“I’m going to get organized. I promise.”
I say that to myself daily, almost like a prayer.
Unfortunately, my good intentions get lost too.
Use Smart Goggles to Find Your Lost Things (Softpedia.com)
11 Comments
Archive for June, 2008
21 items.
I love small Kansas towns.
They have wide streets and no traffic.
Some are like small ghost towns.
Minutes of Glen Elder City Council Meetings (GlenElder.com)
Population: 390 in 2006 (The population was 439 in 2000)
Estimated median household income in 2005: $26,500
Estimated median house value in 2005: $38,200
Profile of Glen Elder, Kansas (city-data.com)
“We are a community of friendly, hardworking people that represent the
backbone, not only of Kansas but also America… We recognize our good
fortune in the beauty of sunsets and wheat fields, the smell of freshly tilled soil,
visiting with old friends and neighbors and the feel of a well-hooked fish.”
Quotation from Greg Linton, Mayor of Glen Elder
“Winter lies too long in country towns; hangs on until it is stale and
shabby, old and sullen. On the farm the weather was the great fact, and
men’s affairs went on underneath it, as the streams creep under the ice.”
Quotation from Willa Cather, My Antonia
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, NORTHIE!!!
What makes the fabric of a community? Is it the
churches and schools, the evening softball games,
Old 40 and the houses with wide porches? Or is it
the spirit and resiliency of the people that live here?
“It popped our ears. We heard the train sound,
and then it started to suck Wyatt’s clothing.
A support bean cracked. All the dirt came down,
and we couldn’t breathe.”
Quotation from Brenda Lacey, survivor
“It’s funny what (the tornado) leaves and what it takes.”
Quotation from Melanie Bergstrom, Chapman H.S. band teacher
1. Twister is a board game where everybody wins.
2. What’s worse than a tornado? A Titty Twister!
3. Without weather, what would most people talk about?
Photos of Manhattan Tornado Damage (Surface & Surface Photography)
More Photos of Manhattan Damage (The Manhattan Mercury)
It’s freaking hot under those mattresses, even at 10:30 at night.
Someone said my ears would pop from the tornado pressure.
We already knew it had destroyed nearby Chapman, Kansas.
Now it was here in Manhattan, still on the ground.
Everyone had their cellphones turned on.
“It’s in the SW Miller Ranch area.”
“The True Value store is gone.” Gone?
It’s on campus. “It hit Fiedler Hall.”
Why would anyone attend a cheerleading camp in Kansas?
June 11th Tornado Information with Photos (noaa.gov)
Tornado Track Through Manhattan, Kansas (noaa.gov)
Kansas State University Damage (K-State.edu)
“There are only two ways to live your life.
One is as though nothing is a miracle.
The other is as though everything is a miracle.”
Quotation from Albert Einstein
“What’s a rain tornado?” I asked.
It’s a tornado that’s obscured by the
rain and wind. You won’t see it coming.
A Tornado Guide (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)
Tornadoes – Many Are Different From What Dorothy Saw (ChaseDay.com)
“The sky breaks.
It sags and breathes upon my face.
In the presence of mine enemies, mine enemies,
The world is full of enemies.
There is no safe place.”
Poem by Anne Sexton, Noon Walk on the Asylum Lawn
Kansans are nicer and more courteous than Californians.
Drivers use their turn signals and wave at each other.
It’s vaguely frightening. But guess what happened next…
and I *knew* it was going to happen. A freaking tornado!
Several Contenders for “World’s Largest Ball of Twine” (Roadside America)
“Something is wrong with America. I wonder sometimes what
people are thinking about or if they’re thinking at all.”
Quotation from Senator Bob Dole, Kansas (Retired)
“We have a state spirit which is a unique mingling of Puritan
morality, Southern chivalry, and Western individualism.”
Quotation from Milton Eisenhower (Dwight Eisenhower’s brother)
It must get lonely on those Kansas farms.
Hailstones the size of softballs;
Tornados, locusts, weather,
Always talk about the weather,
And don’t complain when
Your heels stick in newly-plowed dirt.
How to Operate a Combine Harvester (eHow.com)
“Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil,
and you’re a thousand miles from the corn field.”
Speech by Dwight D. Eisenhower in Peoria, Illinois
Here’s why I’m afraid. When we got engaged, my
mother-in-law told hubby he could do better than me.
Outwardly nice, she chopped off my limbs one by one.
Each time she did that, I replaced them with another made of tin.
I have a tin heart. I am The Tin Girl around her.
The Tin Woodman of Oz (Wikipedia)
Tin Man: My… mmm-my, my, my, my goodness. I can talk again!
Dorothy: Well, you’re perfect now.
Tin Man: Perfect? Oh, bang on my chest if you think I’m perfect.
Go ahead, bang on it! It’s empty. The tinsmith forgot to give me a heart. All hollow.
Script from the movie, The Wizard of Oz
“I’d be tender, I’d be gentle
and awful sentimental
regarding Love and Art.
I’d be friends with the sparrows
and the boy who shoots the arrows
if I only had a heart.”
Lyric from the movie, The Wizard of Oz
Today we’re coming home from Kansas!!! Real-time
Encore Seraphine updates begin again this weekend! HUGS!
I’m in Kansas on Holiday. I’m returning shortly. If you
deliberately stay above ground level during a tornado,
you put yourself in harm’s way. Or even better, you
can try to be somewhere else other than Kansas.
Tornado Myths (The Tornado Project)
One Sheet Tornado Myths (cnn.com)
“Hide our ignorance as we will, an evening of wine soon reveals it.”
Quotation by Heraclitus, Herakleitos and Diogenes
“So all who hide too well away
Must speak and tell us where they are”
Poem by Robert Frost, Revelation
Pentheraphobia is an intense fear of Mother-in-Laws.
It’s the fear of things that (theoretically) pose no
actual danger. It’s kin to the fear of computer cookies,
singing karaoke, being medicated, or being
microchipped (labeled) by strangers or family.
Isn’t there also a phobia for waking up in strange places?
Pictures of Phobias (FreakingNews.com)
Pentheraphobia Treatment (phobia-fear-release.com)
“There are various forms of the disease in which the victim
is unable to say “No.” Some of these forms are more serious
than others, and often lead to electrocution or marriage.”
Quotation by Robert Benchley
I’m currently in Kansas on Holiday. I’ll be back soon.
I’m currently in Kansas on Holiday.
(And no, I didn’t ask for her opinion)
“Satan should be her name
Mother in law, mother in law
To me they’re about the same
Mother in law, mother in law
Everytime I open my mouth
She steps in, tries to put me out
How could she stoop so low?
Mother in law, mother in law
Mother in law, mother in law”
Lyric by Huey Lewis, Mother in Law
I’m currently in Kansas on Holiday.
Welcome to Wakeeney, Kansas (WakeeneyKansas.com)
1. The racial makeup of the city is 97% White.
2. The median age is 44 years.
3. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 79.7 males.
4. Males have a median income of $26,292 versus $16,435 for females.
5. Males make 60% more money than females in Wakeeney, Kansas!
“To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee…
The revery alone will do if bees are few.”
Poem by Emily Dickinson, To Make a Prairie
“What do we want with this vast and worthless area,
of this region of savages and wild beasts, of deserts, of
shifting sands and whirlwinds, of dust, of cactus and prairie
dogs; to what use could we ever hope to put these great
deserts, or those endless mountain ranges, impenetrable
and covered to their very base with eternal snow?”
Quotation by U.S. Senator Daniel Webster (1824)
I’m flying to Kansas (Part 1) today to meet
the rest of my husband’s family. I’m nervous.
“The peak U.S. tornado season runs from March through early July.”
-American Red Cross
Tornado obliterates Kansas farming town, 9 dead (Reuters 2007)
Kansas Killer Tornadoes 1879-2007 (TornadoChaser.com)
Kansas Grasshopper Plague of 1874 (Kansas State Historical Society)
“Anything goes in Wichita. Leave your revolvers at police headquarters.”
Kansas: A Guide to the Sunflower State (The WPA Guide to Kansas, 1939)
I’m leaving tomorrow for a holiday in Kansas.
Don’t worry, I have regular Encore Seraphine updates planned.
But if I don’t come back, please send a search party.
30 Years Of Man’s Life Disappear In Mysterious Kansas Rectangle (The Onion)
Fun Facts about Fossils, Rocks and the Landscape of Kansas (Travel Kansas) (pdf)
Fence Posts are a Scenic Attraction in Kansas (Natural Kansas)
“For thousands the world is a freak show, the
images flicker past and disappear, the impressions
remain flat and disconnected in the soul.”
Quotation from Wolfgang Von Goethe, Third Pilgrimage to Erwin’s Grave
I’ll be on holiday to Kansas starting next week. Don’t
worry, I’ve scheduled regular updates while I’m gone.
Scared of Storms, Circus Elephants Flee in Kansas (cnn.com)
Forecast: A Tornado Outbreak in Kansas (The Wichita Eagle)
Outbreak of Pruritic Rashes in Kansas Associated with Mites 2004 (cdc.gov)
Investigation of Outbreak of Infections Caused by Salmonella Saintpaul
(cdc.gov)
“The line-storm clouds fly
tattered and swift.
The road is forlorn all day.”
Poem by Robert Frost, A Line–Storm Song
I love looking at the moon, especially when
it’s a full moon. It makes me a little crazy.
Moonlight Triggers Mass Coral “Romance” (National Geographic)
Timing Romance with the Moon (Cafe Astrology)
Does a Full Moon Affect Human Behavior? (The Skeptic’s Dictionary)
“The child’s wonder
At the old moon
Comes back nightly.
She points her finger
To the far silent yellow thing
Shining through the branches
Filtering on the leaves a golden sand,
Crying with her little tongue, “See the moon!â€
And in her bed fading to sleep
With babblings of the moon on her little mouth.”
Poem by Carl Sandburg, Child Moon
Sometimes when it hits,
there is no choice but to obey.
Is Pooping on Film Pornography? (RadarOnline.com) Warning: This may be offend you.
Someone please explain how or why PooP is Erotic in any way, shape or form!
“I need to poop so bad I’ve got lumps in my throat.”
Quote from Facts About Poop (SmellyPoop.com)
“Glorious, stirring sight! The poetry of motion!
The real way to travel! The only way to travel!..
O bliss! O poop-poop! O my! O my!”
Quotation by Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows
Historical Note: This is Encore Seraphine Comic #350.
It’s complicated.
Everything is every… thing.
Every day it’s something.
Everything is nothing
But please not right now.
“Nothin’s wrong
just as long as
you know that someday I will
someday, somehow
gonna make it all right
but not right now”
Lyric by Nickelback, Someday
“But I’m here to tell you now each and every mother’s son,
you better learn it fast, you better learn it young,
‘cuz someday never comes. Someday never comes”
Lyric by Creedence Clearwater Revival, Someday Never Comes
“I always say, keep a diary and someday it’ll keep you.”
Spoken by Mae West, Every Day’s a Holiday
I don’t mind
wearing glasses.
I can always
take them off
and go naked.
Power Dressing: Socks that Smell like Flowers (Irish Independent)
The first Saturday of every May is World Naked Gardening Day (wngd.org)
I don’t understand package expiration dates.
How can they make cookies that last a year
without preservatives? How do they sell pudding
packs that last forever without refrigeration?
The Truth About Food Expiration Dates (businessweek.com)
Empires with Expiration Dates (foreignpolicy.com)
The women of this century are neither idle nor indifferent.
They are working with might and main to mitigate the evils
which stare them in the face on every side, but much of
their work is without knowledge. It is aimed at the effects,
not the cause; it is plucking the spoiled fruit; it is lopping
off the poisonous branches of the deadly upas tree…
The tap-root of our social upas lies deep down at the very
foundations of society. It is woman’s dependence. It is
woman’s subjection. Hence, the first and only efficient
work must be to emancipate woman from her enslavement.
From a speech by Susan B. Anthony