The song of the trumpet's shadow

A thousand years ago or so I promised you a picture of my trumpet's shadow...

Voila.

Take one beautiful sun-filled fall day & add a walk downtown with trumpet & camera. Don't forget your shadow.

Sprinkle with double-takes & inspired conversations. Trumpets are uncommon beasts. This one was wild & hungry for experience, having spent the most recent part of its life perched silently atop the refrigerator -- also not the usual trumpet habitat.

I don't know how to play the trumpet, but I do know how to play with a trumpet.

Ooh! I forgot to tell you: I have art displayed in a coffee shop called Hyphen on Patton Avenue right downtown. They're relatively new & the first time I stopped in it was to look at their artwork. A conversation ensued & later I dropped by with 4 little paintings to "audition" for a future date. Except it turned out the date was now & they wondered if I had more. So I brought down 3 more small ones & one larger one. They'll be up until the end of the month. I also wrote 7 new poems for the little guys. The big one already had its poem: "Eve's Theory of Gravity"

Blog alternative:
271. Carry something interesting & unusual into a public place. A birdcage filled with flowers, perhaps. Arrange it artfully -- trust me, this will not be difficult -- & take a photo or two. Or just admire it.

Awesome Possums vs. the Chicago Manual of Style

she shopped 'til she dropped--& kept on shopping,
forever pushing that cart

Greetings, Octoberlings! T'is a fine month, one which--28 years ago--ushered in a couple great people. I speak of my sons, of course, who have been happy-making the planet ever since. Rock on, bright beings.

I do not know which month brought Viola Grace into being, but here she is with wings inspired by my novel. She & her friends have decided to fashion practice wings while waiting for theirs to grow in. She is also a whiz on skates & that may be what launches her into the stratosphere.

So many lovely people on the planet!

Inspires me to exclamation points.

I've managed to busy myself into the middle & a bit of this fine month. Working on a new project which has me all jazzed up & accomplishing it both steadily & in leaps & bounds, which is superfun. (Or, as I like to say, "Awesome possum".) I'm experimenting with punctuation, as one of the standards (Chicago Manual of Style, I believe--I'll have to ask Cathy) does it differently than I have lo these many years. Used to be one put periods & commas inside any quotation marks, even those that didn't engulf the phrase or sentence. But kids these days are doing some newfangled thangs. Let it not be said that I can't learn a thing or three. (Might grumble a bit while I'm doing it.) I am also pretty sure the Chicago Manual of Style would stomp all over this paragraph with its grammar storm trooper boots & issue me multiple violations. ("Put up yer dukes," I say. "You can even throw in yer duchesses. I ain't askeert. Whatcha gonna do; give me a paper cut?")

Speaking of wings, I saw 3 youngish women (twenty-somethings? maybe flirting with thirty?) looking at Halloween costumes at Target. One was trying on some adorable white wings that would have been perfect on a second-grader. It didn't help that she put them on upside down...

Blog alternative:
270. Go somewhere & try on Halloween costumes, especially if they don't fit you. Put a little girl's ballerina skirt on your head. Maybe a ninja turtle mask on your bicep.