Our Peaceful Snowfall / Is Not Disturbed By The Sound / Of Electric Cars

 

Our Peaceful Snowfall
Is Not Disturbed By The Sound
Of Electric Cars

Winter Flower Haiku

 

Even Our Flowers
Blossoming In The Winter
Feel Confused These Days

Zumbaween, The Dancing News Anchor, and Haiku

 Now that I've done all the mail-in GOTV possible, I feel I should move on to phonebanking, but it's hard. I think I still have a visceral aversion to verbal rejection.

I've been donating money instead. I hope that helps.

I spent much of the day updating 4freeCLE and getting the calendar out to LoBono. They seem to appreciate it.

I had pleasant success with Zumbaween. My original idea was to paint my face white, using paste paint similar to what I used last year to paint my face red, and spike it and a white t-shirt all over with red duct tape to mock the Coronavirus. I was going to test this at the SPEAKOUT Toastmasters meeting Tuesday but as I put it together, it just didn't work. The white face paint just didn't stand out on my face; perhaps I'm too pale already! The red duct tape was a pain to work with and I just didn't get it together. Instead, I wore my Viking knit cape and mail belly shirt, and called it good, which it was. 

Later, during Post Toasties, Judy was messing around with filters so I gave it a try, which was fun. Later, ZiCheng email me a screenshot she took of me with a red bandana, which amused me so much I developed a joke by adding a contrasting cool shades shot:

Wednesday we ran a mile on the track again. It is difficult because I have a strong emotional feeling that I should just shop, but since I'm running with friends I can just keep going and I feel great when we stop. We talk about all sorts of stuff, especially since Julie is taking life coaching classes. As I left to go home, I was inspired to a haiku:

at age 65 

i have so many chances 

to begin again

But back to Zumbaween. Somewhere - perhaps at Toastmasters - someone dropped the concept of zoom-specific costuming. One short google to zoom halloween costume and I had my idea. (The article emphasized using a background image to anchor the costume concept - which meant I had to use the computer on the standing desk since the sitting computer lacks the firepower to do backgrounds reliably, but that's fine for Zumba.) I located the right background image and made it mine by adding a chyron, resulting in:

The Dancing News Anchor

It Is Winter Now / A Darkness In Which There Grows / Our New Hope Of Spring

It is Winter now,
A darkness in which there grows
Our new hope of Spring.

Soggy Morning Me

On Soggy Cold Days

Nature Speaks To Me Clearly:

"Get Your ***** Indoors!"

On a winter stroll / Finding unexpected fire / Recalls summer warmth

On a winter stroll

Finding unexpected fire

Recalls summer warmth.

---

I saw this while walking around over the weekend. I needed its brightness in the early morning wait for the bus.

Workout Haiku

After Many Years
I Am At Peace With Planking.
I Still Hate Crunches.
----
#exercisehaiku is true. Planking now merely takes time and if the music is nice I hardly notice. But crunches? bleh.
One really funny thing is the reactions of Facebook friends. "Burpees are the worst" to which I replied "They should be called Vomitees" --- only later did I decide to call them "Barfies".
Another friend said she has just the opposite - likes crunches, hates planks. It takes all kinds!

A Haiku For Trump

What These Times Have Shown:
As An Addict Loves The Meth,
They Love His Orange Face ;-)

In the Wintertime There are not enough flowers So we set up lights.

In the Wintertime
There are not enough flowers
So we set up lights.

Thinking of My Parents

Am I older now 

Than my father ever lived? 

Was he just a kid?

Whenever I come across this wedding photo of my parents, I am struck by their youth. My mother lived to a ripe old age, but my father died a younger man than I am now, struck down by his depression and alcoholism and his addiction to tobacco - he did not have sufficient will to live to stop the smoking that gave him fair warning before carrying him off.
I have never liked him.

He was mean to all of us kids, striking us with his belt whenever he was angry. The beatenings and the threats of beatings stopped only when I left home; everyone else got more years of it, but as a fairly self-centered child I cared only that I was safe. I realize that I shall never fully understand what-all was going on; was this an aftermath of his war experience, or was he raised in our family's tradition of alcoholism?
It does not matter, I suppose.
I cannot say that I was a more effective parent when I had a son, briefly, during my peculiar 2nd marriage and then acquired a pair of daughters from my first ex during my divorce from my 3rd.At least I avoided violence.
But then, I was not so young as the man in this photo 

In Winter Darkness / It Is Pleasant To Recall / Flowers Of Summer

In winter darkness
It is pleasant to recall
Flowers of summer.

4AM Haiku

4 a.m. - Wakeful.

I try a little yoga.

On the mat, I snooze.

Marchwear Haiku

What To Wear To Work?
We Could Have Sun, Rain Or Snow.
Indecisive March!

Cat Sock Haiku

We Have No Mice Here.

Instead, My Old Cat Arthur
Hunts My Daughter's Socks!

We Need Summer Memories

Review The Archive: 

We Need Summer Memories 

In February!

Job Application Haiku, as requested

So I'm applying for a job in the legal industry, and at the end of the online form (which otherwise has all the usual stuff) is an invitation to say something in 150 characters that will attract their attention.
So I figure, this is time for another set of haiku and since they invite material that draws their attention, I will at the end do something out of the ordinary:
Either as lawyer
Or database analyst
I hit my deadlines

It is a science
Parsing document data;
It is also art
U ask 150?
I - off haiku
4my*

Now these are not perfect haiku; (line 8 requires a careful pronunciation of "haiku"; 150 - "one-fifty"; "-"="dash"); but I hope the joke at the end makes up for it. Either way, I doubt anyone else has done something quite like this, which is what they asked for!

Job Application Haiku

So I'm applying for a job in the legal industry, and at the end of the online form (which otherwise has all the usual stuff) is an invitation to say something in 150 characters that will attract their attention.
So I figure, this is time for another set of haiku and since they invite material that draws their attention, I will at the end do something out of the ordinary:

Either as lawyer
Or database analyst
I hit my deadlines

It is a science
Parsing document data
It is also art

U ask150
I - off 3haiku
4my*

Now these are not perfect haiku; (line 8 requires a careful pronunciation of "haiku"; 150 - "one-fifty"; "-"="dash"); but I hope the joke at the end makes up for it.

Either way, I doubt anyone else has done something quite like this, which is what they asked for!

Cataiku

Lonely panther hunts;

A pride of lions kills daily;

I demand a treat!

The bird of time flies;

Its nest holds tasty meat snacks.

Time. It. Is. To. Feed!

You ignore your cat?

Your hands pet keyboard, not me?

Now I leap toekwtypsypsmishtgytsdsSSSDZXSZZ!!!!!!!!!!!

Haiku Discussing Religion

Another dialogue from CraigsList Haiku Hotel; this one pondering a key point in religion:

TravelingLight wrote:

The ladder of lies
Does not make you climb its rungs.
It only tempts you

I replied

God made sinners weak.
Temptation was made stronger.
Who merits Hades?

Haiku Hotel

Craigs List "Haiku Hotel" is a lot of fun, especially when one haiku inspires (or challenges) a reply. Here's an example:

Subject: Dreadful Hiaku

Me:

Mere form makes no poem
Why must internet promote
Such dreadful haiku?

Feral_Drollery replied:

Poem could be two
Or maybe one syllable
Poem poem poem

Making a hair-jel joke, I replied:

A hairy problem....
Stick syllables together
With a Poem aid ?

Feral_Drollery replied:

Remove it quickly
For a monosyllabic....
open poem scab (ouch)

Me:

To cure a bad poem.....
Rub down with good alcohol
Taken orally.

Try "Haiku Hotel" today!