new hairs in second life

tried to email pics of my new hair -- it moves so well when dancing, doesn't stab me  -- but got nowhere, so i'll just put them here to share! (click to see larger)

porn for candy lovers

a few years ago for a winter project john and i decided to try to rate all the dark chocolate bars we could get our hands on. we wrote up the ratings and emailed it to everyone we knew. it was fun!

now i've found a site that takes it even further with sort of pinup centerfolds for candy lovers!

"Meticulously photographed and documented reviews of candy from around the world."

you can search by country, ingredients, ratings, maker, everything but maybe color!

to sleep....why bother!

the sun pressed down on the fields like bleach.
the temperature rose into the 90s, and people who laughed boldly in the face of 30 below cower in whatever air conditioning they can find.
by 8 pm it was still daylight despite the drop of the sun into the western hills, as
the ginormous moon in the east continued to broadcast the sun's rays.
upstairs under slanted ceilings of the cape, built to stay warm not cool, it was stifling.
the bedroom was bright with light from the windows, wide open to catch any stray coolness rising off the rivers,
by 9 pm non-stop violent flashes crack the crazed sky to the north.
no sound of thunder.
falling asleep despite all this, until quiet thunder wakes me and then -- tock --tock -- clunk ...clunk the rain and hail begin.
soon the cracking thunder rolls truly thunderously, and the hiss clunk tock and rattle accelerate on the metal roof.
no sleep now, until things slow down and ... actual cool air comes in the room!
at last.
but then suddenly come the fire engines, fast as lightning thru the silent village, sirens blaring, outrunning even doppler!  at least the fire is not nearby, or they would not be speeding thru.
i fall asleep and dream of florida.

phoebe disguises self as clothespin

here is the little sneak who built a nest on my porch light fixture (see previous post)

and below is a special SCRATCH AND SNIFF of my lilacs!! click picture for full effect

Bay City parade with Ducks On Bikes!

anyway, the ducks had a blast in the Bay City 2nd Anniversary parade, and even more fun at the after party, which Osprey captured so well -- so much energy and fun, i just wish you could hear the quacking and the blutophones.

some of the ducks got into line-dancing and had a real talent for it!

back porch mystery!

another mystery. something on the floor of my back porch got my attention. here's what i saw. can you guess?

tiny broken eggs! awwwww.
i knew phoebes had been scouting the porch, but i thought they had rejected it...no place to build!
i checked the rafters and saw no nest. uh-oh!

there, on top of the light...those idiots!
but still...why are the eggs on the ground? is this couple new to it all and built a bad nest? did we leave the light on and cook the eggs? did one of those bad cowbirds throw out the eggs and leave their own to be raised as phoebes?

time will tell, now we have to leave the light off and tiptoe around on the porch for a few weeks, chase local cats away, until our babies fly!

more strangeness

i wish i had actually made an entropy detector, i could have tested it yesterday.
how many people actually sit down and write a letter to someone by snail mail? i sure don't get many...a card now and then with a note on it ...that's about it.
yesterday, sunday, a beautiful spring day at last, although there was another hard frost last night, friends called in the morning and then drove over to our house. they brought a letter they had gotten (hand-written!) in the mail. they wanted john's opinion.
that done, we spent half the day digging up perennials to share with them.
after they'd gone, and after i had been a duck-on-a-bike in a second life parade, another friend called. he then came by with a letter (hand-written) he had gotten and wanted john's opinion.
low entropy? i think so!
i should have bought a lottery ticket!

spring birds and snow birds

yes, my poppet, the birds are back!

remember when we watched flocks of geese flying overhead? now the pretty warblers are back too, and the snowbirds.

what's that? you want to be a bird? 
in this life, someday you can be a snowbird.

oh yes, my dear, the snowbirds can fly.
they love the sun and follow the long days. in the spring they flock together to fly north and spend summer where days are long; but not so far north that they will be very cold!

in winter when days grow short, they fly back south, but not so far south that they will be in strange and dangerous lands.

do we see them fly overhead?
sometimes we do, but mostly they are above the clouds, and in an airplane.

not long ago, i had the great good luck, i will show you a picture dear, to witness a large flock in florida just getting ready to board their plane -- heading north to connecticut!
more than 15 of them had gathered in one flock, in their spring colors, all in a line, ready to fly!

stolen from the Valley News

from today's Valley News

Troublesome Beavers Win the Day in Thetford
By Kerry Trotter
Valley News Staff Writer

Thetford -- If beavers could party, there might be a few near Godfrey Road wearing lampshades about now. Town officials announced yesterday that the family of beavers once sentenced to death would be spared, as funding has been secured for a steel plate to reinforce Godfrey Road, where an aging culvert and beaver dams have combined to undermine the road surface. “I feel really good about it because there were so many citizens who worked so hard on this issue,” said resident Laura Shepard. “Everybody had a part to play and everybody played it for a good resolution.” At Monday's Selectboard meeting, it was Shepard who alerted the board that the grant awarded to the town for a new box culvert at the trouble spot could be amended to include money for a plate. Selectboard Chairman Tig Tillinghast, in contact with the same state official as Shepard, received confirmation and was given the go-ahead to buy a plate. While many logistical odds and ends remain, planning is under way and the plate should be installed soon. Monday's Selectboard meeting yielded a 3-2 vote in favor of allowing three days to explore the possibility of acquiring an inch-thick, 8-by-20-foot steel plate that would ensure safe passage over the culvert.
Many in attendance complained that three days was too little time to scrape together the money-- $2,500 to rent a plate, $3,500 to buy. Tillinghast said that within 18 hours of Monday's meeting he'd received enough pledges from townspeople to fund a rental of the plate, and now those folks can hold on to their money.“We knew we were going to pursue an increase in the grant,” Tillinghast said. “We didn't want to put it on the taxpayers.”The steel plate suggestion came courtesy of Fran Haugen, whose fix has been dubbed “The Fran Plate” around Town Hall. "I'm pleased the idea was acted on,” Haugen said. “That was very gratifying.”Godfrey Road spans Class II wetlands, where a handful of beavers live and dam. A vessel of choice had long been the old culvert near Quail John Road. Initial jury-rigged attempts at blocking off beavers' access were unsuccessful, and a sizable clog developed.
About three weeks ago, foreman Doug Stone arrived with a backhoe and a large log to ram through the debris, and the washed out road beneath Stone's wheel buckled. The Selectboard, fearing worse could happen, acted swiftly and voted to trap and kill the beavers. The decision prompted vociferous opposition among many townspeople, special meetings, several delays, some creative thinking, and now, the final beaver repriever. The dilapidated culvert, which some say posed a safety risk even without the beavers, now has a plastic culvert around it. The opening has since been effectively fenced to keep the beavers out, and Stone's daily visits amount to removing a little mud and some grass. The Selectboard has been paying midnight visits to keep an eye on water levels. Since the washout, all's been quiet on the Godfrey Road front. The plate installation will require continued monitoring of the area, and Tillinghast said the grant money would include a flow control device that would act as a beaver deterrent. The new, bigger culvert, which may arrive as soon as June, is expected to be more beaver-friendly. As for the plate, the chairman is pleased with the outcome. “We are preserving this long-term ethic Thetford has that we live among wildlife,” Tillinghast said, adding that respectful discourse fueled a favorable outcome. “We really didn't want to kill the beavers.” The hefty number of the wetland-dwellers in the area and beyond surely means more human-beaver conflict down the line, but officials and residents have done their homework and now know what to expect. “It's not a fait accompli,” Haugen said, “but it's certainly looking good.”

some snow early sunday and some more late last night

and this isn't really a poem, i just write this way

at 6 pm saturday night
out back i saw the small rain,
the pale light spring rain
a curtain of fine rain

the sun had slipped below clouds
and shining through the drops,
lit them like some rain of gold.

i ran to the front
looked to the east
to the field and hills
and there it was... a rainbow!

entranced, absorbing its magic
i...but where's my new camera!
ran back
and the rainbow was gone.
------
at 6 am sunday morning
out front i saw white blossoms
of may...no no
what's falling is ...snow.

a surprise gift for sunday's early risers
the meditators and turkey hunters
later in the morning we meet at the store
buying coffee we smile at each other

did you get your turkey?
did you get enlightened?
did you see the snow?

we smile like people who share a secret
the secret that the world is wonderful
sacred
unpredictable
and we are part of it


clouds at play today 
click to enter picture :-)

maybe i can teach it to recite my cell phone # which i keep forgetting

my tinnitus has learned

the tune of my cell phone alarm
that wakes me each morning

friday after work

friday, after work
something softens
unclenches
relief from some tightness
some holding together
you breathe

like when school ends for summer
your last cancer treatment
or you wake with no fever
or leave your abuser
your project completed
you ace the performance
drive home thru the blizzard

now unclench,
let your guard down,
and open your heart,
take your time,
smile

and why not live there?

why not live at Friday after work?
why not live at breathe deep,
school's out, fever's gone?
why not leave the guard down,
heart open,
time pliable?

oh no
i couldn't possibly
or could i?

strange happenings in second life

recently, in early april, a major dramatic erasure occurred in Rodeo. As part of the loss, the Eleanor Theatre, home of The Show Must Go On, was destroyed, and objects there returned to the inventory of whoever owned them. as Salazar Jack reported "The officers of the Phyneas Jack Memorial Trust have begun deliberations on how to proceed following the dramatic erasure that occurred in Rodeo recently. As of this morning Linden Lab has stated that, “...we cannot complete your rollback request. Region [Rodeo] is a mainland island and rollbacks are only able to be performed on private islands." The Trust continues its' own investigation into the incident and will be providing its' data and findings to the Trust group as soon as possible."

stored backstage in the theatre, before everything went boom, was an object that i was the nominal owner of  -- the large particle accelerator Osprey had made for her nearly nude dance number. this came hurtling back into my inventory. it's really hers, but she assigned it over to me so i could move it out on the stage while she stripped down to a few strings. (must be string theory).

 i was concerned about having such a dangerous object in my inventory, so to get rid of it, and allow others to admire its beauty, i set it up in a field belonging to a friend of mine. here's a picture of it, altho it looks much prettier if you can see it spinning. i had complained to osprey, but her reply was this:
"Oh, dear! Did I somehow make it so that you had to own that incredibly dangerous piece of machinery so you could move it for my act, then just now returned it to you so it now festers in your inventory instead of mine? SO SORRY! I'm not sure how that happened!
*covers smile with hand while pretending to be surprised*"

hmmph. well now it was on Karuna's land. where it spun prettily until sometime last saturday when apparently Karuna's land went BOOM too, and this hole in the ground, this is all that is left! (there was a lovely 3 story house there, hills, a field, a swimming pool...all gone!) a rollback may be possible here, as it is private land. here's how it looks now:

coincidence? you be the judge.

500 Linden 3rd prize (enough for great hair, shoes, or even a gown!)

some of mudpie's notes for haiku are already on this blog somewhere, but mudpie put together 4 and submitted to a Community Virtual Library (Second Life) poetry contest and won 3rd prize of 500 Lindens.  You've one third prize in the CVL Poetry Contest for "Notes For Haiku"  I'll be sending you $500 L in SL tomorrow or later tonight.

notes for haiku
by mudpie mornington

drum is cracked
still sounds
can't be repaired

gorilla mother carries dead baby
shakes it now and then
it has not decomposed

water stain on the ceiling
has no shape no message
that is the message

small snow trail track ends
in strange sweeps and ripples
blood and a feather

http://infoisland.org/2010/04/20/library-news-events-april-23-29/