A Blip in the Radio Silence

Poetry takes absolutely forever.

I finally passed the halfway point to the minimum (10000) word goal for Camp NaNoWriMo. It's July 22nd.

The good news is, I surpassed my personal 620 lines of poetry goal days ago.

98% of my writing is very very rough draft. Dreck.

At the same time, about half of it is personal, dealing with things I'm still processing. So I'm spending the time quietly, not publishing.

But here's a piece that's exceedingly meta, because that's what happens when you take on NaNo.

Heelsticks.
Drawing drops of blood
from the heel of a
shrieking newborn.
Writing a poem
feels like that.
Except when the muse of loquacious imagery
points the fire hose of words,
blasting straight at your face
in your mind
out your pen
please don't run out of ink!
The muse gives no guarantee
of quality or satisfaction-
often you wake hungover,
faced with pages upon pages
of utter crap.
Still better than the empty page,
the taunting blinking cursor.

Battery Life

My beloved netbook has passed its fifth birthday. Apparently computer years are sort of like dog years, but even more so--the netbook is now a dinosaur.

Sure, it shows its age in a few cosmetic and functional ways--my dog popped the down key off years ago and some of the keys are persnickety.

The big issue, though, is the battery. It looks like it is fine, fine, fine, and then the computer shuts down with no warning. As best as I can tell, it turns off when the charge goes below 76%. Or that calibration is a lie--so it's draining quickly and not showing it.

Confounding matters further, the charger cable hooks into the computer only loosely.

I'm a week from vacation. Hard to say how I'm calibrated.

Disoriented

I got lost today. 

I missed a turnoff because I didn't see the sign, and my phone couldn't find my location to holler at me that I'd left my chosen path.

I did not realize I was lost until I ran out of highway, twenty-four miles from where I needed to be.

There wasn't a great place to stop, but I was in the middle of somewhat nowhere... with half my sense of direction, I came up with a new path, started driving again and called my lunch date.

Then traffic had me at a standstill. When we finally got moving, I turned at the wrong exit. And went the wrong way.

Stuck at a red light, I took the time to restart my phone, so I could know both where I currently was and where I was going. 

Amazingly, the journey made more sense. No more detours, I was at my destination within minutes.

(I let my compatriot drive us to lunch.)

I could use a thousand spiders right now...

Wettest May on record...and June had its moments, too.

The mosquitos are carrying away newborns and making us all anemic.

Maybe not. But the bug bites may start a new fashion trend, or at least make us 3D connect-the-dots.

Put away your Sharpie, please.

Post #500!

I started this blog in August 2013. 

It went slowly at first, as I only posted when I felt like I really had something to say.

And then in late February 2014 I decided that I just needed to start saying. Every day. Sometimes it would be critically important and other times it would be just a bit above "I had a piece of toast."

For the most part I *have* posted every day. (Ok, I skipped two days last week. I was writing a sermon and preparing for a full day of LGBTQ weddings. Something had to give. And then I posted the sermon, so I think that gives me a bit of forgiveness, as it clocks in at a length about ten times my average post.)

I apologize for the toast posts. I offer you this rose as a small token of my appreciation for your gracious patience.