012621b

 

Meals on Wheels

the price is right

but he hates the food

092220b

 

Meals on Wheels

in shrink-wrapped styrofoam 

no more leaks

101019b

Tech has made life so much more intrusive. I don't miss having to communicate with others in a volunteer organisation by post and long-distance phone calls. But I volunteer with three groups, and I have 2 zoom meetings and one face to face meeting this week. Plus do the actual work I signed up for! And everything else. Maybe the 3 groups are too many, maybe I am too lazy, or just whining. That's probably it.

110618d

Worked all day ferrying voters to the polls. Use my wheelchair van to carry five disabled voters today. That took until 4:30 in the afternoon.

053118c

from each meeting
where you volunteered
stone paperweights

010318c

When the First Time Machine Needs to be Tested


no matter how many specimens
the paleontologist always wanted one more
volunteering was a natural choice
aiming for the Cambrian
arriving in the Cretaceous
no defensive weaponry beyond a sun hat
almost more than needed
half a billion years in the past
alas, an RPG launcher would not have gone amiss
as things turned out

one more anomaly
on its way
back to the future

040317b

We (the geological survey) have been getting donations of fossils and rocks from an amateur collector, on and off, for two decades. Most of these are small things, intended for children. Others are intended for teachers, and some are intended for our fossil collection (e.g., fossil fish). All of these are in plastic bags with colored index cards stapled to them with the name of the fossil, the locality information, and the date collected, all handwritten on the index cards with a sharpie or in some cases, a pen. I haven't counted them, but I know that over the years we have received more than 100 such boxes. Right now we have 15 or 20 still full of things* to be given away. And today, after a hiatus of a couple of years, we got another one.

He is still alive [relief],

was followed immediately by,

we need to get busy and give more stuff away!

He has done SO MUCH for us, and we're grateful. It also keeps us working, getting the fossils to folks who will appreciate them. So, keep 'em coming, Don!


*dinosaur bone fragments, brachiopods, shark teeth, pieces of crinoid stem, etc.

062816b

Meals on Drones


Flying in low, dodging kudzu,
Fooled, sometimes, by inaccurate maps,
Faulty instructions:
"Left" when it should have been "right"
But the meals come in hot;
Good Southern cooking,
With lots of gravy,
And all the green colors muted.

Just like the good old days
When volunteers drove to your door,
But the drones don't say "hi",
Or "hot day today, isn't it."
Surely the programmers could work that in
With the next upgrade.