May 2012

            April began like a lamb and ended like a lion, leaving a waiting game to see how many of the blooms that came early this year during the lambish period of March and early April.  Then on April 24^th apple blossom petals and heavy wet snow lined my driveway. 

           A reminder: a young mother, Samantha, remains in a Puerto Rico hospital recovering from severe burns received from a kitchen fire. I scrounged around the Internet to find a picture depicting Samantha’s burn. Her grandmother agrees that this picture I found is about what the burn looks like, even now, three months after the accident! The picture speaks a thousand words about the suffering Samantha, only 20, is enduring.

           I sent out an e-mail to many persons requesting they send Samantha a card to let her know people care. I also asked that they post the information on their social network sites (eg. Facebook) and forward it via e-mail to their family and friends. Cards can be sent to her grandmother.

            Since then I’ve set up an e-mail for persons to send caring greetings to Samantha:

samanthaPR2012@yahoo.com  (NOTE: Clicking on this email will not bring it up.

You will need to retype or cut and paste i into the  address in the email you send)

Please forward this email with the following links

to your friends and families

and share on your social network accounts (eg. Facebook)

Get Well Cards Requested for Burn Victim or

http://carolyncholland.wordpress.com/2012/04/12/get-well-cards-requested-for-burn-victim/  

and

Oil Cooking Fires in the Kitchen or

 http://carolyncholland.wordpress.com/2012/04/15/oil-cooking-fires-in-the-kitchen/

to your friends and family via your social networks and email address lists (if you are really ambitious, you could cut and paste the post to your e-mail).

Snail-Mail cards may be sent to Samantha in care of:

Fran Welts

P. O. Box 45

Forbes Road, PA   15633

Or given to

Carolyn C. Holland

Meanwhile, be strongly aware that kitchen fires are dangerous. They should not, cannot be, extinguished with water. The best solution I’ve uncovered is to keep a container of sand beside your stove to toss on a fire.

Wouldn’t a decorative container filled with sand be a wonderful birthday or Christmas gift for a loved one?

Have a nice month of May! I’ll be back in June…

A Fish Tongue Twister…

CAROLYN’S COMPOSITIONS

A FISH TONGUE TWISTER…

(Happy Eleventh Birthday, Dawson!)

Good poetry aside, you might say “fins find fantastic food five times a day.”*

I took on the challenge, as a writer, to improve the poetry, although my genre is not poetry. However, the thought of creating a tongue twister is irresistible.

The initial poetry was excerpted from the article, 50,0000 King Salmon Come to Sodus Bay. The bay is located on Lake Ontario somewhere near Rochester, New York, according to my husband Monte. It was being stocked with fish to entertain sportsmen.

The wind was gusting at 40 mph and there was a brief white-out from some lake effect snow. Not the typical conditions for April 21^st, however the 50,000 kings delivered to Sodus Bay appeared to be content as they were transferred from hatchery truck to net pens.

I wonder—how can you tell if a fish is content or not? I’ve visited the spillway at the Linesville State Fish Hatchery in Linesville, Pennsylvania, on Lake Pymatuning. The carp were several layers thick—thick enough that ducks walk on their backs. People stop to ogle them. Many feed them scraps of bread, torn from week-old loaves purchased cheaply at a shed, so they can watch them hungrily battle for their morsels. Somehow it reminds me of the concentration camps of World War II. This doesn’t speak of content to me.

Water temperature is critical to the transfer and Sodus Bay registered 43 degrees, while hatchery truck was 39 degrees…within the 10 degree window preferred by New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) biologists.

…Actually, they don’t have a complete set of fins. The rear dorsal has been clipped for future surveys. Biologists will use this information to see how far the salmon roam. But…they will have a steady meal, eating fish pellets five times a day.

Manna became boring to the Israelites. Do fish pellets become boring to the salmon? Maybe they, like the fish in Linesville, jump for morsels of bread to brighten up their diet.

Anyway, I digress. The point is to improve on the tongue twister:

Fish fins find fantastic food five

Weekly Photo Challenge: Hands

CAROLYN’S COMPOSITIONS

WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE: HANDS

Last year I participated in the wordPress postaday challenge. In February they added a postaweek photo challenge. They are continuing this year, and I couldn’t resist the following:

Last year I participated in the wordPress postaday challenge. In February they added a postaweek photo challenge. They are continuing this year, and I couldn’t resist the following:

Weekly Photo Challenge: Hands

Hands.  Hands can be instrumental in a photo – they emphasis, they hide, they reveal. They can be the star of the show, or just a prop to help the main attraction stand out better. In this photo, this hand was what kept me between life and death as I walked down a rickety metal staircase on the side of a cliff down to the beach. I was glad for that hand and I’m glad I captured the moment, too.

Share a picture that has a HAND in it with everyone! 

Three generations of women:

Okay. Here is one, but a I’ll post a collection of hands photos (all photos are copywritten):

This Hat

CAROLYN’S COMPOSITIONS

THIS HAT

(photos by Dmitri)

 

This hat is not the hat of an elderly—

     I err— middle aged—woman

It’s not a covering to enhance thinning hair

It’s not the color of a senior, on the downhill slide of life

It’s not a hat of propriety

It’s not a hat for icy wintry days

It’s not a true beret, the style of French artiste.

     But the elderly, in their wisdom, relish this hat

     Its colors accented  by gray/white hues.

     Seniors who celebrate life past, life to come

     With a boldness expressed by eccentricity.

     This hat represents what is—the eclectic electricity of creativity

A covering for the changing seasons—spring, summer, autumn, winter.

End notes (from an e-mail sent to me by Alice):

When she saw her first strands of gray hair, she thought she’d dye.

A backward poet writes inverse. (Appropriate, since I’m truly not a poet. I just play with the genre.)

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~

ADDITIONAL READING:

Hats Make a Statement

The Red Tuque

RUSS’S ASSIGNMENT: WRITE CAROLYN’S EULOGY Lent Devotion

My Spider Plant Lives: A Devotion

http://carolyncholland.wordpress.com/2010/02/26/my-spider-plant-lives-a-devotion/

RAINBOW’S END Part 1

The Top Twelve Recent Posts (April 2012)

CAROLYN’S COMPOSITIONS

THE TOP TWELVE RECENT POSTS

(April 2012)

Following is a list of the most visited recent posts on CAROLYN’S COMPOSITIONS. The list was compiled in mid-April 2012. To review the list of the all-time top visited sites click on

I want to thank you, my readers, for visiting my writing site.

TWELVE: Posted January 4, 2011

Shoplifting in Munich, Germany?

    As the Munich, Germany, shopkeeper looked at me with suspicion, I knew he was about to call the police to accuse me of shoplifting.

     We spent two weeks in Munich, Germany, visiting my son when he held a post-doctorate position at the Max Planck Institute. While there, I was almost arrested for shoplifting another local newspaper.

     Early one day my husband and I stopped at the newspaper office, located off the main square. It was a site I wanted to visit, since I’d written for

Heuvelton, N.Y.: Homes in Rainbow Pastels

CAROLYN’S COMPOSITIONS

HEUVELTON, NEW YORK:

HOMES IN RAINBOW PASTELS

            A walking tour of Heuvelton, New York, reveals homes painted in a rainbow of pastel colors—from pink (pastel red), orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet:

 

 

In Our Mother’s Womb

CAROLYN’S COMPOSITIONS

IN OUR MOTHER’S WOMB

Cynthia Lipsius

Contributed to by Nancy Lee & Carolyn

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Nancy Lee was first; she kept very busy

vacuuming, fluffing, dusting away lint.

When she made her appearance,

she left behind a pink mint.

 

Carolyn was alert and curious,

this family was such a mystery!

By the time she was born

She’d recorded

The Key

CAROLYN’S COMPOSITIONS

THE KEY

Leef, Guest Contributor

NOTE: Leef is my “Big Sister.”

This piece was published in Buffalo, New York’s, 1960 city-wide publication, Our Best in ’60, the year Leef graduated from Kensington High School. She was honors English class, and turned it in as an assignment. She didn’t know the piece was to be published until September 15^th that year, which happened to be her birthday.

“I remembered sitting in the kitchen and Mom handed me an envelope,” she said. “I said ‘Oh, I didn’t order this.’ Then I looked in the table of contents and saw my name…”

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~

     She sat alone by the window, her hands loosely folded. Her face held the look of one resigned to her fate, whatever and however horrible it might be. She was alone, as I said, except for the thoughts locked away in her mind. She laughed softly to herself. How stupid they all were! She would never tell. She couldn’t. She wasn’t going to remember.

            The door to her room slowly and mysteriously seemed to open of its own accord. They were coming! She steeled herself for whatever was to happen. They didn’t scare her. They were lies—all of them lies. That man in his immaculate uniform. He said he was a friend. He wanted to help. She laughed again. She knew what he wanted. Secrets, secrets she would never tell!

            The man came toward her and laid a hand softly on her arm. She shrank back. “No!” her mind cried out. She knew she was growing hysterical. She tried to stop the tears from coming, but she couldn’t. When she turned around again, he was

Professor Spends $1500 to Abort Moon Landing of Apollo-11

CAROLYN’S COMPOSITIONS

PROFESSOR SPENDS $1500

TO ABORT MOON LANDING OF APOLLO-11

     There are colorful personages in most, if not all, professions.

     And so it is with university professors.

     One of the clippings I pulled from my files during a cleanup was written about a colleague of my husband, Monte, while Monte taught physics at the State University of New York. Undated, it would have been written after our 1966 marriage and prior to our 1969 move to Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania. The piece was published on July 25 of the unnamed year—however, it can be dated 1969, since Apollo-11 was launched on July 16^th of that year.

An assistant professor of physics at the State University of Buffalo spent $1500 of his own money for telegrams urging Congress to prevent the moon landing of Apollo-11 “while still possible.”*

     Beth sent copies of the 180-word telegram to all 435 House members and all 100 U. S. senators on July 11. He said he kept the cost down by sending the original telegram from Buffalo-to-Washington and having the 535 copies originate from Washington…

     Citing reports of an indestructible disease-producing organism on Earth called “Scrapie,” a disease found in sheep, the Beth telegram said:

     “Suppose an equally indestructible organism is brought from moon producing something like cancer or worse? How long must astronauts be quarantined for cancer virus? If moon operating is perfect with no microbes, we shall be no better off than now. Thus, all life on Earth would be endangered for

Moon Rocks

CAROLYN’S COMPOSITIONS

MOON ROCKS

     The rock fragments, encased in Lucite, were passed around classrooms in eleven Fayette County, Pennsylvania, classrooms. I was fortunate to be present when students at Geibel Elementary School explored them.

     In 2002 the rocks were on loan from the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD. They were released to Captain Tony Henderson, head of Geibel School’s science department and a captain and aerospace officer of the US Air Force Auxiliary.

The rocks were so valuable that Henderson had to keep them in her possession at all times.

“I even have to take them to the bathroom with me,” she joked,* and noted that the rock fragments were small because it takes a lot of fuel to run the space shuttle, so it couldn’t carry large rocks.

     Henderson explained how moon rocks and earth rocks differ: Moon rocks have no fossils because there is no life as far as we know it on the moon…and they contain no water because no water exists on the moon. The Lucite surrounding the rock samples is intended to prevent air exposure that would change the rock’s composition.

     The light color of the rocks is due to northocite, which is 4.6 billion years old. The name refers to the first book of the Bible, Genesis.

     The moon has three minerals: tranquillityite, pyroxferrate, and

Nor’easter’s Tail Whips Ligonier Valley (PA) 3/23/2012

CAROLYN’S COMPOSITIONS

NOR’EASTER’S TAIL WHIPS LIGONIER VALLEY (PA)

Six Inches of Wet Snow on Our Car

            Mid-March, 2012. Golfers near the St. Lawrence River in New York had wielded their clubs for at least six weeks.* Seven Springs resort on the Laurel Ridge in Southwestern Pennsylvania opened its golf course in early March.** This winter was the fourth-warmest winter on record for the 48 contiguous states.****

             On Monday, April 23, 2012, my husband Monte and I stated the obvious: Whoops—winter’s not over. He had scraped six inches of heavy, wet, snow off the car early in that morning. I myself was frustrated because I couldn’t locate my winter boots, which I’d only needed twice during this winter season. Meanwhile, Officials at Seven Springs Mountain Resort were scrambling to open at least one trail and one lift today to give skiers one more opportunity to participate in winter sports.* It was the latest date in the season for the ski area to operate since it was founded in 1932, surpassing the former mark of April 14, 1996, resort officials said.**

            We’d had a rogue snowstorm…

A freak spring storm blew through Western Pennsylvania on Monday, dumping more than a foot of snow in the Laurel Highlands, knocking out power to tens of thousands, closing schools and prompting Gov. Tom Corbett to declare a statewide disaster emergency.

 

 

 

 

 

 

By afternoon, much of the