Jinx
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Satan Is No Creator
Jinx was a very difficult dog this evening, and I’ve been giving him a bit of the cold shoulder. He’s gotten into a very bad habit of refusing to come when called. Or worse, running at top speed away from us when he’s called. He was barking ferociously at something in the woods along the side of the house. The noise he made was of such a pitch and intensity that it made me think it might be something beyond the usual squirrel or coon. He finally came down to the door, but dashed away every time we tried to coax him inside. My wife was finally able to cajole…
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Last Weekend in Standard Time
Jinx didn’t let us sleep in too late today, which was a pity because I was still exhausted from yesterday’s little stroll. But spotted dogs with small brains and enormous personalities cannot be denied, and we laughed together as he bounded around the room, growling and moaning. Yes, moaning. Jinx has a peculiar noise he makes when he’s trying to provoke us into playing with him, a noise that sounds quite a bit like the timbers in the HMS Indefatigable with HH on the bridge during a storm. A deep, creaky, groany glissando up and down three octaves. Moaning will have to do as the noun here. The moaning. Oh,…
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Long Walk Home
The day started with the usual routine: Jinx awakened me by sticking his nose into my ear and snorfeling and snarfeling around like a Texas javelina, we made coffee, fed the dogs, got showered and dressed. Off to work, and everything was calm until a few miles from my office. That’s when the car started vibrating, pitching and yawing. Oh, man, I thought. Flat tire. But I happened to glance down at the dashboard and saw the Check Engine light flashing on and off like a strobe light at Studio54 in 1978. I’m no mechanic, but I know enough to realize that when that particular light is blinking, it’s bad…
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The Second Sunday in Advent
The weekend was a mild one, foggy and rainy for the most part, but with a three hour sunbath this afternoon. We sat out on the front porch and read for a good long spell, enjoying the fresh air and watching the battalions of birds as they ate and visited. Methuselah, the ancient white-faced squirrel who has lived on this land longer than we have, scampered in his deliberate, arthritic way across the driveway. How many winters has he seen? Jinx and I climbed to the top of a high ridge yesterday and enjoyed a rest up where we could peer down to our place and for quite a ways…
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Passion And Warfare
A light rain was falling this morning when I let Jinx out. I busied myself with my morning routine, and after a while I went to check and see if the spotted menace wanted back inside. I opened the door and took a breath into my lungs, preparing to call his name. That’s when I saw what looked like a short, medium-sized dog trundle across the front yard, just outside of the reach of the porch light. Then it registered. Coon. A big one. I looked around to see if Jinx was in sight, and then I called with a thin and tentative voice. “Jinx? Come on in, boy.” I…
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The First Sunday in Lent
The sun favored us all day, rising in a golden mist, warming and drying the marshy earth. Jinx and I were out early, enjoying the welcome light. After our walk, I returned to the house. Jinx followed his own inner urgings and stayed out all day, napping in the sunshine beneath the Japanese maple out front. A washing machine on the fritz, a large limb broken somehow from the weeping willow, a new security light to install, a writing project to complete — the sun moved across the sky with extra speed today, or so it seemed. And now it dips towards the western ridge, and it’s not too long…
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Grace In Darkness
Today’s Morning Prayer from the Liturgy of the Hours was soothing to me as I sat before the crucifix and prayed the ancient prayers. A selection from Psalm 92: Though the wicked spring up like grass and all who do evil thrive: they are doomed to be eternally destroyed. But you, Lord, are eternally on high. See how your enemies perish; all doers of evil are scattered. It is indeed good to be reminded that there is nothing new under the sun, and that evil days have always plagued our race. The wicked are numerous. Those who do evil do thrive. But…I hope in the promises that God sees the…
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Quickly Forgotten
“That is a blessing of bad dreams, they are quickly forgotten.” ― Joyce Carol Oates I was awakened this morning by my wife, who was calling to me and telling me to wake up. Her voice came to me as if from very far away, and I was fighting, kicking my way to the surface, out of the blackness of sleep and the frightening dream that was trying to pull me back down. I had been trying to awaken myself for what seemed like an hour, trying to yell and startle myself into the waking world, but only able to manage a thin whimper. As soon as my wife heard me,…
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Returning Home
Sunday evening, a flicker landed in the snow outside the door. He drilled down like a sewing machine in search of his meal, solitary in the white yard, looking around as he did his work He must have seen me taking photos through the window, because the flicker flew over to the weeping willow tree and perched on the trunk for several minutes, looking fat and sleek, before he departed for the deeper woods. When I returned home last night, I was so glad to see Jinx and he was so glad to see me, we danced around each other. He barked and whined and did his best to tell…
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Sexagesima Snow
If you look closely (or if you can enlarge it) at the photo above, you’ll see a black spot near the bottom, just to the right of the center of the frame. That’s a black bear. I saw him while Jinx and I were out on our walk this morning. The bear was several hundred yards away, loping away from us towards the south, but I knew that if Jinx spotted him, it would be Katy-bar-the-door and every-botty would be kung-fu fighting. I yelled and made silly noises to distract the spotted menace while trying to snap a few pics of the bear. This was the clearest of the ones…