Life in the fast lane--where's the on ramp?

By Pat_B - About Me - E-mail this page - Add to My Favorites - Add to Blog List - See other blogs in Journal

Friday, July 16, 2010

This is your brain on "heat" -- from drive to neutral

Yesterday's blog was about the heat -- the discomfort of it, the unrelenting meanness of it, the sweltering and its impact on temper and mood. Today's is about the danger of it. Yesterday I wrote from the relative cool of my office. I was feeling good as a writer, in one of those up cycles where the... Sign in to see full entry.

posted by Pat_B at 5:48 AM | add or view comments (6) | leave calling card | link to this | view only this entry

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Hot! Hot! Hot!

We're under a heat warning here in the heart of the heartland: 6 o'clock this morning the actual temp is 83, but it feels like 95. Humid: it's deep south, African jungle sweltering out there, and the sun's not even up over the tree line yet. Yesterday when I went out to water my tomato in the big... Sign in to see full entry.

posted by Pat_B at 6:02 AM | add or view comments (7) | leave calling card | link to this | view only this entry

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

About Barry Hannah & making up for lost time

Sunday afternoon is library time for me -- get out the snacks, turn on the coffee machine, straighten the shelves, chat with patrons. And last Sunday I went looking in the official section for something by Barry Hannah. There it was! Yonder Stands Your Orphan. The cover is a muted grayish black and... Sign in to see full entry.

posted by Pat_B at 5:26 AM | add or view comments (4) | leave calling card | link to this | view only this entry

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

What's the world coming to?

Night before last there were eleven shootings in one 8-hour police shift in the St. Louis area. In Kansas (?) a woman and her boyfriend kidnapped her young son at gunpoint from his father, who'd just been awarded full custody. Social workers didn't think she used good judgment. Hours later as police... Sign in to see full entry.

posted by Pat_B at 4:29 AM | add or view comments (6) | leave calling card | link to this | view only this entry

Saturday, July 10, 2010

New poem inspired by the Barry Hannah quote

Attending To Voices Not My Own It happens sometimes during a gathering where salient points are being made by wiser fellows than I; fundamental pro and con, although none leaves the faintest trace of an impression on my mind. Maybe they’re lamenting how the oil company has flooded the Gulf of Mexico... Sign in to see full entry.

posted by Pat_B at 6:46 AM | add or view comments (5) | leave calling card | link to this | view only this entry

Friday, July 9, 2010

You can't escape Facebook...

I dropped it a few months back. Bothersome, boring, time waster. People rarely saying anything much. Turned me anti-social, or rather more anti-social. Folks I barely knew wanting to "friend" me, share stuff I couldn't care less about, ask nosy questions. I had blogs to write, yard work to do, and I... Sign in to see full entry.

posted by Pat_B at 6:18 AM | add or view comments (7) | leave calling card | link to this | view only this entry

Thursday, July 8, 2010

The writing life

In the June 2010 issue of Harper's Magazine, Barry Hannah's essay "Why I Write" appears on page 13. Well into the article, on p. 14, comes this: "Once you are into the life of writing, you are never really rid of the inner voices, and they are certainly not all your own. They will exhaust themselves... Sign in to see full entry.

posted by Pat_B at 9:22 AM | add or view comments (3) | leave calling card | link to this | view only this entry

The creep shot himself.

There were hundreds of calls to the tip line, lots of detective work, they checked out known sex offenders, narrowed down the field to one "person of interest." He could be the suspect, but it could be someone else. Or he might not have been the only one involved. Turns out Mr. Smith wasn't living... Sign in to see full entry.

posted by Pat_B at 6:24 AM | add or view comments (4) | leave calling card | link to this | view only this entry

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Answered Prayers...

Monday night about 7:45 or so, a short time before sunset, the Meier kids were playing in their front yard in the small town of Louisiana, MO -- Alisa, 4, and her 6-year-old brother, whose name wasn't listed in the story online. Their parents had just gone inside. A car stopped next to their yard... Sign in to see full entry.

posted by Pat_B at 6:33 AM | add or view comments (9) | leave calling card | link to this | view only this entry

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Something's missing

Have you noticed, there's no Pepsi-Coke challenges on TV any more? No ads for "the real thing" or shots of happy young athletes accepting their trophies and enjoying a Pepsi after a bike race or winning a skateboard competition. Once in a while there's a Dr. Pepper commercial, or a mini-story about... Sign in to see full entry.

posted by Pat_B at 5:13 AM | add or view comments (6) | leave calling card | link to this | view only this entry

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Sometimes you have to write it down in order to learn what you really think about life, what it means, how to do what's best. Sometimes you need feedback from someone else to put things in perspective.

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