Saturday, September 24, 2016

Welding; Being happy; On my shoulder; Sankt Gallen; Wis; Lee, WHS drum team captain; Men of the cathedral; Tak rip

Ticket to ride
been waiting a long time



Dino-unicorn rides here
at the Waukesha Odd Fellows
~ just you wait and see ~

[Vulcan Weathervanes sculpture 1970s
from MATC industrial oxy-welding class; instructor
told us to make something out of our
cutting exercise scraps.  I took mine home to finish,
being in it for the art]









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BEING HAPPY

Of course it was doomed. I know that now,
but it ended so quickly, and I was young.
I hardly remember that summer in Seattle—
except for her. The city seems just a rainy backdrop.
From the moment I first saw her at the office
I was hooked. I started visiting her floor.
I couldn’t work unless I caught a glimpse of her.
Once we exchanged glances, but we never spoke.
Then at a party we found ourselves alone.
We started kissing and ended up in bed.
We talked all night. She claimed she had liked me
secretly for months. I wonder now if that was true.
Two weeks later her father had a heart attack.
While she was in Chicago, they shut down our division.
I was never one for writing letters.
On the phone we had less to say each time.
And that was it—just those two breathless weeks,
then years of mild regret and intermittent speculation.
Being happy is mostly like that. You don’t see it up close.
You recognize it later from the ache of memory.
And you can’t recapture it. You only get to choose
whether to remember or forget, whether to feel remorse
or nothing at all. Maybe it wasn’t really love.
But who can tell when nothing deeper ever came along?
“Being Happy” by Dana Gioia from 99 Poems. © Graywolf Press, 2016.






















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If this does not start at the very beginning
dial it back all the way to the left, to the Start.
As shown, the green arrow below:





and


and this




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Annual Mens' Club picnic


It was 2012
Men and women young and old
gathered in the church parking lot

Wis, foreground, is picnicking elsewhere
this year.

Will not be the same without you.



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Waukesha South
former Drum line captain
Lee Dix







Lee ascends to full YIBAWEan status 7-3-16

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Great men of the Washington Cathedral
Col. Leslie Dix took us to his church
many times when we visited Wash DC.

In this immediate family he was the original
YIBAWEan.


Homage has been paid often ( recently by Bruce and Lisa Hopper of Waukesha WI) 
at his gravesite in Arlington Cemetery. Democrats, Republicans, Independents :)


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KD reposes live on her throne
7-20-16

Our daughter in Alaska
a nearly lifelong resident there
just had to put her beloved dog, Tak
to rest. 
The raccoon sent condolences and
this 1999 poem, death of a pet remorse:

To Max the Cat
1988 – 1999

In an age of many things blackened
Your missing blackness no more cattening
Our rooms and halls, our souls are slackened
Max, we loved you, we gently lay you down.

I live some miles from where you rest
But you are here right now
On my mourning mind
As I feel your lumpen weight on my reclining chest,
And if pall bearers there would have been,
I would have been one for you,
My feline, too.

You were not just a good cat (pass me that wine!)
You were a great cat
A cavernous black hole you’ve left in my heart
And in the hearts of our friends, mine and yours
On the Helt farm,
An address to which your beloved bones
We forever consign, and as at Arlington
Guard and mind in perpetuity
Or till we too have moved on

We know where that dark well is,
where your shell is,
and when I visit that little grave- site
I am going to lay myself down on it,
Out of
Out of Africa
Might I?

You never asked me when the table was turned
But I could have shooed you away
And now I’m glad I never did.
I’ll be wet- eyed as now I am
And sigh:  Max, Max, Max, why do we die?
You wanted to no more than I

Or Buddy, or Maggie, your surviving cats
In the house gone dry,
Save for tears of unsuccessful searching
Now that you are no longer in it

Who upon our chests will lie
And make such a weighty thing of it?
Why?
We thought you were good for fifteen years
you got eleven;
Much is wrong with our world
Though you are in your heaven

And, I don’t want to “recover” from your loss
It’s made me frankly cross, and blue
You showed your trust, no part of you did you withhold
You brought us gamey socks
And tolerated moods of many hues

You did your darndest to talk to us
Now we withhold nothing in ever remembering you;
Your gamboling gamble of a life may be over
You may have been but “an animal”
Yes, but never to us

Dear Max, we send you our best
We loved you, we gently lay you down.

[David Dix]

Laurie answered back:

Thank you Dad. I always commiserate pretty hard when this happens to others, too.
I'm now waking up to my first Tak-less morning. I dreaded this part a lot. 
"Tak" means thank you in Norwegian. It's a thank-less morning.
So, my kitty, Paul Anka is my Jesus-with-fur-on. She slept all night under my bed covers, right by my stomach, my soul. "Thank you".
Love,
Laurie






Saturday, September 17, 2016

Eddie Condon reprise; Duo-chromatique; Cthulhu; A standing; S'wonderful; Remarkable table









https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=803kZfOa4Wc

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Duo-chromatique?



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Stephen King Compares Donald Trump To Cthulhu; Cthulhu Issues Angry Denial

The Great Old One objects to being compared to the GOP presidential candidate.


 09/13/2016 01:53 am ET
[from The Huffington Post]



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What An Interesting Soapbox

It looks granulated
Like a pile of sawdust
Oh yes, I took a chain saw to my standing

Then how does it support you
In your mountings?
I saturated the sweepings with epoxy

So latter-day chemistry
Saved your candidacy?
It would appear so

Then whence does your backbone
Derive its stiffening?
From a red, white or blue Argo box

You appear electable
Yes, the hardware and laundry
departments put it all together for me

[D. Zep Dix 2002 ]




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Something beautiful now:
S'wonderful




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A remarkable table


KD goes on the table
forbidden
and has the gall to lay down
right next to the NO-NO mister
until we pick it up to spray her
then she hastily departs.




Original notebook draft
carved in tabletop when our children 
were little.
They grew up with it
and it still serves us at the Odd Fellows now.
 Reads:
"AROUND THIS TABLE
EBB AND FLOW
THE FRIENDS OF THE DIXES
COME AND GO
WE WISH YOU WELL
WE LOVE YOU SO
DO PLEASE COME BACK
AND HAVE SOME MO'!
AROUND THIS TABLE
WAX AND WANE
SPECIAL FOLKS GATHER
WHETHER ILL OR SANE
I'LL HOLD YOUR WEIGHT
AND BEAR YOUR PAIN
FILL YOUR HEART AND GUTS
MAKE YOU RIGHT AGAIN
BUT IF PERCHANCE
A CURE'S NOT FOUND
TODAY FOR YOUR AILMENT
YOU'LL REBOUND
FEEL FREE ON THIS SURFACE
TO RAIL AND POUND
AT A PLACE SUCH AS THIS
YOUR SPRING IS REWOUND"
~
A sumptuous dinner was served on this time-worn table night before last.
The menu in our downtown locus of the Odd Fellows hall
was eggplant parmesan with a spaghetti side
and the dessert was a home-baked apple pie.



How could we resist this eggplant at the Waukesha farmers market?

Dee's pies!
This apple pie made of apples from our daughter Erin's in-law's orchard
ELA ORCHARD, ROCHESTER WI
go check it out
a step into the past.
Best apples and cider
and remember ~ 'Money Cannot Buy'
the Raccoon's endorsement






Best apple pie I've ever EVER had!

Around this (all-purpose) table, wax and wane...




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Slow march to this:





or this version












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