My favorite poem of all time ....

Lock the Door, Lariston

Lock the door, Lariston, lion of Liddesdale,
Lock the door, Lariston, Lowther comes on.
The Armstrongs are flying, the widows are crying,
Castletown is burning and Oliver is gone!
Lock the door, Lariston, high on the weather gleam,
See how the Saxon plumes they bob on the sky.
Yeoman and carbinier, billman and halberdier,
Fierce is the foray and far is the cry!

Why d'you smile, noble Elliot o' Lariston?
Why do the joy candles gleam in your eye?
You bold Border ranger, beware of your danger,
Your foes are relentless, determined and nigh!
"I have Mangerton and Ogilvie, Raeburn and Netherbie,
Auld Sim o' Whitram and all his array,
Come all Northumberland, Teesdale and Cumberland
Here at the Breaken Tower end shall the fray."

Scowled the broad sun o'er the links o' green Liddesdale,
Red as the beacon-fires tipped he the wold,
Many a bold martial eye mirrored that morning sky,
Never more oped on its orbit of gold.
See how they wane the proud files o' the Windermere.
Howard! Ah woe tae your hopes o' the day.
Hear the wide welkin rend while the Scots shouts ascend -
"Elliot o' Lariston! Elliot for aye!'

Wow, it's been a long time since I wrote a blog entry. So much has happened. For one thing, I moved to Sheffield Lake, Ohio. About 2 years ago! Man, does time fly....

In the last two years, since sooo much has happened, I'm going to write only the best and the worst thing. One each. (International Feel Sorry For Yourself Day was months ago.)

Best Thing That's Happened in the Last Two Years: I am finally working on my Six Sigma Black Belt. That has been a goal of mine since 2000. I'm going to training in Germany with our parent company and that's a bonus.

Worst Thing That's Happened in the Last Two Years: My mom died of Alzheimers on June 17th.

There have been a lot of other things that have happened: I finally got to China (twice); I love my new house; I lost 70 pounds on Nutrasystem last year; then I gained 80 pounds back during a particularly stressfull first quarter of this year.

My son is now 11 years old! That's him in the picture (dressed as an umpire) during a school play back in May.

And so, life goes on . . . .

Durand, MI -- Attempts at rehabilitation of the violent chinchilla responsible for the senseless attacks on the puppy, Boadie, have so far proven ineffective.  Chinchi (a.k.a. Chinzilla; a.k.a. Pellet Master; a.k.a. Mistress Pellet) stalks Boadie and lunges at her whenever the opportunity presents itself.  Fortunately the prison warden and deputies keep a close eye on her behavior and apprehend her before she is able to pull of any more sneak attacks.

Fortunately for Chinzilla, the warden and deputies are the worst kind of bleeding heart liberals imaginable.  Convinced that they will, in time, be able to return his hardened criminal to society, they continue to work tirelessly toward that day.

Ladies and Gentlemen,  our word of the day is Stagnant.

Stagnant:   (adjective) motionless; uncirculating; still; inactive; dead

Used in a sentence:  The Durand, MI housing market is stagnant.

What I like about the word "stagnant" is not its definition, but its connotations.  It's a word full of thick, clinging decay.  The word fills my mind with images of humid swamps where the only things moving are the mosquitos.   The word brings with it the sense of straining to lift your foot out of the cloying muck only to plunge it back into the reeking, sticky mud inches in front of you before fighting the sucking death to pull free your other foot -- to take another slow, exhausting step forward, lest you pause too long and become trapped in the ooze forever.

Right now, that's how the housing market in Durand is making me feel.  Like we paused there just a breath too long and now our feet are mired deep in the silty, fetid bottom. 

That having been said, someone please come and buy my house.  .  .   It's in a nice quiet neighborhood . . .

http://www.fotosearch.com/ARP115/mangrove/ -- thanks for the clip art