PROFESSOR SQUIGGLEE HERE ... The other day I was BEHIND a vehicle which pulled up to a STOP sign ... and STOPPED.
Naturally, I stopped, too. My first reaction was that the driver ... obviously ... was having car trouble. I checked my rear-view mirror (I do that frequently these days) ... nobody behind me. Should I get out and offer help? Should I pull carefully around and go on? Should I just wait to see what happens next?
Actually, the third choice soon pushed itself to the fore ... and I didn’t have to wait long at all. The brake lights of the vehicle in front of me went off ... and the vehicle went on through the intersection ... and down the street.
Can you believe? Somebody stopped ... actually STOPPED ... voluntarily ... and with no police observer nearby, as far as I could see ... came to a complete stop ... at a STOP sign.
Whoa! Can it be? I found myself wondering if what I thought I had just witnessed had really happened.
Is it possible that STOP might cease to be just another four-letter word that we routinely ignore as we go about the deadly business of driving/texting/eating/drinking/ignoring/rules ... LAWS ... made for our own safety ... and that of others?
I doubt it.
-S&G-
OTHER VOICES ... this from LOREE (Kansas) ... Hi, Bob ... what is this sudden compulsion regarding food? Isn't this the second poem (referring to last week's offering) you have shared with us of late regarding food?!
(Oh, I think you caught me again, Loree)
LOREE continues ... And now I'm hungry all over again! I've developed my own pattern for eating ... Only do that when I happen to think of it! Sure cuts down on the grocery budget:-)
And of course, there are those wonderful times each month when some kind relative takes pity on me, and absolutely INSISTS that they take me out to eat.
Actually, I think I have more 'dates' now, than I did as a teenager! Used to be, back in those days, the best I could get out of a date, in a sort of 'food' offering, was a Coke, served up with TWO straws, and if I didn't drink really fast, I was crushed by thinking I might not have gotten my fair share:-)
These days are different ... I think it has something to do with how skinny I am ... as evidenced by my brother-in-law calling and saying, 'You have 4 choices....1) Go out and eat 2) Have something catered in 3) I'll bring some home cooked food (that's when I made my decision!), or 4) None of the above!
Well, visions of Blue's Café, a favorite for the home-cooked tasting food, swam before my eyes, and even my stomach growled in approval!
So, last evening found us sitting in Blue's. The portions there are so generous that a 'box' is always a necessity for taking home the leftovers ... and the price? Very reasonable, especially when you consider that I get two or three 'suppers' from the trip there, which REALLY cheapens it up.
(And now you’ve got me all hungry again, Loree. Tell you what, let’s all meet at Blue’s ... just for a snack, mind you. Maybe Professor Squigglee would like to join us, too)
-S&G-
OH, AND LOREE also got some work out of the brother-in-law before they left to go eat ... “He installed the new three-way socket on the lamp in the living room that had been 'winking and blinking' and trying to burn my hand, if I dared touch it. From that to the yard, where he covered the compressor for the AC for the winter. AND in the green house he placed the new and bigger (also more costly) electric heater I had bought, because I was afraid the old one might quit, and do that on the coldest night of the upcoming winter.”
But she didn't ask him to go dig holes for the 50 tulip and daffodil bulbs waiting to be planted ... figured that just might be pushing her luck a bit:-)
-S&G-
THIS FROM WALT (Ohio) ... In winter why do we try to keep the house as warm as it was in summer when we complained about the heat?
-S&G-
THIS FROM a grandfather, by way of HELEN (Florida) ... When my grandson, Billy, and I entered our vacation cabin, we kept the lights off until we were inside, to keep from attracting pesky insects.
Still, a few fireflies followed us in.
Noticing them before I did, Billy whispered, “It’s no use, Grandpa. Now the mosquitoes are coming after us with flashlights.”
-S&G-
TODAY’S POEM: I grew up in the country ... not on a farm, but in the country ... away from city lights.
As a result of that ... and hearing my grandfather talk so many times about the phases of the moon ... its importance in the planting of crops ... knowing about its pull on those distant oceans ... its effect on young lovers ... I was always intrigued by the moon.
The front porch swing provided a great vantage point for watching the giant harvest moon rising slowly over the hills.
I remember being so intrigued by the quarter moon ... the new moon ... the moon showing in the late daytime sky.
When one lives in the city, though, the moon can become a forgotten item ... unless it really asserts itself as we're coming up the driveway on a late-winter evening.
Then there's no denying it. I still remember that evening ... can almost hear a choir, singing a cappella, celebrating the rising of that moon.
The poem:
THE MOON TONIGHT
What a gorgeous sight,
lodged in the darkness
of the walnut tree,
the nearer maples joining
to hold it, glowing
in the late-winter sky,
broken, and yet whole,
like a stained-glass
window catching evening
light, holding it high
under the ceiling while
voices rise in song.
(originally published in Capper's)
-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-
If you’d like to see what’s up with my other, DAILY blog (no, this is not my “Home Page”), 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
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