When I type a short comment maybe just "Nice." It can take me more key strokes with Jetpack, like twice I click on my name then on my site next, URL but done-no not quite New screen appears where I confirm twice again Before the reply can even begin Security is needed to keep our sites safe But this innovation is one I would strafe.
Author: equipsblog
Writer and oenophile in training
Not Quite a Bumper Humper
He wasn't quite a tailgater, easing his huge pickup truck near my smaller car's bumper then retreating before the threat became too aggressive down the narrow curvy mountain road After we both made a left, I lost him for a moment in the turn. He resumed his elastic band following close in stretch away snap back close. I pulled off at the next driveway. He revved his engine roaring past me. We had each shown the other who was boss. "Thanks!" I shouted unheard to his vanishing tail lights.
A Variation on a Senior Trying to Reset His Password
Provided by our good friend Malc Wright from EasyMalc’s Wanderings.
Putting the In in National
We are becoming a nation of Intolerance Intentional misinformation Inability to see past our own needs and wants Inaction when the majority want some signs of progress Ineptness when attempting almost any problem solving like reasonable gun control Incompatible behavior when dealing with anything we don't like Incomparable damage to one of our greatest legacies, peaceful transfer of power
Summer Solstice Poetry Retreat in Central Virginia
If any of you are within driving distance of the Charlottesville area, I would like to invite you to an intimate one day poetry retreat at the Mountain Light Retreat outside of Crozet. Limited to 10 poets (whether published or aspiring), Mountain Light is a wonderful place to recharge, reflect, and re-start your journey to the poems you have always wanted to write. This will be our fourth retreat, in what has become a group that meets 2-4 times a year (this is our second year).
Gathering of Poets | Wednesday, June 21, 9:00 am-3:00 pm
On the day of the summer solstice, we will meet to refresh ourselves with nature’s glories, to renew by trying some different forms of poetry, and to deepen our poetic selves through contemplation. Bring a poem of your own (8-12 lines) to share if you wish. Come at 9 to walk the new outdoor labyrinth, and enjoy a meet & greet with refreshments at 9:30. Poet Ray Griffin will facilitate the program beginning at 10 am. Bring lunch, water bottle, and journal, and wear good walking shoes. Reserve your space in this small group by contacting Debbie@mountainlightretreatva.com. The $15 program fee may be paid on arrival.
What is Passion?
This poem on passion really resonates with me.
This poem was inspired by Wordy Weekend prompt #2.
What is passion?
Perhaps it’s a bonfire, reaching up to the heavens
Or a river, steadily carving out its path
Ever finding a way, or making one
Or lovers sharing kisses at midnight
Skin melting into skin, bodies one
—
Or a man on a cross, asking forgiveness
For those very same who nailed him there
Or the tiger that hasn’t tasted meat in days
Scrawny and desperate, only one focus
The mother or father who throws themselves
Between a raised weapon and their beloved child
—
The writer who bleeds from his fingers
The painter who weeps onto the canvas
The musician that pours soul into her instrument
The teacher, underpaid, who chose her career
Not for money, but because she loves children
The doctor, overworked, hospitals understaffed
The policeman who keeps showing up even though
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Lachrymose Observation at an Ice Cream Store
I have no idea why the tween girl cried And will admit I was not surprised When she told the adult with no trace of tears To make sure her coloring book sat clear Of any attempts to stem the crying Were the tears a form of lying?
Virginia is for Cactus Loves
When it comes heart felt cactus blooms in Virginia Prodigiously
Before D-Day, You Needed a Cradle
Amphibious landings, whether D-Day in Europe or the numerous island assaults in the Pacific Theater, required shipborne troops to be taught how to disembark from the ship, usually transferring to some type of boat or amphibious vehicle that conveyed them to the beach.
The US Navy accepted that challenge by creating the U.S. Naval Amphibious Training Base, Solomons, Maryland, 1942-1945. “The U.S. Marine Corps trained some of its troops that later landed on the Solomon Island in the Pacific; it was also here that the U.S. Army gained the experience necessary for the more successful landing on Normandy Beach in France.” p1. Preface, Cradle of the Invasion by Merle T. Cole, Solomons, MD: Calvert Marine Museum, 1984.
The mouth of the Patuxent River, near the Chesapeake Bay, may seem an odd choice for an Amphibious Training Base–there are no rough ocean waters that most soldiers, sailors, and Marines would face when disembarking from a warship, However, it was safer from the German submarines that routinely patrolled the Atlantic coastline during WWII.
For the trainees to experience both types of environments, Surf Training was implemented off Norfolk at the Amphibious Training Base at Little Creek.
The hastily constructed base was often inadequate to house the numbers of troops assigned there for training, as well as the thousands of contract workers that built and supported the base. It lacked many of the facilities that would be considered essential for any quality of life. From sufficient drinking water (there was competition for well water that also depleted water supplies for the local towns and farms) to barracks and chow-halls, most essentials were in short supply. In the summer of 1944, total aboard was over 10,000, while the capacity was 9,500. Initially, it was thought that there was no need for off duty entertainment or facilities like the USO, gyms, or libraries or even adequate medical facilities. The small town of Solomons lacked adequate facilities to meet those needs either.
Solomon’s traditional employment of oyster dredging and canning was further decimated by the destruction of the oyster beds caused by the training base and the need for anchorage for both transport ships and landing craft.
To read more about the training base and it’s impact on the small community of Solomon’s Island click here.
The Rhythm of the Chant
Eight of us sat on chairs in a circle around a flickering candle pillar. From the CD player, a voice sang " I will show you things that you have never known." Several of us involuntarily, softly, tapped the rhythm with our feet. Simultaneously the candle's flame swiveled and swayed, flickered and flared to the same rhythm.
Who Should Park in a Handicapped Parking Spot?
The library had not opened Yet the spots in front were full Only the handicapped spot was empty Into which the work truck pulled Two grinning young men Both seemed young and fit Emerged from the cab Thinking nothing of it I was right behind them One vehicle too late So a multi-stair walk Became my new fate Using both railings I managed the stairs Grateful to do what I had to Because the louts didn't care That the convenient location Where they chose to stop And ignored the sign That said Handicapped spot.
Strawberry Moon–June 3
Would you sip it or eat it up with a spoon while staring overhead at the Strawberry moon?
For people who are wondering whether to eat or drink, how about a delicious new rose’ wine, as introduced by Sheree at View from the Back?
Sea Otter God
What if there’s actually a sea otter 🦦 God.
We all want to believe that good deeds matter, karma, justice - all that jazz that’s been parroted all our lives – but sometimes, I wonder if life is just a Ferris roulette wheel balancing on the belly of a sea otter God who plays with the world like a beach ball, and we hope to stay angled towards the golden sunny rays of good fortune and away from the murky blue underworld, but it’s all a bit of chance, and all you can do is bob on the gray waves with no idea of what will happen.
***
If You Bray Together, Do You Stay Together?
On the Friday of Memorial Day Weekend, we visited White Hall to feed the donkeys. Buddy was grazing in the front pasture. Bob hee-hawed and Buddy raised his head to see if it was really us. Bob waved the food dish and hee-hawed again. Buddy rasped his response, which drew Holly and Vroman’s attention from behind the shed.
They all ambled towards the fence, with Vroman leading the trio. His calico coloring is morphing into larger areas of brown and his soft fur has become coarser as he has aged.
Holly looks pregnant again and seems out of sorts with both males in her family. Buddy moved to one side after he got his first bite of cooked carrot. Both Holly and Buddy jostled noses with Vroman, as he is as eager to eat both carrots and cookies as the adults. My guess is that he is now fully weaned.
They got peanutbutter cookies and coconut cookies. There were no complaints and no refusals to eat any of the the offered desserts.
Kilroy was Here!
From a forwarded email.
Finally, we know!
Kilroy was here…
He is engraved in stone in the National War Memorial in Washington, DC,
back in a small alcove where very few people have seen it.
For the WWII generation, this will bring back memories.
For you younger folks, it’s a bit of trivia that is a part of our American history.
Anyone born in 1913 to about 1950, is familiar with Kilroy.
No one knew why he was so well known, but everybody seemed to get into it.
So who was Kilroy?
In 1946 the American Transit Association, through its radio program,
“Speak to America,” sponsored a nationwide contest to
find the real Kilroy, offering a prize of a real trolley car to the person
who could prove himself to be the genuine article.
Almost 40 men stepped forward to make that claim,
but only James Kilroy from Halifax, Massachusetts,
had evidence of his identity.
‘Kilroy’ was a 46-year old shipyard worker during the
war who worked as a checker at the Fore River Shipyard
in Quincy. His job was to go around and check on the
number of rivets completed. Riveters were on piecework and
got paid by the rivet. He would count a block of rivets and
put a check mark in semi-waxed lumber chalk,
so the rivets wouldn’t be counted twice.
When Kilroy went off duty, the riveters would erase the mark.
Later on, an off-shift inspector would come through
and count the rivets a second time,
resulting in double pay for the riveters.
One day Kilroy’s boss called him into his office.
The foreman was upset about all the wages being paid
to riveters, and asked him to investigate. It was then
he realized what had been going on. The tight spaces he
had to crawl in to check the rivets didn’t lend themselves to
lugging around a paint can and brush, so Kilroy decided to
stick with the waxy chalk. He continued to put his check
mark on each job he inspected, but added
‘KILROY WAS HERE’
in king-sized letters next to the check, and eventually
added the sketch of the chap with the long nose peering
over the fence and that became part of the Kilroy message.
Once he did that, the riveters stopped trying to wipe
away his marks. Ordinarily the rivets and chalk marks
would have been covered up with paint. With the war on,
however, ships were leaving the Quincy Yard so fast
that there wasn’t time to paint them. As a result,
Kilroy’s inspection “trademark” was seen by thousands of
servicemen who boarded the troopships the yard produced.
His message apparently rang a bell with the servicemen,
because they picked it up and spread it all over
Europe and the South Pacific.
Before war’s end, “Kilroy” had been here, there,
and everywhere on the long hauls to Berlin and Tokyo.
To the troops outbound in those ships, however,
he was a complete mystery; all they knew for sure was
that someone named Kilroy had “been there first.”
As a joke, U.S. servicemen began placing the graffiti
wherever they landed, claiming it was
already there when they arrived.
Kilroy became the U.S. super-GI who had always
“already been” wherever GIs went. It became a challenge
to place the logo in the most unlikely places imaginable
it is said to be atop Mt. Everest, the Statue of Liberty,
the underside of the Arc de Triomphe,
and even scrawled in the dust on the moon.
As the war went on, the legend grew. Underwater demolition
teams routinely sneaked ashore on Japanese-held Islands in the
Pacific to map the terrain for coming invasions by
U.S. troops (and thus, presumably, were the first GI’s there).
On one occasion, however, they reported seeing
enemy troops painting over the Kilroy logo!
In 1945, an outhouse was built for the exclusive use of Roosevelt,
Stalin, and Churchill at the Potsdam conference.
Its’ first occupant was Stalin, who emerged and
asked his aide (in Russian), “Who is Kilroy?”
To help prove his authenticity in 1946, James Kilroy
brought along officials from the shipyard and some
of the riveters. He won the trolley car, which he gave to
his nine children as a Christmas gift and set it up as a
playhouse in the Kilroy yard in Halifax, Massachusetts.
And The Tradition Continues…
Bless you World War II Veterans!
Don’t Review My Books, Ban Them Please
I owe this idea to Roybackontherock.wordpress.com when he commented about the ALA Top 10 Books Banned in 2023 “Love this annual entertainment and the giving of free publicity to authors. I wish someone would ban a few of my books 🙂”
If you really want to help me out Don't review my books, please ban them It will stir up a lot more sales flame of controversy fans them. Goodreads and other reviewers may bring me some new readers but it is a banning controversy that gets me on news feeders. And if my books get publicly burned then more book pages will later be turned by folks to only want to hear and see the very latest controversy.
Unexpected Anagrams
From a forwarded email.
Journey Through Hallowed Ground Byway.
I started noticing this sign a few years ago, once I got on Route 20 between Chancellorsville and Charlottesville. It passed by Madison’s estate, Montpelier, and ends at Jefferson’s estate, Monticello. It seemed a bit of a hyperbole for just Madison and Jefferson.
Reading today’s blog post from Memoirs of a Country Vet, https://docsmemoirs.com/2023/05/29/hallowed-ground-prefaced-from-the-archives-2/, reminded me of the route so I looked it up.
Experience the fascinating historical and cultural landscape that is the Journey Through Hallowed Ground National Heritage Area, a 180-mile long, 75-mile wide region stretching from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania to Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello in Charlottesville, Virginia.
What is the Journey Through Hallowed Ground Americas byways?
The 180-mile Journey Through Hallowed Ground byway corridor from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, to Monticello, Virginia, is “Where America Happened.” It is said that this three-state route, spanning Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, holds more historic sites than any other in the US.
Pennsylvania is a border state, just north of the Mason-Dixon Line. Gettysburg was a pivotal battle of the Civil War, and the last time that Robert E. Lee’s Confederate forces were able to launch an offensive in the North. The three day battle of Gettysburg, 1-3 July 1863, was not a sure victory for either side until Pickett’s charge on the last day.
If you are fortunate, you may be able to walk that battlefield and see how the uphill site actually undulates with dips and rises.
About 90 minutes north of Washington, DC, touring the Gettysburg battlefield is a regular event for both US and foreign military stationed or visiting the National Capital area. Both the National War College and the Eisenhower School of the National Defense University send their students up there each spring.
The Route generally follows “PA Route 394, US Route 15, US Route 15 business, VA Route 20, VA Route 231, VA Route 22, and connecting Routes to Monticello.”
If you would like more information about this route, click here.
Dog Tags–a Tradition Going Back to the Civil War
Before the prevalence of DNA testing, identifying war dead was an even more difficult task. Soldiers were often buried in mass graves, near where they fell in battle, Or they died in unknown places, where the bodies remained until discovered years later, often by chance. Dog tags were one of the earlier ways to identify the bodies (when/if found).
To read more about the evolution of dog tags, click here.
Merriam-Webster Royal Vocabulary Quiz
If you are not completely over your Coronation fix, take this Royal Vocabulary quiz and see if you know your Dukes from your Beefeaters. As a long time Anglophile, I found it simple. How did you do?
e-Quips 