Apr5

“get a bicycle. you will certainly not regret it, if you live.” ~ mark twain 


Posted on by
Standard

i was

so excited

to buy

my brand new

townie bike

it was

cream-colored

and fancy

and

i imagined myself

riding on a beautiful sunny day

into town

carrying spring flowers in my basket

looking at all the sights

along the way

waving to neighbors

i named it

‘white lightning’

because

of it’s beautiful color

and

because

i would ride fast on it

with the

wind at my back

i rode it out of the store

and

because

i’d been in spin class

for a while

and

feeling free

and confident

i took off like a rocket

into the parking lot

and quickly

lost control

and

slammed into

my daughter’s shopping cart

i’d forgotten about

the

‘balance factor’

and

I laid in the parking lot

laughing our

baskets off

as

people walked by

probably

thinking we were drunk

in the middle of the day

but we knew

it was only

the beginning

of

many

bike adventures

to come.

—–

image credits: schwinn.com, flikr.com

(this is a repost, but was triggered by my blogging friends recent post about the challenge of learning to ride a bike and my current bike riding spring fever)

Apr4

enter the penguins.

Posted on by
Standard

and somehow

unbeknownst to them

the penguins

living their happy lives

being their best selves

in a place far, far away

have absurdly entered the fray

of american politics

my apologies

but i’m not worried

knowing they look out for each other

and can hold their own

I stand with the penguins.

—

because they aren’t used to danger from animals on solid ground,

wild penguins exhibit no particular fear of humans.- mentalfloss.com

—

‘the answer to every problem involved penguins’

-rick riordan, american author, percy jackson and the olympians series

Apr3

raindrops.

Posted on by
Standard

‘There are a finite number of times we get to do anything and after the first time it’s a count. We only get to look at the sky so many times in a life. There are a finite number of rainstorms and seasons that we’ll witness, and the number seems so big until it doesn’t. We never know when will be the last time we taste something or see someone or do anything at all. And for all the money in the world, time is not for sale no matter what the doctors say when we beg for more of it toward the end, finally seeing that we forgot to count the raindrops.’

-Cory Richards, The Color of Everything: A Journey to Quiet the Chaos Within

(Random House)

—

Art credit: David Hockney: The Arrival of Spring, Normandy, 2020

 at the Art Institute of Chicago

Apr2

“If America hasn’t broken your heart, you haven’t loved her enough.”

Posted on by
Standard

thank you, senator booker

for speaking for 25+ hours in the senate

while standing with no breaks

breaking the previous record

standing for our country

for inspiring all of us

for what is right

for democracy.

 

 

Apr1

avril.

Posted on by
Standard

April  1st

Happy April Fools’ Day and April Fish Day!

(vintage French postcard)

 

—

‘April fool.n. The March fool with another month added to his folly.’

-ambrose bierce

Mar31

color?

Posted on by
Standard

 thinking back to the first couple of times

that i saw ‘the wizard of oz’ on the big screen

it never consciously occurred to me that the film

changed from black and white to color

until suddenly later

when watching it again

it hit me

aha!

it was clear as day

it had changed into color in the middle of the film!

why did I not notice this before?

my mind just accepted it without question

I must have been so into it

as i traveled with dorothy from kansas to oz and back.

and fought off the flying monkeys

that I didn’t even notice this dramatic change

no other explanation.

—

In the 1939 movie “The Wizard of Oz,” the transition from black-and-white to color occurs when Dorothy arrives in the Land of Oz. 

While color films were becoming more common in the late 1930s, many movies were still primarily shot in black-and-white. The use of color in “The Wizard of Oz” was a significant and innovative choice that added to the film’s magical quality. The vibrant colors of Oz contrasted sharply with the sepia tones of Kansas, enhancing the thematic elements of the story.

For many viewers, the transition served as a stunning visual surprise, symbolizing Dorothy’s escape from the mundane world into a fantastical realm. The moment has since become iconic in film history, but at the time, it was a creative risk that paid off, leaving a lasting impression on audiences.

—

I do clearly remember the very first time I ever saw color on our tv. It was 1961 and I was 4 years old. We just bought a color tv for the first time and turned on Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color, which opened with full color fireworks! Wowwwwww!!!!! 

 

 

—

“colour is a power which directly influences the soul.”

– wassily kandinksy

 

 

—

source credits: MGM studios, NBC tv

 

Mar30

maybe haunted?

Posted on by
Standard

noooooooooooooooooooooooo

and how do they know which is which?

and why do the maybe haunted ones cost more?

and aren’t they all maybe haunted?

—

‘dolls with no little children around to mind them were sort of creepy under any conditions.’

-stephen king, ‘desperation’

Mar29

what about bob?

Posted on by
Standard

how my desktop computer setup appeared to me back in the day

—

years ago, in another universe

when i worked in the world of advertising

 I was in an office setting and used a desktop computer

of course it was often the bane of my existence

 but somehow I worked with/around it

getting most of the things I needed to do on my computer done

after a lot of trial and error and who knows what

one day, our long suffering multi-tasking creative/i.t. guy

 came into my office after returning from a conference

he sat down in front of my desk and shared something he’d learned there

  they had talked about how every office has a ‘bob’

a person who could do things to their computer

that they could not explain or get out of

or their computer got so messed up

that the i.t. person had to fix it

but had never seen anything like it before

 they had to try to undo what had been done

 the bob could not explain

how it happened

how they got there

what they were trying to do

he said, ‘beth, you are our ‘bob’

he got up out of the chair and returned to his office.

—

‘in my case, there are only two kinds of hope – bob hope and no hope.’

-eddie the eagle

Mar27

little steamed pockets of joy.

Posted on by
Standard

 artist Tatsuya Tanaka uses everyday objects and food items to create amazing mini worlds.  his latest creation: ‘Shaun the Sauna’! was inspired by Shaun the Sheep, one of my favorite cartoons’ and made into dumplings, one of my favorite foods. what’s not to love?

—

 

‘dumplings – little pockets of joy waiting to be savored.’

-author unknown