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 |   A terminal for all blogs coming in or going out. A view into my life. |
Started July 1st 2019 for contests, etc. as other blogs are filling up and have other purposes.  I'm starting a new blog because
I'll be linking to
I've started an appendix (I no longer have one personally) to keep track of my Space Cadet journals for Space Blog. It's a work constantly under construction. Mind the mess.
I needed to start a folder for contests as there are so many deadlines and details to remember.
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RIDVAN        Poetry: The Dew Drop Inn will be closing soon. April is it's only season. *tears* I wrote: "April 30: resolve something in a poem [58]"  . It's in alexandrine (12 syllable) rhyming couplets. I wrote a flash fiction:
I finished reading, "The Island", poems of Ireland by Rosemary Canavan. Personal life? What life! I made two pork patties, one with lemon-pepper-garlic-parsley and the other with thyme topped with brown sugar and cheese. Yesterday was warm; today it's damp and mild but I'm not in the mood to go out. 30DBC: Perfect pet? As I told SandraLynn Team Florent!  : I can't have a cat and a dog like I'd like ... 42 steps ... 2 rooms ... and I travel too often. I dream of a small cottage somewhere with a garden and a bird feeder.And Toffeeman1957  : I do like labs although I'd really like a rott. And I love cats. One of each would do. I wouldn't mind sharing a pet. To Cubby~Cheering House Florent!  : Yes, I most definitely could use a pet companion. My human neighbors don't want to be touched. Not even a hug! I prefer cats but a dog would do. Like you, I travel too much. Have you thought about signing up for May's 30DBC? I will try but I never promise I'll make it through the month although I usually do. So starting tomorrow this is where I'll post my 30DBC entries: "Hoarfrosts from Hell" . It's rated GC so I can say whatever I want without fearing the censors. I suspect most entries will be E or 13+. |
     Ridvan Each of the 19 Baha'i months is named after an attribute of God. Each of the 19 days are named the same. Today is the 3rd day of the 3rd month or the day of Glory of the month of Glory. Poem: I'll get to it! Titled "Mutiny". Better late than never: "April 29: poem embedding a quoted phrase [57]" Flash: I focused elsewhere today. 30DBC: "How have you been (or not been) keeping track of the days?" Is it Wednesday yet? Yep. I'll be keeping my challenge entries here: "Hoarfrosts from Hell" and hoping to follow a different format than before. I posted my today's response there: "How have you been (or not been) keeping track of the days?" Yes, I stole this from Brian: 🌥 _Π_____* /______/~＼ ˚ *⋆ฺ࿐ 🦋 ｜田田｜門｜ ✾ .•*⁀•🌸˚🌳🌳 ⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘ ⌒⌒⌒⌒⌒⌒⌒⌒⌒⌒⌒⌒⌒ Lovely isn't it? Yes, I'm doing okay today. |
| NINTH of RIDVAN Today's blog is a space holder waiting to be filled. Maybe. Maybe not. I joined the 30DBC for May. Not in the mood to be part of a challenge but I blog even when I have little to say and nothing to offer. I'm going to put my responses in my "Hoarfrosts from Hell" blog and maybe link when appropo. I'm skipping today's prompt for instance. There's nothing so far from this quarantine I want to keep. Added: Dew Drop Inn offering: "Spirit of the meandering stream [177.56]" I finished watching "Pleasantville" and have started "The Apartment" (1960). Reading Rosemary Canavan's book of poetry, "The Island" (Ireland, 1994). Wrote a semi-horror flash:
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RIDVAN Eight red roses bloom for the best beloved 30DBC: What do you think you'd be doing today if this pandemic had never happened? I'd be smelling roses or some type of flower in Portugal or Galicia. I wanted to go back so bad. I didn't get there last year. Spring is a great time to go. My connection to Portugal and the people I met there is fading like a fado. A saudade ...  It's 13 degrees in Porto and cloudy like here. But I can get seafood, wander through old alleys, visit the market, eat a francesinha. Maybe next year. When I travel I get tired. It means taking a day off to do little or nothing, but at home I just get depressed after awhile. I feel happier in Portugal. My daily poem on a different theme: "Fire in the woods" "April 27: start a fire [53]" |
  RIDVAN I must preface this with "I'm okay". I was dangerously depressed last night. I'm not well. 30DBC: How has your idea of lockdown/quarantine changed since the beginning of this month? I was concerned in Taiwan because there was so much uncertainty regarding this particular virus. By the time I left there people were wearing masks on the train (2/25) and increasingly in the streets. The government was being truthful and transparent and calming people down. But the uncertainty grew when I returned and only had 9 days to prepare for my trip to Spain (3/3). With the breakout in Italy and cases reported in Madrid, my destination and the added stress of a two month trip with no travel or health insurance I cancelled and lost my money. I was angry at myself; angry at my situation here in an old hotel with shared facilities. There was no place to feel safe. And then the insanity started in Washington, California, New York and the authorities were NOT prepared. No masks, no testing, no tracing? I was much more at risk than I was in Taiwan. Around March 16th, Morocco closed its borders and I probably would've been caught. (My trip was Spain, Morocco, Portugal, Spain). Eventually the virus spread to here as Mardi Gras and Spring Break partied on. (Except for a cluster in a nursinghome, most cases in Montana are still 20-somethings.) Early numbers didn't look good and places started to shut down which meant I had nowhere to go to talk to people. By mid-April places stopped doing walk-in-take out, phone/internet orders only and refused cash. I don't have a phone. I use cash. People were starting to wear masks but I was amazed over the furor this created nationally. And crowds packing churches and WalMart? Exposing people like me to greater risks? And now on the 26th ... still not enough masks, still not enough testing. No transparency about tracing ... Friends certain that the economy is more important than life-and-death because no one they know has died, people in general unwilling to understand physical distancing, locals who think social distancing means they don't have to say hello and smile? I'm dangerously depressed. I need a hug ... a real one ... I have no idea how long I'll have to wait. Nick gave me two on the 18th. It was great; it was not enough. I'd love to be in Taiwan where the health system is not overwhelmed, where people understand the importance of masks, tracing, etc. where I'd be able to have a life. My manager mention today how it was good that I didn't go to Spain. And in retrospect he's probably right. I was to be in northern Portugal or Galicia today before my flight back from Bilbao on May 5th. 9 weeks was going to be a very long trip. Yet, here I am, one of the living dead. Montana will open slowly. We are fortunate in many ways. Our numbers are 'low' but still 24 times the percentage as in Taiwan. I check the numbers here and worldwide most every day. I see patterns. I read news updates. My fears of staying here get deeper. I'd love to get out. But where? What restrictions? Without health insurance? I'd have to buy refundable tickets, try to arrange travel insurance, figure out safe places to stay. Damned if I do ... and damned if I don't. My poem for today: "April 26: help us hear a particular sound or sounds [52]" My flash fiction about an old woman and a plum tree:
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   RIDVAN Another dreary day at home. Yes, I should take a walk. No, I'm not motivated to do so. Heated up some Progresso soup. Ate a bologna sandwich. Started to clean out the refrigerator of food I'm not eating. I can pick up a lunch M-F at the Senior Center but it comes 'as is' which includes stuff I won't eat. Coffee ... added some cinnamon to the last pot. I wrote "April 25: muse on a disease or illness of any kind [50]" in about 5 minutes as a poem titled "Parasite", musing whether my muse is just that ... wondering where it will wander when I die. Editing and posting took longer than writing it. It will probably need another edit but I really like how I used the near rhymes: sucked, husk, dust, next. KT, SK, ST and KST are very close and the three short 'uh' vowels are the same. I got lucky by-the-way, it wasn't intentional at first.Is my Muse a parasite? Not saying it is ... I think of a dear friend as my muse. It's easier to think of it as being symbiotic ... but that's probably just a figment of my imagination as well. In any case ... I don't want to annoy my muse too much. I rely too much upon him. Maybe I'm the parasite? |
| 222 entries and 2222 views ... had to post early before the numbers changed! By the way ... my favorite number is 2. Ridvan Saw viginia bluebells starting to bloom on Wednesday. They should be in good form this weekend as the weather continues to be mild. They bloom pink turning blue. 30DBC: Describe the best place to hide in your home (closet, bed - under it or the covers, basement, attic, behind the couch, in a cupboard, etc.), and why it is the best? I think of places I forget about or places within places almost forgotten. So: growing up ... probably in the attic behind where the stairs came up. No one would have thought of looking for me there. I would sit in the closet to "hide" so that would be too obvious. In college there never was anywhere to hide. Once house where I rented: at the base of the back stairs where my cat had her kittens. Way out of the way. My house? Maybe a small nook under the front stairs. I don't think those who stayed with me even knew it was there. My big house? Too many rooms! No one knew all of them! Here: maybe in the one closet that's partially blocked by the bed or under the desk, also partially blocked by the bed. Well ... that was amusing. I jump out of my skin if I hear noises at night. Two times I've been traumatized while in bed at night. It may explain why I sleep best when I travel or a home in the morning and not the night. I'll write a flash fiction for sure. I really like the prompts: plum, window, lace. I owe Anna Maria a poem about plum blossoms and "ume" is a theme I have thought of many times over my life (the plum bravely blooms at the end of winter before the other more 'cowardly' flowers peek out). I've been wanting to write fantasy flash and this might work somehow. I do better with weaving images from three words than with a line of dialog. Odd note: numbers seem to repeat for me today. I have 858,558 gps. Other than that ... later ...  |
| RIDVAN I wasn't sure what day it was. My mind slowly slips. I'm making strange typos. I can't remember certain things. Oh, it could just be aging. Old Timer's Disease. Four head injuries don't help. Seen on space book: "Someone once said when u love someone with dementia u lose them twice, (once when they are diagnosed & again, when they die). This is called “Ambiguous Loss.” ‘Rapidly shrinking brain’ is how doctors described it. Dementia is tragic. It's a nasty thief. As the patient's brain slowly deteriorates, they change in every way, & eventually forgetting who their loved ones are. Patients may become bedridden, unable to move, speak, eat or drink." I'm supposed to write about a package today. Time to go to the post office to see whether I've received any. Nope. Just bank statements. Tulips in bloom. Poem: "April 24: a package or a delivery [49]" Just realized I forgot to post a poem I wrote a couple days ago. Done. And so the mighty fall (U of Kansas, years ago):  |
 Ridvan Dreary day. Dangerously depressed. Didn't get out of bed before noon. Too much coffee since is keeping me vertical. It's raining. This would usually enervate me. I love storms but the morning's overcast just drained me and this drip-drip with a bit of a breeze doesn't qualify as a storm. I will write my poem, hopefully a flash fantasy. If I do I'll post them here. Poem: "April 23: a poem that contains an argument [48]" Flash: "White Hat (白帽 Bái mào) [45] (298w)" A happier time in a place where redbud bloomed:  |
 RidvanImages from my walk: flowers in bloom: virginia bluebells, scilla, daffodils, yellow tulips, apricot. The smooth leaves of daffodils, sticky tulips, furry poppies. A worker in her orange/green mask and orange gloves wiping handles down at the Orange Food Farm. I had meatloaf for lunch and sat with friends outside to chat. I cracked Kraken's Code:
It's still open. Plenty of clues. Not too hard to solve now. And it awards gps. Written yesterday: "April 21 prompt: a body of water [45]" . I formatted it as short lines to impose a more fluid reading of it. Again... the flash fiction prompt doesn't inspire me but I need to write some fantasy ... so we'll see. If you write fantasy check this out:
Interesting note: Charity started this on her wedding day!   I'm okay today. Yellow thistles at top of Irazu, a volcano in Costa Rica. 2012.  |
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