Here are some pictures from the day after we received 50 cm of snow, with winds that left it a lot deeper than that where it drifted. On a clear day like the one shown, even the shadows in the snow are blue!
The poems in wordcurrents I wrote about the snow in latish December are based on this event.
The title of this post for December 15 is a play on CPAP, the acronym for Continuous Positive Airway Pressure. This is a device to overcome a condition called sleep apnea, in which the airway to the lungs is cut off during sleep. The device reminds me of Jonathan Swift's take on science: complicated silly invasive procedures applied to human problems.
Don't get me wrong: sleep apnea is a serious problem. But the apparatus you have to wear to solve it is silly-looking. Fortunately, it is worn in the privacy of your bedroom, and privacy should preserve one's dignity if one's spouse is not laughing too loud. I think comedians are missing a great sight gag here. Picture a huge clear plastic nose that you strap onto your face with a giant set of velcro-adjustable straps that hold it onto your head. Attached to that is a long corrugated plastic hose looking for all the world as if you are wearing a vacuum cleaner to bed.
Anyway, if this article does not convince you that I am serious, "See Pap" should.
Hmmm. Maybe I should write a poem about a guy who goes to bed with a vacuum cleaner on his face . . . .
Once again, I have posted a reading of one of my poems. This reading of "elephant waltz" is about two minutes long, in MP3 format. The file size is a tad larger than 2Mb. The poem is part of an experiment in rhythm. The rhythmic poems in this series are tagged under "rhythm" in the tag cloud at the bottom of the left column in wordcurrents. (Clicking on "rhythm" in the cloud, brings up excerpts from and links to all the poems with that tag.)
Here is a direct link to the reading: elephant waltz podcast
It turns out the problem was not a hacker, but some internal security software that accidentally identified me as a malicious fiend intent on destroying the blog and world peace or something. A great many conscientious bloggers who use this software were locked out of their own blogs. Here is a link to a discussion of the problem: Bad Behaviour
Yesterday's poem, which, because of the screw up, I was not able to post until today, is "garrison there", which deals with the issue of barricading ourselves against enemies who may be out there. I have included this poem in the Lotus Eaters series. That series continues later today (December 6) with "garrison here".
wordcurrents has been hacked. For the time being, I can neither post nor edit anything in the blog. If you try to post a comment, you will see an error message that says you can fix the error. Please do not try this procedure, as it will probably create more problems.
I shall post a note here when the error has been corrected.
