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Wednesday
May 30, 2012
8:23am EDT


  >> Book >> Family >> ID #1512801  |   Show DetailsPrinter Friendly Page Tell A Friend
The Way of the Zern
It's who we are. It's what we stare at in the middle of the night. It's a bug zapper.
Rated:
13+
by
Avg Rating: (12)
 
My friends,

When we were young and newly hatched—also young and in love—my husband and I lived with our four young children on the Space Coast of Florida. The massive propulsion of rocket and shuttle launches from Cape Kennedy often rocked the windows and doors of our little love cottage. We were always properly respectful and impressed by the reach of mankind’s achievements.

It was a point of pride to stop whatever we were doing (dishes, dinner, dancing, sleeping, fist fighting, etc.) to watch the eastern horizon—hands on hearts, tears in eyes—as the United States of America raced into the frontier of space.

One deep, dark morning (about 2:00 am) I shook my husband awake to watch yet another triumph of human advancement.

“Get up,” I mumbled to Sherwood, “the shuttle’s going up. We gotta’ watch.”

Sherwood moaned, “The garbage is out all ready. Let me die.” He did not open his eyes.

“Come on. We should watch. Night launches are amazing.”

He dragged himself upright and clung to the window ledge behind our bed. We knelt, with our chins braced on the ledge, our bleary eyes fixed on a blazing light in the eastern sky. We watched. The light did not appear to move. We stared some more. The light remain fixed. We struggled to focus. The light blazed away.

We waited for the light to fade into the blackness of space. It did not. We watched and watched and watched. The light stubbornly refused to move.

At last, collapsing back into my pillow I said, “Honey, go back to sleep.”

Sounding confused, miffed, and a little whiney Sherwood asked, “Why?”

“Because for the last eight to ten minutes we’ve been staring at our next door neighbor’s bug zapper.”

He went back to sleep. And I lived to worship at the altar of space exploration another day.

This story pretty much sums up who we are, and how we got this way—excessive staring at bug zappers. And this is my blog, a space-age way of recording one’s thoughts, ideas, embarrassments, and foibles for the entire known world. Once upon a time, I would have made this record on papyrus, rolled it up, stuffed it into a ceramic jar, and asked to have the whole thing buried with me in my sarcophagus. I still might.

Disclaimer: Some of the stuff you will read here is true. Some of it is not. Some of it is the result of wishful thinking. Some of it is the result of too much thinking, and some of it is the result of too little thinking. But all of it will be written with joy and laughter, because the alternative is despair and weeping, and isn’t there more than enough of that stuff out there?

Thank you for your support,

Linda (Zippity the Zapped) Zern
There are 155 visible Entries. Viewing page 2 of 2 with 100 per page.
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#55. It's My Funeral and You're Invited
---->> ID #692351 entered on 04-05-10 @ 2:16 pm EDT

#54. Still Licking the Flap
---->> ID #691906 entered on 03-31-10 @ 2:07 pm EDT

#53. It's Good to be the Ya-Ya
---->> ID #691208 entered on 03-24-10 @ 8:54 am EDT

#52. A Burning in the Finger Bones
---->> ID #690478 entered on 03-17-10 @ 10:25 am EDT

#51. Drink Up
---->> ID #689713 entered on 03-09-10 @ 4:12 am EST

#50. Sherwood's Olympic Struggles
---->> ID #688426 entered on 02-23-10 @ 3:14 pm EST

#49. Sophisticated Marshmallow Smuggling (A Classic Zippityzern)
---->> ID #687855 entered on 02-18-10 @ 11:01 am EST

#48. Scary Girl Stuff
---->> ID #686225 entered on 02-02-10 @ 9:41 pm EST

#47. Cabin Fever Fling
---->> ID #685390 entered on 01-26-10 @ 12:29 pm EST

#46. The Naked Truth About Boys (A Classic ZippityZern Essay)
---->> ID #684389 entered on 01-19-10 @ 6:25 pm EST

#45. Becoming a Statistic--In the Third Person (Almost)
---->> ID #683483 entered on 01-13-10 @ 5:02 am EST

#44. Yearly Disclaimer
---->> ID #682510 entered on 01-05-10 @ 9:46 am EST

#43. The Strange Case of the Missing Conversation
---->> ID #681399 entered on 12-29-09 @ 9:09 am EST

#42. The Dignity of Man - Not
---->> ID #680684 entered on 12-22-09 @ 7:00 am EST

#41. The Book of Zern - Chapter Next
---->> ID #680117 entered on 12-16-09 @ 4:15 pm EST

#40. Born Feet First
---->> ID #678448 entered on 12-02-09 @ 7:53 pm EST

#39. College Age - The Final Frontier
---->> ID #677644 entered on 11-25-09 @ 5:55 pm EST

#38. All This and Heaven Too
---->> ID #675641 entered on 11-10-09 @ 6:23 pm EST

#37. Chasing Chickens With a Butterfly Net
---->> ID #674570 entered on 11-03-09 @ 4:46 pm EST

#36. Where the Devil Washes Up (Happy Halloween)
---->> ID #673627 entered on 10-28-09 @ 11:05 am EDT

#35. Chickens I Have Known
---->> ID #672566 entered on 10-20-09 @ 11:41 am EDT

#34. In the Shadow of Java Beans
---->> ID #669919 entered on 09-30-09 @ 9:16 pm EDT

#33. A Brief History of Algebra
---->> ID #668873 entered on 09-22-09 @ 5:39 pm EDT

#32. The Ghost Gets Mail
---->> ID #667878 entered on 09-15-09 @ 6:50 pm EDT

#31. Spider Fights
---->> ID #666976 entered on 09-09-09 @ 9:20 am EDT

#30. When Noah Dug a Pond
---->> ID #665539 entered on 08-28-09 @ 9:34 pm EDT

#29. Attack of the Bad Stinger Goat
---->> ID #664996 entered on 08-25-09 @ 10:11 pm EDT

#28. Attack of the Bad Stinger Goat
---->> ID #664709 entered on 08-22-09 @ 7:12 am EDT

#27. In the Season of the Mummy Frogs
---->> ID #662318 entered on 08-05-09 @ 2:54 pm EDT

#26. Gourd Flipping
---->> ID #661499 entered on 07-30-09 @ 11:36 am EDT

#25. Reality vs. Real Life
---->> ID #660206 entered on 07-21-09 @ 5:25 pm EDT

#24. Ploodle the Chicken Hawk
---->> ID #657290 entered on 06-30-09 @ 6:45 pm EDT

#23. Super Men Really Can Fly--If Only In Their Dreams
---->> ID #655863 entered on 06-23-09 @ 6:18 pm EDT

#22. Sardonic, Self-Deprecating, Ironic Wit
---->> ID #654515 entered on 06-14-09 @ 7:40 pm EDT

#21. Life is Like a Buggy--at Walmart
---->> ID #653180 entered on 06-04-09 @ 11:56 am EDT

#20. Rancid Carpet or the Win-Win Evil Capitalism
---->> ID #649329 entered on 05-12-09 @ 7:20 am EDT

#19. Put Down on the Farm
---->> ID #648345 entered on 05-05-09 @ 6:02 pm EDT

#18. On Cloud Quadratic
---->> ID #647150 entered on 04-27-09 @ 8:35 pm EDT

#17. Last Will and Best Wishes
---->> ID #645113 entered on 04-13-09 @ 7:06 pm EDT

#16. E is for Everybody
---->> ID #644050 entered on 04-06-09 @ 11:31 am EDT

#15. Flying the Friendly Skies
---->> ID #643443 entered on 04-02-09 @ 10:41 am EDT

#14. What Wounded Warriors Need
---->> ID #643006 entered on 03-30-09 @ 9:25 pm EDT

#13. The Audience is Everything
---->> ID #642205 entered on 03-25-09 @ 6:13 pm EDT

#12. Lessons I Learned From the Feral Cats
---->> ID #641102 entered on 03-18-09 @ 6:56 pm EDT

#11. Larp, Larped, Larping
---->> ID #638619 entered on 03-03-09 @ 1:21 pm EST

#10. A Tale of Our Emergency Response Team: A Tale of Woe
---->> ID #637498 entered on 02-24-09 @ 3:48 pm EST

#9. Another Theory of Relativity
---->> ID #636158 entered on 02-16-09 @ 5:08 pm EST

#8. A Deep Tissue Issue
---->> ID #635193 entered on 02-11-09 @ 7:42 am EST

#7. To Harp or Not Harp
---->> ID #634018 entered on 02-05-09 @ 8:39 am EST

#6. It's Pointless Being Right All the Time
---->> ID #633677 entered on 02-03-09 @ 11:47 am EST

#5. Doing the Math
---->> ID #632334 entered on 01-27-09 @ 1:52 pm EST

#4. Trash, Treasure, and Tickets
---->> ID #631244 entered on 01-22-09 @ 9:05 am EST

#3. College Age - Algebra or Bust
---->> ID #630114 entered on 01-16-09 @ 9:48 pm EST

#2. Serious Concerns
---->> ID #629313 entered on 01-12-09 @ 7:32 pm EST

#1. To Nag or Not to be Nagged
---->> ID #628592 entered on 01-08-09 @ 5:59 pm EST


There are 155 visible Entries. Viewing page 2 of 2 with 100 per page.
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© Copyright 2012 L.L. Zern (UN: zippityzern at Writing.Com). All rights reserved.
L.L. Zern has granted Writing.Com, its affiliates and its syndicates non-exclusive rights to display this work.

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