The Greetings of the Winter Chickadee
Well, hard as it may to believe, winter continues here at Felpin's Pond-the
pond is not frozen over as of yet, the temperatures have been jumping around
too much....This morning I even heard a chickadee singing, perhaps he just
wanted to let people know he was still around...I offered him a glass of Tab , but apparently this bird doesn't speak English, so instead I threw the
remains of a doughnut in his general direction...I knew the product of a doughnut merchant was probably not worthy of this tuneful chickadee, but I hated to see the last ginger bread donut of the season go to waste....
Strawberry Fields whenever..
I try to imagine being in Ireland , or in Holland cos the overcast and clouds today remind of these places. I relish the thought of actually one day being on vacation...Where would I be......
I am in Dublin on an island called Ireland's eye. I am too tired to climb to the top of the hill, and so I hang out around the Martello tower ruin..there is ledge on it....there are birds, and noises, but I am not there-there are only so many memories recorded in my brain. My mind wanders- to times of unquestionable loyalty or a Strawberry festival.....and then my mind wanders to a place I never was...
Somewhere, somehow, I am lost elsewhere on a hill with green and golden grasses . It's a hill with a just a few trees and the subdued light of the magic hour coloring the hill we are having lunch with Kate Bush..., we are eating strawberries, Tab, wine and some cool sandwiches like those turkey sandwiches from Boston Market. There are no ants. I have driven my mini vehicle to meet up with Kate, My son, is playing in the field with my wife, who is painting the sun...We encountered Kate at a shop in town, and she invited us to her farm for lunch....but all I could feel was the stress, the pain, the sense of being uncomfortable, of not wanting to be where i was.... and of not knowing a time when i would want to be somewhere that I was.....
NASA's winter curse in the sign of Aquarius!
Ever heard of the"NASA's Winter Curse"? All of the major fatal accidents in the US Space Program have occurred in the Winter and within 27 to the 32nd days of the calender year.
The crew of Apollo 1 Virgil Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee died in a training pad accident on 27 January 1967.
The Challenger crew of Francis "Dick" Scobee, Michael J. Smith, Ronald McNair, Gregory Jarvis, Judith Resnik, Ellison Onizuka, and Christa McAuliffe died after liftoff on 28 January, 1986.
The Columbia crew of Rick D. Husband, William C. McCool, David M. Brown, Kalpana Chawla, Michael P. Anderson, Laurel Clark and Ilan Ramon died on their re-entry into the atmosphere on 1 February 2003.
In all three accidents the astronauts spacecraft was also destroyed...
Of course, that these accidents have occurred at the same time of the year is just a coincidence, and there have been many successful launches and flights under the Aquarius sign. The famous (non-fatal) Apollo 13 accident occurred in April. I should also note that there were a few other fatal accidents involving American astronauts that have occurred outside this window of time, but none of these occurred in space or in spacecraft.
Alpha Bits and Breakfast Bars
A little while ago I noticed that somebody had messed with ALPHA-BITS cereal... Some nut correct somebody or other decided that it had too much sugar, and decided to make ALPHA-BITS instead with little or no sugar. They wanted make the cereal comparable to Cheerios -that's what is said on the box. Well CHEERIOS taste pretty good without sugar, and they also taste pretty good with a spoonful of sugar...but these new alpha bits tasted horrible either way-and I had to throw the whole box away... A few weeks later I noticed that the cereal was totally discontinued from the store... Surprisingly Post actually brought the sugary Alpha-Bits recently, but it's not widely available. It's not clear if you can still get it as of 2014.
It reminds me a little of the fate of the original Carnation Breakfast bars which were a very yummy and somewhat uniquely textured product found in American stores in the 1970's... One day Carnation changed the recipe to make it more like a granola bar-and I stopped buying them. The old bars never came back....
Hawaii's hidden places
I am musing about Hawaii. I was surfing on the web to learn about Hawaii.. Sort of like traveling without going on a plane.
I have never been to that part of the world. I was wondering about the four lesser known of Hawaii's main eight islands . Places like Nihau, Molokai, Lanai, and Kahoolawe
Molokai has a former leper colony that is located in the smallest county in the US- Kalawao county..
Lanai used to be the world's largest Pineapple plantation, and was almost wholly wholly by the Dole Corporation. In recent years they stopped growing pineapples and instead have sold the lucrative real estate for vacation homes.
Kahoolawe Island has no people living it because it is a former bombing range for the US military. The federal government were unable to get rid of all the Unexploded ordinance and toxicity and thus the island is a bit of wasteland.
Nihau is an island entirely owned by one family, and the people there live in the traditional Hawaiian way without modern conveniences...
It's interesting to me that so many of the Hawaiian islands are off limits...
Snow-ducks and Chocolata!
Well it snowed here at Felpin's Pond's but the winter brings some nice sunsets and we still get deliveries of Coke, Tab and Fanta Grape to all the folks here at the Pond! I nurse a mug of hot chocolata , as I glance out onto Felpin's Pond from the East porch of the Summer House.. Small geese are circling around the the old boat house in search of their hopes , dreams and breakfast. My chocolata looks back at me in wonder.
Why are we here, I ask myself-not really expecting an answer-I suppose I
don't ask that question as much as I did when I was young....I think I did actually did expect an answer when I was young. The geese fly off but a fleet, a flock , a gaggle nay a google of ducks swim toward the old boat house, I am surprised they are out in the snow maybe they are snow-ducks... the might snow-ducks
I was almost lost in the snow-duck moment, but the telephone rings and some annoying caller leaves their message on my automated answerer....and the peaceful moment is gone....
Star Trek Birth dates!
I always found it interesting that certain cast members of the original Star Trek, were of the same age, the late James Doohan and the late Deforest Kelley were born in 1920, William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, and Grace Lee Whitney were all born in 1930. The other lady cast members Nichelle Nichols, the late Majel Barrett were born in 1932.
Walter Koenig, and George Takei were born around 1937!
Not a rainy day
Thoughts on a not rainy day.
It was not raining on that not rainy day.
It was not snowing on that very white day.
There were no bird songs when i heard the chirping. There was just something.
Something that couldn't be grasped.
It couldn't be smelled.
Perhaps it could be felt.
Perhaps in the sunlight or the sound
of those non chirping birds ,
or that non rainy day something
could be felt.
"Indeed-y do, Was that supposed to be a poem?" says a misplaced bird
Odd days and perfect calenders
19/11/1999 is an odd day (with all digits being odd). We won't see another odd day until 1/1/3111. The next even day will be 2/2/2000, the first since 28/08/888. (Hard to believe isn't it.) Did You know that February 2009 is the first month since February 1998 to only occupy only four calender weeks on a calender page. Amazing isn't it ? This is because the month starts on a Sunday and ends on a Saturday. This only happens every 11 years or so...
Swoon* sing* cry *bat
Goodbye from never so exciting Felpin's Pond! Where men swoon, dogs sing,angels cry and bats bat ! Where never is the number more than you can count. Go in pieces!
