The Prompts: Pretend you don’t notice //Picking their noses

//Musical hands//A fight to the life// Can’t see past my gun

I wish I could think about what to write
about “picking their noses”.
It sort of goes into
“pretend you don’t notice”
or
as George Carlin said,
“Do people think the windows in
the cars are one way and other
drivers can’t see them
picking their noses?“
.
It gives thought to much of what
people do that they think people
don’t notice.
Do you pretend that you don’t
notice when someone has buttoned
their shirt wrong ?’
How can they not notice ?
.
Do you pretend you don’t notice
when someone has food on their
face or give a discreet point to
your face and hope they get the
hint ?
Same goes for men with mustaches,
and food in the teeth.
Sigh.
All these delicate social clues.
.
when I was working
the staff would come to me
with such issues…
Do we tell someone they have their
slacks on backwards…the only seam
is down the back of their leg.
Or,
Fly is open…I mastered that one.
.
Working with the uninhibited confused
souls I learned about timing and
approach…being everything.
.
BUT
.
Pretend you don’t notice
goes a long way these days
with the “do your own thing”
in vogue.
I myself have had purple or
metallic copper streaks in my hair
and since I love color
it is difficult to not notice the
florescent pink hair
then pretend one doesn’t notice.
.
… and
my father’s statement of
“poured in and forgot to say ‘when’ “
comes to mind,
when the not so svelte,
could wear a size or two larger
an their choice of apparel.
.
Which brings me to my mother’s
classic remark
“don’t they ever look at their
backsides when buying clothes ?”
The answer is “of course not !”
.
So, pretend you don’t notice,
when people are picking their noses.
and remember,
the windows in your car
aren’t one way either !
.
.

I don't often travel Bridge Hill ...the Bucksport Road...driving towards town in daylight. I took someone to a doctors appointment just past this spot and was amazed that since my cataract appointment I could see the buildings across the river...down at the bottom of the hill and see how the streets on the other side were "layered". The yellow building is a new construction on High street and then I can see the houses on Beals Avenue on the street literally above. This is probably not amazing to anyone but me...but looking down Bridge Hill was a mind boggling event for me.

.

.

.

I'm looking for someone to feed me some frozen peeled grapes and ice cream bon bons.

.

Retired. Sigh. Where Does Time Go ?

.

.

•  ………”Be Careful What You Wish For…You Might Get IT ☺ from Wild Pomegranite Siggi of SiggiofMaine .
•   She’s a writer, a painter, and a lovely gal. Fri, 11 Nov 2011 … I looked at the rules and had no idea how to
   do some of the things, and I’d only been blogging since June 5, 2011 and no computer skills to speak of.
  

======================= and

• December 19, 2011,  I am pleased to inform you that you have won   

        Poets Rally Week 58 The Perfect Poet Award,this is an official award, you win because
you are nominated by a previous winner or you have outstanding contribution to poets rally along the way this year…
=======================
.
So along comes Scott and I sigh, what am I going to do, but I think maybe this time I can do it.
It seems more simple this time.  So here goes my attempt.
.
.

.
As with any award, rules of acceptance have been decreed:

1. Thank the blogger who presented you with this award (thanks again, to Scott whose photography is amazing.)
2. Post a photo of the award … above
   
3. Share 10 things about yourself that readers do not know
4. Choose 6 people to present this award to
5. Let the 6 people know that they have been awarded.

.
=========================
Ten things about myself that readers do not know.
1.  Most people know I am an artist. 

• Paintings labeled “cataract paintings” are from a period my eyesight was failing due to cataracts…
• I didn’t know it at the time that I had cataracts,
  
• I thought I was just “getting old” and needed new glasses…
• the character of many of these are different from earlier paintings
  
• and was encouraged to describe them as “Cataract Paintings” by by artist friends.
  
•  After the surgeries in Nov/December there was another change in my painting style. 
  

2.  I have had a passion for photography since I was 13. 

• As a  Photographer my motto is: if it moves, doesn’t move…snap it. 
  
• I am fascinated by body language of people and animals
  

         and abstract elements in the mundane.
3.  I am a Registered Nurse …
4.  I have lived in Pensacola Florida, Downeast Maine, Japan and Puerto Rico
5.  Have two adult children that live in Texas and Colorado.
6.  I grew up in Wisconsin and Minnesota.
7.  I remember when Milwaukee Braves traveled by train and met Henry Aaron, Warren Spahn, Eddie Mathews,
     and the rest of the great team of the mid 1950′s while they waited for the train one day.
8.  Have been married/divorced twice…  
9.  I love music…grew up with Rock and Roll but love many artists of varied genres.
10. I am disabled physically but abled in many ways.
.
=====================
Choose six people to present this award to:
1.  Zongrik at  http://zongrik.wordpress.com/author/zongrik/.  She is so versatile and wonderful with words.  I am amazed at
     the extensive vocabulary she seems to write easily with … I just love her poetry.
2. Victoria C. Slotto at http://liv2write2day.wordpress.com.  I find her inspiring and heartwarming.  Her posts are meaningful
     and I look forward to her wit, wisdom and knowledge.
3.  Leo at  http://artofleo.wordpress.com/.  He has helped me so much keep my energy going
     and not giving up when having computer problems posting. 
    I love his poetry and look forward to seeing his name for postings.
4. Lou Keller at  http://pissykittyslitterbox.com/.  I have to admit, the name got me first, (I wish I’d thought of it ! )
    but she cheers me up when I read her thoughts. 
5.  Tilly Bud at http://thelaughinghousewife.wordpress.com/author/tillybud/.  I love her sense of humor and don’t go to bed
     unless I have to til I’ve received her joke post for the day around Midnight EST.  I love to read about her family and adventures.
6.  Becca Givens at  http://beccagivens.wordpress.com.  Her gift of Haiku amazes me.  Her positive spirit cheers me. 
.

I’m off to notify the people above they’ve been nominated !

.

Study for larger painting. Sailboat and dinghy plein air photo...5x7 on wc paper; Mixed media

.

Journal…playing catch-up.
The winter months I sort of go into hibernation
and I hate it when I find the time has flown and
am behind in a daily routine…like my journal.
.
I keep a “working” calendar that I jot things on…
so I can remember what I did the day before and
hope things to do are there also.
.
When I was working, I was much more dedicated
to keeping track of things...it is even more important,
I find, because being retired, the time seems to fly
by faster and faster.
.
So, this is for me, read along if you wish…
or hit the delete and come back another day.
I won’t be offended.☺.
.
Starting with January 23, 2012
Painted in Somesville.  One of the painters is
back from Seattle and we catch up on the news.
My canvas’s arrive that I had ordered a week ago…
I had procrastinated there, too.
Everybody Eats…good food.  Good company.
==============
January 24, 2012
Writing group...excellent session…7 of us
Lunch at Karen’s afterwards…soup and sandwich…excellent..
==============
January 25, 2012
Stacey’s 41st Birthday…(my daughter), (have a son, Bret, also…
his 45th brithday was last week…he was born in Japan and now
lives in Denver)
weather’s much different here, Cold and dreary….and windy
   than when she was born in San Juan, sunny and hot…cooler in Dallas, also.
The card I sent her is a painting of the blueberry field she liked that
her friend took a photo of…can frame to 8×10 iI think
Bri (Sabrina, her 19 yr.old daughter) did a nice painting for her
Portrait group...Marjorie. 101…more agile than those of us painting !
….Cliff has a wonderful double cat portrait up of “Spats” and “Bonkers”☺
….Activity intern painted with us for a bit…Jennifer
Long nap with Bianca after a trip to Walmart
Talked to Stacey for a short bit this pm
Photo on FB shows the people at work gave her a nice birthday surprise party
===============
January 26, 2012
Senior Center…game time..Peg/Roger/Richard/me
Long nap/dreary day
Sabrina starts at Dallas Institute of Art February 16..a Thursday.
She called George/then me
she’s excited…a scholarship and work study/work
Decided to clear out spare room this weekend…decided during the night…
then Bob let me know  he can work on it Monday !  Great minds, same gutter ☺.
Waiting for snow and then deluge of rain tonite
Long nap/dreary day
===============
January 27, 2012
Painting at the library was cancelled…4″ of snow then lots of rain overnight
Sleepy day…couldn’t stay awake, would  fall asleep at the drop of a hat
Sigh
==============
January 28, 2012
Brina (19 year old grand daughter) called from Texas
cleaning out spare room downstairs…Bob will be by Mon to start remodeling it
Sunny day…wonderful feeling despite the feeling of sadness trying to rule
=============
January 29, 2012, Sunday
10 am church service, pot luck, annual mtg afterwards
Walmart for photos and slides to put under the legs of furniture to be moved tomorrow
in spare room
finished clearing out spare room to be painted by Bob
Nap…not planned !  Sitting in recliner with Bianca, both took cat naps
Watched final episodes of Celebrity food Challenge...Guy Fieri and Rachel Ray
==============
January 30, 2012
Painting in Somesville…it snowed most of the time we were there…
light dusting type snow, less than an inch the entire time.
We all forgot something we planned to work on but had plenty to do.
Marion is back from Hawaii
Bob showed up to start on the spare room on first floor…he and G. removed 7 layers of wall paper !
Everybody eats...Mary and Jack were there, a great chicken soup and potato salad
Napped off and on in recliner during the evening.  Couldn’t stay awake
Knees and L ankle hurting…injections next Monday in the knees
=============
January 31, 2012
Bob here to work on spare room off dining-room
Writing group...seven of us…good writing
Ate at Riverside...bleu cheese, bacon hamburger, FF…better than MacD FF’s ☺.
Walmart for Twinkies for Nai tomorrow…she’s never tasted one
snow…light…
sleepy most of evening…winter doldrums…SAD light on all day and evening
=============
February 1, 2012
Portrait group…Liz
Twinkie party for Nai…and found out Kris had never eaten one either !  A success !
Snow in am…1 inch, then rain.  Burrzy
Worked on getting idonethis journal to NewYears day
============
February 2, 2012
Senior Center … Up Words with Richard and  Peg.
Bob here to work on spare room
Trisha came over to have lunch… had a nice chat
Cat Nap with Bianca…cat naps are longer and more frequent than I ever realized.☺.
============
February 3, 2012
Painting at Somesville…worked on broccoli challenge painting and Bayside painting at Burrills
Dona, … I showed her the plastic wrap valentines;
I watched tv, Bianca slept on my lap…and I also reached over her
and deleted or filed a lot of old emails without disturbing her.
It is so seldom she sits/sleeps on my lap, I didn’t want to wake her.
===========
February 4, 2012
Taxes done by Jeff … I get soooo cranky til they are done and over with
THAW benefit at church … to raise money for heating oil
for those in need this winter due to state budget cuts.
Peg did a great job organizing it.
It was also Winter Carnival day in town and despite lack of snow
they were able to put some events on including fire works I could
see from inside the house.
Bianca hated the fire works…
==========
February 5, 2012  Sunday
Watched SuperBowl…Giants won over Patriots
Stacey called from Texas
Blogged and answered remarks all eve.
==========
.

It wasn’t my fault..
the story of my life.
I looked guilty when innocent,
she look innocent when guilty…
.
The extra hundred miles
on the car..
it wasn’t my fault.
“I just need to pick up
a few things at the store”.
.
It was long ago…
not my car,
but she knew I had
keys.
So, I was the one grounded.
She told such a convincing
story of staying home
and watching tv.
.
I didn’t know
about TV Guide.
Sigh.
.
Who’d think
they checked the mileage
on the car and then again
when they returns.  Double sigh.
.
No one will believe me…
It wasn’t my fault.

.

It’s hard to believe that almost nine years
have passed since the wedding.
A dear friend, Jean,
 was to be married the first Saturday in May
at the Lutheran Church, in New Sweden, Maine.
It’s a quaint church in Northern Maine. 
A lovely site for a wedding
and the church of her grandmother. 
It’s a church with mostly elderly churchgoers.
She thought her grandmother
and the ladies of the church
would enjoy a wedding where they too
may have married many years before. 
.
 April 27 th, there had been an arsenic poisoning
in the coffee made at the church.
A quick change of venue.
The Wedding would be at the Firehouse.
.
.

My post is  a work of fiction based on a true happening.

New Sweden, Maine, made national news headlines

in 2003 when a man poisoned the coffee urn at the local Lutheran church,

sickening 15 parishioners and killing one.

On April 27, 2003 is when the event happened.

.

.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY !

.
HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY
TO ALL MY FRIENDS AND
FAMILY AND FELLOW
BLOGGERS
.
YOU MAKE MY WORLD
COMPLETE
AS WE SHARE OUR LIVES
AND
 ENCOURAGE
EACH OTHER
IN OUR
PURSUITS
WRITING
AND
IN LIFE
.
MAY ALL YOUR VALENTINES
BE
FILLED WITH LOVE
.
PEACE
.
SIGGI
.
.

Letter by the Bed

When I was writing my post, the plot of the hijacking just fell into place.  It didn’t occur to
me that it was a different time in the United States that I had lived thru and many people
wouldn’t catch the references to the planes circling the airport and the hijacking.
.
For anyone that is interested in what it was like in 1971 I searched and found the following
information on Wikipedia and a couple of other sites listed with the information.
————————————————————————————————————

• What Flying was like in the late 1960s and early 1970s
• Why planes circled the airports on a regular basis
  
• www.thepeoplehistory.com/1970s.
  
• Flying was expensive.
  
• A round trip ticket between Cleveland and Washington D.C. was about $75.
  
• This doesn’t sound like a bad deal, until you adjust the fare for inflation:
  
• That’s over $400 in today’s dollars! 
• There was no point in shopping around for the best deal,
  
• because all airfares were controlled by regulation.  I
• f a roundtrip ticket between Cleveland and Washington was $75 on one airline,
  
• it was $75 on all the airlines.
• 
  
• Because it was so expensive, flying was rare,
  
• and it was an “event.”
  
• The expectation was that you would wear nice clothing onto the flight.
  
• Anyone who had strolled onto an airplane in the 1960′s or early 1970′s                                                          in a sweatsuit, or ragged jeans and a tee shirt,                                                                                         would have caused a major buzz among the passengers.

• No security procedures of any consequence.
  
• You walked up to the ticket counter,
  
• bought your ticket,
  
•  showed no identification,
  
• walked out unsupervised onto the tarmac,
  
• and climbed up the stairs and onto the plane.
  
• Meeting an arriving flight? 
  
• Just stroll on over to the gate and greet them as they walk off the plane. 

.

• There were observation decks at many airports.
  
• With little concern about security,
  
• some airports allowed you to stroll outside, take a seat,
  
• and watch the airplanes come and go.
  
•  On a warm summer night, it was actually rather pleasant
  

.

• No little television screens scattered throughout                                                                                                                                 the airport to tell you where you where your flight was.
  
• There was only one big board in the main lobby, like a bus station.
  
• Forgot your gate?  You had to go find the big board to look it up.
  .
• The vast majority of the passengers were businessmen.
  
• White male businessmen.
  
•  Occasional families.
  
• Very few minorities, and
  
• virtually no women traveling independently.

.

• The stewardesses were pretty young women in very short skirts.
  
• “We have the sexiest stewardesses”                                                                                                                                                                              seemed to be a major advertising theme among the airlines.
  
• Their tiny skirts were designed to ride way up                                                                                                                                                        when they reached into the overhead compartments,
  
• or when they bent over to serve drinks to the passengers seated near the windows.
  
• This was intended no doubt for the entertainment of the largely male passengers.

.———————————————————————————–

The FAA established a Central Flow Control Facility in April 1970, to prevent clusters of congestion                                                                                                                              from disrupting the nationwide air traffic flow.
====
On March 25, 1970, the newly designated union orchestrated a controller “sickout”

to protest many of the FAA actions that they felt were unfair;
over 2,000 controllers around the country did not report to work as scheduled

and informed management that they were ill.
.

The sickout led officials to recognize that the ATC system was operating nearly at capacity.
.

wikipedia
==========================

Due in part to the increased use of the 747 a Jumbo Jet

• able to carry large numbers of passengers across continents

•  air travel booms and
• caused new problems with pollution,
  
• delays and
  
• air traffic control. 

.
If there were problems with the weather, delays on take offs, t
here were an inadequate number of runways for the number of take offs and landings.
Planes would circle the airports or go to another near by airport
and transport people to the correct airport. 
www.thepeoplehistory.com/1970s.
.
==============================================
I myself remember sitting in a long line of airplanes waiting to take off…
the people in the window seats would give a “play by play”
of take offs and landings and how many plane they could see in line.
==============================================
The Air Traffic Control  system in the 1970s was operating nearly at capacity.
To alleviate some of this,

• Congress accelerated the installation of automated systems,

• reopened the air traffic controller training academy in Oklahoma City,

• began hiring air traffic controllers at an increasing rate,

• and raised salaries to help attract and retain controllers.

Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (1968)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

==============================================
Why someone would believe in the spring of 1971
that a plane had been hijacked to Cuba from OHare, Chicago
1970

• May 25 A man successfully hijacks a 727 from Chicago to Cuba.

 1971

• January 22, 1971 A man successfully hijacks a 727 from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to Cuba;
• he would have gone to Algeria, if possible.  Milwaukee is not far from Chicago

• February 4 A man successfully hijacks a DC-9 from Chicago to Cuba.

he is sentenced to 20 years for interference with a flight crew on March 6, 1972.

You wake to find yourself in a strange house and you cannot remember your own name. You roll over and see a letter by the bed. Is it for you? Who is it from? What does it say? Does it explain where you are and why?

.
There I’ve done it again.
Been here, wish it wasn’t true.
Can you believe it,
I haven’t a clue where I am…
but out the window,
I hear the voices of children playing.
dogs barking joyfully,
birds singing to greet the day.
.
I listen.
I don’t recognize the words
that are said…
Deep breath,
and I realize I can pick out a few.
We were going to San Juan
after the wedding reception.
.
I look.
The room is like from another decade…
many decades before.
It is clean. Neat. Running water.
Oh, I like my conveniences.
Flowers bloom outside…
the smell makes it seem like spring.
.
I smell food cooking…
bacon?  sausage?
Some kind of meat.
.
What time is it?
Just then a church bell chimes
seven times.
Seven AM.. Or PM ?
.
I think. 
What happened last night?
There was an airplane ride…
who with.  I can’t remember.
.
I remember:  before the plane,
the starry sky, the full moon,
dancing.
Lots of good food.
Tasty adult beverages.
I think I may have sampled
a few too many.
.
I hear guitar sound playing
in the distance,
a man,singing in Spanish.
.
I see a letter…
on the wash stand by the bed.
There’s a name on it…
ever wake up in the morning
and you can’t remember your name
and THERE IT IS ?
.
I read the letter from someone
that  I now vaguely remember:
“Dearest,
I hope you had a good nights rest.
We landed in Havana when you
were sound asleep.
I carried you to the cab
and then here.
You are safe and I’ll return.
“Til later,
(the name scribbled, I can’t read it)
.
Now I remember.
The plane hijacked from O Hare.
The year is 1971.
Sigh.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 Never drink before flying.
Never drink and fly,
never again.
.
.===========================================

Note:  1970 and 71 that planes were being hijacked to Cuba from the US.  It was a major travel worry back then.
.
I remember it because friends were coming to San Juan where I lived at the time, on their honeymoon,   planes were circling OHare Airport waiting to land, in Chicago, so they were delayed in their take off for hours.   The newlyweds called their parents who lived near the airport and told them they were in Cuba.

.

.