Quote by Mendalla

The state of the union, at least from the view up here above you, is "royally f**ked". But maybe there's still a way to unf**k it. I just don't know what it is. What your nation needs is a pragmatic leader with a strong economic lens but Carney's ours and you cannot have him.😋 He is far from perfect in my somewhat leftie eyes, but he's at least mentally stable and focused on the real economy unlike Trumpie Dumpie, who seems to live in his dream world.

That's enough politics for tonight.

We are back into winter but a quieter, milder form of it. Temps from -7 to 0C, occasional flurries.

Turns out not much happened. A two hour slog of a speech.

No matter. Tomorrow is a new day. Writing and half-listening to pre-season baseball. We have a rookie on the mound!

Coffee and a couple Tylenol please.

Entered both the writing contests (thanks again WG!). Hot and cold, love and hate. One of them is a sci-fi apocalypse, one of them is a simple love poem without the word love.

We're ordering a pizza tonight so we can sit down and watch the State of the Union speech. Regardless of what is said, or what happens, we are watching History, with a capital "H." I hope our better angels prevail.

Coffee would be swell.

Okay, here's my Rainbow poem. It's mostly a true story!

Rainbow

I'm in bed with my wife. We're both

sick, sniffling, snuffling, handing each other

tissues and medicine. Our breathing

synchronizes. I watch her chest

rise and fall.

Outside, a storm. It's come by once

already, dusting our home with cold

rain. The worst has passed. In the storm's

wake, broken branches, trash.

No matter.

The sun rises from the storm. A rainbow forms.

Our faces turn to the color,

receiving light. I watch my wife's chest

rise and fall.

We were both sick over the weekend, but we're getting over it.

Extremely boring weekend, though I did finally get around to finishing Stranger Things. I really enjoyed it. I thought they nailed the ending. Long, fun ride. Sorry to see it over.

!gninrom dooG

Quote by gillianleeza
I love the beach in the winter.

I've never see n a beach in winter. It sounds beautiful.

Same old thing here. Writing, with the news in the background. Pick up the grand-boy from school later. I've got a bit of a cough myself - there are SO MANY GERMS at the school. A giant petri dish.

!esaelp eeffoC

Finally saw del Toro's Frankenstein. Really good movie. It's long as heck, and there's a bit of drag in the middle, but, boy is it a beautifully shot movie. Very emotional too.

Windy af down here. It's a little scary, though I can't imagine we're in danger. I'm picking up the grand-boy later, the biggest worry is that he'll blow away.

About halfway through House of Leaves. What a crazy read! It's like walking through a dark house, which I guess it literally is. But having to turn the book and squint and even occasionally use a mirror really makes it a trippy experience.

!eeffoC

Happy President’s Day, for those in the US. Ha. We prefer to think of it as a three day Valentine Day weekend.

The comp entries are fun. I may give Rainbow a shot. We’ve got a month.

Making some headway on the new novel. Talia was laughing at me yesterday for recording and playing stuff backwards. .driew s’ti seY

!!!!!!eeffoC

I'm in the comp! 80 words exactly (not including the title).

Playing video games on a lazy Sunday today. Nice way to close out Valentine's Day weekend.

Baseball next weekend!

Shamrock

“Frikkin Roombas,” howled Owen, lobbing an e-bomb toward the door. He never dreamed he’d use hate-speech, but then the robots went rogue. Burnt the fields first. No more human food. Skies black. Billions dead.

Owen took the kids, hid in an abandoned Walmart. Food, hiding places, guns. Here they’d make their stand.

The door blasted open. In the doorway: a Roomba. Held in its cold hand: a fragile plant. A shamrock. Their shared future. Life.

Hope.

“Come in,” said Owen.

We watched Materialists last night for Valentine’s Day. Really above average rom-com. Other than Dakota Fanning living in Manhattan on $80k a year, we totally bought into it. Well rounded characters, excellent dialogue, good acting. I just enjoyed listening to everyone talk. Highly recommended.

Cool idea! I'm on this! Thanks, WG!

Got ripped up by the cat yesterday, but we did get her to the vet. Notice the scratches look weirdly like my tattoo of the Pleiades. They gave us kitty Xanax (gabapentin!) for next time.

Sorry about the news from Canada, Ape. Sounds like an US headline. Our thoughts are with you guys.

Man. Woke up, turned in the news, and saw House Representatives and AG Bondi in a live screaming match on Capitol Hill. Things are getting weird. The government is no longer interested in answering questions.

Anyway. Taking the cat to the vet for a checkup today, so the always stressful catching of the cat and putting it in the carrier is about to commence.

Quote by WriterGirl
I’m trying to understand curling at the Olympics, but don’t. Can’t figure it out, but looks interesting.

I like to watch it, even with no idea what is going on. Sorry about your Dad, WG. Hard stuff. Hugs.

Still struggling with the novel. Tacked on a few new words yesterday.

Video bird feeder continues to be great fun. The only downside is that it's too small for the Blue Jays to visit.

The play was mediocre, but at least it was short. We were home by halftime. Mr. Bunny was good! The game was not.

First Spring training game in 12 days.

I'm in a serious writing drought. Sigh.

Coffee?

Busy not preparing for the Super Bowl here. We're going to a play instead.

Other than that, a fine day here. Warm and sunny.

Still no laptop. I am going slowly mad without one.

Coffee!

So, anyone remember when my a key was acting up? Well, I tried to fix it, and broke the key, and so have no laptop until Wednesday. I am at my wit’s end. And I didn’t have all that much wit to begin with.

Not much else going on. We got a woodpecker and some blue jays on the bird cam yesterday. Cool!

!eeeffoC

Good morning from Casa Say It Backwards (that's the name of the app I'm using)!

Those brownies look good!

The "a" on my keyboard is behaving badly. I have to hit it extra hard to get it to work. Everytime I write a sentence I have to go back and add in all the "a's" I missed.

Coffeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Quote by Mendalla

su sekat gnitirw erehw egnartS 😊

.deednI

You know, I must type a post here and forget to hit Submit like once a week. I swore I posted yesterday. My short term memory is mush.

Regardless. No grandson pick-up today, so it's the old write and walk combo today. Still messing around with backwards voices. !nuf s''tI

Coffee please.

Quote by Mendalla

Birds can be incredibly aggressive. I've seen jays go after squirrels and I've been dive bombed by a redwing blackbird whose nest was close to my deck and BBQ. Just remember that they are distant cousins of theropods like tyrannosaurus rex and it makes perfect sense. 😊

Dinosaurs fighting in the back yard is a great image with which to begin the day.

Slowly warming up here. We should have a chill day today. The new novel is frustrating right now - I'm playing with backward voices with an app on my phone now, trying to get an idea. gnikrow ton s'ti.

Cooofffeee!!!

Things seem a tiny bit more optimistic in the United States this morning.

I'm certainly in a better mood. Still cold here, but the snow and wind have stopped.

We had a junco attack a finch on the bird cam yesterday. Dive bombed her! Marking territory I guess. No birds appeared to be harmed.

Coffee!

Cold here, but the snow has stopped. I gotta shovel soon. I enjoy shoveling.

Calm weekend, and should be a calm week. I am slowly making progress on Mr. Novel.

I have a bit of memoir up here, from my days in Minneapolis: https://www.storiesspace.com/stories/memoirs/two-neighborhoods.

All Her Fault is really good. Sarah Snook is a force of nature.

Quote by WriterGirl

Cool to be in an anthology!

Thanks, WG!

I hope everyone is safe and warm and have no reason to leave the house until the cold goes away. We hunkered down here with snow flurries and temp in the teens.

A hot coffee would be swell.

Cool, Ape. Big projects are exciting!

I have a very short horror story coming out this week in an anthology - it's the one about the haunted garbage disposal, if you remember me babbling about that awhile back. So, that's cool.

Lazy day today. I got Talia one of those bird feeders that identify the bird (SO COOL!), and we've been experimenting with different spots. We finally found the best spot and I hung it. Now I'm playing video baseball and wishing for Spring.

Seize the carp!

Quote by Mendalla

Not on DVD or in a theater, but I finally saw Godzilla Minus One. Oh wow, did they ever stick the landing on this one. An intense, moving personal drama about a kamikaze pilot who backed out of his mission and has serious PTSD combined with a dark tale of Godzilla terrorizing a late forties Japan that is still recovering from the bombings and other events of the war's end. And all done so, so well. It landed the Oscar for VFX but the writing and acting are top notch, too.

Minus One is a standalone, not related to any other Godzilla movies but there's a post-credit stinger that leaves the door open for a sequel if Toho wants to go there. I think this movie stands very well on its own and would be quite happy to see it remain a standalone.

It's excellent, though it took me awhile to get to it. I think they are going to bring in Ghidorah next.

TGIF!