Saturday, March 28, 2009

Overnight Spring Blizzard

After trying several hotels, all of which were completely occupied, I settled into a Hilton here in Tulsa. I checked in at 2 AM this morning, and when I awoke this morning around 11 I opened the curtain and discovered ...

Brrrrrrrrrr!!! That wasn't there before!


I set my new Lenovo laptop up on the desk and began accessing internet. My way of connecting to the world again. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh ...


It's still dangerous and snowy outside, that's why I extended my stay to include tonight, but the forecast for tomorrow is looking good. Sunshine! I'll have to play some John Denver when I get back in my car.

The Drive So Far

I left Indy and immediately found myself in a traffic jam. There were two more to come...


I found a train when I entered Illinois

And saw the world's largest cross in Effingham, Illinois. Made of metal it stands nearly 200 ft tall, and features various speakers which recite the ten commandments at the push of a button. There is also a meditation path around the cross.


On into Missouri, I catch a glimpse of the state motto ... "The Show-Me State" No one showed me anything, but I never got out of my car in Missouri. So I guess "The Show-Myself State" is what I'll call it.


And the St. Louis Gateway Arch of course! Designed by Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen in 1947, it's the tallest monument in the U.S. at 630 feet tall. You can take a tram to the top and peer out of the windows in the observation 'hall'. That is a long way up, I'm not sure I'd be able to actually look outside to the world below. I'm sure I'd feel very uneasy!



And I found the following picture online ... one of the tram cars that goes to the top of the Gateway Arch. Tis so very futuristic looking ...

Destiny's Melding Ways

I have been extracting files from my old laptop and putting them onto my new one today. Since there's nothing else to do in this hotel room in Tulsa...

The transfers of the files just finally finished completion 10 minutes ago, and so I've been browsing old photos, stories, etc. that I've not seen in a really long time.

I almost fell out of this swirly chair when I opened up an old Word document of a writing exercise I did a few years ago. The concept was to write an essay on "Being a Writer" with the stance that I have been a published author. I used the name A.G. Moore, a pen name I created when I was six years old. I read the essay, which wasn't all that well written, but when I scrolled to the bottom of the document I noticed something strange...

Here's what I had written:

"A.G. Moore resides in Tulsa, Oklahoma and is a contributor to “The Southwest Writer’s Journal”. She holds a Master of Arts in Professional Writing from Saint Josephs College in Maine. Her first novel, “The Swift” has been integrated into the required reading program for Cornell University writing students. She holds private writing classes in Maine every summer for young adults, and is currently working on a screenplay based on the life of Walter Whitman."

Yikes. Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy TUlsa?! Whayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

Road Sadness

Snow and winds still forecast for Texas Panhandle

03/28/2009

Associated Press

Blizzard warnings in effect until Saturday afternoon for parts of the Texas Panhandle have stranded people indoors and left highways closed.

Forecasts predict the northeastern part of the Panhandle to be the most affected Saturday morning, with spots of blowing snow and winds of up to 30 mph. The warning includes the cities of Canadian, Pampa, Clarendon, Miami, Follett, Perry, Booker and Higgins, according to the National Weather Service.

Northbound lanes of U.S. Highways 287 and 87 and east and westbound lanes of Interstate 40 to Amarillo remain closed through at least Saturday afternoon, the Department of Public Safety said. Crews have been plowing the areas.

A spring blizzard slammed into the Texas Panhandle, causing numerous accidents, shutting down major highways and paralyzing the region. It's part of a storm system that moved into the region late Thursday and has raged all over the Southern High Plains, including eastern New Mexico, Colorado, Kansas and Oklahoma.

The National Weather Service is predicting snowfall in Texas of up to a foot and winds gusting to more than 45 mph that could lead to zero visibility and snowdrifts of up to 11 feet before the storm wanes near midday Saturday. The worst of the eastward bound storm should be in Oklahoma later Saturday.

A blizzard doesn't have to have heavy snowfall, said weather service meteorologist J.J. Brost in Amarillo. But that snow must be combined with sustained winds or gusts of at least 35 mph that limit visibility to a quarter-mile or less.

-from DallasNews.com

:(

Friday, March 27, 2009

I'm Stranded in Tulsa

I'm in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I Drove non-stop today (actually I stopped three times) from 2pm Indiana time to here...2am !!! I'm beat. Can't go any further either, the border to Texas is blockaded by national guardsman keeping people from driving through the 20-foot snow drifts. This weather was as unexpected as is my sudden urge to take flight lessons. I want to get around this snow issue! The local weatherman says this is the most severe snow/sleet prediction to hit Oklahoma in five years, or some such horrible ting to hear when I'm so tired!!!!!!!!! oh dear. I-40 is blocked off...now what??!! JEremyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!

Ahhhhhhhhhh well, at least it's no Dust Bowl.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

The Untold Story Of Mr., Mrs. and Miss "What Happened?"

This photograph that my mom found at an antique store a few weeks ago looks innocent enough. A family holding twin boys, awaiting the arrival of the town train perhaps to venture to the city for a weekend of shopping. But when ye flip the photograph over, there's another 'side' to the story!

Handwritten is the word that says so much and yet so little. "Evidence"
What do you think is happening here? Is someone cheating on someone's husband, are these people stealing babies?

This Tree Is A Woman!

I see the nice figure of a woman in what looks like a birch tree. She stands tall! Reaches high! Yet keeps her feet firmly on the Earth. I like her.

Monday, March 23, 2009

90 years worth of hands, trousers, piggy banks!

I found a wheat penny at work yesterday. I jumped out of my overalls at the sight of it looking up at me. I leaned in close to make sure I read the date correctly.

1919

"Yes!" I screamed...I yelped. People came running from all directions.
"What is it?" They asked with concerned faces...
"Only my new favorite good omen!" I screamed in delight.

In God We Trust, it reads.

In this Penny I trust. I'm superstitious. I also love the movie "Somewhere In Time" with Jane Seymour and Christopher Reeve. Wonderfully romantic movie. It's haunting, unusual, sad, funny, sweet, strange, timeless ... pun intended.

I love staring into old photographs at antique stores, to try and escape into them. I can sit and do this for hours I tell you. So needless to say, I didn't let go of this penny the whole rest of the day and I showed everyone that came up to me. I don't know if they were responding to the penny and it's magnificence or if it was my enthusiasm they were playing off of. But either way, it made my day completely!
How many penny candies did this penny buy, way back when? How many dresses, combs, loaves of bread??


All I can really know for sure is ... This penny is officially no longer in circulation! As of yesterday! :0)

Check out this clip of Christopher Reeve playing Richard Collier, a playwright trying to time-travel into the past in order to reunite with his long lost love. Rent the whole movie to discover "Somewhere In Time", how one small penny played a role in keeping a man and a woman connected, yet so very much apart.

Sage Box Dream Fox


I have a small box of my favorite smudge sticks. Juniper, cedar, white sage. I smudge my room before bed, and sometimes in the morning too. Yesterday I lit a stick and set it on my yoga mat while i did yoga, the smoke drifted all around me and it was quite nice. I love the smell! I love the clearing aspect, and how it helps me remember my dreams. Native Americans smudged a space to purify and cleanse, and to thank the Earth. Or used in ceremony to clear away bad spirits or feelings.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Illustration Friday - Subtract





I made this week's IF topic "Subtract", into a series. I haven't had a whole lot of time on my hands lately so I just scribbled these drawings onto my favorite type of paper while I laid outside today. I figured, when something is subtracted one place, it's usually added another. So my little alien character Bertle is being subtracted from his clan, and added to a family of an ordinary American couple.

Bare, Davis Sing to Celebrate My Headache Finally Leaving



Skeeter Davis and Bobby Bare singing "Let It Be Me". One of my favorite songs, maybe a wedding song to sing with my future husband if I ever get married. Although I'll be hard pressed to find a man willing to sing it with me. Great song, beautiful and bittersweet.

Only One Week More

I can't wait!!!! Yosemite Sam is calling!


I Am Going to the West - Connie Dover

Friday, March 20, 2009

LED Performance With Sheep


Thanks to friend Garrett for sending me this. I watched it right away and was blown away! Completely beautiful and amazing, and funny too. Something I could never have imagined possible. Leave it to Samsung and some ingenious Welsh countryside. Take a gander!

I'm Definitely Going to Start Using This Bookmark




I can't believe what I've just found!!! After rummaging through my old closet I saw a familiar teal folder, when I flipped it over...wow, flashback!

I created this Hall & Oates folder when I was ... 10 ... maybe 12 years old. I still am in love with them. True blue.

I can still remember sitting down and taking such care in sketching Daryl and John for my bookmark. (NO, it's not Beavis and Butthead!!) I used watercolors to paint it, and laminated it so to preserve it forevermore!

And hey now! Stop laughing at that photograph of me. I was a weirdo!

... oh.

Well anyway...here is the song I rocked out to on a daily basis, from the album, "Voices". Before and after school. Hours of singing and dancing around like an idiot.



Oh Daryl....I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

On the Desk


Thursday, March 19, 2009

Watching Over Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln had a watch, a watch he did have he...

I'm just singin' a little ditty, to celebrate the discovery of a secret inscription within the inner shell of Lincoln's personal pocket watch!

The century-old legend was confirmed mid March, thanks to a handy watchmaker at the National Museum of American History who pried the watch face open. No pressure there!

The watch's original maker, Jonathan Dillon indeed had left an inscription. But Dillon himself, when asked by reporters in 1906, couldn't even correctly recall the words he had etched in the watch. He had told newspapers "The first gun is fired. Slavery is dead. Thank God we have a president who at least will try" could be found within the watch, and that not even Lincoln knew about the engraving.

What had he actually written? Let's just say, Dillon's gears weren't in very good working order when it came to his memory. Oooooo. Because the watch actually reads:

Jonathan Dillon April 13 - 1861
Fort Sumpter was attacked by the rebels on the above date
Thank God we have a government.

Fascinating!! This is so thrilling to learn. I picture Lincoln with this timepiece by his side as the country is inflamed in war. The stench of innocent men's lives in the air. And the tears of the wives and children on the home front creating rivulets of sorrow in his mind as he makes meticulous strides to at once bind under centralist rule, our divided country and also please the industrialist heads of the union by suppressing Southern prosperity, all dignity intact. Rough job. Not to mention the fine wire he walked between treating the slave issue with heroic sensitivity while in the political arena, and telling racist jokes behind cabinet doors to friends...hm....shame on the Lincoln not written about in the 210,00 books written about him. Really sick, dude! and Hooray to American Academia, and to all the books written by professors that induce the institutions we know as universities with the same substance known as 'safe for the average american', year after year.

Anyway, it's way past time for bed. I don't even know if this post makes any sense. Oh, and one more thing...for Dillon. Don't thank God for the government when God doesn't take sides, and government does. Also...the rebels may have 'fired the first shots', but the North had long before that been firing bullets of condemnation at any state putting them at risk of not acquiring all the agricultural 'gold' they could get their hands on. That was already marked by that state...Keep yer grubby hands to yerself. but in the end, you won. who knows how we'd be fairing now in America if we let our respective states do the talking...
but then again...where does the Native American fit into all of this. UGHHHH, what a mess.

And those poor boys of war. Regardless of the 'side' they took. Their LIFE was took.
And a sickness will permeate the blood stained dirt of this country until each and every soldier spirit is set free to rest in Peace, not angst or harm or confusion.
I don't care how long ago it was. The casualties from the Civil War exceed those lives lost in all other wars, from the Revolution through Vietnam.

Lest I misconstrue the immediacy of being close to a decade into a war, present time, here and now. Blood spilled on territory abroad...pray for the soldiers and the mission to find a stopping place.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

I Think I Died In March

I'm trying to remember when I died in 2008. I'm filing my state taxes and this particular question has me quite befuddled...

Technorati Profile

Monday, March 16, 2009

Illustration Friday - Celebration

This IF topic was given a long time ago! Here is my submission even though it is just a basic sketch. Never got around to coloring it or finishing it up.
Celebration of a new bundle!

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Illustration Friday - Legendary

The Illustration Friday topic this week is "Legendary". Since St. Patrick's Day is only a few days away I have chosen to create a drawing inspired by the ancient Irish. This girl is Naomh, a legendary druid storyteller and artisan of magnificent jewelry!

Thursday, March 12, 2009

That THING is THIS!

Ok, I imagine it's a little more recognizable now. After three weeks of life, this little guy starts to receive it's distinctive Panda Bear markings!

So...who voted Panda. Two people! We had two winners! Parody answered correctly first, so he'll get a big 'ol stack of hearty pancakes, and Jeff Ircink answered correctly too! So, there's pancakes for him! With lots of fresh Grade A Wisconsin Maple SyruP! Woo! Get your forks ready!

Good guesses though, to everyone who participated.

Here he was a few weeks earlier for those of you that didn't participate in the "What Could This Little Thing Be?" contest.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Sunset For A Lost Friend

Or should I say from a lost friend? I've been visiting my friend Kathy's grave site in the town where I spent my childhood. A little place called Russiaville, Indiana. Kathy was only in her early twenties when her life was taken from her during a tragic semi accident. The man driving the semi ran a red light as Kathy was taking a turn off the highway. She died instantly. Her boyfriend who was in the car with her died the next day. I dream about her sometimes and she seems quite happy now. But I still think about her and have begun eating lunch near her grave every now and again. I sit and think about her, how I'll never forget her. I know she's moved on to better things, but I feel good about visiting the cemetery. The last time I went there, I ate a late lunch and took photographs...the sky was dappled with clouds...it was blue. As it neared evening I asked my old friend to provide a sunset worthy of her own beauty...




And this is what I found...


A softness in the clouds I've never before seen...


Finally melding with a more dramatic ensemble of color, as the sun tucked itself more snuggly against the horizon...

I love you Kathy. Here's a song.


Shenandoah - The Mormon Tabernacle Choir [Choir]