Frozen Flight

The photo, taken on one of our day trips, has nothing to do with "flight," but I liked the colors, the composition ... the tranquility ... and thought I'd share it today.


-S&G- 


SOME OF YOU may recall that I’ve mentioned having been a sprinter ... way back in the previous century, in my high school days.


I had prepared by walking to town many times ... and back, of course (we didn’t have a car ... or even a horse and buggy) ... climbing bluffs, jumping creeks and smaller streams ... running in the dark because I was ... well, scared.


Put me on a cinder track, and it was a breeze ... for short distances, that is. I ran the 100 and 220. I also participated in the broad jump, high jump, low hurdles, relay team, and I did a little distance running, too. 


But the sprint. The short, fast race was my thing.


It was only natural, I suppose, that I carry this concept over into the computer age. I spent a number of working years at a computer ... long hours, tedious tasks. Not my thing.


I tried it for a while after I retired and had my own computer-like machine (the real thing was to come later - I was always on the trailing edge of technology). Not my thing.


The “sprint” was more like it, I remembered. So I got in the habit of setting the timer, perching myself in front of the keyboard and, at the imaginary sound of the imaginary starter’s pistol, I was OFF!


For 15 minutes I could type like mad ... and sometimes it even made sense. That was my thing.


Trouble was, sometimes the timer went off in mid-


-S&G-


sentence. And what was I to do? There was no point in continuing to sprint after the race was over, right? So I’d stop right there, walk about to relax a bit, take a nap, prepare for the next “race.”


Then I’d be OFF again, typing like mad. Oh, I was fast! This was real sprinting.


And the best part was that ... a bit of ancient history here ... there were no dinosaurs on the track. And, if I chose to do the low hurdles, no turtles, either.


Oh, I liked it 


-S&G- 


... a lot. Sorry ... false alarm there. I thought MY timer had gone off, but it appears that the sound came from the kitchen ... which happens to be one of my favorite gathering places, but that’s another story, too.  
  
Now where was I? Oh, yes, I was sprinting ... hurrying to beat the clock and get this installment of “Squiggles” ready for public consumption. 


Uh-OH ... that WAS my timer (did you hear it, too?). See ya later.


-S&G- 


(I’m back now, after a suitable interlude of meditation in my recliner ... I find, more and more, that it is the perfect thing for producing deep, deep thought)


-S&G-


What I started out to say, before all those random thoughts started tugging at my sleeve ... is that it seems like only yesterday that I made a posting in which I asked for a show of hands as to whether you’d prefer that I make daily postings here ... dribs and drabs, if you will ... or do it in one big blob, like today.


Well, the responses have been pouring in. The elves have been so busy sorting them ... that they’re way behind on their dancing and partying. But that’s another story, too.


Too late, I realized that ... in my “sprinting” to get that little item posted, I had neglected one tiny detail: How best to cast your vote.


So here it is:


You can post your vote right on the blog, if you wish ... and I ... or the elves ... will find it.


Or if you prefer e-mail, that's fine, too. Just send it to:


 rbrimm@peoplepc.com


-S&G-


TODAY’S POEM: Today, class ... sorry, that sounds like Professor Squigglee, doesn’t it? Today I have a summer poem.


No, sorry, I don't have a picture of a sweat bee to go along with the poem. Those rascals are too tiny, too unpredictable, too fast for me and my camera.


The poem itself is almost a haiku moment, a tiny flicker of activity broken off before I became fully focused on what was happening.


But it became a little more than that ... and it carries so many memories of all those places this kind of "stare down" has happened to me over the years.


Originally published in Capper's:


FROZEN FLIGHT


A sweat bee
hovers in my face,
wings invisible
in the heavy air,
then, satisfied
at having won
this stare down,
darts away.


-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