Death and Politics at the end of the world

I was hoping to get a bit of feedback on my WIP from my blogging friends. On Sunday evenings I will post a page or two of Death and Politics at the End of the World and I'd like to hear what you all have to say! (I will make one disclaimer: the formatting that I use does not translate on blogger. In Word I use Fonts and WordArt in order to achieve a certain effect which you will not have the benefits of. Hopefully you will enjoy it anyway...)

The air envelops, vacuum-sealing the skin with moisture, ill-fitting and alien. Clothes react to the alteration in the physique, ironed pleats melting. Tendrils of mouse brown bangs cling- cooked spaghetti in a pan. It isn’t until the Ft. Lauderdale airport fades from view and the Florida toll road that the air conditioning in the rental beats back the sullen mid-afternoon July heat.

            Palm trees and sprouting developments dapple the landscape, the tropical foliage out of place among the hastily built habitations, dubitable monuments to William Levitt. The loosely coiled expressway through Miami is pleasant: Toll booths unfortunate dams in the Gulf Stream’s trafficked flow. I cynically wonder if the state doesn’t encourage rental agencies to recommend the “road less traveled” to ensure the population of their taxable byways. With Christmas morning anticipation, I strain to get my first glimpse of the exit to Homestead and Highway One, the expectancy of arrival heightens as I contemplate the solitary dime jingling in my pocketbook. They can pave the everglades on someone else’s penny. They’ll have to.

            I tuck my wallet away, relax into the leather of the import and set the cruise control, realizing even as I take my foot off the accelerator that the stop-and-go flow of the mostly one-lane highway will make cruising superfluous. I gaze off to the side, anxiously awaiting my first blush of the ocean… new time, new place. Key West is a different world—anything is possible; the real world, paradoxically, is the unwanted dream. The carbon dioxide in the back and deepest section of my airway passage loosens, releases…

At last…

Blue, turquoise, green, indigo, cyan, white surf spraying, rolling, pulling, dragging out… nothingness.

Sailing away to Key Largo

Here’s looking at you, kid…

 Buccaneer Drive… hey there Buccaneer!

                         

               Stomach’s rumbling…

won’t starve, lardo…

Key Lardo…

   hate McDonald’s.

Key West,

97 miles

            two hours    tops . . . 

Captain Jim’s Diving and Shoveling

… shoveling? …

fish?

Pay to shovel fish?

Snorkeling! More like it. 

Ann’s Beach… sand, warm water, sinking, drifting, kelp anklets, slimy, green things… used to hate it-

grew on me.

Wonder if he’s heard anything. . .

                       Surely has-          

                                                                        happens all the time. . .

misunderstanding, miscommunication, misplaced, missing, mistake… 

Poisonwood Road. 

One mile to Islamorada—Ila,

or Eeesla?

Yzma!

What poison… poison for Cusco? Yes, that poison… wood.  Bible. King --  who???                     . . . solvent?                             solver! 

Hey! C’mon, move it! Want to be there before the sunset… or sunrise at this rate! Need to get around this beat up bug, long-haired potsmoking lib--- “Oh look honey, another pro-lifer for war”... hilarious! 

Squinting.

Glare is horrible…

beautiful.

Just like Bogey and Bacall…

starring in my own late, late show…

I told it all.

Deer Key

deer crossing-

drive slow- or… speed up

deer burger.

L              o              n              g                                      Key.

          --ish

Houses with legs -- 

elevators for handicapped? Water would swirl…

 a personal Jacuzzi…

worry it would crash—

                        debris,

swirling waters,

sharks,

I—

can’t sw-

sssswiii-

ssswiiiiimmm!

Theater of the Sea      Catchy!

Servile sea-life:

And Now Ladies and Gentlemen… for your viewing pleasure.

And next door: Sea-food Buffet. That makes it easy: A retirement center- Flipper in a whole new show!

Ladies and gentlemen… now for your dining pleasure.

                                        Dolphin Preserve...

  ...Dolphin Exploitation! 

Following your bliss

It's week two of the re-re-re-re-running of Mo and my favorite series Key West (isn't it a coincidence that I love Key West and the show is called Key West???... not so much!! :) Our hero, Seamus, has lost all his money and has spent some hilarious moments on the show trying to make a living at various careers at which he... well, bungles is too gentle a term. He is now in a quandary about what to do in order to fulfill his dream of being a writer and make a living while living on the same island that Ernest Hemingway and Tennessee Williams (and other writers actually!) had gotten their creative juices from. After a visit to the recentering program with the town's sheriff, Cody tells Seamus about his vast experience in living a life of bliss wherein he became "a lion, manifested" while Seamus sits beside him, ostensibly meditating. But the sheriff realizes he can't live his life that way. They'd put him in a zoo. So he had to "learn how to do his karma dance with the physical thing." 

   

So my favorite quote is the one that has gotten me through the darker moments of my work related life in the past five to six years, like when I was working a second job at the local grocery store as a Courtesy Clerk (a.k.a. Bagger). I had to go out on some of the coldest nights of the year-- well, correction they were actually record cold temperatures that year--  to bring in the grocery carts... and I was already so tired and weary after having worked at my other job all day and I wondered why I was out there schlepping metal carts around on the pavement in between the poorly parked cars for people who were too lazy to even put them somewhere that I could get to easily... Why was I doing this again? I was often in tears (or had icicles on my cheeks that wanted to be tears) as I shoved the carts through the snow angrily. 

And the answer would inevitably come that I left my old life in order to be a writer. I NEEDED to be a writer--- and I couldn't be a writer and be on my own without money...I needed as Cody put it "The green energy" So...         

My favorite quote from the show for this week and the question to ponder...

“How do you live in this world and follow your bliss?"

Favorite Mug

Erica and Christy are hosting the HOTNESS on Thursdays Blogfest and while I have a busy day and wasn't sure I would have the time to participate my morning was freed up I think I'll have time to get to see many of your entries today and what I don't get to today I will come to see tomorrow!! So without further ado! My favorite mug which I actually do not drink out of because I do not want to ruin it with dishwashings, etc. 

It's an Ann Taintor mug. Ann Taintor, if you are unfamiliar, uses actual pictures from the 50s and puts hilarious  quotes next to them. If your wondering why this particular one caught my eye, you can read more about my history here, otherwise, take my word for it, it was what life was like for me at one time.

Another favorite:

And I do drink a lot of hot tea out of this one... so there you have it. 

My favorite mugs!  

Chasing the skies

Ordinary day, driving the kid to school and we're late. I'm rushing, pushing, passing cars, edging ahead of traffic. Seconds tick and I feel the day's urgency, an invisible hand on the small of my back, nudging me ever forward. Conversation is short and clipped, my focus on the lights ahead pulls my son's gaze into the race, his urgings -come on car, come on- only adds to my anxiety. Leaning back in his seat, his relaxed angle allows him to see what I in my urgency would have otherwise missed... 

Ballooners taking advantage of the cool morning air and blue skies, soaring just overhead, so close that it seems that we might be able to hitch a ride if we were able to catch up. My path briefly follows theirs and I am torn, longing to shed the mornings duties and follow the balloon, wind, blue skies and whim or turn the car and carry on with duty and responsibility. I pause, considering...

But the balloon takes a turn that has him gliding over treetops and rooftops, past stream and ravine, on a path where my car could not follow, too swift for my feet to pursue... 

I was left in it's wake with the hope that I too would have days to chase the skies and sail off into the blue. 

Library clears its shelves in protest at closure threat

Users urged to take out full allowance of library books in campaign to keep Stony Stratford branch open

• Maev Kennedy
• guardian.co.uk, Friday 14 January 2011 17.47 GMT
• Article history
  
• 
• Stony Stratford library is one of two branches being considered for closure by Milton Keynes council. Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian
• 
  
• The library at Stony Stratford, on the outskirts of Milton Keynes, looks like the aftermath of a crime, its shell-shocked staff presiding over an expanse of emptied shelves. Only a few days ago they held 16,000 volumes.
  Now, after a campaign on Facebook, there are none. Every library user was urged to pick their full entitlement of 15 books, take them away and keep them for a week. The idea was to empty the shelves by closing time on Saturday: in fact with 24 hours to go, the last sad bundle of self-help and practical mechanics books was stamped out. Robert Gifford, chair of Stony Stratford town council, planned to collect his books when he got home from work in London, but left it too late.
  The empty shelves, as the library users want to demonstrate, represent the gaping void in their community if Milton Keynes council gets its way. Stony Stratford, an ancient Buckinghamshire market town famous only for its claim that the two pubs, the Cock and the Bull, are the origin of the phrase "a cock and bull story", was one of the communities incorporated in the new town in 1967. The Liberal Democrat council, made a unitary authority in 1997, now faces budget cuts of £25m and is consulting on closing at least two of 10 outlying branch libraries.
  Stony Stratford council got wind in December and wrote to all 6,000 residents – not entirely disinterestedly, as the council meets in the library, like many other groups in the town. "In theory the closure is only out for consultation," Gifford said, "but if we sit back it will be too late. One man stopped me in the street and said, 'The library is the one place where you find five-year-olds and 90-year-olds together, and it's where young people learn to be proper citizens'. It's crazy even to consider closing it."
  – they should be finding ways to expand its services and bring even more people in."
  Emily Malleson, of the Friends of Stony Stratford Library, said: "I was lucky, I got in early, so I got some nice children's books – and my children came along and took out all their books too. I had to bring the car to get them all home.The late-comers just had to take whatever was left."

• 
  
• 
  
• 
  
• 
  
• http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jan/14/stony-stratford-library-shelves-protest

Yawn...

Don't know about you, but this is me this weekend!

The Versatile Blogger Award pt. 2

Close on the heels of the Versatile blogger award from Donea, I received another Versatile Blogger award from Talei at Musing from an Aspiring Scribe. It was lovely and I was very moved by it-- trust me- having been the girl who was the last one chosen for kick ball on a regular basis, it does the ol' ego good to have a few awards coming her way! So thanks again Talei!

I would like to pass the award on to:

©     LadyFi at Lady Fi 

©     Sarah at The Unwrapping 

©     Brigitte at Brimagination

©     Marcy at Mainewords 

©     Clarissa at Listen to the Voices
©     Roxy at A Woman’s Write

 And as I have been around long enough to have a 23 year old daughter I think I can come up with seven more weirdnesses about myself to entertain you with (although why you care...):
(Drumroll please)

v     My first kiss was on stage (does it even count?!?!?)

v     I travelled to India and within the first few days I saw 120 degree temperatures, a typhoon and flooded roads in Bombay, rode on a train as full as the one on Gandhi (the film), and a body floating on the Ganges. Talk about culture shock!

v     My best friend in high school arranged a song especially for me to sing for a concert which included the Jazz Band.

v     On our last trip to Key West I was snorkeling a FEW FEET away from a small nurse shark! It looked at me, I looked at it and it swam away.

v     I can do a pretty good Cookie Monster imitation. The kids loved it when I worked at the daycare… although my Grover isn’t bad either. "There's a monster at the end of this book..."

v     I once spent $7000.00 in books in a few weeks. Okay, I’ll confess it was for the library not for me… but I did save up my graduation money and spent $200 on classic titles that I wanted to take with me to college—Dickens, The Bronte’s, Hawthorne, Fowles (told ya, I’m a BOOK NERD!)

v     In 11 years I lived in 15 different apartments or houses. (And the moves were made, generally, with 1 or 2 little ones in tow! Yikes! This is another thing you don't want to do!) 

An anniversary of sorts

Today is the anniversary of the show that has meant a great deal to Mo and I-- it is the show that he first saw in 1993 on this day (but I missed!) and which got him to first visit Key West. And because he loved it so much he shared it with me five years ago just after we started dating and several months later...

I was taking my first steps onto the island! (And the perfect time of year too, because it was February and that means there is always the potential for blizzard and 0 temps in Denver!)
We had a lovely time... (of course!) but the real meaning of the show has surpassed the visits to the island. It has been an inspiration for my writing and a cause for celebration of life! So on this the anniversary, I will share with you my favorite quote from the episode that aired on January 19, 1993...

Key West

The main character, Seamus O'Neill has come to Key West after winning the lottery to be a writer just like his favorite writer Ernest Hemingway. He is sitting in a bar when Jennifer Tilly, the main female character named Savannah arrives. She is the Moon Goddess personified. Sexuality incarnate. She sees Seamus and instantly sizes him up.

"A writer? Having a little trouble getting that first novel between the covers? ... You've come to the right place, you pretty thing. It's magic here. There are Angels in the Spray, Wizards in the Palm Trees, and Elves in the Sea Shells, and they all look very favorably on struggling young writers."

As you can see, she knew her island well. 

(More to come! I'll be posting a favorite Quote from an episode each week... so stay tuned!)

First date

This is a work of Fiction...

One life had been filled with vows, promises, children, pets and mortgages. After he'd gone the sweet comfort and reliability of the days gone, just heaviness and day after day of getting through. The children called to report on lives they lived, little thought given to the echoes in the rooms or the coldness of sheets. "Kids are great! You should have seen Jack! Just like Dad! You okay? You should go down to the Retirement Center. Have some fun for once!" 

Fun.......

Loneliness consumed her, swallowing her in gaping jaws with insatiate animal appetites. She breathed the tattered flannel shirt they'd tug-o-war'd over (the worn material made perfect dust cloth) and turned up the sound on the shopping channel for the soothing sound of chatter. Occasional conversations with friends were marked with echoes of empty chairs "Vera's husband passed away and they don't expect Ruth to make it..." 

  "You have to dance with me!" he'd spotted her before she'd decided to hang up her coat and stay for the Christmas party she'd been reluctantly talked in to. "I do?" He swept her into his magic act, disappearing coats, transformation tricks, waltzing as he laughed into her ear that she was the most beautiful woman capable of doing much more than shuffling in the entire building. Air and a rasping wheeze were the prelude to exploding convulsions that nearly doubled her over "Is THAT your line? The best you can do?" Their twinned laughter broke past the band's front lines and caught the attention of the elderly in the front row whose faces immediately pruned with distaste. His laughter belled through to the rafters and she hid her face on his shoulder.

"That was ten years ago today..." she leaned back into the gentleman on the couch at the Inn at Charlotte where we were enjoying champagne and a light snack in the final hours of the afternoon. "We've been laughing ever since. I hope you all have as many happy years together" We clinked our glasses in a final salutation and we watched them depart.    

Versatile Blogger award and Monday miscellanies...

Okay if I get this right... passing this on has certain rules, first link to the original awarder which I am happy to do. Donea at The Queen of Procrastination (click on the award to go to her blog!) awarded me with The Versatile Blogger a little over a week ago and I was quite surprised and thrilled but wanted to take a few days to think about who to pass it on to... 

So I would like to pass it on to Burrowers, Books & Balderdash for their creative endeavors as a team and as individuals- most particularly Rayna M. Iyers who had a spectacular picture story on the thirteenth of January. Check it out!!!  

Some all also have their own blogs: 

Rayna: Coffee Rings Everywhere and Snapshots of Bombay

Chary: BronxTales & Inner Musings

Cruella: The Giraffability of Digressions

Hart: Confessions of a Watery Tart

Leanne: Violaleanne

and 

Tara: Princess of Procrastination

Now: the seven (really seven???) things about myself: (WHO CARES?!?!?!)

~ I have a 23 year old daughter (yup! I'm that old! That's why you never see pics of my oldest two on here. I'd have to admit it. I keep them hidden on another blog)

~ I have a wicked toe pinch (I've picked up quite a few items over the years when my hands were full)

~ I played trumpet all through school. 

~ I was a DJ for a year and did the late night shift.

~ I nearly had my car stolen by a man who snuck in the back seat of my car while I was in a 7-11 but I cunningly clubbed him in the back of the head and flagged down a policeman. True story. 

~ I saw 20 cities in Europe in 21 days in January (1984). It was crazy-- don't do it! 

~ I hated ALL green vegetables and did not eat them until I was in college and I am still alive and healthy. 

It's Monday and my new day off although generally I would have to work part of the day. but today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day so I am off the entire day so I am going to take advantage of it and get some real Writing done. That means having music for inspiration, some champagne and no blogging (I'll have to catch up tomorrow folks!). Writing tip for the day... came first from Stephen King but was reiterated and heightened by my darling Mo: Read!    

Read authors who write better than you do, read books that inspire you to write better, that inspire you to write, that inspire you, and perhaps even intimidate. Don't read just anything read creative works!!!! Stephen King (who is NOT an author I admire by any stretch of the imagination) reads several hours each day because even he acknowledges that it helps his writing... and the more you challenge your reading the more your writing will be effected! 

Picture taken at Fahrenheit Books in Denver

Inspiration for Writing

Streams of Life
The same stream of life that runs through my veins night and day

runs through the world and dances in rhythmic measures.

It is the same life that shoots in joy through the dust of the earth

in numberless blades of grass

and breaks into tumultuous waves of leaves and flowers.

It is the same life that is rocked in the ocean-cradle of birth

and of death, in ebb and in flow.

I feel my limbs are made glorious by the touch of this world of life.

And my pride is from the life-throb of ages dancing in my blood this moment.

by Rabindranath Tagore

Save the Dolphins!

It's not unusual for an animal as smart as a dolphin to be trained for it's entertainment value and though I am not a avid activist in these matters a cause has recently caught my attention that I thought I would bring to yours... I've never so much as darkened the doors of a hotel in Las Vegas apparently there is an exhibit at The Mirage, owned by MGM Grand International called "Siegfried and Roy's Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat." The pool the dolphins live in is reportedly located near a highway which cause them to develop respiratory diseases. In addition to this, the dolphins are subjected to extreme temperature changes. As a result many of the dolphins die from the unnatural causes.According to the article:

The dolphins perform tricks and flips for the paying customers and are given fish as reward. These are not natural behaviors for dolphins; they are trained and taught behaviors.

This exhibit has been the death sentence for many wild and captive-born dolphins. The Review-Journal obtained records from the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration that includes an inventory of the dolphins at The Mirage and cause of death for those that died.

This is a cause that is near and dear to my heart. A few days ago, I wrote of my character's "animal spirit guide"-- I love dolphins and they are my "spirit guides" and I hate to see them so shabbily treated. Please sign the petition asking The Mirage to ask them to end their exhibit and if you are planning to visit Las Vegas, please avoid The Mirage and MGM Grand properties. For the sake of the most beautiful creatures in the ocean! For more information and to sign the petition sign the link below or click on the picture!You can find out more by going to my other blog... Meanderings of Wandering Mind.

An Award, The Blogging Community and my New Blog!

Not necessarily in that order..... but here we go!

I've posted a bit more on politics at Meanderings of a Wandering Mind - if you enjoy current events I'll be posting there at random times. Comments and suggestions are always WELCOME at either site!!!

I also want to thank Tara at Feel of Something New for awarding me with the Stylish Blogger award! It is always lovely to be recognized in such a way!

When I received the award on top of the others that I have received recently it reminded me that the blogging community is indeed a COMMUNITY. On our blogs we share our writing (which is often our most personal piece of ourselves, right? I mean we put our heart and souls into our writing!!!), our thoughts about writing, joys and sorrows about rejections, bits and pieces of our lives (so many cute kids out there! and Sara at The Unwrapping fell and had an embarrassing fall!) so we learn to know about each other though we may never meet each other face to face (though I have met a fellow blogger-- as mentioned before-- Conchscooter at Key West Diary was a terrific host when we traveled to Key West!) At any rate... As I read all your blogs (and I haven't been as active as I might have been as it has been crazy at work and I have been really busy trying to get things done and keep my own real Writing going) I have enjoyed getting to know you and appreciate the feedback I get from all of you which has been reflected in the awards so Thank you again!!!! 

Here is your moment of Zen... 

Is it an eagle? Is it a snake?

I'm developing a new character and I have a pretty clear picture of who I think she is. If you were to name her spirit animal what would you say it was?  

She advances down the street with a confidence that holds life itself in contempt, she has a "you-aren't-going-to-defeat-me" gait that carries her around The Common and, fortunately, well beyond The Peonage. She plows through the cracked and crooked Cyprus door, pausing only to allow her cornea time to adjust to the dim, the duskiness that inhabits the cleavage of the walls scurries across the floorboard and over the surface of the hovel that has somehow gained the reputation as a shop. Compound odors of garlic, curry, cigar, incense, dust, and ancient artifact assault the nasal passages of her finely refined nose resulting in a stallioned flare just as the irritation overwhelms her and explodes into the silent gloominess. Plainly the war on grime has been lost and she swats at her hand-pressed sierra-sand-colored skirt and fitted white blouse to prevent any possible incursions to her personage. The tailor-made "Refined Explorer" boots she purchased in Milan wrinkle of their own volition in distaste, disgusted by their proximity to the dirt floor which had undoubtedly been the bed of herd animal at some not too distant past. Cosmetically enhanced nails brush a single stray hair that has rebelliously crept down out of sternly drawn locks and smooths it back in place as she prepares herself for a wait that would have made Abraham impatient. 

Thank you! and Blogging on Politics

Talei Loto at Musings of an Aspiring Scribe has completely topped my week by awarding me The Versatile Blogger award-- which is special in and of itself but along with award commented that she had found several bloggers (me among them) recently and found them "fantastic"-- just kind words! So... Thank you Talei! I will  pass it on as tradition warrants and hopefully remember to list the 7 tidbits about myself! 

Also! In other news... I've decided to change my other blog from a Christmas blog (which never got used) to a political one which I hope to engage in hot topics of the day-- Meanderings of a Wandering Mind. If you are a progressive and enjoy progressive politics, hop on over and follow my occasional meandering OR if you're not but don't mind some polite disagreement (POLITE being the operative word there!) then hop on over! Today's quick posting is on Gun control versus First amendment rights in light of the shooting in Arizona... hope to see you there!

The Garden of Angels

 

I should begin by saying  a big THANK YOU!!! To Donea Lee at Queen of Procrastination who awarded me The Versatile Blogger award. You will spot in it's new location on the right below my blogging friends...
I was touched and honored!
(And yes, I will be Paying it Forward so be on the lookout for that!)



We woke up at our regular hour this morning (that being sometime around 6 a.m. as that is about the time we get up each day to drag ourself to work)to the S word! (Some might conjecture that I might mean that the dog had done his/her business on the carpet but I have no pets and as generally we are a clean lot, you can figure that I do not mean there was anything on the carpet that smelled and would require scrubbing.)

Glancing out the window there was a blanket of whiteness covering the ground and a white coverlet overhead portended more of the frozen whiteness in our future. We let out a collective groan and fell back to sleep, thankful that it was a day off and we didn't have to get outside to face cold snow-filled shoes or shoveling (no point shoveling till most of it had finished). I considered bundling up to take some pictures... after all, freshly fallen snow can be lovely in pictures for those looking at it. Alas, it is not pretty to me and I had no will to find any loveliness in it today. 

So, instead: We journey instead into the past (on one of my Friday's off after dropping off my son at school) when I adventured to the Foothills for some solitude...

 In a car not terribly mountain worthy, I dared not drive too vertically before I find someplace to park. I'd headed up Highway 285 knowing that I might find a quiet path not too far from the main roads when the sign ahead caught my eye and I decided to veer right to the infamous Amphitheater-- Red Rocks.  

Red Rocks has some personal history for me-- I attended several concerts here (at one having gotten very drunk and... well, let's not finish that particular story.) But I also graduated here and stood on the stage with the band and choir awaiting the diploma that would see me out of high school and on to so-called higher education. I stood at the base of the red clay rocks recalling my history here (at least all that I could) and marveled at the changes that have occurred. And then headed on my way...

There are several quiet paths amidst the towering rock and after a false start (batteries dead in the camera! damn! Thankfully Red Rocks is made for tourists and the tourist shop opened at 9) I headed off. 

(This path seemed innocuous enough as I first started up the slope but quickly realized that the top half of the incline was loose rock.) 

It was a quiet morning... the people I ran into were ambitious exercise types who were stair-stepping in the amphitheater. I, having no interest in seeing the familiar concert hall, wanted the solitude of the back paths and this is what I received...

 As I stand here, looking at the red shale of Red Rocks, I am a Time Traveler in the most literal sense of the word. While the Rocky Mountains that lie to the right of the camera's lens are older, this exposed shale is 300 million years old-- at least that is when the sand was first deposited in their current location. 

And over millions more years, dinosaurs roamed this region, laying their eggs, devouring their prey, and harvesting the plant life... then at the end of their life finally lying down to die and leaving behind their remains for us to find like giant puzzles in the clay. In fact, not too far from this point lies the Morrison Formation- a spot which has produced some of the largest dinosaurs that have ever lived and finds are still common there- academic studies an ongoing event.

(by the way--  Rusty Ol' Bastard, a.k.a. ROB is the car parked at the bottom of the hill) 

Something about the rugged way the rocks lay against each other and perhaps the craggy lips that jut out above you... it as though they have been tumbled there under violent circumstances and you can very easily imagine a world in turmoil as volcano and earthquake push the shale and sandstone up toward the blue skies of Colorado.  

Red Rocks was originally known as The Garden of Angels and is a favorite of performers because of it's natural acoustics which are not duplicated anywhere else in the world. (Having sung on the stage, I can tell you that it is a remarkable place to sing with beautiful scenery as a backdrop!). 

It is tempting to many to attempt to climb these rocky outlays-- in fact when I was young (that would be about the same time the dinosaurs walked the earth), it was a favorite activity to head to Red Rocks in the summer and do some rock climbing. A challenging climb and a lovely day all to be had a mere 30 minute's drive from home! Alas, like so many pleasures of youth, signs abound...

Climbing on the lowest, most inoffensive boulder seems to alert the ever vigilant Park Rangers so I will wind my way back to my car on this walkway for concert goers- careful to keep my feet on the cemented path. The "$999 dollar fee or 100 days in jail or both" that is exacted for heading off into verboten areas is not worth it in my humble opinion.   

The winter months have changed the timbre of my day's off. The shortened days, bare branches and cold breezes do not invite me to linger out of doors... that along with feeling the limitations of time. I have fewer hours to write so my day's off need to be spent Getting Things Done rather than meandering the rockways and  backways of the Foothill. 

I can't wait till spring!

New Creations Blogfest!

Happy Birthday Summer!! and thanks for the hosting the blogfest! 
So here are the rules:  one sentence is a favorite last line from one story last year... and one brand new sentence to start something new.



When I first read about Summer's blogfest I wasn't going to enter because I didn't have a last year's ending sentence so this is a little cheat--it is a piece of "Death and Politics at the End of the World"  which I submitted as a short story, but I didn't write a short story last year so.... 

"Pulling out into the steady stream of traffic, I am only half aware of changing lights and turning cars as I measure my own lucidity."  

if you object to my cheat you could read the ending of my blogposts from this year here and here...

This year's new sentence:


"It smothers her, enclosing her in its tentacled grip of hostility and drags her down into an abyss as she struggles, even as realization dawns that there is no escaping the invisible appendages that pull her, flailing in futility until her al dente spaghetti limbs ache with the effort.