Monthly Archives:January 2011

Spent an hour or so down at the beach this morning to catch what I hoped would be another glorious sunrise. I took pictures at about 7-8 minute intervals – haven’t put them all here, but here is a sampling.

I really like the one with the sunrise reflected in the hood of my car. Sort of a double wow effect. The next ones were taken from the top of the bluff looking out over the Kenai River and Cook Inlet. My favorite is the second one – and I will likely make some copies of it in its full glory. The last is a shot of the Eric Hansen Scout Park as I was leaving – it is dedicated to a young man we watched grow up – he was stricken by brain cancer several years ago – the oldest of two sons of friends of ours. Their youngest son was lost several years previously in a freak accident in Seward – he fell into a stream and was washed into Ressurrection Bay – his body was never recovered.

These are thumbnails (click to see larger version) of reduced sized pictures. Enjoy – but remember Who the Painter is. I’m glad that He allows me to share His beauty.

Hubbymoose and I had a busy day today – I’ve taken the next several days off work for my birthday – today was packed.

After we got grands fed and off to school hubby and I went to the airport to greet a dear friend’s son and his bride-to-be. He has recently returned home from Afghanistan and this is his first trip back to Alaska. A crowd waited for him and shared hugs and smiles all around.

Welcome home, Jay – thank you for your service.

Afterwards we drove to Soldotna for eye appointments and then to the “mall” to get hubby’s glasses prescription filled. On our way into the parking lot we spotted something that I had to get a picture of – asked hubby to stop and then walked back to the driveway to get a clear shot:

Yup – the moose IS loose – and munching along near the sign. After all The Moose Is Loose is the place for ALL cool moose to hang out.

lol! Sent the pic to the Anchorage news station and it was shared during the weather portion. The weather person, Jackie Purcell, is my younger birthday twin. Anchorage’s mayor named tomorrow Jackie Purcell day! Pretty cool.
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“AAAHHCHOO!” Matt liked to call them ‘religious experience’ sneezes. “If you have to sneeze, make it a good one,” he always said.

He shook his head watching in amazement as dust particles floated around him. His curly blond hair was coated in the stuff. He shook his head again and this time larger pieces dropped onto his shoulders.

Removing his safety goggles he looked around. “Whoa!” he whistled. Sheet rock from the ceiling lay crumbled about the room – the source of the dust. One ceiling beam swung loose.

“Guess it’s a good thing we signed that Hold Harmless agreement!”
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This is my entry for Velvet Verbosity’s weekly 100 Word Challenge. The prompt this week was Harmless.

Being part of the 100 Word group has helped me focus lately on words – I LOVE words – love how some of them roll off the tongue while others seem to get stuck in the back of the throat and refuse to be uttered. But, I go through phases where I don’t really WANT to write – generally because I have to do so much writing as part of my J.O.B. Not alone there, I’m sure.

So, it’s fun to sit and exercise my brain pan a bit by thinking of ways to express emotions through a one or two word prompt – spewing it onto paper and then hewing it down to size. (You may have noticed I have a difficult time in keeping my words to a minimum – thus the challenge of writing only 100 words).

Part of the fun of the challenge is reading the take others have on the same prompt. I’ve discovered a number of kindred spirits by checking out the weekly posts.

One such is Dxpepper’s blog and especially this post. In commenting on it I wrote: we write about ourselves wearing other people’s skin and I was struck by my own words: it’s not that I am overly excited about my own words, but . . . isn’t that what writers do best?

I am an introvert. I used to describe myself as shy, but that word does not fit me at all, at all. I can talk with anyone about just about anything. Once nephew and I were stuck at the Seattle airport (due to Mt. Redoubt erupting) for three days. When his mom joined us on the third day he said, Mom! Aunt B can talk to anyone about anything! (underlying that comment was the unstated HELP ME!!!)
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The introverted part of me comes into play when I write – rather than talk about myself (although you couldn’t prove it by THIS post) I write about other people – unknown or made up people. Writers wear other people’s skin. We tell stories about ourselves and other people using a LOT of poetic license by changing places, names, etc. We put our thoughts into other people’s minds and let them slip out of other people’s mouths. We live vicariously through every John or Betty or Max or Morningstar we write about.

And, sometimes we enter writing contests.

I did that this week. Our local Writers Group holds a “Writers Night” each year. The entry deadline is in early February. I’ve entered two non-fiction prose pieces (writing about real people using real names) and two poems originally written to answer 100 Word prompts.

Thanks VV for allowing me an avenue of opening up my brain and watching what spills out.

“Mom hated obits saying, ‘So and so died peacefully in her sleep.’ ”

“Aunt Jane was a hoot! I loved when she changed her name insisting we call her Morningstar.”

The cousins laughed, huddling together in the unheated Customs shack. The crematorium prepared them for the border crossing. Taking Morningstar’s ashes from Alaska to Washington was as simple as showing proper credentials.

NOT!

Morningstar fought death valiantly. Now guards were saying one piece of paper was missing. They couldn’t cross.

Instead, the cousins shook Morningstar into the wind laughing as she settled across two countries.

She would have liked that.
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This post is in reply to Velvet Verbosity’s weekly 100 Word challenge. This week’s prompt is Credentials. Join a great group of talented writers and answer the challenge. I know you have 100 words in you.
🙂