Friday Morning in Las Vegas

It's a chilly
Friday morning in Las Vegas
rain and mountains snow predicted.

This is a good day to do laundry and write. I like taking my pen and paper journal with me to the laundromat because the people inspire me. I meet all sorts of interesting people when I do laundry, which is one of the reasons I like to go to the laundromat. The other reason is that it is easier for me to put my clothes in my car and drive to the laundromat then it is to push the laundry/grocery cart across the street to the laundry room. Also, the washers and dryers in the laundromat are newer and, therefore, work better then the machines in the laundry room.

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

 

Thursday Morning in Las Vegas: A Poem

I looked out my window,
I saw two pigeons
sitting on the sidewalk
waiting...

waiting for what
the temperature to rise
into the triple digits.

I heard
a dog bark;
what was she barking at?

Was she barking at the pigeons
or asking to go in
out of the excessive heat?

Morning Gratitude: A Poem

morning gratitude
its the little things each day
that make me happy

mourning gratitude
a strong hot cup of coffee
after intoning a prayer

morning gratitude
picking up your coffee cup
to drink the last drop

Morning Weariness

I tossed and turned all night
listening to strange noises
that would wake me with a fright.

I am weary of sleeping on the couch
watching the reflection of headlight
off my apartment walls.

I overslept  and feel rushed,
but I wait patiently for coffee to brew
so I can start my day off right.

Tuesday Morning Senryu

laundry washed and dried
trash carried to the gagage
need dish washing soap

A Time to Write: Morning

Morning is a time to write
when the dreams of night take flight
into flocks of stanzas and lines,
into sentences and paragraphs
that create flocks pages
and formations of chapters.

Writing is like a morning walk

A morning walk is
One-step after another
Along the sidewalk

Writing like a walk
One word after another
Builds a paragraph

A dove calls at dawn

A dove coos at dawn
Intoning his gratitude
For another day

I heard a dove again this morning. Every morning for the past week or so, a dove sings in the morning. I am not sure where the nest because I have not yet caught sight of him. This is not a mourning dove, but another dove species because the call is different from that of a mourning dove.

I’m considering working online at night

It's becoming more difficult to work in the morning. I set down to write and I'm interrupted by a crises. The interruptions are never world shattering, but they have to be handled anyway. It's becoming difficult to get anything accomplished in the morning.

I did learn one thing this morning. I can write form poetry between interruptions. Perhaps tomorrow I will attempt a short story or essay between interruptions. There is a short comedy piece about parallel universes and lost spoons I've started. I'll attempt that Monday morning.

Monday afternoon I have to pick up some meds. Lately, I try to do the errands in the afternoon because of morning are difficult and full of interruptions. No, I can't stop the interruptions because of the source of the issue.

I just deal with each interruption and crises as it arrives. If I put it off, the situation only gets worse; therefore, I have to deal with the interruptions immediately. I thought that as I matured and got older, life would get less complicated. This isn't true. I'll go into a little more detail about the source of the interruptions after a bit more research.

The Way to Tell a Good Day from a Bad Day

Sometimes it is difficult to determine if a day is going to be good or bad. I got up before dawn this morning and the sky was still dark velvet black. As the slipped above Sunrise Mountain, the sky transformed from silk ebony into a cloud gray blanket. I did not know then whether the sky was actually cloudy or clear.

I wrote two poems this morning about dawn, so I know it is going to be a good day. It does not matter what happens the rest of the day because I wrote two poems. Everyone needs to have hope when a day begins. We all look for omens to tell us how the day is going to progress.

I know today, Monday, April 20, 2009 will be a good day because of two things, which occurred this morning. First, I said my morning prayers before sunrise. Second, I wrote two poems. True the poems were short, but I completed them before dawn and one of them mentioned coffee.

Those are the things that this writer uses to determine if the day goes good or bad. Prayers cause the day to progress smoothly. Poems commemorate the passage of the day. Everyone needs to have hope renewed each day, so the individual must determine for him or herself how to find that hope to continue living for another day.

Sometimes Morning writing is Easier

Sometimes morning writing is easier,
without the distractions
that occur later in the day.

Sometimes morning writing is more difficult
because the day's desires
breakdown the doors of solitude
and shout warnings
of disasters to come.

Writing about Dawn on September 11

It is Thursday, September 11, 2008; I woke up between 3:00 and 3:00 AM this morning. Not as early as I usually wake up, but early enough to be awake when dawn arrives. The arrival of dawn to Las Vegas always brings memories with it. Sometimes those memories are of my childhood and my grandparents. Sometimes those memories are of religious services or other events.

This morning I am remembering dawn on another September 11. Then I worked at a college computer lab in Henderson, Nevada; not a difficult commute from Las Vegas. I remember the alarm clock sounded at 4:00 AM. I got up, turned the alarm off, made coffee, run a bath and contemplated turning on the morning news. Instead, I opted to say morning prayers. I had to be at work about 7:30 or 8:00 AM that morning, so I decided it would be the evening news I watched that day.

I did not find out about the twin towers until I arrived at work. There was no T.V. in the computer room, but that did not matter because we had Internet access. If you have Internet, access a T.V. is not necessary. We kept one of the computers on a news website all day, I am not sure of the website because I was more interested in the news itself that day.

This morning I remember another September 11 dawn. I remember driving to work and hearing the shocking news when I arrived at my job site. I remember receiving the news over the Internet. I remember writing a poem, which was published in a chapbook of 9/11 poems. I remember dawn on September 11.

Writing before Dawn in Las Vegas

It is early and the sun is still beneath the horizon. Las Vegas never actually sleeps; it has a terminal case of insomnia. I, on the other hand, do get a little bit of sleep at regular intervals, occasionally. Last night I went to bed at 8:00 PM and got up at 1:30 AM this morning.

I lay in bed for a few minutes looking out my bedroom window into the darkness. Some people know precisely what time they get up without looking at a clock. I don't, I have to get out of bed and walk into the living room to find out the time. True, if I put the clock beside my bed, I wouldn't have to get out of bed to look at it.

The original reason for putting the clock that far away from my bedroom was to force me to get up and turn the alarm off. However, for the past nine or ten months I've been getting up before the alarm goes off. The reason for putting the alarm clock in the living room no longer exist, so I can move to clock to my bedroom.

I like getting up before the alarm goes off and before dawn illumines the sky. I like looking out the window and watching the sky change colors in the morning. The gradual change of shade of the sky indicates a change in the city. There is a difference between Las Vegas at night and Las Vegas during the day.

I like living in Las Vegas, the city with terminal insomnia because if I get the midnight munchies, I can go to a coffee shop in one of the hotels and have someone else fix and serve me my snack while I write in my journal.

A New Work Week Begins

I am sitting at my computer and looking out my living room window. The sky is still dark with no indication of the coming dawn. I am listening to the washing machine move from the rinse cycle to the final spin. I have a cup of coffee on a wooden T.V. tray set up beside my chair. I have said most of my morning prayers and am waiting for breakfast time in about thirty minutes or so.

I have made one entry in my Gratitude Journal and need to find nine more things I am thankful for today. I am more optimistic then last week because I have focused on prayers this last weekend. My week always begins better when I focus on saying my prayers.

This week is full of writing and work objectives. While it is true that writing is one of my jobs, I also work part time outside of the house. This means I have to make sure I get writing time in at irregular intervals throughout the day. I have a telephone hook up to the Internet (not DSL yet), so I cannot use the phone when I am on line.

I cannot use the phone when I am online and I cannot get online when I am using the phone. I have several business calls to make today and tomorrow, which means I am going to have to do online work after 5:00 PM. I have to make sure the line is open so that when I leave a message the people can get back to me.

Leaving the phone line open is incontinent, but not difficult. I have several projects I can work on while waiting for people to return my phone calls. I no one gets back to me before 5:00 PM on Monday or Tuesday, they cannot get me on Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday before 2:00 PM, all though, Thursday and Friday I may be home earlier.

A Good Beginning to a New Week

Jamál (Beauty), 13 Rahmat (Mercy), 165 BE – Sunday, July 6, 2008 about 7:33 AM PDT

It is a good beginning to a new week. I woke up this morning in a good mood. My mother woke up this morning in a good mood. I have not checked the news yet today, so as far as I am concerned the world woke up in a good mood. All though, that may be an exaggeration since at least half the world is going to sleep rather then waking up.

It is a good beginning to a new week. Last night before going to bed, I bought a Premium membership on writing.com. I checked my Gift Points account and realized that I had enough GPs to get a two-month premium membership, so I bought the membership. I have wanted a premium membership for a long time, but felt I could not get afford one. However, since I have bought the majority of my upgraded membership with GPs, I decided to go for it.

It is a good beginning to a new week. Mom is sleeping back in her own bed. I took her to the doctor on Thursday and he was satisfied with the way her leg was healing. So I put the table light back in her bedroom, the one that goes next to her bed, she made her own bed and she is now sleeping in her room again. She is happy to be sleeping in her bed again and I am happy she is sleeping in her bed. I still have to do something with the hospital bed in my dinning room, but I will get that taken care of.

Morning is great for writing

14 Qawl 164 B.E. - Thursday, December 6, 2007 about 8:45 AM PST

Morning is great for writing because the day is fresh and the ideas come easier. Ideas just pop into my mind in the morning. Some of them are usable immediately, while other need a bit of work to develop. I find ideas come easier to me after prayer, especially after I've recited the Tablet of Ahmad. Other writers' have a different time to write and get ideas. Each writer has to find his or her own method of idea generation and writing time.

True I didn't get up as early this morning as I would have like, but that's all right. I can always attempt to get up earlier tomorrow. It's not that I don't wake up before dawn. The problem is I lay there focusing on the cold, early morning is cold in the desert. Early morning is cold in the house because I turn the central heat down at night.

Since I'm going to continue turning the heat down at night, I have to find another method to get myself up of a morning. The method I'm using now, which is to have the clock radio on a talk station. The host of the show is a man, a male voice in a house full of women normally gets me up, but not any more. I think I'll change the station and try something else for a while.

If I get up before dawn I can write more and easier. There are less distraction getting up before dawn. Early mornings before dawn seem a more spiritual time, more tranquil. If I have to I can write anytime of day, but it's easier to write in the morning.