Round Up Your Mates for St. Patrick's Day

 A fun video for dog lovers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y07at1bU89Q

California Dreaming

First photo, of the snow-covered owls, taken today. Second one, same view, taken December 29, 2013. 

For comparison, the owls are 12" high. The glass railing is 3 ' high.

It's still snowing and will continue for several hours.

This is one of the times I'm glad we're in a condo and don't have to worry about shovelling a driveway or sidewalks. We cancelled M's appointment for today.

Dog and Owlet Are Best Friends

Found this You Tube video about Ingo, a Belgian Shepherd, who was best friends with an abandoned owlet, Poldi.

Beautifully photographed by Tanja Brandt, a German wildlife photographer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYNqgF3r6rc

 

An old poem retrieved from my files

Plane Crashes, No Survivors

grief

for ourselves

alone, so alone

a father, a brother

an uncle, a friend

raw pain scorches

no tears left

a gaping hole

where there once was a heart

regret

half-empty album

for daughters on bicycles

bridal bouquets

and grandchildren's hugs

novels half-finished

cases untried

missing puzzle pieces 

will never be found

memory

remembering Jim

a laugh sent by email

my Internet friend

who wrote gorgeous prose

quest for adventure

beyond the next cloud

exuberant pilot

will soar forever

Copyright 1997, Barbara Etlin, all rights reserved

In memory of Jim Osborne (1948-1997)

Signs of the Times, Part Two

 Remember the

clever billboards in front of a synagogue

that have been brightening up a nearby street?

The synagogue hasn't had any visitors since March,

 but that writer has been busy making drivers smile.

Here are more examples of sparse writing, 

where every word counts.

Thou shalt not covid thy neighbour's wife.

2020 is hindsight.

In my copywriting days, the layout came first and I had to fit my copy into it.

I had to count words. Sometimes I had to count characters.

That was excellent training for other kinds of writing.

I appreciate this writer's economy of words and sense of humour.

Driveby Birthday Surprise Party

 How do you celebrate

 a special birthday

during a pandemic?

If you're my friend, 

and if you have imaginative, super special kids,

you have a

DRIVEBY BIRTHDAY PARADE!

Everyone wore masks,

we stayed in our cars--physically distanced--

while the birthday girl and her family

talked to us through our car window.

It could have been a traffic jam on her street

but we all had our assigned times to arrive.

The sun even came out for a few minutes

on this rainy, blustery day.

Party favours were a choice of kosher chocolate treats!

 Reasons I Appreciate October

                                                       

Cut tulips are available again.

The colours are especially vivid this year.

October 21 (and October 23) 

On October 21, 1976, M got up the nerve to phone a strange woman, introduce himself, and ask her for a date. The strange woman accepted. They got together for a coffee date on Saturday October 23. 

October 23 was cold and snowy. I remember I wore my winter jacket and boots and a sweater and blue velvet pants. M wore a beige suit. I thought, "Snazzy dresser!" I didn't see that suit for another year and a half. I told him that anyone who wanted to get along with me had to be funny. (I didn't know he would consider that as a challenge.) He immediately told me six funny jokes. 

On the seventh date he thought I asked him to eliminate a tense, so he changed the simple past tense to the pluperfect tense in everything he said for a couple of hours. (Again I didn't know I was giving him a humour challenge.) I figured someone who could make me laugh so much was a keeper.

We've been laughing ever since.