Work in Progress

I completed my first assignment yesterday for Wendy Call's Nonfiction Creative Writing Class, a ten-week class with Writers.com. I am taking this class to assist with my motivation and my ability to complete my Peace Corps memoir.

Assignment #1: Create five story ideas, summarize with a short paragraph, write a question the reader might ask and write a question you as the writer might ask.

The process was easier than I thought it would be - I am now motivated to complete my Peace Corps memoir.

We had reading assignments and I will share one snippet with you. 

In Telling True Stories edited by Mark Kramer and Wendy Call, one essay by Jan Winburn, titled "Finding Good Topics," encourages the writer to take the reader down a different path than one would traditionally assume. 

For example, one of my story ideas is the farewell party the school gave for me shortly before my departure. A lovely gift, a large beautifully painted Genghis Khan image on leather as a wall hanging, sends me down the path of writing about Genghis Khan and his still respected position in Mongolian culture. What kind of man was he and why do the Mongolians "worship" him?

This is a twist in what could be a rather boring chapter, a party of goodbyes.

Another chapter is my trip to Hustai National Park where the wild horses run free. The DNA of these horses is unique and instead of reporting about my weekend with the museum workers, not particularly tension filled, I would like to elaborate on these unusual horses.

How and why were they "reincarnated" into Mongolia?

There are so many ways to tell a tale - I hope to invigorate the reader.

Seasonings of Life

I am thinking about seasonings because I use them generously. If a recipe calls for two tablespoons, mine are heaping. I shake a little more on "for good measure."

The origin of that phrase was the Bible. and used to mean moderation. Then a British mathematician reversed its meaning to become ample.

https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/for-good-measure.html

I am using it as the math dude did.

My son-in-law tells my daughter to not scrimp on the seasonings. He worked for years with Outback Steakhouse. I believe in extra seasoning, not necessarily salt, but pepper and all the herbs.

Good Friend Bob made donuts yesterday using my "successful" recipe. I put it in quotes because it wasn't so successful for him. His wife thought mine to be delicious and his to be not so delicious. He didn't have the teaspoon of vanilla for the batter nor for the glaze.  Oh, oh, oh - makes a big difference.

And now to life and how I season my current situation. I am fully retired, not even substituting in the schools nor volunteering anywhere this winter. I have committed to teaching one five-week memoir class at the senior center this spring. That's the extent of my volunteering except in the summer. I volunteer in a state park in Idaho for months which I thoroughly enjoy.

I season my current time with writing classes, more like an addiction to that seasoning!

I season my early hours with watching morning news and reading.

I hope to season my time with painting. Each month I receive a thorough painting lesson on video for which I am paying $20/month. I am not quite ready to unsubscribe, but I better start painting to validate the expenditure. It's not a big-time commitment, maybe two/three hours per painting and I really like what the final project appears to be. I used to attend those painting wine parties at a local winery in Deming, NM, and loved the projects. Seasoning that needs to be opened!

A favorite seasoning that I use often is trekking to the dog park, as I have written about previously.

And the seasoning I use in great amounts is my music, practicing the fiddle and the piano.

What's your seasoning shelf looking like these days?

Another Best Day at the Dog Park

 

She played hide 'n seek with me - at first, she captured my attention with her chatter and there she was, scampering up and down the tree waiting for her photo shoot.

"It's about time," she scolded as I clicked with my Canon DSL in her face. She moved closer, I zoomed in closer, she stared right at me. I moved closer. She would tease, scoot and then pose dramatically. She was in control.

I wondered if she wanted to play peek 'a boo, so I scooted around the tree. That was not her game plan.

She wanted to be front and center, in my photo, in my thoughts and in my day's trek to the unleashed dog park. She accomplished just that.

We're in love. Oh, not Missy Show-Off Squirrel. I mean my Best Dog Ava and me. We are besties and going to the "dp" (shhhhhh, can't say it too loud) is our favorite outing.

She'll wait for me while I run an errand or two. I hate to disappoint so most days we make the hour effort and stop by on our way home.

You would too.

It's a gorgeous park along the Guadalupe River. Ava, as the honorary greeter, meets all arriving four paws, wags her fluffy tail, sniffs and prances to the next pursuit.

Could it be that any stranger would be that glad to meet me? 

Ava did not pay attention to my photography event. I don't believe she knew that I had "treed a squirrel." She was already wading in the river and checking out the new smells of the day.

Oh, I took more pictures, but only Missy Squirrel is getting the inclusion today. I'm quite certain with her bossy behavior she does not share well.

  

I love how the light shimmers on her tail.
              

Dulcimer Dilemma

 

Today is the day I offer my mountain dulcimers for sale on Craigslist.

It is my tendency to indulge when I take up a new hobby, a new interest, a new pursuit.

I purchased dulcimers that I barely played. 

At the beginning of this century, I decided to become a dulcimer player.

I started a beginning dulcimer group in my living room that grew to become quite large

and relocated to a school music room. My goal was to create a dulcimer orchestra and

include all instruments. 

 

Eventually there was a coup. The group became a bluegrass group, no dulcimers included.

They performed around the area for years to come. Maybe they still are!

The coup occurred because my partner at the time stepped up to help me facilitate and

he became ornery......'nuff said.

 

The dulcimers separated and continued to meet and perform at historical events,

then several members moved, and the group stopped meeting regularly. 

 

I attended many dulcimer festivals, but never engaged in learning the instrument well.

I was not driven to progress in technique as I am with the fiddle. I was also teaching

full time and spreading myself thinly with other interests. 

 

So the dulcimers have been closeted for many years.  It is time to gather them together,

sell them, donate them, find new homes for all.  I am selling dulcimers for $600 each,

maybe less, maybe more.

I am keeping my favorite, a worn-out battered dulcimer that I paid $125 for brand new.

I should have been content with just that purchase!

 

 

Sharing Morning Chats with "Strangers"

Written Monday, January 3, 2022

Story Circle Network is a group of women who aspire to write, publish, attend online classes, interact through "circles," review books and more. I have belonged to this group for over ten years. https://www.storycircle.org

Today begins an interaction of four weeks - 100+ women writing and sharing. It is free and requires one to write 20 Minutes each day and post if desired to one another in their "subgroup." 

For the upcoming month I am going to share selected posts that I have written for this interaction.

Week 1 Day 1:

I have just cleaned the kitchen, filled the dishwasher, and will "blog" for fifteen minutes before I read it through, correct those typos, reconstruct a sentence or two, click send and go settle in the recliner for my typical 7:00 - 8:00 news briefing on ABC.

Wouldn't that be something - to be so important that folks would be standing in line to "brief me" on the day's events, the world's events, even my dog's events? 

Will it ain't gonna' happen in my lifetime.....that is a given. I am 78 years in the making and pretty sure my routine is up to me. I ponder.....

Should I sign up for substitute teaching?

Should I commit to Tuesday ukuleles at the senior center?

Should I become a Meals on Wheels deliverer?

Should I volunteer at the Literacy Center?

What if I do none of the above?

It's the new year and I'm taking inventory of my possibilities to fill my days, my weeks, my conscience, my motives.

Mondays are my play days. I go to the senior center for a book club meeting. I rarely miss. Today is my day to present. Each participant selects (in the spring) the book he/she would like to discuss. We take two weeks to read the assigned book. I chose "Autobiography of a Face" by Lucy Grealy. I read the book exactly one year ago for an MFA class in nonfiction writing. It is an amazing piece of literary prose, an amazing story. I have prepared my presentation chapter by chapter. We will discuss through page 116, the middle. Then next week we discuss the remainder of the book.  The ladies (and one new gent) are talkative. I am not concerned about a lull in the conversation. The leader is a gentleman who was a professor of French. He is a good leader, keeps us on our toes (such a cliche). 

I am cliche conscious because of a poetry class I recently took. Now I am thinking that I should never write them into anything, but that is nonsensical. Many of my thoughts are nonsensical. I wish I could write like Dr. Seuss and be censored in my first briefing.

This afternoon the dulcimer group, also at the senior center, meets and jams for two hours. Yeah! They allow other instruments. I am a newbie on the fiddle. I practice at least one hour each day. I take lessons and love playing the instruments. I have diddle-daddled with a myriad of folk instruments but am now committed to the fiddle.  

Time's up! Submit and Smile!

Amazing Possibilities Ahead

 

                                                                 December 28, 2021

It's not the new year quite yet, but I am treating this week as a time to regroup, reflect and reassess.

I have already signed up for two writing classes beginning in January and have two more in the queue.

I have already committed to myself to finish my Peace Corps memoir and in the meantime, follow more postings on the Peace Corps publishing/imprint site, perhaps review books for them.

I have already decided that I am happier keeping busy and will commit to my beginning art endeavors with new vigor.

I am grateful and choose to face each day seeking out the amazing opportunities and experiences God has in store for me that specific day. It is possible that attitude will affect what I experience, don't you believe?

And so with these few sentences I hope that you will accompany me as I begin my tour of 2022.

.....and blogging requires a commitment! I desire for my blog to be informative, friendly, and entertaining. I do not have plans to give the reader a day-to-day diary of my activities. I prefer sharing what is on my heart and in my computer keys, you know, those words that want to pop onto the page.

Happy Almost New Year!

 

                                            Greetings Two Days After Thanksgiving 2021!

What a lovely time Dave and I had spending the day with Brynna, Rosson and Sophie in their Lakeway home, near Austin. Watching the kitchen in action, spending quality talking time and just enjoying the amazing New Orleans fried turkey with ALL the side dishes.....truly I feel fortunate, blessed and ready to be thankful more than just for one day. 

Although there was no celebration my middle son had a birthday that day also, turning 49. He lives with his family in Virginia.

And now I am in the throes of painting Christmas Greetings on wine bottles. I have purchased all the necessities including graphics to use for the lettering. This is a project I have been mulling over for several months and decided no time is better than December! Ideas are coming from the internet.

Stay tuned and meet the goat came to the dog park next blog!

Murals of Alpine, Texas

 

                                                       Cruising Big Bend by Tom Curry

We found this mural in downtown Alpine. It was in an alleyway with other murals, big and bold. They call that area Alley Art. I love this mural. Excuse the shadows and the wires criss-crossing in front of my camera. There are, according to a brochure from the visitor's center, forty-four murals in Alpine and the surrounding area.  

Alpine has a suburb art colony and the presence of Sul Ross University is a tremendous asset to this community. The college is very impressive in size and its beautiful architecture.

It is a quiet, very quiet, Sunday afternoon. If the western museum is open today on the Sul Ross campus, I believe we should venture over.  Dave will like it -  I have read it is extraordinaire.

Big Bend National Park Visit

 

                                                                                            (stock photo, don't think we saw this)

Hello to the Day After Our Big Bend Trek!

It was a bit tiring - 100 miles to the entry, 100 miles throughout the park (at least), and 100 miles back to our rv camp. We saw much of what one can do in one day, including lunch at the lodge and a peek at the Rio Grande. I don't think we are going back to the park this trip. It is a long way and we have a good idea at what we are missing. 

The landscape is West Texas plus boulders and mountains as only West Texas can do it. 

Today we have reservations for lunch at a restaurant in Alpine. And then I want to traverse the town with the Windshield Tour brochure in one hand and the Alpine Mural Map in the other. Dave will drive and I will navigate around town.  The murals are going to be very entertaining!

See you around the bend - the bend in little Alpine today!

 

Greetings from Alpine, Texas!

Although the above is a stock photo, this is pretty much what it looks like as I view the scenery from my rv window.  I am now sitting in one of the two rv recliners typing this blog. Ava is peering out the same window from the bench seat. 

We are spending the week here in La Vista RV park, six miles from Alpine towards Big Bend National Park on Highway 118. It's a small rv park, maybe fifteen drive-through sites and very quiet, very very quiet. Dave just read the welcome rules and discovered the free wifi - whoopee!

Tomorrow we will drive into Big Bend, 100 miles from here and spend the day enjoying what I am told is a "magical place." 

In the meantime we are relaxing, reading, watching some satellite news and enjoying a choice on our home-cooking menu due to today's trip to Porter's Grocery store in Alpine. I also visited a very well stocked independent bookstore and enjoyed spending my disposable $50 on two poem books, The Sun literary magazine and, of all things, an $8 Texas map!

The sun is setting, Ava needs to take a walk and I am ready to join her.

                                         *  *  *  G'night from Brewster County *  *  *

A Poem Using Prompts from Children's Poems

 (untitled)

my fingers tap                       my pencil floats…..I have confidence (p. 129, Naomi, grade 4) 

i have confidence

my words will                       let my words mean something to others (p. 107, Sean, gr 4)                    

mean something

to someone.

perhaps that’s what              that’s what I want to believe (p. 127, Ruby, grade 6)

i want to believe.

perhaps it is a mere

mirage, creating a 

waterfall of words                   a waterfall with words (p. 111, Morgan, grade 4)

the teacher                             but the teacher says (p. 121, Isabelle, grade 4)

my inner teacher says 

my waterfall

is not a waterfall at all

merely a cascade of circumstances

paths chosen, thwarted 

seldom straight

you walked into my heart         if you walked into my heart (p. 125, Mike, grade 4)

i was as a child 

reborn, rechanneled, reassigned        a star child to be reborn (p. 119, Boy, grade 4)

to go on with my life as if                    go on with your life (p. 122, Lea, grade 5)

you will always 

be here, there

that’s what i want to believe.    that’s what I want to believe (P. 127, Ruby, grade 6)

by Joan Connor 11/02/2021

The above italicized quotes are from Expressive Writing, edited by Kathleen Adams. Chapter 7 by Perie Longo, Poetry and Emotional Intelligence, speaks of children and their insightful use of poetics to express themselves.