Tulsa or Bust

BOOK NOOK - courtesy of CATHY, Illinois: There's a new book out by Southern Illinois author Jeff Biggers. Reckoning at Eagle Creek tells about his growing up years in the Harrisburg-Shawneetown area. He came from a coal mining family, and currently lives in Macomb, but the story he has to tell about what strip mining has done to Southern Illinois is well researched and told. A reviewer in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch said the book made him "uncomfortable." I was glad it did, as the issues he researched are the truth, and I think that was part of Biggers' purpose in writing the book.


-S&G-


MONDAY MUSINGS - courtesy of LOREE, Kansas: I'd like to have a nickel for every time I've wanted to write "Wash Me" on something ... all the way from one of my boys' mud-covered faces to, much more recently, my brother-in-law's windows that make up three sides of his sun porch!


Bless his heart ... he is a "go'er and a do'er" ... for any and all, to the point that things like cleaning those windows are far from a priority.


But last week he told me proudly that he had washed the INSIDE windows on the west end of the sun porch. So, Friday when I was up there he called my attention to his efforts ...


Even with my bad eyesight, there was no denying that a vast improvement had been made.


Unfortunately, that only served to draw my attention to the remaining windows ... still fogged over with the grime of probably three or four years!


That made me think of just how much is accomplished with something as simple as a bucket of water ... with a bit of vinegar in it ... and some rags.


But I admit I had to fight myself from moving to the next window and writing "PLEASE ... will you WASH ME?!" in flowing finger script.


Never mind that I felt a twinge of guilt, thinking of my own windows.


-S&G-


SUNDAY SIZZLER - "While everybody else is fiddling with the clocks twice a year, my stomach runs on Daylight Saving Time the whole year long; meanwhile, my mind seems to keep shuffling along on Standard Time - and in a later time zone at that." - Professor Squigglee


-S&G-



I NEEDN’T TELL YOU to look at the calendar. I know you do ... perhaps as often as I do.


I just looked at mine ... and, unless I’m badly mistaken, we just had a close call. Today, you may note, is SATURDAY ... Saturday the thirteenth, in fact. 


We came just THAT close to having a FRIDAY the THIRTEENTH!


And what a difference that would’ve made, eh?


-S&G-


But here I sit, safely, wishing I were somewhere in the stacks of a quiet, well-lighted, well-stocked library, with all the time in the world to do some reading.


Instead, I’m sitting in this corner of Brimm Manor which has been designated as “the study” ... and I’m being threatened by the teetering, tottering, totally intimidating ... not to mention incriminating ... stacks of things I should’ve done something about a long time ago. If I had just found time.


-S&G-


SPEAKING OF TIME, I think some of you may have heard that I’m now a “sprinter.” No, I’m not exploding out of the starting blocks and crunch-crunch-crunching down the track.


I’m racing the clock. In fact, I have one of those windup timer things dangling from my neck right now ... to remind me that I should back away from the keyboard at the end of 15 minutes.


That’s about all the time I can take these days, without getting a major complaint from my back. Don’t worry about that, though. Nothing serious. It’s just that my back has finally found out that it is as old as the rest of my body. I wish it would just give me a gentle nudge, though, instead of complaining so.


-S&G-


SPEAKING OF TIME, though, it was during the previous century that my abode was Out West (of here) ... in Illinois, as a matter of fact.


In that time and place ... I regularly got two calls a year from one of my neighbors. He knew it was time to change the clocks ... but he was always unsure of what direction.


I would patiently impart all the knowledge I had about the matter, and, by the end of our conversation ... a half hour or so later ... he would have me so confused that I would almost swear that, yes, in the matter of Daylight Saving Time, we were supposed to FALL FORWARD ... and SPRING BACKWARD.


-S&G-

EVEN THEN I was convinced that Daylight Saving Time ... drat it all ... was just a scheme devised by the all-knowing politicians to give farmers more time to play golf, instead of plowing and mowing ... and doing other things that farmers normally do.


-S&G-


The coveted mystical, mythical, magical GOLD STAR once again goes on the record of LOREE (Kansas) ... for being the first to respond to last week’s installment of “Squiggles” ... and this despite the fact that she waited (impatiently, of course, she says) for Walt, Ruth, or someone, to “pull the trigger on their computer FIRST.”


-S&G-


LOREE SAYS her first inclination is to write an immediate reply to “Squiggles” ... lest she forget. (Oh, that would be bad ... I’d be left sitting here waiting ... and waiting ... and forgetting why I was sitting here).


Loree provides insight on forgetfulness: “It can creep up on one so slowly that we don’t realize it is HERE ... NOW!”


“There comes a day,” she says, “when it can no longer be ignored ... I rush the length of the house, intent on acting on a thought I had, then reach the back door ... wondering why I am here ... what it was that BROUGHT me here.” 


(Oh, I’ve been there, too, Loree ... maybe not all the way to the back door ... but somewhere in Brimm Manor ... wondering the same thing).


-S&G-


ALL OF WHICH reminds me ... I think my timer has gone off, signalling the end of this sprint. Actually, unless memory fails me, I believe it went off about 20 minutes ago ... so here I go ... beep ... beep ... beep! ... backing away from the keyboard.


-S&G- 


I’M BACK ... and I’m still “sprinting.” We have indications that a thunderstorm may come sliding through here soon, and the last thing I want to do is to be sitting here at the keyboard ... and have a randomly-tossed thunderbolt hit my computer.


Wouldn’t THAT make my eyes light up? 


Instead, let’s just shuffle along to:  


TODAY’S POEM: I've written about finding a broken pencil with only a few words left in it ... the frantic search for a scrap of paper ... any tiny piece will do ... to write down an idea before it flits away ... the hurdles, the barriers, the great feeling of success. All about writing.


It's not that I consider myself an expert on writing. Far from it. I continue to be mystified by the process ... curious about how ... and why ... poems sometimes come sneaking up on me of their own free will (I suppose that’s why I write “free verse” almost exclusively) ... but not baffled ... no, I would not say baffled ... not completely, any way.




"Tulsa or Bust" is also about writing.




As you may note, writing about writing sometimes takes some strange turns on the road to completion and eventual publication, in this instance in ByLine Magazine:




TULSA OR BUST


The paper's dry,
drier than
my driest poems,
threatening
to shatter,
turn to dust,
so I must write
quickly, softly,
cautiously,
choosing only
fluffy, light
subjects like
a "Wash Me"
written large
on the back
of a truck
lumbering
toward Tulsa.


-S&G-


OH ... AND DON’T FORGET ... tonight ... tomorrow morning at the very latest ... set your clocks AHEAD one hour. Unless, of course, you’ve done that before you get this final warning from me. In that case, you might find yourself an EXTRA HOUR ahead of all the rest of us.


ON THE OTHER HAND ... minute hand, that is ... maybe you’d like to compromise ... and just set your clocks ahead, um, say 20 minutes ... or half an hour. But don’t blame me if that makes you late for your golf date. 


Meanwhile, you may have noticed that I’m tick-tick-ticked off about this silly business of setting our clocks back and fourth like this. 


Oh, well ...


-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-


And if you’d like to see what’s up with my other ... DAILY blog ... here’s a link to it:


http://rbrimm.blogspot.com/


Thanks for paying a visit.




-S&G-


UNTIL NEXT TIME ... take care ... see ya!


-S&G-


©  2010


AFTERTHOUGHTS ... Thank you, Anonymous, for stopping by to visit. I'm glad you enjoyed the interlude ... hope you'll find time to drop by again soon.