I call these guys (Joe and our friend Bernie) the Watergate Plumbers because for the past couple of days they’ve been stopping leaks all over my house (my New Year’s resolution). In this photo they’re replacing my old dishwasher, which was almost as old as the Nixon Presidency. While they were doing that, I snapped [...]
~The following was published in The Floyd Press on January 22, 2009. The idea for The Floyd Compass visitor’s guide was born when out-of-town guests asked owners of The Hotel Floyd what there was to do in Floyd, said Kamala Bauers, one of the hotel owners. In an effort to address visitors’ questions [...]
1. The 2009 Sweetheart Valentine theme is a “Menu of Love” with a new series of candy conversation hearts that say, Honey Bun, Stir my Heart, Top Chef, and Yum Yum. 2. My friends Jayn and Emily and I put the February Museletter (our community newsletter) together on Monday. In honor of Valentine’s Day we [...]
It doesn’t shine from the sun It isn’t squeezed from an orange or found in the swirl of a nautilus shell I can’t order it off the menu no matter how loud the tenors sing opera on the piazza at sunset It isn’t revealed in the crooked tilt of Ripley’s Believe it or Not house [...]
can you be out helping a friend collect litter and run into a neighbor who jumps out of her car, pulls out her banjo and plays you a song in the middle of the road.
1. Invitation 2. Confusion 3. Blueman Fashion 4. Raising a Red Balloon
If someone like me with a logical and skeptical mind can believe in the afterlife, there might be something to it. As a child in Catechism Class – where I was forced to memorize and recite a litany of questions and answers that began with ‘WHO MADE YOU? GOD MADE ME’ – I thought Eve [...]
The following was published in The Floyd Press on January 15, 2009 and online HERE. Cloe Franko’s wrists are covered with string prayer bracelets, gifted to her by villagers in Northeast Thailand where she recently spent four months living, studying, and working for the Council on International Education Exchange (CIEE). The villagers were friendly and [...]
1. For me, reading and writing are so intertwined that I can’t read a book without a pen in hand to mark the lines I like, and I can’t write without reading each line out loud to hear how they sound. 2. Whether it is a crescent sliver or gloriously full, we know we are [...]
From our friend Timmy’s large flat screen TV in Sarasota, Florida, I watched Inauguration Day while Joe and Timmy (who only watched the start of it) played golf. Like the Academy Awards or an elaborate royal wedding, the pomp, pageantry and history had me glued to my front row comfy chair seat. That’s Joe in [...]
I found my poetry on Siesta Key, on the pastel petite shell shore where the tourmaline gulf water turns confectionary white sand to mocha gray. The gulls are greedy. The scent of salty breeze is of kelp. Sifting through the finely ground out-of-this-world white powder, I look but cannot find the slightest pebble. Occasionally I [...]
The January porch vacation (not a porch at all) is a sandy bayside opening with a gnarly grove of bushes growing on either side. Joe and I settle our chairs in the muddy bay beachfront to get out of the ocean wind and to watch the sunset. A fish jumps, a dolphin snorts by. Pelicans [...]
Riding bikes in the neighborhood, Joe calls out, “Here’s another fountain. Do you want to stop and get a picture?” Pulling my bike up on the sidewalk to gawk, I answer,” No, I just want to see what that guy has between his legs!” “Stand here; it matches your beret,” Joe says, snapping a picture. [...]
1. In the land of ‘Fireworks for Sale’ and palm trees I say to Joe: Now this is why we go on vacation so I can read Eckhart Tolle in Denny’s, sleep in a treehouse, and pull over on the side of the road and pick an orange from a tree. 2. Under an Orlando [...]
1. Near the Florida border in Georgia, in a rustic whimsical setting, is a Treehouse Hostel that Joe and I just visited. The 130 acres of swampy forest and community reminds me of an Ewok village. 2. Inside a geometric dome wood building is the hostel common room where a wall is decorated with photos [...]
This is the way we head south from the mountains. Or is it North? Somewhere where the pipes don’t freeze and it’s warm enough to swim like fish. Note: That’s our friend Rowan who was here for dog sitting instructions.
1. I’m distracted from writing deadlines by a suitcase in my bedroom that I’ve been slowly filling with flower print warm weather clothes. 2. I’m irritated because it seems like we’ve all been gagged from speaking out in support of the Palestinian people. 3. I found myself watching people in my age category at the [...]
Photo booths have come a long way from the ones I remember at Paragon Park, where for a dollar you could get a strip of black and white Polaroid style pictures. In the Mac computer photo booth with Joe, I realized all my kaleidoscope and fun house mirror dreams. Joe and I boldly went where [...]
