Heavy Day

The day started off in a dark way yesterday.

While walking the pups, I noticed a bloated dead cat in the side yard of a house. Bloated like it had been there a day or two. Then I noticed the garbage cans were not curb side--odd for trash day. The car was in the driveway. Curtains closed up around the house. Walking the dogs I had often seen an elderly woman there, always by herself, doing yardwork. So in the name of being neighborly I freaked and called the police and asked them to check on the woman. No one answered the door when I knocked earlier. Have not heard anything more.

A few hours later, I got an email from my wife Erin saying that one of her students, an elderly woman, had died. She'd been struggling with brain tumors since her late 20's. Erin got the message right before class and had to break the news to her students. Hard class.

A few hours later, while I was at school picking up my son Whit, I was told by another parent that one of our neighborhood librarians had committed suicide. Her son had died 3 years ago, and she never recovered. I adored her and always looked forward to seeing her and joking with her when I went to the library.

I am in shock and deeply saddened. Her obit said she died of a broken heart. I am not sure why I am posting this. I think I just want you to know of her.

Qik Post

Imagine yourself saying through your gritted aching teeth, "I'll be back in a bit, just gonna run down to Immediadent." Or, you stub your toe enough to crack the nail open and say, "I need to make a trip to UrgiCare." I think I despise "Urgi" most because it just sounds so damn stupid.

Here is my Andy Rooney moment for the day. What the hell is with all these blended word names? Immediadent is what you'd expect, a kind of urgent care for dentistry, right here in Akron. No doubt useful, but the name? Come on. This is advertising at its worst. I think it all began with video stores spelling Time, Tyme! Or oil lube shops spelling Quick, Qik.

Here are a few I made up.

Escort Service:

ImmediaSex

Lawn Care:

UrgiTrim

TrimTyme

Physicals:

Immediaprobe

The possibilities, sadly, are endless.

Babies: Shaken not Stirred

Shake the baby "quiet". Wow, that would make a great iPhone game app. Well, maybe not so much.

"The Cupertino, Calif.-based company has rejected apps that let iPhone users throw virtual shoes at President George W. Bush or watch clips from the "South Park" cartoon. It has accepted numerous programs that simulate flatulence."

Priorities. Priorities.

Still Praying

Still Praying

I pray for a breeze in sweltering summer,
A little less precipitation in winter.
May the flowers bloom red, purple, or whatever;
May love be spared derisive laughter,
May someone be available to prop up the fallen.
Let me have compassionate people around
So that when a man is really down
They at least won’t increase his pain
By turning a cold shoulder and arched eyebrows;
Each day of the year, like a cooling spring
Gushing forth non-stop, let us have some wisdom,
Instead of bans and rulings against this or that.
I ask to hear songs welling from the heart
Without someone laying down a formula
Of prearranged keys for every melody.
I pray
For the day when people will have no need
To pray the way I have had to do here.

Cai Qijao

Ars Poetica

Ars Poetica

Rather than speaking words, I’d prefer to give my hand
to a child, immerse my heart in living foam,
and be quiet, with my forehead full of ocean
under a silent pinetree, pulsating upward.

Rather than speaking words, navigating in a plain
of crushed wheat, growing in waves, where immensity
extracts the juice of summer nights;
and instead of dreaming names letting the wind write them.

Rather than collecting songs harvested in infancy
I’d prefer my cheeks to be like a ravished nest,
and the taste of my lips to be moist with ignorance,

and with the very first delight of someone who has never kissed;
rather than speaking words, to be the words’ own fragrance,
and to be quiet, inside the poem, to be quiet …


By Leopoldo Panero

Reality Check for The Stupidly Weathly

If this weren't so nauseating it'd be funny. Read on about the hard times the wealthy are having. "I'm not after sympathy. We are blessed. What I want is a reality check on what rich means," Ms. Parnell says. "I can pay my mortgage and I can buy some clothes. I'm not going without, but I'm not living a life of luxury." If she wants a reality check, I'd say start with the vacation home. What a dork. Preciousssssss.

Spring Beauties

Spring has sprung white in our front yard. We get this beauty every Spring for about a week. Less if we get a late frost. Isn't it gorgeous. Speaking of gorgeous, Indy got into my wife Drey's hair stuff again. Loves to play dress up I guess.

Anonymous Keith

after a long tour with Poor Fool, Anonymous Keith has been retired. To those of you who have told me on the side to make him go away, your wish has been granted.