Wednesday Word: Halloween

Halloween is ten days away. I have decided that I am going to close the shades, turn the lights out, and hope no one sees me working at the computer. The computer is in the living room next to the television set, so it is possible for people to see the light given off by the computer from the outside even with the shades closed.

When Mom was alive, I enjoyed Halloween because Mom enjoyed it. Giving out candy to the neighborhood children was a fun activity for both of us. However, I do not enjoy doing it by myself. I also have too much candy leftover after Halloween and that is not good for my weight. I am attempting to lose weight, but the only thing Halloween candy does is put on the weight. Also the only type of Halloween candy I really like is candy corn.

Once a year I can get a couple of bags of candy corn, eat it during October, and then no have it in the house the rest of the year. If I want something sweet in any other month then I can have a small piece of cake or something. I do not eat much candy anymore.

Wednesday Word: Humidity

Double digit temperatures,
blue autumn sky
and scattered white clouds;
humidity is 21%.

I don't remember the humidity bothering me this much last year. It could be worse the humidity could be 25 or 30% and I'd like that even less. I don't know what I was going to write next because my computer just shut down unexpectedly. I don't know what I did or what happened. I'll have to call tech support to see what's going on. I will post this now before it does it again.

Wednesday's Word: Wind

White grocery bag
dances in the morning wind
beside the yellow school bus

I looked out my window and saw the white plastic grocery bag blowing west on Sunrise Avenue just as the school bus made its stop. When school is in session the school buses for both the elementary and middle schools stop in front of my apartment to pick up and drop off children and teenagers. There are a lot of young people in this neighborhood.

This morning the wind is gentle, so about the only thing it pushes along the street are grocery bags and other small bits of trash. According the weather report the wind is blowing about 12 mph, which is just fast enough to carry light pieces of trash along the street. The wind will move trash bags and bits of paper until they encounter a drain. Then the trash will block the sewer drains until the city cleans them out. Hopefully that will be before it rains again because blocked sewer drains cause street flooding.

Wednesday Word: September

September
a magical month
the first day of fall,
the autumnal equinox,
the month summer waves good-bye
and triple digit temperatures drop
into double digits.

September
a time to pause
and evaluate your progress
in accomplishing
January's New Year resolutions,
if you can remember
what they were.

Wednesday's Word: Gratitude

It is that time of week again. The writing.com newsletters arrived in my inbox sometime this morning. As usual, I read the spiritual newsletter first. This week's theme is gratitude. Some of the questions ask by this week's editor got me to thinking about gratitude and the way I express it.

What does it mean to live in gratitude?
How do you live in gratitude?
How do you practice gratitude?

I am not sure what it means to live in gratitude because I suspect the answer to that question will be revealed only at death, after my soul separates from my physical body.

How do I express my gratitude? Yesterday, I went to the podiatrist to have my toenails cut. I thanked the doctor after he finished and then I went to the receptionist desk to make my co-pay. I ask my regular doctor for a referral because I suffer from osteoarthritis and lower back pain. These two issues make it difficult and sometimes impossible for me to cut my own toenails. I decided that the best way to deal with the issue was to go to a podiatrist.

Another way I show gratitude is to make a daily gratitude list. On this list I attempt to put ten things I am grateful for in my life. True some of the items are repeated everyday, such as my thanks for fresh brewed coffee. That is all right because it enhances the other things I put on the lists. It is nice to know that I have some of the same things to be grateful for everyday.

Wednesday's Word: Morning

The scent of coffee
Permeates morning's silence
Rousing both my mind and muse

It's about 6:27 am here in Las Vegas. I'm attempting to wake up so that I can get ready for my day. I have to go to the store later this morning for some necessary items. I don't want to leave the house until I'm fully awake and the store is open. The drug store I'm going to doesn't open until 9:00 am so I have a couple of hours to fill until then. At least I think it opens at 9:00, if I get there and it's not open then I'll just go to one of the twenty-four hour supermarkets on Maryland Parkway.

This morning the only thing I feel like doing is drinking coffee and writing. I don't want to do housework and I don't want to take the trash to the alley this early. I'll roll the trash to the alley when I leave the house to go to the drug store. After yesterday's bout of housework, I have a 13 gallon trash bag full of trash to take out. I'm not going to lug a 13 gallon plastic bag to the alley because it's too cumbersome to carry and use my cane at the same time.

I'm using my cane a lot more lately, especially of a morning when I take the trash to the alley. The cane helps me stand up straight while giving me something to help balance. The problem is carrying small plastic grocery bags to the alley while attempting to stand up straight and balance. I don't appear to have a problem with balance any other time. I also use the cane to help me up and down steps or curbs.

With my wooden cane
I stand up straight when I walk
My back feels better

 

Wednesday Word: Newsletter

Dictionary.com contains two definition for newsletter. The first defines a newsletter as "a written report" containing news or information of interest to a group of people with similar interest. This is the type of newsletter I am writing about in this entry. If any of my readers are interested in the second definition then just click on newsletter and it will take you to both of dictionary.com's definitions.

Today, when I logged onto writing.com, I noticed I had thirteen new messages in my inbox. I opened my inbox to find the weekly newsletters covering different genre had arrived sometime between 2:41 and 3:34 am Eastern Daylight Time. I know I cannot read all the newsletters in one day, so I will begin with the newsletters covering the topics that interest me the most. Those three newsletters are (1) Horror/Scary: Lovecraftian Horror, (2) Spiritual: A Celebration of Life, (3) Poetry: Word Play! - Playing With Poetry, and (4) Fantasy: Fantasy For The Uninitiated. I should be able to read those over the next three or four days; less if I have difficulty sleeping.

Normally, I do not begin with the Horrow/Scary newsletter; however, I am a H. P. Lovecraft fan. I cannot wait to see what this week's editor has to say about this subgenre of horror.

Wednesday Word: Breakfast

Nectarines or plums
both are good fruits for breakfast
along with coffee.

A good breakfast is essential. What is a good breakfast? I know when I was growing up a good breakfast was cereal with milk, eggs, bacon, potatoes (either hash browns or fried), hotcakes or toast with jelly. As I have matured in age and wisdom my definition of a good breakfast change. Sometimes a good breakfast is hotcakes with jelly or honey. Sometimes it is a turkey or chicken sausage with an egg and maybe a slice of toast. Yesterday I had a plum for breakfast. Today I ate two nectarines. Tomorrow I might eat a bow of cereal with almond milk or hotcakes.

Always eat breakfast
it gives the day a good start
gives you energy.

I never know from one day to the next what I will fix myself for breakfast. I never know how hungry I will be when I wake up. Sometime I am starving, especially when I do not eat something before I go to bed. Other times I am not hungry or cannot find any thing in the house I want to eat. There are time when I have soup or some other non-breakfast type food because that is what I am hungry for. For the past few days all I have wanted for breakfast is fruit without cereal or milk of any kind. Whatever type of food I have, I always have a cup of coffee with the breakfast.

Coffee with breakfast
a family tradition
dating back several generation.

 

Wednesday Word: Dreams

I've had some really weird dreams lately. I know I've written about my weird dreams before, but I'm not sure which blog I posted them to. I have a dream journal on writing.com that I use to put my dreams in. I also have a pen and paper dream journal so that I can write them down when I first wake up. For the past week or two my dreams have been fragmented. I will dream, wake up, go back to sleep, and then dream again.

The other day, during an afternoon nap, I dreamed about a black widow spider crawling across green grass. The spider had a huge shiny black abdomen without the characteristic red hour glass shape on her back. The spider was crawling across the brightest green grass I've ever seen. She was crawling across the top of the green grass.

I dream in color. I have dreamed in color all my life. I like dreaming in color because it helps me remember the dreams. I don't know how many other people dream in color but I know there are a lot of them.

Wednesday Word: Values

The writing.com weekly newsletters hit my in-box last night. The title of the spiritual newsletter is "What Are Your Values?" At this point in human history, this is a question every individual needs to ask and answer. The editor of this week's newsletter made it clear that goals and values are different. A goal is something you set out to accomplish while a value is an intrinsic belief that goals are built upon.

I think values are spiritual beliefs that are a part of the human soul. I also think values are something that changes as one matures because I know the values I have today are different from those I held as a child. I also know that my values are different from the values my parents and grandparents attempted to instill in me. My values are different, not because the values of my parents were wrong but, because I have matured and found that the world today is different from the world of my parents or grandparents.

One of the values I learned from my grandparents is prayer and faith. I have changed religions, but the underlying values of faith and prayer have remained. This is the way maturity and spiritual evolution works. As an individual matures she holds onto the values that help in her physical and spiritual survival in a changing world while letting go of those that are detrimental.

Wednesday Word: Tomatoes

Beautiful red fruit
Adorn dark green vines waiting
For me to eat them

This morning, I went to pick up some food at one of the food banks here in Las Vegas. One of the things they gave me was tomatoes still on the vine. When I came home I took some chicken out of the freezer and made soup. This afternoon, for my lunch I ate a piece of chicken with a couple of tomatoes. I love to eat tomatoes right off the vine, when I was a child one of the items my grandparents grew were tomatoes. When the fruit was ripe we would pick them, cut them up, put a little salt and pepper on them, and eat them that way. I also like fresh tomatoes in salad.

An editable fruit
tomatoes go with lettuce
in my green salad.

When I was growing up, I thought that tomatoes were a vegetable rather then a fruit. Maybe it was because my mother and my grandmother always put tomatoes in our salads. When I went grocery shopping with my grandparents we always found the tomatoes with vegetable rather then with the fruit. The only problem I have today when I eat uncooked tomatoes is the desire to put salt on them, which I am attempting to resist. I have taken the excess salt out of my diet as a results I do not purchase salt when I go to the store. I try to use other spices or use chips to put in soup when I eat it.

Wednesday Word: Wind

The wind blows litter
west on Sunrise Avenue
partly cloudy sky.

I heard a noise, looked out my front door. and saw the wind blowing litter up the street. It calmed a little now only the limbs of the pine, olive, and palm trees are blowing. The wind and the clouds mean a cool afternoon. At least, I hope it means a cool afternoon. I have not turned the cool air on today which is a blessing. The less I have to turn on the air the lower the power bill.

Sudden gust of wind
partially clears the litter
for a little while.

Sudden gusts of wind does not help my allergies. In fact it raises issues with the pollen from the olive trees growing along this street. It would not make any difference where I lived in Las Vegas because there would still be olive trees.

Wednesday Word: Exercise

Exercise is good for me! It's probably good for you as well, but this entry is about my exercises. I walk everyday. I walk the floor of my studio apartment for five minutes every morning. I also take the trash to the alley about every other day (I live alone so I don't have that much garbage). I take longer walks one or two times a week. I took the longer walk this morning about 9:00 am.

This morning I walked from my apartment to the alley where I got in my car. I then drove my car to the grocery store. I went into the grocery store, got a cart, and did some shopping. I don't have a specific walking pattern when I go into the supermarket because one of the reasons for going is to get exercise. The other reason, of course, is to purchase food.

I know there is supposed to be a specific pattern to walking up and down the aisles in a grocery store. I don't know what it is and I'm not interest in finding out because the was I do it works and it increases my exercise time. After I get my grocery cart then I chose a random aisle and begin my shopping. I walk down or up the aisle looking at the contents on the shelf.

This morning I begin on the aisle that had packaged dried fruit. I picked up a large package of dried cranberries, read the ingredients on the label, and then put it in my shopping cart. After I decided on the large package of dried cranberries, I saw a smaller package. I picked up the package and looked at the ingredients and then at the size. I put the small package of cranberries back on the shelf because it was more economical for me to purchase the large one.

Next I went to the packaged meat section because I wanted some chicken breast, hamburger, and turkey sausage. I picked out the meat and then I went back to the aisle where I purchased the cranberries. I know that's not the was one is supposed to shop, but I was looking for peanut butter. I didn't purchase any peanut butter because before I got to the peanut butter I found a nice size container of apple butter and bought that. After that I went looking for the rest of the stuff I went in to buy.

The only things I went into the grocery store for was meat, coffee filters, and to get a little exercise. I got what I went in for and much more. I will have to go back to the store on Friday or Saturday because I need some dish washing liquid, but I may go to a different store because I have an e-coupon at another store for that.

Wednesday Word: Earth

Happy Earth Day!

Humanity the children of Mother Earth
and citizens of the planet
celebrate Earth Day
as they work and play.

Celebrate Earth Day
by recycling,
by planting trees,
by listening to speeches,
by praying,
by asking: "What can I do for Earth today?"

Wednesday Word: Wind

The wind blew most of the night trimming the dead frowns off palm trees, pushing litter down Sunrise Avenue, and scattering sneeze producing pollen across Las Vegas. I was up until about 10:30 pm. I had work to do online so I spent most of the evening at my computer. The lights blinked once, not enough to cut the electricity but, just enough to cause me to begin saving my work every two or three minutes.

Wind in Las Vegas
howls through residential neighborhood
pounding on doors.

About 9:00 pm I heard a horrendous noise. Something hit the roof of my apartment building. I line in a one-story building so the roof is directly above me without any intervening apartment. I do not know what it was, but it sounded as if it was about to come through my ceiling. What ever hit the roof did not penetrate the roof or cause any damage. I do not know the wind speed, but I know it was blowing fast because dead frowns were falling off palm trees. Maybe it was a palm frown from one of the nearby trees that hit the roof.

Wind in Las Vegas
pushes tourist along The Strip
knocks on casino doors.

 

 

Wednesday Word: Poetry

Happy National Poetry Month!

Poetry is an echo, asking a shadow to dance.
Carl Sandburg

What is poetry? This is a question each poet has to answer while writing a poem. Every poet has a different answer and the answer changes with each poem. I can answer this question from my point of view, but I cannot answer it from the point of view of another poet.

Poetry a bird
singing in the Tree of Life
proclaiming sunrise.

Today, at this moment in time, I visualize poetry as a bird nesting in the boughs of the Tree of Life. I see poetry as a nightingale announcing the approach of dawn, as it raises its song into the air.

Yesterday's poems
a wind blowing through palm fronds
scattering laughter.

On Tuesday, March 31, the wind started to blow. It scattered little alone the curbs and blew through the boughs of olive, pine, or oak trees. It caused the flag in front of the apartment building to wave and it move palm fronds both living and dead. Yesterday, the wind generated poems, so yesterday poetry was a wind.

Tomorrow's poems
generated by birdsong
or an unknown wind

I do not know what will generate the poems I write tomorrow. The only thing I am sure of is that I will write poems. Since I have an appointment with my optometrist I might write a poem while sitting in the waiting room. I am also going to the grocery store tomorrow, so I may write one about that experience after I get home.

Poetry is food
feeding humanity's soul
with stanza and line

Wednesday Word: Romance

I have written two romance stories in the past two weeks. The first was a flash fiction of about 300 words. The second was still within the flash fiction range, but a little longer. The second story was approximately 625 words. Both stories were too short because there was several things in it that the reviewers did not understand. The next romance story I plan to write needs to be more then 625 but less then 1,500 words.

The first two stories were related. The second story was an extension of the first. I do not plan to make the third story related to the first two; however, I could change my mind when I sit down to write. I usually do not write romance stories, but I decided to attempt to get out of my comfort zone in 2015. Writing romances is a good way to do that.

I think I will make the next one about... well I am not sure what just yet. Perhaps I need to come up with some characters or check a prompt generator for a title, characters, or a plot. When I cannot think of an idea then a prompt generator helps get the creative juices flowing. Maybe I will set the romance on another planet or an earth colony. I can deal with romance in science fiction and fancy, but the romance stories set in the present do not appeal to me. In fact stories set in the present do not appeal to me.

Wednesday Word: Winter

Freezing temperatures
I shiver under layers
Of sweat shirts, sweaters.

This morning it is cold in Las Vegas. It is now about 9:20 am, the temperature at 8:56 am was 49 degrees predicted to raise to 50 degrees by 10:00 am. Sometime today, the temperature is supposed to get as high as 61 degrees. I am wearing a sweater, a sweat shirt, and a pair of slacks, which should keep me warm. I am not warm. My arms are cold. My legs are cold. Worst of all, despite the fact that I am wearing shoes and socks, my feet are cold. The only part of me that is not cold is my head and my ears.

The arctic express
blowing through Las Vegas
drives locals indoors.

Spring is still sixteen long and cold days away. I am complaining about the cold. Last summer, when it was so hot, I said I would never complain about the cold. I know I shouldn't have said that, but I said it in triple digit temperatures when the thought of double digit temperatures seemed like a distant dream. I am so cold that triple digit temperatures sound nice. Of course, when summer comes with its 115 or 120 degree temperatures I will wish for 45 or 50 degree temperatures.

Cold penetrates the
marrow of my bones and chills
internal organs.

I really should be thankful for the winter temperatures and the wind chill factor because they both inspire poetry, rants, and short stories. Winter, like the other three seasons, is inspiring. The temperatures inspire creative ways of keeping warm or cool. They inspire creativity in all areas of life because you always have unreasonable power bills draining your finances. If I could afford it I would run the central air unite twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, three hundred and sixty-five days a year; however, I am on a fixed income and cannot afford high power bills.

Wednesday Word: Night

Tonight I write about night. I write about the darkness as it spreads across the city and the streetlight come on one by one. I look out my open front door and see the darkness. I look out my window and see the apartment building across the street lit up. The lights only illuminate the front of the building or the upper floors. I cannot see any more then that because it is night.



I hear sirens. I cannot tell if they are police, fire department, or ambulance sirens. All sirens sound alike so if one does not see the vehicle with the sirens one cannot tell which emergency vehicle is speeding down the street. I reread that sentence. I know there must be a grammar error in it, but I am too tired to figure out what it is. I should not type when I cannot think straight, but I am composing this post anyway. My mind is tired while my body is not. Since I will not be able to sleep until later tonight, I type about night.



Night in the city is interesting. The noises arouse my curiosity, but it would be foolish to investigate because it is dangerous out there. Since I cannot identify some of the noises my imagination works overtime, which is good for a writer. I do not have to leave the house to find something to write about because my imagination can find plenty of stuff by just listening to the noises.



Maybe that is why I like the city at night. There are so many weird and unusual noises I would not hear in the country. Night in the country generates different noises then night in the city. I will post this and then I will close my door because it is night outside and it is time to close the door.

Wednesday Word: Sunset

It is past sunset here in Las Vegas. I listen to the evening noises echoing from next door or from the street outside my house. This evening I hear children laughing, shouting, playing, and making other types of joyful noises. The days are growing longer and the nights shorter. This means daylight savings time, spring flowers, and birds singing.

Late winter sunset
the mountains embraced by light
city never sleeps.

It is after sunset in Las Vegas, I feel the late winter chill penetrate my body and send shivers up my spine. It is not cold, but my aged body feel the chill. My fingers ache and my knees hurt. I get up, put on another sweater and then sit back down at the computer. I stare at what I have written and I smile. I smile because I know that the winter will soon pass. I know that spring will come at last.

The late winter chill
brings back memories of childhood
and hot chocolate.

I do not drink hot chocolate any more because the milk and the chocolate contain too much potassium. Sometimes after sunset I make hot water so t hat I can drink a cup of English black tea. I do not put sugar in my tea; however, sometimes I put peppermint candy canes in the tea and watch the candy cane melt. This morning, when I went after some food, I received some candy canes so tomorrow evening I will make hot tea and have a candy cane with it.