By Michael S. Smith
It took us both to water the new lawn,
our nozzles splashing life on the warm seeds
in peat mossed dust, desperate for water and sun.
Milky diamonds dangled in strips of beads
from our hoses as we danced the edges
toward each other in the crotch of the yard.
We took positions near each other, nudged
our streams slowly back and forth, saturating
each waiting seed, with practiced rhythms
repeated a thousand times, lovers making
life grow. This could be our last lawn, we knew,
and aged experience had taught us to take our sweet time.
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I had a bunch of chores I needed to go out and do, but by the time I had my packages ready for the post office, Verizon was banging on the door to tell me that one of my neighbors had called to complain that she was getting all of our calls and apparently our lines were crossed. So that's how I managed a morning without a single sales call! But I had to stay in the house while they poked and prodded at the box -- I'm really not clear why they needed me here, since it seems like the problem was entirely outside, except to test the line at the end. Then I had less than an hour to get to the post office and mail the packages before Adam got home from school, and how did I not know that the post office had discontinued surface mail to Europe? $40 to send a medium-sized box to England, eesh! Next time I need to call FedEx, UPS and moving companies to see who ships the most affordably.
The rear of the caboose juts into the restaurant, here decorated for the holidays.
In honor of the proximity of Camp David on Catoctin Mountain and the number of secret service officers who patronize the Cozy Inn, there is a small Camp David museum.
The suites in the inn are named after the presidents and decorated to reflect their styles (the Reagan Cottage is western, the Carter Room is in rustic country plaid).
At this time of year, the inn is well decorated for the winter holidays.
Which means lots of red, green and white.
And wrapped boxes and nutcrackers and stuff.
If it's Monday, I must have watched Heroes and Journeyman -- the former because my kids watch, the latter because it's growing on Paul and me, though I bet that if we didn't have the former on, we'd forget about the latter. I keep feeling like I missed an episode of Heroes somewhere, though I know I didn't...like there must be more to Elle than we see, like Sylar and the twins must somehow fit in to this season's other storylines in a way I've forgotten. This week (the "Fathers Are Everything, Mothers Are Useless, Part 43" episode), I forgave a lot because George Takei was back and Noah wasn't dead...if they had killed Noah off, I would seriously be thinking about getting the family to switch to Samantha Who. But YAY NOAH! And now we find out if he came back Different...
There's something creepy that Matt first tests out his scary new powers on Molly, again, in the name of giving her a normal life, while Bob and Noah are taking turns jerking around their daughters. Fortunately Noah has done such a good job with Claire so far that she knows when to trust him instead of her dumb-ass boyfriend. Though for the first time I kind of liked her boyfriend, even if I had to snort at her mother's analysis, that Claire likes him because he reminds her of her father -- not, as she tells Noah, her biological father who can fly, but her real dad who protects her. Is there one female on this series who doesn't either need to be saved from herself or protected despite her awesome powers?). I'm very bummed that Kaito is gone again and Ando is practically invisible and Mohinder is such an idiot...are the twins are supposed to be compensation for all the stupid changes since last season? Sorry, but it's not working for me.
As for Journeyman, the whole reason I avoid all the police procedurals is that they're violent and nasty. I thought more of Dan's work would be about the bigger picture, how we're all linked together and all that...but it mostly seems, as he said to Livia, really random.
I've stopped getting LoudTwitter summaries delivered to this journal and switched them to my Vox account. You can also find them at
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