by Pa Rock
Curmudgeon in Spring
I'm taking a break today from writing about Piggy and his poorly planned war, but will undoubtedly return to that distressing and disgusting topic in a day or so. That blood-soaked tragedy is just too all-pervasive to be ignored for long. This posting looks at things closer to home.
First, the weather.
The forecast for the Missouri Ozarks has been for thunderstorms over the past several days, but those did not occur, at least in my patch of the Ozarks, until last night. The heavy and steady rains hit sometime around midnight, and they were soon joined by thunder and lightning. The symphony of sound and flashing light continued through the night, and now, at midmorning, the rain is still continuing but without the sound and the fury.
It was absolutely perfect sleeping weather! This morning the pond is full and so is the large depression down by the road, Water everywhere with more every minute. I haven't been to town yet, but this is flooding weather and the creeks are sure to be beyond their banks. Seasons change according to calendars devised by politicians, but those of us smart enough to sit out on the porch and observe for awhile know that seasons change on their own and calendars be damned. This morning has the feel of spring, even without the sun showing itself. In my worldview, spring arrived last night along with the thurnder, lightning, and rain.
Politicians also determine the time of day, and tonight most of us will set our household clocks ahead one hour and begin to readjust our internal clocks as well.
Humanity operated for eons with neither calendars nor clocks, but now that we have them, we feel compelled to keep adjusting them. What would Henry David Thoreau have tweeted about Daylight Savings Time?
Yesterday while standing in line at one of my town's Casey's convenience stores, I listened to a woman expound to the lady operating the cash register about the vacation where was preparing to take. In fact, everyone who was in the line waiting to pay got to hear the details of her upcoming cruise. And it was an interesting tale, almost heart-warming.
The woman, who appeared to be nearing retirement age, was telling her friend, the cashier, that her son had purchased an all-expense paid cruise for her in the Western Caribbean. We heard the itinerary: a couple of stops in Mexico, one in Honduras, and one in Belize, as well as some of the amenities that the ship had to offer. The core of her story, though, was that she had spent the last twenty-five years taking care of other people, and now somebody (her son) was finally doing something for her. The lady's story got somewhat emotional, and I fully expected to hear applause as she finished, There was no applause, but most of the customers were smiling as they paid for their items and left.
The moral of that story is that even while the world is unraveling due to the war machinations of two hoary old criminals, here locally a son has done something exeptionally nice for his mother. While goodness may not manifest itself across the headlines, it still exists, like the flowers of spring, scattered across our local communities.
Bon voyage, stranger. Enjoy your adventure!
