I love my mornings - the days then are still full of possibilities. Virtually every day begins with a beautiful first light and/or a beautiful sunrise. Hope! I love the lake affect snow clouds that rise over Lake Huron and move away from me as they head east to Canada dumping their Lake Huron water as snow "over there". The dark skies make the water look mercury-like (mercurial?)
While I've been editing this post, I saw a freighter on the lake. People sometimes ask me if the ships/boats run all winter. I don't know. Last winter for sure no. It was hard and long and cold and the surface of the water froze a long way out. This year hasn't seemed quite as cold, Thus: -
Kathy came last week for an afternoon visit. It's a long trip for her. I really appreciate her visits. She and I have been though a lot together in our long lives. We both talk and we both listen. That's rare. It helps that we think alike politically. We talked. We laughed. We almost cried. We shouted (not at one another). She brought me a dozen more books and several DVDs. I never run out of things to read. What a blessing. I don't know anyone else who would drive so far and stay for only a few hours just because - - - - .
Over the past few years she has shared things I never knew about my parents and their lack of parental support for me. I always kind of knew. But I didn't know for sure or why. Now I do. It's probably good I didn't know for the first 70 years of my life. Sooner or later everything comes out. Sticking around long enough is the key to unraveling the net.
Kathy recently had her perhaps final litter of Golden Retrievers. She has shown, and trained, and bred Goldens for most of her adult life. Her dogs have been her support system like my dogs have been mine. People who have dogs are often "damaged", who isn't damaged, and crave the unconditional love dogs give. People whose parents gave them the love and support they needed as children to become healthy mature adults do not understand why we need our dogs in order to function. Lucky them. Luckier us. What's the expression? "The unexamined life, - - - - ."
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The birds don't always share the food but when they do, the shots are special. When the days are nice, I may not see a bird all day. During frigid days, snowy days, sleety days, the feeders become busy again. I help to tide them over during rough weather. I was not going to feed them this year but gave in when the weather got to be bird-difficult.
My neighbors have been feeding the deer - something I will never do - for several weeks. They have been gone for several weeks now but the deer still go looking for handouts. That's not fair, in my opinion. They came to depend on the food and now it is no longer there. The deer have to cross over my property to get to their property.
I have reached that point in life where my dreams, both daydreams and the night ones, are about people and events from decades ago. I guess that's the mind's way of dealing with the eventual end. The blood supply goes to parts of the brain where blood supply hasn't been generous and those neurons, stimulated by food and oxygen for the first time in years, call back memories. That's been most interesting. All those times I might have been torn between doing what's right and what's not - what's expedient -, well now I'm very glad I did the things I did. Makes this time of life pleasant.
I sold my first book last week to Fred and Annette. I'm anxious to hear their reaction, if any. I still have a few copies left. Ha!
