Poems

Ghost Town

108 Comments

A few lines of ultra-light verse for the Friday before Labor Day.

The Summer’s almost over now.
The season slipped away.
That’s why I’m leaving poems
on my schedule for today.

I’m leaving after lunchtime
and I won’t be back at all.
I’ve got a meeting to attend
due east of West St. Paul.

It has to do with hamburgers
and chips and cheese and beer.
A very urgent meeting, yes.
If not, I would stay here.

It’s all about the water
in the lakes where people play.
inflatable flotillas
might be launched. It’s hard to say.

I’ll have to handle worms today
and poles and fish and dirt.
It could get very messy.
I will have to change my shirt.

My sacrifice is willing.
As to that, please have no doubt.
That is why I’m leaving early.
I’ll be working. But I’m out.

Ever cut out early on a late summer Friday?

108 thoughts on “Ghost Town”

    1. I took the whole day off yesterday. Today my scheduled activity is experiencing a rain delay and may be postponed.

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      2. The Humane Society booth doesn’t bring in any animals for the Fair – just too overwhelming for them. There is a wall with photos of adoptable pets that people can peruse.

        The main goal is fundraising through product sales, mostly T-shirts and sweatshirts. Sales are slow as molasses when the weather gets warm. The best days for the till are the warm days that suddenly turn cool with a rain moving through – then everybody who came to the Fair in shorts and tank tops wants a sweatshirt.

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      4. Yes, in the Pet Center, with the dog stuff. The table iskind of in the middle facing north, next to the Bark Busters guy. The Bark Busters guy always brings his dog, Chase, and leaves Chase at our booth when he takes a break.

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  2. Hard to do that at my current job where, as a contractor, if I don’t put in the hours, I don’t get paid…but I have left early to take advantage of an afternoon and finished up my work hours after Darling Daughter has gone to bed. The blessing and the curse of my contract gig is that there is a rule goes something like this, “The number of hours thou shalt work in a Sunday to Saturday week shall be 40. Thou shalt not work 39 (often), nor shalt thou work 41 (ever). If thou shouldst work even 15 minutes more than 40, there will be pandemonium and the invoice writers will wail and gnash their teeth. When thou reachest 40 hours, even if there is still work to do, thou must turnest off thy computer and step away, advising thy boss that the Hour of No More Working has been reached.”

    My last job, I had a boss prone to shooing us all out on Friday afternoons if it was too nice to be inside (and we weren’t on a major deadline). He’d wander through between 1 and 2 and ask incredulously, “what are you still doing here? work? go on – git! it’s too nice out to be in here.” I think if it weren’t for the rule stated above, my current boss would be like this too – though he has shooed me home a couple times with the admonition that at least if I work from home, I can work in my backyard with the pooch at my feet.

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      1. I am only a geek cousin…not a geek (maybe geek-in-law?…I’m more on the business side of the geeky parts of the organization, if that makes sense). My understanding is that the groups of folks the article referred to are a lot of the developers and IT hardware guys. This change may eventually bubble through to people like me -but at this point in the year, I’m not likely to see any changes in my status until the next budget and fiscal year.

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  3. my rule is to observe that there are 10 perfect days a year and unless you have a very good reason to ignore them they should all be participated in. there are also 10 state fair days in an year and you should do what you can to get involved in as many of those as possible. i am in favor of mental health and the attention to self is a primary remedy in this quest. i don’t fish often, only fly fishing in montana or something like that but state fair yes, golf nine holes yes, picnic lunch yes, i tell my workers to take 5 or 6 three day weekends a year to recharge and renew. it is important.

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    1. are you hiring?

      I will be working later today, as others are taking vacation and so it has fallen to me (low girl on the totem pole) to do the necessary.

      I most likely will not know until towards the end of the day if Monday is a holiday for me or not.

      oh yes, and the joy that is a summer cold is mine-let the pity party commence!

      On the other hand, Linda, I am happy to report that a friend of mine who lost her last feline companion of long-standing is finally ready to adopt 2 new kittens!

      Also had Junior High orientation and feel really good about the new school, so there is a huge bit of, um, concern off my draining head.

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  4. Rise and Vanish from the Workplace Baboons!

    Our office is closed yesterday and today, with a scarcely skeleton crew there for a group today. And that is all that goes on there. The last week of August and first week of September (as in Back to School) are Therapy Ghost Town Weeks, similar to the week before Christmas to New Years Day. So we just give up and go away, too.

    So I got outa Dodge on Tuesday NIght and won’t return until Wednesday morning. I’m doing stuff here at home, then going to the Fair later today — if the rain clears up. Yesterday, after napping away the Weather Change Headache, I made my Wild Grape Jelly, and make a fresh veggie pasta out of garden produce.

    I’m getting more tomatoes than originally expected. Not a normal crop, but more than it appeared at first. Yippee. I know bread is said to be the staff of life, but really, it’s tomatoes.

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    1. This is a great day to cook some homemade tomato soup because I also have an abundance of tomatoes as well. Signed a tomato lover.

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      4. Creamy Tomato Soup
        2 tbsp butter
        2 tbsp olive oil
        1 large onion, chopped
        1 tbsp minced garlic
        2 tbsp flour
        3 ½ lbs ripe tomatoes, chopped
        2 tbsp tomato paste
        1 tsp sugar
        3 c vegetable broth
        1/8 tsp ground cloves
        salt and pepper to taste
        ½ c half-and-half

        Melt butter with oil over low heat in pot. Add onion. Wilt over low heat for 8 to 10 minutes. Add garlic during last 2 minutes, stirring. Sprinkle with flour and cook 3 minutes longer, stirring. Add tomatoes, paste, sugar and broth. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to simmer and cover; cook over medium low heat 30 minutes. Season with cloves, salt and pepper. Remove from heat and cool slightly. Puree soup and pour through a strainer. Stir in half-and-half. Warm soup before serving.

        (not a recipe I have tried, but it comes from a great source, the late Sheila Lukens)

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  5. The policy at our work is that each department has to have staff on duty whenever the center is open in case any of the clients served by the department has a crisis. Well, that means Friday afternoons, too. It is somewhat unfair that one of our fellow psychologists has managed to adjust her schedule so that she never works on Friday, so my husband and I have resigned ourselves to working every Friday afternoon. I should add that there are never crises on Friday afternoons, our clients wanting to have a nice Friday, too. We will be at work until 5:00 today,.

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      2. Our supervisor lives in Bismark and I sometimes send e-mails to her on Friday afternoons about pretend crises-flying monkeys in the lobby, people stuck in the elevator, children from the special needs daycamp setting my sneakers on fire-just to emphasize the ridiculousness of or staffing policy.

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  6. Yes folks I am still alive, and now with a new Ipad to communicate with! I was at the fair last night to say hi to my pal Mark Wheat at the MPR booth, and Gus Connelly was there and he was very excited to see me again! We talked about how his dad didn’t want to badmouth anyone even though everyone wants him to. Dale just doesn’t seem to stoop to that level for some reason. Maybe hes just a polite Minnesotan

    I didn’t cut work early though, I am in the process of trying to apply for a front desk position for LA Fitness in Uptown so cross your fingers folks.

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    3. good to hear form you aaron. i hope the new i pad works better than the tank you were using. the sensative touch is not too difficult to work with? i was thinking that would be a challange, then again what isn’t huh? good luck at the new job application. i will keep my fingers crossed with you

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    4. Like most baboons, I suppose, I have a smoldering resentment toward those I hold responsible for terminating Dale’s appointment with MPR. And sometimes I think it would be nice if something unpleasant happened to those folks . . . like maybe bedbugs. But two things about that impulse bother me.

      First, I don’t like to judge folks harshly when I don’t have reliable facts in hand.

      Second, I’m touched by Dale’s reluctance to retaliate in any way. It is commendable, classy and entirely in keeping with his way of doing things.

      If Dale was wronged–and I think he was–it seems sad that he would be wronged again by friends who want him to appease our anger by being less of a gentleman than those who terminated him. Since I’m not in any position to tell him he “should” respond in kind, I’ll just say that he knows best and I hope he doesn’t feel pressure to do something out of character. So . . . well done, Dale, and bless you.

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      3. There is also a practical consideration when comes saying anything negative about a former employer. You might need their help in the future or at least you might not want them to stand in your way. Making negative comments about your former employer could cause them to do something that would not be good for you. That is one of the bad things about bosses. You might be done with working for them, but they still might have the ability to cause you some harm.

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      5. or what will he say about me if i hire him and it doesn’t work out?
        all sorts of reasons not to but that shouldn’t stop us babooner from calling a spade a spade. if it looks like a duck and walks like a duck maybe its a duck
        right captain billy arrggghhhh

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      6. You’re all being far too kind and generous about this. The simple fact is that life is too short to waste it nursing a grudge against some manager. However, there’s this one guy I caddied for when I was fourteen …

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      1. I’m glad you got out to the fair, Aaron. Thanks for connecting with Gus. He was delighted and was quick to tell me he had seen you. Congratulations on the technical upgrade!

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  7. Good morning to all,

    I am highly flexible in my plans for working because as a retired person I choose what I do almost all of the time. I wouldn’t say that I don’t have work to do. There are a lot of things I want to get done that I would call work. I try to balance off the more unpleasent tasks with some that are more enjoyable. This balancing act goes on every day from Monday to Friday. Week ends are different because they involve more interaction with my family. I give myself extra time to do something that isn’t work from time to time, but this time off doesn’t necessarily happen on any particular day of the week. Before retiring Fridays were often days when less work was done.

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      3. Well, Jacque, I hope I will have some useful advice to offer when you get to retirement, At the present time, I could use some advice myself because I am still having trouble structuring my own time.

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      5. saw soen great goats at the fair. talking about how 70% of the world drinks goat milk. hey barb if you have lactose intolerence with cow milk does it carry over to goat milk?

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  8. Taking Friday afternoons off is one of my favorite things! Unfortunately, these days I’m really needed on Fridays. Just when I expect everybody else to think like I do and just give up and go home, it turns out they’re all about work, work, work. So that’s what I have to do. My new, young supervisor encourages me to take time off whenever I feel like it, but the work demands are still there and I don’t like to get behind. Today the commercial fishermen will come in to sign their winter seining permits. Experience tells me that they will do this around 4:15 … After they sign them, I have to scan them and e-mail them to the Regional office, where they’re signed again and then mailed to the fishermen. There are 27 of them right now to clarify with the fishermen, sign, scan and e-mail. I’ll be here until 5 p.m. today…

    I’m off for Rock Bend for the next week and a half though! See you there!

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  9. Clyde said that in retirement he seems to spend too much time doing nothing. I think I know what he is talking about. I get caught between doing things I think I should do and doing what I want to do. I get pulled in two or more directions and end up doing nothing. If you read this, Clyde, is that what you were refering to when you said you are spending too much time doing nothing now that you are retired.

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  10. Something related to yesterday’s blog-totally by accident I put my husband’s wallet through the washing machine last night, so I guess I am avenged for his taking my keys and my having to walk to work. He has chosen forgiveness and says it is his fault he didn’t remove his wallet from his pocket before he put the pants in the clothes basket.

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  11. Screwing off is what I enjoy doing
    My favorite time is often spent screwing
    Around on my own
    makes good use of alone
    It is boredoms best form of rescuing

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  12. Morning all. Sorry to be absent the last couple of days… been super hectic at work and at home. I will be chained in my cube all day today, however I’m not complaining. My company has a fun promotion all summer long called “Summer of Love” (we even had a logo). We had no dress code… that’s right, shorts and flip flops for Sherrilee all summer long… and we each got 8 Friday afternoons off w/ pay. And five parties w/ bands and kegs at 3;30 p.m. throughout.

    So even though I’m here for the duration today, I’ve enjoyed quite a bit of extra time this summer to enjoy the heat!

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  13. Morning–

    Seems like everyday there is something that has to get done whether it’s home or work related but after that, I’m really sort of lazy.
    Yesterday was mostly goofing off… this week my wife and I have been alternating schedules so that someone is home with our daughter.
    Tomorrow might be ‘working’ on someone elses project but since it’s not at home it almost feels like goofing off again.
    Rain has stopped here.

    Enjoy the weekend!

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    1. Having seen the overgrown splendor that is the estate this morning, I’m not sure I really should take time “off” even if I am at home. I’ve appreciated the nice rain this summer and the fact that we haven’t had that August period of desolation we seem to usually get, but seriously, I think the winter squash is determined to make it all the way from the back fence to the house (in other words, across the entire back yard-it’s a wee small yard, but still).

      and yes, I do keep listening for the words, “feed me Seymour”

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      1. News from the Apple store was a video card error that Apple will fix under warranty even after 4 years. Good News!

        The Apple store is always an amazing hub of activity; it’s kinda fun.

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  15. Back when teaching, we’d ALL be out of the builidng EVERY Friday at 3:05 and headed to a cool bar near the ocean… but you’d pay for it Monday morning if you haven’t plotted out the day.

    Husband’s son Mario has been here this week, and this afternoon we’ll drive him to S. Mpls to hook up with his other family… Feels like we’ve been going full tilt all week, so it is going to feel like a bit of “time off” after that. He’s a great cook, the fridge is full, and we won’t have to cook all weekend. Later I’ll post his recipe for a Brazilian pork stew.

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  16. did ribs last night and a ham the night before for my last weekend with two young men home. one off to college tomorrow who eats like a section hand. he used to eat 4 chicken breasts as a snack on his way home form school (what kind of mom would take a bowl of chicken breasts as a snack) and the remaining one won’t eat enough to do big meat offerings.bar b q slow cook 8 hours 1 rack hand rubbed two with sauce..the ham was a honey glazed job that everyone picks at for two days then its gone. i wish there was a vegetarian slab of something that could be prepared and then carved off for a 4 day stretch before it was history. oh i made some french onion soup that sat on the stove for 3 days before i shut it off this morning. easiest recipe ever. spagetthi pot full of onions with olive oil and butter and bay leaves sauted slooowwwww til brown ( 3 – 4 hours) then find the burner that when you turn it on low will not bring the remaining onion to a boil. leave it there for 3 days adding a little wine and or water as you go to get the taste jsut right then shut it off and bag it up for the freezer. 8-10 onions gives you a gallon or so.

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    1. OMG tim, this sounds delicious. Think it would work in a crock pot for 3 days?

      So although you’re a vegetarian, you’ll cook carnivore for the young men… hope they appreciate it!

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    1. It is pretty deserted here, too. I took an hour off to take daughter and her homecoming dress to the seamstress to be altered. If I were brave I would do it myself, but I would never be forgiven if something went wrong.

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  18. MIG, I think I have the same cold you have. I had a sore throat stalking me all day and it’s finally pounced. Soup and peppermint tea on the menu for tonight.

    Where is your friend critter-shopping? Let me know if she needs any leads – there are always a lot of kittens in foster care as well as in shelters.

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    1. She will be going back to the Humane Society, her original source for the dear departed Brin and Sasha-she says if no kitties choose her on the first trip, she will keep going back until someone expresses and interest.

      I have a friend who also does foster care and really loves it.

      Yes, it all starts with the wretched sore throat-I am now at the tight, unproductive cough stage, which means I should be done tomorrow or Sunday at the latest.

      And I have just clocked out!

      See you crazy kids tomorrow-pizza and a movie await.

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      1. Contact the Minnesota Humane Society –
        http://www.mnhumane.org/foster.html
        e-mail: info@mnhumane.org
        phone: (651) 665-9311

        MHS is separate from the Humane Society shelters – Ramsey County and Golden Valley. MHS is statewide and decentralized – it does not operate a shelter, but arranges for foster care for animals that people would like to surrender to a no-kill situation – animals are only euthanized if there is a true medical need for it. Donna and Linda are the people running the show there (different Linda) and they can answer questions about how it works. They are very conscientious about FeLeuk testing and vaccinations and such.

        There are a lot of politics surrounding no-kill vs. traditional shelters, and I try not to take sides on the issue. All of the organizations deserve credit for trying to make progress on a very intractable problem.

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  20. I wish I could just throw in the towel some days and leave work or other responsibilities behind (at least for a few hours), but I’m too damn responsible. Once when a person called to offer me a job I had applied for, he said, “Both of these references said, ‘She is EXTREMELY responsible.'” I suppose that was supposed to make me feel good, but you know what? It made me feel bad. Who has any fun being responsible? I’m so busy being responsible and picking up all the pieces that other people drop that I feel like I’ve forgotten how to have fun. I know you can’t raise kids without some degree of responsibility, and I fed and clothed them, etc. etc. but I can’t remember hardly a day when I said, “hey kids, let’s just leave the house and go do something FUN.” And the same with a job – sure you have to be responsible and work your job, but sometimes you should just leave it behind and enjoy the perfect weather or go do something you’ve never done before or go somewhere you’ve never gone before. Maybe that’s just as important as doing all the dutiful things in life…

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    1. Sounds like your thinking is heading on the right track, Edith. I have a book for you maybe – Boundaries : where you end and I begin by Anne Katherine. I found it very useful during a period of “ultra-responsibility” I went through. It’s not very long, and the Henn. County Library has it, at any rate.

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      4. Rats, I spoke to soon. It must be one of the books I let go of when I did a clearing out several weeks ago – I just looked and it’s not there. 😐 You might try Half-Price Books, (which is probably where I took them).

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  21. edith for a responsibility geek the assignment is a tough one. put an x on you calendar once a week to have fou for yourself. treat it with the same responsible overseeing as you would any other assignemnt. if you wait until you get caught up with all the challanges in life you will never get any time for you so you must schedule fun right there in black and white. it is your responsibility

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    2. A responsibility geek – that sounds impressive!

      I could try that…problem is even though I am “extremely responsible” I really don’t pay all that much attention to my calendar. But I like your idea!

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  22. …really is a ghost town today…

    While we are waking up, I submit this quote from comedian Will Durst about Rick Perry:

    “Perry claims he only entered the fray because God told him to. Of course, Michele Bachmann says God called on HER to run for President. So, either someone is fibbing, God is off his meds again, or we’re talking about two entirely different deities. Begging the question: which god hates America that much?”

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    1. Well, we could get into a theological discussion about how we are all created in God’s image, including Perry and Bachmann…but I’m not sure what that says about God.

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  23. Rise and Shine Baboons!

    Lou and I went to the State Fair PHC show last night. It ran very long (from 7:45 to 10:15!) and then there was a fabulous fireworks show at the end of the National Anthem. It was such a beautiful night and GK was in great form. He seems to truly love the fair. It was a packed show.

    Twice now in songs, I’ve heard GK sing a song to his daughter about what life “used to be like” when he was a kid and he has a line saying, “I didn’t know it but I was autistic, but kids just called me weird.” Listen for it tonight if you hear the broadcast. I wonder if he has Asperger’s Disorder like my granddaughter. It would make sense.

    Re: LISP (West Side) (BTW, you say that lithp) and your quote. I picked up a button at the DFL booth that has a picture of a loon+A+picture of a tick over a crazy picture of Michele Bachmann. I will wear it proudly.

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  24. Apologies for the late post, baboons. I usually have something new on the blog at 6 am, and in fact I had prepared a post for today but gave my computer the wrong date.
    A post for today is coming online shortly!

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