Happy Birthday Emi Morita, wherever you are!

The Hobo

A hobo half sleeps

In the wake of a pleasant dream undone.

Gossamer threads,

His fair memories fade

Inevitably

into slow

dust.

But

The hobo half knows

Ends inevitably begin again.

Carnival rides -

When up becomes down

And glitter brightly

rises from

rust.

My Vision

A Vision Unfolds

In Blinding Sound

Soprano Deep and

Cornered Round

A Shoreless Ocean

Imagine Free

Within the Mind

Eternity

Lost and Found

Adam thought himself in a pickle. Where could he have put it? There wasn't another soul around to take it, and things like this just don't get up and walk away on their own... It had to be around here somewhere, but where does one even begin to look for a missing rib?

He was incredulous for the first time ever - little did he know then, it wouldn't be the last time...

He looked in the lagoon where he'd bathed earlier in the day, then over in the fig grove where he had rested the night before, but there was no sign of it high or low. He climbed the rocky ridge rising well above his private Eden from whence many a time he enjoyed the view of the blue sky stretching forever over the horizon spread out vastly before him and strewn with flowers, fruit and plentiful sustenance.

But today, today the view was very different. There were these dark foreboding clouds floating on the horizon seemingly creeping closer like a very slow wave swallowing up the sand on the shore.

"What is going on?" he thought to himself, feeling a little confused and baffled - again, very new feelings for him.

Then, out of the corner of his eye, a movement far below poked him, just as if a grain of sand was scraping against his retina. A small white speck against the dark, sparkling lagoon could be seen from his high perch. Completely forgetting the ominous horizon, he lumbered down the side of the mountain clumsily scraping his feet and ankles on the jagged rocks in his haste. He quietly approached the inlet where he could now hear a distant splashing... something was in his lagoon.

He crept quietly to the edge of the water, peaking through the vegetation into the lagoon and there, in the water, his water, he saw a leg. It kicked and flitted about just as free as you please. This was an intrusion to which Adam was not accustomed. He reacted by grabbing a large stick nearby and sprang into the open water bringing the stick down onto the water with a smack while yelling "YAAHHH!!"

But the leg took no notice of this and went on as before, foot loose and fancy free.

Adam had never been ignored before, so anger (another new emotion) overtook his brain and he could only repeat his previous action with the stick yelling again, "YAAHH!!" as the stick whacked the water. But again the leg took no notice of him.

He stood momentarily, knee deep in the water, thinking.

Suddenly he felt newly vulnerable, jumped out of the water, turned and squatted by the edge of his lagoon looking gloomily back at the leg. He wondered what brazen creature had invaded his space as he noticed now the clouds sitting heavily over the peak he had been on just a few moments ago...

The Killer Crane Story

I was busy loafing in front of the TV at my parents condo in Florida last week, when I heard a familiar clacking racket emanating from outside. I recognized the plastic sounding clatter as the call of the local sand hill crane.

As loud as the croaking was, I assumed it must have been right outside my parents lanai on the first floor of their building nestled on the 16th tee of a par 3 hole on the Bobcat course of the Plantation resort.

I looked out through the sliding glass door and could not see it anywhere. I squinted into the setting sun toward the green of the par 3, and then could see there was an elderly couple strolling off the green and getting back into their cart. The angry crane was just to the left of the green and no doubt upset at the elderly intruders of it's personal space.

I quickly trotted up the cart path with my camera to get a closer look. I can only imagine it thinking it had finally gotten rid of 2 intruders just to have another nuisance approach. To it's credit, as I got closer and closer with my camera, it stayed still, keeping a watchful eye on me, but not voicing any protest. Great!!

I clicked a couple pictures of it and when I was satisfied I had gotten a good enough shot, turned to head back to the condo. The view of the condo from there was really quite pretty - the twilit sky was a light purplish bruise and the nearly full moon hung just over the building.

I stopped to take a picture of this subtropic January scene and was fiddling with the angle etc as I usually like to fuss over taking pictures, when from behind me I heard a rustling of feathers and a heavy thudding of feet.

I turned, and coming right at me was not one, but 2 agitated cranes with necks low and wings out as if they were transformers in attack mode. I then instantly went into survival mode and sprang into a sprint, killer cranes at my heels.

In my panic, I must have taken a picture as I fled from the direct descendants of Velociraptors threatening my life.

In my retreat, I passed a lone palm tree and, survival instincts intact, immediately took a hard 90 degree right turn, using the tree as a sling to help with the sharp turn at such a high speed.

I turned back to see if my ploy had worked, and sure enough the 2 assailants continued on a straight line as if I had not been in their path at all. Then the one in front - the one I had been taking pictures of, beat its wings and took off on a low flight just over the cart path leading to the next tee.

Unfortunately for the elderly couple in their cart on the next tee, they had no idea about this whole commotion and how I had almost died at the hands...OK, not hands...but at the wings and feet of these creatures - one of whom was now headed directly at their cart.

I glanced up as the fleeing crane continued on it's low trajectory, wings flapping heavily with a span of about 8 feet, just off the ground and right toward the elderly woman now deboarding the her golf cart. She was looking up the fairway, as golfers do to survey their next challenge, and away from the winged menace behind her.

Well, I didn't put 2 and 2 together right away as I was still recovering from absolute shock and wondering what intentions the crane still left behind with me might have for me. And it all happened so fast too - 2 cranes attacking, one crane flies off, one crane still here not attacking, phew - then wait a minute, isn't that other crane headed right for that nice old lady getting out of her....

OK, maybe there was some morbid curiosity too as to how she was going to react, but I don't think so. I just couldn't warn her in time....honest.

The crane did manage to get just enough height to clear the cart and the emerging great-grandmother - barely. It had swooped its wings just that much harder to get the required altitude. So the rushing whoosh had to have been that much louder to those whose heads this was being done right over.

To my great surprise though, the crane brushed right over the woman who just walked forward with the crane passing over her head like it was a common mosquito that had been bugging her all day. No big deal. She didn't even hunch her shoulders or duck or anything. Huh? I was even more stunned than when I had 2 killer cranes chasing me!!

Where am I? Does it matter?

I was transferred by my company at the beginning of 2008 and had to sell my house and move from the shoreline in western CT to upstate NY.... Needless to say, it took forever to "sell" my house. I put the word sell in quotation marks because I actually ended up having to give the buyers $5000 to take my house (and all the equity I had in it) from me. So strictly speaking, I bought a buyer of my house.

Add that to the apartment I had to rent in Syracuse for the 8 months while I was trying to sell my house; the weekly commute back and forth from Syracuse during the summer of 08 when, as you will recall, the price of gas spiked to $4.30 a gallon. It was like the Gods got together and agreed I should not have any money - just debt. Consider their mission accomplished.

But I digress.

So here I am in Syracuse NY. It's a small city that has it's charms to recommend it - but it is not necessarily where I would like to be. It's flat - no mountains and no seashore. It is a city unto itself. An island between farms and lakes. If you want to go to a different city, you have to drive nearly 2 hours to get to another decent size town.

I don't hate it or anything, but given a choice, I would not necessarily pick Syracuse out of the many metropolises this country has to offer.

That said - does it matter any more where one lives?

We have the internet now. I have been able to gather many of my friends and acquaintances from my past scattered all over the world and put them together on facebook. I can read their blogs and find out what they are twittering about. This is huge people!!

I can shop online and buy whatever I want from Japan, China, France, Turkey, you name it. And I can view, read and learn about whatever I want to - almost as good as going to libraries and museums, and certainly much cheaper.

I'm not saying the internet has absolved us from the need to travel and see things firsthand, or visit our friends. But boy, it definitely brings the world and friends a lot closer. I honestly don't think I could have stayed where I am for this long without the internet. The question is, how much longer can I last here???

出る釘は打たれる (The Nail that Sticks Out Gets Hammered)

The election of Scott Brown initially had my head spinning - what the heck was MA thinking? I mean, they made Teddy Kennedy a life time Senator - and his life time wish was to have comprehensive healthcare reform... how could they do this to his legacy?

He was not able to live long enough to see his wish carried out or buried, and perhaps that was for the best - it got pretty messy towards the end of the Senate round of initial voting with Dems selling their mothers to ensure they could get the 60 requisite votes in the Senate (and why did they need 60 votes when a simple majority wins?)

But still, here it is that his home state - the one he did so much for during his tenure as their senator - is the one that has now apparently set back the whole healthcare reform movement that was so close to being passed.

No matter your politically affiliations - right minded people will recognize there are many good things in that bill. Is it perfect no, but it is a start. No doubt, much work still needs to be done on both sides once this first step is hopefully taken.

Could it have included more Republican ideals, I think certainly yes. Tort reform for one is badly needed and has clearly been shown to increase costs for doctors which is passed on to patients.

But the dems, in order to appease their radical-left associates, could not consider such measures because they had to pull the universal coverage they wanted (which radical-right republicans falsely called Gov't takeover of the healthcare industry...). If the Dems could not have what they wanted, they didn't want the republicans to have what they wanted either.

Tit for tat - and so it goes in Washington.

But there are moderate republican senators like Olympia Snowe of Maine who could and should be leaders in the Congress. If Scott Brown follows in her footsteps as a serious Senator who wants to work with both sides to get a comprehensive bill passed - then I think we will all be better off for it. Especially if it starts to pull the suicidal drive of the Republican Party leadership away from the radical right and more toward the center.

If we let both far wings of each side of our Gov't control the process, we will be lost. It is up the the centrists, the moderates, to wrestle control from the radicals.

Which brings me to the title of todays entry - "The Nail That Sticks Out Gets Hammered Down."

Today, the voice of reason has so little 'bite' compared to the radical intonations of the media savvy far right or left. Especially in this era of cable news and online media organizations who can't wait to get their paws on a juicy controversy of any kind.

It'd be nice if the rabble rousing radicals on both sides would get hammered down in favor of centrist views in Congress. They often do get hammered through scandals, etc., but not for their radical views which get way more 'exposure' than deserved in today's 24 hour media frenzy. And always a new radical pops up to take the ousted radicals place in the spotlight - where's the 'voice-of-reason' hammer? Shouldn't that be the media? It's not.

This is a huge advantage for the radicals over the moderate center and a dilemma for our society that we either must resolve, or go the way of other failed democracies.