I will be in St Mary’s County, MD. at the Hollywood Fire Department tomorrow (August 6th) from 10 am to 2 pm selling and signing my books. The event is sponsored by The Ladies Auxiliary of the Hollywood Fire Department.
For those of you that might not know, I am Jim “The Houseboat Poet” McDonald and have three books of poetry that tell the story of my life, one book about hats and one book of word prompts. I also have a few hats, shirts, coffee mugs, and photos.
I am in my last week of the Basics of Photography course at the University of Maryland Global Campus. The last assignment was to pick a theme, then go out into the world and document it through photography. I started out with ‘Weight Loss’ because that would include eating and walking, but during the walking part my theme changed to ‘The Trash We Leave’.
Oh, just leave it there
I am always amazed at how beautiful our world is and I am especially enamored with the sights I see in our little Charles County, MD. On a walk that my friend Raymond and I took a few weeks ago, we found some nice roads that we have never gone down. Traveling to unknown places can always be risky, but we are old, adventurous, and a little crazy, so we travel to your neighborhood. Getting back to ‘The Trash We Leave”, there are endless reasons why I can leave my trash for you to pick up. Here are just a few: the trash containers provided are full, I left it close enough, or it is not my problem.
Full trash cans
It seems trash cans are everywhere now, but not always timely emptied. How hard would it be to recognize those more active days or weekends and empty them prior to and after those times? The stance of it is close enough is not the right attitude and it is not job security for someone else, especially if it blows all over the area. IT IS MY PROBLEM! It is lazy and sloppy to leave my trash for someone else to clean up. We as a people have gone to extremes to depose our trash and rubbish in designated areas and we are starting to get the recycling idea down to a science. Everyone should help and do their part in both of those arenas before we have no clean places to walk. “Our trash – our problem!” (McDonald)
Jim “The Houseboat Poet” McDonald here. I had the pleasure of meeting some interesting people over the last few weekends at the Waldorf Rescue Squad and St. Michaels Museum.
The vendors were many, but the foot traffic was a little light at the Waldorf Rescue Squad Saturday, April 2nd, but I had three sales culminating in seven books signed. Two new friends bought the full series of “Life of a Humble Poet” – three books per set. This past weekend Saturday, April the 9th was at the St, Michaels Museum and sales were a bit better. Several people bought my full set of poetry. I sold 15 books and gave one to a young lady that helped me set up. I had much fun on a day that threatened to rain all day. As you might expect moisture and paper products do not mix well.
New friend and writerFuture published poetFellow schoolmatesMy young helpera nice young mothera young poetry reader
I will be at the Coastal Arts Market (CAM) this weekend Saturday 16th from 9am to 3pm, which is located at the Leonardtown Wharf. Please come visit me and 30 or so local vendors and we are anxiously hoping to show you our wares.
This Saturday, 3-12-22, from 10am to 2pm is my first craft fair of the 2022 season and it will be at the St. Mary’s County Fair Grounds. I have two new books, so I will be selling and signing my three books of poetry and a book of short stories – plus hats, shirts, and coffee mugs with my information on them.
I have set up at this venue before, however, not at this particular event. It is an indoor event, but the weather is supposed to be bad, so I don’t know if it will happen.
Remember, my three word stories are fiction and should not be confused with the truth.
Lisa and Bandit about 2010
I was trying to meditate, while on the phone with my ex-girlfriend Lisa and a friend said, “Jim, you’re not doing it right.”
Realizing she meant I was not meditating right, I asked her, “How should I do it then?”
She said, “Meditation is different with everyone. Here’s how I do it: I find a calm place to sit, I am aware of my body and feel my breath, but more importantly I do this alone and not on the phone arguing with an ex.”
“Oh.”
“It sounds like you were counting to ten and trying to calm down.”
“Yeah, I guess so. I tend to get a little depressed when there’s no sunshine also, and that didn’t help.”
Later that night I was thinking of what my friend said and decided to try it her way, because lately I haven’t felt much happiness. I really don’t know if it helped or not. Guess it did, because I felt a little calmer. I was about to try it again the next night, when the phone rang. The caller ID said, “Lisa.” I thought for a ring or two, then decided not to answer. I felt calmer with that simple decision and ended up not meditating.
I didn’t get much sleep that night thinking of what Lisa wanted to say, but I did dream a little. The dream had her begging to get back together and she would to do anything I wanted. Needless to say that didn’t help my blood pressure.
JFM Creates 