new blog: pittypat

Yesterday when I couldn't access Pat's Patter, I fiddled around with this outfit and came up with (or it came up for me) a place for a new blog. I named it "pittypat" because "Pat's Patter" was already in use!!! Now if I could figure out how to move that post into this blog, I would be one happy blogger.
Pappy and Dot Hatfield (both with blogs) answered my plea for assistance, thankyouverymuch, guys. Now, why was I able to access this site today and not yesterday? Oh, well, never mind. If I can (or anyone reading this can) figure out a way to move that post to this site, I'd be much obliged. Denman, can you help?
Three daily trips to Arkadelphia (AR) to take Kid Billy to Dr./ Mr. Worth's College Algebra class in Evans Hall have been fruitful. Tuesday, after driving very slowly through a hard rainstorm just outside Benton, the rest of the trip down was uneventful. By the time I let KB off at the fountain, it had begun to sprinkle.
It rained the rest of the morning, meaning I could not sit in the park at the backmost picnic table abutting the woods that separated the park from OBU. So I drove back to Caddo Valley (not to be a part of Arkadelphia, thanks to a lopsided vote just a few days before) and McDonalds. It was 8 am. Over coffee--for the first time ever, McDonald's coffee was NOT good: it was old and very strong--and orange juice, I read the newspaper.
Everyone has a certain way they read the paper. I begin with the front section, transcribing any action -verb- adjective- noun- unusual surnames into my notebook. Next, the Arkansas section, the front pages only of the sports and business pages, then the style page, ending with the cryptoquote and crossword puzzles.
Looking back over the entries, I see these surnames: (When/if I use them, I lose the capitals) Duke, Buffalo, Baldy, Key, Berry, Bush, Gates, Pickler, Gray, Wolf, Tenet, Little, Horn, Huddle, Bridge, Ball, Bland, Earls, Clem, Brake, Hedges, Ezell, Jordan, Burns, Broach, Ray, Hand, Hill, Woods, Aaron, Henry, Crews, Guy, White, Brooks, May, West, Marchbanks, Jolly and Nicolai.
One of the chapters of my forever-in-progress novel was written using such a list. It was published in CALLIOPE several years ago.
Other bites of information end up on the page, too. I didn't know that lakes have 3 levels: an inactive pool - the lowest (below that, it's necessary to utilize hydropower outlets), the conservation pool the range where engineers prefer to keep the water level, and the flood control pool, or the top level. (from an article by Evie Blad about Beaver Lake's drawdown.)
When KB called, he walked to the car in the still-falling rain, and it rained all the way home. That happens sometimes. Later. pl

Sisters' trip to North Texas

HAIKU
On arrival
the long-loved and rarely -heard
whippoorwill

mocker to the wire
then to a nearby scrub oak
calls - but no answer


early summer
outside in my gowntail
just me and the birds


closing my journal
I spy a cardinal
pecking in the leaves


gray roadrunner
scurrying past our condo
then back to the woods


CINQUAIN

Stupid
move: with my hand,
I check inside my shoes
in case a Texas scorpion
crawled in.

Locusts,
like tree rattlers,
season the North Texas
air. Now and then a roadrunner
speeds by.

Later, y'all! pl

This is one tired blogger

TOMORROW and Saturday, July 3-4,will be the first Flossie Scott Family Reunion. She was my maternal grandmother. Flossie and Elmer Scott had eight children, my mother being the oldest girl. With all my interest in given names, I have never listed them anywhere. Edell (pronounced Dell), Anna Pearl (my mother who removed the final "e" of Pearl), Harold, Paul--common enough--Wathena (I always thought it was a Potowatomi Indian tribe name), Gerald (Uncle Bud), Lester Rolla (pronounced Rolly), Arlene and Frances Joy. To date, only two are still living, Uncle Bud, who is 80-something, and Frances Joy, 78. We will gather Friday night at her place.
THE RESERVATIONS are in, the food and paper goods purchased, the white tent pegged in the front yard for a Friday night picnic. The elders of the group will be the widows of Harold and Paul. At least four generations will be represented.
ON SATURDAY at noon, we will gather for a catered meal at the United Methodist Church where many of the family, including Flossie, are or have been members.
VARIOUS STATES will be represented: Texas, Virginia, California, Kansas for sure.
AGES will range from 90 to 8. Will we have a good time? Yes, indeed. Right now, I need to turn in. My house guest came today so I can quit cleaning. Now, just the yard needs mowing. Happy 4th to you all.