Spring Things, Simple Things (What, you expected Hemingway?)

The Eagle

As a dedicated flag waver, the eagle is a meaningful symbol and creature to me. Three hundred years ago, they were scattered across North America. Like many creatures, loss of habitat sent them into diminishing wild areas, and then DDT severely reduced the breeding pairs. [Every time someone who has had a biology or chemistry class denies that, suddenly the science is in doubt. Bullshit. The science approaches certainty.] There is now a pair of bald eagles nesting somewhere on the Tygart River in Marion County, which is to me a positive and spiritual sign of good times coming.

It has been only about ten years since we began seeing Canada geese in Marion County, and watching the “Vee” in flight and hearing the “honks” still is a thing of smiles.


Cheap Comfort Food, Nitrosimines, and Fellowship

I went to a Masonic Lodge meeting last week, because the current Master (that’s equivalent to a “president” of an organization) is reminding the brethren of meetings and agendas by email now. I got out of No. 3 in time to eat dinner at the lodge hall. There, Flick, the senior steward, had laid out basic, basic comfort food fare, hot dogs & chili and fixings. At the end of the counter, there is a jar to throw money in to partially offset the cost and if you want a soda, there is an unlocked pop cooler with yet another jar. This experience is a throwback. It is a simple time of unhealthy food and the healthiest fellowship and goodwill imaginable.


Scent

I was driving with LaJ and LaG down the interstate today, and smelled the scent of wild onions. To me, that’s pretty cool.


New Page

TM, our miracle worker, and I went down to the minimum security penitentiary to pick up a client who was paroled today and bring him back to Fairmont. We don’t do that often. This guy has needed an unusual amount of help with some basic stuff and his case represents a very favorable result. The road to Pruntytown is fun (hills, curves of variable radii & pitch) and so it’s a drive that I enjoy.


What Comforts?

What “modern comforts” do we really need? Or really want? We sleep on mattresses. I’ve read estimates that homo sapiens sapiens has been around in nearly the current form for about 50,000 years. The mattress thing rather than the ground thing has existed for less than 200 of those years.

When it’s 50 degrees F. outside and we’re driving slowly in town, must we use the heater? Is there a little bit of authenticity in opening the window and feeling what the air is like?

We’re all - me included - turning into a bunch of techno-wusses.

Pippa passes.

R