Sunday, December 15, 2013

One sentence journal, Dec. 8–14


Time marches on . . .
Stormy weather

12/8, Sunday. Stormy weather, cold wind and clouds rolling over the mountains from the coast, with snow in the high elevations but dry here on the ground—living in a rain shadow.

12/9, Monday. Department of Where Has the Time Flown: Watching Johnny Mathis sing a Christmas song on The View this morning and remembering a concert in Chicago in 1961 when we were both in our 20s.

12/10, Tuesday. With the rest of the country and Canada in a deep freeze, it seems hardly right to complain about 38 degrees outside this morning, so I won’t.

12/11, Wednesday. Starting into chapter 1 of a western in German that begins: “Als Jim Whittaker über den Pass kommt, kann er das lange Tal unter sich bald immer besser übersehen.”

12/12, Thursday. A strip of half-inch weather stripping has finally found its way to the top of a door at the back of the house, and I’m waiting for the next cold snap to see if the room feels any warmer.

12/13, Friday. Edgar Allen Poe notwithstanding, the ravens here in the desert always sound to me like they’re laughing to themselves about something—and just like it’s gallows humor.

12/14, Saturday. Community Service Department: On walks in the desert, I’ve stopped picking up other people’s trash.


Image credits: Ron Scheer

Coming up: Alfred Wallon, Showdown in Abilene

5 comments:

  1. I like this idea but don't know if I can restrict myself to one sentence. I'm wordy'

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  2. Ravens in Winter by Bernd Heinrich is a fascinating book, even if the ravens are a bit far east- in Maine to be exact.

    "I like this idea but don't know if I can restrict myself to one sentence. I'm wordy"
    Get in training with subordinate clauses; semi-colons (and parentheses) are cheating.

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  3. Take a plastic bag with you, then you can keep your hands free while it fills up with trash. You're going to feel guilty if you stop. I shouldn't think a western in German has the same "relaxed" grammar feel to it that we expect in a western.

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  4. Ron, I didn't know about a western in German. The genre seems to have a following among non-American and non-English writers. I liked the Friday line.

    ReplyDelete