May 25: Mother, Memorial Day, Announcement, "Ives" Dip

My mother came home from the ER last night around 10 p.m.  The doctors ran all kinds of tests.  The whole time, all my mother kept saying was, "I don't care what you do to me.  Just let me sleep."  After much poking, bloodletting, and urine collecting, she was diagnosed with dehydration.  So, they pumped about two bags of saline into her and gave her walking papers.

She's doing much better.  I haven't seen her much this Memorial Day.  I attended a parade this morning.  In the rain.  I went to the cemetery for the VFW service.  In the rain.  Then my wife, kids, and I went to the local veterans home to visit my wife's great uncle, who served during World War II.

The rain lasted almost all day.  This afternoon, I spent some time reviewing poetry submissions for the university's literary magazine.  I had a ton of them.  However, I enjoy the process of discovering new poetic talent.  I know, in a couple of days, many writers are going to be very happy when they get their acceptances in the mail.

Memorial Day, for me, is the official beginning of summer, and I have an announcement to make:  I am going to institute a summer schedule for this blog.  From now until Labor Day, I'm only going to be writing one post per day.  I have several writing projects that I want to complete over the next few months, and I also want to take advantage of the warm weather in the Upper Peninsula.  It doesn't last very long.

Not to worry, though.  There will still be Poets of the Week.  Mr. Ives' Christmas will still be featured every day (except Sundays).  I will just be doing all these things in one daily post instead of two.  After June, July, and August, Saint Marty will return to its normal programming.

My question for Ives dip Monday is this:

Will I get a lot of writing done this summer?

And the answer from Mr. Ives is:

And [Ives] would think about that pretty woman in his office named Maria, with her air of permanent sorrow, and how she would cry in the middle of the afternoon with memories of the people, especially the children, she had watched die in Auschwitz; she had been only a child of ten when the Russians liberated the camp...

OK, that's not very encouraging.  But, I'm still going ahead with my plans.  Tomorrow, I will announce the Poet of the Week.  Stay tuned for more summer surprises.  New poems.  Contests.  Nude selfies.  (Just seeing if you're paying attention.)

Finally, Saint Marty gives thanks to all veterans and their families this Memorial Day.  He is profoundly humbled by their sacrifices.

Thank you.  Amen.