Dreams With Words

Starting now, the Poetry Fishbowl is open! Today's theme is "Don't add to the casualty list in an emergency." I will be checking this page periodically throughout the day. When people make suggestions, I'll pick some and weave them together into a poem ... and then another ... and so on. I'm hoping to get a lot of ideas and a lot of poems.

I picked this theme for today from the selected list of themes, because of the violent storms that swept through central Illinois in late June. Here's my post about Tornado Alley moving from the Great Plains through the Midwest to the Southeast.

Among my previous poems that mention tornadoes or other violent storms are "A Tornado of Thought," "Windswept," "Know What You Stand For," "Better to Meet Danger," "In Growth, Reform, and Change," and "Nature's Great Masterpiece," and "The Pequot War."

Established settings in Tornado Alley: Omaha Reservation and Omaha and Lincoln, Nebraska (Polychrome Heroics), Stillwater, Oklahoma (Polychrome Heroics), Waxahachie, Texas (Schrodinger's Heroes), River City and Ava and Bluehill, Missouri (Polychrome Heroics), Onion City and Urbanburg, Illinois (Polychrome Heroics), Easy City, Louisiana (Polychrome Heroics), Ninovan, Tennessee (Daughters of the Apocalypse), Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Center
for Elephant Conservation in Florida (Daughters of the Apocalypse).


I'll be soliciting ideas for first responders, troubleshooters, activists, rebels, Women Who Run with the Saberteeth, explorers, refugees, runaway youth, housemates, siblings, parents, teachers, clergy, police, soldiers, leaders, superheroes, supervillains, teammates, failure analysts, ethicists, other people who get into dire situations, running into a fire while others are running out of it, rescuing people, protesting, rebelling, planning, panicking, throwing in the towel, escaping, running like you stole something, adventuring, divorcing, teaching, leaving your comfort zone, discovering things, conducting experiments, observation changing experiments, troubleshooting, improvising, adapting, cleaning up messes, cooperating, taking over in an emergency, saving the day, discovering yourself, studying others, testing boundaries, coming of age, learning what you can (and can't) do, sharing, preparing for the worst, expecting the unexpected, fixing what's broke, upsetting the status quo, changing the world, accomplishing the impossible, recovering from setbacks, returning home, war zones, disaster areas, wastelands, trails, sailing ships, distant lands, the forest primeval, prehistory, liminal zones, schools, homeless shelters, prisons, hotels, churches, sharehouses, campfires, laboratories, supervillain lairs, makerspaces, nonhuman accommodations and adaptations, stores, farmer's markets, starships, alien planets, magical lands, foreign dimensions, other places where disasters happen, cataclysms, natural disasters, climate change, the end of the world, S-risks and X-risks, unhappy relationships, PACE your planning, protest rallies, travel mishaps, sudden surprises, the buck stops here, trial and error, supplements that turn out to be mutagenic, intercultural entanglements, asking for help and getting it, enemies to friends/lovers, interdimensional travel, lab conditions are not field conditions, superpower manifestation, the end of where your framework actually applies, ethics, innovation, problems that can't be solved by hitting, teamwork, found family, complementary strengths and weaknesses, personal growth, and poetic forms in particular.

Currently eligible bingo card(s) for donors wishing to sponsor a square:

Hazbin Hotel Fest Bingo Card 6-1-26

Winterfest in July Bingo Card 7-1-26


Among my more relevant series for the main theme:

An Army of One has some serious challenges between the Galactic Arms.

The Bear Tunnels introduces modern principles to people in the past, in hopes of preventing genocide.

A Conflagration of Dragons features the Six Races struggling to survive as the dragons take over more and more territory.

Crystal Wood is about how the mass death of trees can wreck civilization.

The Daughters of the Apocalypse has people trying to find enough resources to survive, when former cities are unsafe.

The Moon Door explores a women's chronic pain group and lycanthropy.

Not Quite Kansas deals with demons, magic, and other mayhem.

One God's Story of Mid-Life Crisis follows Shaeth as he works on becoming the God of Drunks after quitting as the God of Evil. Addiction always has the potential for disaster.

Path of the Paladins includes some really awful situations due to divine politics and mortal foolishness.

Peculiar Obligations deals with Quakers, pirates, and organized crime.

Polychrome Heroics has ordinary humans, supernaries, blue-plate specials, superheroes, supervillains, primal and animal soups all trying to get along and figure out how to make a functional society. Among the more relevant threads are Berettaflies, the Big One, Dr. Infanta, Iron Horses, Officer Pink, Shiv, and Trichromatic Attachments.

Schrodinger's Heroes has a lot of situations that can destroy things, up to and including whole dimensions.

The Wandering is a series about fantasy time travel where people loop back within their own lifespan.

Or you can ask for something new.

Linkbacks reveal a verse of any open linkback poem.

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Today is cloudy and warm. We got a little rain yesterday.

I fed the birds. I haven't seen much activity yet.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 7/7/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

I've seen a gray catbird splashing in the big red birdbath.

EDIT 7/7/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 7/7/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

Sparrows and house finches are eating from the hopper feeder.

EDIT 7/7/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

I also walked around the yard a bit. Cosmos are blooming in the east-west strip of the prairie garden. Sunflowers are up in several places but not blooming yet. There are some zinnias too. :D

EDIT 7/7/26 -- I cracked 6 apricot pits and got 4 usable seeds, which I bagged in damp sand to cold-stratify in the refrigerator.

Fireflies are out. Cicadas are singing. I saw 2 bats swooping over the house yard.

I am done for the night.

Jolene (H.P. Lovecraft Version) - Michael Kelly - (Dolly Parton filk)

A truly splendid filk song. :D

Honeybee queens protect themselves from pesticides, but their colonies pay the price

Early on, the workers did their job well. In the first day they stripped out about 95% of the pesticide from the food before it reached the comb.
[---8<---]
But the filter began to slip. By day 10 the workers were removing only 86% of the poison, and it started to build up in the food stored in the cells. The bees’ bodies told the same story. Over 10 days, workers took on 55 times more pesticide than the queen did.

That delay will make pesticide problems difficult to detect and solve. Outside of a study like this, by the time you notice something wrong, it already has a lot of inertia baked in.

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Today is mostly cloudy and warm.

I fed the birds. I've seen a few sparrows and house finches.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 7/6/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 7/6/26 -- I watered the new picnic table garden. I picked the first tomatoes, 2 red cherries and 1 yellow pear.

I saw a tiger swallowtail butterfly. :D

EDIT 7/6/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 7/6/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 7/6/26 -- I watered the telephone pole garden.

I've seen a male cardinal and a starling in the forest garden.

EDIT 7/6/26 -- I watered plants in the house yard.

I've seen a mourning dove in the forest garden.

EDIT 7/6/26 -- I went out to a local permaculture club meeting, which was lots of fun. :D

On the way home, we saw a heron at the drainage ditch. There were puddles in the road, so we got at least a little rain. That's means I don't need to water plants tomorrow during the Poetry Fishbowl. \o/

EDIT 7/6/26 -- I cracked open a bunch of cherry pits to expose the seeds.

EDIT 7/6/26 -- I bagged up the black cherry seeds in damp sand to cold-stratify in the refrigerator. I think the ones that had been air-drying longer were smaller than the plump ones from today's batch. I'll have to try cracking more sooner and see if that holds true.

Fireflies are coming out. I've seen at least one bat above the house yard.

As it is getting dark, I am done for the night.

Today I came across some references to making hex quilts by starting with circles and folding the sides. This approach works great with hand-sewing.


Hex Quilts Video

Hexagons from Circles

Hexie’s From Circles

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"The one who hurt you doesn't get a say in how you choose to protect yourself from it happening again."
-- Ehowton


Periodically I encounter people who feel conflicted about obligations and safety. Frequently it's because an abusive parent or spouse has become incapacitated or is heading in that direction. I've often said that you don't owe an abuser anything. The above quote makes it clear why. Acts of neglect or abuse remove any obligation the victim may have had to the abuser. Cast off, expended, gone. You are completely free to protect yourself by ignoring the abuser's wants or needs, walking away, and never seeing them again. You may deny them all your resources -- time, energy, money, attention, everything. They made their choices and now get to live with the consequences.

Remember this if someone pressures you to harm yourself by taking care of an abuser. That person is trying to use and harm you also. Classify them as another threat to your safety.

These are some posts from the later part of last week in case you missed them:
Safety
Enshittification
Wildlife
Fossils
Birdfeeding
Audio
Economics
Birdfeeding
Philosophical Questions: Morals
Trees
Writing About Fireworks
Birdfeeding
Early Humans
Today's Adventures
Agriculture
Gaming
Birdfeeding
Follow Friday 7-3-26: Nature
Conservation
Birdfeeding
Community Thursdays
Today's Adventures
Science
Winterfest in July Bingo Card 7-1-26
Space Exploration
Birdfeeding
Clean Beaches Week
Affordable Housing
Cuddle Party

LiveJournal has 37 comments. Poem: "Walnut Park" has 46 comments. Early Humans has 22 comments.


There will be a Poetry Fishbowl on Tuesday, July 7 with a theme of "Don't add to the casualty list in an emergency."


"Save All the Pieces" belongs to The Big One and needs $99 to be complete. Stylet has misplaced a giant ground sloth.


The weather has been sweltering this past week. Seen at the birdfeeders this week: a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches, two starlings, a mourning dove, a male cardinal, a robin, a male indigo bunting, and a fox squirrel. I've seen several bats flying around. Bobwhite quail are calling. Fireflies are swarming. Cicadas are singing. Currently blooming: pansies, violas, sweet alyssum, marigolds, honeysuckle, snapdragons, lantana, million bells, blue lobelia, petunias, portulaca, nemesia, fan flowers, firecracker plant, pineapple sage, yucca, Asiatic lilies, snowball viburnum, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, spiderwort, narrow-leaved mountain mint, elderberries, golden rain tree, garlic chives, blackberry lily, Queen Anne's lace, purple echinacea, yellow coneflower, frost aster, cosmos. Green fruit: tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers. Ripe fruit: mulberries.

The Reflector That Started a Conversation

Andy realized he couldn’t reconstruct a dangerous road himself. But he could start a conversation. That insight led to a simple idea: a small reflector that could be handed to pedestrians and cyclists throughout the community. The reflector features a uniquely Fort Smith logo: a footprint shaped from the letters “FS,” making it both a practical safety tool and a symbol of local pride.


This is an example of incremental change, doing the next smallest thing to improve a situation. It's replicable anywhere that pedestrian and/or biker safety in low light is a concern.

Ideally, people should build safe roads, but that takes time and lots of money. Walkers and bikers should wear high-visibility clothing, but that is expensive and often uncomfortable. A small reflector is cheap, portable, fast and easy to deploy. It's better than nothing -- and it does get people talking.

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The Mechanisms Of Enshittification
How the things you buy get worse, who profits from it, and how to tell before you pay.

Find out who owns the brand now, and whether the founder is still there and still in control, because that one fact predicts more than any review. Check whether the company went through bankruptcy in the last decade, and who bought the name out of it. If the brand is public, check what share of its revenue goes to marketing. Notice when the same brand turns up at a flagship store and at Costco and at TJ Maxx all at once, a sign the name has been split across tiers and licensees. Ask how the person selling to you gets paid, because commission turns every recommendation into a sale. And run the math that marketing is built to keep you from running: divide the price by the years the thing will genuinely last, and compare across fifteen years instead of one weekend, because the cheap option you replace twice over is usually the expensive one. If you cannot find out who actually makes a product, that is your answer.


As much as possible, buy things direct from the creator or at least from a company still run by its founder(s).

There are a few other options. Goods sold in Amish territory tend to be rock-solid because those folks are very frugal, make a lot of their own stuff, and have zero patience with planned obsolescence.

Also, be prepared to quit purchasing a category of product that has become useless. If it's not going to do the damn job anyway, you might as well keep your money in your pocket.

Ancient bees turned tooth sockets into tiny nurseries 20,000 years ago

A stunning fossil discovery shows that ancient bees used the empty tooth sockets of mammal bones as tiny nests after owls scattered the bones across a cave floor 20,000 years ago. It's the first known evidence of bees nesting inside animal bones, revealing an astonishingly creative survival strategy.


Fascinating. It seems to be a unique but likely extinct species of bee which nested in bones, but without any actual bee remains, this cannot be proven.

They're from the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic, though so feel free to toss them into Peculiar Obligations as a prompt.