Public Posts Stanwood, WA Stanwood, WA (zoom)

As a writer of words,
a singular dread
is having song lyrics
stuck in my head.

I realize all the words
aren't correct or right,
but in my head, they
continue all night.

"Tell me something good
in this cold, cruel World.
Help me to understand,
love of a boy and girl.

Don't run away from me,
my love is here to stay.
Keep me close to you,
please don't push me away."

I know you are afraid
of losing our love
and I will pray, as I
ask for help from above.

I am up against
the wall of life,
as I worry now,
about my wife.
My loved one
asks me to stay
with her at night
and not go away.
Words rip my Soul
tear my chest,
my heart aches,
and is not at rest.

So, this is the new cycle,
of snow on the ground.
A white assassin,
is what has been found.

The new growth
of yellow Daffodils,
covered with snow,
as they try to bloom.

Cold conditions, with ice,
may kill off the blooms,
while new tulips appear,
retarded by the gloom,
of non-sunny days,
bringing heat to warm,
does little to bring the
climate back to norm.

Bright was the light,
dim was the scene,
when the end of sanity,
overtook the grand dream.

Long will I wander,
alone in the World,
as I search for my love,
amongst a heartache of swirl.

It was a great life,
now over in a flash,
as my mental partner's
memory turned to ash.

He was a man
of his own design,
gruff on the outside,
inside he was kind.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

This Navcam mosaic from Perseverance looks out over the car-sized rover's deck, across the floor of Jezero crater on Mars. Frames used to construct the mosaic view were captured on mission sol 354. That corresponds to Earth calendar date February 17, 2022, nearly one Earth year after the rover's landing. With a mass of over 1,000 kilograms, six-wheeled Perseverance is the heaviest rover to touch down on Mars. During its first year of exploration the rover has collected six (so far) rock core samples for later return to planet Earth, served as the base station for Ingenuity, the first helicopter on Mars, and tested MOXIE (Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment), converting some of the Red Planet’s thin, carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere into oxygen.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Beta Cygni is a single bright star to the naked eye. About 420 light-years away it marks the foot of the Northern Cross, famous asterism in the constellation Cygnus. But a view through the eyepiece of a small telescope will transform it into a beautiful double star, a treasure of the night sky in blue and gold. Beta Cygni is also known as Albireo, designated Albireo AB to indicate its two bright component stars. Their visually striking color difference is illustrated in this telescopic snapshot, along with their associated visible spectrum of starlight shown in insets to the right. Albireo A, top inset, shows the spectrum of a K-type giant star, cooler than the Sun and emitting most of its energy at yellow and red wavelengths. Below, Albireo B has the spectrum of a main sequence star much hotter than the Sun, emitting more energy in blue and violet. Albireo A is known to be a binary star, two stars together orbiting a common center of mass, though the two stars are too close together to be seen separately with a small telescope. Well-separated Albireo A and B most likely represent an optical double star and not a physical binary system because the two components have clearly different measured motions through space.

Photo by Robert Eder

This soup has beef and cheese in it along with onions, celery, and potatoes and It can be on the dinner table in about 45 minutes—very doable on a weeknight. Click to read the recipe

Do you love me,
as you said you did?
Is this a joke
used to rid
me of hope from you
of love in
a life askew?

Where is the love,
where is the joy,
of a relationship
between a girl and boy?

A swift coat
of fallen snow.
Nature's brush strokes
are the show.