Author Archives: lytspeed

Write about the horizon

By lytspeed Posted in Prompts, Science, Space, Writing Leave a reply

All for McNaught

The brightest comet in recent memory suddenly appeared in the sky a few days ago. Discovered on August 7th, 2006 by Robert McNaught in Australia, it has been hanging around the sun during mornings and evenings, becoming visible as light waned and waxed and then either dipping below the horizon or being drowned in the sun’s glare.

However, it surprised astronomers worldwide yesterday, by remaining visible in full daylight. Our chance to view the comet in the northern hemisphere is pretty much over now, but as the comet rounds the sun and slings itself back out into space, it will become visible in the southern hemisphere, much to the delight of its discoverer, I’m sure.

I should have made the effort to get up and see it some morning. The pictures look pretty astonishing. However, my energy simply hasn’t been there for that. I just finished the seventh day of my ten day stretch at work, and I’m already bound for overtime in the current week. As I write this, I’m yawning about every two minutes.

Write About Acceptable Losses

By lytspeed Posted in Prompts, Signs o' the Times, Writing Leave a reply

$4,500,000,000 per month. That’s roughly how much the United States is spending on the Iraq war. $54,000,000,000 per year. Going the other direction, that’s $1,125,000,000 per week. $150,000,000 per day. $6,250,000 per hour. $104,167 every minute. $1,736 every second.

Body counts are a little harder to come up with. Even conservative estimates indicate that more than 50,000 Iraqis have died since the beginning of the Iraq war, and over 3,000 U.S. military personnel have died. Ironically, December 25, 2006 marked the day when U.S. military deaths eclipsed the number of innocent people killed in the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.

Of course, if you’re George W. Bush, these are evidently acceptable losses. And with Bush intending to increase troops by more than 20,000 in the near future, we can expect the body counts in both categories above to rise.

I find it ironic that President Bush evidently found it unacceptable in March 2005 to lose Terri Schiavo, even though she was in a persistent vegitative state. He took time out from his vacation to fly to Washington specifically to sign into law a bill (the so-called “Palm Sunday Compromise”) transferring the Schiavo case jurisdiction into Federal custody in an attempt to prevent Schiavo’s feeding tube from being removed.

After her autopsy, Terri Schiavo’s brain weighed only half what it should have weighed had it been healthy. Clearly, her neurological damage was so great that her brain was literally withering away. And yet, losing her was unacceptable.

Evidently, in George Bush’s mind, the lives of thousands of American soldiers and tens of thousands of Iraqis are worth less than the life of one brain-dead Catholic.

Deep Subjects

By lytspeed Posted in Family, Humor Leave a reply

My wife and I talk about deep subjects. After taking some laundry out of the dryer tonight and, inevitably, finding one unmatched black sock, I got to wondering: Is there a Bermuda Triangle for socks?

“Yes,” my wife replied emphatically when I asked her.

“Okay, so if we accept the existence of a Bermuda Triangle for socks, does that mean we also need to entertain the possibility of a Bermuda Shorts Triangle?”

She just groaned and rolled her eyes. Okay, so this was not one of the deep subjects that we talk about. (Too bad, really. It seemed interesting to me.)

Usually, our deep talks have more to do with philosophy, psychology, children, science, music, esoterica, or history. We don’t always agree, but we do discuss, and I like that. One of my wife’s most impressive qualities is her intelligence, and I’m thankful almost every day for our mental connection.

Phoning It In

By lytspeed Posted in Writing Leave a reply

I was supposed to go to my writer’s group tonight. I had critiqued the manuscript for the session and even done the homework for tonight (which is always optional, but also always encouraged.)

So, what happens? I get my first migraine of 2007. It wasn’t too bad in the early afternoon, but then I spent two hours at Dave & Buster’s fixing a register while a corporate party was going on. Ugh. I love D&Bs, but between the loud games just off the midway bar and the louder corporate revelers, that pushed my headache off the charts.

I drove the few miles home, took some migraine medicine, clamped pillows on both sides of my head, turned out the lights, and somehow spiraled into sleep between waves of throbbing pain. When my wife woke me up for dinner, the migraine was still there, but food and hydration (and probably the meds) helped take the edge off.

My writing group will be finishing up in about fifteen minutes, assuming they are on schedule. I feel guilty for missing the group, especially since I had confirmed my attendance with the group’s mentor, Melanie Tem, a couple of days ago.

One thing I have learned over the last couple years, though, is that my health needs to come first. One scary incident in the ER with chest pain was enough to teach me that. I don’t think I would have enjoyed class tonight, and I doubt I would have contributed much to it. Add to that the blinding bright headlights that I would be facing on the way home, and I’m sure I made the right decision. (My migraine flared just imagining those headlights. Talk about being susceptible to suggestion!)

I did want to spend at least part of the class time actually writing, though. My headache is a dull roar, and I think I can eek out a few more words for my daily writing prompt exercise. So, I’m off to journal now.