’Tis the season???

 If we get thunderstorms tomorrow, the day may prove to be more interesting than we’d prefer. Harry the beagle, the Better Half’s most recent rescue dog, is skittish about almost anything new that doesn’t involve food and often startles at loud noises. SiSi, my dog, has been afraid of thunder ever since she came to live with us. Just to demonstrate how foolishly optimistic I can be, I’m going to surmise that one outcome could be that the two dogs will console each other rather than respond with double the amount of neuroses. But I wouldn’t bet the ranch on that.

mutual support is wonderful

Photo by J. Harrington

Today I took a long drive through the suburbs of the Twin Cities East Metro on a quest to get a certain Christmas present that I wanted to physically inspect before purchasing, rather than ordering online and waiting for delivery. There’s been a hell of a lot of subdivision development since the last time I visited that neck of the woods. I found it depressing. It reminded me of Ed Abbey’s observation that “Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell.” The bright side is that my quest was successful and much of the country I drove through is still underdeveloped.

We can now consider Christmas shopping complete, although, if the opportunity presents itself, there’s one or two more things we’d like to pick up. Much depends on how thick and long-lasting any ice cover following tomorrows storm may be, or if there are other serious consequences therefrom. Here’s the latest from the Twin Cities office of the National Weather Service:

Lightning

by Mary Oliver

The oaks shone
gaunt gold
on the lip
of the storm before
the wind rose,
the shapeless mouth
opened and began
its five-hour howl;
the lights
went out fast, branches
sidled over
the pitch of the roof, bounced
into the year
that grew black
within minutes, except
for the lightening - the landscape
bulging forth like a quick
lesson in creating, then
thudding away. Inside,
as always,
it was hard to tell
fear from excitement:
how sensual
the lightning’s
poured stroke! and still,
what a fire and a risk!
As always the body
wants to hide,
wants to flow toward it - strives
to balance while
fear shouts,
excitement shouts, back
and forth - each
bolt a burning river
tearing like escape through the dark
field of the other.

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