• Daily Life,  Mrs. Orr,  Music,  Photographs,  Reflections

    Up The Irons

    I’m tired and my eyes are grainy from much reading, so nothing deep or meaningful today. The recent Chinese balloon incident was very amusing to me, mostly because of the response of the mature, seasoned, and reasonable adults who rule over us. Of particular interest was the crowing about how impressive the fighter jet pilot was, the fellow who shot the thing down. Yes, I was thunderstruck by the difficulty of firing a projectile into an object the size of — what was it they said? — three city buses. With skills like that, the military should be reasonably expected to be able to hit an elephant. IF it swallowed…

  • Daily Life,  Mrs. Orr,  Photographs,  Reflections

    Animals and Other Creatures

    A good rainstorm sluiced through the area yesterday, and when I looked out on the front porch, I saw what appeared to be a very small, very intense Benedictine monk praying at the makeshift altar at the edge of the boards. He stayed there for quite a while, and stared at Mrs. Orr when she came to the window as if to say, “Private time. Vespers. Don’t intrude. Do you mind?” And then I went to the landfill today to drop off some trash. The place usually does a pretty good job of controlling feral cats, rats, and other critters, but the last two times I’ve been at the landfill,…