In Between Life Anew

The chill of a season hangs on in breath While the earth underneath awaits its death There are calls of life anew underneath As chorus frogs wait in a shrubland heath A taste of spring willingly comes and goes Warm breezes, fresh unsoiled air wafts like prose Then winter returns from clouds filled with snow Gray skies appear in silver ink shadow In time, the month of earth’s change comes along Geese and crane return, noting robin’s song Too earlyRead more

#SoCS: A Close-Up to Winter and Cats

Cats are funny. Sometimes they want to be close up to their human while they attempt a yoga stretch, and sometimes they are a bit further away. In a box. At times there are snuggles and purrs from the furballs, at times one can drive a person crazy with their need-to-be/want-to-be in the kitchen addiction. Close up, the double fence wall seems formidable, but I’m waiting for Hoshi to find a way past it. The white fence was doing it’sRead more

#SoCS: Trails are the Easy Part

For this week’s Stream of Consciousness, Linda G. Hill has made it easy for me to post: “Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “trail/trial.” Use one, use both, use them any way you’d like. Bonus points if you use both. Have fun!” First and foremost, I will not be responding to trial. There’s a celebrity trial going on right now (haven’t watched a second of it) that is much in the media and seemingly never-ending. I think thisRead more

Gibbs Sends His Congratulations

Geez. I’m still wondering how retired life got so busy, but it’s not a complaint. I rather like it this way because it beats spending too much time on the couch, watching mindless TV, in the midst of winter. Speaking of winter, my brother sent me this photo on Saturday morning. It snowed in Colorado, up to a foot in some places. This was my chance to laugh at his predicament and enjoy the cool 64F (18C) day in Wisconsin.Read more

Checking in with Priorities

“Instead of saying ‘I don’t have time,’ try saying ‘it’s not a priority,’ and see how that feels. Often, that’s a perfectly adequate explanation. I have time to iron my sheets, I just don’t want to. Changing our language reminds us that time is a choice. If we don’t like how we’re spending an hour, we can choose differently.”― Wall Street Journal Let me be honest. Blogging hasn’t been a priority of late. I could say that I don’t have timeRead more

#WATWB: Fox Cities Trail System

For this month’s We Are the World Blogfest, I’m going to share the Fox Cities trail system in the Appleton, Wisconsin area. These are some of the biking/walking trails that I utilize throughout the year, but most often in spring, summer and autumn. I may have gushed about our trails before, but the community that also includes Neenah, Menasha, Fox Crossing, Kimberly, Kaukauna, Combined Locks and other surrounding townships, provide many miles of natural landscape, rivers, lakes and farmland. FromRead more

A Winter’s Psalm

Frigid winter is my torment; I shall not want.     I lie wrapped in a cocoon of a comforter’s warmth, a sleeping cat lays still beside me.     Frigid gnaws at my shivering soul. He lures me outside in evil deceit     for a frozen winter’s sake. I trudge through drifts of plow’s leavings,     and fear the ice underneath, for there is no one with me     to right a body when it falls.     Frigid cannot comfort me where I lie. Winter prepares arrivalRead more

#SoCS: In The Something

In the, in the, in the… I’m not coming up with much for the Stream of Consciousness prompt. In the heat of the night… In the final analysis… In the dead of winter… In the something… Okay, so I suppose I could write about the dead of winter since as of this moment, the temperature is 15F (-9.4C) and the expected high on Monday will be 1F (-17.2C). Yes, it’s cold here in Wisconsin and my plans are to spendRead more

One-Liner What?

“We don’t stock brandy here.” ~ The Unknown Bartender ~ What? The bartender looked at me as if I asked the stupid question of the day. “Can you make a brandy old fashioned sour with fruit?” Living in Wisconsin, I take for granted that every bar everywhere will stock brandy or cognac. However, I was thrown into reality while visiting Colorado, at an unnamed restaurant that served a “New Fashioned” on their menu. It contained Woodford Reserve bourbon, some otherRead more

My Brother Tried to End Me, Part 1

Pancake Rocks Mountain Trail. I thought I was going to be carried off this trail on a stretcher and it’s my brother’s fault. This was the first of two times he tried to end me on a hike in Colorado. When I arrived late morning on October 22nd, my brother and girlfriend took me to a microbrewery for lunch and a beer. Then we went for what I now consider a “short hike” to Garden of the Gods. Beautiful place,Read more

#WATWB: Blessing Bags

Having volunteered in the past at homeless shelters in the Appleton area, this news story hit close to my heart. From WBAY Channel 2 in Green Bay: Help for the homeless in Appleton came as members of the United Steelworkers in town for a conference dropped off blessing bags at a local shelter, with many bags expected to go to kids. That drop-off site was at the Pillars shelter, near the city’s downtown. Five hundred blessing bags filled with personalRead more

Never Ever

“I could never in a hundred summers get tired of this.” ~Susan Branch~ One last summer hurrah That is all I need Til the season rolls around again And I am on my steed Summers tend to feel short in Wisconsin, but we northerners take advantage of the season as much as possible. Biking buddy and I had two wonderful days of wheeling in the sun over the past weekend, with unseasonably mild temps in the 70’s and 80’s F.Read more