Tuesday, March 22, 2022

 one house
four bedrooms
one mom and one dad
two kids
until
they evaporate into
their own lives

the ebb and flow
of lives 
sweep through
one house
four bedrooms
full
until empty

but two still
remain
 one word
one a page
calls another and more
until the page overflows
and grows into
people
places
events
rising action
culmination
epilogue

hey
I wrote a
book

 Wow my last post was 2020 ... what a gap!

So I returned from Israel/Rome in November of 2019 ... and then....

COVID hit!  My daughter, my granddaughter, her three kids and her husband, my other granddaughter, her boyfriend, not her kids, but she was sick three times.  My son and his family avoided it, got vaccine.  We got vaccine, didn't get sick.  granddaughters got vaccine and stopped getting sick.

Las Vegas went dark.  Most of the casinos closed temporarily.  Some still haven't reopened.  Many here survived on federal money and friends and family.  Most of the buffets are still closed, permanently.  We wore masks.  We bought masks, we donated masks, we washed masks, we forgot them and had to go back to the car to get them.  People complained about wearing them and others complained because not everyone wore one.  Crime increased, especially crimes against others.  Most people were frustrated and angry with no place to put the anger.

Donald Trump lost the election and Joe Biden became president.  Vaccines became more available and fewer people started to get sick with COVID.  Some protested against Asians, some violently and some verbally.  There were crimes against people of color by the police.  The police were put under a magnifying glass, some come through clean, others not so clean.  Many became disillusioned with freedom and the American Way.  They seemed to forget that every country is made up of people.  Some want to uphold and obey the law; others, not so much.  

Putin, in Russie decided that he wanted the Ukraine and so stepped in and started bombing it into submission.  The Ukrainians did not surrender, and NATO began warning Russia/Putin of potential war crimes.  Putin insisted he was just taking back what was part of Russia. The neighboring countries are nervous and the US and allies began supplying the Ukraine with weapons, stopping short of stepping in to begin World War III.  The outcome is undecided.

The world decided that perhaps Global Warming was a real threat and began taking steps to reverse the damage to the World's environment.  It may be too late to do that and I don't believe a band aid is going to do much good at this point.  The Las Vegas Valley in Nevada, in the USA, is now considered an arid climate and Lake Mead, which provides most of the water for the Valley is 150' lower than the 1990's, due to a severe drought.  Earthquakes, major storms, unusual heat and cold, tornado's, hurricanes, typhoons, floods, drought, firestorms, and plagues of locusts and disease are the new norm.

This synopsis doesn't cover all of the trouble that is falling onto planet earth, but it's a decent microcosm of our problems, now compounded by an increase in the cost of food and fuel and more.  What is happening here?  I have answers but those who want to know already know the answers and the rest don't really want to know.

storms and disease ramp up
their assault on the earth;
as the skies weep

Friday, December 13, 2019

Thanksgiving is done. Preparing for Christmas I’m going through and sorting out dishes and the detritus of thanksgiving. I pile leftover plastic cutlery and notice a lack of forks and a plethora of spoons.

Spoons everywhere. Even more than knives.  But the forks, they are few … I am the fork.  Used up, moved from plate to plate, turkey, dressing and then dessert.  Not yet done, a second
plate, sandwich with cranberry sauce and gravy, scooped up between my tines, some sustenance lost, but not all.

Dinner is done, some forks find their final home in the trash bin, others make their way to the sink to be washed and reused.  I sit in the drawer, my plastic sides scarred, one tine chipped, but still serviceable … until I finally join my companions in arms … a new life.

Tuesday, September 24, 2019

Well it looks like I have a lot to work through this month.  Trying to figure out why I am stressed I came up with the following list.  Maybe y6our list is longer than you think too.

My grown daughter Lori has moved back home after ten years living in California.  Glad and cautiously optimistic.

I discovered that wanting to be included in an event does not necessarily mean I want to attend.

I'm trying to finish my screenplay but not motivated to do so.

I'm motivated to work through my poetry but partially blocked.  Unwilling to work through it … there's something there.

I finally reorganized my old bookroom (a new guestroom) and my new bookroom.

Reading a book on reprogramming your brain … involves working through issues.  Not everything is about what everyone/anyone else does.  Some of it is mine but it's tangled together.

I'm going to Israel next month.  Anxious and nervous about traveling after a stroke and with new memory and physical issues.

I'm having communication issues.  What I hear is sometimes garbled.

It's hard to determine what stresses me out, I'm used to avoiding what I cannot fix or feels overwhelming.  Right now everything seems overwhelming.

My friend's mom just died and I have a memorial service on Saturday for a man I used to work with.

I'm insisting on transparency from the companies I do business with.  Should I not also require that of myself or I would be a hypocrit.






October in Vermont 2007

October in Vermont 2007