It was a dark and stormy night…
by JoyIt's deeply overcast outside my window now as a dreary mid-autumn drizzle falls. The air is chill with a strong aroma of wet, fallen leaves as I carry a few old-lady sized loads of split firewood from the stack to the basement cache so we'll be warm tonight.
The tulip poplars have shed most of their yellow, though the maples are still impossibly flame-orange and the dogwoods are deep crimson with a dash of brilliant scarlet from the berries, to match the Christmas glory of the old she-holly out back. The sassafras is rusty, the beeches have yet to go from green to gold, and those wily, ancient oaks are always the last to give up their autumnal ghosts. The pumpkins are out of the field, packed in straw out in the root cellar, the garden weeks-since put to sleep.
We have a mere four days before Halloween (or All Saints Eve, depending on your point of view). So I thought I'd once again link to my favorite philosopher of science's sizable collection of…
Do scroll down the page to the 'Papers' section. The never-ending debate is still never ending.
PS: It's nearly November - have YOU voted yet?
Happy Halloween!
October 30th, 2006 at 6:56 pm
It was a dark and stormy night. My bichon Frise was curled up at my feet, alert and waiting for my lead, wondering whether to react to the storm with calm or a raving terror. I myself was undecided - it had been a long time since I had enjoyed a good raving terror.
Comment by Douglas — October 30, 2006 @ 6:56 pm
October 30th, 2006 at 9:30 pm
Bichon Frise, eh? I'd love for everyone to use this thread to tell scary stories. We've got from now through dawn on November 1. That's what it's for!
My daughter attended a local Pagan party with her intended (it was a dinner party for Halloween, costumes required) Saturday night. He dressed as De Debbil (as a priest with tail and horns), she as a Catholic schoolgirl with uniform, braids, tail and horns. Freaked 'em right out, they didn't know how to act…
She told 'em if she was really going for shock value, she'd have dressed as an Altar Boy. Quite funny, considering these were the only Christians in the bunch.
That doesn't quite live up to my hubby dressing up in a suit a decade ago for that same annual Pagan party, complete with Pinocchio nose and a big button saying "Vote for ME!" as opposed to my Hillary-suit and button that read, "Vote for HIM!"
I don't think they ever got over it, since we were never invited back… §;o)
We don't get Trick-or-Treaters here, what with a half-mile driveway (straight up the mountain) and a couple of loudmouth dogs (it's their job). Grandson is way too old and large (bigger than Grandpa, he passed me years ago) to go door-to-door. He's his usual Orc Warrior this year, grew past Luke Skywalker years ago. Darned that "Lord of the Rings" thing… he may never recover, even when he's the world's most notable paleontologist. C'est la vie!
Comment by Joy — October 30, 2006 @ 9:30 pm
November 3rd, 2006 at 5:48 pm
The tulips, the dogwoods, and the sassafras [Sneer]…
Leave it to a woman"¦ Isn't this the way Snoopy always begins (his never ending) novel?"”"It was a dark and stormy night"¦"
I confess that I love dark and stormy nights. They stir my loins. They inspire me. And more than inspire me, they touch something deep inside me (deeper than even my loins, which is saying a lot LOL). The raw power of nature is more than an inspiration. And definitely something more than what can be rationalized or scientized. It is something to be felt. Something to be experienced in more than your viscera, in your bones, something that penetrates to the very core of your being.
When the wind blasts the trees, and thunder cracks the foundations, I hear a message"”You belong. You are a part of me. I do not fear. I believe that I am being told that I am a part of something far greater than I am or will ever be.
I hear ya! I am a part of you! Just don't blast me or crack me! LOL (But I like that thing with the loins! LOL)
The stunning beauty, as someone once wrote, the "terrible beauty" of nature, the awesome design of nature, to which we belong, is what inspires all true science.
I think that inspired Snoopy too.
Comment by Rock — November 3, 2006 @ 5:48 pm
November 3rd, 2006 at 7:13 pm
Rock:
LOL!!! Well, I'm up here on my mountain this week my grandson and my trains (one laying on the downhill brakes right now, singing like… a singing train), and by Friday there's a lot fewer leaves than there were when I wrote my little Snoopy-novel. All the way to grumpy limb-looker time now, as opposed to rich and happy leaf-lookers ["It's Tourist Season. What's the Bag Limit?"].
Speaking of which, bow season is upon us - deer - which means those danged radio-dog rednecks with their expensive-but-starved hound dogs, cheap moonshine and loud guns aren't far behind. Have to threaten a few of them with their lives every year because they can't read 'Posted' signs. I've met families while working for a youth program where I had to argue passionately to let the kids go to junior high - they were actually proud that nobody with their last name ever got past the sixth grade! Sometimes it worked. Most often the kids drop out and the school board claims they've opted for "home schooling." Very sad.
It's supposed to be in the 20s tonight, so the wood stove in the basement's been going at "slow burn" all day, ready to crank when the temperature plummets. Guess who gets to swing the maul (in addition to hauling the wood)? §;o)
Ah, well. It's almost as good exercise as a "challenging" 9 holes of disc golf. Keeps the bones strong. And while I was inordinately fond of "dark and stormy" nights in Oklahoma (where you can see it coming a hundred miles away and things can get REALLY exciting), here storms usually just knock out the electricity. Which means we have to hand pump water from the spring house for flushing and entertain each other with… what else? Scary stories!
…I've got a million of 'em. §;o)
Comment by Joy — November 3, 2006 @ 7:13 pm