Richard, I think I might have misinterpreted half of what you said, so keep doing what you're doing with the engineer and keep dancing on the beach with your breakfast partner when you find her, which I'm sure you will. As for impact and intent, isn't the impact there when you're aware of the intent? My poem is pretty short, so I'll just print it here:

SIGNALS

She listens with her eyes and hands
and lips, maybe with her breasts,
and knows that he's talking, though his mouth is closed;
just the rustle of his paper
as he sits over breakfast and the news.
It seems to come from his forehead
or his eyelids or the skin around his mouth.
Sometimes just a whisper, not easy to detect,
but today she hears it humming
through his robe--this language
of a man behind a paper, the pulse behind the print.

Perhaps he is responding to a fragrance or a color
or the slightest tremble in her neck.
He reads her silence with his shoulders,
maybe with his chest; tastes her texture in the chair.
Knows exactly when he'll find her hand
resting, tender, on the table.

at the risk of god knows what, i respond. so, i may have exagerated about leaving before breakfast had arrived and getting a hotel room. there is a very good chance that i would not have made it past the back seat of my ford fusion rental car. i certainly would not have made it to dinner and dancing with my imaginary breakfast guest. i would have been dancing on the beach together before noon and, yeah, you are right that you are wrong about that particular couple. it was sad and i had to see it. have a bit of pity for me, not them, cuz i got it and they never will. i would love to read your poem, "signals." it is not in any of my currently held lori levy works. i can only say that if signals have impact and not just intent, well i am for them. as for my "engineering activitities", i really do not wish for more. i feel really blessed that we dialed it in to where we have great impact as great friends without intent that reaches into places that are not real. we have a very secure spider's web that has joined wall to ceiling and it brings out the best in both. it surely is love, but not one that needs a back seat in, for, or about fusion. i love you, too. by the way, i expect myself to stop and listen when i meet teachers of the heart. still need to learn a bit more. richard

I think we all would relish those intimate moments wishing life could be like a romantic novel....

Glad its Friday today! Kids were wild today. Not sure if its the high 70/80 degree temperatures in Springfield on October 5th or what. Crazy. The fall leaves are starting to turn here. Way behind. Colors are not the brilliant bright ones...more muted. Probably from the lack of rain this summer.

I heard that Mrs. Birsky died this past week in Florida. Haven't seen the obituary in the paper yet but heard that the funeral will be in Springfield on 10/13...at St. Mary's.

Big Apple Festival at Riverside this weekend. It is suppose to be a beautiful weekend so should be good for that. I will probably go down and check out the big happenings. Have a wonderful weekend everybody.

Happy Thoughts...............

Richard, I don't know exactly what Karen told you, but I'm sure she gave good advice. You deserve the best. It sounds like you had a really good time with that engineer, and it's good to have someone like that in your life even if it can't become as intimate as it sounds like you'd like it to be. But about the couple eating breakfast in "hollow togetherness," I've learned that there can be a lot going on under the surface sometimes. One person can be feeling the other's presence and feeling a lot of love even if they're not talking or touching and it seems like they're in their own worlds or just reading the paper. I wrote a poem about it, called "Signals." I'm not saying you're wrong; you were probably right about that couple you saw. I'm just saying I'm learning to see all the good things that ARE there instead of expecting life to be like a romantic movie and getting disappointed when it's not like the movies.

hi lori. you did not miss anything REALLY interesting because nothing has happened. that is the part where engineer and engineer respect each other's current relationships. you did miss that i spent two weeks going to amazing places with an engineer back in may. the same engineer works and plays with a group that i am close with in my company. she and i had a chance to see the alsace region of france, the black forest in germany and some good times with friends within the larger group we both work in a couple of weekends ago. she is not the c&w chick. i posted a blog after returning from switz a couple of weeks ago that i revised from how psyched i was to be with my fellow engineer to how lovely the scenery was. karen saw the original version and offered some encouragement to me before i am put out to pasture. karen is right to offer encouragement and recognition for the small accomplishment that i found someone that has a great sense of humor, sense of life, and we love the way each other smiles in spite of the age difference between us. there is so much life to be lived. this engineer and i have the structure and life to fill up our splendid friendship. in contrast to this, i see couples that have the structure for their relationship, but not the heart that fills it up. i was sitting in a breakfast place today and watched a couple that quietly stayed separate from each other as he read the front section of the paper while she looked like she would rather be bowling and then she read the same section, like an indian women that walks behind her man, and he had breakfast on the way. i would have given anything to be with my love, soul connection, squeeze that fills the framework of my life with heart and i can tell you that i would not be reading the newspaper. in my shallow, god i love you way, i would have been studying every move that she made and i would be winking, smiling, poking under the table and getting a hotel room before breakfast arrived. where are people's priorities? do people really think that an english muffin will blow their hair back? maybe, but they sit in hollowness together and i am the one sitting alone.

I must have missed something--or is this the same one who plays in the country and western band? You're lucky you have a job that takes you to all those beautiful places.

Karen, the version with the young beautiful engineer is good. We are a great international couple that travel to exotic places pretty often, we do fun things together, and we keep our hands off each other. As long as we both have someone else that is not keeping their hands off of us it is all really great. I am a very emotionally, advanced male. How crazy is that?

Lori I do wish that was a 3 day weekend. You're right about that part for sure. It'd be a awfully quick turn around. You don't have much time with your family on a 3 day trip for yourselves either.

Now that I told everyone I probably won't be coming to Vermont, I'm starting to have second thoughts and feel tempted to change my mind. I guess I better decide one way or the other in the next few days. As I said, if I do go, it would be for the weekend of Oct. 19. Just a long weekend, so I'm not really sure I'd have time to go down to Springfield this time. I definitely want to get together with all of you, so if it doesn't work out this time, we'll have to figure out something else. Patti, you probably need more time than just a regular weekend, don't you, to drive 9 hours back and forth to Burlington? And, Karen, whenever you do make it to L.A., I hope you'll have some time to meet me.

Roland, I wanted to say I was also sorry to hear about your mother and wish you strength to deal with this change in your life.

Well ladies although it's disappointing it looks like it'll be a while before we get together. lf something comes up spontaneously let's give a whirl! I'm open to the opportunity. We're doing Thanksgiving in Dave's place in Bangor but Christmas is HOME for sure.

Roland, I'm sure your mom is now at peace and with time you too will find peace. It does take time however. When you least expect it you will smile with some random thought and for Dave and I those moments have made 07 a bitter easier.

May God continue to bless your family