FRIDAY, as some of you may know, is also known ... around the otherwise calm and quiet Brimm Manor ... as FRANTIC FRIDAY.
Not always, but sometimes. And this one certainly turned out to be.
Friday normally is that day that I start putting “Squiggles” together, and ... if all goes well ... it gets posted some time during the night (make that the early-morning hours of Saturday ... if all goes well).
And why is that? Don’t I have all week to put it together? Well, yes ... and I suppose I could devote the whole week to gathering dribs and drabs of things that would eventually add up to a whole installment.
But it just doesn’t work that way.
You probably know how that goes. The subject is rattling around there in the back of the brain ... but the forebrain is occupied with other, more important, thoughts ... or so they seem.
There are so many things which call out for attention ... the leaky faucet ... the hedge that’s taking on a Halloween look ... the yard gasping for water ...
You know how it is. Then, suddenly, it’s Friday again. Time to put on the running shoes and get started on “Squiggles.”
And so it was this Friday. I leapt out of bed ... slowly, as usual, making sure I had one foot on the floor, then the other ... then, checking to see that the room wasn’t tilting or slowly revolving ... and then shuffling off to my trusty computer.
Ah, but this Friday morning was to be a bit different. As I approached Ol’ Trusty, it appeared that there might be something wrong.
Sure enough, there was. Ol’ Trusty was still asleep.
I tried everything. I tickled the keyboard ... flicked switches off and on ... held one switch IN while I counted to 30 or so (as I had been instructed during an earlier crisis) ... I did everything, but stopped short of giving it mouth-to-mouth ... or yelling at it (for fear of frightening the neighbors ... for when I yell, I really YELL).
Meanwhile, the clock was ticking away ... and I had an early morning commitment ... to meet with some other people who do a bit of watercolor painting. We were going to sneak up on a field of sunflowers (maybe they’d be looking the other way) and do their portraits.
This is no easy task, I can assure you, even when there are no recurring thoughts of that contrary computer back home.
Hours later I returned home ... came crawling up the stairs ... and walked slowly into the room where Ol’ Trusty holds forth.
It was WORKING! That’s right, WORKING!
Actually, it was working in the sense that it now responded to my familiar touch on the keyboard ... I didn’t mean to imply that it was working in the sense that it had gone ahead without me. I don’t think it would ever do that. Would it?
But by this time I was so bushed ... from painting ... and worry ... and worry ... and painting ... and ...
Well, you get the picture. And I hope you’ll understand if this week’s “Squiggles” doesn’t have the usual bells and whistles ... all those practiced flourishes which have people waiting for it all across this great land of ours.
And I hope we can meet here again next week.
Meanwhile ...
-S&G-
TODAY'S POEM: Strange, but the word "late" came to mind when I finally started thinking about which poem I might share with you today. That naturally led to this:
LATE-NIGHT SERENADE
Sometimes at midnight, sometimes
three o’clock in the morning,
I hear him pouring out his soul,
and I know he’s lonely, or lovesick,
or both, poor fellow, even though
I can’t make out the words, just
the emotion of his mournful song
that goes on and on, rising in pitch,
subsiding, resuming, reminding me
of a gray wolf sending a message
somewhere in the wilds. He persists,
night after night, sitting beside
his doghouse, two doors down, nose
pointing heavenward, ears laid back,
howling, yowling, pitifully crying
his poor heart out over a lost bone,
a failed romance, the solitude
of the bachelor’s way of life --
something that’s obviously bothering
him. And it bothers me that he
doesn’t start thinking about it
until I’m trying to get some sleep,
then howls the rest of the night.
(originally published in Kaleidoscope)
-S&G-
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-S&G-
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Thanks for paying a visit.
-S&G-
UNTIL NEXT TIME ... take care ... see ya!
-S&G-
© 2010
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