Snippets in a Mid-Summer Tone

Summer has arrived, but not necessarily in a good way.  It's hot and humid across most of the nation, and yesterday was one of the first days up here in the mountains where I thought that maybe I should limit my outdoor activity in the middle of the day.  Let me record some snippets.

--This morning I heard a car alarm, which made me think about how seldom I hear car alarms these days.  This morning's car alarm kept sounding for over 10 minutes, which made me think about how an alarm that doesn't stop just becomes background noise that's easier to tune out.  

--Could I make that car alarm a symbol in a poem that stayed away from the obvious?  A blaring car alarm that wasn't a signal of the end of democracy?  A blaring car alarm that wasn't pain from the body?

--Another possible symbol:  a carrot cake that doesn't taste of carrots or spice or cream cheese frosting.  I bought treats yesterday when I went to the Fletcher Village Bakery for day old bread. The lemon raspberry swirl cheesecake was a win.  The carrot cake was not.  Happily, it didn't have raisins.  It also did not appear to have many carrots or a traditional cheesecake frosting.  We could taste the toasted coconut and the walnuts, so it wasn't unpleasant--but it wasn't carrot cake.

--Last night we watched The Last Showgirl, in part because my spouse hadn't really heard about the reinvention of Pamela Anderson.  I was mildly interested, much more so in Jamie Lee Curtis and this role for her, not as much for Pamela Anderson.

--The movie could have been so much more of an exploration of creativity.  There was a bit of that, which I didn't expect, which made me want more.

--On Sunday night, we watched a much older show, some sort of compilation of clips from all the Comic Relief shows.  For younger folks, Comic Relief was a show done in the age of shows and concerts that raised money for some specific cause.  It was fascinating to see so many comics from a different age, most of whom I vaguely recognized but couldn't name.  Some of that material didn't age well, but since it was a show on a major network in the days of network censoring and a much more powerful FCC, it wasn't really transgressive.

--A week ago, I'd have been just starting the car to drive west to Indianapolis.  This morning, I'm headed out for my walk and a bit of breakfast berries--both wild blackberries and the blueberry bushes a neighbor can't harvest while she's at the beach.