-
Out With The Old, China Excavations, & In With The New
The HVAC team told me they would be here at 0900 this morning. At precisely 0855, they were rolling up to the house. They unloaded the new units, indoor and outdoor, and set to work. Several complications ensured, with trips back to the shop to fabricate a metal box to facilitate easier joining to the ductwork, and quite a bit of excavation in order to securely set in the new indoor unit. They’re digging as I type this, in fact. I’ve already claimed dibs on any arrowheads, musket balls, or casks of Amontillado they might uncover. I feel awash in technology today. Here I am, tapping on a device that…
-
Comfortable And Peaceful
It just came to me. Two days ago, our heat pump, aging and creaking thing that it was, died on us. I discovered the problem on a morning when it was 26F outside. By that evening, it wasn’t much warmer inside. To say that Christmas will be lean this year is to undersell the truth. Almost six grand to replace everything that needs replacing. Tomorrow morning, the HVAC fellows will return and install the new unit. Or as my wife and I have begun calling it, our joint Christmas gift to each other. Some people take Caribbean cruises. The Orrs get big, heavy objects that heat and cool their…
-
Turning Away But Not Away
The dogs let us sleep in a bit this morning, so by the time Jinx and I were out for our walk, dawn was just about to break. We stopped long enough for me to take a photo just before the sun peeked over the mountains. When the big star appeared, I took one more photo and then we turned to continue our walk. When I turned around, I saw the sunlight touch the far ridge to the west, above the cemetery. As I watched, the light traveled across the earth towards us, like a curtain of gold being drawn down. I could almost taste the air at that moment,…
-
Remember, Remember
One of our neighbors has a serious problem with maintaining the integrity of his fences. That’s a polite way of saying that he doesn’t check his fences frequently enough, and his cattle routinely end up in other peoples’ yards. The local cemetery was forced to put an electric fence around the property after weeks of roving cows knocked over several tombstones and trampled flowers and memorials. Rumor has it that the owner of the cows was pressured to pay for and install the fence. I don’t know. What I do know is that Black Angus lives matter. At least to Jinx. I infer that he loves the cows because he…
-
All Saints Day
“Mom? Why did Jesus have twelve opossums? I mean, what did he do with them?” — Lizzy Beck This morning during my walk with Jinx, I was struck by how absolutely silent the world was. My own steps were the only sound in the pewter air. It was almost easy to believe that last night the air had been full of ghosts and spirits of ill-will, because the early Sunday hours were so clean, so spotless, so purified. Surely all the saints were watching as I crunched gravel beneath my boots and Jinx’s tail cut the air like a buggy whip. Into my mind came the opening line of Poe’s…
-
Accomplished By Needles
Up before dawn with two hungry dogs, one of them also quite urinacious (the spotted menace has no such weakness, being of the Ancient Order of the Iron Bladder), and Mrs. Orr prepared breakfast tacos. We ate and talked of west Texas and her tough people and her immutable wind that scrapes across her lion-colored hide. Jinx and I walked and watched cows bent to their unceasing cropping of grass, working their magic of transforming green blades into white milk. In the un-sunned early hours, we could hear the moist tugging of the grass into the soft lips, and an unseen owl in the enormous oak tree asked his eternal…
-
One Day More
Another electric color day in these mountains. The month is half over, which means the scenery will soon diminish and dull itself. But for now, it is a boon to the soul. I did a bit of spray painting when I got home this evening. Didn’t seem like that big of a deal. But then I walked into the bathroom and saw myself in the mirror. I think I screamed. Cirque du Face. Tragic, tragic times. Did you know that errant spray paint can affect the little hairs inside one’s nostrils? *** When Jinx and I walked this evening, the bats were thick in the air over us, swooping and…
-
Cool And Clear
It occurs to me that I write daily temperatures on my calendar and/or in my notebooks. In the interest of avoiding redundancy, I think I’ll start noting temperatures in these blog entries (on the days I actually write blog entries). This morning it was 46F and very clear when Jinx and I set out on our walk. I took vacation this week, just to relax and enjoy the fall weather and do a few projects around the house (some painting, a final mowing of the lawn, some trash hauling, etc.), so the feeling of bliss and freedom and peace was exquisite when I donned my jacket and cap and took…
-
The Bales Of October
We were up this morning in the silver moonlit dark of a mountain October, Mrs. Orr preparing the dogs’ breakfast and the coffee. We watched the dogs with some wariness, as we had an incident last night. Each evening about 830 or so, I take them outside for what we call the biscuit run. They do their business in the backyard, and then tumble back inside to await their treat: a dog biscuit for Jinx and a half-biscuit for Dixee. Usually, it’s a mellow time. But last night, Jinx was snuffling up a few crumbs from his biscuit when Dixee decided to come over and insert herself between him and…
-
Puppy No More
As best we can reckon, based on the paucity of the anecdotal information and veterinary opinion we’ve gathered, my wife and I believe Jinx was six months old when he came to live with us back in March. That means that September marks the month of his birth. We’ve chosen the first day of the month in which the r’s return to be his birthday. Jinx was not the dog we would have chosen. He was funny looking, ungainly, wild, roynish, runkledish, spastic, frenetic, a leaper, a roller, a destroyer of flower beds and digger of smooth lawns, a bringer of carcasses, a barker at phantoms, a serrated soul, a…