Monthly Archives: February 2018

idea mark.

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me – “can you tell about what you wrote?”

kinder – “look up at the top.

the brown part is the idea mark.

all the rest are the ideas.”

i thought this to be brilliant 

and perhaps should be our newest form of punctuation.

move over semicolon; the idea mark is here to stay!

“words are but the signs of ideas.”

-samuel johnson

stag.

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the priests saw the funny side of it all

Pub bosses have apologized after asking a group of trainee priests to leave their Cardiff venue, mistaking them for a stag party in fancy dress.The seven Roman Catholic seminarians had gone to The City Arms to toast Father Peter McClaren’s ordination when they were asked to move on.

Assistant manager Matt Morgan said they received a free round of drinks when the situation was explained.”They were all dressed in their black and white clothes,” he said.”The staff thought they were a stag. We do have quite a few issues on the weekends with parties wearing fancy dress so it is our policy to turn them away.”

six of  the priests who were turned away

Father Michael Doyle, who knows the group, said the seven went to the pub on Quay Street to celebrate the ordination at the nearby Cardiff Metropolitan Cathedral of St David. The pub was a favourite of his colleagues including the Archbishop of Cardiff, George Stack.”They arrived at The City Arms and were dressed wearing the clerical collar,” he said.

“The doorman said something along the lines of, ‘Sorry gents, we have a policy of no fancy dress and no stag dos’. “The students had started to leave when they were approached by the bar manager. “He basically said, ‘you’re real, aren’t you?’,” said Fr Doyle.”He invited them back in and when they walked back in the entire pub burst into a round of applause, and they had a free round off The City Arms.”

Fr Doyle said the group stayed at the pub most of the afternoon chatting to customers.
Mr Morgan said the priests were “all great sports and saw the funny side of the situation”.
A spokesman for the Archdiocese of Cardiff added: “We’d like to thank The City Arms for being good sports through all of this and their kind gesture to our seminarians.”

 the priests enjoyed a few pints in the pub at the end

 

“any band that doesn’t have a sense of humor has a little bit of a problem.”

-jens lekman, swedish musician

 

 

 

credits: wales news service, j. lloyd, the city arms

lunar dog.

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happy lunar new year – the year of the dog. 

“you can tell by the kindness of a dog how a human should be.”

-captain beefheart

 

 

 

 

 

 

image credit: google images – vintage

sorry, jerry lewis.

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when i was 7 or 8 years old

my father came home

from his job at the ad agency

with a new pet for our family

and it just happened to be a baby alligator.

he was not more than 9 or 10 inches long 

 in a small box and cute as could be

i was really excited

and pictured myself playing with him and his friends

(just as in the vintage postcard above)

i thought he would just fit right in

with my family

in our colonial house

in the suburbs 

though, there were a few ‘glitches’ with this scenario.

  1. my family had no idea how to choose or take care of a pet.
  2. i had no idea how to take care of and raise an alligator.
  3. my father had become the owner of the alligator through some sort of crazy ad campaign, so it had probably been through a rough time in its life already.
  4. i felt sorry for him and he looked scared.
  5. i was determined to mother him and make him feel better, though no clue how.
  6. i had no idea what to feed an alligator, so i fed him lettuce and water and thought my sisters would help me catch flies for him.
  7. he already had a name given to him by the agency – “jerry lewis”
  8. my parents pretty much left me on my own to figure it out. 
  9. writing this out, it all seems even crazier than it was. 

i had my alligator for a few days and i was very excited to have my friends in my class meet him. when the big day came for show and tell,  i carefully carried him in his little cardboard box, climbed onto the bus, and jerry and i headed off to school. i remember it was a bit chilly that day, but i didn’t know anything about natural alligator habitats, so i didn’t think much of the weather. i was bursting with excitement.

i put my box on my desk and when i was called up for the big reveal, i opened by box, only to find that jerry lewis had passed away on the way to school and was now stiff as a board. i couldn’t believe it and i felt so sad for him. looking back, i’m sure that any baby alligator given away in a promotion, was not long for this world, but i had hoped that we would be together for a long while. my teacher was very nice about it, and helped me wrap up his box and i rode home that day on the bus with jerry, ready to have a funeral for him. i learned so many life lessons from my short time with jerry lewis. – r.i.p.

(not me, or jerry, but how i imagined us at show and tell)

 

” i go where the action is.”

-jerry lewis

heart.

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“write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.”

-ralph waldo emerson

happy valentine’s day

 

 

 


-‘dried reeds’ created by roadsworth, montreal, canada

rough road.

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the kinders begin the process of digging out their cars

and clearing the road after the storm.

 

“it is a rough road that leads to the heights of greatness.”

-lucius annaeus seneca

voyage.

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what adventures do you keep coming back to, time and time again?

 

 

 

 

 

image credit: book riot

shovel.

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one day

at the beginning of this long winter

a sweet kid not more than 14 years old

showed up at my front door

shovel in hand

wearing sweatshirt and gloves

quiet and polite

asking if i wanted to hire him

yes!

without a moment’s hesitation

soon he was at work 

clearing my walks, my driveway, my porch

he charged me a very fair rate

 looking to make some cash before christmas

lives with his mom

in an apartment nearby

 i know nothing else about him

except that he works very hard

often appears without warning

just in time

to clear my path and then

is gone again as soon as he’s finished his work

i’ve no way to contact him

sometimes i see his steps and shovel marks

signs that he’s stopped over

but our timing was off

and now

on this weekend

with the long days of deep snow

he’s nowhere to be found

oh, where, oh, where,

 is the kid with the shovel?

and so

i am paying myself

 getting a free workout

day after day

 i’m sure i’ll see him again

maybe when it’s time

to move dirt

for the gardens.

“never doubt the power of love or one woman with a shovel.”

-carrie newcomer

olympics.

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let the games begin!

 

“olympics for me is love, peace, united. “

-jackie chan

gargoyle.

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ever the vigilant sentinel 

glenn frey the cat not the rocker

mans his post 

to guard my latest pile of books

my gargoyle is at the ready

and clearly on high alert

no one dare mess with him.

“you cannot give up. we are gargoyle, and we are strong.”
― faith gibson