Silly Putty

If you have grandchildren, you might want to pick up some silly putty. Yes, it still exists, and it still comes in those little plastic egg shapes. They do make it in new colors though.
Zaya's is bright orange, and Mim's is a palid pink. Their first creations were to be expected.

Zaya made a brain. He showed it to me and described the cerebrum convolutions as that "thinking, piled up area on top". Then he went on to show me and that "smoother area in the back and the brain stem to control breathing and such".

Mim made a tornado. "Look!" she said as she twisted it around, "It's tornading" Hum. Interesting new verb for an Oklahoma girl. So I wrote silly putty limericks for them:

Dark storms from the west are invading
With ominous clouds circulating.
We run helter-skelter
For underground shelter.
The tornados are tornading.

The top of the brain looks all scrunchy
Full of thoughts like: "It's time for my lunchy".
The back's lightly grooved,
With a surface that's smoothed
And the stem's made of nerves in a bunchy.

Odd Things #2 Where are The Antique Windows?

This bothers me every time I walk down this street. Here is a lovely old home, tenderly re-modeled by its owners. So...where are the windows that should be so prominently featured in the cupola? Aarrgh. They ruined it!

Odd Things # 1

I took some pictures at an old cemetery the other day. It wasn't until I uploaded them later that I noticed the frogs...faithfully keeping vigil near their owner's resting place.

If I were really astute and incisive I would make some kind of life observation or parallel, but thoughts and words fail me.

In fact, when it comes to odd things, words fail me a lot. So I've decided to post a series on all the odd things I've taken pictures of this summer.

This is the first: tombstone frogs.

The Panhandle

I took a trip to Texas yesterday to enjoy a visit with my Mom, Dad, Sister, Brother and Sister-in-law. They all seem to be doing well. Mom's heart has settled down and quit jumping erratically; Dad's stomach is being able to keep food down--at least one big meal a day. (Yesterday it was chicken-fried steak, asparagus, mashed potatoes, gravy, cottage cheese, pickled beets, salad, and strawberries. Mom was a little worried because we didn't have enough vegetables and wanted to open some corn or green beans, but I assured here we had enough.) My brother and sister-in-law looked content, and my sister showed us the house she is buying. It's a beautiful, wall-papered cottage-type place which exudes personality. (Does that sound like agent-speak?)

When I left home there was cloud cover and heavy fog, but a light sun broke through before I arrived, and the day was bright and hot. In the evening, a storm came rolling across the sky from the West, so I had to leave a few minutes sooner than I planned to miss the lightning and rain.

Sun, sage, storm...all very beautiful!

Turtle's Little Joke

I was writing for Sketches this morning, addressing the "prompt" for Three Word Wednesday. The words were: noble, hidden, and roam. Just as I was finishing a poem, Turtle came into the room and asked what I was doing. Of course he wanted to know what the words were. Immediately, he came up with this one:

"When you watch an Italian movie, you wonder just how deeply hidden, is the secret which made the nobility of Rome."

Harvest Prayer

Ah Lord, let it be--
that my life yield such a gold,
abundant harvest!

Pistol Pete

That's the dog's name. Every morning he gets to walk a mile with his faithful owner, who is partially blind. Whenever the dog sees me coming, he sends out a yelp and begins to tangle his chain with the wild hope that I will stop to pet him. If I do, however, he jumps up and puts his front paws on my chest.

That's why the previous owner--a three year old boy--gave him to my neighbor, the mile-a-morning man. I think I could cure the dog of this disconcerting jumping habit by stepping on his hind toes every time he jumped on me, but I don't want to upset the status quo, so I'll leave him ignorantly in his misconceptions of what people like as dog behavior.