In the Service of Her Majesty The Queen

Moon to moon, a month has passed.
Some days went slow, some fast.
I take them, now, one at a time.
And can't find a word I like to rhyme.

Tonight the moon was bright enough to limn the clouds it seemed to hide in.
A moonrise that was striking...and no rain in sight. The rain has stayed north,
I suppose. Tomorrow morning, if I get up early again, I'll turn the sprinklers
on...the weeds in my lawn flourish, while the grass struggles. Hopefully, the
neighbors son will mow the weeds, at least, this weekend. My lawn is a fright.

Southerners seem to put great stock in lawns. Maybe everyone does, and I
have just never noticed before. That's likely, as much as I dislike lawnwork.
At least there are no pink flamingos in my yard, unlike the yard across the way.
Actually, it isn't pink, it's not a flamingo...it's grey and a stork. It's still ugly,
but I have no room to talk, what with all the weeds.

Today at work, the first quarterly report for our project was due. Because of
the fire, we didn't even have a memorandum of understanding, nor did we
have much to report. We were given an exception, but the next report had
better be good...funders live on reports.

Good Morning to those who rise from sleep.

And to anyone who goes to bed this night,
another early Nightly Mission:

When you get in your bed,
think of all the good things
that happened today,
smile awhile, let them bring
peace.

Wake up smiling tomorrow, too!
G'Night

 

The power flickers, my computer shuts down, I lose the post I was writing and curse.

I start again.

I am up, a little early, but not by much. I am hopeful that the days of rising with the dawn are done. Time will tell, I expect.

Truth, I miss the morning wakening of the birds. They sing more in the morning than at any other time. But I do so much like the night and it's silence, the moon and the stars.

The neighboring woman comes out and sits smoking on her steps, waves, bids me hello. She wears a jacket...it is cool for southern women, I guess. I have actually seen someone cry from the cold here in Florida, when I was comfortable in a jacket.

I see the wood pecker with the red head examine a cavity in one of the live oaks. I google it and find out that it likes to stash insects and such in tree holes and cover them with bark or leaves, to retrieve during the winter, so that might explain it's interest. They often, google says, nest in the same hole every season. Google also says the woodpecker eats other birds, both nestlings and adults. That does not bode well for the numerous little birds, sparrows I think that frequent the trees around my house. The males are identical to the females, so I will likely never be able to tell what sex it is.

One of the little sparrows lands in the loquat tree and I see it raise it's crest. I haven't noticed that before. I am tickled that I see something new.

Something new is good, and so is this morning.

Good night to those on the other side of the earth.

Good Morning everyone who rises from sleep (or did awhile ago, more likely)!

I hope your day goes well and your head stays clear.

 

The dogwood tree is in bloom!

The squirrels and birds did not nibble off as many buds as I feared, perhaps they didn't like the taste. It doesn't have large blooms like the dogwoods I am used to in California, but I am pleased regardless.

An airliner, a prop plane, circles around, climbing, as it rises from the small airport to the east, comes so low I think it will hit the buzzards who are also circling. It doesn't, of course, but the buzzards scatter nonetheless. Tonight, they fly one at a time due west.

I watch the squirrels and birds find their places in the trees for the night and wonder how easily they disappear, even when the leaves are sparse and the branches bare. I still have yet to witness a squirrel enter it's nest.

The seeds in the feeder will need to be replenished soon...the birds have eaten half of what there was; I update my weekly shopping list.

Night comes and with it a gorgeous lemony colored moon, still fat. It looms large on the east, rises exactly where the sun did this morning. I don't think I have really paid close attention to where it rises, find it strange that it follows the sun. Out of my memory comes another moon, though, a snapshot, and it was rising in the west, so it must change. Something else to watch for, something else to store away in my brain's vast trivia section. Trivia eats my brain cells, but better trivia than other things.

It is noisy out tonight, dogs barking, people shouting, semis roaring on the nearby highway, a train whistling that it is coming through the town.

Good morning...likely well past it...on the earth's other side.

The nightly mission for those on this side:

Fall into sleep with no regret
for the day that just passed,
find something within you
to hold onto through the night.

When you get up tomorrow,
remember it's a new day,
find some thing to believe in.

G'Night!

 

I hope this is fiction, because it sounds like a riot. :gotmyatte

Is the quote from Cattlestar Galaxative?

 

Wow. Wow again.

 

I am up early again out on the porch, not thinking, just looking at what is going on around me.

I startle the birds away from the feeder, they own it now and let me know they are not happy with my presence. Two birds squabble over who gets to bathe in the birdbath across the way. The woman who lives there comes out in her robe and slippers, goes to a neighbor's house, comes back with a gallon of milk. Her shades and windows are up, and were last night too, so I think she does not have a window-opening schedule, but leaves them up all night. She closes the door behind her (it was open before)...I think she might believe I watch her instead of the birds.

Another first, I finally see a squirrel leave it's nest. It is busy around the nest, maybe rearranging the twigs to cover up the entrance, I can't see what it does well enough to be sure.

A really large hawk flies overhead, low enough to have come from one of the live oaks, and flaps to the top of a dead tree in the distance, sits there, a lone sentinel. I stay on the porch longer than I had planned, hoping to see it take off again, but it is still there when I come in to write.

Today is my busiest day.

Goodnight to the other side of the earth,

Good morning to those who rise (or have already risen) this morning on this side.

I hope your day goes well, I hope nothing bad happens to anyone.

 

I finally saw the geese fly overhead...they were headed in the direction of the lake right before the sun went down, when I got home. They were too high or far away to hear. There will be more.

A large flock of crows visited the neighborhood lawns, making all kinds of racket. They are very noisy creatures. I think I might have seen a raven when I left for town, too. It was black and very large, twice the size of the crows. It was all by itself, as far as I could tell driving by.

Something...I assume a squirrel...got the roof of my birdseed feeder off. I can't imagine a bird doing that.

I forgot to get sunflower seeds.

It's dark, and everything...birds and squirrels, rather, is in the trees and quiet. Night is here.

Tomorrow the boy down the street will mow my lawn.

At the office, they find out that the database was destroyed. The backup instructions were wrong, so we lost all the data, all the files I put in there, since 2005. I can't get my mind around it, and I'm not going to try, not tonight.

My boss is having PTSD. All her life she has feared electrical fires and doesn't know why. She hasn't been able to stay in her house alone since the office burned down. I told her she could call me, if she needs to...I stay up late, and none of her friends do. Now they say it wasn't arson, but I think that's just damage control.

Aside from that, I had a good day. Even today being Friday the 13th didn't faze me..

Hope you had a good day, too.

 

No, not at all.

I just started this thing on a whim and let it carry me.

It's been a good 10 years since I've had the desire to write like that.

I should thank Scry for the inspiration.

 

Yeah, check out my last post before everything gets moved.

LOL. No. Funny, but no.

EDIT: Oops. Too late.

Hey, cool! I got my own thread now!!

To all: Feel free to comment on the story there. It's finished.

 

Way past time for the Nightly Mission:

Get in bed,
pull the covers
over your head
if you must.

But do try
to remember
that in the end
all we are is dust.

Think of all
the little things
treasure them,
in the time you have.

Once the night
is gone and day
has come, seek joy,
find beauty, laugh.

G'Night

 

It is cloudy when I get up, sit on the porch.
I hear thunder in the west where the sky is darkest.

A flock of very noisy crows sits in a live oak,
flies overhead, lands in a tall pine. The crows seem
to be the only ones, except perhaps for the predator
birds, who ever sit in the pines. Maybe because they
flock and the other birds do not seem to.

There are no other birds I can see, no other birds
sing this morning. Only the crows.

When I go out again, the clouds have chased themselves
off to the north, it is sunny, the crows are gone and
the other birds are singing.

A blue jay sits in the loquat tree, sings every song it has
ever heard, even croaks like a frog. I wonder where
it has been to hear frogs, I have seen none to date,
not even the tree frogs who normally live under my
shutters, come out only at night. I think it must have
been all the way to the lake, they travel farther than
I thought, I guess.

Normally my driveway attracts frogs, and I have to
be careful when I come home at night not to drive over them.
But so far, none.

My phone rings and rings this morning, everyone calls. Can
you do this, can you do that. My days next week look like
they will be busy.

I try to oil the hinges on my screen door, it is too noisy at
night and I know now the woman next door does not sleep
well, I would not want the door waking her up. I botch the
job...cannot get the oil to run inside the hinge. Maybe
graphit would have been better. Too late, now.

My hands smell like oil, even though I washed them.

Good morning to those who woke on this side of the world,
I hope your day brings many moments of laughter.

Good night to everyone else.

 

Use soap when you wash off oil. Wash long, or twice, or use workshop hand cleaner. Oil is insoluble in water, and it will soak into your skin.

 

LOL. I now your sincere and all, but I just can't help laughing.

Leave it to the wonderful Professor GA82 to give us a good hygiene lesson!

Seriously, workshop hand cleaners, like LAVA or GOOP work wonders.

Going out tonight to a Chicago Wolves hockey game. I'm not a hockey fan, but J got some great "company-family outing" deals on good seats. Plus, they came with free tickets to another game!

Was going to me me, my son, and my Dad. Unfortunately, my Dad's pretty sick with a severe cold and can't go. J said he sounded so crushed on the phone earlier. He'd been looking forward to it for weeks. Still, we have another chance next month...

So now it's me, N, and one to be named later. I offered it to J and she countered with bringing one of N's friends along. I'll pose the question to N and let him decide.

 

I used soap, dish soap. I appreciate the advice re handcleaners, but I do not often require a need for them...once a year, maybe...if that.

Ice hockey? Or regular? I'd love to see an ice hockey game.