Hours Like Diamonds

 

“The hours are diamonds” - Time waits for no one by the Rolling Stones.

Thanks to the Internet and archives,

One has the chance to take a deep dive

into any past era, in text, video or songs.

You can take your present self along

for a ride into a past era of your life,

one with different pleasure or strife.

Care to revisit the roaring twenties,

the depressed 30’s or wartime 40’s?

Strap in and get online and search,

More of nearly everything lurks.

That song that grabbed your head

back then will remind of times fled.

The world of your great-grandparents

struggles and triumphs and etc etc

rises up out of the screen to grip

your imagination, do a mental backflip.

Our hi-def, always connected world has

the built-in wayback machine to razmatazz.

Earlier generations were locked in black and white,

but we have multitudes of full-color delights.

Hard to imagine what future generations will have

that beats our best technical enhancements and assistants.

Interplanetary Innovator

 

In the past words like “helicopter” and “Mars”

were not commonly used in the same sentence.

But in the past three years they were, often.

An improbable rotorcraft flew over another world.

Stuff of pulp sci-fi, seemingly explained away

by recent science – “there’s no atmosphere there!”

Yet there was a minute one made of carbon dioxide,

dense enough to support blades spinning very fast.

Along comes a tiny helicopter flying over the Red Planet,

snapping photos and performing experiments.

An autonomous insect, obeying commands from Earth.

Progress takes many forms – advancement many disguises.

This will be the first of many hovering seekers,

searching red sands for fossils of ancient creatures.

Well done, mighty little Ingenuity helicopter.

Memory Memorandum

 

I remember when

was hustling back and forth in front of some machine,

keeping it fed with paper and attention and commands.

I remember when

Was standing in front of another device, separating paper

stacks and removing carbons. For hours and hours.

I remember when

Was feeding paper into printers or slapping up tape reels,

studying screens, shelving tapes, troubleshooting all night long.

I remember when

I went into empty offices at night, emptied trash cans,

swept and mopped floors, vacuumed large areas,

cleaned bathrooms and restocked paper products.

I remember when

a crew of us got locked into a building overnight,

to sweep, mop and wax large flooring areas.

They paid extra for working overnight doing this.

I remember when

Walked the floors of a large telecom complex,

emptying wastecans, dustmopping, floor finishing,

all while keeping things secure and locked,

trying not to damage equipment or get lippy.

I Remember when

we had to clean filthy bars, restrooms full of vomit,

filthy carpeted floors, tables coated with spilled booze,

but we got to keep any dropped change on the carpets.

I remember when

got up at 4 AM, made it to work by 5:40 AM,

First went for the icemelt to toss it all around a complex,

a full square block, even if it was -15 deg. F and snowing.

Then after that going indoors to resume cleaning large areas.

I remember when

went down to several municipal buildings to clean,

walking through rain, snow, heat to get to other buildings,

go in and clean and re-stock, and be careful with speech

or actions – be on good behavior even around bad behavior.

I remember when

all of that came to an end one day,

leaving work on my last night,

breathing a sigh of relief.

It was all done.

Turned in work clothes the next day,

then went home to plot out a fabulous

retirement!

That was the happiest memory of all.

Dumped on Again

 

We know it is not a matter of if, but when

nasty old winter will take a dump on us again.

Going along our daily routines in fair weather,

There is never any question of whether

we will make it to our destination on time.

Usually the sun comes out and it is fine.

However, past tornadoes and derechos remind

us that eventually we’ll face ugly climes…

But we are doughty stout midwesterners,

and have endured many harsh weather events.

At least we don’t have nasty Nor’easters,

or hurricanes that oceans often present!

We can “hunker down” and barricade ourselves indoors;

Someday this will be a bad memory, one that we endured.