Into the Wild Wood and Home Again

Finally Friday. And my weekend plans? Laundry, groceries, other assorted house chores, doing the taxes.  Yeah, fun.  The way things are right now, I am morally repelled by submitting my taxes to what appears to be a never-ending sinkhole of depravity. It's hard to wrap my brain around it.  I'm no Thoreau, though.  And even dear ol' Henry David's moral stand was thwarted by well-intentioned people. It's hard to make a protest out of not paying taxes. The only person who notices is yourself, and then, likely, the government, and they have a lot of ways of enforcing the paying.  That all said, my discretionary income can and will go towards countering the repugnancy. If I'm a living zero-sum, so be it. No one goes hungry on my watch. I will educate kids, even under a damned tree like Socrates (but we all know that didn't end well).  But it's Friday. And I'm still feeling less than awesome, so, I will try to schedule some rest time this weekend as well. ...

We had a nice time last night in my once-a-month Zoom reunion with Frost Place friends. We chat, laugh, look at a couple of poems, and then...it's over. Sigh. It's hard to explain what community means to you unless you are missing yours.  I am glad to have sustained friendships, to be sure. I wish I had some writer friends local to me to work with. It's a lonely gig, this writing thing.  That said, the date is set for the first-ever on-air open mic at North Country Community Radio! Join us with a poem to share or just listen online/ livestream on Saturday, April 25th, 1-3 pm. We will be LIVE in the studio! How fun is that! The event page is on Facebook, if you want to sign up. Trying to keep a positive vibe going. There is a lot of not-positive stuff in our world right now. We need each other, even virtually.  Take care, friends. Hold each other in your hearts. And me, too, please. =) C

You know how I often wake up with a song already playing in my head? And how it's usually church hymns? Well, for the last couple of days (wow, on repeat) I have had Zombie Jamboree. I'm not sure what to make of that, but here we are. As always, the news is horrid. Even on the local level: some dude from Chicago has bought up the Staples building, pushing hard to make it a friggin' casino. I mean, why? Way to prey on people's economic desperation much. And way to bring in yet more traffic. And from the town meeting ballot results, it was pretty clear that casinos and "games of chance" are things a lot of people don't want. But here we are.  And the State Legislature didn't finish all the work they were supposed to do, mainly because of some scurrilous shenanigans orchestrated by the ones who did not want to give the bills sponsored by Democrats even the (legal, required) courtesy of debate. So...there's that.  On the larger scale, my new official f...

Happy St. Patrick's Day-- I hope your day is a soft one.  I'll be coming home today and making the soda bread. The corned beef and veggies will hit the crockpot at 1pm. Some things must remain constant in an ever-chaotic world, eh? (Well, the cough and fatigue are still constant, too. I am really tired of being sick.) So, in honor of the day, and because it's one of my favorite poems by Seamus Heaney, I'll share a l ink to "Digging ." The poem ends with one of the best statements of determination, resolve, and resistance: Between my finger and my thumb The squat pen rests. I’ll dig with it. And on that note, I'll take my leave o'you.  May Jesus, Mary, and Joseph ever bless you and yours, C

Still sick, but work awaits. I'd call out, but there are just some things subs can't do, and after last week's crazy disrupted schedule, I have to get things back on track with APLit kids.  Have a super day. And just know, you, at least, are not as dysfunctionally arrogant as former Speaker Newt Gingrich, who reposted a satirical meme about using A DOZEN THERMONUCLEAR BOMBS in the Middle East to create a new shipping lane. He meant it as a serious suggestion.  Just think about the literal insanity of that.  Hold your loved ones close.  C

Still stick. This RSV crap is legit. I will be taking today as off as I can (a load or two of laundry will get done, but that's it).  I think I've found my abs-- at least, that is what's sore from coughing so much. Little to no appetite, and general achy/lethargy. Bleah. Being sick is so dang boring. I did, however, have a really nice couple of hours in Jodie Hollander's class yesterday. There were two other people in the zoomer, and we talked about Frost and his use of form and metrics, then Jodie gave us a couple of prompts to work with. I think I have a draft I can keep and work on, too. That's cool. I appreciate the opportunity to do something other than sit around feeling icky.  Grocery shopping went well, too, and Meg and I did pop downtown for a brief outing. I needed to buy piddle pads. And we got coffee. Then I full-on crashed on the couch. G made sandwiches for dinner. I slept, propped on two pillows, until 7am. Not great sleep, but better than the prior t...