A Summer BBQ

Summer BBQ
(Total reading time 1 minute)

Nothing says summer like weekend barbecues with friends and family. Labor day weekend has always been a time for people across the United States to get together one last time before the morning school bell rings.

Boxes of frozen superstore hamburgers and hot dogs keep people at ease.
Then the real food is served.
Slow cooked pork pulling away from the bones it was once attached to.
Ribs swimming in secret sauces.
The cold salads featuring the carbohydrate of your choice.
Dressed in a mayonnaise based recipe.
Ahh summer.

Near there is always a cooler long retired from fishing trips.
Its color is slowing fading
Beaten up by the sun,
Its inside stuffed with cubes of cheap bagged ice,
Sodas and a of beers.

The sun falls from the sky above
One person begins to leave,
and then the next.
Left overs are sandwiched between paper plates
wrapped in foil.
Empty bottles of beer are gathered for recycling.
The propane runs low,
The grill begins to cool.

So long summer.

Thats all I have to say.
Peter Weis

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Vocabulary Words

Vocabulary Words To Work On.
(Total reading time 2 minutes)

Over the last few days I read book no 25 on my goal towards 40. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens brought my streak of novellas to an end. Of course I had heard the story before but this is the fist time I actually read it straight  from the source. I enjoyed but at times got a bit lost in the dialect of the time. More importantly it made me realize my vocabulary sucks. So here are few words I came across and wrote down for further exploration. Enjoy: Words with friends any one?

Vocabulary Words:

• Prodigiously – remarkably great in size.
• Bade – This past tense of bid.
• Procuring – obtain or get with care.
• Penance – voluntary self punishment.
• Faltered – to lose strength and or momentum.
• Feeble – lacking physical strength.
• Plume – along feather worn for ornament. (Think peter pans hat)
• Pitch-and-toss – a gambling game were some one tries to throw a coin as close as possible to a mark. (Personal note: I did this in junior high school for quarters)
• Ruddy – having a red healthy color.
• Petrification – a state of extreme fear that renders a person still.
• Furrows – narrow trench in the grown.
• Filberts – a type of nut.
• Swoon – faint and overcome with emotion.
• Bristling – short stiff hair.
• Gruel – similar to oatmeal.
• Incredulous – unwilling or un able to believe something.
• Infernal – a characteristic  of hell.
• Breeches – short pants.

Hope you learned something from this long list of scrabble words.

Thats all I have to say.

Peter Weis

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An Afternoon Post

An Early Afternoon Post.
(Total reading time 2 minutes)

Right now would be the perfect time to write my blog post. It is just after 2pm in the after noon. It is a Saturday in which the sun is playing hide and go seek with the blanket of passing clouds. Every once in a while the sky sheds a few tears but doesn’t open up to tell us why. The vertical blinds I stare through imprison me until the clouds pass.

Usually I write at night in a frantic foot race between me and every last second of the day. My mind wanders through the days events, searching for a topic to reflect on, then I write.

At this moment my friend Mr. Coffee is warming up in the next room. In the last year that we have known each other we have found great respect in our friendship. I keep him clean, and he makes me shots of dark lethal expresso. Since I started the postaday2011 challenge I do drink coffee more often although I’m still not sure why, Coffee is like a bad conversation, that just doesn’t get to the point. Expresso is fast and direct like a 40 cent text message on old mobile phone. I love the black aroma of sweetened caffeine stirred together till it turns a syrupy consistency. Speaking of which my friend is getting a bit steamy. I better go before his pressure gets to high.

My good friend Mr. Coffee.
Thats all I have to say.
Peter Weis

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Its An Early Night

It’s early.  The clock at the top right of my mac book pro reads 10:21.  It has been a while since I just sat with my finger tips hunched over the keys.  Typing with no preconceived direction other then to complete my post for the night.  I have begun my usual free writing routine.  The classical sounds of WQXR, a new york city radio station, ease out of tiny on board lap top speakers.  The music catches a breeze from the slow circulation of air in the room and creeps its way into the auditory canal of my ear and then stop as it dissipates in my brain.  As I listen more I beginning to type slower.  The alpha state is not to far away.  My breathing is beginning to slow from the Sousa march of a caffeinated beta state to slow adagio.  Barber’s Adagio for strings build to a slow crescendo that screams of passion. With a generous bit of reading and a glass of Hershey’s chocolate milk, bedtime might come early.

Thats all I have to say.

Peter Weis

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Everything’s Eventual by Stephen King

14 Short Stories by Stephen King
(Total reading time 2-3 minutes)

I finished reading the book Everything’s Eventual by Stephen King last night.  Weighing in at over 450 pages this one took me a bit longer then I would have liked to get through it.  Prior to the last Stephen King book I had read was Full Dark No Stars, also a collection of short stories.  It took me a story or two to adjust to his writing style.  Switching from books by Dan Brown and Paulo Coelho to something written by Stephen King is like adjusting to the change in the season. 70 degrees and sunny is’t that hot, but after a long windy winter of snow and  cold temperatures in the 30’s-it feels like a day in Key West, FL.

The stories go from creepy to funny. Sometimes while reading them you’ll laugh and snicker, other times you be reading, scratching your leg and tuning in to every creak the walls make as the house expands and contracts.   Then their are the characters that King employs to tell the stories: Poor hotel maids, suicidal sales man, bank robbing gangsters, a man on an autopsy table, crazed cr, married couples and of course a troubled writer or two, to name just a few.  And then their are the other things that you don’t even know how to explain like hotel room 1408.

My must read stories of the collection:
L.T.s Theory On Pets – a must for pet lovers and couples.
Autopsy Room Four – a story that starts in a body bag can only get better.
Lunch At The Gotham Cafe – its cool just for the cursing alone.
Riding The Bullet – Hitch hiking in Maine, need I say more.
The Death Of Jack Hamilton – Bank robbing bad guys Stephen King style.

I hope you get to enjoy these as much as I did. If you like this you may also like his latest collection of short stories Full Dark No Stars.

Thats all I have to say.
Peter Weis

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The End Of The Night

Now. The end of the night.
(Total reading time 1 minute)

It is now 2:23AM. My eyes are heavy with the weight of a long day. The dryer in the in the next room hums quietly, warming a blanket that will soon cover my body as it sleeps. The house creaks, settling into place. A smoke alarm chirps every now and then as a reminder to pick up two double A batteries tomorrow while I am out enjoying the day with my wife. The fans on my computer whirl. The dust particles trapped inside shout, “It’s a twister, It’s a twister” while the air around it gets sucked through cooling the components inside.

The taste of dinner has settled in my stomach hours ago leaving a craving for a sweet ending. Remnants of the dark, creamy glass of Guinness Stout I had with dinner still linger on my tongue.

The dryer has stop. A warm blanket calls me. The fragrance of sweet fabric softener passes under my nose.

Its time to call it a night.

Thats all I have to say.

Peter Weis

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How To Describe A Headache In A 100 Words Or Less

The Headache
(Total reading time less then 1 minute)

The pain traversed the back of my head. At times it moved. It would jump up and down above my eye like an angry toddler displaying a fit while its embarrassed parent waited online at a crowded supermarket. The pain wasn’t sharp like being cut with a knife or pinched quickly. It was dull, like dry dirt in the hot sun, throbbing and cooking everything beneath it. I shut my eyes searching for momentary relief and realize that sleep can be my only salvation.

Thats all I have to say.

Peter Weis

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Some Things I Like

The good stuff.
(Total reading time 1-2 minutes)

A book I am reading suggests that I should write a page in my journal about things I like. Since I have begun the postaday2011 challenge this blog has become my journal. Leave me a comment at the bottom and let me know some of the things you like.

Some Things I Like: (In no special order)
Sitting and listening to music.
Going for walks to nowhere.
Red Velvet Cupcakes.
Chocolate chip cookies.
A Glass of wine or two.
Cooking and enjoying a meal with family.
Playing with dogs and cats.
Warm bread.
Smelling flowers.
Running in the park or on the beach.
Swimming.
Taking road trips with my wife.
Reading.
Smoking a cigar now and then.
Watching movies.
Wandering through the library.
Organizing my computer.
Recording new sounds.
Hot dogs and opera, the ultimate night out.
Apple computers.
Washing my hands.
Things that smell good.
Growing tomatoes.
Sitting on the beach and listening to the water.
Comfortable socks.
Push ups and pull ups.
Holding hands with my wife.
Day dreaming.
Bike riding.
Hiking in the fresh mountain air.
Cuban Coffees in Miami.
The sun.
Thunder.
Competition.
Saving money.
Royalty checks.
Learning.
Writing music.
Living with integrity even when it can be difficult.
Steam.
Walks through a vineyard.
Standing in a field of sunflowers.
Looking up at the stars.
Cruises.
The American Flag.
Patriotic music.
Martin Luther King Jr.
The things that make people unique.
Pulled pork.
Sweat Shirts.
The music of Aaron Copland.
Freshly squeezed grape juice.
Getting the mail in the morning from the mailbox.
Paypal.
Google.
Taking pictures with hats on that I never buy.
Walking through little Italy in New York.
Fried mozzarella and fresh marinara sauce.
Making fresh pasta.
Quoting lines from the movie Air Plane.
Ben and Jerry’s Ice cream.
Halogen lights.
Windows.
Fresh root beer.
Loud music.
Falling asleep.
Days with out headaches.
My weber grill.
The sound of live instruments.
Hot water.

What are some of the things you like?

Thats all I have to say.

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For Writers Only by Sophy Burnham. A Quick Review

For Writers Only
(Total reading time 1-2 minutes)

For Writers Only is a book by author Sophy Burnham. The 200 page book features a collection of quotes from various writers.  Filled with inspirational and practical thoughts for situations every writer will face. Some chapters were more interesting then others.
Some topics included: where to write, when to write, how long to write, productivity, dealing with editors, writing for an audience, money, re-writing just to name a few.  If you have not read “Writing Down The Bones” I would pick that up from the library before this. One major problem I had with the book was the way the pages were set. Every left page would be filled with quotes, every right page text from the chapter. For the first few pages I thought it was kind of neat. It quickly got annoying though, as I would find my self either  continuously interrupting the flow of one thing to read another before I turned the next page.  I think a better choice would have been to place all of the quotes at the start or end of the chapter or work them into the actual writing better to create better continuity for the reader.

My favorite quotes from the book:

“When I work I relax; doing nothing or entertaining visitors makes me tired.”
Pablo Piccasso

“Work chooses the man”
Frank O’Connor

“We write in secret, either for publication or for a journal no one will see, or we write poems to be privately printed for the eyes of friends alone –this is not our choice. The urge is to create. The outcome belongs to God.”
Sophy Burnham

“If you need to tempt yourself to reach a personal goal , the goal may not be worth reaching. What you do instead of your real work is your real work.”
Roger Ebert

“Easy reading is damned hard writing.”
Nathaniel Hawthorne.

Peter Weis

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A Kiss

A Kiss
(Total reading time 2-3 minutes)

She stood there. Her head was tilted back slightly. The air circulated through her hair. It wasn’t warm but wasn’t cold. The temperature teetered between seasons unsure which way to go. The moon reflected her hopes and dreams on the lenses of her glasses. “Just breathe” she thought.

A three quarter length freckled gray jacket hid her brown dress. The top few buttons of the coat were open. Her neck laid open waiting for the sensual touch of a warm kiss. The two rings on her left hand surrounded her finger with the kind of electricity only the love between two people could generate. She felt her hand become warmer from its charge.

Her husband walked up slowly behind her easing his arms around her body. She thought instantly of the way he held her on their wedding day. After more than six years she could still remember every detail. His arms held her closer. She breathed more relaxed continuing to gaze up at the full moon.

He looked at the side of her neck inhaling the scent of her skin into his lungs. Thin translucent clouds traversed the moon slowly. His lips touched her neck two inches below her ear. The softness of his kiss passed through her skin. It traveled instantly through her bloodstream in opposite directions. She felt a surge of memories rise into her consciousness and flood her thoughts with memories for just a second. The first time they nervously kissed leaning on a neighbors tree. The way he held her hand as they walked home from school in perfect sync. The moment on the alter when they embraced for the first time as husband and wife while family members collected falling tears in tissues and handkerchiefs. At the same time the kiss fell downward like the notes of a cascading harp ending the scale in the center of her heart.

God is love. His power radiated out from between them in every direction.

The moon looked down on them. The stars became voyeurs anticipating what would happen next.
With out looking down she found his hand and joined it with hers and whispered as if the moon and stars wouldn’t hear.

“I love you”

“I love you too”

If you liked this you might also like these other posts from my blog.

A Bed Time Story
Only 51 Days Till Spring
The House Is Quiet
Every Boy Should Have A Dog

Thats all I have to say.

Peter Weis

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