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Second Sunday Of Advent
We’ve looked everywhere in this region and still can’t find old-fashioned icicles for our Christmas tree. Is there some connection between the CO-vid and thin strips of shiny mylar? If we manage to find any icicles, we’re going to buy many, many packs of them. Our tree always has icicles. It’s just the way things are done. We drape them, toss them, hang them, throw them…we need them. When I stepped outside this morning, I could smell the coffee in the pot, and I wanted a gallon of it, but duty and companionship called, so I walked with care on the deck boards and felt the grit of Jack’s sugar…
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And Suddenly It Was December
The new heat pump is working splendidly, which is a very good thing, given the teeth-chattering temperatures we’ve had this week. I’m grateful it wasn’t this cold and windy while the fellows were here installing everything. I think I neglected to mention that the gentleman who owns the HVAC company brought his father along for the second half of the festivities. He inherited the business from his dad. While they worked, I chatted with the father, an amiable man with a quick smile and penetrating blue eyes. Turns out that he actually installed the original furnace in our basement. He described doing the work all those years ago, and spoke…
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Six Caws
I love the magic of the mornings at this time of year. Driving to work in the damp dark, lights like paint strokes across the black asphalt, twisting devils of leaves writhing in the headlights, passing the sleepy pockets of light that I know are houses hidden in the hollows, where coffee is dripping into a clear, clean pot and the news is buzzing on some device in the background while stiff spines try to loosen and heavy eyelids attempt their lifts. How many secrets, how many stories I pass as I glide past in the dark, in the morning, in the stillness of November. And then arriving at my…
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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…
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Cries Go On
Last year, a male goldfinch at one of the feeders caught my attention with his unusual behavior, and I realized that he was blinded in at least one eye. I’ve seen him a couple of times since then, and each sighting rings in the halls of my heart because it reminds me that, for some reason, he stays near our farm, and that he seems to recognize me. I fill the bird feeders in the evening. We have various types of feeders — the cheap cylindrical kind that are easy to fill but also easy for squirrels to raid, the metal mesh kind that are impervious to rodents but do…
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Waiting
So many people I know have told me that the current dismal situation has affected them in unmistakable ways. One of the most common things I hear is that an air of depression-while-waiting-for-the-shoe-to-drop has settled down upon them. A sense of “Why bother?” A feeling of “I don’t want to undertake anything substantial right now because….who knows what’s coming?” A nihilistic bleakness, a sneering cynicism, a crisis-choked standstill period of time that seems like a Pink Floyd lyric come to life. It does feel that way, doesn’t it? And it’s easy, oh, so easy, to get caught up in that sort of feeling, and let it start calling the…
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Fall’s Beginning
Yesterday I turned a corner of sorts. I had to begin using a cane while on my walks with Jinx. I usually carry a stick or a bokken (wooden sword) in case we encounter any less-than-friendly creatures on our rambles. But age and arthritis and the changing weather seized up all my joints yesterday, and I moved slowly all through my day’s duties, and when the evening had come and it was time to go exploring with the spotted menace, I needed something to actually lean on. The cane was one I bought one day in an antique store. I wonder who the original owner was? I wonder if the…
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Summer’s Last Exhale
Summer’s Last Exhale How it shifts in a flash, the sun’s face bled to the edge of anemia, and I can stand under its living stare and not wither. Half a fortnight ago and just clipping shrubs would see my shirt soaked with salty sweat, but now my toes are numb and all has moved winterward. Jinx the fake heeler sits hard by my feet, spots like bullet holes along his flank, and I wonder what arcane and occult runes I might discover if I connected them in a certain way, perhaps using my sinister hand? At least I wouldn’t have to fear immolation as a witch, because witches have…
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Prisstianity
I’m trying very diligently these days to tune out people around me when I am at work, not listening to any conversation which is not directly work-related, not watching their faces or gauging their reactions to others’ words. This is essential for my own tranquility, because I work with a group that is probably a microcosm of what most people think of when encountering the term “office politics.” One young woman (the term “gal” seems completely apt when I think of her) requires me to exert considerable mental effort in order to block out her constant chatter and noise. She is very typical of many people I encounter these days,…
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The Air Above
The three-day weekend was a lovely time of relaxation for my wife and me, helped along in no small part by the weather. The air has changed, the sun’s power seemingly more remote, and the nighttime chill very pleasant. The dogs let us sleep in all three mornings, and we kept windows open during the night, the cool temperatures lulling us and soothing our tired limbs. It’s easy for me to forget how restorative sleep is until I reach a certain point of exhaustion and then am allowed to catch up. The word “rejuvenation” comes closest to how it feels, and this morning I feel rejuvenated. On Sunday, Jinx brought…