Monday Musings

Today I sat down at my laptop and wondered what to share with you, my readers. A glance out of the open door showed trees tossing. Wind chimes sounded in the background, the breeze nuzzled my skin, and the scent of early alyssum teased my nose. Once again, nature nudged me. Taking a moment to pause and experience our surroundings can enrich our hearts and minds. But did I just give you a rote description of my view? Authors and artists see and feel the situation before them and translate those sensations into their creative medium. A poem, a painting, a sculpture, or a song attempt to elucidate an extension of those feelings in the individual that looks at or listens to the art form. Writing and other arts are labors in observation, rendering, and transformation. A light bulb moment can be quickly reproduced or take hours, days, or even years to realize a satisfactory final product. Perseverance is requisite. Are you a creative individual? What sparks your work? You can follow the Auth...

The term  march madness  conjures up visions of basketball and brackets.  In fact, as I write, NCAA Women’s basketball drones in the background. As a gardener, I imagine a different sort of insanity, wild weather swings that endanger new growth. Weeks of 60-degree warmth enticed forsythia, spring bulbs, and flowering trees into bloom. Grass greening, worms, and mud. As we basked in their beauty, a nasty cold snap with fifty-mph winds brought us back to reality. Tree limbs sagging, bowed under ice, fruit tree blossoms brown, dead, and withered daffodils. Fruit harvest threatened. Winter getting in her last licks. Have you seen weather fluctuations in your region? Did you have enough warning to cover and protect your plants?  You can follow the Author on her  Website  or on  Twitter.

In 1988, the holiday  π  (pi) Day was founded by Larry Shaw, a physicist at the Exploratorium California Science Museum, to observe the mathematical constant pi ( π ). March 14 (3/14) was chosen because the first three significant figures of  π  are 3, 1, and 4. The United States House of Representatives passed a non-binding resolution recognizing  π  (pi) Day in 2009. Super Pi Day was celebrated in 2015 on 3/14/15 at 9:26:53 to represent the first 10 digits of  π . What is  π ? It is the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. It is an irrational number (not equal to the ratio of any two whole numbers.) π , or its approximation, was described by the ancients. The  Babylonians  (c. 2000 BCE) obtained the value 3.125 by calculating the perimeter of a hexagon inscribed within a circle. The  Rhind papyrus  (c. 1650 BCE) scribed by the Egyptians used the value ~ 3.16045, and more recently,  Archimedes  (c....

I appreciate your patience during my brief hiatus. Last week, I underwent a left Total Hip Replacement, and I’m getting back on my feet again. It’s a blessing to be relieved of the awful left hip pain I suffered before surgery due to severe arthritis, with no remaining cartilage and bone grinding on bone. Postoperative pain is minimal compared to that excruciating ordeal. Now I’m getting around the house with a walker as a mobility aid. In addition, I am working like mad on self-directed physical therapy exercises to strengthen my new and improved hip joint. And even more importantly, I’ve aggressively weaned myself from opioid pain relievers. My last dose was at bedtime on postoperative day five. Recovery is all uphill from here. After two weeks, I should transition to a cane, and two weeks later, my own two feet. Spring gardening is a great motivator. I’m becoming a real live bionic woman with all of this year’s artificial enhancements: first both eyes, now my hip! What challenges do...

  Due to personal reasons, my regular blog programming will temporarily be interrupted. You can expect to see Monday Musings again in two weeks. Watch your email or check my social media sites on February 27, 2023 . I look forward to communicating with you again soon! You can follow the Author on her  Website  or on  Twitter .

Authors, are you triggered by current events to incorporate the news into your writing? Readers, are you curious about the writing process? Here's a glimpse of how recent occurrences resulted in two poems. The recent flurry of articles about the Chinese Spy Balloon set my creative juices afire. Analogies flittered, and synonyms cavorted through my mind. Chinese, hmm, ah yes, Communist “red.” Was the conveyance really a meteorologic device, or was it a “Trojan” horse carrying advanced spy devices, or was it somehow inserting Trojan malware into our internet? And was the balloon a “carrier pigeon” to return the pilfered information to China? The words sorted and arranged, condensed into a senryu format, and voila! Poem number one:

Looking out the window, I see a bright sunny day punctuated by tossing trees. The false hope of warmth is chilled by wind gusts over 50 mph. The thermometer declares it is 38 degrees. However, the “feels like” temperature is ~ 23 per the National Weather Service  Wind Chill Calculator . The following chart allows you to grossly estimate the temperature without using advanced mathematics. When I step outside to hang the bird feeder, my skin experiences the brisk fifteen-degree wind chill factor. Why does that matter, besides the miserable sensation? It’s important because it makes us at greater risk for hypothermia and/or frostbite. What exactly is hypothermia? The Mayo Clinic website provides valuable information regarding  symptoms, causes, and risk factors , as well as  diagnosis and treatment  of hypothermia. Click the prior links for details. The first sign of hypothermia is shivering, a natural defense against cold, as the body tries to warm itself. The other mo...