Thursday Thoughts: Sunset Thoughts

I look out my front door and watch the sky slowly fade from deep blue to dark black. As night approaches, I pause to whisper a prayer and then continue writing. I have not yet turned on any lights. My apartment slowly grows darker, so I will have to turn on the kitchen light in a few minutes. I will also have to do the supper dishes, but I do not want to do either of those right now.

I listen to the neighborhood children laughing and playing. As the days grow longer they are able to remain outside later. I smile remembering my childhood in Oklahoma. I remember my grandparents let us stay outside and play until the sun set below the western horizon. Unlike Las Vegas, Nevada, the town I grew up in had no mountains so sunset seemed to last longer. At least I remember it lasting longer, but that was a long time ago and memory seems to enhance and lengthen the joys of childhood.

Listening to children play makes me nostalgic for that carefree time. As a child, I did not have to worry about the rent payment, the power bill, or gas for the car. As a child, I could run and play in the sunset knowing that when I went into the house the lights would turn on because Grandpa had the money to pay the power bill. I did not think about the power bill or any other bill because they were all taken care of by either my mother or my grandfather. I miss those carefree times. I miss playing outside without worrying about anything.

Hot Soup and Hot Sauce

Hot soup
Hot sauce
Cold morning defrost

I don't think its as cold in Las Vegas as in other parts of the country, but it feels cold when you don't have something hot to eat. I made some chicken soup yesterday with garbanzo and sliced potatoes. These foods help keep me warm on cold southern Nevada mornings.I heated the soup up in the microwave and then added hot sauce to it when I dipped it into a cup.

On cold or chilly mornings (depending on my point of view) I like to eat soup out of a cup rather then a bowl. If I put the soup in a cup, I eat it before it gets cold. A cup of soup doesn't fill me up as much as a bowl, which means I have to get up more often, but the soup doesn't get cold in the cup before I finish eating it.

A Thunderstorm in Las Vegas

I wrote the following poem during a thunderstorm in Las Vegas. The weather bureau released a Flash Flood Warning for southern Nevada and central Clark County. They kept updating the warning all afternoon. The warning ended about 6:15 PM or a bit earlier.

Do I hear thunder?
See raindrops on the cement?
The wind is blowing!

A flash flood warning
For southern Nevada:
“Turn around don’t drown!”

I watch the wind blow
Through the pine tree’s dead branches;
The rain is falling.

A flash flood warning
For central Clark County:
“Turn around don’t drown!”

Listen to the rain
Whispering to Las Vegas
Relief from the heat.

A flash flood warning
For the Las Vegas area:
“Turn around don’t drown!”

I watch the pine tree
Its brown limbs blow in the wind
Will they break off tonight?

The flash flood warning has ended. The wind has stopped blowing. The limbs are still on the pine tree. The clouds still cover the sky, but the rain has stopped. There is a puddle of rainwater in my driveway.

I worry too much because there is nothing I can do about the dead limbs on the pine tree. I cannot afford to have them cut off. I can only say a prayer of protection and hope that we do not have 30 mile an hour winds for the next two or three months.

Primary Election coming in June

I received my Official Sample Ballot for Clark County, Nevada today, with the Primary Election scheduled for Tuesday, June 12 and early voting between May 26 and June 8. I immediately put those dates on my calendar so that I do not forget them.

I always vote in both the primary and general election. In past years, I participated in the early voting because I worked the polls on Election Day. This year I will not work the polls due to the difficulty in getting someone to be at the house when Mom gets home from the daycare center. Since I cannot work the polls this year, I think I will vote on Election Day.

I always enjoyed going to the polls on Election Day to cast my ballet. It always brought back memories of my grandparents. My Grandma and Grandpa Newland never missed an election. They always went to the polls to vote in both the Primary and General Elections. Perhaps that is why I do my best to vote in both those elections.

Author’s Note: I am 65, years old and my memories of the way voting technology has changed since I first voted at the age of 21 would make a good subject for an article or blog entry. I will have to think about this and write down some notes before beginning the piece.

Research Topics: Notes on Las Vegas and Nevada History Part 1

The Las Vegas valley

1. 1827 Jedediah Smith travel through the valley that was full of lush meadows
2. 1829 Rafael Rivera named the valley “Las Vegas” which means “The Meadows”
3. 1844 John C. Fremont established a fort in the Las Vegas valley

Thursday Thoughts for November 10, 2011

It is Thursday. The air feels damp and therefore slightly chilly. There are clouds hiding the sky and the sun. Since I have not made an entry in a couple of days, I thought I would sit down and write something about my morning.

This morning, Mom woke up at 4:00 AM. She thought she had to go to work today. In her younger days, my mother was a food server; however, she has not worked in a restaurant or coffee shop for several years. Here in Las Vegas, she worked at the Showboat Hotel-Casino. In Blackwell, Oklahoma, she worked at Bob’s Grill.

I am not sure where Mom thought she was going to work this morning. I asked her but she would not give me an answer. Mom has Alzheimer’s disease so she does not always know where she is. Sometimes, Mom thinks she is still in Oklahoma, while at other times Mom realizes she is living in Las Vegas, Nevada.

I never know where she believes she is living. I have to be careful when I ask her those questions because she gets angry when she thinks I do not know where we live. Anyway, I finally got Mom calmed down enough to get out of bed and go into the living room.

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.

It’s a dry heat

Yesterday, I posted about the triple digit temperatures in Las Vegas. It is a dry heat, most of the time. Last week we had high humidity, but this week the dew point is low, so the humidity is down. I prefer dry heat over high humidity.

The humidity is one thing I do not miss about Oklahoma. I like Las Vegas, Nevada because we usually have little or no humidity. This is a desert, so with certain exceptions we usually do not have excessive humidity. Las Vegas is a good place to live if one has problems with the humidity.

Low humidity
A beautiful desert day
Drink lots of water

Wind in Las Vegas

Limbs sway in the breeze
That gently caresses them
Monday afternoon

The Weather Service issues a wind advisory for Clark County Nevada and Mohave County Arizona about 3:18 PM today. I search for the definition of this weather phenomenon and found that it refers to “sustained winds” ranging from 25-39 miles per hour or “wind gust” of 57 miles per hour.

Those speeds do not describe the intermittent, which does not rule out high winds. I simply means those high winds have not yet arrived in Las Vegas or Clark County. I am not looking forward to 57 mph wind gust or 25-39 mph winds. The wind chill factor is only one problem with high winds.

The main issue is the two mature sick looking stone pine trees in my front yard. I am not worried about the wind blowing them down onto my garage because they are not leaning in that direction. The trees are leaning toward the street and if they blow down it could cause other serious problems. The trees definitely have to go; now all I have to do is figure out how to afford their removal. Have mature trees removed is expensive and that expense is not in my budget.

Writing about a Severe Thunderstorm Watch in Las Vegas

It is August in Las Vegas, so a severe thunderstorm watch is expected. The Weather Service issues a Severe Thunderstorm Watch for Mohave County in Arizona, as well as, Clark and Lincoln counties in Nevada. Las Vegas is in Clark County, so the Thunderstorm watch affects us.

What is a thunderstorm watch? According to the Storm Encyclopedia a severe thunderstorm watch means that weather conditions in and around the area of the watch are conducive to the development of a thunderstorm. A severe thunderstorm warning means that a storm has occurred or will occur.

I want to start a business

I want to start a business of my own, but I have no idea how to do it or where to begin the process. I have several questions about starting a business of my own. I live in Las Vegas, Nevada, and I am living on a tight budget and I still want to start my own business.

Some of my questions are probably frequently ask questions. What is the difference between a limited liability company and a corporation? How do I get a business credit line? How do I file an income tax return for a business? Can I incorporate a business I run from my own home? Moreover, do I incorporate only in Nevada or do I incorporate in all fifty states?

Since I live in Nevada, I need someone familiar with the Nevada business climate. I should contact a professional like nevada inc, because all though I took business courses in college, I remember only two things from those courses. First, they put emphasis on the bottom line. Second, one of the homework assignments concerned an Annual Report of some type.

I want to start my business out properly because a good beginning helps achieve success. There are other factors important to a successful business; however, everything else becomes much more difficult if you don't start off properly.

I need to write a birthday poem for my mother

My mother's birthday is March 19 and she will be 88 years old or young, depending on one's point of view. I want to write a birthday poem for her, but I'm not sure what to include. So far, Mom has had a long and interesting life.

Things I want to include in the poem

1. Born on March 19, 1921
2. Birthplace on a farm outside Lamont, Oklahoma
3. Very small at birth and did not get weight until parents took her into Lamont a month or so after she was born
4. Worked in Las Vegas, Nevada, at what is now University Medical Center near the end of World War II
5. Worked as a waitress until she was 83 or 84
6. Gave birth to four children - 2 girls and 2 boys
7. Has eight grandchildren
8. Has five great grandchildren
9. Started writing poetry when she was 81 or 82

I'm not sure of the form, but I think I will use a poetry form for this poem. I find poetry forms work well when I'm not sure about everything I want in a poem or even the title.

Weather Report from Las Vegas a poem

I look out my living room window
see a cloudy sky
and I miss Oklahoma.

Autumn clouds in Las Vegas
make me homesick
for Oklahoma
in this holiday season.

I remember
looking out my grandparents' living room window
and seeing snow on the ground.

I live in Nevada,
I live in a desert,
I miss Oklahoma,
I miss seeing snow on the ground.

Contemplating October Writing

October is just a few short hours away. Halloween and Nevada Day are October 31, yes, Nevada joined the union as a state on Halloween. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with that information just yet. I won't have to work on that day and many people in Nevada will have a three day weekend.

October is NaNoWriMo preparation month. So I need to figure out what I'm going to write about and set the plot up in October without writing anything on the Novel itself. I'm taking a course on reviewing and I'm planning my review schedule for October. I have to pay for another month's premium membership on writing.com by October 15. There is a lot going on in October writing wise. It's going to be a busy month.

Sweltering in Las Vegas, Nevada

Eight days into August, with cloudy skies almost every day and only two small showers, however, we have had flood watches and warnings. We have also had wind, but not as bad in February when the wind took out the elm tree.

I am sweltering in Nevada. The high humidity reminds me of my Oklahoma childhood. The clouds in the sky above Las Vegas remind me of Oklahoma. The heat rash I have reminds me of growing up in Oklahoma. The only time I ever get a heat rash is when the humidity is up.

I did not move to Las Vegas to get away from the humidity. I did not move to the desert or Nevada to get away from anything. I found out a long time ago, I cannot run away from my past and from my memories. I carry my past; I carry my memories both good and bad with me wherever I go.

I am not sure why I moved from Blackwell, Oklahoma to Las Vegas, Nevada. The obvious answer is that my mother and siblings moved here. The problem, as any writer can tell you, is that obvious reasons are not always, why a person or a character in a story or novel does something. I am still trying to figure out the reason I moved from Oklahoma to Nevada. The only explanation I can come up with, that makes any sense is "God's will". For some reason, not yet clear to me, the Creator wanted me to live in Las Vegas, Nevada, rather then Blackwell, Oklahoma.

August clouds play tag
across the blue desert sky
the drought continues.

Monsoon Season in Las Vegas

It is monsoon season in Las Vegas, Nevada, and I am setting in my living room at my computer. If I look out my living room window, I can see the partly cloudy sky. The clouds are grayish white and there are huge patches of blue sky between them. The humidity is up, but there does not appear to be any rain on the horizon.

I have not checked the e-mail account that receives the local weather report, so I cannot say for sure about the rain. However, since this is rather dry monsoon season, I doubt that rain is predicted. I would not mind some rain, but I am not going to hold my breath. We have only had a little rain this season.

August is about here, so perhaps we will have some thunderstorms. I remember an August when we had crisps lightning bolts hitting the ground. One of the things I enjoy is setting inside my house, watching the rain, watching the lightning and listening to the thunder. I also like sitting on the enclosed patio and listening to the rain on the metal roof. I have set and watched the rain or listened to thunder in a long time.

Perhaps it would help if I used a thunderstorm in a story. I have three short stories I am working on and a thunderstorm would be good in one of them. The story I am thinking about concerns birth or rebirth. Thunder and lightning storms always seem to fit in a story about rebirth. Of course, that is only my opinion, , it comes from growing up in Oklahoma, and storms there sometimes came with tornados.

Early Voting Starts Today in Nevada

The primary eleection is scheduled for Tuesday, August 12, 2008, but early votes starts today. Early voting in the primary election occurs between Saturday, July 26 and Friday, August 8, 2008. There are several early voting sites across the Las Vegas valley. Some of those sites are in supermarkets and some in trailers at various locations. I heard on the news the other night that they expect about half the eligible voters to vote early.

My mother and I are both going to vote early. The official sample ballot arrived yesterday, so I am going to set down with it this afternoon sometime. I will look at both the candidates and any questions on the ballet. Then I will mark my sample ballet, so that when I go to one of the early voting sites I can get through quickly. If I get through quickly, I will not hold the line up and I can get on with my day.

We vote early every year. I vote early because I work the polls on August 12. My mother votes early because she does not drive and goes with me when I early vote.

On Trash Pickup Day

‘Idál (Justice), 6 Baha (Splendor), 165 B.E. – Wednesday, March 26, 2008 about 9:02 AM PDT

On trash pick-up day
I listen for the comforting
sounds of the garbage trucks
moving from house to house.

On trash pick-up day
when I carried the trash to the curb
I watch the pink sunrise
and paised the Lord for the opportunity
to see the sun come over
the eastern mountains of Nevada's
high snow capped peaks.

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