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With apologies to Will and Billy

 Hey all, long time no write. Cooper will play the role of Puck in this version of A Mid Winters Night's Dream. Six happy weeks brings in another season. But oh, methinks how slow this old season does wane.
  The music is Big Al Carson and The Blues Masters https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C00JmxMYv1U The version I'm listening to started with 'Members only" as solid and sad a modern blues tune as one could write. Perhaps you can find it I couldn't and didn't want to slow the burst of desire to write down with a deeper search of Youtube. The blues is really just a leftover stack of CDs from yesterday. I was going to change it to some Billy Joel for reasons I'll describe later, but Aretha Franklin hadn't played yet and that would be just wrong to not listen to the queen.
  It's Colorado, so winter yesterday meant I was in the backyard in a tee shirt trying to build a dry stack stone wall for the garden. Today is a heavy white snow rapidly piling up (I think I have to say "white" as the winter has been so dry I need to remember what this stuff is!), but it is winter none the less. Winter is a season that I have to lean into. The Celts say "When God made time, he made plenty of it." Yeah true enough but, when the sun's down at 5 and you get up early only to realize the sun may not be up but it ain't early, little pieces of life get dropped at the wayside. But it's beyond the little pile of things God gave me time to do that I skipped. It's the little pile of normal difficulties that get dropped on you that have less other things to blend into. Winter can seem a literal and figurative dark season.
  Last night's approaching storm brought The nightmare. For me The nightmare is always a variation on - I'm bartending and deep in the weeds. People ten deep at the bar anxious for their drinks, the dirty glasses everywhere, the coolers are down to the last few bottles of beer and I'm out of ice. My subconscious always seems to throw in some random current worry but that's not what forces me awake. I'm out of ice!  You don't get this far along in life and not figure a few things out. I've been that bartender, my subconscious knows that. It's just smacking me around a little "ya handle it - ya just do! You've been out of ice before. Deal with it!"
  Our youngest dog Cooper is surprisingly empathic. I started calling him Dr Cooper as when I get a cut or scratch he inevitably notices and will make a point of licking the wound. (Yeah I know where that tongues been but...) He also notices when the old dog Callie is sitting at the back door wanting to come in and will bark on her behalf to get our attention. I know dogs senses are stronger than ours so I'm sure that explains a lot. Thus when this last week Cooper started seeing monsters in the tops of telephone poles it did kinda freaked me out. We'd be out on our normal walk and he'd start looking nervously up at the top of poles as we passed 'em. He'd keep looking to the point that he had me looking - nothing not a crow or a pigeon, let alone a racoon or a monster. The other morning one particular pole with various school zone signs and lights so freaked him out that he wouldn't walk on the sidewalk past it. He ironically almost got hit by a school bus jumping out into the street on the end of his leash to avoid the monster. So this morning when my monsters rattled me awake I wasn't surprised that Dr Cooper was there to give my arm a lick - "yeah monsters, buddy".
 If you remember the old Billy Joel song "We Didn't Start the Fire" it was kind of a song writers rip off. He essentially just thumbs through the headlines of my generation and when he gets stuck throws out the catchy refrain. Yet it is powerful, it's like shorthand with each headline bringing back a rush of memories. He doesn't try to tell you what your feelings were about these headlines, just let's you fill in the blanks with your own emotions and memories. It being Billy Joel I'll admit it's brilliant.  My own staccato of monsters was certainly less brilliant but it did have the same beat. I won't bore you with my monsters just fill in your own, flashing in your mind to that driving beat. I gave Cooper a scritch on the head laid back down and stroked Deb's back till I went back to sleep.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m50p-XScreM
  In case you're wondering the garden is great! Might be the best garden ever. 'course it is February and thus the garden lives on paper and in the seed tins and packets that line my desk. So no weeds, drought, pest or problems. Just brilliantly schemed out companion plantings that will not only feed us but look great doing it. February really is the best month in the garden.
 I won't bore you with all the different things I'm trying this year with the exception of "Calypso" beans. I've generally avoided bush type dry beans for a variety of reasons not least dry beans are cheap at the store so why grow 'em. When my Sister in law Sam was out here I was showing her what little I could of my end of season garden. She extolled the virtues and ease of dried beans, it was the little nudge I need to crowd in just a few of the prettiest bean I've ever seen. Calypsos are half black and half white with each half having a dot of the other color. They look kinda like that symbol for ying and yang or little Orcas or maybe Cooper. Too pretty not to grow - let's hope they cook up as nice.
 Speaking of cooking had the last butternut squash for dinner with some salmon and a nice little salad including some pea sprouts to finish off the garden's produce. Thanks God I have a pretty good life, monsters included.
 As to crossovers to government, how 'bout this. I think politicians and government by the people and of the people have given us lots of monsters to worry about. Some are real and will have to be dealt with. Some will never really appear to the senses of the less empathic. Yeah we'll worry and fret about them all. Yeah some of us don't have the resilience and robustness to survive but I've been in the weeds before. Just worry about the next thing that needs to be done and move as fast as you can. Doug A.
 

Comments

  1. I know what ya mean.... I had MY nightmare again last night. I was back serving on City Council when.... fill in the blank, the scariest part is the beginning of that sentence.

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