COMPETITION WITHOUT SPORTS

           Competition Without Sports 

             (“…one for the birds”)

       By Billy Gilbreath, Guest writer

A sports nut, condemned to watching

Only nascar racing, reruns and poker

None of these I would consider a sport.

Pardon my expressions to some of you

Turning to nature and the great outdoors

Hearing the sound of the birds and squirrel

The sounds urged me to get a clear view

Peering through the clear glass door

Allowed me to follow the vivid noise

Oops there goes the squirrel in the tree

Black bird, the one hated, called grackle

Swooped down, and three heavy pecks

Quickly relaying the move on message

Swiftly, with tail waving,  disappeared

Three pecks and you are out saying bird.

The feeder full and an abundance below

Brings many, cardinals. Sparrows, doves

Occasionally a blue jay or purple finch

Arriving for the early morning breakfast

First the Cardinal who claims the sunflower

Then the others taking what is available

Then the Blue Jay who desires sunflower

The battle began with the all-out struggle

Those Blue Jays seem to throw heavily

With that long, sharp and deadly beak

Backing off the cardinal quickly moved

To the extended wooden branches above

Looking down, disappearing in obvious loss

As in sports, Cardinal zero, Blue Jay one

Competition, Competition everywhere

Even those nuisance weeds are competing

Hopefully the green fescue will be the winner                     

Surely there is an application to our lives

Be it the numerous temptations around?

“The test of your faith produces perseverance.”

Not my words but read it in James 1:3

Billy Gilbreath, 3/17/2020 

'LET ME BE CLEAR". "I AM SICK AND TIRED" OF CLICHES

"At this point in time," "Let me be clear")

  I'm "fed up" ....with CLICHES!

Don't you just dread the next big TV

 kerfuffle, imbroglio , brouhaha--

what stupid phrases will be

aborning...and latched onto by

mediocre minds..  and repeated

o'er and o'er....ad nauseam...

For as we know: "An apple doesn't

 fall far from the tree!"

   (What did I mean by that???)

       (Who knows?)

Cliches don't really have to mean

 anything, do they? "Moving forward."

(Which other way...would we move?)

By now, "at this point in time," (vintage

 1973, "Watergate"), many folks  are

"Sick and tired," (1930's) of overused,

 hackneyed abuse of the English 

language. Ho hum. "at this point, in

  time..." blah...blah...blah...

And by the way, don't say you'll "pray"

  "I'll be praying")  if you don't really 

intend to pray. ("I covet your prayers.")

 etc. The comforting expressions are

so important and need to be said

 in the most heartfelt and sincere ways.

"Now, let it be said--" and I'll admit that

 hearing an old "saying" from  a

century ago can be downright fetching

 and somehow assuaging to our

hearts, which have been bombarded

over months...by waves of hatred

and inanity.

So we would likely be "much obliged"

 for any old-timey thoughts and 

words, recalling the "matchless days

 of yore." If you know any good old

  saws, "Let's touch base."

"Religious" folks need to remember

 that the world in general does 

not speak "PIOUS," and maybe 

they need to re-couch expressions

at times...which could sound ...

 cliched.

"At the end of the day," originally

  a British saw, I think (and which

O'Reilly dislikes) let is remember

 that we are intelligent enough

to polish our language ...amd 

 thoughts. 

More elocution and public speaking

 need to be taught...somewhere.

(Speakers need to hold their heads

 still and not do arm and hand

exercises while talking. We are not

  dummies.  Okay, a subject for

another piece...later on...

So...I think it's time to get out of this

 piece "With my hat and boots,"

an old poker-player's cliche.

But on leaving, I am reminded of

 a saying from early W. Texas

cotton farmers: "Don't never tell

 yore  guts." When I remember 

that somewhat earthy expression

 FB comes to mind.  

On FB people tell everything. Oh my!

A very dear and wise friend of mine

  from out Elida way, once gave 

me some excellent advice. (over

 a cup of coffee.) He said: "Always

play your cards close to your vest."

In parting, if one comes at me with

  a cliche, I can't help it...I must 

question his judgment...and

gumption.

"Let us be clear..." "going forward."

--------

MIL

4 MARCH 2020

"HAVE A GOOD DAY."

"THE MUSIC OF THE BEANS"

The three-year-old pintos

  (good as new, the experts say)

rolled easily and gently off 

 my open hand, two or three

at a  time.     as if skillfully arranged,

  each one pinging... minutely-

ringing tiny musical sounds, 

  every one slightly different...

into our favorite aluminum bowl...

Making music it seemed

  to my hungry ears?...

("Hungry ears?")  You know...

 and I was reminded of a nice 

Sunday morning hymn---

 "and  round  me rings

    the music of the spheres..."

Each bean, a miracle within 

  itself--seemed to echo its

previous brother-bean:

 "I am a legume. Miracle, Miracle!

There are vitamins and minerals

 right out of the earth stored in

me...that will make mortals healthy."

As the marvelous aluminum bowl

 filled     the pings turned 

into a cacophony of bass sounds

 and my thanksgiving went from

"per bean" to gratitude and 

 anticipation of  a whole hot bowlful, 

with corn bread    but wait   wait--

The beans were all saying...

    "Go find some ham...  for flavor."

-------------

MIL

24 MARCH 2020

(Writer's note: We ordered a 20 Lb.

 bag of pintos from Adobe Milling Co.

and it arrived, nice...in a tow sack

 and corrugated box. Five days later,

Adobe was out of beans...and their

 computer shut down...No more beans

until September.

---30---

WOODPECKERS GALORE...AND MORE

Drawing by K. M.

WOODPECKERS GALORE… AND MORE

By Billy Gilbreath, Guest Writer

The rhythm coming from somewhere around

Alerted her ears to the whack, whack sound

Sitting   in his   chair in a partial slumber

Awakened, quickly, thinking it was thunder

Not so in disgust says the lady of the room

Sound surely isn’t from that lousy raccoon

Again, that sound became clearer than before

A hollow rat, a tat was presenting an encore

Hearing that rat a tat sound from years past

A sign   that winter is gone and spring at last

Knowing that old fellow living down on the plains

Would provide us the answer without much pain

In poetry not prose the details were found

More than requested this bird with a crown

Woodpecker usually, given its common name

The, scientific name, in Latin, not the same

Make your choice from the many around 

In this   world one hundred and eighty are found 

My choice, the one found often in the West

Is here for an environment to build their nest. 

Red Headed woodpecker a name for its head

Both male and female with feathers of red

Their body boldly pattern in white and black

Zygodactyl toes leave unusual strange tracks

Two in the front and two toes in the back

Allows grip on the tree allowing the whack 

 Scientific name, Melanotropes erythrocehalus

Means very little to many, and   perhaps a plus

Oh well since you wonder it must be said

Erythro as in red and cephalus, the head. 

Interested in more to satisfied your mind

The male is polygyamous and many to find

I will end this tale   on a challenging   note

Your time to write on woody and coyote. 

***************************************************************

Billy Gilbreath, Guest Writer
Science Teacher
18 March, 2020 

MR. WOODPECKER

MISTER WOODPECKER

O  Mister Woodpecker,  

      Mister Woodpecker,       

What is your purpose  in life...

      What is your claim to fame?

     
   



















Drawing by K.M.

You don't sing like a canary...

    You don't mock like a mockingbird...

You don't run like a blue quail.

        nor hide like a Bob White,

Nor soar like an eagle, swim like a duck..

     or fly by at 70 mph like a Teal...

You don't dive in the sea for your dinner,

    like a Blue Footed Booby

Nor waddle and strut, dressed up

   like a Penguin...

In the spring you don't hop lawns

   looking for worms,

Or soar like vultures seeking carrion...

   You don't hang out in big groups,

like the little-flitting-nervous Bush Tits...

You don't air your troubles, quarrels,

   vicissitudes  noisily from the very 

tops of the pine trees with your

     female birds, like the Blue Jays do...

You don't spend your life

   just settin' on a still backwater

pond somewhere, never amounting 

   to anything, flying a few feet 

now and then ....as  a Mud Hen

We've never heard you "cocka-

    doodle-do"... or "PUCK-PUCK."

And there are thousands of species

    of birds...and we can't compare 

them all here...so we set out 

   to study you...and found---

      YOU are a magnificently and

          carefully invented and 

             engineered creation!!

-----------

Just to name some random facts

   about Woodpeckers...

WP are from the PICADAE family.

They have neck and shoulder muscles 

that would make a weight-lifter jealous.

They peck for food in trees, enjoying

the insect eggs and larvae. They don't

eat the wood.

They can peck at the unbelievable 

speeds of up to 22 pecks per second,

90,000 a day. Their beaks get hot

and they rest and cool them, between

short pecks.

Protecting their eyes and brains from

the heat and the jarring rhythms of 

pecking, they have numerous layered

membranes wrapped around inside 

their heads, said to be better than any

football helmets.

"Their tongues and lips wrap around 

their skulls ," whatever that means.

Their nostrils are special narrow slots,

designed to repel saw dust.

Say they get caught pecking while

a storm is coming up, they go ahead 

and peck out a home for themselves

and may live in it for awhile, right

in the tree.

You will never see a photo of a 

woodpecker in action that his 

feathered-tail is not resting

on the tree trunk. This. is for 

balance ,leverage, and strength.

Hearing the BRRTTTT...BRRTTTT...

down a residential street early

on a cool spring morning, sounds

like some company is building 

something in the neighborhood.

Whoever designed this clever and 

unusual bird, knew what He was 

doing. Did the Creator have help

from an Angel Committee in planning 

this  fantastic bird...and which eon

of Creation was it?

Next time we hear a Woodpecker at

work, let is thank the Creator for:

    "All things bright and beautiful,

        All things great and small

         Our Father made them all. "--------

MIL
17 MARCH  2020