# 75

To my regular readers,

Consider this an apology.

I've been distant in my blogging due to my
training schedule.

It had grown quite cold,
Cold enough to freeze the clouds.
Clouds frozen enough to shatter.
Shattered shards of cloud falling,
Falling, pulled by gravity.
Gravity calling the cloud shards to reassemble.
Reassembled clouds blanket the ground.
Ground's blanket muffles sound,
Sound of cloud pieces calmly message-
Message the restless spirit.
Spirits of Bacchus fill the glass.
Glass caresses lips, spirit fills body.
Body warms, mellows, balance.
Balanced speakers echo notes.
Notes reverberate essence.
Essence floats free.
Free, ethereal-
sleep

The weekend was GOOD!

"Whispers" Short Fiction Contest

22nd February, 2008

Goodmorning family, friends, neighbors and fellow bloggers,

Today I'm taking a vacation day, today. the 22nd of February, 2008.
The primary and initiating reason for choosing today is so we can celebrate Christmas 2007 in February 0f 2008.

Say what?

For the forth year in a row now, our children have presented us with a gift of a weekend away at a resort and /or bed and breakfast. This year they are sending us back to Lake Placid, NY, host to the 1932 and the 1980 "miracle on Ice," winter Olympics. We will be staying at the world renown Mirror Lake Inn located in the heart of downtown Lake Placid.

Oh, oh, gotta hurray this post along the word has come up that we're leaving shortly!

This weekend is auspicious for the portent of a romantic get-away weekend, but is also memorable for other reasons:

1. George Washington, U.S. President #1, was born on this date in1732
2. Saint Isabel of France (died 1270)
3. Robert Ernest Larock, my father, died on this date in 1978 at the ripe old age of 58.

Starting today, a weekend of celebration, remembrance and renewal. Not a bad Christmas present if I do say so myself.
A big, big thank-you with hugs and kisses to "chelle, Bobby, and Jay!

**********

In case you'd like to entertain yourself with some flash fiction stories while I'm away, let me direct you to Jason Evan's Short fiction contest taking place over at The Clarity of Night. I myself have submitted an entry. It's titled Conspirators by REL. It's #4. So if you're a mind to, mosey on over there and read. Please leave comment on this and the rest of the talented entries that you will find there.
Jason puts up a photo and all the contestants write a 250 word or less piece of fiction using the picture as their prompt. This photo is titled

"Whispers" Short Fiction Contest

"This contest is the 8th in what has become a wonderfully fun series. Clarity of Night contest wins have been reported in agent query letters, served as inspiration for a novel placed with a major publisher, and provided a springboard for bigger success. Using the photograph above for inspiration, compose a short fiction piece of no more than 250 words in any genre or style. Send your entry to me by email at jevanswriter at yahoo dot com before 11:00 p.m., Wednesday, February 27th (Eastern Time, United States). I'd prefer attachments formatted in Microsoft Word or Word Perfect (please see the format request below), but if you have something more exotic, you can paste the text into the body of an email. Each entry will be posted and indexed."

***********

Now to the shower and then get packed.

3WW LXXIV

Punch, T-shirt, Unravel

Lloyd, you’re an asshole! An unadulterated asshole!

Listen, if you want to ravel your life by fornicating with every pubescent tart that tickles your fancy, I could give a shit less. If you could leave it at that, but no, you have to get emotionally involved, thinking, yahoo, this is the best, the greatest, the one and only love of all. Then they leave you with your defiler hanging out, threatening to further despoil your life. If Lindy, your wife, finds out it won’t just be you career that unravels; you won’t have enough nickels left to buy a T-shirt, let alone the fancy silk underwear you import from Europe.

I’m here to tell you, get your head out of your ass and your dick back in your pants. If you don’t deliver the punch-line correctly tonight at the performance you’ll be looking for a new gig.

What’s that up the road ahead? instead of; what’s that up the road………. A head?

Shit man!!!

ON-CALL TODAY.










Training run this morning: 29 degrees F. with a biting arctic wind from the west coming across the river, stiff enough to etch the devil's icicles.
Run two poles walk one etc. ...thank you Jeff Galloway! Fortunately the wind was behind me for the first mile so that when I eventually turned into that wind turbine I was good and warmed up.

Did three miles today.... Six next Sunday in Lake Placid.

Much different than yesterday's balmy 45 F. walk. As Jason (The Clarity of Night) said, " the ghost were about yesterday" teasing us with thoughts of spring. Today the ghosts slapped us up-side-the-head with a dose of February reality!

While I run, my mind opens up and thoughts flow like water through an eight inch main. As I warmed to the task at hand an idea for a fall endeavor made itself known to me. I'm going to run it by Don P. and Leigh, and perhaps Chris and John David to see if they have any interest. The idea is this: To kayak from the 'Burg to Mo'town, then bike from Mo'town to the burg and back, and finish with a 10K run from my house to the Jacques Cartier Park and back (an exact 10 K). Sounds doable for the over 50 or greater crowd, whadda-ya think?
Anyone else whose interested is most welcome to join in. Just let me know; Jay? Kristy? Michelle? Josh? Bobby?
I know you're under fifty but I'm not going to hold that against you.

This will not take the place of the Adirondack 90 miler.

mélange

My nephew Sean has been awarded United Way of Chittenden County Hometown Hero award for all the many volunteer hours (and sleepless nights)he has put in to get the new Burlington Community radio station "The Radiator" (105.9 FM) up and running. Without his technical
expertise the radio station would still be a dream.

.

Photo:

Lee Anderson, Sean Larock and Jim Lockridge

photographer: Matthew Thorsen


So you had better do as you are told. You better listen to the radio. The Radiator began test broadcasts, sending its first signals over Burlington airwaves in September 2007. Though Lockridge and Anderson were able to round up enough donated capital and equipment to get the station on the air, they lacked the technical wizardry required to put all the pieces together. They turned to engineering director Sean Larock, whose extensive radio experience — including a lengthy stint at the University of Vermont’s WRUV 90.1 FM — became an invaluable asset. “We get commercial radio folks who come by and are amazed,” says Anderson of Larock’s work in the studio.

**********

I've completed two solid training weeks. I've shifted my priorities; there is a sign in my head and it flashes like neon in my mind when I wake up in the morning that says: Exercise first, blog second if you have time.

Although I love to write, and have ambitions of someday becoming a published writer (other than on blogger) and I enjoy reading the blogs of friends from around the world, there is a reality of the present world that needs to be addressed and enjoyed. I have let my 15 year devotion to morning exercise flag for the past two years, which coincidently matches nearly the length of time I've been blogging. My strength training has stayed regular but the pesky aerobics training has limped over to the shoulder of life's road and in so doing has enabled me to gain 30 pounds of adipose that is reeking havoc with my joints.

My chum Leigh, you know--- the one who I canoed the 90 milers with, is always watching over me and subtly encouraging me to get back on track, exercise wise. Nothing direct but like two weeks ago, Leigh, a mesomorph of a human being, a dedicated exercise - get out and enjoy the physicality of life type of guy and by his own admission not a runner, says to me: " I'm going to train for the Ottawa Marathon, wanna do it with me?" Now he knows that I've run the 1/2 in Ottawa twice and that I ran and completed the Marine Corps full marathon 2 years ago. I took heed of the hint; get off your fat ass and get back in shape bud. An additional motivation is the underlying fact that we've been enrolled in the 2009 Philmont trek and we need to start now if we hope to climb Baldy again.

Bottom line: we've both signed up to run the 1/2 in Ottowa the weekend of the 25th of May, 2008.

So if I seem absent from Under the Microscope more than usual, know that my training for life and for the race are my priorities now!

**********

D. and I dined at Josephine's Bistro last night. As it's only 3 blocks from our abode we decided to walk. Holy moly man, that was one frigid, wind whipped walk! The wine was superb, the service good, and the food adequate. They have the potential to do really well, especially right now since they are the only game in town. Come summer the competition will return along with the 10 fold increase in population. They got off on the wrong foot with an inexperienced cook when they opened and you know the saying about first impressions. Not only that, but their prices were higher than the local gentry finds acceptable. All the more-so, if the food sucks. Needless to say they are struggling to build business back. They have a new, young chef. She is a graduate of a culinary institute in Maine. She is a local girl and seems to be a good addition. Their limited menu is well presented and the quality has improved each time we go. I do miss our Friday nights at the Lodge though.

**********

Tonight we're on tap to motor across the border to dine with Leigh and Karen. They are committed to attending their son's Track meet at St. Lawrence University today. I'm unsure of when that will conclude so will have to wait and see how and when we'll make it over to Brockville's Buell Street Bistro. We've eaten there twice before and it can hold it's own with any of the finest restaurants we've ever dined at.

**********

Most folks have multi varied interests; work, exercise, blogging, household chores (yes, some people actually enjoy housecleaning), writing, reading, browsing the internet, and watching the tv. There are many others, but these are the ones that take up the majority of my time.

Today is a reading day!

Explanation: Galaxies are made up of stars, but are all stars found within galaxies? Using the Hubble Space Telescope, researchers exploring the Virgo Cluster of galaxies have now found about 600 red giant stars adrift in intergalactic space. Above is an artist's vision of the sky from a hypothetical planet of such a lonely sun. The night sky on a world orbiting an intergalactic star would be a stark contrast to Earth's - which features a spectacle of stars, all members of our own Milky Way galaxy. As suggested by the illustration, a setting swollen red sun would leave behind a dark sky flecked only with faint, fuzzy, apparitions of Virgo Cluster galaxies. Possibly ejected from their home galaxies during galaxy-galaxy collisions, these isolated suns may well represent part of a large, previously unseen stellar population, filling the space between Virgo Cluster galaxies.

So let us go forward, quietly, each on his own path, forever making for the light.

Vincent van Gogh

PIGSNYE

There is a road from the eye to the heart that does not go through the intellect.
G.K. Chesterton

Love, like silent frost
Sparkles in your lover's eye.
Fourteen February.
rel

#21...Changed

Changed

Lying, limbs entwined

Pelvises hinged in thrusting.

Lips brushing, tongues darting

Her face flushed; the pressure

Builds

She focuses on her woman-hood.

The exquisite pleasures rise,

Peak, crescendo—subside,

Rise again and again.

Each time the pleasure holds

All of her attention!

Breast and belly swell

Aureoles, nipples darken—

Linea nigra scores her swollen corpus.

The warm fuzzies of mother-hood

Gives way to the waddling near term discomfort.

Lying, limbs akimbo, panting

Through chapped, pursed lips.

Pressure builds with tightening uterus.

Pain’s intensity grows stronger,

Peaks, crescendos, subsides,

Rises anew.

Pain, each growing pain, holds

All of her attention!!

# 97 Fridge Space

(anthropological diary)

-----In the year 3003, on X-terra XXVII, the virus, mankind, has been all but eliminated.

Unlike other invasive, opportunistic viruses inhabiting this sphere, mankind has been a victim of self-destruction. Our studies in the field have found isolated colonies of this species, homosapiens, in very limited numbers, scrabbling out an existence in isolation. So far the only colonies have been found near the equator.


In the past there were larger enclaves with thousands of dwellings/shelters. These spaces are surmised to have been for the purpose of rest and rejuvenation, and perhaps the propagation of themselves. Of some interest are the boxes of varying sizes , that were located in almost all of the dwellings in the temperate climes.

These boxes appear to be storage spaces which have given us tremendous clues as to the make up and life processes of these organisms. The insides contain remnants of what appear to be forms of nourishment used to sustain them in their day to day physiologic processes.

Interestingly, the outside of these container contained a multitude of strange and varied objects. At this time we've concluded that they represent a collage of their accomplishments and habitus.

Both inside and out, the contents of these containers tell a story of how they existed and perhaps a glimpse of how these simple celled beings organized their thoughts. These boxes provide us with what we like to term; ----------anthropological diaries.

The outer surfaces are often covered with magnetized objects which appear to anchor a collection of images, as well as examples of their language. A common symbol, though not exclusive, displays the letters: FRIDGE. This word seems like an appropriate sobriquet with which to label our file of accumulated research.

For more in depth analysis of our findings, click Fridge Space. Also, our research will be published on myfridgespace.com in the future.

#72

the thoughts of falling
disturbed
their peace of mind.
still,
they crossed over
the bridge.

Magic

There's a kind of slush all over the world.

There is magic in everything you encounter, it all depends on where in the circle you happen to be at any given moment whether or not you can see the magic in a given thing.

This morning under the misty glow of the 0400 street lights, I set out on my morning run/walk. The street, the side walk, all surfaces were in fact covered with a crystal icing. Because the temperature was 32.5 degrees F. the frosting was soft and slushy. To some this may have signaled a danger alarm, "perhaps I should wait 'til this is cleaned up or melted" or any other convenient excuse to put off, delay the morning's exercise. But no, I strode out despite the mild shin splints from yesterday's excursion and just carefully stepped along.

There was essence of polecat in the air. I didn't visualize the cute little black and white striped varmint, but his tell-tale odor left no doubt that he was circling about the neighborhood.

The resident owl was speaking to me in his incessant who, whooo, whoooo. I answered him a few times but to no avail. He continued to inquire as to who I was, but then again maybe he was wooing someone else.

So, pray tell rel, what has this drivel to do with magic?

When you've accumulated as many years as I have then I can safely asume that one has started many exercise programs, diets, or what ever New Years resolutions are your pets. Those goals you set out to accomplish and frequently do accomplish, but then relaxing our vigilance, fall back into the habits that got us off track eons ago. Sure enough though, at some point in the future, most of us step up to the plate for the umpteenth time and plunge ahead one more time. And that for me my friends is where the magic lies. The ability to over look past back sliding and begin anew with renewed vigor and self assurance of impending success.

With this renewed assault to suppress bad habits I embraced the slush, the eau de Pepe, the bone chilling damp, the owl's conversation, the sinus drainage; it was all part of the magic, the magic inherent in trying again.

I'm up lifted and feel a resurgence of life's energy. Oh, I know it may only last for a few moments or hours. Maybe It'll sustain me for some days. It''ll wane...it always does, but right now, right here, I immersed in the magic and it feels sublime.

#96 Foul


This post could be considered foul if only for it's excessive length!

I've committed a foul in football, hit a foul ball in baseball, uttered and heard any and all sort of obscene/abusive language. I've been in a foul mood, suffered foul weather, and witnessed treacherous, dishonorable behavior in sports and otherwise.

I've gagged while cleaning the manure from the cow barn, cringed from the odoriferous stink emanating from my locker at the end of wrestling season, I've wrinkled my nose at body odor and halitosis, and putrid doggy farts (not always from the dog.)

I've doused my surgical mask with oil of wintergreen to stave off the fetid stench of gangrene and perforated bowels.

Nothing can hold a candle to the foul, malodorous incident that occurred at our house in the mid-1980's

No, I'm not talking about the time that Gerry dumped a trailer load of pig shit in the driveway. No, I'm talking about the night that Pepe la Pew got pissed off and contaminated our whole house and it's belongings.
You see, the back portion of our house was an add-on to the original, circa 1900, house. I've no clue as to when it was added, it was there when we bought the house. This room, we still refer to it as the "back" room has no cellar nor crawl space even, under it. It was built on hewn tree trunks. There was/is an air ventilation opening to allow air to circulate under the structure to prevent the beams from rotting.

In the "good ol'" days this room served as a summer kitchen. For us more modern folk, it serves as the rear entry, coat room, mail depository, and plain old catch-all room.
There being little or no insulation in this house when we moved in in 1975, and with the outrageous cost of fuel oil in those days; .90 a gallon I think, I installed a woodstove in this back room.

Not only was the cost of fuel exorbitant but the winters back then were much colder than they are today. In the mornings when you'd venture into the back room you could feel the rush of frigid air waft up through the cracks between the floor planks and nip your toes and make your feet dance.

The woodstove's heat, which just incidentally happened to be positioned over the air vent opening to the underside of the structure, proved to be inviting to at least one, but more than likely a family of skunks.
The skunks would move in in the fall and leave in the spring. Of course there was always a faint scent of eau de skunk present in the back room, but not obtrusively so. We actually welcomed the critters, believing that they would ward off other pesky rodents such as mice or rats. Incidentally, while the skunks resided with us we were not bothered by either mice or rats.

Near the end of one winter, probably the spring of 1985, as the skunks were becoming more active, something startled or attacked (maybe a dog, although no barking was heard) our boarder causing it to defend itself naturally. The fact that it was still ensconced under the room was not a good thing. That fetid aroma, that highly offensive smell, combining the odors of rotten eggs, garlic and burnt rubber, spread hither and yon through-out our home creeping into every nook and cranny and seeping into the fabric of our clothing.

The smell was so horrific that we couldn't stay in the house. We went to the newly erected Burger King restaurant in the next town (where we wouldn't be recognized----hopefully) to have supper. We endured plenty of stares and wrinkled up noses, and then and there vowed to never set foot in that BK again just from sheer embarrassment; knowing we'd be labeled some derogatory words describing our aroma.

The next day our three children were sent home from school because their clothes reeked so badly with the stench of skunk piss. Our daughter (yes the one whose birthday is today) was a sophomore in high school and was so mortified from embarrassment. The boys on the other hand reveled in the fact that they were getting a day off. Who'd-a-thought?

At my work place, the operating room no less, people exiting our locker room where I had changed into OR scrubs kept inquiring as to the source of the foul odor emanating from the locker room.


It took numerous days and many loads of baking soda laced loads of laundry before we were comfortable re-entering our social circle.

THANK HEAVEN FOR LITTLE GIRLS!

Happy Birthday Michelle

February 3rd 1968 -

While some may prefer the miscellaneous writings of Edward Gibbon (1737-1794), others, the M.W. of H.P. Lovecraft, today I offer for your perusal the rough-and-tumble, unsophisticated musings of rel.

As dumb luck would have it, Lucy from lulupetals tagged me last week to a five random things meme. The structure of this meme is somewhat different from the usual in that it offers a miscellany of choices:

1. a. reveal 5 random/ weird facts about yourself.
2. b. state 5 top places on your want to see list
3. c. relate 5 things you never pictured in your future when you were twenty-five.

The standard re-tagging of 5 bloggers is proposed, as well as the link-back to she who taggeth thou.

I've chosen to answer in a non-standard manner, Choosing something from here and a little from there to create a post that would have met the prompt for Sunday Scribblings last but because of the lateness of my post will go unsubmitted. ;)

1. A. 1. I get up at 0330 Monday thru Friday to blog and exercise. Most folks I work with think that's odd. However, I think it's odd that I'm the only one of my many co-workers who blogs. Blogs? Is that a proper verb?

1. B. 1. I want to visit the Hague, Netherlands and see among other things their windmills.
2. 2. A tip to Florence, Italy and a chance to see the David in reality.

• C. 1. I never foresaw my being a two term mayor nor a two term school board president.
• 2. It never entered my mind that I would compete in and finish a 3 day, 90 mile canoe race in the Adirondacks or anywhere else for that matter.

There you go; 5 random things about me. In keeping with the non-traditional "meme" form I tag 5 non-bloggers to anonymously do this meme here on my comments section;

1. 1. Bonnie from Pepsi
2. 2. Pam S.I.L.
3. 3. Jay,from Bureau Veritas
4. 4. Jane from Basta's
5. 5. "Chelle from the V. A.