Mid-November. Leaves down. Cold nights. Brisk days. Time changed to Daylight Savings Time.
Each of those signs point to the Saddest Day of the Year. That’s the day when my husband (Al) closes up
his Man Cave.

With Covid-19 variants continuing to rise up and spread, I find myself considering some positive things about this pandemic. It’s not easy, but rounding the corner to Year Two, this exercise seems necessary for me.

I started practicing yoga in June 2015. At first, it was just a couple days a week, practicing
because I wanted/needed a way to calm my mind after my husband’s cardiac arrests and during his
recovery.

If you want to study the changing seasons, live on a lake.

Summer sunsets land differently from Wintertime sunsets, and the sky seems thinner when it is cold. Clouds often are gray in the winter, but perhaps that is a trick of the eye...no green leaves or blue water to serve as a counterpoint.

I recently attended a Zoom workshop that was part of the 2021 Winter Wheat Mid-American Review Festival of Writing (https://casit.bgsu.edu/winterwheat/ ). My workshop was led by award-winning journalist and fiction writer Terena Elizabeth Bell (http://terenabell.com/ ), who challenged attendees to create two characters. One character tells everything about her/him/them-self—the other character says nothing. The goal was to determine if it is possible to know more about the silent character.

It’s just after 5:30 in the morning, and the weekday freight train is coming.

Even before the whistle blows I hear metal wheels turning across track. Then—right after the whistle fades away—coyotes begin to answer.

At this time of the year, when most leaves have come down and no longer cushion sounds, it all seems very close. The sun rising over the lake. The train running east to west. The coyotes.

In military terms, “falling back” is akin to retreating. Professionally—a “fallback” plan is a Plan B...another option when the first option does not work out as anticipated. Fall back can also be thought of as the debris that rains down after an explosion.

Late October. Rain has taken a pause and the sun is out. November is less than a week away.

And I have an opportunity to make a quick trip to Beckwith’s Apple Orchard in Kent, Ohio.

Thank you for being your typical splendid self. You flaunted your red, golf, and orange leaves a little more slowly this year—due to warmer-than-usual weather—but you made up for that deficiency with fabulous sunsets, great cloud displays, and cool nighttime temps that created optimum sleeping environments.

Children in my universe love poetry. In particular, they love my new book of poems: The Galloping Garbage Truck.

If you are looking for a book of poems for the little person in your life, I hope you will consider The Galloping Garbage Truck as a little book that packs in a wealth of positive, optimistic messages. From Kelsay Books...

As 2020 churned forward, I found myself unable to do much writing. By the end of the year, I had written only two poems...one about the pandemic (“Blue Jean Blues,” dedicated to ZZ Top and published in *Raw Data: Living in the Fallout From the Coronavirus) and the other a poem of protest.

What a fabulous time to hike. Minimal bugs. Fewer weeds. Spectacular leaf colors. Cooler weather. Everything about fall hiking appeals to me. And—in Northeast Ohio—there are many, many hiking trails available. The Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Metro Parks Serving Summit County. Cleveland Metro Parks. Easy trails. Challenging trails. Short and lengthy. What’s not to love?

I love a road trip. A driving road trip (although hopping aboard Amtrak to anywhere is also a delight). At just over 3 hours by car from where I live, Fort Wayne, Indiana, is a perfect road-trip destination. It’s a pretty city with obvious appeal. The Riverfront area, Foellinger-Freimann Botanical Conservatory, art museum, numerous festivals (including a pickle festival!), hiking and biking trails, and much more.BUT...most captivating of all........

Sweetwater.

In early summer—when I still thought that this could be the year when I became an avid gardener (once again...didn’t happen)—I planted dill, parsley, and rosemary in a giant pot on my front porch. Although all of these herbs thrived, my ambition to become a better cook also largely failed, leaving these herbs to proliferate with little harvesting on my part.

In Author Stephen King’s 2005 commencement address at the University of Maine, he urges graduates to “Stay in Maine. Stay in Maine. Stay in Maine.”

After visiting Maine in August of this continuing COVID year, I am urging everyone to “Go to Maine. Go to Maine. Go to Maine.”

What a remarkable, beautiful, wild place. From dense forests to a rocky coastline to a great food scene to friendly people, Maine is a welcoming place. I can hardly wait to go back.

Parrot Literary Corner
Episode 151: Glancing Through the Literary Binocular of Pam Anderson

Guest: Pam Anderson

Host: Dustin Pickering

Poetry Reading at Last Exit Books in Kent, Ohio

I met Brooke Horvath in the early 90’s when I was working on my MA in English Literature. He was a professor at Kent State University who was asked to teach a class after the initially assigned prof bailed. On that first day of class—having already bought (and read) each all of the 12 assigned books for the class—I was dismayed to meet (1) a professor I did not know...who was (2) teaching something for which I had limited interest (post-modern fiction)...and who had (3) a long list of completely different books than those I had read.

On September 11 and 12, more than 100 bicyclists will pedal along the Ohio-Erie Canalway Towpath Trail to log 101 total miles. The ambitious riders will include my husband and my daughter: Al Bartholet and R.E. (Lysa) Anderson, riding as “Team Buttheads: Cheeky Riders.” I will not—repeat not—be with them; rather, I will be waiting at the end of the line to cheer with other spectators as they drag themselves across the finish line.

Headlands Beach State Park is fantastic.

With a mile-long sandy beach along the shore of Lake Erie, the Headlands attracts families and picnickers as well as people (like my husband and me) who like to hike at the adjacent state nature preserve or stroll along for no particular reason than to cuddle up to some waves and water.