Wannaskan Almanac

  If I'm given a choice in where I'm reborn, it will be in a world whose written script corresponds exactly to my scrawl. The concept of the shadow reveals that when we’re angry with someone, that’s an indication of something we hate about ourselves. What are we to do with such depressing news? Stop being hateful for starters.   I know people will project their illusions onto me. I should at least provide a screen that’s not full of holes or covered in obscene graffiti.  If the body is our passport into heaven, then St Peter is the customs man.  Autumn is the denial phase, our reaction to the fact the days are getting shorter. Long johns are the acceptance phase.  The deep state is the unseen part of the iceberg. The upper ten percent fears most a turning upside down.  Written words put lapels on our thoughts so we can shake them into shape.  The Left hates the rich for acting so jerky The Right hates the deep state for being so murky We were initially...

Hello and welcome to the last Saturday in June here at the Wannaskan Almanac. Today is June 29th. For the last three weeks, my husband and I have been parenting-free (more or less). With the youngest kids in the Czech Republic and the adult children coming and going (more going and less coming), we've had a glorious break from regular life. Three weeks is long enough to change habits. Some of our changes have included staying up late, watching movies, sleeping in, going out for dinner, spending time with friends, minimal cooking, minimal cleaning, and traveling without worrying about covering childcare bases. Our conversations expanded beyond the usual carousel of topics which largely circle around the proper care and feeding of children. We talked about politics and philosophy and the state of the world. We had time to deeply discuss and tussle through a household renovation project (repurposing a bedroom closet into a linen closet) that resulted in a solution that exemplifies the...

    There's a great video on the internet called "How I Built a Toaster From Scratch". A genial Englishman named Tom Thwaites is inspired by the novel, A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe , to attempt to make a toaster from scratch. He was a design student and the project was meant to show us how the appliances we take for granted rely on sophisticated global supply chains.   He plans to reverse engineer a toaster to see if he could make one from scratch. He buys a cheap toaster and on taking it apart is bemused to find that it's made of over 400 separate pieces which in turn are made from more than a hundred different materials.   He travels around England to old mines to get ore to make the metal parts of his toaster. He makes plastic from potato starch and molds it into a very rough looking case. He’s unable to come up with insulation so when he plugs his toaster in it melts. The slice of bread is warm but not toasted.    The experiment proved that...

  The tree inline with the fire hydrant is the first tree I ever planted by hand; it's a maple. It is located on 1912 Des Moines Street, Des Moines, Iowa where I spent the first 20 years of my life. The house no longer exists but in photographs and in memory of these two trees and the hydrant.  Fast Forward Back to June 24, 2024 Roseau's own Tractor Supply    “ DON'T YOU IGNORE ME!” yelled the man who was leaving his truck toward me from the other side of the Tractor Supply parking lot in Roseau.     I looked behind me, thinking he had to be talking to somebody else for nobody emits loud utterances like that on Roseau's northside just for no reason. The closer he came the more he started to look like somebody I knew, and lo, t'was Winnipeg Pete himself; full-sized; both his shoulders back so straight looked as if he had a fence post under his shirt wired around his upper body. He walked up smiling where I stood by my car, idling there. He admired the ...

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday for June 26, 2024, the twenty-sixth Wednesday of the year, the first Wednesday of summer, the fourth Wednesday of June, and the one-hundred-seventy-eighth day of the year, with one-hundred eighty-eight days remaining.   Wannaska Phenology Update for June 26, 2024 Blueberry Update For our May 29 Vaccinium angustifolium update, we were able to report a bumper crop of flowering plants. There now appear to be a bounty of actual berries. June 26 Fickle Pickle Wednesday Menu Special : Potato Dumpling June 26 Nordhem Wednesday Lunch : Updated daily, occasionally. Earth/Moon Almanac for June 26, 2024 Sunrise: 5:22am; Sunset: 9:31pm; 29 seconds less daylight today Moonrise: 12:26am; Moonset: 10:38pm, waning gibbous, 76% illuminated. Temperature Almanac for June 26, 2024                 Average            Record...

You are officially half way to Christmas!  Here is a tip for you.  Start shopping now.  That way you will spend some each month and the holidays won't seem so expensive to you!  If you are shopping for your Wannaskan Almanac writers, here is a list of what they would like: Jack Pine Savage:  A loon-shaped loom to weave my leave, a cart for my heart...a purse for my verse.  Write to the night.  A ship for a trip that will not fail to sail.  And a bottle of wine. Mr. Hot Coco:  You might think that a writer would want something like a thesaurus or a dictionary.  Mr. Hot Coco is a little different though.  What he really needs is some way of escaping his straight jacket so he doesn't have to type with his mouth using a pen.  Help him, please! I must write an almanac post! Joe-Wednesday's Child:  I would like a DNA test to see if the rumors that I am related to Chairman Joe are true.  Also I would like a fire hydrant inst...

 Originally published February 18, 2019... If you read  the first segment  of this second Song posted on 11 February, you may have noticed the cliffhanger ending. In today’s continuation of the second song that “cliffhanger,” is resolved, and we engage the subsequent freefall that occurs after the word, “Then . . .” Read today’s second segment of “Dis-remembered” to see what’s happening. Imagine yourself in this situation. One second I am breathing, looking down The next tick I am sliding, losing breath dark water rushes - pulls me down into deeper water streaming – choking - no-breath turning - grasping – drowning - nothing holding slow motion blurred shapes under darker gold and then the tree reaches out and grabs me pulling me down                                   deeper into water tangled in branches...

  Before ditching your current religion, compare the  Consumer Reports  ratings for the other creeds. Are things getting worse? Social media of every era complain of a decline from the previous age. The hunter-gatherer finds game sparser every passing year and the berries more bitter.  Neither side expects their candidate to make America great. They want their man in place to prevent the slide into perdition.   The NBA is always looking to establish new records. The one they’re    after now, though it may have to wait till they add a few more teams, is to extend the playoffs into July.  In a motel room with the curtains drawn, I could be anywhere in the country. But if it never gets dark behind the curtains I’d guess it was June in Alaska.   The lazy writer lets auto-correct be his editor, at his peril.   Ah to be able to convey the weird enchantment of dreams. Shakespeare couldn’t. Even the dreamy Joyce failed after a lifetime of t...