31 March 2022

It's Nano Time...Again...

The eyes have it...
So...This isn't so much a Music Monday, but it's more like a Throwback Thursday...? Yet another Nano month starts tomorrow, and, unlike other Nanos, in the past I'm keeping the details of this WIP close to the chest this time. 

What I can tell you is that it is a departure from what I normally write but not from what I like to read, and I'm really trying to stretch a bit into a genre that terrifies me. 

That's all I can say, well, except that if you know me this shouldn't be a surprise. Like really know me. Like in person. Like well enough to know that is not my real eye color in that photo, but it might be a clue.

Intrigued? Stick around. This is gonna be a dark April... Here's a link to my Camp Nano Playlist if you'd like to follow along and see if you can guess where I'm headed this month. The Music Monday posts might be a clue as well... 



28 March 2022

Music Monday: One More Ozzy

So there I am, still singing along with the Prince of Darkness from last week, and this came to mind. I mean what better way to start the week after Spring Break than to SCREAM ABOUT IT?



Let Me Hear You Scream
by Ozzy Osborne

Let me hear you scream!
I'm black and blue, beat up, but still I take the blows;
'Cause all I need is blood and sweat and skin and bones!
I'll take this rage,
Rattle your cage,
Nobody said it's easy!
It's do or die,
Only the strong survive!
Get ready for the last stand!
Get ready, I'm your hangman!
Let me hear you scream like you want it! (Want it!)
Let me hear you yell like you mean it! (Mean it!)
If you're gonna go down
Go loud!
Go strong!
Go proud!
Go on!
Go hard or go home!
Let me hear you
(Let me hear you)
Let me hear you
(Let me hear you)
Let me hear you scream!
(Scream, scream, scream, scream...)
I'll pull you up and push you right
Back in your place!
I'll take you down and wipe that smile
Right off your face!
I'll watch you break,
Your mine to take,
Don't blink; you just might miss it!
It's all or nothing,
Nowhere left to run!
Are you ready for the last fight!?
Get ready with the war cry!
Let me hear you scream like you want it! (Want it!)
Let me hear you yell like you mean it! (Mean it!)
If you're gonna go down:
Go loud!
Go strong!
Go proud!
Go on!
Go hard or go home!
Let me hear you
(Let me hear you)
Let me hear you
(Let me hear you)
Let me hear you scream!
Let me hear you scream like you want it! (Want it!)
Let me hear you yell like you mean it! (Mean it!)
If you're gonna go down:
Go loud!
Go strong!
Go proud!
Go on!
Go hard or go home!
Let me hear you scream like you want it! (Want it!)
Let me hear you yell like you mean it! (Mean it!)
If you're gonna go down:
Go loud!
Go strong!
Go proud!
Go on!
Go hard or go home!
Let me hear you
(Let me hear you)
Let me hear you
(Let me hear you)
Let me hear you scream!

21 March 2022

Music Monday: Well, that was unexpected...

I love a good Ozzy ballad as much as anyone else, and the one on my mind when I sat down to write was Close My Eyes Forever with Lita Ford. But this popped up in a search and I was captivated, as much as early uni Nancy was when she was all about a bad boy from Birmingham. Oh, Ozzy. If only I had your skills with eyeliner...




No More Tears
by Ozzy Osborne

The light in the window is a crack in the sky
A stairway to darkness in the blink of an eye
A levee of tears to learn she'll never be coming back
The man in the dark will bring another attack
Your momma told you that you're not supposed to talk to strangers
Look in the mirror, tell me, do you think you life's in danger, yeah?
No more tears (Tears, tears)
No more tears (Tears, tears)
No more tears (Tears, tears)
No more tears (Tears, tears)
(Tears, tears...)
Another day passes as the night closes in
The red light goes on to say it's time to begin
I see the man around the corner waiting, can he see me?
I close my eyes and wait to hear the sound of someone screaming here
No more tears (Tears, tears)
No more tears (Tears, tears)
No more tears (Tears, tears)
No more tears (Tears, tears)
It's just a sign of the times
Going forward in reverse
Still, he who laughs last
Is just a hand in the bush
So now that it's over, can we just say goodbye? (I'd like, I'd like)
I'd like to move on and make the most of the night
Maybe a kiss before I leave you this way
Your lips are so cold, I don't know what else to say
I never wanted it to end this way, my love, my darling
Believe me when I say to you in love, I think I'm falling here
No more tears (Tears, tears)
No more tears (Tears, tears)
No more tears (Tears, tears)
No more tears (Tears, tears)
Is just a hand in the bush
(In the bush, in the bush, in the bush...)

15 March 2022

The Pickle Paradigm: an excerpt...sort of...

Our Whomping Willow
Those that follow me on social media know who this little face is, but if you aren't familiar with her, this is my AmStaff mix, Willow-Pickle. She came to live with us at the tender age of 9 months, after a repeat engagement at the shelter where she was returned for "being just too much." Any of you that have shared your home with any kind of terrier are probably nodding your heads in acknowledgment.

She is the living embodiment of getting what you need rather than necessarily what you want - we got her in November of 2015 and lost Daisy just over a year later. If we hadn't had her, I'm not sure Bryn (or any of us) would have made it through that awful time. She was patient yet insistent as she tried to draw Bryn out of her depression and eventually succeeded. They have been thick as thieves ever since.

But this post is not about any of that. This is an excerpt, hopefully, from WP's own book - she's been a supporting character in the books about her greyhound and wolfhound sisters, and really deserves her own story. This happened just this morning, and I will tell it from my perspective because she hasn't shared hers with me...yet. Enjoy.


In Which Mommy Discovers a Chicken in the Yard...Again

Now there have been other occasions when our neighbors (who CLEARLY do not understand the difference between city chickens and FREE RANGE chickens) have allowed their hens to run freely in our neighborhood and we have had to chase them out of our yard. Many. Other. Occasions. We had landscaping done and they ate some of the grass seed. They have pulled up the borders that Hubs put down in the garden. They walk back and forth by the gate to the fenced yard and, at first, would whip the girls into such a frenzy that I feared they would turn on each other...or at least Willow-Pickle and Ciaragh would. Poor Bryn just wants to see what they are and potentially make friends, if the bunnies she has followed through the yard are any indication.

This morning I was working in the kitchen and Hubs had let the girls outside, leaving the basement door open so that they could come back in when they were ready. I heard a very loud cluck but no growling or barking so I figured the ladies were just outside the fence as they often are, eating all the birdseed from the feeders. But then it happened again. CLUCK CLUCK. Still no growling but I could hear movement on the patio downstairs (thanks to my McDonald ancestors for my bionic hearing ability). I ran down the stairs and found a hen backed into a corner by a Willow-Pickle who was growling low in her chest and a very amused and happy-looking Bryn. No Ciaragh to be seen. Small mercies.

I ordered Bryn in the house and she did as she was told with all of the excitement of a child that is at 2.5 on a 3-count to go to bed. CLUCK CLUCK! I turned back and Willow-Pickle was so close to that hen that she could sniff it, LICK IT, and growl as she ignored me. 

My greyhound owning readers will remember the early days when you were advised to keep a can of pennies nearby to drop in order to break your hound's focus on the whateveritwas that they wanted to chase...well, if I had possessed one of those loud things I could have thrown it at the two and neither of them would have paid me any attention. I finally got as close as I could (Willow-Pickle had pinned the invader behind the Yellow Rose of Texas in the corner of the yard off the patio) and screamed her name. 

The look that dog gave me...Col. Pickle is the master of the side-eye, and she did not approve of me interrupting her game of "Hey, Chicken, why don't you Eff Around and Find Out" that she was meticulously playing with a view toward a chicken biscuit for second breakfast. In addition, the chicken didn't move a muscle, even when I grabbed the Pickle's newest bionic knee and pulled her backward. Reluctantly and slowly she turned around to face the house and I shoved her inside and THAT, MY FRIENDS, WAS WHEN COL. CLUCK-CLUCK MADE HER MOVE. 

That stupid chicken was going to just follow the dogs right into the house until Ciaragh appeared OUT OF NOWHERE and barked from across the patio by the vegetable beds. Well, this has just completed my morning, let me tell you. I eyeballed the chicken who changed her mind about checking out our basement, called into the house to let Hubs know I needed a leash, and then walked slowly toward my nervous Irish puppy to convince her to BACK UP SLOWLY AND NO ONE WILL GET HURT.

She'd seen the chicken. She didn't know what it was, but she wanted it. Mommy was in the way. And then, like the hero in an action movie, Hubs came out onto the deck and dropped her leash down to me. I don't know what its superpower is - maybe it would be like the Lasso of Truth if Ciaragh could talk, but I don't think ANY OF US want that. I put it on her and led her past the feathery foe and into the house so that I could open the gate to let it out.

Only it didn't want to go out until I gave it some gentle encouragement in the form of picking up a nearby vegetable cage and swinging it like a madwoman. Last time it hopped up onto the fence and then flew out of the yard. As God is my witness...

14 March 2022

Music Monday: Florence is King, Long Live the King!

I've just discovered this song -  how perfect it is for some upcoming inspiration...it's a new track from Florence + the Machine and, like everything else from them, is like someone opened up my heart and soul and sang about what they found. The part near the end where they all silently scream...just good, good stuff.

And I was never as good as I always thought I was

But I knew how to dress it up

I was never satisfied, it never let me go

Just dragged me by my hair and back on with the show

(no lyrics this time, the video is CAPTIONED and not icky automatic captions)


09 March 2022

Whoops Wednesday? Is That a Thing?

So, I clearly forgot about Music Monday this week. It's fine, really. To be very honest, I haven't felt like writing anything lately - with the small fires I keep having to put out for the Day Job and in my own little furry family PLUS Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the 24hr news cycle I'm just about back behind the sofa to live.

And in that vein, here is a bit of fun. Maybe. I was at the Atlanta Steampunk Expo last month and there was a fantastic artist called Dmitri just across the hall from me who had a magnificent playlist running most of the two days we were there. When this song came on, I almost had to get up and dance. I was 16 again, with my first car, dreaming about college and a career in theatre...enjoy.



Peek-A-Boo 

by Siouxsie and the Banshees


Creeping up the backstairs
Slinking into dark stalls
Shapeless and slumped in bathchairs
Furtive eyes peep out of holes
She has many guises
Shell do what you want her to
Playing dead and sweet submission
Cracks the whip deadpan on cue
Peek-a-boo peek-a-boo
Peek-a-boo peek-a-boo

Reeking like a pigsty
Peeling back and gagging free
Flaccid ego in your hand
Chokes on dry tears, can you understand?
Shes jeering at the shadows
Sneering behind a smile
Lunge and thrust to pout and pucker
Into the face of the beguiled

Peek-a-boo peek-a-boo
Golly jeepers
Where'd you get those peepers?
Peepshow, creepshow
Where did you get those eyes?

Strobe lights pump and flicker
Dry lips crack out for more
Come bite on this rag doll, baby!
That's right, now hit the floor
They're sneaking out the back door
She gets up from all fours
Rhinestone fools and silver dollars
Curdle into bitter tears

Peek-a-boo peek-a-boo
Golly jeepers
Where'd you get those peepers?
Peepshow, creepshow
Where did you get those eyes?

Music Monday: Song of a Local Hero

This won't mean much to some, but while we were abroad, we got to tour the Cathedral on the Hill, the home stadium for Newcastle United....