Sunday, November 19, 2006


Certainly no disappointment in my enjoyment of the sunrise. After a few minutes of requisite gray, and an almost perceptible delay to enhance the Earth's anticipation of a beautiful cold morning appearance, the Sun seemed to rise a little slower this morning to prolong the excitement and wonder of it's gift to us...the blazing red and orange came on slowly like that of a light being brightened by a cosmic dimmer switch until the fired cloud bottoms could almost be heard to ahhh with the first hint of warmth...days like this make me feel so fortunate to be the donee of such a Heavenly gift...

It was cold Thursday AM...got up early, made some coffee, and waited for the sun to come up to start warming the day. I love the cold weather of late Fall and winter...early in the AM it causes virtually everything to slow down and brace against the biting wind...the trees seem to bend closer together and in unison, the mourning dove feed off of the ground much closer to each other than in the Summer, even the few leaves remaining on the almost bare trees fall much slower as if any more speed will add a deeper chill and more discomfort to their final throe of life during their descent.

Saturday, November 11, 2006


Eventually, as at the end of every day, the lights went out...but not before one last magical change of color, and majesty, and sight, that caused me to deeply and slowly breathe in the power of what I had watched come together then be gone...and silently say thanks for the privilege of being there to see it...

The sky rewarded our hard work yesterday with a beautiful sunset. BD and I moved a couple firewood racks of wood from our stand of woods on the rise next to the house, put together a storage cabinet for the garage (which we cleaned out and swept and put stuff up...), then to add insult to injury (our muscles and joints) we bought a bunch of pansies and planted them. It was an 8 or 9 hour day of activity neither one of us were used to. Truth be told, I fell asleep in my chair at 8:15PM, woke up a few minutes and told BD I had had it, hit the bed and was asleep I think before I could pull the covers up...I was beat!!

Anyway, it was nice enough out (kind of a late Indian Summer night...) to sit on the back porch and drink a beer. When we decided to come in and fix supper, you could see the reflections off the deck posts...a little later, we looked and was presented with this vision of fire in the sky...it was spiritual...the clouds, the ridge, the trees still red and orange and gold...it was a gift, I am certain, meant as a reminder that though things, most if not all things, evolve, there was someone who started it in an instant and a snap of fingers...someone who someday, I believe, will give beautiful snapshots of life, such as this, to us everyday...

Hoss had his 7th Birthday on Tuesday, November 7th. BD and I picked him from school, took him to see "Flushed Away", went to Steak 'N Shake for supper, then back to our house for cake and presents. He is growing to be quite the young man...he is polite, takes as much out of like every day that he can, and truly enjoys being with me and BD...I become very misty eyed thinking of the responsibility I have to him. Though different from a Mom or a Dad, a Grand Parent has a significant influence on how a child grows if that Grand Parent is a frequent visitor...I and BD are and we both think the world of him and hope our attitudes and approach to life bring him an example he will choose to emulate and develop into adulthood with.

Sunday, November 05, 2006


Last night we had company...BD's Son and fiancee, and BD's ex-husband and his girlfriend. BD cooked up a big pan of lasagne and a good time was had by all. One of the topics of conversation was Gertie, and we (BD and I) realized we hadn't changed her clothing to reflect the passing of Halloween and the approach of Thanksgiving. So, BD did the honors and Gertie now sports her Thanksgiving finest.

Imagine our surprise when we awoke this AM and there sitting next to Gertie was Farm Boy! Why, we had thought he had left us for good earlier this year when we awoke one morning and saw that he had left. Anyway, there in all his splendor, and in his familiar rocking chair, he sat! We were delighted to see him again, and even Gertie appeared to be happy in that she scooted herself right next to him...maybe there is a soft spot in Gertie's heart for Farm Boy...though she seemed to take his leaving last year in stride, perhaps we took that stoic stand as a facade of bravery over a broken heart...after all, as you may recall, we found several pieces of straw near the fireplace...but nonetheless, he is back.

He appears, though, to be somewhat off in his attempts to get in the season's spirit. Farm Boy always seemed to be a few blades short of having a whole bale of hay in his loft if you get my drif, and he appears to think we are in the Christmas season...we just didn't have the heart to tell him that we needed to get past Thanksgiving first, so we let him wear the reindeer antlers that he brough with him. Anyway, in a few short weeks we'll be on that short trail to Christmas and we'll just humor him along the way.

A good evening to one and all, and I hope all your "Farm Boys" come home for the Holidays too!