The Ciel Show

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Tuesday, January 13, 2015

White Dawn

It is blue out there, actually, just after 7 AM. It will be a proper all-around white later, when the sunlight widens out, though the sun is not likely to be seen. It's presence will be known by effect, not by direct observation. A little more snow has fallen overnight, filling in some of the dark gaps in the lilac shrubs: where branches were showing yesterday, they are all white today. There has been no breeze to stir them into that same kind of natural snowball fight that one notices... Sign in to see full entry.

Monday, January 12, 2015

This day gets whiter and whiter!

The snow is stacked along every near-horizontal surface, and the air is full of white fog. Four or five inches, stacked on the back rail and the table on the back porch, and there has been no wind to knock it out of the trees, or off the lilac bushes which look like cotton ready to pick. Every time I glance out, it seems to be snowing, but it isn't. The icy fog, though, accumulated so fast as I drove this morning, we had to stop to scrape it off again. Icicles hang from the deck overhang, and... Sign in to see full entry.

Changing gears...

Frankly, after the initial articles, it wasn't much fun reading and reviewing. It wasn't inspiring. I had to read a lot of poor stuff to find the gems. It was making more stress and less satisfaction. So, I am leaving HOT READS to someone else, and turning my energy elsewhere. Here is the first article, first draft, for a new venue in Today's Visions ( http://todaysvisions.com/ ) which I have proposed, to focus on the Independent Spirit that drives Indies to do... all that we do. INDEPENDENT... Sign in to see full entry.

I told Charlie he could throw a tarp over the windshield yesterday--

close the edges in the doors to keep it from leaving. But no... He will have to get out the Wampa Arm snow scraper again today. Around 4 inches overnight. They are pretty, fluffy, huge flake inches, and if the sun were to burn its way through the clouds today, they'd make lovely pictures! Maybe later... https://flic.kr/p/bcm7x4 I understand that the warmer the air, the bigger the flakes. Wetter, too, so this is good snow for building things. Not that I am planning an igloo or another crowd of... Sign in to see full entry.

Thursday, January 8, 2015

I read/edited a play today.

One of my friends through the local theater scene asked me to read and edit her first draft of her first play. As it happens, it is one of the Lovecraftian plays Charlie will be auditioning for next week. It is based on the Lovecraft short story, THE DUNWICH HORROR. It's a short, 2-act play for 10 players, and I am impressed how well she did for a first try at play-writing. We met over lunch and talked generalities, then later at home, went over the details. She was pleased to have the feedback,... Sign in to see full entry.

Our TAPS reminded me

with her story of geese skidding on the ice, of an incident reported, with photos, in a NJ newspaper (probably The Record) when I was a young thing. There was a goose frozen in it's place in the ice on the local reservoir. When it had been there for around 3 days, a kind-hearted hero decided the poor thing deserved a rescue. He slid out on the ice on his belly, slowly, so slowly, the bird showing signs of life by watching him... This was all photographed, a panel of 3 or 4 photos to be printed... Sign in to see full entry.

Wednesday, January 7, 2015

Well, someone did it!

Someone was the 12,000th click on The Ciel Show, but I don't know who. Thanks, anyway! I just opened the last can of soup on the shelf. I have been avoiding it because I didn't like the first one much. Vegetable beef. It's better, adding a bit of good barbecue sauce to it. Much better. A teaspoon or so of sauce, to a Progresso-sized can, in case you want to try it. Sign in to see full entry.

Winter in Colorado Springs

Near 60F yesterday, there is ice frost riming the trees and everything this morning, and black ice on the streets... No sign of the mountains. Charlie arrives early... good, he can scrape ice off the windshield with the scraper hidden in a wampa arm. Star Wars fans will know what that is. Or ThinkGeek customers. I have handed him the key so he can start the engine and the defrost, which will still take some time to have any effect. He says it's the worst he has seen the ice ever. I had a pale... Sign in to see full entry.

Sunday, January 4, 2015

Losing Christmas

We undid Christmas today... at least as far as the decorations, the tree, the lights... Took just a few more pictures, then boxed and tetrised everything into a single big flattish storage box. We noted carefully where we put it because last year we lost Christmas. We looked in every place we could imagine having stored the pretties and shinies--both his garage and mine, closets, under-beds, other closets--and found them nowhere. Until, of course, today. Charlie found last Christmas's trims and... Sign in to see full entry.

Saturday, January 3, 2015

I've been waiting for this day...

Petco, the nearest pet store to the house, maybe once a year offers its plain and simple fish tanks for $1/gallon. I missed the window the past couple of years, but today I was ready for it, and my three comet goldfish now have a new home, and I do hope the three of them will get along! A few months ago, I didn't see one of the pair that lived in the 3 gal tank together. Some investigation of nearby surfaces yielded nothing, so I looked more carefully in the tank. That fish was trapped under a... Sign in to see full entry.

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