Sunday Morning, November 29, 2015
I love Sunday morning. I used to love going to Catholic Mass every Sunday morning when I was very young. I used to love to look at the girls and women who got all dolled up…
Black Friday and the Green Bay Packers
Yeah, I know that the phrase came out of Chicago from the police there and it was all about the traffic and congestion mess associated with day after Thanksgiving shopping. Now, it’s not such a negative thing, except for some of us……
The Deer are Here……
Deer hunting season from the 21st of this month until the 29th. They’ll kill 200,000 deer before the 30th. Whatever. The deer have figured out over the years that they need to go ……
Christmas Canyon, Santa Fe, New Mexico
It was late December, and the Santa Fe River was little more than a half-frozen stream. Darby sat down between the water and a large lump of rumpled brown cloth that contained his friend Albert.
Happy Thanksgiving to Everyone
Thanksgiving morning. Thanksgiving day. Thanksgiving day parade. There are no notables I recognize in the booth in front of the parade on television anymore……
More Turkeys to Contend With
Turkeys and other sundry items Dateline: Lake Geneva, Wisconsin Let the pre-Thanksgiving work begin! The turkeys have been killed, thankfully by some distant house in some distant land where the thought of chopping turkey’s heads off isn’t something...Thanksgiving Turkeys and the Holiday
As the Thanksgiving Holiday approaches. Two turkeys, as is the custom here in my surroundings every year. One turkey done in the oven with regular stuffing and cooked at 350 degrees until done. Well basted……Second turkey?????
Thought for the day: Prayer, What do You Pray for?
What are you praying for? If you were to pray for someone, other than yourself or someone you love or know really well, then whom would you pray for? If prayer is something you might consider, given that there are so many versions of praying and so many beliefs about...Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, Settling in for Winter
“Settling in for the Winter” November 20, 2015 The land abides and waits the welcome covering of snow to sprinkle down on all fall debris, farm distributed dust from late harvest and all manner of accumulated summer related discards.
What’s Normal? To be Kind?
Is being Kind Normal?
How do we find it somehow in our best interest to be kind?
Is it the coming wintery storm making me so deeply reflective this evening? How do we make it so that compassion, understanding and generosity become the normal staple ruling all communication and conduct……..
Finishing the Visit, Santa Fe, New Mexico
The first blizzard of the winter strikes deep into the heart of Santa Fe. The snow came down for hours, dumping an unexpected six inches on the city and making everyone (except people from Wisconsin and other northern states) skate for cover and the pinon-fired indoors……..
Monday, Santa Fe, New Mexico, November 16, 2015
Monday Morning, Santa Fe New Mexico. It can’t always be nice. If it was always nice then we would have little real appreciation for it being nice at all. So I am sitting here waiting for a break in the rain to go to breakfast…….
Late Morning/Afternoon, Santa Fe, New Mexico, November 15, 2015
Here’s a very typical New Mexico breakfast. You simply order the breakfast burrito with green chile and wait for the results. Then you eat it and wait for the results. This one was served at the Plaza Restaurant for ten bucks not including coffee……..
Sunday Morning, Santa Fe, New Mexico, November 15, 2015
DATELINE: Santa Fe Sunday Morning, November 15, 2015 by James Strauss 6:40 AM Santa Fe New Mexico. Really early. At seven thousand feet, being old, not drinking, finding raucous nightlife to be raucous nightlife and having a television in my room not intended to be...Saturday, Santa Fe, New Mexico, November 14, 2015
Saturday 8:45 AM, Santa Fe, New Mexico The clock on the wall in the Plaza Restaurant in the center of Santa Fe, New Mexico, the loveliest capital city in America by far. A real beating heart, the central plaza. Real native adobe architecture and construction styling. Nothing in the city is taller than the church steeples…..
Friday, Santa Fe, New Mexico, November 13, 2015
Santa Fe Friday Morning Cold but hard driven sun, enough to make you wear something light but warm and then too warm and not light enough. Layers are fine as long as you don’t have to carry the cast off layers around with you……….
Wasn’t My War, a poem
It wasn’t my war, Not that stuff going on, Not where it is or where it was.
It’s not my war, Not now and over there, For me it was right here………..
Ulaan Baatar, a Poem
It’s twenty-eight in Ulaan Baatar this day, And it’ll be ten tonight. Mongolia bridge, no bridge at all, Leather tents gone…….
Merchant Marine, a Poem
Taconite moving atop the waves, Lackawanna bound with iron ore pellets, Marble sphere strewn heaving decks.Guantanamara plays lost revolution…..
The Speed of Life and Knowing Superman
The speed of life, Light moving maximum, Quantum travel, Reality through the mind. The speed of life, Quantum theory, Quantum physics,
Causality’s measure misunderstood……
Names Have Meaning, a Poem
Magnolia,Lobos Marinos,Flowering sea wolves. Cabrillo, Capistrano, Avenues of cheese. The roads, Names in my life, Meaning of my world…..
Make Believe?, a Poem
Light bouncy bright, I don’t even drink, But I make believe.
Drugs and booze…..
Arch Patton, Thunder Marine, Chapter Nine
4:00 a.m. slammed down like a guillotine blade; bringing Arch’s eyes open to full wideness with a jerk, his head swinging up off his pillow to stare at the now open bedroom door. The door swung back toward the frame. It had been the sound of the old solid wood slab hitting drywall
Arch Patton, Thunder Marine, Chapter Two
Arch rose at six a.m. on Monday morning. No phone call awakened him. The second day hangover, easing only slightly after the first brutal day, following his post-mission bender, had brought him unwillingly awake.
Audio, Arch Patton Tagged in Sierra Leone
Arch Patton can be a humorous character and this narration brings out a bit of his true colors. Being an Intelligence officer does not always mean just that.
Audio Version of Cotopaxi, an Arch Patton Adventure
Arch Patton is assigned to a seemingly simple assignment by headquarters in Langley. An exchange turns a bit sour half way up Cotopaxi……
Cotopaxi, Adventures of Arch Patton
The road from downtown Quito out and around to Cotopaxi, Ecuador’s highest peak, takes about an hour and a half to negotiate. Actually there are several dirt roads…..
Itsy-Bitsy Spider, Audio Version
The Big Freeze didn’t affect this spider and housewife. Marauding bands of cowards should heed the word of ladies protecting their nests….
Algiers, an Audio Short Story by James Strauss
Sitting on a park bench in Santa Fe, contemplating what is worthwhile and remembering Algiers. Flashback to a childhood encounter with a
Legionnaire….
The Treasure Pool, Audio of the Short Story,
Life can get boring on Hawaii.But sometimes a simple walk along the beach and to a treasure pool can be very rewarding and a way to break the vicious Writer’s Block.
Ralph, a Vietnam War Story
The game was five-card stud. One card dealt face down, then four more, one at a time, face up. Betting between each deal of the cards. Military Pay Currency, not real money from home…..
The Treasure Pool
The sun is perfect, as I stretch back on my chaise lounge and take in the colors generated by its fall toward the Hawaiian horizon.
Daisy, Daisy, Vietnam Veteran and PTSD
I came back from Vietnam on a hard white gurney, flown in by one of those planes they called Starlifters at the time. Those wounded of us in that fuselage had all been pinned up in plastic sacks……….
This Itsy Bitsy Spider Spews Venom
They had left two days before. Lynn’s job was to care for the house while everyone was gone. It was an easy task, or series of tasks, unless something went wrong. That happened often after the Big Freeze The generator ran all by itself, fueled by two huge tanks of...
Morning Calm, an Arch Patton Adventure
Acid-laced coffee. Tawdry imitation 60’s décor. Indian music drifting down from worn out ceiling speakers. The Route Sixty-Six diner, ironically located on 56th St., New York.
Morning Calm, Audio Short Story, Arch Patton
During a Morning Calm an interesting encounter at the Route 66 Restaurant, on 56th Avenue in New York, provided aging agent, Arch Patton, an opportunity to receive Redemption…..
Algiers, a Short Story by James Strauss
Algiers, Algeria. I asked him how a country could have a city named the same thing as the country, but he ignored me.
Audio version of Rabies, a Short Story by James Strauss
Clark and Peter crouched under the queen-sized bed. They slept together because they were kids and they’d been in the house only a couple of months
Rabies, a Short Story by James Strauss
The brothers crouched under their queen-sized bed. They slept together because they were kids and they’d been in the house only a couple of months. Grandma had “passed on”……..
Audio Version of Herschel the Bear Cub
This fishing trip turned in to real ordeal for Tomas when he meets Herschel, the bear cub A chance meeting with a mother bear and her cub proved to be a fortuitous experience.
Audio Version of Zack, by James Strauss
Zack and Streblo, the feral grey cat who adopted the eight year old living in the boathouse, experience meeting Jerry Strain.
Audio Version, Down in the Valley, Chapter One
Retired and tired, Arch Patton finds himself Down in the Valley and a bit “red faced”. Part 1 is an interesting views of the mundane provided through the world of espionage. Have you read the Text Version? Click Here for Down in the Valley Part 1...
Audio, Arch Patton, Down in the Valley-Part 2
Matisse and Ahi drop Arch Patton off at Kaneohe Marine Base. Arch starts to understand this strange assignment and who his true friends and allies might be….
Audio Version of Sunday, by James Strauss
Peter found himself abandoned on Green Island in Kure Atoll, where he had a chance to meet another Sunday. His dysfunctional family was on a holiday visiting the Northernmost of the Hawaiian Islands
Sunday, Boy and Dolphin
SUNDAY Short Story By J. Strauss The boy sat on the sand atop the low rocks, staring down into clear lapping water. He carefully lowered his small hand down until it was just beneath the surface. He waited. There it was again. A solid thrumming vibration. It lasted...
Audio, Arch Patton, Down in the Valley, Chapter 3
Arch Patton finds himself being “nailed” as the saga of the Hawaiian Secession continues. He begins to wonder who his friends really are……. Matisse and the Hawaiians or his ‘team” in the agency? Enjoy this audio excerpt: ...
Audio Version, The Fish Does Not Have to be Real.
John Whitworth sat at his desk, his head turning to peer through the glass double doors that also served as his only window to look out over a small portion of Puget Sound.
The Fish Doesn’t Have to be Real, by James Strauss
John Whitworth sat at his desk, his head turning to peer through the glass double doors that also served as his only window to look out over a small portion of Puget Sound.
Beat the Drum Slowly, Arch Patton’s Generosity?
BEAT THE DRUM SLOWLY Short Story By J. Strauss. Zurich, part of the social igloo called Schweiz (the Germanic third of Switzerland), lay spread before him. Arch Patton stood on the roof of the Hotel St. Gotthard, the only hotel less than half a kilometer from the...
Herschel, a Short Story by James Strauss
HERSCHEL Short Story By J. Strauss The ground didn’t seem wet at all from six feet higher up. But Tom wasn’t that high up from it anymore. Instead, he was on it, moving slowly through the forest in short scrabbling bursts. He rested the right side of...
Hear The Thunder, Arch Patton Arrives in Africa
Hear The Thunder Arch Patton arrives in Africa By J. Strauss The Internet termed the place to be Lungi International Airport, Sierra Leone, but no description was given, nor would it have served, not even for the seasoned African traveler. Those of life experience...
FULLY FUNCTIONAL, Short Story by James Strauss
FULLY FUNCTIONAL Short Story By J. Strauss Lieutenant Howard never ran with lightning speed. He was more controlled, as befitting his rank of lieutenant and position of shift commander. He moved with a glow across the spectrum of his small town fiefdom out on...
Zack, a Short Story by James Strauss
ZACK Short Story By J. Strauss Zack prepared himself for the confrontation. Winter had been hard. So very hard. He hadn’t really been ready for that kind of cold. He’d thought he was ready, but it was the wind off that lake that nearly did him in. He’d been...
Roughy, Arch Patton Adventure
ROUGHY Short Story By J. Strauss Holder didn’t engage the man because he had a kid with him, not that the son-of-a-bitch didn’t deserve to be properly encountered in spite of the child. Coffee shops suck in Boston. They aren’t the warm fuzzy places that dot...
Matchless, a Short Story
MATCHLESS Short Story By J. Strauss MATCHLESS Short Story by James Strauss The bike wasn’t much, certainly nothing that any islander would buy. Kam counseled with his dad about getting the Harley but the old man was no help. “Sell the damn thing to one of...Subscribe to FROM THE WILDERNESS
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