poemetry

Sunday, April 24, 2005

Iron Gardener!! (think Iron Chef)...Battle: MINT!!

Iron Gardener!! Battle: MINT!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Note to self:
Do not plant mint in your garden.
Do not plant mint in your garden.
Do not plant mint in your garden.

Years ago when I was younger and naiver, I did not see the harm in planting the very fragrant Mint in amongst my perennials.
Now, I am doing battle with the insidious creeper. All the while as I am pulling and cursing, it mocks me (mocks me!) still with its enticing scent.
End of last summer, I did major battle with it. I pulled up most all my perennials in the infested garden. And dug and plucked and pulled and cursed and thought I had at last out witted my delicious smelling enemy. Now it is spring and my Lady's Mantle and Pulmonaria are rife with circular green buds of intoxicatingly scented Mint. Its white, underground tentacles are webbing their way through this patch of garden still, interlocking their roots with the roots of friendlier plants. Hiding amongst them, as if it Knows it needs to hide.

It is hard to completely hate something that smells so good. Sprigs of it bruised and dropped into iced tea during the summer makes a very refreshing drink....But I digress!! It is too pushy. Too invasive and should never have been put there in the first place. I have only myself, my younger self, to blame. My well behaved, and nicely flowering plants must now suffer the injustice of mint creeping around their bottoms and feeling up their stems. Its perfume may be fooling the younger plants for all I know. The older ones, I know are relying on me to save them from being strangled by this minty breathed creature. Till then, where's my iced tea...?

Friday, April 22, 2005

Bose Prose and Other Woes (But Mostly Bose :o)

Bose Prose and Other Woes….


Friday morning, been up since 5 and already feel the drag of lost sleep tugging at my thoughts. I am steeping as I type, my second (rare) cuppa french-pressed coffee (black, no sugar).

I spent half an hour or so this morn critting someone's poem at an online poetry workshop site. It is a function of writing poetry that is oddly rewarding. Especially when you believe the poet is really interested in what will improve their writing. My ability to do this is limited (as are my writing skills) but I can offer suggestions up to the level of what I know…or think I know. I am not above fooling myself!

A fucked up thing happened this morning too. My squirrely email program ATE every, EVERY email I had in my In Box. Totally wiped out. Zero. It did this last year. At that time, it ate the previous 5 years or so of Every email I had ever received. I guess having gone through that trauma, I am a less devastated at this annihilation on a smaller scale. Perspective, it's a bitch and a savior.

I know this should have been an upbeat, YAY! it's here post about my Bose. Well, it's not. Well not entirely. But I will say, yay, it's here, for the record.

My getting a Bose was the result of considering (for all of three days) becoming MP3 capable and portable. After some research (and some help from my cyberbud Tom!) I discovered that my Windows 98 would need to be upgraded (coupla hundred bucks). Then I'd need to upgrade my UBS ports (cost Plus installation) and probably would need something called a Firewire installed (more $$) and then there was the high cost of getting an MP3 player. I was specifically looking at Apple's ipod. So with the hoops, hoopla and bucks I was faced with, I decided that for much cheaper, I should finally just get myself a decent stereo…

It arrived last night 3 hours after expected. 6pm rolled around and I thought something must have happened to it and they were going to inform me: 'Sorry, but we accidentally drove over your Bose.' I mean, I knew it was on the truck, because my tracking number and the internet told me so. But alas, the UPS truck stopped by my house and the Upsman delivered my Bose-box. The box itself advertises what it is instead of being generic box-brown. Personally, I don't think that it is a good idea to basically cover the box of an expensive, portable item with the message: "Steal me!! I am easy to pickup and run with!! I am a B.O.S.E stereo for Gawd's sake! Look! I am a BOSE. Take me Please, if you happened upon me before its true owner arrives." (end quote) What the hell are they thinking?!? It is the equivalent of leaving the keys in the ignition of say, a BMW or Mini-Coop.

How does it sound? Thanks for asking! It's okay. What? You want more? Okay, here is how it happened. It was already after 6pm when I got the sucker opened and plugged in. I ordered the larger sized remote (there are NO buttons on the player) and boy am I glad I did. The remote that comes with it is literally the size of a credit card. I'm not sure WHY!?! I mean the stereo is not battery operated and portable, so why have a wallet-friendly-remote? Do they assume their consumers have ONLY enough space in their homes to place the 16" wide player on a shelf and then not another iota of free space to lay the remote? I really don't get "it." Maybe they are rocket scientists (or some such) but they are not especially practical. Wait, on second thought, they DID charge me an extra 10 bucks for the larger remote (a humongous, 2 credit cards big) so maaaaybe they aren't so slow after all…Hmmmm….

So it is Thursday night after 6pm and at 7, 'Survivor' starts, then 'The Apprentice,' this means I have less than an hour to play with my new toy. Fortunately there was no learning curve to figuring out how to operate it. With NO buttons, only the remote, it has been dummied down to my level of comprehension. It took only a few minutes to figure out that the cd-sized slot in the front, was where to insert the disc.

Earlier, when I had woke up Thursday morning, knowing my Bose was arriving that afternoon, I pondered what song/piece to inaugurate it with. Pretty much immediately, I decided to give the honor to that double-crescendo, cello-intensive piece by Sir Elgar: Concerto for Cello, played by the late great Jacqueline Du Pre.

The slot in the front sucked in the disc and I quickly searched for the Track changer on the remote in my hand. This concerto was number 3 on the cd. It started playing number 1. I nearly panicked! Then I found the arrow to move the track to 3 and it started. Like the accelerator of a fine sports car, I rode the button that increased the volume, cranking it higher and higher still, listening to the heavenly sounds I imagined it should possess. But almost right away, I noticed a bit of a sizzle in the background. My previous stereo, a cheap thing , actually had a small fan running constantly and noisily, in order to cool the groovy blue light it eminated, but it screwed the sound up something terrible. So here, I am listening to this odd background noise in Du Pre's performance and thinking, 'What the…??!!?" Then I heard it, the cough. I have a couple of versions of this concerto. This one was a Live version. That explained the background noise I was hearing. And boy, did I NEED that explanation and Fast. My brief disappointment fell and I listened in anticipation for that first crescendo, then the second. And I was happy.

The next piece in my pre-arranged line up was La Boheme, with Bocelli at the helm. "O suave fanciulla" was second; then "Che gelida manina" from the same cd. I switched the cd to hear the soprano intensive piece,"Un bel di" from Madame Butterfly. It always makes me wanna tear up.

I haven't even been listening to opera much lately, but this occasion cried for the dramatics only opera could fulfill.

Next in my preordained pile was Turandot's, "Signore, ascolta" followed immediately by "Non piangere, Liu" with Corelli and Nilsson. Then back to Bocelli singing, "Nessum dorma" (also from Turandot). These 'non-live' versions were playing absolutely distortion free. There is a balance of all the sounds that made listening to these pieces a new and improved experience.

I still had a little time before my obligations to "Survivor" would draw me away. I scrounged around looking in both spots in my house where I keep cd's, finding what I was looking for in the first place 'scrounged.' It was my favorite opera, Rigoletto, with my favorite soprano, Edita Gruberova. I have a vhs tape of her playing the role of Gilda. Five years ago or so, it was my first real connection to the art of opera on stage, having only listened to cd's to that point. So I fell in love with Rigoletto and found a greater understanding of what 'this' was all about.

One of my favorite parts of Rigoletto is towards the end. The Duke is at the assassin's home along with the assassin's sister. The Duke sings the well-known, "La donna mobile." Meanwhile, Gilda and her father are outside listening. A quartet ensues and is one of the most beautiful, sublime pieces written for voice I have ever heard. So this is what I chose from a list of faves from Rigoletto. I get chills again, just writing about listening to this last night, in pure, undistorted beauty.

I think I'll keep it….

Wednesday, April 20, 2005

it's coming tomorrow...

my Bose is coming .~.~.~.~(me skipping).~.~.__o (i fell).~.~.~(me skipping)=======(me going back to work)====sigh.

Monday, April 18, 2005

Lance Armstrong RETIRING....

Ohhhh crumbs. Gotta love the guy. He will retire. Lance (The Man) Armstrong has just announced the 2005 Tour de France will be his last professional race.

I have been familiar with him for years, but last summer was my first 'fanatic' watching of The Tour. I'd get up in the middle of the night to see the action in Europe "live" instead of edited versions for viewing later in the evening.

My desktop screen saver is still the picture of him taken at one of the finish lines and posted for downloading at the official team site (thepaceline.com) last July. I stayed up all night one night during the Tour reading his book, "It's Not About The Bike." Bought "Livestrong" wrist bands and purchased the great picture book, "images of a champion" with photos by Graham Watson and a foreword by one of Lance's biggest fans, Robin Williams. It was a Lance-intenstive July last year. My favorite acquisition is a Tour Du Pont poster from 1996 signed by Lance and all his team members at the time. It hangs on the dark green wall of my 'very groovy room' I created at the back of my garage.

I will miss him. Millions will miss him. I'll enjoy the hell out of the TdF this July, whether he wins it or not. And wish him all the best and more in what ever he chooses to do with his future. Really great people are rare nowadays. He rises to the level of greatness in his field of biking and in his humanitarian endeavors.

Sigh.

Friday, April 08, 2005

Yards and Yards of Yard...

Note: This part 2 of my Anticipation post. The post poo cleaning trauma revealed, etc…

Cleaned up the old flesh and bones off my gardens. Also swam in dog shit and raked/thatched till I got a keeper of a cramp in my left hand. The sun gave off not only light, but some pittance of warmth, too. We still have a whole of month of potentially killer frost, so it is a gamble. When I pulled up the rags of last year's thyme, the ghost of its scent came to life; same goes with the bee balm, the distinct odor is still haunting their stems.

Blueberry bushes report: Red stems and pink cupping buds, but no leaves.

Saw a sap-sucker zipping around the skies (can't miss that Bright red) along with the usual soaring and perching of eagles. Even robins are here. Also the 'hooters' (ptarmigan) have started their hollow, drumming call. I never have seen them, but enjoy their conversation very much.

Got my first bug bite!! (The only one I celebrate). They're heeeeerrre.

Changed the water in my hot tub yesterday. The water is still not hot enough. Gawd I could sure use a cramp reducing soak right now! And when filling it up, I noticed that the water line on the tiles on the right side was Not even with the water line on the tiles on the left side. To be sure, I went and got a level. Bad news, it is off about an inch. Which means the 12-year old deck it sits on has leaned a bit. I am not so concerned about the floor (it sits directly on the ground) as I am the roof over it. Note to self: Get the damned deck situation checked out!!
My obit will read:
"…sadly, she was crushed by the roof of her deck while soaking in the hot tub, sipping champagne and listening to The White Stripes." There are worse ways to go.

Thursday, April 07, 2005

Anticipation. It's all relative...

Dear Bloggery~

Can't tell you how much I am looking forward to finishing up work within an hour this morning and going out to clean up dog shit out of my yard on this sunny-frost-melting-spring-morning.