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Summer Comes In
While the spotted twins snoozed on the back porch this morning, I walked for an hour and inhaled summer’s new air, holding it in my lungs like a stoner, letting it absorb into my body and give me a morning buzz. The neighbor’s feed corn is thigh-high, the leaves grinning their green grins beneath the sun’s path. While I leaned against the fence and scanned the rows, I could still hear the dogs — two yappy Dachshunds and a basset mix — carping about my temerity in daring to pass their house on the way to the pastures. I knew that if I was near Jinx and Bluebelle, I would…
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The First Day of Spring
…and the third Sunday in Lent. Yesterday, the winter went out quite lion-like with gusty winds preventing us from describing the day as “warm.” The temperature was in fact nice, but we had to bundle into jackets as we sat with the dogs on the back porch in the afternoon, talking in our quiet Orr voices and watching the greening of our acres in this warming half of the world, the day, the so very awake day rushing along with the urgency of a waterfall, even an unseen waterfall. Things are warming, but I was also chilled by something I encountered while we were out shopping for supplies yesterday. I…
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The First Sunday in Lent
Another glorious day. I think it got up to about 72F today. Started out cloudy and gradually cleared through the day, with the breeze intensifying every hour. The weather people — none of whom are fit to touch the hem of my maternal grandmother’s apron when it comes to weather forecasting — are saying it’ll be snowing by this Friday night. Mrs. Orr and I had a lovely, leisurely, reading morning, settled in chair and sofa with dogs all around, our new used treasures piled before us, and we dipped into them like a all you can eat dim sum restaurant. I spent part of the day outside planting bulbs…
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The Basics of Life
Early this morning, my wife and I were talking about the unpredictability of life, and how we could never have imagined the twists and turns our lives have taken. This is a fact I’ve meditated upon quite a bit lately, and it has ushered in a phase — who knows for how long? — in which I am saturated with a sense of anticipation, a feeling of “What’s in store for me today?” And not in a feeling of dread or doom, but open curiosity. I welcome it, for however brief it may be. A few miles from work, I passed a wooded area next to a gas station/convenience store.…
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Last Standard Day
We slept in just a tad this morning, and then got ready for our annual ritual of joy: the book sale at the public library in a nearby town. When we arrived, the crowd was still pretty sparse, so I anticipated some good free-range browsing. This was before he sidled up to me. I was among the history/biography tables when I detected the presence of someone standing close behind me. I glanced back and saw that he was about my age and size, with a neatly-trimmed Vandyke and steel-rimmed glasses. The expression on his face was smug; I clocked him as some sort of academic. His clothes weren’t top quality,…