Recalls, Recollections and even Zeppelin-esque Xylophone Bands

Where to start?  How about with the important stuff:

I was told that some of these models were sold in our area – and there are 4.6 million nationwide being recalled:

http://news.yahoo.com/kidde-recalling-nearly-5m-disposable-130425246.html

It got me to thinking tonight about our own home safety, something we’ve not reevaluated since moving in two years ago.  Online, I found the City and County of Denver’s brochure on “Home Fire Safety.”  I found it very useful since it’s official, from a major metro area, well thought out and formatted, and because it covers our range of concerns:  “Maintaining and Using Home Smoke Alarms, Fire Extinguishers and Carbon Monoxide Alarms.”  Check it out - and make it happen in your home for your loved ones.

Recollections are easy today:

• We haven't gotten more than a couple inches snow since the turn of the year
• We do not build igloos and snowshoe to work like the folks in Boston (darn, I am SO very jealous, Mizz M)
• Mizz Ellen's humor has more sparkle than a fine wine, ever as witty as her own powerful spirit
• Wash DC.  The Beltway World.  Traffic and road rage.  Counting the minutes as we raced through the weekends.  Whiling away too much of my life on the commuter bus.  Snowmageddon in Feb. 2010.  
• Cedarville State Park.  Maryland's splendiferous state parks and their passionate volunteers.  Activity, Life in Motion.  Budd's Creek raceway.  Watching our boys grow into young men.

Lastly - but don't miss it - Anne Girl says it best:

     "...is this teacher a xylophone freak???"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYuOZnAqQCY

J.R. Acosta’s Riposte to J.R.R. Tolkien's Epigraph to The Lord of The Rings

Three Rings for the Pseudo-Platonic Politicians under the sky,

            Watch Wall Street’s follies, the sucking maelstrom of the

Military-Industrial Complex, and the spigot of Taxation Failure

Seven for the Cultural-lords in their halls of stone,

            Ponder gay rights, abortion haters, hate, greed, avarice,

mistaken pride, and the jaded train of expectations

Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,

            Too much, too lofty, never enough but usually just fine.

Snowstorm nights:  unexpected babies, arugula boxes for the rich,

dusted-off DVDs, calls to Mom & that long-unsought cousin.  A

dive into your dust-covered book, and reminiscing far afield.

One for Jester Lord Jose on his throne, a paper sun,

            Picture another space and time, where the One Ring confounds

and solves them all, where it all makes sense

In the Post-Industrial Land where the Shadows lie.

One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,

One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them,

In the Land of Complexity where the Shadows lie.

Misty Mountain Hopping

This poem is just a raw and poignant thought, that hit me while I drove the 15 quiet miles to a nearby town.  It’s not particularly good, even by my low standards.  But for once I offer no apologies.  

If we polish our every jagged emotion, refine each "OMG!" moment that hits us along the lonely highway, and over-analyze those songs we sing in our quiet moments, we’ll never experience naked honesty, Long live that that honest-to-God rock ‘n roll feeling!

Thanks, Carol ... “Jazz man, take my blues away …”

There I go,

   Watching the headlights flash by,

   Stark winter’s twilight coming down.

   Led Zep hums me along,

   And the world spins anew.

Paint it Colorful,

   Stairway’ing to Heaven,

   Open window blowing in unsought advice.

   This should be easy,

   But how can I absorb this moment?

Oh No, Oh No,

   Have I been gone too long,

   Working in a plastic world?

   Baby, is it the last time,

   Or do I get to sing my own new song?