Porthole

May 16-22

I'm going to continue this as a weekly blog as it seemed to work out this past week. I like using it to post links to my other blogs or writing. So far so good. It starts skinny then fills up.

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  ███████          PORTHOLE           ███████

SPRING: May 2020
O my Lord! Make Thy beauty to be my food, and Thy presence my drink,
and Thy pleasure my hope, and praise of Thee my action...
- Bahá’u’lláh

MY THOUGHTS

May 16: Too up and down internally ... I need to breathe and seek balance.
May 17: I want to be in Norway for Constitution Day.
May 18: Ate meatloaf ... did I eat too much? So drowsy.
May 19: Emptiness. I realize I need to go out and connect, even though I don't want to.
May 20: Went for groceries. Smelled lilacs and lily-of-the-valley. Need to get out more.
May 22: Does anyone give a damn about people who aren't just-like-them?

WEATHER

May 16: 5° here and clearing; 27° and thunderstorms in Houston.
May 17: 17° and overcast. Went up to 23°; 3° and snow in the forecast in Tromso, Norway.
May 18: 15° here and damp, rained earlier; 15° and rain in Buffalo where it's a friend's birthday.
May 19: 17° at noon, the flag hangs listless; 17° and cloudy (from Arthur?) in Fayetteville, NC.
May 20: 12° at noon, very damp in the morning, sunny later; 28° and partly cloudy in Honolulu.
May 21: 13° at noon with the river very high; 27° and steamy in Cartago, CR.
May 22: 11° and kinda sunny at 2 p.m; a sunny week of 28-30° forecast for Lisbon.

IMAGES

May 16: A bank of clouds rolling over Mt. Jumbo.
May 17: green hills under cotton-ball skies.
May 18: Wet chair => wet me.
May 19: Outside the flags hangs limp. Inside: geraniums bloom pink; kolanchoe blooms orange.
May 20: alleyways festooned with white and purple lilacs. A rainbow and bright alpenglow.
May 21: River high and raging. The arrow-leaf balsam-root glowing like suns.
May 22: Catching sunbeams while chatting with bratwurst in my mouth.

POULTRY

Recent:

"Here you come again [69] (23 lines)" 
"Bleeding Kansas (two tanagas)" 
"These photos of cheerful women [74] (14 lines)" 

PORK

A blog entry comparing flash fiction to haiku: "Is Flash Fiction a Haiku on steroids? Like sumo wrestling? " 

From May 13 (won):

STATIC

Wendy-of-the-weeds [73] (264 words)  (18+) <300 flash, prompt: leaf, shade, nose #2221849 by Kåre เลียม Enga

From May 15:

STATIC

Lela Mae [75] (300 words)  (18+) <300 flash fiction. Prompt: moon, book, fire #2222007 by Kåre เลียม Enga

From May 17 (won):

STATIC

Calling home [76] (290 words)  (18+) <300 words. Prompt: hair, umbrella, space #2222145 by Kåre เลียม Enga

From May 19:

STATIC

Rabbit with peas and mint [77] (299 w)  (18+) <300 words. Prompt: door, train, rock #2222312 by Kåre เลียม Enga

From May 22:

STATIC

King Doodle-Bug [78] (297 words)  (ASR) <300 words Prompt: velvet, block, string #2222516 by Kåre เลียม Enga

READING

Local Time (1986), poems by Stephen Dunn. Finished. Interesting voice. (Recommended)
Grace Notes (1989), poems by Rita Dove. Finished. Flows. (Highly recommended)

MOVIETIME

"Star Trek: Wrath of Khan" (1984).

MY FORMER LIFE

May 1975: I graduated from the University of Kansas on the 18th.
May 2012: I visited Bergen on the 17th for the National Holiday in Norway. What a hoot the parade was!
May 2013: I visited Stavanger and forgot to change into basic black. Saw 3 parades.
May 2014: 200 years of celebrating Norway's Constitution ... in Oslo with thousands of children.
May 2015: Kristiansand, Norway and a hailstorm. Enjoyed my stay there.
May 2016: Trondheim. Everything was closed. Found cheap hot-dogs. Confused trying to find a parade.

WATT'S GNUS

May 16: Stacey Abrams Wants More Than the Vice Presidency (NY Times) She has an energy that people respond to, issues that go beyond partisan politics.
May 16: Wisconsin Business Bans Wearing Masks After Stay-At-Home Order Overturned (Newsweek) May the Culture Wars begin ... . Black men in masks are already at great risk. Americans just do not understand masks. Or understand and are still paranoid about them.
May 17: A Mogul’s Wife Vanishes. Now Norway Has a National Obsession. (NY Times) Anne-Elisabeth Falkevik Hagen disappears ... odd event in Norway ... still not found. Interesting that this is posted on the Norway's national holiday. Hmm.
May 17: Tropical Storm Arthur sets its sights on North Carolina coast (USA Today) Relevant to me because my aunt lives in Fayetteville.
May 17: WHO's exclusion of Taiwan from coronavirus assembly leads more nations to sound the alarm (Fox News) This is a HUGE issue in Taiwan.
May 18: Trump, in response to ‘60 Minutes’ interview, claims whistleblowers like Rick Bright are ‘causing great injustice and harm’ (Wa Post) DJT acts like a despot, a king gone mad.
May 19: Trump says he's taking malaria drug to protect against virus (AP) Very risky and cause for concern imho.
May 19: Storm Surge Threat Remains Extreme for Eastern India, Bangladesh as Amphan Approaches (Wundergound) Dangerous storm. Thousands usually die when a storm this big hits the Sundarbans.
May 20: Ravalli County reports six new COVID-19 cases (Missoulian) We were doing so good! Largest number since April 18th.
May 21: Wuhan bans eating wild animals as virus drives a crackdown in China (CBS News) What's wild? Apparently most are bred.
May 22: Little sense of shared grief as virus deaths near 100,000 (LA Times) A case of 'sorry that my death has inconvenienced you'.
May 22: Portugal ready to welcome back tourists, says government (Reuters) After June 15th ...maybe. Risky from the US to even make plans.

Obama's speech in a separate post: "Obama takes the stage. and hits a home run"  (under construction at the moment)

Spacebook quote:

Inviting Holly over to help me with cleaning: "If you saw my housecleaning skills you would invite me to stay home. At my home. 😂"
"I drink coffee every day and haven’t gotten COVID-19 yet — maybe that’s a prophylactic, too! This is the logic of anecdotal evidence." Kaleigh Rogers at FiveThirtyEight.

OPINIONS

Recent:

"Preparation? Priorities? " 
"TO ALL WHO ARE ARMED AND SHOUTING FREEDOM" 
"MY RIGHT TO _____ IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN YOUR LIFE?" 

BLOGVILLE

There were only 25 views of this blog in one week. Unless I promote it I suspect I'll have to settle for that.

May 15th 30DBC: "It's just something one does" 
May 16th 30DBC: "The key to poetry" 
May 17th 30DBC: "Road Trip ... Been There, Done That!" 
May 18th 30DBC: "Chores ..."  (didn't post at 30DBC)
May 19th 30DBC: "Oh, to fly..." 
May 20th 30DBC: "Mind or Body? Maybe I'll write "白狐 和 草地"" 
May 21st 30DBC: "What are possessions ... if not a second hand emotion?" 
May 22nd 30DBC: "Overlooking the garden; riding over the hills." 

                                                                                                                                           

2.364 views as of May 16.