Portland is weird. That's what they kept telling us. On signs, On bumper stickers, and there actually is something weird about about being told over and over without asking. It's kind of like Donald Trump saying one of the many things her repeats emphatically without any foundation and no one asked. It makes you a little specious.
I believe I brought home a cold from Portland. I have suffered through an upper respiratory thing that kept reoccurring in January and February. This feels just like it did and I am going to blame it on being among some 13,000 to 14,000 writers, or other miscellaneous people I came in contact with. It's the runny nose, drainage, cough crap that hates me and I hate it. I will not consider this among the SWAG that I brought home. I have chiropractor tonight and I am going to stop there on the way home before urgent care. I feel like I have a lot more to say about Portland, but I will save it for later. I'm back, I'm alive, I'm sick.
0 Comments
It's Christmas day - We've had dreary weather in Kansas City both yesterday and today but the temperatures have turned mild.
Some reading and writing on my plate for today. Reflextions too on the year in passing. Those seem involuntary but at some point n the next couple of days I feel compelled to take inventory of 2016 and look ahead to 2017. Last night we got together with my son, two daughters, son-in-law and granddaughter. My daughter that is out of town sent the really cool sweater I have on in the picture above. If you've ever watched Blue Bloods it's just like the iconic sweater that Commissioner Frank Reagan wears on the show when he comes home in the evening. When I put it on I feel like I should pour myself a drink. I'm thinking peace and all things good to friends and family. I'm back to doing Submission Saturday but today's submission work will have to wait till later in the day. Going to see Miss Sloane. The this evening writing and submitting.
Hard to believe that December is a third of the way over and hence the year draining like the last sand in an hourglass. I must admit that this is not a year that I will look back on fondly for many reasons. This has not been particularly a year of hope, but rather rhetoric and outright lies and disdain. It's had to embrace such things. Perhaps the one thing 2016 has been good for is poetry of witness. It will be a kick ass year in that department. Addendum~ we toke my mother with us to the movie and ended up leaving about fifteen minutes in as my mother was not feeling well. It was enough of a taste of the movie to know that I want to see it. Every fall since we have lived in our present home, it has been my immense joy when the two surprise maples in our back yard go orange. From year to year the shade may very slightly but they never cease to delight me. Recently both of these trees were cut back and therefore are not as full as usual. But one morning this week, I opened the door to let the dogs out into the yard and there they were in their flaming glory.
They always envelope me in a state of tranquility that I look for each year. I think it must be that Capricorn pretext for consistency. When I look at them I want to go read something astounding or write something superbly done. It's like a grounding of my creativity or bringing everything into balance. So nearly a week has passed since we Americans went to the polls to elect a president. Someone is always disappointing after all the votes are counted. I've trudged off to the polls to vote for president 12 times over my life and I had my share of both elated and disappointed outcomes. This election has been the absolute hardest one for me to process and I know I am not alone.
This writer is no fan of heat. I've pretty much had it today with this challenge to a comfort zone. I cranked out a draft poem tonight inspired (i guess you could say) by another day of discomfort. Tomorrow, I'm planning a vacation day from work and will plan to use the day primarily for reading and writing. Summer is rarely a time I go any distance on vacation anymore. We don't belong to a pool so summer is not something I generally get real excited about except for baseball. I do like the green grass and summer breezes and blue skies, but we mostly deal with a combination of heat and humidity. Nothing that I am going to brag about. |
AuthorMichael Allyn Wells - notes & musings Archives
February 2024
|