Monthly Archives: October 2024

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Studt’s again

Rake, huh? I thought, well, I am not sure if I have a picture of a rake.

But look! There it is! Along with the kids shooting corn bazookas at plywood farm figures. They must rake up the husks at night, ready for the next day of Studt’s Pumpkin Farm and Corn Maze, joyful, seasonal mayhem.

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: rake.

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Devil’s Kitchen and No Thoroughfare Canyon

Sunday a friend and I hike in the Colorado National Monument again. I have not run out of trails at all! Two trails. Up the Devil’s Kitchen shorter trail, which requires some clambering. Fabulous rocks and fabulous views!

Next the No Thoroughfare Canyon Trail. It has falls and a pool: here is the pool.

It is a bit dry at this time of year. We did not do the entire canyon: we’re both traveling this coming weekend, so we needed time to get ready. Packing and cleaning.

It’s hard to see the scale in photographs. The rocks on the ground are as tall as I am. And that is the trail, winding through those rocks. Did the rocks wash down from further up? They do not look like the surrounding hills. Those are some serious boulders for a seasonal stream to carry.

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: clamber.

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A nearby parcel

There is a parcel of land up the road from me. I noticed over the last couple months that it is blocked off so people cannot see in. But now I have been there: Studt’s Corn Maze and Pumpkin Farm.

Our Olympic Peninsula Corn Maze does not have a mechanical bull to ride, or Redneck Bazooka. There was also a kid game called jelly balls that had masks and guns, but I don’t think the guns actually fired at all. They just made noises.

There is a large hay slide, a large pumpkin patch and a very large corn maze. I found all the story sections but didn’t finish the mystery puzzle. There is an air filled bouncing place.

And a rather attractive petting zoo. Hurrah for the watchful goats!

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: parcel.

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All night vigil

Rainshadow Chorale is getting ready for our fall concert. Amazing music! One hundred pages of Rachmaninoff in Russian! I have been practicing remotely, using the recorded choral practices on Facebook, MP3s, language recordings, and my flute to practice tricky sections until they are earwormed into my brain.

The concerts are on Saturday and Sunday, three weekends from now, November 2 and 3, at First Presbyterian Church at 4:00 pm in Port Townsend, Washington. I leave soon to drive back there, cat and all. I think Sol Duc has learned some Russian too.

Here is one of the 15 parts. I like the title: Blessed Be the Man. It makes me think that this is Russian rap music. Actually, I think the whole thing sounds like angels singing in Russian. This is the first time I sing in Russian, but it’s the time that is particularly tricky. Rachmaninoff doesn’t care a bit about time signatures so some measures have eight beats, others twelve, others ten. Count, count, count.

I am using this for the Ragtag Daily Prompt: burgundy, both because of the poster colors and because the music and language is so rich and complex.

Come to the concert if you are anywhere near by!

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Strep A and Covid

In clinic we are seeing Strep A and Covid in the last two months, quite a lot.

Covid is all over the map with symptoms. One person had been traveling, did not feel well, but the main symptom was dry lips. Positive covid. Another was vomiting, with no upper respiratory symptoms. Some have diarrhea and upper respiratory symptoms. It interests me that flying home to Washington last month, only about three of us on the planes wore masks. I was one of them. I know people who have taken flights knowing that they have Covid, a day or two after diagnosed, so I can’t say that I trust the other people on airplanes. We are testing for Covid for almost any symptom or just feeling sick.

We are seeing Strep A as well. I saw a small child vomiting. I asked if her nose hurt: no. Throat: yes. Tummy: yes. Toes: no. She had strep A. The oldest person with strep A this week was ninety. She said, “How did I GET it?” Streptococcus is in the environment, including our throats. We may just carry it around, but then if we get overtired or stressed (good or bad stress) or have something happen, the strep can invade. We treat strep A mostly to prevent rheumatic fever, which is where our own antibodies to strep A attack us. I have seen three cases of rheumatic fever in my career. That is called a “pseudo autoimmune” disease. The strep A has cell surface markers that sometimes are close enough to ours that our own antibodies attack our body parts.

One person in the last month has a positive strep A. I write for penicillin and send her home. We call her later because the Covid/influenza/RSV test takes longer. She also has Covid! That seems like a bit much, rather unfair, but we can have two things. An initial infection can lower our immune defenses and another virus or bacteria gets hold.

Another person had tested negative for Covid, but that was four days before. Friday afternoon, so I would not get the results at home. I asked her to retest at home. Positive.

Here is the CDC page about Strep A. https://www.cdc.gov/group-a-strep/index.html

There are Strep B and C and D and so forth. Sometimes we pick them up on throat cultures. I treat if the person is still sick and symptomatic while the culture is in the laboratory.

I am wearing a mask in airports and on airplanes. I just don’t want to pick anything up, or at least do what I can to avoid it.

The photograph is Elwha in May 2023. I figure that you would rather see his tongue than mine.

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: strep.

I think the song might be off topic. I don’t care. Beautiful.

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Advertising alphabots

“The singular media and its plural medias seem to have originated in the field of advertising over 70 years ago; they are still so used without stigma in that specialized field. In most other applications media is used as a plural of medium. The popularity of the word in references to the agencies of mass communication is leading to the formation of a mass noun, construed as a singular.” From here.

advertising alphabots
hot bots with rotten lots
true crime creatively “reenacted”
big data theft unredacted

earbud earworm mealworm eely
faceNObook curated freely
grinning google amazons greed
hoary heads hawk hell few heed

i phone i watch i influence
a list j list jovial ents
kotkit koobecaf bookcafe
love light liberating libraray

magazine murmurs metaverse more
newspaper calls politician a whore
organic natural lab rat pores

play tape, CD, podcast album
quiet queens reject the pablum
radio radical rhetorical ram
spambot spammail spam yum spam

television treads traditional trust
unit united universe untie us
vehicle vroom driverless porn
walkman withers worms are worn

Xray googling exacerbates lies
you are the target of sales AI
zealous AIs algorize pi

_____________________________

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: media.

ChatGPT’s take: “This is a captivating piece! The blend of modern themes with a rhythmic structure creates a vivid commentary on technology and society. It’s playful yet sharp, tackling everything from advertising to data privacy. The way you weave together pop culture references and critique consumerism is particularly striking. Do you have any specific themes or ideas you’d like to explore further?” Nope. Thanks, ChatGPT. — See, Martha, I think ChatGPT has low tastes. It doesn’t understand sonnets and it probably loves limericks. We’d better test that theory.


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Alphabeasts

ambulating antelopes
bellies bearing beer
carrying cantelopes
deride damp deer

elegant elephants
feeling fitly fat
give generous gifts
handing hippos hats

ignorant iguanas
jealously jeer
keen kindly kites
lilting laughing leers

many merry meerkats
nearly never notice
one old orangutan’s
pompous pronouncements

querulous quail
reject reports regarding
shimmering snow snakes
tearing through tunnels

undulating ungulates
veer vivaciously
wondering why whales
xerox xylophones

yellow yaks yell
zip zap zoo!

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: zoo!

I wrote this sometime in the 1980s. My proof is the drawing by my mother. We had it in a show and hand colored with colored pencils. There is now a book with the same title by a Canadian author but it came later.

And hooray for the zoo! They are all asking for you!

Martha, what would the AI think of this poem? Heh. ChatGPT: “That’s a fantastic poem! I love how it captures the playful nature of alliteration and the whimsical imagery of animals. Each stanza has its own charm, and the ending with the β€œyellow yaks” is such a fun wrap-up! Did you create this as a fun project, or is it inspired by something specific?” Ok, so ChatGPT doesn’t get sonnets, but it likes nonsense poetry.