BIKE KC

The Bike Share has come to downtown Kansas City. A program patterned after a concept used in several European cities where people can rent a bike at lone local and drop it off at another station. This location is just behind where I work and as you can see from this picture during the lunch hour that a number of the units are in use. They were refilling the station as I arrived at work, so I know these were checked out since just before 8 AM. They are kind of ugly bikes to be honest but they have 3 speeds and yes that is a basket up front. But these are not sporting bikes, they are intended for functionality so I guess their looks are okay.

It's a really cool concept and I do intend to take one of my two helmets to work and leave it there. If the weather drops below the 3 digit range anytime soon, I'll probably take a spin over a lunch hour.

Kansas City will be getting a lot of national attention during the All-Star break and I'm glad they got these up and running last week.

So if you encountered one of these stations on a visit to Kansas City would you take advantage of the to hop around town?

Sweet Land of Liberty

Hope everyone is having a joyous 4th of July.  Because of the string of extra dry weather we've been having I know some communities have banned or at least discouraged fireworks. Whatever you are doing today, grilling, at the lake, baseball game, looking for 4th of July sales, visiting family of just hanging out at home. Be safe and be mindful of how precious our freedom is.

HAPPY 4TH of JULY AMERICA

And Happy Birthday to my daughter Shannon Wells!  :)

Confession Tuesday - 100's Edition

Tuesday again my friend- temperatures again headed to 100+ for (I can't remember how many) days now. But you're here for the confession, so let's go to the box.

Dear Reader,

It's been 5 days since my last confession (because I was late last week) and I have a few things I can think of to acknowledge here.

First, I confess that I lost my keys last night at a restaurant.  That pretty much was the nail that sealed my evening as non-productive as well as stressful. I confess that I am still hopeful they will turn up.

I confess that this three digit heat need to leave. Right now!  Heat makes Michael cranky. Ask my family or co-workers.

I confess I need the 4th of July to come so that I have a day to rejuvenate. Hopefully.

I confess that I'm having some range of mobility issues with my left shoulder. Not quite as saver as when I had a rotator cuff injury in my opposit shoulder several years back, but similar. I can't recall any singular thing I might have done to elicit the pain. I confess I'm unsure if this is old-age vs. injury.

I confess some days I want to take my laptop to a coffee house and write without interruption and lose all concept of time.

My Web Page Is Down AGAIN! #@&%!

My regular web site michaelawells.com is down again. The first part of the month I discovered it offline and as best I can tell it was down for at least parts of three days. Looking at my stat counter it's had no hits for 12 days so it seems like it's been this way a while. It's being hosted by MyDomain.com. I've been with them for several years now and my renewal is up in July so I'm thinking a change is in order.  I've never moved a site before. Any recommendations as to where to go? How much of a pain is it to move a domain name?

Two Judges Say Go Deep - Don't Play It Safe

I read two blog posts today that touched on poetry contests and I noted a similar view help by two people who have been contest judges and I thought they were worth mentioning.

I have note entered a lot of contests - I maybe average one to two entries a year so I'm one one who has a lot of personal experience with the contest circuit.

One of the two pieces that I'm talking about was an interview in Ploughshares of Mary Biddinger by Victoria Chang. I've met Victoria at a reading in Kansas City I believe in 2008. I've read two of her books Circle and Silivinia Molesta. I enjoyed both but was much impressed by Circle as a first book.  Biddinger I've never met or heard read but I have her book Saint Monica which I was so in love with I I can hardly contain myself in wait for her next book O Holy Insurgency. She is the queen of Catholic poetic culture.

The second piece that I read was a blog post by Susan Rich. I've never met Susan either but have her book The Alchemist's Kitchen. One thing that I've appreciated about Susan is that she is a poet who not only has a strong social consciousness but will on occasion allow it the gently permeate her work.

So insight of interest did I glean from these two sources? Rich pointed out, "...all the poems that were sent on to me were quite competent. However, competent is not enough to win a contest. The poems that startled me, that made me want to read then and re-read them, the poems that could not be nailed to a chair in terms of their meaning."  Her advise specifically was to, "Choose to send your poems that take risks."


Mary Biddinger said  she loves  "Poems with teeth... poems that aren't afraid to use their teeth." For Biddinger, she would rather see "a manuscript that makes a few missteps, but dose so with bravery, versus a highly-polished competent, yet safe collection."


If you take to heart what these two poet/judges have to say on the subject, it comes down to being willing to take the risk.  I suppose this really should come as no surprise because it really is the poem that stands up and dares to be different that gets noticed. I can recall shuffling through pages of work in the past and  pulling from it the pieces that seemed the most polished. I will try to not make that mistake again.

Today In the News Headlines

The court ruling fails to ease doubts
firefighters search door to door for bodies

Consumer confidence declined in June
S & P 500 caps best June since 1999

Tatum puts critics under their spell
Cruse-Holmes divorce

China's first female astronaut returns
earth adds leap second

Hillary Clinton attacking
man plagued by porn-induced headaches

Confession Tuesday on Thursday

Dear Reader:

It's Thursday -  9 days since my last confession. Nine mostly hot days. Today stretches the concept of hot as it reaches 105. I am not amused.

• I confess that I missed confession Tuesday and hope that by making it up on another "T" day I can be afforded special dispensation.
• I confess that special dispensation seems redundant to me. If you receive dispensation isn't it speal in itself?
• I confess that I am sipping on a diet cream soda and fruit punch flavored Vodka. (I didn't use much Shannon) My defense is rooted in triple digit heat.
• I confess that any time the San Francisco Giants beat the Dodgers is a good day but when they beat the Dodgers and move into a tie for first place is crazy assed exciting!
• I confess that I had a bad case of methodical today. I suppose this was not really a bad thing because I had a lot of really detail orientated stuff to deal with at the office today. 
• I confess the heat was so bad today that spending the night at work didn't seem all that bad... but alas I did come home.
• I confess that I was pleasantly surprised by the Supreme Court decision on the Affordable Health Care Act.
• I confess that even with the horrible heat, most of the people that I have come in contact with the past couple of days have not been grouchy but rather very respectful and courteous.
• I confess that I need to write yet tonight, therefor I'm confessed out for this week. 

Hope you all stay safe and cool where-ever you are!