The Weekly Blog

Boy, I'm slow posting, lately. First, I've been getting busy working in the yard. Yes, this is one of the wimpiest Januaries on record (temp wise), and stuff is bustin' out all over. If I don't get the "Winter" pruning done it ain't never gonna happen. Put in a bunch more primroses in shady spots, and have continued to divide bulbs that obviously haven't had attention since the Bush Administration. Papa Bush.

Second, we had a big momma of a storm Friday/Saturday. Gusts up to 50 mph and 13' tides on the coast. We lost power at the stroke of midnight Friday...just as I was putting the conditioner in my hair. It was the quickest rinse in the history of the world, as I didn't want to run the pressure tank in the pumphouse down. Whew! I put on rain gear over my nightshirt and staggered down to the barn to nab the phone from the tack room (a nice luddite model) and let Woody in with Taxi to get out of the weather. Power came back on Sunday around 0700. Luckily we have a wood stove for heat and cooking, and I'd set up a rain barrel so we had plenty of water.

Back on the gardening theme, Mom finally decided to end the war with Bambi and simply take away the targets. All rose bushes (except the one climber that they never seem to notice) have been re-located here. I put two more in the ground today, and will do the rest tomorrow. This Spring and Summer should be 1000% more colorful and vegetative around here. What's the opposite of horror vacui? Affinito vacui? Horror baroqui? Well, that's what the previous owners of this place had. Their idea of landscaping was a big flat plane/plain of lawn. With a couple of tentative trees and the odd shrub. And a couple of wads of dwarf iris. Yawwwwn. I'm more of a "country (English) garden" type. Sam Gamgee all the way. Give me a riot of shrubs, perennial flowers, fruit trees, and indigenous stuff. And a huge veggie/herb patch. Got to get a rototiller...soon.

Anyway, sometimes life just gets wacky and you're so busy living it you don't have time to journal (a neo-verb that's since been replaced by "blog" in the computo-geek world).

Sometimes a demon is just a demon

The sermon at church this morning was given by a deacon. I get the impression that the deacons at this church are given a chance every year to "go to bat" as it were. It was...ok. She (yes, a woman...that's another issue) did an adequate job, but a) she read the whole thing like she was recording for Books on Tape, and b) she activated one of my hobby horse alerts: allegorizing (metaphorizing?) things in Scripture that...are you ready for this?...are meant to be taken literally. This is the converse of another bugaboo, which is literalizing everything.

It was the thing in Mark 1, where the guy in the synagogue has a demon and this demon starts heckling Jesus. Jesus evicts the demon from the guy. The demon does not go quietly. It's pretty cut and dried: the spirit world knew who Jesus was and wasn't happy about it, and Jesus was starting to show the humans around Him Who was Who. This could have evolved into a nice discussion of anything from spiritual warfare to the deity of Jesus to...well, lots of things. What did we get? Demons as a metaphor for hangups, addictions, and various other sins. "Are you struggling with your "demons"? I do. There are lots of demons: alcoholism, fornication, workaholicism, anger..." You get the picture. It was a warm fuzzy, bland, tepid, Hallmark sort of thing. Nice, but not really satisfying.

And what's the deal with Anglicans (Catholics, etc.) being assigned the scripture for the sermon/homily each week? I was raised in the Lutheran church, and apparently one of Luther's 95 Theses involved freedom of scripture choice for sermon material.

Headache

Ever watch somebody repeatedly bang their head against a rock, the same rock, over and over again (this is metaphorical, of course) and think, "Ow, when is she/he going to feel enough pain to stop?" It's like watching one of those little wind-up toys that trundles around on the floor, runs into something, backs up a bit and changes course ever so slightly...and then slams into something again.

I've been one of the concussed, and I know the pain, but I've developed a pretty hightened awareness of when it's time to stop bashing into the same tree/rock/whatever and turn around and leave that obstacle in the dust. Sometimes the best way forward is back way up and pick another trail.

Unfortunately, some folks just don't seem to get it.

Firefly...2? Yes, please!

Go forth. Fill out the survey. Let the Firefly goodness happen again...

Update 01-28: It may not be as shiny as it first seemed. I'm not going to get all excited about this until El Whedon is actually at the table.

The Wind

What's with it being so windy around here, lately? Man, solar panels aren't really workable here, but I'm ready to build a wind tower to run our water pump! I'm afraid to let the chickens out for fear they'll be rolling across the yard like fluffy tumbleweeds. I don't think I'm about to lose my mind like poor Lillian Gish in "The Wind", but it's mighty atmospheric (pun!), nonetheless.

At least it's drying up the mud a bit.

Generic Post

I've been kinda busy lately and haven't bothered to post anything new. It was sunny this morning, now, at 10:30, the clouds are rolling in. It's still windy, so even with the clouds the mud in the paddocks/pasture is drying up.

All the cats but one slept on top of Gordon last night, preventing him from moving around in his sleep, so he was a bit creaky upon waking.

There. I think I've covered the required topics.