Monthly Archives: September 2019

Pleasures of Air Travel

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3 a.m. Chicago O’Hare. 

Please post your favorite photos
on the theme of “Pleasures of Air Travel”
and post a link in the comments of this site.

 

Time period: Sept. 5- Sept. 30, 2019

Here’s a poem I wrote about air travel a year and a half ago.  Seems appropriate, so I’m reblogging it. Complain, complain.

Open Letter to the Airline Mucky-Mucks:

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Open Letter to the Airline Mucky-Mucks

To Whom It May Concern:

My carry-on’s too heavy to lift above my seat,
so I had to put it under, now there’s no room for my feet.
I request some water (though I’ve been twice rebuffed,)
to take an antihistamine, for my eyes are puffed
from the perfume of my seatmate, which also made me cough.
So I’m already hurting long before lift off.
I’ve squeeze marks from the narrow seats, I’m shivering from the draft,
and when this ride is over, I must board another craft!

Two hours later, two states up, I face another battle
trying to find a decent airport meal here in Seattle.
On my muffuletta sandwich (priced $15.93),
I look in vain for olives, which there don’t seem to be.
My Tim’s potato chips are stale, the sodas are all flat.
The Wifi that they advertise does not know where I’m at.
Air travel’s an adventure but not the one I sought.
I forget this lesson once again, refusing to be taught.

One hour left ‘til I lift off to wing my way on east,
I buy a drink and steel myself to board your winged beast.
I hope this time my seat mate fits in his own seat
so I don’t have to deal again with the impossible feat
of leaning out into the aisle, avoiding every ass
of passengers and stewards that brush me as they pass.
I bitch, I whine, I grouse, I cry, complain and moan and sigh.
‘Til by now I’m sure you wonder why I even fly.

I must admit I’ve asked myself the same as I’ve been talking.
The only reason I have found is that it sure beats walking.

Thursday Doors, Sep 5, 2019

 

Click on any photo to enlarge all.

For the Thursday Doors prompt.

Reckless in Retrospect

Reckless in Retrospect

I’d love to be spontaneous, spur-of-the moment, rash—
to burn my candle at both ends, right down to the ash.
Impulsive and incautious, impetuous and careless.
Have hair-raising adventures up to the time I’m hairless.

But I was born of parents both dependable and prudent.
I was a cautious driver and a conscientious student.
I planned my life out to a “T,” kept calendars and planners.
I wore my skirts down to my knees and always watched my manners.

If perfect is as perfect does, by now I’d be a saint.
The only problem is, in spite of all of this, I ain’t!!!
I might as well have had some fun and risked a wrong decision.
For after all of this, I’ve found there’s scant fun in precision.

The prompt word still unpublished when I wrote my prompt poem this morning was spontaneous. Here it is, in a poem all its own.

Hibiscus Bud: Flower of the Day, Sep 5, 2019

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For Cee’s FOTD

Broken Dreams

 

Annie at 17 years old.

My seventeen year old cat, Annie, has for the past two years been awakening me at various early-morning hours to be fed. It makes no difference if I feed her at midnight or 2 am or whenever I choose to turn in for the night. At 4 or 5 or 6, her piercing yowls shock me awake and there is nothing to be done other than to get up to flop an entire can of Fancy Feast into her feeding bowl. She’s taken over my bathroom with her food and water dishes, her litter tray and her bed, so for two years I’ve showered in the guest shower. This old girl rules my world. Today’s five o’clock awakening gave rise to this poem. 

Broken Dreams

I doused my dream to greet the day, but to my great annoyance.
reality, alas, cannot compete with its flamboyance.
The dream was psychedelic and meandering in its plot.
It had all the excitement that my waking life has not.

Before the day resumes its hold, since night is not yet done,
I’ll return to my pillow and awaken to the sun.
The old cat’s fed, the dogs still sleep and so, with luck, shall I.
Perhaps I’ll find that dream again. At least, I’m going to try.

 

Annie at one month, in my headphone case.

Prompt words today are psychedelic, doused, annoy and day.

Hibiscus Sprout: FOTD Sept. 4, 2019

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For Cee’s FOTD

High Finance

High Finance

Dabble in the market? I’d do so if  I could,
but to instigate investment? I fear I never would.
I prefer my piggy bank. I save my loose change there.
Never have I broken it. I really wouldn’t dare.
I have it on a high shelf next to a crystal prism.
To get the money out, I’d have to create such a schism
that I could  never fix  it, so I just don’t have the heart.
I prefer my piggy bank as a work of art.
The value that’s within it I find is secondary.
I’ll just use my credit card at the Cash and Carry!

Prompt words for today are schism, instigate, dabble, unlikely and could.

Bird of the Day, Sep 3, 2019

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This was the view from our balcony on the ship. This gull seemed to be leading the way. The wing sticking out from the side of the ship was the captain’s office. He was the only one with a better view of where we were bound to than we had, port side!

For Granny Shot it BOTD

Hibiscus: FOTD Sep 3, 2019

 

For Cee’s FOTD

Column: Rich farmers, not mom-and-pop farms, will collect most of Trump’s tariff bailout

Column: Rich farmers, not mom-and-pop farms, will collect most of Trump’s tariff bailout

https://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-hiltzik-trump-farm-bailout-20190528-story.html?fbclid=IwAR1vRJ85qAkK6TYitX2evUAdPz4kTlkdkXUVpybdupxQYzwloFstPlHE2ZQ