thisendoftheswamp

Unlike most folks, The Squire and I are very fond of squirrels. They are playful, intelligent, curious, and just plain funny. Blue Jays, on the other hand, are bullies, stealing whatever they can get, and shoveling most of the seed out of the feeder to get the sunflower seeds.

We put out peanuts for the squirrels, and the Blue Jays grab them. We used to put a peanut on each solar light down the walk, in addition to the ones we spread in the leaves. The Jays would land on the wall, swallow the peanut whole, and then fly away. I started tapping on the window to scare them off, so now they just swoop down and grab the nut without ever landing.

This young fellow sort of reminds me of the lawyer for the defense. “Ladies and Gentlemen of the jury…”  Or maybe an old preacher. “Brothers and sisters, the Lord said He would deliver us from eagles…”

Cardie is now three and a half pounds, and large enough to wear preemie size clothing. She is still on a feeding tube, as she is not strong enough to nurse, but she is getting her mother’s milk, and coming along beautifully. When she weighs four pounds she can get out of her isolette, and then home.

It just occurred to me that she weighs exactly half of what my girls weighed when they were born – and I thought they were tiny!

When I was in my early teens – 14 or 15 – I belonged to our church’s youth group. About once a year, usually in January, we’d have a District Convention at a city about three hour’s drive away, pre-Interstate.

On one trip, there were three of us kids in the back seat, one in the front, and the driver was our church’s Youth Pastor. About a half an hour out, he pulled over and suggested we all take off our coats and stow them in the trunk. “The car is warm, and you’ll have more elbow room. We can put them back on when we get where we’re going, and we won’t be over-heated.”

Well I just thought this was a wonderful idea. A few weeks later, my sister and I were riding with my mom and I unbuttoned my coat and began to shrug out of it. (I can point out the corner, to this day.) My mother asked me “What do you think you’re doing?”

“Oh, Pastor Geesendaffer said….”

“We don’t do that.” And with that she reached over and turned off the heat. We rode the rest of the winter with no heat in the car. One Sunday morning, my dad reached over to turn on the heat, and my mother flipped by knob back. “Audrey, it’s cold in here.”

“We’ll be there soon.” (It was five miles from our house to the church.) He simply shrugged and didn’t say anything. That afternoon I explained what had happened, and he just heaved a big sigh.

To this day, I seldom wear a coat in the car.  So there! Take that! I am just sooo mature.

Two weeks old, and still two months short!

I spoke with my nephew last night, and Cardie is doing beautifully. She is now just over 3 pounds, off IVs and oxygen, and the doctors say she is acting about a week older than she actually is. They hope to have her home for Chrismas, but probably nearer the first of the new year.  Thanks for all of the prayers and good wishes.

Yesterday was our wedding anniversary, and today is The Squire’s birthday, so we went  to our favorite restaurant to celebrate.  By the time we left, it was dark and a full moon was shining down on us. We had a full moon the night we got married, and I remember the three girls sitting in the back seat of my dad’s car, merrily yodeling some made-up song about “A Full Moon on Your Wedding Night”,  and howling at the moon. How at twelve-year-old and two eight-year-olds knew about “howling at the moon” I didn’t know and have never asked!

We used to sing in the car all the time – the first car I ever owned didn’t have a radio, and so my two and I would sing to pass the time, everything from Jesus Loves Me to Camptown Races. (Do-dah, do-dah!) Even after The Squire and I got married, we would all sing, until one year his nephew spent the summer with us and got mortally offended when we all sang The Ants Come Marching, One by One. Apparently, this is sung to the tune of some Confederate marching song, and the dear boy was so incensed that he made loud bum-bum-bum noises all the way home.

I don’t think we ever sang in the car again.

Except for tonight, when The Squire and I made up our own words for Full Moon on Your Wedding Night.

Last might, as we were leaving for church the cat came roaring toward the door. I could tell by the way he had his head cocked that he was carrying a mouse, but we didn’t have time to chase through the house after him.  I found the poor creature’s head on the living room floor when I went to do my exercises later . Skull, neck, and the most infinitely tiny rib cage. (That’s the trouble with medical types. Everybody else is crying “Ick, ick, ick”, and we are whispering “Isn’t that fascinating?”)

On the way over to services, I nearly lost it when I saw a man floating down the street toward us. Darker than the inside of Shan-Wei’s boot, and this fool was skateboarding on a semi-major road. He’d just crested a speed hump, which just added to the “floating” appearance. Obviously not someone who should be allowed out alone.

Off to my brother-in-law’s home today for Thanksgiving dinner. The Squire and I will bring the mashed potatoes, broccoli and bread, BIL will fix the turkey, stuffing, and “sauer-crap”, and his younger son and family will provide the bread, salad and dessert.

The elder son will not be there, as his wife and new-born daughter are in the hospital.  I don’t usually mention names here, but we need some prayers. Baby Cardie was born 10 weeks early. She weighed in at 2.2 pounds, and is 15 inches long. By the grace of God, the doctors, and some heavy duty praying, she is breathing on her own, which is a tremendously Good Thing.  Still some distance to travel, though, so we can use some extra help.

Hope all of my readers have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

I was up at a perfectly insane hour today because I had an appointment at 6:30 in the morning. I was dressed and fed, and went up to waken The Godson, who is staying with us while his mother is in the hospital.

I had just gotten my car keys off the rack when there was a terrific crash. I dashed halfway up the stairs to see if The Godson had dropped something or fallen, he popped out of the bedroom door to see what had happened, and The Squire came out of the bathroom to wonder if somebody had hit another deer. We must have looked like a bunch of prairie dogs!

The Squire took his flash light and cell phone and headed out to the road. As it turned out, there had been a horrific crash in front of our house. The Squire quickly called 911, and tried to speak to the people in the vehicles involved to see if there was anything we could do without making things worse.

There wasn’t.

From what we have pieced together in conversations with a driver who witnessed the accident and the police, the truck drifted across the center line and ran head-on  into the car. The impact pushed both vehicles approximately seventy feet, from the culvert on one edge of our property to directly in front of our drive. The police estimate that the car spun around several times before coming to rest in our yard.  There was debris all over the street and the yard. The driver and passenger were workmen of some sort (The Squire thinks carpenters) and there were coolers, sandwiches, tool boxes, and backpacks scattered everywhere. The impact popped open the trunk, and the spare tire was about halfway up our drive, resting under a pine tree.

We had five fire companies, two ambulances, more police cars than I could count, and the medevac helicopter.  When the tow truck came to haul away the truck, the driver nearly lost his footing because he recognized the truck as belonging to a friend. The Squire assured him that the man had walked to the ambulance.

The passenger in the car died at the scene**, and we don’t know the status of that driver.

I never did get to my appointment, but then again, neither did any of these men. Take care of yourself, live thoughtfully, and remember that tomorrow is not promised to any of us.

**I just found out that the fellow who died had been stopped a few days ago for driving with an expired license, and ironically was riding to work with a friend to avoid another ticket.

First of all, the longest and nastiest election in history is over. Second, President Obama won re-election. (Thanks be to God!) Third, Maryland passed the Marriage Equality Act.

The only bad news, from my point of view, is that we also passed the Gambling Law, which allows for even more casinos to be built in Maryland.  The one just north of us has removed some of their slot machines so the place won’t look so empty, and these things – like the lottery –  draw those folks who really cannot afford to play. Also, like the Maryland Lottery, the proceeds are supposed to pay for education.  This has not happened with the Lottery, and there is no reason to expect that it will happen with the casinos.

People are screaming that the Marriage Equality Act will “promote immorality”.  How many of us are living in a marriage which involves divorce on the part of one or both parties? How many of us go shopping on Sundays? How many of us pass along emails without checking Snopes to see if they are actually true?

The Old Testament injunction against homosexuality is included in Leviticus, which also provides for stoning your neighbor who uses the Lord’s name in vain, avoid contact with women during their menses, and gives permission to sell your teen-aged daughter into slavery. (And how many of us have been tempted to do exactly that?)  Why pick out only one part. Go for it all, or forget it!

And there’s that little thing in the Constitution about “Equal protection under the law” to be considered.

Ah, well. Here endeth today’s sermon.

No, not daylight savings, just “let me go back to bed and start the day over” type of clock turning.

Our church had quite a few trees blow over during Sandy, and The Squire and his crew spent most of Saturday playing 3,000 pickup, collecting small branches, and cutting trees into stove lengths.

Today, he met a four or five other fellows and they set out to finish the job.  When they broke for lunch, he found a business card from a repair tech from ADT stuck in the church door. All that noise of chains saws, etc., and the man never thought to walk around the back when the door was locked? (This is not the same company that couldn’t locate the church on a dead-end street.)

Someplace along the line he lost his reading glasses, and to top it all off…We have only one tombstone in the cemetery, a huge Celtic cross, a monument to a young man who was killed at Lockerbee.  An only child, twenty-four years old, murdered three days before Christmas. The men were cutting down the last tree, tied it with a rope attached to a truck so it would fall the right direction.

And it twisted as it came down, and knocked Geordie’s cross off the base and onto the ground.

Fortunately the cross itself is not damaged, and it looks as if it can be replaced on the base. (There are several iron rods sticking up.) I hate to admit it, but I would have blamed the damage on the wind, but The Squire called Geordie’s dad and told him exactly how it had gotten broken.

Integrity.