i've been challenged to do a poetry reading with my new book e pluribus haiku as a benefit for a local homeless shelter, by a guy who has gotten himself in newspapers nationwide for doing that, reading poetry as benefits for the homeless. he has several books out but is basically a colleague of mine at work, and quite good at self-promotion, i've always thought. i'm somewhat shy about my identity as a poet but am not likely to resist any challenge or well-placed dare of this nature so i think it may happen; it also is to his benefit that i happen to know not only the homeless shelter but also the people at the coffee shop where it would likely be held. it remains to be seen when, how, or who else might be involved. february is a time of poetry, i can tell you that, yet he also has a baby due so we have to move quickly.

my own computer is busy uploading another video for my ten-year-old and i'm afraid to sign out of his account and into mine in the middle of the process so i'm relegated to a back room funky computer at which i often mistype. he has become a man in black, who has his own youtube channel, and who easily could stay up until two or three every morning if i don't wail and moan and goad him into bed. around nine or ten when the little guy is asleep i do my exercise, furious stationary bicycling with cajun blues and accordion, and raunchy singing and i may or may not be on the beat as i get kind of zoned out into listening to it and not concentrating on the bicycle action. we also get skype calls from my granddaughter who plays the harmonica, has names for us (i'm gahwah, and one son is eeeyi)and she looks forward to talking to us because we climb all over each other and live the life of a bunch of wild animals with paws all over the screen, piling up on each other. she's learning to talk though and that's an ever-repeating miracle as kids seem to understand so much before they even start.

a cold spell has settled down over the place and this is somewhat typical for january here so i'm not necessarily complaining about global warming or whatever its opposite is, global or localized flooding or blizzarding. we breathe a little too much of whatever some furnace cranks out. the air is totally fresh outside but nobody wants to go out and balm around in it, though i do see a few bicyclists. outdoor sports? we don't have enough snow, though we have the appearance of it, sometimes. and it's just as likely to be in february as january anymore.

teaching the news again, and that's good, because i'm somewhat of a news junkie anyway these days; i do my africa news 'til i think that's normal, that's the center of the news world, and everyone should know gabon from gambia. unlike santorum, i at least know that africa is a continent, not a country. i should run for president, but i don't, because my computer is being used to upload youtubes.