The grass around the valley is tender and green in places that went unwatered during the late summer drought but is still brown and rough where it was watered up to the end of the season. Metaphors, anyone?

this afternoon the sky is somewhat overcast and it's cooler than it has been for the last little while. It's been a beautiful spring to go with that long, cold winter we had here in Sanpete. My students had a rough time last week with the spring fever and transition, roughhousing and getting generally loud. Now they're dazey with the transition to daylight savings time. I think we all miss that wee hour. Now if they'd wake up just a little bit, perhaps we could end the school year with some credit earned...

Eahhh, what the heck. Might as well write something down. Today is parent-teacher conference day here at North Sanpete High. I've had one parent so far, the rest of the day has been pretty quiet.

I don't feel like i am doing all i can do to make this a beter world. Just not enough energy, not enough time. I am at one of those times where i feel like there is something that has to change pretty quick in my outlook and daily life. I've got to find a new outlet and input to keep my body coursing through the cycles of day and night.

The world is so different nowadays. There is much to distract attention away from what affects the soul from the standpoint of the family and community while there is much from the press that reflects the huge amount of human drama that comes from all parts of the globe. Sort of a push-pull tug of war going on with the emotions. What is the result. I guess you could ask me some other day, when i have enough energy to plumb that depth. There is something there, i know it.

Spring: Day Two. The sun is out and the jet contrails streak across the sky like banners of celebration, the mountains shine in their shrouds of unbroken snow and i feel the warmth like caramel syrup on my favorite ice cream. Not long from now the crocus will break and bloom, and i will feel like drinking coffee with friends at an outdoor table.

Speedometers are odd things. The 'runner is all fixed and running like unto a fine top, but the speedometer is still making grumbling sounds at me. Rotten thing. We put in a new cable ($65) and another used speedometer ($50) and it is still un-silent. i'm gonna just have to get used to it for a while, i'm sure the solution will come in time. Patience with annoying noises is something i have had trouble develping up to now, wish me luck and sanity.

My friend Marcus has just put up a new site for his good wife Melinda as an advertisment for a business they have been doing on a small scale for quite a while. They buy quality used furniture to recondition and paint with colorful and original schemes and sell it at affordable prices. Their work is really fun and quite beautiful. Check out their site! (It's under construction right now, of course)

Sorry if you have come to this site and encountered the presence of three identical entries. i am trying to get rid of at least two...

cut and paste was so much easier with paper and mucilage.

have a good first day of spring!

prescience and news from afar,

the hinterland of the human mind creates a place within

some space-

yours and mine and theirs and ours is

ours and if we could turn down that rumbling

covering those beautiful voices i might remember to

ignore those that put dark brown drip stains on my four white cups.

so i look to the spring and cherish the amnesia of this dark and

buried winter

in a cave

and i'm sure as you're sure

that had we time and a place within some

space, the coming spring might

bloom.

and as the primrose isn't on our level concious

of its influence on my dreams

(or of its own saturated beauty?)

this season will beget a song

that can't be covered by even the most

grumbling grey noise rumbling in this heart

in this cave;

do you hear it? do you know it?

We went to my wife's Grandad's funeral yesterday. Earl Sistrunk, known to our generation as 'Papa,' was born in Mississippi in 1917 and died in Salt Lake City just last Friday.

He was quite a man, his ilk grows rarer by the day now. He served in Coast Guard previous to WWII and served in the Merchant Marine during the War, the Korean War and Vietnam. Earl specialized in ocean-going steam ships of every power as first and second engineer. Rough work, hot and noisy, with long hours. During the War he saw many sister ships sunk as his steamed on, sure that his was next.

His favorite work, though, was being a father to a couple of very good children, one of whom is mother to my beloved Diedre.

Not a bad run, if you ask me.

Vaya con Dios, suene con los angeles, Papa.

i have been attempting some feeble "informed" writing these days. Nothing has merited posting as yet. My brain isn't retaining and retrieving facts and figures as well as it did when i was in school or less encumbered by child-care cares. I think that as i focus on this more it will start flowing, and i look forward to developing more desire to read and research. This is what i am thinking about right now.

It's a grey day here in Sanpete. Overcast and still, all is silent and waiting for the gales to rend moisture from the northern sky. Even the mud is stuck between frozen and oozy muck, the valley waits for something to start.

What's it like where you be?