enough to get a good picture with our Nikon. I’m posting it anyway!

Here are a couple of the other little chairs.

And here are a couple of the Artful Chairs – the larger ones made by mostly Ohio artists.

I enjoyed my visit to the museum – and I must say that this Saturday has been much better than the last one!

Go to Sara’s blog here to see the blogs of all the other Project 365 participants.

* A "beard" is a person of the opposite sex who marries or dates a closeted lesbian or gay person to cover up their homosexuality. In the past, often lesbians married gay men so that both could "pass" as straight, either for work or for their families. From About.Com.

The Poetry Bus - Hanging by a Vowel

MuseSwings is the bus driver this week & gave us three different prompts. I'm not sure I'm following the first one exactly correctly, but if you've followed the bus at all you'll see that not following the directions is, in fact, an important quality in a bus passenger. Here's what she asked:

Write a poem with illustration. Write and draw to your heart's content, and bring it along.

And here's what she got. 

E M P    T H Y

 

The gallows await for want of an A

(or is it an O?). Oh if I knew I

wouldn’t feel that noose

trapping the words in my head

(you expect me to talk with this thing on?).

You think I’m good with those words

but I’m not.

I watch your wretched face

and consider my verbal options

“Let’s go kick their teeth in,”

feels right, but is probably not

what you’re looking for.

Sigh. Will “I love you,” do?

Please note - these are original Bug drawings. Try to not be jealous. Now, go here to read other poems! That second prompt looked really interesting - go see who might use it!

Thankful Thursday

The things that make life worth living this week:

·         After a number of years of not trying to not get pregnant, my cousin H is pregnant! We are all very thrilled for her & her husband – they’ll be great parents. (P.S. Go here to see a picture from their wedding).

·         Our car did not cost $900 to get fixed. It was only a little over $600. Still a chunk of change, but much better than we had expected.

·         I am in the middle of four books (well, seven if you count devotionals & self-help books). All four of the non-helpful books are mysteries. I’m pretty amazed that when I pick each one up I just fall right into that world with no trouble remembering the plot & the major players. It does, however, make for some interesting dreams. I’m thankful for interesting things to read.

·         After I wrote about my restless nights I’ve had a couple of nights of uninterrupted sleep. And now I’m wondering if my subconscious was waiting for the anniversary of my mom’s death – I needed to keep vigil for the days leading up to that day. It’s an interesting idea, although it’s more likely that I was just adjusting to the time change.

·         I’m looking out the window at storm clouds billowing by, flags whipping in the wind, trees with small signs of life doing some sort of ecstatic dance in the breeze, and I feel amazement that there are people who think all this just happened. I’m a skeptic mostly, but when I consider the vast amazing organism that is the world my skepticism falls away. Let’s try to take care of this gift why don’t we? I’m including the people too. Love your neighbor (even if the neighbor’s dog thinks your driveway is his bathroom) – really!

It’s your turn! What are you thankful for today?

Clan Wallace

Clan Wallace

I have a warrior’s name,
if not his heart.
I am waging a war
of mediocrity
and middle class
abandon.
If I make one
more dollar
will I finally
reach the land
of Jones?
I am scaling
a hillock and
am persuaded
that William
would not want
to call me
daughter.

This is a Magpie Tale, and a One Shot Wednesday Poem. Please go to those sites to check out more stories & poems.

Monday Miscellany

I feel extra miscellaneous today, so let’s have at it!

·         For the second time in two days I’ve used my night facial moisturizer in the morning. I think this reveals a deep seated confusion as to why I have to be up at that hour.

·         I’ve arranged for the towing of my trusty steed to the nearest dealer. After they’ve looked at it we’ll see what the damage will be (by damage, I mean $).

·         I’m distressed over the fact that newer cars don’t seem to have cassette players. I don’t need it for cassettes – I need it for the cassette adapter I use so that I can listen to audio books on my mp3 player. The cute little rental has a USB plug, but apparently my device isn’t compatible. So I burned a book onto 9 CDs (perfectly legal) because heaven forbid I should be without a book for a week! But it just seems like such a waste…

·         I really hope that my current nighttime restlessness is just related to the earth’s seasonal change and not mine. Sigh. Dr. M has also been really restless and although I used to think that he had cycles too (he seemed EXTRA annoying at certain times of the month – or was that just me?), I don’t really think we’ll travel this particular one together. So I’m crossing my fingers for time change distress.

·         Today is the 6^th anniversary of my mother’s flying away. I wrote about it here last year. Rest in peace you crazy woman. Love you.

Laughing until she cried...

Poetry Bus - Prime Fail

Uiscebots is the poetry bus driver this week & gave us an excellent task: 1. Go somewhere new. 2. Experience it. 3. Write about it. I was planning on going to the Columbus Arts & Crafts Museum to check out an exhibit that contains some of Ellen’s work, but Dr. M & I decided to save that for next week. Instead, I did something very different* than going to a museum.

After you’ve read my poem please go to Uiscebot’s blog to check out the other poets. We have a great bunch on the bus. Why, there’s practically no punching or taking of pictures while a person is asleep and their fly is unzipped (oh, wait – that was my 8^th grade field trip).

Prime Fail

An assault was planned.

Provisions laid by.

Route mapped.

It was in and out

precision at

its finest.

Within an hour

the troop withdrew

the field

only to find

its trusty steed

had gone lame.

The troop ate

a sandwich

and bought

some socks

while waiting

for the

cavalry.

*I went to a local outlet center to purchase some shoes. And ended up having the day from heck. My car died & I waited about 5 hours before it was towed home. If I liked to shop it might have been kind of fun, but I don’t. And there was the issue of many dollars being needed to fix the car. So my poem is just slightly different than I had planned for it to be. Sigh.

2011 Project 365 – Week Twelve

The moon is the star of this week’s show (& why I’ve waited so long today to post this).

Sunday, March 13^th      

Here are some pictures from our drive home from NC on Sunday. The first one is a mode of travel that looks like fun – unless it’s cold, or hot – or if your hips are wider than the wheels. I jest, mine aren’t QUITE that wide.

Here are just some shots of the drive – we love this commute so much more than the one we used to take from Cincinnati on I-75.

Monday, March 14^th  

We have greenery in our raised bed! It’s one of the daylilies I got from Ellen last fall.

I went over to our church to take some pictures of our homeless shelter – basically it’s inflatable mattresses in the fellowship hall.

Tuesday, March 15^th

The State of the Bug. I’ve been having some restless nights – and going to bed later courtesy of the time change – so I was feeling pretty sleepy on my way to work. Fortunately my audio book (The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest) keeps me awake on the journey, but once I turned the car engine off I was ready to head to dreamland. So of course I took a picture.

Wednesday, March 16^th

When I got home from work it was still warm & DAYLIGHT so I checked out the front flower bed. There was some greenery buried under a bunch of dead stuff from last year so I worked on it a little bit with the gloves I won from Robin. Thanks Robin!

Just an update on the primrose I got for my birthday – still looking good!

The first moon shot of the week.

Thursday, March 17^th      

It’s the Tax Time Pig! Of course he’s dressed for St. Patrick’s Day… in a knitted bathing suit?

The squirrel picture of the week.

Friday, March 18^th

Today was the day. I had said I was leaving it up until the time changed, but as you can see above we weren’t home when the time changed. And I didn’t want to mess with it during the week. So, nearly three months after Christmas, the tree is gone. Ha!

Saturday, March 19^th

Well, today had a lot of potential to be good. Dr. M had things to do at school & I was going to make a trip to our local outlet center to check out Skechers. The shopping went fine – it was the part where I tried to start my car when I was finished that didn’t go so hot. I ended up having to call AAA & have it towed home. So, about 5 and a half hours after I finished shopping I made it home. Luckily the outlet center is only around 20 miles away – the tow cost $75.00. 

Dr. M wasn't too sure if this guy would be able to get the truck backed in.

But he did just fine. And was kind of cute too :)

Now to get a rental car for next week ($200) & then have my car towed to Saturn. If we can find a Saturn dealer (since they don’t make them anymore). Another $900 or so to have it fixed (Dr. M looked up what he thinks is wrong & that’s the estimate) & we’ll be good. I’m kind of depressed about it, actually.

But, look, it’s the moon! It does cheer a person up a bit, I think.

Go to Sara’s blog here to see the blogs of all the other Project 365 participants.