A top ten list

Top ten numbers 1-10

• 10. four
• 9. three
• 8. eight
• 7. nine
• 6. five
• 5. ten
• 4. two
• 3. seven
• 2. three
• 1. one

PBS programming suggestion

If football games have a halftime, why can't Ken Burns' documentary "The War" have a halftime?

ABC poem

Shauna suggested this one earlier... simply choose a word for each letter of the alphabet. It's easier if you cheat on "x", and I won't blame you if you do.

A bashful caress

dares escape from

graceful hands

I just kiss lips

moving now, openly

playing quilt-like

river sensations--

(unlike very xeric yuccas)

zeal.

The results are always a little goofy because of the ending, but it's kind of fun to have it end real wacky.

ways to insert ineptitude into everyday life

1. be easily distracted by minutia.
2. make sure putting items away means "where ever it was last time you needed it".
3. be easily bored by details (unless they are irrelevant minutiae).
4. buy a nice thesaurus and never remember where you were the last time you needed it (see number 2).
5. make sure your coping mechanism for being overwhelmed by too much to do is to think of something new to do that doesn't really need to be done.
6. never think of supper until you are hungry.
7. never think of a task until it requires immediate attention and you have less time than required to complete it.
8. create art from anything in your house.
9. own too many shoes (see number 2).
10. forget what day it is.
11. play distracting music whenever you need to concentrate.
12. daydream.
13. enjoy your dictionary so much that it's a 15 to 30 minute distraction every time you look up a word (wow, I never notice how similar the spelling of "hummus" and "humus" are).
14. stare at ceilings.
15. make up alternate endings to important information people say to you.
16. enjoy the sound of "slipshod" so much that it no longer sounds like criticism.
17. never, never finish anything.
18. find the easiest route to completion and be a perfectionist.
19. ponder your teddy bear's inner thoughts.
20. laugh out loud every 20 minutes because everything serious is hilarious.
21. have a lousy sense of smell.

Just a couple of things.

I've been thinking about Madeline L'Engle since she recently passed away. I would love to say something fitting, but the things I want to say seem too personal. I began reading all of her novels from the library (up the stairs on 7th Street) when I was in junior high. I am rereading Camilla to mark the occasion and I am struck by how deeply connected I feel. I wasn't sure if I would feel it, now that I'm not in junior high, but it's still there.

I also finished reading Death Comes for the Archbishop. Yes, I liked it. It was slow and not plot-driven, but to the extent that reading should be a peaceful endeavor, it was. Cather's landscapes are superb.

In unrelated clothing news, my grease-stained skirt was successfully rescued with a product under my sink called "greased lightning". I do not recall buying it, but it was there when I needed it.

Nowhere

The blog has already visited this place, but I went there this weekend just to have some outdoor time. This CCC dam is in NE Finney County and is currently called Finney County Wildlife Area. It's more like an abandoned dream. "Finney County Abandoned Dream Refuge". Maybe I'll make a new sign. There isn't any water and I didn't see much wildlife other than the millions of grasshoppers and one lizard. The first picture is of the little graveyard near the dam. It's in a neat circle and completely overgrown. The second picture is on the dam identifying itself. It's a place of eerie solitude especially because it has the feeling of a ghost town though it's a couple of miles from the remains of Ravenna, the real ghost town nearby.

Overgrown

Pictures from the Wildlife area tell a story of abandoment walking through it. It's a place that makes humanity's imprint seem like a part of the natural process. The place is unassuming in its offerings of beauty, like most prairie landscapes. In the distance there are very slight bluffs. As you drive toward it on highway 23, the Pawnee River valley lays out before you completely like a geology fieldtrip demonstrating topography. The land is trying to swallow the quarried stone with little weeds breaking it apart bit by bit. However, one hundred years from now, I'm certain the K-Demon marker will endure, with or without its laughing face. That slab of stone is about 2 feet thick.

Taking pictures of myself

The first picture is using a fence post and the 10 second timed photo option. This is how far I can run from the camera before it snaps the picture. On a sacrificial scale of 1-10, 1 being selfish and 10 being complete self-denial, this photo scores a 6 based upon the scratches and itching running through the grass caused.

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The second photo is an attempt at the self-portrait for a myspace page (reference "Hipster Olympics"). I also like pictures of the wind.

If you happen to notice these things, those are in fact the 4th pair of sunglasses this summer. The first pair is lost, the second pair fell apart, and the third pair were stepped on in a dressing room.

Ravenna Ruins, Valentine Day, Grasshopper