‘Idál (Justice), 4 Mashiyyat (Will), 166 BE – Wednesday, September 30, 2009 about 6:18 AM Pacific Time

At midnight tonight exactly three months remain in 2009. Several holidays occur in those three months and three of those holidays bring back memories of my grandparents and Blackwell, Oklahoma. Those three holidays are Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. My grandparents celebrated or commemorated those holidays in different ways.

Halloween, Christmas,
and Thanksgiving bring back
childhood memories.

Every family commemorates these holidays in different ways. Every family has their own Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas traditions. It is the happy memories of holidays which come back to us in later years. Sadness tempers happy memories. This is the way it should be because we can't appreciate joy without remembering the tears.


 

Kamál (Perfection), 2 Mashiyyat (Will), 166 BE – Monday, September 28, 2009 about 6:51 AM Pacific Time

It's a yo-yo morning here in Las Vegas, so I'd better get this composed and posted before my connection drops again. I'm not sure what the reason is this morning, I don't care why the connection is yo-yoing; I just want to work online. I don't think that's going to be easy this morning.

The connection is not only yo-yoing, but it's slow. Slow and some of the websites don't want to download over my phone connection. I'm going DSL, but I haven't e-mailed my provider yet. Perhaps that's the problem. I need to e-mail my provider about my decision and get on with the housework.

I don't send the e-mail yesterday because I don't have enough money in the bank to take care of the first months payment. I know what's coming out of both accounts within the next two or three days. There is just enough in my account to take care of the stuff I know is coming out. I have to put $85.00 or $90.00 in the bank to cover the cost of the DSL connection for the first month.

 

Jamál (Beauty), 1 Mashiyyat (Will), 166 BE – Sunday, September 27, 2009 about 5:46 PM Pacific Time

The cottonwood tree in my grandparent's front yard
Grandpa rolling his own cigarettes
Grandma cooking
Grandma getting up at midnight to clean the house (she cleaned house when she couldn't sleep)
Grandpa's clodhoppers
The Lake
Thanksgiving dinner
Trick or Treating on Halloween
Christmas Dinner
Black eyed peas on New Year's Day
Cowboy coffee
My birthday presents
Decorating a real Christmas Tree
The wrong side of the tracks
Visits to Grandma's house (my father's mother)
The scent of a wood burning cast iron cook stove
The smell of fresh baked bread
Taking down the Christmas tree
Grandpa's stories of his childhood and youth

 

My response to "Red Thursday"  by Lorien for Thursday, September 24, 2009 leading entry for "Follow the Leader: Journal Edition " .

The problem with political systems is that they work when not taken to excess. All political systems ever practiced by any segment of the human race works for a little while and under certain circumstances. Once the system is taken to excess then it begins causing difficulties.

The problems with any system begin to appear at the grass roots level in the basic components of humanity. Families are the basic components of the human race and of political systems. Individuals are the basic components of the family, but the family is the basic component of society and of the human race.

We have to weigh the good and bad in any political system, in any system, against the way it assists family unity and survival. If the family doesn't survive then humanity won't survive. In order for the family to survive it must have some type of unity, just as the human race and society must have unity to survive.

The survival of political systems, society and the human race depend on the survival and unity of the family. Without the family there would be no political systems and no society.

 

My response to "Invalid Item"  by The Dark Lady for Wednesday, September 23, 2009 leading entry for "Follow the Leader: Journal Edition " .

I've never looked at the way my ideas develop. I've never (at least I don't think I have) gotten an idea from going into Wal-Mart. I haven't written in the rain, which sounds like a good idea. The problem with rain in Las Vegas is that it doesn't occur often. I've gotten ideas from driving in the rain, but had to wait until I arrived home to write about it or wait a few days before I could write about the experience.

Sometimes an experience or sight gives me an idea immediately, however, most of the time I have to let the idea percolate in my mind. The idea, like coffee in a percolator, has to brew a while before I can write about it. I've written about experiences immediately after the experience occurred, but then I have to rewrite to get the essence of what I'm looking for from the experience.

Immediately, after an experience I think I'm too close to it to find the caffeine in the coffee bean. I have to get away from the experience, roast the bean, grind the bean and then brew it in a percolator. Once you brew the coffee or idea then you pour it into a cup and drink it. After this you look in the bottom of the cup to see coffee grounds. Coffee grounds are usually considered waste and many people don't like to see them in the bottom of a cup. However, if you can't see the grounds in the bottom of the cup, then it probably isn't a good strong cup of coffee. If you can't see the grounds in your idea, then you need to let it percolate a little longer because you want the characters (at least the main characters) to be strong properly brewed.




 

My response to "Pure Awesomeness!"  by Ghostranch for Tuesday, September 22, 2009 leading entry for "Follow the Leader: Journal Edition " .

I've encountered several purely awesome cats in my life. The firs was a black and white tom we called Mittens. My parents brought him into the house and the four of us named him. The intriguing thing about this was that, most of the time, my siblings and I couldn't agree on anything. However, we call agreed that Mittens was the best name for this cat. He was black with four white paws and a white spot over his vocal cords.

I don't think there was ever a picture of Mittens, at least I've never been able to find one. It was sometime in the 1950s that Mittens came into my life. Officially, he belonged to all of us; in reality he belonged to whomever he decided to associate with on a specific day. When Mitten decided I belonged to him, he would sleep at the foot of my bed. Perhaps that's why I'm partial to cats that want to sleep at my feet.

The next purely awesome cat I encountered belonged to my Grandmother. She brought Jay home from the Lake, his original owner didn't want that particular Siamese. My Grandmother took Jay in and brought him home. When he slept outside, he slept in the hen house. He had a chickens nest all to himself. He didn't steal eggs and he kept the neighbor cats from stealing the eggs. He also play chase with one of the neighbor's dog, the same dog that would kill another neighbor's cats (that is a completely different story). Jay shared the house with my Grandmother's parakeet (I wrote about Jay and Pete in my last Fantasy newsletter).

I haven't found pictures of either cat, so I'm not sure we ever had pictures of them. It's also possible that the photos were lost in the intervening years and moves. Anyway, those were the first two purely awesome cats in my life. Since then I've encounter others who purred their way into my heart and memory.

 

Jalál (Glory), 19 ‘Izzat (Might), 166 BE – Saturday, September 26, 2009 about 1:58 PM Pacific Time

After a difficult two days of dealing with slow downloads, uploads and a snail paced Internet connection, I've decided to bit the bullet. I'm e-mailing my Internet provider and ordering a DSL modem. I have a choice of two speeds, which I might be able to afford. I can get the 512 Kbps/128 Kbps or the 1.5 Mbps/384 Kbps. The modem itself cost $50.00 plus the first monthly fee. My gut feeling tells me to go for the 1.5 Mbps/384 Kbps, which is an outlay the first month of $90.00. The daily up cost me $20.00, so if I e-mail the techs tomorrow I might be able to get it installed by October 10. October 10 is when my monthly fee is due. Therefore, unless something else comes up, all I have to find is $70.00.

I fully expect something else to come up before the 10th. Right now, I need a new facet for the kitchen and the bathroom. My bathtub take half-a-day to drain because either the thingy that holds the water in doesn't work properly or it's stopped up. I don't think it's stopped up because the toilet fleshes properly. I'm having someone come in next week to fix the washer because it makes an odd noise when it goes into the spin cycle and it doesn't spin all the water out of the cloths.

Then to top that off, I encountered the blue screen of death this morning. I had a memory dump and I think it has to do with a driver. The problem is I can't download anything within a reasonable amount of time because of my slow connection to the Internet. The connection which disappears into cyber space at odd and unusual intervals. I'm not sure a DSL modem will help the disappearing connection, but it will help the upload/download time.

On the bright side, my life isn't in the toilet because if it was the toilet wouldn't flesh.

 

Morning chill transformed
evening's warmth will pass tonight
weariness ensues
 

Istijlál (Majesty), 17 ‘Izzat (Might), 166 BE – Thursday, September 23, 2009 about 7:58 PM Pacific Time

No freeze tonight
air too dry for cooling rain
the neighbor's dog barks.
 

Fidál (Grace), 15 ‘Izzat (Might), 166 BE – Tuesday, September 22, 2009 about 7:45 AM Pacific Time

NaNoWriMo Prep begins on October 1 and I have no novel idea to plan. I've considered writing something on the Faery Mountains or a holiday story, but neither idea is a lightning strike. I could write a novel about unusual weather phenomena. I could just as easily write about a character staring at a blank wall and describing what he or she sees.

I need a theme or a subject. I get sparks of ideas but nothing catches fire. I'm determined to complete the prep contest this year and NaNoWriMo. Maybe a novel about a novelist writing a novel, all right, I'm over thinking the process. I need to get away from it for a little while and finish some other writing projects or clean the bathroom.