The odes, oddities, and O Deities of a world traveler

Ode to Lightning and Thunder

Lightning and thunder are supreme expressions of nature’s power. Lightning is overcoming the very considerable insulation capacity of air to such an extent that it can reach the temperature of the sun. It splits the very sky asunder and brings a deadly beauty to the world. Every lightning bolt is unique and yet similar.…
Did you know: Starsign

your birth sign is based on the constellation the sun is in front of when you were born?
In which I pet my brother

The directors of the Arboretum, where I spent a not-small amount of my childhood pretending I was an eagle making a nest, eventually retired and moved up to Colorado. As they were family friends, we would occasionally stop in to visit as we took trips around or past Dolores. On one such trip, we…
Did you know: Goose? Barnacle?

a medieval explanation for where geese went during winter had them turn into a kind of barnacle?
Ode to Dolphins

Dolphins are amazing creatures. They are so advanced psychologically that we suspect that they have their own language. The thing is, we can’t figure it out, so it is both a language and a code if they have it indeed. They are renowned to save people from drowning. They use tools and have complex…
Did you know: Beehive

Utah is the beehive state?
In which I dance in a cloak and Russian hat at the Torino Olympics

When we took a trip to the Olympics during my study abroad in Italy, because the Olympics were in Italy, so obviously, we did a few events together such as following the landlady through traffic on her bike, attending and being the loud obnoxious fans at Olympic curling (my request), and wandering the . Olympic…
Did you know: lunacle

the white crescent at the base of your fingernail is called a lunacle?