from the freezer

every day

I do something I don't want to do but which has to be done

spring

the gift we get
for surviving winter

at Brussels airport

1987

terrorism must not stop us from traveling.

however it is one more challenge at a time when the flying experience has long lost the allure it had when I was young.

busy

so many things happening at once.  little time to write poems or add posts here.

tough times

time change always makes me grumpy. & right now the severity of allergy season has me in tears.  then the house is back on the market. my realtor equates that activity with the stress of a funeral.

all of this is backdrop for the emotional turmoil of watching millions of my countrymen gleefully standing in line to drink the orange man's kool aid.

politix

a nitemare abt the election woke me at 2 a.m.

I can't believe that a nation as large as ours is unable to find one person substantial enuf to fill Obama's shoes.

Trump is a vulgarian & bully. he looks like a clown & sounds like a dictator.  Cruz is a psychopath. & I do believe the circumstances of his birth make him ineligible to be president. Hillary is clearly the most qualified candidate but carries more baggage than Louis Vuitton.  & I'd say the elderly Bernie is the most irritating Democrat to ever run except that he's an Independent.

I fear where we're going.

drawing (n.d.)

Julia's cake

for the first time this year I did some packing. & in the process I discoverd a cache of recipes. 99% went in the trash. but among the few I kept was this from Favorite Recipes of Ohio (1964):

I've written often of my dear friend Julia Waida. & I know part of my memories of her  centers around her triumphs as a chef.  here she is at one of the birthday dinners she made for me.

Mary Ann Scherr (1921-2016)

photo by Doug Moore

she was the first jewelry artist I ever knew.

I remember her at parties as a person who enjoyd life.

& when I was a staff writer at Kent State University Service I remember interviewing her abt her work.

here is the photograph taken of me so many years ago wearing the ring she designd with "Alex" as part of the design.  it's now in the collection of Kent State University Museum.

knobs & beads