Memorial Day 2004

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.


We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.


Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields. By John McCrae

Tattered Cover

I received a postcard announcing that the editors of "Crazy Woman Creek" and contributors will be presented on June 12 at the Tattered Cover Book Store in Cherry Creek, Denver. Not long ago we contributors recieved a note that this is a desired location to read.

This morning CSpan II's Book TV featured the writers of "The Ambushed Grand Jury" and the plutonium situration at Rocky Flats. It was a little horrifying. Why is it that it takes a ordinary woman employee to shake up the system? Watching Book TV is starting to sound like listening to Art Bell in the middle of the night.

I have found Blogger Help that shows pictures of how to create links. If it works now, I will be so much happier than I was when I could not figure out how to do this. My first links! Imagine that! Tattered Cover and Crazy Woman Creek are links for you!

It Feels Like School is Out!

School has been my whole life until nine years ago. Spring and Fall always mark beginnings and endings for me.

Today we went to buy swim suits, I came home with eight. That isn't spilled ink. I meant 8. I tried on six of them and they are so-so, the two I didn't try on are the ones I like the best. Surely they will fit.

Then we both got hair cuts. Kelly has cut our hair for years and we have followed her all over Omaha. So we did that and then went to buy steaks, I didn't count them but a lot of them. A Boston Fern for the porch, too. Some day I will talk about fiddlehead salad, but not now. I would never eat a Boston Fern.

So by then it was swim time. The pool got up to 95 degrees before we got home. I was a little horrified about it but it was pretty luxurious. I didn't even wear a new swim suit. I wore an old one.

Crazy Woman Creek

My "presentation copies" arrived in the mail last Friday. I don't know quite what to make of having a small verse published in this anthology. "Crazy Woman Creek: Women Rewrite the American West."

This is the third edition of anthologies published about and by women in the contemporary west. The first two were "Leaning into the Wind" and "Woven on the Wind" published by Houghton Mifflin and edited by three of the most dedicated women in the west.

As I read through the list of contributing writers, I am honored to be listed with them. I have trouble taking it all in. There are women of note here. Accomplished women. Contemplative writers. I feel a little like I fell off the wagon and just bounced and landed. I am pleased.

The book was launched in Chadron, NE at the Marie Sandoz center on the college campus there. I was invited but the distance is considerable and not convenient. There will be a reading at the Tattered Cover in Denver as well. It would be grand if Book TV on CSPAN II would cover that. I could see some of my new colleagues.

I do have the acquaintance of one of the other writers. She taught me one semester of live action film making. I admired, respected and learned a lot from her. Some people find a place in your soul. She was one. Her poem in "Crazy Woman Creek" is of the Montana copper mine at which my Finnish Immigrant grandfather worked in the 1800's. It is a blessing when people loop through your life in amazing ways.

Her inspiration sent me on to college at 37 to finish a degree in Library/Media and go on to teach for 20 years. Sixteen of the years in Television Production and Mass Communication.

So "Crazy Woman Creek" is on the shelves!

Bill Gates and Blogs

"Friday, May 21, 2004
Gates touts the merits of blogs in speech to CEOs
By TODD BISHOP
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
Bill Gates didn't announce plans for his own Web log yesterday, but in a speech to top corporate executives, he extolled the virtues of the online journals and related technologies.

Gates described how Web logs, commonly known as "blogs," target interested audiences and communities, and how electronic notifications, known as RSS feeds, alert people when information on a blog or other Web site is updated." From http://lockergnome.com

I know. I need to figure out how to create a link. Ughh.

Clean It, Pitch It, or Go Swimming?

Truely, I like our screened in porch a lot. This morning everything in it was covered with last winter's grime and this spring's pine pollen. Everything in it had a fine covering of green. With company coming, I can't ignore it another day. Sometimes a porch just seems like another room to clean. Even the bricks on the floor needed soap and water brooming. Oh, why do we collect rocks. A rock is the hardest thing to keep clean. Cursed crystals.

It wouldn't have been quite such a project if I hadn't noticed that the wrought iron table needed a coat of spray gloss Rustoleum. That is not my favorite job in the world either. Now every chair is looking pretty bad in comparison. My dad made a wrought iron coffee table and five room divider sort of things. They are about seven feet tall and about 18 inches wide with curled iron between the twisted uprights. I can't describe them. They need paint.

Everything is done finally except for the chairs. I even got in a short swim, until one of those little black two legged bugs bit me in the arm. At first I thought it was black spray paint. I wish it had been. I hate swimming with those little biters. The cholorine needed a boost.

This day is never going to be over. I started it with a 30 minute hike on the walking machine because I didn't think I would get any exercise.

I recieved three copies of "Crazy Woman Creek" in the mail today. I have a small bit of verse in it called "The Non-Musicals Sing Their Last Song." I should be happier about it. Three years ago I would have been estatic. Today, it seems sort of puny. I guess I'll send the copies to my school friends in South Dakota.

Getting Started Takes Sisu

Getting started is an adventure, almost intimidating. I have been reading bloggers for over two years, some with regularity and some out of curiousity or interest.

I admire some writers who have thoughts of real consequence. I am amused by those who write with sit-com humor. I often check out the most recent listing and hunt down the line for catchy names.

Finding a name for a new blog that makes any sense at all is hard. I tried one I liked a lot, 'sisu' and it was already taken.
So I just went with the thing that took no brains at all, my own name.

Yep, I am Willo Boe, you can take it or leave it. I have to take it, like it or not.