Close Insistent Things

I tookI just learned that in our nearly endless strands of DNA lies a veritable horde of the corpses of past viral genomes, some of them hundreds of millions years old. Our ancient foes embedded in the very thing that makes us who we are. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer, right?

Today's Haiku

Frayed fading highlights

intimately in my face

part of this bus squeeze

Today's Workout
Pizza lifts

Today's Drawing
(Based on the word Importune from Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day)
***Check out the full catalog of pictures HERE***

On Guard

Did you know nearly all animals create vitamin C on their own? And that we're among the few that don't? Scurvy is no joke man.

Today's Haiku

Impaired with strep throat
my wife sips hot ginger tea
and bemoans in croaks

Today's Workout
Sprinting down four District blocks to catch a bus

Today's Drawing
(Based on the word Phalanx from Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day)
***Check out the full catalog of pictures HERE***

Death Throes

I saw a dying dove on my run home today. It was so scared. I wanted to help it but I knew I would only freak it out more.

It reminded me of a time when my friend was trying to nurse a bird back to health. I was visiting and him and his girlfriend had been keeping the tiny thing in a box. I was watching while he was driving or something, the box in my lap, when I saw it start to struggle. He stopped the car and we watched its final moments. Frightened little flutters, vain attempts to escape...something. And then it stopped and that was that.  

Today's Haiku

Morning dove grounded
pitch black eyes wide with terror
legs clawing the sky

Today's Workout
Running: 5.6 miles

Today's Drawing
(Based on the word Addlepated from Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day)
***Check out the full catalog of pictures HERE***

Pineapex

I've been growing a pineapple plant for three and a half years. And around 6 months ago it started to sprout an actual pineapple. And today we chopped that spiky yellow football off the stalk and carved it into sticky chunks. It was the sweetest pineapple I've ever tasted.

Thank you Priscilla!

Today's Haiku

Horses and hellos
the trail winds through everything
support for the sole

Today's Workout
Running: 8.2 miles

Today's Drawing
(Based on the word Evince from Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day)
***Check out the full catalog of pictures HERE***

Cough

Dude. Dude dude dude dude. The Complement system.

Today's Haiku

Soft failure feeling
an angry back-throat tickle
wasps in the ribcage

Today's Workout
Dusting off my board game shoes

Today's Drawing
(Based on the word Bildungsroman from Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day)
***Check out the full catalog of pictures HERE***

Chill Jester

Meditating on the bus is the way to go. You become grateful for the most inane crap.

Today's Haiku

Precocious pink shoes
kick at my shins playfully
soft pedal kisses 

Today's Workout
Keeping in real

Today's Drawing
(Based on the word Motley from Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day)
***Check out the full catalog of pictures HERE***

These Imaginary Forces

Today marks my one month anniversary for this year's project. I have been neglectful. I blame the Kingdom of Hyrule.

Today's Haiku

Speaking to a seat
he tries to will the water out
I hope he succeeds

Today's Workout
Meeting Hopping

Today's Drawing
(Based on the word Undergird from Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day)
***Check out the full catalog of pictures HERE***

What to Eat

I started reading a book today about nutrition that I got from the library. I was really liking it until about 40 pages in I did a little research and it turns out the theories this guy is spouting aren't supported by mainstream science on the subject.

I should've know better. I loathe fad diets. 

Today's Haiku

Free publications
a hidden quirk of the work
for small reading breaks

Today's Workout
Running: 5.6 miles

Today's Drawing
(Based on the word Hapless from Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day)
***Check out the full catalog of pictures HERE***

Dreyfuss Boogie

Had a two person dance party tonight to an album all about this guy really wanting to meet Richard Dreyfuss. 

Today's Haiku

Meetings on feelings
productive while exhausting
must video game

Today's Workout
Eh.

Today's Drawing
(Based on the word Desideratum from Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day)
***Check out the full catalog of pictures HERE***

Upsetting Things

Rusty freight train skeletons parked on the tracks at sunrise. I can sense their longing from the other side of the tree line. Hundreds and hundreds of feet, stuck and unsatisfied. Please, someone, give these cars some cargo to cradle.

Today's Haiku

Last minute meetings
scheduling snafus galore
great day shortener

Today's Workout
Running: 3.1 miles

Today's Drawing
(Based on the word Whinge from Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day)
***Check out the full catalog of pictures HERE***

Scream

Oh music please deliver me from mood specific tar pits.

Today's Haiku

Strawberry ice cream
from cans of coconut milk
churned here at home

Today's Workout
Taking out the recycling...TWICE

Today's Drawing
(Based on the word Redaction from Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day)
***Check out the full catalog of pictures HERE***

Toes and Arrows

I have a couple toenails that never fully grew back from a half-marathon I ran in April. One is practically coming in sideways. 

I just signed up for two more halves in the next two months. My toenails will be forever ugly.

Today's Haiku

This red bullseye store
doesn't sell archery stuff
what is up with that?

Today's Workout
Running: 3.1 miles

Today's Drawing
(Based on the word Cogent from Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day)
***Check out the full catalog of pictures HERE***

Bogged Down

This scorching weather is preventing me from running. I gazing out the window from inside, like a child longing to swim in a thunderstorm, except instead of rain and lightning outside I'm seeing the heat waves rising off the sidewalk.

Today's Haiku

Broken sluggy mind
grasping to retain consciousness
and not succeeding

Today's Workout
I had four different kinds of ice cream at an office party

Today's Drawing
(Based on the word Gnomic from Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day)
***Check out the full catalog of pictures HERE***

Bumps on a Log

Bumming all around. Hoping something will slither my way and spook this machine back into action.

Today's Haiku

Brewskies on the roof
the district looms behind us
and heat looms throughout

Today's Workout
Hardcore grocery lifting

Today's Drawing
(Based on the word Speculate from Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day)
***Check out the full catalog of pictures HERE***

Infirm

I took a day off to straighten the mind out and cool the reactor before things got out of hand.

Unsure if it did much help except keep me from entering the convection oven that is outside.

Today's Haiku

Sick bay apartment
nursing these fresh seething wounds

origins unknown

Today's Workout
100 paces and a good look in the mirror

Today's Drawing
(Based on the word Provender from Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day)
***Check out the full catalog of pictures HERE***

Up Against

I'm having a hard time with the heat here. Over 90 everyday and it doesn't look to be letting up.

Or electric bill is going to be nuts.

Today's Haiku

Asleep at the wheel
the cliffs here are treacherous
thank god for guardrails

Today's Workout
Exercising patience at the bus stop

Today's Drawing
(Based on the word Auxiliary from Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day)
***Check out the full catalog of pictures HERE***

Who Nose?

My brother gave me a fidget cube for my birthday. It has buttons switches, clicky things and rolly bits. I keep it at work and I like it very much.

Today's Haiku

Power point story
A life told in images
The curator's yarn

Today's Workout
Running: 5.4 miles

Today's Drawing
(Based on the word Nosegay from Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day)
***Check out the full catalog of pictures HERE***

Strawberry Shortcomings

The world I've built here is crumbling slowly. I haven't had the drive to pull it back together and I'm worried the trend will continue. Just a day late and a dollar short, consistently.

Today's Haiku

In rehearsal again
My way's all thumbs and flop sweat
Why do I do this?

Today's Workout
Watching a bunch of people dance and talking about cancer

Today's Drawing
(Based on the word Embezzle from Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day)
***Check out the full catalog of pictures HERE***

These Eyes

I forget how poor my vision is. Just really really bad. I've gotten to the point where there is only so much that glasses can do. I guess things will never be as clear as they were in my youth. One my reminder of the gradual march to the grave. 

Today's Haiku

Eye exam return
running while dilated
squinting all the way

Today's Workout
Running: 4 miles

Today's Drawing
(Based on the word Torrid from Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day)
***Check out the full catalog of pictures HERE***

Empty Stumbles

The work is never done. 

Today's Haiku

Ill prepared for things
These concepts like bars of soap
Slipping in my grip

Today's Workout
Staying awake from 3:00pm to 5:30pm

Today's Drawing
(Based on the word Dearth from Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day)
***Check out the full catalog of pictures HERE***

Bowls for Breaking

Some mornings, I wake with a broken heart.

Not a fractured heart of loss or lack of love. The cause cannot be dowsed. Such is the nature of this sickness I’ve had since my hypothalamus starting pumping sex into my cells. While this fracturing surprises me every time, the course and feel is natural, like a sneeze or the onset of a yawn or the tingle of a limb falling sleep.

And I like it. It reminds me of the old scars. Where the heart was healed from previous breaks. Like the gold joinery in a Japanese bowl. And in reminding I know my heart will heal and I can build new veins that run in a marriage of lightning and lattice. The jagged lines add beauty, a breathtaking thing only for me to cherish. Histories I can run my fingers over.

But a ghost looms there in the cracks. Steps toward the final shatter. For I have a confidence in the deeper parts of me that one break will be irreparable, the onset of my end.

But despite the terrible pain and dread I treasure those moments when the heart breaks with a precious reverence of holding a newborn. I never feel more alive. And I nurture those moments because  I know this heightened seeing will fade once the gold is set. I've lost it so many times. The bowl becomes just a bowl. To eat rice out of or hold wax fruit. An unremarkable centerpiece in a rarely visited dining room.

Today's Haiku

Soft pink fingernails
On hands gripping a bus pole
I can see them grow

Today's Workout
Racing home with groceries in the rain

Today's Drawing
(Based on the word Ostentatious from Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day)
***Check out the full catalog of pictures HERE***

PIZZA

Another run from work. It's 5.5 to 6 miles depending on the route I take and with the weather it is BRUTAL. I'm practically crusty with sweat after.

But it was all worth it for this picture of a pizza box. My caption is:

"Worship at the Alter of the Great and Powerful Pizza God"

Today's Haiku

The Pizza is all
there is no life without it
All Hail the Pizza

Today's Workout
Running: 5.5 miles

Today's Drawing
(Based on the word Lionize from Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day)
***Check out the full catalog of pictures HERE***

Being Out and About

I like growing older. I mouth all my lines on the bus to and from work and I have no doubt I look like a head case. But with age I recognize that there's no real bad consequence in behaving that way. Hell, on the bus acting a little crazy gets people to leave you alone.

Today's Haiku

Irksome city folk
are drawn to me like deer flies
I must have that "look"

Today's Workout
Running: 3.1 miles

Today's Drawing
(Based on the word Flair from Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day)
***Check out the full catalog of pictures HERE***

Headstraight

I'm memorizing a series of monologues for a show I'm doing in August. Random thing. But I forgot how tough it is to memorize things. Like in order and stuff. How did I do it before? I know the tools are in here somewhere....

Today's Haiku
Team meeting doodles
while the bosses talk numbers
I draw dinosaurs

Today's Workout
The mental hurdles of a work's return

Today's Drawing
(Based on the word Metathesis from Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day)
***Check out the full catalog of pictures HERE***

VACATION: Asheville #4

Today's adventure was all drive. On and off rain and lots of traffic from the holiday weekend. A nine and a half hour journey in total.

I don't need to get into a car again for a while.

Today's Haiku

Two pairs of hashbrowns

and two pairs of egg sammies
a roadside gorging

Today's Workout
Maintaining Sanity

Today's Drawing
(Based on the word Churlish from Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day)
***Check out the full catalog of pictures HERE***

VACATION: Asheville #3

I've been neglecting these posts while I relax from the previous year. A much needed cooldown, though I must admit, It's been incredibly busy.

Today's Haiku

Bonsais on display
sculptures limited by life
and the slog of time

Today's Workout
Hiking through the Arboretum

Today's Drawing
(Based on the word Planet from Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day)
***Check out the full catalog of pictures HERE***

VACATION: Asheville #2

Drove to Asheville today. It was around 8 hours but not the slog I thought it would be. We had been here once before for a wedding and in revisiting the haunts of that trip is a touch surreal. I had homebrew sake and a kimchi sandwich in a repurposed garage.

Today's Haiku

Appalachian trek
rolling mountains fill our view
Lucious green and proud

Today's Drawing
(Based on the word Inkhorn from Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day)
***Check out the full catalog of pictures HERE***

VACATION: Asheville #1

Off on a road trip to Asheville, NC bright and early tomorrow! Enjoying a chill fourth at home before that. 

Today's Haiku

Footfalls in the fog
bombs bursting in the distance
and rain on our heads

Today's Workout
Running: 3 miles

Today's Drawing
(Based on the word Girandole from Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day)
***Check out the full catalog of pictures HERE***

Lost a Little

Today's Haiku

Empty wallet fold
you used to hold my travel pass
It's really unfare

Today's Drawing
(Based on the word Sedulous from Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day)
***Check out the full catalog of pictures HERE***

Diet Sin

In the comfort of my home, I drink sake out of a shot glass molded into the head of Lucifer. The head is upside down and balanced on four points - two horns and two ears. There's a natural spout at the tip of his beard. The sake is delicious paired with fritos and fig newtons.

Today's Haiku

Back in the classroom
black scrawling on the white board
delayed eurekas

Today's Workout
Push-ups

Today's Drawing
(Based on the word Burgeon from Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day)
***Check out the full catalog of pictures HERE***

Sifting

I'm blowing off the dust from old docs and spreadsheets and appraising their value. The work gives me a sense of how the organization used to run, when dreams of protocol and organization began and when enforcement fell short. Most things are half done, lists poised to be fully highlighted, tasks hungry to be completely assigned. I'm leaving my mark now, adding a thin layer of sediment the color of my ambition. 

Today's Haiku

Falafel scarfing
opposite the thorny face
of my big red wall

Today's Workout
Running: 5.5 miles

Today's Drawing
(Based on the word Afflatus from Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day)
***Check out the full catalog of pictures HERE***