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

Saturday, July 7, 2012

A Death in Salkum, part 1

It was Riley Moore, a logging truck driver, who found the body. Riley’s truck was in low gear. He was leaning over the steering wheel, unconsciously pushing the laboring engine up the last hundred yards to the crest of the Silver Creek grade. A few seconds more and he’d be on the level, another... Sign in to see full entry.

posted by Pat_B at 3:12 AM | add or view comments (7) | leave calling card | link to this | view only this entry

Friday, July 6, 2012

New Story? Are you ready for fiction?

I spent a pleasant hour or two yesterday fine-tuning a story I'd originally written years ago. I was on a Salkum kick, fictionalizing true stories about that town where I spent my high school years. It still has the same number of residents as it did then, around 250 -- (approx. 80 families).... Sign in to see full entry.

posted by Pat_B at 3:49 AM | add or view comments (6) | leave calling card | link to this | view only this entry

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Radio Days - Songs by the Sons of the Pioneers

"Tumblin' Tumbleweeds" sung in four-part harmony to a guitar accompaniment brought familiar scenes to mind. Until the end of sixth grade we lived in a house that fronted a busy two-lane highway just at the Y between Richland and Kennewick in Washington State. At that time Richland was a bedroom... Sign in to see full entry.

posted by Pat_B at 4:27 AM | add or view comments (8) | leave calling card | link to this | view only this entry

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

When, in the course of human events...

These, of course are the first few words of the Declaration of Independence. As usual, they read the document on NPR this morning, a moving document well worth hearing again. We had to memorize parts of it in school, back in the olden days before Google and the WWW. As the speakers took up their... Sign in to see full entry.

posted by Pat_B at 8:34 AM | add or view comments (3) | leave calling card | link to this | view only this entry

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

What Kurt Said

"Go into the arts. I'm not kidding. The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven's sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem... Sign in to see full entry.

posted by Pat_B at 4:05 AM | add or view comments (5) | leave calling card | link to this | view only this entry

Monday, July 2, 2012

Murphy's Law - or how many cliches can you stuff into a blog

If anything can go wrong, it will. If there's a possibility one of two things can go wrong, the one that goes wrong will be the one that is the most difficult to fix. Verbal contracts are not worth the paper they're printed on. Ever hear the term "looking at the world through rose-colored glasses?"... Sign in to see full entry.

posted by Pat_B at 4:57 AM | add or view comments (4) | leave calling card | link to this | view only this entry

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Oh, dear, what can the matter be?

Oh, dear, what can the matter be? Oh, dear, what can the matter be, Johnnie's so long at the fair. Mama used to sing this song around the kitchen while she was prepping vegetables or cutting up a chicken to fry. I liked hearing her sing around the house. It was a lull in the storm. It meant her... Sign in to see full entry.

posted by Pat_B at 6:23 AM | add or view comments (6) | leave calling card | link to this | view only this entry

Saturday, June 30, 2012

It only got to 105 yesterday...

I got a three pound fillet of Copper River salmon from the Public Fish Market in Seattle yesterday - sent overnight express by my son. Still perfectly chilled between two giant slabs of gel ice. Copper River salmon comes once a year, the first catch after the ice goes off the river enough that... Sign in to see full entry.

posted by Pat_B at 7:10 AM | add or view comments (6) | leave calling card | link to this | view only this entry

Friday, June 29, 2012

Record heat for St. Louis area 108 yesterday

The big heat is due to continue indefinitely. Vegetation here looks like late Aug. browned and baked, dirt is crusted dry, dust rises when you walk across the lawn. City has ordered water conservation, no lawn watering, no car washing, use full loads for washer & dishwasher. No rain in forecast. T... Sign in to see full entry.

posted by Pat_B at 6:07 AM | add or view comments (8) | leave calling card | link to this | view only this entry

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Friends?

In the late '80s I was a research associate at the University, handling publications and editing. One of our grad students was T, a woman with a disability. She'd lost the use of her left hand as the result of a stroke in her twenties, had difficulty typing up her class papers. So a time or two I... Sign in to see full entry.

posted by Pat_B at 4:59 AM | add or view comments (7) | 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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