Writing on a beautiful Sunday in Las Vegas

It is a beautiful Sunday afternoon in Las Vegas. I look out my living room window to see a clean yard. A yard without weeds and only one dying tree left. Last weeks a friend had some clean my front and backyard. The yard looks wonderful without weeds. I can see the rocks scattered across the front yard.

No distracting weeds
To hide the stone covered yard
Birds sing in the trees

I heard a bird this morning. I think it may be a sparrow because it did not sound like a nightingale. There is also a bird in my backyard, every morning he sits on the roof above my kitchen window and sings. It is fall and the birds are still singing in Las Vegas. Mornings are cool and pleasant; I think the bird must be enjoying the nice weather as much as I have. Fall in Las Vegas is nice.

I did not look at the weather report this morning, so I have no idea how much longer this nice weather will last. I hope until after Thanksgiving, but I will take what I can get. It is nice not to have temperatures that are too hot or too cold.

Pleasant temperatures
A nice day in Las Vegas
Beautiful weather

Thursday Evening Thoughts

Beautiful evening
The day was wonderfully cool
No wind and no clouds

A Writer’s Perspective: Second guessing myself and stress

This morning, before the chores of the day got to me. I planned to title this entry “A Writer’s Perspective: Euphuisms and Slang”. That went to the wayside (for this week anyway) after I returned home from the laundromat. I am a bit leery about writing on that subject this afternoon, perhaps because I did not start working on it this morning.

I cannot seem to start the subject. Perhaps because I am “second guessing myself” and attempting to talk myself out of writing on either euphuisms or slang. Perhaps it is because I did not write down my thoughts this morning. Which ever it is, I cannot focus on the planned subject this afternoon.

I am not giving up the idea of writing my thoughts about euphuisms or slang. I think that will be the subject for next Tuesday. Between now and then I will keep notes and attempt to remember the way I wanted to begin that entry.

This is not the first time I have talked myself out of writing on a specific subject and posting it to one of my blogs. I suppose this could be a reaction to stress. I have been under a lot of stress lately and I have not been writing about it, which may explain why I am dealing with a bad case of psoriasis. Writing about the stress always helps alleviate the stress. Even if I do not post what I write, writing helps overcome the stress.

Writing poetry and Writer’s Block

Writing poetry
Line by line composing
Daily happiness

I realized last night that writing poetry makes me happy. I enjoy working with forms. The problem is that I need the information about the form in front while I am writing the poem. I decided the best way for me to remember the forms pattern is to have the explanation in front of me, so I printed off a list of the forms I am using this week.

Sometimes I can sit down and write without a form; however, when I am stressed or confronting writer’s block, I use form poems to keep me going. A form helps me focus while I am looking for the words. I do not like giving into writer’s block because it stifles creativity. I think stress encourages writer’s block, so when I am under a great deal of stress I like to use form to overcome the difficulty I have writing.

Working within the forms pattern encourages creativity. Once the process has begun, there is no stopping the poem. After the poem is completed them rewriting can start and during this process I can chose to keep the pattern or discard it. The final look of the poem depends on choosing the right words among other things.

Battle of the Hearing Aids in Las Vegas

My mother thinks she does not need to wear her hearing aids, so she removes them and lays them down. Earlier today, she removed her hearing aids and put them in the dish that held her lunch. Fortunately, she had eaten everything except a few grains of rice. I do not think those few grains hurt the hearing aids.

When she removes the aids from her ears, they make a noise while she is holding them. This is good because if I am not sitting next to her, I can go to the couch to find out what is going on. I heard the noise and went to see where she was putting the hearing aids. She attempted to put one of them in her mouth, but removed it immediately. This is the first time she has done something like this. I think she did it because she found them in the cereal bowl, which contained the rice. Normally, she does not try to eat anything that is not in a food container.

Usually, when she removes her hearing aids she puts them in her purse. Her purse was not beside her, so from now on I have to make sure her purse is sitting next to her or on the arm of the couch. Anywhere she can see it and get to it easily. Because of the Alzheimer’s disease, Mom cannot help the things she does.

Mom did not get hearing aids until she was in her 80s. She believes she is a young woman and can hear as well as she could when she was 18, all though, because of the Alzheimer’s she acts as if she is much younger. After I cleaned the hearing aids off, I put them back in her ears and she has not removed them again. She may have forgotten I put them in her ears.

I traded the farm for a house in the city

Today, my mother came home from the daycare center crying. She thought the driver took her to the wrong house; she had forgotten where she lived. When I opened the front door, she was surprised to see me because she thought we lived somewhere else.

I have known for some time that Mom did not think she was living in Las Vegas, Nevada. Some of her remarks caused me to realize she thought she was still live somewhere in Oklahoma. Instead of insisting that she was at home, this would have caused her to become even more upset. I told her the farm had become too much for me to handle and I traded it with the son of one of her cousins for a house in the city. I still do no know which city she thought I was talking about, but it calmed her down and made her happy.

My mother has Alzheimer’s disease. This means she has memory lose and gets angry or upset easily. I am never sure how much Mom remembers, so when she gets upset and cries, I have to figure out where she is at so that I can calm her. Sometimes this is easy and sometimes difficult.

Today, I said the first thing that popped into my mind. I knew Mom was born and raised on a farm in Oklahoma. Therefore, I worked on the premise that she thought we were living on a farm. I wish it was that easy to calm her down when she gets angry.

Another Beautiful Day in Las Vegas

Just right temperatures
A slight wind caressing the trees
No clouds are in sight

This is a wonderful time of year in Las Vegas. The temperatures are not too hot or too cold. The cool air is off and the hot has not come on. The birds are singing and flying from tree to tree. Autumn in Las Vegas is pleasant, I enjoy opening the doors and windows to get a little fresh air into the house.

Temperatures in the mid eighties in Las Vegas

Temperatures are supposed to get into the mid eighties for the next few days. I watch the weather report this morning and the temperatures I remember being expected were 85 degrees. Those are mild temperatures for Las Vegas. It is nice inside and outside the house.

The wind is blowing
Mild temperatures in Vegas
A nice desert day

Venus the Evening Star

Venus shining bright
Near waning October moon
Beautiful evening

Last night, I went out to roll up my car windows and make sure that I locked the doors. When I looked up, I saw Venus near the waning moon; it was beautiful with Venus shining a bright diamond in the evening sky. I need to go outside in the evening more often.

Roger returns, watch three new clips and decide

Watch Roger Federer’s three clips on Facebook and vote for your favorite ending. You will have a chance to meet Roger Federer this Autumn in London. Click on the video below and then go to Facebook to watch the clips.

Saturday Night at Home in Las Vegas

Home Saturday night
Nothing to watch on television
I listen for Mom

It is Saturday night and there is nothing on television I want to watch. Mom went to bed about 5:30 PM and went right to sleep. I am listening for her just in case she wakes up. Sometimes Mom wakes in the middle of the night and walks through the house.

A Chance to meet Roger Federer in London

Would you like to meet Roger Federer in London? Then watch the four films Credit Suisse made with him and vote for your favorite. Click on the video below and then click on the link to Facebook to watch the films and vote for your favorite.

Writing at the end of the week in Las Vegas

Saturday weekend day and the week ends. I should say a frustrating weekends, but as I look back over the week, I realize that the week was not as frustrating as I thought. I did get a few thing accomplished. I wrote several hundred words. I had enough Gift Points in my writing.com Gift Points account to purchase a 3-month premium membership. My next membership is due on January 15, 2012.

Those three months will pass quickly. I may or may not be able to afford another 3-month, 6-month, or 12-month premium membership. If I cannot afford another premium membership then I will go back to an upgraded membership and download several hundred items from my portfolio to a back up drive. I will deal with that issue at the beginning of January. In the mean time, I intend to review as many items as possible on writing.com.

I will continue becoming frustrated because my computer slows down to a snails pace at certain times of day. I know part of the problem, but I think there is more to the issue then I have discovered. I will continue writing despite the fact that my system is slow and sometimes I want to throw in the towel. I will give up because I am too stubborn to give up. I will research the cost of a new system. I will back up everything on my hard drive.

I will plan to buy a new system, however, when given the choice between buying a new computer system and paying an outstanding debt I will pay the debt. I am tired and I will continue to write. I will continue to make post to my blogs. I will continue to hope because without hope life is joyless. Without hope I would stop writing all together, so I will continue to hope and I will continue to write.

Thankful Thursday in Las Vegas

I am thankful that the weather has been nice in Las Vegas. It is cool enough to have the cold air off and cool enough to for the heat to remain off. The technician came last week and checked the heat to make sure it worked. I turned the heat on one day because Mom got cold. The heat is still on, but I have the thermostat set at about 73 or 74 degrees during the day and 69 degrees at night. The heat has not come on, which is good because it will make the power bill lower this month.

I still have to wash the winter blankets and I may do that next week. I think I will take the blankets to the laundromat on either Wednesday or Friday. I have decided that the best way for me to do laundry is set aside three days a week to go to the laundromat. It takes about two or three hours to wash and dry three baskets of cloths. Since I cannot physically handle more then three baskets at once, that is all I do.

While I would be much more thankful if I could do laundry at home, I am thankful that I can go to the laundromat. There are a couple of reasons for enjoying time at the laundromat. I can watch the other people and I get ideas for poems while I am waiting for my cloths to wash or dry. I am thankful for the poems that have resulted from spending time at the laundromat.

Tuesday is Laundry Day

I think we should declare the second Tuesday in every month a holiday called Laundry Day. To celebrate this day, everyone who does laundry at least once a month should be exempt from doing laundry that day. In addition, people who do not do any laundry at all should have to do their own laundry and the laundry of everyone in the household who is exempt from doing laundry that day.

Now, you may ask, where did I get this idea? I did three baskets of laundry today and I still have four baskets to wash. Why did I wash only three baskets when I have seven baskets full of dirty cloths? Because three baskets of laundry in one day is my physical limit, at least it was until today. Going to the laundromat wore me out and did not have the energy to fold the sheets. I have three baskets of clean cloths waiting in the car for me to lug them into the house.

From now on, my limit is two baskets of laundry; especially when one of those baskets is sheets and I have to stop at a store either before or after I go to the laundromat. Perhaps tomorrow, instead of doing laundry and going to the grocery store I will just got to the store. I will have to see how I feel after I bring the laundry in and fold the sheets.

The Second Monday of October

It is a cloudy Columbus Day afternoon in Las Vegas. The clouds moved in slowly and now they cover the entire sky. I listened to the weather report on the noon news; the meteorologist did not forecast rain, just clouds. I wonder if it was cloudy in 1492 when Columbus arrived in the New World.

When I was in school, they taught us that Columbus discovered America in 1492. I remember a song about Columbus sailing “the ocean blue”, but I do not remember all the words. I do not remember if we learned that his first landing was the Bahamas on October 12. Recently, I learned that, in 1493, Columbus brought citrus tree seeds to the West Indies.

Today is Columbus Day. Today some businesses closed for this holiday and some did not. My bank is one of those businesses closed for Columbus Day, but my auto insurance company is not. I suppose the United States Post Office closed today, which means no mail delivery and I am fine with that.

Please have a happy and safe Columbus Day. If you have the day off, enjoy yourself. I you have to work, enjoy yourself as well. I hope the weather across the country is as nice as it is here in Las Vegas. Here there are clouds, without rain, and moderate temperatures.

Nice Autumn Weather in Las Vegas

No more rain this week
The wind caressing oak trees
Cools the afternoon

It is nice autumn weather. The morning is not too chilly or too warm. This afternoon wind caresses the neighbors’ trees. The birds flittered around all morning and afternoon. Today was an enjoyable day without rain or puddles in my driveway.

Laundromat Poem

They wait
mouths slightly agape
for our dirty laundry.

They consume
grain by grain
the soil of our mundane
existence.

Never expecting
thanks.

Green thread holds my glasses together

I know this is a good title for a poem “Green thread holds my glasses together”. Yesterday, a lens fell out of my glasses and I could not find the screw. I did find a spool of green thread and a needle. The eye of the needle was large enough for me to see to thread it with only one lens in my glasses and the needle itself was small enough to go through the screw hold in the glasses.

The repair was good enough for the lens to stay in while I picked up Mom’s hearing aids. This morning I had to repair the glasses again because the lens fell out. I sewed the glasses together again, this repair should last long enough for me to get to the store and buy an eyeglass repair kit.

Green thread holds my glasses together,
Keeps the lens so that I can drive safely,

I am not sure where this poem is going, but those two lines should give my subconscious mind something to work with while I do other things. When writing a poem, the most important thing is to keep the subconscious mind working on it.

A Beautiful Sunday in Las Vegas

White feathery clouds
Float across the soft blue sky
The sun cast shadows

It is a beautiful fall day in Las Vegas. There is no breeze, but the clouds cool the late morning air. In the trees, some birds sing, while others fly from the ground to the trees. Leave still cling to the trees waiting for the first freeze to change color.

Saturday, October 01, 2011

It is Saturday October 1. It is afternoon, white clouds reflect the sun, and there are areas of beautiful blue sky peeking through the clouds. It is a nice day in Las Vegas, a good end to an interesting week and a good beginning to a busy month.

Clouds reflecting light
Beautiful afternoon sky
Temperatures cool down

On Monday, October 3, I have to pick up my mother’s hearing aid replacements. On Tuesday, I have a doctor’s appointment and on Wednesday, the technician is coming to inspect the air conditioner for winter.

It is beginning to feel like autumn in Las Vegas. When I rolled the trashcan to the curb this morning, it was cool. The morning air reminded me of Oklahoma. It is warmer this afternoon, but not in the triple digits. At least, it does not feel like triple digits.

A nice afternoon
Birds flying from tree to tree
Clouds and sapphire sky