Paddy's Wanderings

Delaying the Decision ~ Journal of Krish

from the Journal of Krish...

I started keeping this journal because of Carnac. There was never much call for writing, I am a storyteller and as such, leanred how to tell a story, to entertain, to educate, to speak to people in all manner of ways.

Carnac was entranced with writing words on parchment. He learned all he could about writing words. He became a master of the making of parchment and ink and would gladly teach anyone who wanted to learn. Often, he would annoy us with his constant enthusiasm and would try to teach all of us how to write. I was the only one of us who would listen, and now I have picked up the habit of writing down my thoughts, and even, a few stories.

But I am not so foolish to think that old warriors would want to learn to write, or even read for that matter. Sometimes Carnac was slow to pick up on the hint. Well actually, he was always about a sentence or two behind the conversation. But I have always enjoyed learning, and so, I listened, and I picked up the habit.

My thoughts are scattered like leaves on the wind as I sit here looking at the shelves of journals that Carnac has left to me. He had a batch of ink settling in a pot and pieces of parchment drying on the rack at the back of the study. I should finish what he left behind before we leave, we have some time. It might be good to do some work, settle my thoughts before I go out to talk to everyone else and tell them what I plan to do.

The body of Carnac lies on the bier in the barn, but his presence is always at my shoulder. I know what I have to do, what I need to do. Sam will understand and help me. The others will argue and call me crazy, but I think they will come along. We need to bury our ghosts, finish our past, if we ever really want to emerge from the darkness.

But I am unsure..

 

 

Post 417

Well then.. Yesterday was the two year anniversary of the blog. Hard to imagine.. 2 years. Who knew I could blather on ye olde blog for two freakin' yrs. Somehow... I have.

Here is a link to that first, tentative step into the world of blogging, here. Yep, clicky the linky, the highlighted 'here' and then, well then, there you are. But of course, you are not there, You Are Here.

That was post one, or 1 if you prefer. This is post four hundred seventeen, or 417, if you prefer again.  It has indeed been a long strange trip. Fun too. Nope, never thought I would make it this far, but somehow, through all the crazy changes over two years, I have. This is good.

Since then I have changed jobs, became a grandfather, and publish here and there and met some groovy people in the wonderful world of writing. Again, all good. Sure it has been a lot of changes, but that is just fine, to be expected even.

Don't ask me what the next year will bring, I have no clue. I want to publish more. I even want to self publish some short work like so many of the groovy people I know have done. After all, I took the dive into blogging, why not dive into selling some of my fiction via eBook? So yeah, who knows what will happen the next year.

I do know I will wander like I always do, have some new adventures. It should be fun too. Come along if you like, you might find it entertaining. We'll see what we'll see.

Happy Wanderings

 

Egg Hunting

Last year, we went on an Easter Egg Hunt from our house to Grammies house two streets over. It was a ton of fun and the techno-kid had a blast. This year, the t-k was hopping up and down, wanting to walk over to gram's and search for eggs left by the Bunny. When we went outside, there was a pale and shovel sitting on the porch, ready to be filled with eggs. Little does the t-k know, but that is a sand bucket, ready to go to the beach, but that is for another day.

The first egg he saw was on the jeeple.. then there was one on the rear bumper! And we were off to gram's hunting eggs.

Ah ha! An egg hiding by a tree. He was hopping,like a bunny, all the way and then would see an egg and dart off after it. As if he had to race anyone to the egg.. he was the hunter, we were the watchers.

Somehow, amongst all the hopping, our intrepid hunter missed one. I took photographic evidence just before he came bounding over and snatched it. He was darting to and fro like a hummingbird. He said 'scuse me, my egg!' and off he went giggling.

I said let me take a picture. He was a blur but he slowed enough to let me get a pic before he dashed off into gram's house.

He then patiently peeled two eggs and ate them. He ate another when we got home. He has not seemed to interested in anything else, he ate one peanut butter egg though. Now he is running amok the house, playing with his legos.

A pretty fun day today all in all. I am glad spring seems to be here, looking forward to summer and heading to beach to play with that bucket and shovel.. umm.. well borrow it. You know, show the little guy how to use it and build a sand castle or three. Today was fun.

Happy Wanderings

Of Royals, Rainy Friday, & Wings

So then. I have the day off and did a bit of scribbling and thought hey! I should do a blog piece. Now here I sit and wonder what the blazes I should ramble on about today.

The British Monarchy is on twitter. That cracks me up. But like all things, there must be a balance between wacky tweeters and stuffy royal missives. At least there will not be any tweeting from the loo, of that, I am sure.

Speaking of Royals, and yes, I always find the British Royals fascinating. Call me crazy. As everyone knows on teh planet, the good Prince Wil is getting hitched to a very pretty young lady. As George Michael said in an interview on Pierce Morgan Tonight on CNN, 'she's a cracker'.

I only hope the best for 'em. I remember when Charles and Diana were married. Who doesn't? I thought she was a very pretty princess and it made for a very nice fairy tale. Well, until we realized it was a Grimm Fairy Tale... heavy sigh...

But I digress. I truly hope Wil and Kate have a great old time and people leave em alone. They can live by the sea, make lots of babies and someday he can be King, or not. I think ol' Henry would be a stitch as King. Party on dudes!

It has been my observation that it always rains on Good Friday afternoon. Seriously, since I was a wee lad, it always rains, wherever I have lived. Weird huh? I remember going to church one year in the grand ville of Hawks with my grand parents. We went in and it was drizzly, we came out, and the sun started to peak out. Something about this time of year always reminds me of that little church in Hawks. Weird, I know.

The Wings swept Phoenix in the opening round of the playoffs. Go Wings. I fell asleep during both games in Phoenix, must be getting old, can't stay up to watch those western games, even for playoffs. Will there be a cup this year in Motown? It is a very real possibility. Cool that.

I guess I have rambled anough and wandered more than I should today. Time to sign off and do laundry or something constructive. Maybe not.

Happy Wanderings

 

 

Then & Now ~ Cartoons

For a while now, I have been contemplating doing a series of blog posts centered around myself and the techno-kid. Kinda gotta call him a kid now, he is after all five. Why, you might ask? Well, it seems interesting that there is 40 years and 8 days between our birthdays. I have found it interesting how different my life growing up is different from his. In some ways, they are similar. So I want to explore some of that. You may find it interesting.

The above pic is from the Grand Opening of Disney World which happened in..1971. A few years later, I got to go. I am a Disney kid. Big time. I saw Herbie movies at the drive in, went and saw the Aristocats(released in '71) in the theater.

The techno-kid is sort of a Disney kid. I think he is more a Pixar kid really. He does not seem all that impressed with the old Disney cartoons. I can understand that, the Pixar movies are fantastic. I am looking forward to the release of Cars II, this will be our first, in the theater movie experience with him and its gonna be great. He loves Cars. He does like the Herbie movies(who doesn't!) and Jungle Book, so yeah, there is something in common.

On the cartoon angle, which I guess is where this post is going... The t-k does not like old cartoons, like Bugs and Mickey and all of that. I tried to get him to watch the Flintstones, another big fave of mine forty years ago(and still today) and he was all.. meh. He is not a big fan of cartoons on TV for that matter. Other than Thomas and Friends, he pretty much does not watch cartoons at all. I guess that is good.

Saturday morning cartoons were a big deal for me back then. Now, the t-k can get all the cartoons he wants, 24-7. Of course, we have plenty of movies on DVD, so there is that too. If someone had told me when I was five I could come home to a TV channel devoted to cartoons, or pluck a DVD off the shelf and plug it into the TV and watch any of my favorite cartoon movies, I would have thought they were either a genius, or crazy. I probably would have given them the wide eyed look and said 'I am going to go ride my bike now weird person'.

Much has changed, and there are some big differences between then and now, but one thing still remains the same...

 

And a prickly pear...

 

and for the techno-kid...

 

Paddy's Poetry Corner ~ Soul to Soul

Hey poetry cats, we're back. I pulled this piece out of the briefcase of poetry. This is from the Roaring Nineties, so we are talking old days. I must have bumped the way back machine before digging into the valise. So anyway.. here is one that I have always liked. Hope you do too. I have the chair in hand the spotlight is on...

Soul to Soul

I inhale the rhythm
Of your breathless heart
And bask in the reflection
From the pools of you soul;
Soaring toward infinite space
Beyond the grasping earth,
Into the throbbing pulse
Of the shimmering sun.

I can feel tranquility
Breaking against my rigidity,
Washing away all barriers
and absorbing my deepest thoughts;
connecting wordless dreams
of longing and desire
as I delicately respond
to your peaceful sigh.

At Tridge Grove ~ AtFoD

an excerpt from After the Fall of Darkness...

The Grove was filled with laughter and the smell of early evening cooking fires as the people prepared a harvest feast to welcome home Raif. Krish pulled out his flute and as the young children gathered round. He started a playful tune and danced off amongst the youngsters. Sam hugged Larissa close as they were swept away by the women toward the center cooking pit.

 

Larissa stared wide eyed at the beginnings of a raucous celebration and at the apparent ease with which her friends melded into the grove. She looked over and saw Logar and Storm bending bows with the young warriors, laughing and sharing mugs of ale. Raif had Sam by the arm, introducing her to the womenfolk with Larissa following behind, bewildered.

 

'Come, lend us a hand Larissa,' said Sam as she grabbed a ladle and stirred a large pot, 'there is plenty to do.'

 

Larissa looked over at Raif using her gift knife to carve potatoes, and it spite of the clamor and jostling of the other women, actually smiling. The change was profound. From the moment they stepped into the inner grove and were warmly greeted, Larissa's friends had changed, all except Vaughn. She could see him tending the horses and unpacking the wagon, the permanent scowl still on his face. But even now, watching him closely as she joined the other women, she noticed that he seemed less tense.

 

Larissa turned and watched Sam dance between the pots and the fire pits, sprinkling herbs she pulled from her cloak, a pinch here, a small leaf there and she too smiled. The gaiety of the grove was very powerful as most of the women started singing as they prepared the evening meal. It was a song that Sam had taught her when she became betrothed to Carnac, one that she hummed while she cooked. But the ladies of the grove sang out, the melody and counterpoint rising and falling was nothing like she had ever heard.

 

'You never went to Wenona Grove during Harvest time, did you?' asked Sam.

 

'A couple of times, but only as guests and only for a few hours when Carnac went,' said Larissa,' why?

 

'You seemed surprised by everything,' said Sam, 'if you had gone like I had advised, you could have enjoyed the feasting, the story telling and the celebrations.'

 

'I never did any of that when I went with Carnac,' she said, 'we just met with the elders, had tea, It was all very formal. Of course we went for the rituals but we lived outside the grove.'

 

'Carnac was always a little too formal, a little too stiff,' laughed Sam. 'Come on, we will show you how to celebrate harvest.'

 

Larissa smiled, took Sam's offered hand and followed her toward the women as they danced and sang while they tended the cooking fires. Raif joined them and their laugh was infectious. Larissa could see Logar in an arm wrestling match, Storm helping him and encouraging the young boys. Krish nodded to her and struck up a new tune on his flute as he danced by, the children following and singing along. It truly was a festival.

 

'I have not felt this good in a long time,' said Sam.

 

'How can you be celebrating?' asked Larissa. ' When we left this morning, everyone, myself included, was so somber, so sad. Now you all seem so happy, as if the past few days nothing had happened. All of you except Vaughn.'

 

'My dear, we have not forgotten what has happened, or the journey ahead. But if there is one thing you should have learned, even from Carnac, is that the people of the grove, even in the hardest of times when all seems lost, can still celebrate, we can still step back from the hardships and truly celebrate life.'