Loosely Speaking

By Ciel - About Me - E-mail this page - Add to My Favorites - Add to Blog List - See other blogs in Everything Else

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Smartasses everywhere!

A friend sent me this a few moments ago... After every flight, UPS pilots fill out a form, called a "gripe sheet," which tells mechanics about problems with the aircraft. The mechanics correct the problems, document their repairs on the form, and then pilots review the gripe sheets before the next flight. Never let it be said that ground crews lack a sense of humor. Here are some actual maintenance complaints submitted by UPS pilots (marked with a P) and the solutions recorded (marked with an S)... Sign in to see full entry.

Monday, June 23, 2008

Housekeeping by accident

All I wanted was to get some frames out of the way. I've been saling on the weekends... garage saling! It's a great source for really nice frames for photos. Many aren't suitable, but there are a few very nice ones for a couple of dollars or less... Also, frame shops and stores with frame departments have some good ones on clearance... So I have a batch of frames. They are here, they are there, like the Scarlet Pimpernel, they are everywhere! There was almost some shelf space in the TV room,... Sign in to see full entry.

Sunday, June 22, 2008

Do you know mushrooms?

I never ever eat a mushroom I am not 100% sure of... and these, that have been popping up in my yard, I am not sure of. I am hoping someone in Blogitland can give me some clues to name these. I posted photos of a mystery mushroom which I thought might be amanita over in Davy's blog, http://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/Ciel/ But I didn't find an amanita with a very smooth cap. and here is another: The shaggy top is definitely shaggy, not crusty-looking, as on an amanita. The gills are a trifle... Sign in to see full entry.

Can this blogger be saved?

My dad told me years ago that when I was a baby, I always woke up crying. A few times, dreaming a joke, I have awakened chortling. I woke up this morning, and my fingers were typing on air... Like a baby babbling, like a chimp muttering ASL signs, my fingers were going through the motions... tappity-tappity-tappity... It felt good, as satisfying as setting pen to paper to produce calligraphy. Is it a sign I spend too much time on a keyboard? I have been writing here and there a lot of late... Or... Sign in to see full entry.

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Revise and reprise...

An exchange with another Blogiteer-- lestate7 --got me rethinking one of my own poems that I first posted here May 26. Here is the revision--If anyone is inclined, I would like to hear which one you like better. The Crow How do I know me? Can I count the ways... No, really-- Can I? Ups and downs and ins and outs... So many of me there seem to be that I can hardly sort them all, give time, attention,energy in fair divide... Who speaks? Which one of me today is most determined, most distraught... Sign in to see full entry.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Movie night

One of the best movies of all time.... I am sitting here watching Benny & Joon. Great cast, lovely character studies, a really entertaining, moving movie... If you have never seen it, you can rent it... If you have, you can always see it again! Has Johnny Depp made any bad movies? I didn't much care for The Astronaut's Wife, maybe I just wasn't in the mood for it, and my dislike is hardly a valid comment on how good a film it is or isn't. Sign in to see full entry.

Monday, June 16, 2008

So, Naut, did you have tasty fresh lobster on your holiday?

LOBSTERS ON PARADE Across the abyssal plain, in waters weighted with the entire ocean and as utterly black as night can be, lit only by the thrashing sparking flaring of creatures bizarre by any notion of ourselves, the lubberly kind... Across these heavy deeps in measured tread of little feet crustacean, they march, determined in their quest with thoughts in mind, if there is any thinking, of dancing fandangos in slow motion with lady lobsters, fair and fine... Across the rippling sands the... Sign in to see full entry.

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Herding Cats And Puppy shots

This little border collie pup does not yet believe that it can't be done. In fact, if anyone can do it, he can! Just ask him! Davy fiercely confronts my four grown cats, who sit and stare at his antics, and occasionally swear under their breath at him. He--our Dauntless Davy-- is not discouraged! Our Urgo actually gets most engaged, I suspect because he is used to being the Prince, and suddenly here is a new Cute Little Fellow. Well, Urgo is not so very cute since he has grown to be the biggest... Sign in to see full entry.

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Remembering... with love

It is time... A year ago, my dad went into the hospital for heart surgeries. There were complications, and the day after Father's Day, the life support was shut down, and he was allowed to go. He was 85. For most of the 55 years I knew him, we did not play well together. The decision was my own, to avoid, as much as it may have been his to keep his own distance. But after a series of other partings, thoughts and realizations coalesced in this poem, and I finally took the lesson to heart: I took... Sign in to see full entry.

Both epyllion and ... that other thing...

the one about taking a piece of art to the poetic place... The painting was a modern thing with broad swaths of dark reds and falling wings... A figure, losing the heavens... Maybe someone else recalls such a thing by artist and title? Icarus in the Sky Icarus, Icarus, foolish lad! It's the worst idea you've ever had and there were others I thought were bad! To soar to the stars, you demented bird, takes more than wax wings, or hadn't you heard? My lad, you have flown to the height of absurd!... Sign in to see full entry.

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