Friday, February 4, 2022

The Long Night

Not an origninal title. I thought a familiar one more inportant than something obsure. We have all been dealing with the long night of controversy over Covid. Those in my house have survived Delta and Omicron. Quite well as a matter of fact. I am immune compromised with asthma and other issues. Prime candidate for the Jar on a shelf. Many of my friends and associates have long standing problems as result of Covid. We are among the fortunate majority. My heart goes out for others who have lost loved ones in the last two years. I wish things could be as they were but, alas, it's not to be. The world I knew has perished. You cannot restore, resurrect or rebuild it. I am now older and a few short months from retirement. Like many though, I will continue working because I must in order to survive. It's funny, I look back over the years since I started this blog and find I did not accomplish what I had wanted. Now time has flown by and it looks like I may yet accomplish a few things I intended. Life is a distraction sometimes, from living. If you get that, you've done well. I don't see things as I once did. A world climbing upward and outward as I envisioned has become a night of fear of the dark lasting far too long. Pain and health issues for many has overshadowed hope, determination, and common sense. I still hope to accomplish a few more things before shedding this mortal coil. The brevity of our life becomes more real as we grow older, or at least it should. You may read this and think I'm a pessimist. Actually, I'm an optimist. You see, for now, the world goes on and who knows what may yet come of things. What I did not accomplish, another may yet do. I started life in a world of darkness and managed to find a well lit path. I can see it's still there. Find a good book, put on some music or just read in silence and let your mind find the music. Be free in pages of print, whether, electronic or paper.

Tuesday, August 10, 2021

Long time out

It's been years since I was here last. My bad. Life got busy and I was out of it. It's been nearly nine years. This week we celebrate our 46th anniversary. I had commented last it was our 37th. I started this back when it seemed like a good medium for posting. Since then FB, Twitter and all the rest have become the popular places. They are not my thing. So, I'll continue here for now and who comes here does and who doesn't, not a problem for me. I realize many may have left comments and that for some reason I failed to be notified and so I did not approve them. For a period I had to shut down my access as my email got hacked, like most of you have experienced, and it took ages to clear up the mess and get it usable again. Apparently, they are deleted automatically after a period of time. Sorry for that folks. For those who posted just to promote their own agenda, I wouldn't have approved your comment any how. Don't waste your time if you come here for that reason,,, I don't know how much time I have to keep up with this but If some of you have enjoyed my short excerpts, I'm glad. You may have noticed my blog is not monetized. I know that breaks with current trends but I've never been a trender. Now for the fun part. I have finished several books that some of my posts are excerpts from and set them in electronic format for epub and mobi. I've been doing a little more editing. I haven't made them available for purchase yet but it's in the works. Now to wrap up todays post, I have pointed several people to here because of posts I made. I hope it was helpful. I will be checking on this more often so if you leave a comment I should get to it in few days.

Saturday, October 29, 2011

Old Man Winter

I don't know if the rest of the world heard but it snowed October 29,2011 in our town. A disgusting thing done prematurely, by a cold old man. I know because I caught him sitting in my summer deck chair enjoying the gloom of the cloudy day taking a rest from all his hard work snowing on us. Our local weather persons said we got an inch of snow. I think they are on a different measuring system. I measure 4 inches on my deck. Then to look out and see this sight it was just,,, well unbelievable. I think the pictures say it all. I will say one thing, at least he did let me pose with him to prove this isn't Photochopped. Big shot celebrity, here today and hopefully gone tomorrow. Let the sunshine in! Disclaimer: Any resemblance of the person in the picture or references to his character that may appear as someone else is purely coincidental.

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Northridge Elm

Shadow of Light

Windswept leaves spun in a fairy dance about the gnarled old elm tree. Orange, brown, yellow and red like ragged drops of paint bounced and flew as though scattered from an artists brush. The cold air left frost on the cracked glass windows of a rickety old house that sat many feet back from the street.
It showed evidence of better years when the white painted siding and green trim had been fresh and lustrous. Now it was dull and eroded. Time aged and weathered, gray and rough wood speckled the outside. In places the paint hung in peelings from the cracks. The peels gyrated in the wind like butterfly wings.
The once black wrought iron fence leaned and was broken in places. Its primary color now was the color of rust. The gate laid in the brown grass and weeds, which had woven their stems over the iron pickets to clutch it to the ground. The three-acre lot was as open as any forest yet the gate may as well have been affixed in its hinges and locked. No one came these many years.
Gray and dilapidated it was slowly crumbling, becoming more of the land than the landscape. The sidewalk had been great-slabs of shale long ago. Now they were fractured and broken. Their edges no longer joined in a neat serpentine line of scales leading from the road to the porch.
Strange that even stray cats and dogs did not come here for shelter. As though a sign was posted that man and beast could read saying to keep out. The place was as deserted as ever a house had been.
People drove past, but only glanced at the high brown grass and weed choked hedges. When the sun was just at the edge of the horizon the scattered rays of yellow and red were muted by purple giving the old place a look that usually brought comments of it being spooky.
At night the yellow disk of the moon threw the shadow of the old mansion on the ground and across the unkempt lawn in an eerie misshapen caricature of the old place. Well deserved was its reputation as a scary place. Over many years children and teens had come through the broken fence and with trepidation pushed the big front door open to enter. It had become a taunt of bravery to the boys in town. If you’d never been in the old Singleton Mansion you were chicken. The only way to lose that moniker was to have a witness to your brave foray into the other-worldliness of the old mansion. None of the children in town could bring to mind a time when the house had been resided in. All the echoes of voices, cries of joy and peals of laughter were lost. No one remembered and there is no more certain death than that of being forgotten. Daniel stood on the sidewalk before the broken plats of shale. He was neither afraid nor brave. It just happened, that having recently moved into town, he had to walk by the old place to school. All the other kids walked on the other side of the street. He didn’t know anyone yet, so he had no friend to walk with or to warn him. With searching eyes he took in the house the tree and the yard. To him it was just an old wreck of place. His eye lingered on a second floor window. Putting his hand up to shade his eyes he thought for moment he saw a shadow there. Probably a passing cloud he mused. The sounds of kids across the street broke his focus and he turned away. His footsteps sounded loud as he plodded past the last of the old bent fence. Turning to take a last look, he felt a chill across his legs and face.

Stans Visitors

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Links to sites I promote

These are friends and associates who do art and music, and authors who have books available. If you are interested in such, email them and check out their site. They will contact you back with specifics.







If you want me to post a link to your site, email me. I will check out your content and let you know.







I am an author and lover of art and music and promote the same of those whom I know do the same.







http://littlesistersstudio.blogspot.com/ This site has some incredible dolls, all handmade, for sale. These artists are very talented and if you are looking for dolls and artwork I think this is one of the best places I've seen.







http://livies-mind-has-been-compromised.blogspot.com/







http://a1keene.awardspace.com/main.html This link is to an author friend who has his books available. "Time Angels" and the sequal "Time Angels II the Omega Key" by Jack Keene.



About Me

My childhood was spent growing up on a farm in the mountains of northern Pennsylvania. In those years I learned the lessons that would mold my character and moral center. In my teens I moved to a small city in southeastern PA. Like many teens I had my rebellion and found the futility of it. During my late teens I moved to central PA and in high school lost my heart to the girl who is now my wife. Presently I'm well into midlife and slowing rapidly. The things I used to do, I can't even remember. Married as 2021 for 46 years, we have a son, a daughter and five grandchildren. My son has two boys, my daughter three girls, I love irony! I am adding 2 great grandsons! I'm self-employed for most of 35 years in construction. Doing a project for a customer and getting their approval is wonderful and inspiring. I started writing when my children were younger. I did some stories for them and over time it became more of an interest. I now have four completed novels and several shorts and am working towards getting one or more published. One short has been published.