Contributor Posts

Lake Mead is the largest reservoir in the United States and supplies water to Millions of people across seven states, tribal lines and northern Mexico. Many of these areas are experiencing some level of drought.

Source: : NASA Earth Observatory. (July 2000, 2021, 2022) ... Read more

Rain splatters,
bouncing into
a fine spray.
Freshening air,
night and day.
Liking the Sun,
as I do,
the ground
is dry and
I am
missing you.

May the God of fate and destiny,
grant you the blessing
you so justly deserve,
for you are the light,
you are the Soul
of my own fulfillment.
Life is good.
Life is short,
so please be wise
and do not abort.

Words flow, by my ear.
Not nice words,
none, which I wanted to hear.
Why are words hurtful,
when thrown by a tounge?
Words when used by
the old and the young.
No longer current
but still used
by quite a few.
When discovered,
it's nothing, just Adieu.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Have you seen a panorama from another world lately? Assembled from high-resolution scans of the original film frames, this one sweeps across the magnificent desolation of the Apollo 11 landing site on the Moon's Sea of Tranquility. The images were taken by Neil Armstrong looking out his window of the Eagle Lunar Module shortly after the July 20, 1969 landing. The frame at the far left (AS11-37-5449) is the first picture taken by a person on another world. Toward the south, thruster nozzles can be seen in the foreground on the left, while at the right, the shadow of the Eagle is visible to the west. For scale, the large, shallow crater on the right has a diameter of about 12 meters. Frames taken from the Lunar Module windows about an hour and a half after landing, before walking on the lunar surface, were intended to initially document the landing site in case an early departure was necessary.

Fair winds, they blow
across meadows, wide
and late Spring snow
sliding down
the barren hill.
A whispering sound
of winds words urging
you to find shelter.

I awake,
words in
my head.
Write down
these words
before they
go away.
When they
are gone,
they're gone.
No matter
the need,
for they
will not
be there
for someone
to read.

Words pour out of this old head.
Many current, others from language dead.
Word flow is slow tonight.
Some days words appear rapidly.
I try to capture them, but hands
cramp when trying to write
in my notebook.
Words come without reason or
rhyme, which I prefer.
My mind is like a broken plow,
stuck in an old furrow, unable to
change direction. Inflexible?
or pre-occupied with other matters?
Who is to say? Writer's block?
Perhaps or just a mental staleness
that comes from existing in an
environment, not what I expected,
but which I chose to support my wife.

At dinner,
she sits across
from me.
I marvel at the
smoothness of her face.
All these years together
and I see her youthful
look. I know she has
aged, but so have I.
She is still the girl,
I married. She can no
longer care for herself
and resides in a Memory
Care Facility, since January 3rd,
of this year. I moved in to be
with her for support and
to provide closure on the
fear, she goes through every
day. If I am out of sight,
she will worry. She doesn't
need such issues as she
proceeds slowly toward,
full Alzheimer's.

"Americans see value in higher education ...... Most say a college degree is important, if not essential, in helping a young person succeed in the world......  While fewer than half of today’s young adults are enrolled in a two-year or four-year college, the share has risen steadily over the past several decades....... Even so, there is an undercurrent of dissatisfaction – even suspicion – among the public about the role colleges play in society, .... And these views are increasingly linked to partisanship....Read the full article 

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Beautiful spiral galaxy Messier 74 (also known as NGC 628) lies some 32 million light-years away toward the constellation Pisces. An island universe of about 100 billion stars with two prominent spiral arms, M74 has long been admired by astronomers as a perfect example of a grand-design spiral galaxy. M74's central region is brought into a stunning, sharp focus in this recently processed image using publicly available data from the James Webb Space Telescope. The colorized combination of image data sets is from two of Webb's instruments NIRcam and MIRI, operating at near- and mid-infrared wavelengths. It reveals cooler stars and dusty structures in the grand-design spiral galaxy only hinted at in previous space-based views.

Photo by Robert Eder

"Techno Tom was morosely stirring half a pint of sugar into his coffee, no doubt figuring the sugar blast would quadruple the jolt from the Diner’s caffeine.  Freddie Fairlane, one table over with the other Flatheads, the vintage car guyz, watched for awhile then moseyed over to sit at Tom’s table.  “You seem a little down in the mouth, amigo,” he said.  “Lose your best friend?” .... Read more