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BarbraG
Windchimer
1824 Posts |
 Posted - 06/04/2009 : 19:44:54
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Being a little girl, then a teenager,
then a woman .... Wow. I would love to
be able to explain to a man what that
feels like. Longing for that first
kiss, and then the second ... and
then, finding that a kiss can often
be just a kiss ... without the meaning
that a young girl wants it to be.
Looking at every male I was attracted
to with the question .... can it be him?..
Can he be the one? Could I spend my
life with him ? Could he spend his life
with me? Enchanted with the very idea
of the word .. love.. But, with all of
that wonder and hope also came the
heartbreak that I managed to live through.
My wedding day ... oh, my gosh ...
the dreams and schemes and plans were
once laid to waste even before I
walked down the aisle. But, one day --
I was granted my hopes and dreams ..
...and the life that I dared to
take a chance on .. came true.
The man I gave my heart to is a good and
decent man, who lives for no other reason
than to love and be loved by .... me.
BarbraG
(Yes, I plegiarized(?) a line from ....
Annabelle Lee..)
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Edited by - BarbraG on 06/04/2009 19:48:43 |
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Doug L
Firefly
Canada
5446 Posts |
Posted - 06/06/2009 : 22:54:58
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In a gust of wind the white dew
On the autumn grass
Scatters like a broken necklace.
—Bunya No Asayasu (1760-1849) |
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San Diego
Swinger
508 Posts |
Posted - 06/07/2009 : 08:47:53
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| They're building a resort on a bluff above the beach with several tiered sets of pyramid stairs. The physical fitness people continually run up and down the posted WORK IN PROGRESS areas which piss the construction crews off enough to pitch their lunch trash down the hill. The architectural renderings show a Moorish facade with diaphanous draperies floating out through gracefully arched windows. There are also balconied minarets for "Assignations and Candlelight Wine Tastings." They're training the hotel staff to put guests at ease as the adjacent cliffs are clearly marked in orange Day-Glo, DANGER * KEEP BACK * UNSTABLE CLIFFS * SLIDE AREA. The cliff also has as much up-draft as the Gliderport down the road. Until they find a way to anchor the tables and chairs to the ground the "Assignations and Candlelight Wine Tastings" are off limits. The local rehab people have met on this site Sunday mornings since 1979. Twenty-five to thirty of them in a circle from dawn until noon. They've been moved to a sandy crown down the beach. "We're just waiting for the first flyby," Reverend Scrap Iron said this morning. Air 62 Water 66. Partly cloudy. |
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BarbraG
Windchimer
1824 Posts |
Posted - 06/09/2009 : 18:06:19
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Black glass was stretched out in front of him
with a white line streaking down the middle of
it. The rain was relentless, seemingly
neverending. He wanted to pull over at
the next truck stop and wait it out. If
it weren't for the white lines, he wouldn't
have any visibility at all. His hands were
on the wheel, and mercy was his cargo. The
call had come in just hours ago. Help was
needed in New Orleans. His wife had begged
him not to go.
"Please", she cried. "Let someone else go
this time."
He kissed her and said, "Honey, I AM that
someone else..".
BarbraG
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San Diego
Swinger
508 Posts |
Posted - 06/09/2009 : 19:26:24
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Sign at Santa Monica State Beach:
Free Lunch.
Love gets messy sometimes.
No default emotion. |
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BarbraG
Windchimer
1824 Posts |
Posted - 06/11/2009 : 21:06:09
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Outside the window, the storm was raging. Lightning
flashing wildly and thunder roaring was really scaring
my little dog, not to mention me. Picking her up,
I comforted her at the same time I was thinking we
should get into the shelter. The wind was screaming
around the porch and in my brain. At the beginning
of a hard rain, I had put a Mickey Newbury CD into
the player and, just as the lightning cracked
and the thunder rolled to start his song, I realized
that the noise wasn't just coming from the stereo.
The blackest cloud I had ever seen had appeared
from out of nowhere and was headed straight for
the house. "Tornado Alley" crossed my mind. I
had kept saying I was moving to a place where
there were no nightmare storms and no reason to
have this much fear inside my heart. It was
impossible to look forward to what might appear to
be a wonderful, soft rain. In my mind,
there was no such thing. Death traveled in these
whirling clouds of blackness that swooped down and took
everything and left nothing. It was that time of
year again. If we made it to the shelter, we would
live .... to run another day.
BGee
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Ailinn
Windchimer
2155 Posts |
Posted - 06/13/2009 : 17:53:58
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| "Guard this fire..." he says, candles in his hands. His soot-smudged palms still smoldering. |
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Ailinn
Windchimer
2155 Posts |
Posted - 06/20/2009 : 16:31:52
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~from Brock Miller at Sunrise Retirement. Spoken, not written.
"I was watching Anthony Bourdain's Bombay Beach episode when I was hit with deja-vu's hammer. Early '80's. She used to work for the studios. Had that little place out in Borrego Springs. Paid for. Her last deal with Warner's. Turned it into a gold mine. Blushing Stars shipped all over the world. Grapefruit sweeter than Ruby Reds. The "human interest" story was gaining favor with the Dailies, so I thought I'd try my hand. Cruise out and poke around, ya know. Ask a few questions. I stopped at Ski Inn at Salton Sea to try to get a line on the locals. No smiles and no dice. I tell ya, man, it was eerie even back then. Water to walk on. Dead fish. Palm trees with no tops. The nearest super market 40 miles away. "UFO's? Yep, we got 'em." the sign in the convenience store said. Convenience store/gas station/post office. Hahaha. I think I'm tellin' two stories. Anyway, at sunset I'm headin' through the Badlands. Checked into La Casa Del Zorro. Let the paper pick up the tab. (LA Times.) The word was she was runnin' crews from Mexico and the place was heavily armed. I followed the dirt road through a maze of citrus groves. No Trespassing signs. No street signs either. Only arrows back to S22. It was Spring and the scent in the air was a drug. A narcotic. Everything tasted like those flowers. I got to the end of the road. Five or six miles, maybe. Shooting I hear. Lots of shooting. All I could think of was the two P's. Pulitzer and posthumously. There's a big clearing and a house with a wrap-around porch. Knee braces and corbels. Lace at the windows. The woman approaching me is holding a pistol. I identify myself. I show my credentials. She didn't ask. I show her anyway. We spend the rest of the day shooting cans off stumps. Target practice, she says. She's beautiful. She makes chili. I don't want to leave. Ever. It's the fragrance, she says. Spooky, my son says. He won't travel the 86."
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Ailinn
Windchimer
2155 Posts |
Posted - 06/24/2009 : 22:19:57
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Sunrise Stories~
I love what they tell me. From Claire D on the occasion of her 81st birthday, June 24th, 2009.
"When I was a child toast tasted toastier. And my breakfast was always the same. Except Sundays. A BB size ball of cod liver oil. 'Sunshine,' mother called it. And a glass of Mother Gray's Sweet Worm Powder mix with a chaser of orange juice on the side. Prune juice for Grand Dad who brought his teeth to the table in a freshly ironed handkerchief.
He's watching through the window. He's nodding his head. His footsteps stirring the Biblical dust. "Take your sun glasses off," he says. |
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Ailinn
Windchimer
2155 Posts |
Posted - 06/27/2009 : 17:59:14
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Sunrise Stories~
Wedding Day ~ 1949. Jie and Zhin Chung. Zhin says, "I took my pumelo bath and sat between the candles when Lim put up my hair. My good luck woman. The Santa Ana winds were blowing guests against the doors. My dress, a snowy prison, a barricade of veils. I found his eager face almost too annoying!" Her eyes sparkle when she pinches the back of Jie's hand. |
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buckman
Firefly
USA
2819 Posts |
Posted - 07/02/2009 : 19:58:19
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We miss the bars.
We miss the crowds and the passion
and the romance of the drinking life.
We don't get laid as much.
We're afraid of everything.
[Still]
We do everything better.
We're going slower and using less gas.
There are more better days than worse ones.
The tide's come in,
Boats have risen.
It's still dark,
but there's enough light
to dance to.
Rev B |
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BarbraG
Windchimer
1824 Posts |
Posted - 07/03/2009 : 13:42:59
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Rev. B
Do not be gone so long again. You hear me?
Mean it !!! Okay? Okay, then. Whew!!
Glad that's settled !!!
Love,
BarbraG |
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BarbraG
Windchimer
1824 Posts |
Posted - 07/04/2009 : 18:02:21
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"America's Native Sons"
They stood on "Freedom's Shore", watching the ships
come in.
The Santa Maria, the Pinta, the Nina -- brought
in by a fickle wind.
For freedom, we left our homes..
..on a far and distant shore ..
The new land wasn't empty but..
we wanted it all... and more ..
So, we took it to the Gulf of Mexico --
..to Canada and .. the Pacific, too ..
But, for all the souls we laid in waste..
..to our own selves, we were true ..
We thought we had come to India ..
..we were so far off base ..
Yet, we gave them the name "Indians". .
..and set out to destroy their race ..
We have a lot to answer for --
.. somewhere on down the line ..
We took away their beloved land --
and someone made it mine ..
Well, tonight, as I salute the Flag..
I'll remember them -- one by one ..
They're out there somewhere in the night ..
...America's ... Native Sons ..
Barbra Griffin
July 4, 2009
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Doug L
Firefly
Canada
5446 Posts |
Posted - 07/11/2009 : 19:29:54
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One young blond kid at the Nighthawk border crossing,
not concerned with our cargo or reason for travel,
just happy to see living human beings.
Where you going?, he asked, after five minutes of chitchat.
Billy told him we're going to Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan,
but decided to take the scenic route.
In Darby, Montana, old Jerry with the broken-back gait
told us stories of his childhood in Texas, whipping out
his single-shot derringer from his trouser pocket.
His wife Adele was childless until she met him at age 39,
now has two rascal boys to care for and love.
In Wisdom, the moment we got out of the car we were swarmed
by mosquitos. They flood the fields below town and skeeters
benefit. Two old boys outside the pint-sized post office
are discussing aches and pains. Inside the gas station office
a woman in a house dress answers, when I ask about Wisdom's
population, "We got 102 people and 9,000,000 mosquitos."
Bunch of mountain goats start across the highway two miles
shy of Painted Rocks, Montana, then decide to stand there.
Twenty-five cars wait for them to budge, the midday heat
changing the color of the car's paint. Fishing the Madison
River in hip-waders with a fly rod trout are jumping everywhere,
but I can't get one to take my fly. "Billy," I yell to my
pal downstream, "they're swimming between my legs!"
DL |
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BarbraG
Windchimer
1824 Posts |
Posted - 07/11/2009 : 21:26:44
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Good thing Patton wasn't on that road in
Montana where the goats were holding up
traffic.
BG |
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Ailinn
Windchimer
2155 Posts |
Posted - 07/13/2009 : 19:11:23
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Sunrise Stories~
"I want a cigarette," he says. "Oh, shush! Behave yourself!" Alma Cottswold says, tsk-tsking and wagging her finger. I want a goddamn cigarette, NOW!" He gives Alma a menacing look as she backs up shaking her head. He takes a step toward her. I reach out to touch his arm but he yanks it away sending the refreshment tray flying. Dixie cups floating in an orange and cranberry juice puddle where the maintenance crew just finished polishing the Day Room floor. "Please, Major, let's take a walk," I say. I almost whisper, not ready for war. The Major takes the wide Trex stairs two at a time. More agile than I imagine. Then he bolts up the short fire escape and I follow. A beautiful night. Balmy. The traffic on El Camino thinning out. The sun on its way to Hawaii. The corner flower vendors with their striped umbrellas waiting for their rides home. He sits down on the still-warm tile roof. I sit down beside him. He doesn't say a word for ten minutes, then finally, "I'm transferring to Hemet." "You'll like it," I say, "Cahuilla country." "Yeah," he says. "My daughter and son-in-law live in Sage. I'll be staying with them weekends. He's a die- hard Marlboro man." We sat up there til some fog rolled in, then he helped me down the fire escape. |
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Ailinn
Windchimer
2155 Posts |
Posted - 07/13/2009 : 19:16:16
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| "Hop in," he says. His elbow out the window. His fast foot tapping the floor. Sunset slides across the windshield when he follows the red X's off the map. His fool-proof plan of escape. Later, when he falls asleep at the wheel she nudges him awake. He opens his eyes. He smiles, he nods. "For my next trick..." he says, and winks. |
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San Diego
Swinger
508 Posts |
Posted - 07/15/2009 : 20:17:56
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| Crowded campers in a shopping mall lot. Bright Christmas tree quilt draped over one door. Pacific Ocean across the street. Plane taking off on the water. Water everywhere close to the road. Crossing the PCH at San Elijo where the line winds around Cove Donuts at 6am. Vans from UCSD and Scripps Oceanography double-parked waiting on their orders. Bumper stickers ~I got glazed at Cove Donuts~. |
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Ailinn
Windchimer
2155 Posts |
Posted - 07/18/2009 : 17:02:53
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Sunrise Stories ~ True Fiction
Three for Clotilde
1. I went looking for him that hot desert night, the American. I found him in the cameo-lit tamarisk grove under the pale Anza moon. He warned me about the jumping cholla. A cactus with its own luring aura. A bright bite so bold it demands blood and surrender. He shook my canteen with a rueful frown. He made a speech about shade and water. Made me squat down beside him when he scratched a crude map to the Ranger Station in the dust. |
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Ailinn
Windchimer
2155 Posts |
Posted - 07/18/2009 : 17:05:09
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| 2. The trail curves along toward Trestles and San Mateo Creek. He shows me where the boat is hidden. Our shoulders touching in the starry dark where beneath the surface of the water the serpent stirs. |
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The Nightly Vigil