Summertime Blues

THIS JUST IN ... from LOREE (Kansas) ... "Oh, my gosh ... this is FRIDAY, right? I just now had a thought fly into my head ... that I had NOT checked out S&G ... This has been one of those weeks, when the warm temps had me out and about ... and everything else seemed so immaterial!"

But she did pay a visit ... just in the nick of time. Professor Squigglee, that old stickler for punctuality (in everybody else), was just about to mark her absent.

Loree’s take on the poem? "Lost in Thought" sort of became "Lost in Time" for her, in view of the kind of week she had. She noted "Splash!" (the art), too ... and that set her to thinking about the need for painting the new siding on her shop/studio ... whether to call in a crew ... or do it herself ... which she concluded would definitely qualify as "Splash!"

-S&G-

KELLY (Colorado) indicates that the weather there has been running hot and cold ... "One day 60F, the next 30F. It’s fun to have a 60F day in February. Sure makes my green thumb itch! But I’ve learned the hard way. It often snows in May."

-S&G-

TODAY’S QUOTE: "I’ve learned that you shouldn’t go through life with a catcher’s mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw some things back." - Maya Angelou (courtesy of HELEN, Florida)

Helen’s e-mail, which contained several Angelou quotes, had the following ending: "Please send this to five phenomenal women today ... If you don’t ... the elastic will break and your underpants will fall down around your ankles!"

Now THAT’S a warning I take SERIOUSLY.

-S&G-

BOOK NOOK – Word from KELLY (Colorado): "I am really enjoying People of the Book, by Geraldine Brooks. Come to think of it, Penguin is the publisher of a lot of the paperback fiction I enjoy. I also started checking out Lillian Jackson Braun’s The Cat Who ... series. I read them years ago, and thought I’d re-read a couple here and there. They’re lovely for light reading."

Me? I’m still making my way ... slowly and carefully ... in my spare time, mind you ... through Poetry and Experience, by Archibald MacLeish.

And what’s on your reading table?

-S&G-

TODAY’S POEM - I’ve been looking forward to summer ... longing for those mornings when we won’t wake up to find the world turned into a sheet of ice ... locks frozen ... ducks and geese slipping and sliding across the pond.

Oh, how I long ... all winter ... for those summer days of sunshine and warmth.

Of course, when summer finally arrives, I try to find REFUGE from it ... and my thoughts turn to those cooler temperatures of autumn ... or spring ... or even winter.

I suppose it was ever thus. Has been, with me ... at least a very close and dear friend reminded me the other day when I was expressing a longing for summer.

"Don’t you remember LAST summer?" she asked. Actually, I did (I just about melted) ... but sorta, kinda acted like I didn’t remember it at all.

But even the extremes of summer can provide material for a poem, and It might even find a home someplace, as this one did (with Capper’s):

SUMMERTIME BLUES

I've got those
low-down,
good for nothin'
summertime blues.
My handkerchief
has wilted,
my shorts have
turned to glue,
my socks have
already melted
and run down
into my shoes.
Oh, I've got 'em bad,
as bad as they can be,
those prickly-pested,
heat infested,
good for nothin'
summertime blues.

-S&G-

FREE ADVICE – from KELLY (Colorado): "Now be nice to your computer so it doesn’t conspire with the noisy squirrels in mutiny again! And give a little pat on the hood of the trusty Little Red Car."

Consider it done, Kelly. Consider it done.

-S&G-

COMMENT? Feel free ... below, if you like.

Or if you prefer e-mail, that's fine, too ... especially for more detailed observations, to

rbrimm@peoplepc.com

... and it helps if you put "Squiggles" or "S&G" ... something like that ... in the subject line (just remember, no religion or politics ... please!)

-S&G-

UNTIL NEXT week ... take care ... see ya.

-S&G-
© 2009