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 |   A Journal to impart knowledge and facts |
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July 22, 2015 I'm going to start today to record on a daily basis whatever happens to strike my fancy. So, it is a very cool breezy day. I just posted 5 short book reviews to The Monthly Reading Challenge. I'm suppose to put away some winter wood today from the woodpile outside but I'm playing hookey from work to write so starting this blog will get done. I'm having a daily fight with a flock of English Sparrows that are trying to take over my barn. They are making a terrible mess so they have to go. I have destroyed several nests so far they don't leave but they get out of the barn when I am around. I'm just starting the fight so I guess I don't know how far I have to go to discourage them. I'm trying not to spread myself to thin on WDC because I find so many things that are interesting here and I am trying to work on a new story. I really enjoy sitting at my desk with a cup of tea and reading blogs on WDC. |
| Prompt: 1. It’s late at night, and you hear footsteps in the bar—but you’re definitely alone . . . or so you thought. Dear Margaret: The last time we talked, you were adamant, that I should notify you, if I had any new strange experiences to report. Recently, I attended a Halloween party being held at an upbeat place called “Andre the Blog Monkey’s Banana Bar.” Well I haven’t been out for just ages and a day, so I dragged out a few pieces of material and built me a costume. Like the one worn by the spook in Joseph Delaney’s series “The Last Apprentice.” Halloween night I arrived at the bar; arriving just a few minutes after the time listed on the invitation. The bar is located in a cozy spot. The entire property around the bar is covered with mature growing banana trees. heavily laden with bananas. Kind of unusual for this area of the world. They seemed to be rustling in the wind. But, there isn’t any wind. When I walked through the door, the whole place was dark. Not just dark, black out dark. I backed out of the door. The sign in large letters on the door said, “Welcome to Andre the Blog Monkey’s Banana Bar, Halloween Party in Progress Please Enter.” So, I took a deep breathe and walked in again. Nope, still totally dark. The door behind me made a startling click as it closed behind me. I stood quietly listening. I thought I heard another click and the squeaky hinges of a second door somewhere in the dense dark, the padding footsteps of someone or something. A glaring splash of light hit the room accompanied by riotous music. There was a Long solid polished Maple wood bar to my left. To the right tables, with chairs formed a spiral spread out across the room. A dance floor was formed around the circle of seating. Most amazing was the tropical ceiling. Heavily coated in thick hanging vines and other deep green leafy foliage and flowers that caused a heavy sweet scent to hang in the air. A monkey wearing an apron leaped out from behind the bar. It kind of herded me toward the table in the center of the spiral. Pushing me steering, and chattering as he toddled along in a monkey gait. It screeched and pointed at a chair. As I was sitting down it slapped a sheet of crumbled paper down in front of me It turned out to be a menu. Lets see--hum mm- 1. Banana Daiquiri 2. Banana Daiquiri 3. Banana Daiquiri 4. And so on and on until # 20 said Green Tea with mashed Bananas. I pointed at the #20. Andre: turned snatched the menu, leaped up caught a vine, and swung away to the bar. As I was settling down into my seat I looked around and wondered where the rest of the people were. Then the lights went out again. The music stopped. The silence was really dense. I wondered how they achieved that kind of total silence in the dark, then more stealthy footsteps. I heard the whistle of a tea kettle explode into the silence. Someone pulled out a chair at my table. I jerked my hand back from the table when I felt hair slide across it. The brilliant lights flashed on, the music started up. The song playing was “My Momo eats banananaa, My Popo eats Banananaa, My sister eats Banananaa” and on and on about teachers and relatives and friends who all eat banananaa with a Bossa Nova beat. Most Astonishing, a Golden Tarsier Monkey now sat in a high chair at my table. Only 6 inches long with long fingers and toes for grasping vines, it stared at me with owl like golden eyes. Just stared and stared at me. Next to it sat a ghostly arrayed person. And next to the ghost sat a red handed Tamarin monkey in a high chair. Andre and another monkey suddenly appeared above swinging from the vines. My tea had arrived, also bowls of fruity water, nuts, fruit, and a banana daiquiri for the ghost. The bowls were plunked down without ceremony and I caught one blue bowl of peanuts that was falling precariously off the tray of munchies. A startling system emerged. All sound and light vanished just before a new variety of monkeys and new costumed humans (I presume they were all human) appeared and filled another table. I mean dead silence when the lights were extinguished. The silence and darkness was actually astonishing for the time lapse endured. As the tables filled the noise of monkey screeches and howls grew louder. I put in my ear plugs at one point. And so it went, The lights and music would go out. Shuffling noises and creaky doors would sound. When the lights came back with music, another table would be full of new costumed humans seated with different varieties of monkeys mostly new world monkeys but, I identified a few old world monkeys as well. The monkeys screeched and howled. The din rose louder and louder. Nuts and fruit were eaten and tossed around. Of course the monkeys did not remain seated. Monkeys sailed through the air on vines. I looked up in astonishment to see squirrel monkeys, pygmy marmosets, proboscis, rhesus, spider, golden snub-nosed from China, howler, wooly spider, and other varieties sailing around the room or sitting on tables munching snacks. Monkeys walked by, leaped from table to table, and hung from vines to just stare at the costumed people. The Tarsier would return to the table now and then sometimes sitting in it’s chair sometimes on my shoulder always staring at me with its huge golden eyes. It would rotate its head to look around, very owl like. We had entertainment of songs about monkeys and pictures of monkeys in their natural habitat being broadcast across a big screen flat TV that hung above the bar. “Hey, hey we’re the Monkeys, People say we Monkey around. We’re to busy singing to put any body down.” It’s astonishing how many varieties of monkeys live on the earth. Some are quite beautiful. The ghost turned out to be a neighbor from my street, named Erthala. She pointed out Dracula simia and Dracula gigas orchids living in the tropical plant display above us. These are flowers that have monkey faces on them and were totally out of some other element of nature. How they happened to be thriving in this environment I could not begin to explain. I identified the three monkeys helping Andre behind the bar, to supply drinks to the party, mostly banana daiquiri; as the three monkeys rescued from a cemetery some time ago. Suddenly, Andre stood on the bar and began to chatter and wave at a door behind the bar. Led by Andre the monkeys began to troupe out the door. It had certainly been a lively evening. Those costumed people not visiting the basement moved out the front door. We were handed trick or treat bags on the way out filled with banana candy, banana daiquiri mix, and nuts. I will write more Margaret but, there is someone knocking at the door. Best wishes for your day. Sincerely, Apondia word count from the journal 7 = 1398 |
"Speak soft my name" Tell us your thoughts about it. You don't need to write a review of this poem, read it, tell us what you think. 🤷♂️ Quote from: reference : "This is Real and You Are Completely Unprepared" by Alan Lew : "You are walking through the world half asleep. It isn't just that you don't know who you are and that you don't know how or why you got here." The first stanza calls up images of deep water and a sand covered bottom with sea grasses and depths of sand formed from years of grains laying around. As the stanza's move on I see gases, then molten lava, erupting high into the air, flowing down an incline. Then, as the lava creeps slowly toward the sea some of it's edges cool turning black. The molten centers burn their way to the sea displacing air and water, and foliage. When the hot lava hits the sea, Tsunamis waves are formed raging high into the air and the ultra ripples of waves wash outward searching for space to land and release the energy that was formed. Yep I see volcanic action. My memory shows me a picture of a news story as Lava pours into the sea from an island. ![Merit Badge in Every Moment Matters
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Happy 21 Birthday Site Week. Thanks for all you do. Love: Megan](https://images.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/badges/Kudos-Every_Moment_Matters.gif) Happy Trails |
If I realized I am just like everyone else and just as GOOD as everyone else -- that we all struggle but have so much potential -- then when in social situations I would finally be more likely to...  Quote: "In the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years." -Abraham Lincoln Reference from Bing: blog.hubspot.com/sales/famous-quotes Answer = Take into consideration circumstances people find themselves involved in. I came across this back in the 1970's. A young people's group I was leading were comparing their parents. And, the ways their parents expected them to accomplish everyday living. After reading so many books about historical times. And moving around some in my life, I find that people even in other countries are really not so different. That is one of the reasons I find wisdom literature in the Bible so relevant to circumstances we live in today. Yes, we have technology. Yes, we drive cars instead of camels. Nevertheless, many things people think up as individuals to do are the same as 2000 or even many more years ago. I believe the phrase "human nature" explains it. Star Trek based a lot of comparisons between the aliens and the humans on human nature. ![Merit Badge in Refreshing
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Great to be blogging with you again in 30-Day Blogging Challenge. *^*Heart*^*](https://images.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/badges/general-Refreshing.gif) Have to leave. Happy Trails all day long. |
Tonight, tell us about something you have never done, but really want to do? Why haven’t you done it? Quote:The tragedy of life doesn’t lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy liesin having no goal to reach. It isn’t a calamity to die with dreams unfulfilled, but it is a calamity not to dream. . . . It is not a disgrace not to reach the stars, but it is a disgrace to have no stars to reach for. Not failure, but low aim is sin. Benjamin Elijah www.livinglifefully.com/unfulfilleddreams.htm I would like to take more human anatomy classes. I would like to finish the rooms inside my house. Maybe, I would like to do a master degree. I think I would like to do deeper studies in Biblical history. Why have I not done these things? Various reasons. Lack of a good support system. Lack of monetary ability. We are still working on finishing parts of the house, it's just a slow, go as we can thing. I like the thought that online studies are getting easier. I'm not very brave as a commuter any more. I really like living where I am. I don't feel an adventurous need to move anywhere else. I will always have goals I think. I have lots and lots of various interests, sometimes I don't focus in on just one enough to make more progress on just one. Sometimes now I'm just paddling in place. Happy Trails |
There's going to be a family gathering. Aunt Bessy is on her way. Uncle Clyde is too. One is bringing sweet-potato pie, the other ham-hocks and greens. Everyone is excited... but Aunt Bessie and Uncle Chuck haven't spoken in 20 years. Tell us what happens at this gathering. 🤦♀️  Anything can happen. It depends on why they haven't spoken. Brother and Sister? Is the family large? If it's a large family and one of the people hasn't been there for a long time because of distance to travel? Probably, normal amounts of family that are gathered regularly have hashed out whatever situation is involved and lots of family gossip has already spoiled what could be a happy reunion. On the other hand maybe it is a planned reunion by both parties who are looking forward to the get together and it will end in a happy back patting day. So, as a writing prompt it tends to be a thought provoking scenario. I'm presently reading "No Visible Bruises," by Louise Snyder. Add this book to today's prompt and you have something real to think about when it comes to family gatherings. As for me. I've been away for awhile. It started with insulating where the back porch meets the house. It was spoiled by a squirrel a couple years ago. When that was done every time I sat down to go online some household business intervened. One day, I sat down, logged on, and family members showed up. I did not know whether I was going to make logging in today or not but, here I am. Last prompt found in my email is the 23. Life lessons? Study, read, learn, real things that develop the mind. Math, computer technologies, writing and using words to understand what is written. Think before you leap into any real life decision. Seek advice only from people who have your best interests at heart. This will do for today. Happy Trails. Hope your day is sufficiently trouble free. Weather is getting cold faster so today I'm might put some of the storm windows on the back porch. |
There's going to be a family gathering. Aunt Bessy is on her way. Uncle Clyde is too. One is bringing sweet-potato pie, the other ham-hocks and greens. Everyone is excited... but Aunt Bessie and Uncle Chuck haven't spoken in 20 years. Tell us what happens at this gathering. 🤦♀️ Anything can happen. It depends on why they haven't spoken. Brother and Sister? Is the family large? If it's a large family and one of the people hasn't been there for a long time because of distance to travel? Probably, normal amounts of family that are gathered regularly have hashed out whatever situation is involved and lots of family gossip has already spoiled what could be a happy reunion. On the other hand maybe it is a planned reunion by both parties who are looking forward to the get together and it will end in a happy back patting day. So, as a writing prompt it tends to be a thought provoking scenario. I'm presently reading "No Visible Bruises," by Louise Snyder. Add this book to today's prompt and you have something real to think about when it comes to family gatherings. As for me. I've been away for awhile. It started with insulating where the back porch meets the house. It was spoiled by a squirrel a couple years ago. When that was done every time I sat down to go online some household business intervened. One day, I sat down, logged on, and family members showed up. I did not know whether I was going to make logging in today or not but, here I am. Last prompt found in my email is the 23. Life lessons? Study, read, learn, real things that develop the mind. Math, computer technologies, writing and using words to understand what is written. Think before you leap into any real life decision. Seek advice only from people who have your best interests at heart. This will do for today. Happy Trails. Hope your day is sufficiently trouble free. Weather is getting cold faster so today I'm might put some of the storm windows on the back porch. |
| I know you've done it. I know I have. Tell us about a time you were inappropriately dressed for the occasion. Quote:Do your clothes make you feel happy, beautiful, comfortable in your skin, handsome, confident, or powerful?” ― Susan C. Young, The Art of Preparation: 8 Ways to Plan with Purpose & Intention for Positive Impact https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/dress-for-success It probably happened. But, I don't remember when or what the occasion might have been. I was a tomboy on a farm. Climbing trees, riding horses, hiking the woods around our home, riding bicycles up and down the roads. I wore dresses to school until I graduated. During college I added some more feminine attire to my wardrobe to wear to classes. At home wear has mostly been slacks, jeans, tennis shoes, boots. I never cleaned barn in a dress. Now I often wear pantaloons around the house. Recently, someone called them yoga pants. I can tuck them into my barn boots on rainy or snowy days, take the dogs out for a walk, and stay warm and dry. I have a pattern for them so when I want, I can make more. Anyway, you get the picture. This spring I dressed up in a nice dressy outfit to attend my grandson's graduation ceremony. Then I was told the venue had changed from the auditorium to the football field because of Covid. Slacks and a blouse would be more appropriate so I changed. When I got there, women were dressed in all kinds of garb. Ladies were striding across the field to seating in flowing skirts, jeans, and yes pantaloons and even shorts. Just depended on how they thought sitting in a football field to watch the grads would be comfortable. Like the quote reference says: The only positive impact I'm making is for myself to feel comfortable where ever I am. ![Merit Badge in Point of View
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Happy Birthday! Belatedly. I like your point of view *^*Bigsmile*^* ~Adrienne](https://images.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/badges/general-Point_of_View.gif) P.S. Walmart sells curly stretchy shoestrings that do not need tied. I like to wear them in tennis shoes for comfort. One time I was talking to a professor, who was complaining about his uncomfortable shoes. I recommended Walmart's curly shoestrings . He was aghast to think he should wear such things with his suit and tie.  What is appropriate?Happy Trails --Smile a Lot |
| We've all cooked meals at one time or another. What was the most memorable meal you've prepared? Tell us who you prepared it for, and the occasion that caused you to prepare this meal, I'm going to do this in a hurry. I missed Sunday. Yesterday I was just logging in when someone came here that needed my attention I had to log back out. Today we are experiencing heavy rain because of the influence of some tropical storm so every time it rains I lose the internet. As for the prompt: I can't remember especially one particular meal. I cooked for my middle sons teacher and his wife one time. I don't remember what we ate? We had a church party here once. It was just snacks and things dipped in hot chocolate. In the 70's I had a cook out for a neighbor that had just moved in up the road a piece. Occasions are easier to remember than actual food. We used to have family gatherings once a year but, the grandchildren are growing up and usually we go to my youngest son's home for gatherings now. Yesterday we ate Tilapia, carrots, and sweet potatoes. It was pretty tasty as I recall. Have you tried Creative Roots Coconut water yet? Happy Trails |
| “Being a role model is equal parts being who you actually are and what people hope you will be.” Meryl Streep https://www.awakenthegreatnesswithin.com/30-inspirational-quotes-on-role-models/... Today's Quote Who do you see as role model of yours, either a professional or 'everyday' person, and why should everyone else know about this person? My daughter-in-law's Mom I guess. At the age of 81 she continues to irritate her family by keeping her own counsel, maintaining her own home and living day by day in a way that pleases her. May we all age another day. And then, another, and then, another, and then another,................ Happy Trailsapondia#1781748 |
| What were you doing 20 years ago today? Of the events that transpired, what memory stays with you, almost haunts you? Quote: “Scars have the strange power to remind us that our past is real.” ― Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses Early morning was a scramble to get ready to go to school. Morning horse chores and the drive which was about a 16 mile commute kept me busy. I did not turn on my car radio and had no time to watch morning news. I remember walking in and had almost arrived at the journalism classroom. Two professors were conversing outside the room in the hall. Someone approached me in the hall. Another student and told me the twin towers were burning. It was a terrorist attack. I answered this way. "So, that's the thing for this year." One of the professors turned to us and asked: "what did she say?" Then inside the classroom was someone directing everyone, that the school was closing, to go home or return to the dorms. I had been having dreams about airplanes for awhile. There seemed to me, to be one major tragedy per year for some years previous. Ship hi jackings, school shootings, the military barracks attacked, Plane hi jackings. Atmospheric pressures seem to build up then bang something big and bad occurs. I spent the rest of the day watching news coverage of the twin towers and the plane that went down in Pennsylvania. The worse part is always, that you cannot help anyone. Some time this week I read a story online about someone, who was in the second tower, who phoned and asked should their floor evacuate? Who ever they called said no, then their tower was hit almost immediately and most of the people on that floor were killed. So, the stories will haunt us for years yet to come. It's the aftermath of things, that would have meant something, if someone had acted faster. It haunts people later. These kind of stories linger. I read about warnings in the government about a Japanese strike on Pearl Harbor that was ignored. There are lots of these kinds of warnings ignored. Then written about later in history writings. The most recent I think is President Trump making light of the serious nature of Covid. Then the country being shut down. No one was prepared. So many jobs and businesses disrupted. Be vigilant. I think it is better to tell someone, something might happen and be prepared even if you are laughed at; than to not bother to prepare and suffer the possible consequences. This is relevant today. I know people storing food for encase scenarios and I know people scoffing about such things. Pennsylvania is giving out free potassium iodide tablets to people who live within a certain radius of the state's four active nuclear power plants. I gave solar powered chargers to my grandchildren for Christmas two years ago. They can charge phones, notebooks, readers. There are windup radios, windup flashlights and all kinds of solar lights now on the market. Don't be afraid to prepare for the just in case scenario. In the meantime think happy thoughts. I wish you all Happy Trails each day forward. |
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