Saving Grace

Stayed home all day, on the off-chance the phone company might send a person out. They didn't. Missed lunch with TR, missed Cory's wedding; went down and chatted with B for an hour, had a beer, took him a couple of books and praised the installation of his stovepipe within the brick chimney. Very nice job. His nephew, Bear, came over and cut the difficult hole into a curved surface where the thimble goes through the wall. Used an air-powered tool with a small diamond blade. Those of us who like to solve problems always admire the work of other problem-solvers. Most of the plants and most of the trees are looking the worse for wear. Even the road-side daisies are yellowing and browning at the tips. I have a list of things I need to do before winter, two dozen or twenty things, most of which will take a day or less, and it's not even officially fall. I can do this. Plenty of time, and it's easier, holing up, than actually dealing with the world. Various saints keep popping up, the far left is littered with the bones of martyrs.

Plenty of time now,
the crows parading vespers,
to question what is.

At the limit of understanding. "Cudgel thy brains no more about it; for your dull ass will not mend his pace with beating." Hamlet. I spent some time trying to track down the origin of 'deadline'. One story is that outside the fence at Andersonville there was a line drawn in the dirt, if you crossed it you got shot. Speaking of dead and dying, it is said that Aeschylus was killed by a tortoise being dropped on his head by an eagle passing over. I saw a seagull drop a snake into a crowd of tourists once. A very funny scene. I made a pot of greens, mustard, kale and collard, with a chunk of salt-pork and onions, I serve this with vinegar and hot sauce. Make a small pone of cornbread in the toaster oven. I might grill a pork-chop, if the spirit moves me. Usually I just sop up the juice with the cornbread, and call it a day.