Recycling now picked up at the street --Hooray!

~~Van Gogh, from Facebook~~

 

 
             Saline County AR—or parts of it—can now recycle. Some of us can do it with less effort. What’s easier than throwing papers and clean plastic, # 1-7, into a large bin clearly labeled RECYCLABLES? Now, I don’t have to drag a heavy newspaper-filled bag to the back porch for Daughter to carry to the Benton facility once a month. Or large sacks full of plastics.

            And “for promotional purposes,” the price for both trash pickup and recycling remains the same. For now.

            Eureka Springs and Arkadelphia have had curbside recycling service for some time. Well, since the late 1990s in Arkadelphia when Kid Billy and I lived there. And when I began going to the Writers Colony in the Ozarks—about 6-7 years ago—that service was already available.

            Republic Services—Allied Waste—is the new hero. I’m told that Terry’s Waste Management in Benton is also beginning that service. Hooray for all companies who are answering the grassroots’ hue and cry for a “greener” earth.

About 2:30 one morning last week, I experienced a severe itching on my front side. Finally, I had to get up and apply lotion, which helped. Couldn't go back to sleep, so I got back up and wrote a 16-line poem due last Saturday at the local poets' meeting.

 I got to see from which direction the paper carrier comes (south to north)—at 3 a.m.  When I needed the wastebasket by my desk, it wasn't there. I retraced my steps, thought a minute and remembered: I took it with its loose trash and a big box of other stuff out to the bin for collection the next morning. Unthinking, I heaved the entire burden into the container and schlepped it streetside.

So at four in the morning, I took my flashlight out to the street, and sure enough, there it sat--upright with its trash still in it. Whew!  

 At 4:50, with a Tums, Vicks in my nostrils and a short slug of cough med, I went back to bed. Awoke at 9. Delicious.

My neighbors on the south have a Doberman and a smaller, furry, yappy dog named Harley. Somehow, they’ve found a gap in the fence and three times lately, have surprised me in my own backyard. The big dog runs up to me, but I yell and she turns and returns. Harley merely stands his ground and barks. One Facebook friend said to befriend the big dog. Un-uh!

The wind continues to blow—as it will during March—and night temps are warming from the usual 32 degrees and below. The plants that I took outside and lined against the house will just have to take it—like the outside cats do—or not.

The Norfolk Pine, the huge schefflera, Mom’s split-leafed philodendron, my wedding-gift begonia, the jade plant and a newish pencil cactus remain inside against any cause of death. I hope the inside cats pay attention to this.  So far, they only rub the sides of their faces against one low limb.

Spring is such a tease: here today and gone tomorrow. How'bout those folks on the upper east coast?  Brrrr!

Soon, though and it will get warm.

Let’s remember NOT to complain when it gets too hot.

 

PL, dba lovepat press, c 2014

March lagged behind in its tempo to spring's marching

~~Spring of 2006, PL~~

 

 

                Most years by now all the spring-blooming plants were in full blossom, and I sometimes listed all I could see around Couchwood. Not this year. But with the few warm days we’ve had, more and more color is showing on this first day of spring.

 

                The inside plants blooming are blue African violets, and red epesia trumpets. The bracts of the red Christmas poinsettia, and two red carnations with baby’s breath and greenery (from the Valentine bouquet sent by my Florida son) still decorate my buffet.

 

                Oh, yes, and a bouquet of cut flowers lends springtime to my sight and a heady aroma to my nose from the dining table. For the first time ever, I also arranged a bouquet for the bathroom. (Why hadn't I thought of that before now?)

 

Outside on the porch are the newly released house plants. The baby jew from my Hot Springs son has tiny white dots for blooms. (I’ve never had such a plant before. ) Two other plants have their own odd-shaped blossoms. A cutting of begonia in water shows a pink bloom.

 

Five kinds of daffodil or buttercups brighten either the edges of the yard or the flower beds. The vintage double ones are more profuse than usual. And appear in more places. Others are common daffodils, a vintage, single fragrant buttercup, two hybridized ones—one completely yellow with a cup, and one yellow with an orange cup. Oh, and here’s another: ivory with a larger yellow cup.

 

Farther out are forsythia, japonica—both pink and white--and spirea, but none as full of color as they usually are by this time. Perhaps another week of warm weather…

 

Grandson Billy’s 24^th birthday was Wednesday. The first time in his life, he said, that it didn’t fall during spring break. He'll come "home" tonight and Friday (no classes; no work shift) for a rare visit.

 

Other family events happened in March. Dad was born March 25, 1909. One of my sisters—Barbara--was born on March 28, 1947. Mom died on March 28, 2006.

 

On March 20 in other years, Uncle Tom's Cabin was first published--in 1852. John Lennon married Yoko Ono in Gibraltar, 1969.

 

On March 21^st in 1790, Thomas Jefferson became Secretary of State under President Washington. Alcatraz prison was emptied of prisoners by the order of Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy in 1963.

 

March 22^nd saw The Beatles’ US album The Early Beatles released in 1965.

 

March 23^rd Patrick Henry's Give me Liberty speech occurred in 1775.The United States Mint produced its first coins made by a press in 1836.

 

March 24^th 1989 saw the largest oil spill in United States history. It happened in Alaska.

 

On March 25^th in 1954, RCA first produced color televisions. (I was a high school senior.)

 

March 26^th 1892, poet Walt Whitman died in Camden, New Jersey.

 

Belated, but still appropriate to the season is this Irish Blessing: “May good luck be with you wherever you go, and your blessings outnumber the shamrocks that grow.”

c 2014, lovepat press, PL

Using unusual words in your writing--yes or no?

(Google Image)

 

                Recently, I read a book where—at the end—the narrator was nine years old. Yet she used the phrase, “Am I paranoid?” I flagged it. For I didn’t learn that word till I had been married for some few years.

 

                Now, I have a narrator—in her 30s, a rural high school graduate cum-newspaper woman during World War II—who uses the words “voila” and “epithets.” Which led me to wonder if she would know those words in her thirties, given her background. Methinks not.

 

                But they are such good words. I had a high school friend named “Viola.” Of course, the viola (small case) is a well-known, if not particularly stand-outish, stringed instrument. Some folks still get that word confused with “voila.” Some other folks pronounce it “wah-lah.” Even up into his college years, one fellow confessed.

 

                I’ve asked around—on Facebook, during a lull in choir practice, in emails—to see when and where folks learned “voila!”

 

                “During French class in high school,” one answered.
 

 Now, I have no mention in A Journey of Choice” of my protagonist taking French at her school. Could I somehow—in the sequel—insert that bit of information? Perhaps the superintendent or the English teacher gave her a one-on-one class, knowing that she was destined for something beyond what the small community could offer her. Perhaps.

 

Another responder said he saw it in his comic books, but didn’t know how to pronounce it until later.

 

A third person answered that she heard it in Saturday morning cartoons! She even did an impression for us.

 

I don’t remember when or where I learned the word, “voila!” but I DO remember learning the word “genre.”

 

In graduate school residency at the University of Arkansas the summer of 1977 (at age 41), I took History of Choral Music (or something like that—gee, now 35 years later, what does it matter?)  under Dr. Groh.

 

If he used the word “genre” once, he used it a hundred times during the course. We soon began smirking and rolling our eyes each time he said it.
 

 Now that I call myself a writer, I hear, see and use the word often. Writing has as many (or more) genres as music.

 

Another word in my sequel, whose working title is Her Face in the Glass, which comes from the mouth of my protag is “epithet,” as in, “We razzed him with epithets,." /“Brain.” / “Smart-aleck,” etc.

 

To this day, I don’t think I EVER used this word in conversation. Which makes me wonder if Liddy would know the word, much less tell us (as the narrator).

 

An editorial in the Saline [AR] Courier last Sunday by Kathleen Parker of the Washington Post was headlined, “New SAT don’t care ‘bout no fancy words.”

 

The first line read, “When the going gets tough, well, why not just make the going easier?” Her thesis is opposition to the dumbing down (my phrase) of the test that qualifies one for college. “The test will no longer include fancy words, otherwise known as a rich vocabulary…”

 

Yes, I’ll give my protag French lessons back in high school on a one-to-one basis by her English teacher.

 

Voila!

The Zion Curtain and (what else?) the weather

 

                Current events that coincide or refer to what I’m reading always seem serendipitous. I just finished “Water Under the Bridge” written by Verna Simms of Festus, Missouri. She is nearly 93, is on Facebook and sold many of her 333-page books at a recent signing.

                The novel is about Mormons. In Sunday’s Arkansas Democrat-Gazette was an article headlined, “Utah alcohol laws too dry, some say,” with the sub-head, “In heavily Mormon state, bartenders mix drinks out of customers’ views.” I took time to read the article by John M. Glionna of the LA Times.

                I chuckled at a reference to the Zion Curtain! In Utah, the “politically powerful Morman Church’s restrictive alcohol laws described by some as the Zion Curtain needs to be torn down.” Bartenders must mix drinks in the kitchen—because of “impressionable children” who might be present.

                Others call it “Byzantine alcohol laws,” and “something akin to a covered wagon parked in a lot full of Maseratis. ”

                More information: Mormons are a majority of Utah’s Legislature, and compose three-fourths of the state’s population of nearly three million. Mormons who drink are forbidden to worship in temples.

                Shot glasses in one souvenir shop read, “Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow you may be in Utah.”

                Sleet lay on the ground Monday morning, so I checked into the online wunderground weather information. This is what I found:

              “At any given moment around the world... approximately 1800 thunderstorms are occurring. Although thunderstorms are relatively small... when considered on a global scale of weather... all
thunderstorms are dangerous. Lightning... flash floods... hail... straight-line winds... and tornadoes all result from thunderstorms.

             “ A thunderstorm is considered severe when it produces winds of at least 58 mph or hail at least 1 inch in diameter––the size of a quarter.

             “Lightning is a hazard in all thunderstorms... whether they are severe or not. While thunder frightens many people... it is the lightning that causes deaths... injuries... and damage. Remember... it is the lightning that produces thunder... so whenever thunder is heard... danger is present. In Arkansas in 2013... no lightning deaths occurred... but six people were injured by lightning.

              “Flash floods are another thunderstorm hazard. Most deaths due to flash floods occur at night... when the danger is the most difficult to see. Vehicles being driven into flooded areas result in the greatest number of flash flood deaths. In Arkansas in 2013... 6 people lost their lives to flash floods... all on May 31st. Five of the fatalities occurred at Y City in Scott County.

              “Large hail... on average... causes nearly one billion dollars in damage in the U.S. Each year. Some injuries due to large hail occur in this country each year... but deaths from hail are relatively rare. Animals fare far worse than humans. The largest hailstones reported in Arkansas during 2013 were 2 inches in diameter in the Warren area on May 21st.

             “Straight-line winds produced by thunderstorms caused one death and seven reported injuries in Arkansas last year. Typically each year in Arkansas... the strongest winds reported from thunderstorms are between 75 and 100 mph. The strongest thunderstorm winds reported in Arkansas last year were 100 mph in The Horseshoe Bend area of Izard County. Altogether... there were 17 instances of thunderstorm winds of at least 80 mph in Arkansas during 2013.

           “Finally... tornadoes are spawned by thunderstorms. In an average year... 33 tornadoes would be expected in Arkansas... with these tornadoes causing four deaths. In 2013... Arkansas experienced
34 tornadoes... and there were two tornado fatalities.”

                Here’s an observation and my first published haiku: “a single brave bird/ tries its winter-dormant voice/ ‘spring-a-soon, spring’s soon.’”
                Let’s hope so.