Betty's House Dresses

My grandmother made house dresses look good. Both long and short enough to be practical, these dresses let her clean and straighten and garden and just plain move about. Mostly sleeveless, she wore sweaters, cardigans with pockets, for tissues and miscellany. One day, I will wear house dresses too, and hope that I look like her.

Sleeping in Times Square

Forty-two stories up, I might as well still be in flight. It took me ten seconds to get this high in the elevator; unnaturally catapulted. Just as a taxi hurled me like a roller coaster from airport to hotel. This is not my home. Sealed away up here, I could be sleeping on another planet; if I were sleeping. Times Square blinks behind my eyelids.

Cows on the Shenandoah II

I walk the country route along the river, in the margin of the asphalt where the natives drive too fast. Today I've walked farther from the monastery road than usual, and on a curve I stop. Right there, legs in the air is a toppled cow, car-stricken and long dead. It's hard to imagine how this cow got here, running for freedom, stopped short.

Younger and Stupider

Riding in the car, I say something, nothing in particular, and Chris bubbles out laughter like milk. It doesn't matter what I said. We're inhaling iced coffees, and it gives us the stupids. The same stupids that keep us up some nights like grade-schoolers. If only school had been this fun. Forty now, I'm younger than I was when we met. 

First Post

Here's the deal. This is an experiment. As of late, writing's been the last thing I've wanted to do. I'm going to attempt to jump-start my desire to write by keeping it short (short time, short length). My motto is: Better short than nothing. And I've always been a fan of the short form. So here's to developing a new practice -- by breaking some rules and making different ones. All based on following my own nose. 

Here are the rules:

1. Write no more than 5 lines.

2. Write for no more than 10 minutes.

3. Try to do it once a day.

4. Try to append a bad drawing as often as possible.

Time to start my engine.