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UPDATE - Brimm Manor is not closed, though the light in the window may flicker a bit ... or may not always be on, should you happen by.
And what’s all this about?
You may recall last week’s installment, in which I related an experience while at the keyboard. I believe it started with a ka-BOOM! during an electrical storm ... and, though I first thought it was the arrival of a great idea for another poem ... it turned out to be an electrical problem.
After a week or so of trying to fix the problem ... or at least track it to its source so somebody else could fix it ... we summoned help.
Help is not cheap these days ... a fact that you may already have noticed. Fortunately, we had something to lean on (each other) when we got the estimate. Now we’re just waiting for the real help to arrive.
Meanwhile, I’m enjoying a bit of evening darkness in a portion of the house. It sorta balances with the morning fog I’ve enjoyed for all these years.
And I may even get another installment of “Squiggles” pulled together. But WAIT! Did I hear thunder?
-S&G-
THE OTHER DAY I was tooling along in The Little Red Car ... minding my own business (and probably holding up impatient drivers behind me) ... when I suddenly came upon one of those school zones.
You know, those places where there are warning signs posted ... and sometimes a set of blinking amber lights, just in case you didn’t see the signs ... OR THE SCHOOL.
That’s usually the place at which other drivers go blasting around me like Little Red is planted in concrete. That’s because I always slow down to the posted speed limit ... 20 mph in these parts.
I always slow down for school zones ... because I have long made it a practice to leave home ON TIME, and, therefore, I HAVE NO NEED TO SPEED.
As I entered the school zone, a most unusual thing happened. Everybody else was slowing down, too.
My first reaction was a bit of puzzlement ... and then a touch of pride ... in these other drivers ... and myself. It appeared that my example ... infuriating though it may be to SOME drivers ... had worked a miracle with this group.
Then I looked a little farther ahead and saw him ... the motorcycle cop ... parked in the median ... pointing his radar gun at us. I’ll bet he was proud of us, too.
-S&G-
TODAY’S POEM: I write a lot about writing. It's not that I'm ... by any stretch of the imagination ... an expert on the subject. On the contrary, the process often baffles me.
Do we know all there is to know about Love? Or Nature? Or God? No! But we pursue these, and other subjects, with a passion, because we want to understand.
So it is with the subject of writing. I write wherever and whenever I can. Afterward, I don't always understand what I've written, or why I wrote it. But I write. I keep a scratchpad beside the bed, a pen ... just in case I wake up with some thought bugging me, something that will be lost if I don't write it down right away.
Sometimes, even that isn't enough to preserve it. My scrawled writing, coupled with the morning mental fog that follows a restless night, can be a tough code to crack.
Oh, well, there will be another time, another place, and maybe that same thought will pop up like a rabbit, go running across the clover field of my mind ... and maybe, just maybe, I'll grab it this time, tame it, make it mine, all mine.
Today’s offering:
STOLEN MINUTES
I steal minutes when I can,
take them for my own use,
sometimes to sit thinking
my own odd-angled thoughts,
sometimes watching as a pencil
searches its way across
the untracked page, sometimes
listening to that voice,
imperceptible except to that
part of the ear that feels,
more than it hears, what is said.
(originally published in The Christian Science Monitor)
-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
I was just sitting here at the keyboard, like I frequently do ... minding my own business ... watching letters and words stringing themselves together as though they knew exactly where they were going.
Then ... suddenly ... ka-BOOM! ... the sound of a cannon going off ... a flash of light that, I’d swear, filled the whole room. And then a deadly silence ... and darkness, of course. It was like Brimm Manor had suffered a direct hit.
I’m not really versed in things electrical, but I know when they’ve abruptly stopped working.
And they had definitely stopped. That was a week or so ago ... maybe two weeks now. You know how time flies when you’re supposed to be having fun.
Eventually, with some tinkering with the fuses ... replacing some switches ... crawling back and forth in the attic ... days later, we had most of our lights back on.
Back to the computer, though. It came back up ... but it wasn’t really working. That is, I could see things on the screen, could even bring up some files and pretend I was working on them.
But contact with the outer world? Forget it. I tried everything ... well, almost everything. It SEEMED like I had tried EVERYTHING, believe me.
Finally, Phyllis ... the long-suffering, ever-patient Phyllis ... asked, “Have you called someone for help?”
Oh, no! Not that! That would be the equivalent of stopping to ask directions when I’m out driving and get lost ... not that I’ve ever gotten lost while driving ... oh, no ...
Well, actually, I have gotten lost a few times while out driving ... but that’s another story entirely (usually Phyllis will ask for directions on my behalf ... thus keeping MY record clean in that department).
I knew she was right, though. Isn’t she always? So ... a few days later, when I felt I wasn’t being watched, I took the phone upstairs and quietly called for help.
The person to whom I was speaking instructed me to do a couple of things and tell him what happened, and, on that basis, had diagnosed the problem ... and had a solution on the way ... all in a matter of about 10 minutes!
It was the modem, folks, the modem. Isn’t it always the last thing you suspect?
So here I am ... just sitting at the keyboard, like I frequently do ... minding my own business ... watching letters and words stringing themselves together as though they know exactly where they are going.
But now I’m also listening for ... there it WAS! ... a distant rumble of thunder ... WHOA! I’m OUTTA here! See ya LATER ...
-S&G-
(much later) I’M BACK ... but I’m still listening ... Oh, am I ever!
-S&G-
PROFESSOR SQUIGGLEE ... you know how suspicious he can be of seemingly unexplained absences ... thought I had been in Florida on spring break all this time. Never! And, should he ask you, please tell him ... the truth now ... that I wasn’t any where near Florida.
-S&G-
TODAY’S POEM: I’ve heard it said that desperate times call for desperate measures. Well, after the recent BIG KA-BOOM! at Brimm Manor, I’d say these are desperate times. So-o-o ...
Some of you may have heard/read today’s poem before. If so, I hope you’ll forgive my repeating myself ... and maybe write it off as a part of my becoming ... what’s it called? Older, maybe?
Anyway, here it is:
SUMMER SHOWDOWN
Summer sun’s so boiling hot
I can almost hear the soft
clinking of spurs, stealthy
creaking of the boardwalk,
a sudden, smothering silence
in which the buzz of a fly
sounds sinister, foretelling
a showdown on the sun-baked,
hoof-pocked, clatter-plaited
street, where a tumbleweed
pauses in the sanctum of shade
cast by a tumble-down saloon,
where I stand, suddenly struck
by a lightning flash of thirst.
(originally published in St. Anthony Messenger)
-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
In a recent e-mail, JAN, Ohio, says ... "I'm listening to some folk music by Joan Baez this morning and it sure brings back memories ... I particularly like this album that has her singing Bachianas Brasileiras #5 - Aria, "So We'll Go No More A'Roving," Birmingham Sunday and more ... "
-S&G-
Today's quote ... courtesy of WALT, Ohio: "The only things that stand between a person and what they want in life are the will to try it, and the faith to believe it's possible." - Rick Devos
-S&G-
And thanks for stopping by.
Happy Easter, everybody ...
-S&G-
Seems like only yesterday that I commented that I was still moving ... "sprinting," I think I called it ...
Well, LOREE, Kansas, is moving, too ... but let's let her tell it:
" ... that word 'moving' has a whole new meaning for me ... as I am up to my eyeballs ... actually over my head, in MOVING ... really! To town.
"I cleared the first hurdle ... which actually was only a couple inches off the ground ... easily. That had 'open house' written all over it! As did the signs ... one at the front of my drive, others scattered at the necessary intersections for finding the place where the open house was.
"The sale fliers of my upcoming sale are very impressive! They include five pictures (that turned out great) of the house, the shop building, the pasture, the pond, and the hay barn out in the pasture.
"Makes me wish I was as photogenic as all of those are!"
(Good luck, Loree ... and both Professor Squigglee and I assure you that we will not hinder you by offering to help; over the years we've learned we're most useful when we simply stand aside.)
How’s goin’ with you?
Fine, I hope.
Me? Oh, I’m still hangin’ in there ... like a butterfly clinging to a flower, sipping the nectar, thinking about a next move ... or maybe nothing at all.
But believe me ... I don’t flit like a butterfly ... and I certainly don’t sting like a bee.
Oh, I still sprint! That is, I rush from one task to another (they always seem so difficult to catch up to) ... but, truth be told, my sprinting is a relative term. Compared with a large, soil-embedded rock ... or a cornerstone, maybe ... my movement is ... well, “sprinting.”
At least I’m still moving ... or was, the last time I checked.
Like I say, here I am, clinging to the trailing edge of technology ... by my fingertips ... wondering when I’ll lose my grip ... and not daring to look down to see how far I might fall, if I were to lose my grip.
And I’m lovin’ every minute of it ... though my fingers are aching ... and my hair ... what’s left of it ... is poppin’ and snappin’ in the breeze.
-S&G-
TODAY’S QUOTE ... courtesy of WALT, Ohio: “Keep your face to the sunshine and you will not see the shadows.” - Helen Keller
-S&G-
FOUND in one of the teetering stacks here at Brimm Manor ... this from HELEN, Florida:
She’s looking for a good book ... “Any suggestions? If you do ... please rule out depressing books that never let up on that feeling. True ... I like a book to take me out of my world, but I like to be entertained if it’s a novel or a mystery. I don’t mind a few tears, but better if it’s mixed with a few laughs.”
Also:
“Has anybody seen any good movies? Maybe this doesn’t fit into Squiggles ... I just don’t like to pay for a pig in a poke and then spend my time with a bad movie.”
-S&G-
TODAY’S POEM: I will always remember that butterfly, and that once in a lifetime event, as described in today's poem.
I remember precisely the hillside on which I was sitting when the butterfly found me. I had been mowing the grounds of a friend's summer home in Southern Ohio. It was a hot, steamy day. The mower had become balky, so I decided we both needed a rest ... a bit of cooling off.
I was just sitting there, hoping for a bit of breeze, when it happened. But let's let the poem tell what occurred:
BUTTERFLY
I remember sitting
so still, feeling
the sweat trickling
down my back, beading
along my forearms,
a touch like
an angel's breath
when a butterfly
fluttered down
onto my sunburned
hand and sat there
for the longest time
before sipping
that moisture born
of hard labor, then
lifted lightly off, wafted
away like a dream.
© 1996
(originally published in Read, America!)
-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
(No ... it's not really a cake. A closer look reveals that it's a table, a snow-covered table, one which, with the addition of a large umbrella in the summertime, provides a place for a comfortable, quiet interlude at Wright State University. By the way, I was indoors when I snapped the photo.)
-S&G-
TODAY'S QUOTE ... courtesy of WALT, Ohio: "Courage does not always roar. Sometimes it is a quiet voice at the end of the day, saying ... 'I will try again tomorrow.'"
-S&G-
AND THIS ... from RUTH, Ohio ... "We all get heavier as we get older, because there's a lot more information in our heads. That's my story and I'm sticking to it."
-S&G-
WHICH BRINGS us to ... FRANTIC FRIDAY. That's TODAY. That's when I try to think of something to write for the weekly ... Saturday ... posting of "Squiggles." What will it be THIS time? ... What WILL it be ... ? Any suggestions? If so, please hurry!
-S&G-
(Really? Really end road work? They've got to be kidding, right? Or maybe not ... Who knows? It is April 1, isn't it?)
LOOKING BACK ... Professor Squigglee advises against it ... says the more he looks back the more he bumps into things.
I can see the logic in that ... especially today.
However, there are times when I think it’s OK to take a look ... at least a quick glance ... at things from the past.
This e-mail from LOREE, Kansas, for example, that I just rescued ... the e-mail, that is ... from one of the teetering stacks here in Brimm Manor:
“By the way, I heard an interesting news story ... about the fortieth birthday of the computer and e-mail ... when the first e-mail message was sent successfully and a reply even came back from the other end!
“But when the one who received the reply attempted to respond, the computer on the other end CRASHED!
“It was a beginning, for sure, but some things ... like that computer crash ... just haven’t changed all that MUCH!
“And by the way, if we think the malls are crowded, just think of space and the endless e-mails flying through there! No wonder ... like snail mail ... some e-mails never find their way to the intended recipient!
“Will there come a day when both our planet ... AND space ... simply cannot hold any more? That wouldn’t surprise ME at all!”
